MARVELLOUS HATUPATU.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 262, 5 November 1927, Page 21

MARVELLOUS HATUPATU.

A FOLK-TALE OF THE ARAWA PURSUIT OF RAUMATI. (By ENID TAPSELL.) There were seven brothers, all fighting men, the sons of a Maori chief who lived □n Mokoia Island, Rotorua, nearly five centuries ago. The youngest of the seven was named Hatupatu. He was disliked by his brothers, through jealousy perhaps, because he possessed the confidence of his father. Hatupatu, finding it uncomfortable in the Mokoia home, and being of a wandering disposition, made his way into the forests at the Waikato River beyond Horohoro mountain. There he came upon a woman, Kurangaituku by name. This woman also was possessed of the power of magic, but perhaps in a lesser degree than Hatupatu, and in her home in the depths of the forest where she had lived alone until the coming of Hatupatu she had all kinds of birds, which she had caught and tamed, and she learned to talk with them. For some time she .. and Hatupatu lived together, but' 'wearying of this shrew-sorceress Jhe decided to escape. Fearing that the birds would guess his secret intentions, he killed them all except one little bush tit, which he could not,catch. He told Kurangaituku, who was gefing out pigeon snaring, not to go to the first line or the second line of

snares, but to the seventh, which was at a considerable distance, as there would be more pigeons in the snares at that seventh set. While she was there the little tit flew into the branches of the trees above her singing, "Hatupatu has gone, Hatupatu has gone! He has killed all my people. Kurangaituku, Hatupatu has gone!" She, in anger, followed and nearly caught him at Horolioro, where there is to-day a rock with the scratches of her finger-nails on it, as she tried to clutch Hatupatu when he disappeared into the rock opening. Later she caught up with him again near Rotorua, but again he evaded her by diving into a steaming mud pool. He got out unharmed, but when she followed him into the pool she was scalded to death. Returning to Mokoia the young warrior heard his father address the six sons. The old man bade them cease their idle ways and prepare for wp,r, as he had a warning that the canoe of their forefathers, the Arawa, had- been destroyed by their enemy, Raumati. A singular thing, about" Raumati, apart from the., fact that he was of unusually great stature, was a flaming red hair, strange to see among warriors with black or brown hair. By this would the brothers be able to dis- ; tinguisli him in battle. The father promised the son who returned to Mokoia with the scalp of Raumati that he would pass on to him as a reward the right to rule as a chief after him. i The six brothers made their prepara- . tions and called their followers together i and decided to >leave Mokoia at daybreak the next day. But Hatfipatu. [ who had said nothing, quietly left that > night. He swam to the mainland, and i arrived at Maketu when his brothers I were about to start. He had no

followers to help him. This did not deter him in his plan to slay or capture Raumati. Raumati had fired turning arrows (made of a very hard iron-like substance taken from the heart of a ferntree) across the Kaituna River and set the canoe in a blaze. He was laying siege to the pa when Hatupatu, scouting out from the hills on the east, found himself at nightfall overlooking the. enemy. He went silently to work, and arranged bundles of manuka covered with some feathered mats to' resemble men. In the morning - the besiegers beheld a long line of chiefs advancing upon them, surely, with a host of followers, for Hatupatu. rushed under cover from one figure to the next, and wildly gesticulating and shouting orders and words of encouragement, gave the impression to the. enemy that a large party -was about to attack. The enemy turned and fled, and Hatupatu rushed from his hiding place and, singling out Raumati, who was a brave man and the last to leave, started in pursuit. Then ensued a great race along the coast until Raumati and Hatupatu reached Panepane Island, at Tauranga. There Hatupatu called Raumati, who had dived into the sea, to com© out and fight until one or the other was beaten. Raumati accepted the challenge, and was defeated and killed. In the meantime each of the six sons had returned to Rotorua with the head of a red-headed man. Earh in his turn presented the head to his father, but the old man said every time, "No, no that is riot the htad of Raumati." Then Hatupatu appeared and laid his trophy before his father, and the old man exclaimed, "A-ah! This is the head of Raumati, my son!"