N—No. 7

■ LECTURES ON down her throat." They promised, and he jumped. His heels kicked so, however, as he was going down, that the birds burst out into a laugh, and thus awoke the old lady. She naturallyshut her mouth with a snap, and cut poor Maui in two. This was the first death by disobedience, -—hence death came on all men. The natives have also an account which stands in connexion with the subject of immortality. A man called Patito having died, left a sou, who was a very brave man ; and a report of his bravery having been carried to the world of spirits by some of the departed, it roused the martial ardour of the father, who, in his time, was considered to be a most expert spearsman, and he therefore visited tho earth with the determination of testing the ability of his son by a contest with him. During the engagement, the son was unable to ward off his father's thrusts, who, being satisfied in having thus overcome his son, returned to the other world. The natives believe that, had the son proved the better spearsman, the father wouldhave continued to dwell upon earth, and that thus man would not have been subject to death. There is another story concerning this old warrior, Patito, to the following effect:—He had a granddaughter, who followed him to the point whence the spirits take their exit from this world, and, seeing the old man descend, called upon him to return to earth. He looked round, aud by this look turned her into stone. —A reference unnhstakeably to Lot's wife. We will now notice two or three out of the many traditions concerning their migrating here. It is reported by the natives generally, that there were many migrations to this land; the individuals composing which arrived at different times, and at various places. The canoe Mamari is spoken of by the Ngapuhi natives as that in which their ancestors came from a distant country, the name of which is not given by them. The canoe came, it is .stated, in search of a previous migration. A man called Tuputupuwhenua had arrived at New Zealand, and a chief called Nukutawhiti came in the canoe Mamari in search of him. After Nukutawhiti had reached tho land, near the North Cape of New Zealand, he fell in with Kupe. Kupe is spoken of as the most energetic and enterprising of all tho chiefs of the different migrations from Hawaiki. He circumnavigated the whole of the Northern Island, giving, names to many places as he sailed along its shores. There is an old song respecting him, of which the following is a translation :— I will sing, I will sing I will sing of Kupe, The man who navigated the seas, And divided the land At a distance each stand ; Eapiti And Mana ■* together with Aropaoa! separate thrown, —these are the places Which remind me of my ancestor Kupe ; who caused Titapua to sink in the sea, The land I now take as my inheritance. This Kupe then told Nukutawhiti that he, Tuputupuwhenua,j was on the West coast. Having found him, Kupe had returned from that part of the land, therefore he had called the river Hokianga. The word " Hokianga" means a returning, a going back, Kupe having returned from that part of the coast where the Heads of Hokianga are situated, —hence its name. Nukutawhiti, with his brother-in-law Ruanui, who had come with him, proceeded to Hokianga, and there remained. From them ihe Ngapuhi people take their origin. This we may observe is the account of, and is fully believed in, by the Northern tribes; and to support this they purport to show the canoe itself, and many of the articles pertaining to the canoe, which have become petrified in and near the Hokianga; for instance, at the residence of the late Mr. G-. F. Russell, they shew a large stone, which they assert is the baler of the canoe; this is in the shape of a dust shovel: and at Onoke, on the East side of the Whirinaki river, opposite the residence of Mr. Manning, there is a stone somewhat in the shape of a dog. This, they say, is the dog of Nukutawhiti. And on tho West Coast, to the North of Hokianga Heads, there are a number of stones peaking up above the surrounding mass of rocks, which are said to have been men of the canoe Mamari, belonging to Nukutawhiti, drawing a fishing net. Further to the North than these, at Wharo, are shown in the rocks on the beach the footprints of Nukutawhiti and those of his dog. Also, near these are shown rocks in the shape of a small basket, called " paro," in which food is given at a feast. These are said to have been such, aud used at a feast given by Nukutawhiti: and in that part of the river Hokianga called by Europeans "tho Narrows," is shown a rock, said to be the buoy of the anchor belonging to the canoe Mamari. A long stone, said to be the canoe itself, is in the entrance of the Waima river, one of the tributaries of the Hokianga, presenting the appearance of a canoe turned keel upwards. And further to prove they did not take their origin from any other source, they shew a stone, at the head of the Hokianga, near Tarawaua, which was brought there by their ancestor Nukutawhiti, from one of his travels, as an evidence of his great strength.

,* Entry Island and the islands adjacent in Cook's Straits. f Tuputnpuwhenua afterwards became an insect, called " Kui," which burrows in the ground. Having thus been transformed, he burrowed under ground from the West Coast, and came out in a cave near the waterfall in the Kerikeri river.