Rongo-mai

A deity by whose assistance Haunga-roa floated from Hawaiki to New Zealand, to bear the report of the "curse of Manaia" to Ngātoro-i-rangi.1 Rongo-mai was discovered in the shape of a whale by the war party of Mara, and the war-party was nearly exterminated by him.2

Rongo-mai in comparatively recent times, appeared in the heavens in the shape of a meteor or comet, seen in the full light of day. This was when the Ngāti-hau tribe had invested the pa named Rangiura at Otaki, occupied by the Ngāti-awa.3

In the Moriori genealogy, Rongo-mai is the son of Tangaroa, and the father of Kāhukura. Rongo-mai was the war-god of the tribes about Taupo Lake.

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References

Notes

  1. Grey, Sir George. (1855). Polynesian Mythology. London: John Murray, p. 102.
  2. White, John. (1887). Ancient History of the Maori. 6 vols. Wellington: G, Disbury, p. 1:108.
  3. ibid., p. 1:109.

Source

  • Tregear, Edward. (1891). Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary. Wellington: Government Printer, p. 425.

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