LITMIR.BIZ

      LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

      Heke fells the Flagstaff at Kororareka Farewell to Hawaiki Victors in the Fight The Fight in Massacre Bay Hongi's last "Word" to his People A Dreadful Recognition Signing the Treaty of Waitangi Phillpotts at Oheawai A Boy's Heroism. "Awake! Awake!" Major Witchell's Charge at Nukumaru The Frenzy of the Hauhau. The Incantation Butters gives the Alarm—Poverty Bay

      MAP

       New Zealand

      PART I

      THE MAORI

      CHAPTER I

      THE COMING OF THE RACE

The voice of lamentation and the noise of weeping were heard in Hawaiki;[1] for men's hands were lifted up to slay their own kin: so that father slew son, and son smote father, and brother strove against brother, until nowhere in all that pleasant land was there peace. Wherefore, little children hid themselves for fear; and women, having cut their cheeks with sharks' teeth, and gashed their bosoms with sharp shells and pieces of tuhua[2], raised the tangi[3] for the warriors who every day passed through the portals which give upon the Waters of Reinga.[4]

But Ngahue, being a great chief, might not weep; so he sat apart in his whare,[5] neither eating nor drinking, while he prayed to the gods and to his ancestors that they would make a way of escape from the threatening doom. For Ngahue was sore stricken, having been worsted in the fight, and well he knew that for the conquered was no mercy. Wherefore, he sat with bowed head and covered face, and prayed for light.

      And light came; for the gods had pity upon Ngahue, who was ever their faithful servant.

      So Ngahue arose in the black darkness, bidding his wife be of good cheer and patiently await his return, and with noiseless tread stole forth from his whare.

Softly called Ngahue unto him his best-beloved friend, Te Turi, the Stubborn One, and Te Turi's friends, Te Weri, the Centipede, and Te Waerau, the Crab,[6] together with certain warriors, proved in many a fight. He compelled also to his side a sufficiency of tutua[7] and, being come to the beach, launched a great canoe. Then, having commended themselves to the gods, they sailed whithersoever Atua[8] chose to lead them.

Many days sailed they over the placid bosom of moana,[9] passing fair islands whereon they were fain to rest, but for fear of club and cooking-pot dared not land. So they kept on the course which Atua had set, praying ever that they might come to the land which Ngahue had seen in a vision what time the gods gave him light.

      But all things have an end. Neither Ngahue, nor his friends, nor his followers, nor the tutua complained or murmured at the hardships they underwent, or reviled the gods; wherefore the Six Great Brethren had compassion upon them.

      So the Great Six sat in council—Tumatauenga, god and father of men and war; Haumiatikitiki, god of the food which springs of itself from the earth; Rongomatane, god of the food which men prepare for themselves; Tangaroa, god of fish and reptiles; Tawhiri-Ma-Tea, god of winds and storms; Tane-Mahuta, god of forests and of the birds therein—all were there.

Then spake Tumatauenga, saying, "Behold! I will send ahead of Ngahue my youngest son, Mauitikitiki o Taranga; and I will give him the jawbone of one of his ancestors, whereof he shall fashion a great hook, wherewith he shall fish up a land out of moana for Ngahue; and the name thereof shall be Te Ika a Maui.[10] Behold! I have spoken."

Then spake in turn the rest of the Great Brethren, sons all of Rangi and Papa,[11] promising good gifts to Ngahue and them with him. But Maui, obedient to his father's word, went forth and fished diligently in the sea until, lo! he drew up a land, which, by the might of the Six Brethren, was covered in an instant with forests and plains and mountains and valleys. And birds flew high and low and sang among the trees, and rivers rushed through deep woods, and silver streams flashed by quiet lawns, and the bays and straits abounded in fish, and the earth with good things to eat. All was of the best for Ngahue and his friends when they should arrive.

      So Maui gave to Ngahue the new land, which was a land beautiful, a land rich and abounding in all things good and needful; and he and his friends, beholding this fair and gracious land and knowing it their own, gave thanks to the Six Great Brethren and were filled with joy.

      Then Ngahue, calling upon the gods, drave the great canoe into a beautiful bay, and made fast to a tree which hung low over the water and flung its red blossoms on the tide; whereafter the wanderers stepped ashore and stood upon the land which Maui had fished up from the sea, and which the Six Great Brethren had given them for their own.

      Then, all most reverently standing still, Ngahue gathered a little soil and scattered it to the four quarters of the earth and, having cast his most cherished ornament into the sea in propitiation, he chanted this prayer to the Spirit of the Land:—

      We arrive where an unknown earth is under our feet;

       We arrive where a new sky is above us.

       We arrive at this land,

       A resting-place for us.

       O Spirit of the Earth! We strangers now humbly

Offer our hearts as food for thee.[12]

And Ngahue loved the new land, for the forest trees were tall and splendid, and the flowers beautiful and radiant as kahukura[13] in the sky. Great eels swarmed in the rivers, fish in plenty swam in the sea, and sharks, whose teeth are for ornament and for women when they raise the tangi. Whales, also, played in the near seas, and seals basked upon the rocks. Birds

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