Such is in brief the story of the giant’s grave—a misnomer assuredly, seeing that Kiharoa’s tomb was the stomachs of his slayers. The Tokanui village hall stands within revolver shot of the place where Kiharoa came to his end, and the community creamery at the cross-roads stands where once Wahanui’s cannibal army plied spear and stone club and taiaha on the defenders of the three hill forts. Some distance to the east is the Waikeria prison farm. It was in that direction, at Tunaroa, that Wahanui and his Totorewa army lay in the fern the night before the battle.
There was another giant of those parts in the days before the white man came with his guns. This was Matau; he was, like Kiharoa, a man of the Ngati-Raukawa tribe. He was nearly as tall as Kiharoa, says an old word-of-mouth historian. He was a dreaded warrior, and, like Kiharoa again, his favourite weapon was the taiaha. His home was in a palisaded hole in a cliff above the cave called Te Ana Kai-tangata (“The Cannibal’s Cave”), which you may see in the rocky face in the gorge towards the head of the [[100]]Wairaka Stream, a tributary of the Puniu River. The entrance to this cave is still marked with the paint kokowai or red ochre; that is how you will know it. It was an excellent place in which to lie in wait for incautious travellers in the days of old. [[101]]
APPENDICES
SOME MAORI PLACE NAMES.
The following are the meanings of a number of native place-names in the Te Awamutu district; some of these names are now for the first time placed on record:—
- Te Awamutu: The end of the river; i.e., the head of canoe navigation.
- Rangiaowhia: Beclouded sky.
- Kihikihi: Cicada, tree-locust.
- Orakau: The place of trees.
- Paterangi: Fort of heaven; i.e., the pa on the high part of the ridge, the skyline.
- Waiari: Clear water.
- Mangapiko: Crooked creek.
- Te Rore: The snare.
- Mangatea (on the Manga-o-Hoi, where the mill stood): White stream.
- Matariki (a short distance above the bridge at Te Awamutu, right bank of river): The Pleiades constellation; also reeds used for lining the interior of a house.
- Te Reinga (old village site behind R.C. Church, Rangiaowhia): Leaping, rushing; thus the place of leaping, the final departing place of spirits of the dead.
- Hikurangi (the Rangiaowhia heights above the Manga-o-Hoi; Gifford’s Hill; also place on Pirongia-Kawhia Road): Skyline; horizon.
- Pekapeka-rau (swamp between Hairini and Rangiaowhia): Place where the native bat was numerous.
- Tioriori (native village, near where the Hairini cheese factory now stands): A kind of kite, made of raupo.
- Tau-ki-tua (the site of the English Church at Rangiaowhia): The farther ridge.
- Te Rahu: Basket made of undressed flax.
- Te Rua-Kotare (Taylor’s Hill, or Green Hill, north of Te Awamutu): The kingfisher’s nest (in hollow tree).
- Tauwhare (ancient pa on cliffy right bank of Mangapiko River, above Waiari): Overhanging.
- Tokanui: Great Rock.
- Waikeria: Dug-out waterway, or watercourse gouged out.
- Otorohanga: O, food carried for a journey; torohanga, stretched out. According to a Ngati-Maniapoto tradition, a certain warrior chief who set out from this spot for Taupo with only a very small quantity of food caused it by supernatural means to “stretch out” and to last until he had reached his destination. Hence the name.