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The Maori: Yesterday and To-day

Eeling Customs

Eeling Customs.

When our people go out eel-fishing at night—my informant is speaking of the customs of his young days in the Ngati-Ruanui Country, Taranaki—the old man of the party, the kaumatua or tohunga, divests himself of his clothes and goes first to the river-bank. Scooping some water up in his hand he throws it into the air, crying out “E hura, e hura Tangaroa! Tenei au e tu nei.” (“Uncover thee, O Tangaroa! Behold me standing here.”) (Tangaroa, the god of the sea, is also the god of all fish, including eels). Then the kaumatua enters the water, his five-pronged matarau or eel-spear in his hand. This matarau—each of the fishing-party carries one—consists of a manuka pole about five feet long and an ingenious arrangement of prongs at the business end; these prongs, which are of the hardest part of the rimu wood, are about a foot long, hardened in the fire, and made very sharp, and fastened to the handle with kiekie fibre. The first eel transfixed by the kaumatua's matarau is hung up in a tree, as an offering to Tangaroa; it is tapu and cannot be eaten. The rest of the party are by this time in the water, and jabbing dexterously at the swarming eels. It is usual to wait until after midnight before commencing the work of spearing; the eels have then ceased to move about and are lying quiet. Torches are used in this fishing work. Eels are not cooked for food during the night's fishing; this, say the old men, will bring on rain.