Explore "The Legend of Rātā" by George Grey on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Before Tāwhaki ascended up into the heavens a son named Wahieroa had been born to him by his first wife. As soon as Wahieroa grew to man's estate he took Kura for a wife, and she bore him a son whom they called Rātā. Wahieroa was slain treacherously by a chief named Matuku-takotako, but his son Rātā was born some time before his death. It therefore became his duty to revenge the death of his father Wahieroa, and Rātā having grown up, at last devised a plan for doing this. He therefore gave the necessary orders to his dependants, at the same time saying to them, "I am about to go in search of the man who slew my father."
He then started upon a journey for this purpose, and at length arrived at the entrance to the place of Matuku-takotako. He found there a man who was left in charge of it sitting at the entrance to the courtyard, and he asked him, saying, "Where is the man who killed my father?"