TRADITIONS AND LEGENDS. 
253 
who was the ancestor of all the tribes of New Zealand; he 
came from Hawaiki in the Takitumu, which was also 
called Horouta ; he first landed at Turanga on the fish 
which had been drawn up by his ancestor Maui ; there he 
left the canoe and travelled by land, keeping near the sea 
coast, until he reached Ahuriri, where his pet crocodile 
fled from him to the interior, the name of it was Tapu 
te ranga; Tamatea travelled on thence to Ruahine, the place 
whence his son Kahungunu returned, where a post was 
set up, the name of the pole was Rakautaonga; the cause 
of Kahungunu^s returning was that he saw the sea-gulls, 
which had followed them, flying over Ruahine and wheeling 
over their heads, from the crying of the karoro, he said. Sir, 
you proceed on your way, I shall return from this place from 
my regard for the karoro, which is crying for Te Ngutuawa o 
Ngaruroro. Then Tamatea, addressing his son Kahungunu 
Matangirau, said, do you feel home-sick ? he replied, no 
sir, I am only sighing ; Tamatea said, if love for our home 
influences you, go back and welcome, so Kahungunu re- 
turned to Heretaunga, and Tamatea journeyed on till he 
reached a lofty mountain, where another of his pets escaped, 
Pohokura by name, an enormous reptile was that pet ; Pu- 
keokahu was another; when he reached the great river 
Moawanga, they say he stuck up the ends of his firebrands 
in it, hence the saying,* The firebrands of Tamatea* s fire ; 
these he left to turn into taniwas ; as he went along the 
sea shore his dog ran into the sea and became one; when 
Tamatea Pokai Whenua reached Wanganui, he sat down 
to arrange his toilet before he entered the pa, and tied 
up the locks of his head into a top-knot ; from this circum- 
stance the place was called Putiki Waranui o Tamatea — 
Tamatea* s top-knot. Afterwards he paddled up the Wan- 
ganui river and reached the cave of Tararoa, he threw the 
flax seed upon the cliff, where it remained ; the flax grew on 
the kotukutuku, the fuchsia tree; then he reached Omaka, 
there was no anchorage there for his canoe, he therefore 
* Fossil trunks of trees standing up in the bed of that stream, like those 
seen in the depths of Taupo Lake, are all named after ancestors. 
