CHANT FOR THE NEWLY BORN

Te Ao Hou, August 1957, Page 16

CHANT FOR THE NEWLY BORN The song reprinted here is from Rev. Richard Taylor's Te Ika a Maui, a book that has been out of print for many years now. The English renderings of Maori verse are still among the best ever written. ‘E Hine Aku’ is a ‘popo’ (nursery song) written by a chief Te Rangitakoro, of the Whanganui district, and is intended to teach her the secrets of her ancestry. It tells the story of Hau, who undertook the journey to look for his wife Wairaka who had eloped with a man named Weku. When he found Wairaka with her lover at Te Paripari (at the end of the Tararua Range) he asked her to fetch some water. She took the calabash and went into the sea and when she had gone far enough for the water to reach her shoulders Hau repeated karakia and Wairaka became petrified. She has remained there ever since, a rock in the sea still bearing her name. The song is very interesting as it gives the origin of every place-name from Wanganui to Wairarapa.