Te Iho o Kataka.

A Relic of the Phallic Cult among the Urewera Tribe. (From Tuhoe.)

Ira-kewa came from afar, from Hawaiki, before the arrival of Mataatua. He crossed the Great Ocean of Kiwa on the back of a water demon and landed in Aotearoa. When Kataka the daughter of Tane-atua, was born. Ira-kewa took the 'iho' (umbilical cord) of the child when it was severed and hung it on a hinau tree which stood at Te Koturu, at Ruatahuna. Ira-kewa was an atua (god—deified ancestor) and held strange powers.

Tane-atua came from Hawaiki in the Mataatua and landed at Whakatane. He took Hine-ahu-one of Te Tini-o Toi, and had Kataka and Paewhiti and Kanihi and Ohora. He fravelled up the Whakatane river and left his dog at TePurenga. [unclear: Th] remains there as a tupua ([unclear: demos] lives in a lake at that place. [unclear: An] dog-demon howls at night, [unclear: every] of the year, but should anyone [unclear: se] the demon hides itself in [unclear: the] Friend! Do not let us talk of things, lest evil befall as.

So Tane-atua arrived [unclear: at] where he left Pahou another [unclear: of]dogs. Then Tane turned to the [unclear: m] and reached Ohau-terangi[unclear: whe] remained. He ascended to Te[unclear: Ke] and saw there a fine binau[unclear: tree]ing weary he sat him down [unclear: b] the tree, and stretched forth [unclear: hi] to pluck the fruit thereof, for [unclear: b] hungered. The strange [unclear: thing] happened in those ancient [unclear: timed] the fruit he was about to [unclear: ph] gently-"Kauaahau e [unclear: kaing]mea koteihoahau o [unclear: Kataks] not eat me, for I am the iho taka.) SoTane-atua did [unclear: not] the fruit of that tree for it [unclear: was] 'iho' of his daughter [unclear: Katake] sacred. But he thrust the [unclear: ik] his other child into the base[unclear: of]hinau and uttered this [unclear: incau]

Ka whakairibia ahau
Ka whakato tamariki ahau.

That was how the sacred [unclear: his]Ruatahuna became [unclear: possesed] strange power of causing [unclear: cn]bo born into the world. And [unclear: h] ever been known to us and [unclear: on] fathers as To Iho-o-Kataka.

And from that time forth [unclear: these] of ail our children has been [unclear: ca]wrapped in raukawa or autepended on le lho-o-Kata customstill continues.

And the that-tane (male si that hinau is that which [unclear: f]rising sun. And the [unclear: tahs] (female side) is that towards [unclear: t] ting sun.

And when a woman of[unclear: our] knows that she is a pukupa[unclear: (b] she goes to the Ibo-o-[unclear: kataks] embracing the hinau she may [unclear: have] page 23 with child, and that child may be of [unclear: eiber]sex, according to whether she [unclear: f] braces the taha-tane or taha-wahine.