“Why, that is a landslip,” said Tu.
“No,” said Ihenga, “it is a net quite new. Look at that other net which is hanging up, and looks black; that is the old net.”
Tu thought it must be as Ihenga said, so he agreed to leave the land, asking at the same time who lived on the island.
“The name of the island,” said Ihenga, “is Motu-tapu-a-Tinirau. I named it.”
Then said Tu, “Will you not consent to my living there?”
“Yes,” said Ihenga, “you may go to the island.” Thus the main land came to the possession of Ihenga.
Then Ihenga borrowed a small canoe belonging to Tu, and went on in search of his flock of shags. He found them hanging in a kahikatea tree near Waikuta. He called the stream by that name because of the plant kuta, which grew abundantly there. He named the land Ra-roa, because of the length of the day occupied in his canoe. He climbed the tree and threw down the birds, and placed them in the canoe. Then he went on and came to a river which he afterwards named Ngongotaha. There was a hill hard by to which he gave the same name. The hill belonged to the Patupaiarehe or Fairies. They had a Pa on the hill named Tuahu-o-te-atua. He heard them playing on the putorino,[49] the koauau,[49] and the putara;[49] so he thought men must be [pg 72] living there. He climbed the hill, and when he got near, he heard the sounds of the haka and waiata:—
A canoe, a canoe,
A canoe of flax, a canoe.
Grow kawa,
Blaze kawa.
Tie up carefully
With leaf of flax,
Blazing kawa.
Whakatauihi made this haka. His was also the proverb, “ko te ure tonu; ko te raho tonu.” He it was who avenged the death of Tuhuruhuru.[50]
When Ihenga got nearer he perceived that they were not men, but Atua. There was a fire burning on a tree. So he stopt suddenly to look at them, while they looked at him. “A nanakia,” shouted one of them, running forward to catch him. But Ihenga fled, and, as he was running, set fire to the dry fern with a lighted brand he had in his hand. The whole fern was ablaze, and the tribe of Fairies fled to the forest and the hills. Then Ihenga went back to look at their Pa which had been burnt by the fire. There he found the kauae or jaw-bone of a moa, so he named the place Kauae. He then returned to the shore of the lake, and went on in his canoe. He named the hill Ngongotaha, because of the flight of the Fairies.