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WHEN collecting songs and traditions from some of the old natives of the Arawa tribe recently I happened across an allusion in a Waiata, which elucidates a passage in the commonly accepted history of Tama-te-kapua that had been misleading. This reference is to the tree which shaded the house of the priest Uenuku, in Hawaiki. Maori songs crystallise in a remarkably accurate manner ancient incidents and ancient names, and this is a good example of the preservation of a centuries-old tree-name. The song is a lament composed and chanted by one Hinewai—a woman of the Ngati-Uenuku-kopako tribe—for Te Arakau, her grandson, who was killed at Ohinemutu, Rotorua, about one hundred and fifty years ago by Ngati-Whakaue. She was living at Te Ariki, on the shore of Lake Tarawera, when the news of her favourite grandson's death reached her, and she sang her song of lamentation which is well known in all Rotorua villages to-day. This is a portion of the tangi:—

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The line in this song, which will particularly interest students of Polynesian folk-lore, is that referring to the sacred tree of Hawaiki—te kuru-whakamarumaru o te whare o Uenuku.

Uenuku is remembered as a great priest and chief who lived in Hawaiki (Tahiti), whose dwelling was shaded by a tree of whose fruit Tama-ke-kapua—the commander of the Arawa canoe—was said to have surreptitiously eaten, having entered the garden on stilts (poutoti) in order to prevent discovery. Now, in most Maori traditions, including the history of the Arawa written for Sir George Grey by the chief Wi Maihi Te Rangikaheke and other Maori historians, this historic tree is spoken of as a poroporo, which is the solanum—a common New Zealand tree or shrub, bearing a red fruit called by the settlers “bull-a-bull,” a mispronunciation of the native name. Tregear's Dictionary gives oporo as the name of a berry-bearing plant in Tahiti; this is is not as far as is known identical with the New Zealand poporo or poroporo. 1 The present song tells us what the tree really was that shaded Uenuku's house—it was the kuru, which is the general Polynesian name of the breadfruit, that beautiful and useful tree which is so highly prized in all South Sea villages, and which is often planted around the natives' houses to give both fruit and shade. The Maoris have long forgotten what the kuru-tree was; the word has been carefully handed down through many generations—an example of the remarkable way in which ancient words and names are preserved in song long after knowledge of their significance has been lost.

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One other instance in which the kuru-tree is mentioned in Rotorua song occurs in a pihapiha-ko-kumara, or kumara-planting chant, recited to me by old Tamarangi of Mokoia Island, Rotorua. This chant was repeated by the tohungas of Mokoia when the planting of the kumara began each season. There is reference to Waerotī and Waerotā, the legendary South Sea Island homes of the sweet potato, and the karakia proceeds: “Though we have not here the fruit of the kuru (te hua o te kuru), spread out abundant is the produce of the hue” (the vegetable gourd).

[The identity of the kuru in Maori song with the breadfruit-tree of the Islands was pointed out in an early number of this Journal, but we cannot just now find the reference. Another quotation from a Ngati-Toa tapatapa kumara well supports Mr. Cowan's argument: Te tau mai ai to hua kuru, Tina! Horahia! Oi!—Editor.]