Mahuika's Tales No 33 The battle between men and fish (part 1)

                            A Maori gourd

The next time Mahuika went to Black Sands she came with Ahu and Ahuahu son Aotea and his family. There was a big celebration to be held at the hot springs in the meeting house there of their family. Tangaroa and Horowai were now the custodians of the springs and were well respected. Mahuika was glad they invited Hekeheke and Maui too. When she thanked Tangaroa he replied. "We know she is your family now, therefore she belongs to us too." But if you tell us a story it must be one we have never heard before. Have you one to tell?"

I have story that I do not really understand but I will tell it to you. Then each of us can try to interpret it. So after their meal and with everyone settled in anticipation Mahuika started her story:


There was once a man a long, long time ago who was cross with his wife who when he returned from fishing was too lazy to help him carry the fish home.He saw her throw much away except for the the two or three that she would cook that day. She didn't use the fish drying rack like other women in the village but merely expected him to provide food everyday. Eventually he determined to leave her and find a better wife. So he went down to the great forest of Tane with a fire brand in his hand. There he prayed and chanted words to the gods before he went on his journey without talking to his wife.

"If my wife follows me and ask after me" he said to the trees, "Do not tell her of me being here for she is a lazy woman who wastes the food I fetch for us." The trees swayed in the breeze and agreed to his request. When he came to a stream he talked to the water too, "I am leaving my wife who is deceitful and tiresome. I work to obtain food but she throws it away and the maggots eat it. I'll shall go to find an industrious wife. If she comes after me you will know her by her loud voice. Please do not betray me." The stream gurgled its agreement.

So the man left the forest and made his way to another settlement and told the people there his story. They invited him to stay and promised to protect him.

When his wife realized he had gone she went in search of him. When she entered the forest she called out "O trees! Has my husband gone along this path?" But the trees were still and quiet so she returned home as night was falling.

The next day she spoke to everything he had touched around the house. "O fire my husband has gone, he would have taken a fire brand with him, where is he now?" But the fire just smoldered away quietly. Then she saw his drinking gourd "O gourd, my husband touched you with his lips, surely he said where he was going? What path did he take?"  But no sound came from the gourd's mouth. The she spied the clothing he had left behind "O garments you have touched his skin and covered him while sleeping surely he murmured what he planned?" But his cloak did not move at all. She found his fishing line and said "O line, you have fished with him so many time he would talk to you confidence, tell me where he has gone." but the line said naught. But his fishing line was silent. Finally she went to the entrance door and touched the framework. "O door, you knew of all his comings and goings you must know which way he went." But the door creaked no reply. The wife then threw herself on her bed and cried herself to sleep. 

In the morning when she woke she picked their water gourd to quench her thirst. For some reason the gourd who had listened her pleading with everything her husband had touched felt sorry for her, having been kissed by her husbands lips as she had been. As she drank the gourd whispered to her, "If you break me so I need never be your servant again I will show you where your husband went. I will take you to the river he crossed." 

So the woman cracked the gourd on the floor then said "When did my husband go?"

The gourd replied "He went in the morning."

So she set off carrying the gourd with her. The gourd spoke again. "You should follow him for you have news for him."

"What news is that gourd?"

"You are with child." The gourd replied with a cracked voice. 

When they reached the river the gourd again spoke, "You husband crossed the river here. Crack me again and I will take you across and lead you on."

So the woman cracked the gourd again so hard that she broke it into pieces. When they got to the other side the gourd could no longer speak and both it and the woman became lost as they were confused by the enchanted river. They wandered about aimlessly but in the end she had to return home again. After a few months she gave birth to a son so could not search for her husband any more.

She prayed everyday to the god Tangaroa asking forgiveness for the way she wasted the food her husband had provided for her. She told him of all her troubles bringing up her son without a father telling him everything and hoped that he could help her.

Tangaroa listened and decided to help her so he gathered all the fish in the world together to solve the problem.

Mahuika stopped telling the story at this point and spoke the the family who were still listening. 
"Now this is where the story changes in a way you cannot imagine. The next time we meet I will tell you what happened."

Although everyone was disappointed they could see that as many of the children had fallen asleep either on the floor or in their parents arms so they would have to hear the second half of the story another day.

Moana’s confession (No 42)

The continuing story of Ahu and Ahuahu her husband in a Maori village in Aotearoa before European settlement of New Zealand. (Missed an episode? Click on Ahu in the labels bar for previous posts.)

Both Ahu and Hatiti spoke to Ahuahu about Moana whilst she was playing with Tangaroa and the other children from the village in front of the houses. As they watched she seemed so young to for them to be talking about her fondness for the chief’s son Paikea and how she should be looked after now that she lived with them.

Ahuahu listened to the women talk and when they looked to him he was playing a hand game with Hekehoru who was on his lap. The women too had their babies with them, Hatiti was holding Aotea Ahu’s son who she had breast fed and Ahu was playing with Horowai Hatiti’s little girl. Ahu said, “Did you not want to discuss this?”

He lifted his face to theirs and smiled. “What you have learned I had already worked out. Paikea and Moana could not stop looking at each other when we returned the other day. The chief wanted to have her with him …to help his wives I expect, until I told him they were already looking at each other. As you say she will have to work very hard to catch his eye again with his father looking on and his mother and aunts checking her suitability. However despite what she says about not wanting to go to the village where the Kakas call. I think one of us should take her there to see her mother.”

Both women then shook their heads. “She does not want to be sent back there, Ahuahu.” protested Hatiti.

“She will not be sent back, Hatiti. She will visit her mother to assure her she is safe with us and that she has a home and work to do here. It will also help to show that she is becoming a responsible woman as you will persist in matchmaking.”

The two women agreed that he was right. They then started to discuss who should accompany her. In the end Ahu said it would be best that she went.

“Hatiti has never been there and is still feeding Aotea and I can see Ahuahu does not want to as Moana’s mother may not like the way that would look. We will tell Moana tonight and prepare to be at least two nights away.”

Hatiti then said “Look at the way Moana and Tangaroa play together they look so happy. Why couldn’t she stay young a little while longer?”

“Are you thinking of Hinewai, Hatiti?” asked Ahu.

Hatiti nodded sadly “Moana reminds me of her before she became a woman.”

Later that evening they told Moana of their decision. She protested at first but in the end she could see that it was a sensible thing for her to do.

“I will try to remember the way to get there.” said Ahu. “I only ever went there once when I was child it will be a bit of a search for us.”

“It is alright Ahu, I remember.” said Moana quietly.

“Oh Moana not another little lie, how many more are there?” asked Hatiti.

With tears in her eyes Moana said in a very small voice, “I think that is the last one.”

Ahu and Moana were gone early the next day. As it was still winter they had had cloaks on and carried baskets with food and knives, some dry firewood and moss for the journey and a present for Moana’s mother.

It was cold and windy but was not raining so they set a brisk pace heading west into the high country. They had long passed the Ngerengrere settlement and climbed higher still surrounded by an endless vista of ferns when Ahu said that they should stop for a meal as it was past midday even though they could not see the sun.

“Do you remember where we are Moana?”

“Yes, I think we may get there by nightfall but we may have to sleep out if it gets dark quickly.”

“Yes, we should stop well before dark as it is so cloudy in order to make camp and try to light a fire Moana.” replied Ahu.

They had just reached the edge of a tall forest when Ahu decided that they travelled far enough. They walked into the forest and made an encampment under a large tree clearing the ground and when Ahu had sent Moana off to find water she set about using the sticks and the string to start a fire. She extracted the dry moss from a package and placed it in a wooden dish. She then set up her fire making equipment and started to twirl the dry sticks in the little depression in the dish. Moana returned a little later with some water in some little bowls just as Ahu was teasing the dried moss into the centre to try to catch a spark. It took some time but eventually the sparks caught the moss and the dry leaves that Moana carefully placed in the bowl. Gradually the flames were fed with twigs and the fire was tipped onto the place prepared on the ground and it took hold.

After they had eaten their food and drunk the water from the stream Ahu decided they should sleep straight away with one cloak on the ground and one to cover them.

“We should be safe, Moana. So come under the cloak with me and we will keep warm.”

She wrapped her arms around Moana’s little body and said “Do you want to talk?”

Moana nestled into Ahu’s body and felt her warmth. “Ahu, tell me about men.”

“Men?”

“Yes, tell me what it is like to be with a man. I want to, but confess I do not know what to expect. I look at Paikea and I want him to touch me but do not know what will happen if he ever does.”

“Don’t hurry your life away, Moana. You are at an age now that you have started to feel differently, it is exciting and there will be laughter but there will be tears also. If I tell you now what I like, when you talk to Hatiti she may tell you something different. Both Hatiti and I love Ahuahu because he is a gentle man who treats us with care and consideration but we do not discuss details with the other. He is strong too but does not ever hurt us and is a good father. Do you want your husband to be gentle and to make you feel safe? “

“Yes, Ahu, and I want Ahuahu to be like a father to me now that mine has been killed in the fighting.”

“Just remember that the boys you meet may be just as worried as you when you are first alone together but then there are others that will not care. But do not expect him to behave as Ahuahu may do with me. You will know what makes you happy when it happens, when it does tell him so. Now try to sleep.”

"But I only want Paikea, Ahu."

Ahu is missing (Part 10)

It was now some days since the abortive raid on the Rocky Outcrop village. Ahu had still not returned and Ahuahu was hurt that she had given no indication to him that she had planned to leave.

Luckily the loss of two men and injury to several others in their village had apparently been sufficient for the Rocky Outcrop village and they had not bothered their village again, even keeping away from their fishing grounds.

Hi’ilei was still in much pain from his wound to the shoulder. Haimona treated him, setting the bones back into their right position whilst Hi’ilei bit down on a tapa cloth wedge. Ahuahu who was with him, thought he had passed out but in talking to Hi’ilei, there would be occasional grunts of answers that meant nothing except that he was still conscious. When Haimona had done all he could and strapped his arm to his body, Ahuahu put Hi’ilei’s other arm around him and help him back to his hut where Hi’ilei’s wife Kiri waited patiently for them. She suggested he stay with them until he had found Ahu again. This he agreed to do.

The village was in mourning and the wives of Maranu and Kapaka who had been killed in the fighting cut their faces with the sharps edges of sea shells to mark their grief at the funeral. However Kapaka’s wife Aio did not cut hers so deeply and had help in wounding herself so as to make the scars decorative as she was still young and could hope to marry again. Old Maranu’s wife Hauku however was not so particular and made the blood flow freely but showed no pain whilst using the shell, but called up to the gods to find a place for him.

Ahuahu mainly fished by himself without Hi’ilei but sometimes took a young lad Paikea who was keen to come with him. His heart was not in it, he missed the constant banter from Hi’ilei. As he dragged the boat up the beach that evening he decided to try to find Ahu. So Ahuahu then spent some time asking the women in which direction she had gone on the day of the abortive raid. They were quite vague hardly remembering her leave but thought she may have gone towards the hills. He missed her badly, he needed to touch her and feel the soft roundness of her body near him. He felt bad that she was alone somewhere with little Tangaroa without him to protect them both.

With supplies of dried fish for the journey and Hi’ilei’s family well stocked with food in his absence Ahuahu set out to search for Ahu. He headed west towards the hills and passed through the Fern Gully settlement where they told him there they had just returned after a few days hiding in the forest for fear of reprisals.

Ahuahu then continued high into the hills, having to penetrate the thick bush before the undergrowth thinned as he approached the waterfall gully just before nightfall. Already there were bats in the air seeking their food for the night. Ahuahu sat down on the ground and brought out his meagre provisions and ate the fish and drank from the nearby stream. As the stars in the sky sparkled above him he prayed that she too was looking at them and could feel him searching for her.

Early the next day descending the other side of the hill he sensed her presence as he could just see the coastline far to the east. Had she been here he wondered as he carefully skirted the ngerengere settlement where a few wisps of smoke signalled their presence and a faint mumbling showed that they too were up early that morning talking to each other.

He could see far in the distance the line of the coast to the east and made his way towards it keeping to the higher ground to avoid having to penetrate the thick scrub into which the stream that he was following disappeared. When the sun was high in the sky he had to cross an old lava flow and could hear voices and the smell of sulphur in the air. It was a settlement close to the geyser and the hot springs by the Black Sands village by the sea. He had never been there and the foul smell of suphur gradually became less pungent until he hardly noticed it.

He asked the little children there if they had seen Ahu the girl with the little baby but they merely shook their heads as they stared at the scar on his face. An old man approached him, “Haeri mai” said Ahuahu bowing his head slightly.

“You have not visited us before” the old man said. “Are you looking for someone?”

Ahuahu explained about Ahu and the old man shook his head, “you must ask at the village by the sea.” He said pointing towards the coast. “Many families come in the evening to bathe here. We do not count their coming and their going away.”

Ahuahu thanked him and made his way to the village an easy walk away. Once again the children crowded around him and ran back to their mothers to tell of the stranger. One older woman came up to him. “Haeri mai” she said and Ahuahu responded. “You are Ahuahu are you not?” She asked.

Ahuahu was shocked by her knowing his name. “You know where Ahu is?” he blurted out.

“She has gone to look for you. We heard tell that the men from Rocky Outcrop have taken their revenge for your village attacking them, but did not take further reprisals. So she has gone to fetch you.” Then after a short pause she went on, “If you are still alive,” with a smile on her face.

Before Ahuahu could respond she went on “I should not have told you this but she stayed with me here, so I feel that I know you. The men will confirm it.” Atahai nodded toward the chief’s house. “Pay your respects, have some food then go and fetch her.”

Ahuahu was overwhelmed by the turnaround of fortune. He did as Atahai had suggested and found that Ahu had been a welcome visitor to the village. He reckoned he could get back to his village by Gannet Island before dark. Surely they would be reunited soon.