The Legend Of Juwhakararo

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10501, 23 November 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Legend Of Juwhakararo

HOW' HE WAS-MUBDEBED AND AYEN<SED. NoW about this time' Tuhurnhuru, thd son of Bu'pe's sister, grew up to man's' estate, ' and he married Apakura, aud, -she gave birth. to a son. whom they named Tivwhakararo, and afterwards to a daughter named Mairatea; ' she bod then several 'other children; then" she. .gave -:birth to ; Whakatau-potiki ; afterward*, her iast child was born, and its, name was Beimatua. t "When "Maifatea grew up, she was married to "the' eon of a "chief named Poporokewa, the chief of the Ati-Hapai tribe,- and. she accompanied her husband to his home; but Tuwhakararo remained''at' his own village, and after a time belonged to- see hiß sister, and thought <lie, would go and pay her a visit;- so he went, and arrived at a venflarge house belonging to the tribe of Poporokewa, the name of which was Uru-o-ManonOi all the family and dependents of .Pqporokevra, lived in. that . hotise. f »nd'Tuwliakararo ( remained there , with them:" It hapjoened that a young." eisfe'r'bMiis'brotneiMn-law, whose name w& : kaurea,-took"a great fancy to him, ' and-jafaowed that she liked him, although, -at, thewery, time, sjie was carrying on A ejeurUhip. wtfb; another young man of the Ati-Hapar I 'tribe. Whilst Tuwhakarard-wae on this visit to-his brother-in-law, some of the young men o£ the Ati-Hapai tribe asked him one day to wrestle with them, and he, agreeing to this, stood Tip to wrestle and-the one who came forward as his competitor was the sweetheart ol his brotner-in-JaVB, young sister. Tuwhokararo laid hold of. the youn- man, and soon gave him' a severe tall, pat match being over.'tfcey both stood up airain and Tnwhakararo, lifting him in\his arms,, gave him another severe fall; and all the young people of the Ati-Hapai tribe Durst out laughing ab th© youth, for having had two such heavy falls from Tuwhakararo, and he sat down upon -tie ground r looking very foolish, and feeling exceedingly sulky and provoked, ab. being. laughed at by everyone. - . Tuwhakararo, having also finished wrestling, sat down too, and began to put on Sis clothes again, and whilßt he was in the act of putting his head through his cloak, the young man he had thrown in wrestling rushed up, • and fust as his "head appeared through the cloak threw a handful of sand in his eyes. Tuwhakararo, wild with pain, could see nothing, and began to rub his 'eyes, to 'get the dust out and to ease- the anguish; the young man then struck him on the head, and killed him. The" people of the Ati-Hapi tribe then ran in upon him and cut His body up, and afterwards devoured it; and they took his bones, aad hung- them up in the 'roof, under the ridge-pole of their house To TJre-o-Manono. Whilst they were hung up there the bones rattled together, and his sister heard them, and it seemed to her as if they made a Bound like "Tauparoro, Tauparoro"; and she listened again to the rattling of -the bones, and again she heard the words "Tauparoro, Tauparoro." » Aid the sister of Tuwhakararo, lodkiii^f up to the bones, said, "You tattte in, vain, O "bones of him -who was devoured by the Ati-Hapai , tribe, for who*is"theTe"to- lament over him or to avenge his death?" At last the news of the sad event which had taken place reached the ear of his Brother. Whakatau-potiki, and of his 1 other brothers, and when they heard it they were -grieved and pained at the fate of 'their Brother, and at last WhakataupotUd adopted a firm resolution to go and avenge" Tuwhakararo's death, and as the rest of his tribe agreed in this purpose they began without delay ( to build canoes for its execution. They named' some of their canoes the Wbiritoa, the Tapatapa-hukarere, the : Toroa-i-taipakihi. the Hakirere, aud the , Mahunuawatea, and to all the other j canoes 'which they prepared for this j purpose' they also "gave names; and when they had finished lashing on the top-bo»rd»-ofcitheir^cmnooß,-itheir mother Apakura, with all her female attend- : ants, began to beat and prepare fern ; root for the warriors to carry with j them as provisions for their voyage, j and whilst the females were thus en- , gaged in beating and preparing fern ] root for the war party who were about j to start to revenge the death of Tv- ] whakararo, they kept on repeating a ] lament for the young man which might ' rouse the feelings of the warriors. \ Lo, the army of Whakataupotiki now l embarked; they started in a thousand , conoes, and floated out into tho open c sea, and proceeded upon their course, and there the army of Whakatau had a , review, to show how-well they could go j through their manoeuvres. They were' c formed into two columns, and one cpl- s umn, with fierce shouts and yells, after ■ f a war dance, sprang upon tho supposed \ enemy, and whilst they were thus en- \ gaged with their imaginary foe- a sec- r ond column, with wild cries, advanced ,- to their support; then the first col- q umn of warriors retired to re-form, and thus column after- column feigned to charge their foesc 'A ' r -- ' Then one body of "the warriors rushed to an adjoining creek and tried to jump I across it, bu6 they could not. A band of men une'er Whakatau's immediate command were sitting upon the ground watching the others, and when the first body gave up in despair ill thoughts I of overleaping the creek this choseii I band of whakatau rose from the a ground, started forward, reached in 1 good order the edge of the creek, and 1 sprang easily across .it. (the whole body \ of them to the other side). c When the review was endod, Whaka- s tan made a speech to the warriors, say- h ing. "Warriors, all of you Kslen'to me. t We will not. finish our voyage until the 1: dark night, lest we should be seen by 1 the people we are about to attack, and t thus fail in surprising them." 1 Just as it was-dark, -Whakatau order- i ed his own chosen band of warriors to s go and pull the plugs out of all the canoes, and thus they did to the whole t of them without missing a Bingle canoe t of the whole thousand. t This having been done, Whakatau v called aloud to the whole force, "Now, c my men, let us embark at once this a very night." Then the warriors hur- v riedly arose in the darkness, and all v

was confusion and noise, and one canoe was launched, and then another, until all were, afloat 'on the sea. Then they all embarked, and the several crews sprang cheerfully into their own canoes; but, 10, presently the canoes all began to 1 sink, one after the other, and the crews were compelled again to seek the shore, and to busy themselves in repairing them. In the meantime the chosen band of warriors of Whakatau urged on their canoes, leaving* the others behind, and when they drew near the place where the house called the Uru-o-Manono was situated, they landed. Then the warriors silently surrounded the house in rankß throughout its whole circumference, and each of the eight doors of the house they guarded by a band of men, and Whakatau laid hold of a man named Hioi, whom they caught outside of the house, and he questioned him, saying, "Where is my sister now?" And Hioi answered him, "She is in the house." And he asked him again, "In what part of the house does Poporokewa sleep?" Hioi replied, "At the foot of the large pillar ' which supports the ridge-pole of tho ' house." Whakatau next asked, "Has ho any .distinguishing mark by which ' we may know him?" iiioi answered, "You may know him by one of his teeth being broken." Whakatau asked him one question more, saying, "In what . part of the house docs my sister sleep?" And Hioi answered him, "Sho sleeps close to that door." Whakataupotiki asked him no further questions, but took the fellow and cut out his tongue, and when he had done so he mad© him talk, and he still spoke quite distinctly, although a great part of his tongue was cut out. Whakatau then took him again, and cut his tongue off quite close to tEe root; and he made him try to talk again, and nothing but an indistinct mumbling could be heard, so ho then ordered tne man into the house to send his sister out to him. Hioi went as he was told to send Whakatau'a sister to him, for she was then in the Uru-o-Manono, the House of her father-in-law, Poporokewa. When he got inside, the whole mass of the Ati-Hapai tribe who were sitting saw him come in, and some of them asked him where he had been to, and what he had gone for; but what was the use of their talking to him, since he could do nothing but mumble out indistinct words in reply, and those who were sitting near him wondered what could bo the matter. But the sister of Whakatau guessed in a moment that this was some device of her brother's, and at onco went out of the house, and found Whakatau, aud sho and her brother wept together, partly from joy at their meeting, partly from sorrow in thinking of the melancholy death of their brother since they had last met. When they had done weeping, Whakatau asked her, "In what part of the bouse does Poporokewa sleep?" And Bhe answered him, "Ho sleeps at the foot of the large pillar which supports tho ridge-pole of the house." And then she added, "But, oh, my brother, a great part of the Ati-Hapai tribe have seen you before, and h£ey will know you." Her brother then asked her, "What, then, do you think I had better do?" His sister answered, "You had better cut your hair quite short to disguise yourself." He consented to this being done, so hia sister cut his hair quite close for him, and when she had done this Bhe rubbed his face all over with charcoal, and then he and his sister went together into the house. Tho fire in the house had got quite low Borne time before, and when they entered the people near where they went in cried out, "Make up the hre, make up tho fire; here's a stranger/ So they blew up the fire and made it burn brightly, and many of them came to see Whakataupotiki, and when they had looked well at him they broke out laughing, and said, "What a black-looking fellow he is !" Even Poporokewa burst out laughing at his appearance, aud Whakatau, when ho saw him laugh, at once recognised him by his broken tooth. Whakatau-potiki had taken a stout rope with him when he went into the house, and he held this ready coiled in his hand, with a noose at one end of it; and as soon as he recognised Popo rokewa he slily dropned tho noose over his head, and suddenfy hauling it tight, it got fast round his neck; then, still • holding the rope in his hand, and lengthening it by degrees as he went, Whakatau and his sister rushed out of the house; and he still hauling with all his strength on the rope, climbed up on the roof, repeating a powerful incantation. Then each warrior sprang up into his place from tho ground, on which they had been lying down to conceal themselves, and they set fire to the house in several places at once, and slaughtered all those who tried to escape. Tims they burnt the TJru-o-Manono and all those who were in it. Then the warriors returned, and carried with them ■joyful' news to Apakura, the mother of Tuwhakaro.