436 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



was a taniwha. The names of the sisters were Kiniwai, Haungaroa, and Pupu- 

 a-te-Hoata. The sisters landed at Whakaari (White Island, Bay of Plenty), 

 and there lit a fire (geyser). They then came on to the mainland at Uma- 

 pokapoka (a geyser), and then travelled on hy the Kaingaroa Plains. This 

 name (Kaingaroa — long at food) was given through Haungaroa being so 

 long over her food at a place named Whakaaweawe, so-called through 

 Haungaroa following some of her companions to chastize them for remark- 

 ing on her being so long over her meal. They turned into cabbage trees, 

 which are still to be seen by travellers, but they always recede as you 

 appear to approach them. The sisters lit a fire (geyser) at Tarawera Lake, 

 then ascended a hill and looked down on Eotorua Lake ; one of them 

 slipped down here, so they called the place Te Hemo, and lit a fire (geyser) 

 there, and then proceeded on to Paeroa and Orakeikoraka, where they lit 

 another geyser, and shortly after arrived at Taupo. But Ngatoro-i-rangi 

 had returned to Maketu, so the sisters determined to join him there. On 

 passing along the Kaituna stream they observed a totara tree standing. 

 When they arrived in sight of the pa and the people saw them coming they 

 shouted the call of welcome and beckoned them to come to the pa, but they 

 declined, at the same time calling out that the priests should be sent to 

 them to perform the necessary incantations to free them of the curse of 

 Manaia. The priests were accordingly sent, and performed their religious 

 rites to free them of the curse.* The sisters then proceeded to the pa, carry- 

 ing with them the gods — viz., Kongomai, Kahukura, and others which they 

 had brought with them from the sacred places where Ngatoro-i-rangi had 

 left them. Enquiries were then made for news from Hawaiki. The sisters 

 informed Ngatoro-i-rangi that they had all been cursed by Manaia. Nga- 

 toro enquired the nature of the curse and the cause thereof. They replied 

 Manaia had cursed Ngatoro-i-rangi saying, " Are the logs in the forest as 

 sacred as the bones of your brother that you are afraid to use them in 

 cooking, or are the stones of the desert the kidneys of Ngatoro-i-rangi that 

 you do not heat them ? By-and-bye I will frizzle the flesh of your brother 

 on red-hot stones taken from Waikorora." The cause of this curse was 

 that Kuiwai, Ngatoro-i-raugi's sister, and wife of Manaia, had not thoroughly 

 cooked the food at a great sacred feast at Hawaiki. 



Ngatoro-i-rangi, at hearing this, was much cast down ; the cause of his 

 vexation was, he had no canoe with which to pass to Hawaiki to enable him 

 to destroy the hosts of Manaia, as the Arawa had been burnt to ashes by 



* Another version of this tradition says that when the sisters arrived at Maketu 

 after their inland excursion they at once entered the pa hy clirnhing over the fences and 

 then seating themselves on Ngatoro-i-rangi's sacred seat, and that they were afterwards 

 cleansed by the priests from the curse of Manaia. 



