Page:Our New Zealand Cousins.djvu/94

 here, and who firmly believed the truth of the common rumour, was indeed in danger of coming to serious bodily harm, because he sent to the settlement to try and get a Maori foster-nurse for a little puppy of a favourite breed whose mother had died."

"Talking of pigs," said our punning friend, "we saw a one-eared pig in Wairoa, and we were wondering if it was the result of accident or what?"

"Oh, such a sight is common enough in every Maori village. Indeed you often see pigs quite earless. The dogs tear or gnaw them off. On the coast the most extraordinary pigs may be seen. They would puzzle any naturalist not acquainted with the cause. The hind-quarters are quite contracted and atrophied. They are shrunken away to infantile proportions. You see a great massive head and front, with brawny chest and ample shoulders. A pig, indeed, with a front like 'The Albanian boar,' but with the hind-quarters of a sucking pig. The quaint-looking brute rears up like a giraffe. His spine is at an angle of 45°. At Whakatane I counted sixteen, all in this condition."

"What is the cause?"

"It is caused by their eating karaka berries. The karaka is the New Zealand laurel (Corynocarpus lævigata). These berries contain prussic acid, and seem to act on the lumbar muscles, causing them to become shrivelled up, as I have described."

The toot plant, another very common shrub all