Polynesian Mythology, and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race
19th-century transcription of Māori oral tradition; published 1855 · Sir George Grey, Polynesian Mythology, and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race, as Furnished by Their Priests and Chiefs (1st ed., 1855) · Public domain (US and international; published 1855) · uncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan
Chapter 1
EARTH.
(KO NGA TAMA A EANGI — TEADITION EELATING TO THE OEIGIN OP
THE HUMAN EACE.)
Men had but one pair of primitive ancestors ; they
sprang from the vast heaven that exists above us,
and from the earth which lies beneath us. Accord-
ing to the traditions of our race, Rangi and Papa,
or Heaven and Earth, were the source from which,
in the beginning, all things originated. Darkness
then rested upon the heaven and upon the earth,
and they still both clave together, for they had not
yet been rent apart ; and the children they had
begotten were ever thinking amongst themselves
what might be the difference between darkness
and light ; they knew that beings had multiplied
and increased, and yet light had never broken
upon them, but it ever continued dark. Hence
these sayings are found in our ancient religious
services : " There was darkness from the first divi-
B
sion of time, unto the tenth, to the hundredth, to
the thousandth/' that is, for a vast space of time ;
and these divisions of times were considered as
beings, and were each termed a Po ; and on their
account there was as yet no world with its bright
light, but darkness only for the beings which
existed.
At last the beings who had been begotten by
Heaven and Earth, worn out by the continued
darkness, consulted amongst themselves, saying,
" Let us now determine what we should do with
Rangi and Papa, whether it would be better to
slay them or to rend them apart. Then spoke Tu-
matauenga, the fiercest of the children of Heaven
and Earth, " It is well, let us slay them."
Then spake Tane-mahuta, the father of forests
and of all things that inhabit them, or that are
constructed from trees, " Nay, not so. It is better
to rend them apart, and to let the heaven stand
far above us, and the earth lie under our feet. Let
the sky become as a stranger to us, but the earth
remain close to us as our nursing mother/'
The brothers all consented to this proposal, with
the exception of Tawhiri-ma-tea, the father of
winds and storms, and he, fearing that his kingdom
was about to be overthrown, grieved greatly at the
thought of his parents being torn apart. Five of
THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 3
the brothers willingly consented to the separation
of their parents, but one of them would not agree
to it.
Hence, also, these sayings of old are found in our
prayers, " Darkness, darkness, light, light, the seek-
ing, the searching, in chaos, in chaos ; " these sig-
nified the way in which the offspring of heaven
and earth sought for some mode of dealing with
their parents, so that human beings might increase
and live.
So, also, these sayings of old time, "The multi-
tude, the length/' signified the multitude of the
thoughts of the children of Heaven and Earth,
and the length of time they considered whether
they should slay their parents, that human beings
might be called into existence ; for it was in this
manner that they talked and consulted amongst
themselves.
But at length their plans having been agreed
on, lo, Rongo-ma-tane, the god and father of the
cultivated food of man, rises up, that he may rend
apart the heavens and the earth ; he struggles, but
he rends them not apart. Lo, next, Tangaroa, the
god and father of fish and reptiles, rises up, that
he may rend apart the heavens and the earth ; he
also struggles, but he rends them not apart. Lo,
next, Haumia-tikitiki, the god and father of the
food of man which springs without cultivation,
B 2
rises up and struggles, but ineffectually. Lo,
then, Tu-matauenga, the god and father of fierce
human beings, rises up and struggles, but he, too,
fails in his efforts. Then, at last, slowly uprises
Tane-raahuta, the god and father of forests, of
birds, and of insects, and he struggles with his
parents ; in vain he strives to rend them apart
with his hands and arms. Lo, he pauses ; his head
is now firmly planted on his mother the earth, his
feet he raises up and rests against his father the
skies, he strains his back and limbs with mighty
effort. Now are rent apart Rangi and Papa, and
with cries and groans of wo they shriek aloud,
" Wherefore slay you thus your parents ? Why
commit you so dreadful a crime as to slay us, as to
rend your parents apart?" But ,Tane-mahuta
pauses not, he regards not their shrieks and cries ;
far, far beneath him he presses down the earth ; far,
far above him he thrusts up the sky.
Hence these sayings of olden time, " It was the
fierce thrusting of Tane which tore the heaven
from the earth, so that they were rent apart, and
darkness was made manifest, and so was the
light."
No sooner was heaven rent from earth than the
multitude of human beings were discovered whom
they had begotten, and who had hitherto lain con-
cealed between the bodies of Rangi and Papa.
THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 5
Then, also, there arose in the breast of Tawhiri-
ma-tea, the god and father of winds and storms, a
fierce desire to wage war with his brothers, because
they had rent apart their common parents. He
from the first had refused to consent to his mother
being torn from her lord and children ; it was his
brothers alone that wished for this separation, and
desired that Papa-tu-a-nuku, or the Earth alone,
should be left as a parent for them.
The god of hurricanes and storms dreads also
that the world should become too fair and beauti-
ful, so he rises, follows his father to the realms
above, and hurries to the sheltered hollows in the
boundless skies ; there he hides and clings, and
nestling in this place of rest he consults long with
his parent, and as the vast Heaven listens to the
suggestions of Tawhiri-ma-tea, thoughts and plans
are formed in his breast, and Tawhiri-ma-tea also
understands what he should do. Then by himself
and the vast Heaven were begotten his numerous
brood, and they rapidly increased and grew.
Tawhiri-ma-tea despatches one of them to the west-
ward, and one to the southward, and one to the
eastward, and one to the northward ; and he gives
corresponding names to himself and to his progeny
the mighty winds.
He next sends forth fierce squalls, whirlwinds,
dense clouds, massy clouds, dark clouds, gloomy
thick clouds, fiery clouds, clouds which precede
hurricanes, clouds of fiery black, clouds reflecting
glowing red light, clouds wildly drifting from all
quarters and wildly bursting, clouds of thunder
storms, and clouds hurriedly flying. In the midst
of these Tawhiri-ma-tea himself sweeps wildly on.
Alas ! alas ! then rages the fierce hurricane ; and
whilst Tane-mahuta and his gigantic forests still
stand, unconscious and unsuspecting, the blast of
the breath of the mouth of Tawhiri-ma-tea smites
them, the gigantic trees are snapt off right in the
middle ; alas ! alas ! they are rent to atoms,
dashed to the earth, with boughs and branches
torn and scattered, and lying on the earth, trees
and branches all alike left for the insect, for the
grub, and for loathsome rottenness.
From the forests and their inhabitants Tawhiri-
ma-tea next swoops down upon the seas, and lashes
in his wrath the ocean. Ah ! ah ! waves steep as
cliffs arise, whose summits are so lofty that to look
from them would make the beholder giddy ; these
soon eddy in whirlpools, and Tangaroa, the god of
ocean, and father of all that dwell therein, flies
affrighted through his seas ; but before he fled, his
children consulted together how they might secure
their safety, for Tangaroa had begotten Punga, and
THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 7
he had begotten two children, Ika-tere, the father
of fish, and Tu-te-wehiwehi, or Tu-te-wanawana, the
father of reptiles.
When Tangaroa fled for safety to the ocean, then
Tu-te-wehiwehi and Ika-tere, and their children,
disputed together as to what they should do to
escape from the storms, and Tu-te-wehiwehi and
his party cried aloud, " Let us fly inland but
Ika-tere and his party cried aloud, " Let us fly to
the sea." Some would not obey one order, some
would not obey the other, and they escaped in two
parties : the party of Tu-te-wehiwehi, or the rep-
tiles, hid themselves ashore ; the party of Punga
rushed to the sea. This is what, in our ancient
religious services, is called the separation of Ta-
whiri-ma-tea.
Hence these traditions have been handed down :
— " Ika-tere, the father of things which inhabit
water, cried aloud to Tu-te-wehiwehi, ' Ho, ho, let
us all escape to the sea/
" But Tu-te*wehiwehi shouted in answer, ' Nay,
nay, let us rather fly inland/
" Then Ika-tere warned him, saying, ' Fly in-
land, then ; and the fate of you and your race will
be, that when they catch you, before you are
cooked, they will singe off your scales over a
lighted wisp of dry fern/
" But Tu-te-wehiwehi answered him, saying,
' Seek safety, then, in the sea ; and the future fate
of your race will be, that when they serve out little
baskets of cooked vegetable food to each person,
you will be laid upon the top of the food to give a
relish to it/
" Then without delay these two races of beings
separated. The fish fled in confusion to the sea,
the reptiles sought safety in the forests and
scrubs/'
Tangaroa, enraged at some of his children desert-
ing him, and, being sheltered by the god of the
forests on dry land, has ever since waged war
on his brother Tane, who, in return, has waged
war against him.
Hence Tane supplies the offspring of his brother
Tu-matauenga with canoes, with spears and with fish-
hooks made from his trees, and with nets woven from
his fibrous plants, that they may destroy the off-
spring of Tangaroa; whilst Tangaroa, in return, swal-
lows up the offspring of Tane, overwhelming canoes
with the surges of his sea, swallowing up the lands,
trees, and houses that are swept off by floods, and
ever wastes away, with his lapping waves, the
shores that confine him, that the giants of the forests
may be washed down and swept out into his
boundless ocean, that he may then swallow up
THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 9
the insects, the young birds, and the various ani-
mals which inhabit them, — all which things are
recorded in the prayers which were offered to these
gods.
Tawhiri-ma-tea next rushed on to attack his
brothers Rongo-ma-tane and Haumia-tikitiki, the
gods and progenitors of cultivated and uncultivated
food ; but Papa, to save these for her other children,
caught them up, and hid them in a place of safety ;
and so well were these children of hers concealed
by their mother Earth, that Tawhiri-ma-tea sought
for them in vain.
Tawhiri-ma-tea having thus vanquished all his
other brothers, next rushed against Tu-mata-
uenga, to try his strength against his ; he exerted
all his force against him, but he could neither
shake him or prevail against him. What did Tu-
matauenga care for his brother's wrath? he was
the only one of the whole party of brothers who
had planned the destruction of their parents, and
had shown himself brave and fierce in war ; his
brothers had yielded at once before the tremendous
assaults of Tawhiri-ma-tea and his progeny — Ta-
ne-mahuta and his offspring had been broken and
torn in pieces — Tangaroa and his children had
fled to the depths of the ocean or the recesses of
the shore — Rongo-ma-tane and Haumia-tikitiki
B 3
had been hidden from him in the earth — but Tu-
matauenga, or man, still stood erect and unshaken
upon the breast of his mother Earth ; and now at
length the hearts of Heaven and of the god of
storms became tranquil, and their passions were
assuaged.
Tu-matauenga, or fierce man, having thus suc-
cessfully resisted his brother, the god of hurricanes
and storms, next took thought how he could turn
upon his brothers and slay them, because they had
not assisted him or fought bravely when Tawhiri-
ma-tea had attacked them to avenge the separa-
tion of their parents, and because they had left him
alone to show his prowess in the fight. As yet
death had no power over man. It was not until
the birth of the children of Taranga and of Makea-
tu-tara, of Maui-taha, of Maui-roto, of Maui-pae, of
Maui-waho, and of Maui-tikitiki-o-Taranga, the
demi-god who tried to drain Hine-nui-te-po, that
death had power over men. If that goddess had
not been deceived by Maui-tikitiki, men would not
have died, but would in that case have lived for
ever ; it was from his deceiving Hine-nui-te-po that
death obtained power over mankind, and penetrated
to every part of the earth.
Tu-matauenga continued to reflect upon the
cowardly manner in which his brothers had acted,
THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EAETH. 1 1
in leaving him to show his courage alone, and he
first sought some means of injuring Tane-mahuta,
because he had not come to aid him in his combat
with Tawhiri-ma-tea, and partly because he was
aware that Tane had had a numerous progeny, who
were rapidly increasing, and might at last prove
hostile to him, and injure him, so he began to
collect leaves of the whanake tree, and twisted
them into nooses, and when his work was ended,
he went to the forest to put up his snares, and
hung them up — ha ! ha ! the children of Tane fell
before him, none of them could any longer fly or
move in safety.
Then he next determined to take revenge on his
brother Tangaroa, who had also deserted him in
the combat ; so he sought for his offspring, and
found them leaping or swimming in the water ; then
he cut many leaves from the flax-plant, and netted
nets with the flax, and dragged these, and hauled
the children of Tangaroa ashore.
After that, he determined also to be revenged
upon his brothers Rongo-ma-tane and Haumia-tiki-
tiki ; he soon found them by their peculiar leaves,*
and he scraped into shape a wooden hoe, and
plaited a basket, and dug in the earth and pulled
up all kinds of plants with edible roots, and the
* See next page.
plants which had been dug up withered in the
sun.
Thus Tu-matauenga devoured all his brothers,
and consumed the whole of them, in revenge for
their having deserted him and left him to fight
alone against Tawhiri-ma-tea and Rangi.
When his brothers had all thus been overcome
by Tu', he assumed several names, namely, Tu-ka-
riri, Tu-ka-nguha, Tu-ka-taua, Tu-whaka-heke-tan-
gata, Tu-mata-wha-iti, and Tu-matauenga ; he as-
sumed one name for each of his attributes dis-
played in the victories over his brothers. Four of
his brothers were entirely deposed by him, and be-
came his food ; but one of them, Tawhiri-ma-tea,
he could not vanquish or make common, by eating
him for food, so he, the last born child of Heaven
and Earth, was left as an enemy for man, and still,
with a rage equal to that of Mau, this elder brother
ever attacks him in storms and hurricanes, endea-
vouring to destroy him alike by sea and land.
Now, the meanings of these names of the chil-
dren of the Heaven and Earth are as follows : —
Tan gar oa signifies fish of every kind ; Rongo-
ma-tane signifies the sweet potato, and all vege-
tables cultivated as food ; Haumia-tikitiki signifies
fern root, and all kinds of food which grow wild ;
Tane-mahuta signifies forests, the birds and insects
THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 13
which inhabit them, and all things fashioned from
wood ; Tawhiri-ma-tea signifies winds and storms ;
and Tu-matauenga signifies man.
Four of his brothers having, as before stated,
been made common, or articles of food, by Tu-mata-
uenga, he assigned for each of them fitting incanta-
tions, that they might be abundant, and that he
might easily obtain them.
Some incantations were proper to Tane-mahuta,
they were called Tane.
Some incantations were for Tangaroa, they were
called Tangaroa.
Some were for Rongo-ma-tane, they were called
Rongo-ma-tane.
Some were for Haumia-tikitiki, they were called
Haumia.
The reason that he sought out these incantations
was, that his brothers might be made common by
him, and serve for his food. There were also in-
cantations for Tawhiri-ma-tea to cause favourable
winds, and prayers to the vast Heaven for fair
weather, as also for mother Earth that she might
produce all things abundantly. But it was the
great God that taught these prayers to man.
There were also many prayers and incantations
composed for man, suited to the different times
and circumstances of his life — prayers at the bap-
tism of an infant; prayers for abundance of food,
for wealth; prayers in illness; prayers to spirits,
and for many other things.
The bursting forth of the wrathful fury of Ta-
wliiri-ma-tea against his brothers, was the cause of
the disappearance of a great part of the dry land ;
during that contest a great part of mother Earth
was submerged. The names of those beings of
ancient days who submerged so large a portion of
the earth were — Terrible-rain, Long-continued-rain,
Fierce-hail-storms ; and their progeny were, Mist,
Heavy-dew, and Light-dew, and these together sub-
merged the greater part of the earth, so that only
a small portion of dry land projected above the
sea.
From that time clear light increased upon the
earth, and all the beings which were hidden be-
tween Pangi and Papa before they were separated,
now multiplied upon the earth. The first beings
begotten by Rangi and Papa were not like human
beings ; but Tu-matauenga bore the likeness of a
man, as did all his brothers, as also did a Po, a Ao,
a Kore, te Kimihanga and Punuku, and thus it
continued until the times of Ngainui and his gene-
ration, and of Whiro-te-tupua and his generation,
and of Tiki-tawhito-ariki and his generation, and
it has so continued to this day.
THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 15
The children of Tu-iuatauenga were begotten
on this earth, and they inereased, and continued to
multiply, until we reach at last the generation of
Maui-taha, and of his brothers Maui-roto, Maui-
waho, Maui-pae, and Maui-tikitiki-o-Taranga.
Up to this time the vast Heaven has still ever
remained separated from his spouse the Earth.
Yet their mutual love still continues — the soft
warm sighs of her loving bosom still ever rise up
to him, ascending from the woody mountains and
valleys, and men call these mists ; and the vast
Heaven, as he mourns through the long nights his
separation from his beloved, drops frequent tears
upon her bosom, and men seeing these, term them
dew-drops.
Chapter 2
One day Maui asked his brothers to tell him the
place where their father and mother dwelt ; he
begged earnestly that they would make this known
to him in order that he might go and visit the place
where the two old people dwelt ; and they replied
to him, " We don't know ; how can we tell
whether they dwell up above the earth, or down
under the earth, or at a distance from us."
Then he answered them, " Never mind, I think I '11
find them out ; " and his brothers replied, " Non-
sense, how can you tell where they are — you, the
last born of all of us, when we your elders have
no knowledge where they are concealed from us ;
after you first appeared to us, and made yourself
known to us and to our mother as our brother, you
know that our mother used to come and sleep with
us every night, and as soon as the day broke she
was gone, and, lo, there was nobody but ourselves
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
sleeping in the house, and this took place night
after night, and how can we tell then where she
went or where she lives?" But he answered,
" Y ery well, you stop here, and listen ; by and by
you will hear news of me/'
For he had found something out after he was
discovered by his mother, by his relations, and by
his brothers. They discovered him one night
whilst they were all dancing in the great House
of Assembly. Whilst his relations were all danc-
ing there, they then found out who he was in this
manner. For little Maui, the infant, crept into the
house, and went and sat behind one of his bro-
ther's, and hid himself, so when their mother
counted her children that they might stand up
ready for the dance, she said — " One, that 's Maui-
taka ; two, that 's Maui-roto ; three, that's Maui-
pae ; four, that 's Maui- waho ; " and then she saw
another, and cried out, " Hollo, where did this
fifth come from?" Then little Maui, the infant,
answered, "Ah, I'm your child too." Then the
old woman counted them all over again, and said,
" Oh, no, there ought to be only four of you ; now
for the first time I've seen you." Then little Maui
and his mother stood for a long time disputing
about this in the very middle of the ranks of all
the dancers.
18 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
At last she got angry, and cried out, " Come,
you be off now, out of the house at once; you
are no child of mine, you belong to some one else."
Then little Maui spoke out quite boldly, and said,
" Very well, I 'd better be off then, for I suppose,
as you say it, I must be the child of some other
person; but indeed I did think I was your child
when I said so, because I knew I was born at
the side of the sea,* and was thrown by you
into the foam of the surf, after you had wrapped
me up in a tuft of your hair, which you cut off
for the purpose ; then the seaweed formed and
fashioned me, as caught in its long tangles the
ever-heaving surges of the sea rolled me, folded as
I was in them, from side to side; at length the
breezes and squalls which blew from the ocean
drifted me on shore again, and the soft jelly-fish of
the long sandy beaches rolled themselves round
me to protect me ; then again myriads of flies
alighted on me to buzz about me and lay their
eggs, that maggots might eat me, and flocks of
* If a child was born before its time, and thus perished without
having known the joys and pleasures of life, it was carefully buried
with peculiar incantations and ceremonies; because if cast into
the water, or carelessly thrown aside, it became a malicious being
or spirit, actuated by a peculiar antipathy to the human race, who
it spitefully persecuted, from having been itself deprived of happi-
ness which they enjoyed. All their malicious deities had an origin
of this kind.
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
birds collected round me to peck me to pieces, but
at that moment appeared there also my great an-
cestor, Tama-nui-ki-te-Rangi, and he saw the flies
and the birds collected in clusters and flocks above
the jelly-fish, and the old man ran, as fast as he
could, and stripped off the encircling jelly-fish, and
behold within there lay a human being ; then he
caught me up and carried me to his house, and he
hung me up in the roof that I might feel the warm
smoke and the heat of the fire, so I was saved alive
by the kindness of that old man. At last I grew,
and then I heard of the fame of the dancing of
this great House of Assembly. It was that which
brought me here. But from the time I was in
your womb, I have heard the names of these your
first-born children, as you have been calling them
over until this very night, when I again heard
you repeating them. In proof of this I will
now recite your names to you, my brothers. You
are Maui-taha, and you are Maui-roto, and you
are Maui-pae, and you are Maui-waho, and as for
me, I 'm little Maui-the-baby, and here I am sit-
ting before you."
When his mother, Taranga, heard all this, she
cried out, " You dear little child, you are indeed
my last-born, the son of my old age, therefore I
now tell you your name shall be Maui-tiki-tiki-a-
Taranga, or Maui-fonned-in-the-top-knot-of-Taran-
ga," and he was called by that name.
After the disputing which took place on that
occasion, his mother, Taranga, called to her last-
born, " Come here, my child, and sleep with the
mother who bore you, that I may kiss you, and
that you may kiss me," and he ran to sleep with
his mother. Then his elder brothers were jealous, and
began to murmur about this to each other. " Well,
indeed, our mother never asks us to go and sleep
with her ; yet we are the children she saw actually
born, and about whose birth there is no doubt.
When we were little things she nursed us, laying us
down gently on the large soft mats she had spread
out for us — then why does she not ask us now to sleep
with her ? when we were little things she was fond
enough of us, but now we are grown older she
never caresses us, or treats us kindly. But as for
this little abortion, who can really tell whether he
was nursed by the sea-tangles or by whom, or
whether he is not some other person's child, and
here he is now sleeping with our mother. Who
would ever have believed that a little abortion,
thrown into the ocean, would have come back to
the world again a living human being ! — and now
this little rogue has the impudence to call himself a
relation of ours."
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
Then the two elder brothers said to the two
younger ones, " Never mind, let him be our dear
brother ; in the days of peace remember the pro-
verb—when you are on friendly terms, settle your
disputes in a friendly way — when you are at war,
you must redress your injuries by violence. It is
better for us, oh, brothers, to be kind to other
people ; these are the ways by which men gain in-
fluence in the world — by labouring for abundance of
food to feed others — by collecting property to give
to others, and by similar means by which you pro-
mote the good of others, so that peace spreads
through the world. Let us take care that we are
not like the children of Rangi-nui and of Papa-tu-a-
nuku, who turned over in their minds thoughts for
slaying their parents ; four of them consented, but
Tawhiri-ma-tea had little desire for this, for he
loved his parents ; but the rest of his brothers
agreed to slay them ; afterwards when Tawhiri saw
that the husband was separated far from his wife,
then he thought what it was his duty to do, and he
fought against his brothers. Thence sprang the
cause which led Tu-matauenga to wage war against
his brethren and his parents, and now at last this
contest is carried on even between his own kindred,
so that man fights against man. Therefore let us
be careful not to foster divisions amongst ourselves,
lest such wicked thoughts should finally turn us
each against the other, and thus we should be like
the children of Rangi-nui and of Papa-tu-a-nuku."
The two younger brothers, when they heard this,
answered, "Yes, yes, oh, eldest brothers of ours, you
are quite right ; let our murmuring end here."
It was now night ; but early in the morning Ta-
ranga rose up, and suddenly, in a moment of time,
she was gone from the house where her children
were. As soon as they woke up they looked all
about to no purpose, as they could not see her ; the
elder brothers knew she had left them, and were
accustomed to it ; but the little child was exceed-
ingly vexed; yet he thought, I cannot see her, 't is
true, but perhaps she has only gone to prepare
some food for us. No — no — she was off, far, far
away.
Now at nightfall when their mother came back
to them, her children were dancing and singing as
usual. As soon as they had finished, she called to
her last born, " Come here, my child, let us sleep
together f so they slept together ; but as soon
as day dawned, she disappeared ; the little fellow
now felt quite suspicious at such strange proceed-
ings on the part of his mother every morning.
But at last, upon another night, as he slept again
with his mother, the rest of his brothers that
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
night also sleeping with them, the little fellow
crept out in the night and stole his mother's apron,
her belt, and clothes, and hid them; then he went
and stopped up every crevice in the wooden win-
dow, and in the doorway, so that the light of the
dawn might not shine into the house, and make
his mother hurry to get up. But after he had
done this, his little heart still felt very anxious
and uneasy lest his mother should, in her im-
patience, rise in the darkness and defeat his plans.
But the night dragged its slow length along with-
out his mother moving ; at last there came the
faint light of early morn, so that at one end of a
long house you could see the legs of the people
sleeping at the other end of it, but his mother
still slept on ; then the sun rose up, and mounted
far up above the horizon ; now at last his mother
moved, and began to think to herself, " What kind of
night can this be, to last so long?" and having
thought thus, she dropped asleep again. Again she
awoke, and began to think to herself, but could
not tell that it was broad daylight outside, as
the window and every chink in the house were
stopped closely up.
At last up she jumped ; and finding herself quite
naked, began to look for her clothes, and apron,
but could find neither; then she ran and pulled
out the tilings with which the chinks in the win-
dows and doors were stopped up, and whilst doing
so, oh, dear ! oh, dear! there she saw the sun high
up in the heavens ; then she snatched up, as she
ran off, the old clout of a flax cloak, with which
the door of the house had been stopped up, and
carried it off as her only covering ; getting, at
last, outside the house, she hurried away, and ran
crying at the thought of having been so badly
treated by her own children.
As soon as his mother got outside the house,
little Maui jumped up, and kneeling upon his hands
and knees peeped after her through the doorway
into the bright light. Whilst he was watching her,
the old woman reached down to a tuft of rushes,
and snatching it up from the ground, dropped
into a hole underneath it, and clapping the tuft
of rushes in the hole again, as if it were its cover-
ing, so disappeared. Then little Maui jumped on
his feet, and, as hard as he could go, ran out of
the house, pulled up the tuft of rushes, and peeping
down, discovered a beautiful open cave running
quite deep into the earth.
He covered up the hole again and returned to
the house, and waking up his brothers who were
still sleeping, said, " Come, come, my brothers,
rouse up, you have slept long enough ; come, get
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
up ; here we are again cajoled by our mother/'
Then his brothers made haste and got up ; alasS
alas! the sun was quite high up in the heavens.
The little Maui now asked his brothers again,
" Where do you think the place is where our father
and mother dwell?" and they answered, "How
should we know, we have never seen it ; although
we are Maui-taha, and Maui-roto, and Maui-pae,
and Maui-waho, we have never seen the place ; and
do you think you can find that place which you are
so anxious to see ? What does it signify to you ?
Cannot you stop quietly with us? What do we
care about our father, or about our mother ? Did
she feed us with food till we grew up to be men ? —
not a bit of it. Why, without doubt, Rangi, or
the heaven, is our father, who kindly sent his off-
spring down to us ; Hau-whenua, or gentle breezes,
to cool the earth and young plants ; and Hau-ma-
ringiringi, or mists, to moisten them ; and Hau-ma-
roto-roto, or fine weather, to make them grow ; and
Touarangi, or rain, to water them ; and Tomairangi,
or dews, to nourish them: he gave these his off-
spring to cause our food to grow, and then Papa-tu-
a-nuku, or the earth, made her seeds to spring, and
grow forth, and provide sustenance for her children
in this long-continuing world/'
Little Maui then answered, " What you say
is truly quite correct ; but such thoughts and say-
c
ings would better become me than you, for in
the foaming bubbles of the sea I was nursed and
fed : it would please me better if you would think
over and remember the time when you were
nursed at your mother's breast ; it could not have
been until after you had ceased to be nourished by
her milk that you could have eaten the kinds of
food you have mentioned ; as for me, oh ! my bro-
thers, I have never partaken either of her milk or
of her food ; yet I love her, for this single reason
alone — that I lay in her womb ; and because I
love her, I wish to know where is the place where
she and my father dwell."
His brothers felt quite surprised and pleased
with their little brother when they heard him talk
in this way, and when after a little time they had
recovered from their amazement, they told him to
try and find their father and mother. So he
said he would go. It was a long time ago that
he had finished his first labour, for when he
first appeared to his relatives in their house of
singing and dancing, he had on that occasion trans-
formed himself into the likeness of all manner of
birds, of every bird in the world, and yet no single
form that he then assumed had pleased his brothers ;
but now when he showed himself to them, trans-
formed into the semblance of a pigeon, his bro-
thers said, "All! now indeed, oh, brother, you do
THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 27
look very well indeed, very beautiful, very beau-
tiful, much more beautiful than you looked in any of
the other forms which you assumed, and then changed
from, when you first discovered yourself to us."
What made him now look so well in the shape
he had assumed was the belt of his mother, and
her .apron, which he had stolen from her while she
was asleep in the house ; for the very thing which
looked so white upon the breast of the pigeon was
his mother s broad belt, and he also had on her
little apron of burnished hair from the tail of a
dog, and the fastening of her belt was what formed
the beautiful black feathers on his throat. He had
once changed himself into this form a long time
ago, and now that he was going to look for his
father and mother, and had quitted his brothers to
transform himself into the likeness of a pigeon,
he assumed exactly the same form as on the pre-
vious occasion, and when his brothers saw him thus
again, they said, " Oh, brother ! oh, brother ! you do
really look well indeed f and when he sat upon
the bough of a tree, oh, dear! he never moved, or
jumped about from spray to spray, but sat quite
still, cooing to himself, so that no one who had seen
him could have helped thinking of the proverb — "A
stupid pigeon sits on one bough, and jumps not
from spray to spray/' Early the next morning, he
said to his brothers, as was first stated, "Now do you
c 2
remain here, and you will hear something of me
after I am gone ; it is my great love for my
parents that leads me to search for them ; now
listen to me, and then say whether or not my
recent feats were not remarkable. For the feat of
transforming oneself into "birds can only be accom-
plished by a man who is skilled in magic, and yet
here I, the youngest of you all, have assumed the
form of all birds, and now, perhaps, after all, I shall
quite lose my art, and become old and weakened in
the long journey to the place where I am going/'
His brothers answered him thus : — " That might be
indeed, if you were going upon a warlike expedition,
but, in truth, you are only going to look for those
parents who, we all, so long to see, and if they are
found by you, we shall ever after all dwell happily,
our present sorrow will be ended, and we shall
continually pass backwards and forwards between
our dwelling-place and theirs, paying them happy
visits."
He answered them, " It is certainly a very good
cause which leads me to undertake this journey,
and if, when reaching the place I am going to, I
find everything agreeable and nice, then I shall,
perhaps, be pleased with it, but if I find it a bad,
disagreeable place, I shall be disgusted with it"
They replied to him, " What you say is exceedingly
true, depart then upon your journey, with your
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
great knowledge and skill in magic/' Then their
brother went into the wood, and came back to them
again, looking just as if he were a real pigeon.
His brothers were quite delighted, and they had
no power left to do anything but admire him.
Then off he flew, until he came to the cave
which his mother had run down into, and he lifted
up the tuft of rushes ; then down he went and dis-
appeared in the cave, and shut up its mouth again
so as to hide the entrance ; away he flew very fast
indeed, and twice he dipped his wing, because the
cave was narrow ; soon he reached nearly to the
bottom of the cave, and flew along it ; and again,
because the cave was so narrow, he dips first one
wing and then the other, but the cave now widened,
and he dashed straight on.
At last he saw a party of people coming along
under a grove of trees, they were manapau trees,*
and flying on, he perched upon the top of one of these
trees, under which the people had seated themselves ;
and when he saw his mother lying down on the
grass by the side of her husband, he guessed at
once who they were, and he thought, " Ah ! there
sit my father and mother right under me;" and he
soon heard their names, as they were called to by
* The manapau was a species of tree peculiar to the country
from whence the people came, where the priests say it was known
by that name.
their friends who were sitting with them ; then the
pigeon hopped down, and perched on another spray
a little lower, and it pecked off one of the ber-
ries of the tree and dropped it gently down, and
hit the father with it on the forehead ; and some of
the party said, " Was it a bird which threw that
down V but the father said, " Oh no, it was only a
berry that fell by chance."
Then the pigeon again pecked off some of the
berries from the tree, and threw them down with
all its force, and struck both father and mother, so
that he really hurt them ; then they cried out, and
the whole party jumped up and looked into the
tree, and as the pigeon began to coo, they soon
found out from the noise, where it was sitting
amongst the leaves and branches, and the whole of
them, the chiefs and common people alike, caught
up stones to pelt the pigeon with, but they threw
for a very long time, without hitting it ; at last
the father tried to throw up at it ; ah, he struck
it, but Maui had himself contrived that he should
be struck by the stone which his father threw ; for,
but by his own choice, no one could have hit him ;
he was struck exactly upon his left leg, and down
he fell, and as he lay fluttering and struggling upon
the ground, they all ran to catch him, but lo, the
pigeon had turned into a man,
Then all those who saw him were frightened at
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
his fierce glaring eyes, which were red as if painted
with red ochre, and they said, " Oh, it is now no
wonder that he so long sat still up in the tree ; had
he been a bird he would have flown off long before,
but he is a man " and some of them said, " No,
indeed, rather a god — -just look at his form and
appearance, the like has never been seen before,
since Kangi and Papa-tu-a-nuku were torn apart/'
Then Taranga said, " I used to see one who looked
like this person every night when I went to visit my
children, but what I saw then excelled what I see
now ; just listen to me. Once as I was wandering
upon the sea-shore, I prematurely gave birth to one
of my children, and I cut off the long tresses of my
hair, and bound him up in them, and threw him
into the foam of the sea, and after that he was
found by his ancestor Tama-nui-ki-te-Kangi and
then she told his history nearly in the same words
that Maui-the-infant had told it to herself and his
brothers in their house, and having finished his
history, Taranga ended her discourse to her hus-
band and his friends.
Then his mother asked Maui, who was sitting
near her, " Where do you come from ? from the west-
ward?" and he answered, "No." "From the
north-east then V " No." " From the south-east
then V " No/' " From the south then 1" " No."
" Was it the wind which blows upon me, which
brought you here to me then?" when she asked
this, he opened his mouth and answered, " Yes."
And she cried out, " Oh, this then is indeed my
child ;" and she said, "Are you Maui-taha?" he an-
swered, " No." Then said she, " Are you Maui-
tikitiki-o-Taranga V and he answered, "Yes."
And she cried aloud, " This is, indeed, my child.
By the winds and storms and wave-uplifting gales
he was fashioned and became a human being ; wel-
come, oh my child, welcome; by you shall hereafter
be climbed the threshold of the house of your
great ancestor Hine-nui-te-po, and death shall
thenceforth have no power over man."
Then the lad was taken by his father to the
water, to be baptized, and after the ceremony
prayers were offered to make him sacred, and clean
from all impurities ; but when it was completed,
his father Makea-tu- tara felt greatly alarmed, be-
cause he remembered that he had, from mistake,
hurriedly skipped over part of the prayers of the
baptismal service, and of the services to purify
Maui ; he knew that the gods would be certain
to punish this fault, by causing Maui to die, and
his alarm and anxiety were therefore extreme. At
night -fall they all went into Ins house.
Maui, after these things, returned to his brothers
to tell them that he had found his parents, and to
explain to them where they dwelt.
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
Shortly after Maui had thus returned to his
brothers, he slew and carried off his first victim,
who was the daughter of Maru-te-whare-aitu ; after-
wards, by enchantments, he destroyed the crops of
Maru-te-whare-aitu, so that they all withered.
He then again paid a visit to his parents, and
remained for some time with them, and whilst he was
there he remarked that some of their people daily
carried away a present of food for some person ; at
length, surprised at this, he one day asked them, —
" Who is that you are taking that present of food
to?" And the people who were going with it
answered him, — " It is for your ancestress, for
Muri-ranga-wh enua. "
He asked again, — "Where does she dwell?"
They answered, — " Yonder."
Thereupon he says, — " That will do ; leave here
the present of food, I will carry it to her myself."
From that time the daily presents of food for his
ancestress were carried by Maui himself ; but he
never took and gave them to her that she might
eat them, but he quietly laid them by on one side,
and this he did for many days. At last, Muri-
ranga-whenua suspected that something wrong w^as
going on, and the next time he came along the
path carrying the present of food, the old chief-
tainess sniffed and sniffed until she thought she
smelt something coming, and she was very much
c 3
exasperated, and her stomach began to distend itself,
that she might be ready to devour Maui as soon as
he came there. Then she turned to the southward,
and smelt and sniffed, but not a scent of anything
reached her ; then she turned round from the south
to the north, by the east, with her nose up in the
air sniffing and smelling to every point as she
turned slowly round, but she could not detect the
slightest scent of a human being, and almost
thought that she must have been mistaken ; but
she made one more trial, and sniffed the breeze
towards the westward. Ah ! then the scent of a
man came plainly to her, so she called aloud — " I
know from the smell wafted here to me by the
breeze that somebody is close to me," and Maui
murmured assent. Thus the old woman knew
that he was a descendant of hers, and her stomach,
which was quite large and distended, immediately
began to shrink, and contract itself again. If the
smell of Maui had not been carried to her by the
western breeze, undoubtedly she would have eaten
him up.
When the stomach of Muri-ranga-whenua had
quietly sunk down to its usual size, her voice
was again heard saying, "Art thou Maui?" and
he answered, . " Even so."
Then she asked him, "Wherefore hast thou
served thy old ancestress in this deceitful way?"
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
and Maui answered, "I was anxious that thy jaw-
bone, by which the great enchantments can be
wrought, should be given to me/'
She answered, " Take it, it has been reserved for
thee/' And Maui took it, and having done so
returned to the place where he and his brothers
dwelt.
The young hero, Maui, had not been long at
home with his brothers when he began to think,
that it was too soon after the rising of the sun that
it became night again, and that the sun again sank
down below the horizon, every day, every day ; in
the same manner the days appeared too short to
him. So at last, one day he said to his brothers,
" Let us now catch the sun in a noose, so that we
may compel him to move more slowly, in order
that mankind may have long days to labour in to
procure subsistence for themselves \" but they an-
swered him, " "Why, no man could approach it on
account of its warmth, and the fierceness of its
heat but the young hero said to them, " Have
you not seen the multitude of things I have already
achieved ? Did not you see me change myself into
the likeness of every bird of the forest ; you a] id I
equally had the aspect and appearance of men, yet
I by my enchantments changed suddenly from the
appearance of a man and became a bird, and
then, continuing to change my form, I resem-
bled this bird or that bird, one after the other, until
I had by* degrees transformed myself into every
bird in the world, small or great ; and did I not
after all this again assume the form of a man ?
[This he did soon after he was born, and it was
after that he snared the sun.] Therefore, as for
that feat, oh, my brothers, the changing myself
into birds, I accomplished it by enchantments, and
I will by the same means accomplish also this
other thing which I have in my mind." When
his brothers heard this, they consented on his per-
suasions to aid him in the conquest of the sun.
Then they began to spin and twist ropes to form
a noose to catch the sun in, and in doing this they
discovered the mode of plaiting flax into stout
square-shaped ropes (tuaniaka), and the manner of
plaiting flat ropes (paJiarahara), and of spinning
round ropes ; at last, they finished making all the
ropes which they required. Then Maui took up
his enchanted weapon, and he took his brothers
with him, and they carried their provisions, ropes,
and other things with them, in their hands. They
travelled all night, and as soon as day broke, they
halted in the desert, and hid themselves that they
might not be seen by the sun ; and at night
they renewed their journey, and before dawn
they halted, and hid themselves again ; at length
they got very far, very far, to the eastward, and
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
came to the very edge of the place out of which
the sun rises.
Then they set to work and built on each side of
this place a long high wall of clay, with huts of
boughs of trees at each end to hide themselves in :
when these were finished, they made the loops of
the noose, and the brothers of Maui then lay in wait
on one side of the place out of which the sun rises,
and Maui himself lay in wait upon the other side.
The young hero held in his hand his enchanted
weapon, the jaw-bone of his ancestress — of Muri-
ranga-whenua, and said to his brothers, " Mind
now, keep yourselves hid, and do not go showing
yourselves foolishly to the sun ; if you do, you will
frighten him ; but wait patiently until his head
and fore legs have got well into the snare, then I
will shout out ; haul away as hard as you can on
the ropes on both sides, and then I '11 rush out
and attack him, but do you keep your ropes
tight for a good long time (while I attack him),
until he is nearly dead, when we will let him go ;
but mind now, my brothers, do not let him move
you to pity with his shrieks and screams/'
At last the sun came rising up out of his place,
like a fire spreading far and wide over the moun-
tains and forests ; he rises up, his head passes
through the noose, and it takes in more and more
of his body, until his fore-paws pass through ; then
are pulled tight the ropes, and the monster began
to struggle and roll himself about, whilst the snare
jerked backwards and forwards as he struggled. Ah!
was not he held fast in the ropes of his enemies !
Then forth rushed that bold hero, Maui-tiki-tiki-o-
Taranga, with his enchanted weapon. Alas ! the sun
screams aloud; he roars; Maui strikes him fiercely
with many blows ; they hold him for a long time,
at last they let him go, and then weak from wounds
the sun crept slowly along its course. Then was
learnt by men the second name of the sun, for in
its agony the sun screamed out, " Why am I thus
smitten by you ! oh, man ! do you know what you
are doing ? Why should you wish to kill Tama-
nui-te-Ra?" Thus was learnt his second name. At
last they let him go. Oh, then, Tama-nui-te-Ra
went very slowly and feebly on his course.
Maui-taha and his brothers after this feat re-
turned again to their own house, and dwelt there,
and dwelt there, and dwelt there ; and after a long
time his brothers went out fishing, whilst Maui-
tiki-tiki-o-Taranga stopped idly at home doing no-
thing, although indeed he had to listen to the sulky
grumblings of his wives and children, at his laziness
in not catching fish for them. Then he called
out to the women, " Never mind, oh, mothers, your-
selves and your children need not fear. Have not
I accomplished all things, and as for this little feat,
THE LEGEND OF MAUI,
this trifling work of getting food for you, do you
think I cannot do that \ certainly ; if I go and get
a fish for you, it will be one so large that when
I bring it to land you will not be able to eat it all,
and the sun will shine on it and make it putrid
before it is consumed. Then Maui snooded his en-
chanted fish-hook, which was pointed with part of
the jaw-bone of Muri-ranga-whenua, and when he
had finished this, he twisted a stout fishing-line to
his hook.
His brothers in the meantime had arranged
amongst themselves to make fast the lashings
of the top sides of their canoe, in order to go out
for a good day's fishing. When all was made
ready they launched their canoe, and as soon
as it was afloat Maui jumped into it, and his
brothers, who were afraid of his enchantments, cried
out, " Come, get out again, we will not let you go
with us ; your magical arts will get us into some
difficulty." So he was compelled to remain ashore
whilst his brothers paddled off, and when they
reached the fishing ground they lay upon their
paddles and fished, and after a good day's sport
returned ashore.
As soon as it was dark night Maui went down
to the shore, got into his brothers' canoe, and hid
himself under the bottom boards of it. The next
forenoon his brothers came down to the shore to go
fishing again, and they had their canoe launched,
and paddled out to sea without ever seeing Maui,
who lay hid in the hollow of the canoe under the
bottom boards. When they got well out to sea
Maui crept out of his hiding place ; as soon as his
brothers saw him, they said, " We had better get
back to the shore again as fast as we can, since this
fellow is on board \" but Maui, by his enchantments,
stretched out the sea so that the shore instantly be-
came very distant from them, and by the time they
could turn themselves round to look for it, it was
out of view. Maui now said to them, "You had
better let me go on with you, I shall at least be
useful to bail the water out of our canoe/' To
this they consented, and they paddled on again
and speedily arrived at the fishing ground where
they used to fish upon former occasions. As soon as
they got there his brothers said, " Let us drop the
anchor and fish here and he answered, "Oh no,
don't ; we had much better paddle a long distance
further out/' Upon this they paddle on, and pad-
dle as far as the furthest fishing ground, a long
way out to sea, and then his brothers at last say,
" Come now, we must drop anchor and fish here/'
And he replies again, " Oh, the fish here are very
fine I suppose, but we had much better pull right
out to sea, and drop anchor there. If we go out to
the place where I wish the anchor to be let go, be-
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
fore you can get a hook to the bottom, a fish will
come following it back to the top of the water.
You won't have to stop there a longer time than
you can wink your eye in, and our canoe will come
back to shore full of fish/' As soon as they hear
this they paddle away — they paddle away until
they reach a very long distance off, and his brothers
then say, " "We are now far enough/' And he re-
plies, " No, no, let us go out of sight of land, and
when we have quite lost sight of it, then let the
anchor be dropped, but let it be very far off, quite
out in the open sea/'
At last they reach the open sea, and his brothers
begin to fish. Lo, lo, they had hardly let their
hooks down to the bottom, when they each pulled
up a fish into the canoe. Twice only they let
down their lines, when behold the canoe was filled
up with the number of fish they had caught.
Then his brothers said, " Oh, brother, let us all
return now." And he answered them, " Stay a
little ; let me also throw my hook into the sea."
/'And his brothers replied, " Where did you get a
hook?" And he answered, "Oh, never mind, I
have a hook of my own." And his brothers re-
plied again, "Make haste and throw it then/J
And as he pulled it out from under his garments,
the light flashed from the beautiful mother-of-pearl
shell in the hollow of the hook, and his brothers saw
that the hook was carved and ornamented with
tufts of hair pulled from the tail of a dog, and it
looked exceedingly beautiful^ Maui then asked his
brothers to give him a little bait to bait his hook
with ; but they replied, " We will not give you
any of our bait." So he doubled his fist and
struck his nose violently, and the blood gushed out,
and he smeared his hook with his own blood for
bait, and then he cast it into the sea, and it sank
down, and sank down, till it reached to the small
carved figure on the roof of a house at the bottom
of the sea, then passing by the figure, it descended
along the outside carved rafters of the roof, and
fell in at the doorway of the house, and the hook
of Maui-tikitiki-o-Taranga caught first in the sill of
the doorway.
Then, feeling something on his hook, he began
to haul in his line. Ah ! ah ! there ascended on
his hook the house of that old fellow Tonga-
nui. It came up, up ; and as it rose high, oh,
dear ! how his hook was strained with its great
weight ; and then there came gurgling up foam
and bubbles from the earth, as of an island
emerging from the water, and his brothers opened
their mouths and cried aloud.
Maui all this time continued to chaunt forth
his incantations amidst the murmurings and wail-
ings of his brothers, who were weeping and
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
lamenting, and saying, " See now, how he has
brought us out into the open sea, that we may be
upset in it, and devoured by the fish/' Then
he raised aloud his voice, and repeated the incan-
tation called Hiki, which makes heavy weights
light, in order that the fish he had caught might
come up easily, and he chanted an incantation
beginning thus, —
" Wherefore, then, oh I Tonganui,
Dost thou hold fast so obstinately below there % "
When he had finished his incantation, there floated
up, hanging to his line, the fish of Maui, a portion
of the earth, of Papa-tu-a-Nuku. Alas ! alas ! their
canoe lay aground.
Maui then left his brothers with their canoe,
and returned to the village ; but before he went
he said to them, "After, I am gone, be cou-
rageous and patient ; do not eat food until I re-
turn, and do not let our fish be cut up, but rather
leave it until I have carried an offering to the
gods from this great haul of fish, and until I have
found a priest, that fitting prayers and sacrifices
may be offered to the god, and the necessary rites
be completed in order. We shall thus all be puri-
fied. I will then return, and we can cut up
this fish in safety, and it shall be fairly portioned
out to this one, and to that one, and to that other ;
and on my arrival you shall each have your due
share of it, and return to your homes joyfully ; and
what we leave behind us will keep good, and that
which we take away with us, returning, will be
good too/'
Maui had hardly gone, after saying all this to
them, than his brothers trampled under their feet the
words they had heard him speak. They began at
once to eat food, and to cut up the fish. When they
did this, Maui had not yet arrived at the sacred
place, in the presence of the god ; had he previously
reached the sacred place, the heart of the deity
would have been appeased with the offering of a
portion of the fish which had been caught by his
disciples, and all the male and female deities would
have partaken of their portions of the sacrifice.
Alas ! alas ! those foolish, thoughtless brothers of his
cut up the fish, and behold the gods turned with
wrath upon them, on account of the fish which
they had thus cut up without having made a fit-
ting sacrifice. Then, indeed, the fish began to toss
about his head from side to side, and to lash his
tail, and the fins upon his back, and his lower jaw.
Ah ! ah ! well done Tangaroa, it springs about on
shore as briskly as if it was in the water.
That is the reason that this island is now so
rough and uneven — that here stands a mountain —
that there lies a plain — that here descends a vale —
that there rises a cliff. If the brothers of Maui
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
had not acted so deceitfully, the huge fish would
have lain flat and smooth, and would have re-
mained as a model for the rest of the earth, for the
present generation of men. This, which has just
been recounted, is the second evil which took place
after the separation of Heaven from Earth.
Thus was dry land fished up by Maui after it
had been hidden under the ocean by Kangi and
Tawhiri-ma-tea. It was with an enchanted fish-
hook that he drew it up, which was pointed with
a bit of the jaw-bone of his ancestress Muri-ranga-
whenua ; and in the district of Heretaunga they
still show the fish-hook of Maui, which became a
cape stretching far out into the sea, and now forms
the southern extremity of Hawke's Bay.
The hero now thought that he would extinguish
and destroy the fires of his ancestress of Mahu-ika.
So he got up in the night, and put out the fires
left in the cooking- houses of each family in the
village ; then, quite early in the morning, he called
aloud to the servants, " I hunger, I hunger ; quick,
cook some food for me/' One of the servants
thereupon ran as fast as he could to make up the
fire to cook some food, but the fire was out ; and
as he ran round from house to house in the village
to get a light, he found every fire quite out — he
could nowhere get a light.
When Maui's mother heard this, she called out
to the servants, and said, " Some of you repair to
my great ancestress Mahu-ika ; tell her that fire
has been lost upon earth, and ask her to give some
to the world again/' But the slaves were alarmed,
and refused to obey the commands which their mas-
ters, the sacred old people, gave them ; and they
persisted in refusing to go, notwithstanding the old
people repeatedly ordered them to do so.
At last, Maui said to his mother, " Well ; then
I will fetch down fire for the world ; but which is
the path by which I must go ?" And his parents,
who knew the country well, said to him, " If you
will go, follow that broad path that lies just before
you there ; and you will at last reach the dwell-
ing of an ancestress of yours ; and if she asks
you who you are, you had better call out your
name to her, then she will know you are a descen-
dant of hers ; but be cautious, and do not
play any tricks with her, because we have heard
that your deeds are greater than the deeds of men,
and that you are fond of deceiving and injuring
others, and perhaps you even now intend in many
ways, to deceive this old ancestress of yours,
but pray be cautious not to do so/'
But Maui said, " No, I only want to bring fire
away for men, that is all, and I '11 return again as
soon as I can do that ?" Then he went, and
reached the abode of the goddess of fire ; and he
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
was so filled with wonder at what he saw, that for
a long time he could say nothing. At last he said,
" Oh, lady, would you rise up ? Where is your fire
kept ? I have come to beg some from you."
Then the aged lady rose right up, and said,
" Au-e ! who can this mortal be V and he answered,
" It 's I." " Where do you come from ?" said she ;
and he answered, " I belong to this country/'
" You are not from this country," said she ; " your
appearance is not like that of the inhabitants of
this country. Do you come from the north-east?"
he replied, " No." " Do you come from the south-
east I" he replied, " No." " Are you from the
south?" he replied, "No/' "Are you from the
westward ?" he answered, " No." " Come you,
then, from the direction of the wind which blows
right upon me V and he said, " I do." " Oh,
then," cried she, " you are my grand-child ; what
do you want here ? " He answered, " I am come
to beg fire from you." She replied, " Welcome, wel-
come ; here then is fire for you."
Then the aged woman pulled out her nail ;
and as she pulled it out fire flowed from it, and
she gave it to him. And when Maui saw she had
drawn out her nail to produce fire for him, he
thought it a most wonderful thing ! Then he went
a short distance off, and when not very far
from her, he put the fire out, quite out ; and
returning to her again, said, " The light you
gave me has gone out, give me another." Then
she caught hold of another nail, and pulled it out
as a light for him ; and he left her, and went a
little on one side, and put that light out also ;
then he went back to her again, and said, " Oh,
lady, give me, I pray you, another light, for the
last one has also gone out. And thus he went on
and on, until she had pulled out all the nails of
the fingers of one of her hands ; and then she be-
gan with the other hand, until she had pulled all
the finger-nails out of that hand, too ; and then^she
commenced upon the nails of her feet, and pulled
them also out in the same manner, except the nail
of one of her big toes. Then the aged woman said
to herself at last, " This fellow is surely playing
tricks with me."
Then out she pulled the one toe-nail that she had
left, and it, too, became fire, and as she dashed it
down on the ground the whole place caught fire.
And she cried out to Maui, " There, you have it all
now ! " And Maui ran off, and made a rush to
escape, but the fire followed hard after him, close be-
hind him ; so he changed himself into a fleet-winged
eagle, and flew with rapid flight, but the fire pur-
sued, and almost caught him as he flew. Then the
eagle dashed down into a pool of water ; but when
he got into the water he found that almost boiling
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
too : the forests just then also caught fire, so that
it could not alight anywhere, and the earth and
the sea both caught fire too, and Maui was very near
perishing in the flames.
Then he called on his ancestors Tawhiri-ma-tea
and Whatitiri-matakataka, to send down an abun-
dant supply of water, and he cried aloud, " Oh, let
water be given to me to quench this fire which pur-
sues after me;" and lo, then appeared squalls and
gales, and Tawhiri-ma-tea sent heavy lasting rain,
and the fire was quenched ; and before Mahuika
could reach her place of shelter, she almost perished
in the rain, and her shrieks and screams became
as loud as those of Maui had been, when he was
scorched by the pursuing fire : thus Maui ended
this proceeding. In this manner was extin-
guished the fire of Mahuika, the goddess of fire ;
but before it was all lost, she saved a few sparks
which she threw, to protect them, into the Kaiko-
mako, and a few other trees, where they are still
cherished ; hence, men yet use portions of the wood
of these trees for fire when they require a light.
Then he returned to the village, and his mother
and father said to him, " You heard when we
warned you before you went, nevertheless you
played tricks with your ancestress ; it served you
right that you got into such trouble f and the
D
young fellow answered his parents, " Oh, what do
I care for that ; do you think that my perverse
proceedings are put a stop to by this? certainly
not ; I intend to go on in the same way for ever,
ever, ever." And his father answered him, " Yes,
then, you may just please yourself about living or
dying ; if you will only attend to me you will
save your life ; if you do not attend to what I say,
it will be worse for you, that is all." As soon as
this conversation was ended, off the young fellow
went to find some more companions for his other
scrapes.
Maui had a young sister named Hinauri, who
was exceedingly beautiful ; she married Irawaru.
One day Maui and his brother-in-law went down to
the sea to fish; Maui caught not a single fish with
his hook, which had no barb to it, but as long as
they went on fishing Maui observed that Irawaru
continued catching plenty of fish; so he thought to
himself, "Well, how is this? how does that fellow
catch so many whilst I cannot catch one V Just as
he thought this, Irawaru had another bite, and up
he pulls his line in haste, but it had got entangled
with that of Maui, and Maui thinking he felt a fish
pulling at his own line, drew it in quite delighted;
but when he had hauled up a good deal of it, there
were himself and his brother-in-law pulling in their
THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 51
lines in different directions, one drawing the line
towards the bow of the canoe, the other towards
the stern.
Maui, who was already provoked at his own ill-
luck, and the good luck of his brother-in-law, now
called out quite angrily, " Come, let go my line,
the fish is on my hook/' But Irawaru answered,
" No, it is not, it is on mine/'
Maui again called out very angrily, " Come, let
go, I tell you it is on mine/'
Irawaru then slacked out his line, and let Maui
pull in the fish ; and as soon as he had hauled it
into the canoe, Maui found that Irawaru was right,
and that the fish was on his hook; when Irawaru
saw this too, he called out, " Come now, let go
my line and hook." Maui answered him, " Cannot
you wait a minute, until I take the hook out of
the fish."
As soon as he got the hook out of the fish's
mouth, he looked at it, and saw that it was barbed ;
Maui, who was already exceedingly wrath with
his brother-in-law, on observing this, thought he had
no chance with his barbless hook of catching as
many fish as his brother-in-law, so he said, " Don't
you think we had better go on shore now ?" Ira-
waru answered, " Yery well, let us return to the
land again."
So they paddled back towards the land, and
D 2
when they reached it, and were going to haul the
canoe up on to the beach, Maui said to his brother-in-
law, " Do you get under the out-rigger of the canoe,
and lift it up with your back f so he got under it,
and as soon as he had done so, Maui jumped on it,
and pressed the whole weight of the canoe down
upon him, and almost killed Irawaru.
When he was on the point of death, Maui tram-
pled on his body, and lengthened his back bone,
and by his enchantments drew it out into the form
of a tail, and he transformed Irawaru into a dog,
and fed him with dung.*
As soon as he had done this, Maui went back to
* This quarel of Maui with his brother-in-law, Irawaru, is some-
times narrated in this way : —
Maui and his brother-in-law had been paying a visit to the peo-
ple of a village not very distant from where they lived; when they
were about to return home again, Maui asked his brother-in-law to
carry a little provision for them both upon their short journey, but
Irawaru answered surlily —
" What should I carry any provision for, indeed ? why I have
just had an excellent meal they then started, and Maui, who was
very angry, by his enchantments drew out the earth as they pro-
ceeded, so as to lengthen exceedingly the road they had to traverse;
at last, being both overcome by hunger and fatigue, they sat
down to rest, and Maui, who knew what his intentions were before
they started, and had brought provisions with him, eat a good meal,
but gave none to bis brother-in-law. He then, to throw Irawaru off
his guard, asked him to clean and dress his hair for him, and laid
his head on his lap for that purpose ; when his own was finished
he offered to do the same for Irawaru, who suspecting no harm laid
his head on Maui's lap, who threw him into an enchanted sleep,
and then by his enchantments changed him into a dog.
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
his place of abode, just as if nothing unusual had
taken place, and his young sister, who was watch-
ing for the return of her husband, as soon as she
saw Maui coming, ran to him and asked him, say-
ing, "Maui, where is your brother-in-law?" Maui
answered, " I left him at the canoe/'
But his young sister said, "Why did not you
both come home together/' and Maui answered,
" He desired me to tell you that he wanted you to
go down to the beach to help him carry up the fish ;
you had better go therefore, and if you do not see
him, just call out, and if he does not answer you,
why then call out to him in this way, Mo-i, mo-i,
mo-i."
Upon learning this, Hinauri hurried down to the
beach as fast as she could, and not seeing her hus-
band, she went about calling out his name, but no
answer was made to her ; she then called out as Maui
had told her, "Mo-i, mo-i, mo-i, mo-oi;" then Irawaru,
who was running about in the bushes near there,
in the form of a dog, at once recognised the voice
of Hinauri, and answered, " Ao ! ao ! ao ! ao-ao-o !"
howling like a dog, and he followed her back to the
village, frisking along and wagging his tail with
pleasure at seeing her ; and from him sprang all
dogs, so that he is regarded as their progenitor,
and all New Zealanders still call their dogs to then
by the words, " Mo-i, mo-i, mo-i/'
Hinauri, when she saw that her husband had
been changed into a dog, was quite distracted with
grief, and wept bitterly the whole way as she went
back to the village, and as soon as ever she got
into her house, she caught up an enchanted girdle
which she had, and ran back to the sea with it,
determined to destroy herself, by throwing herself
into the ocean, so that the dragons and monsters
of the deep might devour her ; when she reached
the sea-shore, she sat down upon the rocks at the
ocean's very edge, and as she sat there she first
lamented aloud her cruel fate, and repeated an
incantation, and then threw herself into the sea,
and the tide swept her off from the shore.
Maui now felt it necessary to leave the village
where Irawaru had lived, so he returned to his
parents, and when he had been with them for some
time, his father said to him one day, " Oh, my son,
I have heard from your mother and others that you
are very valiant, and that you have succeeded in all
feats that you have undertaken in your own coun-
try, whether they were small or great ; but now
that you have arrived in your father's country, you
will, perhaps, at last be overcome/'
Then Maui asked him, " What do you mean, what
things are there that I can be vanquished by?"
And his father answered him, " By your great an-
cestress, by Hine-nui-te-po, who, if you look, you
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
may see flashing, and as it were, opening and shut-
ting there, where the horizon meets the sky/' And
Maui replied, " Lay aside such idle thoughts, and
let us both fearlessly seek whether men are to die
or live for ever." And his father said, " My child,
there has been an ill omen for us ; when I was bap-
tizing you, I omitted a portion of the fitting
prayers, and that I know will be the cause of your
perishing/'
Then Maui asked his father, " What is my an-
cestress Hiae-nui-te-po like V and he answered,
" What you see yonder shining so brightly red are
her eyes, and her teeth are as sharp and hard as
pieces of volcanic glass ; her body is like that of a
man, and as for the pupils of her eyes, they are
jasper; and her hair is like the tangles of long sea-
weed, and her mouth is like that of a barracouta."
Then his son answered him, "Do you think her
strength is as great as that of Tama-nui-te-Ra, who
consumes man, and the earth, and the very waters,
by the fierceness of his heat ? was not the world
formerly saved alive by the speed with which he
travelled? if he had then, in the days of his full,
strength and power, gone as slowly as he does now,
not a remnant of mankind would have been left
living upon the earth, nor, indeed, would anything
else have survived. But I laid hold of Tama-nui-
te-Ra, and now he goes slowly, for I smote him
again and again, so that he is now feeble, and
long in travelling his course, and he now gives but
very little heat, having been weakened by the
blows of my enchanted weapon ; I then, too, split
him open in many places, and from the wounds so
made, many rays now issue forth, and spread in all
directions. So, also, I found the sea much larger
than the earth, but by the power of the last born
of your children, part of the earth was drawn up
again, and dry land came forth/' And his father
answered him, " That is all very true, 0, my last
born, and the strength of my old age ; well, then,
be bold, go and visit your great ancestress who
flashes so fiercely there, where the edge of the
horizon meets the sky."
Hardly was this conversation concluded with his
father, when the young hero went forth to look for
companions to accompany him upon this enterprise:
and so there came to him for companions, the small
robin, and the large robin, and the thrush, and the
yellow-hammer, and every kind of little bird, and
the water -wagtail, and these all assembled together,
and they all started with Maui in the evening, and
arrived at the dwelling of Hine-nui-te-po, and
found her fast asleep.
Then Maui addressed them all, and said, " My
little friends, now if you see me creep into this old
chieftainess, do not laugh at what you see, Nay,
THE LEGEND OF MAUI.
nay, do not I pray you, but when I have got alto-
gether inside her, and just as I am coming out of
her mouth, then you may shout with laughter if
you please/' And his little friends, who were
frightened at what they saw, replied, " Oh, sir, you
will certainly be killed/' And he answered them,
" If you burst out laughing at me as soon as I get
inside her, you will wake her up, and she will cer-
tainly kill me at once, but if you do not laugh
until I am quite inside her, and am on the point
of coming out of her mouth, I shall live, and Hine-
nui-te-po will die." And his little friends an-
swered, " Go on then, brave sir, but pray take
good care of yourself/'
Then the young hero started off, and twisted
the strings of his weapon tight round his wrist,
and went into the house, and stripped off his
clothes, and the skin on his hips looked mottled
and beautiful as that of a mackerel, from the tattoo
marks, cut on it with the chisel of Uetonga, and he
entered the old chieftainess.
The little birds now screwed up their tiny
cheeks, trying to suppress their laughter ; at last,
the little Tiwakawaka could no longer keep it in,
and laughed out loud, with its merry cheerful note ;
this woke the old woman up, she opened her eyes,
started up, and killed Maui.
Thus died this Maui we have spoken of, but
D 3
before he died he had children, and sons were born
to him ; some of his descendants yet live in Ha-
waiki, some in Aotearoa (or in these islands) ; the
greater part of his descendants remained in Ha-
waiki, but a few of them came here to Aotearoa.
According to the traditions of the Maori,* this
was the cause of the introduction of death into
the world (Hine-nui-te-po being the goddess of
death : if Maui had passed safely through her,
then no more human beings would have died,
but death itself would have been destroyed), and
we express it by saying, " The water-wagtail laugh-
ing at Maui-tikitiki-o-Taranga made Hine-nui-te-po
squeeze him to death/' And we have this proverb,
" Men make heirs, but death carries them off."
Thus end the deeds of the son of Makeatutara,
and of Taranga, and the deeds of the sons of Rangi-
nui, and of Papa-tu-a-N uku ; this is the narrative
about the generations of the ancestors of the in-
habitants of New Zealand, and therefore, we the
people of that country, preserve closely these tradi-
tions of old times, as a thing to be taught to the
generations that come after us, so we repeat them
in our prayers, and whenever we relate the deeds
of the ancestors from whom each family is de-
scended, and upon other similar occasions.
* Inhabitants of New Zealand.
THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKL
Now quitting the deeds of Maui, let those of Ta-
whaki be recounted. He was the son of Hema
and Urutonga, and he had a younger brother
named Karihi. Tawhaki having taken Hinepiri-
piri as a wife, he went one day with his brothers-
in-law to fish, from a flat reef of rocks which ran
far out into the sea ; he had four brothers-in-law,
two of these when tired of fishing returned towards
their village, and he went with them ; when they
drew near the village, they attempted to murder
him, and thinking they had slain him, buried him ;
they then went on their way to the village, and
when they reached it, their young sister said to
them, " Why, where is your brother-in-law ? " and
they replied, "Oh, they're all fishing/' So the
young wife waited until the other two brothers
came back, and when they reached the village they
were questioned by their young sister, who asked,
"Where is your brother-in-law?" and the two who
had last arrived, answered her, "Why, the others
all went home together long since." So the young
wife suspected that they had killed her husband,
and ran off at once to search for him ; and she
found where he had been buried, and on examining
him ascertained that he had only been insensible,
and was not quite dead ; then with great difficulty
she got him upon her back, and carried him home
to their house, and carefully washed his wounds,
and staunched the bleeding.
Tawhaki, when he had a little recovered, said to
her, "Fetch some wood, and light a fire for me;"
and as his wife was going to do this, he said to
her, " If you see any tall tree growing near you,
fell it, and bring that with you for the fire." His
wife went, and saw a tree growing such as her hus-
band spoke of ; so she felled it, and put it upon
her shoulder and brought it along with her ; and
when she reached the house, she put the whole tree
upon the fire without chopping it into pieces ; and
it was this circumstance that led her to give the
name of Wahieroa (long-log-of-wood-for-the-fire) to
their first son, for Tawhaki had told her to bring
this log of wood home, and to call the child after
it, that the duty of avenging his father's wrongs
might often be recalled to his mind.
As soon as Tawhaki had recovered from his
wounds, he left the place where his faithless brothers-
in-law lived, and went away taking all his own war-
riors and their families with him, and built a for-
tified village upon the top of a very lofty mountain,
Chapter 3
where lie could easily protect himself ; and they
dwelt there. Then he called aloud to the Gods, his
ancestors, for revenge, and they let the floods of
heaven descend, and the earth was overwhelmed by
the waters and all human beings perished, and the
name given to that event was, " The overwhelming
of the Mataaho," and the whole of that race
perished.
When this feat was accomplished, Tawhaki and
his younger brother next went to seek revenge for
the death of their father. It was a different race
who had carried off and slain the father of Ta-
whaki ; the name of that race was the Ponaturi — the
country they inhabited was underneath the waters,
but they had a large house on the dry land to
which they resorted to sleep at night ; the name of
that large house was* " Manawa-Tane/'
The Ponaturi had slain the father of Tawhaki
and carried off his body, but his father's wife they
had carried off alive and kept as a captive. Ta-
whaki arid his younger brother went upon their way
to seek out that people and to revenge themselves
upon them. At length they reached a place from
whence they could see the house called Manawa-
Tane. At the time they arrived near the house there
was no one there but their mother, who was sitting
near the door ; but the bones of their father were
hung up inside the house under its high sloping roof.
The whole tribe of the Ponaturi were at that time
in their country under the waters, but at the ap-
proach of night they would return to their house,
to Manawa-Tane.
Whilst Tawhaki and his younger brother Karihi
were coining along still at a great distance from the
house, Tawhaki began to repeat an incantation,
and the bones of his father, Hema, felt the influence
of this, and rattled loudly together where they hung
under the roof of the house, for gladness, when they
heard Tawhaki repeating his incantations as he
came along, for they knew that the hour of revenge
had now come. As the brothers drew nearer, their
mother, Urutonga,, heard the voice of Tawhaki, and
she wept for gladness in front of her children, who
came repeating incantations upon their way. And
when they reached at length the house, they wept
over their mother, over old Urutonga. "When they
had ended weeping, their mother said to them,
" My children, hasten to return hence, or you will
both certainly perish. The people who dwell here
are a very fierce and savage race/' Karihi said to
her, " How low will the sun have descended when
those you speak of return home?" And she replied,
" They will return here when the sun sinks beneath
the ocean/' Then Karihi asked her, " What did
they save you alive for?" And she answered,
" They saved me alive that I might watch for the
THE LEGEND OP TAWHAKT. 63
rising of the dawn ; they make me ever sit watch-
ing here at the door of the house, hence this people
have named me 'Tatau,' or cthe door ;' and they
keep on throughout the night calling out to me,
' Ho, Tatau, there ! is it dawn yet ? ' And then I
call out in answer, ' No, no, it is deep night — it is
lasting night — it is still night ; compose yourselves
to sleep, sleep on/ "
Karihi then said to his mother, " Cannot we
hide ourselves somewhere here ? "
Their mother answered, " You had better return ;
you cannot hide yourselves here, the scent of you
will be perceived by them/'
" But/' said Karihi, " we will hide ourselves
away in the thick thatch of the house/'
Their mother, however, answered, " 'T is of no
use, you cannot hide yourselves there/'
All this time Tawhaki sat quite silent ; but
Karihi said, " We will hide ourselves here, for we
know incantations which will render us invisible
to all/'
On hearing this, their mother consented to their
remaining, and attempting to avenge their father's
death. So they climbed up to the ridge-pole of the
house, upon the outside of the roof, and made holes
in the thick layers of reeds which formed the thatch
of the roof, and crept into them and covered them-
selves up ; and their mother called to them, say-
ing, " When it draws near dawn, come down again,
and stop up every chink in the house, so that no
single ray of light may shine in."
At length the day closed, and the sun sank
below the horizon, and the whole of that strange
tribe left the water in a body, and ascended to the
dry land; and, according to their custom from time
immemorial, they sent one of their number in front
of them, that he might carefully examine the road,
and see that there were no hidden foes lying in
wait for them either on the way or in their house.
As soon as this scout arrived at the threshold of
the house, he perceived the scent of Tawhaki and
Karihi ; so he lifted up his nose and turned sniffing
all round the inside of the house. As he turned
about, he was on the point of discovering that
strangers were hidden there, when the rest of the
tribe (whom long security had made careless) came
hurrying on, and crowding into the house in
thousands, so that from the denseness of the
crowd the scent of the strange men was quite lost.
The Ponaturi then stowed themselves away in the
house until it was entirely filled up with them, and
by degrees they arranged themselves in convenient
places, and at length all fell fast asleep.
At midnight Tawhaki and Karihi stole down
from the roof of the house, and found that their
mother had crept out of the door to meet them, so
they sat at the doorway whispering together.
THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI.
Karihi then asked his mother, " Which is the best
way for us to destroy these people who are sleeping
here?" And their mother answered, "You had
better let the sun kill them, its rays will destroy
them."
Having said this, Tatau crept into the house
again ; presently an old man of the Ponaturi
called out to her, " Ho, Tatau,^Tatau, there ; is it
dawn yet?" And she [answered, "No, no, it is
deep night — it is lasting night ; 't is still night ;
sleep soundly, sleep on."
When it was very near dawn, Tatau whispered
to her children, who were still sitting just outside
the door of the house, " See that every chink in the
doorway and window is stopped, so that not a
ray of light can penetrate here."
Presently another old man of the Ponaturi called
out again, " Ho, Tatau there, is not it near dawn
yet?" And she answered, "No, no, it is night;
it is lasting night ; 't is still night ; sleep soundly,
sleep on."
This was the second time that Tatau had thus
called out to them.
At last dawn had broken — at last the sun had
shone brightly upon the earth, and rose high in the
heavens ; and the old man again called out, " Ho,
Tatau there ; is not it dawn yet V And she
answered, " Yes." And then she called out to her
66 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
children, " Be quick, pull out the things with which
you have stopped up the window and the door."
" So they pulled them out, and the bright rays of
the sun came streaming into the house, and the
whole of the Ponaturi perished before the light ;
they perished not by the hand of man, but withered
before the sun's rays.*
When the Ponaturi had been all destroyed,
Tawhaki and Karihi carefully took down their
father's bones from the roof of the house, and
burnt them with fire, and together with the bodies
of all those who were in the house, who had
perished, scorched by the bright rays of the sun ;
they then returned again to their own country,
taking with them their mother, and carefully car-
rying the bones of their father.
The fame of Tawhaki's courage in thus destroy-
ing the race of Ponaturi, and a report also of his
manly beauty, chanced to reach the ears of a young
maiden of the heavenly race who live above in the
skies; so one night she descended from the heavens
to visit Tawhaki, and to judge for herself, whether
these reports were true. She found him lying
sound asleep, and after gazing on him for some time,
she stole to his side and laid herself down by him.
* The New Zealanders say that the " Kanae," or salmon, had
come on shore with the Ponaturi, and escaped out of the house by
its power of leaping, gaining the water again by successive springs.
THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKL 6T
He, when disturbed by her, thought that it was only
some female of this lower world, and slept again ;
but before dawn the young girl stole away again
from his side, and ascended once more to the
heavens. In the early morning Tawhaki awoke
and felt all over his sleeping place with both his
hands, but in vain, he could nowhere find the
young girl.
From that time Tango-tango,* the girl of the
heavenly race, stole every night to the side of
Tawhaki, and lo, in the morning she was gone,
until she found that she had conceived a child, who
was afterwards named Arahuta ; then full of love-
for Tawhaki, she disclosed herself fully to him and
lived constantly in this world with him, deserting,
for his sake, her friends above ; and he discovered
that she who had so loved him belonged to the race
whose home is in the heavens.
Whilst thus living with him, this girl of the
heavenly race, his second wife, said to him, " Oh,
Tawhaki, if our baby so shortly now to be born,
should prove a son, I will wash the little thing be-
fore it is baptized ; but if it should be a little girl
then you shall wash it." When the time came
Tango-tango had a little girl, and before it was
baptized Tawhaki took it to a spring to wash it,
and afterwards held it away from him as if it
* According to some traditions her name was Hapai.
smelt badly, and said, " Faugh, how badly the
little thing smells." Then Tango-tango, when she
heard this said of her own dear little baby, began
to sob and cry bitterly, and at last rose up from
her place with her child, and began to take flight
towards the sky, but she paused for one minute
with one foot resting upon the carved figure at the
end of the ridge-pole of the house above the door.
Then Tawhaki rushed forward, and springing up
tried to catch hold of his young wife, but missing
her, he entreatingly besought her, " Mother of my
child, oh return once more to me ?" But she in
reply called down to him, " No, no, I shall now
never return to you again."
Tawhaki once more called up to her, " At least,
then, leave me some one remembrance of you."
Then his young wife called down to him, " These
are my parting words of remembrance to you — take
care that you lay not hold with your hands of the
loose root of the creeper, which dropping from
aloft sways to and fro in the air ; but rather lay
fast hold on that which hanging down from on
high has again struck its fibres into the earth."
Then she floated up into the air, and vanished from
his sight.
Tawhaki remained plunged in grief, for his heart
was torn by regrets for his wife and his little girl.
One moon had waned after her departure, when
THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI. 69
Tawhaki, unable longer to endure such sufferings,
called out to his younger brother, to Karihi, saying,
" Oh, brother, shall we go and search for my little
girl?" And Karihi consented, saying, "Yes, let
us go." So they departed, taking two slaves with
them as companions for their journey.
When they reached the pathway along which
they intended to travel, Tawhaki said to the two
slaves who were accompanying himself and his
brother, "You being unclean or unconsecrated per-
sons, must be careful when we come to the place
where the road passes the fortress of Tongameha,
not to look up at it for it is enchanted, and some
evil will befall you if you do." They then went
along the road, and when they came to the place
mentioned by Tawhaki, one of the slaves looked up
at the fortress, and his eye was immediately torn
out by the magical arts of Tongameha, and he
perished. Tawhaki and Karihi then went upon
the road accompanied by only one slave. They at
last reached the spot where the ends of the tendrils
which hung down from heaven reached the earth, and
they there found an old ancestress of theirs who
was quite blind, and whose name was Matakerepo.
She was appointed to take care of the tendrils, and
she sat at the place where they touched the earth,
and held the ends of one of them in her hands.
This old lady was at the moment employed in
70 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
\
counting some taro roots, which she was about to
have cooked, and as she was blind she was not
aware of the strangers who stole quietly and silently
up to her. There were ten taro roots lying in a
heap before her. She began to count them, one,
two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Just
at this moment Tawhaki quietly slipped away the
tenth, the old lady felt about everywhere for it,
but she could not find it. She thought she must
have made some mistake, and so began to count
her taro over again very carefully. One, two,
three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Just then
Tawhaki had slipped away the ninth. She was
now quite surprised, so she counted them over
again quite slowly, one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight ; and as she could not find the two
that were missing, she at last guessed that some-
body was playing a trick upon her, so she pulled
her weapon out, which she always sat upon to
keep it safe, and standing up turned round, feeling
about her as she moved, to try if she could find
Tawhaki and Karihi ; but they very gently stooped
down to the ground and lay close there, so that
her weapon passed over them, and she could not
feel anybody ; when she had thus swept her weapon
all round her, she sat down and put it under her
again. Karihi then struck her a blow upon the
face, and she, quite frightened, threw up her hands
THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI.
to her face, pressing them on the place where she
had been struck, and crying out, " Oh ! who did
that ? " Tawhaki then touched both her eyes, and,
lo, she was at once restored to sight, and saw
quite plainly, and she knew her grandchildren and
wept over them.
When the old lady had finished weeping over
them, she asked, " Where are you going to ? "
And Tawhaki answered, " I go to seek my little
girl." She replied, "But where is she?" He
answered, "Above there, in the skies." Then she
replied, " But what made her go to the skies ?"
And Tawhaki answered, " Her mother came from
heaven, She was the daughter of Watitiri-mata-ka-
taka. The old lady then pointed to the tendrils,
and said to them, " Up there, then, lies your road ;
but do not begin the ascent so late in the day,
wait until to-morrow, for the morning, and then
commence to climb up." He consented to follow
this good advice, and called out to his slave,
" Cook some food for us." The slave began at
once to cook food, and when it was dressed, they
all partook of it and slept there that night.
At the first peep of dawn Tawhaki called out to
his slave, " Cook some food for us, that we may
have strength to undergo the fatigues of this great
journey and when their meal was finished, Ta-
whaki took his slave, and presented him to Mata-
kerepo,' as an acknowledgment for her great kind
ness to them.
His old ancestress then called out to him, as he
was starting, <r There lies the ascent before you,
lay fast hold of the tendrils with your hands, and
climb on ; but when you get midway between
heaven and earth, take care not to look down upon
this lower world again, lest you become charmed
aud giddy, and Ml down. Take care, also, that
you do not by mistake lay hold of a tendril which
swings loose ; but rather lay hold of one which
hanging down from above, has again firmly struck
root into the earth."
Just at that moment Karihi made a spring at
the tendrils to catch them, and by mistake caught
hold of a loose one, and away he swung to the
very edge of the horizon, but a blast of wind
blew forth from thence, and drove him back to the
other side of the skies ; on reaching that point,
another strong land wind swept him right up
heavenwards, and down he was blown again by
the currents of air from above : then just as he
reached near the earth again, Tawhaki called out,
" Now, my brother, loose your hands ; now is the
time!" and he did so, and, lo, he stood upon the
earth once more ; and the two brothers wept toge-
ther over Karihi's narrow escape from destruction.
And when they had ceased lamenting, Tawhaki,
THE SWIXG.
THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI.
who was alarmed lest any disaster should overtake
his younger brother, said to him, "It is my desire
that you should return home, to take care of our
families and our dependants/' Thereupon Karihi
at once returned to the village of their tribe, as his
eldest brother directed him.
Tawhald now began to climb the ascent to
heaven, and his old ancestress, Matakerepo, called
out to him as he went up, " Hold fast, my child ;
let your hands hold tight." And Tawhaki made
use of, and kept on repeating, a powerful incanta-
tion as he climbed up to the heavens, to preserve
him from the dangers of that difficult and terrible
road.
At length he reached the heavens, and pulled
himself up into them, and then by enchantments
he disguised himself, and changed his handsome
and noble appearance, and assumed the likeness of
a very ugly old man, and he followed the road he
had at first struck upon, and entered a dense forest
into which it ran, and still followed it until he
came to a place in the forest where his brothers-in-
law, with a party of their people, were hewing
canoes from the trunks of trees ; and they saw him,
and little thinking who he was, called out, " Here s
an old fellow will make a nice slave for us " but
Tawhaki went quietly on, and when he reached
E
them he sat down with the people who were work-
ing at the canoes.
It now drew near evening, and his brothers-in-
law finished their work, and called out to him,
" Ho ! old fellow, there ! you just carry these
heavy axes home for us, will you ?"* He at once
consented to do this, and they gave him the axes.
The old man then said to them, " You go on in
front, do not mind, I am old and heavy laden, I
cannot travel fast/' So they started off, the old
man following slowly behind. When his brothers-
in-law and their people were all out of sight, he
turned back to the canoe, and taking an axe just
adzed the canoe rapidly along from the bow to the
stern, and lo, one side of the canoe was finished.
Then he took the adze again, and ran it rapidly
along the other side of the canoe, from the bow
to the stern, and lo, that side also was beautifully
finished.
He then walked quietly along the road again,
like an old man, carrying the axes with him, and
went on for some time without seeing anything ;
but when he drew near the village, he found two
* The European reader cannot at all enter into the witty nature
of this adventure in the estimation of a New Zealander ; the idea
of a sacred chief of high rank being by mistake treated as a
common slave, conveys impressions to their minds of which we can
form no accurate notion.
THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI.
women from the village in the forest gathering
firewood, and as soon as they saw him, one of them
observed to her companion, " I say, here is a
curions looking old fellow, is he not?" and her
companion exclaimed, " He shall be our slave ; "
to which the first answered, " Make him carry the
firewood for ns, then." So they took Tawhaki, and
laid a load of firewood upon his back, and made
him carry that as well as the axes, so was this
mighty chief treated as a slave, even by female
slaves.
When they all reached the village, the two
women called out, " We Ve caught an old man
for a slave." Then Tangotango exclaimed in reply,
" That 's right, bring him along with you, then ;
he 11 do for all of us." Little did his wife Tango-
tango think that the slave they were so insult-
ing, and whom she was talking about in such a
way, was her own husband Tawhaki.
When Tawhaki saw Tangotango sitting at a
fire-place near the upper end of the house with
their little girl, he went straight up to the place,
and all the persons present tried to stop him,
calling out, " Ho ! ho ! take care what you are
doing ; do not go there ; you will become tapued
from sitting near Tangotango." But the old man,
without minding them, went rapidly straight on,
and carried his load of firewood right up to the
E 2
very fire of Tangotango. Then they all said,
" There, the old fellow is tapa ; it is his own
fault/' But Tangotango had not the least idea
that this was Tawhaki ; and yet there were her
husband and herself seated, the one upon the one
side, the other upon the opposite side of the very
same fire.
They all stopped in the house until the sun rose
next morning ; then at daybreak his brothers-in-law
called out to him, " Holloa, old man, you bring the
axes along, do you hear." So the old man took
up the axes, and started with them, and they
all went off together to the forest, to work at dub-
bing out their canoes. When they reached them,
and the brothers-in-law saw the canoe which
Tawhaki had worked at, they looked at it with
astonishment, saying, " Why, the canoe is not at all
as we left it ; who can have been working at it ¥'
At last, when their wonder was somewhat abated,
they all sat down, and set to work again to dub
out another canoe, and worked until evening,
when they again called out to the old man as
on the previous one, " Holloa, old fellow, come
here, and carry the axes back to the village again/'
As before, he said, "Yes/' and when they started
he remained behind, and after the others were all
out of sight he took an axe, and began again to
adze away at the canoe they had been working at \
THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI.
and having finished his work he returned again
to the village, and once more walked straight up
to the fire of Tango tango, arid remained there
until the sun rose upon the following morning.
When they were all going at early dawn to
work at their canoes as usual, they again called
out to Tawhaki, " Holloa, old man, just bring these
axes along with you;" and the old man went
patiently and silently along with them, carrying
the axes on his shoulder. "When they reached the
canoes they were about to work at, the brothers-
in-law were quite astonished on seeing it, and
shouted out, "Why, here again, this canoe, too, is
not at all as it was when we left it ; who can have
been at work at it V Having wondered at this
for some time, they at length sat down and set
to again to dub out another canoe, and laboured
away until evening, when a thought came into their
minds that they would hide themselves in the
forest, and wait to see who it was came every
evening to work at their canoe; and Tawhaki
overheard them arranging this plan.
They therefore started as if they were going
home, and when they had got a little way they
turned off the path on one side, and hid themselves
in the thick clumps of bushes, in a place from
whence they could see the canoes. Then Tawhaki,
going a little way back into the forest, stripped off
78 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
his old cloaks, and threw them on one side, and
then repeating the necessary incantations he put
off his disguise, and took again his own appearance,
and made himself look noble and handsome, and
commenced his work at the canoe. Then his bro-
thers-in-law, when they saw him so employed, said
one to another, " Ah, that must be the old man
whom we made a slave of who is working away at
our canoe but again they called to one another
and said, " Come here, come here, just watch, why
he is not in the least like that old man/' Then
they said amongst themselves, " This must be a
demi-god and, without showing themselves to
him, they ran off to the village, and as soon as they
reached it they asked their sister Tangotango to
describe her husband for them ; and she described
his appearance as well as she could, representing
him just like the man they had seen : and they
said to her, " Yes, that must be he ; he is exactly
like him you have described to us/' Their sister
replied, " Then that chief must certainly be your
brother-in-law/'
Just at this moment Tawhaki reappeared at
the village, having again disguised himself, and
changed his appearance into that of an ugly
old man. But Tangotango immediately questioned
him, saying, " Now tell me, who are you ? " Ta-
whaki made no reply, but walked on straight to-
THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI. 79
wards her. She asked him again, " Tell me, are
you Tawhaki ? " He murmured " Humph " in
assent, still walking on until he reached the side of
his wife, and then he snatched up his little daugh-
ter, and, holding her fast in his arms, pressed her
to his heart. The persons present all rushed out
of the court-yard of the house to the neighbouring
court-yards, for the whole place was made tapu by
Tawhaki, and murmurs of gratification and surprise
arose from the people upon every side at the splen-
dour of his appearance, for in the days when he
had been amongst them as an old man his figure
was very different from the resplendent aspect
which he presented on this day.
Then he retired to rest with his wife, and
said to her, " I came here that our little daughter
might be made to undergo the ceremonies usual for
the children of nobles, to secure them good fortune
and happiness in this life ; " and Tangotango con-
sented.
When in the morning the sun arose, they broke
out an opening through the end of the house oppo-
site to the door, that the little girl's rank might be
seen by her being carried out that way instead of
through the usual entrance to the house ; and they
repeated the prescribed prayers when she was car-
ried through the wall out of the house.
The prayers and incantations being finished,
lightnings flashed from the arm-pits of Tawhaki ;
then they carried the little girl to the water, and
plunged her into it, and repeated a baptismal incan-
tation over her.
* Tawhaki is said to still dwell in the skies, and is worshipped
as a god, and thunder and lightning are said to be caused by his
footsteps when he moves.
Chapter 4
HIS ASCENT INTO HEAVEN. '
We left Hinauri floating out into the ocean ;* we
now return to her adventures : for many months
she floated through the sea, and was at last thrown
up by the surf on the beach at a place named
Wairarawa ; she was there found, lying as if dead,
upon the sandy shore, by two brothers named Ihu-
atamai and Ihuwareware ; her body was in many
parts overgrown with seaweed and barnacles, from
the length of time she had been in the water, but
they could still see some traces of her beauty, and
pitying the young girl, they lifted her up in their
arms, and carried her home to their house, and laid
her down carefully by the side of a fire, and
scraped off very gently the seaweed and barnacles
from her body, and thus by degrees restored her.
When she had quite recovered, Ihuatamai and
Ihuwareware looked upon her with pleasure, and
took her as a wife between them both ; they then
asked her to tell them who she was, and what was
her name ; this she did not disclose to them, but
* See page 54.
E 3
she changed her name, and called herself Ihungaru-
paea, or the Stranded-log-of-timber.
After she had lived with these two brothers for
a long time, Ilmwareware went to pay a visit to
his superior chief, Tinirau, and to relate the ad-
ventures which had happened ; and when Tinirau
heard all that had taken place, he went to bring
away the young stranger as a wife for himself, and
she was given up to him ; but before she was so
given to him, she had conceived a child by Ihu-
atamai, and when she went to live with Tinirau it
was near the time when the child should be born.
Tinirau took her home with him to his residence
on an island called Motu-tapu : he had two other
wives living there — they were the daughters of
Mangamanga-i-atua., and their names were Hara-
taunga and Horotata. Now, when these two wo-
men saw the young stranger coming along in their
husband's company, as if she was his wife, they
could not endure it, and they abused Hinauri on
account of her conduct with their husband ; at last
they proceeded so far as to attempt to strike her,
and to kill her, and they cursed her bitterly. When
they treated her in this manner the heart of Hin-
auri became gloomy with grief and mortification,
so she began to utter incantations against them,
and repeated one so powerful that hardly had
she finished it when the two women fell flat
kupe's ascent into heaven. 83
on the ground with the soles of their feet pro-
jecting upwards, and lay quite dead upon the
earth, and her husband was thus left free for her
alone.
All this time Hinauri was lost to her friends
and home, and her young brother Mauimua, after-
wards called Rupe, could do nothing but think of
her ; and excessive love for his sister, and sorrow
at her departure, so harassed him, that he said he
could no longer remain at rest, but that he must
go and seek for his sister.
So he departed upon this undertaking, and visited
every place he could think of without missing
one of them, yet could he nowhere find his sister ;
at last, Rupe thought that he would ascend to the
heavens to consult his great ancestor Rehua, who
dwelt there at a place named Te Putahi-nui-o-
Rehua, and in fulfilment of this design he began
his ascent to the heavenly regions.
Rupe continued his ascent, seeking everywhere
hastily for Rehua ; at last, he reached a place where
people were dwelling, and when he saw them, he
spoke to them, saying, " Are the heavens above
this inhabited?" and the people dwelling there
answered him, "They are inhabited/' And he
again asked them, "Can I reach those heavens?"
and they replied, "You cannot reach them, the
84 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
heavens above these are those the boundaries of
which were fixed by Tane."
But Eupe forced a way up through those
heavens, and got above them, and found an in-
habited place ; and he asked the inhabitants of it,
saying, "Are the heavens above these inhabited?"
and the people answered him, " They are inha-
bited." And he again asked, " Do you think I
can reach them?" and they replied, "No, you will
not be able to reach them, those heavens were fixed
there by Tane."
Rupe, however, forced a way through those
heavens too, and thus he continued to do until he
reached the tenth heaven, and there he found the
abode of Rehua. When Rehua saw a stranger
approaching, he went forward and gave him the
usual welcome, lamenting over him ; Rehua made
his lamentation without knowing who the stranger
was, but Rupe in his lament made use of prayers
by which he enabled Rehua to guess who he was.
When they had each ended their lamentation,
Rehua called to his servants, " Light a fire, and
get everything ready for cooking food." The
slaves soon made the fire burn up brightly, and
brought hollow calabashes, all ready to have food
placed in them, and laid them down before Rehua.
All this time Rupe was wondering whence the food
kupe's ascent into heaven.
was to come from with which the calabashes, which
the slaves had brought, were to be filled ; but pre-
sently he observed that Rehua was slowly loosen-
ing the thick bands which enveloped his locks
around and upon the top of his head ; and when
his long locks all floated loosely, he shook the
dense masses of his hair, and forth from them came
flying flocks of the Tui birds, which had been
nestling there, feeding upon insects ; and as they
flew forth, the slaves caught and killed them, and
filled the calabashes with them, and took them
to the fire, and put them on to cook, and when
they were done, they carried them and laid them
before Rupe as a present, and then placed them
beside him that he might eat, and Rehua re-
quested him to eat food, but Rupe answered him,
" Nay, but I cannot eat this food ; I saw these
birds loosened and take wing from thy locks ;
who would dare to eat birds that had fed upon
insects in thy sacred head?" For the reasons
he thus stated, Rupe feared that man of ancient
days, and the calabashes still stood near him un-
touched.
At last, Rupe ventured to ask Rehua, saying,
" 0 Rehua, has a confused murmur of voices from
the world below reached you upon any subject re-
garding which I am interested V And Rehua an-
swered him, "Yes, such a murmuring of distant
voices has reached me from the island of Motu-tapu
in the world below these/'
When Kupe heard this, he immediately by his
enchantments changed himself into a pigeon, and
took flight downwards towards the island of
Motu-tapu ; on, on he flew, until he reached the
island, and the dwelling of Tinirau, and then he
alighted right upon the window-sill of his house.
Some of Tinirau s people saw him, and exclaimed,
" Ha ! ha ! there 's a bird, there 's a bird whilst
some called out, " Make haste, spear him, spear
him;" and one threw a spear at him, but he
turned it aside with his bill, and it passed on one
side of him, and struck the piece of wood on
which he was sitting, and the spear was broken ;
then they saw that it was no use to try to spear
the bird, so they made a noose, and endeavoured
to slip it gently over his head, but he turned his
head on one side, and they found that they could not
snare him. His young sister now suspected some-
thing, so she said to the people who were trying to
kill or snare the bird, " Leave the bird quiet for a
minute until I look at it \" and when she had
looked well at it, she knew that it was her brother,
so she asked him, saying, "What is the cause
which has made you thus come here V and the
pigeon immediately began to open and shut its
little bill, as if it was trying to speak. His young
rupe's ascent into heaven. 87
sister now called out to Tinirau, " Oh, husband,
here is your brother-in-law ; " and her husband said
in reply, "What is his name?" and she answered,
" It is my brother Rupe/' It happened that upon
this very day, Hinauri's little child was born, then
Rupe repeated this form of greeting to his sister,
the name of which is Toetoetu : —
" Hinauri,
Hinauri is the sister,
And Rupe is her brother,
But how came he here 1
Came he by travelling on the earth,
Or came he through the air 1
Let your path be through the air."
As soon as Rupe had ceased his lamentation of
welcome to his sister, she commenced hers, and
answered him, saying, —
" Rupe is the brother,
And Hina is his young sister,
But how came he here ?
Came he by travelling on the earth,
Or came he through the air ]
Let your path be now upwards through the air
To Rehua."
Hardly had his young sister finished repeating
this poem, before Rupe had caught her up with her
new-born baby : in a moment they were gone.
Thus the brother and sister departed together, with
the infant, carrying with them the placenta to
bury it with the usual rites ; and they ascended up
to Rehua, and as they passed through the air, the
placenta was accidentally dropped, and falling into
the sea, was devoured by a shark, and this cir-
cumstance was what caused the multitude of
large eggs which are now found in the inside of
the shark.
At length the brother and sister arrived at the
dwelling place of Rehua, which was called Te Pu-
tahi-nui-o- Rehua. The old man was unable to
keep his court-yard clean for himself, and his
people neglected to do so from idleness ; thus it was
left in a very filthy state. Rupe, who was dis-
pleased at seeing this, one day said to Rehua, " Oh,
Rehua, they leave this court-yard of yours in a
very filthy state;" and then he added, "Your
people are such a set of lazy rogues, that if every
mess of dirt was a lizard, I doubt if they could
even take the trouble to touch its tail to make it
run away \" and this saying passed into a proverb.
At last, Rupe thought that he could clean and
beautify, in some respects, Rehua's dwelling for him,
so he made two wooden shovels for his work, one
of which he called Tahitahia, and the other Rake-
rakea, and with them he quite cleansed and puri-
fied Rehua's court-yard. He then added a build-
ing to Rehua's dwelling, but fixing one of the
beams of it badly, Rehua s son, Kaitaugata, was
one day killed from hanging on to this beam,
kupe's ascent into heaven. 89
which giving way and springing back, he was
thrown down and died, and his blood running
about over part of the heavens, stained them, and
formed what we now call a ruddiness in the sky ;
when, therefore, a red and ruddy tinge is seen in
the heavens, men say, " Ah ! Kaitangata stained
the heavens with his blood/'
Rupe's first name was Maui-mua ; it was after he
was transformed into a bird that he took the name
of Rupe.
* The part of the tradition which relates to the death of Kai-
tangata is considerably shortened in the translation, as not being
likely to interest the European reader.
Chapter 5
THE WHALE.
Soon after Tuhurulmru was born, Tinirau endea-
voured to find a skilful magician, who might per-
form the necessary enchantments and incantations
to render the child a fortunate and successful war-
rior, and Kae was the name of the old magician,
whom some of his friends brought to him for this
purpose. In due time Kae arrived at the village
where Tinirau lived, and he performed the proper
enchantments with fitting ceremonies over the infant.
When all these things had been rightly con-
cluded, Tinirau gave a signal to a pet whale that
he had tamed, to come on shore ; this whale's name
was Tutunui. When it knew that its master wanted
it, it left the ocean in which it was sporting about,
and came to the shore, and its master laid hold of
it, and cut a slice of its flesh off to make a feast
for the old magician, and he cooked it, and gave a
portion of it to Kae, who found it very savoury,
and praised the dish very much.
Shortly afterwards, Kae said it was necessary for
him to return to his own village, which was named
Te Tihi-o-Manono ; so Tinirau ordered a canoe to be
got ready for him to take him back, but Kae made
kae's theft of the whale. 91
excuses, and said lie did not like to go back in the
canoe, and remained where he was. This, however,
was a mere trick upon his part, his real object
being to get Tinirau to permit him to go back upon
the whale, upon Tutunui, for he now knew how
savoury the flesh of that fish was.
At last Tinirau lent Tutunui to the old magician
to carry him home, but he gave him very particular
directions, telling him, " When you get so near the
shore, that the fish touches the bottom, it will shake
itself to let you know, and you must then, without
any delay, jump off it upon the right side/'
He then wished Kae farewell, and the old magi-
cian started, and away went the whale through the
water with him.
When they came close to the shore at Kae's vil-
lage, and the whale felt the bottom, it shook itself
as a sign to Kae to jump off and wade ashore, but
it was of no use ; the old magician stuck fast to
the whale, and pressed it down against the bottom
as hard as he could ; in vain the fish continued
to shake itself ; Kae held on to it, and would not
jump off, and in its struggles the blow-holes of
Tutunui got stopped up with sand, and it died.
Kae and his people then managed to drag up the
body of Tutunui on shore, intending to feast upon
it ; and this circumstance became afterwards the
cause of a war against that tribe, who were called
"The descendants of Poporokewa." When they
had dragged Tutunui on shore, they cut its body
up and cooked it in ovens, covering the flesh up
with the fragrant leaves of the Koromiko before
they heaped earth upon the ovens, and the fat of
Tutunui adhered to the leaves of the Koromiko, and
they continue greasy to this day, so that if Koromiko
boughs are put upon the fire and become greasy,
the proverb says — " There's some of the savouriness
of Tutunui/'
Tinirau continued anxiously to look for the re-
turn of Tutunui, and when a long time had elapsed
without its coming back again, he began to say to
himself, " Well, I wonder where my whale can be
stopping \" But when Kae and his people had
cooked the flesh of the whale, and the ovens were
opened, a savoury scent was wafted across the sea
to Tinirau, and both he and his wife smelt it quite
plainly, and then they knew very well that Kae
had killed the pet which they had tamed for their
little darling Tuhuruhuru, and that he had eaten it.
Without any delay, Tinirau's people dragged
down to the sea a large canoe which belonged to
one of his wives, and forty women forthwith em-
barked in it; none but women went, as this would
be less likely to excite any suspicion in Kae that
they had come with a hostile object; amongst them
were Hine-i-te-iwaiwa, Raukatauri, Raukatamea,
Itiiti, Rekareka, and Rua-hau-a-Tangaroa, and other
females of note, whose names have not been pre-
KAE'S THEFT OF THE WHALE. 93
served ; just before the canoe started, Tinirau s
youngest sister asked him, " What are the marks
by which we shall know Kae ?" and he answered
her, " Oh, you cannot mistake him, his teeth are
uneven and all overlap one another."
"Well, away they paddled, and in due time they
arrived at the village of the old magician Kae, and
his tribe all collected to see the strangers ; towards
night, when it grew dark, a fire was lighted in
the house of Kae, and a crowd collected inside it,
until it was filled ; one side was quite occupied
with the crowd of visitors, and the other side of
the house with the people of Kae's tribe. The old
magician himself sat at the foot of the main pillar
which supported the roof of the house, and mats
were laid down there for him to sleep on (but the
strangers did not yet know which was Kae, for it
did not accord with the Maori's rules of politeness
to ask the names of the chiefs, it being supposed
from their fame and greatness that they are known
by everybody).
In order to find out, which was Kae, Tinirau's
people had arranged, that they would try by wit
and fun to make everybody laugh, and when, the
people opened their mouths, to watch which of them
had uneven teeth that lapped across one another,
and thus discover which was Kae.
In order, therefore, to make them laugh, Rauka-
tauri exhibited all her amusing tricks and games ;
she made them sing and play upon the flute, and
upon the putorino, and beat time with castanets
of bone and wood whilst they sang ; and they
played at mora, and the kind of ti in which many
motions are made with the fingers and hands, and
the kind of ti in which, whilst the players sing,
they rapidly throw short sticks to one another, keep-
ing time to the tune which they are singing ; and she
played upon an instrument like a jewVharp for
them, and made puppets dance, and made them all
sing whilst they played with large whizgigs ; and
after they had done all these things, the man they
thought was Kae had never even once laughed.
Then the party who had come from Tiniraus,
all began to consult together, and to say what can
we do to make that fellow laugh, and for a long
time they thought of some plan by which they
might take Kae in, and make him laugh ; at last
they thought of one, which was, that they should
all sing a droll comic song; so suddenly they all
began to sing together, at the same time making
most curious faces, and shaking their hands and
arms in time to the tune.
When they had ended their song, the old magi-
cian could not help laughing out quite heartily,
and those who were watching him closely at once
recognised him, for there they saw pieces of the
flesh of Tutunui still sticking between his teeth,
and his teeth were uneven and all overlapped one
kae's theft of the whale. 95
another. From this circumstance a proverb has
been preserved among the Maories to the present
day — for if any one on listening to a story told
by another is amused at it and laughs, one of the
bystanders says, " Ah, there 's Kae laughing."
No sooner did the women who had come from
Tinirau's see the flesh of Tutunui sticking in Kae's
teeth than they made an excuse for letting the fire
burn dimly in the house, saying, that they wanted
to go to sleep — their real object, however, being to
be able to perform their enchantments without
being seen ; but the old magician, who suspected
something, took two round pieces of mother-of-pearl
shell, and stuck one in the socket of each eye, so
that the strangers, observing the faint rays of light
reflected from the surface of the mother-of-pearl,
might think they saw the white of his eyes, and
that he was still awake. ^
The women from Tinirau's went on, however,
with their enchantments, and by their magical arts
threw every one in the house into an enchanted
sleep, with the intention, when they had done this,
of carrying off Kae by stealth. So soon as Kae
and the people in the house were all deep in this
enchanted sleep, the women ranged themselves in a
long row, the whole way from the place where Kae
was sleeping down to their canoe ; they all stood
in a straight line, with a little interval between
each of them ; and then two of them went to fetch
Kae, and lifted the old magician gently up, rolled
up in his cloaks, just as he had laid himself down
to sleep, and placed him gently in the arms of
those who stood near the door, who passed him
on to two others, and thus they handed him on
from one to another, until he at last reached the
arms of the two women who were standing in the
canoe ready to receive him ; and they laid him
down very gently in the canoe, fast asleep as he
was ; and thus the old magician Kae was carried
off by Hine-i-te-iwaiwa and Kaukatauri.
When the women reached the village of Tinirau
in their canoe, they again took up Kae, and carried
him very gently up to the house of Tinirau, and
laid him down fast asleep close to the central pillar,
which supported the ridge-pole of the house, so
that the place where he slept in the house of Tini-
rau was exactly like his sleeping-place in his own
house. The house of Kae was, however, a large
circular house, without a ridge-pole, but with raft-
ers springing from the central pillar, running down
like rays to low side posts in the circular wall ;
whilst the house of Tinirau was a long house, with
a ridge-pole running the entire length of the roof,
and resting upon the pillar in its centre.
When Tinirau heard that the old magician had
been brought to his village, he caused orders to be
kae's theft of the whale.
given to his tribe that when he made his appear-
ance in the morning, going to the house where Kae
was, they should all call out loud, "Here comes
Tinirau, here comes Tinirau," as if he was coming
as a visitor into the village of Kae, so that the old
magician on hearing them might think that he was
still at home.
At broad daylight next morning, when Tinirau's
people saw him passing along through the village
towards his house, they all shouted aloud, " Here
comes Tinirau, here comes Tinirau ; " and Kae, who
heard the cries, started up from his enchanted
sleep quite drowsy and confused, whilst Tinirau
passed straight on, and sat down just outside the
door of his house, so that he could look into it,
and, looking in, he saw Kae, and saluted him,
saying, " Salutations to you, 0 Kae ! " and then he
asked him, saying, " How came you here V and
the old magician replied, " Nay, but rather how
came you here ? "
Tinirau replied, " Just look, then, at the house,
and see if you recognise it ? "
But Kae, who was still stupified by his sleep,
looking round, saw he was lying in his own place
at the foot of the pillar, and said, " This is my
house/'
Tinirau asked him, "Where was the window
placed in your house ? "
F
Kae started and looked ; the whole appearance
of his house appeared to be changed ; he at once
guessed the truth, that the house he was in be-
longed to Tinirau ; and the old magician, who saw
that his hour had come, bowed down his head in si-
lence to the earth, and they seized him, and dragged
him out, and slew him : thus perished Kae.
The news of his death at last reached his tribe
— the descendants of Poporokewa ; and they even-
tually attacked the fortress of Tinirau with a large
army, and avenged the death of Kae by slaying
Tinirau' s son.
KATIVE HOUSE*
THE LEGEND OF TUWHAKARARO,
HOW HE WAS MUEDEEED AND AVENGED.
Now about this time Tuhuruhuru, the son of Rupe's
sister, grew up to man's estate, and he married
Apakura, and she gave birth to a son whom they
named Tuwhakararo, and afterwards to a daughter
named Mairatea ; she had then several other chil-
dren ; then she gave birth to Whakatau-potiki ;
afterwards her last child was born, and its name
was Reimatua.
When Mairatea grew up, she was married to the
son of a chief named Poporokewa, the chief of the
Ati-Hapai tribe, and she accompanied her husband
to his home ; but Tuwhakararo remained at his own
village, and after a time he longed to see his sister,
and thought he would go and pay her a visit ; so
he went, and arrived at a very large house belong-
ing to the tribe Poporokewa, the name of which was
Uru-o-Manono ; all the family and dependants of
Poporokewa lived in that house, and Tuwhakararo
remained there with them. It happened that a
F 2
young sister of his brother-in-law, whose name was
Maurea, took a great fancy to him, and showed
that she liked him, although, at the very time, she
was carrying on a courtship with another young
man of the Ati-Hapai tribe.
Whilst Tuwhakararo was on this visit to his
brother-in-law, some of the young men of the Ati-
Hapai tribe asked him one day to wrestle with
them, and he, agreeing to this, stood up to wrestle,
and the one who came forward as his competitor
was the sweetheart of his brother-in-law's young
sister. Tuwhakararo laid hold of the young man,
and soon gave him a severe fall. That match being
over, they both stood up again, and Tuwhakararo,
lifting him in his arms, gave him another severe
fall ; and all the young people of the Ati-Hapai
tribe burst out laughing at the youth, for having
had two such heavy falls from Tuwhakararo, and
he sat down upon the ground, looking very foolish,
and feeling exceedingly sulky and provoked at being
laughed at by everybody.
Tuwhakararo, having also finished wrestling, sat
clown too, and began to put on his clothes again,
and whilst he was in the act of putting his head
through his cloak, the young man he had thrown
in wrestling ran up, and just as his head appeared
through the cloak threw a handful of sand in his eyes.
Tuwhakararo,. wild with pain, could see nothing,
Chapter 6
and began to rub bis eyes, to get tbe dust out and
to ease tbe anguisb ; tbe young man tben struck
bim on the bead, and killed bim. Tbe people of
tbe Ati-Hapai tribe tben ran in upon bim and cut
bis body up, and afterwards devoured it; and they
took his bones, and hung them up in the roof,
under the ridge-pole of their house Te Uru-o-
Manono.
Whilst they were hung up there the bones rat-
tled together, and his sister heard them, and it
seemed to her as if they made a sound like "Taupa-
roro, Tauparoro;" and she listened again to the
rattling of the bones, and again she heard the
words " Tauparoro, Tauparoro." And the sister of
Tawhakararo looking up to the bones, said, "You
rattle in vain, 0 bones of him who was devoured
by tbe Ati-Hapai tribe, for who is there to lament
over him or to avenge bis death V
At last the news of the sad event which had
taken place reached the ears of bis brother, Wha-
katau-potiki, and of his other brothers, and when
they heard it they were grieved and pained at
the fate of their brother, and at last Whakatau-
potiki adopted a firm resolution to go and avenge
Tawhakararo's death, and as the rest of his tribe
agreed in this purpose, they began without delay to
build canoes for its execution.
They named some of their canoes tbe Whiritoa,
the Tapatapahukarere, the Toroa-i-taipakihi, the
Hakirere, and the Mahunu-awatea, and^to all the
other canoes which they prepared for this purpose
they also gave names ; and when they had finished
lashing on the top-boards of their canoes, their
mother Apakura, with all her female attendants,
began to beat and prepare fern root for the war-
riors to carry with them as provisions for their
voyage, and whilst the females were thus engaged
in beating and preparing fern root for the war
party who were about to start to revenge the
death of Tuwhakararo, they kept on repeating a
lament for the young man which might rouse the
feelings of the warriors.
Lo, the army of Whakatau-potiki now embarked ;
they started in a thousand canoes, and floated out
into the open sea, and proceeding upon their course,
they landed at a certain place which lay in their
route, and there the army of Whakatau had a re-
view, to show how well they could go through
their manoeuvres. They were formed into columns,
and one column, with fierce shouts and yells, after
a war dance, sprang upon the supposed enemy, and
whilst they were thus engaged with their imaginary
foe, a second column, with wild cries, advanced to
their support ; then the first column of warriors
retired to re-form, and thus column after column
feigned to charge their foes.
WAR DANCE.
THE MUEDER OF TUWHAKARARO. 103
Then one body of the warriors rushed to an
adjoining creek and tried to jump across it, but
they could not. A band of men under Wha-
katau's immediate command were sitting upon
the ground watching the others, and when the
first body gave up in despair all thoughts of
overleaping the creek, this chosen band of Wha-
katau rose from the ground, started forward,
reached in good order the edge of the creek, and
sprang easily across it (the whole body of them to
the other side),
When the review was ended, Whakatau made a
speech to the warriors, saying, " Warriors, all of you
listen to me. We will not finish our voyage until
the dark night, lest we should be seen by the people
we are about to attack, and thus fail in surprising
them."
Just as it was dark, Whakatau ordered his own
chosen band of warriors to go and pull the plugs
out of all the canoes but their own, and they, in
obedience to his orders, went round and pulled all
the plugs out of the canoes, and thus they did to
the whole of them without missing a single canoe
of the whole thousand.
This having been done, Whakatau called aloud
to the whole force, "Now my men, let us em-
bark at once this very night." Then the warriors
hurriedly arose in the darkness, and all was confu-
sion and noise, and one canoe was launched, and then
104 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
another, and another, until all were afloat on the
sea. Then they all embarked, and the several crews
sprang cheerfully into their own canoes ; but lo,
presently the canoes all began to sink, one after the
other, and the crews were compelled again to seek
the shore, and to busy themselves there in repairing
them. In the meantime the chosen band of warriors
of Whakatau urged on their canoes, leaving the others
behind, and when they drew near the place where
the house called the Uru-o-Manono was situated, they
landed. Then the warriors silently surrounded the
house in ranks throughout its whole circumference,
and each of the eight doors of the house they
guarded by a band of men, and Whakatau laid hold
of a man named Hioi, whom they caught outside of
the house, and he questioned him, saying, " Where
is my sister now V And Hioi answered him, " She
is in the house." And he asked him again, " In
what part of the house does Poporokewa sleep?"
Hioi replied, " At the foot of the large pillar which
supports the ridge-pole of the house." Whakatau
next asked, " Has he any distinguishing mark by
which we may know him?" Hioi answered, " You
may know him by one of his teeth being broken."
Whakatau asked him one question more, saying,
"In what part of the house does my sister sleep ?"
And Hioi answered him, " She sleeps close to that
door."
Whakatau-potiki asked him no further questions,
THE MURDER OF TUWHAKARARO. 105
but took the fellow and cut out his tongue, and
when he had done so he made him talk, and he still
spoke quite distinctly, although a great part of his
tongue was cut out. Whakatau then took him
again, and cut his tongue off quite close to the root,
and he made him try to talk again, and nothing
but an indistinct mumbling could be heard, so he
then ordered the man into the house to send his
sister out to him.
Hioi went as he was told to send Whakatau's
sister to him, for she was then in the Uru-o-Manono,
the house of her father-in-law, Poporokewa. When
he got inside, the whole mass of the Ati-Hapai tribe
who were sitting saw him come in, and some of
them asked him where he had been to, and what
he had gone for ; but what was the use of their
talking to him, since he could do nothing but mum-
ble out indistinct words in reply, and those who
were sitting near him wondered what could be the
matter.
But the sister of Whakatau guessed in a moment
that this was some device of her brother's, and at
once went out of the house, and found Whaka-
tau, and she and her brother wept together, partly
from joy at their meeting, partly from sorrow in
thinking of the melancholy death of their brother
since they had last met.
When they had done weeping, Whakatau asked
F 3
her, " In what part of the house does Poporokewa
sleep ?" And she answered him, " He sleeps at the
foot of the large pillar which supports the ridge-pole
of the house/' And then she added, " But oh, my
brother, a great part of the Ati-Hapai tribe have
seen you before, and they will know you/' Her
brother then asked her, " What then do you think I
had better do ? " His sister answered, " You had
better cut your hair quite short to disguise yourself.
He consented to this being done, so his sister
cut his hair quite close for him, and when she had
done this she rubbed his face all over with charcoal,
and then he and his sister went together into the
house. The fire iq the house had got quite low
some time before, and when they entered, the peo-
ple near where they went in, cried out, "Make
up the fire, make up the fire; here's a
stranger, here's a stranger." So they blew up
the fire and made it burn brightly, and many of
them came to see Whakatau-potiki, and when they
had looked well at him, they broke out laughing,
and said, "What a black-looking fellow he is!"
Even Poporokewa burst out laughing at his appear-
ance, and Whakatau, when he saw him laugh, at
once recognised him by his broken tooth.
Whakatau-potiki had taken a stout rope with
him when he went into the house, and he held this
ready coiled in his hand, with a noose at one end of
THE MUKDEK OF TUWHAKAKARO. 107
it ; and as soon as he recognised Poporokewa, he
slily dropped the noose over his head, and suddenly
hauling it tight, it got fast round his neck : then,
still holding the rope in his hand, and lengthening it
by degrees as he went, Whakatau and his sister
rushed out of the house ; and he still hauling with
all his strength on the rope, climbed up on the roof,
repeating a powerful incantation.
Then each warrior sprang up into his place from
the ground, on which they had been lying down to
conceal themselves, and they set fire to the house
in several places at once, and slaughtered all those
who tried to escape. Thus they burnt the Uru-o-
Manono, and all those who were in it, and then
the warriors returned, and carried with them joyful
news to Apakura, the mother of Tuwhakararo.
THE LEGEND OF RATA,
HIS ADVENTURES WITH THE ENCHANTED TREE AND REVENGE
OF HIS FATHER'S MURDER.
Before Tawhaki ascended up into the heavens, a
son named Wahieroa had been born to him by his
first wife. As soon as Wahieroa grew to man's
estate, he took Kura for a wife, and she bore him
a son whom they called Rata. Wahieroa was slain
treacherously by a chief named Matukutakotako,
but his son Rata was born some time before his
death. It therefore became his duty to revenge
the death of his father Wahieroa, and Rata having
grown up, at last devised a plan for doing this; he
therefore gave the necessary orders to his dependants,
at the same time saying to them, " I am about to
go in search of the man who slew my father."
He then started upon a journey for this purpose,
and at length arrived at the entrance to the place
of Matukutakotako ; he found there a man who
was left in charge of it, sitting at the entrance to
the court-yard, and he asked him, saying, " Where
is the man who killed my father?" The man who
THE AD VENTURES OF EATA. 109
was left in charge of the place answered him —
" He lives beneath in the earth there, and I am left
here by him, to call to him and warn him when
the new moon appears ; at that season he rises and
comes forth upon the earth, and devours men as
his food."
Rata then said to him, " All that you say is true,
but how can he know when the proper time comes
for him to rise up from the earth?" The man re
plied, " I call aloud to him."
Then said Eata, "When will there be a new
moon V And the man who was left to take care
of the place answered him, " In two nights hence.
Do you now return to your own village, but on the
morning of the second day from this time come
here again to me."
Eata, in compliance with these directions, re-
turned to his own dwelling, and waited there
until the time that had been appointed him,
and on the morning of that day he again jour-
neyed along the road he had previously travelled,
and found the man sitting in the same place,
and he asked him, saying, " Do you know any spot
where I can conceal myself, and lie hid from the
enemy with whom I am about to fight, from Ma-
tukutakotako ?" The man replied, "Come with
me until I show you the two fountains of clear
water."
110 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
They then went together until they came to the
two fountains.
The man then said to Rata, "The spot that we
stand on is the place where Matuku rises up from
the earth, and yonder fountain is the one in which
he combs and washes his dishevelled hair, but this
fountain is the one he uses to reflect his face
in whilst he dresses it ; you cannot kill him
whilst he is at the fountain he uses to reflect
his face in, because your shadow would be also
reflected in it, and he would see it ; but at the
fountain in which he washes his hair, you may
smite and slay him."
Rata then asked the man, " Will he make his
appearance from the earth this evening ? " And
the man answered, "Yea"
They had not waited long there, when evening
arrived, and the moon became visible, and the man
said to Rata, " Do you now go and hide yourself
near the brink of the fountain in which he washes
his hair and Rata went and hid himself near
the edge of the fountain, and the man who had
been left to watch for the purpose shouted aloud,
" Ho, Ho, the new moon is visible — a moon two
days old." And Matukutakotako heard him, and
seizing his two-handed wooden sword, he rose
up from the earth there, and went straight to his
two fountains ; then he laid down his two-handed
THE AD VENTURES OF EATA. Ill
wooden sword on the ground, at the edge of the
fountain where he dressed his hair, and kneeling
down on both knees beside it, he loosened the
strings which bound up his long locks, and shook
out his dishevelled hair, and plunged down his-head
into the cool clear waters of the fountain. So Kata
creeping out from where he lay hid, rapidly moved
up, and stood behind him, and as Matuku-takotako
raised his head from the water, Rata with one
hand seized him by the hair, while with the other
he smote and slew him ; thus he avenged the death
of his father Wahieroa.
Eata then asked the man whom he had found in
charge of the place, " Where shall I find the bones
of Wahieroa my father V And the keeper of the
place answered hiin, " They are not here ; a strange
people who live at a distance came and carried
them off."
Upon hearing this, Eata returned to his own
village, and there reflected over many designs by
which he might recover the bones of his father.
At length he thought of an excellent plan for
this purpose, so he went into the forest and having
found a very tall tree, quite straight throughout its
entire length, he felled it, and cut off its noble branch-
ing top, intending to fashion the trunk into a canoe ;
and all the insects which inhabit trees, and the
spirits of the forests, were very angry at this, and
112 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
as soon as Rata had returned to the village at even-
ing when his day's work was ended, they all came
and took the tree, and raised it up again, and the
innumerable multitude of insects, birds, and spirits,
who are called " The offspring of Hakuturi," worked
away at replacing each little chip and shaving in
its proper place, and sang aloud their incantations
as they worked ; this was what they sang with a
confused noise of various voices : —
Fly together, chips and shavings,
Stick ye fast together,
Hold ye fast together ;
Stand upright again, 0 tree !
Early the next morning back came Rata, intend-
ing to work at hewing the trunk of his tree into a
canoe. When he got to the place where he had
left the trunk lying on the ground, at first he
could not find it, and if that fine tall straight tree,
which he saw standing whole and sound in the
forest, was the same he thought he had cut
down, there it was now erect again ; however
he stepped up to it, and manfully hewing away
at it again, he felled it to the ground once more,
and off he cut its fine branching top again, and
began to hollow out the hold of the canoe, and
to slope off its prow and the stern into their proper
gracefully curved forms ; and in the evening, when
Chapter 7
it became too dark to work, he returned to his
village.
As soon as he was gone, back came the innu-
merable multitudes of insects, birds, and spirits,
who are called the offspring of Hakuturi, and they
raised up the tree upon its stump once more, and
with a confused noise of various voices, they sang
incantations as they worked, and when they had
ended these, the tree again stood sound as ever in
its former place in the forest.
The morning dawned, and Rata returned once
more to work at his canoe. When he reached the
place, was not he amazed to see the tree standing
up in the forest, untouched, just as he had at first
found it? But he, nothing daunted, hews away at it
again, and down it topples crashing to the earth ;
as soon as he saw the tree upon the ground, Rata
went off as if going home, and then turned back
and hid himself in the underwood, in a spot whence
he could peep out and see what took place ; he had
not been hidden long, when he heard the innumer-
able multitude of the children of Tane approach-
ing the spot, singing their incantations as they
came along ; at last they arrived close to the place
where the tree was lying upon the ground. Lo, a
rush upon them is made by Rata. Ha, he has
seized some of them ; he shouts out to them, saying,
— " Ha, ha, it is you, is it, then, who have been
POLYNESIAN" MYTHOLOGY.
exercising your magical arts upon my tree?" Then
the children of Tane all cried aloud in reply, —
" Who gave you authority to fell the forest god to
the ground ? You had no right to do so."
When Rata heard them say this, he was quite
overcome with shame at what he had done.
The offspring of Tane again all called out aloud
to him — "Return, O Rata, to thy village, we will
make a canoe for you."
Rata, without delay, obeyed their orders, and as
soon as he had gone they all fell to work ; they were
so numerous, and understood each what to do so
well, that they no sooner began to adze out a
canoe than it was completed. When they had
done this, Rata and his tribe lost no time in haul-
ing it from the forest to the water, and the name
they gave to that canoe was Riwaru.
When the canoe was afloat upon the sea, 140
warriors embarked on board it, and without delay
they paddled off to seek their foes ; one night, just
at nightfall, they reached the fortress of their ene-
mies, who were named Ponaturi. When they arrived
there, Rata alone landed, leaving the canoe afloat
and all his warriors on board ; as he stole along
the shore, he saw that a fire was burning on the
sacred place, where the Ponaturi consulted their
gods and offered sacrifices to them. Rata, without
stopping, crept directly towards the fire, and hid
THE ADVENTURES OF RATA.
himself behind some thick bushes of the Hara-
keke ;* he then saw that there were some priests
upon the other side of the same bushes, serving at
the sacred place, and, to assist themselves in their
magical arts, they were making use of the bones
of Wahieroa, knocking them together to beat time
while they were repeating a powerful incanta-
tion, known only to themselves, the name of
which was Titikura. Rata listened attentively to this
incantation, until he learnt it by heart, and when
he was quite sure that he knew it, he rushed sud-
denly upon the priests ; they, surprised and igno-
rant of the numbers of their enemy, or whence they
came, made little resistance, and were in a moment
smitten and slain. The bones of his father Wahieroa
were then eagerly snatched up by him ; he hastened
with them back to the canoe, embarked on board
it, and his warriors at once paddled away, striving
to reach his fortified village.
In the morning some of the Ponaturi repaired
to their sacred place, and found their priests lying
dead there, just as they were slain by Rata. So,
without delay, they pursued him. A thousand war-
riors of their tribe followed after Rata. At length
this army reached the fortress of Rata, and an en-
gagement at once took place, in which the tribe of
Rata was worsted, and sixty of its warriors slain ;
* New Zealand flax.
at this moment Rata bethought him of the spell he
had learnt from the priests, and, immediately re-
peating the potent incantation Titikura, his slain
warriors were by its power once more restored to
life; then they rushed again to the combat, and
the Ponaturi were slaughtered by Rata and his
tribe, a thousand of them — the whole thousand
were slain.
Te Rata's task of avenging his father's death
being thus ended, his tribe hauled up his large
canoe on the shore, and roofed it over with thatch
to protect it from the sun and weather. Rata now
took Tongarautawhiri as one of his wives, and she
bore him a son whom he named Tuwhakararo ;
when this son came to man's estate, he took Apa-
kura as one of his wives, and from her sprang a
son named Whakatau. He was not born in the
manner that mortals are, but came into being in
this way: One day Apakura went down upon the
sea-coast, and took off a little apron which she
wore in front as a covering, and threw it into the
oceau, and a god named Rongotakawiu took it and
shaped it, and gave it form and being, and Wha-
katau sprang into life, and his ancestor Rongota-
kawiu taught him magic and the use of enchant-
ments of every kind.
When Whakatau was a little lad, his favourite
amusement was flying kites. Mortals then often
THE ADVENTURES OF RATA. 117
observed kites "flying in the air, and could see no-
thing else, for Whakatau was running about at the
bottom of the waters, still holding the end of the
string of the kite in his hands. One day he stole
up out of the water by degrees, and at length came
upon the shore, when the whole of his body was
quite plainly seen by some people who were near,
and they ran as fast as they could to catch
him. When Whakatau observed them all running to
seize him, he slipped back again into the water, and
continued flying his kite as before; but the people
who had seen him were surprised at this strange
sight, and being determined to catch him the
next time he came out, they sat down upon the
bank to wait for him. At last Whakatau came
up out of the water again, and stepped on shore
once more ; then the people who were watching
for him, all ran at full speed to catch him. jjWhen
Whakatau saw them coming after him again, he
cried out, " You had better go and bring Apakura
here, she is the only person who can catch me and
hold me fast."
When they heard this, one of them ran to fetch
Apakura, and she came with him at once, and as
soon as she saw little Whakatau, she called out to
him, " Here I am, I am Apakura/' Whakatau
then stopped running, and Apakura caught hold of
him with her hands, and she questioned him, saying,
"Whom do you belong to?" And Whakatau an-
swered her, " I am your child ; you one day threw
the little apron which covered you on the sands of
the sea, and the god Rongotakawiu, my ancestor,
formed me from it, and I grew up a human being,
and he, named me Whakatau."
From that time Whakatau left the water and
continued to live on shore. His principal amusement,
as long as he was a lad, was still flying kites; but
he understood magic well, and nothing was con-
cealed from him, and when he grew up to be a
man he became a renowned hero.
This second legend of the destruction by Whakatau-potiki of
the house called Te Tihi-o-Manono, or Te Uru-o-Manono, is added,
because it differs considerably from the other, and is often alluded
to in ancient poems.
Tinirau determined to attempt to avenge the death of his de-
scendant Tuwhakararo, and he thought that the best person to do
this was Whakatau, whom he knew to be very skilful in war, and
in enchantments, so he directed his wife Hine-i-te-iwaiwa to find
Whakatau, and she went in search ; when she reached a village
near where she expected to find him, she asked some people
whom she saw, where Whakatau was, and they answered her,
" He is on the top of yonder hill flying a kite." She at once pro-
ceeded on her way until she came to the hill, and seeing a man
there, she asked him, " Can you tell me where I can find Wha-
katau?" and he replied, " You must have passed him as you came
here." Then she returned to the village where she had seen
the people, and said to them, " Why, the man upon the hill says
that Whatakau is here;" but they told her that the man who had
spoken to her must have been Whakatau himself, and that she had
better return to him, and told her marks by which she might
know him ; she therefore returned, and he, after some time, when
she showed him that she knew certain marks about his person,
THE ADVENTURES OF RATA. 119
admitted that he was Whakatau ; and he then asked her what
had made her come to him] and she replied, " Tinirau sent me to
yon to ask you to come and assist in revenging the death of our
near relative; the warriors are all collecting at the village of
Tinirau, but they fear to go to attack this enemy, for it is the
bravest of all the enemies of Tinirau." Whakatau then asked her,
"Have you yet given a feast to the warriors]" and she said,
" Not yet." He then spoke to her, saying, " Return at once and
when you reach your village, give a great feast to the warriors ;
give them abundance of potted birds from the forests, but let all
the oil in which the birds were preserved be kept for me ; as for
yourself, do not go to the feast, but, decking your head with a
mourning dress of feathers, remain seated close in the house of
mourning." Then Hine-i-te-iwaiwa at once returned to Tinirau, to
do as she had been directed.
Shortly after his visitor had left him, Whakatau called aloud to
his people, saying, " Let the sideboards be at once fresh lashed on
to our canoe, to the canoe of our ancestor of Rata." His men were
so anxious to fulfil their chief's orders, that almost as soon as
he had spoken they were at work, and had finished the canoe
that very day, and dragged it down to the sea ; when night fell,
six of his warriors embarked in it, and Whakatau made the
seventh ; they then paddled off, following a direct course, until
they reached the village of Tinirau ; where they found Hine-i-te-
iwaiwa seated in her house of mourning. Whakatau then asked
her, "Have the warriors all left yet]" and she replied, " They will
not do it, they are afraid." Whakatau then said to her, " Farewell,
then ; do you remain here until you hear further from me."
Whakatau and his men having re-embarked in their canoe, made
a straight course for the place where was situated the great house
called the Tihi-o-Manono, and they let their anchor drop, and
floated there.
When the next morning broke, and some of the people of the
village coming out of the house, and beyond their defences, saw
the canoe floating at the anchorage, they gave the alarm,' crying
out, " A war party ! a war party ! " Then the warriors came
rushing forth to the fray in crowds, and arranged themselves in
bands. Then stood forth one of their champions whose name was
Mango-huritapena, and he defied Whakatau, who was standing up
in his canoe, calling out, " Were you fool enough, then, to come
here of your own accord?" and Whakatau answered him, by shout-
ing out, " Which of the arts of war do you consider yourself
famous fori" and Mango-huritapena shouted out in answer, "I
am a most skilful diver." " Dive here, then, if you dare," shouted
out Whakatau in reply. Then the champion of the enemy gave a
plunge into the water, and dived under it. Just as he got right
under the canoe, one of Whakatau 's men poured the oil which
Hine-i-te-iwaiwa had given them into the sea, and its waters im-
mediately became quite transparent, so that they saw the warrior
come floating up under the canoe, and Whakatau transfixed him
with a wooden spade ; so that champion perished.
Then forward stepped another champion named Pitakataka, and
he defied AVhakatau, shouting out, "Ah! you only killed Mango-
huritapena because he chanced to put himself in a wrong position."
Whakatau shouted out in reply, " Which of the arts of war are
you skilled in, then1?" and he answered, "Oh! I leap so skilfully
that I seem to fly in the air." " Then leap here, if you dare," an-
swered Whakatau ; and the champion of his enemies took a run
and made a spring high into the air ; but Whakatau laid a noose
on the canoe, and as the warrior alighted in it, he drew it tight,
and caught him as a bird in a springe, and thus slew that warrior
also.
And thus, one after the other, he slew ten of the most famous
warriors of his enemies ; one whom he had seized, he saved
alive, but he cut out his tongue, and then said to him, " Now,
off with you to the shore again, and tell them there how I have
overcome you all j" having done this, Whakatau retired a little
distance back from the place, so that his canoe could not be seen
by his enemies.
In the afternoon Whakatau landed on the coast, and before eat-
ing anything, offered the prescribed sacrifice of the hair and a part
of the skin of the head of one of his victims to the gods ; and
when the religious rites were finished, he eat food ; and having
done this, he directed the people he had with him to return,
saying, "Eeturn at once, and when you reach the residence of
Hine-i-te-iwaiwa, speak to her, saying, ' Whakatau told us to come,
and tell you, that he could not return with us ;' and he further
said, ' If heavy rain falls in large drops, it is a sign that I have been
killed ; but if a light, misty rain falls, and the whole horizon is
lighted up with flames, then you may know that I have conquered,
THE ADVENTURES OF RATA.
and that I have burnt the Tihi-o-Manono he also said that he
wished you to sit upon the roof of your house watching until you
saw the Tihi-o-Manono burnt." Whakatau's people at once returned
to Hine-i-te-iwaiwa to deliver the message he had given them.
Just before nightfall, Whakatau drew near the great house, called
the Tihi-o-Manono, and as the people of Whitinakonako, a great
chief, were collecting firewood at the edge of a forest, he stealthily
dropped in amongst them, pretending to be collecting firewood too ;
and as they were going home with their loads of firewood upon
their backs, he managed to push on in front of them, and got into
the house first with a long rope in his hand : one end of this he
pushed between one of the side posts which supported the roof,
and the plank walls of the house, and did the same with every
post of the house, until the rope had gone quite round it, and then
he made one end of it fast to the last post, and held the other end
in his hand.
By this time the people who lived in the house all came crowd-
ing on to pass the night in it, and soon filled it up : the house was
so large, and there were so many of them, that they had to light ten
fires in it.
When their fires had burnt up brightly, some of them called out to
Mango-Pare, the man whom Whakatau had saved alive, and whose
tongue he had cut out, " Well, now, tell us what kind of looking
fellow that was who cut your tongue out and Mango-Pare answered,
" There is no one I can compare him to, he was not like a man in
the proportion of his frame." One of them then called out, " Was
he at all like me V But Mango-Pare answered, " There is nobody I
can compare him to." Then another called out, " Was he at all like
me]" and another, "Was he like me]" until, at length, Mango-Pare
cried out, " Have I not already told you, that there is not one of
you whom I can compare to him]"
Whakatau himself then exclaimed, "Was he at all like me]" And
Mango-Pare, who had not before seen him in the crowd, looked
attentively at him for a minute, and then cried out, " I say,
look here all of you at this fellow, he is not unlike the man, he
looks very like him, perhaps it is he himself." But Whakatau
coolly asked him again, " Was the man really something like me]"
And Mango-Pare replied, " Yes, he was like you ; I really think it
was you ;" and Whakatau shouted aloud, " You are right, it was I."
As soon as they heard this, all of them in a moment sprang to their
G
feet. But, at the same instant, Whakatau laid hold of the end of the
rope which he had passed round the posts of the house, and, rush-
ing out, pulled it with all his strength, and straightway the house
fell down, crushing all within it, so that the whole tribe perished,
and Whakatau, who had escaped to the outside of the house, set it on
fire, and Hine-i-te-iwaiwa, who was sitting upon the roof of her own
house watching for the event, saw the whole of one part of the
heavens red with its flames, and she knew that her enemies were
destroyed. Whakatau, having thus avenged the death of Tuwhaka-
raro, returned to his own village.
Chapter 8
AND TAMA-TE-KAPUA.
THE DISSENSIONS WHICH LED TO THE MIGRATIONS FROM HAWAIKI.
Our ancestors formerly separated — some of them
were left in Hawaiki, and some came here in
canoes. Tuamatua and Uenuku paddled in their
canoes here to Aotea ; again, at that time some of
them were separated from each other, that is to say,
Uenuku and Houmai-tawhiti.
For in the time of Houmai-tawhiti there had
been a great war, and thence there were many
battles fought in Hawaiki ; but this war had com-
menced long before that time, in the days of Wha-
katauihu, of Tawhaki, and of Tuhuruhuru, when
they carried off Kae alive from his place as a pay-
ment for Tutunui ; and the war continued until the
time of the disputes that arose on account of the
body of warriors of Manaia. Again after that
came the troubles that arose from the act of dese-
cration that was committed by the dog of Houmai-
tawhiti and of his sons in eating the matter that
had sloughed from an ulcer of Uenuku's. Upon
this occasion, when Toi-te-huatahi and Uenuku saw
the dog, named Potaka-tawhiti, do this, they killed
G 2
it, and the sons of Houmai-tawhiti missing the dog,
went everywhere searching for it, and could not
find it ; they went from village to village, until at
last they came to the village of Toi-te-huatahi, and
as they went they kept calling this dog.
At last the dog howled in the belly of Toi',
"Ow ! " Then Tama-te-kapua and Whakaturia called
their clog again, and again it howled " 0 w ! *
Then Toi' held his mouth shut as close as ever he
could, but the dog still kept on howling in his
inside. Thence Toi' said as follows, and his words
passed into a proverb, " Oh, hush, hush ! I thought
I had hid you in the big belly of Toi', and there
you are, you cursed thing, still howling away."
When Tama-te-kapua and his brother had thus
arrived there, he asked, " Why did not you kill
the clog and bring it back to me, that my heart
might have felt satisfied, and that we might have
remained good friends ? Now, I '11 tell you what
it is, 0 my relations, you shall by and by hear
more of this/' Then as soon as the two bro-
thers got home, they began immediately to make
stilts for Tama-te-kapua, and as soon as these
were finished, they started that night and went to
the village of Toi' and Uenuku, and arrived at the
fine poporo tree of Uenuku, covered with branches
and leaves, and they remained eating the fruit of it
for a good long time, and then went home again.
THE DISSENSIONS AT HAWAIKI. 125
This they continued doing every night, until at
last Uenuku and his people found that the fruit of
his poporo tree was nearly all gone, and they all
wondered what had become of the fruit of the
poporo tree, and they looked for traces, and there
were some — the traces of the stilts of Tama'. At
night they kept watch on the tree : whilst one
party was coming to steal, the other was lying in
wait to catch them ; this latter had not waited
very long, when Tama' and his brother came, and
whilst they were busy eating, those who were tying
in wait rushed upon them, and caught both of
them.
They seized Whakaturia at the very foot of the
tree ; Tama' made his escape, but they gave chase,
and caught him on the sea-shore. As soon as they
had him firmly, those who were holding on cried
out, "Some of you chop down Ms stilts with
an axe, so that the fellow may fall into the water;"
and all those who had hold of him cried out, " Yes,
yes, let him fall into the sea." Then Tama' called
down to them, " If you fell me in the water, I
shall not be hurt, but if you cut me down on
shore, the fall will kill me." And when those who
were behind, and were just running up, heard this,
they thought well of it, so they chopped him down
on shore, and down he came with a heavy fall,
but in a moment he was on Ins feet, and off he
went, like a bird escaped from a snare, and so got
safe away.
Then all the village began to assemble to see
Whakaturia put to death ; and when they were col-
lected, some of them said, "Let him be put to
death at once;" and others said, "Oh, don't do
that ; you had much better hang him up in the roof
of Uenuku's house, that he may be stifled by the
smoke, and die in that way/' And the thought
pleased them all, so they hung him up in the roof
of the house, and kindled a fire, and commenced
dancing, and when that ceased they began singing,
but their dancing and singing was not at all good,
but indeed shockingly bad ; and this they did
every night, until at last a report of their proceed-
ings reached the ears of his brother Tama' and of
their father.
And Tama' heard, " There 's your brother hang-
ing up in the roof of Uenuku's great house, and he
is almost stifled by the smoke." So he thought he
would go and see him, and ascertain whether he
still lived in spite of the smoke. He went in the
night, and arrived at the house, and gently climbed
right upon the top of the roof, and making a little
hole in the thatch, immediately over the spot where
his brother hung, asked him in a whisper, "Are
you dead?" but he whispered up to him, "No,
I 'm still alive." And his brother asked again in a
THE DISSENSIONS AT HAWAIKI. 127
whisper, "How do these people dance and sing,
do they do it well?" And the other replied, "No,
nothing can be worse ; the very bystanders do
nothing but find fault with the way in which they
dance and sing"
Then Tama' said to him, "Would not it be a
good thing for you to say to them, ' I never knew
anything so bad as the dancing and singing of those
people ; ■ and if they reply, ' Oh, perhaps you can
dance and sing better than we do/ do you
answer, 'That I can/ Then if they take you
down, and say, 'Now, let us see your dancing/
you can answer, 'Oh, I am quite filthy from the
soot ; you had better in the first place give me a
little oil, and let me dress my hair, and give me
some feathers to ornament my head with \ and if
they agree to all this, when your hair is dressed,
perhaps they will say, 'There, that will do, now
dance and sing for us/ Then do you answer them,
' Oh, I am still looking quite dirty, first lend me
the red apron of TJenuku, that I may wear it as
my own, and his carved two-handed sword as my
weapon, and then I shall really look fit to dance \
and if they give you all these things, then dance
and sing for them. Then I your brother will go
and seat myself just outside the doorway of the
house, and when you rush out, I '11 bolt the house-
door and window, and when they try to pursue
and catch you, the door and window will be
bolted fast, and we two can escape without danger."
Then he finished talking to him.
Then Whakaturia called down to Uenuku, and
to all his people, who were assembled in the house,
" Oh, all you people who are dancing and singing
there, listen to me/' Then they all said, " Silence,
silence, make no more noise there, and listen to
what the fellow is saying who is hanging up
there ; we thought he had been stifled by the
smoke, but no such thing ; there he is, alive still/'
So they all kept quiet.
Then those who were in the house called up to
him, " Holloa, you fellow hanging up in the roof
there, what are you saying ; let 's hear you." And
he answered, " I mean to say that you don't know
any good dances or songs, at least that I have
heard/' Then the people in the house answered,
" Are you and your tribe famous for your dancing
and singing then ?" and he answered, "Their songs
and dances are beautiful;" and they asked, "Do
you yourself know how to dance and sing ?" Then
Uenuku said, "Let him down then ;" and he was
let down, and the people all called out to him,
" Now dance away." And he did everything ex-
actly as Tama-te-kapua had recommended him.
Then "Whakaturia called out to them, "Make
a very bright fire, so that there may be no smoke,
THE DISSENSIONS AT HAWAIKI. 129
and you may see well;" and they made a bright
clear fire. fThen he stood up to dance, and as
he rose from' his seat on the ground, he looked
bright and beautiful as the morning star appearing
in the horizon, and as he flourished his sword his eyes
flashed and glittered like the mother-of-pearl eyes
in the head carved on the handle of his two-handed
sword, jand he danced down one side of the house,
and reached the door, then he turned and danced
up the other side of the house, and reached the end
opposite the door, and there he stood.
Then he said quietly to them, " I am dying with
heat, just slide back the door, and let it stand open
a little, that I may feel the cool air \" and they
slid the door back and left it open. Then the
lookers-on said, " Come, you Ve rested enough ; the
fresh air from outside must have made you cool
enough ; stand up, and dance." Then "Whaka-
turia rose up again to dance, and as he rose up,
Tama-te-kapua stepped up to the door of the house,
and sat down there, with two sticks in his hand,
all ready to bolt up the sliding door and window.
Then Whakaturia, as is the custom in the dance,
turned round to his right hand, stuck out his
tongue, and made hideous faces on that side ; again
he turned round to the left hand, and made hideous
faces on that side ; his eyes glared, and his sword
and red apron looked splendid ; then he sprung
G 3
ISO
POLYNESIAN" MYTHOLOGY.
about, and appeared hardly to stand for a moment
at the end of the house near the door, before
he had sprung back to the other end, and stand-
ing just a moment there, he made a spring
from the inside of the house, and immediately
he was beyond the door. Up sprang Tama-te-
kapua, and instantly bolted the door ; back ran
Whakaturia ; he helped his brother to bolt up the
window, and there they heard those inside curs-
ing and swearing, and chattering like a hole full
of young parrots, whilst away ran Tama' and his
brother. A stranger who was presently passing
by the house, pulled the bolts out of the door and
window for them, and the crowd who had been
shut into the house came pouring out of it.
The next morning Toi' and Uenuku felt vexed
indeed, for the escape of those they had taken as
a payment for the fruit of their luxuriant poporo
tree, and said, "If we had had the sense to kill
them at once, they would never have escaped
in this way. In the days which are coming, that
fellow will return, seeking revenge for our having
hung him up in the roof of the house." And
before long Uenuku and Toi-te-kuatahi went to
make war on Tama-te-kupua and his people, and
some fell on both sides ; and at length a breach in
the fortifications of the town of Houmai-tawhiti
and of his sons was entered by a storming party of
%
THE DISSENSIONS AT HAWAIKI. 131
Uenuku's force, and some of the fences and obstruc-
tions were carried ; and the people of Houmai-
tawhiti cried out, " Oh, Hou', oh, here are the
enemy pressing their way in and Houmai-
tawhiti shouted in reply, " That 's right ; let them
in, let them in, till they reach the very threshold of
the house of Houmai-tawhiti." Thrice his men
called out this to Hou', and thrice did he answer
them in the same manner. At last up rose Hou'
with his sons ; then the struggle took place ;
those of the enemy that were not slain were
allowed to escape back out of the town, but many
of the slain were left there, and their bodies were
cut up, baked, and devoured.
Then, indeed, a great crime was committed by
Hou' and his family, and his warriors, in eating
the bodies of those men, for they were their near
relations, being descended from Tamatea-kai-ariki.
Thence cowardice and fear seized upon the tribe of
Hou': formerly they were all very brave indeed,
but at last Hou' and all his tribe became cowardly,
and fit for nothing, and Hou' and Whakaturia both
died, but Tama-te-kapua and his children, and some
of his relations, still lived, and he determined to
make peace, that some remnant of his tribe might
be saved ; and the peace was long preserved.
THE LEGEND OF POUTINI AND
WHAIAPU.
THE DISCOVEKY OF NEW ZEALAND.
Now pay attention to the cause of the contention
which arose between Poutini and Whaiapu, which
led them to emigrate to New Zealand. For a long
time they both rested in the same place, and Hine-tu-
a-hoanga, to whom the stone Whaiapu* belonged,
became excessively enraged with Ngahue, and with
his stone Poutini. "f* At last she drove Ngahue out
and forced him to leave the place, and Ngahue de-
parted and went to a strange land, taking his
jasper. When Hine-tu-a-hoanga saw that he was
departing with his precious stone, she followed
after them, and Ngahue arrived at Tuhua with
his stone, and Hine-tu-a-hoanga arrived and
landed there at the same time with him, and
began to drive him away again. Then Ngahue
went to seek a place where his jasper stones might
remain in peace, and he found in the sea this island
Aotearoa (the northern island of New Zealand),
and he thought he would land there.
* Green jasper.
f Obsidian, with which the natives grind down the jasper.
Chapter 9
Then lie thought again, lest he and his enemy
should be too close to one another, and should
quarrel again, that it would be better for him to go
further off with his jasper, a very long way off. So
he carried it off with him, and they coasted along,
and at length arrived at Arahura (on the west coast
of the middle island), and he made that an ever-
lasting resting-place for his jasper ; then he broke
off a portion of his jasper, and took it with him
and returned, and as he coasted along he at length
reached Wairere (believed to be upon the east
coast of the northern island), and he visited Whan-
gaparoa and Tauranga, and from thence he returned
direct to Hawaiki, and reported that he had
discovered a new country which produced the moa
and jasper in abundance. He now manufactured
sharp axes from his jasper ; two axes were made
from it, Tutauru and Hau-hau-te-rangi. He manu-
factured some portions of one piece of it into
images for neck ornaments, and some portions into
ear ornaments ; the name of one of these ear orna-
ments was Kaukau-matua, which was recently in
the possession of Te Heuheu, and was only lost in
1846, when he was killed with so many of his
tribe by a landslip. The axe Tutauru was only
lately lost by Purahokura and his brother Reretai,
who were descended from Tama-ihu-toroa. When
Ngahue, returning, arrived again in Hawaiki, he
134 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
found them all engaged in war, and when they
heard his description of the beauty of this country
of Aotea, some of them determined to come here.
CONSTRUCTION OF CANOES TO EMIGRATE TO NEW ZEALAND.
They then felled a totara tree in Rarotonga,
which lies on the other side of Hawaiki, that they
might build the Arawa from it. The tree was
felled, and thus the canoe was hewn out from it and
finished. The names of the men who built this
canoe were, Rata, Wahie-roa, Ngahue, Parata, and
some other skilful men, who helped to hew out the
Arawa and to finish it.
A chief of the name of Hotu-roa, hearing that the
Arawa was built, and wishing to accompany them,
came to Tama-te-kapua and asked him to lend him
his workmen to hew out some canoes for him too,
and they went and built and finished the Tainui
and some other canoes.
The workmen above mentioned are those who
built the canoes in which our forefathers crossed the
ocean to this island, to Aotea- roa. The names of
the canoes were as follows : the Arawa was first
completed, then Tainui, then Matatua, and Taki-
tumu, and Kura-hau-po, and Toko-maru, and
Matawhaorua. These are the names of the canoes
in which our forefathers departed from Hawaiki,
Chapter 10
and crossed to this island. When they had lashed
the topsides on to the Tainui, Rata slew the son of
Manaia, and hid his body in the chips and shavings
of the canoes. The names of the axes with which
they hewed out these canoes were Hauhau-te-Rangi3
and Tutauru. Tutauru was the axe with which
they cut off the head of Uenuku.
All these axes were made from the block of green
stone brought back by Ngahue to Hawaiki, which
was called " The fish of Ngahue/' He had pre-
viously come to these islands from Hawaiki, when
he was driven out from thence by Hine-tu-a-hoanga,
whose fish or stone was Obsidian. From that cause
Ngahue came to these islands ; the canoes which
afterwards arrived here came in cod sequence of his
discovery.
Chapter 11
When the canoes were built and ready for sea.
they were dragged afloat, the separate lading of
each canoe was collected and put on board, with
all the crews. Tama-te-kapua then remembered
that he had no skilful priest on board his canoe,
and he thought the best thing he could do was
to outwit Ngatoro-i-rangi, the chief who had
command of the Tainui. So just as his canoe
shoved off, he called out to Ngatoro, " I say,
Ngatoro, just come on board my canoe, and per-
form the necessary religious rites for me." Then
the priest Ngatoro came on board, and Tama-te-
kapua said to him, " You had better also call your
wife, Kearoa on board, that she may make the
canoe clean or common, with an offering of sea-
weed to be laid in the canoe instead of an offering
of fish, for you know the second fish caught in a
canoe, or seaweed, or some substitute, ought to be
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 137
offered for the females, the first for the males ;
then my canoe will be quite common, for all the
ceremonies will have been observed, which should
be followed with canoes made by priests. Ngatoro
assented to all this, and called his wife, and they
both got into Tama's canoe. The very moment
they were on board, Tama' called out to the men on
board his canoe, " Heave up the anchors and make
sail \" and he carried off with him Ngatoro and his
wife, that he might have a priest and wise man on
board his canoe. Then they up with the fore-sail,
the main-sai], and the mizen, and away shot the
canoe.
Up then came Ngatoro from below, and said,
" Shorten sail, that we may go more slowly, lest I
miss my own canoe.''' And Tama' replied, " Oh, no,
no ; wait a little, and your canoe wi]l follow after
us." For a short time it kept near them, but
soon dropped more and more astern, and when
darkness overtook them, on they sailed, each canoe
proceeding on its own course.
Two thefts were upon this occasion perpetrated
by Tama-te-kapua ; he carried off the wife of Ruaeo,
and Ngatoro and his wife, on board the Arawa. He
made a fool of Ruaeo too, for he said to him, " Oh,
Rua', you, like a good fellow, just run back to the
village and fetch me my axe Tutauru, I pushed it in
under the sill of the window of my house." And
138 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
Rua' was foolish enough to run back to the house.
Then off went Tama' with the canoe, and when
Rua' came back again, the canoe was so far off that
its sails did not look much bigger than little flies.
So he fell to weeping for all his goods on board
the canoe, and for his wife Whakaoti-rangi, whom
Tama-te-kapua had carried off as a wife for himself.
Tama-te-kapua committed these two great thefts
when he sailed for these islands. Hence this pro-
verb, "A descendant of Tama-te-kapua will steal
anything he can."
When evening came on, Rua' threw himself into
the water, as a preparation for his incantations to
recover Ms wife, and he then changed the stars of
evening into the stars of morning, and those of the
morning into the stars of the evening, and this was
accomplished. In the meantime the Arawa scudded
away far out on the ocean, and Ngatoro thought to
himself, " What a rate this canoe goes at — what a
vast space we have already traversed. I know
what I'll do, 111 climb up upon the roof of the
house which is built on the platform joining the
two canoes, and try to get a glimpse of the land in
the horizon, and ascertain whether we are near it,
or very far off." But in the first place he felt some
suspicions about his wife, lest Tama-te-kapua should
steal her too, for he had found out what a treacher-
ous person he was. So he took a string and tied
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 139
one end of it to his wife's hair, and kept the
other end of the string in his hand, and then he
climbed up on the roof. He had hardly got on the
top of the roof when Tama' laid hold of his wife,
and he cunningly untied the end of the string which
Ngatoro had fastened to her hair, and made it fast
to one of the beams of the canoe, and Ngatoro feel-
ing it tight thought his wife had not moved, and
that it was still fast to her. At last Ngatoro came
down again, and Tama-te-kapua heard the noise of
his steps as he was coming, but he had not time to
get the string tied fast to the hair of Kearoa's
head again, but he jumped as fast as he could into
his own berth, which was next to that of Ngatoro,
and Ngatoro, to his surprise, found one end of the
string tied fast to the beam of the canoe.
Then he knew that his wife had been disturbed
by Tama', and he asked her, saying, " Oh, wife, has
not some one disturbed you V Then his wife re-
plied to him, "Cannot you tell that from the string
being fastened to the beam of the canoe?" And
then he asked her, " Who was it V And she said,
" Who was it, indeed ? Could it be any one else but
Tama-te-kapua?" Then her husband said to her,
" You are a noble woman indeed thus to confess
this ; you have gladdened my heart by this confes-
sion ; I thought after Tama' had carried us both off
in this way, that he would have acted generously, and
not loosely in this manner ; but, since he has dealt
in this way, I will now have my revenge on him."
Then that priest again went forth upon the roof
of the house and stood there, and he called aloud to
the heavens, in the same way that Bua' did, and he
changed the stars of the evening into those of morn-
ing, and he raised the winds that they should blow
upon the prow of the canoe, and drive it astern, and
the crew of the canoe were at their wits' end, and
quite forgot their skill as seamen, and the canoe
drew straight into the whirlpool, called " The throat
of Te Parata/'* and dashed right into that whirlpool.
The canoe became engulphed by the whirlpool,
and its prow disappeared in it. In a moment the
waters reached the first bailing place in the bows,
in another second they reached the second bailing
place in the centre, and the canoe now appeared to
be going down into the whirlpool head foremost ;
then up started Hei, but before he could rise they
had already sunk far into the whirlpool. Next the
rush of waters was heard by Ihenga, who slept
forward, and he shouted out, ■" Oh, Ngatoro, oh, we
are settling down head first. The pillow of your
wife Kearoa has already fallen from under her
head!" Ngatoro sat astern listening; the same
cries of distress reached him a second time. Then
* The people of New Zealand have another name for this whirl-
pool ; they call it, " the steep descent where the world ends." 4
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 141
up sprang Tama-te-kapua, and he in despair shouted
out, " Oh, Ngatoro, Ngatoro, aloft there ! Do you
hear ? The canoe is gone down so much by the
bow, that Kearoa's pillow has rolled from under her
head." The priest heard them, but neither moved
nor answered until he heard the goods rolling from
the decks and splashing into the water ; the crew
meanwhile held on to the canoe with their hands
with great difficulty, some of them having already
fallen into the sea.
When these things all took place, the heart of
Ngatoro was moved with pity, for he heard, too,
the shrieks and cries of the men, and the weeping
of the women and children. Then up stood that
mighty man again, and by his incantations changed
the aspect of the heavens, so that the storm ceased,
and he repeated another incantation to draw the
canoe back out of the whirlpool, that is, to lift
it up again.
Lo, the canoe rose up from the whirlpool, float-
ing rightly ; but, although the canoe itself thus
floated out of the whirlpool, a great part of its
lading had been thrown out into the water, a few
things only were saved, and remained in the canoe.
A great part of their provisions were lost as the
canoe was sinking into the whirlpool. Thence
comes the native proverb, if they can give a
stranger but little food, or only make a present of
a small basket of food, " Oh, it is the half-filled
basket of Whakaoti-rangi, for she only managed to
save a very small part of her provisions/' Then
they sailed on, and landed at Whanga-Paraoa, in
Aotea here. As they drew near to land, they
saw with surprise some pohutukawa trees of the
sea-coast, covered with beautiful red flowers, and
the still water reflected back the redness of the
trees.
Then one of the chiefs of the canoe cried out to
his messmates, " See there, red ornaments for the
head are much more plentiful in this country than
in Hawaiki, so 1 11 throw my red head ornaments
into the water and, so saying, he threw them into
the sea. The name of that man was Tauninihi ;
the name of the red head ornament he threw into
the sea was Taiwhakaea. The moment they got
on shore they run to gather the pohutukawa
flowers, but no sooner did they touch them than
the flowers fell to pieces ; then they found out that
these red head ornaments were nothing but flowers.
All the chiefs on board the Arawa were then troubled
that they should have been so foolish as to throw
away their red head ornaments into the sea. Very
shortly afterwards the ornaments of Tauninihi were
found by Mahina on the beach of Mahifci. As soon
as Tauninihi heard they had been picked up, he ran
to Mahina to get them again, but Mahina would
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 143
not give them up to him ; thence this proverb for
anything which has been lost and is found by
another person, " I will not give it up, 3 1 is the red
head ornament which Mahina found/''
As soon as the party landed at Whanga-Paraoa,
they planted sweet potatoes, that they might grow
there ; and they are still to be found growing on
the cliffs at that place.
Then the crew, wearied from the voyage, wan-
dered idly along the shore, and there *they found
the fresh carcase of a sperm whale stranded upon
the beach. The Tainui had already arrived in the
same neighbourhood, although they did not at first
see that canoe nor the people who had come in it ;
when, however, they met, they began to dispute as
to who had landed first and first found the dead
whale, and as to which canoe it consequently be-
longed ; so, to settle the question, they agreed to
examine the sacred place which each party had set
up to return thanks in to the gods for their safe
arrival, that they might see which had been longest
built ; and, doing so, they found that the posts of
the sacred place put up by the Arawa were quite
green, whilst the posts of the sacred place set up
by the Tainui had evidently been carefully dried
over the fire before they had been fixed in the
ground. The people who had come in the Tainui
also showed part of a rope which they had made
fast to its jaw-bone. When these things were seen; it
was admitted that the whale belonged to the people
who came in the Tainui, and it was surrendered to
them. And the people in the Arawa, determining
to separate from those in the Tainui, selected some
of their crew to explore the country in a north-west
direction, following the coast line. The canoe then
coasted along, the land party following it along
the shore; this was made up of 140 men, whose
chief was •Taikehu, and these gave to a place the
name of Te Ranga of Taikehu.
The Tainui left Whanga-Paraoa * shortly after the
Arawa, and, proceeding nearly in the same direction
as the Arawa, made the Gulf of Hauraki, and then
coasted along to Rakau-mangamanga, or Cape Brett,
and to the island with an arched passage through it,
called Motukokako, which lies off the cape ; thence
they ran along the coast to Whiwhia, and to Te
Aukanapanapa, and to Muri-whenua, or the country
near the North Cape. Finding that the land ended
there, they returned again along the coast until they
reached the Tamaki, and landed there, and after-
wards proceeded up the creek to Tau-oma, or the
portage, where they were surprised to see flocks of
sea-gulls and oyster-catchers passing over from the
westward ; so they went off to explore the country
* Whanga-Paraoa, the bay of the sperm whale, so called from the
whale found there.
EIESTESS PERFORMING INCANTATIONS.
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 145
in that direction, and to their great surprise found
a large sheet of water lying immediately behind
them, so they determined to drag their canoes over
the portage at a place they named Otahuhu, and to
launch them again on the vast sheet of salt-water
which they had found.
The first canoe which they hauled across was the
Toko-maru — that they got across without difficulty.
They next began to drag the Tainui over the
isthmus ; they hauled away at it in vain, they
could not stir it ; for one of the wives of Hoturoa,
named Marama-kiko-hura, who was unwilling that
the tired crews should proceed further on this new
expedition, had by her enchantments fixed it so
firmly to the earth that no human strength could
stir it ; so they hauled, they hauled, they excited
themselves with cries and cheers, but they hauled
in vain, they cried aloud in vain, they could not
move it. When their strength was quite exhausted
by these efforts, then another of the wives of Ho-
turoa, more learned in magic and incantations than
Marama-kiko-hura, grieved at seeing the exhaustion
and distress of her people, rose up, and chanted
forth an incantation far more powerful than that
of Marama-kiko-hura ; then at once the canoe
glided easily over the carefully-laid skids, and it
soon floated securely upon the harbour of Manuka.
The willing crews urged on the canoes with
H
their paddles ; they soon discovered the mouth of
the harbour upon the west coast, and passed out
through it into the open sea ; they coasted along
the western coast to the southwards, and discover-
ing the small port of Kawhia, they entered it,
and, hauling up their canoe, fixed themselves there
for the time, whilst the Arawa was left at Ma-
ketu.
"We now return to the Arawa. We left the
people of it at Tauranga. That canoe next floated at
Motiti ; * they named that place after a spot in Ha-
waiki (because there was no firewood there). Next
Tia, to commemorate his name, called the place
now known by the name of Rangiuru, Takapu-o-
tapui-ika-nui-a-Tia. Then Hei stood up and called
out, " 1 name that place Takapu-o-wai-tahanui-a-
Hei the name of that place is now Otawa. Then
stood up Tama-te-kapua, and pointing to the place
now called the Heads of Maketu, he called out,
" I name that place Te Kuraetanga-o-te-ihu-o-Tama-
te-kapua." Next Kahu called a place, after his
name, Motiti- nui-a-Kahu.
Ruaeo, who had already arrived at Maketu,
started up. He was the first to arrive there in his
canoe — the Pukeatea-wai-nui — for he had been left
behind by the Arawa, and his wife Whakaoti-rangi
* Kei Motiti koe e noho ana ; — " I suppose you are at Motiti, as
you can find no firewood."
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 147
liad been carried off by Tama-te-Kapua, and after
the Arawa had left he had sailed in his own canoe
for these islands, and landed at Maketu, and his
canoe reached land the first ; well, he started up,
cast his line into the sea, with the hooks attached
to it, and they got fast in one of the beams of the
Arawa, and it was pulled ashore by him (whilst
the crew were asleep), and the hundred and forty
men who had accompanied him stood upon the
beach of Maketu, with skids all ready laid, and the
Arawa was by them dragged upon the shore in the
night, and left there ; and Ruaeo seated himself
under the side of the Arawa, and played upon his
flute, and the music woke his wife, and she said,
I Dear me, that 's Rua' ! " and when she looked,
there he was sitting under the side of the canoe ;
and they passed the night together.
At last Rua' said, " O mother of my children,
go back now to your new husband, and presently
I '11 play upon the flute and putorino, so that botli
you and Tama-te-Kapua may hear. Then do you
say to Tama-te-Kapua, ' 0 ! la, I had a dream in
the night that I heard Rua playing a tune upon
his flute,' and that will make him so jealous that
he will give you a blow, and then you can run
away from him again, as if you were in a rage and
hurt, and you can come to me."
Then Whakaoti-rangi returned, and lay down
H 2
by Tama-te-kapua, and she did everything exactly
as Rua' had told her, and Tama' began to beat her
(and she ran away from him). Early in the
morning Rua' performed incantations, by which he
kept all the people in the canoe in a profound sleep,
and whilst they still slept from his enchantments,
the sun rose, and mounted high up in the heavens.
In the forenoon, Rua' gave the canoe a heavy
blow with his club ; they all started up ; it was
almost noon, and when they looked down over the
edge of their canoe, there were the hundred and
forty men of Rua' sitting under them, all beau-
tifully dressed with feathers, as if they had been
living on the Gannet Island, in the channel of
Karewa, where feathers are so abundant ; and when
the crew of the Arawa heard this, they all rushed
upon deck, and saw Rua' standing in the midst of
his one hundred and forty warriors.
Then Rua' shouted out as he stood, " Come
here, Tama-te-kapua ; let us two fight the battle,
you and I alone. If you are stronger than I am,
well and good, let it be so ; if I am stronger than
you are, 1 11 dash you to the earth/'
Up sprang then the hero Tama-te-kapua ; he held
a carved two-handed sword, a sword the handle of
which was decked with red feathers. Rua' held a
similar veapon. Tama' first struck a fierce blow at
Rua". Rua' parried it, and it glanced harmlessly
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND.
off ; then Rua' threw away his sword, and seized
both the arms of Tama-te-kapua ; he held his arms
and his sword, and dashed him to the earth. Tama'
half rose, and was again dashed down ; once more
he almost rose, and was thrown again. Still Tama'
fiercely struggled to rise and renew the tight. For
the fourth time he almost rose up, then Rua',
overcome with rage, took a heap of vermin (this he
had prepared for the purpose, to cover Tama' with
insult and shame), and rubbed them on Tama-te-
kapua's head and ear, and they adhered so fast
that Tama' tried in vain to get them out.
Then Rua' said, " There, I 've beaten you ; now
keep the woman, as a payment for the insults I Ve
heaped upon you, and for having been beaten by
me/' But Tama' did not hear a word he said ;
he was almost driven mad with the pain and
itching, and could do nothing but stand scratching
and rubbing his head ; whilst Rua' departed with
his hundred and forty men, to seek some other
dwelling-place for themselves ; if they had turned
against Tama' and his people to fight against them,
they would have slain them all.
These men were giants — Tama-te-kapua was
nine feet high, Rua' was eleven feet high ; there
have been no men since that time so tall as those
heroes. The only man of these later times who
was as tall as these was Tu-hou-rangi : he was nine
feet high ; he was six feet up to the arm-pits. This
generation have seen bis bones, they used to be
always set up by the priests in the sacred places
when they were made high places for the sacred
sacrifices of the natives, at the times the potatoes
and sweet potatoes were dug up, and when the
fishing season commenced, and when they attacked
an enemy ; then might be seen the people collect-
ing, in their best garments, and with their orna-
ments, on the days when the priests exposed Tu-hou-
rangi's bones to their view. At the time that the
island Mokoia, in the lake of Roto-rua, was stormed
and taken by the Nga-Puhi, they probably carried
those bones off, for they have not since been seen.
After the dispute between Tama-te-kapua and
Rua' took place, Tama' and his party dwelt at
Maketu, and their descendants after a little time
spread to other places. Ngatoro-i-rangi went, how-
ever, about the country, and where he found dry
valleys, stamped on the earth, and brought forth
springs of water ; he also visited the mountains,
and placed Patupaiarehe, or fairies, there, and then
returned to Maketu and dwelt there.
After this a dispute arose between Tama-te-
kapua and Kahu-rnata-momoe, and in consequence
of that disturbance, Tama' and Ngatoro removed
to Tauranga, and found Taikehu living there, and
collecting food for them (by fishing), and that place
was called by them Te Ranga-a-Taikehu ; * it lies
* The fishing bank of Taikehu.
CHIEF LYING I N STATE.
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 151
beyond Motu-hoa ; then they departed from Tau-
ranga, and stopped at Kati-kati, where they ate
food. Tama's men devoured the food very fast,
whilst he kept on only nibbling his, therefore they
applied this circumstance as a name for the place,
and called it " Kati-kati-o-Tama-te-kapua/' the nib-
bling of Tama-te-kapua ; then they halted at Whaka-
hau, so called because they here ordered food to be
cooked, which they did not stop to eat, but went
right on with JSfgatoro, and this circumstance gave
its name to the place ; and they went on from
place to place till they arrived at Whitianga, which
they so called from their crossing the river there,
and they continued going from one place to another
till they came to Tangiaro, and JNTga,toro stuck up
a stone and left it there, and they dwelt in Moe-
hau and Hau-raki.
They occupied those places as a permanent resi-
dence, and Tama-te-kapua died, and was buried
there. When he was dying, he ordered his children
to return to Maketu, to visit his relations ; and they
assented, and went back. If the children of
Tama-te-kapua had remained at Hau-raki, that
place would now have been left to them as a pos-
session.
Tama-te-kapua, when dying, told his children
where the precious ear-drop Kaukau-matua was,
which he had hidden under the window of his
house ; and his children returned with Ngatoro to
Maketu, and dwelt there ; and as soon as Ngatoro
arrived, he went to the waters to bathe himself, as .
he had come there in a state of tapu, upon account
of his having buried Tama-te-kapua, and having
bathed, he then became free from the tapu and
clean.
Ngatoro then took the daughter of Ihenga to
wife, and he went and searched for the precious
ear-drop Kaukau-matua, and found it, as Tama-te-
kapua had told them. After this the wife of
Kahu-mata-momoe conceived a child.
At this time Ihenga, taking some dogs with him
to catch kiwi's* with, went to Paritangi by way of
Hakomiti, and a kiwi was chased by one of his
dogs, and caught in a lake, and the dog eat some
of the fish and shell-fish in the lake, after diving in
the water to get them, and returned to its master
carrying the captured kiwi in its mouth, and on
reaching its master, it dropped the kiwi, and
vomited up the raw fish and shell-fish which it
had eaten.
"When Ihenga saw his dog wet all over, and the
fish it had vomited up, he knew there was a lake
there, and was extremely glad, and returned joy-
fully to Maketu, and there he had the usual reli-
gious ceremonies which follow the birth of a child
* Apterix Australis.
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 153
performed over his wife and the child she had given
birth to ; and when this had been done, he went
to explore the country which he had previously
visited with his dog.
To his great surprise he discovered a lake : it was
Lake Roto-iti ; he left a mark there to show that he
claimed it as his own. He went further and dis-
covered Lake Roto-rua ; he saw that its waters were
running ; he left there also a mark to show that he
claimed the lake as his own. As he went along
the side of the lake, he found a man occupying the
ground; then he thought to himself that he would
endeavour to gain possession of it by craft, so he
looked out for a spot tit for a sacred place, where
men could offer up their prayers, and for another
spot fit for a sacred place, where nets could be
hung up , and he found fit spots ; then he took
suitable stones to surround the sacred place with,
and old pieces of seaweed, looking as if they had
years ago been employed as offerings, and he went
into the middle of the shrubbery, thick with boughs
of the taha shrub, of the koromuka, and of the
karamu ; there he stuck up the posts of the sacred
place in the midst of the shrubs, and tied bunches
of flax-leaves on the posts, and having done this,
he went to visit the village of the people who lived
there.
They saw some one approaching, and cried out,
H 3
I
154 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
"A stranger, a stranger, is coming here V As soon
as Ihenga heard these cries, he sat down npon the
ground, and then, without waiting for the people of
the place to begin the speeches, he jumped up, and
commenced to speak thus : " What theft is this, what
theft is this of the people here, that they are taking
away my land ? " for he saw that they had their
store-houses full of prepared fern-roots and of dried
fish, and shell-fish, and their heaps of fishing-nets,
so as he spoke, he appeared to swell with rage, and
his throat appeared to grow large from passion as he
talked — "Who authorised you to come here, and
take possession of my place ? Be off, be off, be
off! leave alone the place of the man who speaks
to you, to whom it has belonged for a very long
time, for a very long time indeed/'
Then Maru-punga-nui, the son of Tua-Koto-rua,
the man to whom the place really belonged, said to
Ihenga, "It is not your place, it belongs to me ; if
it belongs to you, where is your village, where is
your sacred place, where is your net, where are
your cultivations and gardens?"
Ihenga answered him, " Come here and see
them/" So they went together, and ascended a
hill, and Ihenga said, " See there, there is my net
hanging up against the ricks but it was no such
thing, it was only a mark like a net hanging up,
caused by part of a cliff having slipped away;
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 155
" and there are the posts of the pine round my vil-
lage " but there was really nothing but some old
stumps of trees ; " look there too at my sacred
place a little beyond yours ; and now come with
me, and see my sacred place, if you are quite
sure you see my village, and my fishing-net — come
along/' So they went together, and there he saw
the sacred place standing in the shrubbery, until at
last he believed Ihenga, and the place was all given
up to Ihenga, and he took possession of it and
lived there, and the descendants of Tua-Roto-rua
departed from that place, and a portion of them,
under the chiefs Kawa-arero and Mata-aho, occu-
pied the island of Mokoia, in Lake Roto-rua.
At this time Ngatoro again went to stamp on
the earth, and to bring forth springs in places
where there was no water, and came out on the
great central plains which surround Lake Taupo,
where a piece of large cloak made of kiekie-leaves
was stripped off by the bushes, and the strips took
root, and became large trees, nearly as large as
the Kahikatea tree (they are called Painanga, and
many of them are growing there still).
Whenever he ascended a hill, he left marks there,
to show that he claimed it ; the marks he left were
fairies. Some of the generation now living have
seen these spirits ; they are malicious spirits. If you
take embers from an oven in which food has been
cooked, and use them for a fire in a house, these
spirits become offended ; although there be many
people sleeping in that house, not one of them
could escape (the fairies would, -whilst they slept,
press the whole of them to death).
Ngatoro went straight on and rested at Taupo,
and he beheld that the summit of Mount Tongariro
was covered with snow, and he was seized with a
longing to ascend it, and he climbed up, saying
to his companions who remained below at their
encampment, " Remember now, do not you, who I
am going to leave behind, taste food from the time
I leave you until I return, when we will all feast
together/' Then he began to ascend the moun-
tain, but he had not quite got to the summit
when those he had left behind began to eat food,
and he therefore found the greatest difficulty in
reaching the summit of the mountain, and the hero
nearly perished in the attempt.
At last he gathered strength, and thought he
could save himself, if he prayed aloud to the gods
of Hawaiki to send fire to him, and to produce
a volcano upon the mountain ; (and his prayer was
answered,) and fire was given to him, and the
mountain became a volcano, and it came by the
way of Whakaari, or White Island, of Mau-tohora,
of Okakaru, of Roto-ehu, of Roto-iti, of Roto-rua,
of Tara-wera, of Pae-roa, of Orakeikorako, and of
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND.
Taupo ; it came right underneath the earth, spouting
up at all the above-mentioned places, and ascended
right up Tongariro, to him who was sitting upon the
top of the mountain, and thence the hero was re-
vived again, and descended, and returned to Maketu,
and dwelt there.
The Arawa had been laid up by its crew at
Maketu, where they landed, and the people who had
arrived with the party in the Arawa spread themselves
over the country, examining it, some penetrating to
Roto-rua, some to Taupo, some to Whanganui, some
to Ruatahuna, and no one was left at Maketu but
Hei' and his son, and Tia and his son, and the
usual place of residence of Ngatoro-i-rangi was on
the island of Motiti. The people who came with
the Tainui were still in Kawhia, where they had
landed.
One of their chiefs, named Rauraati, heard that
the Arawa was laid up at Maketu, so he started
with all his own immediate dependants, and reaching
Tauranga, halted there, and in the evening again
pressed on towards Maketu, and reached the bank
of the river, opposite that on which the Arawa was
lying, thatched over with reeds and dried branches
and leaves ; then he slung a dart, the point of
which was bound round with combustible mate-
rials, over to the other side of the river ; the point
of the dart was lighted, and it stuck right in the
158 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
dry thatch of the roof over the Arawa, and the
shed of dry stuff taking fire, the canoe was entirely
destroyed.
On the night that the Arawa was burnt by
Raumati, there was not a person left at Maketu ;
they were all scattered in the forests, at Tapu-ika,
and at Waitaha, and Ngatoro-i-rangi was at that
moment at his residence on the island of Motiti.
The pa, or fortified village at Maketu, was left
quite empty, without a soul in it. The canoe was
lying alone, with none to watch it ; they had all
gone to collect food of different kinds — it hap-
pened to be a season in which food was very
abundant, and from that cause the people were all
scattered in small parties about the country, fishing,
fowling, and collecting food.
As soon as the next morning dawned, Raumati
could see that the fortified village of Maketu was
empty, and not a person left in it, so he and his
armed followers at once passed over the river
and entered the village, which they found entirely
deserted.
At night, as the Arawa burnt, the people, who
were scattered about in the various parts of the
country, saw the fire, for the bright glare of the
gleaming flames was reflected in the sky, lighting
up the heavens, and they all thought that it was the
village at Maketu that had been burnt ; but those
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 159
persons who were near Waitaha and close to the
sea-shore near where the Arawa was, at once said,
" That must be the Arawa which is burning ; it
must have been accidentally set on fire by some of
our friends who have come to visit us." The next
day they went to see what had taken place, and
when they reached the place where the Arawa had
been lying, they found it had been burnt by an
enemy, and that nothing but the ashes of it were
left them. Then a messenger started to all the
places where the people were scattered about, to
warn them of what had taken place, and they then
first heard the bad news.
The children of Hou, as they discussed in their
house of assembly the burning of the Arawa, re-
membered the proverb of their father, which he
spake to them as they were on the point of leaving
Hawaiki, and when he bid them farewell.
He then said to them, " 0 my children, 0 Mako,
0 Tia, 0 Hei, hearken to these my words : —
" There was but one great chief in Hawaiki,
and that was Whakatauihu. Now do you, my
dear children, depart in peace, and when you
reach the place you are going to, do not follow
after the deeds of Tu', the god of war ; if you do
you will perish, as if swept off by the winds,
but rather follow quiet and useful occupations, then
you will die tranquilly a natural death. Depart,
and dwell in peace with all, leave war and strife
behind you here. Depart, and dwell in peace. It is
war and its evils which are driving you from hence ;
dwell in peace where you are going, conduct your-
selves like men, let there be no quarrelling amongst
you, but build up a great people."
These were the last words which Houmai-ta-whiti
addressed to his children, and they ever kept these
sayings of their father firmly fixed in their hearts.
" Depart in peace to explore new homes for your-
selves/'
Uenuku perhaps gave no such parting words of ad-
vice to his children, when they left him for this coun-
try, because they brought war and its evils with them
from the other side of the ocean to New Zealand.
But, of course, when Raumati burnt the Arawa,
the descendants of Houmai-ta-whiti could not help
continually considering what they ought to do, whe-
ther they should declare war upon account of the
destruction of their canoe, or whether they should
let this act pass by without notice. They kept
these thoughts always close in mind, and impatient
feelings kept ever rising up in their hearts. They
could not help saying to one another, " It was upon
account of war and its consequences, that we de-
serted our own country, that we left our fathers,
our homes, and our people, and war and evil are
following after us here. Yet we cannot remain
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 161
patient under such an injury, every feeling urges us
to revenge this wrong/'
At last they made an end of deliberation, and
unanimously agreed that they would declare war,
to obtain compensation for the evil act of Kaumati
in burning the Arawa ; and then commenced the
great war which was waged between those who
arrived in the Arawa and those who arrived in
the Tainui.
Chapter 12
(KO MANAIA, KO KUIWAI.)
When the Tainui and the Arawa sailed away
from Hawaiki with Ngatoro-i-rangi on board, he
left behind him his younger sister, Kuiwai, who was
married to a powerful chief named Manaia. Some
time after the canoes had left, a great meeting of
all the people of his tribe was held by Manaia, to
remove a tapu, and when the religious part of the
ceremony was ended, the women cooked food for
the strangers.
When their ovens were opened, the food in the
oven of Kuiwai, the wife of Manaia, and sister of
Ngatoro-i-rangi, was found to be much under-
done, and Manaia was very angry with his wife,
and gave her a severe beating, and cursed, saying,
" Accursed be your head ; are the logs of firewood
as sacred as the bones of your brother, that you
were so sparing of them as not to put into the fire
THE CURSE OF MANAIA.
in which the stones were heated enough to make
them red hot? Will you dare to do the like
again ? If you do I '11 serve the flesh of your
brother in the same way, it shall frizzle on the red-
hot stones of Waikorora."
And his poor wife was quite overcome with
shame, and burst out crying, and went on sobbing
and weeping all the time she was taking the under-
done food out of the oven, and when she had put
it in baskets, and carried them up to her husband,
and laid them before him, she eat nothing herself,
but went on one side and cried bitterly, and then
retired and hid herself in the house.
And just before night closed in on them, she
cast her garments on one side, and girded herself
with a new sash made from the young shoots of
the toetoe, and stood on the threshold, and spread
out her gods, Kahukura, Itupawa, and Rongomai,
and she and her daughter, and her sister Haungaroa,
stood before them, and the appearance of the gods
was most propitious ; and when her incantations
were ended, she said to her daughter, " My child,
your journey will be a most fortunate one/' The
gods were then by her bound up in cloths, and
she hung them up again, and returned into the
house.
She then said to her daughter, " Now depart,
and when you reach your uncle Ngatoro, and your
other relations, tell them that they have been
cursed by Manaia, because the food in my oven was
not cooked upon the occasion of a great assembly
for taking off a tapu, and that he then said, * Are
the logs in the forest as sacred as the bones of
your brother, that you are afraid to use them in
cooking ; or are the stones of the desert the kid-
neys of Ngatoro-i-rangi, that you don't heat them ;
by-and-bye 1 11 frizzle the flesh of your brother on
red-hot stones taken from Waikorora/ Now, my
child, depart to your uncle and relations ; be quick,
this is the season of the wind of Pungawere, which
will soon waft them here."
The women then took by stealth the gods of the
people, that is to say, Maru, and Te Iho-o-te-rangi,
and Rongomai, and Itupawa, and Hangaroa, and
they had no canoe for their journey, but these gods
served them as a canoe to cross the sea. For the
first canoes which had left Hawaiki for New Zea-
land carried no gods for human beings with them ;
they only carried the gods of the sweet potatoes
and of fish, they left behind them the gods for
mortals, but they brought away with them prayers,
incantations, and a knowledge of enchantments, for
these things were kept secret in their minds, being
learnt by heart, one from another.
Then the girl and her companions took with them
Kahukura, and Itupawa, and Rongomai, and Maru,
THE CURSE OF MANAIA.
and the other gods, and started on their journey ;
altogether there were five women, and they jour-
neyed and journeyed towards New Zealand, and,
borne up by the gods, they traversed the vast ocean
till at last they landed on the burning island of
Whakaari, and when daylight appeared, they floated
again on the waters, and finally landed on the north-
ern island of New Zealand, at Tawhiuwhiu, and
went by an inland route, and stopped to eat food at
a place whence they had a good view over the plains,
and after the rest of the party had done eating,
Haungaroa still went on, and two of her compa-
nions teased her, saying : " Holloa, Haungaroa, what
a long time you continue eating and those
plains have ever since been called Kaingoroa, or
Kaingoroa-o-Haungaroa (the long meal of Haun-
garoa). Haungaroa, who was much provoked with
the two women who thus teased her, smote them
on the face, whereupon they fled from her, and
Haungaroa pursued them a long way, but she pur-
sued in vain, they would not come back to her, so
by her enchantments she changed them into Ti
trees, which stand on the plains whilst travellers
approach them, but which move from place to place
when they attempt to get close (and the natives
believe that the trees are there at the present
day).
Then the other three women continued their
journey, and they at length reached the summit of
a hill, and sat down there to rest themselves,
and whilst they were resting, Haungaroa thought
of her mother, and love for her overcame her, and
she wept aloud — and that place has ever since been
called Te Tangihanga, or the place of weeping.
After they had rested for some time, they con-
tinued their journey, until they reached the open
summit of another high hill, which they named
Piopio, and from thence they saw the beautiful lake
of Roto-rua lying at their feet, and they descended
towards it, and came down upon the geyser, which
spouts up its jets of boiling water at the foot of
the mountain, and they reached the lake itself, and
wound round it along its sandy shores ; then leaving
the lake behind them, they struck off towards
Maketu, and at last reached that place also, coming
out of the forests upon the sea-coast, close to the
village of Tuhoro, and when they saw the people
there, they called out to them — " Whereabout is
the residence of Ngatoro-i-rangi ? " And the people
answered them, " He lives near the large elevated
storehouse which you see erected on the hill
there ; and the niece of Ngatoro-i-rangi saw the
fence which surrounded his place, and she walked
straight on towards the wicket of the fortification ;
she would not however pass in through it like a
common person, but climbed the posts, and clam-
THE CURSE OF MANAIA.
bered into the fortress over its wooden defences,
and having got inside, went straight on to the house
of Ngatoro-i-rangi, entered it, and going right up
to the spot which was sacred, from his sitting on it,
she seated herself down there.
When Ngatori-i-rangi's people saw this, one of
them ran off with all speed to tell his master, who
was then at work with some of his servants on his
farm, and having found Mm he said, " There is
a stranger just arrived at your residence, who
carries a travelling-bag as if she had come from a
long journey, and she would not come in at the
gate of the fortress, but climbed right over the
wooden defences, and has quietly laid her travelling-
bag upon the very roof of your sacred house, and
has walked up and seated herself in the very seat
that your sacred person generally occupies/'
When the servant had ended his story, Ngatoro
at once guessed who this stranger from a distance
must be, and said, "It is my niece and he then
asked, " Where is Te Kehu ? " and they told him,
" He is a/t work in his plantation of sweet pota-
toes." And he bid them fetch him at once, and to
be quick about it ; and when he arrived they all
went together to the place where his niece was, and
when he reached her, he at once led her before the
altar, and she gave them the gods which she had
brought with her from Hawaiki.
168 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
Then she said to them, " Come now, and let us
be cleansed by diving in running water, and let
the ceremony of Whangai-horo be performed over
us, for you have been cursed by Manahua and his
tribe."
When they heard this they cried aloud, and tore
off their clothes, and ran to a running stream and
plunged into it, and dashed water over themselves,
and the priests chanted the proper incantations,
and performed all the prescribed ceremonies ; and
when these were finished they left the stream, and
went towards the village again, and the priests
chanted incantations for cleansing the court-yard of
the fortress from the defilement of the curse of
Manaia ; but the incantations for this purpose have
not been handed down to the present generation.
The priests next dug a long pit, termed the pit
of wrath, into which by their enchantments they
might bring the spirits of their enemies, and hang
them and destroy them there ; and when they had
dug the pit, muttering the necessary incantations,
they took large shells in their hands to scrape the
spirits of their enemies into the pit with, whilst
they muttered enchantments ; and when they had
done this, they scraped the earth into the pit again
to cover them up, and beat down the earth with
their hands, and crossed the pit with enchanted
cloths, and wove baskets of flax-leaves, to hold the
THE CUESE OF MANAIA.
spirits of the foes which they had thus destroyed,
and each of these acts they accompanied with pro-
per spells.
The religious ceremonies being all ended, they
sat down, and Ngatoro-i-rangi wept over his niece,
and then they spread food before the travellers ;
and when they had finished their meal they all
collected in the house of Ngatoro-i-rangi, and the
old men began to question the strangers, saying,
"What has brought you here?" Then Kuiwai's
daughter said, " A curse which Manaia uttered
against you ; for when they had finished making his
sacred place for him, and the females were cooking
food for the strangers who attended the ceremony,
the food in Kuiwai's oven was not well cooked, and
Manaia cursed her and you, saying, 1 Is firewood
as sacred as the bones of your brethren, that you
fear to burn it in an oven ? I TL yet make the flesh
of your brothers hiss upon red-hot stones brought
from Waikorora, and heated to warm the oven in
which they shall be cooked/ That curse is the
curse that brought me here, for my mother told me
to hasten to you."
When Ngatoro-i-rangi heard this, he was very
wroth, and he in his turn cursed Manaia, saying,
" Thus shall it be done unto you — your flesh shall
be cooked with stones brought from Maketu." Then
he told all his relations and people to search early
I
the next morning for a large Totara-tree, from
which they might build a canoe, as they had no
canoe since Raumati had burnt the Arawa.
Then the people all arose very early the next
morning, and with them were the chosen band of
one hundred and forty warriors, and they went
out to search for a large Totara-tree, and Kuiwai's
daughter went with them, and she found a great
Totara-tree fallen down, and nearly buried in the
earth ; so they dug it out, and they framed a large
canoe from it, which they named " The Totara-tree,
dug from the earth and they hauled it down to
the shore, and, launching it, embarked, and paddled
out to sea, and the favourable wind of Punga-
were was blowing strong, and it blew so for seven
days and nights, and wafted them across the ocean,
and at the end of that time they had again reached
the shores of Hawaiki.
The name of the place at which they landed in
Hawaiki was Tara-i-whenua ; they landed at night-
time, and drew their canoe up above high- water
mark, and laid it in the thickets, that none might
see that strangers had arrived.
Ngatoro-i-rangi then went at once to a fortified
village named Whaitiri-ka-papa, and when he
arrived there he walked carelessly up to the house
of Kuiwai, and peeping in at the door, said
that she was wanted outside for a minute ; and
THE CURSE OF MANAIA.
she, knowing his voice, came out to him imme-
diately ; and Ngatoro-i-rangi questioned her, saying,
" Have you anything to say to me, that I ought to
know V And she replied, " The whole tribe of Ma-
naia are continually occupied in praying to their
gods, at the sacred place ; they pray to them to
bring you and your tribe here, dead ; perhaps
their incantations may now have brought you
here/' Then Ngatoro asked her, " In what part
of the heavens is the sun when they go to the
sacred place ?" and she answered, " They go there
early in the morning/' Then Ngatoro-i-rangi asked
her again, "Where are they all in the evening?"
and she replied, "In the evening they collect in
numbers in their villages for the night, in the
morning they disperse about/' Then, just as
Ngatoro-i-rangi was going, he said to her, " At
the dawn of morning climb up on the roof of your
house that you may have a good view, and watch
what takes place/' Having thus spoken, he re-
turned to the main body of his party.
Then Ngatoro related to them all that his sister
had told him; and when they had heard this, Tan-
garoa, one of his chiefs, said, " My counsel is, that
we storm their fortress this night f but then stood
up Eangitu, another chief, and said, "Nay, but
rather let us attack it in the morning." Now arose
Ngatoro, and he spake aloud to them and said,
I 2
" I agree with neither of you. We must go to the
sacred place, and strike our noses until they bleed
and we are covered with blood, and then we must
lie on the ground like dead bodies, every man with
his weapon hid under him, and their priests will
imagine that their enchantments have brought us
here and slain us; so shall we surprise them/' On
hearing these words from their leader they all
arose, and following him in a body to the court-
yard of the sacred place, they found that the foolish
priests had felt so sure of compelling their spirits
by enchantments to bring Ngatoro and his tribe
there, and to slay them for them, that they had
even prepared ovens to cook their bodies in, and
these were all lying open ready for the victims ;
and by the sides of the ovens they had laid in
mounds the green leaves, all prepared to place upon
the victims before the earth was heaped in to
cover them up, and the fire-wood and the stones
were also lying ready to be heated. Then the
one hundred and forty men went and laid them-
selves down in the ovens dug out of the earth, as
though they had been dead bodies, and they turned
themselves about, and beat themselves upon their
noses and their faces until they bled, so that
their bodies became all covered with blood, like
the corpses of men slain in battle ; and then they
lay still in the ovens : the weapons they had with
THE CUKSE OF MANAIA.
them were short clubs of various kinds, such as
clubs of jasper and of basalt, and of the bones of
whales, and the priests whom they had with them
having found out the sacred place of the people
of that country, entered it, and hid themselves
there.
Thus they continued to lie in the ovens until the
sun arose next morning, and until the priests of
their enemies, according to their custom each day
at dawn, came to spread leaves and other offerings
to the gods in the sacred place, and there, to their
surprise, these priests found the warriors of Ngatoro-
i-rangi all lying heaped up in the ovens. Then the
priests raised joyful shouts, crying — " At last our
prayers have been answered by the gods ; here,
here are the bodies of the host of Ngatoro and of
Tama', lying heaped up in the cooking places. This
has been done by our god — he carried them off,
and brought them here/' The multitude of people
in the village hearing these cries, ran out to see
the wonder, and when they saw the bodies of the
one hundred and forty lying there, with the blood
in clots dried on them, they began to cry out, — one,
" 1 11 have this shoulder f another, " And 1 11 have
this thigh \ and a third, " That head is mine f
for the blood shed from striking their noses during
the previous night was now quite clotted on their
bodies ; and the priests of those who were lying
in the ovens having hidden themselves in the
bushes of the shrubbery round the sacred place,
could not be seen by the priests of the town of
Manaia when they entered the sacred place, to
perform the fitting rites to the gods.
So these latter cried aloud, as they offered
thanksgivings to the gods for having granted their
prayers, and for having fulfilled their wishes; but just
as their ceremonies were finished, the priests of the
war party of JNTgatoro-i-rangi rushing (out of their
hiding places) upon the other priests, slew them,
so that the priests were first slain, as offerings to the
gods. Then arose the one hundred and forty men
from the ovens, and rushed upon their enemies: all
were slain, not one escaped but Manaia, and he fled
to the town ; but they at once attacked and carried
the town by assault, and then the slaughter ceased.
And the first battle at the sacred place was called Ihu-
motomotokia, or the battle of " Bruised Noses;" and
the name of the town which was taken was Whai-
tiri-ka-papa, but Manaia again escaped from the
assault on the town. They entered the breaches in
the town as easily as if they had been walking in
at the door of a house left open to receive them,
whence this proverb has been handed down to us —
" As soon as ever you have defeated your enemy,
storm their town." The priests now turned over
the bodies of the first slain, termed the holy fish,
NEW ZEALAND TRADITION
THE CURSE OF MANAIA.
as offerings set apart for the gods, and said suitable
prayers, and when these ceremonies were ended,
the conquerors cooked the bodies of their enemies,
and devoured the whole of them ; but soon after-
wards the warriors of the other towns of Manaia
which had not been assaulted, were approaching as
a forlorn hope to attack their enemies.
In the meanwhile Ngatoro-i-rangi and his war-
riors, unaware of this, had retired towards their
canoe, whilst the host of warriors whom Manaia
had again assembled were following upon their
traces. They soon came to a stream which they had
to pass, and fording that they left it behind them,
and gained their canoe, but by the time they were
there, their pursuers had reached the stream they
had just left.
Ngatoro-i-rangi now felt thirsty, and remembered
that they had no water for the crew of the canoe,
so he said, " There is no water here for us " and
Eangitu hearing the voice of his commander, an-
swered cheerfully, " No, there is none here, but
there is plenty in the stream we have just crossed.
So they gave the great calabash of the canoe to
Eangitu, and he returned towards the stream, but
before he got there the host of Manaia had reached
it, and had occupied its banks.
Kangitu, who did not see them, as soon as he
got to the edge of the stream, dipped his calabash
to fill it, and as it did not sink easily, being
empty and very light, lie stooped down and
put his hand upon it to press it under the water ;
and whilst he was holding it with one hand to
press it down, one of the enemy, stealing on him,
made a blow at him with his weapon. Rangitu
saw nothing, but merely heard the whizz of the
weapon as it was sweeping down through the air
upon his head, and quick as thought he jerks the
calabash out of the water, and holds it as a shield
in the direction in which he heard the blow coming
down upon him ; the weapon is parried off from one
side of his head, but the calabash is shattered to
pieces, and nothing but the mouth of the vessel
which he was holding is left in his hand.
Then off he darts, fast as he can fly, and reaches
before the enemy Ngatoro-i-rangi and his one
hundred and forty warriors ; as soon as he is thus
sure of support, in a moment he turns upon his
foes. Ha, ha ! he slays the first of the enemy, and
carries off his victim. Then lo ! Tangaroa has risen
up, he is soon amongst the enemy, he slays and car-
ries off the second man. Next, Tama-te-kapua kills
and carries off his man ; thus is it with each war-
rior ; the enemy then breaks and flies, and a great
slaughter is made of the host of Manaia, yet he
himself again escapes with his life. The name
given to this battle was Tarai-whenua-kura.
THE CUESE OF MANAIA.
Having thus avenged themselves of their enemies,
they again returned to these islands and settled at
Maketu, and cultivated farms there. Manaia, on
his part, was not idle, for shortly after they had
left his place of residence, he, with his tribe, set to
work at refitting their canoes.
Ngatoro-i-rangi, in the meantime, occupied the
island of Motiti, off Tauranga, in the Bay of
Plenty. There he built a fortified village, which
he named Matarehua, and a large house orna-
mented with carved work, which he named Tai-
maihi-o-Rongo ; and he made a large under-
ground store for his sweet potatoes, which he named
Te Marihope ; and he and his old wife generally
lived nearly alone in their village on Motiti, whilst
the great body of their people dwelt on the main-
land at Maketu ; whilst the old couple were in this
way living on Motiti, suddenly one evening Manaia,
with a large fleet of canoes and a whole host of
warriors, appeared off the coast of the island, and
they pulled straight up to the landing-place, opposite
to the house of Ngatoro-i-rangi, and lay on their
paddles there, whilst Manaia hailed him, calling out,
" Ho ! brother-in-law, come out here if you dare,
let us fight before the daylight is gone/' Ngatoro-
i-rangi no sooner heard the voice of Manaia, than
he came boldly out of the house, although he was
almost alone, and there he saw the whole host of
I 3
Manaia lying on their paddles at the anchorage off
his landing-place ; but he at once hailed them, shout-
ing out, " Well done, O brother-in-law, just anchor
where you are for the night, it is already getting
dark, and we shall not be able to see to meet the
edge of one weapon with the other ; the warriors
could not, therefore, parry one another's blows ;
to-morrow morning we will fight as much as you
like/' Manaia no sooner heard this proposal, than
he assented to it, saying, " You are right, it has
already grown dark/' And Ngatoro answered him,
" You had better bring-to your canoes in the an-
chorage outside there." Manaia therefore told his
army to anchor their canoes, and to lose no time in
cooking their food on board ; and the priest
Ngatoro-i-rangi remained in his fortress.
All the early part of the night Ngatoro-i-
rangi remained in the sacred place, performing en-
chantments and repeating incantations, and his wife
was with him muttering her incantations ; and
having finished them, they both returned to their
house, and there they continued to perform reli-
gious rites, calling to their aid the storms of
heaven ; whilst the host of Manaia did nothing
but amuse themselves, singing Hakas and songs,
and diverting themselves thoughtlessly as war
parties do : little did they think that they were
so soon to perish ; no, they flattered themselves
THE CUESE OF MANAIA.
that they would destroy Ngatoro-i-rangi, having
now caught him almost alone.
So soon as the depth of night fell upon the
world, whilst Ngatoro and his aged wife were still
in the house, and the old woman was sitting at
the window watching for what might take place,
she heard the host of Manaia insulting herself and
her husband, by singing taunting war-songs. Then
the ancient priest Ngatoro, who was sitting at the
upper end of the house, rises up, unloosens and
throws off his garments, and repeats his incanta-
tions, and calls upon the winds, and upon the
storms, and upon the thunder and lightning, that
they may all arise and destroy the host of Manaia ;
and the god Tawhiri-matea hearkened unto the
priest, and he permitted the winds to issue forth,
together with hurricanes, and gales, and storms, and
thunders and lightnings ; and the priest and his
wife hearkened anxiously that they might hear the
first bursting forth of the winds, and thunders and
lightnings, and of the rain and hail.
Then, when it was the middle space between the
commencement of night and the commencement of
the day, burst forth the winds, and the rain, and
the lightning, and the thunder, and into the har-
bour poured all the mountainous waves of the sea,
and there lay the host of Manaia overcome with
sleep, and snoring loudly ; but when the ancient
180 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
priest and his wife heard the rushing of the winds
and the roaring of the waves, they closed their
house up securely, and lay composedly down to rest,
and as they lay they could hear a confused noise,
and cries of terror, and a wild and tumultuous
uproar from a mighty host, but before very long,
all the loud confusion became hushed, and nothing
was to be heard but the heavy rolling of the surges
upon the beach ; nor did the storm itself last very
long — it had soon ceased.
When the next morning broke, the aged wife of
Ngatoro went out of her house, and looked to see
what had become of the host of Manaia, and as
she cast her eyes along the shore, there she saw
them lying dead, cast up on the beach. The name
Ngatoro-i-rangi ^ave to this slaughter was Maiku-
kutea ; the name given to the storm which slew
them all was Te Aputahi-a-Pawa. He gave the
name of Maikukutea to the slaughter, because the
fish having eaten the bodies of Manaia's warriors,
only their bones, and the nails of their hands
and feet, but hardly any part of their corpses,
could be found.
Of the vast host of Manaia that perished, not
one escaped : the body of Manaia himself they re-
cognised by some tattoo marks upon one of his
arms. Ngatoro now lighted a signal fire as a
sign to his relations and warriors at Maketu that
THE CURSE OF MANAIA.
he wanted them to cross over to the island ; and
when his chosen band of one hundred and forty
warriors saw the signal, they launched their canoe
and pulled across to join their chief, and on reach-
ing the island, they found that the host of Manaia
had all perished.
Thus was avenged the curse of Mutahanga and
of Manaia ; however, it would have been far better
if the canoe Arawa had not been burnt by Raumati,
then Ngatoro and his warriors would have had two
canoes to return in to Hawaiki, to revenge their
wrongs, and the whole race of Manaia would have
been utterly destroyed.
It would also have been far better if Ngatoro
and his people had remained at Maketu, and had
never gone to Moehau ; then the Arawa would not
have been burnt ; for from the burning of that
canoe by Raumati sprang the war, the events of
which have now been recounted.
Chapter 13
BROTHERS.
When Tama-te-Kapua went with his followers to
Moe-hau, the hill near Cape Colville, and Ihenga
and his followers went to Roto-rua, then Ha-nui,
Ha-roa, and Hatupatu went also to Whakamaru,
to Maroa, to Tuata, to Tutuka, to Tuaropaki, to
Hauhungaroa, to Hurakia, and to Horohoro, the
districts which lie between Lakes Taupo and Roto-
rua, and between Roto-rua and the head of the
Waikato River, to snare birds for themselves, and
followed their sport for many a day, until they had
hunted for several months ; but their little brother
Hatupatu was all this time thinking to himself
that they never gave him any of the rare dainties
or nice things that they got, so that they might
all feast together, but at each meal he received
nothing but the lean tough birds; so when the
poor little fellow went and sat down by the side
of the fire to his food, he every day used to
keep on crying and eating, crying and eating,
during his meals. At last, saucy, mischievous
HATUPATU AND HIS BROTHERS. 183
thoughts rose up in his young heart. So one day,
whilst his brothers were out snaring birds, and
he, on this as on every other day, was left at their
resting-place to take care of the things, the little
rogue crept into the storehouse, where the birds,
preserved in their own fat, were kept in cala-
bashes, and he stole some, and set resolutely to
work to eat them, with some tender fern-root,
nicely beaten and dressed, for a relish ; so that to
look at him you could not help thinking of the
proverb, " Bravo, that throat of yours can swallow
anything."
He finished all the calabashes of preserved
birds, and then attacked those that were kept
in casks, and when he had quite filled himself
he crept out of the storehouse again, and there he
went trampling over the pathway that led to their
resting-place, running about this side, and that
side, and all round it, that his brothers might be
induced to think a war party had come, and
had eaten up the food in their absence. Then he
came back, and ran a spear into himself in two
or three places, where he could not do himself
much harm, and gave himself a good bruise or two
upon his head, and laid down on the ground near
their hut.
When his brothers came back they found him
184 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
lying there in appearance very badly wounded ;
they next ran to the storehouse, and found their
preserved birds all gone : so they asked him who
had done all this, and he replied, " A war party/'
Then they went to the pathways and saw the foot-
marks, and said, "It is too true." They melted
some fat, and poured warm oil on his wounds, and
he revived ; and they all ate as they used to do in
former days, the brothers enjoying all the good
things, whilst Hatupatu kept eating and crying,
and he went and sat on the smoky side of the fire,
so that his cruel brothers might laugh at him, saying,
" Oh, never mind him ; those are not real tears,
they are only his eyes watering from the smoke."
Next day Hatupatu stopped at home, and off
went his brothers to snare birds, and he began to
steal the preserved birds again, and thus he did
every day, every day, and of course at last his
brothers suspected him, and one day they laid in
Wait for him, when he not foreseeing this, again
crouched into the storehouse and began eating.
" Ha, ha, ha, we Ve caught you now then ; your
thievish tricks are found out, are they, you little
rogue?" His brothers killed him at once, and
buried him in the large heap of feathers they
had pulled out from the snared birds; after
this they went back to Roto-rua, and when they
HATTJPATU AND HIS BROTHEKS. 185
arrived, their parents asked them, " Where is
Hatupatu ? What's become of your little brother?"
And they answered, " We don't know ; we have
not seen him." And their parents said, " You've
killed him." And they replied, "We have not;"
and they disputed and disputed together, and at
last their parents said, " It is too true that you
must have killed him, for he went away with you,
and he is missing now when you return to us."
At length Hatupatu's father and mother thought
they would send a spirit to search for him ; so they
sent one, and the spirit went. Its form was that
of a flag, and its name was Tamumu-ki-te-rangi, or
He-that-buzzes-in-the-skies, and it departed and
arrived at the place where Hatupatu was buried,
and found him and performed enchantments, and
Hatupatu came to life again, and went upon his
way, and met a woman who was spearing birds for
herself, and her spear was nothing but her own
lips: and Hatupatu had a real wooden spear. The
woman speared at a bird with her lips, but
Hatupatu had at the same moment thrown his
spear at the same bird, and it stuck into her
lips: and when he saw this he ran off with all his
speed, but he was soon caught by the woman,
not being able to go so fast as she could, for her
feet bore her along, and wings were upon her
186 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
arms, like those of a bird, and she brought him to
her house, and they slept there.
Hatupatu found that this woman never ate any-
thing but raw food, and she gave the birds to
Hatupatu to eat without their being in any way
dressed, but he only pretended to eat them, lifting
them up to his mouth, and letting them fall slily.
At dawn the woman prepared to go and spear birds,
but Hatupatu always remained at home, and when
she had departed, he began to cook food for him-
self, and to look at all the things in the cave of
rocks that the woman lived in — at her two-handed
wooden sword — at her beautiful cloak made of red
feathers torn from under the wing of the Kaka — at
her red cloak of thick dog's fur — at her ornamented
cloak woven from flax ; and he kept thinking how
he could run off with them all : and then he looked
at the various tame lizards she had, and at her
tame little birds, and at all her many curiosities,
and thus he went on day after day, until at last
one day he said to her, "Now, you'd better
go a long distance to-day ; to the first moun-
tain range, to the second range, the tenth range, the
hundredth range, the thousandth mountain range,
and when you get there, then begin to catch birds
for us two." To this she consented, and went.
He remained behind roasting birds for himself, and
HATUPATU AND HIS BROTHERS. 187
thinking, " I wonder how far she 's got now ; " and
when he thought she had reached the place he had
spoken of, then he began to gather up her cloak of
red feathers, and her cloak of dogs' skins, and her
cloak of ornamented flax, and her carved two-
handed sword ; and the young fellow said, " How
well I shall look when all the fine feathers on these
cloaks are rustled by the wind." And he brandished
the two-handed sword, and made cuts at the lizards,
and at all the tame animals, and they were soon
killed. Then he struck at the perch on which
the little pet birds sat, and he killed them all but
one, which escaped, and it flew away to fetch
back the woman they all belonged to. Her name
was Kurangaituku. And as the little bird flew
along, these are the words he kept singing, " Oh,
Kurangaituku, our home is ruined, our things are
all destroyed and so it kept singing until it had
flown a very long way. At last Kurangaituku
heard it, and said, " By whom is all this done V
And the little bird answered, " By Hatupatu —
everything is gone." Then Kurangaituku made
haste to get home again, and as she went
along she kept calling out, " Step out, stretch
along ; step out, stretch along. There you are,
0 Hatupatu, not far from me. There you are, 0
Hatupatu, not far from me. Step out, stretch
along ; step out, stretch along. There you are, 0
Hatupatu, not far from me now/'
She only made three strides, before she had
reached her cave, and when she looked about,
she could see nothing in it ; but the little
bird still guided her on, as she kept saying, " Step
out, stretch along ; step out, stretch along ; I '11
catch you there now, Hatupatu ; 1 11 catch you
there now, Hatupatu f and she almost caught Ha-
tupatu ; and he thought, I 'in done for now. So
he repeated his charm : " 0 rock, open for me,
open." Then the rock oj)ened, and he hid himself
in it, and the woman looked and could not find
him ; and she went on to a distance, and kept call-
ing out, " 1 11 catch you there, Hatupatu ; I '11 catch
you there, Hatupatu and when her voice had
died away at a great distance, Hatupatu came up
out of the rock and made off ; and thus they went
on, and thus they went on, the whole way, until
they came to Roto-rua ; and when they arrived at
the sulphur-springs (called Te Whaka-rewa-rewa),
Hatupatu jumped over these ; but Kurangaituku
thinking they were cold, tried to wade through, but
sunk through the crust, and was burnt to death.
Hatupatu proceeded on and sat on the shore of
the lake, and when the evening came, he dived
into the water, and rose up at the island of
HATUPATU AND HIS BROTHERS. 189
Mokoia, and sat in the warm-bath there ; just
at this time his father and mother wanted
some water to drink, and sent their slave to
fetch some for them, and he came to the place
where he found Hatupatu lying in the warm-
bath ; Hatupatu laid hold of him, and asked
him, " Whom are you fetching that water for
at this time of night V and he answered, " For
so and so/' Then Hatupatu asked him, "Where
is the house of Ha-nui and of Ha-roa V and the
slave answered, " They live in a house by them-
selves ; but what can your name be V and he
answered him, " I am Hatupatu." So the old
slave said, " 0 Hatupatu, are you still alive V-
and he replied, " Yes, indeed/' And the old
slave said to him, " Oh, 1 11 tell you ; I and your
father and mother live together in a house by
ourselves ; and they sent me down here to fetch
water for them *" and Hatupatu said, " Let us go
to them together and they went : and on coming
to them, the old people began to weep with a loud
voice ; and Hatupatu said, " Nay, nay ; let us cry
with a gentle voice, lest my brethren who slew me
should hear ; and I, moreover, will not sleep here
with you, my parents, it is better for me to go
and remain in the cave you have dug to keep your
sweet potatoes in, that I may overhear each day
what they say, and I '11 take all my meals there/'
So he went, and he said, " Let my father sleep with
me in the cave in the night, and in the daytime
let him stop in the house \ and his father consented,
and thus they did every day and every night, and
his brothers noticed that there was a change in their
food, that they did not get so much or such good
food as whilst their brother had been away (for
his mother kept the best of everything for him) ;
they had worse food now ; so they beat their
mother and their slaves, and this they did con-
tinually.
At last, they heard the people all calling out,
" Oh, oh, Hatupatu's here and one of them
said, " Oh, no, that can't be ; why, Hatupatu is
dead ;" but when they saw it was really him, one
of them caught hold of his two-handed wooden
sword, and so did the others ; and Hatupatu
also caught hold of his two-handed wooden sword ;
he had decorated his head in the night, and had
stuck it fall of the beautiful feathers befitting a
chief ; and he had placed a bunch of the soft white
down from the stomach of the albatross in each
ear ; and when his brothers and the multitude of
their followers dared him to come forth from the
storehouse and fight them, he caught hold of his
girdle, and of his apron of red feathers, and girding
NEW ZEALAND CHIEF.
HATUPATU AND HIS BEOTHEES. 191
on his apron, he repeated an incantation suited
for the occasion. When this was finished his head
appeared rising up out of the storehouse, and he
repeated another incantation, and afterwards a third
over his sword.
Hatupatu now came out of the storehouse, and
as his brothers gazed on him, they saw his
looks were most noble ; glared forth on them
the eyes of the young man, and glittered forth
the mother-of-pearl eyes of the carved face on the
handle of his sword, and when the many thousands
of their tribe who had gathered round saw the
youth, they too were quite astonished at his noble-
ness ; they had no strength left, they could do
nothing but admire him : he was only a little boy
when they had seen him before, and now, when
they met him again, he was like a noble chief, and
they now looked upon his brothers with very differ-
ent eyes from those with which they looked at him.
His three brothers sprang at him ; three wooden
swords were at the same time levelled at Hatupatu
to slay him ; he held the blade of his sword
pointed to the ground, till the swords of his bro-
thers almost touched him, when he rapidly warded
off the blows, and whirling round his wooden sword,
two of the three were felled by the blade of it,
and one by a blow from the handle ; then they sprang
up, and rushed at him once more ; over they go
192 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
again, two felled by the blade of bis sword, and
one by the handle ; it was enough — they gave in.
Then their father said to them, " Oh ! my sons, I
would that you were as strong in peace as you
are in attacking one another ; in seeking revenge
for your ancestral canoe, Te Arawa, which was
consumed in a fire by the chief Raumati. Long
have you been seeking to revenge yourselves upon
him, but you have not succeeded, you have gained
no advantage ; perhaps you are only strong and
bold when you attack your young brother, my
last-born child/'
When his sons Ha-nui, Ha-roa, and Karika
heard these words of their father, they and their
many followers felt their hearts grow sad ; they
began to prepare for a war party, by beating
flat pieces of prepared fern-root ; and they cooked
sweet potatoes in ovens, and mashed them, and
packed them up in baskets of flax, and again
put them in the ovens, that the food might
keep for a long time ; and they cooked shell-fish
in baskets, and thus collected food for an expe-
dition to Maketu. Whilst his brothers were
making all these preparations for the expedition,
their father was secretly teaching Hatupatu the
tattoo marks and appearance of Raumati, so that
he might easily recognise that chief ; and when
the canoes started with the warriors, he did not
HATUPATU AND HIS BROTHERS. 193
embark with them, but remained behind ; the
canoes had reached the middle of the lake, when
Hatupatu rose up, and taking thirty cloaks of
red feathers with him, went off to the war ; he
proceeded by diving under the water — that was
the path he chose; and when he reached the
deepest part of the lake, he stopped to eat a
meal of mussels in the water, and then rose up
from the bottom and came out. He had got as
far as Ngaukawakawa, when his brothers and
the warriors in the canoes arrived there, and
found him spreading out the cloaks he had
brought with him to dry; and as soon as their
canoes reached the shore they asked him, "Where is
your canoe, that you managed to get here so fast?"
and he answered, "Never mind, I have a canoe of
my own."
Hatupatu threw off here the wreath of leaves
he wore round his brow, and it took root, and
became a pohutukawa-tree, which bears such beau-
tiful red flowers. His brothers' canoes had by
this time got out into Roto-iti ; then he again
dived after them, and rose to the surface, and
came out of the water at Kuha-rua, where he
threw off his wreath of totara-leaves, and it took
root and grew, and it is still growing there at
this day ; when Ins brothers and the warriors
arrived at Kuha-rua, they found him sitting there,
K
i
and they were astonished at his doings ; .they
landed at Otaramarae, and marching overland,
encamped for the night at Kaharoa-a-Tauhu, and
the next day they reached Maketn ; and when
the evening came they ranged their warriors in
divisions ; three hundred and forty warriors were
told off for each of the divisions, under the com-
mand of each of Hatupatu's three brothers; but
no division was placed under his command.
Hatupatu knew that the jealousy of his bro-
thers, on account of their former quarrels, was
the reason they had not told off any men for
him ; so he said, " Oh, my brothers, I did not
refuse to hearken to you, when you asked me to
come with you ; but I came, as you requested, just
as I went readily with you upon that occasion
when you killed me, and here I am now left in a
very bad position ; so I pray you, let some of the
warriors be placed under my command, let there
be fifty of them/' But they said to him, " Pooh,
pooh ; come now, you be off home again. What can
you do ? The only thing you are fit to destroy is
food/' He, the young man, said no more ; but at
once left his brothers, and on the same night he
sought out a rough thicket as his resting-place ; and
when he saw how convenient for his purpose was the
place he had selected, he turned to and began to tie
together in bundles the roots of the creeping plants,
HATUPATU AND HIS BROTHERS. 195
and of the bushes, and dressed them up with the
cloaks he had with him ; and when he had finished,
the war band of these figures, which the young man
had made, looked just like a band of real warriors.
The day had hardly dawned, when the inhabitants
of the place they had come to attack saw their
enemies, and sent off messengers to tell the war-
riors, on this side and that side, that they should
come and fight with them against the common
enemy.
In the meantime, all the warriors of the columns
of Hatupatu's brothers were exhorting their men,
and encouraging them by warlike speeches ; first
one chief stood up to speak, and then another, and
when they had all ended, Hatupatu himself got up,
to encourage his mock party. He had been sitting
down, and as he gracefully arose, it was beautiful to
see his plumes and ornaments of feathers fluttering
in the breeze ; the long hair of the young man was
tied up in four knots, or clubs, in each of which was
stuck a bunch of feathers ; you would have thought
he had just come from the gannet island of Karewa,
(in the Bay of Plenty ,) where birds' feathers abound ;
and when he had done speaking to one party of his
column, he unloosened his hair, leaving but one
clump of it over the centre of his forehead, and
now he wore a cloak of red feathers ; then he made
K 2
another speech, encouraging his men to be brave
then after sitting down again, he ran to the rear,
and took all the feathers and knots from his hair,
and he this time wore a cloak of flax with a broi-
dered border ; again he addressed his men, and thi
being finished, he was seen again in the centre of
the body, standing up to speak, naked, and stripped
for the fight. Once more he appeared at the head
of the column ; this time he had the hair at the
back of his head tied up in a knot and ornamented
with feathers, he wore a cloak made of the skins of
dogs, and the long wooden war-axe was the weapon
he had in his hands. Having concluded this
speech, he appeared again in a different place, with
his hair tied in five bunches, each ornamented
with feathers, whilst a large rough dog-skin
formed his cloak ; and the weapon in his hand
was a mere* made of white whalebone : thus he
ended his speeches to his party. When the people
of the place they had come to attack saw how
numerous were the chiefs in the column of Hatu-
patu, and what clothes and weapons they had, they
dreaded his division much more than those of his
brothers.
His brothers' divisions had many warriors in
them, although the number of chiefs was only equal
* A sharp instrument of war made of stone.
HATUPATU AND HIS BROTH EES. 197
in number to the divisions : thus there were three
divisions, and also three chiefs ; whilst, although
Hatupatu had only one division, it appeared to
be commanded by a multitude of chiefs, who had
superb dresses ; thence the enemy burnt with fear
of that division, which they accounted to be com-
posed of men ; but no ; it was only formed of
clumps of grass dressed up.
Now the people of the place they were attacking
drew out to the battle, and as they pressed nearer
and nearer, they pushed forth long heavy spears,
and sent forth volleys of light spears made of the
branches of manuka-trees, at the column of Ha-nui.
Alas ! it is broken ; they retreat, they fly, they fall
back on the division of Ha-roa ; they are here
rallied, and ordered to charge ; but they do not —
they only poke forward their heads, as if intend-
ing to go ; the enemy has reached them, and
is on them again ; they are again broken and dis-
ordered ; they run in now upon the third line,
that of Karika ; they are rallied, and again order-
ed to charge; but they only press forward the upper
part of their bodies, as if intending to advance, when
the enemy is already upon them in full charge. It
is over ; all the divisions of Hatupatu's brothers
are broken and flying in confusion ; what did it
matter whether they were many or few, they were
all cowards. Their enemies saw no brave men's
faces, only the black backs of heads running away.
All this time the division of Hatupatu appears
to be sitting quietly upon the ground, and when
the men in full retreat came running in upon it,
Hatupatu rose up to order them to charge
again. He cried out : " Turn on them again, turn
on them again for a long time the enemy and
Hatupatu were hidden from each other's view ; at
last they saw him. Then rushes forward Hatu-
patu from one party, and a chief of the enemy,
named also Karika (like his brother), from the
other, and the latter aims a fierce blow at Hatu-
patu with a short spear ; he parries it, and strikes
down Karika with his two-handed sword, who dies
without a struggle ; motionless, as food hidden
in a bag, he draws forth his whalebone mere,
cuts off Karika's head, and grasps it by the
hair. It is enough — the enemy break, — fall back,
— fly ; then his brothers and their warriors turn
again on the foes, and slay them ; many thou-
sands of them fall. Whilst his brothers are thus
slaying the enemy, he is eagerly seeking for
Baumati ; he is found ; Hatupatu catches him, his
head is cut off ; it is concealed. The slaughter
being ended, they return to their encampment ;
they cook the bodies of their enemies ; they devour
WEEPING OVER HEAD OF DECEASED RELATIVE.
HATUPATU AND HIS BEOTHEES. 199
them ; they smoke and carefully preserve their
heads : and when all is done, each makes speeches
boasting of his deeds ; and one after the other,
vaunting to have slain the great chief Raumati.
But Hatupatu said not a word of his having Rau~
mati's head.
They return to Roto-rua ; this time he goes in
the canoe with them ; they draw near to the island
of Mokoia, and his brothers, as they are in the
canoe, chant songs of triumph to the gods of
war ; they cease ; their father inquires from the
shore, " Which of you has the head of Raumati?"
and one, holding up the head he had taken, said,
"I have;" and another said, "I have;" at last,
their father calls out, " Alas, alas ! Raumati has
escaped."
Then Hatupatu stands up in the canoe, and
chants a prayer to the god of war over a basket
heaped up with heads, whilst holding up in his
hand the head of Karika.
Then his hand grasps the head of Raumati, which
he had kept hid under his cloak, and he cries —
" There, there ; I have the head of Raumati." All
rejoice. Their father strips off his cloak, rushes
into the lake, and repeats a thanksgiving to
the gods.
When he had ended this, he promoted in honour
200 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
his last-born child, and debased in rank his eldest
sons.
Thus at last was revenge obtained for the burn-
ing: of the Arawa, and the descendants of Tama-te-
kapua emigrated, and came and dwelt in Pakotore,
and Rangitihi was born there, and his children,
and one of them came to Rangiwhakakapua, or
Roto-rua, and dwelt there ; and afterwards one of
his daughters went to the Whakatohea tribe, at
Apotiki. After that Rangitihi and all his sons went
to Ahuriri, to revenge the death of the husband of
Rongo-maipapa, and she was given up to them as
a reward ; then grew up to manhood TJenukuko-
pako, and began to visit all the people subject to
him at Whakamaru, at Maroa, at Tutukau, at
Tuata, and he went and afterwards returned to
Pakotore, and whilst going backwards and for-
wards, he lost his dog, named Potakatawhiti,
at Mokoia ; it was killed by Mataaho and Ka-
waarero.
He came back from "Whakamaru to look for it,
and when he found it had been killed, a great
war was commenced against Roto-rua, and some were
slain of each party. After this, Rangi-te-aorere,
the son of Rangi-whakaekeau, grew up to man's
estate ; in his time they stormed and took the
island of Mokoia, and Roto-rua was conquered by
HATUPATU AND HIS BROTHERS. 201
the sons of Rangitihi, who kept it still and still,
until the multitude of men there increased very
greatly, and spread themselves in all parts ; and
the descendants of Ngatoro-i-rangi also multiplied
there, and some of them still remain at Roto-
rua. Tumakoha begat Tarawhai, and Te Rangi-
takaroro was one of his sons ; his second son was
Tarewa, and his third was Taporahitaua.
K 3
Chapter 14
(the progenitor of the whanganui tribes.)
The following narrative shows the cause which led
Turi, the ancestor of the Whanganui tribes, to
emigrate to New Zealand, and the manner in which
he reached these islands.
Hoimatua, a near relation of Turi, had a little
boy named Potikiroroa ; this young fellow was
sent one day with a message to Uenuku, who was
an ariki, or chief high-priest, to let him know
that a burnt-offering had been made to the gods,
of which Uenuku, as ariki, was to eat part, and
the little fellow accidentally tripped and fell down
in the very doorway of Wharekura, the house of
Uenuku, and this being a most unlucky omen,
Uenuku was dreadfully irritated, and he laid
hold of the little fellow, and ate him up, without
even having the body cooked, and so the poor boy
perished.
Turi was determined to have revenge for this
barbarous act, and to slay some person as a pay-
ment for little Potikiroroa, and, after casting about
THE EMIGRATION OF TURI.
in his thoughts for some time as to the most effec-
tual mode of doing this, he saw that his best way
of revenging himself would be to seize Hawepotiki,
the little son of Uenuku, and kill him.
One day Turi, in order to entice the boy to
his house, ordered the children of all the people
who dwelt there with him to begin playing toge-
ther, in a place where Hawepotiki could see them ;
so they began whipping their tops, and whirling
their whizgigs, but it was of no use ; the little
fellow could not be tempted to come and play with
them, and that plan failed.
At last summer came with its heats, scorching
men's skins; and Turi, one very hot day, ordered
all the little children to run and bathe in the river
Waimatuhirangi ; so they all ran to the river and
began sporting and playing in the water. When
little Hawepotiki saw all the other lads swim-
ming and playing in the river, he was thrown off
his guard and ran there too, and Turi waylaid him,
and killed him in a moment, and thus revenged
the death of Potikiroroa.
After killing the poor boy, Turi cut the
heart out of his body, which was eaten by him-
self and his friends; but when, shortly afterwards,
a chieftain ness, named Hotukura, sent up a pre-
sent of baskets of food to their sacred prince, to
Uenuku, carried in the usual way by a long
204 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
procession of people, some of Turi's friends
pushed into the basket of baked sweet potatoes
prepared for Uenuku the heart of Te Hawepotiki,
cut up and baked too, and so it was carried up to
Uenuku in the basket, and laid before him, that
he might eat it.
Uenuku, who had missed his little boy, being still
unable to ascertain what had become of him, could
not help sighing when he saw such an excellent
feast, and said, "Poor little Hawepotiki, how he
would have liked this, but he now no longer comes
running to sit by my side at mealtime and then
he himself ate the food that was laid before him.
He had hardly, however, ended his meal, when
one of his friends, who had found what had been
done, came and told him, saying, "They have
made you eat a part of Hawepotiki." And he
answered, " Very well, let it be ; he lies in the
belly of Toi-te-huatahi meaning by this proverb,
that he would have a fearful revenge ; but he
showed no other signs of feeling, that he might not
gratify his enemies by manifesting his sorrow, or
alarm them by loud threats of revenge.
At this time Turi was living in a house, the name
of which was Rangiatea, and there were born two
of his children, Turangaimua and Taneroroa. One
evening, shortly after the death of Te Hawepotiki,
Rongo-rongo, Turi's wife, went out of the house to
THE EMIGRATION OF TURI. 205
suckle her little girl, Taneroroa, and she heard
Uenuku in his house, named Wharekura, chanting
a poem, of which this was the burden: —
" Oh ! let the tribes be summoned from the south,
Oh ! let the tribes be summoned from the north ;
Let Ngati-Ruanui come in force ;
Let Ngati-Rongotea's warriors too be there,
That we may all our foes destroy,
And sweep them utterly away.
Oh, they ate one far nobler than themselves."
When Rongo-rongo heard what Uenuku was
chanting, she went back to her house, and said
to her husband, "Turi, I have just heard them
chanting this poem in Wharekura." And Turi
answered, " What poem do you say it was V Then
she hummed it gently over to her husband, and
Turi at once divined the meaning of it,* and said
to his wife, " That poem is meant for me and he
* The discovery of a plot by guessing the meaning of a song
which persons were overheard singing was a common circumstance
with all the races and throughout all the islands of the Pacific ;
for instance, in Pitcairn's Island, when first occupied by part of the
crew of the " Bounty " and some Tahitian men and women, we find :
" Brown and Christian were very intimate, and their two wives
overheard one night Williams's second wife sing a song, ' Why
should the Tahitian men sharpen their axes to cut off the English-
men's heads V The wives of Brown and Christian told their husbands
what Williams's second wife had been singing; when Christian heard
of it, he went by himself with his gun to the house where all the
Tahitian men were assembled ; he pointed his gun at them, but it
missed fire. Two of the natives ran away into the bush." — Pitcairn's
Island and the Islanders.
206 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
knew this well, because, as he had killed the child
of Uenuku, he guessed that they meant to slay him
as a payment for the boy, and that the lament
his wife had heard evinced that they were secretly
laying their plans of revenge.
He, therefore, at once started off to his father-
in-law, Toto, to get a canoe from him, in which he
might escape from his enemies ; and Toto gave
him one, the name of which was Aotea; the tree
from which it had been made grew upon the
banks of the Lake Waiharakeke. Toto had
first hewn down the tree, and then split it,
breaking it lengthways into two parts; out of
one part of the tree he made a canoe, which
he named Matahorua, and out of the other part
he made a canoe which he named Aotea. He
gave the canoe which he had named Mata-
horua to Kuramarotini ; and the canoe which he
had named Aotea he made a present of to Rongo-
rongo ; thus giving a canoe to each of his two
daughters. Matahorua was the canoe in which a
large part of the world was explored, and Reti was
the name of the man who navigated it.
One day Kupe and Hoturapa went out upon the
sea to fish together, and when they had anchored
the canoe at a convenient place, Kupe let down
his line into the sea ; and he said to his cousin,
Hoturapa, " Hotu ; my line is foul of something ;
THE EMIGRATION OF TUEI. 207
do you, like a good young fellow, dive down and
release it for me ; " but Hoturapa said, " Just give
me your line, and let me see if I cannot pull it
up for you." But Kivpe answered, " It 's of no
use, you cannot do it ; you had better give a
plunge in at once, and pull it up." This was a
mere stratagem upon the part of Kupe, that he
might obtain possession of Kuramarotini, who was
Hoturapa's wife ; however, Hoturapa not suspect-
ing this, good-naturedly dived down at once to
bring up Kupe's line ; and as soon as he had
made his plunge, Kupe at once cut the rope
which was attached to the anchor, and paddled
off for the shore as fast he could go, to carry off
Hoturapa's wife, Kuramarotini. When Hoturapa
came up to the surface of the water, the canoe was
already a long distance from him, and he cried out
to Kupe, " Oh, Kupe, bring the canoe back here to
take me in." But Kupe would not listen to him,
he brought not back the canoe, and so Hoturapa
perished. Kupe then made haste, and carried off
Kuramarotini, and to escape from the vengeance of
the relations of Hoturapa, he fled away with her,
on the ocean, in her canoe Matahorua, and dis-
covered the islands of New Zealand, and coasted
entirely round them, without finding any inhabi-
tants.
/ As Kupe was proceeding down the east coast of
208 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
New Zealand, and had reached Castle Point, a
great cuttle-fish, alarmed at the sight of a canoe
with men in it, fled away from a large cavern
which exists in the south headland of the cove
there ; it fled before Kupe, in the direction of Rau-
kawa, or Cook's Straits ; when Kupe arrived at
those straits, he crossed them in his canoe, to
examine the middle islands ; seeing the entrance of
Awa-iti, (now called Tory Channel,) running deep
up into the land, he turned his canoe in there
to explore it ; he found a very strong current
coming out from between the lands, and named
the entrance Kura-te-au ; strong as the current
was, Kupe stemmed it in his canoe, and ascended
it, until he was just surmounting the crown
of the rapid. The great cuttle-fish or dragon,
that had fled from Castle Point, which Kupe
named Te Wheke-a-Muturangi, or the cuttle-fish
of Muturangi, had fled to Tory Channel, and
was lying hid in this part of the current. The
monster heard the canoe of Kupe approaching as
they were pulling up the current, and raised its
arms above the waters to catch and devour the
canoe, men and all. As it thus floated upon the
water, Kupe saw it, and pondered how he might
destroy the terrible monster. At last he thought of
a plan for doing this; he had already found that,
although he kept on chopping off portions of its
THE EMIGEATION" OF TUKI. 209
gigantic arms, furnished with suckers, as it tried
to fold them about the canoe, in order to pull it
down, the monster was too fierce to care for this ;
so Kupe seized an immense hollow calabash he
had on board to carry his water in, and threw it
overboard ; hardly had it touched the water ere
the monster flew at it, thinking that it was the
canoe of Kupe, and that he would destroy it ; so
it reared its whole body out of the water, to press
down the huge calabash under it, and Kupe, as he
stood in his canoe, being in a most excellent posi-
tion to cut it with his axe, seized the oppor-
tunity, and, striking it a tremendous blow, he
severed it in two, and killed it.*
The labours of Kupe consisted in this, that he
discovered these islands, and examined the different
openings which he found running up into the coun-
try. He only found two inhabitants in the coun-
try, a bird which he named the Kokako, and an-
other bird which he named the Tiwaiwaka ; he,
however, did not ultimately remain in these islands,
but returned to his own house, leaving the open-
ings he had examined in the country as signs that
he had been here.
* They show several spots upon the east coast where Kupe
touched with his canoes ; but I have not yet had time to arrange
and transcribe the various traditions connected with his landing at
those places. — Gr. G-.
210 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
Thus he left his marks here, but he himself re-
turned to his own country, where he found Turi
and all his people still dwelling ; although it was
now the fourth year from that one in which he
had slain little Hawepotiki; but Turi was then on
the point of flying to escape from the vengeance of
Uenuku, and as he heard of the discoveries Kupe
had made, he determined to come to these islands.
So he had his canoe, the Aotea, dragged down to
the shore in the night, and Kupe, who happened to
be near the place, and heard the bottom of the canoe
grating upon the beach as they hauled it along,
went to see what was going on ; and when he
found what Turi was about to do, he said to
him, " Now, mind, Turi, keep ever steering to the
eastward, where the sun rises ; keep the bow of
your canoe ever steadily directed towards that
point of the sky/' Turi answered him, " You had
better accompany me, Kupe. Come, let us go to-
gether." And when Kupe heard this, he said to
Turi, " Do you think that Kupe will ever return
there again V and he then continued, " When you
arrive at the islands, you had better go at once and
examine the river that I discovered [said to be the
Patca] ; its mouth opens direct to the westward ;
you will find but two inhabitants there [meaning
the Kokako and Tiwaiwaka] ; one of them carries
its tail erect and sticking out ; now do not mis-
THE EMIGEATION OF TUEI. 211
take the voice of one of them for that of a man, for
it calls out just like one ; and if you stand on one
side of the river, and call out to them, you will
hear their cries answering you from the other.
That will be the very spot that I mentioned to
you/' *
Turi's brother-in-law, Tuau, now called out to
him, " Why, Turi, the paddles you are taking with
you are good for nothing, for they are made from the
huhoe-tree Turi replied, " Wherever can I get
other paddles now?" and Tuau answered, "Just
wait a little, until I run for the paddles of Taipa-
rae-roa ; " and he brought back, and put on board
the canoe, two paddles, the names of which were
Rangihorona and Kautu-ki-te-rangi, and two
bailers, the names of which were Tipuahoronuku
and Rangi-ka-wheriko. Then Turi said, "Tuau,
come out a little way to sea with me, and
then return again, when you have seen me fairly
started upon my long voyage/' To this Tuau
cheerfully consented, and got into the canoe,
which was already afloat ; then were carried on
board all the articles which the voyagers were to
take ; and their friends put on board for them
* It will be seen that they did not follow Kupe's directions, think-
ing that he was deceiving them, he being probably friendly to
Uenuku.
seed, sweet potatoes, of the species called Te Kakau,
and dried stones of the berries of the Karaka-tree ;
and some live edible rats in boxes, and some tame
green parrots ; and added some pet Pukekos, or
large water-hens ; and many other valuable things
were put on board the canoe, whence the proverb,
" The Aotea's valuable freight."
At last away floated the canoe, whilst it was
yet night, and Tuau sat at the stern, gently pad-
dling as they dropped out from the harbour ; but
when they got to its mouth, Turi called out to his
brother-in-law, "Tuau, you come and sit for a
little at the house amidships, on the floor of the
double canoe, and let me take the paddle and pull
till I warm myself." So Tuau came amidships,
and sat down with the people there, whilst Turi
went astern and took his paddle. Then Turi and
his people pulled as hard as they could, and were
soon far outside the harbour, in the wide sea.
Tuau, who had intended to land at the heads, at last
turned to see what distance they had got. Alas !
alas ! they were far out at sea ; then he called
out to Turi, " Oh, Turi, Turi, pray turn back the
canoe and land me." But not the least attention
did Turi pay to him ; he persisted in carrying off
his brother-in-law with him, although there was
Tuau weeping and grieving when he thought of his
THE EMIGKATION OF TUKI. 218
children and wife, and lamenting as he exclaimed,
" How shall I ever get back to my dear wife and
children from the place where you are going to ! "
But what does Turi care for that ; he still thinks
fit to carry him off with him, and Tuau cannot now
help himself. They were now so far out at sea that
he could not gain the shore, for he could scarcely
have seen where the land was whilst swimming in
the water, as it was during the night-time that
they started.
Lo ! the dawn breaks ; but hardly had the day-
light of the first morning of their voyage appeared,
than one of the party, named Tapo, became insolent
and disobedient to Turi. His chief was therefore
very wroth with him, and hove him overboard into
the sea ; and when Tapo found himself in the water,
and saw the canoe shooting ahead, he called out to
Turi quite cheerfully and jocosely, " I say, old fellow,
come now, let me live in the world a little longer \"
and when they heard him call out in this manner,
they knew he must be under the protection of the
god Maru, and said, " Here is Maru, here is Mara."
So they hauled him into the canoe again, and saved
his life.
At last the seams of Turi's canoe opened in holes
in many places, and the water streamed into it,
and they rapidly dipped the bailers into the water
and dashed it out over the sides ; Turi, in the
214 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY
meanwhile, reciting aloud an incantation, which
was efficacious in preventing a canoe from being
swamped ; they succeeded at length, by these
means, in reaching a small island which lies in
mid-ocean, which they named Rangitahua ; there
they landed, and ripped all the old lashings out of
the seams of the canoe, and re-lashed the top sides
on to it, and thoroughly refitted it.
Amongst the chiefs who landed there with them
was one named Porua, whose canoe was called Te
Ririno. They were carrying some dogs with them,
as these would be very valuable in the islands they
were going to, for supplying by their increase a
good article of food, and skins for warm cloaks ;
on this island, they, however, killed two of them,
the names of which were "Whakapapa-tuakura and
Tanga-kakariki ; the first of these they cooked and
shared amongst them, but the second they cut up
raw as an offering for the gods, and laid it cut open
in every part before them, and built a sacred place,
and set up pillars for the spirits, that they might
entirely consume the sacrifice ; and they took the
enchanted apron of the spirits, and spread it open
before them, and wearied the spirits by calling
on them for some omen, saying, " Come, mani-
fest yourselves to us, O gods ; make haste and
declare the future to us. It may be now, that we
shall not succeed in passing to the other side of the
THE EMIGRATION" OF TURI.
ocean ; but if you manifest yourselves to us, and
are present with us, we shall pass there in safety."
Then they rose up from prayer, and roasted with
fire the dog which they were offering as a sacri-
fice, and holding the sacrifice aloft, called over the
names of the spirits to whom the offering was
made ; and having thus appeased the wrath of the
offended spirits, they again stuck up posts for them,
saying as they did so —
" 'T is the post which stands above there ; 1
'T is the post which stands in the heavens,
Near Atutahimarehua."
Thus they removed all ill-luck from the canoes,
by repeating over them prayers called Keuenga,
Takanga, Whakainuinumanga, &c. &c.
When all these ceremonies were ended, a very
angry discussion arose between Potoru and Turi, as
to the direction they should now sail in ; Turi per-
sisted in wishing to pursue an easterly course,
saying, " Nay, nay, let us still sail towards the
quarter where the sun first flares up but Potoru
answered him, " But I say nay, nay, let us proceed
towards that quarter of the heavens in which the
sun sets." Turi replied, " Why, did not Kupe,
who had visited these islands, particularly tell us ?
Now mind, let nothing induce you to turn the
prow of the canoe away from that quarter of the
heavens in which the sun rises/' However, Potoru
still persisted in his opinion, and at last Turi gave
up the point, and let him have his own way ; so
they embarked and left the island of Rangitahua,
and sailed on a westerly course.
After they had pursued this course for some
time, the canoe Ririno getting into the surf, near
some rocks, was lost on a reef which they named
Taputapuatea, being swept away by a strong cur-
rent, a rapid current, by a swift running current,
swiftly running on to the realms of death ; and the
Ririno was dashed to pieces : hence to the present
day is preserved this proverb, " You are as obsti-
nate as Potoru, who persisted in rushing on to his
own destruction."
When the Ririno had thus been lost, Turi, in the
Aotea, pursued his course towards the quarter of the
rising sun, and whilst they were yet in mid-ocean,
a child, whom he named Tutawa, was born to
Turi ; they had then but nine sweet potatoes left,
and Turi took one of these, leaving now but eight,
and he offered the one he took as a sacrifice to the
spirits, and touched with it the palate of little
Tutawa, bom in mid-ocean, at the same time re-
peating the fitting prayers. When they drew near
the shore of these islands, one of the crew, named
Tuanui-a-te-ra, was very disobedient and insolent
to Turi, who, getting exceedingly provoked with
THE EMIGRATION OF TURI.
him, threw him overboard into the sea. When
they had got near enough to the shore to see dis-
tinctly, they foolishly threw the red ornaments
they wore on their heads, (named Pohutukawa,)
into the sea, these being old, dirty, and faded,
from length of wear, for they thought, although
wrongly, the red things they saw in such abun-
dance on the shore were similar ornaments.
At length the Aotea is run up on the beach of
these islands, and the wearied voyagers spring out
of her on to the sands, and the first thing they re-
mark are the footprints of a man ; they run to
examine them, and find them to be those of Tua-
nui-a-te-ra, whom Turi had shortly before thrown
overboard ; there can be no doubt of this, because
some of the footprints are crooked, exactly suiting
a deformed foot which he had.
Turi having rested after his voyage, determined
to start and seek for the river Patea, which Kupe
had described to him, and he left his canoe Aotea
in the harbour, which he named after it. He tra-
velled along the coast-line from Aotea to Patea,
having sent one party before him, under Punga-
rehu, ordering them to plant the stones of the
berries of the Karaka-tree, which they had brought
with them, all along their route, in order that so
valuable an article of food might be introduced
L
into these islands. Turi,. who followed with an-
other party after Pungareku, gave names to all
the places as they came along ; when he reached
the harbour of Kawhia, he gave it that name or
the awhinga of Turi ; then he came to Marokopa,
or the place that Turi wound round to another
spot ; the river Waitara he named from the ta-
rcmga, or wide steps which he took in fording it
at its mouth ; Mokau, or Mockau, he named from
his sleeping there ; at Manga- ti, they opened and
spread out an enchanted garment named Hunokiko,
and as all the people gazed at it, Turi named
the place Matakitaki ; at another place (near the
lake at the Gray institution at Taranaki), Turi took
up a handful of earth to smell it, that he might
guess whether the soil was good enough, and he
named that place Hongihongi ; another place, six
miles to the south of Taranaki, he named Tapuwae,
or the footsteps of Turi ; another place he named
Oakura, from the bright redness of the enchanted
cloak Hunokiko ; another place Katikara, twelve
miles south of Taranaki; another river he named
Raoa, from a piece of food he was eating nearly
choking him there ; another spot he named Ka-
upoko-nui (a river thirty-four miles north-west
of Patea), or the head of Turi ; when they ar-
rived there, the enchanted cloak Hunokiko was
THE EMIGKATION" OF TURI.
twice opened and spread out, so he called the spot
Marae-kura ; a place that they encamped at he
named Kapuni (a river at Waimate), or the encamp-
ment of Turi ; another place he called Waingon-
goro, or the place at which Turi snored ; another
spot he named Tangahoe, after his paddle ; Ohin-
gahape, he named after the crooked foot of Tua-
nui-a-te-ra ; a head-land where there was a natural
bridge running over a cave, he named Whiti-kau,
from the long time he was fording in the water to
turn the headland, because he did not like to cross
the bridge (this is five miles north of Patea).
At length he reached the river which Kupe had
described to him ; there he built a pa, or fortress,
which he named Eangitaawhi, and there he erected
a post which he named Whakatopea, and he built
a house which he named Matangirie, and he laid
down a door-sill, or threshold, which he named
Paepaehakehake ; and he built a small elevated
storehouse to hold his food, and he named it Pae-
ahua; the river itself he named Patea ; and he dug
a well which he named Parara-ki-te-uru. The farm
he cultivated there he named Hekeheke-i-papa ; the
wooden spade he made he called Tipu-i-ahuma :
then he had his farm dug up, and the chant they
sang to encourage themselves, and to keep time as
they dug, was —
L2
" Break up our goddess mother,
Break up the ancient goddess earth ;
We speak of you, oh, earth ! but do not you disturb
The plants we have brought hither from Hawaiki the noble ;
It was Maui who scraped the earth in heaps round the sides,
In Kuratau."
There they planted the farm ; they had but eight
seed potatoes, but they divided these into small
pieces, which they put separately into the ground ;
and when the shoots sprang up, Turi made the
place sacred with prayers and incantations, lest any
one should venture there and hurt the plants ; the
name of the incantation he used was Ahuaroa ;
then harvest-time came, they gathered in the crop
of sweet potatoes, and found that they had eight
hundred baskets of them. The deeds above related
were those which our ancestor Turi performed ;
Kongo-rongo was the name of his principal wife,
and they had several children, from whom sprang
the tribes of Ahaganui and the Ngate-mamui
tribe.
•T
LEGEND OF THE EMIGRATION OF
MANAIA,
(the progenitor of the ngati-awa tribes).
The cause which led Manaia to come here from
Hawaiki, was his being very badly treated by a
large party of his friends and neighbours, whom,
according to the usual custom when a chief has
any heavy work to be done, he had collected to
make his spears for him, for they violently ravished
his wife Eongotiki.
It chanced thus — One day Manaia determined
to have his neighbours all warned to come to a
great gathering of people for the purpose of making-
spears for him, so he sent round a messenger to
collect them, and the messenger arrived at the
place of Tupenu, who listened to his message, and
he being chief of the tribe who lived at that place,
encouraged his people to go in obedience to the
message of Manaia ; they went and set to work,
and after some time it happened that Manaia felt
a wish to go and catch some fish for his workmen ;
so he went off in his canoe with several of his
people. After he had been gone for some time the
workmen proposed amongst themselves to assault
Rongotiki, the wife of Manaia ; and they carried
their intentions into execution without any one
knowing what they were doing; all this time Manaia,
suspecting nothing, was paddling in his canoe out to
sea, and when he reached the fishing-ground, they
lay on their paddles. Manaia's people soon caught
plenty of fish, but he had not even a single bite,
until at last, as they were on the point of return-
ing, he felt a fish nibbling at his hook, so he gave a
jerk to his line to pull it up ; and when he got the fish
up to the side of the canoe, to his surprise he saw
that the hook was not in the mouth of the fish, but
fast in its tail ; and as this had long been esteemed
as a sign that your wife was being insulted by
somebody, he at once knew how his had been
treated by his workmen ; without waiting, there-
fore, a moment longer, he said to his crew, " Heave
up the anchor, we will return to the shore so
they hove up the anchor, and shaped a course for
the landing-place on the main ; whilst they were
pulling into the shore, Manaia took the fish he
had caught, and with the hook still fast in its
tail, tied it on to one of the thwarts of the canoe,
and left it there, in order that when Rongotiki saw
it she might know without his telling her, that he
TREE F E R X.
Chapter 15
was aware that she had been badly treated by his
workmen.
At length his canoe reached the shore, and the
crew jumping out, hauled it up on the sandy
beach, and Manaia leaving it there, walked home
towards his village ; when he had got near home,
his wife seeing him approach, arose and made the
fire ready to roast some fern-root for her husband,
who she thought would come back hungry ; and
when he reached home the fire was lighted, and
she was sitting by the side of it roasting the
fern-root, and she made signs to him by which he
might know what had happened ; but he knew
it already from the manner in which his hook had
caught in the tail of the fish ; then he sent his
wife to fetch the fish, saying, " Mother, go and
fetch the fish I have caught from my canoe so
she went, and when she got there, she found that
there were no fish but the single one, hanging to
the thwart of the canoe, with a hook fast in its
tail ; then she took that fish and carried it home with
her, and when she got there, Manaia said, " That is
the fish I meant you to bring, lest you should have
said that I did not know what had taken place
until you told me/'
Manaia then turned over in his mind various
plans for revenging himself upon the people who
had acted in so brutal a manner towards his wife,
and he consulted with his own tribe how they might
destroy those who had thus injured him ; when
the tribe of Manaia heard what had taken place,
they all arose to seek revenge ; but before the
fighting which arose from this affair broke out,
Manaia went to the people who had wronged his
wife, and told them, " That he hoped they would
make the spears large and strong, and not put him
off with weak things, but rather make them stout
and strong ; " this was a mere piece of deceit on
his part, in order that when he attacked them,
their weapons might be too heavy readily to
parry their enemies' blows with them.
All these preparations having been made, Ma-
naia lay in ambush with some of his people, and
when the opportunity of rushing on their enemies
presented itself, Manaia nudged with his elbow his
son, Tu-ure-nui, who was ]ying by his side, to
encourage him to distinguish himself by rushing
in, and killing the first man of the enemy ; but
being afraid to go he did not move, and whilst
Manaia was encouraging him in vain, another
young man, the name of whose father had never
been told by his mother, rushed forward and slew
the first of the enemy, and as with his weapon he
struck him down, he cried out, " The first slain of
the enemy belongs to me, to Kahu-kaka-nui, the
son of Manaia;" then for the first time Manaia
THE EMIGKATION OF MANAIA.
knew that this young man was his son, his last
born son ; he had before thought that Tu-ure-nui
had been his only son ; but when the other young
man called out his name, he knew that he also was
his son, and, pleased with his courage, he loved him
very much.
The people lying in ambush, all followed the
youth when he rushed on their enemies, and slaugh-
tered them ; but their chief Tupenu fled by the way
of the beach of Pikopikoi-whiti, and Manaia pursued
him closely, but was not fleet enough of foot to
catch him ; then he called out to his wife, Kongo-
tiki, to utter incantations to weaken his enemy ;
and she did so, repeating an incantation termed
Tapuwae, and when she had finished that, by her
enchantments she rendered the flying warrior faint
and feeble, so that Manaia rapidly gained on him,
caught him, and slew him.
Thus perished Tapenu and the party of people
whom he had taken with him to work for Manaia;
the report of what had occurred soon spread
throughout the country, and at last reached the
tribe of Tupenu ; and when they heard it, they said,
" Your relatives have perished/' Their army col-
lected and started to avenge themselves on Manaia
and his tribe, and to destroy them ; they slew
many of them, and continued from time to time to
attack them, so that their numbers dwindled away,
till at length Manaia began to reflect within
himself, saying, " Ah, ah, my warriors are wasting
away, and by and bye, perhaps, I also shall be
slain ; rather than let this state of things continue,
I had better abandon this country, and, removing
to a great distance, seek a new one for myself
and my people/'
Having made up his mind to act in this way, he
began to repair a canoe and to fit it for sea; the
name of the canoe was Tokomaru, it belonged to
his brother-in-law : when it was fit for sea, be
asked his brother-in-law, " Will you not consent to
accompany me on this voyage ? " and the latter
asked in reply, " Where do you want me to accom-
pany you to V Manaia said, " I wish you to bear
me company on this voyage which I am about to
undertake, to search for a new and distant country
for both of us but his brother-in-law, when he
understood what Manaia was pressing him to do,
replied, "No, I will not go with you;" Manaia
answered, " That is right, do you remain here."
When the canoe was quite fit for sea, they
dragged it down to the water, and hauled it into
the sea until it floated ; then they brought down
the cargo and stowed it away, and Manaia embarked
in it with his wife, his children, and his depend-
THE EMIGKATTON OF MANAIA.
ants, and then he said to some of his warriors,
" Let my brother-in-law now be slain as an offering
for the gods, that they may prove propitious to this
canoe of ours."
So he called to his brother-in-law, who was
standing on the shore, bidding him farewell ;
" I say, wade out to me for one minute, that I
may tell you something, and take my last fare-
well, for I am going to part for ever from you,
leaving you here behind me/'
When Manaia's brother-in-law heard this, he be-
gan to wade out to him ; at first the water hardly
covered his ankles, next it touched his knees, at last
it came up above his loins, and when it had reached
so high he said, " Shove the canoe in a little nearer
the shore, I shall be under water directly \" but
Manaia answered him, "Wade away, there is no
depth of water and to deceive him better, he kept
on pretending to touch the bottom with a stick ;
and the poor fellow having no suspicion, believed
what Manaia said, that the water was not deep ;
but Manaia had spoken before to his people, say-
ing, " Let him come on, out into the deep water,
until his feet cannot touch the bottom, then seize
him by the head and slay him/' At length his
feet could no longer touch the bottom, and he
found himself swimming close to the canoe ; then
Manaia seized him by the head, with one blow of
228 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY
his stone battle-axe he clave it, and his brother-in-
law perished.
Having thus slain his victim, he caught up his dog
which had swam out with its master, and lifting it
into the canoe, he sailed away, to search for a new
country for himself.
He sailed on and on, and had proceeded very
far from the land they had quitted, when one day
the dog Manaia had taken into the canoe scented
land, and howled loudly, struggling to get loose
and jump overboard into the water ; the people
in the canoe were much surprised at this, and
said, "Why, what can be the matter with the
dog?" And some of them said, "We'd better let
him go if he wishes it, and see what comes
of it \" so they let the clog loose, and he jumped
overboard, and swam on ahead of the canoe,
howling loudly as he went, and this he continued
to do, till at last night fell on them : the canoe
still followed for a long time the low faint howl-
ing of the dog, which they could only indis-
tinctly hear ; at last he had got so far off they
could no longer distinguish it, but the dog, after
swimming for a long time, finally reached land.
In the meantime the canoe came following
straight on the track which the dog had taken,
and when at length the night ended, and the day
began to break, they again heard the howling
THE EMIGKATION OF MANAIA.
of the dog, which had landed close to the stranded
carcass of a whale ; they pulled eagerly to the
shore, and as soon as they reached it, there they
saw the |whale lying stranded, and the dog by
its side ; and there they landed on this island, —
on Aotea.
They were rejoiced, indeed, when they ascer-
tained this was the country for which they had
been seeking ; first, they allotted out equally
amongst them the whale they had found ; but
first Manaia addressed his men, saying, " We must
now build a house to shelter us, and then we will
cut up the whale." His people at once obeyed
their chief's directions ; some of them began to
collect materials for building a shelter, and others
to clear spots of ground, and to prepare them for
planting.
Some few of them called out, " Here is the
best place for our village ; " whilst others, on the
contrary, cried out, " No, no, this is the best place
for it;" and others still, who had got a little
further along the beach, cried out, " Here is still a
better place ; " and others, yet further ahead,
said, " Here, here, this is the best place we have
yet seen y' thus all were led to leave their proper
work, and to wander a long way along the shore,
exploring the new country, and seeking for a site
for their future home ; at last they found that little
by little they had been drawn a long way from the
spot where they had landed, and from the whale
which they had found.
Now there were some other canoes coming close
after the canoe Tokomaru, which presently made the
land too, and reached the shore just at the point
where the Tokomaru had been drawn up upon the
beach, and they saw the marks of the Tokomaru
upon the sand, and the sheds that had been put
up, and the bits of land that had been cleared ;
and they, without delay, began to claim each one
as his own, the sheds, the cleared ground, and
the whale, which all belonged to the people of the
canoe which had first landed.
Then they went to search for the people who had
come in that canoe, and when they had found
them, each party saluted the other, and when their
mutual greetings were over, those who had come
in the first canoe asked those who had come in
the second, " When did you arrive here V And
they answered them by saying, " When did you
arrive here V* Those of the first canoe answered,
"A long time ago." Then the people of the
second canoe answered, " And we also arrived a
long time ago." Those who had come in the first
canoe now replied, " Nay, nay, we arrived here be-
fore you." Then those of the second canoe answered,
" Nay, nay, but we arrived here before you and
THE EMIGRATION OF MANAIA. 231
they continued thus disputing, arguing each party
with the other.
At last Manaia asked them, "What are the
proofs you give to show when you arrived here V
And they answered, " That is all very well ; but
what proofs have you to show when you arrived
here V But Manaia replied, " The proof I have to
show when I arrived here is a whale of mine which
I found upon the beach." Then the people who
had come in the second canoe answered, " No,
indeed, that whale belongs to us/' But Manaia
answered quite angrily, " No ; I say that whale
belongs to me ; just look you, you will find my
sheds standing there, and my temporary encamp-
ment, and the pieces of land which my people have
cleared." But the others answered him, " Nay,
indeed those are our sheds, and our pieces of cleared
land ; and as for the whale, it is our whale ; now
let us go and examine them."
So the whole party returned together, until
they came to the place where they had landed,
and when they saw all these things there, Manaia
said, " Look you, that whale belongs to me ; as well
as those sheds and the cleared pieces of land."
But the others laughed at him and said, "Why
you must have gone mad, all these houses belong to
us, and the clearings, and that whale too." And
Manaia, who was now quite provoked, replied, " I
say no ; the clearings are mine, the sheds are mine, as
well as the whale/' The others, however, answered
him, " Very well, then, if that is the case, where is
your sacred place V But Manaia replied, " Where is
your sacred place also then?" And they answered,
" Come along, and see it." And they all went to-
gether to see the sacred place of these newly-arrived
people, and when they saw it, Manaia believed them.
Although he gave credit to the fact of their
having arrived first, Manaia was sorely perplexed
and troubled, and he abandoned altogether the part
of the country he had first reached, and started
again to seek for another for himself, for his rela-
tions, and his people ; they coasted right along
the shores of the island from Whangaparoa, and
doubled the North Cape, and from thence made a
direct course to Taranaki, and made the land at
Tongaporutu, between Pariwinihi and Mokau, and
they landed there, and remained for some time,
and left the god they worshipped there ; the name
of then god was Rakeiora.
They then turned to journey back towards
Mokau : some of them went by land along the
coast line, and others in their canoe, the two
parties keeping in sight of one another as they exa-
mined the coast ; and when they reached the river
Mokau those in the canoe landed, and they left
there the stone anchor of their canoe ; it is still
THE EMIGRATION OF MANAIA, 233
lying near the mouth of the river, on its north side,
and the present name of the rock is the Punga-
o-Matori. Then they pulled back in the Toko-
maru, to Tongaporutu, and leaving the canoe
there, explored the country unto Pukearuhe,
thence they went on. as far as Papatiki, and
there descended "to the shore to the beach of
Kukuriki, and travelling along it, they reached
the river of Onaero, forded it, and passed the
plain of Motunui, and Kaweka, and Urenui ;
that river had a name before Manaia and his
people reached it ; but when Manaia arrived
there with his son, Tu-ure-nui, he changed its
name, and called it after his son, Tu-ure-nui ;
and they forded the river, and travelled on until
they reached Kohutu, at the mouth of the river
Waitara, and they dwelt there, and there they
found people living, the native inhabitants of these
islands ; but Manaia and his party slew them, and
destroyed them, so that the country was left for
himself and for his descendants, and for his tribe
and their descendants, and Manaia and his followers
destroyed the original occupants of the country, in
order to obtain possession of it.
Manaia was the ancestor of the Ngati-Awa tribe ;
he fought two great battles in Hawaiki, the names
of which were Kirikiriwawa and Rotorua ; the
fame of Ms weapons resounded there — their names
were Kihia and Eakea ; and there also was known
the fame of his son, of Kahu-kaka-nui-a-Manaia, of
the youth who was baptized with the baptism of
children whose fathers are not known.
Chapter 16
(the maiden of eotoeua).
And the man said to him, "Now, O governor,
just look round you, and listen to me, for there is
something worth seeing here ; that very spot that
you are sitting upon, is the place on which sat our
great ancestress Hine-Moa, when she swam over
here from the main. But I'll tell you the whole
story.
" Look you now, Rangi-Uru was the name of
the mother of a chief called Tutanekai ; she was,
properly, the wife of Whakaue-Kaipapa (the great
ancestor of the Ngatiwhakaue tribe) ; but she at
one time ran away with a chief named Tuwharetoa
(the great ancestor of the Te Heukeu and the
Ngatituwharetoa tribe) ; before this she had three
sons by Whakaue, their names were Tawakeheimoa,
Ngararanui, and Tuteaiti. It was after the birth
of this third son, that Rangi-Uru eloped with
Tuwharetoa, who had come to Rotorua as a stranger
on a visit. From this affair sprang Tutanekai,
who was an illegitimate child ; but finally, Wha-
kaue and Rangi-Uru were united again, and she
had another son whose name was Kopako ; and
then she had a daughter whom they named Tupa ;
she was the last child of Whakaue.
" They all resided here on the island of Mokoia.
Whakaue was very kind indeed to Tutanekai,
treating him as if he was his own son ; so they
grew up here, Tutanekai and his elder brothers,
until they attained to manhood.
" Now there reached them here a great report of
Hine-Moa, that she was a maiden of rare beauty,
as well as of high rank, for Urnukaria (the great
ancestor of the Ngati Unui-karia-hapu, or sub-
tribe), was her father ; her mother's name was
Hine-Maru. When such fame attended her beauty
and rank, Tutanekai and each of his elder bro-
thers desired to have her as a wife.
" About this time Tutanekai built an elevated
balcony, on the slope of that hill just above you
there, which is called Kaiweka. He had contracted
a great friendship for a young man named Tiki ;
they were both fond of music — Tutanekai played on
the horn, and Tiki on the pipe ; and they used to
go up into the balcony and play on their instru-
ments in the night ; and in calm evenings the
sound of their music was wafted by the gentle
land-breeze across the lake to the village at Owhata,
where dwelt the beautiful young Hine-Moa, the
younger sister of Wahiao.
THE MAIDEN OF KOTOKUA. 237
" Hine-Moa could then hear the sweet-sounding
music of the instruments of Tutanekai and of his
dear friend Tiki, which gladdened her heart within
her — every night the two friends played on their
instruments in this manner — and Hine-Moa then
ever said to herself, ' Ah ! that is the music of
Tutanekai which I hear/
" For although Hine-Moa was so prized by her
family, that they would not betroth her to any
chief ; nevertheless, she and Tutanekai had met
each other on those occasions when all the people
of Rotorua come together.
" In those great assemblies of the people Hine-
Moa had seen Tutanekai, and as they often glanced
each at the other, to the heart of each of them the
other appeared pleasing, and worthy of love, so
that in the breast of each there grew up a secret
passion for the other. Nevertheless, Tutanekai
could not tell whether he might venture to approach
Hine-Moa to take her hand, to see would she press
his in return, because, said he, ' Perhaps I may be
by no means agreeable to her \ on the other hand,
Hine-Moa's heart said to her, c If you send one of
your female friends to tell him of your love, per-
chance he will not be pleased with you/
" However, after they had thus met for many,
many days, and had long fondly glanced each at the
other, Tutanekai sent a messenger to Hine-Moa, to
tell of his love ; and when Hine-Moa had seen the
messenger, she said, 1 Eh-hu ! have we then each
loved alike V
" Some time after this, and when they had often
met, Tutanekai and his family returned to their own
village ; and being together one evening, in the large
warm house of general assembly, the elder brothers of
Tutanekai said, 1 Which of us has by signs, or by
pressure of the hand, received proofs of the love of
Hine-Moa V And one said, ' It is I who have \
and another said, 1 No ; but it is 1/ Then
they also questioned Tutanekai, and he said, ( I
have pressed the hand of Hine-Moa, and she
pressed mine in return;' but his elder brothers
said, 'No such thing; do you think she would take
any notice of such a low-born fellow as you are ? '
He then told his reputed father, Whakaue, to
remember what he would then say to him, because
he really had received proofs of Hine-Moa's love ;
they had even actually arranged a good while be-
fore the time at which Hine-Moa should run away
to him ; and when the maiden asked, £ What shall
be the sign by which I shall know that I should
then run to you?' he said to her, ' A trumpet will
be heard sounding every night, it will be I who
sound it, beloved — paddle then your canoe to that
place/ So Whakaue kept in his mind this con-
fession which Tutanekai had made to him.
THE MAIDEN OF ROTOKUA. 239
" Now always about the middle of the night
Tutanekai, and his friend Tiki, went up into their
balcony and played, the one upon his trumpet, the
other upon his flute, and HiDe-Moa heard them,
and desired vastly to paddle in her canoe to Tuta-
nekai • but her friends suspecting something, had
been careful with the canoes, to leave none afloat,
but had hauled them all up upon the shore of the
lake ; and thus her friends had always done for
many days and for many nights.
" At last she reflected in her heart, saying,
' How can I then contrive to cross the lake to the
island of Mokoia ; it can plainly be seen that
my friends suspect what I am going to do/ So
she sat down upon the ground to rest ; and
then soft measures reached her from the horn
of Tutanekai, and the young and beautiful chief-
tainess felt as if an earthquake shook her to
make her go to the beloved of her heart ; but then
arose the recollection, that there was no canoe. At
last she thought, perhaps I might be able to swim
across. So she took six large dry empty gourds,
as floats, lest she should sink in the water, three
of them for each side, and she went out upon a
rock, which is named Iri-iri-kapua, and from thence
to the ed^e of the water, to the spot called Waire-
rewai, and there she threw off her clothes and cast
herself into the water, and she reached the stump
of a sunken tree which used to stand in the lake,
and was called Hinewhata, and she clung to it
with her hands, and rested to take breath, and
when she had a little eased the weariness of her
shoulders, she swam on again, and whenever she
was exhausted she floated with the current of the
lake, supported by the gourds, and after recovering
strength she swam on again ; but she could not
distinguish in which direction she should proceed,
from the darkness of the night ; her only guide was,
however, the soft measure from the instrument of
Tutanekai ; that was the mark by which she swam
straight to Waikiinihia, for just above that hot-
spring was the village of Tutanekai, and swim-
ming, at last she reached the island of Mokoia.
" At the place where she landed on the island,
there is a hot-spring separated from the lake only
by a narrow ledge of rocks ; this is it — it is called,
as I just said, Waikimihia. Hine-Moa got into
this to warm herself, for she was trembling all
over, partly from the cold, after swimming in the
night across the wide lake of Eotorua, and partly
also, perhaps, from modesty, at the thoughts of
meeting Tutanekai.
" Whilst the maiden was thus warming herself
in the hot-spring, Tutanekai happened to feel
thirsty, and said to his servant, c Bring me a little
water ; ' so his servant went to fetch water for
THE MAIDEN OF ROTORUA. 241
him, and drew it from the lake in a calabash, close
to the spot where Hine-Moa was sitting ; the mai-
den, who was frightened, called out to him in a
graft voice like that of a man, ' Whom is that
water for?' He replied, 'It's for Tutanekai/
1 Give it here, then/ said Hine-Moa. And he
gave her the water, and she drank, and having
finished drinking, purposely threw down the cala-
bash, and broke it. Then the servant asked her,
' What business had you to break the calabash of
Tutanekai V But Hine-Moa did not say a word in
answer. The servant then went back, and Tuta-
nekai said to him, ' Where is the water I told you
to bring me V So he answered, £ Your calabash
was broken/ And his master asked him, 'Who
broke it V and he answered, ' The man who is in
the bath/ And Tutanekai said to him, ' Go back
again then, and fetch me some water/
" He, therefore, took a second calabash, and went
back, and drew water in the calabash from the
lake ; and Hine-Moa again said to him, ' Whom is
that water for ? ' so the slave answered as before,
( For Tutanekai/ And the maiden again said,
' Give it to me, for I am thirsty ; ' and the slave
gave it to her, and she drank, and purposely threw
down the calabash and broke it ; and these oc-
currences took place repeatedly between those
two persons.
M
At last the slave went again to Tutanekai, who
said to him, 1 Where is the water for me V and his
servant answered, ' It is all gone, your calabashes
have been broken/ ' By whom ?' said his master.
1 Didn't I tell you that there is a man in the bath ? '
answered the servant. 'Who is the fellow?' said
Tutanekai. ' How can I tell ? ' replied the slave ;
4 why, he's a stranger/ ' Didn't he know the water
was for me ? ' said Tutanekai ; ' how did the
rascal dare to break my calabashes ? why I shall
die from rage/
" Then Tutanekai threw on some clothes, and
caught hold of his club, and away he went, and
came to the bath, and called out, c Where 's that
fellow who broke my calabashes ? ' And Hine-
Moa knew the voice, that the sound of it was
that of the beloved of her heart ; and she hid
herself under the overhanging rocks of the hot-
spring ; but her hiding was hardly a real hiding,
but rather a bashful concealing of herself from Tuta-
nekai, that he might not rind her at once, but only
after trouble and careful searching for her y so he
went feeling about along the banks of the hot-
spring, searching everywhere, whilst she lay coyly
hid under the ledges of the rock, peeping out, won-
dering when she would be found. At last he
caught hold of a hand, and cried out, ' Hollo,
who's this?' And Hine-Moa answered, 'It's I,
THE MAIDEN OF ROTORUA.
Tutanekai/ And he said, 'But who are you? —
who's I V Then she spoke louder, and said, ' It's
I, 't is Hine-Moa/ And he said, ' Ho ! ho ! ho !
can such in very truth be the case ? let us two
go then to my house/ And she answered, ' Yes ; 1
and she rose up in the water as beautiful as the
wild white hawk, and stepped upon the edge of the
bath as graceful as the shy white crane ; and he
threw garments over her and took her, and they
proceeded to his house, and reposed there ; and
thenceforth, according to the ancient laws of the
Maori, they were man and wife.
" When the morning dawned, all the people of
the village went forth from their houses to cook
their breakfasts, and they all ate ; but Tutanekai
tarried in his house. So Whakaue said, c This is
the first morning that Tutanekai has slept in this
way, perhaps the lad is ill — bring him here —
rouse him up/ Then the man who was to fetch
him went, and drew back the sliding wooden win-
dow of the house, and peeping in, saw four feet.
Oh ! he was greatly amazed, and said to himself,
1 Who can this companion of his be V However, he
had seen quite enough, and turning about, hurried
back as fast as he could to Whakaue, and said to
him, 1 Why, there are four feet, I saw them myself
in the house. ' Whakaue answered, ' Who 's his
companion then ? hasten back and see/ So back
M 2
244? POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
he went to the house, and peeped in at them again,
and then for the first time he saw it was Hine-
Moa. Then he shouted out in his amazement,
' Oh ! here's Hine-Moa, here's Hine-Moa, in the
house of Tutanekai \ and all the village heard
him, and there arose cries on eveiy side — 1 Oh !
here's Hine-Moa, here's Hine-Moa with Tutanekai.'
And his elder brothers heard the shouting, and
they said, 1 It is not true ! ' for they were very
jealous indeed. Tutanekai then appeared com-
ing from his house, and Hine-Moa following
him, and his elder brothers saw that it was in-
deed Hine-Moa ; and they said, ' It is true ! it is
a fact !'
" After these things, Tiki thought within him-
self, ' Tutanekai has married Hine-Moa, she whom
he loved ; but as for me, alas I I have no wife ;'
and he became sorrowful, and returned to his own
village. And Tutanekai was grieved for Tiki ; and
he said to Whakaue, ' I am quite ill from grief for
my friend Tiki ; ' and Whakaue said, c What do
you mean V And Tutanekai replied, 1 1 refer to
my young sister Tupa, let her be given as a wife to
my beloved friend, to Tiki •' and his reputed father
Wakaue consented to this ; so his young sister Tupa
was given to Tiki, and she became his wife.
" The descendants of Hine-Moa and of Tutanekai
are at this very day dwelling on the lake of Rotu-
THE MAIDEN OF EOTOEUA. 245
rua, and never yet have the lips of the offspring
of Hine-Moa forgotten to repeat tales of the great
beauty of their renowned ancestress Hine-Moa, and
of her swimming over here ; and this too is the
burden of a song still current/'
Chapter 17
OF HOTUNUI, AND OF KAHURARE-MOA,
THE DAUGHTER OF PAKA.
Hotunui was one of those chiefs who arrived in
New Zealand from a land beyond the ocean. The
Tainui was the canoe in which he arrived in these
islands. He left Kawhia, where he first settled,
and came overland to Hauraki, and finally took
up his residence in a village called Whakatiwai.
He had at Kawhia, a son called Maru-tuahu, but
Hotunui was not there when this child was born.
The cause which made him come from Kawhia
to Hauraki was a false accusation that was
brought against him regarding a store-house of
sweet potatoes belonging to another chief, a friend
of his. The accusation arose in this way. Ho-
tunui went out of his house one night, almost at
the same moment that a thief had gone out to rob
this storehouse ; it was very unfortunate that they
should both have gone out nearly at the same
moment, just about midnight. When day dawned,
Hotunui came out of his house, and people in the
morning had seen his footsteps, right along the
STORY OF MARU-TUAHU.
path by which the thief had gone, and there were
the sweet potatoes dropped all along the path, and
as the soles of Hotunui's feet were very large, his
footprints had quite erased those of the thief ; so
presently they brought an accusation against II o-
tunui, that he had stolen the sweet potatoes. At
this time Hotunui's wife had just conceived Maru-
tuahu, but he was so overcome by shame at the
accusation brought against him, that the thought
came into his mind to run away from wife and
all, and go to Hauraki to seek another resi-
dence for himself. His corn was ready, and he
had dug his farm, and prepared the ground for
planting it, but had not yet put in the seed,
when he went to his wife and said, "Now, re-
member, when the child is born, if it is a boy call
it Maru-tuahu, and if it is a girl, call it Pare-tuahu
[either name meaning the field made ready for
planting], in remembrance of that cultivation of
mine, prepared for planting to no purpose." Then
Hotunui went off to Hauraki, and resided at Wha-
katiwai, and became the chief of the people of that
country, and he took another wife, the young
sister of a chief named Te Whatu, and she bore
him a child named Paka.
When Maru-tuahu came to man's estate, he took
up his club, and asked his mother, saying, " Mother,
show me the mountain range that is near my
father's abode;" and the mother said, "Look my
child towards the place of sunrise." And her son
said, "What, there?" and he was answered by his
mother, "Yes, that is it — Hauraki;" and Maru-
tuahu answered, " 'T is well ; I understand."
Then Maru-tuahu started with his slave, and
travelled towards Hauraki, and they carried with
them a spear for killing birds ; this they took
as a means of procuring food on the journey,
as they came by way of the wooded mountains
where birds are plentiful ; they were a whole
month before they arrived at Kohukohunui, and
reached the outskirts of the forests there early one
morning, at the same time that two young girls,
the daughters of Te Whatu, the chief of Hauraki,
were coming along the same path from the op-
posite direction. Maru-tuahu was up in a forest
tree, spearing Tui birds, at the moment when the
two girls saw the slave sitting under the tree in
which Maru-tuahu was killing birds, and his master's
cloak lying on the ground by him. The two
girls came merrily along the path ; the youngest
sister was very beautiful, but the eldest was
plain ; and when they saw the slave of Maru-
tuahu, the youngest one, who had seen him first,
called out playfully, " Ah ! there 's a man will
make a nice slave for me." "Where?" said the
eldest sister, " where is he ?" and the youngest
STORY OF MARU-TUAHU.
replied, " There, there, cannot you see him sitting
at the root of that tree V Then up they ran to-
wards him, sportively contesting with one another
whose slave he should be ; and the youngest
got there first, and therefore claimed him as her
slave.
AH this time Maru-tuahu was peeping down at
the two girls from the top of the tree ; and they
asked the slave, saying, " Where is your master ? "
he answered, " I have no master but him." Then
the girls looked about, and there was the cloak
lying on the ground, and a heap of dead birds ;
and they kept on asking, "Where is he?" but it
was not long before a flock of Tuis settled on the
tree where Maru-tuahu was sitting ; he speared at
them, and struck a Tui, which made the tree
ring with its cries ; the girls heard it, and look-
ing up, the youngest saw the young chief sitting
in the top boughs of the tree ; and she at once
called up to him, " Ah ! you shall be my husband "
but the eldest sister exclaimed, "You shall be
mine," and they began jesting and disputing be-
tween themselves which should have him for
a husband, for he was a very handsome young
man.
Then the two girls called up to him to come
down from the tree, and down he came, and
dropped upon the ground, and pressed his nose
M 3
against the nose of each of the young girls. They
then asked him to come to their village with them ;
to which he consented, but said, " You two go on
ahead, and leave me and my slave, and we will
follow you presently;" and the girls said, "Very
well, do you come after us/' Maru-tuahu then told
his slave to make a present to the girls of the food
they had collected, and he gave them two bark
baskets of pigeons, preserved in their own fat, and
they went off to their village with these. Maru-
tuahu stopped behind with his slave, and as soon
as the girls had gone, he went to a stream, and
washed his hair in the water, and then came
back, and combed it very carefully, and after
combing it, he tied it up in a knot, and stuck
fifty red Kaka feathers in his head, and amongst
them he placed the plume of a white heron, and
the tail of a huia, as ornaments ; he thus looked
extremely handsome, and said to his slave, "Now,
let us go."
It was not very long before the two young girls
came back from the village to meet their so called
husband, that they might all go in together ; and
when they came up to him, there he was seated on
the ground, looking quite different to what he did
before, for he now appeared as handsome as the large
crested cormorant; he had on outside, a Pueru cloak,
within that, a cloak called the Kahakaha, and under
STOEY OF MARU-TUAHU.
that again, a garment called the Kopu (this in
ancient times made up the dress of a great chief) ;
the two young girls felt deeply in love with him
when they saw him, and they said to Mara',
"Come along to our father's village with us;"
and he again consented, and told his slave to keep
with them, and as they all went along, Maru
stopped a little until he was some way behind,
for he thought that the girls had not found out
who he was ; as they proceeded, seeing that
Maru did not follow them fast, they asked his
slave, who kept along with them, " What is the
name of your master?" and the slave answered,
" Is there no chief of the west coast of the
island whose fame has reached this place ?" and
the young girls said, "Yes, the fame of one man
has reached this place, the fame of Maru-tuahu, the
son of Hotunui;" and the slave answered, "This
is he ; " and the girls replied, " Dear, dear, we had
not the least idea that it was he." By this time
Maru' was coming up again to join them, for he
guessed the girls had asked his slave who he was,
and that they had been told, but the girls ran off
together to Hotunui, and their father Te Whatu, to
inform them who was coming, as they had pre-
viously left the old men waiting for their return ;
but presently the two girls changed their plan, and
arranged between themselves, that the youngest
should run quickly to tell Hotunui that his son
was coming, and that the eldest sister should
be left to lead Maru-tuahu to the village ; and
in this way they proceeded, those who were
going slowly to the village loitering along, whilst
the younger sister was far ahead, running as
fast as she could, and crying out as she came near
the village, " Are you there, 0 Hotunui ? here \s
your son coming — here is Maru-tuahu." Then Ho-
tunui called out with a loud voice, "Where is he?"
and she replied, " Here he comes, he is coming
along close behind me ; make haste and have the
floor of the house covered with fine mats for him,
so that he may have a fitting reception."
Maru-tuahu soon came in sight, and as he
was seen approaching, he looked as handsome as
the beautiful crested cormorant. The people got
upon the defences of the village, and ran outside
the gates, to look at him ; and the young girls all
waved the corners of their cloaks, crying out,
"Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, make
haste, make haste ; " and he stepped boldly out,
and reached the village. As soon as he had ar-
rived there, they all wept over him ; and when
they had done weeping, they sat down, and
formed a semicircle, with Maru-tuahu at the
open part ; and Hotunui stood up to make a speech
of welcome to his son, and he spoke thus : " Wei-
STORY OF MARU-TITAHU.
come, welcome, oh, my child, welcome to Hauraki,
welcome. You are very welcome. You have
suddenly appeared here, urged by your own affec-
tions. You are very welcome/' Having said
this, Hotunui sat down again ; then Maru-tuahu
jumped up to make a speech in reply, and he said,
" That is right, that is right, oh, my father, call
out to your child, ' You are welcome/ Here I am
arrived at Hauraki, here I am seeking out my
father's village in Hauraki, but I, who am the
mere slave of my father, can say nothing in answer
to his welcome ; here I am arrived at your village,
it is for you to speak ; a young man just arrived
from the forests has no fitting word to say in your
presence."
Thus he ended his speech, and a feast was spread
out, and they all fell to eating, for they had killed
ten dogs for the feast, and the chiefs all ate, and
the two young girls ; but, although no one knew it,
the two sisters were all the time quarrelling with
each other as to which of them should have Maru-
tuahu for a husband: the heart of one of them
whispered to her, he shall be mine ; but the heart
of the other young girl said just the same thing
to her.
The feast being ended, they left the common
part of the fortress where food was eaten, and
moved on one side, to the sacred precincts. When
the evening came on a fire was kindled in the
house, and the eldest girl not seeing her younger
sister, went to her father to ask for her, and was
told that she had been given as a wife to Maru-
tuahu. At this she was exceedingly vexed, and
provoked with her sister ; for although she was
plain, she thought to herself, I am very pretty,
and I am sure, there's not the least reason why
Maru-tuahu should be frightened at me ; and she
went off to quarrel with her younger sister ; but
Mara-tuahu did not like her upon account of her
plainness, and her pretty sister kept him as her
husband.
Te Paka, the son of Hotunui, the nephew of Te
Whatu, and the younger brother of Maru-tuahu,
had grown up to be a young man, so they gave
him the elder daughter of Te Whatu to be his
wife ; thus the elder sister was married, as well as
the young one, who was given to Maru-tuahu for
his wife; and Te Paka's wife bore him a daughter,
whom they called Te Kahureremoa.
The youngest daughter of Te "Whatu, whom
Maru-tuahu married, bore him three children,
Tama-te-po, Tama-te-ra, and Whanaunga ; from
Tama-te-po sprang the Ngati-Rongou tribe ; from
Tama-te-ra sprang the tribe of Ngati-Tama-te-ra,
and from Whanaunga sprang the Ngati- Whanaunga
tribe.
STORY OF MARU-TUAHU.
"Whilst Maru-tuahu was living at Hauraki, his
father Hotunui told him how very badly some of
the people of that place had treated him ; these
were the facts of the case, as the old chief related
them to him. — " One day, when the canoes of the
tribe came in full of fish, after hauling their nets,
he sent down one of his servants from his house
to the canoe to bring back some fish for him,
and when the servant ran down for this purpose,
the man who owned the nets said to him,
' Well, what brings you here V upon which his
servant answered, ' Hotunui sent me down, to
bring up some fish for him, he quite longs to taste
them/ Upon which the owner of the nets cursed
Hotunui in the most violent and offensive manner,
saying, 4 Is his head the flax that grows in the
swamp at Otoi ? or is his topknot flax, that the
old fellow cannot go there to get some flax to make
a net for himself with, instead of troubling me ? '
When Hotunui's servant heard this, he returned at
once to the house, and his master not seeing the
fish, said, ' Well, tell me what is the matter;' so
he replied, ' I went as you told me, and I asked
the man who had been hauling the net for some
fish ; and he only looked up at me. Again I
asked him for some fish ; and then he said, Who
sent you here to fetch fish, pray? Then I told
him, Hotunui sent me down to bring up some fish
for him, he quite longs to taste them ; then the
man cursed you, saying to me, Is Hotunui/s head
the flax that grows in the swamp at Otoi ; or is
his topknot flax, that the old fellow cannot go
there, to get some flax to make a net with for
himself?' "
When Hotunui had told this story to Maru-
tuahu, he said, " Now oh, my son, this tribe is a
very bad one, they seem bent upon lowering the
authority of their chiefs."
The heart of Maru-tuahu felt very gloomy when
he heard his father had been treated thus, and
Hotunui said to him, " You may well look sad, my
son, at hearing what I have just said ; this tribe is
composed of very bad people." And Maru-tuahu
replied, " Leave them alone, they shall find out what
such conduct leads to."
Then Maru-tuahu began to catch and dry great
quantities offish for a feast, and he worked away with
his men at making fishing-nets, until he had col-
lected a very great number ; it was in the winter
that he began to make these nets, and the winter,
spring, summer, and part of autumn passed, before
they were finished ; then he sent a messenger to
the tribe who had cursed his father, to ask them to
come to a feast, and to help him to stretch these
nets ; and when the messenger came back, Maru-
tuahu asked him, " Where are they?" and the mes-
STORY OF MARII-TUAHU.
senger answered, " The day after to-morrow they
will arrive here/' Then Maru-tuahu gave orders,
saying, " To-morrow let the feast be ranged in
rows, so that when they arrive here they may find
it all ready for them/' Upon this they all retired
to rest, and when the dawn appeared they arranged
the food to be given to the strangers in rows : the
outside of the rows was composed of fish piled up ;
but under these was placed nothing but rotten wood
and filth, although the exterior made a very goodly
show. He intended this feast to be a feast at
which those who came as guests should be slaugh-
tered, in revenge for the curse against Hotunui,
which had exceedingly pained his heart.
Soon after daybreak the next morning the
guests came, and seeing the piles of provisions
which were laid out for them, they were ex-
ceedingly rejoiced, and longed for the time of
their distribution, and when they might touch
this food, little thinking how dearly they were
to pay for it. The guests had all arrived and
taken their seats upon the grass, when Marutuahu
and his people came together ; — they were only
one hundred and forty.
As they were to stretch the great net made up
of all the small ones upon the next morning, on
that evening they put all the nets and ropes
into the water to soak them, in order to soften the
flax of wliich they were made, so that they might
be more easily stretched ; and when the morning
dawned those who had come for the purpose began
to draw out the net, stretching the rope and the
bottom of the net along the ground, and pegging it
tight down from corner to corner, and thus whilst
Maru-tuahu's people were preparing food for them
to eat, the others worked away at stretching the
net taut, and pegging it fast to the ground to hold
it ; it was not long before they had finished this
and had put on the weights to sink it.
Maru-tuahu sent a man to see whether they had
finished stretching the net, and when the man
came back, he said, " Have they done stretching the
net?" and the man answered, "Yes, they have
finished." Then Maru-tuahu said, " Let us go and
lift the upper end of the net from the ground; — they
have finished the lower end of it." Then the one
hundred and forty men went with him, each one
carrying a weapon, carefully concealed under his
garments, lest their guests should see them ; and
when they reached the place where the net was,
they found the guests, nearly a thousand in num-
ber, had finished stretching the lower end of the
net. Then the priest of Maru-tuahu who was to
consecrate the net said, " Let the upper end of the
net be raised, so that the net may be stretched
straight out;" and Maru-tuahu said, "Yes, let it
STORY OF MARU-TUAHU.
be done at once, it is getting late in the day/'
Then the one hundred and forty men began to
lift up the net, with the left hand they seized
the ropes to raise it, but with the right hand
each firmly grasped his weapon, and Maru-tuahu
shouted out, " Lift away, lift away, lift it well
up when they had raised it high in the air,
they walked on with it ; holding it up as if they
were spreading it out, until they got it well over
the strangers, who were either pegging the lower
end down, or were seated on the ground looking
on; then Maru-tuahu shouted out, " Let it fall \"
and they let it fall, and caught in it their guests,
nearly a thousand in number ; they caught every
one of them in the net, so that they could not
move to make any effectual resistance, and whilst
some of the one hundred and forty men of Maru-
tuahu held the net down, the rest slew with their
weapons the whole thousand, not one escaped, whilst
they lost not a single man themselves. Hence
" The feast of rotten wood" is a proverb amongst
the descendants of Maru-tuahu to this day. This
feast of rotten wood was given at a place which
was then named Pukeahau, but which was after-
wards called Karihitangata (or, men were the
weights which were attached to the net to sink
it), upon account of the thousand people who were
there slain by treachery in the net of Maru-tuahu ;
for men were the weights that were attached to
that net to sink it. After the death of all these
people, the country they inhabited became the pro-
perty of Maru-tuahu, and his heirs dwell there to
the present clay.
About the time that Te Kahureremoa, Paka's
daughter, became marriageable, a large party of
visitors arrived at Wharekawa, the village of Te
Paka ; they came from Aotea, or the Great Barrier
Island ; at their head was the principal chief
of Aotea, and he brought in his canoes a present of
two hundred and sixty baskets of mackerel for Te
Paka, and they became such good friends, that they
thought they would like to be connected ; so it
was arranged that Te Paka's daughter, Te Kahu-
reremoa, should be given as a wife to the son of
that chief ; part of Te Paka s plan was to get
possession of Aotea for his family, for he thought
when his daughter had children, and they were
grown up, that it was possible they would secure
the island for their grandfather, or for their mother's
family.
When the party of visitors was about to return
to Aotea, having formed this connection with Te
Paka's tribe through the girl, her father gave her
up to them to take to Aotea to her husband, and
he told his daughter to go on board the canoe, and
to accompany them to Aotea ; but he told her to
STORY OF KAHUREREMOA.
no purpose, for she did not obey him ; in short,
Te Kahureremoa refused to go. So the old chief
to whom the canoes belonged said, " Never mind,
never mind, leave her alone, we shall not be very
long away, we shall soon return, we shall not be
long before we are back and they left Te Kahu-
reremoa with her father, and paddled off in their
canoes.
In one month's time they came back again, and
brought with them a present of thirty baskets
of mackerel, and as soon as they arrived they
distributed these amongst their friends ; and down
ran Te Kahureremoa from the village to the
landing-place to take a basket of mackerel for
herself. As soon as Paka saw this, he gave his
daughter a sound scolding for going and taking
the fish ; this is what Paka said to his daughter :
" Pub that down, you shall not have it ; I wanted
you to go and become the wife of the young
chief of the place where these good fish abound,
and you refused to go, therefore you shall not now
have any."
This was quite enough ; poor little Te Kahu-
reremoa felt entirely overcome with shame, she left
the basket of fish, dropping it just where she was,
and ran back into the house, and began to sob and
cry; then her thoughts suggested to her, that after
262 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
this, it would be better that she should be no
more seen by the eyes of her father, and that her
father s face should be no more seen by her, and
her heart kept on urging her to run away to
Takakopiri, and to take him for her lord ; she had
seen him, and liked him well; he was a great chief,
and had abundance of food of the best kind on
his estates ; plenty of potted birds of all kinds ;
and kiwis, and Mores and wekas, and eels, and
mackerel, and crayfish ; in short, he had abundance
of all kinds of food, and was rich in every sort of
property.
As she thought of all this, the chief's young
daughter continued weeping and sobbing in the
house, quite overcome with shame, and when
evening came she was still crying, but at night,
she said to herself, " Now I '11 be off, whilst all
the men are fast asleep so she got up and
ran away, accompanied by her female slave. The
next morning when the sun rose they found
she was gone, and she had fled so far, that
those who were sent to seek her came to the foot-
prints of herself and her slave ; their edges had so
sunk down, that the pursuers could not tell how
long it was since she had passed.
Waipuna was the village from which Te Kahu-
reremoa started, and they had left Pukorokoro behind
STORY OF KAHUREREMOA. 263
them, and by the time it was full daybreak they
had reached Waitakaruru, and as the full rays of
the sun shone on the earth, they were passing
above Pouarua ; then for a little time they travelled
very fast and reached Riwaki, at the mouth of the
river Piako; this they crossed and pushed on for
Opani, and thence those in pursuit of them returned,
they could follow them no further ; the tide also was
flowing, which stopped the pursuit.
Just then some of the canoes of the up-river
country were returning from Ruawehea, and
when the people in the canoes saw her, they
raised loud cries of — " Ho, ho ! here's Te Kahu-
reremoa, here 's the daughter of Paka she stepped
into one of the canoes with them, and the people
kept crying out the whole wTay from the mouth of
the river up its course as they ascended it, " Here's
Te Kahureremoa and they rowed very fast, feeling
alarmed at having so great a chieftainess on board,
and so confused were they at her presence, that
throughout the whole day they kept on bending
their heads down to their very paddles, as they
pulled. They stopped at Raupa, where the Awa-iti
branches off to Tauranga, and there they spent one
night ; and the next day they went over the range
towards Katikati : the people of Raupa urged her
to stop there for a little ; she, however, would not,
but driven by the fond thoughts of her heart, she
pressed onwards, and reached the summit of the
ridge of Hikurangi, and looked down upon Kati-
kati, and saw also Tauranga ; then the young girl
turned, and looked round at the mountain at
Otawa, and although she knew what it was, she
liking to hear his name, and of his greatness,
spoke to the people of the country, who, out of
respect, were accompanying her, . and asking, said,
" What is the name of yonder mountain V and
they answered her, " That is Otawa." And the
young girl asked again, " Is the country of that
mountain rich in food V and they replied, " Oh,
there are found Mores, and kiwis and welcas, and
pigeons, and tuis ; why that mountain is famed
for the variety and number of birds that inhabit
it." Then the young girl took courage, and asked
once more, " Whom does all that fruitful country
belong to?" and they told her, " The Waitaka is
the name of the tribe that inhabit that country,
and Takakopiri is the chief of it. He is the
owner of that mountain, and he is the great chief
of the Waitaka ; and when the people of that
tribe collect food from the mountains, they bear
everything to him ; the food of all those districts,
whatever it may be, belongs to that great Lord
alone/' When the young girl heard all this, she
said to the people, " I and my female slave are
going there, to Otawa/' And the people said to
STORY OF KAHUREREMOA.
her, " No ; is that really the case ? " and she said,
" Yes, we are going there. Paka sent us there,
that we should ask Takakopiri to pay him a
visit at Wharekawa." She said this to deceive
the people, and prevent them from stopping her ;
and immediately started again upon her journey,
and came down upon the sea-shore at Katikati.
The Waitaha, the tribe of Takakopiri, inhabited
that village ; and as soon as they saw the young
girl coming, there arose joyful cries of — " Here is
Kahureremoa! oh, here is the daughter of Paka!"
and the people collected in crowds to gaze at the
young chieffcainess : she rested at the village, and
they immediately began to prepare food, and when
it was cooked, they brought it to her, and she
partook of it, and when she had done it was night-
time ; then they brought plenty of firewood into the
house, and made up a clear fire, so that the house
might be quite light, and they all stood up to
dance, that she might pass a cheerful evening.
After they had all danced, they continued soli-
citing Te Kahureremoa to stand up and dance
also, whilst they sat looking on to see how grace-
fully and beautifully she moved. Upon which
she coyly said, " Ah, yes, that 's all very well ;
do you want me to dance indeed %" At last,
however, the young girl sprang up, and she had
N
hardly stretched forth her lovely arms in the atti-
tude of the dance, before the people all cried out
with surprise and pleasure at her beauty and grace ;
her arms moved with an easy and rapid action like
that of swimming ; her nimble lissom fingers were
reverted till their tips seemed to touch the backs of
the palms of her hands ; and all her motions were
so light, that she appeared to float in the air ;
then might be seen, indeed, the difference between
the dancing of a nobly-born girl and a slave ; the
latter being too often a mere throwing about of
the body and of the arms. Thus she danced
before them ; and when she had finished, all the
young men in the place were quite charmed
with her, and could think of nothing but of Te
Kahureremoa.
When night came on, and the people had dis-
persed to their houses, the chief of the village came
to make love to her, and said, that upon account of
her great beauty he wished her to become his wife ;
but she at once started up with her female slave,
and notwithstanding the darkness, they plunged
straight into the river, forded it, and proceeded
upon their journey, leaving the chief overwhelmed
with shame and confusion, at the manner in
which Te Kahureremoa had departed : however,
away she went, without any fearful thought, on
NEW ZEALAND VEGETATION.
STORY OF KAHTJREREMOA. 267
her road to Tauranga, and by daybreak they
had reached the Wairoa. When the people of
the village saw her coming along in the dawn,
they raised joyful cries of — " Here is Te Kahure-
remoa \" and some of Takakopiri's people, who were
there, would detain the young girl for a time : so
she rested, and ate, and was refreshed ; thence she
proceeded along the base of the mountains of
Otawa, and at night slept at its foot ; and when
morning broke, she and her slave continued their
journey.
There, just at the same time, was Takakopiri com-
ing along the path, to sport in his forests at Otawa ;
his sport was spearing birds, and right in the path-
way there stood a tall forest tree covered with ber-
ries, upon which large green pigeons had settled in
flocks to feed. The two girls came toiling along,
with their upper cloaks thrown round their shoul-
ders like plaids, for the convenience of travelling, the
slave-girl carrying a basket of food on her back for
her mistress. As the girls drew near the forest
they heard the loud flapping of the wings of a
pigeon, for the young chief had struck one with his
spear ; so they stopped at once, and Te Kahurere-
moa said to her slave, " Somebody is there, just
listen how that bird flaps its wings and her slave
answered, "Yes, I hear it/' And Te Kahureremoa
said, " That was the flapping of the wings of a
N 2
bird which somebody has speared ; " and her slave
replied, " Yes, we had better go and see who it is."
And they had not gone far before they heard a
louder flap, as the bird was thrown upon the
ground ; they at once approached the spot, and see-
ing a heap of pigeons which had been killed, lying
at the root of a tree, they sat down by them. Taka-
kopiri had observed them coming along, and as he
watched the girls from the tree, he said to himself,
" These girls are travelling, and they come from a
long distance, for their cloaks are rolled over their
shoulders like plaids ; they are not from near here ;
had they come from the neighbourhood they would
have worn their cloaks hanging down in the usual
way."
Then the young chief came down from the
tree, leaving his spear swinging to a bough : as
he was descending, the girls saw him, and the slave
knew him at once at a distance, and said, " Oh,
my young mistress, that is Takakopiri " and Te
Kahureremoa said, "No, no, it is not indeed;"
but the slave said, " Yes, it is he, I saw him when
he came to Hauraki :" and the young girl said,
(t You are right, it is Takakopiri ;" and her slave
said, "Yes, yes, this is the young chief who has
caused us to come all this distance." By this time
he had reached the ground, and he and the girls
cried out at the same time to each other, " Wei-
STOET OF KAHUREREMOA.
come, welcome ; " and the young man came up to
them, and stooped down, and pressed his nose to
the nose of each of them. Te Kahureremoa felt
and knew whose face touched hers, but Takako-
piri did not know whose nose he had pressed.
Then he said to them, "We had better go to
my village, which is on the other side of the
forest j" and he pressed them to go, and the girls
consented to go to the village with him : as they
went along the path, he kept urging them to
make haste, and Te Kahureremoa thought that he
might still not know who she was, or he would
never speak so impatiently, and tell her to make
haste, so she made an excuse to arrange her dress,
and stopped behind on one side of the path, in order
that the young chief might have an opportunity of
asking her slave who she was : as soon as he saw
she had left the path, he went on with her slave
a little distance until they had got over a
rising ground, and then he asked her, saying,
"Who is your mistress?" and the slave answered,
" Is it my young mistress that you are asking
about?" and the young chief said, "Yes, it is one
nobly-born person asking after another ; " and the
slave said, "Well, if it is my mistress you are
asking about, the young lady's name is Te Kahu-
reremoa and he answered her, "What! is this
Te Kahureremoa, the daughter of Paka V and the
POLYNESIAN" MYTHOLOGY.
slave replied, "Yes, do you think there are more
Pakas than one, or more Te Kahureremoas than
one ? — this is really she \" and the young chief said,
" Well, who would ever have suspected that this
was she, or that a young girl from so distant a
place could have reached this country? Let us
sit down here at once, and wait until she comes
up." In a very little time she appeared com-
ing along to them, and the young chief called
out to her, " You had really better make haste, or
you '11 suffer from want of food, for it is still a
long distance from this place to my village \" and
when she had reached them he said, "Do you
follow me, and pray do not lose time/' Then away
he ran, and as soon as he got in sight of his
own fortress, he began to call loudly to his people
as he ran, " Te Kahureremoa has arrived ; the
daughter of Paka is come/' " Why," said some of
them, "our master is in love with that girl, and
has lost his senses, and thinks she is really here
but he kept calling out as he ran, "Here comes
Te Kahureremoa, here comes the daughter of
Paka." Then some of them said, "Why, after
all, it must be true, or he would not continue
calling it out in that way ;"■ and others said, "But
who could ever believe that a young girl could
have travelled to such a distance? the place is
strange to her, and we are all strangers to her ;
STORY OF KAHUREREMOA.
perhaps, after all, it is only the wind wafting up
from afar this name which we hear called out in
our ears/" However, they all either climbed up
on the defences, or went outside to see who was
coming ; and as soon as they saw the young girl
approaching, they began to wave their garments,
and to sing, in songs of welcome, —
" Welcome, welcome, thou who comest
From afar, from beyond the far horizon ;
Our dearest child hath brought thee thence ;
Welcome, oh, welcome here."
And each of the many hundreds of persons who
had come out to welcome her, as she passed his
residence, prayed her to stop there ; but Takakopiri
continued to say to her, "Press on, follow close,
quite close, after me and so he led her through
the throng of people, each of whom felt so moved
towards the young girl, that, although they were
in the very presence of their young lord, they
could not help soliciting her to stop at each
house as she came by. At length she arrived
at Takakopirfs dwelling, and there for the first
time she stopped and sat down, and the people
came thronging in crowds to gaze upon her; and
they spread before the two young girls food in
abundance, the birds which the young chief had
taken upon the mountains ; and a feast was made
for the crowd that surrounded them ; thus they re-
mained feasting, and admiring that young girl, and
when the sun sank below the horizon, they were still
sitting there gazing upon her ; the youths of the
village thought they could never be weary of look-
ing at her, but none dared to utter one word
of love for fear of Takakopiri. Before a month
had passed she was married to the young chief,
and she bore him a daughter, named Tuparahaki,
from whom, in eleven generations, or in about 275
years, have sprung all the principal chiefs of the
Ngatipaoa tribe who are now alive (in 1853).
Chapter 18
(KG TE MATENGA 0 KIKI.)
Kiki was a celebrated sorcerer, and skilled in
magical arts ; lie lived upon the river Waikato.
The inhabitants of that river still have this proverb,
" The offspring of Kiki wither shrubs/' This pro-
verb had its origin in the circumstance of Kiki
being such a magician, that he could not go abroad
in the sunshine ; for if his shadow fell upon any
place not protected from his magic, it at once be-
came tapu3 and all the plants there withered.
This Kiki was thoroughly skilled in the prac-
tice of sorcery. If any parties coming up the
river called at his village in their canoes as they
paddled by, he still remained quietly at home,
and never troubled himself to come out, but
just drew back the sliding door of his house,
so that it might stand open, and the strangers
stiffened and died ; or even as canoes came pad-
dling down from the upper parts of the river, he
drew back the sliding wooden shutter to the win-
N 3
dow of his house, and the crews on board of them
were sure to die.
At length, the fame of this sorcerer spread ex-
ceedingly, and resounded through every tribe, until
Tamure, a chief who dwelt at Kawhia, heard with
others, reports of the magical powers of Kiki, for
his fame extended over the whole country. At
length Tamure thought he would go and contend
in the arts of sorcery with Kiki, that it might be
seen which of them was most skilled in magic ; and
he arranged in his own mind a fortunate season for
his visit.
When this time came, he selected two of his
people as his companions, and he took his young
daughter with him also ; and they all crossed over
the mountain range from Kawhia, and came down
upon the river Waipa, which runs into the Wai-
kato, and embarking there in a canoe, paddled
down the river towards the village of Kiki ; and
they managed so well, that before they were seen
by anybody, they had arrived at the landing-place,
Tamure was not only skilled in magic, but he
was also a very cautious man ; so whilst they
were still afloat upon the river, he repeated an in-
cantation of the kind called " Mata-tawbito," to
preserve him safe from all arts of sorcery • and he
repeated other incantations, to ward off spells, to
protect him from magic, to collect good genii round
THE TWO SORCERERS.
him, to keep off evil spirits, and to shield him from
demons ; when these preparations were all finished,
they landed, and drew up their canoe on the beach,
at the landing-place of Kiki.
As soon as they had landed, the old sorcerer
called out to them that they were welcome to his
village, and invited them to come up to it; so they
went up to the village : and when they reached
the square in the centre, they seated themselves
upon the ground ; and some of Kiki's people
kindled fire in an enchanted oven, and began to
cook food in it for the strangers. Kiki sat in his
house, and Tamure on the ground just outside the
entrance to it, and he there availed himself of
this opportunity to repeat incantations over the
threshold of the house, so that Kiki might be en-
chanted as he stepped over it to come out. When
the food in the enchanted oven was cooked, they
pulled off the coverings, and spread it out upon
clean mats. The old sorcerer now made his ap-
pearance out of his house, and he invited Tamure
to come and eat food with him ; but the food
was all enchanted, and his object in asking Ta-
mure to eat with him was, that the enchanted
food might kill him ; therefore Tamure said that his
young daughter was very hungry, and would eat
of the food offered to them ; he in the meantime
kept on repeating incantations of the kind called
276 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
Mata-tawhito, Whakangungu, and Parepare, protec-
tions against enchanted food, and as she ate she
also continued to repeat them ; even when she
stretched out her hand to take a sweet potato, or
any other food, she dropped the greater part of it
at her feet, and hid it under her clothes, and then
only ate a little bit. After she had done, the
old sorcerer, Kiki, kept waiting for Tamure to
begin to eat also of the enchanted food, that
he might soon die. Kiki having gone into his
house again, Tamure still sat on the ground out-
side the door, and as he had enchanted the
threshold of the house, he now repeated incan-
tations which might render the door enchanted
also, so that Kiki might be certain not to escape
when he passed out of it By this time Tamure's
daughter had quite finished her meal, but neither
her father nor either of his people had partaken of
the enchanted food.
Tamure now ordered his people to launch his
canoe, and they paddled away, and a little time
after they had left the village, Kiki became un-
well ; in the meanwhile, Tamure and his people
were paddling homewards in all haste, and as
they passed a village where there were a good
many people on the river's bank, Tamure stopped,
and said to them, " If you should see any canoe
pulling after us, and the people in the canoe ask
THE TWO SORCERERS.
you, have you seen a canoe pass up the river, would
you be good enough to say, fYes, a canoe has
passed by here V and then if they ask you, c How
far has it got?' would you be good enough to say,
Oh, by this time it has got very far up the
river?''"' and having thus said to the people of
that village, Tamure paddled away again in his
canoe with all haste.
Some time after Tamure's party had left the
village of Kiki, the old sorcerer became very ill
indeed, and his people then knew that this had
been brought about by the magical arts of Tamure,
and they sprang into a canoe to follow after him,
and pulled up the river as hard as they could; and
when they reached the village where the people
were on the river's bank, they called out and asked
them. " How far has the canoe reached, which
passed up the river ?" and the villagers answered,
" Oh, that canoe must have got very far up the
river by this time." The people in the canoe that
was pursuing Tamure, upon hearing this, returned
again to their own village, and Kiki died from the
incantations of Tamure.
Some of Kiki's descendants are still living —
one of them, named Mokahi, recently died at Tau-
ranga-a-Ruru, but Te Maioha is still living on the
river Waipa. Yes, some of the descendants of
Kiki, whose shadow withered trees, are still living.
He was indeed a great sorcerer: he overcame e very-
other sorcerer until he met Tamure, but he was
vanquished by him, and had to bend the knee
before him.
Tamure has also some descendants living,
amongst whom are Mahu and Kiake of the Ngati-
Mariu tribe ; these men are also skilled in magic :
if a father skilled in magic died, he left his incan-
tations to his children ; so that if a man was
skilled in sorcery, it was known that his children
would have a good knowledge of the same arts,
as they were certain to have derived it from their
parent.
KOHINEMUTU EOTORN1.
Chapter 19
(kon ga puhi a puarata eaua ko tautohito.)
This head bewitched all persons who approached
the hill where the fortress in which it was kept
was situated, so that, from fear of it, no human
being dared to approach the place, which was thence
named the Sacred Mount.
Upon that mount dwelt Puarata and Tautohito
with their carved head, and its fame went through
all the country, to the river Tamaki, and to Kai-
para, and to the tribes of Ngapuhi, to Akau, to
Waikato, to Kawhia, to Mokau, to Hauraki, and
to Tauranga ; the exceeding great fame of the
powers of that carved head spread to every part
of Aotea-roa, or the northern island of New Zea-
land ; everywhere reports were heard, that so great
were its magical powers, none could escape alive
from them ; and although many warriors and armies
went to, the Sacred Mount to try to destroy the
sorcerers to whom the head belonged, and to carry
it off as a genius for their own district, that its
magical powers might be subservient to them,
they all perished in the attempt. In short, no
mortal could approach the fortress, and live ;
even parties of people who were travelling along
the forest track, to the northwards towards Muri-
whenua, all died by the magical powers of that
head ; whether they went in large armed bodies, or
simply as quiet travellers, their fate was alike — they
all perished, from its magical influence, somewhere
about the place where the beaten track passes over
Waimatuku.
The deaths of so many persons created a great
sensation in the country, and, at last, the report of
these things reached a very powerful sorcerer named
Hakawau, who, confiding in his magical arts, said
he was resolved to go and see this magic head, and
the sorcerers who owned it. So, without delay, he
called upon all the genii who were subservient to
him, in order that he might be thrown into an
enchanted sleep, and see what his fate in this under-
taking would be ; and in his slumber he saw that
his genius would triumph in the encounter, for it
Was so lofty and mighty, that in his dream its head
reached the heavens, whilst its feet remained upon
earth.
Having by his spells ascertained this, he at once
started on his journey, and the district through
which he travelled was that of Akau ; and, confiding
THE MAGICAL WOODEN HEAD. 281
in his own enchantments, he went fearlessly to try
whether his arts of sorcery would not prevail over
the magic head, and enable him to destroy the old
sorcerer Puarata.
He took with him one friend, and went along
the sea-coast towards the Sacred Mount, and passed
through Whanga-roa, and followed the sea-shore
to Rangikahu and Kuhawera, and came out upon
the coast again at Karoroumanui, and arrived
at Maraetai ; there was a fortified village, the
people of which endeavoured to detain Hakawau
and his friend until they rested themselves and
partook of a little food ; but he said, " We ate food
on the road, a short distance behind us; we are
not at all hungry or weary/' So they would not
remain at Maraetai, but went straight on until
they reached Putataka, and they crossed the river
there, and proceeded along the beach to Eukuwai ;
neither did they stop there, but on they went,
and at last reached Waitara.
When they got to Waitara, the friend who ac-
companied Hakawau began to get alarmed, and
said, "Now we shall perish here, I fear;" but
they went safely on, and reached Te Weta ; there
the heart of Hakawau's friend began to beat again,
and he said, " I feel sure that we shall perish
here ; " however they passed by that place too in
safety, and on they went, and at length they
reached the most fatal place of all — Waimatuku.
Here they smelt the stench of the carcases of the
numbers who had been previously destroyed ; indeed
the stench was so bad that it was quite suffocating,
and they both now said, " This is a fearful place ;
we fear we shall perish here." However, Haka-
wau kept on unceasingly working at his enchant-
ments, and repeating incantations, which might
ward off the attacks of evil genii, and which might
collect good genii about them, to protect them from
the malignant spirits of Puarata, lest these should
injure them ; thus they passed over Waimatuku,
looking with horror at the many corpses strewed
about the beach, and in the dense fern and bushes
which bordered the path ; and as they pursued their
onward journey, they expected death every mo-
ment.
Nevertheless they died not on the dreadful road,
but went straight along the path till they came to
the place where it passes over some low hills, from
whence they could see the fortress which stood upon
the Sacred Mount. Here they sat down and
rested, for the first time since they had commenced
their journey. They had not yet been seen by the
watchmen of the fortress. Then Hakawau, with
his incantations, sent forth many genii, to attack
THE MAGICAL WOODEN" HEAD. 283
the spirits who kept watch over the fortress and
magic head of Puarata. Some of his good genii
were sent by Hakawau in advance, whilst he
charged others to follow at some distance. The
incantations by the power of which these genii were
sent forth by Hakawau was a Whangai. The genii
he sent in front were ordered immediately to begin
the assault. As soon as the spirits who guarded
the fortress of Puarata saw the others, they all
issued out to attack them ; the good genii then
feigned a retreat, the evil ones following them,
and whilst they were thus engaged in the pur-
suit, some of the thousands of good genii, who
had last been sent forth by Hakawau, stormed
the fortress now left without defenders ; when the
evil spirits, who had been led away in the pursuit,
turned to protect the fortress, they found that the
genii of Hakawau had already got quite close to it,
and the good genii of Hakawau without trouble
caught them one after the other, and thus all the
spirits of the old sorcerer Puarata were utterly
destroyed.
When all the evil spirits who had been subject
to the old sorcerer had been thus destroyed, Haka-
wau walked straight up towards the fortress of
this fellow, in whom spirits had dwelt as thick as
men stow themselves in a canoe, and whom they
had used in like manner to carry them about. When
the watchmen of the fortress, to their great sur-
prise, saw strangers coming, Puarata hurried to his
magic head, to call upon it; his supplication was
after this manner — " Strangers come here ! strangers
come here ! Two strangers come ! two strangers
come ! " But it uttered only a low wailing sound ;
for since the good genii of Hakawau had destroyed
the spirits who served Puarata, the old sorcerer
addressed in vain his supplications to the magic
head, it could no longer raise aloud its powerful
voice as in former times, but uttered only low moans
and wails. Could it have cried out with a loud
voice, straightway Hakawau and his friend would
both have perished ; for thus it was, when armies
and travellers had in other times passed the for-
tress, Puarata addressed supplications to his magic
head, and when it cried out with a mighty voice,
the strangers all perished as they heard it.
Hakawau and his friend had, in the meantime,
continued to walk straight to the fortress. When
they drew near it, Hakawau said to his friend,
" You go directly along the path that leads by
the gateway into the fortress; as for me, I will
show my power over the old sorcerer, by climbing
right over the parapet and palisades:" and when
they reached the defences of the place, Haka-
THE MAGICAL WOODEN HEAD.
wau began to climb over the palisades of the
gateway. When the people of the place saw this,
they were much exasperated, and desired him, in
an angry manner, to pass underneath the gateway,
along the pathway which was common to all, and
not to dare to climb over the gateway of Puarata and
of Tautohito; but Hakawau went quietly on over
the gateway, without paying the least attention to
the angry words of those who were calling out to
him, for he felt quite sure that the two old sorcerers
were not so skilful in magical arts as he was ; so
Hakawau persisted in going direct to all the most
holy places of the fortress, where no person who had
not been made sacred might enter.
After Hakawau and his friend had been for a
short time in the fortress, and had rested them-
selves a little, the people of the place began to cook
food for them; they still continued to sit resting
themselves in the fortress for a long time, and at
length Hakawau said to his friend, " Let us de-
part/' Directly his servant heard what his master
said to him, he jumped up at once and was ready
enough to be oiF. Then the people of the place
called out to them not to go immediately, but to
take some food first ; but Hakawau answered, " Oh,
we ate only a little while ago ; not far from here
we took some food/' So Hakawau would not re-
main longer in the fortress, but departed, and as
286 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
he started, he smote his hands on the threshold of
the house in which they had rested, and they had
hardly got well outside of the fortress before every
soul in it was dead — not a single one of them was
left alive.
Chapter 20
KAHUKURA FROM THE FAIRIES,
(ko te kokeko mo nga patupaiakehe.)
Once upon a time, a man of the name of Kahu-
kura wished to pay a visit to Rangiaowhia, a place
lying far to the northward, near the country of the
tribe called Te Rarawa. "Whilst he lived at his own
village, he was continually haunted by a desire to
visit that place. At length he started on his
journey, and reached Rangiaowhia, and as he was
on his road, he passed a place where some people
had been cleaning mackerel, and he saw the inside
of the fish lying all about the sand on the sea-
shore : surprised at this, he looked about at the
marks, and said to himself, " Oh, this must have
been done by some of the people of the district/'
But when he came to look a little more narrowly
at the footmarks, he saw that the people who had
been fishing had made them in the night-time, not
that morning, nor in the day ; and he said to
himself, " These are no mortals who have been
fishing here — spirits must have done this ; had
288 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
they been men, some of the reeds and grass which
they sat on in their canoe would have been lying
about/' He felt quite sure from several circum-
stances, that spirits or fairies had been there ; and
after observing everything well, he returned to the
house where he was stopping. He, however, held
fast in his heart what he had seen, as something
very striking to tell all his friends in every direc-
tion, and as likely to be the means of gaining
knowledge which might enable him to find out
something new.
So that night he returned to the place wThere
he had observed all these things, and just as
he reached the spot, back had come the fairies too,
to haul their net for mackerel ; and some of them
were shouting out, " The net here ! the net here ! "
Then a canoe paddled off to fetch the other in
which the net was laid, and as they dropped the
net into the water, they began to cry out, " Drop
the net in the sea at Rangiaowhia, and haul it
at Mamaku/' These words were sung out by
the fairies, as an encouragement in their work, and
from the joy of their hearts at their sport in
fishing.
As the fairies were dragging the net to the shore,
Kahukura managed to mix amongst them, and
hauled away at the rope ; he happened to be a
very fair man, so that his skin was almost as
NET MAKING ACQUIRED FROM THE FAIRIES. 289
white as that of these fairies, and from that cause
he was not observed by them. As the net came
close in to the shore, the fairies began to cheer
and shout, " Go out into the sea some of you, in
front of the rocks, lest the nets should be en-
tangled in Tawatawauia a Teweteweuia/' for that
was the name of a rugged rock standing out from
the sandy shore ; the main body of the fairies kept
hauling at the net, and Kahukura pulled away in
the midst of them.
When the first fish reached the shore, thrown up
in the ripples driven before the net as they hauled
it in, the fairies had not yet remarked Kahukura,
for he was almost as fair as they were. It was
just at the very first peep of dawn that the fish
were all landed, and the fairies ran hastily to pick
them up from the sand, and to haul the net up on
the beach. They did not act with their fish as men
do, dividing them into separate loads for each, but
every one took up what fish he liked, and ran a
twig through their gills, and as they strung the
fish, they continued calling out, " Make haste, run
here, all of you, and finish the work before the sun
rises/'
Kahukura kept on stringing his fish with the
rest of them. He had only a very short string,
and, making a slip-knot at the end of it, when
o
POLYNESIAN" MYTHOLOGY.
he had covered the string with fish, he lifted them
up, but had hardly raised them from the ground
when the slip-knot gave way from the weight
of the fish, and off they fell ; then some of the
fairies ran good-naturedly to help him to string
his fish again, and one of them tied the knot at
the end of the string for him, but the fairy had
hardly gone after knotting it, before Kahukura
had unfastened it, and again tied a slip-knot at
the end ; then he began stringing his fish again,
and when he had got a great many on, up he
lifted them, and off they slipped as before.
This trick he repeated several times, and delayed
the fairies in their work by getting them to knot
his string for him, and put his fish on it. At
last full daylight broke, so that there was light
enough to distinguish a man's face, and the fairies
saw that Kahukura was a man ; then they dis-
persed in confusion, leaving their fish and their
net, and abandoning their canoes, which were no-
thing but stems of the flax. In a moment the
fairies started for their own abodes ; in their
hurry, as has just been said, they abandoned then-
net, which was made of rushes ; and off the good
people fled as fast as they could go. Now was
first discovered the stitch for netting a net, for they
left theirs with Kahukura, and it became a pat-
NET MAKING ACQUIRED FROM THE FAIRIES. 291
tern for him. He thus taught his children to
make nets, and by them the Maori race were
made acquainted with that art, which they have
now known from very remote times.
Chapter 21
TROOP OF FAIRIES.
Te Kanawa, a chief of Waikato, was the man who
fell in with a troop of fairies upon the top of Puke-
more, a high hill in the Waikato district.
This chief happened one day to go out to catch
kiwis with his dogs, and when night came on he
found himself right at the top of Puke-more. So
his party made a fire to give them light, for it was
very dark. They had chosen a tree to sleep under —
a very large tree, the only one fit for their purpose
that they could find ; in fact, it was a very conve-
nient sleeping-place, for the tree had immense
roots, sticking up high above the ground : they
slept between these roots, and made the fire be-
yond them.
As soon as it was dark they heard loud voices,
like the voices of people coming that way ; there
were the voices of men, of women, and of children,
as if a very large party of people were coming
along. They looked for a long time, but could see
nothing ; till at last Te Kanawa knew the noise must
proceed from fairies. His people were all dreadfully
TE KANAWA AND THE FAIRIES. 293
frightened, and would have run away if they could ;
but where could they run to ? for they were in the
midst of a forest, on the top of a lonely mountain,
and it was dark night.
For a long time the voices grew louder and more
distinct as the fairies drew nearer and nearer, until
they came quite close to the fire ; Te Kanawa
and his party were half dead with fright. At last
the fairies approached to look at Te Kanawa, who
was a very handsome fellow. To do this, they
kept peeping slily over the large roots of the tree
under which the hunters were lying, and kept con-
stantly looking at Te Kanawa, whilst his compa-
nions were quite insensible from fear. Whenever
the fire blazed up brightly, off went the fairies and
hid themselves, peeping out from behind stumps
and trees ; and when it burnt low, back they came
close to it, merrily singing as they moved —
" Here you come climbing over Mount Tirangi
To visit the handsome chief of ISgapuhh
Whom we have done with." *
A sudden thought struck Te Kanawa, that he
might induce them to go away if he gave them
all the jewels he had about him ; so he took off
a beautiful little figure, carved in green jasper,
* Te Wherowhero did not remember the whole song, but that
this was the concluding verse ; it was probably in allusion to their
coming to peep at Te Kanawa.
294} POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY,
which he wore as a neck ornament, and a precious
carved jasper ear-drop from his ear. Ah, Te Kanawa
was only trying to amuse and please them to save
his life, but all the time he was nearly frightened
to death. However, the fairies did not rush on
the men to attack them, but only came quite close
to look at them. As soon as Te Kanawa had
taken off his neck ornament, and pulled out his
jasper ear-ring, and his other ear-ring, made of a
tooth of the tiger-shark, he spread them out before
the fairies, and offered them to the multitude
who were sitting all round about the place; and
thinking it better the fairies should not touch him,
he took a stick, and fixing it into the ground,
hung his neck ornament and ear-rings upon it.
As soon as the fairies had ended their song, they
took the shadows of the ear-rings, and handed them
about from one to the other, until they had passed
through the whole party, which then suddenly dis-
appeared, and nothing more was seen of them.
The fairies carried off with them the shadows of
all the jewels of Te Kanawa, but they left behind
them his jasper neck ornament and his ear-rings,
so that he took them back again, the hearts of the
fairies being quite contented at getting the shadows
alone ; they saw, also, that Te Kanawa was an
honest, well-dispositioned fellow. However, the
next morning, as soon as it was light, he got down
TE KANAWA AND THE FAIRIES. 295
the mountain as fast as he could without stopping
to hunt longer for kiwis.
The fairies are a very numerous people ; merry,
cheerful, and always singing, like the cricket. Their
appearance is that of human beings, nearly resem-
bling a European's ; their hair being very fair, and
so is their skin. They are very different from the
Maories, and do not resemble them at all.
Te Kanawa had died before any Europeans ar-
rived in New Zealand.
Chapter 22
RAU-MAHORA,
There was, several generations since, a chief of
the Taranaki tribe, named Rangirarunga. His pa
was called Whakarewa ; it was a large pa, re-
nowned for the strength of its fortifications. This
chief had a very beautiful daughter, whose name
was Rau-mahora ; she was so celebrated for her
beauty that the fame of it had reached all parts of
these islands, and had, therefore, come to the ears
of Te Rangi-apitirua, a chief of the Ngati-Awa
tribes, to whom belonged the pa of Puke-ariki, on
the hill where the Governor's house stood in New
Plymouth. This chief had a son named Taka-
rangi ; he was the hero of his tribe. He, too,
naturally heard of the beauty of Rau-mahora ; and
it may be that his heart sometimes dwelt long on
the thoughts of such great loveliness.
Now in those days long past, there arose a
war between the tribes of Te Rangi-apitirua and
of the father of Rau-mahora ; and the army of the
NEW ZEALAND PA.
TAKARANGI AND R ATJ-M AH OR A. 297
Ngati-Awa tribes marched to Taranaki, to attack
the pa of Rangirarunga, and the army invested
that fortress, and sat before it night and day, yet
they could not take it ; they continued nevertheless
constantly to make assaults upon it, and to attack
the garrison of the fortress, so that its inhabitants
became worn out from want of provisions and
water, and many of them were near dying.
At last the old chief of the pa, Rangirarunga,
overcome by thirst, stood on the top of the de-
fences of the pa, and cried out to the men of the
enemy's army, " I pray you to give me one drop
of water." Some of his enemies, pitying the aged
man, said, "Yes;" and one ran with a calabash
to give him water. But the majority being more
hard-hearted, were angry at this, and broke the
calabash in his hands, so that not a drop of water
reached the poor old man ; and this was done se-
veral times, whilst his enemies continued disputing
amongst themselves.
The old chief still stood on the top of the
earthen wall of the fortress, and he saw the leader
of the hostile force, with the symbols of his
rank fastened on his head; he wore a long white
comb, made from the bone of a whale, and a
plume of the long downy feathers of the white
heron, the emblems of his chieftainship. Then was
heard by all, the voice of the aged man as he
o 3
shouted to him from the top of the wall, "Who
art thou?" And the other cried out to him, " Lo,
he who stands here before you is Takarangi."
And the aged chief of the pa called down to him,
"Young warrior, art thou able to still the wrath-
ful surge which foams on the hidden rocks of the
shoal of O-rongo-mai-ta-kupe V meaning, " Hast
thou, although a chief, power to calm the wrath of
these fierce men?" Then proudly replied to him
the young chief, "The wrathful surge shall be
stilled ; this arm of mine is one which no dog
dares to bite," meaning that no plebeian hand
dared touch his arm, made sacred by his deeds and
rank, or to dispute his will. But wLat Takarangi
was really thinking in his heart was, " That dying
old man is the father of Rau-mahora, of that so
lovely maid. Ah, how I should grieve if one so
young and innocent should die tormented with
the want of water." Then he arose, and slowly
went to bring water for that aged man, and
for his youthful daughter ; and he filled a cala-
bash, dipping it up from the cool spring which
gushes up from the earth, and is named Fount
Oringi. ISTo word was spoken, or movement made,
by the crowd of fierce and angry men, but all, rest-
ing upon their arms, looked on in wonder and in
silence. Calm lay the sea, that was before so
troubled, all timid and respectful in the lowly
TAKARANGI AND RATJ-MAHORA. 299
hero's presence ; and the water was taken by
Takarangi, and by him was held up to the aged
chief; then was heard by all, the voice of Taka-
rangi, as he cried aloud to him, " There : — said I
not to you, 1 No dog would dare to bite this hand of
mine V Behold the water for you — for you and for
that young girl/' Then they drank, both of them,
and Takarangi gazed eagerly at the young girl,
and she too looked eagerly at Takarangi ; long
time gazed they, each one at the other ; and as
the warriors of the army of Takarangi looked on,
lo, he had climbed up and was sitting at the young
maiden's side ; and they said amongst themselves,
" 0 comrades, our lord Takarangi loves war, but
one would think he likes Eau-mahora almost as
well."
At last a sudden thought struck the heart of the
aged chief, of the father of Rau-mahora; so he said
to his daughter, " 0 my child, would it be pleasing
to you to have this young chief for a husband V
and the young girl said, " I like him." Then the
old man consented that his daughter should be
given as a bride to Takarangi, and he took her as
his wife. Thence was that war brought to an
end, and the army of Takarangi dispersed, and
they returned each man to his own village, and
they came back no more to make war against the
tribes of Taranaki — for ever were ended their wars
against them.
And the descendants of Rau-mahora dwell here
in Wellington. They are Te Puni, and all his
children, and his relatives. For Takarangi and
Rau-mahora had a daughter named Rongouaroa,
who was married to Te Whiti ; and they had a
son named Aniwaniwa, who married Tawhirikura ;
and they had a son named Rerewha-i-te-rangi, and
he married Puku, who was the mother of Te Puni.
Chapter 23
WITH TE PONGA.
There was formerly a large fortified town upon
Mount Eden; its defences were massive and strong,
and a great number of persons inhabited the town.
In the days of olden time a war was commenced
by the tribes of Awhitu and of Waikato, against the
people who inhabited the town at Mount Eden or
Maunga-whau.
There they engaged in a fierce war : one side
first persisted in their efforts for victory, until they
were successful in beating the other party ; then the
other side in their turn succeeded in resisting their
enemies, and gained a victory in their turn ; thus
the tribes of Waikato did not succeed in destroy-
ing their enemies as they desired.
After this the people of Waikato thought, for a
long time, "Well, what had we better do now
to destroy these enemies of ours?" And seeing no
way to accomplish this, they determined to make
302 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY.
peace with them ; so, at last, they arranged a peace,
and it appeared to he a sure one.
When this peace had been made, Te Ponga, a
chief from Awhitu, and one of the fiercest ene-
mies of the people of that town, went, attended by
a large company, to Maunga-whau, and whilst he
was yet a long way off, he and his party were seen
coming along by the people of the fortified town,
and they ran to the gates of the fortress, calling
out, " Welcome, oh, welcome, strangers from afar I "
and they waved their garments to them; and the
strangers, encouraged by these cries, came straight
on to the town until they reached it, and then
walked direct to the large court-yard in front of
the house of the chief of the tcwn, and there they
all seated themselves.
The inhabitants being all now assembled in
the town, as well as the strangers, the chiefs of
each party stood up and made speeches, and when
they had concluded this part of the ceremony, the
women lighted fires to cook food for the strangers,
and when the ovens were heated, they put the
food in and covered them up. In a very short
time the food was all cooked, when they opened
the ovens, placed the food in baskets, and ranged
it in a long pile before the visitors ; then, sepa-
rating it into shares, one of their chiefs called
aloud the name of each of the visitors to whom a
STRATAGEM OF TE PONGA'S ELOPEMENT. 303
share was intended, and when this allotment was
completed they fell to at the feast.
The strangers, however, ate very slowly, know-
ing they had better take but little food, in order
not to surfeit themselves, and so that their waists
might be slim when they stood up in the ranks of
the dancers, and that they might look as slight as
if their waists were almost severed in two ; and as
the strangers sat they kept on thinking, " When
will night come and the dance begin?" and the
thoughts of the others were of the same kind.
As soon as it began to get dark, the inhabitants
of the village rapidly assembled, and when they had
all collected in the court-yard of the house, which
was occupied by the strangers, they stood up for
the dance, and rank after rank of dancers was
duly ranged in order, until at length all was in
readiness.
Then the dancers began, and whilst they sprang
nimbly about, Puhihuia, the young daughter of the
chief of the village, stood watching a good oppor-
tunity to bound forward before the assembly, and
make the gestures usual with dancers, since she
knew that she could not dance so well, or so
becomingly, if she pressed on before the mea-
sure was completed, but that when the beating
time by the assembly with their feet and hands,
and the deep voices of the men, were all in exact
unison, was the fitting moment for her to bound
forward into the dance, with the becoming ges-
tures.
Then, just as they were all beating time toge-
ther, Puhihuia perceived the proper moment had
come, and forth she sprang before the assembled
dancers ; first she bends her head with many ges-
tures towards the people upon the one side, and
then towards those upon the other, as she per-
formed her part beautifully; her full orbed eyes
seemed clear and brilliant as the full moon rising
in the horizon, and whilst the strangers looked at
the young girl, they all were quite overpowered with
her beauty ; and Te Ponga, their young chief, felt
his heart grow wild with emotion, when he saw so
much loveliness before him. In the meanwhile the
people of the village went on dancing, until all the
evolutions of the dance were duly completed, when
they paused.
Then up sprang the strangers to dance in their
turn, and they duly ranged themselves in order,
rank behind rank of the dancers, and began with
their hands to beat time, and whilst they thus
gave the time of the measure, the young chief,
Te Ponga, stood peeping over them and waiting a
good opportunity for him to spring forward, and in
his turn make gestures ; at last forth he bounded ;
then he, too, bent his head with many gestures,
STRATAGEM OF TE PONGA'S ELOPEMENT. 305
first upon the one side and then upon the other ;
indeed, he performed beautifully! The people of
the village were so surprised at his agility and
grace, that they could do nothing but admire him,
and as for the young girl Puhihuia, her heart con-
ceived a warm passion for Te Ponga.
At length the dance concluded, and all dis-
persed, each to the place where he was to rest ;
then, overcome with weariness, they all reclined
in slumber, except Te Ponga, who lay tossing from
side to side, unable to sleep, from his great love
for the maiden, and devising scheme after scheme
by which he might have an opportunity of con-
versing alone with her. At last he formed a
project, or rather it originated in the suggestions
of his private slave, who said to his master, " Sir,
I have found out a plan by which you may ac-
complish your wishes ; listen to me whilst I de-
tail it to you. To-morrow evening, just at night-
fall, as you sit in the court-yard of the chief of the
village, feign to be very thirsty, and call to me to
bring you a draught of water ; on my part, I
will take care to be at a distance from the place,
but do you continue to shout loudly and angrily to
me, 1 Sirrah, I want water, fetch me some ; call
loudly, so that the father of the young girl may
hear ; then he will probably say to his daughter,
' My child, my child, why do you let our guest call
in that way for water, without running to fetch
some for him V Then, when the young girl, in obe-
dience to her father's orders, runs down the hill to
fetch water from the fountain for you, do you follow
her to the spring; there you can uninterruptedly
converse together ; but when you rise to follow
the young girl, in order to prevent them from sus-
pecting your intentions, do you pretend to be in a
great passion with me, and speak thus — 1 Where 's
that deaf slave of mine? Ill go and find the fellow.
Ah ! you will not hear when you do not like, but
111 break your head for you, my fine fellow.'"
Thus the slave advised his master, and they
arranged fully the plan of their proceedings ; the
next day Te Ponga went to visit the chief of
the village, and sat in his house watching the
young girl, and before long evening closed in, and
they retired to rest, and some time afterwards Te
Ponga, pretending to be thirsty, called out loudly
to this slave, " Halloa ! sir, fetch me some water
but not a word did the slave answer him ; and
Te Ponga continued to call out to him louder
and louder, until at last he seemed to become
weary of shouting. When the chief of the village
heard him calling out in this way for water, he at
length said to his young daughter, " My child, run
and fetch some water for our guest ; why do you
allow him to go on calling for water in that way,
STEATAGEM OF TE PONGA'S ELOPEMENT. 307
■without fetching some for him?" Then the maiden
arose, and, taking a calabash, went off to fetch
water ; and no sooner did Te Ponga see her start-
ing off than he too arose, and went out of the
house, feigning by his voice and words to be very-
angry with his slave, so that all might think he
was going to give him a beating ; but as soon as
he was out of the house, he went straight off after
the young girl ; he did not, indeed, well know the
path which led to the fountain, but led by the voice
of the maiden, who tripped along the path singing
blithely and merrily as she went, Te Ponga followed
the guidance of her tones.
When the maiden arrived at the brink of the
fountain and was about to dip her calabash into it,
she heard some one behind her, and, turning sud-
denly round, ah! there stood a man close behind
her; yes, there was Te Ponga himself. She stood
quite astonished for some time, and at length asked,
" What can have brought you here?" He answered,
" I came here for a draught of water." But the girl
replied, " Ha, indeed ! Did not I come here to draw
water for you ? Why, then, did you come ? Could
not you have remained at my father's house until I
brought the water for you V Then Te Ponga an-
swered, " You are the water that I thirsted for."
And as the maiden listened to his words, she
thought within herself, " He, then, has fallen in love
with me \" and she sat down, and he placed himself
by her side, and they conversed together, and to
each of them the words of the other seemed most
pleasant and engaging. "Why need more be said ?
Before they separated they arranged a time when
they might escape together, and then each of them
returned to the village to wait for the occasion they
had agreed upon.
When the appointed time had arrived, he desired
some chosen men of his followers to go to the land-
ing-place on Manuka harbour, where the canoes
were all hauled on shore, there to wait for him ;
and Puhihuia and he directed them when they got
there to prepare one canoe in which he and all his
followers might escape ; he desired that this canoe
should be launched and kept afloat in the water
with every paddle in its place, so that the moment
they embarked it might put off from the shore ; he
farther directed them to go round every one of the
other canoes, to cut the lashings which made the
top sides fast to the hulls, and to pull out all
the plugs, so that those following them might be
checked and thrown into confusion at finding they
had no canoes in which to continue the pursuit.
Those of his people to whom Te Ponga gave these
orders immediately departed, and did exactly as
their chief had directed them.
The next morning Te Ponga having told his host
STEATAGEM OF TE PONGA's ELOPEMENT. 309
that he must return to his own country, all the
people of the place assembled to bid him farewell ;
and when they had all collected, the chief of the
fortress stood up, and, after a suitable speech, pre-
sented his jade mere to Te Ponga as a parting gift,
which might establish and make sure the peace
which they had concluded. Te Ponga in his turn
presented with the same ceremonies his jade mere
to the chief of the fortress ; and when all the rites
observed at a formal parting were completed, Te
Ponga and his followers arose, and went upon their
way: then the people of the place all arose too, and
accompanied them to the gates of the fortress to
bid them farewell ; and as the strangers quitted the
gates, the people of the place cried aloud after them,
" Depart in peace ! depart in peace ! May you re-
turn in safety to your homes ! "
Just before the strangers had started, Puhihuia
and some of the young girls of the village stole a
little way along the road, so as to accompany the
strangers some way on their path ; and when they
joined them, the girls stepped proudly along by the
side of the band of strange warriors, laughing
and joking with them ; at last they got some
distance from the village, and Puhihuia's father,
the chief of the place, seeing his daughter was
going so far, called out, " Children, children, come
back here!" Then the other girls stopped and be-
gan to return towards the village, but as to Puhi-
huia, her heart beat but to the one thought of
escaping with her beloved Te Ponga. So she be-
gan to run. She drew near to some large scoria
rocks, and glided behind them, and, when thus
hidden from the view of those in the village, she
redoubled her speed ; well done, well done, young
girl ! She runs so fast that her body bends low as
she speeds forward. When Te Ponga saw Puhi-
huia running in this hurried manner, he called aloud
to his men, " What is the meaning of this ? let us
be off as fast as we can too. Then began a swift
flight, indeed, of Te Ponga and his followers, and of
the young girl ; rapidly they flew, like a feather
drifting before the gale, or as runs the waka which
has broken loose from a fowler's snare.
When the people of the village saw that their
young chieftainess was gone, there was a wild rush-
ing to and fro in the village for weapons, and
whilst they thus lost their time, Te Ponga and his
followers, and the young girl, went unmolestedly
upon their way ; and when the people of the fortress
at last came out ready for the pursuit, Te Ponga
and his followers, and Puhihuia, had got far enough
away, and before their pursuers had gained any
distance from the fortress, Te Ponga and his people
had almost reached the landing place at Manuka
harbour, and by the time the pursuing party had
STRATAGEM OF TE PONGA'S ELOPEMENT. 311
arrived near the landing-place, they had embarked
in their canoe, had grasped their paddles, and being
all ready, they dashed their paddles into the water,
and shot away, swift as a dart from a string, whilst
they felt the sides of the canoe shake from the force
with which they drove it through the water.
When the pursuers saw that the canoe had
dashed off into Manuka harbour, they laid hold of
another canoe, and began to haul it down towards
the water, but as the lashings of the top sides were
cut, what was the use of their trying to haul it to
the sea ? they dragged nothing but the top sides —
there lay the bottom of the canoe unmoved. Pur-
suit was impossible ; the party that had come to
make peace escaped, and returned uninjured and
joyful to their own country, and went cheerfully
upon their way, carrying off with them the young
chieftainess from their enemies, who could only stand
like fools upon the shore, stamping with rage and
threatening them in vain.
x i a I