The Maori Legend of the Lake District. [BY OUR SPECIAL REPORTER.]

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2174, 15 June 1886, Page 2

The Maori Legend of the Lake District. [BY OUR SPECIAL REPORTER.]

Nr.ATORuiKASOi w»h one of the leaders of the exppdition which made tin* fiist de-cent cf th» M'oris from Ilaw.uk!. He wai a great tohnnga, or demi-god, and was the navigator of tho Arawu canoe, and al«o tho explorer of the expedition Hftvinjr penetrated iuto the inttrior of the inland and come to the shores of Lake Taupo, they beheld the great peaks of Ruapphu, Nsauruhoo and Tonsr.iriro, clothed in whito (raiment-, which to their eyes was a strange and inexplicable sight. Determined to ascertain what this beautiful and mysterious white .-üb-t<mce w.i«, (-now never having been seen by them before), Ngatoroirangi forthwith ascended ' Tonu.uiio, with the rc-sult that he was benumbed with the intense cold, and nearly frozen to death. As a tohunsra, lie was jriftccl with great superuatui.il ppoi Ms.w iM s. thciefoio, lifting up In- e\e->, he beheld hi-, two sifters, Hangaio.i and Kniw.ii, fi-hinir .it Wlute Island, 111 the Biyof Plenty. "Bring me fire, «i«ter3, very quickly," he cried to them; "for I am very cold, and will soon die." Hangaro.i and Kuiwai heard thf> voict* of Nfratoroiiansri, their brother, c illmsr for help, and they aro-e immediately to po to him. In their old superstitious belief the Maoris held that the land had no foundation, but flo ited on tb.p bosom of the ocean. The two sifters hud with them Ngatoroirangi's enchanted firestick which had been brought from the fatherland, Haw liki. T ikmcr the stick with them they dived under the land in the direction of the mountain, on whose top their brother lay frozen, and as they sped along they left a track of fire which escaped upwards through the cru-t of the earth in steam, flame and saioke. Hunir.iroa and Km. vai mule their exit through the top of the mountain, and reached thei 1 brother, whom they immediately restored to warmth and strength. N^r itoronangi. in gratitude to the gods for hi- deliverance from an untimdy and cruel death, offerpd up hi-> Ngauiuhoo as a sacrifice, and threw him down the crater of the volcano, which ha- ever since borne the unlucky servitot'a name. The two girls, EUugaroa and Kuiwai, then took leave of their brother, and turned to

White Isl uirl f ikinir b v.'x w it)i tl fin the stuk (<int.iiiiii]<r the Mm i tiif. They tii\filt.l hit |< ]• ]s|in I\ , iM'l mid miny hilti.tsr ji] icm, and Hujmirn ■! i while mnii d • wr d nf tli 11 < mi •»- md as tin \ j xii ii< m 1 im they m nl. h >1< s in tha irin.iiid with tin iiiwi't -ti 1., fnmi which fire jmd hot water hay.' -pi mi; c. . r since, liitirfii-- »!mi „'jnr j,l i, w,, T.'kiinn, it lh. I" >t (if ToiiL'inm. Win. tii. v left thuicunp lues hu.nni/ Fiou t'lciico Unit J> it li i, f. ,il,> vi .1 to :!i" ii'.rth ••ltd nf tho 1 ikr-, win i. lu'Vi'ioi ' 1. d by the W ilk lt() llVU. '.'iMlilf-ll h 111 UlliTltuS ct then ti.nel .is tht (Jidw'sXi -t and those w.nl'ifiil •.ptinif f"im 1 in th it neighbourhood; then on t<> Wunkn, where tin \ >tij«d f.a .. me tinii- ui'l i"tr their iio-. l>uiiiiii_r. T! lh. .ift-r -~t ■ . pi»i n^r at Or Hi. lkmako, where the.iliiin c ive h, and mil' in two [>1 ii'«>«, mi rii^s cosittiy, thej ( line to Kuto'n.ih in . and ( i; i|»i il .Hound ihnti'i'ov M\eril wie^-* ii'-in ir ' l«o s.icred fin- and ( icitiiiir the L r e;»i i , and wonders now kppii there. CunTimiiniT thi lr journey the I,'1 ,' in \t chiih' to Wli ik iri w uovv.i and liot'iiui, wln<li dI i l-i I li i vi- d< ■>( ribed, wheie thuy rcmaine.l «>o\er.il weeks and lit unnitious fin 8. The (Oiir*e of the t.\o -ii-t«_i.-> then led tlu m to Tikitere, wher- 1 th"_v c imped From that they no-std Like R itoiti and lit fiics at T ihck", win io they h:iltod for two nij;htH, Th"ii uriiviti;; at M iketu, th.'V reached White I"»l.uid in Mfi-tv. Tlie route followed hy Han<r iro i md Kmw.i in tho above heauiiful htoiy h e\ ictl\ the track of the vobanJe activity of the island, and is clearly (Ichncitud between Mnkttn and r.iupo. The present chief of the laupo tribes, TeHcit Hen, isa linealdescendantof the gieat tohuni!<i Ng.itoionangi. The family qaanel amongst the mountain giants is tolerably well-known, hut willt hear icpetitiou here in ordci to impart a finish to my narratives of Maori traditionary loie In founer times, &o far back that the actual date cumot be fixed, the group of mountains at Taupo contamed moie inemhera than the thiee now there. But the demon of jealousy stole into their midst, and tliatuibed the domestic hainiony, and lo\e for the fair Xizaiiruhoe e\cited the pasaiotis of the otheis. Ultimately detected in an attempt to take undue lilicities, three of them were ignomimously expelled fiom the gioup Mount Egmont w»8 kicked out to the w c-,t to p iss his days in solitai y tji.mdeur b~ tho side of the -oi it T'lr.ui.i'ki. M'Mint X Is,'' ' <> i»'«e was IMUiii'd out to the Km, wli- ,c h- is now -een st-mdiujrin :nel<nicliolyloii('lim««.s, and Tfiuh.u.i w.is shot anro-s :hu like and 1 indid on the not thorn cud shoiu behind Tipuaeh.uuiu, wheie he, ih as his name denotes, litor.dly " without n fiiend."^ Tim^ariro remained iv indistmbed possjssion of Nij iiirihoo, tj^other with Rtnpelnt, het ho try paient. The ii itivi 3 at the ptesent div believe that this bieak up of the group did actually tako pi ico.

The Impression at Alexandra. At v\ \M»r.\, June 14. The feaiful \ oleum- eniption at 'J'araweia is still tin 1 one .ill-.ihsoi ouig top'c of oiiVMJit'on licie, and unhersal sympathy is filt for the Viitiii.s of so dieadlul .1 div.->tei 'I he rcpoiKof the outihn.it \w;ie (l'-,tmctly Lci'd aiul felt ht-re, and seen l»y seveial ptrsuus The n.itiws it Wli itiw lutilmo were all an ikuiedaud turned o it of their beds. At In ,t the guieial nU.i amount them was i\> it U'-ui w .is dc »d, n it !■ » mdi d as if tho filing of g.ms p needed fioin KiliiUiii, a:ul fl.i 1 - li- t «cv en in that di'tH'tio'i, Imt tin- lioi\\\ up n i> like big •^utis ili-po'-i d of this lvlci. .uid opinions h.iUL'l to tlit.' li-lii'f tint tlie Rubbhins wtii; .it tin- lnHtiim 01 ti»e matter. Wii'.ie I '•li'pt, nta: Iv-pu, I was distillled ■it - ">0 am, on Tlnirsdi> morning, l.y .x lmi ! npoit, followed by an .ipp.imit n-\ei beiation 1 tli.it lo'ild 1)'-- f>lt Tins '.iiitiiund for sonic tvn I.'at1 .' at iibrnt 1 ilium t c- int j i\als ( and I v.is under tin* i:n;i!f>>ioii that ■-nine tnaii uf-u.ii iniiitliivf »me ashore .it K.\vlua, .it. d tli it we iv ltd distress iTiuip. l.ic uoisc Cviiitiinin r ino'c fre<l'iently, and f> fling the -ihoi !c of eaith(juakis, we all v. t-nt (uit-idf and saw appiiontly lie.ivy ti 1 1 11 1 _r goiiiij on over Ot.ikiu Ai we looked at the o'lntinual H lilies ot lightning in the one direction, u lth t liecoiitiiiii.il loud bu i *tsand Hie in the air we re.iliied the fiet that soire gieat < urn uliion ot mture was going on. The sight was .1 in i^niiic'Mit oil", though tin l- 1 H'h at the -a no tune something teriiliL in it, so niuc i so tiiat none of those uiti me who \\itiu c iid it weieat all s.irpii&ul at the disastrous tidings we ii'-ud lieie the next moininu' — of the oe uiiencci ti>at had tikeii place at the W.imoi. The night was a fine one, cold and fio-itj I continued to watch the eruption until 3 30. \W h.id h\idly g'">t into our beds, when the lon leht esp'osion v.c had heard ocf.iied, followcl by a shoekth.it shook the house The noise continued up to 4a.m , and the flashes. I was told by some natives, who sit it out, continued until da> light. In the nioining I obsei veil a dense dark cloud in the direction of the sounds which continued all day. On Friday and Saturday, large clouds of steam w^re observable i:i the samp direction, and continue there as I write. Further news from Rotorua will be anxiously looked for for some time to come.

Te Awamutu Observations. A correspondent writes from Te Awamutu : — The volcanic eruption at Tarawera, in the mightiness of' its calamity, engages the constant attention of all the people here. A3 other places have sent in an account of it as it was experienced by them, I send you the following Te Awamutuan veision of it, merely prefacing it by stating that it is gathered from persona who were eye, as well as car, witnesses of the wild frenzied tumult of convulsed nature, as it burst up, just as it were beyond the Maungatautari range, to terrify the people here with the awesomeness of undefiuable hideous dread. Soon after two o'clock on Thursday morning last a gentleman was awakened by the report of a tremendous boom, which sounded, as he said, [as if a strong man was vigorously striking a partially water-tilled 400-gallon iron tank with a mufHeil mallet -Another gentleman desciibes the sounds as resembling those that would be pioduced by throwing a heavy heun upon a lot of tightly-strung teleyriph wires, thereby causing a tcinfic vibration of gruesome sound, that numbed the heart into appalling wonder. Upon anting from his bed and going out into the icy night, he saw just over the ranee in the direction of Rotorua, a l.in;e extent of the visible horizon lit up and made weirdly magnificent by an eccentric series of terrnr-inspirinsr fires, <md electric lights of blinding brilliancy, which shot in and out, over and through, up and down — now scarcely seen by reat.oll of a mighty veil of inky blackness that spi ang up between the vision and its object T— now curdling the blood of the Leholdor as the wind rudely rent the ci ape-like curtain of darkness, in sheet, forked, and cable-chain like flashes of fire, diveisified by huge glowing balls, tint rose, chasinz each other right up into the vault of heaven, and, having leached the zenith of their velocity, exploding into uncountable red-hot orbs that made one's flesh shrink with affright by the vei y act of looking at them. The"tenour of the infernal illumination was heightened to nervous, indescribable intensity by the manifold, furions, erratic, window-shaking reverberations of \ol<'anic bombs that roared and moaned and wrangled with long continued echoes that, knell-like, lingered in the friirhteued heart of the listener and sickened it with an illness that chased the blo-.d fiom it The appalling detonations continued from 2 o'clock until 3_ when with the coining daylight they Kiaduallv lessened away. Tho viwdne>s of tic o'ii}ition"s appearance might easily bo ac o mtud for by the knowledge that Te xVw.imiitu is only 45 miles fiom it, and aho was to windward of it. At 4 o'clock (telegraph time) an earthquake was felt. Its direction seemed to bo from E. to W., and it lasted a few

seconds. Some compared what they saw to a picture they knew of the " Fall of Babylon ;" other** said that it recalled to their memory Milton's wonderful account of the expulsion of Lucifer fro n Heaven. As I write a dense mismo fantastic- shaped volume of vapour is curling up towards heaven, which srems torn? to resemble a huge momunuut, as yet not completed, but still growing, constructed of the steaming perspiration arising from the panting efforts of tired mightiness, that mlllenly rest to gain strength for greater fury.