Rupe's Ascent To Heaven

len.george(63)

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In another story, we left Hinauri floating in the ocean, many months she floated through the sea, and was at last thrown up onto the beach at Wairarawa.

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[Wairarawa stream at Waiterere beach]

She was found there, lying as if dead, upon the sandy shore, by two brothers named Ihuatamai and Ihuwareware, her body was in many parts overgrown with seaweed and barnacles, from the length of time she had been in the sea.

But, they could still see some traces of her beauty, and, pitying the young girl, they lifted her up into their arms and carried her home to their house, where they carefully laid her down by the side of a fire, and slowly and very carefully scraped the seaweed and barnacles from her body.

When she had quite recovered, Ihuatamai and Ihuwareware looked on her with pleasure, and took her as a wife between then both.

They asked her to tell them who she was, and what was her name, this she did not disclose to them, but she changed her name and called herself Ihungarupaea, or, the stranded log of timber.

After she had lived with these two brothers for a long time, Ihuwareware went to pay a visit to his superior chief, Tinirau, and to relate the adventures which had happened.

When Tinirau heard all that had taken place, he went to bring away the young stranger as a wife for himself, and she was given up to him.

But, before she was given up to him, she had conceived a child by Ihuatamai, and when she went to live with Tinirau it was near the time when the child should be born.

Tinirau took her home with him to his residence on an island called Motu-tapu.

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He had two other wives living there, they were Harataunga and Horotata, both daughters of Mangamanga-I-atua.

When these two women saw the young stranger coming along in their husband's company, as if she was his wife, they could not endure it, and they abused Hinauri on account of her conduct with their husband,

At last, they went so far as to attempt to strike her, and kill her, and they cursed her bitterly.

When they treated her in this manner the heart of Hinauri became gloomy with grief and mortification, so she began to utter incantations against them.

She repeated one so powerful that she had hardly finished it when the two women fell flat on their backs on the ground, with their feet sticking straight upwards, and they quite dead upon the earth.

Her husband was thus left free for her alone.

All this time Hinauri was lost to her family and friends, and her young brother Maui mua, afterwards called Rupe, could do nothing but think about her,

The excessive love he felt for his sister, and the sorrow at her departure, so harassed him, that he could no longer remain at rest, but that he must go and seek for his sister.

So he departed upon his undertaking, and he visited every place he could think of without missing one of them, yet he could not find his sister anywhere he looked.

At last Rupe thought to ascend to the heavens to consult his great ancestor Rehua, who dwelt there, at a place called Te Putahi-nui-o-Rehua, and so he began his ascent to the heavenly regions.

Rupe forced his way up through those heavens, and got above them, and he found an inhabited place where he asked the inhabitants “Are the heavens above these inhabited?”

The people answered him, “Yes, they are inhabited.”

Rupe then asked them, Do you think I can reach them?”

The people replied, “No, you will not be able to reach them, those heavens were fixed there by Tane.”

Rupe, however, force his way through to those heavens too, and he continued to do so until he reached the tenth heaven, and there he found the abode of Rehua.

When Rehua saw a stranger approaching he went forward to give him the usual welcome, lamenting over him, Rehua made his lamentation without knowing who the stranger was, but Rupe in his lament, made use of prayers by which he enabled Rehua to guess who he was.

When they had finished their lamentations, Rehua called to his servants, “Light a fire, and get everything ready for cooking food”.

The slaves soon had the fire burning brightly, and brought hollow calabashes, all ready to have food placed in them, and laid them down in front of Rehua

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All this time Rupe was wondering where the food was to come from to fill the calabashes the slaves had brought.

Presently, he observed that Rehua was slowly loosening the thick bands which enveloped his locks around and upon his head, and when his long locks all floated loosely, he shook the dense masses of his hair, and forth came flying flocks of the Tui birds, which had been nesting there, living upon the lice.

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As they flew forth, the slaves caught and killed them, and took them to the fire and put them on to cook, and when they were done, they carried them and laid them before Rupe as a present, and then, placed them beside him that he might eat. And Rehua requested him to eat food.

Rupe answered him, “Nay, I cannot eat this food, I saw these birds loosened and take flight from thy locks,” “Who would dare to eat birds that had fed upon lice in thy sacred head?”

For the reasons he thus stated, Rupe feared that man of ancient days, and the calabashes still stood, untouched.

At last, Rupe ventured to ask Rehua, saying, “Oh, Rehua, has a confused murmur of voices from the world below reached you upon any subject regarding that which I am interested?”

Rehua answered him, “Yes, such murmurings of distant voices has reached me from the island of Motu-tapu, in the world below these.”

When Rupe heard this, he immediately changed himself into a pigeon, and took flight downwards towards the island of Motu-tapu, on, and on, he flew, until he reached the island, and the dwelling of Tinirau.

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He alighted right upon the window sill of his house, and some of Tinirau’s people saw him, and exclaimed, “Ha, Ha, there is a bird”, while some called out “Make haste, spear him, spear him”.

One threw his spear at him, but he turned it aside with his bill, and it passed on one side of him, and struck the piece of wood on which he was sitting, and the spear was broken.

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They then sat that it was no use to try and spear the bird, so they made a noose, and endeavored to slip it gently over his head, but he turned his head to one side, and they found that they could not snare him.

His young sister, now suspecting something, said to the people who were trying to kill or snare the bird, “Leave the bird quiet for a minute until I look at it”.

When she had looked well at it, she knew it was her brother, so she asked him, “What is the cause which has made you come here thus?”

The bird immediately began to open it’s bill as if trying to say something,

His young sister now called to Tinirau, “Oh, husband, here is your brother-in-law.”

Her husband said in reply, “What is his name?”

She answered. “It is my brother, Rupe”.

It happened that upon this very day Hinauri’s little child was born, then Rupe repeated this form of greeting to his sister, the name of which is Toetoetu

“Hinauri,
Hinauri is the sister.
And Rupe is her brother,
But how came he here?
Came he by travelling on the earth,
Or came he through the air?
Let you path be through the air.”

As soon as Rupe had ceased his lamentations of welcome to his sister, she commenced hers, and answered him, saying,

“Rupe is the brother,
And Hini is his young sister,
But how came him here?
Came he by travelling on the earth,
Or, came he through the air?
Let your path now be upwards through the air
To Rehua.

Hardly had his young sister finished repeating this poem, before Rupe had caught her up with her new born baby.

In a moment they were gone, thus the brother and sister departed together, with the infant, carrying with them the placenta, to bury it with the usual rites, and the ascended towards Rehua.

As they passed through the air, the placenta was accidentally dropped, and falling into the sea, was devoured by a shark, and this is the reason why there is a multitude of large eggs now found inside the shark.

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At length brother and sister arrived at the dwelling place of Rehua, which was called Te Putahi-nui-o Rehua.

The old man was unable to keep his courtyard clean by himself, and his people neglected to do so from idleness, thus it was left in a very filthy state.

Rupe, who was displeased at seeing this, one day said to Rehua, “Oh, Rehua, they leave this courtyard of your in a very filthy state”, and then he added,

“Your people are such a set of lazy rouges, that if every mess of dirt was a lizard, I doubt if they could even take the trouble to touch its tail to make it run away”

This saying has passed into a proverb.

At last Rupe thought that he could clean and beautify, in some respects, Rehua’s dwelling for him, so he made two wooden shovels for his work, one he named Tahitahia, the other Rakerakea.

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With them Rupe quite cleaned and purified Rehua’s courtyard

He then added a building to Rehua’s dwelling, but he fixed one of the beams badly.

Rehua’s son Kaitangata, was one day killed from hanging on this beam. Which gave way and he was thrown down and died, his blood running about over part of the heavens, staining them, and formed what we now call a ruddiness in the sky.

When a red and ruddy tinge is ween in the heavens, men will say, “Ah, Kaitangata stained the heavens with his blood”