INTERESTING LEGEND.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 3 September 1919, Page 3

INTERESTING LEGEND.

HOW OTAKI DERIVED ITS NAME. How did Otaki come to bo so named? A great many of .the old Maori names in tliis land have been derived from legends which the old. superstitious Maoris treasured and passed down from frencration to generation; and a weird, fantastic tradition exists with regard to how Otaki received its name. It is said that in the dim remote past a Maori sorcerer or tohuuga in Taranaki had a young and "very beautiful wife, who fell iu love with another man, and fled with him away to the south. The sorcerer, whose name was Hou, set off in imrsnit, following them all the way to Paekakarilti. As he journeyed down the coast lie named a great many of the places he jiassed—names which stand to this day. For instance, it is said, that at Wanganui Hou was much delayed, not knowing which way the fugitives had gone, and he called the place .Whanganui—the place of long waiting. Then he made a detour on a false scent, and named the locality Avamoho —meaning fool’s errand. On reaching the broad' waters of the Manawatu, Hou’s heart failed him for a time, fearing he would be unable to cross; therefore he named the river Manawatu — heart standing still. On approaching Otaki the flat was covered with thick scrub, and Hou made his way warily through the heavy growth, pushing his spear in front of him as he wont, and it is thus, so the tradition goes, that the »name was given—Houtaki, Hou after the sorcerer, and taki or takitaki meaning feeling one’s way with a spear or stick. This tradition is firmly believed by the older Maoris, who ridicule the theory advanced by some that the name was orgimilly Aotaki. The “FI ” was gradually dropped, and the name has remained Otaki ever since. It may be mentioned that the tradition goes on to the effect that when reaching the rocks at Paekakariki Hou came to a great rock at the base of Te Paripari. In those days the toclc was not solid, but hollow. Hou heard his wife talking with her abductor ou the other side of the rock. He then uttered a powerful incantation or karakia, by means of which he cleft a passage through the greift rock, whereby he passed through to the other side. Then, sending his wife cut into the sea on some jn'etext he turned her into a rock, which stands to this day, named Wairaka, after Hou’s wife. The Maoris say that the pakehas may laugh at this tradition, but they point to the cleft rock of Te Paripari and the rock Wairaka out in the sea as proof of the truth of the story. The pakehas look on this rock as a work of nature, but the Maoris Cull it still “Te ana o Hou’’—the cave #f Hou.

[The above, .-Interesting story was read at the'Otaki Literary and Debating Clutf’s meeting pn-Monday night.]