444 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



their names, &c., and proceeds : " The names of the axes with 

 which they hewed out these canoes were Hau-hau-te-rangi and 

 Tutauru. Tutauru was the axe with which they cut off the 

 head of Uenuku. All these axes were made from the block of 

 greenstone brought back by Ngahue to Hawaiki, which was 

 called ' The Fish of Ngahue.' " 



The signification of the legend is not clear, but it is, I 

 think, symbolical. Hoanga is the name of the sandstone with 

 which the pounamu, or greenstone, is cut, ground down, and 

 polished. Hine-tu-a-hoanga (the Lady of the Sandstone) is 

 the cause of a contest or rivalry between ■poutini (greenstone) 

 and loaiapu or mata (obsidian), which had previously rested 

 quietly together in the same place. Both are used to make 

 cutting instruments, but the pounamu could be ground down 

 or attacked by the hoanga only, and Ngahue endeavours to 

 place it beyond the reach of this enemy, he being the guardian 

 oi poutini, as Hine-tu-a-hoanga appears to be of ivaiapu. 



May not this legend rest upon a foundation of truth ? The 

 idea is suggested that Ngahue, having discovered the i^oitnamu 

 in New Zealand, and taken a specimen to Hawaiki on his 

 return thither, failed to give those who came here afterwards 

 such directions as were needed to enable them to find its 

 locality ; and that their failure to do so, until comparatively 

 recent times, led to the myth of Ngahue having hidden poutini 

 to preserve it from injurious contact with te hoanga. 



"When the Ngaitahu crossed from the North Island to the 

 Middle Island they were not acquainted with the pounamu. 

 This appears certain from their tradition given in White's 

 " Ancient History of the Maori," vol. iii., p. 255 : — 



" It is not till the Ngaitahu conquests reach Horowhenua 

 that we hear anything of Ngatiwairangi, the tribe occupying 

 the West Coast, who, like Ngati-mamoe and Nga-i-tahu, were 

 descendants of Tura, and crossed over to the South Island 

 almost at the same time with them. Hitherto they had been 

 shut off from communication with the Bast Coast by what 

 were thought to be impassable natural barriers of mountains, 

 till a woman named Eaureka discovered a way through them. 

 Wandering from her home, this woman v/ent up the bed of 

 the Hokitika Eiver, and then across what is known as 

 Browning's Pass, and thence down to the East Coast. There, 

 in the neighbourhood of Horowhenua, she found some men 

 engaged in making a canoe, and, taking notice of their tools, 

 remarked how blunt they were. The men asked if she knew 

 of any better. She replied by taking a little packet from her 

 bosom, which she carefully unfolded, and displayed a sharp 

 fragment of greenstone. This was the first the natives there 

 had ever seen ; and they were so delighted with the discovery 

 that they sent a party immediately over the ranges to fetch 



