The Curse Of Manaia Part 1
When the Tainui and the Arawa sailed away from Hawaiki with Ngatoro-I-rangi on board, he left behind him his younger sister, Kuiwai, who was married to a powerful chief maned Manaia.
Sometime after the canoes had left, a great meeting of all the people of his tribe was held by Manaia, to remove a ‘Tapu’ and when the religious part of the ceremony was ended, the women cooked food for the strangers.
When the ovens were opened, the food in the oven of Kuiwai, the wife of Manaia, and sister of Ngatoro-i-rangi was found to be much underdone.
Manaia was very angry with his wife, and gave her a severe beating, and cursed her, saying,
“Accursed be your head, are the logs of firewood as sacred as the bones of your brother, that you are so sparing of then as not to put into the fire in which the stones are heated, enough to make them red hot?.
“Will you dare to do the like again?”
“If you do I’ll serve the flesh of your brother in the same way, it shall frizzle on the red hot stones of Waikorora”.
His poor wife was quite overcome with shame, and burst out crying, and went on sobbing and weeping all the time she was taking the under-done food out of the oven.
When she had put it in baskets, and served them up to her husband, and laid them before him, she ate nothing herself, but went on one side and cried bitterly, and then retired and hid herself in the house.
Just before night closed in on them, she cast her garments to one side, and girded herself with a new sash made from the young shoots of the toetoe, and stood on the threshold, and spread out her gods.
Kahukura, Itupawa, and Rongomai, and she and her daughter, and her sister Haungaroa stood before them, and the appearance of the gods was most propitious.
When she had finished her incantations, she said to her daughter, “My child, your journey will be a most fortunate one”.
The gods were then by her bound up in cloths, and she hung them up again and returned into the house.
She then said to her daughter, “Now depart, and when you reach your Uncle Ngatoro and your other relations, tell them that they have been cursed by Manaia because the food in my oven was not cooked upon the occasion of a great assembly for taking off a ‘Tapu’,
He then said ‘Are the logs in the forest as sacred as the bones of your brother, that you are afraid to use them in cooking, or, are the stones of the desert the kidneys of Ngatoro-i-rangi, that you don’t heat them, by and by I’ll frizzle the flesh of your brother on red hot stones taken from Waikorota’”.
“Now, my child, depart to your Uncle and relations, be quick, this is the season of the wind of Pungawere, which will soon waft them here”.
The women then took, by stealth, the gods of the people, that is to say, Maru,
and Te Iho-o-te-rangi, and Rongomai, and Itupawa, and Haungaroa,
and they had no canoe to cross the sea, but these gods served them as a canoe to cross the sea.
For the first canoes which had left Hawaiki for New Zealand carried no gods for human beings with them. They only carried the gods of the sweet potatoes and of fish, they left behind them the gods of the mortals.
They brought away with them prayers, incantations, and knowledge of enchantments, for these things were kept secret in their minds, being learnt by heart, one from another.
Then the girl and her companions took with them Kahakura, and Itupawa, and Rongomai, and Marti, and the other gods, and started on their journey.
Altogether there were five women, and they journeyed and journeyed towards New Zealand, and, borne up by the gods, they traversed the vast ocean until, at last, they landed on the burning island of Whakaari. [White Island]
When daylight appeared, they floated again on the waters, and finally landed on the northern island of New Zealand, at Tawhiuwhiu, and went by an inland route, and stopped to eat food at a place where they had a good view over the plains.
After the rest of the party had finished eating, Haungaroa still went on, and two of her companions teased her, saying, “Hallow, Haungaroa, what a long time you continue eating”.
And these plains have ever since been called Kaingaroa, or Kaingaroa-o-Haungaroa [the long meal of Haungaroa].
Haungaroa, who was much provoked with the two women who teased her, smote them on the face, whereupon they fled from her.
Haungaroa pursued them a long way, but she pursued in vain, they would not come back to her, so she changed them into ti trees, which stand on the plains whilst travellers approach them, but move from place o lace when they attempt to get close [the natives believe that the trees are there at the present day -mid 1800’s-]
Then the other three women continued their journey, and at length they reached the summit of a hill, and sat down there to rest themselves.
While they were resting Haungaroa thought of her mother, and love for her overcame her, and she wept aloud, and that place has ever since been called Te Tangihanga, or the place of weeping.
After they had rested for some time, they continued their journey, until they reached the open summit of another high hill, which they named Piopio,
From thence they saw the beautiful lake of Roto-rua lying at their feet, and they descended towards it.
They came down upon a geyser, which spouts up its jets of boiling water at the foot of the mountain, and they reached the lake itself.
They wound around it along its sandy shores, then, leaving the Lake behind them, they struck off towards Maketu, and at last reached that place also, coming out of the forest upon the sea coast, close to the village of Tuhoro.
When they say the people there they called out to them, “Whereabouts is the residence of Ngatoro-i-rangi?”
The people answered them, “He lives near the large elevated storehouse which you see erected on the hill there”.
The Niece of Ngatoro saw the fence which surrounded his place, and she walked straight on towards the wicket of the fortification.
She would not, however, pass in through it like a common person, but climbed the posts and clambered into the fortress over its wooden defences.
Having got inside, she went straight on to the house of Ngatoro, entered it, and going straight up to the spot which was sacred, from his sitting on it, she seated herself down there.
When Ngatoro’s people saw this, one of them ran off with all speed to tell his master, who was at work with some of his servants, on his farm.
Having found him the messenger said, “There is a stranger just arrived at your residence, who carries a travelling bag as if she had come from a long journey”.
“She would not come in at the gate of the fortress, but climbed right over the wooden defences, and has quietly laid her travelling bag upon the very roof of your sacred house, and has walked up and has seated herself in the very seat that your sacred person generally occupies”.
When the servant had finished his story, Ngatoro at once guessed who this stranger from a distance must be, and he said, “It is my Niece”,
Then he asked them, ”Where is Te Kehu?”
They told him, “He is at work in his plantation of sweet potato”.
Ngatoro bid them to fetch him at once, and be quick about it. And when he had arrived they all went together to the place where his Niece was, and when he reached her, he at once led her to the altar, and she gave him the gods which she had brought with her from Hawaiki.
Then she said to them, “Come now, and let us be cleansed by diving in running water, and let the ceremony of Whangai-horo be performed over us, for you have been cursed by Mahahua and his tribe”.
When they heard this they cried out aloud, and tore off their clothes, and ran to a running stream and plunged into it, and dashed water over themselves.
The priests chanted the proper incantations and performed all the prescribed ceremonies, and when they were finished they left the stream and went towards the village again.
The priests chanted the incantations for cleansing the courtyard of the fortress from the defilement of the curse of Manaia. [but the incantations for this purpose have not been handed down to the present generation] [mid-1800’s.]
The priests next dug a long pit, termed the pit of wrath, into which by their enchantments they might bring the spirits of their enemies, and hang them and destroy them there.
When they had dug the pit, muttering the necessary enchantments, they took large shells in their hands to scrape the spirits of their enemies into the pit with, whilst they muttered enchantments.
When they had done this, they scraped the earth into the pit again to cover them up, and neat down the earth with their hands.
They crossed the pit with enchanted cloths, and wove baskets of flax leaves, to hold the spirits of their foes which they had thus destroyed. And each of these acts they accompanied with proper spells.
The religious ceremonies being all ended, they say down and Ngatoro wept over his Niece, and then they spread food before the travellers, and when they were finished their meal they all collected in the house of Ngatoro, and the old man began o question the strangers, saying, “What brought you here?”
Then Kuiwai’s daughter said, “A curse which Manaia uttered against you, for when they had finished making a sacred place for him, and the females were cooking food for the strangers who attended the ceremony, the food in Kuiwai’s oven was not well cooked, and Manaia cursed her and you, saying
“Is firewood as sacred as the bones of your brethren, that you fear to burn it in an oven?, I’ll yet make the flesh of your brothers hiss upon red hot stones brought from Waikorora, and heated to warm the oven in which they shall be cooked”.
“That curse is the curse that brought me here, for my mother told me to hasten to you”.
When Ngatoro heard this, he was very wroth, and in turn cursed Manaia, saying,
“Thus it shall be done unto you, your flesh shall be cooked with stones brought from Maketu”.
He told his people to search early next morning for a large Totara tree, from which they might build a canoe, as they had no canoe since Raumati had burnt the Arawa.
Then the people all arose very early the next morning, and with them were a chosen band of 140 warriors, and they went out to search for a large Totara tree, and Kuiwai’s daughter went with them.
She found a great Totara tree fallen down, and nearly buried in the earth, so they dug it out, and they formed a large canoe from it.
They named the canoe “The Totara tree, dug from the earth”, and they hauled it down to the shore, launched it, embarked, and paddled out to sea,
The favourable wind of Pungawere was blowing strong, and it blew so for seven days and nights, and wafted them across the ocean, and at the end of that time they had again reached the shores of Hawaiki.
The name of the place at which they landed was Tara-i-whenua, they landed at night time, and drew their canoe up above high water mark, and laid it in the thickets, that none might see that strangers had arrived.
Ngatoro then went at once to a fortified village named Whaitiri-ka-papa, and when he arrived there he walked carelessly up to the house of Kuiwai, and peeping in at the door, said that she was wanted outside for a minute.
Kuiwai, knowing his voice, came out to him immediately. And Ngatoro questioned her, saying, “Have you anything to say to me, that I ought to know”.
She replied, “The whole tribe of Manaia are continually occupied in praying to their gods, at the sacred place, they pray to them to bring you and your tribe here, dead,”.
“Perhaps their incantations may now have brought you here”.
Then Ngatoro asked her, “In what part of the heavens is the sun when they go to the sacred place?”
She answered, “They go there in the morning”.
Then Ngatoro asked her again, “Where are they all in the evening?”
She replied, “In the evening they collect in numbers in their villages for the night, in the morning they disperse about”.
Then, just as he was leaving Ngatoro said to her, “At the dawn, at morning, climb up on the roof of your house that you may have a good view, and watch what takes place”.
Having thus spoken, he returned to the main body of his party.
Them Ngatoro related to them all his sister had told him, and when they had heard this, Tangaroa one of his chiefs, said, “My counsel is, that we storm their fortress this night”.
Then stood up Rangitu, another chief, and said, “Nay, but rather let us attack it in the morning”.
Now up rose Ngatoro, and he spake aloud to them and said, “I agree with neither of you, we must go to the sacred place, and strike our noses until they bleed and we are covered in blood, and then we must lie on the ground like dead bodies.”
”Every man with his weapon hid under him, and their priests will imagine that their enchantments have brought us here and slains us”.
“So we shall surprise them”
On hearing these words from their leader they all arose, and followed him in a body to the courtyard of the sacred place,
They found that the foolish priests had felt so sure of their enchantments to bring Ngatoro and his tribe there, and to slay them for them.
They had even prepared ovens to cook their bodies in, and these were lying open and ready for the victims, and by the sides of the ovens they had laid in mounds of the green leaves, all prepared to place on the victims before the earth was heaped in to cover them up.
The firewood and the stones were also lying ready to be heated.
Then the 140 warriors went and laid themselves down in the ovens dug out of the earth, as though they had been dead bodies, and they turned themselves about. And beat themselves upon the noses and faces until they bled, so that their bodies became all covered with blood, like the corpses of men slain in battle.
They lay still in the ovens, the weapons they had with them were the short clubs of various kinds, such as clubs of Jasper and basalt, and of the bones of whales, and the priests that they had with them, having found the sacred place of the people of the country, entered it, and hid themselves there.
Thus they continued to lie in the ovens until the sun arose next morning, and until the priests of their enemies, according to their custom each day at dawn, came to spread leaves and other offerings to the gods at the sacred place.
There, to their surprise, these priests found the warriors of Ngatoro all lying heaped up in their ovens.
The priests raise joyful shouts, crying, ” At last, our prayers have been answered by the gods, here, here are the bodies of the host of Ngatoro and of Tama, lying heaped up in the cooking places”.
”This has been one by our god, he carried them off, and brought them here”.
The multitude of people in the village, hearing these cries, ran out to see the wonder, and when they saw the bodies of the 140 lying there, with the blood in clots dried on them, they began to cry out.
One, “I’ll have this shoulder”.
Another, “I’ll have this thigh”.
A third, “That head is mine”.
For the bloodshed from striking their noses during the previous night was now quite clotted on their bodies.
The priests of those who were lying in the ovens, having hidden themselves in the bushes of the shrubbery around the sacred place, could not be seen by the priests of the town of Manaia, when they entered the sacred place to perform the fitting rites to the gods.
So these later cried aloud, as they offered thanksgivings to the gods for having granted their prayers, and for having fulfilled their wishes.
Just as the ceremonies were finished, the priests of the war party of Ngatoro, rushing out of their hiding places upon the other priests, slew them, so that the priests were the first slain, as offerings to the gods.
Then rose the 140 warriors from the ovens, and rushed their enemies, all were slain, not one escaped but Manaia, and he fled to the town, but they at once attacked the town and carried the town by assault, and then the slaughter ceased.
The first battle at the sacred place was called Ihu-motomotokia, or, the battle of ‘bruised noses’.
The name of the town which was taken was Whaitiri-ka-papa, but Manaia again escaped from the assault on the town.
They entered the breaches of the town as easily as if they had been walking in at the door of a house left open to receive them.
Whence this proverb has been handed down to us, “As soon as ever you have defeated your enemy, storm the town”.
The priests now turned over the bodies of the first slain, termed the “holy fish” as offerings set apart for the gods, and said suitable prayers.
When these ceremonies were ended the conquerors cooked the bodies of their enemies, and devoured the whole of them.
Soon afterwards the warriors of the other towns of Manaia, which had not been assaulted, were approaching as a forlorn hope to attack their enemies.
The bottom of the following post has a list of my previous posts on the Maori
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-war-was-declared-between-tainui-and-arawa
with thanks to son-of-satire for the banner
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Are you all that angry at each other other lol all they are do it fight lol
The Maori were/are one of the more warlike people. They came from the Pacific Islands where there were more of them than the land/sea could support. Might is right, if I can trick/stop you from eating/having that I will be better off.
then the loser of that episode wants revenge, right back to his grandfather x's 5s time.
They never forgot, they told stories about their wins and losses all the time so they couldn't forget.
keep going, there are some love stories coming
Make love not war... or something like that haha
they did lots of that as well, often with somebody else's girl, which, of course, led to more war
Typical bldy males thinking through there little man tut tut LOL :)
they had a few problems in those days, there were only rats, dogs, people as mammals, to give a supply of meat, rats and dogs were harder to catch, and didn't supply as much product.
If they knocked off the enemy, they had this big supply of meat to grow strong and mussily with. This meant that the next enemy was easier to knock off,
they had no diet problems then, the vegetables [kumuara, [sweet potato] patches were dug by stick, no shovels or spades, weeded by hand on knees, no hoes or rakes, dug up by hand, still no shovels or spades, carried in woven baskets, no trucks or carts, lifted chest high into the storage houses, no lifts or ladders, and if there was a leak the crop would rot before it could be used.
Glad i didn't live them or i wouldn't have survived very long. There must have been a MacDonalds near by haha :)
This was a primitive part of the world, no Mickey D, or Kentucky Ducky, no Subway's either.
Now we have them all. [less "come to dinner" invites as well]
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