MAORI NAMES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 19 October 1926, Page 7

MAORI NAMES.

No. 4.

(By the Rev. H. J. Fletcher.)

.Maori personal ami place names beginning with the letter 1- are much less frequently found than those commencing with any other letter of the Maori alphabet, but asVthis is also true of the words in .-'ordinary use it simply means that in the use of initial letters names follow the usual customs of the language. This is t»ue from the earliest times known to us in Mauri story. , Ea was the iirst woman wlio.belonged to this world. She married Tiki, who was from the world of Their offspring arc known as “Te Aitanga a Tiki.” This is the proverbial expression for the “Children of men.” Mr Elsdon Best, quoting from T. G. Pinches, gives the name of Ea as the king of the underworld in Babylonian mythology. Eanga nui was the name of a huge canoe that carried a large war party from Waitara to attack the dwellers ou Motu o Tama tea, one of the Sugar Loaves, in the brave days of old. It was an expedition of revenge. The name translates “the great revenge.”. Eke tahuna is a name whit'h has suffered much at the tongue of the pakeha. In the Manawatu it has been trans-

formed into Jacky town, but on the eastern side of the Tararua range it T still retains its original. Its exact derivation is uncertain. Erua, a railway station in the TongaTiro National Park, as it stands, would mean “two.” But I was told by a Maori living near the spot that it should be spelt Herua, or rather He rua, and, according to his explanation, it meant a double wrong, or twice wrong. There are a large number of names recorded commencing with the letter H, but less than 10 per cent, of their meanings are on record. Hacnga o te one was the name given to a battle on the sands at Moremo nui, a short distance south of Maunga nui bluff, a headland away north of the Kaipara. The meaning of the name is, “The cutting of the sand.” One of the chiefs made a mark across the sand to stop the pursuit of the beaten foe. If this name is compared with the previous example, it will be seen that this • name is really a sentence, and as there is no other meaning in Maori, for o te one than ‘ 'of the sand, or mud.” it is onlv necessary to find a meaning for Haenga that'' agrees with the other parts of the sentence, in this case cutting or marking. As the above is the traditional explanation ol the name we are sure of our ground. In the case of He- Rua. it is possible to translate the t\|o words in many ways, or to take them as one word and give half a dozen grammatical translations. Who can say which is the right one? In the Polynesian Journal, volume XXV, page 1(53. there is an interesting story "connected with the word Haoro huka. “moving foam.” The story is far too long to quote, but Haere huka is the name of a rock in the Waikato

. River above Atiamuri that is occasionF ally buried under the flying spray. A chief named Taua. when much cast down, was inspired to fresh efforts when he saw that the rock was never entirely buried; it always reappeared. He . adopted the name as his own, and his 4 descendants arc known as the children of Haere huka. Hnha te whenua was the name given bv the Ngati Hau people to Maui’s fish-hook. From a Maori standpoint (he name was most appropriate, for it . means, “grasp the land.” Another - version from the same source gives the *f the isfc as Hahau whenua. There is a curious pitfall for the unwary in many of the names from the youth Island/ All names in Otago and Southland beginning with Hakn may bu the North Island Whanga or Whaka If the name is a descriptive one the context may help to determine which j 3 the true form; if not it is an added perplexity. An estuary near Wai koua iti has tile name of Haka pupu. Pupu is the general name for shellfish of the winkle type. Whanga pupu in the North Island would be “winkle harbour.” . Hakaroa, a variant of Akaroa, is the same as Whanga roa in the North, meaning long harbour. In Shortland’s “Southern Districts of New Zealand,” pa rr c 237, he mentions a place named Whakanui or Hakanui, and in a footnote says that. it. would be pronounced Whangiinui by other tribes. Hakaterc. a river in the South Island, and Hafeataramea, seem to be examples of the change from Whaka to Haka. Haketcre is given in an early publication as the Maori name of. the Ashburton river, but it is a misprint for Hakatere. Hao means “a net,” and as a vero means “to enclose or surround as with a net.” A small constellation near Orion is called Hao o Rua, the net of Rua. Hao -whenua is a very ancient name in Maori mythology. It was a Whare kura where the lore of Kongo marac roa (the science of agriculture) , was taught in the very dawn of Maori 4. historv. It is the name of a battle fought between the Hauraki and Waikato tribes near the present site of Cambridge, in 1830. The same name was given t* another .battle near Otaki in 1833-4, after the name of a pa near where tin: battle was fought, and it was the name of apa on Sonnies’s Island in the-long-ago. Kongo was the God of Peace,., sq there can be no connection between the- Whare kura given above and fhe other names. It is probably another case of the localising of an ancient name without any reference to its old meaning. Hapuku is the name of a fish, commonly known as the groper. When, a •famous chief of Hawke’s Bay was cull - od by that name his people had to forego the use of the term Hapuku and use the descriptive Te Ihu roa, “the long nose,” instead. l lt was considered the very worst" of offences to use the same term for food as they did for a person’s n afire." The change -mentioned above from Wh to H is not restricted to the youth Island, 'The well-known suburb of Wellington, Hataita'i, should be spelt Whataitai. Hgfcfimsj, in Hawke’s Bay, L is also spelt Whaturnn. There are up.if’qrVls of 200 names of places and pet's on son record beginning with the .difficulty of trying to reduce them .JO ordb? miiy be imagined from the'.that, ip our latest dictionary the. ift given under ten different hcAds«st;h ncad has from onevto4‘t«jipjtVtif^^{(/As a noun the common ’riWfw.ng. f. the word is “wih4.a.+a Verb it-may mean “to j- seek,” ‘Mo, hear/’’-“'strike/; “chop,” M or “overhang.’-An So that it is only the few munefc-explained by Maoris themselves' be relied upon. Among tile-f«iv are found HauaurU, the 4est god of . fern root, and also a-epjlunOii name oo a number of genealogiesJ/Hauraki, north wind.

Hawaiki is, perhaps, the most famous name, in Maori history, but its exact significance is a matter for conjecture. As a place name it is widely scattered over the Pacific, and it is the ambition of ethnologists to trace it to its home. Hawaiki is the land from whence they came, but in the course of centuries the distinction between the various stopping places has been lost; each one is now spoken of as Hawaiki. The last Hawaiki of the Maori is Tahiti. The following descriptive names of Hawaiki are on record. Hawaiki kai, “the place where food was abundant.” Hawaiki nui, “the fatherland,” possibly India. Hawaiki o Marua roa, a temple of-learning in Hawaiki nui. Hawa.iki Rangiatea. was the name of Turi’s home in Tahiti. Hawaiki raro, Eastern Polynesian name for Fiji, Samoa and Tonga groups. Hawaiki runga is the name applied to Tahiti and adjacent islands. Hawaiki tahutahu and Hawaiki tatau are both ancient names for New Zealand. Hawaiki takotakc is the original Hawaiki. To illustrate a threefold variation in a Maori name, we give Hawe potiki, Awe potiki and Hawhc potiki. These three names refer to one person, a son of TJenuku of Tahiti, whose murder by Rongotea, the father of Turi, was one of the reasons for the migration of Turi and his people to New Zealand. The word Heke is represented in a number of words. The ordinary meaning of the word is to descend or mu grate. A term used to describe the migration of the Arawa people i* Heke a rangi. The meaning of the term is “descent from the sky.” This term is given in another form as Hcketanga rangi Tanga here has practically the same force as “bag” in English. The origin of the term is derived from the claim of the Arawa people to have descended from Tawhaki. There is another story to the effect that one of the ancestors of the Arawa people, Oho mai Tangi, was the son of Tama i waho, who was one of the gods. Heke heke i papa was the name ot Turi’s plantation sit Patea. Papa here means the earth. The same term is used as a name for a wife of Rangi, and two terms of a mystic nature used in a creation story are Hekehcke i rangi and Hekeheke i nuku. Nuku.here is another name for the earth. There are several Hekes connected with the movements of Te Rauparaha and his allies along this coast. One is known as Tc Heke kariri tahi, the heke of one cartridge, from the fact that ammuntion was very scarce. Another is known as Heke. mai raro, Heke from below,” raro meaning “north.” Heke nibo puta, “the boar’s tusk heke ” from the advice given to Ati Awa. after the fight at Motu nui, “Abandon your country or Waikato will eat von.” Heke o Maruiwi is the name given to a great tragedy which occurred many years ago on the. line ot the present Napier-Taupo Road. When Ngati Tuwharetoa invaded the Tnupo country they drove out or killed most, of the older inhabitants. The Maruiwi were driven out towards the Napier country and one dark night, as they fled in fear, a large, party fell over a cliff and were killed on the rocks below Ever since Te Heke n Maruiwi has been used as a proverb for sudden, swift destruction. There arc other Hekes, but we will refrain.