A Third Legend

Te Ao Hou, June 1965, Page 45

A Third Legend A third Maori legend, less well known than the two so far discussed, comes from the South Island.5. See John White's ‘Ancient History of the Maori’, vol. II p. 36, and J. F. H. Wohlers' article in ‘The Transactions of the New Zealand Institute’, vol. VIII pp. 111–112. Compare also S. Percy Smith's ‘Hawaiki’ (second edition) p. 26 ff. A man named Tama-nui-a-raki had a wife named Rukutia. He was ugly, and she left him for a handsome man, dressed in beautiful garments. This man's name was Tu-te-koropango. Tama went down to the home of his ancestors (in one version this is called Te Reinga, and in another is called

‘the place of Mataora’), and there he was made beautiful by tattooing. He went on to the home of Tu-te-koropango where he found his wife, who admired his beauty and the glow of his red garments. She swam out to his canoe; he cut her body in half, wrapped the top half in his garments, took it home and buried it. When summer came he heard a sound, unburied the body and found Rukutia restored to life. According to one of the two versions of the story quoted by White, ‘from that time her name was changed to Patunga-tapu’.