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then they found out that these red head ornaments were nothing but flowers. All the chiefs on
board the Arawa were then troubled that they should have been so foolish as to throw away their
red ornaments into the sea. Very shortly afterwards the ornaments of Tauninihi were found by
Mahina on the beach of Mahiti. As soon as Tauninihi heard they had been picked up, he ran to
Mahina to get them again, but Mahina would not give them up to him; thence this proverb for
anything which has been lost and is found by another person: 'I will not give it up, 'tis the red
head ornament which Mahina found.'
As soon as the party landed at Whanga-paraoa, they planted sweet potatoes, that they might grow
there; and they are still to be found growing on the cliffs at that place.
Then the crew, wearied from the voyage, wandered idly along the shore, and there they found the
fresh carcase of a sperm whale stranded upon the beach. The Taimu had already arrived in the
same neighbourhood, although they did not at first see that canoe nor the people who had come
in it; when, however, they met, they began to dispute as to who had landed first and first found
the dead whale, and as to which canoe it consequently belonged; so, to settle the question, they
agreed to examine the sacred place which each party had set up to return thanks in to the gods for
their safe arrival, that they might see which had been longest built; and, doing so, they found that
the posts of the sacred place put up by the Arawa were quite green, whilst the posts of the sacred
place set up by the Tainui had evidently been carefully dried over the fire before they had been
fixed in the ground. The people who had come in the Tainui also showed part of a rope which
they had made fast to its jaw-bone. When these things were seen, it was admitted that the whale
belonged to the people who came in the Tainui, and it was surrendered to them. And the people
in the Arawa, determining to separate from those in the Tainui, selected some of their crew to
explore the country in a north-west direction, following the coast line. The canoe then coasted
along, the land party following it along the shore; this was made up of 140 men, whose chief was
Taikehu, and these gave to a place the name of Te Ranga-a-Taikehu.
The Tainui left Whanga-paraoa[1] shortly after the Arawa, and, proceeding nearly in the same
direction as the Arawa, made the
[1. Whanga-paraoa, the bay of the sperm whale, so called from the whale found there.]
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POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY
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Gulf of Hauraki, and then coasted along to Rakau-mangamanga, or Cape Brett, and to the island
with an arched passage through it, called Motukokako, which lies off the cape; thence they ran
along the coast to Whiwhia, and to Te Au-kanapanapa, and to Muri-whenua, or the country near
the North Cape. Finding that the land ended there, they returned again along the coast until they
reached the Tamaki, and landed there, and afterwards proceeded up the creek to Tau-oma, or the
portage, where they were surprised to see flocks of sea-gulls and oyster-catchers passing over
from the westward; so they went off to explore the country in that direction, and to their great
surprise found a large sheet of water lying immediately behind them, so they determined to drag
their canoes over the portage at a place they named Otahuhu, and to launch them again on the
vast sheet of salt-water which they had found.
The first canoe which they hauled across was the Toko-maru -that they got across without
difficulty. They next began to drag the Tamui over the isthmus; they hauled away at it in vain,
they could not stir it; for one of the wives of Hotu-roa, named Marama-kiko-hura, who was
unwilling that the tired crews should proceed further on this new expedition, had by her
enchantments fixed it so firmly to the earth that no human strength could stir it; so they hauled,
they hauled, they excited themselves with cries and cheers, but they hauled in vain, they cried
aloud in vain, they could not move it. When their strength was quite exhausted by these efforts,
then another of the wives of Hotu-roa, more learned in magic and incantations than Marama-
kiko-hura, grieved at seeing the exhaustion and distress of her people, rose up, and chanted forth
an incantation far more powerful than that of Marama-kiko-hura; then at once the canoe glided
easily over the carefully-laid skids, and it soon floated securely upon the harbour of Manuka.
The willing crews urged on the canoes with their paddles; they soon discovered the mouth of the
harbour upon the west coast, and passed out through it into the open sea; they coasted along the
western coast to the southwards, and discovering the small port of Kawhia, they entered it, and,
hauling up their canoe, fixed themselves there for the time, whilst the Arawa was left at Maketu.
We now return to the Arawa. We left the people of it at Tauranga. That canoe next floated at
Motiti;[1] they named that place after a spot in Hawaiki (because there was no firewood there).
Next Tia, to commemorate his name, called the place now known by the name of Rangiuru,
Takapu-o-tapui-ika-nuia-Tia. Then Hei stood up and called out: 'I name that place Takapti-o-
wal-tahanui-a-Hei'; the name of that place is now Otawa. Then stood up Tama-te-kapua, and
pointing to the place now called the Heads of Maketu, he called out: 'I name that place Te
Kuraetanga-o-te-ihu-o-Tama-te-kapua.' Next Kahn called a place after his name, Motiti-nui-a-
Kahu.
Ruaeo, who had already arrived at Maketu, started up. He was the first to arrive there in his
canoe-Pukeatea-wal-nui for he had been left behind by the Arawa, and his wife Whakaoti-rangi
had been carried off by Tama-te-kapua, and after the Arawa had left he had sailed in his own
canoe for these islands, and landed at Maketu, and his canoe reached land the first; well, he
started up, cast his line into the sea, with the hooks attached to it, and they got fast in one of the
beams of the Arawa, and it was pulled ashore by him (whilst the crew were asleep), and the
hundred and forty men who had accompanied him stood upon the beach of Maketu, with skids
all ready laid, and the
[1. Kai Motiti koe e noho ana, 'I suppose you are at Motiti, as you can find no firewood.']
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