The Legend Of Hatupatu And His Brothers
When Tama-te-kapua went, with his followers, to Moehau, the hill near Cape Colville,
and Ihenga and his followers went to Roto-rua,
then Ha-nui, Ha-roa, and Hatupatu went also to Whakamaru, to Maroa, to Tuata, to Tutuka, to Tuaropaki, to Hauhungaroa, and to Horohoro,
The districts which lie between Lakes Taupo and Roto-rua, and between Roto-rua and the headwaters of the Waikato River.
They went to snare birds for themselves and followed their sport for many days until they had hunted for several months.
Their little brother, Hatupatu, was all this time thinking to himself, that they never gave him any of the rare dainties or nice things that they got so that they might all feast together.
But, at each meal he received, he got nothing but lean tough birds, so when the poor little fellow went and sat down by the fire to his food, he, every day, used to keep on crying and eating, crying and eating, during his meals.
At last, saucy, mischievous thoughts rose up in his young heart.
So, one day, whilst his brothers were out snaring birds, and he, as on every other day, was left at their resting place to take care of things.
The little rouge crept into the storehouse, where the birds, preserved in their own fat, were kept in calabashes, and he stole some and set resolutely to work to eat them, with some tender fern root, nicely beaten and dressed, for a relish.
To look at him you could not help but think of the proverb
”Bravo, that throat of yours can swallow anything”.
He finished all the calabashes of preserved birds, and then, he attacked those that were kept in casks. and when he had quite filled himself, he crept out of the storehouse again.
Then he went trampling over the pathway that led to their resting place, running about this side, and that side, and all around it, that his brothers might be induced to think a war party had come, and eaten up the food in their absence.
Then he came back, and ran a spear into himself in two or three places, where he could do himself no harm, and gave himself a good bruise or two upon his head, and laid down on the ground near their hut.
When his brothers came back they found him lying there, in appearance very badly wounded, next they ran to the storehouse and found their preserved birds all gone.
So they asked him who had done all this, and he replied, “A war party”.
They then went to the pathways and saw the footmarks, and said, “It is true”.
They melted some fat and poured warm oil on his wounds, and he revived, and they all ate as they used to do in former days, the brothers enjoying all the good things, while Hatupatu kept eating and crying.
He went and sat on the smoky side of the fire, so that his cruel brothers might laugh at him, saying, “Oh, never mind him, those are not real tears, they are only his eyes watering from the smoke”.
Next day Hatupatu stopped at home and off went his brothers to snare birds, and he began to steal the preserved birds again.
This he did every day, and of course, at last, his brothers suspected him, one day they laid in wait for him.
Hatupatu, not foreseeing this, again crouched in the storehouse and began eating.
“Ha, Ha, we’ve caught you now, your thievish tricks are found out, aren’t they, you little rogue”.
His brothers then killed him at once and buried him in the large heap of feathers they had pulled out from the snared birds.
After this, they went back to Roto-rua, and when they arrived, their parents asked them, “Where is Hatupatu?” “What has become of your little brother?”
They answered, “We don’t know, we have not seen him”.
Their parents said, “You’ve killed him”.
They replied, “We have not”.
They disputed and disputed together, at last, their parents said, “It is too true that you must have killed him, for he went away with you, and he is missing now when you return to us”.
At length Hatupatu’s father and mother thought they would send a spirit to search for him, so they sent one, and the spirit went.
Its form was that of a flag, and its name was Tamumum-ki-te-rangi or He That Buzzes-in-the-Skies.
The spirit departed and arrived at the place where Hatupatu was buried, and found him and performed enchantments, and Hatupatu came to life again.
He then went on his way and he met a woman who was spearing birds for herself, and her spear was nothing but her own lips, and Hatupatu had a real wooden spear.
The woman speared a bird with her lips, but Hatupatu had at the same moment thrown his spear at the same bird, and it stuck into her lips.
When he saw this he ran off with all his speed, but he was soon caught by the woman, not being able to go as fast as she could, for her feet bore her along, and wings were upon her arms, like those of a bird, and she brought him to her house, and they slept there.
Hatupatu found that this woman never ate anything but raw food, and she gave the birds to Hatupatu to eat without their being in any way dressed, but he only pretended to eat them, lifting them up to his mouth, and letting them fall.
At dawn, the woman prepared to go and spear birds, but Hatupatu always remained at home, and, when she had departed, he began to cook food for himself.
He also looked at all the things in the cave of rocks that the woman lived in, at her two-handed sword, at her beautiful cloak made of red feathers torn from under the wing of the Kaka,
at her ornamented cloak woven from flax, and he kept thinking how he could run off with them all.
Then he looked at the various tame lizards she had, and at her tame birds, and all her many curiosities, and thus he went on, day after day, until one day, he said to her,
“You had better go a long distance today, to the first mountain range, to the second mountain range, the tenth range, the hundredth ranges, and when you get there, then begin to catch birds for the two of us”.
To this she consented and went.
He remained behind, roasting birds for himself, and thinking, I wonder how far she has got now’.
When he thought that she had reached the place he had spoken of, then he began to gather up her cloak of red feathers, and her cloak of dog skins, and her cloak of ornamented flax, and her two-handed sword.
Then the young fellow said, “How well I shall look when all these feathers on these cloaks are rustled by the wind”.
He brandished the two-handed sword and made cuts at the lizards, and at all the other tame animals, and soon they were all killed,
Then he struck at the perch on which the little pet birds sat, and he killed them all but one, which escaped.
The little bird flew away to fetch back the woman they all belonged to.
Her name was Kurangaituku, and as the little bird flew along it kept singing out,
“Oh Kurangatiuku, our home is ruined, our things all destroyed”.
So it kept singing until it had flown a very long way.
At last Kurangaituku heard it, and said, “By whom is all this done?”
The little bird answered, “By Hatupatu, everything is gone”.
Then Kurangiituku made haste to get home, and as she went along, she kept calling out,
“Step out, stretch along, step out, stretch along”
“There you are O Hatupatu, not far from me”.
“Step out, stretch along, step out, stretch along”.
She only made three strides before she had reached her cave, and when she looked about, she could see nothing in it.
The little bird still guided her on, as she kept saying,
“Step out, stretch along, I’ll catch you, there now, Hatupatu, I’ll catch you there now”
She almost caught Hatupatu, and he thought that he was done for, so he chanted his charm,
“O rock, open for me, open”.
Then the rock opened, and he hid in it.
[This rock is still situated at the side of Highway one, near Atiamuri]
The woman looked and could not find him, and she went on to a distance, and she kept calling out,
“I’ll catch you there now, Hatupatu, I’ll catch you there now”.
When her voice had died away at a great distance Hatupatu came out of his rock and made off.
Thus they continued until they came to Roto-rua, and when they arrived at the sulphur springs, [called Te Whaka-rewa-rewa], Hautapu jumped over these.
Kurangaituku, thinking that they were cold, tried to wade through, but sank through the crust, and was burnt to death.
Hatupatu proceeded on and sat on the shore of the lake, and when evening came, he dived into the water, and rose up again at the island of Mokoia, and sat in the warm bath there.
Just at this time, his father and mother wanted some water to drink and sent their slave to fetch some for them.
The slave came to the place where he found Hatupatu lying in the warm bath,
Hatupatu laid hold of him, and asked him, “Who are you fetching that water for, at this time of night?”
The slave answered, “For so and so”.
Then Hatupatu asked him, “Where is the house of Ha-nui and Ha-roa?”
The slave replied, “They live in a house by themselves, but what can your name be?”
Hatupatu told him his name, and the old slave said, “O Hatupatu, are you still alive?”
He replied, “Yes, indeed”
Then the old slave said to him, “Oh, I’ll tell you, I and your father and your mother live together in a house by ourselves, and they sent me down here to fetch water for them”.
Hatupatu said, “Let us go to them together”, and they went, and on coming to them, the old people began to weep with a loud voice, and Hatupatu said,
“Nay, nay, let us cry with a gentle voice, lest my brethren who slew me should hear, and, I, moreover, will not sleep here with you, my parents, it is better for me to go and remain in the cave you have dug to keep your sweet potatoes in, that I may overhear each day what they say, and I’ll take all my meals there”.
So he went, and he said, “Let my father sleep with me in the cave at night, and in the daytime, let him stay in the house”
His father consented, and thus they did every day, and every night and his brothers noticed that there was a change in their food.
They did not get as much or such good food as whilst their brother had been away, [for their mother kept the best of everything for him], they had worse food now, so they beat their mother and their slaves, and this they did continually.
At last, they heard the people all calling out, “Oh, oh, Hatupatu is here”.
One of them said, “Oh, no, that cant be, why, Hatupatu is dead”.
When they saw it was really he, one of them caught hold of his two-handed wooden sword, and so did the others, and Hatupatu also caught hold of his two-handed wooden sword.
He had decorated his head in the night and had stuck it full of beautiful feathers befitting a chief, and he placed a bunch of the soft white down from the breast of the albatross in each ear.
When his brothers and the multitude of their followers dared him to come forth from the storehouse and fight them, he caught hold of his girdle and of his apron of red feathers.
Girding on his apron he repeated an incantation suited for the occasion.
When this was finished, his head appeared rising up, out of the storehouse, and he repeated another incantation, and afterwards a third over his sword.
Hatupatu now came out of the storehouse, and as his brothers gazed at him, they saw his looks were most noble, glared forth on them, the eyes of the young man, and glittered forth the mother of pearl eyes of the carved face on the handle of his sword.
When the many thousands of their tribe who had gathered around saw the youth, they too were quite astonished at his nobleness, they had no strength left, they could do nothing but admire him.
For, he was only a little boy when they had seen him before, and now, when they meet him again, he was like a noble chief, and they now looked upon his brothers with a very different eye from which they looked at him.
His three brothers sprang at him, their wooded swords were at the same time leveled at Hatupatu to slay him.
He held the blade of his sword towards the ground, till the swords of his brothers almost touched him, then, he rapidly warded off their blows, and whirling round his wooden sword, two of the three were felled by the blade of it, and the third by a blow from the handle.
Then they sprang up, and rushed him once more, over they went again, two felled by the blade of the sword, and one by the handle.
It was enough, they gave in.
Their father then said to them, “Oh my sons, I would that you were as strong in peace as you are in attacking one another, in seeking revenge for your ancestral canoe, Te Arawa, which was consumed in a fire by the chief Raumati”.
“Long have you been seeking to revenge yourselves upon him, but you have not succeeded, you have gained no advantage, perhaps you are only strong and bold when you attack your younger brother, my last born son”.
The first of the below posts has a list of the previous Maori posts.
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-war-was-declared-between-tainui-and-arawa
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-curse-of-manaia-part-1
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-curse-of-manaia-part-2
with thanks to son-of-satire for the banner
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