MIRU AND HINERANGI.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 2 June 1923, Page 17

MIRU AND HINERANGI.

FOLK-TALE OF THE ANCIENT PEOPLE. (Written for "The Auckland Star" by JAMES COWAN.) In a number of Maori-Polynesian traditional narratives, the underworld — in other words, the home of a strange race—-is mentioned as the place of origin of various arts and crafts, such as carving and tattooing, ln the following very ancient legend of Miru and Hinerangi, narrated to mc by an old man of the Ngati-Maniapoto tribe, the people from whom many occult rites and incantations of magical power, and also the widelyspread wbai or string game (cat's cradle) and other games, were learned, are described as Patu-paiarehe, the Maori name for the fairy race. Miru is sometimes spoken of as one of the deities of the underworld, or the place of departed souls. .He was no doubt the priest and chief of- a tribe who were more advanced in culture than the Maori, and this Polynesian tradition, dating back untold centuries, describes incidents in the blending of the two races and the instruction of the Maori in Patu-paiarehe arts and ritual.

In i the long ago (narrated my Maori friend) there was a.certain man of this world,- and he dwelt in his village at Karewa, far away in the Great South Sea. He took a -wife; in due course a child was born, then another child. Both of these children were girls. The elder the parents named Hine-rangi ("Heavenly Maid"); the younger they named Hine-mai-te-uru ("Girl from the West"). Hine-rangi was set'apart by her parents and the tribe as a puhi (virgin); she was not permitted to indulge in early love affairs like other young people. She was given a' separate house, and in this house she lived, some little distance from the others in the pa. There "she slept by herself, this maiden Hine-rangi. _Now, there was a certain man of the Patu-paiarehe or fairy people, and his, name was Miru. Unseen himself, he beheld this beautiful young girl Hinerangi, so treasured by her people, and his heart burned for her, and the thought came to him that lie would gain the girl of this world as his wife. So by night he went cautiously intb the pa of the Maori tnoe —he could make himself invisible at will for that matter, and could have entered the place unseen in the daytime. He quietly entered the house of the Heavenly Maid and he set his fairy spell of love upon' tbe girl, and he remained there with her until it was nearly day, when he departed as secretly as he had come. Next night he returned, and the fairy chief and Hine-rangi renewed their love. This continued for many nights; such was the manner of this secret marriage. Not once was the night-travelling lover beheld by any of Hine-rangi's people. In due course, however, it was rumoured in the pa that the Heavenly Maid had a mysterious lover. There was Teat excitement when this report went "round, and intense curiosity was aroused as to whom Hine-rangi's man could possibly be, for none had been seen to approach her abode. Everyone in the village asked who could have gained the affections of the puhi, but no one could answer the question. At last the inquiry was put directly to the girl: "Who is this husband of yours she made reply: "You cannot see my husband; he is not a man of this world." . ,_,..„„ Then the people, more puzzled than ever, considered how they might discover this mysterious lovier of her whom they had dedicated as a puhi. At last they thought of a plan whereby they might lay hold of him." They resolved to cover up all the openings by which light was admitted to the hoie of the Heavenly Maid, so that the lover would not know when the day was at hand.

Evening came, and the dark night, arid the time came when the mysterious lover stolo silently into the house ot Hine-rangi. . ' | The people surrounded the dwelling, and waited until they knew tho pair must be asleep. Then they fastened the door and the window, they plugged up all the openings in the house that could admit daylight. When they had done this not a streak of light could penetrate into 'Hine-rangi's abode. ! The time of morning came, and Mini awoke, and he thought that this must be "a very lon<f nighE, hiit the" interior of the house was still in profound darkness, so he turned to slumber again. The morning went on, and high noon came. The sun was directly overhead, but it .was still like the dead of night within the house. i "Now all at once the people drew back the door and the windows and rushed into the bouse. The astonished - Mini leaped from the couch of mats, and the people seized him, and so at last they knew who Hine-rangi's strange lover was. That was the beginning of Mini the Patu-paiarehe's life with his wife Hinerangi in the sight of 'all the people. Miru remained in the village with his beautiful young wife. Presently a child was born to them, a son, and he was named Tonga-te-uru. The fairy chief continued to dwell there in the village, and in time Hine-rangi gave birth to another son, who was named Uru-makawa. At last Miru came to long for his old home and his own people in the isle of the Patu-paiarehe. He resolved to return to. his tribe, and he said to his father-in-law: "E koro! Come, you and your companions, and escort mc to my own Jand to see my people there." To this the father-in-law agreed, and tbey set forth on the journey to Mini's home. But Hine-rangi did not go; her father did not wish her to leave the home and live in a strange land. A large party of the tribe escorted Miru to his' home, and Hine-rangi remained in the pa, but the younger sister, Hine-mai-te-uru, accompanied the party of travellers. It was a strange place, that home of the Patu-paiarehe, far in the heart ot the forest and the mountains. In the village there stood a great house, a house larger and finer than any Mini's father-in-law' had ever seen, and in it all the Patu-paiarhe tribe assembled to greet the visitors. And many strange ceremonies were performed, for this was a house wherein all the sacred wisdom of the people was taught—the rites of wizardry, and love-charms, and all manner of priestly knowledge. And here, too, the strangers saw for • tbe first time such diversions as the whai or string games, the ti-torea or games with throwing-sticks, the working of wooden marionettes in imitation of haka dances, and many other amusements. The visitors were .filled with amazement and delight; never had they seen such a wonderful place; Every desirable kind or knowledge was taught in this great house. And tohunga, the chief teacher and expert of that house was Miru, the Patu-paiarehe, husband of Hine-rangi-AVhen the father-in-law of Mini 'beheld all the works of that house, when he saw that it was a place wherein all kinds of magic and wisdom were taught, he made request that Miru should instruct him in all the karakia and other sacred matters that he knew. To this proposal Miru agreed, and he taught the man of the Maort' world all the priestly lore desired. In return for this knowledge the father-in-law gave his younger daughter, Hine-mai-te-uru, to Mini as wife; she was payment for all the karakia which Miru had taught him. Then he and all his people prepared to leave the faiiy village and return to their own land. He wept over his daughter, Hme-mai-te-uru, whom he was leaving to be a wife to the Patu-paiarehe, and he chanted over her a lament, for she was to remain in that strange place Miru-miru-te-Po, or Te Tatau-o-te-Po, the gateway to the underworld. And the father returned to this Maori world, and he told Hine-rangi that her sister had been given to Miru as his wife and she wept for the fairy husband whom she would see no more, who was living now in his own far land with her sister, Hine-mai-te-uru.

The thought came now to the father of Hine-rangi that he would build a great and sacred bouse similar to that I which lie had seen in the home of Mint in that other world. The bouse was built, and it was named in memory of Mini's house, "Hui-te-rangiora." This is a very beautiful name to the Maori mind; it signifies a place where all good and delightful things arc assembled, a dwelling-place of health and life; and it j signifies, too, the Paradise of the Maori. There in the house the old man taught his grandson, Tonga-te-uru, all the sacred wisdom- and- -priestly rites ho had learned from the fairy chief. All the charms, and prayers, and ceremonies, and all the games of"skill that he had learned in Te Tatau-o-te-Po lie taught to Tonga-te-uru, who remained in that house to bo a chief tohunga among the people. That is how the people of this Maori ' world came to possess tlie knowledge of all those desirable things; they were preserved from generation to generation in the house of learning, which always bore the sacred name "Hui-te-rangiora." Such is the curious legend of Mini the Pau-paiarche. The name "Hui-te-rangiora" is an honoured one among the Ngatr-Maniapoto to this day. Sixty years ago there w-as a large carved mect-lng-house bearing this name at Kihikihi, in the Upper Waikato, the home of Eewi Maniapoto, and it was in this bouse that the policy that precipitated the Waikato War was framed. This council house among the peach groves of Kihikihi was burned by the Imperial and Colonial troops when the village was invaded and occupied early in 1864. But its memory has not been allowed to vanish from the land, for to-day the home of Te Rohu, the famous Rewi's venerable widow, on the south bank of the Puniu River, within sight of the olden headquarters of the tribe at Kihikihi, bears the treasured and immeasurably ancient name. "Hui-te-rangiora." Thus singularly is the present linked up with the immemorial past,, when the Maori ancestors dwelt in the far-away tropic isles of the Great Sea. . "