Thence they went on to Ohou-kaka, so named by Kahu from a parrot-feather hou-kaka, which he took [pg 76] from the hair of his head, and stuck in the ground to become a taniwha or spirit monster for that place. When they reached the place where their canoes had been left they launched two, a small sacred canoe for Kahu, and a large canoe for the others. Then they embarked, and as they paddled along coming near a certain beach, Kahu threw off his clothes, and leaped ashore, naked. His two grandsons, Tama-ihu-toroa and Uenuku, laughed and shouted “Ho! ho! see, there go Kahu’s legs.” So the place was named Kuwha-rua-o-Kahu. In this way they proceeded, giving names to places not before named, till they reached Lake Rotorua. They landed at Tuara-hiwi-roa, and remained there several nights, and built a whata, or food-store raised on posts; so that place was named Te Whata.
Then going on by way of the Hot Springs, they arrived at Te Pera-o-tangaroa, and Wai-o-hiro, the stream where Tu-o-rotorua formerly dwelt. Next they came to Ngongotaha, which Kahu named Parawai, after his garden at Maketu.
After they had dwelt two whole years at Parawai Kahu determined to visit his nephew Taramainuku. Taramainuku and Warenga, the elder brothers of Ihenga, had abandoned the land at Moehau. The former had gone to the Wairoa at Kaipara, and the latter to the Kawakawa at the Bay of Islands, and had settled there. So Kahu set out with his son-in-law Ihenga, and his son Tawaki, and some travelling companions. He left behind at Parawai his daughter Hine-te-kakara, and her son Tama-ihu-toroa. He also left Uenuku, the son of Tawaki, and his wife, Waka-oti-rangi, to keep possession of Parawai as a permanent abode for them.
[pg 77] Arriving at the hills they rested, and Kahu sought a shelter under a rata tree, which he named Te Whaka-marumaru-o-Kahu (Kahu’s shelter). Thereupon Ihenga perceiving that Kahu was giving his own name to the land, pointed to a matai tree; for he saw a root jutting out from the trunk of the tree resembling a man’s thigh; he therefore named it Te Ure-o-Tuhoro. He named it after his father’s ure to weigh down the name of Kahu, his father-in-law, so that the place might go to his own descendants. And it went to his descendants, and is now in possession of Ngatitama. As they went on Kahu’s dog caught a kakapo, so he named the place Te Kakapo. A little further on they came to a part of the hill where a stone projected from the face of the cliff. Then Kahu chanted a karakia called Uru-uru-whenua:—
I come to Matanuku,
I come to Matarangi,
I come to your land,
A stranger.
Feed thou on the heart of the stranger.
Put to sleep mighty spirits,
Put to sleep ancient spirits,
Feed thou on the heart of the stranger.
So he named the place Matanuku, which name remains to this day.
Arriving on the banks of the river Waikato he crossed over and rested while food was being cooked. The young men were very dilatory, and Kahu was angry at their laziness; so he named the place Mangare. Afterwards they came to the river Waipa, crossing which they passed over Pirongia to Waingaroa, and thence along the sea beach to the mouth of the river Waikato. Here [pg 78] they fell in with Ohomairangi. He came in Tainui. He was the brother of Tuikakapa, a wife of Houmaitahiti, and mother of Tama-te-kapua and Whakaturia.
From Waikato they proceeded along the sea beach to Manuka, so named by Kahu who set up a manuka post there as a rahui or sacred mark. Here Kahu’s companions embarked in a canoe, while he prevailed on a taniwha or sea monster of that place, named Paikea, to carry him on his back. At length they drew near to Kaipara, and falling in with some of the men of Taramainuku were conveyed by them in their canoes to Pouto, where Tara was residing on the banks of the river Wairoa.
The tangi resounded, and speeches of welcome followed—“Come here, come here, my father. Come to visit us, and to look on us. I have deserted your elder brother and your father” (meaning their bodies left buried at Moehau).
Then Kahu spoke—“Welcome us, welcome us, my Ariki. Behold us here. I the suffering one come to you. I thought that you, my Ariki, would seek me. But it is well, for I now behold you face to face, and you also behold me. I and your younger brother will return to our own place, that I may die on the land which your grandfather[52] in his farewell words to me and my elder brother named as a land for you. I was deserted by my elder brother on account of our strife about the garden. But that land is not for the younger brother only—no, it is for all of you alike. But I will not part with your [pg 79] younger brother, and for this reason I gave him your cousin for wife.”