OLD ROTORUA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 2, 2 July 1910, Page 10

OLD ROTORUA.

LEGENDS OF THE LAKES. (Specially written for The Post.) By J. Cowan. (All Eights Reserved.) , No. VI. THE CAVE OF REFUGE. A STORY OF KAWAHA POINT. Looking out nor' -west from the waterside in the old Ohinemutu village, you will see, a little over a mile away, a prominent flat-topped green ridge stretching out towards Rotorua Lake. From this ridge a rocky point runs down to meet the water. When you come to explore the lake in a pleasure launch or try your luck fishing along , the western shoresj you will closely skirt this point. The flat-topped hill is Kawaha 5 the point, or matarae, which extends from its summit to the lake, is named Te-Rangi-Kawhata, but is usually called Kawaha Point. The slopes and hill-top of Kawaha are cultivated by the Ohinemutu Maoris, and very large crops of potatoes are raised there, in the warm volcanic soil lying well to thte sun. From the top of ! the promontory, on which the old trenchI ed pa Kawaha stood, a kind of natural 1 rampart of huge grey rocks, "confusedly hurled," extends down to the little cape, where pohutukawa- trees and green shrubs bend out over the water. - A few yards along on the further side of the poihfc, where a tiny rocky islet covered with vegetation stands in the shallow waters near the shore, there is a small cave j tho entrance to it is arched over with great rocks, and half hidden by a tangle of native shrubbery. This cave has a history, for it was the refuge-place of a ■warrior of celebrity in olden time, and of his children, when the Kawaha village fell to a sudden raid of an invading war-party. It is called "Te Ana-o-Tunohopu" ("Tunohopu's Cavern"). - ■ It was about two hundred years ago that the chief Tunohopu dwelt here with his wives and children and slaves, in his little fenced lakeside hamlet on the Kawaha beach. He had four or five children, one a little boy called Taioperua. Just before dawn one morning, the sleeping kainga was aroused by the yells of a band of armed men, a small roving taua of the Ngati-Tuwharetoa tribe from the distant Taupo country 1 . The enemy burst into the village and slew a number of the people before theY had time to seize a weapon or launch a canoe. Most of the Kawaha people happened to have gone across to Mokoia Island, so that Tunohopu had very few of his warriors by his side. Realising that instant flight could alone save him and his children — the Maori narrator did • not mention the wives, who were apparently of less account—he darted out of his whare, taking his children with him, and made for the water. He had snatched up his hardwood spear as he. jumped from his sleeping-mat, and with this he ran one of the enemy through ,when he left the house. Rushing down to the lake under cover of darkness he waded out to that little rocky islet near the point, carrying two of his children; the others followed. Then he and the little ones cautiously waded across to {.he shore again, and crept into this rocky cave, where they were completely sheltered from their enemies. But Tunohopu now discovered that his youngest child, the little boy Tai-operua, was missing. He had been lost in the confusion, and was now either dead or a captive.' The fugitive family remained in the cave of refuge until their- enemies had gone. The Taupo men did not stay long; they set fire to the village, and then made off southwards for their homes. The Mokoia people, on seeing the flames and smoke from the burning kainga, manned their war-canoes and came dashing across the lake. The warriors set out in pursuit of the Ngati-Tuwhare-toa, and came up with, their rearguard and killed several men. But most of the invaders got clear away, and they carried wifcli them as a trophy the infant Tai-operua, slung in a flax-basket on a man's back; he was a captive of Tamamutu, the leader of the war-party. Tunohopu sorrowed greatly fdr his lost child. After some months news came that littltt Tai-operua was alive and well treated, by Tamamutu at his Taupo home. The father resolved to recover his boy, ii it were possible. To have raised a war-party and marched down to the country of Ngati-Tuwharetoa would have pleased him well, but he doubted if that would give him the child alive. So, in the year following the raid oil Kawaha, Tunohopu set off for Taupo, sixty miles away, all alone. Arriving at the valley where Tamamutu's village stood, ho cautiously reconnoitred it. Outside the fence of the pa he saw a small boy and asked him : "Where is Tamamutu's house?" The boy directed him to a large house in the centro of the village. Into the pa he boldly walked, unnoticed Without hesitation he entered the whare occupied by the chief. It was very much like walking into the lion's den, for the two tribes were still enemies. Tamamutu, intensely surprised, and marvelling at his old foeman's audacity in venturing alone into the midst of his adversaries, greeted his visitor with theceremonidus politeness of the Maori rangath-a. Tunohopu tofU him why he had journeyed there from Rotorua,; helonged for his captive son, and had come to recover him or die. "You shall have your child," said Tamamutu. "But first the tribe must see you and know all about it." It was near evening, and Tamamutu said he would presently announce Tunohopu's presence to the tribe. "And now," he said, "you must adorn yourself; attire yourself- in fine garment*, which I shall give you, and throw aside those old pueru you have worn on your long journey, for I wish you to look noble and chieftain-iike before your enemies." So Tunohopu laid aside his tattered flax mats, and dressed and oiled his hair and fastened it with a bone "heru" or comb in the ancient fashion, and in it, he placed plumes of the huia bird, the badge of chieftainship, and he girded himself with a finely-woven soft flax kilt, and over his shoulders he draped a long, beautifully-bordered, black tasselled cloak of the same material, presented to him by Tamamutu. And then, at his host's- Request, he stood at the doorway of the house, looking out on the martie, the open space in the middle of the village, ( with his carved taiaha, or spear-staff, in his hand. Tamamutu walked out into the marae, and cried in a loud voice : "He taua o ! He taua c!" ("A warparty ! A war-party !"). Instantly the pa was in a commotion. Men seized their spears and clubs, and ran to the various kuwaha,- or gateways, to look for the supposed enemy. No sooner had they had titti6 to gaze around and wonder where the taua was, than Tamamutu i having quickly climbed to thp roof q{ his dwelling, cried:

"He taua c ! He taua kua uru to pa ! Tenei c ! Tenei kai roto ite whare !" ("A war party! A war party has entered . your village ! Here it is, here within the house !") And when the astonished people rushed up to the chief's house, there they saw their old enemy Tunohopu standing at the doorway, a noble figure in his fine garments, the emblems of chieftainship adorning his head, and his long redplumed taiaha in his hand. Many a Warrior would have given battle to the stranger, but he was their chief's guest, and, within the shelter of the sacred threshold. The house was soon crowded with the tribespeople, waiting to hear their chief's explanation of Tunohopu's unexpected presence there. Tamamutu rose and addressed them, telling them the reason of the Rotorua warrior's single-handed expedition, and when he had ended exclamations of admiration and wonder burst from the people. Then Tamamutu said, ''Bring hither Tunohopu's child, that the father may have his son again." And the little boy was brought in and given to the father, who wept over his child, and pressed nose to nose in the greeting of the "hongi," and chanted a song of joy and salutation. And peace was made between the two tribes, that night. Tamamutu and his chief men made orations, in which they declared that there would now be an end of enmity; and Tunohopu said that he was filled with gratitude and love for his old enemies, Decause of the recovery of his child, who was lost but now was found. The Rotorua chief remained there for some days, an honoured guest of the tribe, and he was mightily feasted, and many gifts were given him ; ,and when he left for his home again a retinue of bearers accompanied him to carry loads of preserved birds (manu-huahua) — the tui, kaka, and pigeon, potted in bark cases hermetically scaled — and other foods of Taupo, as presents for the people of .Kawaha. So happily ended Tunohopu's expedition ; and from the brave chief of Kawaha, down to his descendant Taua Tutanekai Haerehuka, who tells me this story, there are eight generations of men.