The Strenuous “Wahines.”

“At the gorge Dr. Reed was looking on intently, with great glee, singing with zest, and shouting ‘Hurrah, my boys! That reminds one of the Chinese junks on the Yangtse-kiang! Go it, lads! There starts the old Queen!—Long live Her Majesty, the Queen of Rangitikei! Into the water, old woman, and cheer on your loyal subjects!’”

The “Queen of Rangitikei” was the wife of Hori Kingi, the chief of Rangitikei. Her canoe crew were all women, six of them, and they slipped out of their few clothes and into the water as naked as the men for that glorious struggle with the rapids that the young Scots official and his friend Reed enjoyed so much from the dry footing on the bank.

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