--- title: The Port Hills and Their Names. — Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury,… · full text with trees description: The Port Hills and Their Names., «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: It is the Port Hills’ nomenclature, perhaps, that carries the most poetic suggestions of any of the Can --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/10/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Ca…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/) / The Port Hills and Their Names. # The Port Hills and Their Names. The Port Hills and Their Names. of «Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand» by James Cowan: the whole text, 113 sentences and 3327 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/10/page/2/) It is the Port Hills’ nomenclature, perhaps, that carries the most poetic suggestions of any of the Canterbury place-names, and here, perhaps, the dwellers on the heights in the days to come when all these Plain-ward-looking slopes are dotted with pretty homes, will seek inspiration in such legendry and history of the soil as we of the present generation have preserved.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") There are names of dignity and beauty clustered about those old lava-built crags and ruined towers and tors past which the Summit Road goes a thousand feet above the city.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") Finest of all is the Maori name of Castle Rock, that from one point in the Heathcote Valley looks like a colossal howitzer threatening the Plains.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") To the old Maoris it was Te Tihi o Kahukura, “The Citadel of Kahukura,” otherwise “The Pinnacle of the Rainbow.”[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") The explanation brings in a reference to the religion of the tattooed pagan pioneers who explored those hills and plains, and planted their palisaded hamlets by creek-side and in the sheltered folds of the ranges.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") Kahukura--Uenuku in the North Island--was the principal deity for what may be termed everyday use among the ancient Ngai-Tahu.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") He was the spirit guardian most frequently invoked by the \_tohungas\_, and he was appealed to for auguries and omens in time of war.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") Each \_hapu\_ had its image of Kahukura, a small carved wooden figure, which was kept in some \_tapu\_ place remote from the dwellings, often a secluded flax clump, or on a high, stilt-legged platform or \_whata\_.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") The celestial form of Kahukura was the rainbow; literally the name means “Red Garment.”[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") Omens were drawn in days of war from the situation of the arch of the “Red Garment” when it spanned the heavens.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") The name is sometimes applied to that phenomenon of days of mist in the mountains, the “sun-dog,” from which auguries were drawn.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") So when the Natives gave the term to the Castle Rock they were conferring upon it a name of high \_tapu\_ befitting its bold and commanding appearance.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") And this is not the only Hills name that holds a memory of the cult of the Rainbow-God.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") On the tussocky slope where the track goes over from the St. Martins tram terminus to the Summit Road above Rapaki, joining the hill track near Witch Hill, the \_tohungas\_ kept in a sacred place one of the wooden figures representing Kahukura, for \_karakia\_, consultation in time of need, and the spot became known as “Te Irika o Kahukura,” or “The Uplifting of the Rainbow God.”[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") In time the name was applied to the Cashmere Hills generally.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") And the lofty Sugarloaf peak immediately to the north of Dyer’s Pass, was Te Heru o Kahukura, which being interpreted, is “Kahukura’s Head-Comb.”[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") So the olden folk occasionally displayed a fine taste in names; and although some of those names may be a trifle long for \_pakeha\_ use it would be well to save them from oblivion.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") \_C. Beken, photo\_ \][18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") \_W. A. Taylor, photo\_ \][19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") Otokitoki--“The Place of Axes”--is the name of Godley Head, the lofty cliff upon which the lighthouse stands; its early-days \_pakeha\_ name was Cachalot Head.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") Working south from the lighthouse we presently come to the deep bay of Te Awa-parahi, where a little farmstead stands in its well-hidden nest, between the lowering peaks.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") Nearer Lyttelton, just where the Zigzag Road goes over Evans Pass to Sumner, are the precipitous summit rocks of Tapuwaeharuru, “The Resounding Footsteps,” a place-name met with in more than one locality in the volcanic country of the North.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") Far below is the little indent of Te Awa-toetoe, or “Pampas-grass stream” near the artillery barracks.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") Mount Pleasant, where a Ngati-Mamoe \_pa\_ once stood, was known to the Maoris as Tauhinu-Korokio, a combination of two names of shrubs common to the ranges.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") Passing Castle Rock--Te Tihi o Kahukura--just on the right hand or west as we travel towards Dyer’s Pass, we have on the other hand Te Moenga o Wheke, or “Wheke’s Sleeping Place” and Ota-ranui, or “Big Peak,” the towering rough-hewn crests of the Range looking down on Cass Bay and lying east of the Summit Track.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") Then comes Witch Hill, with “The Ashes of Tamatea’s Camp Fire,” of which a legend later, and Te Poho o Tamatea, or “Tamatea’s Breast,” overlooking the Rapaki native settlement.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") Oketeupoko, or, to divide it into its component words, O-kete-upoko, is the Maori name of the rocky heights immediately above the town of Lyttelton.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") It means “The Place of the Basket of Heads.”[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") A sufficiently grim name this, remindful of the Whanga-raupo’s red and cannibal past, for the heads were human ones.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") When the olden warrior Te Rangi-whakaputa set out to make the shore of the Raupo Harbour his own, he encountered numerous parties of Ngati-Mamoe, who put up a fight for their homes and hunting-grounds.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") One of these parties of the \_tangata-whenua\_, the people of the land, he met in battle on the rocky beach of Ohinehou where the white man’s breakwaters and wharves now stand.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") He worsted them, and the heads of the slain he and his followers hacked off with their stone \_patus\_ and axes.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") Some, those of the chief men, Te Rangi-whakaputa placed in a flax basket, and, bearing them up to the craggy hill-crest that towered above the beach, he set them down on a lofty pinnacle, an offering to his god of battles.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") There they were left, say the Maoris, \_he kai mo te ra, mo te manu\_--“food for the sun and for the birds.”[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") “\_O\_” signifies “the place of,” “\_kete\_” basket and “\_upoko\_” head, and thus was the place named, to memorise the tattooed brown conqueror of old and the ancient people whom he dispossessed on the shores of the Whangaraupo.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") \_W.A.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") Taylor, photo\_ \][37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") Orongomai, a melodious name when properly pronounced, is the old Ngai-Tahu name of Cass Peak, the rhyolite height which lifts 1780 ft. above the waters of Governor’s Bay, overlooking the remnant of the ancient forest at Kennedy’s Bush.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") It means “The Place Where Voices are Heard,” or, literally, “Place of Sounding-hitherward.”[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") The name has fittingly enough been given by Mr. Ell to the stone house for visitors which stands under the ribbonwood trees at the head of the Kennedy’s Bush Valley.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") The story is that when Te Rangi-whakaputa and his followers landed, in their search for the Ngati-Mamoe, after taking the \_pa\_ at Ohinetahi, in Governor’s Bay, the scouts entered the bush, and at the foot of Cass Peak heard the voices of a party of men in the bush; these men were Ngati-Mamoe, who had come across from their \_pa\_ at Manuka, on the plains side of the range.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") Led by the scouts--the \_torotoro\_--the invaders rushed upon the Ngati-Mamoe some of whom they killed.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") The survivors fled over the hills to Manuka, a large \_pa\_ which it is believed stood on a knoll at the foot of the range not far from Tai Tapu.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") (Mr. Ell, on being told of this tradition, said that he believed the site of Manuka would be found to be the spur running into an old swamp upon which Mr. Holmes’s homestead is built, on the old coach road south of Lansdowne, and about two miles from Tai Tapu.)[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") The Manuka village, although a strong defensive position, was stormed and taken by Te Rangi-whakaputa.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") In the vicinity, it is said by the Maoris, there was a shallow cave under the rocky hillside which was used by some of the Ngati-Mamoe as a dwelling-place; it is known in tradition as Te Pohatu-whakairo, or “The Carved Rock.”[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") No doubt it was so called from the natural markings sometimes seen on the faces of these overhanging rock shelters, such as were used as dwelling and camping-places in many parts of the South Island by the ancient people.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") Ohinetahi\[1\] \_pa\_, defended with a palisade of split tree-trunks and with ditch and parapet, stood near the shore at the head of Governor’s Bay two hundred years ago.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") After the place had been captured from the Ngati-Mamoe by Te Rangi-whakaputa, his son Manuwhiri occupied it with a party of Ngai-Tahu.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") This chief Manuwhiri had many sons, but only one daughter, and he named his \_pa\_ after his solitary girl, “The Place of the One Daughter.”[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") The Governor’s Bay school now occupies the spot where this long-vanished stockaded hamlet stood.[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") \[Footnote 1: This name was adopted by the late T. H. Potts for his stone house at Governor’s Bay, directly below Kennedy’s Bush.\][52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") \_W. A. Taylor, photo\_\][53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") The name of Cooper’s Knobs, the highest of the three tooth-like crags lifting abruptly above the head of Lyttelton Harbour to an altitude of 1880 feet, memorises, like so many others, an incident of the head-hunting cannibal days.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") After the Rangi-whakaputa and his merry men had conquered the various Ngati-Mamoe \_pas\_ around the harbour, they found frequent diversion in hunting out stray members of the fugitive \_hapus\_ and converting them to a useful purpose through the medium of the oven.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") Often there were bush skirmishes, and although the Ngati-Mamoe frequently put up a good fight, they usually got the worst of the encounter.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") Mawete, the chief of Ngati-Mamoe, and a party of men from Manuka \_pa\_ were on their way across the range to Lyttelton Harbour to fish for sharks when they were ambuscaded in the bush just below Cooper’s Knobs by a band of Ngai-Tahu warriors.[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") The Ngati-Mamoe chief and most of his followers were killed in the skirmish that followed, with the Maori weapons of wood and stone, the spear, the \_taiaha\_, and the sharp-edged \_patu\_, and their bodies went into the oven, for the Maori’s commissariat in that age was the flesh of his foeman.[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") And the Mamoe leader’s name still clings to that wild craggy spot where he met his death blow, for the peak which the \_pakeha\_ has named Cooper’s Knobs was called by the Ngai-Tahu conquerors Omawete, meaning the place where Mawete fell.[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/10/page/2/) - ← previous: [The Story of the Rocks.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/9/) - next →: [page 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/10/page/2/) - ↑ back to [Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73766/)