Story of a Taniwha.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 19, 6 May 1908, Page 37

Story of a Taniwha.

(By F. B.) “ That is a Taniwha,” remarked a Maori chief, pointing to a block of stone standing upright in a paddock on the read from Whakatane to Ruatoki. "One (lime any Maori touching that would have died, but now its mana is dying out as your God grows stronger than ours,” and the Pakeha standing by said —"Tell me the story.” "Well,” said the ehisf, "about eight generations ago there lived at Whakatane a Tohunga called Te Tahi. He was a powerful Tohungi, bu‘, being n akuta, his people got tired of the evil he did. Still, they were afraid to lay hands on him, so they decided that they would take him to White Island and leave nim there.

"Tnev set out for the island w.th four war canoes and got their Tohunga to go with them. After they had landed, Te Tahi asked where he could get a drink. That was just what the Maoris had hoped, and they told a boy to show the Tohunga where there was some fresh water, and also said—“As soon as To Tahi bends down to get a drink, you run back to the canoe as quickly as you can.” The boy, although considerably frightened at having to do this to a Tohunga, obeyed instructions, and when he got back to the canoe the whole lot paddled away as fast as they eould, leaving Te Tahi alone on the island. Now when le Tahi found that his people had deserted him, and left him to die alone on White Island, he cried bitterly for a while, and was in great distress of mind. By and by, however, the Tohunga spirit

arose in Te Tahi, and he called upon his Taniwha to come to his assistance. You knew tfetre were all kinds of Taniwhas in those days, but Te Ti'n’s was i >ig >ca monster, so when it appeared he got on its ba-k and said he wanted to get back to Whikatane as quickly as possible, Te Tahi also told the Taniwha how his people had deserted him. The Taniwhi at once set off for Whakatane, and landed tiie Tohunga on a rock that you can see there now near the entrance, rhen the Taniwha asked Te Tahi —"Shall I now destroy all the people in the canoes who left you to die?" Now, although he was so much disliked for being makuta, still, Te Tahi must have had some good in his composition, for he said to his Taniwha—"No; there are my relatives in those canoes, and some of my own grandchildren, so 1 do not want them killed,” and his Taniwha at once returned to the depths from whence he had come at the Tohunga’s call. "Te Tahi was still sitting on the rock where he had landed, when the canoes came in sight, and the man in the first canoe said -"That looks very like our old Tohunga on the rock,” At this they all burst out laughing, and one of the men asked—‘How can it be he, when we left the Tohunga behind us on White Island?” "When the canoes came a little nearer the man said —"That must be Te Tahi,” and then he shouted out, "Te Tahi! Te Tahi!” and to their horroi ami astonishment, the Tohunga raised his arm and waved his hand to them. There was great silence in those canoes as the people came ashore and found the Tohunga there waiting for them. They feared him far greater than ever, after such a display of his powers. After they bad all landed and made fast the canoes, Te Tahi pulled some green flax from the bank, and wrapped it around him as a girdle. He then signalled to the people to follow him, which they did in fear and trembling, for they thought that he was about to take utu for what they had attempted upon him. Te Tahi led the people about two miles along the road from Whakatane to Ruatoki, and then he stopped as if waiting for something, and all the people stood in fear of what he would do next. Then came the further manifestation of his power, foi* his Atua, threw down into the leval ground in front of where they were all standing, a large pillar of stone. Te Tahi marched up to this , and. taking the flax from his girdle, planted it in top of that stone, and lo! it grew right away.” “ There is the stone,” remarked the chief; "you see the flax is dying now. That is because the Pakehas’ Atua is so strong and grows stronger each year, and ours become weaker as yours increase in strength. I eould touch tha stone now, but one time I should certainly have died had I done so.”

Strange to say, an examination for the top of that stone showed that a root of flax was there in a dying condition, an evidence, so the chief said, of the truth of the story.