Waihuka

A chief whose wife Hine-te-kākara was pursued by the advances of Tū-te-amoamo, the elder brother of Waihuka. One day the brothers went to fish near a reef far from the shore, and, having caught a quantity of fish, were about to return, when they found that the stone anchor (punga) had caught in the rocks. The elder induced Waihuka to dive, in the endeavor to free them from the impediment, and on Waihuka consenting and getting beneath the surface, the traitor cut the rope with a sharp-edged shell, and pulled rapidly away. Returning, he told Hine that her husband was drowned, and she, going to her house and closing the door, gave way to the most bitter grief.

At night the amorous suitor knocked at the door, calling out "Hine, Hine-te-kākara, open the door!" She answered, "Stay awhile; let me lament for my husband. There is plenty of time yet for you, Tū-te-amoamo." These words have passed into a proverb — He roa te tau kia koe, e Tū-te-amoamo.

However, poetical justice was satisfied by the return of the husband supposed to have been killed; he had been rescued and brought to shore by the tāniwha (water monster) belonging to his family; Waihuka belonging to a race noble enough to have an ancestral goblin. The husband arrived in time to surprise Tū-te-amoamo trying to force an entrance into Hine's house, and the would-be ravisher was at once slain.

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