THE KNIGHT ERRANTRY OF TAMAHAE by LEO FOWLER Once upon a time, somewhere, I should judge, about the time that Queen Anne sat on the throne of England, there lived on the East Coast of the North Island, three brothers. They were great-grandsons of that Apanuiwaipapa who gave his name to the great tribe of Whanau Apanui, which, in the days I am speaking of, occupied the East Coast from Te Kuri a Whare (the Watch-dogs of Whare) which are two small islands off the coast near Tauranga, right down to Tikirau which Captain Cook was later to rename Cape Runaway. The names of these brothers were Kaiaio, Te Ehutu and Tamahae and all of them became famous in one way and another. We are concerned in this story with but two of them, the eldest, whose name was Kaiaio and the youngest who was called Tamahae. You could not imagine two brothers more different in character. As the elder Kaiaio was the upoko-ariki or paramount chief of his tribe. Indeed so many illustrious lines of descent converged in him that he started off a new tribe of which he became the eponymous ancestor. To be an eponymous ancestor is a great thing in any man's language for it means that your name goes down in history almost forever. Put more simply it means a man who gives his name to all his descendants. The original Scotsman named Donald was the eponymous ancestor of all the McDonalds, the original Irishman named Suanassey became the eponymous ancestor of all the Irishmen named O'Suanassey. So Kaiaio, when his descendants became so numerous that it was necessary for them to break away into a sub-tribe, gave his name to them. They became known as the Whanau-a-Kaiaio, or the family of Kaiaio, a name they still bear. In addition to becoming an eponymous ancestor Kaiaio became moderately famous in another way. Had he been one of those stalwarts who love fighting and destroying their fellow men he might have become even more renowned. As it was, he was only a peaceful man whose interests tended to be useful rather than destructive, and this, naturally, tended to limit his fame. Among the useful arts he practised was the pursuit of agriculture and, in particular, the cultivation of the kumara. He had what the pakeha calls a 'green finger', and what the Maori calls ringaringa makura. He became widely known as one who had skill in developing bigger, better and more prolific types of kumara. Not being averse to talking about his exploits and achievements he left behind many sayings of which one of the best known is “ko tahi taku huata, ki runga hauruia