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New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 608, 31 May 1851, Page 3

* It may appear strange to those who are unacquainted with the natives of this country to hear of a pa of Boman Catholic natives'; but the maories are not a whit behind their white-skinned or more civilized fellow creatures in the virulence af their religious animosities, and it is very rare to find the adherents of more than one-of the three religious denominations who have established missions in these Islands inhabiting the same settlement. As a general rule each village is wholly devoted to one particular sect, either Anglican, Roman, or Wesleyan, and the exceptions are only in the cases of very large settlements such as that of Ohinemutu, and even then the disciples of the different missions are located iu entirely distinct portions of the pa. As an instance of the height to which this antagonistic feeling is in some cases allowed to run, I may mention the following incident which occnred to a gentleman travelling a few years ago in a part of the Islands where the missionaries of two different denominations happened to reside within a short distance of each other. A quarrel had taken place in a large pa between the parties adhering to each church, which had ended in the forcible expulsion of the weaker from the village. The traveller arrived at the gates late in the same evening (too late to go anywhere else if admittance had been denied him there) and to his astonishment foimd them fast closed. The first question he w?is asked was, “To what church do you belong ?” The traveller see•ing at once that his admittance entirely depended upon the answer that he might give, after a little hesitation replied, “ tQ the true church,” which of course satisfied both parties, and the gates were in. stantly opened and a feast prepared without delay for himself and followers,

great quantities in all these lakes ; at certain seasons, and of which we supped most luxuriously,having fried them in butter. Saturday, December 22nd.—After enjoying a delightful'swim in thefake, and having partaken of a hearty breakfast of fried inanga, w’e set out to see a fountain of cold water which forms the source of the Awa-hou. The creek is about twenty or thirty yards wide, and of considerable depth,' the bottom being , plainly visible through the water, which is clear as chrystal. After paddling up the : stream for about half a mile, we reached .the head of the creek, which is a sort of basin, in the centre of which is the fountain called Pekehaua, which seemed of unfathomable depth, throwing up inconceivable quantities of clear cold water.

This fountain was, according to native tradition, inhabited in former days by a most ferocious and blood-thirsty taniwha, or semideified monster, called Pekehaua, who, with two other taniwhas, was destroyed by certain of the brave ancestors of the Rotorua people. The following story is translated from an original manuscript, given to me by a chief of the tribe inhabiting this side of the lake, called Te Rangi Kaheke, or William Marsh, a person of some repute in such matters. It purports to be the legend, as handed down for many generations, of the slaying of these three monsters, who were called Hotupuku, Pekehaua, and Kataore. The story is well written and interesting, not only as shewing the minuteness of detail with which these traditions are banded down by the natives, but also on account of the extraordinary resemblance which it bears to several of our own legends, such as that of St, George and .the Dragon, and numerous others which may be found in many of our ancient ballads and metrical tales. Without further preface I subjoin the story verbatim, as written down by Marsh, of which the following is a translation as nearly literal as it could.be.conveniently made: A Legend of the Killing of Taniwhas. This is an account of .the brave deeds performed by some of the men of olden time, the ancestors of the chiefs of Rotorua. The names of these men were Purahokura,l Reretoi. Kongo Ilana. Rongo Hape, and Pitaka, and their father's name was Tamaihuj Toroa. When they grew up to man’s estate they! heard accounts of a great number of people! having been lost whilst travellings in the! neighbourhood of Tauhonui, Tuporo, and near the lake Tikitapu. I When people went from Rotorua to Taupo! or to the mountains to visit their relatives,! the people they had left imagined they were' detained by their friends; whereas, in truth, they had been destroyed on the road. Those,also who travelled from Taupo by the same road were in like manner destroyed,' and their friends supposed they were kept at Rotorua, to account for the delay •, but no, | they also lay dead in the same place. About this time a party started from Rotorua by way of Tarawera and Rotomahana, and this was the first party which reached Taupo in safety. Upon their, arrival they were cross-questioned by the people there, and they in their turn questioned the others with reference to the disappearance of those who were missing. The Taupo men asked them by which road those who were lost had travelled, to which the others replied, across the plain of Kaingaroa by way. of Tauhunui, Then they all reflected together upon the matter, and they said, “ Perhaps they have fallen in with some.war party by the wav. for there are no inhabitants in That part of the country.’’ So they sent to collect a party to assemble at Taupo to go in search of those who were missing. They slept on the,road the first night and the following morning at daybreak crossed the. Waikato River, and. traversed < the plain of Kaingaroa, until they arrived at Kapenga, the place inhabited by the monster Hotupuku, who, the moment he discovered by the scent ,tha,t men were approaching, rushed out of his cave.

The Taniwha and the travelling party approached without seeing each other, and when the latter at length perceived their enemy, behold he was close upon them, and they fled from fear ,of'him, for he was so large that he appeared like a mountain approaching them. Then they called out to those in the rear, “Behind there ! a taniwha, a taniwha!” and tlip party ;then dispersed and fled for their lives ,for the fear of this' beast armed with scales and. spikes like a jnonster of the sea, advancing to attack |hem? He was so close U P OII Asm that, had it not been for their numr bers, all would have perished ; as it was, several were saved, though many were devoure4* So then they found out that those who had formerly disappeared on this road had been destroyed by a taniwha. This news was quickly circulated through Rotorua, and of course! came to the ears of our heroes, the brave men already mentioned; whereupon they called upon three hundred

•and forty men of their tribe to assemble, who arose and travelled to the plain of Kapenga, where they sat down, and having pulled some leaves of the whanake (cabbage palm), commenced plaiting itihto'ropes, and in doing so invented four several-kinds ef sennett, which are called tari, tamaka, whiri-paraharaha. and rinorino.

When they had finished this job, the chiefs arose and began recounting tales of bravery -to animate each other's courage, and giving directions to their followers as to how they should comport themselves in the approaching struggle. Then one of the chiefs arose and said, “ Let us go quietly, and not approach‘too close to! the taniwha. Rather let us be at a distance, and wait until the wind draws towards ourselves, ’ for should it-blow from us towards him he will scent us and then we shall be prevented from making our preparations by his coming upon us before we are ready for him.” To this counsel they all agreed, and made arrangements accordingly, as to how they should snare the taniwha, appointing parties of men to stand at either side of the snare which they had made to bold on by the ends of the ropes. They also appointed others to entice him out of his cave, arranging the men around with the kaheru, patu, taoroa, patu-paraoa, meremere, and other native implenents of warfare. Thus they arranged everything in complete readiness for the destruction ,of the taniwha.

Before those who were appointed to. entice him out of bis cave could arrive at their post, be perceived the scent of men approaching, and came rushing out. , Long before they could see him they heard a rumbling noise like thunder, caused by the motion of the monster under ground, and they immediately moved off to a distance, in order to give him room to come out, and when he saw what a good feed was (as he fancied) in store for him, he was delighted. He came forward with open mouth and flaming tongue and gave chase, but his enemies had the start of him, and as he reached the top of an eminence, they were already at the bottom where the snare was placed, and the men who had been stationed- to pull the ropes were concealed in the fern on either side. They passed through the snare and ascended the hill beyond, still chased by the monster. So soon as his head and fore legs were within the snare, the lookout onthe hill side shouted “ There ! he is in the trap! Pull!” The rftenat the ropes obeyed, and the taniwha w caught by the midst of his body. JF

When he found himself snared he struggled and flung about his tail with great violence, whereupon his assailants rushed upon him and attacked his hinder parts with their weapons, 'thrusting them into his body. And when his head felt the pain of the ropes which bound his belly in the midst, and of the weapons which were thrust into his hind quarters, he flung it about also with great.violence, and those who had been appointed to entice him came down with their weapons “flying like a liberated bird ” and attacked his head. He fought so hard that those who held the ropes had to fasten them to stakes driven into the ground, which being done they came and assisted the others, attacking his head (which was the part that struggled hardest) with their weapons. At length, after a hard struggle, they despatched him, and he stretched himself out like .a dying grub and expired, his body being much mutifetedby the numerous wounds he had received.

On the following morning they proceeded to cut up .their enemy, which was lying on the road ; it seemed as large as a black whale, and in shape like a tuatete * The head, the legs, the tail, the scales, the skin and the spikes on his back resembled those of the common, lizard, but in size the beast more resembled a whale than anything else. Then they had ay opportunity to attentively observe this terrible animal, which had destroyed so many people. Long they examined it with wonder,' and the chief then said, Let, us strip, ourselves a nd cut him up, in order that we may see the ‘ofspring ofTiki’f

* or Tudtara appears as far as I can ascertain to be a legendary animal; whether it ever had existence or not, is a point very difficult if not impossible at present to determine. The natives describe it as something like a lizard, but many the general opinion seems to be Jiat ...e Jua„e<,e such an animal ever existed at all) must have been a species of crocodile. Many people imagine that this word indicates some fabulous animal, as the Dragon of the English legends which is not improbable ; but most incline to the belief that some such creature must have existed at ,the time of the first landing of the Maories in New Zealand,—but that it has been so long extinct that its premse appearance is now forgotten, and nothing lett but the name and a sort of confused and very vanable .tradition regarding its shape. Some such supposition as this is necessary to account for the extraordinary uncontrollable terror which seizes upon a native of whatever age 61? sex upon behold- !“?£ a s’l have! seen twenty or thirty strong able-bodied men fly, in a state of the most: abject fright, and even take to the water for refuge, when pursued by a child with the dead body of a common green lizard in its hand. ’ + The God, in the Maori Mythology, from whence sprung the human race.

in his stomach.” So they cut him up with their instruments called mata-whaiapu, (obsidian), mata-iuhua (ditto), mira=tuatini (instrument set with shark’s teeth), kuku-moe-toka (muscle shell), and ngaeo (ditto). On cutting into his throat there came forth a tremendous gush of wind from the stomach. They cut through immense flakes of fat into the abdomen, where they found bodies of men, women, and children, sqme whole, others cut asunder in the middle, whilst others were minus their heads, arms or legs which bad been lopped off by his immense sharp teeth. Besides these there were weapons, as the mere pounamu (weapon of green talc), kotiate, pa-tu-paraoa (weapon of whalebone), maipi, tewhatewha (wooden instrument with spear point and head like a tomahawk), pou-whenua, tokotoko (walking stick), and paraoa-roa (long weapon of the jaw-bone of the sperm whale), all collected together “like the wharehuata (armoury) of manuifl Then there were numbers of ornaments, the heitik (talc neck ornament), kuru pounamu (straight talc ear ornament), mako (shark’s tooth), pekapeka and pouria) talc ear Also garments of various descriptions, as the kaitaka (bordered mat), kahuwaero (dogskin), pukupuku-patea, pukupuku, kahu-toroa (of albatross skins), puahi, kakakukura (trimmed with red feathers), kahu-kiwi (of kiwi skins), kahu kekeno (of seal skins), maiaorere, kahakaha, korirangi (shaggy mat of undressed flax dyed black and yellow), tatata, mangaika, tatara (undressed flax or cabbage tree dyed black), pureke (undressed flax undied), and many others, too numerous to mention. They took out the dead bodies and buried them in the earth, which being done, they cut up.the body of the monster in pieces and put his fat in calabashes and patuas, and they cooked and eat their enemy in revenge for his misdeeds. They then returned to Rotorua. (To be continued.)