Page:Polynesian Mythology by George Grey (polynesianmythol00greyuoft).djvu/157

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The Legend of Poutini and Whaiapu.

The Discovery of New Zealand.

Now pay attention to the cause of the contention which arose between Poutini and Whaiapu, which led them to emigrate to New Zealand. For a long time they both rested in the same place, and Hine-tu-a-hoanga, to whom the stone Whaiapu[1] belonged, became excessively enraged with Ngahue, and with his stone Poutini.[2] At last she drove Ngahue out and forced him to leave the place, and Ngahue departed and went to a strange land, taking his jasper. When Hine-tu-a-hoanga saw that he was departing with his precious stone, she followed after them, and Ngahue arrived at Tuhua with his stone, and Hine-tu-a-hoanga arrived and landed there at the same time with him, and began to drive him away again. Then Ngahue went to seek a place where his jasper stones might remain in peace, and he found in the sea this island Aotearoa (the northern island of New Zealand), and he thought he would land there.


  1. Green jasper.
  2. Obsidian, with which the natives grind down the jasper.