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Takitimu

Translation

Translation.

Come, go forth, my loving child; the wisdom of many great experts is in you. You have been elaborately decorated by wise minds and skilful hands. You are now sent forth with feelings of hope and the deepest affection.

Go forth, striding over the plains, climbing the great ranges, and crossing the seas. May the clouds of the sky and the wings of pakeha transport carry thee wherever men read to learn. As, says the ancient proverb: He ao te rangi ka uhia a, ma te huruhuru te manu ka rere ai. (The sky is clothed by the clouds and feathers are required to enable a bird to fly.)

You were not conceived upon the common mat, but upon the takapau-wharanui or sacred mat of your ancestor Uenuku. You were not nursed in a lean-to shanty, but in the adorned house which stood within the stockaded pa of thy ancestor Kahukura-nui Your moko (tattoo) was not drawn by clumsy hands but by high experts. Your hair was plaited in a top-knot and tied with the sacred broad-leafed flax of Tamatea, which was left upon Tauranga.

Travel, treading the footsteps of your ancestors—Rongo-kako, and Tamatea-Pokai-Whenua (Tamatea the explorer of land). You will be asked, "Who begat and whence came you?" Answer and say that Tamatea-Ariki-Nui (Tamatea the High Lord) was your progenitor, who in the great canoe Takitimu, crossed the wide ocean of Kiwa, bringing to this land the mauri (life principle) of all beings and of the sacred Gods and shrines, on which is built the whare-wananga (house of knowledge). Should you be rejected, walk quietly away unabashed, for you will live in the everchanging world of the pakeha. But when received, then open your bag of treasure and distribute its sacred contents, in which are all the precious stories of a history conceived in Hawaiki, painfully born in the travail of migration, unfolded by the conquest of a new world, and sealed by the calibre of its people.

A constructive criticism, by adding extra decorations to your appearance, will be appreciated, but not of purely prejudicial nature.

page 229

Very soon, I, your chief nurse, will be preparing my pikau for the long journey to the shores of Rangaunu, there to join the spirit world (hono-i-wairua). You will remain, as says the proverb: Ka pu te ruha, ka hao te rangaiahi. (The old net is cast aside, while the new one goes a-fishing.)

Therefore, good-bye my child, the pride of my heart. I will leave thee in the hands of Maori High Principle.

"It is only the last and exhaustive effort of Tupuhi-kai."

The Writer.

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