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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 74

Tuhoe or te Urewera

Tuhoe or te Urewera.

The Tuhoe tribe may be looked up" on as the Tlascalaus or Spartans of New Zealand and are a brave, hardy, and independent people. Their so journ of centuries in the rugged country between To Whaiti and Ruakituri has rendered them a thoroughly iso-lated people and like most mountain-eers are imbued with a strong tribal pride. They have held their own in their mountain home and although war-parties have penetrated to Rua-tahuna in the hope of humbling the Urewera pride, those same tana were generally very glad to turn their backs on the land of the Ngai-Tuhoe. Their tribal proverbs betoken their love of war and adventure, as—

"He iti na Tuhoe, e kata te po." "Tuhoe moumou kai, moumou taonga, moumou tangata ki te Po."—"Tuhoe, wasters of food and proper-ty; destroyers of mankind."

The bulk of the Urewera (as the Tuhoe are generally termed) reside at Ruatahuna and its vicinity, which district contains many old pas and battle-grounds. In former times they made many forays against distant tribes and thought little of marching in mid-winter across the snow-covered mountains. To enable them to do this they wore sandals (turnata-kuru) formmed of a netted fabric and stuffed with moss (rimurimu). To collect their warriors from scattered hamlets, when threatened by attack, they used the huge war trumpet (pu-tatara) and also made use of signal fires on the hilltops. A favourite proverb—"The eyes of the fisherman are closed, but tbe eye of the fighter nre open"—will tend to show that it was a difficult matter to catch the Urewera unaware, and au enemy trying to surprise them at night was pretty sure to be met by the booming of the war'drums (pahu). These gongs, which were formed of mataii, were suspended between two uprights upon the watch tower (pu- page 36 hara) situated within the earthworks (maioro) of the fort (pa). The watchman (kai-mataara) occupied the platform at night and struck the gong at intervals to let any prowling enemy know that the garrison were on the alert. He also beguiled the weary hours of the night by chanting some of the numberless watch songs (whaka-araara) known to the Maori.

The Tuhoe loved fighting and entered into it with his whole soul, even from the days when Tawhaki, son of Awatope, came from Whakatane to Ruatahuna and destroyed the Ngati-Ha and Ngapotiki tribes who formerly held the land as far as Maungapohatu. Here is another of their proverbial sayings:—"Do not make your bed too comfortable, lest you be overcome by sleep; rather sleep on rough ground that you may awaken easily and thus escape the war-party."

As the Tuhoe of old were inured to hardship, so were they accustomed to hard fare and the old men inform me that they thought little of living on one meal a-day. Possibly their most prized food was the so-called hinau bread, a heavy, pasty mass made from the steeped berries of the hinau tree, hence the saying, " If you awaken me let it be for te whatu turei a Rua." Another and important article of food was the fern-root (aruhe), the meal of which was made into cakes (komeke). The saying for this is, "Te manawanui o Whete." "Whete was au ancestor who relied on the nruhe as a strength-giving food. Prior to going into a fight he would cat two large komeke of fern-root. They also had sweet potato (kumara), the hue (gourd), the perei and the indigenous taewa—tapapa parareka, and pokerekahu.

The Tuhoe tribe are largely de-scended from the original people of the land and this combined with their long isolation in a mountainous country causes them to be a singularly interesting people and well worthy of study. To the old men of Ngai-Tawhaki [unclear: s] Tama-kai-moana am I indebet [unclear: f] many interesting items in [unclear: regard] these singular people, but the [unclear: rela] thereof must wait until such [unclear: time] we shall endeavour to [unclear: collect] more "fragments of M tuatua."

Having lately visited the [unclear: Tu] people in their secluded [unclear: kaingas] free to confess that the bapus of [unclear: R] tahuna, Te Umuroa and [unclear: Manage] pohatu contain some of the [unclear: most] foresting types to be found [unclear: in] country, and which may be [unclear: ethno] cally divided into—1. The [unclear: Paleness] 2. The Melanesian. 3. The [unclear: Me] lian. 4. The Urukehu

The Polynesian type we know [unclear: w] it can be atudied in any [unclear: ntive ka] but there is a fair, large featured [unclear: t] which I have often noted [unclear: among] Ngati-Raukawa. There are [unclear: ma] these [unclear: mong] the Urewera. [unclear: I] seen them in hundreds on the [unclear: be] Apia in the [unclear: Samom] Group, [unclear: and] palm groves of Tutuila know [unclear: them] well.

The [unclear: Melanesian] or [unclear: Papuas] most ronounced among the [unclear: T] Some of these have the [unclear: westem] tures and huge, [unclear: outstanding] hair so well known in Fiji [unclear: and] Western Islands. I had [unclear: prer] seen this type at Te Reinga in 1875 [unclear: y] some Tuhoe were on a vi-it [unclear: to] Kowhatu of that place. Some of [unclear: this] looked as if they had just [unclear: stepped] of the plates in "Belcher's! [unclear: V] It would be most interesting [unclear: to] if these types, 2, 3. and 4 are [unclear: d] from the aboriginal people (I [unclear: u] clined to think that they are) [unclear: as] so whence came the marked [unclear: dif] in the types. Was there a [unclear: pre] race of Melanesian extraction [unclear: p] ing this strange land in the [unclear: din] If so, whence the Mongolian [unclear: and] kehu.

The third or Mongolian [unclear: type] marked contrast to the other [unclear: h] the Mongolian with the neavy [unclear: fe] page 37 [unclear: and] sullen expression of a Klamath [unclear: Indian]. You may see them on auy [unclear: vation] from Cape Mendocino to [unclear: Alska]. The Haidas of Queen Char-[unclear: te] Islands, with their Polynesian [unclear: ving] and whakapakoko—there you [unclear: ve] the Mongolian type of the Ure-[unclear: er] people.

The Urukehu.—This is the most in-[unclear: resting] aad singular type to be found [unclear: New] Zealand. People will tell you [unclear: ey] are albinos. It is not so. The [unclear: ino] I have met among Anglo-Saxon [unclear: nd] Castilian peoples and among the [unclear: groes] of the Mississippi biyous. [unclear: They] are a freak of Nature, a sickly [unclear: nd] weak-eyed caricature of humanity [unclear: nd] abhorred of the true ethnologist. [unclear: he] urukehu of the Urewera are a dis-[unclear: t] people, a white, fine featured—[unclear: a] word—an Aryan people. There [unclear: a] goodly number of there white [unclear: ountaineers] in Tuhoe-land, and [unclear: he] old men inform me that they have [unclear: ways] been there, always dwelt a [unclear: ong] the darker people, from remote [unclear: mes.] Some say they are descended [unclear: rom] theTurehu, a race of white peo-[unclear: le] who originally occupied this island times long past away. In later [unclear: nes] these Turehu appear to have ob-[unclear: ned] as a species of wood elves or [unclear: ires] who dwelt in forests and on [unclear: ountain] ranges, and were often he trd [unclear: king] and singing, and who wrought [unclear: ge] tricks upon the luckless in-[unclear: dual] who offended them, as wit-[unclear: ss] the vacred totara tree which [unclear: nds] near Te Ana-o-Tawa on the [unclear: res] of the Sea of Waikare—for [unclear: ould] any man dare to molett that [unclear: e] he was surely maltreated by the [unclear: ehu] and Patupaearehe of the Great [unclear: est] of Tane. Evidently a mythical [unclear: oe] the e Turehu, but who can tell [unclear: hat] sub-stratum of fact may under-[unclear: e] these wild legends.

[unclear: For] the urukehu is in evidence. He [unclear: me] to stay. He is a mystery to his [unclear: patriots] and a thing of joy to the [unclear: ropologist]. Probably the best specimen I saw was at Ruatahuna—a young woman of some twenty years of age. We were seated in the "marae" before Te Puhi-o-Matauna the great Council House of the Taboo tribe. The people gathered around us to view the pakehas, the pakeltas from Tara-pounamu, from Te Whaiti-nui-.-a-Toi It was quite an event in their lonely mountain vallay. Wo spoke of many things, of the days of old, of the Iho-o-Kataka, that blessing to childless homes. And of the brave days when Tane-atua and lra-kewa and Tawhaki and the host of old time heroes of Mataatua were in the flesh and per-formed great deads in the World of Light. And the faces around me lighted up with pleasure and the tribal pride of the mountaineer. A primitive people and a kindly, those Tuhoe of Ruatabuna. Who gave unto us their best whare and such food as they had, the fruits of their soil and fresh milk and the bread of the hinau. And j as we talked of the brave days of old I looked at the facos around me, the faces I had seen lung years since in the redwood forests of Humboldt Ray. On the beach at Honolulu, beneith the cocoa palms of Samoa. And the uru-kehu was as the remnant of a loug-lost race and I could not place her in any of the old but well-remembered camps. For the mass of gold red hair took me far away to the land of Thor and in the small mouth, thin lips and straight nose I saw an Arya of the Aryans, the strong, slightly prognathous jaw located heramong the ancient Celts, the Esthonians of the Bialtic. But her surroundings were Polynesian as her language. The Urukehu is a Sphinx.