Page:Maori Religion and Mythology.djvu/92

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CLAIMING AND
CH. vi.

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 Tara-mainuku 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[1] 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

  1. Tama-te-kapua.