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Fairy Folk Tales of the Maori

Notes

page 127

Notes

These Maori legends of human beings carried off by strange creatures of the forest suggest a far-away birthplace. Sir Hugh Clifford, in his tales of the Malay Peninsula, tells a singular story, as related by the Dyaks, or a man who was captured by a female mais, or orangutan, and borne off by her to her home in the tree-tops, as a mate. The Elopement of Chaling the Dyak has more than one feature in common with the tale of Hatupatu, and the tradition of Kura-ngaituku may have been a folk-memory traceable back to the jungles of Indonesia.

Kura-ngaituku's Rock, as it is called, is to be seen to this day, on the right-hand or south side of the track to Roto-kakahi through the Pareuru valley. It is a great flat-topped rock of dark-grey rhyolite, half-buried in the fern; its upper surface, lichen-grown is marked with a series of fissures or cuts, as described. Like the enchanted rock at the foot of Ngatuku Hill, on the Waikato River, this huge stone was an uruuru-whenua, and the Maoris on passing it were accustomed to lay offerings of fern and leaves on it, in obeisance to the spirit or genius loci.

A similar ceremony was performed at the sacred boiling mud pool Whanga_pipiro, in which Kura-ngaituku perished. The ancient track from Rotorua up the Waipa valley passed the puia, and offerings were made here by travellers to placate the spirit of the place. The wayfarer dropped a branch of fern, manuka, or raurekau into the steaming cauldron, repeating the short charm, “Mau e kai te manawa o tauhou,” a karakia meaning “O spirit of the earth, feed thou on the heart of the stranger.” If this rite were omitted, say the Maoris, a storm of rain would shortly descend, and punish the wayfarer for his neglect.

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Kura-of-the-Claws. A Maori carving-artist's conception. (The door of a carved house at Rotorua)

Kura-of-the-Claws. A Maori carving-artist's conception. (The door of a carved house at Rotorua)

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Mita Taupopoki (the narrator of “The Dragon of the Sacred Lake.”)

Mita Taupopoki (the narrator of “The Dragon of the Sacred Lake.”)