RAU-WHATO’S SWIM.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 2 November 1926, Page 7

RAU-WHATO’S SWIM.

STORY OF TAUPO HEROINE. \Ye have several recorded instances of remarkable swimming performances bv Maori women (writes “J. CV’ in the Auckland Star) who seem to have been even more expert in the water than the men, and to have been capable of wonderful long-distance swims, under the impulse of some great stress. Sometime ago I told the story of Te Rua-o-te-Rangi’s wonderful swim from Kapiti Island to the mainland near Waikanae, with her little daughter on her shoulders. This will remain, probably, the greatest feat of the kind in New Zealand waters, for it was an ocean swim, across a citr-rent-»swept shark-infested strait. Here is the story of another heroic swimmer, which has never previously been told in print. There lived in a stockaded village ori

the north shore of Luke T'aitpo some two hundred years ago, a young and beautiful woman whose name was Ratiwhato. She was the wife ot Turiroa Tuwharetoa —not the great founder of

the Xgati-Tuwharetoa tribe of Taupo, but a descendant —and there was one child of the union, an infant boy. Llau-whato was probably about twentyfive years old at this time.

The home of the pair, with their little clan, was Poniu pa ; a steep dirty mound on the eastern side of Rangntira Point, that hilly peninsula which you see looking south-west across the northern bay of the lake from Taupo township. Ecrn-growu, long deserted, the defence works of Pointi fort can still be traced. Not far away, at the headland, there i.s a lakeside cave, at the loot of the cliffs; this, too. is a scene in this story.

Ran and her husband lived happily there in their lakeside borne until one black dav there came a war-party from the Waikato. This was a man-slaying and man-eating expedition led by the chief, Whiti-pat-ato —a name of renown in these parts. Whiti was an ancestor of the Pairata family, of Ornkau Pa fame.

The leader of the war-party cautiously scouted the place, and reconnoitred from the high hill the approaches to the village. His warriors lay in wait behind the hill until night fell, when he led them to the surprise attack, and the peaceful village was all in a moment a fearful arena of slaughter. The invaders fell like a .hurricane on the helpless lakemen, yelling, spearing, clubbing. Most of the men were killed, the" women captured ; such of the children as were not killed were reserved for captivity. Rau-whata and her husband escaped from the ravaged village to the beach beiow, where they took refuge in a shallow cave near the point. Thi«, however, was no place of security; tne victors were scouting lor them, and, as it proved, they knew of the cave. , Turiroa realised that he would not escape death, but be was determined that his wife and little son should not share his dreadful fate. There was no canoe there, and none could be reached by his wife, but he knew bow powerful a swimmer site was. “Wife of mine,” he said, “take you our child and swim to yonder shore, to your mother’s home.” He pointed through the gloom to the opposite shoreline, the eastern coast of the lake. “You will reach it, for you are strong, and f shall fasten the child on your shoulders.” Hurriedly the mother’s waist-mat was bound 1 upon her shoulders as a pad on which the little child could rest and keep its face above the water. Turiroa pressed his nose to his wife’s nose and to his child’s in farewell. They wept tears of agony, tile husband and wife, for death was very near. Then Rua-whato turned and entered

the dark water, and when it came to her breast she began her long swim for two lives. And behind her the lone chief of Ponui stood reciting a prayer to the gods for the safety of his wife and son; for himself it was useless, for the victors, with horrible cries of bloodmadness, were already rushing down to the cave.

Whiti-patato entered the shallow cavern by the waterside. In his hand was his sharp-edged stone club, or mere.

“Come forth,” he shouted. Turiroa ■a 1 mly accepted his fate. He asked rhose war-party it was, and when the inswer came that it was a “taua” to

avenge the death of a certain chief — the story is too long to be brought in

here—he simply said, “It is a just cause,” and he bowed his head for the death-stroke.

Out yonder on the dark cold lake the heroic mother is cleaving the waters with strong, steady strokes. The brave little boy hoes not cry or whimper; his mother turns her head now and again to give him a word ol' love and encouragement. She pauses in her swimming to float while siie sets her mind to recite a karakia to the gods for power to sustain her in her effort—a charmsong that is still remembered among her descendants. She invoked the powers of nature to shorten the distance to the farther shore. Thus she put forth her appeal to the spirit world, and she swims on again with sure and confident strokes. She will live; she will save her child, for she is an ariki-tani-aha—she is the sacred chief of all the being that haunt the waters. Ahead, life and succour; behind her now flies of the blazing village send an awful glow across the calm lake waters. ” So swimming, resting now and then, the brave mother at last approached the dark looming cliffs near Te Kowliai--a-Taku, that high point which you may see on the eastern shore by Lake Taupo looking due south from Taupo township. Here at Wharewaka (five miles from where she began her swim), she came to a flat rock. There she drew herself up and rested. She unfastened her poor little child from its place on her shoulders, and she chafed and warmed its cramped body and limbs, and she wept over it, mingled tears of grief and joy, and then she set out along the beach and up the hill to Te Tara-o-te-Mnrima Pa. In that strong hill village dwelt Pan’s mother, a chief woman named Hine Kaharoa. and there, in the midnight hours, she called to the people as” she stood in the gateway, and she and the child were in the home of warmth and love again. And Rau-whato lived to marry again and bear more children. Her third husband. Werewere. was more fortunate than the other two, for he did not fall in battle. The pair were the progenitors of some of the present families of Taupo. And the little boy, saved by tlie devotion of his parents and the strength of body and greatness of heart of his mother, was given the name To TTrunga. meaning “The Pillow.” in memory of that swim for life, for his mother’s garment fastened on her shoulders was the pillow on which he was borne to safety and life.