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Whakamaru, to Maroa, to Tuata, to Tutuka, to Tuaropaki, to Hauhungaroa, to Hurakia, and to
Horohoro, the districts which lie between Lakes Taupo and Roto-rua, and between Roto-rua and
the head of the Waikato River, to snare birds for themselves, and followed their sport for many a
day, until they had hunted for several months; but their little brother Hatupatu was all this time
thinking to himself that they never gave him any of the rare dainties or nice things that they got,
so that they might all feast together, but at each meal he received nothing but lean tough birds; so
when the poor little fellow went and sat down by the side of the fire to his food, he every day
used to keep on crying and eating, crying and eating, during his meals. At last, saucy,
mischievous thoughts rose up in his young heart. So one day, whilst his brothers were out
snaring birds, and he, on this as on every other day, was left at their resting-place to take care of
the things, the little rogue crept into the storehouse, where the birds, preserved in their own fat,
were kept in calabashes, and he stole some, and set resolutely to work to eat them, with some
tender fern-root, nicely beaten and dressed, for a relish; so that to look at him you could not help
thinking of the proverb: 'Bravo, that throat of yours can swallow anything.'
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He finished all the calabashes of preserved birds, and then attacked those that were kept in casks,
and when he had quite filled himself he crept out of the storehouse again, and there he went
trampling over the pathway that led to their resting-place, running about this side, and that side,
and all round it, that his brothers might be induced to think a war party had come, and had eaten
up the food in their absence. Then he came back, and ran a spear into himself in two or three
places, where he could not do himself much harm, and gave himself a good bruise or two upon
his bead, and laid down on the ground near their hut.
When his brothers came back they found him lying there in appearance very badly wounded;
they next ran to the storehouse, and found their preserved birds all gone: so they asked him who
had done afl this, and he replied: 'A war party.' Then they went to the pathways and saw the foot-
marks, and said: 'It is too true.' They melted some fat, and poured warm oil on his wounds, and
he revived; and they all ate as they used to do in former days, the brothers enjoying all the good
things, whilst Hatupatu kept eating and crying, and he went and sat on the smoky side of the fire,
so that his cruel brothers might laugh at him, saying: 'Oh, never mind him; those are not real
tears, they are only his eyes watering from the smoke.'
Next day Hatupatu stopped at home, and off went his brothers to snare birds, and he began to
steal the preserved birds again, and thus he did every day, every day, and of course at last his
brothers suspected him, and one day they laid in wait for him, when he not foreseeing this, again
crouched into the storehouse and began eating, 'Ha, ha, ha, we've caught you now then; your
thievish tricks are found out, are they, you little rogue? His brothers killed him at once, and
buried him in the large heap of feathers they had pulled out from the snared birds; after this they
went back to Roto-rua, and when they arrived their parents asked them: 'Where is Hatupatu?
What's become of your little brother? And they answered: 'We don't know; we have not seen
him.' And their parents said: 'You've killed him.' And they replied: 'We have not'; and they
disputed and disputed together, and at last their parents said: 'It is too true that you must have
killed him, for he went away with you, and he is missing now when you return to us.'
At length Hatupatu's father and mother thought they would send a spirit to search for him; so
they sent one, and the spirit went. Its form was that of a flag, and its name was Tamumuki-te-
rangi, or He-that-buzzes-in-the-skies, and it departed and arrived at the place where Hatupatu
was buried, and found him and performed enchantments, and Hatupatu came to life again, and
went upon his way, and met a woman who was spearing birds for herself, and her spear was
nothing but her own lips: and Hatupatu had a real wooden spear. The woman speared at a bird
with her lips, but Hatupatu had at the same moment thrown his spear at the same bird, and it
stuck into her lips: and when he saw this he ran off with all his speed, but he was soon caught by
the woman, not being able to go so fast as she could, for her feet bore her along, and wings were
upon her arms, like those of a bird, and she brought him to her house, and they slept there.
Hatupatu found that this woman never ate anything but raw food, and she gave the birds to
Hatupatu to eat without their being in any way dressed, but he only pretended to eat them, liftlug
them up to his mouth, and letting them fall slily. At dawn the woman prepared to go and spear
birds, but Hatupatu always remained at home, and when she had departed, he began to cook food
for himself, and to look at all the things in the cave of rocks that the woman lived in-at her two-
handed wooden sword, at her beautiful cloak made of red feathers torn from under the wing of
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the kaka, at her red cloak of thick dog's fur, at her ornamented cloak woven from flax; and he
kept thinking how he could run off with them all: and then he looked at the various tame lizards
she had, and at her tame little birds, and at all her many curiosities, and thus he went on day after
day, until at last one day he said to her: 'Now, you'd better go a long distance to-day; to the first
mountain range, to the second range, the tenth range, the hundredth range, the thousandth
mountain range, and when you get there, then begin to catch birds for us two.' To this she
consented, and went. He remained behind roasting birds for himself, and thinking: 'I wonder how
far she's got now'; and when he thought she had reached the place he had spoken of, then be
began to gather up her cloak of red feathers, and her cloak of dogs' skins, and her cloak of
ornamented flax, and her carved two-handed sword; and the young fellow said: 'How well I shall
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