THE LEGEND OF THE CAVE ROCK

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 99, 29 April 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LEGEND OF THE CAVE ROCK

A wScS And" Retribution

hthrrk urn not many Maori* living on the ( 'ii ntcrluiry coa H today, but this [met of our nhorw line is quite rirh in the I i'ii< lil ionn and folklore of the old ( i ni«■ people, The**e hist orient tacts Mild flic poetic stories a n«l imaginative tales which neeom Jinny I liimii ili'«itnd<'d (nt tir hint general ion of tril«ii I elder* mid from hoiiih of t liene wise ol<l rri<• ri 1 ga I lie red mill recorded much Iriforinu lion I lull, would otherwise Imvi' been lout. Nmv in v aulhoritie* tire all <1 rin I mid I lie I'ii'Ki'iit generation docs no), po«scs* I licit- knowledge; in furl the voting Mnori »i -* ii rule i« little ill'lere-l I'd 111 the history of his jHMiple. ct I here is ii, treasury of roiiuiul !<• mnl poet ic mid ol'len Mood t i nllll i<• i■ preserved ev en in the place mime,* of the hind, to men tion only one nouree of I lie history «rid leyend II lid .soiijj that L lllt\C recorded.

By - - - James Cowan.

It was nn inquiry about a place name, thnt of 'the I'-Hvo Hock lit, Sumner, that familiar ancient iiiium of black lava at the month of the Heathcote tidal river, that brought to light thin strange tradition locked ii|> ill the wonderful memory of a grand old man, the bint of the genealogist* of aii important, though • mall, clan of the Ngin-Tahu tribe. lint old thoiMumU of years of weathering do'vn alnce the Cliristchiirch Tort Hills were moulded by volcanic powers have *haved and • inoothed tliat landmark rock that thousands of feet have climbed. The Mil ha* hollowed more deeply the caves left by gas bubble* in the fiery miuM. The Maori name of the rock i« Tuawera, which mean* "felled a* by fire." The name signifies here the destruction of a tribe or fa.mily, likening such a calamity to the felling (tua) of a forest tree by means of firen kindled in the holes hacked in its butt, as *m the way of the *tone-age buahman. The key to the rock naming (as narrated by the Kaumatua of Rapaki 25 yearn ago) lies in this episode of witchcraft and revenge and ft mysterfoue death from the sea, centring in this black rock at the river mouth.

"The Daughter of the Dawn." About, JIM I yearn Hiio there lived on the shore of Akiiroa hii rlioiir, at the cant. end of the prenent town site, an ol<| chief mimed Te Ake (pronounced Ah kayl, u h<> liikl a \erv Inindsotne daughter. Her iinme was Hinc-ao. which mcaim "Daughter of the Dawn" or 'Dawn like Maid."' This jiirl cliniiced to iniike a. \ i -< i | to Mime of her kinsfolk who lived on the plain where ('lirif-i cliui eh city now elands. journeyed across t) i c with a paitv of her t r i lies people ; some of | them curried privents for tin- "people I of the hwii m ps." us they called their Iriends who lived among the creckn mid Inyoonn. Their dcwtinatioii wan ii \ i 1 h i u! e oil the Opaawaho Hiver it is shortened to Opawa today; it »to<x| on a. slight near the present Opawa. railway station. I lie head man of the village on the Opaawaho was greatly attracted l»y the beauty of the Dawn Maiden from Akaroa. lie made hue to her, lint ~he rejected him with ncorn: she took an instant dielike to liiin, IndiL'nant a lid a nuereil at thi*s lack of response to his love, this chief, whose name w ii s I'liniki po, det ernii lied upon revenue. Me wiih a mnkutil, that is a man endowed with wizardlv power, lie was a wircerer, who prnct ixed the Hlack Art. lie performed his deadly rites, h,. ca*t, the ma'_'ie "pells that, could cause death even at a <|'mt ii nee. lline no and her party of relatives were o,i their wa v home when she sickened without any apparent en line. Very soon after «he reached her home at. Akaroa «he died. Her father. Te Ake, felt sure that, she liad been bewitched; indeed, poor Hine-ao told litm liefore she died that (he wicked chief of t he Opawa village had cursed tier because she refused him. The Father's Plan for Revenge. The »!<1 man Te Ake «rieved lons' and deeply over his beloved daughter's death. I,ike ft true Maori father, he set nbout. the punishment of the man who had invoked the gods of darknes* and exercised his malignant will fHiwer ii poll the innocent Dawn-maid, l.ong he blooded over that problem, how to olitain utu revenue. It was lint possible to exact direct retribution. A frontal attack was not always the best, method. Te Ake lit last, decided upon a rotindalMiut course, but one which held promise of aucccss. Appeal to the Wise Men. Tn the first place the grieving father knew that Turaki-po was well protected against the s|>ells and death rite* of any enemy, liecause he had been taught the arts of wizardry by the two most powerful sorcerers in the inland. In order to tight him and overcome him with "karakia" or prayers more powerful still it would be necessary to seek the advice and help of those two wise old men. So

To Ake resolved to journey to the north of this island in order to learn what he could from the great lolmnjrus whose names were Tautini nml Iri-rangi. Mitli a party of ]iU vouiif men I'.'iri ving vitlunl.ic gifts for the wise men, he travelled ii|> the coast and iK-ross the ranges to this comitrv, which was the district called Nelson to-day. 'I'hey li\ed near each other; I hey were relatives and fellow-priests. The Prayers of Vengeance. Haying pleased 11„, tohungas with his loads of gifts, Te Ake found them willing to instruct liim in the i.rts of secret wisdom. He told them of I lie wickedness of Turaki-po and how that man had made evil use of the rites and the exercise of mental [lowers 111 which lie had been schooled. 'I he priests, in ret urn, a ided Te \ke ns he wished. They told him what he must do in order to obtain revenue. and they tau-lit him their most deadly ruses and ceremonies and instructed him in the casting „f the spells from which no one could pe. Te Ake returned to Akaroa; and soon he stood, like a Druid of old, on a commanding ca|>e of his homeland, invoking the gods of sea and earth and sky against his blood enemv. He was now "a god in himself,'' as (he Maoris would say. He felt, that he held his enemy in the hollow of his hand. Tautini the priest had fold him. in a spirit of prophecy, that the stroke of vengeance must come from the deep sea. So it was to Tanzania and all the forces of the ocean that Te Ake addressed his appeals. He prayed with intense and tierce lint red of his enemy for a death Mow from the sea to strike down his foe ami his foe's people. The Fisher Folk at the Cave Rock Xow we return to this Cave K'ock. It was the soft and beautiful midsummer, and Turaki-po and his trilie from the Opawa village were camped here fishing. Some of them slept in t lie cave under the rock, on the warm, dry sand. One morning thev were loused |>y the cry from the earliest riser, "A great fish from the sea!" I'liis cry—''lie ika moana!" — was the call announcing that, a whale, or )>erhaps a large Idack lisli, had been washed ashore. The people all rushed out in great excitement; a big 'Tish'' from tlu» sea was indeed a prize. True enough, a great dead whale had drifted on to the sandspit just across the mouth of the estuary. The Feast on the Whale. The delighted tribesfolk crossed the river in their canoes and swarmed over this monster of the sea, with their sharp knives of flint stone and obsidian. They cut off masses of blubber; they feasted oil it. It whs a glorious ban<|iiet. They were too eager to devour the whale's flesh, so

"The Great Fish From The Sea"

great a delicacy, that they did not take time to oook their first meal of it. Uiere would be plenty of time for that later; a whale would always keep for a Maori feast. Turaki-po's Premonition. All ate of that whale flesh but I uraki-po. The villain of the piece was strangely suspicious; his fears were aroused immediately the "Whale oil! cry was raised. A mysterious foreboding til!«•<! liis mind; a feeling that all was. not well and that he had best absent liirnself from the meal of noisome blubber. It may be that he had a more sensitive sense of smell than his j»eople's. At any rate, without saying a word, lie left quietly for home. That meal on the beach was not for him. The Death in the Night. The toasters, surfeited, lay in a heavy sleep that night. It was a sleep from which only one of them awakened. In the early morning, when the mild opening of another day spread over the world, she found all her people lying about the Cave Koek where they had sunk to slumber. She tried to rouse them. Not one would rise again. They lay still, in contorted attitudes of death. Ihe Death from t lie Sea had slain everyone in the night. The Utu Complete. The horrified woman fled inland. The news reached Te Ake. We may imagine the satisfaction with which he received it; his daughter had been avenged. It was a pity that Turaki-jK) had esca|K'd, while his unoffending tribe had perished. Hut Te Ake felt that the sorcerer of the Opaawaho would not long survive. The gods would seize him yet. And so it befell. Ik* re ft of all his lighting men, he was soon at tacked and killed bv his Aka roa enemies. Te Ake's vengeance wan deep and full. I'robably the wise pakeha would attribute that wholesale death-stroke on the beach to ptomaine poisoniri", the result of a surfeit of long-dead whale. Hut Te Ake knew better. It was iiis appeal to the ocean gods that hail brought that death-charged monster to the shore. 1 rom t hat fatal day the great black rock where the whalecaters died in the iiif-lit. has been called I uawera. It was the name given to it by Te Ake the avenger, ami although the juikcha tribe makes merry there at week-ends and holidays it is tapu to the memory of the many who perished. Tua'wera was well named—felled by the tire of the gods. One may be sorry, even after two centuries, for those unfortunate fishermen and whale-slicers—blubber-flencers, to use the whalers' term. But it was often tlie way, in Maori as in pakeha communities, that the innocent suffered for the sins of others.