Kāpiti College Library

Notes

This collection of 30 short tales about traditional Maori customs and beliefs by New Zealand historian James Cowan (1873-1934) embody some of our best writing from the early twentieth century. A prolific writer of Maori lore and local legend, Cowan's stories are drawn from centuries past to around the time of first contact between Maori and Pakeha - from what he calls "the life of the real New Zealand, with its background of mountain and lake and river, of flax swamp and fern plain".