CoLENSo.— 0>2 a better Knnivledge of the Maori Race. 43 



them two roots of kumara, which he planted with the proper charms and 

 ceremonies, and from these the whole country was in course of time 

 supplied, so that both his own son, Kahukura, and all besides were amply 

 fed with this good vegetable food. 



(e.)k still more romantic version of this last story is the one held by 

 the Urewera tribes living in the mountainous interior, which would be 

 hardly worth relating were it not for their isolated situation, shut up far 

 away from other tribes among the mountains and forests, and for the fact 

 of its containing several of the very special names of the prized varieties of 

 kumara formerly cultivated by the Maoris, both North and South : those 

 very varieties, too, belonging to the widely different sorts^showing their 

 antiquity. They say, — " that Pourangahua went after his brothers -ha -law 

 to ' Hawaiki ; ' that his canoe being gone, he went thither on two pet birds, 

 named Tiurangi and Harorangi, the property of a chief named Euakapanga, 

 who lent them to him for the occasion. That Pourangahua brought away 

 thence from two cliffs, called Pari-nui-te-ra, and Pari-nui-te-rangi,* the 

 following seven varieties of kumara, viz., Kawakawatawhiti, Toroamahoe, 

 te Tutaanga, te Kiokiorangi, te Tutaetara, te Monenehu, and te Anutai.f 

 That the roots brought to New Zealand by Pourangahua lived and flourished ; 

 but that those which had been brought by his brothers-in-law did not grow." 



I remember well, when first travelling in those parts in the interior, 43 

 years back, (being the first European visitor among them), the many 

 questions respecting the kumara and its first introducers which were put to 

 me by the tohunyas, " as posers to test my knowledge," (as they subsequently 

 informed me), and their great earnestness respecting them. 



(3.) 

 A Charm, or Invocation, iised at the Planting of the Kumara Roots. 



1. Now (is) the planting-season favourably indicated from the sky (of the) main- 



land ; 



2. Now (is) the season (for) planting favourably indicated from the sky (of the) 



ocean. 



3. Verily, and now it is from {or according to) Eaukatauri, together with Rauka- 



tamea, 



4. (And) Maitiiti,J (and) Marekareka : — 



5. Ye sought it out ; 



6. And it was divulged {or caused to creep silently) abroad by thee 



* Great-cUff-(of-the)-sun, and Great-cliff-(of-the)-sky. The name of a high cliff on 

 the East Coast, between Tolaga Bay and Poverty Bay, is Pari-nui-te-ra; this is, also, 

 Cook's Gable-end-foreland. 



t See " Trans. N.Z. Inst.," Vol. XIII., pp. 34, 35. In the list there given, however, 

 there is dnurangi for Anutai ; but the root-meaning of both words is the same, 

 \ One MS. has it, Mal^itihiti, 



