Comparative Myth: Pare and Hutu

Here is our first comparative myth. It comes from New Zealand.

Find the ways that it is similar to Orpheus and Eurydice.

In former days there lived a woman named Pare. She was a ‘puhi’: a girl of noble birth who unlike other girls, was kept carefully guarded and was not permitted to have love affairs. She lived on her own in her house, a beautiful carved building with three fences around it. The reason for her being kept apart was that since she was of such high rank, among her people there was no one of equal standing to take her as his wife.

When food was brought to her it was given to one of her slaves, who gave it to a second slave, who gave it to a third, and this third slave gave the food to Pare. The interior of her house was wonderfully decorated with the most beautiful cloaks: fine white cloaks edged with taniko work (kaitaka), fringed and tasseled cloaks (korowai), and cloaks of black dogskin (topuni). The house was sweetly scented with leaves of the kawakawa, and with all of the other perfumes known to the Maori.

Now there were certain days of the year which were set aside by the people for games and amusements, such as whipping the top, throwing darts, and all the other games of the Maori.

On one of these occasions there came to Pare's village a nobleman named Hutu, who joined her people in their games. He was very skilful both at throwing darts and whipping the top.

The people threw their darts, then Hutu threw his one, and it was Hutu's dart which flew the furthest. All of them marveled at the flight of Hutu's dart, and they shouted their praise of his skill. Hearing the noise, pare came to the door of her house to watch her people and Hutu throwing their darts.

Again the people threw their darts, and again Hutu threw his one. Hutu's dart flew right across, and landed by the doorway where Pare was standing. Then Pare picked up Hutu's dart and took it into her house. Hutu went to fetch it, but Pare would not give it to him. When he asked her to return it, she said, ‘You must come into my house, Hutu, so that I can talk to you, for I like you very much.’

Then Hutu said, ‘I do not want to come into your house. I am alone, and your people are many. I am a stranger in your country. It wouldn't be right for a person of low birth to go into the house of one of such noble birth as yourself. Furthermore, I have a wife and children at home.’

Then Pare said, ‘These arguments mean nothing to me, for I love you. You are the most skilful at the games; your top sounds the loudest, and your dart flies the furthest, and because of this, I love you.’
They argued in this way for some time, Hutu saying that he did not want to go into Pare's house, and Pare saying, ‘It makes no difference; I love you very much.’

When she saw that Hutu still would not agree to go in, Pare took hold of him, pulled him inside the house and shut the door. Hutu insisted on leaving, and he went outside, with Pare following him. Then Hutu turned to Pare and said, ‘You stay here, and in a little while I'll come back again.’

Then he ran off quickly. When Pare saw that Hutu was running away from her, she called after him, ‘Farewell, Hutu! Go to your home!’

Then she went back into the house and told her attendants to set in order her house and all her possessions. When the attendants had done this and Pare was left alone, she hanged herself.

When the people heard of Pare's death they were overwhelmed with grief and said, ‘Hutu must die for this.’ After they had met together to decide on the best way of capturing Hutu, a war party was sent out to find him, then took him to Pare's house, to the place where the body was lying, and told him, ‘We made you prisoner so that your death might pay for the death of Pare.’

‘Very well,’ said Hutu, ‘but do not bury the body. Let me go now, and do not bury the body until I come back. I will be gone for three or four days, then I will return. It is right that I should die in payment for the death of your princess.’

The people agreed to this, and so he left them. When he was a good distance away, he began to chant all of the spells and incantations which the priests recite when they are concerned with matters involving death and the spirit world. After this he went towards the spirit world, and saw Hine-nui-te-po, the Great Lady of the Night. He asked her, ‘Where is the path that leads below?’

Hine pointed to the path by which dogs go to the spirit world, but after Hutu had given her his greenstone mere (a club carved out of stone) she showed him the right path, the one that men use. Hine habitually acted in this deceitful manner, telling the truth only when bribed to do so, and in this way she collected a great deal of property.

Then Hine prepared some food for Hutu. After pounding some fernroot she put it in a basket, saying to him, ‘When you are below, eat sparingly of this food, so that it lasts for a long time; for if you eat the food down there, you can never return to this world.’

Hutu said that he would do as she instructed him, and Hine added, ‘If you bend your head downwards you will find it easy to fly down to the dark world; for when you are nearly there, a wind from below will blow your head upwards again, so that you will be able to land squarely on your feet.’

Hutu flew down to the land below, and when he arrived he began to look for Pare, asking the people, ‘Where is Pare?’ They told him, ‘In the village.’

Having heard that Hutu had come to the spirit world and was asking for her, Pare refused to go outside her house.

Hutu tried to think of some way of seeing Pare. He taught the people in the village to play at darts and whipping the top, the games known in this world. So the people played with Hutu, but Pare did not come out of her house to watch them.

Hutu was very sad at this, and said to the people again, ‘Fetch a tall tree, and let us cut off its branches.’
They brought the tree, trimmed off its branches and cut off the top. Then Hutu said, ‘Let us plait some ropes.’
The people pulled on them until the top of the tree bent down to the ground. Hutu sat right on top of the tree, and told one of the people to get on to his back. When they were ready, Hutu called to the men holding the ropes, ‘Let the top of the tree go up!’

The tree sprang upright again, with Hutu and the man on his back holding on tight. The people shouted with joy when they saw how good the swing was, for they were very pleased with this new game. After they had been playing the game for some time, all the people in the district heard of it. Pare was also told of the new game, and she came to watch it. Hutu was overjoyed to see her.

When Pare saw the game she was delighted, and went up to Hutu and said, ‘Let me also sit on your shoulders and fly up on the swing.’

Hutu was very glad at this, and said, ‘Hold on tight to my neck, Pare.’
Then he told the people to pull the tree right down to the ground, as far as it would go. Then he called out, ‘Let it go!’

When they let the tree spring back, it went up with such force that the ropes attached to it were thrown so high that they were caught in the land above. Then Hutu climbed up the ropes with Pare on his back. He grasped hold of the grass growing at the entrance to the underworld, pulled himself up, and arrived at the upper world, this world of ours.’

Pare and Hutu pulling themselves up from the Underworld by grasping onto roots.

They travelled on to the village where Pare's body was lying, and her spirit went to the side of her body, entered it, and took up its abode there; and Pare was alive again, a living person in this world of ours’.

Pare's people were overjoyed at seeing their princess again, and said that it was the power of Hutu's chants and prayers which had brought her back to life. Pare must marry Hutu, they said. When Hutu asked, ‘What about my children and my other wife?’ they answered, ‘Pare shall be your second wife.’ Hutu agreed to this, and from this time onwards, Pare was known as Pare-Hutu.

This Ngaitahu version of the story of Pare and Hutu is taken from John White's ‘Ancient History of the Maori’, volume II. In this as in many other stories, it is the woman who takes the initiative in courtship. This was often the Maori custom. In this case, Pare's high rank enables her to be especially forthright in her approach. In another version of the story I read, I especially liked that Hutu brought Pare back to life by pushing her soul back into her body through the souls of her feet. This version can be viewed at The National Library of New Zealand at http://teaohou.natlib.govt.nz/journals/teaohou/issue/Mao50TeA/c11.html