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Post by Indilwen on Jun 2, 2012 15:30:04 GMT 12
Merlin and the Grail Tradition First publication of mine for 2012 is Merlin and the Grail Tradition - available from 1st January. Few figures from myth and legend have impressed the imagination like that of Merlin, Archmage of the land of Logres, whose shadowy, compelling presence plays a key part in the tales of Arthurian legend and the Quest of the Holy Grail. In this collection of essays I trace the historical importance and esoteric influence of Merlin and the Grail tradition from its mythological beginnings right down to modern times, including Dion Fortune's Grail work at Glastonbury, the Merlin archetypes, the "Elizabethan Merlin" Dr John Dee, the bluestones of Preseli which were used to build Stonehenge, and the connection between Merlin and Tolkien's figure of Gandalf. First published at the turn of the millenium by Sun Chalice Books, this new edition contains three new topics The Faery Tradition in Arthurian Legend and a new analysis of Chretien de Troyes: the First Arthurian Romancer. Additionally an old manuscript has come to light on Sir Gareth: the Quest of a Round Table Knight, resurrected from a private lecture given to the Martinist Order in Paris in 1987. For more details go to www.skylightpress.co.uk/ or your usual book supplier. review by Gareth Knight.
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Post by Indilwen on Jun 2, 2012 15:28:47 GMT 12
Gwenevere and the Round Table Here is a book not to miss if you have any interest in the Arthurian, Grail or Faery traditions. By Wendy Berg, to whom I passed over the running of my group when I retired. Gwenevere and the Round Table puts the faery elements of Arthurian legend into practice, showing how the Round Table was an actual, practical system of magic. A series of meditations, magical exercises, guided visualisations and a full ritual will take you into each of the five faery Kingdoms described in the legends, Lyonesse, Sorelois, Gorre, Oriande, and the central Grail Kingdom of Listenois. At the heart of these mysteries is the Round Table of the Stars, an experiential journey through 12 constellations, which very neatly and remarkably demonstate the continuing work of the Round Table into the future. I think this is a classic! Not only a lucid guide to faery dynamics in Arthurian and Grail legend but what to do about it, why, and how. A practical follow up to Wendy's mind blowing Red Tree, White Tree. Highly recommended. For more details go to www.skylightpress.co.uk/ or Amazon or your usual book supplier. Review by Gareth Knight...
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Post by Indilwen on Jun 1, 2012 11:42:29 GMT 12
THE PINEAL GLAND... Each of us is capable of producing torsion/torroidal energy when our unconscious... mind goes into overdrive. This energy we can see with our pineal gland, what we see when we close our eyes and picture something by perceiving its qualities actually creates it in torsion fields you can perceive. There are studies that show a large percentage of blind people hallucinate early into their blindness. When talking to a person, they may see a persons head, etc. Like the Fibonacci sequence, producing this energy is the result of the product of two previous continuous lines of thought. Each continuous thought line is running at a specific frequency, the harmonic resonance between the two is your Fibonacci product just like the pine cone and sunflower. This toroidal energy builds up until torsion field emerges into your perception. This is what I believe happens when a person experiences a “migraine aura”. Their mind is so intensely focused on an issue and perceiving what the mind is producing, the product is the torroidal energy is perceived producing your answer as a material apparition. This brings us to the material apparition of patterns from torsion fields. How do we do this? If this energy had a signature what might it look like? Ancient Solfeggio Frequencies, Mandalas and Cymatics depending on the frequency or combination thereof. The pineal gland is unique in that it sits alone in the brain whose other parts are paired. It is the first gland to be formed in the foetus and is distinguishable at 3 weeks. When our individual life force enters our foetal body at 7 weeks, the moment in which we become truly human, it passes through the pineal and triggers the first primordial flood of DMT ( N-dimethyltryptamine). Later, at birth, the pineal releases more DMT. DMT is also capable of mediating pivotal experiences of deep meditation, shamanic states of consciousness, psychoses, spiritual emergence and near death experiences. The pineal gland's location deep in the brain seems to intimate hidden importance. In the days before its function as a physical eye that could see beyond space-time was discovered, it was considered a mystery linked to superstition and mysticism. This pineal gland is activated by Light, and it controls the various bio-rhythms of the body. It works in harmony with the hypothalamus gland which directs the body's thirst, hunger, sexual desire and the biological clock that determines our aging process. When it awakens, one feels a pressure at the base of the brain. While the physiological function of the pineal gland has been unknown until recent times, mystical traditions and esoteric schools have long known this area in the middle of the brain to be the connecting link between the physical and spiritual worlds. Considered the most powerful and highest source of ethereal energy available to humans, the pineal gland has always been important in initiating supernatural powers. Development of psychic talents has been closely associated with this organ of higher vision. To activate the 'third eye' is to raise one's frequency and moving into higher consciousness - all is a consciousness experience perceived through the Eye of Time or Third Eye. Meditation, Visualization Yoga, and all forms of Out of Body travel, open the Third Eye and allow you to 'see' beyond the physical. As you practice, you will get it faster and more frequently. Your psychic abilities will increase as well as your dream time messages. You may first begin with your eyes closed, but as you practice, you will be able to open your third eye by focusing your attention and receiving messages with your physical eyes open. Planetary vibration/frequency is accelerating exponentially, allowing souls to peer into other realms far more easily than in the past. Frequency will continue to rise until consciousness evolves out of the physical. Pineal Gland & The Third Eye youtu.be/Z0d1IIZ6aC8 Pineal Gland 101: Pineal Gland Activation youtu.be/V5c4qoG8fZM upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Pineal_gland.gif Pineal Gland / third eye (intuition / guidance system) : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_eye : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineal_gland : bit.ly/aJNCvM : bit.ly/cp9mnP : bit.ly/aebEZc Melanin ("God's dust; key to supernatural abilities, and setting your soul free"): "Melanin enhances intelligence and emotional, psychic and spiritual sensitivity and physical prowess." : (1 of 3) bit.ly/6oqT1J : (2 of 3) bit.ly/4wCOGz : (3 of 3) bit.ly/7ZICCi : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanin : bit.ly/7WfG5YSee MoreBy: Jeff Andrews
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Post by Indilwen on May 27, 2012 11:03:00 GMT 12
Excerpt from my upcoming book 2 of In Search of Ancient Man Mary Sutherland 2012
THE VIRGIN BIRTH AND THE COSMIC EGG The origin of an Immaculate Conception and Virgin Birth is to be found in the Sacred Inspired Writings of Mu. It originates from the 5th Command in Creation, "From these cosmic eggs life came forth as commanded." In a subsequent chapter explaining Creation, cosmic eggs are referred to as "the Virgins of Life." The sentence reads: "Hol Hu Kal." Hol: Closed. Hu: Virgin womb. Kal: to open. Free reading: to pierce or open the virgin womb; and by extension: to pierce or open the virgin womb of Life. For this reason the ancients called the waters "The Mother of Life," for up to this period of the earth's development the womb of Life had been closed. The advent of Life had opened the virgin womb in the waters. Later, when the Four Great Primary Forces were given the names of Gods by the ancients in their theology, they made them of immaculate birth to correspond with the teachings of the Sacred Writings: namely, that first life, either of the gods or nature, came from the result of Hol Hu Kal. Upon this ancient conception modern priesthoods have invented immaculate conceptions and virgin births for various men who have lived. Our learned scholars tell us that the ancient kings claimed virgin birth because they called themselves "Son of the Sun." these kings claimed nothing of the kind, they were emperors of colonial empires under the soverinity of Mu, the Empire of the Sun and "Son of Sun" was a title bestowed on these kings by Mu, thus showing their allegiance to her. "Son of the Sun" meant son or child of the Empire of the Sun.
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Post by Indilwen on May 22, 2012 19:30:19 GMT 12
If you're a European New Zealander, then for the last 30-years you've been reminded, fairly frequently, that you're merely the unwanted "flotsam and jetsam", caste-off floating garbage of Britain that got washed up on, and now pollutes these shores. Apparently, New Zealand has fallen from its former, pre-colonial paradisiacal state to become "the land of the long white crowd" and now it's open season on Europeans, which allows activists like Harawera to make her "kill-a-white" comments with legal impunity.
But in fact, as every true Maori Kaumatua or Tohunga knows and will probably tell you, if you ask politely enough, Europeans have occupied New Zealand, constantly, for many thousands of years and were, once, the core population of the country before the arrival of Polynesian/ Melanesian Maori. The old Maori Kaumatuas, who were properly trained in the wharewaanangas or at the feet of the elders, memorised the oral histories handed down from their distant forebears. This was no small task or accomplishment and it took the alert minds of the most gifted children, coupled with tremendous discipline, to learn the histories by song or cadence rhythm and keep them alive. Oral traditions have to be memorised perfectly and are, generally, very reliable. Many regional oral histories have been recorded and are available in the history books of the last 200-years.
Generation upon generation of old Kaumatuas and Kuias have always acknowledged the existence of the kiri puwhero (light complexion, reddish skinned) and uru-kehu (light coloured, golden tinged or reddish hair) taniwha races (the pre-Maori stonebuilders). It is only the lately trained corporate kaumatuas, with a degree in business management or law, who have, all-too-conveniently, forgotten who the actual Tangata Whenua (Lords of the soil) of New Zealand truly are. The ruined stone structures and highly visible landscape excavations of the stonebuilders dot our countryside in their thousands and many of these structures relate to astronomy, just like in Britain or Continental Europe and the Mediterranean.
Virtually everything one sees in Maori culture has been derived from the earlier kiri-puwhero and uru-kehu stonebuilders, as the spoils of war and conquest by the Maori warriors, who, subsequently, annihilated the earlier people. The name Turehu, from whom Maori acknowledge they learned the art of "Moko", the "Haka" dance and many other cultural expressions, describes a large sub-group of the kiri-puwhero, uru-kehu races, which came under an umbrella term or name of Patu-paiarehe. Other names for these people were Pakepakeha, Maruiwi, Ngati-Hotu, etc. In fact, remnants of the Ngati-Hotu survived into colonial times and were also called Te whanau o Rangi…or the children of heaven.
J.M. McEwen researched the Ngati-Hotu for over 15-years and used for reference the writings of Hawke's Bay chiefs Raniera Te Ahiko and Paramena Te Naonao. Other researchers gleaned information from genealogical tables related by tribes bordering Lake Taupo and by interviews with the learned elders there. One quotation about the Ngati-Hotu, derived from these Maori sources, states:
Generally speaking, Ngati Hotu were of medium height and of light colouring. In the majority of cases they had reddish hair. They were referred to as urukehu. It is said that during the early stages of their occupation of Taupo they did not practice tattooing as later generations did, and were spoken of as te whanau a rangi (the children of heaven) because of their fair skin. There were two distinct types. One had a kiri wherowhero or reddish skin, a round face, small eyes and thick protruding eyebrows. The other was fair-skinned, much smaller in stature, with larger and very handsome features. The latter were the true urukehu and te whanau a rangi. In some cases not only did they have reddish hair, but also light coloured eyes. (See Tuwharetoa, chapter 7, page 115, by Rev. John Grace).
Our rapidly disappearing older books are replete with oral tradition quotes or observations about the pre-Maori "Stonebuilders" and, during the 1960's and before, these people were common knowledge and openly talked about. Even the "collectable picture cards" from our Vita-Brits breakfast cereal box mentioned them, as did old tourist maps of Taupo, etc. Felton Mathew, Surveyor General in Hobson's fledgling government, observed during his first visit to Thames-Waitemata on February 23rd 1840:
'There are several very singular hills rising boldly from the surrounding land, in shape and form closely resembling the Roman encampments on the Tumuli that abound in many parts of England & having like them three or four distinct fops or ditches encircling them towards the summit - This singular too that these have been formed for defence by the natives - the top of every hill is marked in this way with distinct lines of circumvallation. An antiquary might from this circumstance deduce a connection between the New Zealanders and the ancient Romans!!' (see Felton Mathew's unpublished letters to his wife, Special Collections, Auckland Public Library.
Another early explorer noted:
'Arriving at the foot of the mountain [Mt. Eden] we assayed its ascent in the course of which my friend evinced a deep interest in traces of Maori fortifications of a past age, which were everywhere in evidence, the escarpments, trenches and what had once been covered ways and store pits though fallen in or overgrown, were yet in a wonderful state of recognition. Several of the stone walls of these fortifications could still be traced with considerable accuracy, although the oldest living Maori could not tell when, or by whom, they were erected. The Maori race show a wonderful aptitude for field engineering in warfare, and these traces of ancient fortifications, in particular, have often called forth the highest commendation from those most capable of judging such matters. It must have taken a much larger population than was then to be found to man these fortifications effectively, so extensive were they, the whole mountain appearing to be girt by them, line after line, from bottom to top (see Sketches of Early Colonisation in New Zealand -and its Phases of Contact With the Maori Race, (circa late 1840's), by "Te Manuwiri", pg. 123, Whitcomb & Tombs).
Another publication states:
"Maungawhau, 'the mountain of the whau', a shrub believed to have been growing in the area. The shrub was valued for its cork-like wood, used for floats on fishing nets...Maori legend tells of Maungawhau's [Mt. Eden's] first inhabitants, the Patupaiarehe or Turehu, who were skilled in the arts of fishing, hunting, weaving and warefare. It is said that this nocturnal people were destroyed as they lingered building a bridge after dawn"(see The Changing Face Of Mt. Eden, pg. 8, Mt. Eden Borough Council, 1989).
Indeed, British Archaeologist, Aileen Fox made much the same observation in her 1976 book, Prehistoric Maori Fortifications in the North Island of New Zealand, remarking on the distinct similarities between Maori PA's and the ancient, palisade encompassed, pre-Celtic hill forts of Britain. A mass of such landscape evidence, incorporating many kinds of structures across New Zealand, has been, in recent years, increasingly relegated to the realm of politically incorrect, fringe or pseudo-science and, consequently, never allowed to be seriously investigated by our mainstream archaeologists or historians.
Of these extensive fortifications, built in a very European style, leading historian Elsdon Best said:
The Maori did not live in this manner in his former home in eastern Polynesia. Did he evolve the pa system after he settled here, or did he borrow it from former inhabitants? (see: The Maori As He Was - A Brief Account of Maori Life as it was in Pre-European Days, Chapt. VI, pg. 165).
If the Polynesian Maori brought the artefacts, symbols and motifs here, then why are they not found in their lands of origin? Historian/ anthropologist, Edward Tregear, asked this same question. Professor Thor Heyerdahl wrote the following on this very subject:
'Irrespective of how and when the Maori began to cover their carvings with spirals, the habit is absent in their Polynesian homeland and may therefore very well be so in their still earlier fatherland further away. There is, indeed, no such curvilinear surface design on the wood carvings of the Society Islands and these include the very tall ancestral posts which were erected in ancient Tahiti' (see American Indians in the Pacific, pg. 116).
Skeletons of the uru-kehu people have been observed, frequently, in burial caves or in a sitting (trussed position) in sand dunes, since the earliest colonial times. In burial caves, they often have been seen to have red hair or other light brown and blond hues. Samples of their braided hair, taken from the Waitakere rock shelters, used to be on display at Auckland War Memorial Museum and were the subject of written commentary by Maori anthropologist, Sir Peter Buck. Our earliest maritime explorers frequently saw the, red headed, freckle-faced Maori or "waka blondes" and large pockets of them survived well into the 20th century as people who had never mixed their blood with colonial era European settlers. These days, on occasions when ancient, pre-colonial European Caucasoid skeletons are located, the iwi takes possession of them and no scientific investigation is permitted.
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Post by Indilwen on May 22, 2012 19:18:44 GMT 12
Chapter I Told in the Wharepuni A Maori Night's Entertainment The greybeard Wairehu carried a big iron drum which once held sheep-dip into the carved wharepuni; it was filled with glowing charcoal embers to give us warmth through the night. There was a wintry bite in the air here in high-set Otukou; the breath of ice came on the wings of the keen south wind. The lonely little settlement of the Maori sheep-farming hapu was more than two thousand feet above the sea, squatting on the tussocky banks of a cold clear stream that came flashing down from the gullies of Mount Tongariro. The summit of the snow-tipped volcanic range was within three miles of us; and over its shoulder, as we rode into Otukou that day, we saw mighty Ruapehu, its icy peaks involved in the splendid gloom-clouds of a thunderstorm. In this communal hall and sleeping-house of the village we had plenty of company; the people of the hapu gathered page 12 for talk and song, preceded by the prayers which old Wairehu read slowly and reverently.
These isolated subalpine dwellers are a pious people, at any rate in observance of religious ritual, and in the earnestness and simplicity of their devotions they truly are patterns to the pakeha. Not an evening falls without these prayers and hymns in the gargoyled wharepuni. As the people sit there, chanting their soft solemn music, some swaying slightly to and fro as they sing, we observe with much interest their varying types. Some are dark indeed, with narrowed eyes peering out beneath heavy projecting brows, but most of them show the fine open cast of face, with large features, which distinguishes the Ngati-Tuwharetoa and their cousins the Ngati-Raukawa. Many are very fair of skin, and there are two or three women whose beautifully thick and long hair shines with a lustre golden in the firelight; they are of pure Maori blood, though almost as light in complexion as ourselves. They are urukehu or fair-hair; the tradition goes that their remote ancestors were a light-skinned tribe called the Whanau-a-Rangi, which in the pakeha tongue is “Offspring of Heaven.”
page 13 A sightly house this within as well as without; its panels and rafters are brightly painted and scrolled, and the foot of the central pillar, the putoko-manawa, is wrought into a carved and tattooed head, the effigy of the tribal founder; his pawa-shell eyes glare belligerently at us over the fire. On the walls hang weapons of the past and present—taiaha and meré and a long-handled tomahawk, deadly weapons all in skilled Maori hands, and a dozen or so of rifles and shot guns.
∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
Now come the stories, for night after night in the warm and social meeting-house the tales of the times of old are repeated, until every member of the tribe to the youngest is familiar with the unwritten history of the clan and the folk-lore of the land.
And first of all is told the tale of these nearby fire-peaks. Long ago there were magical doings in these parts, the like of which could only happen in old Maoridom, and the story of Ngatoro-from-the-Sky and his wonderful travels and godlike page 14 deeds satisfyingly accounts for the presence of the volcanoes that rumble menacingly above us.
Wairehu takes the matted floor, and girding his blanket about his waist to give free play to his sinewy, tattooed right arm, he tells, like a Skald of old, the saga of Ngatoro and his travels through an enchanted land.
Ngatoro-i-rangi was the sacred Ariki, the high priest of the Arawa canoe crew, and when that Polynesian ship's company landed at Maketu, in the Bay of Plenty, five hundred years ago, he set forth to explore the strange new land. When he reached the foot of the mountain range now known as Tongariro, he decided to ascend it in order to spy out the country, for, like the modern surveyor, the ancient Maori land-seeker and path-finder always made for the high points of the country in his journeyings. With one or two companions he climbed to the summit of the central volcano, the Ngauruhoe peak, and while he was there a snowstorm suddenly befell, and he was like to die with the freezing cold. In his dire extremity he exerted his marvellous powers, and he prayed in a loud page 15 voice for the fire of the gods. He cried to his priestess sisters in the far north, saying:
“E Kuiwai e! Haungaroa e! Ka riro au i te tonga! Haria mai he ahi moku!” (“O Kuiwai! O Haungaroa! I am borne away in the cold south wind—I perish from the cold! Send me fire to warm me!”)
And straightway his priestess sisters heard him, and they appealed to the fire-demons Te Pupu and Te Hoata—personifications these of volcanic and thermal heat—and the saving fire was sent, by way of White Island and Rotorua and intermediate spots where the hot springs boil up to-day. The saving fire reached the perishing Ariki there on the mountain-top, and his freezing body gained fresh life, and he and his companions were saved. The fire which was his salvation burst forth at the top of Ngauruhoe—and that is why there is a fuming crater there to this day. And from the words riro (carried away or seized) and tonga (south wind) which he used in his cry to the goddesses of the sacred fire, came the name Tongariro, which was bestowed upon these grand volcanic peaks. For, the name Tongariro formerly included in Maori usage all three peaks—Tongariro page 16 Range, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu—all three were considered as one, the sacred kopu, the belly of this island-fish, the abode of the fire-gods, ever afterwards to be regarded as the holy of holies of the Arawa nation.
As for Ngauruhoe, that name also holds a story, said Wairehu. When Ngatoro-i-Rangi, freezing in his tapa-cloth garments there on the mountain-top, made his urgent cry for help, he slew a female slave as an offering to the gods—“he whakahere ki te atua”—in order to give additional mana to his prayer. This slave, who was a personal attendant and food-bearer, was named Auruhoe. When the god-sent flames of life burst forth, Ngatoro threw the body of the slave into the blazing crater, and that was how the volcano came to bear its present name, which is Auruhoe in the mouths of some of the Maoris of the south Taupo country.
And from that time to this the flaming of Ngauruhoe has been a mighty sign of portent for the dwellers on the plains below. Whenever the volcano burst into eruption the Taupo people said to each other, “Lo! the Atua is giving us a sign and a command. Let us go forth and make war upon the sea-coast dwellers.” For generation after generation this omen of the mountain-gods was obeyed. Ngati-Tuwharetoa in truth were a war-loving clan; and when the distant tribes heard that Ngauruhoe was hurling forth fiery ash and vast clouds of black smoke fear fell upon them and they hastily strengthened their palisades, for well they knew the warriors of Taupo would presently appear. Ngatoro, the Old Man narrated, was an explorer of amazing energy, and gifted with all the strange powers of a wizard. He scaled the loftiest mountains with ease, and as we have seen, he could call fire to his aid through the very earth. And listen to the story of what befell his land-seeking rival, the venturesome Hape-ki-tua-rangi, who came trudging across the ranges and plains from the far East Coast, thinking to found a nation in the heart of the great island.
The Place where the Sky was Dark As Ngatoro stood there near the lofty peak of Ngauruhoe, viewing the wonderful new land spread all about him, he beheld with the god-aided vision of the seer and page 18 the magician a strange chief and his party of warriors and slaves approaching from the East. It was Hape-from-beyond-the-Sky, seeking land for himself and his tribe. Ngatoro boiled with godlike anger; he was the first discoverer of this enchanted country, the belly of the fish of Maui, and he would brook no others in his newly-gotten territory. Hape's company was undesirable; no neighbours were welcome in the land of Taupo. So Ngatoro betook him to his incantations; and he called in a great roaring voice—the voice of a god—saying in tones of thunder: “Get you gone, O stranger! This country is for me, for Ngatoro! Depart whence you came!” But Hape, heeding not those menacing words, heard like the roll of an approaching thunderstorm, came marching on across the tussock plains.
Ngatoro recited his heaven-compelling incantations; he called upon the gods of the sky and the gods of the under-world, and chiefly upon Ruaimoko, the dread demon of volcanoes. And strange and terrible things befell.
The sky suddenly became dark as night, and out burst a huge sheet of flame from page 19 Ngauruhoe's fiery pit, and the smoke and ashes from the volcano were borne over the land to the east by a mighty rushing wind. And then, upon this scene of gloom and terror, a vast black cloud swept down over the newcomers' heads and fell a life-destroying storm of sleet and snow. The frozen death of the huka descended upon Hape and his party, and they perished there upon those dreadful plains. They perished everyone. “Kaitoa! It served them right,” said Wairehu, “for persisting in their march when they saw that my ancestor Ngatoro was already in possession of the country!” And from that day to this the desert where Hape perished has been known as Te Rangi Po—the Place Where the Sky is Dark.
Certainly it is well enough named, that tract of true desert, admitted the pakeha listeners. The Rangi-Po is a sterile, bare, forbidding place wherein for broad spaces even the hardy tussock declines to grow. A bleak, shivery gale-swept plain, to be passed as quickly as possible. It looks a blasted heath, lying even to this day under the curse of the gods.
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page 20 Of Pihanga, too, we hear, yon softly-rounded mountain of green forest, above Roto-a-Ira lake, and of her beauty of form which captivated the mountain-gods of old. For mountains were strangely like human beings in those wonderful dim days when all the world was in faerie land; they loved and they fought like mortals. It was over fair Pihanga that Tongariro and Taranaki quarrelled, and titanic indeed was the battle of the volcanoes, ending in the expulsion of Taranaki from his mighty seat on the plains between Tongariro and snowy Ruapehu, and his flight to the far west coast of the island. So to-day Lady Pihanga—so obviously of the female sex, says the Maori, for look you, her shape!—sits complacently there accepting the love of her volcanic husband, in the long streamers of cloud and sulphurous vapours that are borne to her on the wings of the strong south wind. It is the mihi of the mountains, the loving greetings in upper air. And when, sometimes for days at a time, the summits of the ranges are veiled in mist and fog, the Maoris of Otukou and Papakai say: “Behold, our ancestors, our father and page 21 mother are greeting each other in the clouds of heaven. Their ancient love revives, they embrace one another as in the days of old.”
The Man Whose Thoughts Were Wings “Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. I like him not; such men are dangerous.”
Those were the lines that went through my mind as I observed one of Wairehu's visitors, a restless-eyed gaunt fellow, by repute a tohunga and bush medicine-man; the kind of man who made new cults and fanatic religions. He followed Wairehu in the story-telling, and in a curious half-chanting voice he told of the wizardly powers of an ancestor on his mother's side. That warlock forefather of his lived far away down on the West Coast, on the Waitotara River. In the valley of this river there were several great forts, built on high hills, separated by deep swamps and bends of the stream. The wizard of the Waitotara, however, had no difficulty in passing from hill-village to village of his tribe, for he flew through the air. His name was Tama-ahua-rere-rangi, which means “The page 22 Man Who Flies Across the Heavens.” He did not possess wings; no, he projected himself through the air by the impulse of his amazing mana, his innate magic influence. A thought was to him as wings; he had first but to resolve that he would fly to such and such a place and invoke his gods, and lo! he was there. But alas! suddenly he lost his gift. His powers of flight deserted him, all in the space between dusk-time and daylight, and he that had been as a god now had to trudge the earth like a common mortal when he travelled from village to village.
“How did he lose that strange power?” asked one of the young women around the glowing brazier.
“My girl,” said the saturnine one, “it was all through you women that he became flightless like the kiwi. He married him a wife one night, and in the morning he that had been a god in himself was but an ordinary man of the earth. His thoughts were wings no longer. That is why my ancestor Tama lost his magical powers. The thought comes to me, we men would all be gods if we had no women to despoil us of our strength. For myself, I despise all women. Would that my ancestor had page 23 done the same! I might now be a greater wonder than the pakeha airmen who cross lands and seas in their flying ships—for I would need no ship.”
“E tama!” exclaimed Wairehu. “If your ancestor had been like you, my son, where would you have been? Now answer me that!”
“Pah!” said Ripeka of the coppery hair, with a gesture of her pipe towards the misanthropic Cassius. “His talk is all rupahu—the boast and brag that hide a disappointment in love. For was it not he who but three days ago besought my sister, the widow, in Tokaanu for a share of her sleeping-mat—which she refused him, having a pleasanter husband in view!”
And the laugh was against Cassius that time.
The Legend of Miru and the Heavenly Maid Now came a story ancient beyond compare; it took us into the misty past when the ancestors of the Maori dwelt far away in the isles of the equatorial Pacific, indeed farther back still to the tropic lands of Indonesia. The old man Tamaira, the genealogist and poet of his tribe, passed his page 24 pipe to his neighbour to keep alight, loosed his blanket to his waist, and narrated the saga of Miru the fairy chief and wizard and the beautiful maid Hine-rangi.
In the long ago, said Tamaira, there was a certain man of this world and he dwelt in his village at Karewa, in Hawaiki, the ancient home of the Maori. He took a wife; in due course a child was born, then another child. Both of these children were girls. The elder the parents named Hine-rangi (“Heavenly Maid”); the younger they named Hine-mai-te-uru (“Girl from the West”). Hine-rangi was set apart by her parents and the tribe as a puhi (virgin); she was not permitted to indulge in early love-affairs like the other young people. She was given a separate house, and in this house she lived, some little distance from the others in the pa. There she slept by herself, this maiden Hine-rangi.
Now there was a certain man of the Patu-paiarehe people, and his name was Miru. He beheld the beautiful Hine-rangi, so treasured by her people, and the thought came to him that he would secure the girl of this world (te ao maori nei) as his wife. So by night he went cautiously into the pa page 25 of the Maori tribe and entered the house of Hine-rangi, and he set his spell of love upon the girl, and they slept together. Before morning came he departed as secretly as he had come. Next night he returned, and the fairy lover and Hine-rangi again reposed together. This continued for many nights; such was the manner of this secret marriage. The night-travelling lover was never seen by any of Hine-rangi's people.
In course of time the people observed the condition of Hine-rangi, and it became known among all the tribe that their puhi was presently to become a mother. There was great excitement on this discovery being made, and intense curiosity was aroused as to who Hine-rangi's lover could possibly be, for none had been seen to approach the abode. Everyone asked who could Hine-rangi's husband be, but no one in the pa could answer the question.
At last the question was put to the girl herself: “E kui, nowhea to tane inahoki kua hapu koe?” (“O woman, whence came your husband by whom you are with child?”) Hine-rangi's reply was: “Kaore koutou e kite i taku tane. E hara ia i page 26 tenei ao.” (“You cannot see my husband; he is not a man of this world.”)
Then the people, more puzzled than ever, considered how they might discover this mysterious lover of her whom they had dedicated as a puhi. At last they thought of a plan whereby they could lay hold of him. They resolved to cover up all the openings by which light was admitted to Hine-rangi's house, so that the lover would not know when the day was at hand.
Evening came, and the dark night, and the time came when the mysterious lover stole unseen into the house of Hine-rangi. The people silently surrounded the dwelling, and waited until they knew the pair must be asleep. Then they fastened the door and the window and plugged up all the openings in the house that could admit daylight. When they had done this not a streak of light could penetrate into Hine-rangi's abode.
The time of morning came, and Miru awoke, and he thought that this must be a very long night, but the interior of the house was still in profound darkness, so he turned to slumber again. The morning went on, and high noon came. The sun was page 27 directly overhead, but it was still like the dead of night within the house.
Now all at once the people drew back the door and the window and rushed into the house. The astonished Miru leaped from the couch, and the people saw him and seized him, and so at last they knew who Hine-rangi's strange lover was.
This was the beginning of Miru's life with his wife Hine-rangi in the sight of all the people. He was received as a friend and a tribesman, and he remained there with his wife. Presently a child was born to them, a son, and he was named Tonga-te-uru. The Patu-paiarehe chief continued to dwell there in the pa, and in time Hine-rangi gave birth to another son, who was named Uru-makawe.
Now the thought came to Miru that he would return to the home of his own people. So he said to his father-in-law, “E koro! Come you and your tribe, and escort me to my own land, to greet my people there.” To this the father-in-law agreed, but he was not willing that Hine-rangi should leave his home and go away with Miru, for he did not wish her to live in that strange place.
page 28 A large party of the tribe assembled, and they departed to escort Miru to his home, and Hine-rangi bade farewell to her husband and remained in the pa, but the younger sister Hine-mai-te-uru accompanied the party of travellers.
When the party arrived at the home of Miru in that other land they were taken to a house which stood in the pa. It was an exceedingly large house, and in it were assembled all the Patu-paiarehe people to greet the strangers. This house, which was called “Hui-te-rangiora,” was a place where-in all the sacred wisdom of the people was taught—the rites of the makutu wizardry, the spells of the atahu (love-charms), and all manner of priestly knowledge. In it also were taught such games as the whai (cat's cradle, string games), the titi-torea or game with throwing-sticks, the working of the wooden marionettes that were caused to imitate haka dances, etc., and other diversions. The art of beautiful wood-carving too was taught.
Every desirable kind of knowledge was imparted to scholars in this great house. And the tino tohunga, the chief teacher and page 29 expert of that house, was Miru, the Patu-paiarehe husband of Hine-rangi.
When the father-in-law of Miru beheld all the wonderful works of that house; when he saw that it was a place wherein all kinds of magic and wisdom were taught, he made request that Miru should instruct him in all the karakia and other sacred matters that he knew. To this proposal Miru assented, and he taught the man from this world the priestly lore desired. In return for this knowledge the father-in-law gave his younger daughter Hine-mai-te-uru to Miru as wife; she was payment for all the karakia which Miru had taught him.
Then he and his people prepared to leave the land of Miru. Before departure the father wept with his daughter, Hine-mai-te-uru, whom he was leaving to be a wife to the Patu-paiarehe, and he chanted over her a lament, for he knew that he would see her no more.
Then the father-in-law of Miru returned to this world. Hine-rangi was told that her sister had been given to Miru as his wife, and she wept for the fairy husband who was now separated from her and living in his own land with her sister Hine-mai-te-uru.
page 30 The thought came now to the father of Hine-rangi that he would build a large house similar to that which he had seen in the home of Miru, in that other world. The house was built, and it was named after that fairy hall “Hui-te-rangiora,” which means the assembly place of all beautiful things, the home of peace and happiness. Then in that house the old man taught his grandson Tonga-te-uru all the sacred wisdom and occult rites he had learned from the chief tohunga of the Patu-paiarehe. And he chanted this song over his grandson:
Abide there, O son, in Hui-te-rangiora, The dwelling of health and life, The place whence came the ancient games, The game of throwing-sticks, the devices worked with strings, The diversion of the dancing marionettes; The house of wisdom, The abode of knowledge, The secrets of life and death, O Son.
And the young man Tonga-te-uru, having learned all the charms and prayers and ceremonies and all the games of skill that he had learned from Miru, remained in the house to be a chief teacher and tohunga among the people. That is page 31 how the people of this world came to possess the knowledge of all these desirable things; they were preserved in this house of learning “Hui-te-rangiora.” It was the first great whare-kura or lodge of instruction of our Maori people, and from that time to this there has been a “Hui-te-rangiora” among us, and even at this day our chieftainess Te Rohu, the widow of Rewi Maniapoto, lives in a house of that name on the banks of the Puniu River.
Notes This legend of Miru and Hine-rangi bears the stamp of great antiquity and is of much significance to the ethnologist, for it describes the contact between the remote ancestors of the Maori and a people apparently more advanced in culture. In a number of Maori-Polynesian traditions the underworld, in other words the home of a strange race, is mentioned as the place of origin of various arts and crafts, such as carving and tattooing, and of occult knowledge. Here the people of this strange land are described as fairies. Miru is sometimes spoken of as one of the guardian atua of the underworld or the place of departed souls. The name indeed takes us very far back in Polynesian origins. In Hindu mythology Meru is the abode of the god Vishnu, it is the top of a mountain of enormous height, the Olympus of the Indian people.
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Post by Indilwen on May 22, 2012 19:15:56 GMT 12
Fairy Folk Tales of the Maori Introduction Maori Legends of the “Patu-paiarehe.” A New Zealand poet once lamented the dearth of fairy lore in these islands, and in his ignorance made complaint:
Why have we in these isles no fairy dell, No haunted wood, nor wild enchanted mere?
He declared that this lack of faerie glamour must be filled by the imaginative writer—“The poet's art—as yet without avail—must weave the story.” It was unfortunate that a writer with so sympathetic a muse had never heard of the Maori's rich store of fairy legend and wonder-tale, of endless folk-talk about the supernatural, the sprites of the woods, the elusive Patu-paiarehe, the mysterious wild men of the mountains, the strange spirits that haunt great pools at river-sources, and streams and lakes. For all this in endless variety we have in New Zealand. There is not another country, not even Ireland or the page 2 fairy-ridden Isle of Man, so full of folk-memories and primitive beliefs of this kind. The only reason that the pakeha does not know of it is that very, very few have gone to the trouble to delve into this class of myth and tradition and preserve while there is yet time the curious and poetic tales which crystallize for us the old Maori belief in unseen presences and the fairy folk that haunted many a lofty mountain and many a shadowy wood.
Fairies, giants, fabulous monsters, marvel-working magicians, strange apparitions of forest and alp, have ever been found in countries of such a mountainous, broken and generously-wooded character as New Zealand, and it would be strange indeed if so imaginative a race as the Maori-Polynesian had not peopled the land with all manner of curious extra-human beings.
Poetic above all the other myths of the strange and supernatural are the many stories which tell of that mystic race the Patu-paiarehe. This name Patu-paiarehe is the term applied by the Maori to the mysterious forest-dwelling people who for want of a more exact term may be described as the fairies of New Zealand. They are page 3 spoken of as an iwi-atua, a race of supernatural beings, and they are accredited with some of the marvellous powers attributed to the world of faerie in many other parts of the globe. Some folk-tales of the Maori describe them as little people, but the native fancy does not usually picture them the tiny elves common to the old-world fairydom. Most of the legends I have gathered give them the ordinary stature of mortals, while at the same time investing them with some of the characteristics of the enchanted tribes of other lands.
The Patu-paiarehe were for the most part of much lighter complexion than the Maori; their hair was of the dull golden or reddish hue “uru-kehu,” such as is sometimes seen among the Maoris of to-day. They inhabited the remote parts of the wooded ranges, preferring the highest peaks such as Hihikiwi, on Mount Pirongia, and the summit of Te Aroha. They ventured out only by night and on days of heavy clouds and fog. They lived on forest foods, but sometimes they resorted to the shores of sea and lake for fish.
They had a great aversion to the steam rising from the Maori cooking-ovens, and page 4 to the sight and smell of kokowai, the red ochre (hæmatite earth mixed with shark oil) with which the Maori bedaubed his dwelling and himself. They were greatly skilled in all manner of enchantments and magic, and they often employed these arts of gramarie to bewilder and terrify the iwi Maori. Nevertheless we find them at times living on good terms with their Maori neighbours, and indeed (see the Story of Tarapikau in “The Wars of the Fairies”) guarding the interests of their friends of the outer world and resenting any interference by Patu-paiarehe from another district.
The Patu-paiarehe, in a number of these fairy tales, constituted themselves the guardians of sacred places and visited their displeasure on those who neglected the rites for the propitiation of the forest deities.
This class of folk-tales no doubt originated in the actual existence of numerous tribes of aborigines who dwelt for safety in the more inaccessible parts of these islands. Many of them were reddish-haired, with fairer complexions than those of the Maori; the remnants of an immeasurably ancient fair-haired people who have left a strain of uru-kehu in most Maori tribes. As in the page 5 case of the ancient Picts (whence the word “pixy”), who were driven to take refuge in the caves and mountains of Scotland and Wales and the Peak of Derbyshire, the forest-dwelling refugees of New Zealand gradually became to the more powerful race an enchanted wizardly tribe, possessed of powers of transformation and of becoming invisible at will. The Patu-paiarehe were, as a rule, shy and peace-loving. The fiercer foresters, the Maero of legend, were not unlike the Fynnoderee of Manx country tales who played malevolent tricks on the farmer folk.
The dense and thickly-matted character of the New Zealand forest, with a closely-woven roof of foliage through which the sunshine was filtered to a twilight, in the inner sanctuaries of the Wao-tapu-nui-a-Tane, made strong impression on the imaginative Maori mind, and it was natural to people the heart of the bush with unseen presences and supernatural creatures. The conjecture-provoking sounds heard in the forest in the quiet of the night, noises known to those who have bivouacked much in the high woods, heightened the popular belief in the existence of fairy folk.
page 6 Patu-paiarehe legendry in the North Island, so far as my enquiries go, is associated chiefly with the forested peaks of the Waikato-Waipa basin, the Cape Colville-Te Aroha range, and the hills about Lake Rotorua. That beautiful mountain Kake-puku, in the Waipa Valley, was a fairy resort; there is a deep wooded valley on the western side beloved of the Patu-paiarehe from Pirongia mountain. They did not venture to other parts of the mountain because they sometimes saw the Maori fires burning on the summit and on the eastern and northern sides. Their path was in the drifting clouds and low-lying banks of fog like the Irish fairy king in William Allingham's old song:
“With a bridge of white mist Columbkill he crosses, On his stately journeys From Slieveleague to Rosses.”
In the South Island the sterner character of the landscapes, the tremendous craggy heights that wall Lake Wakatipu about, the vast white chain of the Alps, the solitudes of the tussock prairie, the silent forests, the deep, dark blue alpine lakes, tended to provide grim legends of the Maeroero, the page 7 wild men and giants of the mountains, rather than folk-talk of the Patu-paiarehe. There was also a basis of fact in the historical tradition of the Ngati-Mamoe fugitives driven into the trackless forests of the great south-west, there to disappear, to vanish like the moa. “They still haunt the western forests,” said an old man of mingled Ngati-Mamoe and Ngai-Tahu blood, when we discussed the mystery of the vanished clan of his people. “They are an iwi-atua, gifted with supernatural powers. The reason they are not seen by pakeha explorers is that they can call down the mists and clouds of the mountains to conceal them, as they did long ago when they were pursued into the wilderness beyond Lake Te Anau. Na te kohu i whakaora—the fog is their salvation.”*
page 8 The Menehune, or Manahune, of Polynesian legend were a forest folk whose characteristics no doubt helped to develop the belief in fairy woodsmen. In Hawaiian legendry they were a people of small stature, big-eyed, with murmurous voices; they lived in frail houses of banana leaves. Like our Patu-paiarehe, they feared the daylight, and the herculean labours, such as stone-work, which they performed by night always ceased when the dawn appeared.
Maori folk-talk abounds with such legends. On the upper part of the Waitemata, or Auckland Harbour, there is a long black reef of lava, a flow from the ancient volcano Owairaka (Mount Albert) which extends from the southern side almost halfway across the harbour, towards Kauri Point. It is called by the Maoris Toka-roa, or “Long Reef.” Legend attributes to it a fairy origin. It was built by the Patu-paiarehe in a single night in an endeavour to make a bridge across the page 9 Waitemata. They were less fortunate, however, than the fairies of Irish legend who built a road across the bog of Lamrach for Mider their king. Daylight interrupted the labours of the Patu-paiarehe, and so the wonderful bridge was not finished. Here, as in many of our Maori stories, the coming of the dawn was fatal to faerie doings. The furtive folk could not endure the bright eye of Tama-nui-te-Ra.
There are many points of likeness between the Maori traditional accounts of the Patu-paiarehe and kindred beings and the fairies of Irish folk-talk. Lady Gregory, in her “Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland” (1920), describes the popular belief in the existence of the Sidhe, a fairy people fond of old forts. A fairy's voice is sometimes heard keening, a portent. There are fairy pipers among the Sidhe, making music, “the grandest I ever heard,” as one of the old people said. The Maori fairies, similarly, were much given to playing on the flute, the koauau and putorino, “the sweetest music ever heard,” says the Maori.
“There are two classes of fairies, the Dundonians, that are like ourselves, and page 10 another race, more wicked and more spiteful.” So says the west Irish peasant. The Maori has their counterparts, the fairy woodsman and the fierce malevolent Maero.
The Irish fairies cannot bear fire. The Maori Patu-paiarehe and Maero had a similar dislike to fire and also to steam from cooking-ovens.
The rumbling death-coach of Ireland has its parallel in the waka wairua, the ghost-canoe whose appearance was a portent of death.
The Mara-wara, a mermaid of the Galway coast, is like the Maraki-hau of Maori legend, the half-human half-fishlike being whose effigy is seen on the carved fronts of many houses in the Bay of Plenty and Urewera districts.
There are many such parallels in the folkbeliefs of these far-sundered poetic peoples. But the faerie lore of the New Zealand forests, hills and streams has a character all its own, developed by centuries of close contact with Nature in a very beautiful and wonderful environment.
* There are analogies in old Scotland. Ruberslaw mountain, above Teviotdale, “was a favourite lurking place for the persecuted Covenanters, and near its top is a craggy chasm, from which it is said Woodrow's ‘savory Mr. Peden’ used to preach to his scattered congregation. It was on this hill that the pursuing dragoons all but caught the preacher and his flock one day; they were caught indeed like rats in a trap, had it not been for Ruberslaw's well known character for breeding bad weather. The soldiers were advancing in full view of the conventicle. Way of escape there was none, nor time to disperse; mounted men from every quarter were scrambling up the steep face of the hill, and in that clear light what chance was left now to hide among the rocks and boulders? ‘O Lord,’ prayed Peden with extreme fervour, ‘lap the skirts of thy cloak over puir auld Sandy!’ And as if in answer to his petition there came over the entire hill a thick ‘Liddesdale drow,’ so dense that a man might not see two feet around him. When the mist cleared again there was no one left for the dragoons to take.” (Highways and Byways on the Border, by Andrew and John Lang, p. 184.)
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Post by Indilwen on May 22, 2012 19:15:26 GMT 12
Abductions Patupaiarehe were known to lure people, especially attractive women, to their midst. A patupaiarehe would use hypnotic magical sounds from his flute to lure a young woman to his side, and then take her back to his camp. There he would make love to her before taking her home. The spell he had cast on her meant that he could call her at any time and she would be compelled to return to him.
The urukehu (red-heads) and albinos among Mâori were said to be the descendants of such unions of patupaiarehe and mortal women. Men who were captured were either mistreated and then released, or killed.
Warding them off There were different methods of avoiding the sometimes evil intentions of the patupaiarehe. Homes would be smeared with kôkôwai (iron oxide mixed with shark oil) when patupaiarehe were known to be close. Also the cooking ovens were put into operation. The smell coming from both the kôkôwai and cooked food was repugnant to patupaiarehe, and kept them at bay.
Patupaiarehe were also afraid of the light of open fires, so as long as the campfire was still glowing at night, people considered themselves safe. Young children too were warned not to stray from the village ‘in case the patupaiarehe gets you’.
How Mâori came to use a net for fishing One traditional account tells of a chief, Kahukura, who when travelling north found himself on a lonely beach just as night set in. He slept in the sand dunes, but was awoken by the sounds of voices and laughter. At the water’s edge were a group of patupaiarehe, the fairy people, catching great numbers of fish in a net of woven flax. Despite his fear Kahukura crept among them, hoping to take the net and find out how it was made. As it was dark, and he was short and fair like the patupaiarehe, they did not notice him as being different. He knew that if he could delay them until dawn they would flee to avoid the sun, leaving the net behind. He helped thread the gutted fish onto lines, but tied his knots so they would come undone again. This tactic worked, and the fairy people fled as the sun rose, leaving behind their net and the fish. From this Kahukura discovered the secret to making the net, and taught it to his people.
Miru A patupaiarehe named Miru is credited with giving Mâori the sacred knowledge and wisdom of his mysterious world. Married to a mortal woman, Miru took his father-in-law to his world and taught him these things. In this way the rites of mâkutu (magic arts), âtahu (love charms) and other priestly skills were passed on to the Mâori world. Miru’s people also taught the visitors whai (string games) and tititorea (stick games).
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Post by Indilwen on May 22, 2012 19:12:42 GMT 12
Patupaiarehe
In Mâori tradition patupaiarehe, also known as tûrehu and pakepakehâ, were fairy-like creatures of the forests and mountain tops. Although they had some human attributes, patupaiarehe were regarded not as people but as supernatural beings (he iwi atua).
They were seldom seen, and an air of mystery and secrecy still surrounds them. In most traditions, those who encountered patupaiarehe were able to understand their language. But in one account they were unintelligible.
Physical features Patupaiarehe had light skin, and red or fair hair. Historian James Cowan was told that ‘they were a lighter complexion than Maori; their hair was of a dull golden or reddish hue, urukehu, such as is sometimes seen in Maori of today.’ 1
Unlike Mâori, they were never tattooed. Mohi Tûrei of Ngâti Porou described their skin as white, albino or the colour of red ochre. Their eye colour varied from light blue to black.
There is still debate about their height. The Tûhoe tribe records that they were small, but others say they were similar in size to humans. Whanganui stories claim them to be giants, more than 2 metres tall.
Where did they live? Patupaiarehe were generally found deep in the forests, or on mist-covered hilltops. In these isolated places they settled and built their homes, sometimes described as forts. In some stories their houses and pâ were built from swirling mist. In others, they were made from kareao (supplejack vine).
In the North Island they were said to live mainly in the Waikato–Waipâ basin, the Cape Colville–Te Aroha range, the hills about Rotorua, the Urewera ranges and Wairoa districts, and the Waitâkere ranges in the Auckland region.
South Island traditions had them living mainly in the hills around Lyttelton Harbour, Akaroa and the Tâkitimu range, and in the hills between the Arahura River and Lake Brunner.
What kind of people were they? Patupaiarehe society was kinship-based, similar to Mâori society. In 1894 Hoani Nahe, an elder of the Ngâti Maru people, recalled three sub-tribes of patupaiarehe: Ngâti Kura, Ngâti Korakorako, and Ngâti Tûrehu. Tahurangi, Whanawhana, and Nukupori were important chiefs. They were generally a closed group who shunned intruders, and were unfriendly to those who ventured into their midst.
Patupaiarehe were hunters and gatherers, surviving on raw forest foods and sometimes fishing from the shores of the sea or a lake. Their canoes were made of kôrari (flax stalks). Cooked food was offensive or foul to them. In different traditions, albino birds and eels, red flax and red eels were considered their property, and trouble befell Mâori who took any of these.
Fearing the light, they were active mainly in the twilight hours and at night, or when the mist was heavy enough to shield them. They wore flax garments (pâkçrangi), dyed red, but also rough mats (pora or pûreke). They were also known for playing kôauau and pûtôrino (flutes).
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Post by Indilwen on May 22, 2012 19:01:31 GMT 12
Fairy Folk Tales of the Maori Introduction Maori Legends of the “Patu-paiarehe.” A New Zealand poet once lamented the dearth of fairy lore in these islands, and in his ignorance made complaint:
Why have we in these isles no fairy dell, No haunted wood, nor wild enchanted mere?
He declared that this lack of faerie glamour must be filled by the imaginative writer—“The poet's art—as yet without avail—must weave the story.” It was unfortunate that a writer with so sympathetic a muse had never heard of the Maori's rich store of fairy legend and wonder-tale, of endless folk-talk about the supernatural, the sprites of the woods, the elusive Patu-paiarehe, the mysterious wild men of the mountains, the strange spirits that haunt great pools at river-sources, and streams and lakes. For all this in endless variety we have in New Zealand. There is not another country, not even Ireland or the page 2 fairy-ridden Isle of Man, so full of folk-memories and primitive beliefs of this kind. The only reason that the pakeha does not know of it is that very, very few have gone to the trouble to delve into this class of myth and tradition and preserve while there is yet time the curious and poetic tales which crystallize for us the old Maori belief in unseen presences and the fairy folk that haunted many a lofty mountain and many a shadowy wood.
Fairies, giants, fabulous monsters, marvel-working magicians, strange apparitions of forest and alp, have ever been found in countries of such a mountainous, broken and generously-wooded character as New Zealand, and it would be strange indeed if so imaginative a race as the Maori-Polynesian had not peopled the land with all manner of curious extra-human beings.
Poetic above all the other myths of the strange and supernatural are the many stories which tell of that mystic race the Patu-paiarehe. This name Patu-paiarehe is the term applied by the Maori to the mysterious forest-dwelling people who for want of a more exact term may be described as the fairies of New Zealand. They are page 3 spoken of as an iwi-atua, a race of supernatural beings, and they are accredited with some of the marvellous powers attributed to the world of faerie in many other parts of the globe. Some folk-tales of the Maori describe them as little people, but the native fancy does not usually picture them the tiny elves common to the old-world fairydom. Most of the legends I have gathered give them the ordinary stature of mortals, while at the same time investing them with some of the characteristics of the enchanted tribes of other lands.
The Patu-paiarehe were for the most part of much lighter complexion than the Maori; their hair was of the dull golden or reddish hue “uru-kehu,” such as is sometimes seen among the Maoris of to-day. They inhabited the remote parts of the wooded ranges, preferring the highest peaks such as Hihikiwi, on Mount Pirongia, and the summit of Te Aroha. They ventured out only by night and on days of heavy clouds and fog. They lived on forest foods, but sometimes they resorted to the shores of sea and lake for fish.
They had a great aversion to the steam rising from the Maori cooking-ovens, and page 4 to the sight and smell of kokowai, the red ochre (hæmatite earth mixed with shark oil) with which the Maori bedaubed his dwelling and himself. They were greatly skilled in all manner of enchantments and magic, and they often employed these arts of gramarie to bewilder and terrify the iwi Maori. Nevertheless we find them at times living on good terms with their Maori neighbours, and indeed (see the Story of Tarapikau in “The Wars of the Fairies”) guarding the interests of their friends of the outer world and resenting any interference by Patu-paiarehe from another district.
The Patu-paiarehe, in a number of these fairy tales, constituted themselves the guardians of sacred places and visited their displeasure on those who neglected the rites for the propitiation of the forest deities.
This class of folk-tales no doubt originated in the actual existence of numerous tribes of aborigines who dwelt for safety in the more inaccessible parts of these islands. Many of them were reddish-haired, with fairer complexions than those of the Maori; the remnants of an immeasurably ancient fair-haired people who have left a strain of uru-kehu in most Maori tribes. As in the page 5 case of the ancient Picts (whence the word “pixy”), who were driven to take refuge in the caves and mountains of Scotland and Wales and the Peak of Derbyshire, the forest-dwelling refugees of New Zealand gradually became to the more powerful race an enchanted wizardly tribe, possessed of powers of transformation and of becoming invisible at will. The Patu-paiarehe were, as a rule, shy and peace-loving. The fiercer foresters, the Maero of legend, were not unlike the Fynnoderee of Manx country tales who played malevolent tricks on the farmer folk.
The dense and thickly-matted character of the New Zealand forest, with a closely-woven roof of foliage through which the sunshine was filtered to a twilight, in the inner sanctuaries of the Wao-tapu-nui-a-Tane, made strong impression on the imaginative Maori mind, and it was natural to people the heart of the bush with unseen presences and supernatural creatures. The conjecture-provoking sounds heard in the forest in the quiet of the night, noises known to those who have bivouacked much in the high woods, heightened the popular belief in the existence of fairy folk.
page 6 Patu-paiarehe legendry in the North Island, so far as my enquiries go, is associated chiefly with the forested peaks of the Waikato-Waipa basin, the Cape Colville-Te Aroha range, and the hills about Lake Rotorua. That beautiful mountain Kake-puku, in the Waipa Valley, was a fairy resort; there is a deep wooded valley on the western side beloved of the Patu-paiarehe from Pirongia mountain. They did not venture to other parts of the mountain because they sometimes saw the Maori fires burning on the summit and on the eastern and northern sides. Their path was in the drifting clouds and low-lying banks of fog like the Irish fairy king in William Allingham's old song:
“With a bridge of white mist Columbkill he crosses, On his stately journeys From Slieveleague to Rosses.”
In the South Island the sterner character of the landscapes, the tremendous craggy heights that wall Lake Wakatipu about, the vast white chain of the Alps, the solitudes of the tussock prairie, the silent forests, the deep, dark blue alpine lakes, tended to provide grim legends of the Maeroero, the page 7 wild men and giants of the mountains, rather than folk-talk of the Patu-paiarehe. There was also a basis of fact in the historical tradition of the Ngati-Mamoe fugitives driven into the trackless forests of the great south-west, there to disappear, to vanish like the moa. “They still haunt the western forests,” said an old man of mingled Ngati-Mamoe and Ngai-Tahu blood, when we discussed the mystery of the vanished clan of his people. “They are an iwi-atua, gifted with supernatural powers. The reason they are not seen by pakeha explorers is that they can call down the mists and clouds of the mountains to conceal them, as they did long ago when they were pursued into the wilderness beyond Lake Te Anau. Na te kohu i whakaora—the fog is their salvation.”*
page 8 The Menehune, or Manahune, of Polynesian legend were a forest folk whose characteristics no doubt helped to develop the belief in fairy woodsmen. In Hawaiian legendry they were a people of small stature, big-eyed, with murmurous voices; they lived in frail houses of banana leaves. Like our Patu-paiarehe, they feared the daylight, and the herculean labours, such as stone-work, which they performed by night always ceased when the dawn appeared.
Maori folk-talk abounds with such legends. On the upper part of the Waitemata, or Auckland Harbour, there is a long black reef of lava, a flow from the ancient volcano Owairaka (Mount Albert) which extends from the southern side almost halfway across the harbour, towards Kauri Point. It is called by the Maoris Toka-roa, or “Long Reef.” Legend attributes to it a fairy origin. It was built by the Patu-paiarehe in a single night in an endeavour to make a bridge across the page 9 Waitemata. They were less fortunate, however, than the fairies of Irish legend who built a road across the bog of Lamrach for Mider their king. Daylight interrupted the labours of the Patu-paiarehe, and so the wonderful bridge was not finished. Here, as in many of our Maori stories, the coming of the dawn was fatal to faerie doings. The furtive folk could not endure the bright eye of Tama-nui-te-Ra.
There are many points of likeness between the Maori traditional accounts of the Patu-paiarehe and kindred beings and the fairies of Irish folk-talk. Lady Gregory, in her “Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland” (1920), describes the popular belief in the existence of the Sidhe, a fairy people fond of old forts. A fairy's voice is sometimes heard keening, a portent. There are fairy pipers among the Sidhe, making music, “the grandest I ever heard,” as one of the old people said. The Maori fairies, similarly, were much given to playing on the flute, the koauau and putorino, “the sweetest music ever heard,” says the Maori.
“There are two classes of fairies, the Dundonians, that are like ourselves, and page 10 another race, more wicked and more spiteful.” So says the west Irish peasant. The Maori has their counterparts, the fairy woodsman and the fierce malevolent Maero.
The Irish fairies cannot bear fire. The Maori Patu-paiarehe and Maero had a similar dislike to fire and also to steam from cooking-ovens.
The rumbling death-coach of Ireland has its parallel in the waka wairua, the ghost-canoe whose appearance was a portent of death.
The Mara-wara, a mermaid of the Galway coast, is like the Maraki-hau of Maori legend, the half-human half-fishlike being whose effigy is seen on the carved fronts of many houses in the Bay of Plenty and Urewera districts.
There are many such parallels in the folkbeliefs of these far-sundered poetic peoples. But the faerie lore of the New Zealand forests, hills and streams has a character all its own, developed by centuries of close contact with Nature in a very beautiful and wonderful environment.
* There are analogies in old Scotland. Ruberslaw mountain, above Teviotdale, “was a favourite lurking place for the persecuted Covenanters, and near its top is a craggy chasm, from which it is said Woodrow's ‘savory Mr. Peden’ used to preach to his scattered congregation. It was on this hill that the pursuing dragoons all but caught the preacher and his flock one day; they were caught indeed like rats in a trap, had it not been for Ruberslaw's well known character for breeding bad weather. The soldiers were advancing in full view of the conventicle. Way of escape there was none, nor time to disperse; mounted men from every quarter were scrambling up the steep face of the hill, and in that clear light what chance was left now to hide among the rocks and boulders? ‘O Lord,’ prayed Peden with extreme fervour, ‘lap the skirts of thy cloak over puir auld Sandy!’ And as if in answer to his petition there came over the entire hill a thick ‘Liddesdale drow,’ so dense that a man might not see two feet around him. When the mist cleared again there was no one left for the dragoons to take.” (Highways and Byways on the Border, by Andrew and John Lang, p. 184.)
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Post by Indilwen on May 22, 2012 19:00:18 GMT 12
List of Contents Introduction. Maori Legends of the “Patu-paiarehe.” Page The Patu-paiarehe and Maero—Magic and Mystery of the New Zealand forest—The fairy tribe of Pirongia—The lost tribe Ngati-Mamoé—People of the Mist—The fairy bridge on the Waitematâ—Daylight interrupts the Fairy Labours—Fairy flute-players—“The sweetest music ever heard”—Celtic and Maori fairy beliefs compared 1 Chapter I. Told in the Wharepuni. A Maori Night's Entertainment. The village meeting-house at Otukou—Wairehu and his clan—Maori prayers and olden legends—The tale of the Mountain Gods—How Ngatoro-i-rangi came to Tongariro—The bringing of the magic fire—Origin of the names Tongariro and Ngauruhoe—Rangi-Po, the Place where the Sky was Dark—How Hape-ki-tua-rangi was destroyed—Pihanga, Tongariro and Taranaki—The Battle of the Mountains—The man whose thoughts were wings: a legend of the Waitotara—The legend of Miru and the Heavenly Maid—A love romance of the tropic islands—The House of Knowledge in the Fairy Isle—“Hui-te-Rangiora,” the Home of All Beautiful Things 11 Chapter II. The Fairy Folk of Ngongotaha Mountain. Te Matehaere and his ancestral walled village—The Fairy Tribe and “The Altar of the Gods”—Appearance and customs of the forest folk—How the explorer Ihenga met the Fairies—An adventure on Ngongotaha Mountain—How Ihenga evaded the Fairy Chieftainess—The songs of the Patu-paiarehe—A New Zealand “Lochaber No More”—The sound of the fairy flute. 33 Chapter III. Once on Kakepuku. A volcanic cone of the old Maori frontier—Kakepuku's romantic associations—The loves of the mountains—The Tohunga's expedition to Kakepuku—In the depths of the forest—Gathering the bush-vine juice—Panapa's mysterious disappearance—The voices of the fairy woods—Panapa's strange story—Carried off by the Fairies—The Patu-paiarehe home on Pirongia Mountain 43 page vi Chapter IV. Whanawhana of the Bush. Page Ruarangi and his wife Tawhai-tu—Stalked by a fairy hunter—The abduction of Tawhai-tu—Carried off to the fairy mountain—The fastness of the Patu-paiarehe tribe—Under the fairy spell—How the Tohunga circumvents the Patu-paiarehe—The foiling of Whanawhana 55 Chapter V. The Wars of the Fairies. Fairy Legends of Te Aroha and Rangitoto Mountains—Ruatane of Te Aroha carries off a Maori woman—Tarapikau's stratagem—Ruatane's raid against Tarapikau—A magic dart—Ruatane hurls his blazing spear—The burnt totara tree on Rangitoto—The enchantments of the sacred mountain—A curious religious cult, the “Pao-Miere” 65 Chapter VI. Tokahaere, the Walking Rock. The trail to Aotearoa—A King Country ride—The monolith in rhyolite, a curious volcanic rock—How Tokahaere came from Titi-raupenga Mountain—Daylight breaks the magic powers—A sacred landmark, and an ancient rite 73 Chapter VII. A Basket of Eels. A folk-tale of the Upper Waikato—Tu Takerei's story of Ngati-Raukawa's guardian dragon—The ngarara and his cave—The greedy children, and the dragon's revenge—The ngarara migrates to Maungakawa mountain and preys on Maori travellers—How the Waikato warriors captured and slew the dragon 77 Chapter VIII. The Wizard Who Was Marooned. A Legend of White Island. The carved house at Whakatane—Mermaids and gods of the sea—Hurinui tells the story of the Tohunga Te Tahi-o-te-Rangi—A man of magic and makutu — A canoe expedition to White Island—The Whakatane tribe's stratagem—Te Tahi is marooned on the volcano-isle—He summons the ocean gods to his aid—Tutara-kauika, the great sperm whale—How the Tohunga reaches the shore and defeats his enemies' scheme—Te Tahi becomes a god of the sea 89 page vii Chapter IX. The Battle of the Mountains. Page Maori personification of mountains—The loves of Kakepuku, Karewa and Kawa—A duel of the volcanoes—Kakepuku drives his rival to the Western Ocean—The hills of faerie and the ancient tale of love 101 Chapter X. The Bishop and the Tohunga. A Memory of Mokoia Island. The Holy-Isle-of-Tinirau—A place of wizardry and enchantments—Bishop Selwyn's visit to Unuaho the tohunga and magician—The Merlin of the Arawa—The Bishop's attempt to convert the pagan priest—Unuaho proposes a test—The blasting of the cabbage-trée—Unuaho withers the Ti and revives it again—The wizard's triumph—“Hori Herewini” of Mokoia 109 Chapter XI. The Story of Hatupatu and Kura-of-the-Claws The Sacred Grove of Mokoia and the lone totara tree—Tamati Hapimana's folk-tale—Hatupatu the bird-spearer is captured by Kura-ngaituku the ogress—His escape and Kura's pursuit—The rock refuge and the magic incantation, “Matiti, Matata!”—Kura's fate in the boiling-mud cauldron—Hatupatu's wonderful swim to Mokoia Island—Possible origin of ogre tales 119 Chapter XII. The Dragon of the Sacred Lake. Folk-lore of Tikitapu Lake—“The-Place-Where-a-Human-Heart-was-Cooked”—Kataore, the saurian monster of Tu-wiriwiri Forest—A dragon whose food was man—The terror of the lake-side trail—Kataore slays the beautiful maid Tuhi-Karaparapa—An Expedition of revenge—The dragon-slayers' snare—Pitaka the brave challenges Kataore the monster—How the dragon was captured and slain—The cave in the mountain-side 129 Chapter XIII. When Tamaohoi Awoke. The Wizard of the Wairoa—The tale of Mount Tarawera and the great eruption—Tamaohoi, the cannibal god of the Mountain—Wicked Wairoa and Tuhoto's curse—He invokes the spirit of the volcano—The midnight catastrophe—Destruction of the Tuhourangi villages—The resurrection of Tuhoto—“Cover him up again!”—The Wizard's end—The ban on buried Wairoa 145 page viii Chapter XIV. The Fairy Woman of Takitimu Mountain. Page A folk-tale of Southland—The Takitimu Range and its legendry—Giant people of the mist—A Maori bird-hunter's adventure—He captures a fairy woman—The rite of the sacred fire—The escape of the fairy—A vision in the fog 153 Chapter XV. Hills of the Wild Men. Magic and mystery of the Alpine Lakeland—The fairy tales of Lake Wakatipu—Rakaihaitu's wonderful spade—“Footsteps of the Rainbow God” —Kopuwai, the ogre of the Matau River—Capture and escape of the woman Kaiamio—Hone te Paina's story—Paitu the woodhen-hunter in the haunts of the Maero List of Illustrations. Page The Enchanted River Frontispiece Te Hau-Takerei Wharepapa 1 The Haunt of the Patu-paiarehe 1 Otukou Village and Mt. Tongariro 16 Ngauruhoe Volcano in Eruption 17 Ngauruhoe Volcano from Taupo 17 Uira Te Heuheu 32 Te Matehaere 33 In the Heart of the Fairy Bush 48 A Maori Artist's Carving of Hatupatu 49 A Chieftainess of the Ngati-maru Tribe 64 Tokahaere, the Walking Rock 65 The Flax-basket Makers 80 The Meal for Takere-piripiri 81 The Mermaid, on the Carved House “Wairaka,” at Whakatane 96 The Maraki-hau or Sea-god: an East Coast Carving 97 The Totara Tree, “Te Paré-a-Hatupatu,” Mokoia Island 112 Tane-nui-a-Rangi Pa, Hawke's Bay 113 Kura-of-the-Claws, a Maori Carving 128 Mita Taupopoki 129 Kura-of-the-Claws, a Carved Doorway 144 The Phantom Canoe on Lake Tarawera 145 Lake Manapouri 160 The Remarkables, Lake Wakatipu 161
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Post by Indilwen on May 22, 2012 18:44:46 GMT 12
Article in the Northern Advocate Newspaper, Wednesday 21st of December, 2005. A new cache of "Turehu" (a subgroup of the Patu-paiarehe) bones found in the Kaipara District. The skeletons are being studied by Noel Hilliam, former Curator of the Dargaville Maritime Museum, and his team of researchers. There were, at least, three distinct physical types of Patu-paiarehe living in New Zealand, ranging from the very tall people (around 7 to 8 feet in height...2.4 metres), to people of normal stature, to the very small white pygmy people with golden-white hair and large blue eyes. The small stature Turehu were a particularly attractive childlike people with very fine features and they are referred to as "Te Whanau O Rangi" (the people of heaven) in Maori oral tradition. These small people once populated countries like Ireland and traditions concerning their occupation of the Pacific range from Tahiti to New Caledonia to New Zealand. One of many photos taken by Noel Hilliam of the very small stature Turehu people that he and a group of experts are secretly studying. Noel's attempts to undertake proper scientific investigation in behalf of the New Zealand public are being thwarted and blockaded by the PC establishment. He is disallowed access to forensic testing facilities within New Zealand. As with all other skeletal finds of the people who lived in New Zealand for thousands of years before the coming of the Maori warriors, these remains would be destroyed if the authorities could gain access to them. Anyone with a handheld GPS unit and computer skills, especially in architectural programs like AutoCAD, can reconstruct the alignment systems still marked into the high hump hills of Auckland...sort of like "putting Humpty together again"... without the assisting ineptitude and bungling of "all the king's horses and all the king's men". By the way, the azimuth angle around from north from the ancient Tamaki Estuary settlement at the eastern base of Mt Wellington, to the obelisk cluster on the Bombay Hills was 161.8-degrees (coding the PHI ratio @ 1.6180339 to 1)... the same as an alignment from Koru PA to Mt Taranaki's peak and the same azimuth angle extending from the centre of Stonehenge to one of the Station Stones situated on a mound. Auckland Associate Professor of Archaeology, Harry Allen, has reaffirmed, recently, the "official" position that there is no evidence of anyone having been in New Zealand prior to the year 1200 AD*. He has also dismissed as 'politically motivated' any claims that a "Celtic" or pre-Celtic (a term used simply to describe people of European ethnicity) civilisation ever occupied this country before Maori. He says that 'such claims are unsupported by any scientific evidence'. Obviously, Harry Allen has never read or believed the many oral tradition accounts of the learned Maori kaumatuas and tohungas, who spoke volumes on this subject. He appears to have never seen what's in the caves or all over the New Zealand landscape. *Footnote: At the time of this writing, Maori in Wellington are attempting to preserve inner city archaeological sites, which they claim could date to 600 AD (http://www.nzarchaeology.org/netsubnews.htm) Footnote 2. The plaque that sits at the gateway of Koru PA in Taranaki states that the huge stone lined embankment and stone walled structure was built in the year 1000 AD, which, according to Associate Professor Harry Allen, is about 200-years before there were any people in New Zealand. There are also several more huge PA or highly modified hill structures close to Koru PA, contemporary to its age, all built for and by a large population which, "officially" didn't exist. In actual design style, Koru PA, with its souterain tunnel system, is the same as an Irish Rath/Cashel defensive enclosure for circa 3000-2000 BC. Footnote 3: If the tephra ash band that covered the incised obelisks or hewn bullaun bowls found at Bombay hills in 1992 proves to be from the Taupo explosion of 186 AD, then that means these human-made items are over 1800-years old. excerpts taken from this web site. Very interesting reading. I have purchased the book and cd/dvd on all the finds and writings made by this author if only to help keep truth out here and stop those that wish to keep it secret from destroying all evidence.. www.celticnz.co.nz/AucklandAlignment4.htm
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Post by Indilwen on May 22, 2012 16:56:22 GMT 12
Article in the Northern Advocate Newspaper, Wednesday 21st of December, 2005. Attachments:
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Post by Indilwen on May 22, 2012 16:53:46 GMT 12
Right: This is a picture of Eden Mill in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga, after it was abandoned. It was first built by William Mason in 1843 for grinding grain. When a more efficient water powered mill was created, this windmill passed into the ownership of others including Mr. Robert Robertson in the 1860's. For over a decade, under his ownership, it was used to grind up the skeletal remains of countless generations of Patu-paiarehe into fertiliser. Many tens of thousands of skeletons were removed from the Auckland burial caves for this purpose and sold to the mill. Maori of the time had no concerns about the fate of these "Tangata Whenua" bones and openly stated to the authorities, 'Do as you wish [with these bones], for these are not our people'. Caches of these skeletons still remain around the city or on the outlying islands. In a world where proper scientific investigation was remotely possible, the skeletons of the ancient New Zealanders would be studied to determine their physical anthropology and ethnic origins.
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Post by Indilwen on May 22, 2012 16:52:14 GMT 12
Fairy Folk Tales of the Patu-paiarehe: Fairy Folk Tales of the Maori Contents [covers] [frontispiece] [title page] [contents] List of Illustrations p. viii Fairy Folk Tales of the Maori — Introduction — Maori Legends of the “Patu-paiarehe.” Chapter I — Told in the Wharepuni p. 11 A Maori Night's Entertainment p. 11 The Place where the Sky was Dark p. 17 The Man Whose Thoughts Were Wings p. 21 The Legend of Miru and the Heavenly Maid p. 23 Notes p. 31 Chapter II — The Fairy Folk of Ngongotaha Mountain p. 33 Chapter III — Once on Kakepuku p. 43 Chapter IV — Whanawhana of the Bush — A Tale of the Fairy Folk p. 55 Chapter V p. 65 The Wars of the Fairies p. 65 Notes p. 71 Chapter VI — Tokahaere, the Walking Rock p. 73 Chapter VII — A Basket of Eels p. 77 Chapter VIII — The Wizard Who Was Marooned — A Legend of White Island p. 89 Chapter IX — The Battle of The Mountains p. 101 Chapter X — The Bishop and the Tohunga — A Tale of Mokoia Island p. 109 Chapter XI p. 119 The Story of Hatupatu and Kura-of-the-Claws p. 119 Notes p. 127 Chapter XII — The Dragon of the Sacred Lake p. 129 Chapter XIII p. 145 When Tamaohoi Awoke p. 145 Notes p. 152 Chapter XIV — The Fairy Woman of Takitimu Mountain p. 153 Chapter XV — Hills of the Wild Men p. 165 www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-CowFair.html
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