68 
WHARE-KURA. 
At first this temple was a grand place of union for all tin- 
tribes, but afterwards it became the source of discoid. Tin- 
tribes assembled in it quarrelled. Kauika broke the staff of 
Mai-i-rangi, and this became the signal of anarchy and con¬ 
fusion ; sorcery and witchcraft were then practised against 
each other, and at last they fought. Waka-taupotiki set the 
building on fire, and a multitude perished in the flames. 
From that period (it is said) there has been no union amongst 
them—one tribe has ever since been opposed to another. 
Such are the disjointed parts of traditions relative to this 
remarkable temple. They are interesting, and excite oui 
conjectures as to their origin, since they must have been 
founded on something which once existed; and they are the 
more singular from referring to a building erected for worship, 
when they have never since had anything at all corresponding 
to it amongst them. The Christian natives compaie it to 
Babel; and say it caused their dispersion, and the confusion of 
tongues, as well as the subsequent state of enmity they ha\ e 
lived in with each other ; that at first it resembled Solomon’s 
temple, where all the tribes met together. It does indeed 
seem to remind us of the separation of the ten from the 
other two, in the reign of Rehoboam, who, like Kauika, biokc 
the staff of peace and unity, by his folly: and, supposing this 
people to be descended from any of those tribes, this is just 
such a tradition as they might hand down from so distant a 
period ; without letters, we could not expect them to preserve 
a fuller account. When Israel forsook the temple, which no 
longer continued to be a bond of union, then it worshipped 
in high places and groves. “ Had these staffs any reference 
to the tree of life, and the tree of good and evil ? or to the 
staff’ of beauty and bands?”—see Zech. xi., 7 10; Jer. 
xlviii., 17. 
Na poutiti e, 
Na poutaha e, 
Na pou Korero, 
Na Kapu taringa 
E tiki ki roto a Whare Kura-e, &c. 
