IN THE LAND OF THE ANCIENT PEOPLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2202, 14 May 1896, Page 42

IN THE LAND OF THE ANCIENT PEOPLE.

By Tuhob.

"Greeting;?, 0 ion! Greetings to yon who ootae from afar to dwell among the tribes of Tuhoe, the descendants of the ancient people who live in the dark places of the earth where the sun shines not. And the Kurapae a Mahina, it is with you. Truly, O son ! ia your labour a long-continued one — the searching after the knowledge of our ancestors. And your thought — it is this, that you shall lay before me the knowledge of niany men, the sacred lore preserved by many lines of chieftains of A otearoa and of Mataatua ; that I shall look upon those sacred things and condemn that which is wrong and commend that which is correct. B Tama I How little ya know of the nature of this work— of the task that you place upon me. Enow, •0 friend ! that these are sacred matters— the stories of old, of the origin of mau, of the works and wondrous doings of the god-like men of yore. Listen ! Let your ears open to teceiva these words, for they may be the last I shall ofcfcor in this world of light ; I consent to this—

I will take the paipera yon have brought to me, for I see ifhat you hare acted wisely, that you have broughtno food with you, nor your pipe, nor yet any common things of the earth. I will tak« your paipera, and my word shall go forth thereon aa to the errors or acouraoy of the snored matters therein. I will do this great work, for truly do I see that you tread in the footsteps of the men of old, and my heart goes forth to the man of a strange race who honours the heroes of the great past, be they pskeha or Maori. Bub know, that if I condemn that which is right or extol that whioh is wrong, then will the gods of «J;he Maori avenge the great sin, and I shall surely die. Kati ! What moo may speak of these things?" Such were the words of an aged warrior of Ngati-Apa when I carried to him a collection of traditions and genealogies whioh had been gathered from many Bourcas. A worthy descendant of Apa and of Toi was this same Kaumatua, a big-framed, well-formed man, with flowing white beard and of a commanding presence, skilled in Maori orator;, and versed in the ancient lore of many tribes — a truly Homeric warrior, who, with his grandohildren around him, dwelt on the lone parae where two great rivers meat. A man who had done muoh to place on record the history of his people, for when in camp among the descendants of Manawa and of Mahaoga he presented me with five volumes of MS3. containing muoh valuable matter anent the. ancient people. With a truly stately courtesy, albeit with sundry misgivings as to the sanction of his numerous at.ua, he handed ms the product, of many weeks of tedious labour. Tenal We will now hear what the children of Apa have preserved regarding the original inhabitants of our land. When the progeny of Tane quarrelled among themselves in the far-distant fatherland, then it was that Tiwakawaka and Papatitiraamaewa came to these isles in the vessel called Te Aratauwhaiti, or, as others say, T« Aratanohoifcl. No inhabitants were found by them in those lands of Aotearoa, but the descendants of these early migrants soon multiplied and spread over to the western sea and to the far south. FromTivra-"" k'iwskn down to the present time there are from 33 to 36 generations of men, and to Toi k-ii-rakau there are 12 generations. If the oanosa bringing the present race arrived during the time of Toi, this would mean that the Maori of osr knowledge has been here for 21 to 24 generations, and also that the aborigines were her* soma 300 years before the Mataatua landed at Whakatane. This date for the arrival of the Maori is generally acoepted, bat I find on careful inquiry among the old men of Tuhoe and Ngatiawa, that the majority state that the Mataataa arrived here with their ancestors in the time of Tamakihiburaugi, fifth in descent from Toi. This would mean that the early race of Polynesians who inhabited New Zealand in the far back past were probably located here 450 or 500 years before the advent of the warrior explores of Mataatua, Te Arawa, and Tainui. When Taukata and Hoake arrived in their vessel Nga Tal-a-Knpe, bringing the knowledge of the kumara to the autochthones, they were seen by Te Eura-whakaata, daughter of Tamakibikurangi (not of Toi), and entertained by Tama at K'ipu-te rangi pa at' Whakatane. This explains the general statement that Tama was chief of Te Aratawhas canoe which sailed from New Zealand for Pa ri-nui-te-ra at Hawaiki in order to obtain seed kamara. Taukata and Hoake wera brothers ; their aiaters were Tuiuri-wbati and Knnioro. The latter married Poarangab.ua, of Whangaparaoa, and her d«scendants are on that side. The name, of Toi's daughter is said to have been Hine-ruaraagi. Anon we will listen to a curious tradition anent that ancient lady, ' Ngatiawa say that Tiwakawaka came from M&taora and that Toi was his descendant. Also that several anctent voyagers came to Aotearoa (New Zealand) before the arrival of the historic vessels of the preseafc Maori people. Among them were Maku, Kupe, Paikea, Tamarauapu, Poutini, and Ngahue. Toi was the great ancestor of the aborigines of the Bay of Plenty district. Most of their genealogies are direct from him though, a few tribes, such as Ngapotiki and Maruiwi, I had a distinct origin. There were many different tribes of those tangata whenua: — Te Tini-o-Awa, of the TJrewera country. j Nga-Pot'ki, at Maung^pobatu and Rnatehima. i Te Kotort-e-Hna. j Maruiwi, of Waimana, who came from the I east. ! Te Hapu-oneone, between Waimana and f Ohiwa. i Te Rau-o-Piopio. Te Tiui o te Kawerau. Te Tini-o-Tuoi. Te Tipi o.Te Makahua. TeTini-o-Te-Kokoniuka-tutara-whare. Te Tiui-o-Tauuga. Te Koau-o-te-rangf. Ngai te-kapo, of Whakatane. Te Marangaranca, of the Whirinaki and Eangitaiki Valleys. I A singular tradition exists among the j Urawera people concerning the origin of the Nga- Potiki. Tuhouhi was an atua, a celestial spirit who abode in the heavens. He was attracted or drawn to earth by Hine-pukobu-rangi, the Goddess or Maid of the Mist, and the sacred pu harakeke at Raatahuna marks the spot where he descended. These two beings were united, and their child was Potiki, the origin of the Nga Pofciki tribe. The Urewera are probably the most direct descendants of the ancient people, and have held their lands from Toi-kai-rakau of old. The saying is, " Onr la&ds are from Toi and Potiki, but our mana is from Tuhoe." So the descendants of Potiki and of Awa held the rugged Urewera country, where they developed into a brave and hardy people, these qualities being still possessed by their descendants. They haye ever lived in small, scattered communities in the mountain valleys and on the great ranges. What is now an immense extent of uninhabited forest ranges bears the signs of ancient occupation in many places— even in the most rugged and secluded spots. A warlike and hardy people, for no weakling could survive the hardships endured by these spartans of Tahoe land. Their food was almost entirely composed of the products of the forest, for they held no seaboard, and their country was not suited to the cultivation of the kumara. In former times the Tuhoe or Urewera tribes possessed no flax garments, for the better kinds of flax did not grow in their country ; they merely bad the inferior species seen growing on bills aad Oliflfe, They mad.o

I rough mats of toi and kiekle, and many cS the bushm«n wore nothing but tha ooanestT , and most primitive mats formed of leaves of | themauku; hence the saying, "Raafcnhnna kakahu mankn." They wore saadals, termedtumatakuru, woven from co&rae fibres ' and stuffod with moBS, in traversing the snowcovered ranges in winter. On the approach of a war party from the) outer world, the tidings were* flashed over Tuhoe land by means of fire signals on tha high ranges, and also by swift runners sent to warn the isolated kaingas. Thea arose tha mountain hapus— -the fare* naked warriors of tbe forest banded together against tbe common enemy. But woa to those who penetrated the fastnesses of Maungapouata, and woa to those who turned their backs on Tuhoe land and attempted to return to the World of Llghfe. For swift, swift upon their trail the warlike Tahoe come, with spear and dab and wa* axe. And hard they press. upon the flying enemy, and fierce and bloody axe the attacks made upon the oolumn. For as they hurry onward ambuscades are laid on trail and stream by the active mountaineers of the Urewera who have outmarched them. And here they break acd scatter, and there they stand and fight — bub no man may knew where safety lies. Only this — a great fear falls upon them, fear of the swift and subtle foe who march unseen by night and day. Then they fly— fly before the warriors of Tuhoe-Potikiand Ngai-Tuwhaki, of Taraparo and Ta-haere-ao. And so— weeks later — a email band of survivors march into the marae of a palfeadcd fort at Waikato, at Hauraki, on the shores o£ Taupo moana. Silently they march, silently they enter tha marae, silently they await the ' tribal greeting. Their hearts are dark with the gloom of the great forest, for they axe that most woful of open, a wfeati haere. And loud and shrill upon the air arise ths mournful wail of many widows, wailing fos those who went forth in thair irfghfc and savage pride to humble the mountaineers of Tuhoe land, but who return no more to tba old time kaingav — for their bones lie bleache ing by the rushing waters of the Whakatano, in the gloomy canyons of Waimana, bensatb the sombre forests of Ruatahuna. H« iti na Tuhoe c Kata te Fo.-