Polynesian Mythology · The Voyage to New Zealand (2/3)

Then Whakaotirangi returned, and lay down by Tamatekapua, 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 beautifully dressed with feathers, as if they had been living on the Gannet Island, in the channel of Kārewa, 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, Tamatekapua; 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, I’ll dash you to the earth.”

Up sprang then the hero Tamatekapua. He held a carved two-handed sword, a sword the handle of which was decked with red feathers. Rua’ held a similar weapon. Tama’ first struck a fierce blow at Rua’. Rua’ parried it, and it glanced harmlessly off; then Rua’ threw away his sword, and seized both the arms of Tamatekapua. 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 fight. 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 Tamatekapua’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: Tamatekapua 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 Tūhourangi: he was nine feet high; he was six feet up to the armpits. This generation have seen his 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 collecting, in their best garments, and with their ornaments, on the days when the priests exposed Tūhourangi’s bones to their view. At the time that the island Mokoia, in the lake of Rotorua, was stormed and taken by the Ngāpuhi, they probably carried those bones off, for they have not since been seen.

After the dispute between Tamatekapua and Rua’ took place, Tama and his party dwelt at Maketu, and their descendants after a little time spread to other places. Ngātoroirangi went, however, 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 Tamatekapua and Kahumatamomoe, and in consequence of that disturbance Tama’ and Ngātoro 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.20 It lies beyond Motuhoa. Then they departed from Tauranga, and stopped at Katikati, where they ate food. Tama’s men devoured the food very fast, whilst he kept on nibbling his, therefore they applied this circumstance as a name for the place, and called it “Katikati-o-Tamatekapua,” the nibbling of Tamatekapua; then they halted at Whakahau, so called because they here ordered food to be cooked, which they did not stop to eat, but went right on with Ngātoro, 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 Ngātoro stuck up a stone and left it there, and they dwelt in Moehau and Hauraki.

They occupied those places as a permanent residence, and Tamatekapua 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 Tamatekapua had remained at Hauraki, that place would now have been left to them as a possession.

Tamatekapua, when dying, told his children where the precious eardrop Kaukaumatua was, which he had hidden under the window of his house; and his children returned with Ngātoro to Maketu, and dwelt there; and as soon as Ngātoro 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 Tamatekapua, and having bathed, he then became free from the tapu and clean.

Ngātoro then took the daughter of Īhenga to wife, and he went and searched for the precious eardrop Kaukaumatua, and found it, as Tamatekapua had told them. After this the wife of Kahumatamomoe conceived a child.

At this time Īhenga, taking some dogs with him to catch kiwi21 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 shellfish 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 shellfish which it had eaten.

When Īhenga 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 joyfully to Maketu, and there he had the usual religious ceremonies which follow the birth of a child 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 Rotoiti; he left a mark there to show that he claimed it as his own. He went further and discovered Lake Rotorua; 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 fit 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 karamū; 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 someone approaching, and cried out, “A stranger, a stranger is coming here!” As soon as Īhenga heard these cries he sat down upon 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 storehouses full of prepared fern roots and of dried fish, and shellfish, 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 Marupunganui, the son of Tūarotorua, the man to whom the place really belonged, said to Īhenga, “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?”

Īhenga answered him, “Come here and see them.” So they went together, and ascended a hill, and Īhenga 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; “and there are the posts of the pine round my village;” 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 Īhenga, and the place was all given up to Īhenga, and he took possession of it and lived there, and the descendants of the Tūarotorua departed from that place, and a portion of them, under the chiefs Kawaarero and Maraaho, occupied the Island of Mokoia, in Lake Rotorua.

At this time Ngātoro 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 Taupō, 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).

Ngātoro went straight on and rested at Taupō, 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 mountain, 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 Moutohorā, of Okakaru, of Rotoehu, of Rotoiti, of Rotorua, of Tarawera, of Paeroa, of Orakei Korako, and of Taupō; 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 revived 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 Rotorua, some to Taupō, some to Whanganui, some to Ruatāhuna, and no one was left at Maketu but Hei’ and his son, and Tia and his son, and the usual place of residence of Ngātoroirangi was on the island of Motiti. The people who came with Tainui were still in Kāwhia, where they had landed.

One of their chiefs, named Raumati, 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 materials, over to the other side of the river; the point of the dart was lighted, and it stuck right in the 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 Tapuika, and at Waitaha, and Ngātoroirangi 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 person in it. The canoe was lying alone, with none to watch it; they had all gone to collect food of different kinds⁠—it happened 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 persons who were near Waitaha and close to the seashore 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, remembered 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, “O my children, O Mako, O Tia, O Hei, hearken to these my words:⁠—