Legend of the Emigration of Manaia
(The Progenitor of the Ngati-awa Tribe)
THE cause which led Manaia to come here from Hawaiki, was his being very badly treated by a large party of his friends and neighbours, whom, according to the usual custom when a chief has any heavy work to be done, he had collected to make his spears for him, for they violently ravished his wife Rongotiki.
It chanced thus: One day Manaia determined to have his neighbours all warned to come to a great gathering of people for the purpose of making spears for him, so he sent round a messenger to collect them, and the messenger arrived at the place of Tupenu, who listened to his message, and he being chief of the tribe who lived at that place, encouraged his people to go in obedience to the message of Manaia; they went and set to work, and after some time it happened that Manaia felt a wish to go and catch some fish for his workmen; so he went off in his canoe with several of his people. After he had been gone for some time the workmen proposed amongst themselves to assault Rongotiki, the wife of Manaia; and they carried their intentions into execution without any one knowing what they were doing; all this time Manaia, suspecting nothing, was paddling in his canoe out to sea, and when he reached the fishing-ground, they lay on their paddles. Manaia's people soon caught plenty of fish, but he had not even a single bite, until at