Maero

In Māori tradition, the Maero (or Mohoao) are wild, violent men with long, bony fingers and long, dirty hair. They killed their prey with long, sharp fingernails and then ate them.The Maero were arboreal, hiding in the forests since the Māori arrived from Hawaiki and ruined the tapu (sacredness) of their homes.In a story from the Whanganui area, Tukoio, a mortal man, once found a maero and attacked it, cutting off its arms, legs and head. He brought the head back, but it was still alive and called for help. Tukoio did not want to fight a whole clan of maero, so he dropped it and came back later with reinforcements, but the maero had put itself back together and returned to the forest.
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[Polynesian] According to the legends of the Maori of New Zealand, the fearsome Maero, or wild people, were inclined to such hijinx as kidnapping folks and then fighting them to the death. Hairy and unkempt, they had especially long, bony fingers. After spearing their prey with their jagged nails they ate it raw, and no doubt with relish. The Maero lived in the forests, to which they had confined themselves when human beings arrived from Hawaii and mucked all about, desecrating the "tapu," or sacredness, of their homes. Another name for the Maero is mohoao. A man named Tukoio once came across a particularly hairy mohoao -- hair so long it trailed upon the ground -- who was spearing birds with his fingernails. This mohoao at once attacked Tukoio and fought fiercely with him until Tukoio had cut off his arms and legs. After Tukoio had severed the shaggy head and was returning home with his trophy, the head began to speak: "Children, I'm being carried off!" Tukoio instantly dropped the head ...
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