A REMARKABLE NATIVE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1128, 19 January 1884, Page 3

A REMARKABLE NATIVE.

About throe years ago a remarkable old Native died at Matakaha Pah near Opunuke. Old Nikorama was supposed byEuropeans and Natives to be over 120 years of age at the time of his death. Native children could remember old Nikorima, when thev were children. They grew up to be warriors, and in course of time died of old age, but old Nikorama lived on. They used to believe that be must have seen Captain Cook s vessel passing through the Straits, from what he afterwards heard of Cook’s voyage’s. I one day asked Nikorama what the Natives thought of a vessel when they first saw one. He replied, “ when I first saw a vessel I was a boy without hair on my face, but did not know what it was ; we, at that time, thought it was a very large bird. Years went on, I was a warrior with a full beard, and had been in several fights, when X next saw another of these large birds ; it was a long way from shore, and wondered at the size of the bird. Again, some time after, another of these white birds appeared ; it came near to shore, and stopped all day ; there was no wind, so the boldest of the people went out in canoes to look at the bird ; but when we got near it we saw it was not a bird, but a large canse, with fires in their bellies and smoke coming out of their mouths. When we saw the people wiih fires in their bellies, we were afraid to go nearer ; we returned to the shore, and told what we had seen. Some would not believe us, and went out to see these strange people. The canoe went away, and it used to be talked of for along time. We wondered at the size of the canoe, but of all we had seen what we wondered at most was the men with the fiires in their bellies and smoke coming out of their mouths. In those days we knew not how to smoke ; we thought, when we saw the smoke coming out of their mouths, that they had fires in their bellies.