50 
MYTHOLOGY. 
sand appears at the base of a cliff, causing land slips, there is 
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 Ilii, the chief of the Taupo Taniwha, 
arose out of the lake, and carried him away, he took him under¬ 
ground, and came out in Taupo lake, where he was kept 
by the Taniwha for several days. They offered him some of 
their food, which he refused to partake of, well knowing 
that if he had touched any portion of it, he could not have 
returned; at last, they held a council, whether they should 
kill him or let him go back to his home; the latter opinion 
prevailed, and they carried him to the very spot from whence he 
had been taken, where he was found asleep by his friends, who 
were amazed to find that he had become perfectly bald—there 
was not a hair left on any part of his body. This man only 
died lately, and one of his wives is still living.-j' He described 
the Taniwha as being like great Ngarara or lizards. This Ihi, 
the grand head of the Taupo Taniwha, is stated traditionally to 
have been a man who one day when paddling with another 
in a canoe, on the Taupo lake, suddenly leaped into the 
water, and diving down disappeared; they thought he was 
drowned ; but some time afterwards, he made his appearance 
at Rotorua. The token of his coming is a boiling up of the 
water, producing greatwaves. His mother, Te-Ara-tuku-tuku, 
was the great progenitor of all the Taniwhas. At her death, 
four pas were swallowed up at 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 be lost, which was 
the case ; 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. 
* The land slip which overwhelmed Te Heuheu and near sixty of his 
tribe, was supposed to have been thus caused. 
■)• A chief stated to me that he received a similar account from the lips of 
Tamamutu himself. 
