Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, April 14, 1901, Page 18

Some Freaks In (Copyright, 1901, by Frank G. Carpenter.) CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, March 14, 1901.—(Specinl Correspondence of The Bee.)—How would you like to meet a bird as tall as a giraffe, which lays eggs as blg as a pumpkin? You can sce the Image of one at Christchurch, New Zea land. You can sce a baker's dozen of skeletons showing the gigantic monster in the different stages of its growth, and be hind glass you can see some of the real eggs lald by It a century or more ago, when It trod the soil of this country. | refer to the great moa, supposed to be the THE KIWI, OR WINGLESS biggest bird ever created 1 sat down before the model of it in Christchurch, New Zealand, and made some notes de seribing it Its tail as a bird stands on the floor s just as high as my hexd and i s inkle is as big around as my calf, Its gigantic body, covered with gray feathers might have been modeled out of a small haystack, and its tall, thin neck is stretched so high above 1is breast that the whole could not possibly be squeezed into the average parlor, It has no wings, but Its legs are as strong as those of a camol, and it looks quite as big Its feet have claws much like those of a turkey save that they are enormous in slze and each a foot long. { doubt not the original could have stamped out the life of a man at one blow Beslde one of the moa skeletons was placed the skeleton of an ordinary man, the head of the bird rising at least eight feet above the skull of the man, The bones were real bones found in this part of New Zealand; they are joined together by wires. The first bones of the moa were discovered about sixty years ago. The bird existed in New Zealand within a very recent period and there are Maorls who will tell you that thelr forefathers hunted it. The probabil ity, however, s that it antedates the ad vent of the Maorls, but there is no doubt that it was once eaten In great numbers, for in the old ovens which have been ex- cavated quantities of cooked moa bonos have been found. But as to when that time was and who the moa hunters were no one knows Fuun an Big ns it Bnlis, The moa eggs were cach about a fcot long. One was found some years ago by a man when digging the foundation of a house. He had gone down several feet when he eame upon the skeleton of a man in a sitting posture. The cpg was held in the man's bony fingers in such a manner as to bring it immeliately opposite his mouth, and 1! is suppos. d that it was placed there with the idea that the ghost of th» dead would have something to eat during the intervals of bhis long slecp. There were a stone spear and an ax by the slle of the man, showing that he was probably a war rior, and his skull bore evidence of having recelved several ha d knoe probably on the battlefield. The egg was ten inches long and seven inches in diameter and its shell was alout as thick as a silver 27-cent plece Its inside was perfectly enpiy, but whether tlme or the dead native had sucked out the contents the records do not say Wingless Bivds of New Zealand, The moa was wingless It seems to have been a glant edition of some of the strange birds New Zealand has now. There are wingless birds in New Zealand not larger than good-sized chickens. whi'h are moas In minlature 1 refer to the kiwls, THE Found New Zealand some of which I have seen here at Christ- church The kiwis have hairlike feathers of somewhat the color of a quall, They have long bills, sharp at the point, with which they can bore down into the mgud for worms, and their legs are much llke those of the moa. I have had several of them Iin my hands, and, by feeling carefully, I can discover what seems like a little lump on each side where the wing ought to be. Otherwlise than this no wings are perceptible. The kiwl Is a night bird. At the college here, where 1 saw them, the birds were BIRD OF NEW ZEALAND penned up like chickens and had to be brought out of the coop for me to examine them. They seemed almost blinded by the light and ran abeut this way and that in apparent terror. The birds are now grow- ing very scarce In New Zealand, The Maotls are fond of them for food, and thelr skins are highly prized as dresses for the chiefs They are now only to be found in the dense beds of ferns which cover parts of New Zealand It is very difficult to catch them, for they lcok much like the dead fern leaves, and they take refuge in crevices in the rocks and in deep holes which they excavate in the ground for thelr nests One of the most curious things about the kiwl Is the slze of Its egg. It is almost as big as the bird itself, being of a creamy white color, as smooth and as glossy as Ivory. The kiwl is rapidly beilng exter- minated. The dogs hunt it in the thicket, and It 18 now rare that you find one out- side the muscums. ‘'he Sheep-Eating Parrot, There is another bird in New Zealand which 1s quite as curlous as the kiwl. This is the kea parrot, which eats sheep, fastening its claws into the wool of the back and digging out the cholce bits of flesh Thousands of sheep have been de- stroyed by this bird, the loss from them being so great that the government once offered a reward of 75 cents a head, when as many as 15,000 keas were killed in a year The kea has aristocratic tastes. It does not care for any part of the sheep except the kidneys and the fat which sur- rounds them Through several genera- tiens of birds it has learned by Instinct or tradition- whether birds talk or not 1 cannot say - just where the kidneys lie in the sheep’s anatomy, 1 am told that it strikes the right spot every time, and that It bores a hole into the side of the sheep righ. over the kidneys, boring a hole in with its bill as smooth as though the flesh was cut round with a Kknife The kea tears out the kidneys and the fat, and then caves the sheep, which, of course, dies, There are different theories as to how Lthe Keas acquired this taste for the finest of mutton. They had had nothing but berries and insects until sheep were introduced Then they began to pick the meat from the sheep skins hung up to dry. Later on they attacked the live sheep, and after a time, having discovered just where the kid- neys were, devoted their labors to no other part. There is no doubt of the fact that they take only the kidneys, and that every kea knows just where to strike a sheep the first time. Whether the birds talk to one another or not I do not know, but they certainly seem to work quite as intelll- gently as though they had language Nonture's Frenks New Zenland, These are, however, but a few of the freaks which Dame Nature has created In ILLUSTRATED this out-of-the-way part of the world There are others so strange that | hesitats to mention them. This I8, you know, the land of the marsupials, or pouch-bearing animals. You have all heard of the kanga- roos who have a bag attached to the out- side of their bellies In which they carry their young. There are not many such ‘n New Zealand. They are rather to be founi in Australia. New Zealand, however, has marsuplal rats, and 1 saw at the college here in Christchurch a mouse not much larger than a good-sized cricket which had a pouch on its belly In which it carried it young. This mouse is perhaps the smallest marsuplal known. It is a part of the biolog fcal collection of the college museum ot Christchurch, and was shown me by Prof Marriner, the chief biologist. Another thing he showed me was a live lizard which he says 18 a descendant of a family of three eyed lizards. This lizard is espe 1y puz zling to the sclentists just now. In th center of the head is a third eye, which clearly visible through the skin of th young animal, but which becomes thickly covered when {t reaches maturity. Prof Marriner says there is little doubt but that this eye was once used. The lizard he showed me I8 about a foot long and, 1 should say, two Inches in diameter about the walst, I like the black swans of New Zealand They are to be seen in all parts of th fsland, and you can shoot them anywhere along the lakes. They are even more beau tiful than the white swans, their feathers looking like black velvet plush as they sali along the waters. Vege Caterpliliars, The curiosities of vegetable life are quitc as wonderful as those of animal life. On» of the strangest s what is known as th vegetable caterpillar. This looks like a perfect caterpillar with a stem growing cut of its head. The caterpillar ltself is about two inches in length. When it is full grown the sprout comes out and takes rcot amd grows into a vigorous plant about eight inches high, with a single stem, but no leaf. Some say that the caterpillar is a real live caterpillar, but this I am inclined to doubt The only ones I have seen are the plants when they have been dried after being taken cut of the ground. 1 might also speak of New Zealand flax, a sort of flag which grows in many parts of the country and which is now being harvested largely for export. This g has a fiber which makes a cloth as brau i ful as silk. The Japanese are now experi- menting with it, and it may eventually be one of the great products of the country, 1 have seen it growing in many places on this island and am told that thousands of tons are annually exported The fiber looks somewhat like Philippine hemp. Land Which Grows Tuarpentine, Have you ever heard of the kaurl gum? It is a solldified turpentine or resin which is found in great chunks on the top of the ground and below the surface in the north- ern island of New Zealand. The lumps are from the size of a walnut to that of a man's head, and single pieces have been found welighing as much as 100 pounds. This gum is often as clear as amber, varying greatly in color. Sometimes it is a rich yellow, sometimes brown, and sometimes just the color of champagne. It is used as a sub stitute for amber in cigar holders and pipes, but the most of it is sold to manu- facturers of varnish. It 18 by no means a cheap article and the annual exports of it amount to several millions of dollars. In 1898 not quite 10,000 tons were exported, the total value of which was in the nelgh- borhood of $3,000,000. Altogether since 18583 more than $45,000,000 worth of this gum has been gotten out, amounting in all to about 200,000 toms. Among the Gam Diggers, There are now about 7,000 men going over the country with spears and pl-ks looking for this gum. They drlve thelir spears down into the earth and when they find a piece dig it out. The gum lies within a limited area. It is mined on about 700,- 000 acres north of Auckland City and south and east of Auckland on about 90,000 acres more, Part of this 1s government land, upon which the right to dig the gum is sold at from $5 to $356 per annum. Other parts are private property. Many of the gum diggers are Austrians, some Maoris and some English-Austra- lians. They go out into the gum flelds and camp in groups of twenty to thirty Many of them work for themselves, some making as much as $25 a week at it. There are men in the citles who deal in nothing ¢lse, the kauri gum exporters being among the chief business men of Auckland, This gum comes from the kauri pine, a tree which is often 170 feet high and twelve feet thick The kauri is about the best timber of New Zealand, and it is largely used in building and furniture making. The gum is the remains of the great forests of the past which have rotted away, leaving this imperishable resin. Some of the trees are barked for their gum, like our turpen- tine trees of the southern states. The most, however, still com 8 from the deposits in the swamps Among the Maoris, It is wonderful how few in traveling 'hrough atoriginal New away. There Maoris ycu see N 'w Zealand Th: Zeilander is fast passing are now about 40000 left They are scattered over the coun'ry in colonies, having their own rescrvations and their own villages. They are repre- sented in Parliament by four members, and they are largely governed by their chiefs although subject to the laws of the coun- try. 1 saw many of them In the North Island. The better class dress in European clothes, both men and women affecting bright colors The men have magnificent physiques. BEE SHEEP-EATING PARROT They are blg, broad-shouldered, heavy- weights, with strong necks, big hands and big feet. They have chocolate brown com- plexions, high cheek bones, with noses more like those of the Anglo-Saxon than he American Indian. Nearly all of the men speak English, They are inoffensive anl even when drunk do not raise as much trouble as our American aborigines. I rather like the Maori women, They are not especially good lcoking, but they m well disposed, genial and pleasant Some of the younger ones are almost beau- se tiful. At least, they would be were it not for their custom of taitooing cashmere shawl patterns on their chins and Ips The tattooing turns the cherry red of their lips to the blackness of ink. In fact, I would as soon think of kissing an ink bot- tle as one of these tattooed Maori maidens. And, still, if you keep your eyes well raised the experience might be worth the trial. Many of them have rosy complex- ions, They have luxurfant hair, eyebrows and beautiful eyes, and full of soul Some of them are clean and mnearly all are intelligent. Their beauty, however, vanishes with years, They age rapidly, until their faces look like withered apples, punctured with ink spo s doft 'nt . The Maoris understand the science of tattooing In the past both men and womern covered not only their faces but the greater part of their bodies with such decorations. The grand chiefs had their faces covered with ornamental spirals. They werc tattooed on the thighs and hips in a Dolly Varden pattern, which often ex- tended from the knees to the waist, giving his royal nibs the appearance of having on a pair of neat-fitting trunks, The women then, as now, were tattooed chiefly on the hips and chin, with a sort of fish-hook curl at the corners of the eyes. Some of the women had also their thighs and breasts decorated, but I believe this custom has since disappeared. The tattoo- ing instrument was a small bone chisel, which was driven in with a mallet. The pain was so great that it could only be done in sections, a complete job often last- ing for years. - When the English first came here the Maoris were cannibals, Now they are nearly all Christians. They have their own churches and schools, and the most of them believe in our religion. As to canni- balism, it was quite general. The tribes warred with one another, and after a bat- tle there was always a feast of human flesh, in which the women were not al- lowed to join. It was a disgrace to a mau to be eaten, and for one to hint that a man's father had been eaten was taken as an insult, I have before me a paper which tells just how one of these cannibal feasts was con ducted. One corpse was sacrificed to the god of war and the remainder were glven up to the braves who had taken part in the battle. The cooking ovens were dug out of the earth. The human flesh was thrown in and kept there for about twenty-four hours When it was roasted the chief had the first | bite, army then his sons and then the The ecating was interspersed snging and dancing and all gorgel them- whole selves to such an extent that many died at | every banquet. After the feast was over the remains were packid up in baskets and sent around to the neighboring tribes. If they were accepted the tribes were supposed to have made a treaty of friendship with th- senders and to be ready to fight with them thereafter The Maoris had a far higher grade of clv- ilizatlon than our American Indlans had a soclety of their own, the people of each tribe being divided up into classes ron»l heavy | liquid black | with | They ! April 14, 190 OF NEW ZEALAND. sisting of priests, chiefs, a middle class, lower classes and slaves. They had their own customs of war and were so noted for their bravery that it is doubtful whetter the Englizk coull have gained a foothold on the island without great loss of life had it not been for their dissensions among them- selves, FRANK G. CARPENTER. Spring | FOR SALE BY | 0. K, Scofield Cloak & Suit Co. 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