The Coming of the Sands.

So Potiki-roa and his party arrived safely at Taranaki, and after the usual welcome they all settled down at a place called Potiki-taua, which lies between Waitaha and Tipoko, a little to the south of Cape Egmont. Mango-huruhuru now built a large house at that place, which was used by him and his people as a dwelling. Its name was Te Tapere-o-tutahi. Potiki-roa also built a house about an eighth of a mile further inland, where he and his wife dwelt. The large house was situated on low land not far from the sea, the frontage to which was rocky and, therefore, a bad landing, whilst Potiki-roa's house was erected on higher land, where he and his wife, Puna-te-rito, lived. Mango-huruhuru's daughters, Puna-te-ahu and Renga-pãpã, married into the Taranaki tribe and went away to their husband's homes, whilst Hei-hana, the youngest daughter, remained with her father.

"Now, it was many days that the old man dwelt at that place, with his daughter and his people. He looked at the landing place and saw page 176how inconvenient it was, covered with stones and other obstructions. The only beach was a very little one, and compared very badly with those he had left at his old home. So the thought grew with the old man that he would exercise his powers and bring some sands from Hawaiki, to improve his new home. Having come to this decision he gave notice to all his people of what he was about to do—to remove one of the beaches to their present home. When evening came and the sun had set, the old man climbed up to the ridge of his large house, and there standing, raised his invocation to bring the sands. This is the karakia he used:—

Papa e takoto nei! whakarongo ake;
Tangaroa e takoto mai nei!
Whakarangona mai i aku one i toku whenua
Kia korikori mai, kia titiro mai, kia aroha mai,
Kia maranga mai ki runga.
Hae!
Kia awhitu mai ki au nei
Hae!
Ko aku matau, ko Whiua, ko Taia;
Hei hiwi mai mahaku ki One-pua-huru,
I Wai-rua-ngangana.
Me kore e piri mai.
Me kore e maimai-aroha mai ki au nei
Hae!
Tahia te papa o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu
Na ra tahia!
Tikina nga pou-amo o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu,
Na ra tãhia!
Tikina nga pou o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu,
Na ra tahia!
Tikina nga heke o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-a whiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu
Na ra tãhia!
Tikina te tahuhu o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu,
Na ra. tahia?
Tikina nga heke o te whare o Tangaroa.
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu,
Na ra tahia!
Tikina nga kaho o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu,
Na ra tahia!
page 177 Tikina nga toko o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi. he whare kau-anuanu,
Na ra tahia!
Tikina nga paepae-tapu o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu,
Na ra tahia!
Tikina nga konupe o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he wharo kau-anuanu,
Na ra tahia!
Tikina to papa o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu,
Na ra tahia!
Tikina nga paru o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu,
Na ra tahia!
Tikina nga turapa o te whare o Tangaroa,
Ho whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu,
Na ra tahia!
Tikina nga ran o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu,
Na ra tahia!
Tikina nga taotao o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kan-awhiawhi, ho whare kau anuanu,
Na ra tahia!
Tikina nga mahihi o to whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu.
Na ra tahia!
Tikina nga tua o te whare o Tangaroa,
He whare kau-awhiawhi, he whare kau-anuanu,
Na ra tahia!
Tikina Te Pou-te-wharaunga, kia haere mai ki au.
Ko to matua, Hae!
Tikina tou urunga i raro, kia maranga mai,
Kia haere mai ki au nei,
Ki to matua, Hae!
Whakarongo mai ki te tai-whatiwhati,
Whakarongo mai ki te tai-karekare,
E mihi ana au, e tangi ana au,
Ki taku whenua i mahue atu i a au,
Me kore e piri mai—
Me kore e tata mai—
Me kore e maimai aroha mai,
Ki au nei, to matua,
Hae!
Ko Whiua, ko Taia, nga matau;
Hei hiwi mai mahaku, i Wairua-ngangana,
Me kore e piri mai—
Me kore e tata mai—
page 178 Ki au nei, ki to matua,
Hae!
Akn one i tahia—i tahia ki te kura,
I tahia ki te moa.
Ko One-hau to one.
Ko One-pua-huru to one.
Me kore e piri mai—
Me kore e tata mai—
Ka eko ki tu whenua,
Hae!

Transliteration.
Recumbent earth, oh listen to my lay!
And thou, Great Tangaroa¹—
Dweller in the Ocean depths,
Command the sands of my distant lands,
To obedient be, to my urgent call;
May they respond with willing haste.
And towards me in affection turn,
Up rising from profoundest depths.
Be it so!
Let strong affection answer to my call.
Be it so!
Whiua and Taia, ² sacred fish hooks, are my means,
With which to cast and surely catch,
The sands of One-pua-huru.
That lie in distant Wairua-ngangana³
If they perchance will come to me.
If they will show their love to me.
Be it so!
Sweep clean the foundations of Tangaroa's house,
That house of snug repose,^* of highest dignity,
^* Then sweep it clean!
Hither bring the inmost pillar,
Of the house of Tangaroa,
Tho house of comfort and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Hither bring the frontal pillars carved.
Of the great house of Tangaroa —
The house of comfort, and of highest dignity.
Then sweep it clean!
Bring hither the pillars of the sides
Of the great house of Tangaroa—
The house of comfort and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
page 179 Hither bring the topmost ridge pole,
Of the groat house of Tangaroa—
The house of comfort, and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Bring hither the sloping rafters,
Of the great house of Tangaroa—
The house of comfort, and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Bring hither the battens of the roof,
Of the great house of Tangaroa—
The houso of comfort, and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Bring hither the strong supports,
Of the groat houso of Tangaroa—
The house of comfort, and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Hither bring the sacred door step,
Of the great houso of Tangaroa—
The house of comfort and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Hither bring the carved lintel,
Of the house of Tangaroa—
The house of comfort, and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Bring hither the very foundations,
Of the great house of Tangaroa—
That house of comfort, and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Bring hither the reeded walls,
Of the great house of Tangaroa—
That house of comfort, and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Bring hither the turapa,
Of the great house of Tangaroa —
That houso of comfort, and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Bring hither the thatched roof,
Of the great house of Tangaroa—
That house of comfort, and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Hitherward bring the poles, that press the thatch,
Of the great house of Taugaroa—
That house of comfort, and of greatest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Bring hither the barge-boards, richly carved,
Of the great house of Tangaroa—
That house of comfort, and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean! page break

page break
page 180 Hither bring the back and sides,
Of the great house of Tangaroa—
The house of comfort, and of highest dignity,
Then sweep it clean!
Bring hither "Te Pou-to-wharaunga,"⁴
The great house of Tangaroa—
Let it hither come to me—
To thy parent, Be it so!
Bring hither thy pillow, let it arise,
And forthwith come to me—
To thy parent, Be it so!

A dark cloud appears on the horizon, rapidly advancing towards the reciter, charged with a heavy burden of sand, with lightning flashing and thunders rolling.

Listen, then, to the breaking waves,
Incline thine ear to the rippling sea,
I greet it, I cry to it in welcome,
To my home that I abandoned.

If it perchance will come to me,
If it to me will nearer draw,
And towards me love and obedience show.

To me, to thy parent, Bo it so!
For Whiua and Taia¹ are the saered means
By which I cast, and haul it hither,
The ancient land of Wairua-ngangana.³

For it perchance will come to me,
To me be closely drawn.

To me here, to thy parent, Be it so!
My sands that are swept—
Swept hither by incantation's aid,
That are swept by the moa, ⁵
One-hau is the name of tho sand,
One-pua huru is the name of the sand.

O! that it will approach!
To me be closely drawn!
It comes ashore! it lands! Be it so!

This karakia is quite unique in its form; it differs from all others I am acquainted with, and is expressed in language much more simple than usual, but I have no doubt the old tohunga would object to the page 181interpretation I have put on some of his words. But I have had the advantage of discussing them with a learned man of Taranaki.

On the conclusion of the old man's karakia, the dark cloud, with its burden of sand, and its surface flashing with lightning, reached the shore. The women assembled there near the great house, called out in terror, "A! the sea rises; the waves and the sand will overwhelm us." In a moment the storm was upon them; a darkness as of night settled down, only illuminated by bhe vivid lightning, whilst the wind roared, and the rain fell in sheets of water; the sands came with the storm, and the people in the great black darkness fell where they stood and were buried in the sands. The house and cultivations and all the surrounding country were buried deep in the sand, and with them the old priest, Mango-huruhuru, and his daughter Hei-hana, who, says my informant, was then and there turned into a rock, which still stands there, "to bear witness to the truth of history."

Potiki-roa and his wife, Puna-te-rito, escaped the disaster from the fact of their home being further inland and on higher ground. This house was named "Te Arai-o-Tawhiti," and the stone foundations of it may be seen to this day. My informant says over a hundred people were killed by the sand, and their bones are there still. The present inhabitants are often annoyed by white people taking them away.

We unbelieving Pakehas find a difficulty in accrediting old Mangohuruhuru with power sufficient to bring sands to a place where there were none originally. Nor are we able to understand the efficacy of the Maori karakis, and are inclined to set down this catastrophe to some mighty storm, which altered the character of the coast line and destroyed the people living there. But the Maoris think otherwise; they have the "faith which will remove mountains"!

For the purposes of this history, the epoch of this disaster is an important one, as it serves to fix the date of some great events which had far reaching results. To illustrate this, and for future reference, I quote here the genealogical descent from one of the people mentioned in the above story. (See Table 41.)

According to this table Potiki-roa would be born about fifteen generations, or three hundred and seventy-five years, back from the year 1900, and as he was a young man when he went in search of Tumuaki, we may fix the date of his expedition at about the year 1550, and Tumuaki's search for the greenstone a few years earlier. Tupahiko-rangi was of the tuturu, or main stem of the Taranaki tribe. I page 182shall have to refer to him and some others in this table, later on, in connection with the wars of Te Ati-awa.

This story of the sands may possibly be the origin of that alluded to in Chapter V. (also in A.H.M., Vol. II, p 63), wherein it is stated that a Hawaiki chief sent the sands to the Taranaki coast in return for hospitality shown to his daughters, who had been blown there by adverse gales.

A few pages back it was stated that when Potiki-roa went to the forest to fell a totara tree with which to make a canoe for his projected voyage to the South Island, that the appropriate karakias were used before doing so. According to Maori belief, the trees of the forest were sacred to Tane, the god of forests and all bird life, and, therefore, could not be touched without placating the god by invocations and offerings. There are several stories in Polynesian traditions which illustrate the effects due to a neglect of these preliminary invocations, the most noticeable being, perhaps, the long Rarotougan story connected with the hewing out of the celebrated canoe, in the forests of Samoa, which, after many changes of name, came to be called "Taki-tumu." But, as I have a briefer story, in which much the same incidents occur, in connection with the "Tainui" canoe that formed one of the fleet of 1350, I will here place it on record, as it has not yet appeared in print. It was told to Mr. Elsdon Best and myself, at Porirua, iu 1894, by old Karihana Whakataki, of Ngati-Toa:—

"After it had been decided to leave Hawaiki (which there is little doubt was on the west coast of Tahiti, for the immigrants by the 'Tainui' called their first altar set up at Kawhia, Ahurei, after Ahurai, in Tahiti) for New Zealand, Hotu-roa, the principal chief and after-wards captain of the 'Tainui,' sent his people to the forests to search for a suitable tree, from which to make a canoe. One was finally selected, at the foot of which, or near to, had been buried the grandfather of Whakaoti-rangi, Hotu-roa's wife, and whose name was Tainui. After working all day and making a commencement in the umu, or scarf, the party returned to their homes at night,

"Next morning the workmen went back to the forest, and to their great surprise could find no sign of their previous day's work; the tree stood as if it had never been touched by the axe! but the party set to work again, and after much labor managed to fell the tree. The next day, on returning to the site of their labors, a greater surprise than over awaited them. The tree was standing erect as if it had never been touched! and the chips of the previous day had disappeared. With determined hearts the men set to work again, and by evening had again felled the tree, but, in this case, instead of returning home they hid page 183themselves and waited to see what would occur. Before long, a great rustling and twittering was heard in the forest, and directly there appeared immense flocks of little birds called Pi-rakaraka and Pi-rangi-rangi (the messengers of Tāne), and these, as soon as they arrived, set to work to gather up the chips and replace them in the spots from whence they had come, and the tree arose and stood on its stump, perfect, as if it had never been touched by the axe!

"The workmen were confounded and alarmed, so stole away home to the village, where they recounted to Hotu-roa all that they had witnessed and heard. Said Hotu-roa: 'Perhaps you did not use the karakia-whakamoemoe'? (or incantations to lay the spirits of the wood). 'No'! said the men, 'we used no karakias.' 'Then,' said both Hotu-roa and Whakaoti-rangi, 'it is no wonder you failed in your object. Return in the morning to your work, and before anything is done let the karakias be recited.' So the next morning the men on return to their work were careful to recite the appropriate karakias to appease Tāne, for destroying one of his sacred trees.

"The result was that no further trouble occurred. The canoe was completed as far as her hull was concerned, and then with karakia and song she was dragged, by large numbers of people, from the forest to the shore, where the master builders fashioned and fitted her with top sides, and the artists carved the stem and stern posts. The canoe then received the name of 'Tainui,' after Whakaoti-rangi's grandfather."

Such was the effect, in Maori belief, of neglecting the proper rites when dealing with so sacred a thing as a tree—the manifestation of the god Tāne

Number of karakias, in connection with canoc-work, have been preserved, and many have been published. But the following is one belonging to these West Coast tribes, and may well have been that used by Potiki-roa when he fashioned his canoe:—

"This is the karakia used in felling a tree to be used as a canoe. When fallen, the head of the tree is severed, then the vessel shaped out, and afterwards the head of the tree is drawn to the stump and there left.

Ki konei hoki au, E Tane!
Moria, E Tane! ka wehe i te pu,
E Tane! ka wehe i te moenga,
Waiho Tane, kia mihi, kia tangi,
Ki te ipo—ki tona toki,
Ka tangi, tona pahu,
E! ka tangi whakarorotu
Moe tu ana mai te moenga o Tane,
E ai, E Tane! ko te putiki,