158 
MYTHOLOGY. 
arose out of it, and carried him away ; he took him under 
water to the bottom, where he kept him several days ; 
they offered him some of their food, which he refused to 
take, well knowing if he had touched any portion he could 
not have returned ; at last, a council was held, whether 
they should kill or let him go back to his home ; the latter 
opinion prevailed, and he was carried to the spot from 
whence he had been taken wh^re he was found asleep by 
his friends, who were amazed to see that he had become 
perfectly bald — not a hair being left on any part of his body.* 
He described the Taniwha as great Ngarara or lizards. This 
Ihi, the grand head of the Taupo Taniwha, is stated tradi- 
tionally to have been a man who one day when paddling 
with another in a canoe, on the Taupo lake, suddenly leaped 
into the, water, dived down and disappeared ; he was thought 
to be drowned; but some time afterwards, he made his 
appearance at Rotorua ; the token of his coming up was a 
boiling of the water, producing great waves. His mother, 
Te-Ara-tuku-tuku, was the great progenitor of all the 
Taniwhas ; at her death, four pas were swallowed up in 
Taupo ; the names of two of them were Kohuru Kareao, 
and Waka Ohoka. The death of Pipiri, a chief priest of 
Motutere, was foretold by Ara-tuku-tuku, because he went 
to fish whilst she was engaged in prayer, she said that his 
canoe would therefore be lost, which came to pass ; the 
natives, in revenge, killed her, and then the four pas were 
swallowed up ; the land where they stood became deep 
water, as well as the spot where she was buried. 
Once there was a formidable reptile of this kind at Ora- 
waro, near Pakerau, named Taraka piri-piri ; he was of 
enormous length and size, and swallowed two children at 
a meal, with their green stone ornaments. On one occasion, 
as a woman was passing near his den, he suddenly crawled 
out and seized her, compelling her to become his wife ; and 
lest she should run away kept her tied with a rope; she 
* A chief stated to me that he received a similar account from the lips of 
Tamamutu himself. 
