MYTHOLOGY. 
157 
went under, thus she was again disappointed. The last 
time he entered the ground, he came out behind Ohine 
motu, near a n gawk a, or boiling spring. The ground around 
these is generally formed of a very thin deposit of stone, 
which arches over a large portion of the gulf, and poor 
Kurangai-tuku stepping upon this, being too weak to bear 
her great weight, she fell in, and was boiled. The name of 
that hot spring is W aka-rewa-rewa. 
Besides the Patu-paearehe were the Tua-riki* * * § who appear 
closely to have resembled them, and the Maero , who is 
described as a wild man, covered with hair, having long 
fingers and nails, and eating his food raw. He lived on 
inaccessible mountains, occasionally made a descent and 
carried off any he could capture, j* 
There was also the Taring a-here, a being with a face 
like a cat ; and another, called a Taijoo, who came in the 
night, sat on the tops of houses, and conversed with the 
inmates, but if a woman presumed to open her mouth, it 
immediately departed. One more of these imaginary crea- 
tures remains to be noticed, the Taniwha } % it is generally 
described as an immense fish, sometimes as large as a whale, 
having the form of a lizard, crocodile, or eel ; it resided in 
deep water, in the bends of rivers, but quite as frequently 
under cliffs, rocks, and mountains ; wherever a quick sand 
appeared at the base of a cliff, causing land slips, there was 
sure to be a Taniwha below. § 
A story is told of a person named Tamamutu, who was 
sleeping on the shore of the island Haka-e-pari, in Tara- 
wera lake, when Te lhi, the chief of the Taupo Taniwha, 
* This word is short for Atua-ririki (little gods). 
f The natives say, that the Tararua range is now his only habitation, in the 
northern island, where he is still, He hapu mariri, a numerous tribe, and that 
he is identical with the Nga-ti-mamoe, who live on the lofty mountains of the 
middle island. 
% Tan, Tannin Heb. seems to be the root of this word, an immense Saurian. 
The name of Tangaroa, the god of the sea, implies that he was either a long 
sea serpent or Saurian. 
§ The land slip which overwhelmed Te Heuheu and nearly sixty of his tribe 
was supposed to have been thus caused. 
