Maero

Maero
a.k.a.	Maeroero, mohoao
Country	New Zealand

Maero (maeroero, mohoao) is a wild man of the woods figure of Maori origin, the name said to mean "different, other, stranger".^[L] It is described as being "covered with long coarse hair flowing from his head and back to his heels"^[T] and as having long fingers with long, sharp nails that are used for hunting.^[L]

Reading

• Lesson, Pierre Adolphe (1882) (in French), Les Polynésiens: Leur Origine, Leurs Migrations, Leur Langage, 3, Paris: E. Leroux, p. 492-493, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hxcpqq&view=1up&seq=9 
• Tregear, Edward (1904) (in English), The Maori Race, Wanganui, N.Z.: A.D. Willis, p. 572, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044043434265&view=1up&seq=632 
  

  "Wild men" or "men of the woods" (mohoao, maero, maeroero, or Te-aitanga-a Hine-mate-roa) disturbed the peace of the Maoris and were bogies not for babies only. I have often heard the mohoao spoken of by the natives and described as a very tall, horrible looking man, having long yellow hair, and with teeth like down-bent tusks at the corners of the mouth. The Coromandel Peninsula (especially Moehau) was much haunted by them, as well as by other supernatural creatures. The night-cry "makona!" supposed to be given by the mohoao has thrilled many a stout heart with its fancied sound. The maero was a wild man of the woods, strong, fierce, cunning, apt to carry off women and children. His body was covered with long coarse hair flowing from his head and back to his heels. The Nuku-mai tore fairies lived in the trees. Fairy men carried off Maori women; Maori men married fairy women. These stories seem to point to an immigrant race. If the Maoris were autochthonous there was nothing in a New Zealand forest to originate such fancies.