46 Transactions. 



An old Maori said to me, " Pekerakitahi is a mountain standing by 

 itself at the head of Wakatipu "' (Mount Earnslaw). '' There is greenstone 

 in it, because Te Ariki, who lived seven generations ago, took some 

 pounamu from Te Koroka and hid it in Pekerakitahi, where it went like 

 the skin of a tuatara. If you break the rock 'you will find the greenstone 

 inside. A mountain and creek both called Pekerakitahi are at the head 

 of Lake Wanaka, but it is the Wakatipu mountain I mean." 



In regard to how long the Maori have known greenstone, I was told 

 that Kahue (Ngahue), who visited New Zealand thirty-nine generations 

 ago, took some back to Hawaiki with him. One piece Kahue split into 

 three axe-heads — one for himself, called Kapakitua ; one for Kupe, named 

 Tauira-a-pa ; and one for Rata, called Te-papa-ariari. Rata sharpened 

 his axe-head, attached a handle, and named it Aumapu. With this axe 

 he cut down the famous tree which the " little folk " of the forest erected 

 again, as in the oft-repeated story. 



Another story has it that Tamatea-pokai-whenua, twenty-two genera- 

 tions ago, sailed round the South Island in search of his missing wives. 

 Unaware that they had been wrecked off the Arahura River and turned 

 into greenstone, Tamatea landed there, and his slave in cooking some 

 JcoJca birds burnt his fingers, which he licked. This was a violation of 

 tapu, and the slave, Tumuaki, was turned into the mountain since known 

 by his name, whilst Tamatea never found his wives, their petrified bodies 

 furnishing the greenstone, some of which has a flaw known as tufae-koka, 

 or the dung of the birds Tumuaki was cooking wh«n he committed his 

 thoughtless act. Mr. Justice Chapman says (p. 518), " I am unable to obtain 

 a satisfactory meaning for koka. Mr. Tregear suggests koko (the tui), 

 which seems probable." The l^ird was the orange-wattled crow {Glaucopis 

 cinerea), whose name throughout the South is koka, although its confrere 

 in the North Island {Glaucopis wilsoni) is there called kokako. 



An old Maori, usually well informed, gave me a peculiar version of this 

 tradition. He said, " I think that story about Tamatea and his three 

 runaway wives is false. Tama-taku-ariki, often called Tama, went to 

 Arahura in search of greenstone, which was then in human shape. He 

 killed one, and was cooking it in an umu, when his companion burnt his 

 finger and put in in his mouth. In consequence of this act the greenstone 

 disappeared and they came away disappointed." • 



Mr. James Cowan writes, " The wives of Tama-ki-te-Rangi (captain of 

 the Tairea canoe) deserted him, and he searched for them from Cook Strait 

 to Piopiotahi (Milford Sound). The flax-like kiekie {Freycinetia Banksii), 

 which fringes the fiord for miles, sprang, according to legend, from the 

 shreds of Tama's shoulder-mat, torn off in his forest travels. Here he 

 found one of his wives, but she had turned into greenstone, and as Tama 

 wept over her his tears penetrated the very rock. This is why the nephrite 

 found on the slopes of Mitre Peak, close to Anita Bay, is called tangi-wai 

 (the water of weeping, or tear-water). If you take a clear piece of this 

 stone and hold it up to the light you will sometimes see marks like 

 water-drops in it. This is the, true tangi-wai, for these are the tears of 

 Tama-ki-te-Rangi. ' ' 



Whoever the chief was who pursued his fugitive wives, it is fairly certain 

 it was not the captain of the Takitimu canoe, who bore at various times 

 in his own proper person the names Tamatea-ariki-nui, Tamatea-mai- 

 Tawhiti, Tamatea-ure-kotia, Tamatea-muriwhenua, and Tamatea-pokai- 

 whenua, This illustrious chief resided for some time in southern New 



