70 TUTIRA 



same day respectively at Oporae and Te Kua-o-tunuku, a village near 

 the site of the Tangoio wash-out, the inhabitants of both were slain, one 

 man only escaping from Oporae. Considerations of why the people of 

 Oporae should have been slain because a stranger from a district thirty 

 miles south had insulted a chief of a sept twenty miles north, would lead 

 us deep into the intricacies of Maori tribal custom ; suffice it to say that 

 every insult had to be expiated, if not on the person of the offender or 

 his relatives, then on some other man or tribe, or failing that, even on 

 inanimate nature. 



Our track proceeding along the shore-line Te Ewe-o-Tutata, now 

 passed the conglomorate cave Te Ana. " It was in the deep bay opposite 

 that a chief named Tamairuna had cast his net for the purpose of 

 catching eels. Tamairuna was holding one end of the net and his men 

 the other. Presently they felt the net being dragged away from them 

 by the taniwha known to haunt the bay. Their strength was powerless 

 against the monster. Tamairuna had a wife called Te Amohia whom he 

 had deserted some time previously, and who was noted for her prowess 

 as a diver, and who possessed some kind of affinity or occult sympathy 

 it is difficult to give the meaning exactly with the taniivha. So 

 much at any rate was this the case that she was known as Te Uri- 

 taniwha, the descendant of the taniivha. Tamairuna placed great value 

 on his net. Having now lost it, his thoughts reverted to Te Amohia. 

 He paid her a visit, and eventually succeeded in persuading her to 

 consent to dive -for his net. Preparing herself for the task by the 

 recitation of proper karakias incantations Te Amohia dived into the 

 subaqueous cavern and found the net rolled together and placed in 

 front of the taniwha. Forbidding the monster to molest her, she pulled 

 the net away and rising above water carried it back." 



The track next passed the locality Te Ewe-o-Kautuku, situated 

 between the edge of the lake and the great solitary hill Te Hinu-o- 

 Taorua the fat of Taorua. " It was so named because, when the days 

 came for digging one of its ridges for fern-root, this man's body brought 

 from Tangoio was eaten as a relish kinaki with the fern-root." 



Reverting once more to the shore-line we reach the headland 

 Taupunga. This headland of several acres has at one time been con- 

 nected with the aforementioned hill only by the narrowest of ridges. 

 It must then have been admirably adapted for defence. Though it 

 is difficult to fix the date of occupation with any degree of accuracy, 



