Īhenga was the youngest son of
Tuhoromatakakā and Uenuku-whakarorongarangi. He had three elder brothers: Taramainuku, who ultimately settled at
Kaipara, Warenga, who settled at
Kawakawa in the
Bay of Islands, and Huarere, who remained at Moehau. Through his father, he was a grandson of
Tama-te-kapua, the captain of the
Arawa canoe, which brought
Te Arawa from
Hawaiki to New Zealand. According to some sources, Īhenga was on the
Arawa himself. Tama-te-kapua had originally settled at
Maketu in the
Bay of Plenty with his sons Tuhoromatakakā and
Kahumatamomoe, but disagreements over the ownership of fields led Tama-te-kapua and Tuhoromatakakā to depart for Moehau.
Death of Tuhoromatakakā , seen from the southwest , seen from the west Tuhoromatakakā died as a result of breaching
tapu after conducting Tama-te-kapua's funeral at Moehau. On his deathbed, Tuhoromatakakā instructed Īhenga, to carry out a particular funerary ritual. Īhenga was to bite Tuhoromatakaka's forehead and
perineum and then bury him next to Tama-te-kapua, in order to make him into an
ikahurihuri ("twisting fish," a type of oracle). When he did this, Tuhoromatakakā's body twisted from side to side, signifying that his descendants would fail to hold their land in the Coromandel. After this, Īhenga placed Tuhoromatakakā's body in a foetal position, with his knees touching his neck, covered in him in two
kahakaha cloaks, two cloaks for old men, and a dogskin cloak, placed feathers from
toroa,
huia, and
kotuku in his hair, and toroa down in his ears. Then he buried him. In the night, Tuhoromatakakā's ghost came to Īhenga and forbade him from asking for food or water, taught him
karakia, and dispatched him to Maketu to be cleansed from the
tapu of the funeral at the hands of Kahumatamomoe. Īhenga snuck into Kahumatamomoe's house and seated himself on Kahumatamomoe's pillow, a sacred spot. When he heard of this, Kahumatamomoe came storming in, intending to kill the invader for the insult, but he recognised Īhenga as his nephew, welcomed him, and cleansed him of the
tapu. First, he washed him in the
Kaituna River. Then he carried out the
pure ritual, cutting off Īhenga's hair and tying it to a stone which was deposited in a sacred place. Then his daughter presented them with a meal of
kumara, carefully averting her face so that she did not breathe in any of the steam; Kahumatamomoe gave Īhenga some of the
kohukohu moss in which the kumara had been cooked and led him in offering it to stone images and to their deceased relatives. Finally, Kahumatamomoe spat on the
kohukohu and offered it to Tama-te-kapua.
D. M. Stafford gives translations of the
karakia (incantations) that were sung during these rituals. After the purification, Kahumatamomoe allowed Īhenga to marry his daughter Hinetekakara. Īhenga dug up a pounamu earring that his father had ripped from Kahumatamomoe's ear and gave it to his new wife. Seeing this, Kahumatamomoe mourned for his brother and granted the earring to his daughter.
Journey to Rotoiti ("whitebait") When Hinetekakara became pregnant, Īhenga set out with his dog Potakatawhiti to hunt
kiwi for her. He first discovered Kaituna, "the chiefly river". Then he returned to Maketu and served up a feast of six hundred kiwi. Hinetekakara conducted the ceremony of Turakanga to strengthen her unborn child.
Journey to Rotorua After Hinetekakara gave birth to a son, Tama-ihu-toroa, Kahumatamomoe encouraged Īhenga to set out once more to find new lands for the newborn. He went from Matapara to Te Hiapo, to Te Wharepakauawe, and on to
Lake Rotorua, which he named Te Rotoruanui-a-Kahumatamomoe ("The great double lake of Kahumatamomoe") in honour of his uncle. He named Tuarahiwiroa peninsula and attempted to snare shags there, but the shags flew off with the snares and landed on
Mokoia Island, which Īhenga named Te Motutapu-a-Tinirau.
Tricking Tuarotorua Īhenga went on to Kawaha where he saw smoke of campfires and realised that the land was inhabited. He found the
tūāhu altar of the local people, which was old and decayed, and dissassembled it. Then he built a brand new
tūāhu on the site and used the decayed materials from the old
tūāhu to build his own altar at Kawaha, which he named Te Peraotangaroa. When he encountered the chief of the inhabitants of the place,
Tuarotorua, Īhenga claimed that the land was his and pointed to the fact that his
tūāhu was old and decayed while Tuarotorua's
tūāhu was brand new as evidence of his primacy. As a second proof, Īhenga pointed to a rock slip on a cliff, asserting that it was his fishing net. He forced Tuarotorua to leave the mainland and settle on Mokoia Island.
Encounter with the Patupaiarehe reeds He found the shags that he had snared in a
kahikatea tree by a stream which he named
Waikuta, because it was surrounded by
kuta reeds and called the area Rāroa ("long day") because of how long it had taken him to find the shags. Nearby, Īhenga heard
Patupaiarehe (fairy-people) playing music at their settlement on the summit of a mountain, which was called Te Tuahuoteatua. He snuck up and found them surrounding a burning tree, but they spotted him, so he fled, setting the forest and settlement on fire as a distraction. When he returned, the place was abandoned and he found a
moa's jawbone, so he named the place Te Kauae ("the jawbone"). He named the place
Ngongotahā ("drink a calabash"), because one of the Patupaiarehe had given him a calabash to drink from when he first reached the top of the hill. D. M. Stafford and
James Cowan record three songs sung by the Patupaiarehe. Īhenga named further places around Lake Rotorua: • Weriweri, • Kopu, • Te Awahou • Puhirua ("feather-fall"), because the feathers fell out of his top-knot there. • Tanewhiti ("man shocked"), because inanga leapt into his canoe there. • Tupa-karia-a-Īhenga ("Īhenga's boasting"), because he had a boastful thought. • Ohau River, named after his dog, which drowned there • Te Tawa, because his
tawa-wood puntpole stuck in the ground there and could not be removed. Finally, Īhenga returned to Tuarahiwiroa, where he presented the food he had found to Hinetekakara. She was shocked by rat's tooth among the food, so the place was named Te Niho-o-te-kiore ("The rat's tooth").
Bringing Kahumatamomoe to Rotorua On his return to Maketu, Īhenga declared that the area belonged to Kahumatamomoe and convinced him to come and settle there. First, Īhenga brought Kahumatamomoe to Lake Rotoiti, which he gave to him. Later, Kahumatamomoe removed a
kākā feather (
hou kākā) from his top-knot and placed it in the ground to be a protective
taniwha, so the place was named Ohoukaka. As they were travelling along in their canoe, Kahumatamomoe suddenly undressed, leapt into the water, and swam to a beach. His grandsons laughed and said "See, there go Kahu's legs," so the place was named Kūwhārua-o-Kahu ("two thighs of Kahu"). They built a
whata (raised food store) near Tuarahiwiroa and named the place
Te Whata. Passing the hot springs, Te Pera-o-tangaroa, and Waiohiro stream, they arrived at Ngongotahā (called Parawai by Kahumatamomoe), where they settled.
Journey to Kaipara Two years later, Kahumatamomoe decided to make a trip to visit his nephew Taramainuku, Īhenga's older brother, who now lived at
Kaipara in
Northland. Īhenga and Kahumatamomoe's son Tawake-moe-tahanga accompanied him. At one point on the journey, they rested under a
rātā tree and Kahumatamomoe named the place Te Whakamarumaru o Kahu ("The sun-shade of Kahu"); Īhenga responded by naming the place Te Ure o Tūhoro ("The penis of Tūhoro") after his own father, because he saw a
mataī tree with a penis-like growth on its trunk. Further on, their dog caught a
kākāpō at a spot which they named Te Kākāpō. Kahumatamomoe named Matanuku after the lyrics of a
karakia called Uruuruwhenua. After crossing the
Waikato River, the younger men became very slow, so Kahumatamomoe named the spot Māngere ("lazy"). They crossed the
Waipā River, passed
Mount Pirongia and
Waingaroa and came to
Port Waikato, where they met
Ohomairangi, a great-uncle of Īhenga, who had come to New Zealand on the
Tainui. To the north, Kahumatamomoe set up a
mānuka post as a
rahui (sacred marker) and named the place Manuka (which might be
Manukau). Īhenga and the others travelled north to Kaipara Harbour by sea in a canoe, while Kahumatamomoe accompanied them on the back of a
taniwha called
Paikea. At Kaipara, the travellers met with Taramainuku and he gave them his daughter Hinetu-te-rauniao, to be married to Kahumatamomoe's grandson Uenuku-mai-rarotonga. The travellers were presented with a great feast, including baskets of
para fern. Kahumatamomoe was so impressed with the para, which he had never had before, that he named the region Kaipara ("eat para"). Kahumatamomoe then departed for Rotorua.
Further travels in the North shell tree Īhenga went north to
Ripiro Beach. Here, the travellers gathered
toheroa, but Īhenga ate them all while the other travellers were away, so the place was named Kaihū-a-Īhenga ("Īhenga's secret meal"). At Waikereru, the travellers became thirsty, so Īhenga sung a
karakia (incantations) and stamped his foot, causing a spring to burst forth and
kererū to fly down to drink the water. Nearby, Īhenga's dog, Potakatawhiti was killed when a tree trunk rolled over on top of it; Īhenga performed another
karakia, so that the dog's soul could go into a nearby
tōtara tree, where it was still said to speak to passing travellers in 1967. Īhenga met his elder brother Warenga at Mataewaka, near
Kawakawa and they went fishing together at Lake Te Tiringa. Īhenga caught inanga and
kōura ("crayfish"), which he later set free in the waters at Waitepuia stream at Maketu and in Lake Rotorua. Īhenga travelled on to
Whangārei, naming places after events that happened along the way: •
Ruapekapeka ("nest of bats"), because there were many bats living in holes in the trees; • Tapuae-haruru ("roaring footsteps"), because his footsteps were very loud here; •
Motatau ("talking to himself"), because he found himself talking to himself there; • Te Waiwhakaata-a-Īhenga ("reflecting water of Īhenga"), because he saw his reflection in the water • Whatitiri ("thunder"), because he performed a
karakia to make it thunder here. • Te Ahipūpū-a-Īhenga ("the pūpū fire of Īhenga"), because they cooked
pūpū (cat's eye sea snails) there. At Whangārei, Īhenga met Tahu-whakatiki, a member of the crew of the
Arawa, who had settled in the Far North. Tahu-whakatiki's sons Te Whara and Hikurangi took Īhenga in a canoe past Taranga and Hauturu to Moehau in the Coromandel, where Īhenga visited his final brother, Huarere. Then he continued to Maketu, where he met with Kahumatamomoe and finally returned to Rotorua.
Settlement in Rotorua , seen from the south After this journey, Īhenga established a
pā (fortified village) called Whakarongo near mount Pukepoto in the Whakapoungakau range (between Lakes Rotorua and
Ōkataina) and two further
pā, Pateiti and Te Kahuka, nearby. Later, he moved to Ngongotahā, where he established a pā on the Waitetī stream, called Whakaeketahuna. He placed a magic
whetstone for sharpening axes called Hine-tua-hōanga, which had been brought on the
Arawa, at a sacred spring called Waiorotoki ("waters of the echoing axes") nearby. The stone was shown to
James Cowan still in situ in 1930 and was said to have made the stream so
tapu that it was fatal to drink from it. One time, Īhenga returned from a trip away and his wife Hinetekakara was missing. He found her corpse by the shore at the edge of the lake, and he placed a memorial stone that he named
Ōhinemutu, "the end of the girl," which made the place
tapu. The location became the Uruika cemetery and the stone was still visible until the late 1880s. Īhenga and Tama-ihu-toroa decided that the killers were probably Tuarotorua's men, so they attacked his pā, Whaknakenake and killed the
rangatira Waingahe and Te Waipoporo. They won another battle over them at Te Tokorangi and sent Tuarotorua's people back to Mokoia Island. ==Family==