Tu Ariki's Pet Shark

By Chrissie Ward

In Aotearoa, a long time ago, chief Tu Ariki led a party south from their home at Rangitikei on a fishing expedition. In the deep waters of the ocean Tu Ariki cast his line and caught a young shark. It thrashed about in the bottom of the canoe, but Tu Ariki noticed it was watching him. The look in the shark's eyes seemed almost intelligent, almost friendly, and because of this Tu Ariki didn't kill it.

When the canoe came to a haven, Tu Ariki picked up the shark and carried it ashore. The shark didn't struggle, but lay quietly in his arms. Tu Ariki carried it along the beach until he came to a big pool edged with boulders, and there he slid the shark into the water. It swam around the pool and then came back to where Tu Ariki stood, nosing at the bank.

Every day Tu Ariki fed his shark. Every day it grew bigger, and as it swam around and around, the pool got bigger and deeper, and more boulders were pushed up on the bank. The boulders formed a sheltering arm around the haven, and so it was known as Whakatu, a safe place for canoes.

It was time to go back to Rangitikei, but Tu Ariki didn't want to part with his shark, which he called Tutaeporoporo.

His men asked, "Why do you want to keep this creature?"

"As the dog is to the hunter," said Tu Ariki, "so is this shark to me."

Tutaeporoporo was now too big to lie in the canoe, but he swam beside it on the trip north to Rangitikei. Tu Ariki took him up a river to a deep pool, and there Tutaeporoporo made his home. Every day Tu Ariki came to feed him, and every day Tutaeporoporo waited for him to come. Tutaeporoporo grew bigger and bigger, until he was the size of a whale, yet he did not look like a whale, nor did he look like a shark. And Tu Ariki realised that his pet was neither a shark nor a whale, but a taniwha, a water spirit.

One day, many moons later, a war party came from Whangarei in the south. In the fighting Tu Ariki was killed and his corpse taken away. That night Tutaeporoporo waited for his friend, but he did not come. All the next day he waited, and all night, and another day and night, but still Tu Ariki did not come. Tutaeporoporo heaved his heavy body out of the river and searched the paths that Tu Ariki had travelled, sniffing the man scent. Many trees and plants were crushed as he followed the scent, but he could not find Tu Ariki.

In his grief, Tutaeporoporo cast himself back into the river and let the current carry him to the sea. When he felt the waves under his body, the taniwha lifted up his great head and sniffed the breeze. From the north there was nothing. From the west there was only the clean air of the open sea. But from the south came the strong smell of blood--Tu Ariki's blood.

With a flick of his tail, Tutaeporoporo turned south and sped down the coast until he came to Whanganui. There the smell was strongest, and his heart raged. He made his way up the river until he found a deep pool, and there he waited for revenge.

No canoe was safe from him. As soon as he felt the vibration of paddles dipping into water, he rose from the bottom of the river and swallowed the travellers. Canoe after canoe failed to return home, and the people of Whanganui became anxious. They sent out search parties and saw Tutaeporoporo rise from his underwater cave. Then they fled in terror to their villages.

Their chief, Tama Ahua, went to plead with a famous taniwha killer called Ao Kehu.

"The land is desolate because of this taniwha," he said. "Children weep for their fathers, and women for their husbands."

"I will come," said Ao Kehu.

A few days later he came to Whanganui with seventy of his people. He brought his two taniwha-killing weapons, which were shaped like saws with sharks' teeth set in their edges.

Ao Kehu set his people to make a box with a close-fitting lid, long enough to hold him and his weapons. They took the box upstream and Ao Kehu got into it. The lid was closed and lashed firmly, then clay was pressed into the holes and cracks in the wood to make everything watertight. The box was carried to the water and floated down the river.

When it came near, Tutaeporoporo smelt the man scent. The people who were watching from the ridge saw the taniwha rise up like a great weather-worn rock. His mouth opened to engulf the floating box, then he was gone, leaving the water boiling under the rocks.

Crouched in his narrow box, Ao Kehu chanted invocations to the gods. He felt the sudden plunge as the box was swallowed and Tutaeporoporo sank to the bottom of the river. Taking his weapons, he sawed through the lid of the box and attacked the taniwha's body from within. The monster hurled himself from side to side and Ao Kehu was thrown about in the darkness, but after a final convulsion the taniwha fell on his side and died.

Presently the watching people saw the great body float to the surface and drift downstream. They followed it until it washed ashore. Quickly they cut open the taniwha's body to release Ao Kehu, and then removed the bodies of the people Tutaeporoporo had killed so that they could be given proper burial.

Tutaeporoporo was left on the beach as food for the birds, and everyone rejoiced at his death. But in the dim shadows of the underworld, Tu Ariki sensed the passing of his faithful pet and grieved for him.