770 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 
Tell them to consent to this my request, that they prepare a plot 
of ground for the cultivation of the taro, that they prepare 
seventy whawharua, and cultivate, in each hole but one taro, 
which must be carefully cultivated, so as to grow large and 
fine.” So the taro were carefully cultivated, and grew to a 
fine size, while other kinds of food were also prepared, and the 
whole were presented to the people of Ngai-te-rangi. Then great 
quantities of firewood and stones were collected in order to cook 
the food in the native manner—that is, insteam ovens (hangi or 
um). But the sacred oven in which the seventy large taro were 
cooked, that oven was reserved for Te Hahae to manipulate. 
Then that tohunga dug a hole in the ground—a large hole—and 
filled it with dry fuel, upon which he placed a number of stones. 
Then he obtained fire by friction, and kindled the fuel, and during 
the whole time he repeated certain karakia (invocations, incan- 
tations). When the fire had burned down to a fierce heated mass 
of glowing coals, and the stones were red-hot, then it was that 
Te Hahae walked into the wm and stood upon those stones amid 
the fierce heat, clothed merely in a maro (girdle) made of the 
leaves of the shrub known as kokomuka-tutara-wiare. Though 
he stood a long time in the wmw repeating karakia, yet was he 
not burnt or in any way injured by the fire, and the green leaves 
of which his girdle was formed were not even shrivelled or 
withered nor affected in any way. 
Then Te Hahae came out of the oven, and taking the seventy 
taro he placed them in the oven whole—that is, without dividing 
them. They were protected from the hot stones above and 
beneath by green leaves, and he then covered the whole with 
earth, still repeating karakia. When the taro were cooked he 
took them out and presented them to the Ngai-te-rangi people, 
who had eaten the body of Te Rangi-kaku, and upon whom he 
wished to inflict a great punishment. During all this time he 
never ceased his incantations. Then the people of Ngai-te-rangi 
and Ngati-Pukenga ate those taro, after which they entered their 
canoes, and went out to sea to the fishing grounds to catch 
hapuku that they might make a return present of food to the 
men of Nga-Maihe. Then Te Hahae sent his tribe back to their 
homes, and he went down and stood in the waters, and there by. 
his potent spells he caused the sea to rise, and also raised the 
fierce sea wind known as Uru-karaerae. Thus the winds came 
and the lightning and thunder and hail, and a great storm arose, 
which overturned those canoes far out upon the ocean. So the 
man-eaters of Tauranga went down to death. 
The object of the fire ceremony in the above was to give mana 
(power, force) to the karakia of the priest. Unfortunately, my 
informant was not able to give me these karakia, and they are 
probably lost for ever. Some state that the above fire was known 
