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TRADITIONS 4ND LEGENDS. 
Tradition op Taka. 
Taka a chief of the Nga ti an is said to have been one of 
the first, who went to settle at Muri motu beyond Taupo, 
but he and his party miserably perished from cold and hunger 
on the Rangi po road* which runs over a spur of Tongariro ; 
he was going to Muri motu, to spear birds, but found the 
snow so deep that he was detained there two months, their 
food was soon consumed, they had to eat their seed kumara, 
and drank hinu kawa mixed with clay, afterwards they killed 
their slaves, next their children, then their wives, and lastly 
one another, until all perished, the snow being so deep 
that it was level with the tops of the trees. A hundred and 
forty are said to have thus died and their bones to remain 
to this day, on the Rangi po road, I never saw any traces 
of them although frequently journeying that way, I found 
it however covered with snow in winter, and was myself 
detained three days on it during which period we did not 
advance twenty miles, my poor natives being unable to walk 
without shoes on the frozen snow, without leaving a track 
of blood, I was obliged to go before and trample a way for 
them. 
Mahuru. 
Mahuru was an Ancestor of Hawaiki. He sent the 
Wawauroa, cuckoo, as his messenger to New Zealand, to 
tell them when to dig their cultivations, and prepare his 
kumara ground, but that bird, came too early in the year, 
and the kumara were all killed by the frost. Mahuru 
literally means a shoot or sprout and may be a figurative 
term for spring, Maka and Paiake were two other ancestors 
of Hawaiki who sent the Kawe kawea, another cuckoo, and 
the Riro riro, as the harbingers of summer ; when they 
arrive, planting begins in earnest, there is then no further 
* Rangi po is the name of a road through the interior, all the native roads 
have names. 
