Continuing Maru-tuahu's Story

len.george (63)in #history • 6 years ago

We left Maru-tuahu having just completed his “thank you “ speech for his fathers welcome in the village at Hauraki.

After his speech, a feast was laid out and they all fell to eating, for they had killed ten dogs for the feast, and the chiefs all ate, and the two young girls ate, but, although no one knew it, the two sisters were all the time quarrelling with each other, as to which of them should have Maru for a husband.

The heart of one of them whispered to her, “He shall be mine”, but the heart of the other young girl said the same thing to her.

The feast being ended, they left the common part of the pa, where food was eaten, and moved on one side, to the sacred precincts.

When the evening came on, a fire was kindled in the house, and the eldest girl, not seeing her younger sister, went to her father to ask for him.

She was told that her sister had been given to Maru as a wife.

It this she was exceedingly vexed, and provoked with her sister, for although she was plain, she thought to herself, “ I am very pretty, and I am sure, there is not the slightest reason why Maru should be frightened of me”.

She went off to quarrel with her younger sister, but Maru did not like her upon account of her plainness, and her pretty sister kept Maru as a husband.

Te Paka, the son of Hotunui, the nephew of Te Whatu, and the younger brother of Maru had grown up to be a young man, so they gave him the elder daughter of Te Whatu to be his wife.

Thus the elder sister was married, as well as the younger one, who was given to Maru for his wife.

Te Paka’s wife bore him a daughter, whom they named Te Kahureremoa.

The younger daughter of Te Whatu, whom Maru married, bore him three children, Tama-te-po, Tama-te-ra and Whanaunga.

From Tama-te-po sprang the Ngati-Rongou tribe, from Tama-te-ra sprang the tribe of Ngati-Tama-te-ra, and from Whanaunga sprang the Ngati-Whanaunga tribe.

While Maru was living at Hauraki, his father Hotunui told him how badly some of the people of that place had treated him.

Image Source

These were the facts of the case, as the old chief related them to him.

One day, when the canoes of the tribe came in full of fish, after hauling their nets, he sent down one of his servants from his house to the canoe to bring back some fish for him.

Image Source

When the servant ran down for this purpose, the man who owned the nets, said to him, “Well, what brings you here?”

Upon which, the servant answered, “Hotunui sent me down, to bring up some fish for him, he quite longs to taste them”.

Image Source

Upon which, the owner of the nets cursed Hotunui in the most violent and offensive manner, saying, “Is his head the flax that grows in the swamp at Otoi?, or is his topknot flax, that the old fellow cannot go there to get some flax to make a net for himself with, instead of troubling me?”

When Hotunui’s servant heard this, he returned, at once, to the house, and his master, not seeing the fish, said, “Well, tell me what is the matter”.

So the servant replied, “I went as you told me, and I asked the man who had been hauling the net, for some fish, and he only looked up at me”.

“Again I asked him for some fish, and then he said ‘Who sent you here to fetch fish, pray?’,

Then I told him, “Hotunui sent me down to bring up some fish for him, he quite longs to taste them”.

Then the man cursed you, saying to me ’Is Hotunui’s head the flax that grows in the swamp at Otoi? or is his topknot flax, that the old fellow cannot go there, get some flax to make a net with for himself”.

When Hotunui had told this story to Maru, he said, “Now, my son, this tribe is a very bad one, they seem bent on lowering the authority of their chiefs”.

The heart of Maru felt gloomy when he heard his father had been treated thus, and Hotunui said to him, “You may well look sad, my son, at hearing what I have just said, this tribe is composed of very bad people”.

Maru replied, “Leave them alone, they shall find out what such conduct leads to”.

Then Maru began to catch and dry great quantities of fish for a feast.

He worked away, with his men, at making fishing nets, until he had collected a very great number.

It was in the winter that he began to make these nets, and the winter, spring, summer, and part of the autumn passed before they were finished.

Then he sent a messenger to the tribe that had cursed his father, to ask them to come to a feast, and to help him stretch these nets.

When the messenger came back, Maru asked him when they would arrive.

The messenger said that they would arrive tomorrow.

Then Maru gave orders, saying, “Tomorrow let the feast be ranged in rows, so that when they arrive here they may find it all ready for them”.

Upon this, they all retired to rest, and when the dawn appeared, they arranged the food to be given to the strangers, in rows.

The outside of the rows was composed of fish piled up, but under these was placed nothing but rotten wood and filth, although the exterior made a goodly show.

He intended this feast to be a feast at which those who came as guests should be slaughtered, in revenge for the curse against Hotunui, which had exceedingly pained his heart.

Soon after daybreak the next morning, the guests arrived and saw the great piles of provisions which were laid out for them.

They were exceedingly rejoiced, and longed for the time of their distribution, and when they might touch this food, little thinking how dearly they were to pay for it.

The guests had all arrived, and taken their seats upon the grass, when Maru and his people came together, they were only 140.

As they were to stretch the great net, made up of all the small ones, the next morning, on the evening before, they put all the nets and ropes into the water to soak them.

This was done in order to soften the flax of which they were made, so that they might be more easily stretched, and when the morning dawned, those who had come for the purpose began to draw out the net.

They stretched the rope and the bottom of the net along the ground, and pegging it down tightly, from corner to corner, and thus, while Maru’s people were preparing food for them to eat, the others worked away at stretching the net taut and making it fast to the ground to hold it.

It was not long before they had finished this and had put on the weights to sink it.

Maru sent a man to see whether they had finished stretching the net, and when the man came back he asked, “Have they finished stretching the net?”

The man said, “Yes, they have finished”.

Them Maru said “Let us go and lift the upper end of the net from the ground, they have finished the lower end of it”

Then the 140 men went with him, each carrying a weapon, carefully hidden under his garments, lest their guests should see them.

Image Source

When they reached the place where the net was, they found their guests, nearly a thousand in number, had finished stretching the lower part of the net.

Then the priest of Maru, who was to consecrate the net said, “Let the upper end of the net be raised, so that the net may be stretched straight out”.

Maru said, “Yes, let it be done at once, it is getting late in the day”.

Then the 140 men began to lift up the net, with their left hand they grasped the ropes to raise it, but with the right hand each grasped his weapon, and Maru shouted out,

“Lift away, lift away. Lift it well up”. and they raised it high in the air, they walked on with it, holding it up as if they were spreading it out, until they got well over the strangers, who were either pegging the lower end down, or, were seated on the ground, looking on.

Then Maru shouted out, “Let it fall”, and they let it fall, and caught in it their guests, nearly a thousand in number, they caught every one of them in the net so they could not move to make any effectual resistance.

While some of the 140 men of Maru held the net down, the rest slew with their weapons the whole thousand, not one escaped, whilst they lost not one single man themselves.

Hence “the feast of the rotten wood” is a proverb amongst the descendants of Maru-tuahu to this day.

This feast of rotten wood was given at a place named Pukeahau, but was afterwards called Karihitangata [or men were the weights which were attached to the net to sink it] upon account of the thousand people who were slain by treachery in the net of Maru-tuahu, for the men were the weights that were attached to the net to sink it.

After the death of all these people, the country they inhabited became the property of Manu-tuahu, and his heirs dwelt there to the present day.

Info From

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-spread-of-the-descendants-of-hoturoa

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/tainui-canoe-travels-from-hawaiki-to-new-zealand

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/myths-and-legends-of-new-zealand-intro

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-this-series-began

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-warrior-deeds-of-kaihuma

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-kaihamu-killed-his-enemies-at-waiatapu

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/tupahau-goes-fishing-at-marokopa

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/maki-s-battles-in-tamaki

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/karewa-s-fights-with-the-ngapuhi

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-continuing-battles-of-the-tainui-people