Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (digital text)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Ancient History of the Maori, His Mythology and Traditions. Nga-Puhi [Vol. X, English]

Chapter XV

Chapter XV

How empty now my stomach is, for want of food.
Nor can I yet obtain one Nga-puhi of the North,
To cook as food, to feed my starving little ones,
Who live uncared for, and fatherless, and unprotected now,
Bind the loosened ones again, and show the signs of peace,
But peace may not be gained, as deeds of old reveange have
Now spread o'er the mind, and urge to vengeance full,
To slay and now exterminate you all without regard to sex;
O woe is me, how deadened is my soul and heart and life.
The tribe of Ati-kura, and daughter of Te-tuhi
Spread o'er all the pa at Moko-ia, the dire command,
To rouse the god of war Kahu-kura, who make to sleep
The chiefs of tribes in gloom of forests wild of Tane-mahuta;
And kill the hope of each beloved, Te-kiri-o-ira-waru,
Te-whetu-o-pou-tini, Te-wao-tapatu, and Te-piko-hawa-iki;
May dire revenge, and evil fall on thee o Haro,
And may thy head and curly locks, be shaken by the wind
Out side of Iri-rangi, but know that property have eye brows,
And man has dread. O go, farewell ye great ones,
And gently blow the breeze, that Ha-roa may boast,
That he is self protected in his supposed power of war,
But we will carry you in canoe, and go in current
That flows past, northward, down from O-hau to thy home,
That now is without occupant at Haha-te-whenua,
And o how rippling now for nought, is tide at Awa-hou
And ducks that sported at that river mouth, are all departed now,
By act of Te-wani-ta-rora and Te-moana-roa, and
Tara-kumekume, but now farewell with all thy younger relatives,
Not one is left to gaze on peak of Mata-whaura, now solitary
Standing all bereft of nobleness uplifted in the sky, I often
Start in sleep, and think tis thee I see,
as thou wast want to look upon thy sleeping little ones.

O how I think of love of old, but memory now is dead.