page 160

V. The Pathways of Chiefs

In days gone by I heard the question asked,
“What man can show the path the spirits go?”

White's Maori History.
(Ancient Lament.)

Some days later, leaving the canoe in the safe care of his men, Tuwharétoa set out with Rata for Hikurangi Pa.

The route they chose lay through new country to the west of the river, but nothing of special interest did they see except a huge blow-hole, and then two small valleys which throbbed with power from forces hidden in the earth below.

Through one of these valleys ran a hot stream, remarkable for its coloured cascades and for the simmering pools of varied hues that lined its banks. And so soft and refreshing to the skin did they find the waters of this stream to be that they named it “Te Waiora-a-Tané, The Life-giving-Water-of-Tané”

The second valley was of a different type, a weird place marked by geysers that hissed and roared and shot on high their glittering spray. And down the valley flowed a rushing stream which Tuwharétoa named “Te Wai-rakei, The Striding-Water.”

Leaving that valley they hurried on, and by noon they were across the Waikato again, having swum the river at a point some distance above the great bend. Then tirelessly they set out on the long final stage of the journey home.

Ha! In the mind of the ariki was already the page 161 thought of all the troubles awaiting him at Hikurangi Pa.

Those troubles were not long in coming to a head, for, on the very first evening of his return, Tuwharétoa heard about the nightly ceremonies of the tohungas, ceremonies which had caused much uneasiness of mind to all the followers of the ariki within the pa.

It was not until the morning, however, that he found out the full truth, and then his rage was so great that had Taréha been present before him he would have slain the head chief on the spot, regardless of consequences. But the truth was revealed to him while alone with Marama down by the river.

He had first questioned her about Kahu, and had demanded to know if Kahu had presumed to speak to her during his absence.

“No!” she had replied. “Nothing has he said to me, O Manaia, but he hovers near me, and once, when he covered me with cloak from sudden rain, he touched me, and oh, his nearness to me was rough to me as skin of shark to hand.”

Tuwharétoa had made no comment, and Marama had then confided to him the more serious thing that had troubled her mind.

“O my brother,” she had said.” I fear Taréha and I fear his tohungas. Listen! Night after night I have felt the moving of strange powers. Night after night there has come to me unbidden a dread, a subtle dread of Taupo. I shake it off, but back it comes with added force, and then I feel an influence that seeks to draw me to that hated Kahu. Aué! I fear the tohungas, for they use their powers on me and they try to draw page 162 my mind and spirit into their hands for moulding as they will. So leave me not again, O Manaia, leave me not again!”

………..

By the time Tuwharétoa was back at the pa that day he had regained control of himself, but he was determined to force the issue with the head chief. So he made inquiries at once from Te Puku and also from Te Moana the Wise, and then he spoke to the head chief in the presence of a crowd which quickly gathered on the marae:

“O Taréha! Take heed! I have found out about the efforts of thyself and thy tohungas to ensnare the minds of my followers within this pa. Dangerous work! Therefore, let such efforts cease at once, O Child of Tama, lest the danger be too great even for thee and thy tohungas!

“Now give heed again! I have learned of thine efforts to influence the mind of the Puhi maiden Marama. Ha! I ask thee questions. To what purpose was thy face tattooed, that thou couldst act to her in so mean a manner during mine absence in the south? Has the head chief of Hikurangi ceased to be a chief, a rangatira? Aué!” His exclamation gave added force to the contempt that was in his voice.

“Now hear my final word!” he continued. “For this thy treatment of my sister, I will lay up in store for thee something that will be more bitter to thy mind than berry of mato to mouth. Therefore, taihoa! Enough!”

The wrathful Taréha opened his mouth to speak, but, to the surprise of the people, no speech came. The page 163 angry tohungas who had gathered behind their leader scowled at the ariki, but they too remained silent.

Tuwharétoa turned his back upon them and moved away, leaving Te Puku to announce to the people that within seven days the chiefs and elders and tohungas of all Te Arawa would be meeting the ariki in general council on Hikurangi Hill.

………..

Alone with Tuwharétoa that evening, old Te Moana the Wise made a final effort to induce the ariki to modify his attitude towards Taréha. Said he:

“O Tu! Listen to this proverb of our ancestors! ‘He tao rakau, e karohia atu ka hemo. He tao kii, werohia mai tu tonu. A thrown wooden spear, if warded off, passes away. The spoken spear, when spoken, wounds deeply.’ Consider, therefore, whether thou shouldst keep on smiting the head chief with words that will rankle in his mind, words that may cause endless trouble among our people!”

Meeting with no response he waited a while, and then proceeded:

“Consider the action of thy father, O Ariki! He named thee ‘Manaia,’ but not because of thy looks. No! He named thee after the mighty chief Manaia, who was the enemy of Ngatoro-i-rangi in distant Tawhiti. It was a sign to all the world that an ancient feud was at an end, and that the memory of it was no longer to becloud the minds of Ngatoro's descendants in the new land in the south.

“Therefore, O Tu, when thou wilt have left this place, remember not in the Taupo country the quarrels and troubles of Hikurangi days! Be warned by one who has seen the folly of internal strife! Let the feud page 164 between Ngatoro-i-rangi and Tama-te-kapua, and the enmity between their descendants, be altogether forgotten, otherwise the unity of the tribe will be gradually lost, and then terrible wars may result in days to come. Now speak, O Tu, speak!”

When Tuwharétoa answered at last, his words but gave Te Moana more food for thought:

“O Aged One! The advice which thou hast given to me is good advice. Therefore, in the Taupo country I will cast aside my hate, and I will forget Taréha. Yes, I will forget him. But as to what will happen before I leave Hikurangi, I cannot say. Now let us cleanse ourselves and resume our studies in the art of ‘makutu,’ that I may not fail in my test on the great day!”

………..

On the following morning further trouble broke out, and in a fresh quarter.

A large meeting of the head chief's supporters was being held on the marae, and was being addressed by Taréha. At his side stood Kahu. Presently Tuwharétoa and Rata came striding by. They stopped. Taréha ceased speaking. Then said Rata in a voice that could be heard by all:

“See that Kahu yonder, O Tu! Back he has come to life, yet the scars remain, his body scarred, his mind scarred, even his spirit scarred by his black treachery to me.”

“Yes!” replied Tuwharétoa. “And surely the shame of it must be gnawing at his heart like unto the gnawing of the Sea Maid into the sides of the Earth Mother.”

Then, without heeding the angry protests of the head page 165 chief and his followers, they walked on, with Rata knowing quite well that so plain a challenge would sooner or later be accepted by the victim of his taunt. They walked on, but in front of Te Moana's wharé they stopped again and listened to a reproof from the Aged One:

“Oh, the arrogance, the impatience of youth! Cannot ye wait until after the gathering of chiefs and elders of the tribe? Must ye display to all the world the private hates that mar the life of Hikurangi? Taihoa with your hates! Taihoa !”

Without replying, they walked on, and entered the dwelling of the ariki. Then Tuwharétoa said:

“O Rata! Perhaps the Aged One is right. Let us keep away from Taréha and Kahu for a time! Later we will strike, and strike hard. Is that good, O friend?”

“It is good,” said Rata, with some reluctance.

………..

During the next few days party after party of chiefs and tohungas and elders arrived, and by the sixth day the greatest concourse of leaders known in the history of Te Arawa had assembled on Hikurangi Hill.

On the seventh day the proceedings opened before a huge gathering on the marae, but after the usual formalities were over the first matter for discussion was settled by the ariki with disappointing quickness.

Invited to disclose his decision on the matter of marriage, Tuwharétoa rose up and said that he had visited all the villages of the tribe and had made up his mind as to the maiden whom he would seek to win as his mate. Her name and parentage he would page 166 announce at a later date. Sufficient for the present that she was of highest rank!

The second matter for discussion proved much harder to settle. Indeed, it took up almost the rest of that day, and more than once it looked as if Tuwharétoa would be forbidden to proceed farther with his plans for the conquest of Taupo.

The crafty Taréha contented himself with reminding the visiting chiefs and elders that even Mawaké-Taupo at the height of his power had deferred to the wishes of his people, and had refrained from pursuing his dreams of conquest in the south. Yet now his son was trying to force the people into an unwanted war with Ngatihotu, regardless of the risk of wars with other tribes as well. Had not Te Arawa enough lands, enough lakes, for all its needs? asked Taréha.

He was supported by one of his followers, who pointed out that the Ngatihotus were a numerous people, yet the ariki was setting out against them with only a small force which would be easily wiped out or driven back. Then would Te Arawa have to avenge the defeat and waste its strength on a useless war, for even if the Lake People were conquered the Arawas would not be numerous enough to occupy the Taupo country. And of what use would conquest be without occupation?

So the discussion went on, with the visitors showing more and more readiness to accept the view-point of Hikurangi Pa, and more and more readiness to forbid Tuwharétoa to use the tribal strength against Taupo. Indeed, the head chief felt sure already that he had the ariki a beaten man.

But disillusionment came quickly, and with it, another of those instances in which a Maori chief of page 167 highest rank has been able, by his confidence in himself and by his well-chosen speech, to sway the minds of his people and imperiously to bend their wills to his.

Tuwharétoa in leisurely fashion had risen to his feet, and now his whole manner as he arranged his chieftain's robes about him reminded the people irresistibly of the Great One who was gone. Many of the people were turning their hearts towards him even before he began to speak. Then, with his opening words, there came an appeal to the imagination such as few on that marae could possibly resist:

“Hearken, O chiefs and elders! Hearken, O people! To the south is the Waikato, river of rivers. Beyond lies Taupo, the Inland Sea. Beyond Taupo is the mountain Tongariro, that was scaled by Ngatoro. Waikato, Taupo, Tongariro—te ara o tenei ariki, the pathway of this chief! Yes, the pathway of this chief!

“Now as to the Ngatihotus who bar my way! ’Tis true that they are a numerous people. Taihoa! A little cloud shall cover them. Ah! Already, with the eye of the spirit, I see my warriors dancing a peruperu of victory upon the shining pumice sands of Taupo. Ha! How the sand flies from under their feet! Arawas!

“Now hear me as I speak of that which calls me, pulls me, drives me on! I am called of the spirit. This is the call. Some of the carvèd posts in the House of Te Arawa have been left by mine ancestor Ngatoro for me to finish. It was my father's wish that I should finish them. And I will finish them, whether this council approve or not, for in this matter I am the Tribe. Enough! Enough!”

And it needed not the thunderous roar of a combined “haka” to show Taréha that the young ariki, for the page 168 time being at least, had brushed aside the obstacles that had been placed in his way.

………..

The day of the long-awaited test of the Wharé wananga broke beautifully clear, and for some reason or other its summer warmth and brightness seemed to give more than usual pleasure to old Te Moana the Wise. From point to point along the brow of the hill he went, greeting the dawn, greeting the sun, greeting one after another the familiar spots spread out below and around.

To add to his pleasure, the tohungas of Hikurangi as well as the visiting tohungas placed themselves under his leadership, and then they followed him round and round the marae while he carried out without a mistake the intricate ceremonies required by the age-old customs of the race. A great day for Te Moana the Wise!

At noon, with tohungas and people alike worked up into the desired state of mind, and with the women and children now all excluded from the pa, the ceremonies ended, and Te Moana led the way to a small enclosure on the northern side of the marae. Soon one end of this enclosure was crowded with tohungas, while the outside was lined with rows upon rows of chiefs and elders of Te Arawa, with the warriors of Hikurangi crowding in upon them from the back.

Then into the enclosure walked the young chief Kahu. Ah! The ariki was not the only pupil of the Wharé-wananga whom the tohungas would test that day, for two others were desirous of tohunga rank; but for them the tests would be by comparison light.

page 169

As Kahu sat down by himself at one end of the enclosure it was demanded of him that he project his thoughts into the minds of the tohungas. It was a test not unduly hard for one who had spent so many years in the higher studies of the Wharé-wananga. He passed it with ease.

Then into the ground in front of him was thrust the freshly-cut branch of a leafy shrub. That he caused the leaves to wither before the eyes of all was deemed, at least by those outside the enclosure, to be only another manifestation of the intimate relationship known to exist between mankind and the offspring of Tané the Forest Father. The test was passed.

The next to appear within the enclosure was Rata. He too was able to satisfy the tohungas with his power to project his thoughts; but when a captive was brought before him and he was bidden to control the actions of that captive by the powers of mind alone, he experienced difficulty. The captive showed great fear of him. Finally, however, he brought the mind of the captive into subjection to his own, and after that the rest was easy, and the test was passed.

A subdued murmur rose as Tuwharétoa now entered the enclosure, and at once a stream of warriors began to move away from the marae and down on to the terraces below. The fear of the power of the “makutu” was strong upon them. Powers that were beyond their ken were to be let loose on the marae. Better to keep at a distance, thought they. But the tohungas and the chiefs and the elders stayed where they were, and mentally girded themselves in readiness for that which was to come. Ah! The slaying of a human being by the weapon unseen!

Scarcely had Tuwharétoa sat down opposite the page 170 tohungas than he began to thrust out at them with a mental power that astounded them. Some of the lesser tohungas who had taken unduly prominent positions in front now hastily betook themselves to the rear. Other tohungas grew uneasy also, but held their ground. A few of the leaders hurled back thrust for thrust.

Presently Te Moana gave heed to the murmured protests of the tohungas and, to their relief, ordered the second portion of the test to begin.

But now a difficulty arose. A captive and terror-stricken maiden who was dragged into the enclosure as an intended victim for the ariki's test, was contemptuously rejected by him. Why should the tohungas insult him with so poor a test? he asked.

Having consulted together, the tohungas decided to submit to the ariki a warrior of Hikurangi who had been guilty of that much-abhorred offence, a theft. But when the warrior appeared within the enclosure, his horror of a death by the “makutu” had already made him half-dead with fright. Impatiently, even angrily, Tuwharétoa ordered the man away. Then peremptorily he cried:

“I myself will choose the test, and a worthy test. So move back to either side, ye tohungas of Te Arawa, leaving before me only the chief tohunga of Hikurangi! Upon Taréha will I exercise my powers. Enough! Move back! Hasten!”

For a moment, tohungas and chiefs and elders were dumb with astonishment. Then the storm broke, and the dignity and order that usually mark the assemblies of the Maori were swept away. Cries of protest from the visitors mingled with cries of rage from the followers of Taréha. The head chief himself page 171 tried to quell the tumult. He cried out that he was willing to stand the test. The uproar only increased. Crowds of warriors hastened back to the marae, and took sides at once. For a while it looked as if bloodshed must ensue.

With considerable difficulty, Te Moana managed at last to assert himself. With dire threats he compelled silence. Then scathingly he rebuked all his fellow-tohungas except Taréha for their amazing loss of self-control. Even more scathingly he rebuked the chiefs and the elders and the warriors for their presumption in allowing their voices to be heard at a sacred ceremony of the Wharé-wananga. He ordered the warriors to leave the marae at once.

Then, turning round, he sternly reproved Tuwharé-toa for so nearly precipitating a serious crisis within the tribe. The private enmity with Taréha over the matter of Marama was of little importance, said Te Moana, compared with the welfare of Hikurangi and of Te Arawa. Moreover, it was a grievous thing to find the ariki so ready to use his powers of mind to an unworthy end. A grievous thing! Not for such ends had he been taught the knowledge of Ngatoro.

A gesture of regret came from Tuwharétoa, and the Aged One was appeased at once. It had hurt him to publicly reprove the one he loved. He moved forward now, and knelt beside the ariki, and gave him affectionate greeting. He whispered something, and the watching people saw the ariki start with surprise, then slowly lift his cape from the ground and draw it up over his brow.

Te Moana moved back, and ordered the tohungas to group themselves along the sides of the enclosure and to keep away from the ends. They quickly obeyed.

page 172

This done, he commanded the tohungas and the chiefs and elders to remain silent, no matter what they might see or hear.

Then he sat down by himself in the centre of the enclosure, with his face towards Tuwharétoa, and waited. Gradually it dawned upon all that the Aged One was offering himself up as a sacrifice, and was waiting, waiting for the ariki's attack. Aué!

Suddenly the voice of Te Moana broke the silence:

“O Tu! Hear me! What matters it if I take the spirit path now? Is not my house swept, clean swept, for ever swept? Are not my years almost fulfilled? Why grieve for me? Shall we not meet again, meet again where shadowy spirits dwell? Remove thy cape from brow, then strike, strike!”

But no sign did the ariki give, and his face remained hidden from view. A brief wait, then Te Moana spoke again:

É Tu! Kaoré ahau e maté tara wharé. A tena! Patua! O Tu! I refuse to die under the eaves of a house. Now then! Kill!”

Still no response! Silence, a long silence, an oppressive silence, broken at last by a final appeal from the Aged One:

“O Tu! Hear the cry of thy kinsman! Is it not better for me to die weapon in hand than by the weary feebleness or the lingering sickness of old age? Listen! I am armed with the spear of the mind, and so art thou. And our spears are sharp. Do thou use thy spear upon me, and I will seek to parry thy thrusts! So may we gain knowledge. Strike, O Tu, strike! Ah! A-a-ah!”

The cape had fallen now, and the eyes of Tuwharétoa were seen to be like points of light. An upward page 173 nod was the only warning he gave. Then, with terrific suddenness, he struck.

Ha! The alert Te Moana parried that thrust and the thrusts that immediately followed, but not without difficulty. Their penetrative power surprised him, and very real to him was the force that was seeking now to grip him. He felt it increase in power, and fade away. Then with joy, even triumph, in his voice, he described his sensations to the listening tohungas. Knowledge from the gods!

Eager for more, he issued a challenge:

“Open, open wide the door to my last home, O Tu! Then see if thou canst force me through! Yet wait! I of myself would seek to stay a while upon the edge of life, and from the edge gaze out upon the mystery and the beauty of the borderland, the dim borderland of the soul. Therefore strike, O Tu, strike hard, yet not too hard! Aué! Too hard!”

Some of the chiefs and elders drew back a little from the fringe of the enclosure, and even the tohungas became alarmed, for they had seen Te Moana sway a little. To their relief he spoke again, but in a voice hushed and strained:

“Mine eyes do look into the distance, but the distance is blurred as with a mist. A-a-ah! The floating shadows! The floating shadows! See! They stir! Now the mist lifts! Lo! I see the ones who in my youth did wear the plume upon the brow, the ones who in my youth did go in pride before the tribe. It is as though the dead are coming back to me in life. In life? Do I still live? Perhaps!”

He sighed, and passed his hands before his eyes as if to sweep away something that lay in front. Then:

“É Tu, taihoa! Drink not greedily at this spring! page 174 Let us sip of the spring, gaining knowledge ourselves, and stirring in our brethren here some recollection of powers possessed by their ancestors in the Homeland in the morning-time of the race! Perhaps through us the secret places may be opened up. Who knows? Therefore, strike gently, gently, thus!”

………..

It was late afternoon before Te Moana was satisfied, yet not once during the periods of contest or the periods of rest had the interest of tohungas or chiefs or elders shown signs of lagging. Yes, for the tohungas at least, some secret places had been opened up.

“O Tu!” said Te Moana at last. “The sun is sinking, so let the final battle begin! Ah! How warm and bright is this loved marae of ours even near the end of day! It will be good to die here where I can look upon and greet the fair world ere I leave it for ever. And with what affection do I greet and say farewell to mine only surviving parent in this world, the land! Greetings to the land! Now strike, O Tu! Strike hard! Aué!”

The face of the ariki became white and drawn. The face of Te Moana took on a death-like hue. Then the strain suddenly eased, and for the first time since the queer contest began Tuwharétoa spoke:

“O Noble Arawa! Would that I could make thy departure be as the gradual fading away of a bright light! But alas, I am unskilled. Therefore, if there be aught remaining for thee to say, say it quickly, for soon I must strike roughly, strike to kill, to kill!”

The voice of Te Moana was faint with weakness as he replied:

“O Tu! There is still one lesson that I would teach.

page 175

Therefore, taihoa! Yet must I hurry. See! The sinking sun is sinking fast. Tarry a while, O Sun, and together we shall descend to the abyss! Abyss? Must the spirit of man indeed go down and down the long descent of the Tahékéroa? Must it indeed pass through the gate of Muriwai-hou into the subterranean world of the Rarohenga? No! No! Not thus did Ngatoro believe in days of old.”

His voice dropped almost to a whisper so that his words might not be heard by others than Tuwharétoa and the tohungas:

“Now hear me, ye Wise Ones of Te Arawa! According to Ngatoro, there is a period of cleansing or sloughing off after death, and then the awé, the refined essence of the human soul, leaves this Land of Light and leaps to Hawaiki-rangi, Hawaiki-in-the-Sky. From Hawaiki-rangi it ascends gradually by the spirit track of the Toi-huarewa to the topmost of the twelve heavens, to the Toi-o-nga-rangi, the Summit of Heaven, the real Hono-i-Wairua, the Gathering-Place-of-Souls before Io the Parent. Thus did Ngatoro believe. Yet stay! What man can prove the path the spirits go? What man? No man yet!”

His voice grew louder and stronger again: “Ah! The sun is about to set, so hasten, O Tu! Repeat to me the tuku-wairua, the incantation of the death-spell that will take life, the soul-dispatching karakia which I did teach thee! Tukua au! Kia teré! Dispatch me! Hasten!”

The lips of the ariki moved, but the words that came were in a strange tongue, harsh-sounding and weirdly-menacing, words that caused the Aged One to writhe in agony as he cried:

“Aué! Aué! The deepest darkness shoots across page 176 my sky. Now it settles down and nearer draws and deepens. Now it rushes at me like a flood, and its crest is crimson. Aué! It bursts upon me, but I fight it. Roll back, roll back, thou blood-red blight of waters sweeping o'er my sight! Roll—–A-a-ah! A-a-ah!” And only the ariki heard a final whisper: “Ngatoro was right. The track—the track—is the Toi-hua—hua—rewa.”

At the same moment the sun disappeared from sight, then slowly Tuwharétoa drew his cape up over his brow again to hide his grief.