Tāwhaki by Hirini Moko Mead

Author:Hirini Moko Mead
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781775506805
Publisher: Huia Publishers
Published: 2023-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

The

old blind woman

is made to see

Remember that Whaitiri married Kai-tangata and had Hema. His son was Tāwhaki the great, son of Hema. Shortly after the birth of Hema, Whaitiri left Kai-tangata and returned to her parents in the sky. So Whaitiri, whose full name was Whaitiri­ mātakataka (Crashing Thunder), disappeared, and time passed by. When Whaitiri became an old woman, she took up a position at the base of the ascent to the sky, and she waited for her grandchild Tāwhaki to visit her. She had known from way back that the time would come for him to journey her way.

This was the big task assigned to Whaitiri – to look after the ascent to the sky so that no one would go there without proper authority. She held the bottom end of the climbing ropes, and she secured them. She used to tie these ropes around her neck so as to free her hands for food preparation. One habit of hers was to hide her patu under her. At times when no one was paying attention to her, she would bring it out and kill a man and eat him. Despite being blind, she had killed many people. Her cave was full of human bones, the remains of feasts her weapon had claimed. There was a large heap of bones in one corner of her cave.

Meanwhile, Tāwhaki and Karihi had got past Tongameha’s village and were heading towards the ascent to the sky where their grandmother, Whaitiri, lived. It was a long way there, and some of the hills were steep to climb. In the morning, they made their slave, Tahi, prepare some food for them. When they finished eating, they set off on their journey again and travelled until the sun set. In the evening, they cooked some more food to eat. Each day, Tāwhaki recited prayers to the gods, imploring them to protect the little group from the dangers of the journey and help them achieve the results they wanted.

They were glad when, eventually, they reached the base of the ascent that is at the horizon that separates the earth and the sky. It wasn’t long before the grandsons saw their grandmother, but they did not let her know they had arrived. They stopped and observed her. She was sitting down. There was a heap of kūmara in front of her. They saw that she was blind. Her face was directed upwards, and her nostrils were busy sniffing the breeze to test it for the smell of human beings. When she breathed in, her stomach filled out, swelling as though she was pregnant. Then when she breathed out, her stomach became very small. She was an amazing sight.

After a while, she began counting her ten kūmara; this was a way of checking that the pile of kūmara was still there. So she would build another heap. She stretched out her hand to count: ‘One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!’ When she had finished, she counted them again and assembled the heap on her right side.

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