| 释义 |
‖ ngarara|ŋɑːˈrara, n-|
[Maori.]
A name used for various extinct, unidentified, New Zealand lizards; also, in Maori mythology, a lizard-like monster. Also attrib.
1874J. W. Stack in Trans. N.Z. Inst. VII. 296 Ngarara burrows were frequently met with on the plains. Ibid., A ngarara known as Te iha was kept a long time at Kaiapoi. 1882W. D. Hay Brighter Britain! II. 115 There is a little emerald-green lizard in the bush, called by the Maori ngarara. It is dreadfully tapu. 1901A. A. Grace Tales of Dying Race 190 ‘The Ngarara—you never heard of him?’ said the old woman. ‘He is the Ngarara—the real one. Big body, eight feet long; big webbed feet; big wings like a bat's, with which he flies and catches fish; long tail like a tuatara lizard's, but bigger; skin like the bark of the red pine.’ 1905W. B. Where White Man Treads 38 His [sc. the Maori's] existence was burdened with the knowledge of huge reptilian monsters, ngarara on land, and taniwha in the water. 1949P. H. Buck Coming of Maori (1950) i. iv. 61 The crew and passengers of the [canoe] Mangarara consisted of reptiles and insects. The reptiles (ngarara) were lizards. 1966Encycl. N.Z. I. 48/2 Less improbable were Maori tales of the ngarara, lizards which were larger than the tuatara... Certain prominent Maoris..claimed not only to have seen but also to have handled and eaten them. It seems that the ngarara, which frequented manuka scrub, varied in size from 2 to 3 ft in length and from 10 to 20 in. in girth. There was also a smaller ngarara, about 18 in. long, found in streams. The Maoris attributed the disappearance of the large ngarara to scrub-fires and the attacks of cats and..perhaps the Norwegian rat. |