Whatahoro H. T. 1914. The lore of the whare wananga Part II. Te Kauwae-raro or "Things Terrestrial". Chapter VII. Kahu goes to the Chatham Islands. Journal of the Polynesian Society 23 (90): 70-83
Traditions
Traditions
Pp 70-83. Kahu goes to the Chatham Islands. Kahu took with him from Te Pouokani, on east side of Lake Taupo, some seed [roots?] of bracken - aruhe-paranui, aruhe-pawhiti, aruhe-māpara. Packed in calabash made of mataī bark laid on kahika bark in the same manner as kūmara and taro are preserved; some of the former they also took with them. Fern planted at a place they called Tongariro, after the mountain.
"The name of the calabash in which Hine-waiwai took the fern-seed was ‘Te Awhenga,’ and the totara-bark receptacle in which the kumara was preserved was named ‘Rangiura,’ When Kāhu found that neither his taros nor his kumaras would grow, he exclaimed, ‘A! There is the food-producing soil at Ara-paoa! (South Island, New Zealand). I am wasting my time on this ocean rock’—in reference to the inferiority of the soil, which is boggy."
Notes
Told by Te Matorohanga. Written by H. T. Whatahoro. Translated by Percy Smith
Related records
Bibliographic details
The lore of the whare wananga Part II. Te Kauwae-raro or "Things Terrestrial". Chapter VII. Kahu goes to the Chatham Islands
