Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/108

96 from another race, and the name they give this race is Patu-pai-arehe, who have usually been considered as Fairies, or supernatural beings, with a local habitation in New Zealand. This, however, is but natural, for it is well known how common it is for all kinds of traditions to become localized in the process of time. The tradition clearly points to a time in the history of the race in which they did not know of the art of net-making; and it may further be inferred therefrom that there was also a time when the knowledge of the sea, fishing, &c., was not very extensive. We may of course dismiss the idea of the people learning this art from the Fairies as unscientific; but clearly it was learned from some other race who had more experience of a maritime or littoral life than the ancestors of the Polynesians. The Patu-pai-arehe are described as a white race, and it is said also that the Albinos found amongst the Maoris are their descendants. This of course is not true; but all through the race, everywhere we meet with it, we find a strain of light-coloured people who are not Albinos, but have quite light hair and fair complexions. With the Maoris this strain often runs in families for many generations; at other times it appears as a probable reversion to the original type from which the strain was derived. There are also traditions amongst the Maoris of a race of "gods" called Pakehakeha, who are said always to live on the sea, and are white in complexion,—hence the name Pakeha they gave to the white man on first becoming acquainted with us in the eighteenth century. There are also other names for a white man, as Turehu, Waraki, Maitai (the latter also meaning iron). It is said of the Patu-pai-arehe, from whom the Maoris learnt the art of making fishing nets, that they worked at night, and disappeared as the sun rose;