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The Greenstone Door

Chapter IV I Meet Rangiora

page 43

Chapter IV I Meet Rangiora

To account for Rangiora I must extend my scene to a point some twelve miles to the westward of the pa, where, within sight of the beautiful Kawhia harbour, dwelt the ariki or chief-paramount of the tribe. This pa was neither so populous nor so prosperous as Matakiki, for brains are not a necessary concomitant of high lineage, and in this respect Te Moanaroa was immeasurably the superior of his chief. Te Huata was a savage of the old school: fierce and bloodthirsty, a cannibal by choice as well as by custom, and a hater of the pakeha. Of him many dreadful stories were told me by my young companions. He had eaten up a whole tribe so recently that the memory of the deed was still strong in men's minds. For a twelvemonth he had lived on the tender flesh of infants, following with that of young maidens and youths. The well-born of the subjected tribe had gone to provide blood sacrifices at such ceremonies as the launching of war-canoes, the opening of buildings, and, in the end—with the exception of those who had fled to friendly tribes, there to remain as long as they lived, of little more account than slaves—the tribe was extinct.

Of late years, on account of the spread of pakeha ideas and the dwindling of his own immediate adherents, Te Huata had found the prosecution of such wars as these difficult. The mischievous doctrines of the missionaries page 44had spread into places where they themselves had never set foot, and there was a growing indisposition on the part of the young men to devote their lives to war. Deprived of his favourite food, and conscious of a slow but continual decrease in his power, Te Huata's disposition increased in moroseness. For all his dullness of wit, he could not but see whence came the spirit that was metamorphosing the ancient Maori customs, and deep and unappeasable was his hatred of the white man. Yet when Purcell, accompanied by Te Moanaroa and other high chiefs, laid before him a proposition to establish a trading station in the midst of his tribe, and thus secure to it a share of those new things which were transforming the whole country, he yielded a grudging consent. That he did so was a surprise to every one. Te Moanaroa had shaken his head when the possibility of such an establishment was suggested to him; nevertheless, he used his influence with the chiefs far and wide, and spoke with such wiliness at the final council that perhaps it was to him success was owing.

"Does the white man seek to open a doorway for his tribe?" the ariki asked, fixing his fierce, dark eyes on Purcell.

"No, but for the treasures of the white man's country," responded Te Moanaroa. "Guns are good, and the things of iron—axes and knives. Let our women have clothes that they may become as the birds in splendour. Tobacco is a hard food to come by, but the pakeha shall make it easy. Even I myself have paid much good greenstone1 for tobacco, but now the common fellow shall get flax, and the chief shall smoke, and all will be well."

"Will one pakeha accomplish these things?" Huata persisted.

1 Greenstone jade was highly prized by the Maoris for the making of clubs and ornaments. It is found only at one locality in the South Island,

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"One or two, for there remains the Little Finger," said Te Moanaroa, easily.

"So long as the chief shall find workers," Purcell corroborated, "I will seek none from elsewhere."

"Then be it so," said the ariki, bringing the discussion to an end; "but take heed, pakeha, how you deceive me. In the hour that you bring another pakeha into my kainga you shall go to the oven. Aye, were you not merely the thumb, but the whole body of Te Waharoa," and he regarded the trader with looks so threatening that few but he could have met their regard undismayed.

As for the chiefs, awed by a threat so daring, and humiliated that their ariki should, in his spleen, have cast so gross an insult on their illustrious ally—an insult for which, if it came to the ears of Te Waharoa, they might yet have to pay in their life's blood—they rose to their feet and dispersed in silence back to their homes.

But Purcell, nothing daunted by the attitude of the chief, who, he well knew, had yielded to popular clamour and not conviction, built his store and organised his band of workers, and so rooted himself that long before the time at which I have arrived he had become indispensable to the tribe. True to his word, he had called no white man to his assistance, relying entirely on a carefully selected staff of natives for the conduct of his affairs and the safeguarding of his possessions. In time a third store was established, on the shores of the harbour, and as business increased and trading vessels, instead of being visitors of chance, began to put in with some regularity, this station became shortly the most flourishing of the three.

It was not without difficulty, and regardless of several refusals, that Purcell gained this further concession from the ariki; but the trader had found an ally in Te Huata's own household, in the person of no other than the chief's principal wife. Tuku-tuku, the Spider's Web, was a page 46tapairu1 of lineage as illustrious as Te Huata's own. She was, moreover, a woman of much intelligence, quick to see the advantages that must accrue to the tribe by the increase in wealth and standing of its pakeha, and equally resolute to secure them by every means in her power. What arguments or persuasions she used to break down the dogged will of her spouse may be gleaned later; suffice it for the present that she gained her way, and the trader was permitted to extend his field of operations.

From that time my protector spent at least half his time away from home, and it became one of the greatest delights of our lives for Puhi-Huia and myself to set forth at those periods when his return was expected and meet him, either on the bush track or among the ferny hills, or even in that dense and sunken forest which flanked the ariki's pa itself. I find that after all I have neglected to account for Rangiora. He was, then, the son, the first-born son, of Te Huata and his wife Tuku-tuku; a youth of such godlike descent that even his parents suffered extinguishment from his greatness. In his person were united strains of the proudest blood in New Zealand. So exalted, indeed, was his birth, that his very existence became almost a menace to his tribe. At any moment some thoughtless, childish action might, by reason of the powerful tapu that emanated from his person, plunge the tribe into serious difficulties. Thus, day and night, attendants Were deputed to watch and control his every action. On the other hand, Maori custom allowed almost unlimited latitude to the young. Harshness or severity towards a child were things well-nigh unknown, and thus it may be gathered that the responsibility resting on the attendants of a high-born youth of an adventurous nature was by no means a light one.

Puhi-Huia and I had set out at daylight one morning on

1 Tapairu = a chieftainess, descended, as the ariki, from the gods.

page 47the mission of which I have spoken, having secretly determined on an early start with the object of catching our father on the very outskirts of Te Huata's pa—for to enter the stronghold of the dreaded cannibal chief itself was an exploit beyond even our daring. It was a beautiful morning in the early spring, and as, clear of the pa, we ran gleefully down the well-defined bush track, the morning carol of the bell-birds still pealed among the branches overhead. Flocks of parakeets flew with a whistling chatter from tree to tree, and in the dark boughs of the taraires unnumbered pigeons gobbled the purple fruits. Now and then, with harsh cries, a troop of parrots would whirl upwards into the blue sky and, circling in the air, drop again a mile away into the billowing foliage.

From every side came to us the sound of rushing water, now falling in cataracts down the rocks to some deep-worn pool in the boulders, now racing over a shingly bed, almost hidden from view by dense thickets of tree-ferns. The path was soft and wet, often degenerating into mud, and many of the fords held deep water between the stepping-stones, for the winter rains were still a thing of yesterday. But ah, the delights of that miry way! The sweet scent of damp earth and fern frond; the unending variety of growth and shades of green innumerable; the flowers— the spathes of the tawhara, sweet, sub-acid, of a taste indescribable; the kowhais hung with gold; the snowy pillars, wreaths, and arches of the climbing clematis. And then to pause mid-stream and chase the Tommy cod among the rocks—Puhi-Huia keeping careful watch on one side while I groped for the slippery prey in the crevices of the stone on the other.

We scarce knew how chilly was the bush in the early morning, till we came out on the ferny hill and stood sneezing and basking in the broad warm sunshine. But this place had its own peculiar delights. Never was such page 48a spot for an ambush. Even father himself could stand upright in that giant brake and no vestige of him be visible to the keen eyes of his children. Innumerable false tracks criss-crossed the hill-top, winding into one another and forming a maze to which no key existed. Sometimes we would come on spots with the ground overthrown and the tangled roots exposed, or even suddenly confront the author of the mischief, when, waiting for no more than a grunt, and hands interlocked, we fled to safety.

There was no pig or sign of one on this particular morning; indeed, the only living occupant of the brake appeared to be a bird, coloured a lively brown, with checks and bars of darker hue, who ran with wonderful agility up and down the fern stems, spreading and flaunting his long tail. He was remarkably tame—as all the New Zealand birds seemed to be in those days—flitting on his business quite regardless of our presence, and scarce troubling to fly off even when we assumed the offensive. What has become of all those confiding birds I remember in my youth? Most of them were sombrely coloured, but they possessed a charm for which I look in vain among their successors. The sturdy robins and native thrushes, who would peck outside the whares and even venture on occasions over the threshold; the hosts of bell-birds, peopling every bush and rendering dawn and twilight vocal with their sweet notes: whither have they flown? I rambled the bush a few years back, and save for the lonely voice of the tui, all was silent. Even the bold creatures who succeeded them do not venture here; the temple, empty of its choristers, maintains a melancholy silence.

We had come quickly through the bush, leaving plenty of time for the remainder of our journey; so—not for the first time—I became That One, The Nameless. With a charred stick, carried in my belt for that express purpose, I laid off in black scrolls on my countenance the tattoo page 49marks of Te Huata, and, arming myself with a straight fern stalk, repaired with stately stride to the spot where Cedric Tregarthen, the trader, had shortly before concealed his wife (Puhi-Huia). With screams of terror, Mrs. Tregarthen fled. In and out the fern clumps she ran, doubling like a hare and giving the Nameless One—it must be confessed—quite as much work as he desired, before, tripping over a tangle of fallen fronds, she is captured.

"What is your name, woman?" demands That One in awful tones.

"Arabella," says Mrs. Tregarthen. (I can offer no explanation of Arabella.)

"To-night you shall sleep in my oven. Even now my slaves prepare a couch in readiness. I shall eat you"— smacking his lips—" with potatoes and kumaras."

"Spare me," cries the wretched Mrs. Tregarthen, falling on her knees, her long curls hanging all about her.

"Then disclose the hiding-place of the pakeha."

"Never! He is my husband."

"Then prepare to die," says the ariki, drawing an imaginary mere from his girdle.

At that moment I became aware of a sudden change in Puhi-Huia's face. Gibbering fear had given place to embarrassment, mingled with curiosity, and her gaze became concentrated on a point behind me. Turning sharply, my eyes fell on a boy, slightly bigger than myself, who had evidently been a silent and interested spectator of the scene. He was a well-proportioned lad, broad in the chest, slender and lithe at the hips, and carrying himself with a quiet dignity which impressed me. His hair had been carefully dressed, and was decorated with two tail feathers of the huia bird. No tattoo marks disfigured the clear bronze of his skin, which, save for a belt and maro1 of embroidered flax, was uncovered by clothing. On his

1 Maro = apron.

page 50breast hung a valuable jade jewel of high antiquity, and a light spear of red tea-tree wood was poised in his right hand. For a while his dark eyes scanned us expectantly in silence.

"Proceed," he said gravely at last.

"Enough," I murmured, sheepish and sulky; "it was but a game."

"Good," he replied in the same tone. "Proceed with the game."

"It is finished, friend," I replied, and, noting the comical discomfiture in Puhi-Huia's face, my sulks vanished in a consciousness of the absurdity of the situation.

But the newcomer showed no sign of sharing in my amusement; on the contrary, his face took on an added cast of severity. "Does Tregarthen's woman consent to reveal the hiding-place of her lord?" he inquired, turning to Puhi-Huia.

The young lady disclosed the red tip of a derisive tongue, but, thinking better of this impulse, shook her head half pettishly, and glanced at me for further instructions.

"It remains, then, for the Great One to uphold his word," said our inquisitor, with much deliberation. "By this time the slaves will have the oven in readiness. Let us go forward."

Puhi-Huia's face at this proposal was such an absurd mingling of defiance, derision, and downright dread, that I burst out laughing; for though the boy's manner impressed me wonderfully, it certainly did not inspire me with fear.

He looked at us with the same unruffled attention for a long while in silence. "Pakeha," he said at length, "it would be well to remove from your face the lines which simulate greatness, for I perceive that you are but a light fellow."

I had forgotten my facial embellishment, and as, thus reminded, I involuntarily raised my hand to the marks, page 51no doubt I presented to his eyes an extremely foolish appearance.

"You are the Little Finger of Te Waharoa," he resumed after a pause. "Of you I have heard. But Te Waharoa is dead, and what is the value of a little finger with no body? Dost thou know who I am, pakeha?"

"I suspect," I replied, looking at him with greater interest, the idea coming to my mind even as I uttered the words, "you are Rangiora, the son of the Great One and the Spider's Web."

He made a motion of assent, and for the first time something approaching a smile lightened his face. It was gone in a moment, and he regarded me with the same meditative attention as before.

"It is not well that a little finger should be without an owner," he recommenced; "therefore, pakeha, I have a mind to adopt you into my household. How say you?"

The day had gone by when the thought that I was a white man could lend to me a sense of shame and inferiority. So assured was I by this time of the greatness of my race that I could even smile at his proposition. "Not so, Rangiora," I said. "Presently the Maori will be a part of the household of the pakeha."

His face shadowed at this, and I saw his hand tighten its grasp on the spear; but he restrained himself. "As for the girl," he continued calmly, turning his gaze from me to my companion, "she shall become one of my wives."

Puhi-Huia shook her curls defiantly at this pronouncement, but it seemed to me that something in the nature of admiration lurked in the gaze she turned on the bold youth.

"She is the daughter of the Thumb," I retorted, my voice expressing the annoyance I felt. "There is no chief in New Zealand who is of rank sufficient to marry the daughter of the Thumb."

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"Marry!" exclaimed Rangiora contemptuously. "I am of the blood of the gods. It is not for such to choose their consorts among the daughters of Thumbs. Listen, pakeha! Soon the Great One will rise and drive the white men into the sea. He has said it. But this maiden I shall keep to be of the company of my slave wives."

"He could no more do it," said I stubbornly, incensed at this insult to my beloved foster-sister, "than you could drive me from the ground on which I am standing."

"Do you say so?" he cried, grasping his spear and poising it for a thrust, while his eyes gleamed lightning upon me.

What might have been the result of the conflict is not easy to say. Beyond my fern stalk, which could scarce support its own weight, I had nothing to offer against his spear; but I was as angry as he was, and Puhi-Huia had already begun to show her small teeth and hook her fingers in readiness for assault. But ere we could move, I heard a sound of running feet and hard breathing close at hand. On the instant our enemy's countenance underwent a complete transformation. His wrath turned to mortification, and, grounding his spear, he stood listening to the receding steps.

"Kakino!"1 he whispered viciously; then, after another moment of intense silence, "Yet, if my friend will help, I may still escape."

So pleasantly was this spoken that all recollection of our dispute melted on the instant from my mind. "What is it?" I whispered in return.

"My attendants," said he. "I have avoided them, but now they come. Hark! It is the other." The sound came closer this time, and we all held our breath as the searcher threaded the maze but a few yards from our

1 Kakino = literally "bad," but often, as here, with the force of an invective.

page 53hiding-place. Presently we heard their voices calling to one another in the distance.

"Good!" exclaimed Rangiora, drawing a long breath of relief. "Yet presently they will return," and he looked vexedly about him.

For my part, I glanced inquiringly at Puhi-Huia, who nodded swift assent to my unspoken question. Evidently the slights she had received were forgotten, and her interest, in our new acquaintance had returned to her full force.

"The Spider's Web would allow me freedom," said Rangiora, "but the Great One forbids it. My soul is sick with longing for liberty. Even my slaves have more freedom than I. Scarce an hour have I moved unhampered, and behold, they are upon me."

There was such melancholy in his musical speech that Puhi's eyes glistened suspiciously, and slipping her hand into mine, she pressed my fingers entreatingly.

"Then," said I, "if I should show you a spot where the Great One and all his company might search for you in vain, will you promise to keep the secret sacred?"

"Aye, truly," he responded, his eyes sparkling with eagerness. "That shall be a bond between us two—nay, the three of us, for ever."

Stepping to the densest part of the surrounding brake—and the more quickly that the voices were plainly again drawing nearer every moment—I pulled forth a bundle of dry bracken and revealed a low tunnel which had been toilsomely hacked through the growth; it represented, indeed, the labour of many odd hours over a period of months and even of years. At a signal from me, Puhi slipped into the opening, Rangiora followed, and I myself—drawing the dead fern back into the opening behind me—brought up the rear. Hardly were we concealed from view, when the two attendants burst into the little opening which had been the scene of our encounter with Rangiora. page 54I may as well explain here that this spot, both on account of its proximity to the beginning of the tunnel and certain natural advantages it possessed, had long been, and continued long thereafter, the stage of our mimic dramas.

By a common instinct we all three remained still, listening to the voices of the men, as they paused to discuss the situation. That they were in much trepidation, and inclined to be angry with one another, was evident from their speech.

"If harm have befallen him," said one, "we are as good as dead men. The Great One will not listen to our excuses. With him it is ever the blow before the word."

"What harm can have befallen him, stupid fellow?" cried the other, in exasperated tones. "The young dog"—at this I felt my companion's body grow rigid, and laid my hand on his arm to restrain him—"is but eluding us, as many times before he has attempted to do. But see," he broke off in changed tones. "Here are his footmarks. And here he has thrust his spear-butt into the ground."

"There are more marks," said the other voice, after a pause, during which they appeared to be searching the ground. "These are not the footprints of Rangiora alone, but of other children also."

"The marks are fresh," returned his comrade; "they cannot be far distant," and, inspired with fresh hope, the searchers again moved away from our immediate neighbourhood.

"Forward, Puhi," I whispered, and the three of us crept on on all fours through the green darkness. So artfully did the course of the tunnel take advantage of the nature of the ground, that though its protection was often lost to us by the growth coming to an abrupt termination, yet this occurred generally in hollows of the ground or in close proximity to other thickets, and we were thus able, at small risk of detection, to traverse the hill-top almost from page 55side to side. Our progress, no doubt, was toilsome, and even painful, for though the springing fronds gave easily beneath our bodies, the remnants of the cut stems were by no means so compliant, and to this must be added the discomfort of the dust which rose continually from the spores and set our eyeballs smarting.

However, Rangiora endured it all without a murmur. Indeed, when we emerged from the first of the tunnels, though his limbs showed numerous scratches, his face shone with a delight and excitement that transfigured him. "When I sit in the place of the Great One," he declared, as we hurried after Puhi-Huia into the second tunnel, "I shall come here every day.'

On we went, still hearing occasionally the voices of the two men, calling shrilly to one another across the hill-top, until at last we emerged altogether on a sheer cliff above the river.

And now what was the objective of this journey? What was the secret so carefully guarded, that such a work as the tunnel seemed to our childish minds the only fit approach to it? If we had desired to conceal ourselves from real or imaginary enemies a burrow in the brake would have sufficed. What was the reason, then, of all this prodigious labour? You also, reader, shall be taken into the secret.

Though a strip of grass edged the ravine, the growth through which we had passed was so dense that all risk of our discovery seemed to be at an end.

"Look, Rangiora," I said, drawing him to the verge of the precipice; "it would not be easy for a man to descend this cliff and live."

"It is an evil spot," he replied, drawing back with a shudder; "even a rat could find no foothold for the venture."

"Yet," said I, "a girl can do it," and I nodded to Puhi-Huia.

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She ran from us some twenty yards along the edge of the chasm, to where a low and twisted tree spread its branches over the depths. Catching at one of these boughs with her hands, she swung out over the ravine, and in the next instant vanished from sight.

Rangiora rubbed his eyes, as though he doubted the correctness of his vision.

"It is nothing," I said, to reassure him. "Come!" and together we hastened towards the spot where we had seen Puhi-Huia disappear.

The thing, as I have said, was simple enough. Beneath the tree a great limb of rock projected over the ravine, and from this point a sort of giant stairway ran down to the bank of the river. True that many of the steps were so huge that the return, if not the descent, was only to be accomplished with difficulty, yet it was nowhere perilous, and four men might have moved abreast on the narrowest part of it. In addition, a wild growth of vines had broken out on the landward side of the crag, and so tough were they that a full-grown man might have trusted his weight to them in confidence.

Rangiora laughed in relief when the solution of the problem was revealed, and from that moment rank was forgotten and he became but a light-hearted boy.

"See the curly hair," he exclaimed, admiringly, pointing io where Puhi-Huia, her curls blown outward by the wind, stood looking laughingly up at us from a rock fifty feet below. His eyes flashed a challenge into mine, and, without a word spoken, we sprang down the rough stairway. That was the only time I succeeded in accomplishing the feat more quickly than Rangiora, and even then I had to bruise and batter myself to do it, so that when I reached Puhi-Huia my head was ringing like a wire, and I had to cling to her to prevent myself from falling. Only the fact that I was familiar with the descent and knew when to page 57leap, when to slide, and when to seek the assistance of the vines, saved me from defeat, and, as it was, he was on my heels as I reached the winning-post. From this point the descent, though still unaccompanied by much danger, became more difficult, and I had a compact with Puhi- Huia that she should never attempt it alone. Several of the rock steps were high, and two or three of them overhung the landing-stages so far that care was needed in negotiating them. With Rangiora's assistance, however, these difficulties were surmounted in record time, and we stood at length on a broad ledge of limestone rock, with the river thirty sheer feet below.

"What now, Little Finger?" demanded the young chief, looking down. "Truly the last step is a mighty one."

"Nay," I said, laughing, "that is not our road. But first I have the word of Rangiora that he will not reveal our secret?"

"I have given it," said he, and, drawing himself erect, he placed his hand with a proud gesture on his hair. "By my sacred head, I will tell no one," he said solemnly.

The action was impressive, and I hesitated no longer; so, sharply recalling the attention of Puhi-Huia, whose large eyes were fixed, to the exclusion of everything else, on the face of our new acquaintance, I led the way along the ledge.

A few yards brought us to our destination and, putting aside the creepers which hung like a huge curtain down the cliff, I ushered my guest into the cave.