TRADITIONS AND LEGENDS. 
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Piro piro haungaunga taku kai, lie tangata. — I scent my food 
— a man. She assured him all was right, so he crept in on his 
hands and knees ; as soon as he got his head and shoulders in, 
they drew the noose tight and secured him, and cut off one of 
his hands, but he told them they could not kill him, this he 
repeated, as each limb was chopped off, but when at last his 
head was severed, he died, and according to some accounts, 
was changed into the bittern, which still goes by his name. 
When he was dead, the warriors asked the woman how 
they might also capture Witi, she told them where they 
would find his den, and said, that if they placed a noose 
over it, and made a noise, the monster would be sure to 
come out and attack them, as he did every one who came 
near his abode, they did as she advised, and when he put 
out his head, they immmediately drew the cord tight and 
despatched him with ease. 
Tradition oe Kupe and Turi. 
The first person who reached New Zealand, is acknow- 
ledged by all to have been Kupe : he came in the canoe 
Mata-o-rua to Wanganui-a-te-ra, seeking his wife Kura 
Marotina, who had been carried off by his younger brother 
Hoturapa, he went from the place of his landing as far as 
Patea, there he heard the cry of the kokako inland, and 
mistook it for the call of a man, hua noa he reo te tangata, 
a man's voice, he exclaimed, and sent to see who it could be, 
but found no one, not seeing anything of her, he set up a 
post there, and returned to Wanganui-a-te-ra. 
Kupe was accompanied by Hau, on landing he found the 
ground soft and trembling,* he was afraid, and therefore 
went on till he came to the Wairarapa, a rocky part of the 
island which was firm, he left his daughters Mateu and Ma- 
* Kupe is said to have overtaken the land, it was floating along the surface of 
the sea when he came up to it, and his first work was to render it firm and 
stationary. 
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