MAORI MYTH &MAGIC

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

MAORI MYTH &MAGIC

by Jean Small.

Many boys and girls can recite well arid vividly fairy tales and fables of other lands, stories of chivalry and courage told by bards in Old England, or myths from the magical, ancient East, but few can re-tell the lovely legends of their own land. Every nation has its fairy tales, and every land its legends woven round some striking or outstanding physical feature, and there is to be found .1 strange- resemblance between these folk-tales of the various countries. For example, there is a story told in many languages of the Great Flood that happened when the world was young.

Just as hi ancient days, when poets and story-tellers travelled from place to place gathering the people together on the village green or in the cheery, homely inn to listen to their talcs, and just as these tales were remembered and retold again and again, so the Maori folk remembered the (ales they heard round the council fires, and handed these same stories down l»y word of mouth from generation to generation. Stories of how certain places got their names, stories woven about some trees, or stone, or hill, stories illustrated by some ancient carving or tattooing, stories that explain the origin of some important rite or custom —all these are to be found amongst the myths of the Maori, and fascinating and beautiful are these tales of early Maoriland.

jNfaori mythology does not consist, as so. many seem to think, of a .series of battles between tribes, and ■strange and gruesome deaths, but there are tales of witches and

wizards, dragons and strange sea monsters, and even fairies. The patupaiarehe, or fairy folk, were rather different from the little English fairies, the tiny imps and brownies that we read about in an English fairy tale. They were human size, always merry and usually singing, with long red hair, and very long thin arms and legs. There is a story about the patu-paiarehe in Auckland. On the upper part of the harbour there is a long black reef of lava

reaching nearly to Kauri' Point, probabl\r a. flow from an eruption of the mountain Owairaka, but legend has it that this toka-roa, which means long reef, was built by the patu-paiarehe in a single night in their effort to bridge the harbour. Unfortunately, however, the dawn came before their labours were completed, and the fairies had to leave their task.

It is difficult to think of huge, fierytenipered dragons in connection with our. calm New Zealand bush, but the ngarara, or dragon, is a foremost figure in many a, time-hallowed legend. One of the most popular legends is that told of the dragon of Tikitapn, the turquoise blue lake of Rotorua, that region abounding in tales of bygone centuries. This ngarara lived in a cave hidden high up on the hillside, a hillside noted the world over for its glorious bush, lie was known as a particularly fearsome dragon, but at the time of our story he had been quiet and well-behaved for some time. One day a young ehieftainess and her attendant maidens were walking past the lake on their way to Wairoa, where the ehieftainess was to be married to Reretoi, the young chief of the neighbouring tribe.

Suddenly there was a roar and a swoop of black wings, and then the dragon was rushing back to his home in the hillside with an arm full of young , girls for his tea. Three or four of the girls were left on the road, however, and these hurried on to Wairoa to carry the dreadful news. Keretoi became very angry indeed when he heard the news, and he and his brother, Pitaka, a noted dragon slayer, gathered together a party of young braves and laid plans for tlie punishing of the dragon.

So one day they crept up the hillside, carrying spears and long flax ropes. These ropes they tied from tree to tree, leaving a big loop. Then two parties stood at each end of the rope ready for Eeretoi's signal to pull. Pitaka. crept away up hillside to the dragon's cave, and as he drew nearer he began calling out taunts to the ngarara, began mocking and teasing him until, with an angry roar, the ngarara popped his head out of the cave and chased Pitaka back down the hill. This was just what Pitaka wanted. As they

v. -r i i i J l ta\p* of other lands, fables and legends, tales of

drew near the prepared trap, he called out a warning to Reretoi, and a last taunt to the dragon, and then skipped aside while the ngarara blundered on, was caught in the trap and killed with the spears.

Another story is told, this time of quite a kindly ngarara. This one lived in the Urewera Country, and was the guardian of the tribe near the cave in which he lived. While the dragon stayed there that tribe was supreme in the land, because, of .course, all neighbouring tribes were afraid to attack a people who had such a good and fearful watch dog. One day, the -chief qf the tribe, who used to feed the ngarara every day in return for his careful guard, sent his two grandchildren with a basket of eels to feed the animal. As- they walked up the hill to the cave tlie children peeped, inside the basket. The cols looked so nice, fat, and freshly cooked; they were too big a temptation for the children, and they pulled one out and ate it slowly. It was delicious! They had another, then another, until the whole basket was empty, save for the heads and tails. 'These they carefully covered with grass, leaving the basket before the dragon's cave. Out came the ngarara to see what the kind chief had brought to-day. Ravenously luingry, he tipped up the basket, and found—bones! It was a deadly insult, and the dragon left the cave immediately, vowing that the tribe who could think so little of his services was not worth looking after. That night a neighbouring tribe crept up and defeated this people who had always before been held supreme , . Their supremacy vanished with the dragon.

The chief home of the patupaiarehe is on the peak of Mount Pirongia, near Te Awamutu. Fairies dwell on all the mountains, and when the mists drop upon the hills, they can be heard, and sometimes seen, playing and calling to one another. Fairies there are in the woods, too, as you will remember in the story of Eata, who, after chopping down a tree with which to bnild a canoe, was amazed to find that the next day the tree was standing upright again. He cut it down again, and yet again the next day it was standing fresh and green in the forest. The third night after his day's'work, Uata lay in the bushes and kept watch over his tree. As he lay there, there came the sound of rustling,

and an eager, busy flitting, and the

patu-paiarehe were once again .■raising the tree, as they sang: —

Ratn, O, Riila, son of Wnhie-ron, Tliou fel lest, without ceremony . In tlie sacred grove of Tane, Tone's growing tree. Now to the stump the chips fly, Now they fly to the top. The? tit, they close, The branches spread, Now hold the tree, now._raiae him! y> K . . Rtita became very angry when he saw all his being destroyed, and, rushing out of liis hiding-place, he seized some of the fairies, and asked the reason of their strange tormenting.. The great fronds of ferns, the ieaves of toetoe, and the young tips of supplejack trembled with fear when they heard his fierce and angry voice, and they bent anil drooped to the ground, and in just that position of drooping fear have these plants remained to this day. The fairies explained to Eata that he had omitted certain ceremonies and rites that Tane, , the forest god, de-mantled «honld be paid before any trees could be felled in the bush— forest rites that we hav#forjrotteii all about. ~

Overcome with remorse,' Rata went back to his camp, and made the necessary sacrifices, then, returning to the bush once more, he found thafe now the fairies were there to help him, and instead of the fallen tree, there lay a canoe, perfectly and beautifully finished.

Just one last little story, and perhaps the most fascinating and to us the most interesting of all— 'the legend of New Zealand. All. boys and girls know that the great hero Maui fished up the North Island front the sea, that the South Island was his 'canoe, and Stewart Island the anehorof his canoe, but how many can trace out the various parts of the fish ? The Maori folk explained the North Island structure by saying that Whanga-nui-a-Tara, Wellington Harbour, was the fish's salt water eye, Wairarapa his fresh water eye, and Te Reinga his tail. Even the enchanted fishhook is shown in the outline, and has become Point Matau-a-Maui, forming the southern extremity of Hawke's Bay.

These are just glimpses here and there in the strange and lovely folklore about which the majority of Jfew Zealanders know so little, but Maori legends hold, as you will discover if you study them, a beauty and vividness of their own, "developed by centuries of close contact with nature in a very beautiful and' wonderful environment."