The Mystery of the "korotangi."

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, 1 September 1904, Page 442

The Mystery of the "korotangi."

By "RANGITIHI."

f~h& OROTANGI is the name wh §'i ven by the Maoris to a Jtp' curiously - carved stone Ili/A bird— one of the most reiWi^vl) marka'ble relics in exist(^JL^t ence, pointing as it does &££\ to a remote connection with Asiatic or Japanese \ t is shores, a memento of the I sea-roving Polynesians of untold centuries back. It is in the possession of a half-caste family, of high rank on the Maori mother's side ; there are casts of, the original in several museums. Famous amongst all the tribes of New Zealand is " Korotangi "—the subject of many a Maori song. According to Waikato legends, " Korotangi " was brought to these shores in the Tainui canoe (which landed at Kawhia Harbour) from the South Sea Islands, some six centuries ago. Beyond that its history is wrapped in impenetrable mystery. It is not, however, of Maori manufacture— that is certain. The song says : "' E hara tena he manu Maori "—' That is not a Maori bird." It has been compared with an ancient Japanese bronze bird in a New Zealand museum ; the two carvings are in some respects very similar. The bird is not unlike a pigeon ; a free Polynesian interpretation of its name is "The Crying Dove." The bird, represented as on a perch, measures ten and a-quarter inches from point of beak to tip of tail, and is carved with high artistic finish out of a very, hard and heavy dark-green metallic stone. Its weight is four pounds ten ounces. The carving is in a wonderful state of preservation

(except that a portion of the tail has 'been broken oft') considering the vicissitudes through which it must have passed since first the unknown artist fashioned it so cunningly. What a romantic mystery envelopes this little " Crying Dove \" What questions does it not suggest! Was it borne, like the Roman eagle, in some ancient ship of Asiatic voyagers, some roving ocean-craft which found its fate far down in the islands of the tropics, in the wild South Seas ? Is it the one lone relic of some captured foreign ship, cut off by the piratical Vikings of the mid-Pacific ? For how many long: centuries has it not traversed the Great Ocean of Kiwa, from island unto island where the Son of Day has his flaming uprising — first, perchance, in some far-cruising junk, then in the long sailing-canoes .of the Polynesian sailormen ! If the " Crying Dove " could but speak what an epic could it not tell us, thrilling as the Odyssey, romantic as the tale of Jason and the Golden Fleece ! The Maoris say that the Kawhia and Waikato people — the descendants of the Tainui stock — carried " Korotangi " with them on their expeditions of war and consulted it as an oracle. The bird was set up on a hill-top by the taua (warparty) and karakia'd to and invoked for assistance and good fortune. It was the tribal talisman, the bare-legged army's mascotte. " Korotangi " was lost at Kawhia some generations ago, and remained hidden for many years, no one knowing its whereabouts. Great was the grief of Waikato and Tainui

for their treasure bird, and croning dirges and laments were composed bearing on its disappearance. In course of time these poetical Avaiatatangi were adopted as funeral songs; a lost loved one was compared to " Korotangi," beautiful and rare, vanished for ever. But in modern times (about 1880) it was recovered, found under the roots of a tree which had been blown down, and came into the possession of the late Major Wilson, of Cambridge, Waikato. From far and near the

Maoris came to weep over it and tangi as if for a friend back from the dead. Old King Tawhiao, the celebrated warrior-chief Rewi, the Kingite leader Te Ngakau, visited it, and tangi'd loudly over their dear bird, sacred to them as the Ark of the Covenant which the Israelites bore in their weary journeyings.

This is one of the songs which the Maoris chanted over " Rorotangi " —a lament composed by a Kawhia woman long generations ago, when the bird was lost, and sung in sad

cadence to this day by the Waikato and allied tribes at funeral gatherings as a waiata-tangi ; a poetic, "keen" for the illustrious dead. The Maori version begins : " Kaore te aroha.. Mo taku nei manu." " Deep is my errief, My little bird, for thee ! Nightly my sorrow bubbles up, As low I lie within my house, And ever long for thee, My darling vanished one ! See ye, 0 maidens mine, The water-birds at play —

(But Koro' is not like those), 'Tis not a Maori bird. Oh, give it to me that I may Gaze upon its curling feathers carved In distant lands, Brought hither from Tawhiti. Daily I pine for thee, ray bird, I tarry day by day and ask, ' Oh, where has Korotangi gone ? Haply he has flown afar To feast on green pohata leaves.' Nightly I sleepless lie, And call for thee ; Thou wert the guardian of our treasures, The warrior's oracle Set up on battle-hill.

And now for help I turn my face To Kawa-tapu-a-rangi ! " According to the Maoris of WaikatOj this stone bird has a mana tapu, a sacred influence or spell, attaching to it. The possession of it involves the owner in as serious a responsibility as that of the proprietor of a " hoodoo " ship. The wife of its late owner, Major Wilson, was a Maori lady of rank. When she had it in her charge, the chief Te Ngakau urged her to throw it into the Waikato River, which flowed past her house, for fear she should be bewitched (makutu'd) by the Maoris who desired the muchprized relic. In fact her death was by some of the Natives put down to the " evil eye " on account of her possession of Korotangi. The trea-

sured bird is now in the hands of Major Wilson's children, who can tell some weird stories of this Maoriland "Luck of Edenhall." Native tradition relates that each of the crews of the historic Maori fleet of canoes, which arrived here six centuries ago from the Pacific Islands, carried some stone relic of their olden homes to these shores. The Arawa canoe brought the rude-ly-carven stone image Matua-a-tonga (a kumara god), and the Tainui brought the Korotangi and a carved greenstone treasure called Kaukaumatua, long since lost. But Korotangi stands apart. It is certainly not Maori ; it was the work of a people more advanced in industrial art. Then whence came it ? And whence came the Maori ?