Ngahue

A chief of very ancient times. He was driven from his ancestral home by Hine-tū-a-hōanga, and sought a place of refuge. In his wanderings he discovered Aotearoa (New Zealand). He brought a celebrated piece of greenstone or jade, named Poutini, with him, and of this stone the two axes Tutauru and Hauhau-te-rangi were made. With these axes the great canoes of the Migration (Arawa, Tainui, etc.) were hewn out, after Ngahue had returned to Hawaiki and told the inhabitants of his discovery of the new land.

The axe named Tukurangi was also said to have been made from this greenstone.1

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References

Notes

  1. White 1887, p. 2:185.

Sources

  • Grey, Sir George. (1855). Polynesian Mythology. Auckland: Brett, pp. 82 ff.
  • Tregear, Edward. (1891). Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary. Wellington: Government Printer, pp. 54, 275.
  • White, John. (1887). Ancient History of the Maori. 6 vols. Wellington: G. Didsbury, Government Printer, p. 1:73.

This article incorporates text from Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (1891) by Edward Tregear, which is in the public domain.