[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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 in which the stones were heated enough to make them red hot? Will you dare to do
the like again? If you do I'll serve the flesh of your brother in the same way, it shall frizzle on the
red-hot stones of Wai-korora.'
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 earned them up to her husband, and laid them before him, she ate 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, Kahu-kura, Itu-pawa, and Rongo-mai, and she and her daughter, and her
sister Haunga-roa, stood before them, and the appearance of the gods was most propitious; and
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY
67
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 kidneys of Ngatoro-i-rangi, that you don't heat
them; by and by I'll frizzle the flesh of your brother on red-hot stones taken from Wai-korora."
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 Rongo-mai, and Itu-pawa, and Haunga-roa, 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 Zealand 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 Kahu-kura, and Itu-pawa, and Rongo-mai, and
Marti, and the other gods, and started on their journey; altogether there were five women, and
they journeyed 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 northern 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, Haunga-roa
still went on, and two of her companions teased her, saying: 'Hallo! Haunga-roa, what a long
time you continue eating'; and those plains have ever since been called Kamga-roa, or
Kaingaroa-o-Haunga-roa (the long meal of Haunga-roa). Haunga-roa, who was much provoked
with the two women who thus teased her, smote them on the face, whereupon they fled from her,
and Haunga-roa pursued them a long way, but she pursued 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, Haunga-roa thought of
her mother, and love for her overcame her, and she wept aloud-and that place has ever since been
called Te Tangibanga, or the place of weeping.
After they had rested for some time, they continued 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
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY
68
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
Ngatoroi-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 clambered 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 Ngatoro-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 him be 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
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]