Conflict between the patupaiarehe of Te Aroha and Rangitoto Mountains

Te Aroha Maunga, Hauraki 

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The following story was published in the Journal of the Polynesian Society in 1921 and tells of conflict between the patupaiarehe of the Te Aroha-Moehau ranges (led by Ruatāne) and patupaiarehe of Rangitoto, Wharepūhunga and Maungatautari (led by Tarapīkau). The text beneath has not been edited.

THE PATU-PAIAREHE OF RANGITOTO AND TE AROHA.

An elder of Ngati-Maniapoto narrates this tradition of the Patu-paiarehe of his district, a legend into which a considerable element of the marvellous enters:—

In the days of old a chief named Rua-tane was the rangatira of the Patu-paiarehe tribe, who inhabited the forests of Te Aroha mountain and the wooded ranges extending thence northward to Moehau (Cape Colville). Tarapikau was the chief of the Patu-paiarehe who lived on the ranges of Rangitoto, Wharepuhunga, and Maunga-tautari. Now, in the days of these chiefs, a certain woman of Ngati-Matakore (a sub-tribe of Ngati-Maniapoto) went out alone into the forest at Pa-motumotu (a mountain on the west side of the Mongatutu stream, north of the Rangitoto range) to gather the berries of the tawa tree for food. She climbed up through the bush seeking the fruit of the tawa. She trespassed unwittingly on certain sacred places there, and she was seized by Rua-tane, of Te Aroha, who chanced to be visiting Rangitoto. He found her in a sacred place and he carried her off to his home on the highest peak of Te Aroha mountain. When that captive woman of Ngati-Matakore arrived at Te Aroha, she was seen by certain of her spirit relatives (whanaunga wairua) there. Thereupon these relatives of hers journeyed to Rangitoto, and there they told the fairy chief Tarapikau, and made request of him that he should intervene and restore the stolen Maori woman to her home. Upon hearing this, Tarapikau immediately assembled a band of his warriors for the purpose of recapturing the woman. He sent a messenger on ahead to give secret instructions to the woman to remain close to the central house-pillar (poutoko-manawa) of the fairies' meeting-house when the tribe gathered there.

The war-party arrived at Te Aroha mountain; Tarapikau led them to the pa of Rua-tane's tribe. When daylight was near, the people of Te Aroha gathered in their house for repose. Tarapikau's men chanted an action-song in chorus, the effect of which was to steep the sleepers in profound slumber. Tarapikau then climbed on to the roof of the house, and made an opening in the thatch alongside the top of the post. The woman he sought was sitting at the foot of the post. He pulled her up through the opening in the roof, and took her away to Rangitoto, he and all his war-party, and returned her to her home and people.

When Rua-tane and his tribe awoke from their deep slumbers they saw that the woman from the Maori world had been taken away from them, and they knew that Tarapikau had taken her. This was the beginning of a quarrel and of war between the two tribes of Patu-paiarehe. So Rua-tane in his turn raised a fighting band, and set out for Rangitoto to attack Tarapikau. When that Patu-paiarehe chief observed from afar the army from Te Aroha marching to slay him, he gave orders to his warriors, and his ope gathered at Pae-whenua (on the north side of the Rangitoto foothills). Presently Rua-tane arrived with his war-party and ascended the slope of Pae-whenua. There he saw the warriors of his antagonist awaiting his attack; they were so numerous that the land was covered with them. When he beheld the great strength of the Rangitoto tribe, he prudently decided not to advance any further, and with all his men he retired to Te Aroha and remained there.

Then, one day, Rua-tane set forth and climbed to the extreme pinnacle of the highest range of Te Aroha, and he gazed far across the plains to the south, towards the Rangitoto mountains [fifty miles away], where dwelt his foe Tarapikau. He saw a great totara tree standing on the summit, and he saw Tarapikau sitting on a branch on the east side of the tree. He launched a burning spear-dart (kopere) at Tarapikau, who, when he saw it hurtling towards him, quickly shifted to a branch on the west side of the tree. The fiery dart hurled by Rua-tane struck the first bough on which Tarapikau had been resting and set it ablaze, and it was partly burned by the flames. The tree is still standing there, and the burnt branch, part of which is to be seen, is known to this day by the name “Te Kopere-a-Rua-tane.” Tarapikau was not killed or injured by that enchanted dart of Rua-tane.

“That,” says the narrator, “was the end of the fighting amongst the Patu-paiarehe tribes. These were the direct descendants of that Patu-paiarehe chief Tarapikau: Te Ruawharo, Te Waiheru, and Hau-auru. The principal occupation of this fairy chief was the guardianship of the sacred places of his tribe, the wahi tapu at Pamotumotu, Pane-tapu, and Arohena. There are three chief treasures or properties of this fairy tribe on the ranges of Rangitoto—red flax, red-haired pigs, and red eels in the streams. Should a Maori person ascend to the sacred places on the ranges, one or other of these objects will be seen, and the trespasser will be seized and carried to the top of the mountain; only when he is seen by the tohunga can he return to his home.”

The fairy army of Tarapikau is to be seen near Pae-whenua even at this day, says Ngati-Maniapoto. An array of limestone rocks and stones, lying in the fern in curiously regular formation, is the enchanted war-party; it is called by the Maoris “Te Ope-a-Tara-pikau.”

From 'The Patu-paiarehe: Notes on Maori Folk Tales of the Fairy People', Part Two, by James Cowan in Journal of the Polynesian Society, Volume 30, No. 119, 1921, pp. 144-146