Kaikaiawaro
The Dolphin That Met The Canoes
There was once a famous dolphin known as Pelorus Jack. For more than twenty-five years, he escorted vessels to the entrance of the French Pass. It disappeared in 1916. Pelorus Jack's true legendary origin goes back much further in time, in the story of Kaikaiawaro
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Long before the arrival of the first white men, there were two men who lived by the shores of the Pelorus Sound. They both loved the same young women. She chose one of them as her husband. This so enraged the rejected suitor, named Ruru, that he picked her up, carried her to the edge of a cliff and flung her over. She fell on the rocks far below and was killed.
The other young man had witnessed the murder but was unable to intervene as he was too far away. The girl was dead when he arrived. He rushed towards Ruru, without waiting to recover his breath, hurled himself upon his rival. Ruru had little difficulty in overcoming him and his body followed his lover's onto the rocks. In his madness, Ruru uttered a malignant curse, calling on the gods to destroy the soul and body of the young man, a curse so profound and powerful that it entered the mind of a dolphin and killed it. As Ruru watched from the hilltop, the waves lifted the grey body and rolled it onto the sand.
The madness ebbed from Ruru's brain and he realised with horror what he had done. Three bodies lay broken or stranded on the beach because of the blind rage that had overwhelmed him. He went to the tohunga (priest) of his tribe and told him what he had done and asked for his help. The tohunga was angry. Ruru must be punished for his temerity. Using his powers of maakatu, the tohunga forced the wairua (spirit) of Ruru into the body of the stranded dolphin, giving it life, and commanding it to remain there for all time and to meet every canoe that entered the French Pass.
Years passed by and the soul of Ruru in the body of the dolphin, known as Kaikaiawaro, carried out it's long penance. Each year he returned to the tohunga to seek release, but the tohunga refused his request. The priest died; with fresh hope Ruru begged the new tohunga to put an end to his lonely vigil, but no one except the old priest had power to release him. The centuries rolled on and Ruru escorted the canoes with an aching heart.
Time brought changes. The Pakeha (white men) came, the Maori population dwindled, settlements sprang up in the sheltered bays and ships began to shuttle through the strait. Ruru continued his vigil until the year 1916, but has never been seen since. Is he dead? Is the long atonement over? Has the wairua of the aged tohunga released the wairua of Ruru from the body of the dolphin? Who can tell?