How Te Kahureremoa Found Her Husband

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

About the time that Paka’s Daughter, Te Kahureremoa, became marriageable. A large party of visitors arrived at Whare-kawa, the village of Paka.

They came from Aotea, or, the Great Barrier Island, at their head, was the principal chief of Aotea, and he brought in his canoes a present of 260 baskets of mackerel for Te Papa.

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They became such good friends that they thought they would like to be connected.

So it was arranged that Te Paka’s daughter, Te Kahureremoa, should be given as a wife to the son of that chief.

Part of Te Paka’s plan was to get possession of Aotea for his family, for he thought when his daughter had children, and they were grown up, that it was possible they would secure the island for their grandfather, or for their mothers family.

When the party of visitors was about to return to Aotea, having formed this connection with Te Paka’s tribe through the girl, her father gave her up to them to take her to Aotea, to her husband.

He told his daughter to get into the canoe and accompany then to Aotea, but he told her no purpose, for she did not obey him, in short, Te Kahureremoa refused to go.

So the old chief, to whom the canoes belonged to, said, “Never mind, never mind, leave her alone, we shall not be away long, we shall soon return, we shall not be long before we are back”.

They left Te Kahureremoa with her father and paddled off in their canoes.

In one month’s time, they came back again, and brought with them a present of 30 baskets of mackerel, as soon as they arrived they distributed these amongst their friends.

Down ran Te Kahureremoa from the village to the landing place, to take a basket of mackerel for herself.

As soon as Paka saw this, he gave his daughter a sound scolding for going and taking the fish, this is what Paka said,

“Put that down, you shall not have it, I wanted you to go and become the wife of the young chief of the place where these good fish abound, and you refused to go, therefore, you shall not have any now”.

This was quite enough for poor little Te Kahureremoa felt entirely overcome with shame, she left the basket of fish, dropping it just where she was, and ran back into the house, and began to sob and cry.

Then, her thoughts suggested to her, that after this, it would be better that she should be no more seen by the eyes of her father, and her fathers face should no more be seen by her.

Her heart kept on urging her to run away to Takakopiri, and take him for her lord, she had seen him and liked him well.

He was a great chief, and had an abundance of food of the best kind on his estates, plenty of potted birds of all sorts, and kiwis,

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and kiores, [Pacific Rats]

and wekas,

and eels

and mackerel,

and crayfish,

and was rich in every sort of property.

As she thought of all this, the chiefs young daughter continued weeping and sobbing in the house, quite overcome with shame, and when evening came, she was still weeping.

But at night, she said to herself, “Now I’ll be off, whilst all the men are fast asleep”.

So she got up and ran away, accompanied by her female slave.

The next morning, when the sun rose, they found she had gone, and she had fled so far that those who were sent to look for her came to the footprints of herself and her slave.

But the edges had sunk down, so the pursuers could not tell how long ago it was since she had passed.

Waipuna was the village from which Te Kahureremoa started, and they had left Pukorokoro [near Miranda] behind them.

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By the time it was full daybreak they had reached Waitakaruru, and as the full rays of the sun shone on the earth, they were passing above Pouarua.

Then for a little time, they travelled very fast and reached Riwaki, at the mouth of the river Piako.

This they crossed and pushed on for Opani, and thence those in pursuit of them returned, they could follow them no farther, the tide was also flowing, which stopped the pursuit.

Just then, some of the canoes of the up-river country were returning from Ruawehea, and when the people in the canoes saw her, they shouted with loud cries of “Ho, ho, here is Te Kahureremoa, here is the daughter of Paka”.

She stepped into one of the canoes with them, and the people kept crying out the whole way from the mouth of the river, up its course, as they ascended it, “Here is Te Kuhareremoa”.

They paddled very fast, feeling alarmed at having so great a chieftainess on board, and, so confused were they at her presence, that throughout the whole day the kept bending their heads down to their paddles, as the pulled.

They stopped at Raupa, where the Awa-iti branches off to Tauranga, and there they spent one night.

The next day they went over the range towards Katikati, the people of Raupa urged her to stop there for a little, she, however, would not.

Driven by the fond thoughts of her heart, she pressed onwards, and reached the summit of the ridge of Hikurangi, and looked down upon Katikati, and saw also Tauranga.

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Then the young girl turned and looked around at the mountain at Otawa, and although she knew what it was, she liked hearing his name, and of his greatness.

She spoke to the people of the country, who, out of great respect were accompanying her, and asking, said, “What is the name of that yonder mountain?”

The people answered her, “That is Otawa”.

The girl asked again, “Is the country of that mountain rich in food?”

The people replied, “Oh, there are found Kiores, and Kiwis, and Wekas, and Pigeons, and Tuis, why, that mountain is famed for the variety of birds that inhabit it”.

Then the young girl took courage, and asked once more, “Whom does all that fruitful country belong to?”

They told her, “The Waitahais the name of the tribe that inhabit that country, and Takakopiri is the chief of it”.

“He is the owner of that mountain, and he is the great chief of the Waitaha, and when the people of that tribe collect food from the mountains, they bear everything to him, the food of all those districts belongs to that great lord alone”

When the young girl heard all this, she said to the people, “I and my slave are going there, to Otawa”.

The people said to her, “No, is that really the case?”

She said, “Yes, we are going there, Paka sent us there, that we should ask Takakopiri to pay him a visit as Whare-kawa”.

She said this to deceive the people, and prevent them from stopping her, and immediately started again upon her journey, and came down to the seashore at Katikati.

The Waitaha, the tribe of Takakopiri, inhabited that village, and as soon as they saw the young girl coming, there arose joyful cries of “Here is Kahureremoa, here is the daughter of Paka”.

The people gathered in crowds to gaze at the young chieftainess as she rested at the village.

The people immediately began to gather and prepare food, and when it was cooked, they brought it to her, and she partook of it.

When she was done, it was night time, they then brought plenty of firewood, so the house might be quite light, and they all stood up to dance that she might pass a cheerful evening.

After they had all danced, they continued soliciting Te Kahureremoa to stand up and dance also, whilst they sat looking on to see how gracefully and beautifully she moved.

Upon which she coyly said, “Ah, yes, that's all very well. Do you want me to dance indeed?”

At last, however, the young girl sprang up, and she had hardly stretched forth her lovely arms in the attitude on the dance before the people all cried out with surprise and pleasure at her beauty and grace.

Her arms moved with an easy and rapid action like that of swimming, her nimble fingers were reverted till their tips seemed to touch the backs of the palms of her hands, and all her movements were so light that she appeared to be floating in the air.

Then it might be seen the difference between the dancing of a nobly born girl and a slave, the latter being too often a mere throwing about of the body and arms.

Thus she danced before them, and when she had finished, all the young men in the place were quite charmed with her and could think of nothing else but Te Kahureremoa.

When night came on, and the people had dispersed to their houses, the chief of the village came to make love to her and said that on account of her great beauty, he wished her to become his wife.

But she at once started up with her female slave, and notwithstanding the darkness, they plunged straight into the river, forded it, and proceeded upon their journey.

The first of the below posts has a list of the previous posts of Maori Myths and Legends

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

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-hatupatu-and-his-brothers

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/hatupatu-and-his-brothers-part-2

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-the-emigration-of-turi-an-ancestor-of-wanganui

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-continuing-legend-of-turi

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/turi-seeks-patea

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-manaia-and-why-he-emigrated-to-new-zealand

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-love-story-of-hine-moa-the-maiden-of-rotorua