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Chapter II.

A Portion of Ihaka's tribe were stationed in the Maori pah, which we have mentioned was situated on top of the conical hill, about a quarter of a mile in rear of the advanced portion of the position under the leadership of Ihaka's brother, and Henry Ancrum often accompanied Ihaka to see his brother, who lived in a large wharie, divided into compartments, in one of which a niece of Ihaka's resided. She was a niece of Ihaka's, but she was a half-caste, her mother, a sister of Ihaka, having married an English trader.

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These marriages were in former days exceedingly common, and they are even now by no means rare. A trader would go to reside amongst a tribe, for the purpose of carrying on his business; long residence would assimilate his ideas to those of the natives amongst whom he lived, and the end was generally that he chose a wife from amongst them; and thus it is that any traveller to New Zealand at the present day will observe a great number of half-castes amongst the population; and he will also observe that, unlike those in other countries, as for instance, in India, the half-castes in New Zealand are a peculiarly fine and handsome race. Ihaka's niece had been early left an orphan, her father and mother having been carried off by an epidemic which, in the absence of medical assistance, had nearly decimated the tribe with whom the former was then trading.

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A missionary in the neighbourhood, pitying the forlorn condition of the handsome little girl thus left without natural protectors, had taken her into his family, which was a large one, and comprised several daughters, and with whom the youthful Celia (pronounced by the Maories Helia) lived very comfortably; the only return she was required to make for the hospitality she received being that she should assist the female members of the family in cooking, housemaiding, and other duties, which in civilized countries fall to the lot of servants, but which in the wilder Maori districts there are no servants to perform.

The missionary, like many of his class, was an intelligent, well-educated man, who took great trouble in the instruction of his family, and of this instruction Celia was allowed to avail herself, so that at the page 21age of nineteen she could speak English fluently, and possessed as much information as the daughters of the house of about her own age; in fact, she might have been taken for one of them were it not for a slight brownness of the skin, which however was not darker than that of many Italian and Spanish women. Her figure was rather above the ordinary height, and was beautifully moulded, as indeed the figures of Maori women generally are. She possessed also the rich black hair and large lustrous dark eyes so often seen in the Maori, whilst at the same time her thin straight nose, and full, though not too full, lips bore evident traces of her part European origin. Altogether you could not look at her without being struck by the rich ripe beauty of her appearance.

The war came—the war which made so many changes; it brought Ihaka into the page 22neighbourhood of the good missionary, whose station was near Te Awamutu.

The missionary felt that he could not stay long in the country, that he must soon fly, as indeed he had eventually to do, and so he sent for Ihaka, and delivered his niece over to his charge.

There is a custom amongst Maories, it is a strange custom, but then it is one of the objects of this veracious history to reveal to its readers all the strange customs of this singular race—it is the custom then for the principal chiefs, however old, to take unto themselves young wives. As may be supposed, those a little below the chiefs try as much as lies in their power to imitate their betters; and the consequence is, that on inquiring into the domestic arrangements of a native kainga or village, it will be found that some of the youngest and poorest Maories are married to some of page 23the most elderly ladies of the community, on the principle, it may be supposed, that an old wife is better than no wife at all. Following out the above principle, no sooner had the luckless Celia returned to her maternal relations than a venerable old hawk of a Maori swooped down on Ihaka's wharie, and requested that the fluttering dove who had just returned to it might be given up to him in marriage.

Ihaka, who had himself imbibed a good many European ideas, did not at all like this proposal, but then he well knew that it was the custom of the country, and that resistance to custom was a very difficult thing; and so, to make a long story short, the aged chief was united to the lovely Celia, and on this occasion the knot was correctly and firmly tied by the good missionary previous to his departure. For we may here remark, that what we have been page 24speaking of above as marriages were often solemnized very much after the Scotch fashion, that is to say, when Jock says Jeanie is his wife and Jeanie asserts that Jock is her husband. And so Celia was a married woman; but it was fated that she should not remain long in the married state, for it came to pass that when the hosts of the Maori went up to Koheroa to battle, that the old chief could not forbear and went with them; and it also came to pass that when the said hosts returned from Koheroa they returned at rather a quicker pace than they went, and so the old chief, not being so active as he once was, was left behind by his more nimble brethren, and fell a victim to the bullet of the Pakeha, and thus Celia was again free. As may be supposed, when the matter was first proposed to her she had not at all liked the idea of being married to the old page 25chief, but then she knew it was the custom of the country that such marriages should take place; and besides, she calmly reflected that if she was to be married to an old man it was an advantage to be married to a very old one, as in the latter case she must in the course of nature be before very long a free woman, and able to accept a lover more congenial to her tastes and feelings, should such an one offer; as it was, she had tried matrimony with, a cross old gentleman, and she had not liked it, and she was determined (and Celia could be very determined when she liked) that no power on earth should again force her into that holy state with any individual half so aged.

As has been said, Henry Ancrum frequently came with Ihaka when the latter visited his brother, but the truth must be told, Mr. Henry chiefly came for the pleasure of talking to the fair Celia. She page 26on her part, with that freedom from all restraint with which Maories, both men and women, walk in or out of one another's houses, used always on Henry's arrival to leave her own end of the wharie and walk into that of her uncle, and seat herself by Henry's side as a mere matter of course.

It was no wonder that Henry Ancrum, in his sad captivity, with little or nothing to occupy his time, should feel comparatively happy in these visits, which diverted his mind from its own melancholy reflections. Besides, no person of intelligence could have met Celia at this period without taking an interest in her; in fact, her character was a study. Here was a lovely and clever girl of English and Maori extraction, who had passed her life in the land of the Maori, but in the house of the missionary, having learnt all the manners, customs, habits, and superstitions of the page 27former, whilst at the same time she had acquired the language and all the information which could be imparted to her by the latter. Besides, two of the missionary's daughters had been older than herself, and these young ladies had taken every opportunity of getting up amusing books from Auckland, without much reference to what papa might have approved of; and so Celia's reading had not been confined to the serious tomes of the good old missionary, but had been of a rather desultory character than otherwise.

Then her ideas were so fresh, her questions so amusing; the old missionary had taught her that every person ought to act according to right and justice; and she used to puzzle Henry Ancrum by asking him, "Was it just in the Governor to do this? Was it right in the General to act in that manner?" &c. Then again, Why was page 28it that the Pakeha, whom the missionary had told her in former days were good people, she now heard acted so directly contrary to his principles; if it was wrong in the Maori to get drunk, why was it the Pakehas so freely indulged in that vice? If the Maories were forbidden to gamble and bet, why was it that most Pakehas looked upon these things merely as amusements?

Then she told how, shortly before the worthy missionary had left the upper country, he had had occasion to speak to one of his flock on a religious subject. The Maori differed in opinion from his master, and an argument ensued in the midst of which the Maori roared out—

"I'll bet, I'll bet——"

The good man was horrified; he pointed out that this was not a subject to bet upon.

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"Pooh," said the Maori, "the Pakeha bet about everything."

Henry used to laugh, and try to turn the conversation into some other channel; he felt it difficult to answer her questions, but sometimes she would pin him to the wall, and demand an answer; then he used generally to say—

"Oh, there were good Pakehas and bad Pakehas; perhaps there were some who did not do what was right."

"Ah," the laughing girl would reply, "then I hope you are a good Pakeha, for I am afraid there are not many of them."