The fame of Tawhaki’s courage in destroying the race of Ponaturi, and a report of his manly beauty, chanced to reach the ears of a young maiden of the heavenly race who live above in the skies,
So, one night she descended from the heavens to visit Tawhaki, and to judge for herself, whether these reports were true.
She found him lying sound asleep, and after gazing at him for sometime, she went to his side and laid down by him.
He, when disturbed by her, thought that it was only a female of this lower world, and slept again.
Before dawn the young girl stole away and ascended once more into the heavens.
In the morning Tawhaki awoke and felt all over his sleeping place with both hands, but in vain, he could not find the young girl.
From that time, Tango-Tango, the girl of the heavens, stole every night to the side of Tawhaki, and, lo, in the morning she was gone.
Until she found that she had conceived a child, who was afterwards called Arahuta, then, full of love for Tawhaki, she disclosed herself fully to him and lived constantly in this world with him, deserting, for his sake, her friends above, and he discovered that she who had loved him so much belonged to the race whose home is in heaven.
Thus, while living with him, this girl of the heavenly race, his second wife, said to him, “Oh, Tawhaki, if our baby so shortly now to be born, should prove to be a son, I will wash the little thing before it is baptized, but if it is a little girl then you shall wash it”.
When the time came Tango-tango had a little girl, and before it was baptized Tawhaki took it to a spring to wash it, and afterwards held it away from him as if it smelt badly and said, “Faugh, how badly this little thing smells”.
Then Tango-tango, when she heard this said of her own dear little baby, began to sob and cry bitterly, and at last rose up from her place with the child, and began to take flight towards the sky, but she paused one moment, with one foot resting upon the carved figure at the end of the ridgepole of the house, above the door.
Then Tawhaki rushed forward, and springing up tried to catch hold of his young wife, but missing her, he entreatingly besought her “Mother of my child, oh, return to once more to me”.
But she replied, “No. No, I shall never return to you again”.
Tawhaki once more called up to her, “At least then, leave me some remembrance of you”.
Then his young wife called down to him, “These are my parting words of remembrance to you, ..Take care that you do not lay hold with your hands of the loose root of the creeper, which dropping from aloft sways to and fro in the air, but rather lay fast hold on that which hanging down from on high has again struck its fibers into the earth”.
Then she floated up into the air , and vanished from sight.
Tawhaki remained plunged in grief, for his heart was torn by regrets for his wife and his little girl.
One moon waned after her departure when Tawhaki, unable to endure his sufferings any longer, called out to his younger brother, Karihi, saying, “Oh, brother, shall we go and search for my little girl?”
Karihi consented, saying, “ Yes, let us go”.
So they departed, taking two slaves with them as companions for their journey.
When they reached the pathway along which they intended to travel, Tawhaki said to the two slaves, “You, being unclean or unconsecrated persons must be careful when we come to the place where the road passes the fortress of Tongameha, not to look up at it for it is enchanted, and some evil will befall you if you do”.
They went along the road and when they came to the place mentioned by Tawhaki, one of the slaves looked up at the fortress, and his eye was immediately torn out by the magical arts of Tongameha, and he perished.
Tawhaki and Karihi and their one slave continued along the road until at last they reached the spot where the ends of of the vines which hung down from heaven reached earth.
There they found an old woman who was quite blind, She was appointed to take care of the vines and she sat at the place where they touched the earth, and she held the ends of one of them in her hands.
This old lady was at the moment employed in counting some taro roots, which she was about to have cooked, and as she was blind she was not aware of the strangers who stole quietly and silently up to her,
There were ten taro roots lying in a heap in front of her and she began to count them,
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
Just at this moment Tawhaki quietly slipped the tenth, the old lady felt everywhere for it, but she could not find it.
She thought she must have made a mistake, and began to count her taro over again very carefully.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, just then Tawhaki slipped away the ninth.
She was quite surprised, so she counted then again quite slowly, and being still unable to find the missing two, she at last thought that somebody was playing a trick on her, so she pulled her weapon out, which she always sat on to keep it safe, and standing up turned around, feeling about her as she moved, to try and find Tawhaki and Karihi.
But they very gently stooped down and lay close there, so her weapon passed over the top of them, and she could not find anybody.
When she had thus swept the area she placed her weapon back in its place and sat down on it again.
Karihi then struck her a blow upon the face, and she, quite frightened, threw up her hands to her face, pressing them on the place she had been struck, crying out, “Oh, who did that?”
Tawhaki then touched both of her eyes, and, lo, she was at once restored to sight, and saw quite plainly, and she knew her grandchildren and wept over them.
When the old lady had finished weeping over them, she asked, “Where are you going to?”
Tawhaki replied, “I go to seek my little girl”.
The old lady asked, “But where is she?”
Tawhaki replied, “Above there, in the skies”
The old lady then asked, “But what made her go to the skies?”
Tawhaki replied, “Her mother came from the heaven, She was the daughter of Whati-tiri-mata-ka-taka”.
The old lady pointed to the vines and said to them, “Up there, then, lies your road, but do not begin the ascent so late in the day, wait until tomorrow, for the morning, and then commence to climb up.”
They consented to follow this good advise, and called out to his slave, “Cook some food for us.”
The slave began at once to cook food, and when it was ready they all partook of it and slept there that night.
At the first peep of dawn Tawhaki called out to their slave, “Cook some food for us, that we may have strength to undergo the fatigues of this great journey”.
When the meal was finished, Tawhaki took his slave and presented him to the old woman, as an acknowledgement for great kindness to them.
The old woman called out to them as they were starting, “There lies the ascent before you, lay fast hold of the vine with your hands, and climb on, but when you get to midway between heaven and earth, take care not to look down upon this lower world again, lest you become charmed and giddy, and fall down.”
“Take care, also, that you do not by mistake lay hold of the vine which swings loose, but rather lay hold on the one which hanging down from above, has firmly struck root into the earth”.
Just at that moment Karihi made a spring at the vines to catch them, and by mistake caught hold of the loose one, and away he swung to the very edge of the horizon, but a blast of wind blew forth from thence, and drove him back to the other side of the skies.
On reaching that point, another strong land wind swept him right up heavenwards, and down he was blown again by the currents of air from above, then just as he reached near the earth again, Tawhaki called out, “Now, my brother, loose your hands, now is the time”.
Karihi did so, and, lo, he stood upon the earth once more, and the two brothers wept together over Karihi’s narrow escape from destruction.
When they had ceased lamenting Tawhaki, who was alarmed lest any disaster should overtake his younger brother said to him, “It is my desire that you should return home, to take care of our families and our dependents”.
Karihi at once returned to the village of their tribe, as his eldest brother had directed him.
Tawhaki now began to climb the ascent to heaven, and the old blind woman called out to him as he went up, “Hold fast, my child, let your hands hold tight”.
Tawhaki made use of, and kept repeating a powerful incantation as he climbed up to the heavens, to preserve him from the dangers of that difficult and terrible road.
At length he reached the heavens, and pulled himself up into them, and by enchantments he disguised himself, and changed his handsome and noble appearance, and assumed the likeness of a very ugly old man.
He followed the road he had first come upon, and entered a dense forest into which he ran, and still followed it until he came to a place in the forest where his brothers-in-law, with a party of their people, were hewing canoes from the trunks of trees.
They saw him, and little thinking who he was, called out, “Here’s an old fellow who will make a nice slave for us”.
Tawhaki went quietly on, and when he reached them, he sat down with the people who were working on the canoe.
It now drew near evening, and his brothers-in-law finished their work, and called out to him, “ Ho, old man, you just carry these heavy axes home for us, will you”.
Tawhaki consented to do this and they gave him the axes, he then said, “You go on ahead, do not mind me, I am old and heavy laden, I cannot travel fast”.
So they started off, the old man following slowly behind, and when his brothers-in-law were all out of sight, he turned back to the canoe, and taking an axe he adzed the canoe rapidly along from the bow to the stern, and lo, one side of the canoe was finished.
Then he took the axe again, and ran it rapidly down the other side of the canoe from the bow to the stern, and lo, that side of the canoe was also beautifully finished.
He then walked quietly along the road again, like am old man, carrying the axes with him, and went on for some time without seeing anything.
When he drew near to the village, he found two women gathering firewood, and as soon as they saw him, one of them observed to her companion, “I say, there is a curious looking old man, is he not?”
Her companion exclaimed, “He shall be our slave and carry the firewood for us”.
So the took Tawhaki, and laid a load of firewood upon his back, and made him carry that as well as the axes, so was this mighty chief treated as a slave, even by the female slaves.
When they reached the village, the two women called out, “We’ve caught an old man for a slave”.
Then Tango-tango exclaimed, “That’s right, bring him along with you then, he’ll do for all of us”.
Little did his wife Tango-tango think that the slave they were insulting, and whom she was talking about in such a way was her own husband, Tawhaki.
When Tawhaki saw Tango-tango sitting at a fireplace near the upper end of the house with their little girl. He went straight up to the place, and everybody present tried to stop him, calling out.
“Ho!, ho!, take care what you are doing, do not got there, you will become tapued [cursed]from sitting near Tango-tango”.
But the old man, without minding them, went rapidly straight on, and carried his load of firewood right up to the very fire of Tango-tango.
The people all said, “There, the old man is Tapu, it is his own fault”.
Tango-tango had not the least idea that this was Tawhaki, and yet, there were her husband and herself seated, on opposite sides of the same fire.
They all stopped in the house until the sun rose next morning, then at daybreak his brothers-in-law called out to him, “Come old man, you bring the axes along, do you hear”.
So the old man took up the axes, and started with them, and they all went together to the forest, to work on adzing out their canoes.
When they reached the canoes, and the brothers-in-law saw the canoe that Tawhaki had worked at, they looked at it with astonishment, saying, “Why, this canoe is not at all as we left it, who can have been working on it?”
When their wonder was somewhat abated, they all sat down and set to work adzing out another canoe, and they continued to work on it until evening, when they called out to the old man as before. “Old fellow, come here and carry the axes back to the village again”.
Tawhaki again replied that he would, but, because of his age he would be slower.
Again, as soon as the others were out of sight, he tool an axe and adzed out the next canoe, and having finished, he walked straight back to the village, and straight up to the fire of Tango-tango, and remained there until the sun rose the next morning.
When they were all ready early the next morning to return to work on their canoes, they again called out to Tawhaki, “Hey, old man, just bring those axes along with you”.
When they reached the canoes the brothers-in-law were quite astonished on seeing it, and shouted out, “Why, here again, this canoe, too, is not as we left it, who can have been at work at it?”
Having wondered for some time, they then commenced to adze out another canoe, continuing to work until early evening as usual.
They then decided to hide themselves in the forest and see who it was who came every evening to work on their canoes, Tawhaki overheard their plan.
When they started home, they had only got a little way before they turned into the forest, and hid under some clumps of bushes.
Tawhaki went a little further into the forest, stripped off his old cloak, and threw them to one side, and repeating the necessary incantations he put off his disguise, and took again his own appearance, and made himself look noble and handsome, he then commenced his work on the canoe.
The brothers-in-law when they heard him so employed said, “It must be the old man we made a slave who is working on our canoe”.
They crept closer and said, “Come here and just watch, why it is not in the least like that old man”.
Then they said, “This must be a demi-god”, and without showing themselves they ran back to the village, and as soon as they reached it they asked Tango-tango to describe her husband for them.
She described his appearance as well as she could and they said to her, “Yes, that must be he, he is exactly like him who you have described to us”.
Tango-tango then said, “Then that chief must certainly be your brother-in-law”.
Just at this moment Tawhaki reappeared at the village, having again disguised himself as the ugly old man.
Tango-tango immediately questioned him, saying “Now tell me who are you?”
Tawhaki made no reply, but walked straight towards her.
She asked again, “Tell me, are you Tawhaki?”
He murmured in assent, still walking on until he reached the side of his wife, and then he snatched up his little daughter, and holding her fast in his arms, pressed her to his heart.
At the same time he returned to his real appearance, and the people present all rushed out of the courtyard of the house to the neighbouring courtyards, and murmurs of gratification and surprise arose from the people upon every side at the splendour of his appearance, for it was very different from the old man that they had seen before.
Then he retired with his wife, and he said to her, “I have come here that our little daughter might be made to undergo the ceremonies usual for the children of nobles, to secure them good fortune and happiness in this life”, and Tango-tango consented.
When the morning sun arose, they broke out an opening through the rear of the house opposite the door, that the little girls rank might be seen by her being carried out that way, instead of the usual entrance to the house, and they repeated the prescribed prayers when she was carried through the walls of the house.
The prayers and incantations being finished, lightning flashed from the armpits of Tawhaki, then they carried the little girl to the water, and plunged her into it, and repeated a baptismal incantation over her.
Tawhaki is said to still dwell in the skies, and is worshiped as a god, and thunder and lightning are said to caused by his footsteps when he moves.
Info From Sir George Grey
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-spread-of-the-descendants-of-hoturoa
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/tainui-canoe-travels-from-hawaiki-to-new-zealand
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/myths-and-legends-of-new-zealand-intro
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-this-series-began
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-warrior-deeds-of-kaihuma
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-kaihamu-killed-his-enemies-at-waiatapu
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/tupahau-goes-fishing-at-marokopa
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/maki-s-battles-in-tamaki
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/karewa-s-fights-with-the-ngapuhi
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-continuing-battles-of-the-tainui-people
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-story-of-maru-tuahu
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/continuing-maru-tuahu-s-story
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kiki-and-tamure-the-two-sorcerers
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-rauparaha
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/some-of-the-stories-of-tawhaki
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