As kite flying was considered a sacred ritual, it was often accompanied by a type of chant called the turu manu. Here is a translation of a turu manu. In the glance of an eye, like the sparrow hawk, By this charm shall my bird arise, My bird bestride the heavens. Beyond the swirling waters, Like the stars Atutahi and Rehua, and there spread out thy wings, To the very clouds. The Maori also used kites for divination and for funerary purposes.
China is another widely accepted place as the birth-place of kites.
One story is of a Chinese general, Huan Theng who, in the year 202 BCE, got the idea for a particular military strategy watching the way his hat flew from his head. Placing thin pieces of bamboo that hummed and shrieked in the wind, the General flew a large number of them over an enemy encampment one night, causing them to believe that they were plagued by evil spirits out to destroy them, and so, the army ran away. Both the Chinese and the Japanese learned to use kites for raising soldiers into the air as spies of snipers. Some old Japanese and Chinese prints show warriors flying over their enemies territory. There is also a story from Japan about a famous robber named Kakinoki Kinsuke, who was supposed to have used a person-lifting kite to raise himself up to the roof of a castle where the were statues of dolphins made of gold.