WHEN MOUNTAINS RAMBLED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 135, 13 March 1940, Page 2

WHEN MOUNTAINS RAMBLED

MAORI FAIRY TALES

WHALE AND WHITE ISLANDS HAVE A RACE Among the many items f !:nt come under the head of lipua,, or superna'uural objects in Maori lore, are many of the mountains, ranges, hills, islets and isolated masses of rock of the Tuhoc districts. The most singular of these myths aiv those concerning the powers of loco motion possessed by divers mountains in former limes, with the story of how they moved at will from place to place. In these curious tales such mountains and rocks are endowed with human attributes such as affection for each other, the eating ol food whereby to sustain life, the power of cooking food and. above all, they are endowed with the power of >,peeoh. 1.-i line these natural objects are :;iven manlike qualities. Such tales were favoured by Die Maori of former time.;, ami known to all the people, though, says Elsdon Best, it is highly improbable that such myths were ever really believed J)3 T the Maori, save perhaps by children, to be records of actual facts. Like other people in a similar culture stage the Maori enjoyed the relation of such tales and myths, inasmuch as lie had no graphic system wherein to conserve such items, spoken language had t<. upply the place of books. Snowy Hills. Best quotes an old native as saying to him: ''You may observe that the mountains and great ranges are covered with snow in the winter. These mountains are tupua (enchanted or supernatural) and were much revered by our ancestors. Hence the snows of heaven descend upon them. That snow is a token of the importance of the demon mountains that stand on the isle of Aotea-roa. Thus do we see the names of such mountains coupled with the names of important chiefs who live near them as: 'Mauiigapoiintu is the mountain, Tuwharetoa are the people.' The great mountains are demons, supernormal beings." The Ngati-awe tribe told Eisdon Best that the mountain Tonga-riro had two wives, Pilmnga and Ngauruhoa, both names of mountains. A quarrel sprang up among nearby male mountains with regard to the females and Taranaki (.Mount Egmont) sought to obtain Tonga-riro's wives lor himself. The other demon mountains also strove with him, and at last they separated and dispersed to various parts of the land, Taranaki going to the western ocean where he still stands. Bay of Plenty Mountains. Some of the mountains came to the Bay of Plenty. They Avere Whaka-ari (White Island), Paepaeaotea (a small rock islet rear White Island), Moutohora (Whale Island.) and Putauaki (Mount Edgecumbe). Putauaki has two wives, Whatiura (a nearby hill) and Pohaturoa (a curious reck mass ai. Atiamuii. Rotorua). Putauaki was unable to proceed further on account of one of his wives being so long cooking a meal, and day breaking and so he remained where we now see him.

The hill Rua-wahia also came at the same time, but on the road he met one Mahoihoi,. a great magician and the two quarrelled, Rua trying to slay the magician, who warded off the blow and cleft Rua-wahia in twain, hence the name of that mount Rua-wahio, Die cleaving of Tarawera. The implication is that Rua-wahia was originally part of Tarawera before they were torn asunder. All these stories, childish as they may seem, show that the Maori of olden days could recognise the signs of volcanic activity, and realised that Alt. Edgecumbe or Whale Island was a product of exactly the same forces as the group of mountains. Tuhoe Suiry. The Tuhoc folic, continues Best, have a somewhat different version of the moving of some of the hills. They say that pohat'i, Kdge cum be and Whale Island cams Iroin the south, travollh:;.' nor'.hwnrds until they were overtaken Yy daylight, whereupon they were compelled to take up their present position, though some of their children got further .north. I hose children arc certain ishs in the sea and rocks in the Whakataue river and elsewhere. Th'j Tok-i-ii-llounifa, a large rock in a paddociv on the Tancatua road, a couple of miles out of Whakatnne is one uf the children, and others arc Hinga-rae and Toka-tapu and other rocks that stand m the 'Whakatane River, ordil stand there

until the pakeha liar).-our board sent some of them varulf.ring further afield with a charge of blasting powder. Still another native story says that Edgecumbe and Maunga-pohalu came from the south at the same time, but that Edgecumbe stopped where he stands to-day,' the Maungapohalu, for fear that she would be overtaken by the dawn, hunied on. When dawn broke and lvJgecumbe saw Maunga-pohatu standing afa- , off on the eastern skyline he desired her and sang ;i love song to h<.r, but history ..Joes not relate whether she paid miK , ;. <:lteniion to it. Race t'- Sea. The r.rcatio.-i "f the Wl.nkatrme and Tauranga (Wai-mana) rivers is explained in another Tuhoe story which says thai "White Island and Whale Island wore part of the great Hu-::-r;ui-range, near Waikare-moana. They started to race to the sen. c f Hi forcing its way through the intcivcr'ng hills and ranges, thus forming the Wh-ikatane and Taurangn (Wm'.'na.na) valleys. White Island took the more western route and formed the. valley down which flows t.'ie W lakatano river, and Whale Island .formed tn«; valley down which I'.mvs <.\-.e Taurang:; iiver (known In settlers and map makers as the Waliu:i,iM). On the way 1!jo twain halted to I cook and eat food, but WhiN; Island was the ciui';kc.st iw.C. he hail finished his meal when Mou-lohora was just opening his oven. Hence the former act a good stai t of his opponent, and reached ihe ocean where lie now stands Whale Island heard the roari :g s ur..i cause I bj* White Island rushing into the ocean and knew he had lost the race, ?so he turned and entered AVhite Island's path and the Waimana become a tributary of the Whakatane Many other tupua lie scattered over the land, our iriend Taneatua being responsible for many of them. Perhaps we can tell something nf Taneatua, the wanderer and Liipu i collection, in another article.