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again asked them: 'Can I reach those heavens? and they replied: 'You cannot reach them, the
heavens above these are those the boundaries of which were fixed by Tane.'
But Rupe forced a way up through those heavens, and got above them, and found an inhabited
place; and he asked the inhabitants of it, saying: 'Are the heavens above these inhabited? -and the
people answered him: 'They are inhabited.' And he again asked: 'Do you think I can reach
them?'-and they replied: 'No, you will not be able to reach them, those heavens were fixed there
by Tane.'
Rupe, however, forced a way through those heavens too, and thus he continued to do until he
reached the tenth heaven, and there he found the abode of Rehua. When Rehua saw a stranger
approaching, he went forward and gave him the usual welcome, lamenting over him; Rehua
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POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY
37
made his lamentation without knowing who the stranger was, but Rupe in his lament made use of
prayers by which he enabled Rehua to guess who he was.
When they had each ended their lamentation, Rchua called to his servants: 'Light a fire, and get
everything ready for cooking food.' The slaves soon made the fire burn up brightly, and brought
hollow calabashes, all ready to have food placed in them, and laid them down before Rehua. All
this time Rupe was wondering whence the food was to come from with which the calabashes,
which the slaves had brought, were to be filled; but presently he observed that Rehua was slowly
loosening the thick bands which enveloped his locks around and upon the top of his head; and
when his long locks all floated loosely, he shook the dense masses of his hair, and forth from
them came flying flocks of the tui birds, which had been nestling there, feeding upon lice; and as
they flew forth, the slaves caught and killed them, and filled the calabashes with them, and took
them to the fire, and put them on to cook, and when they were done, they carried them and laid
them before Rupe as a present, and then placed them beside him that he might eat, and Rehua
requested him to eat food, but Rupe answered him: 'Nay, but I cannot eat this food; I saw these
birds loosened and take wing from thy locks; who would dare to eat birds that had fed upon lice
in thy sacred head? For the reasons he thus stated, Rupe feared that man of ancient days, and the
calabashes still stood near him untouched.
At last, Rupe ventured to ask Rehua, saying: 'O Rehua, has a confused murmur of voices from
the world below reached you upon any subject regarding which I am interested? And Rehua
answered him: 'Yes, such a murmuring of distant voices has reached me from the island of Motu-
tapu in the world below these.'
When Rupe heard this, he immediately by his enchantments changed himself into a pigeon, and
took flight downwards towards the island of Motu-tapu; on, on he flew, until he reached the
island, and the dwelling of Tinirau, and then he alighted right upon the window-sill of his house.
Some of Tinirau's people saw him, and exclaimed: 'Ha! ha!-there's a bird, there's a bird'; whilst
some called out: 'Make haste, spear him, spear him'; and one threw a spear at him, but he turned
it aside with his bill, and it passed on one side of him, and struck the piece of wood on which he
was sitting, and the spear was broken; then they saw that it was no use to try to spear the bird, so
they made a noose, and endeavoured to slip it gently over his head, but he turned his head on one
side, and they found that they could not snare him. His young sister now suspected something, so
she said to the people who were trying to kill or snare the bird: 'Leave the bird quiet for a minute
until I look at it'; and when she had looked well at it, she knew that it was her brother, so she
asked him, saying: 'What is the cause which has made you thus come here?'-and the pigeon
immediately began to open and shut its little bill, as if it was trying to speak. His young sister
now called out to Tinirau: 'Oh, husband, here is your brother-in-law'; and her husband said in
reply: 'What is his name?'-and she answered: 'It is my brother Rupe.' It happened that upon this
very day, Hinauri's little child was born, then Rupe repeated this form of greeting to his sister,
the name of which is Toetoetu:
'Hinauri,
Hinauri is the sister,
And Rupe is her brother,
But how came he here?
Came he by travelling on the earth,
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POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY
38
Or came he through the air?
Let your path be through the air.'
As soon as Rupe had ceased his lamentation of welcome to his sister, she commenced hers, and
answered him, saymig:
'Rupe is the brother,
And Hina is his young sister,
But how came he here?
Came he by travelling on the earth,
Or came he through the air?
Let your path be now upwards through the air
To Rehua.'
Hardly had his young sister finished repeating this poem, before Rupe had caught her up with her
new-born baby: in a moment they were gone. Thus the brother and sister departed together, with
the infant, carrying with them the placenta to bury it with the usual rites; and they ascended up to
Rehua, and as they passed through the air, the placenta was accidentally dropped, and falling into
the sea, was devoured by a shark, and this circumstance was what caused the multitude of large
eggs which are now found in the inside of the shark.
At length the brother and sister arrived at the dwellMg-place of Rehua, which was called Te
Putahi-nui-o-Rehua. The old man was unable to keep his court-yard clean for himself, and his
people neglected to do so from idleness; thus it was left in a very filthy state. Rupe, who was
displeased at seeing this, one day said to Rehua: 'Oh, Rehua, they leave this court-yard of yours
in a very filthy state'; and then he added: 'Your people are such a set of lazy rogues, that if every
mess of dirt was a lizard, I doubt if they could even take the trouble to touch its tail to make it
run away'; and this saying passed into a proverb.
At last, Rupe thought that he could clean and beautify, in some respects, Rehua's dwelling for
him, so he made two wooden shovels for his work, one of which he called Tahitahia, and the
other Rake-rakea, and with them he quite cleansed and purified Rehua's court-yard. He then
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