Tuesday 23 March, 2004 at 11:10AM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (4)  ::  trackbacks (7)

This is the third part in the continued story of creation according to Maori legend.

But now a savage mood came over Tumatauenga the war guardian, wrath of man. Since Tanemahuta and the other three had been defeated and had left him to withstand Tawhirimatea on his own, he felt a wish to take vengence on Tanemahuta (guardian of the forest) and Tanehokahoka (guardian of birds). Besides, he knew that the offspring of Tanemahuta and Tanehokahoka were increasing and were making the earth more lovely, and he feared that they might become his enemies should they become too strong. He therefore gathered some of the long stringy leaves of the te whanake tree (flax) and twisted them into nooses, and when he had made enough he went into the forest setting snares, and hung them in cunning ways. Soon the offspring of Tanehokahoka were caught in his snares and lay trembling, unable to fly away, and became his food. He also gathered the children of Tanemahuta and ate them, extracting their healing properties.

Next, Tumatauenga took revenge on Tangaroa (the guardian of sea life) for being no help to him against Tawhirimatea. He sought out the sea guardian's offspring, and found them leaping and swimming in the water. He cut down strips of flax and wove them into nets, and dragged them in the sea and hauled out Tangaroa's children and he cooked them and ate them.

After that he took revenge on the meekest of this brothers, Rongomatane and Haumiatiketike (the guardians of cultivated and uncultivated food). He found them by their tell-tale leaves, which still show man where food is growing. From a stout piece of one of Tanemahuta trees he shaped a digging-stick, or ko, and with some flax he weaved baskets, and dug up the children of Rongomatane and Haumiatiketike, and by cooking them desanctified them and made them common, and he ate them.

Tumatauenga had now defeated entirely his four brothers of the earth and sea, and their offspring were his food. But Tawhirimatea, the guardian of winds and storms, he could not defeat nor make into food. And so Tawhirimatea remains as an enemy for man today, and both are eternally at war.

Thus Tumatauenga, the guardian of war, is man, but only the spirit and not the body, for man was not yet made, there being no woman.

When Tumatauenga had completed the conquest of his brothers he assigned certain karakia to each of them [karakia means 'words of the ancestors', literal translation: incantation or prayer]. These karakia were to make their offspring plentiful for his food. There were karakia to Tanemahuta, karakia for Tangaroa, for Rongomatane and for Haumiatiketike. There were karakia also to Tawhirimatea to give favourable winds, and karakia to Ranginui to give fair weather, and to Papatuanuku, the Earth, to produce all things in abundance. There were also karakia for man himself, suited to the different occasions in his life: karakia for the naming of an infant, for protection against sickness, and for strength and victory in war, and karakia for all of his belongings, for his houses and fortifications, his spears and his war clubs.

Tumatauenga pic from tu.co.nz

The next installment will tell the story of the the Turning of Papatuanuku, the Earth Mother.

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