A Case of “Mate Maori.”

A chief of the Ngati-Ruanui, the tribe of bushmen and warriors of South Taranaki was Kimble Bent's rangatira, his master and owner. The old pakeha refugee usually spoke of him as “my rangatira.” His name was Matangi-oRupe. He had given the white man his daughter to wife; she was lately dead. The youngest child of the Rupe family was a boy named Whai-Pakanga. He fell mysteriously ill; some unknown malady which deyeloped into a high fever was visibly weakening him. He seemed very near to death; but the parents had no thought of sending for a pakeha doctor, though there was one in Hawera township. This was “Mate Maori,” which no doctor could cure. It was a case for the tohunga.

Rupe, in this emergency, called in a tohunga. There was one who lived near the mouth of the Kapuni River. He was not the only medicine man, but there was none with Hupini's occult powers, which were more potent than any bush medicine concocted from the leaves and roots of the native plants. Hupini was a diviner, a sorcerer if you like, a mesmerist, an expert in the casting of spells and curses that could kill even at a great distance. If there page 15 was black murder here, the mysterious hand of an enemy, Hupini would deal with it in his own way.