Title: Revenge: A Love Tale of the Mount Eden Tribe

Author: John White

Editor: Alexander Wyclif Reed

Publication details: Reed Publishing (NZ) Ltd, 1940, Wellington

Part of: Nineteenth-Century Novels Collection

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence

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The Story of Popo as Told to Maro by His Mother

Popo was a handsome boy and liked by all our people. He was kind, even to the old men and women, and many a time I have seen him bring the food on page 16 his back for some old man or woman whom he overtook carrying a basket of cockles or kumara up to the cooking places. Oh, he was like an atua ¹ ; he never thought of the tapu of his back or hands. If he saw any sow thistle or nani ² growing on a landslip when he was out in the forest, he would pick it and bring it to the old people. Maybe his neglect to observe the injunctions of the tapu gave power to the priest who wrought on him an act of revenge. It was sickness and love that made him insane.

On a fine summer day some of our people went down the Manuka⁸ harbour to pay a visit to a tribe which lived at Awhitu on the south side of the Manuka heads, opposite to the Puponga point. Popo went with them. His name was not then Popo, but Tiraki. He was called Tiraki by his father because he was born at the time when the ti root was piled up to dry— hence his name Ti, the root of the ti, and raki, to put it up to dry. Popo, or Tiraki, went with them. Now there was a daughter of the tribe, the Ngati-kahukahuJ who lived at that pa who, when she saw him, loved him. She was the daughter of Hau, who was the supreme chief of that tribe, but she was a puhi ⁴ to a young chief of Waikato. She saw Popo, and to see him was more than the sunshine of the most beautiful summer day to her heart.

As the custom was, the people of the pa gave the usual haka and kanikani that night, and our people did page 17 the same the next evening. Popo could haka better than anyone in the pa, because he was so loved that those who could teach him taught him the very best way. Popo was not proud, but to see him he was like a god in beauty. He never spoke evil words which would bring pain to our people, and Ata-Rehia, the puhi maiden, loved him at once when she first saw him. Ata-Rehia was her name, but we all called her Rehia, as Popo liked that part of her name best. She could not keep her love concealed from the people, and soon it was seen that Rehia liked Popo—and all the old women talked of it. Popo did not do as common men do. He loved Rehia, but as he had been told that she was a puhi, he did not speak. But he knew that he loved her, and whenever he met her he felt that love was a bitter thing. The eyes of Rehia shone brighter than the hot rays of a summer sun on Popo. He did not speak to her of his love, but he felt more than man can tell.

The day came when our people returned to Mount Eden. Popo acted as the other young men. He waved [his mat when they left Awhitu pa, and marched on down to the beach as if his heart were not like a stone in a net pulling it down into the depths to be drowned. The people of Awhitu waved them a haere ra ⁶ , and some of the young people even came as far as the beach where the high-water mark is. Rehia was amongst them, and she was seen by our people, who had by this time paddled away from the beach, to stagger and fall [into the arms of one of her female companions. But what could our people do? They were going home, and Rehia had all her friends with her. So our people came home, and for months we did not hear from Awhitu.

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The months passed round. Our people owned certain fishing shoals⁶ in the Manuka harbour, at one of which we fished for shark. We went there in the shark-fishing season. This fishing ground was a little inside the Puponga point, and anyone walking on the beach at Awhitu could be seen from our canoes. Many sharks had been caught, and it was past midday when a woman was seen coming along the beach at Awhitu, and waving her mat. As ours was the only canoe that could be seen from where she was standing, those in our canoe said, "It is for us she waves." One of them got up and waved his mat in return. The woman answered with another wave that was known to mean that she wanted our people to go to her. By the time evening came many fish had been taken. Popo was in the canoe, and he said, "Let us go and sleep with the people in the Awhitu pa, as the woman was no doubt sent to invite us there."

They lifted the stone anchor and pulled across and landed. A few of the people called a welcome to them and led them to a house where they could sleep the night. They were tapu, being on a fishing expedition, and could not join with the people of another tribe while in that condition.

After dark the food for the evening meal was cooked and brought by the Awhitu people for our men. As the baskets were put down in front of the house, a young woman brought a basket containing taro and some of the food that is eaten by chiefs alone. She put it down, and said, "For Tiraki. This is sent by Hau from Ata-Rehia." Popo did not even smile, but shook as though someone had given him a blow. Our page 19 people partook of the food, but though Popo offered his to all the other men, not one would eat any. They said that Popo alone was worthy of the honour put upon him by Hau. Our people now began to sing, and to kanikani as all young people will do, while the older ones sat and looked on, criticising the play or the voices of the singers. When the songs were nearly ended a young woman put her head in at the door of the hut and said, "Hau has sent me for Popo." Now Popo had one young man to whom he was greatly attached, and when Popo rose, he also got up and went with him. As the women have their hoahoa, ⁷ so have young men; yes, and even old men have those who are ever with them. Guided by the young woman, Popo and his friend went to the house of Hau. Popo was a chief of high rank and, as such, was entitled to sit on the right hand side of the house near the door. As he and his friend went in, Hau beckoned to him to sit in the place of a chief, and his friend sat at the foot of the pou tokomanawa. ⁸

Hau had not offered to hongi ⁹ with Popo. Rehia was lying on a mat, and Popo sat down without a word. Ata was quiet, and seemed depressed. She had not the joyous appearance she had when Popo first saw her, nor could she sit in an erect posture. She turned round and looked at Popo so languidly that he was shocked, and said afterwards that he felt her dark eyes look right into his chest and make his spirit start. Hau was sitting a little beyond his daughter with an old priest called Ha Kawau, who lived at Puketapu, halfway between the Manuka heads and Waiuku. It was on a hill a little way from the coast, at the head of a page 20 valley enclosed by hills. He was a priest of great fame, as a man who had many gods, and could command the winds, tides, life, death and love. The priest noticed the slight shock Popo felt, and showed it by his manner. When Ata looked at him, he gave a slight cough, and then turned to Hau, who had been looking only at his daughter.

Ha looked up and said, "Welcome, O young man of the tribe Nga-iwi. Welcome to this place where death may soon come. You are the child of great men, Welcome to this place!"

Hau also welcomed him, but added, "We cannot say many words as our child has said that she is going in a few days to follow the sun.¹⁰ I alone can welcome you. My child has not life enough."

Ata lifted herself up on to her elbow, and, giving a slight cough, looked at Popo, and said, "I do not wish anyone to speak for me. I will tell all I have to say while my eyes are looking at this world. I will ask you, O Hau, who it was who gave me to the man who promised that I should be his wife. Am I not the child of a line of chiefs who have spoken, led in war, and dictated to our tribe for generations? Then, if such power was with them, am I, even though a girl, to be dictated to by you, O Hau? Or by you. O Ha? Why should I fear the face of death in war? I am now looking at death every day. I am the companion of death. I am not a coward. It is you who are' cowards. You are afraid of that man and his war party who may come and kill you if I am so determined to have the husband of my own choice. You may fear death in your own bodies, but you do not fear to see page 21 me sink day by day into a shadow, and fight alone with a death I need not die."

She had become exhausted by the exertion required to make this speech. She turned round and looked at Popo for an instant. Then she wept aloud, singing as she wept a song of farewell to earth and all of whom she could think in kindness.

The old priest gave a loud cough, which startled Ata so that she ceased her weeping for a time. He said, "Yes, my child, you speak the words of your mother, who was not of a race of men who could be dictated to. If I were a girl and I loved anyone, all the gods and monsters could not make me take the man I might have been betrothed to as an infant if I did not care for him. Let your spirit rule you, O my child."

Hau said, "Listen, all of you. Listen, Popo. Let my words be the words you remember. I am old, and I know that if what Ha has said to Ata is acted on, Ha must lead the warriors to the battle which will take place as a result of his ill-advice."

Ha turned quickly to the chief. "I never had a wife, O Hau; I never had a child, and you must know more of love than I can even dream. But this I know. If I had a daughter, and she was kept alive only by such incantations as I can repeat over her, I would rather see all the trees which grow on our land rise into men than I would allow her to die as Ata must die if you persist in what you have said."

"O Ha, you know what the gods say. You know how to control death. You can make a man brave or a coward. You know what evil must come from your words. Act then, O priest, and yours be the word which shall rally our people to defend us when the betrothed husband of Ata comes to claim her, after page 22 she has become the wife of another man."

Ha laughed, and said, "It will not be the first time I have allowed my voice to be heard on the battle field. As you have spoken, O Hau, I will now speak to this young man. Let Ata also hear my words.

"Come, O Popo, and be our son. Old men have the eyes of children when love is to be seen. Our child loved you when you were here many moons ago, and we all could see that you did not say no. You left us and did not say you would ever come here again. Then the gods were not kind to Ata. She fell down by the blow of Te Po,¹¹ but her soul was the soul of a chief, and she did not die. I was sent for. I came and saw that her heart was dark. I told her my power. I left her here till you and your people were seen on the shark-fishing ground, for she had told me that death would not come till your tribe had been here again to get the shark as a delicacy to eat with the red kutnara of Tamaki. Her word was true.

"Come then, O Popo, and look at our child. I saw that your coming made her life stronger. It was Ha who went for you. Ata did not tell me to send. I know from the gods what she is talking about in her spirit, and you have heard what Hau and I have said. Take our child, O Popo, and if I do not stand in thd battle, you may call me a priest unable to guide his tribe in battle, nor capable of winning the brow plumes of his enemies."

"I have heard your word, O Ha," said Popo. "I am but a boy. I do not know what gods or men may say. Who am I, that I should take the child of Hau page 23 as my wife? I have heard your words, O fathers, but I have not heard the words of the man who has a right by promise to Rehia as his wife."

Ata again rose to a half-erect position, and said, "Who told you to speak to Popo as you have spoken, O Ha and Hau? I am not a slave that I should fear the chief who calls me his. Go and get all the fish you can for your people, O Popo. Go, O god of your tribe. Go, O young man, spoken of in love by all who speak your name. When the riroriro ¹² cries again in spring, come and visit this pa."

The next morning Popo and his men sent all the shark they had caught on the previous day as a present to Hau, and spent the day on the shark-fishing shoal in the stream. The fishing season was nearly over, and Ata seemed to have regained her usual health. It was a calm summer morning, with the sea-breeze coming in with the flowing tide past Puponga. Suddenly a cry rose from the young people, "Canoes! Canoes!" At once the people in the Awhitu pa were on the alert, each man looking to his spear.

The previous evening Ata had sent one of her slaves up the Waikato to tell the people there that she wished Tiriwa, to whom she was betrothed, to come and receive some shark she had collected for him. She had spoken no word to her people of this message. The approaching canoes were those of Tiriwa and his party coming in answer to the invitation.

Tiriwa was the son of the chief of the Ngatipou page 24 who lived near the Waikare lake, and are the descendants of the noted warrior Pou-tu-teka. Tiriwa was a fine-looking man, neither old nor young. He had two wives who had come with him and his people. As the canoes came round the point and in sight of the pa, the people of Hau gave the usual cry of welcome. The Waikato people landed, and when food had been cooked and eaten, some of the young men of Awhitu rose and formally welcomed Tiriwa and his people. One of them said, "Come, O son of Pou-tu-teka, who; drinks the milk of your ancestors, come and see our place, where we do not see such things."

Immediately he had said this a loud cry of disapproval burst from the people, and Hau rose and said, "Our young men have welcomed our son, but we do not wish him to take the words just spoken by this stupid young man as a hint that we wish for some fresh water mussel." This he said as that shell-fish is called "The Milk of Pou-tu-teka."

Ha rose and said, "How is it that evil is never silent or lazy? Our child was not to live and now she is well, and you, O Tiriwa, have come to see her now that you cannot see death in her eyes. When evil was on her you did not come."

Ata rose and stood looking at Ha, who, when he saw her standing, sat down. She said, "I do not wish anyone to speak for me. Why do young men speak as they do? Why do they let words come from their lips like the sounds made by the wind in the crevices in the rocks. Each is a noise. The words the young men utter are only noise; the rocks do not pretend that they speak with the voice of gods."

"O Ata, do not speak so," exclaimed Ha. "I saw a young woman of the party of Tiriwa making love with her eyes to the young man who spoke so stupidly.

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It is Tiriwa who has done the evil. Why did he bring girls here to make owls of our young men?"

Hau stirred uneasily, and said, "Tiriwa has heard the insult we have offered to him by the voice of our young men, but he is not, as the proverb says, 'a Nga-tipaoa of their ears.' "

"No," said Ha, "he cannot be a Ngatipaoa or he would not want our bird when he has two of his own. Maybe a god spoke by the pakewa ¹³ of the young man. Tiriwa has no doubt heard of the death of Ata, but he has not even one hand to collect the fresh-water mussel for his intended wife."

Ata remained standing while her father and the old priest Ha interrupted her speech. As soon as they had finished, she said, "O old men, I do not wish for the Milk of Pou-tu-teka. I did not even think of Tiriwa when death was near me. I can tell him that while he and his wives were living at his own place and eating the eels caught in the weirs at Rangi-riri, I was not in this world. My spirit had gone to another land, and there I saw the man I can love. You, O people, do not know that I sent my slave Taki to Tiriwa, that he may come and take the only property he will ever receive from me. O Tiriwa, you have come. On your return you can take all the shark you see hanging up on the pataka ¹⁴ on the beach where your canoe landed."

Tiriwa rose, and pacing up and down in front of Ha and Hau, he said, "I did not come to see you, old men; I came to receive my wife. I came at the command of her who now has the word."

Rehia replied, "I can give the word in answer. I was a child; I was nearly dead; my spirit went away page 26 from you and saw one who is to be my husband. am now a woman, and there is not anywhere a chief or priest who shall say who I am to be wife to. I have the word and the thought to guide myself. Go to your home, O Tiriwa, and let the birds that sing in the morning be the only singers in your house. You will not get me to be your early morning singing bird."

As if these words were the signal for departure the people all got up and went off to their daily occupations, some to dig fern-root, some to weed the crops, and others to the fishing grounds to obtain a kinaki ¹⁵ for their daily meal. When night came Tiriwa and his people slept in the assembly house, but as if to emphasise the slight to him, there was no haka or other amusement in the house that night.

At early dawn Tiriwa and his people, assisted by Hau's slaves, loaded their canoes with the dried shark given to them by Ata, and paddled out into the stream. Then Tiriwa stood up in the canoe, and in a great voice shouted, "O Ha, stay here with your gods. You live near the cave of the sea taniwha, ¹⁶ but you must be very dull if you do not remember our god who lives in the river which passes my pa. My god does not always stay in the Waikato!"

Ha answered cheerfully, "Go, O my son, but remember that it is not only the sun who blushes in the clouds. The faint heart may share its blush on the cheek. Repeat your power twice over ere you do what your god commands. I know a place where the dead were never buried! Go, O my son!"

Tiriwa and his people made no reply. They went up the river to Waiuku on their way to Waikato, drag- page 27 ging their canoes across the Punapuna portage, and so to their own home.

"What did Ha mean?" asked Puhi, breaking into Maro's narrative, "when he said there was a place where the dead are not buried?"

"Have you not heard of the sacred image at Puke-tapu?" enquired Maro, in a surprised tone. "It belonged to Ha. That image, or god, killed all who went that way when Ha repeated his incantations to it. If the image made a noise which sounded like a smothered laugh or cough, anyone who was going into the settlement would fall down and die. None who were killed in that way were buried, for as Ha was so sacred he could not touch the dead. And his people were so much afraid of him that they considered that if they were to touch the bodies they would die. You understand that those who were killed by the image were full of the tapu of Ha. Then the relations of the dead dared not take them away for very fear of Ha. It was only the fear of Ha that made Hau agree with the priest in what he said to Tiriwa about Ata. Hau was a sulky chief, and of a very determined temper when Ha did not control him."

Maro now continued the story told to him by his mother.

Popo and his people left the sharks they had caught on the first day of their fishing to Hau and his daughter Ata. Those were the shark which were given by Ata to Tiriwa. Some of the Awhitu people had told the people of Tiriwa how Ata had obtained the page 28 shark, and this did not make Tiriwa any more pleased with her; but as he knew he could make more use of the shark later on, he did not at this time put his thoughts into words.

The shark that Popo and his friends caught on the two following days they took to their people at Mount Eden. At night they slept on the east side of Puponga just inside the point, on a little rising ground on the south end of the sandy beach under some pohu tukawa ¹⁷ on the bank of a little stream. This was the place where, for generations, our people had stayed when they went to fish for shark. Whether it was bravado, or just forgetfulness, Popo and his friends did not look at all the wood they used for cooking. Some things there were tapu, as it was there that our ancestors used to propitiate a god who resides in a cave on the south side of Manuka heads. This god was a taniwha, who was called Kai whare. It is the custom of our old men to go to the place where Popo was staying. The old priests would make a small whare and put it on a raft. They put some of the best kanae ¹⁶ into the house and then take the raft out into the stream and anchor it there all night. While on shore they repeat their incantations. Then, if the kanae is gone next morning when they visit the raft, the god is propitiated and the sick will recover. If it is a war party going to seek revenge, it is an omen of success.

Popo and the young men did not notice that they had used some of the sticks which formed a shed for some of our priests who had been there to offer food to Kai whare as firewood to cook their food.

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They had fished for some time, and came here with the shark they had caught. We had a settlement near to the point that juts out from Onehunga towards Mangere. They landed and slept there that night. As is usual, some of our young people were there, and, of course, the young fishermen had a long tale to tell of what they did and saw and said while at Puponga. The young men of the fishing party had a haka that night with the young men and women who had gone down from Mount Eden to gather cockles. One of the Mount Eden party was sister to Tihe, a young relative of mine. Her father had a Taranaki slave called Mapu, a thick-set, surly old man. Tihe herself was a fine-looking woman, and her pride was very great. Her main delight was to hear that all the young men were in love with her, but her pride kept them all at a distance. Tihe's sister heard the news about Ata and Popo, and as soon as the day dawned she left Onehunga, and swiftly, without waiting to bring any cockles with her, she came here.

The other cockle-gatherers came on later with Popo, after they had helped to clean and hang the shark up on the whata ¹⁹ to dry. Tahau, the father of Popo, met his son as he entered the gate, and said, "I have had a dream about you. I saw you fishing out on the sea, and a large fish came up close to your canoe with a woman's head and the skull of a man between its teeth. Tell me, O Popo, have you been near any of the sacred places ?"

"We have not," Popo replied.

Tahau appeared to be very sorrowful all that day. Popo, as usual, showed every kindness to our people, and no one appeared to take any particular notice of page 30 the news of the love shown to him by Ata.

Tihe and her family lived on the little hill below the marae towards the north, just beyond the sacred kumara pit. The pit was kept strictly tapu for the use of visitors, and each tribe put so much in it every season, from which those who cooked for strangers took the kumara they required. Tihe was not seen on the marae on the day that Popo returned, nor was she in the young people's assembly house that night. Someone said that old Mapu was going away for some days, and some of the girls reported that they had seen him searching for something near the spot where Popo had slept when he spent the night in the whare matoro of the young people. On being spoken to by one girl, Mapu had pointed to a mat hanging up in the house, and asked, "Is that Popo's mat?" The girl said, "Yes."

"I have not seen one like it before," Mapu replied, and he pulled out a string from it.

The following day Tihe and her slave said they were going to see some friends at the Rarotonga pa, near Otahuhu. They left the pa and passed the Tiko-puke pa and the level scoria ground between here and Otahuhu. But instead of continuing on their way when they arrived at the great spring of water that gushes out of the ground near the north-east side of Rarotonga, they left the path. Mapu sat down while Tihe dipped a piece of old mat into the spring. Then she gave it to Mapu, who tied it up with the string he had taken from Popo's mat, and, repeating a karakia all the while, placed it on the ground and covered it carefully with loose scoria and earth. Tihe stood watching him closely. When he had finished, Mapu returned to Mount Eden while Tihe went on to Raro- page 31 tonga and stayed there with her friends for many days.

The day after his return to the pa from his visit to Awhitu, Popo told his father that he felt as though a god were pressing him down. For days he steadily grew worse, and, at the shining of the first moon, he was too ill to work or laugh or do anything he had done in former days.

His mother was of the line of head chiefs and knew the karakia which females are taught. It is said that she knew many sacred incantations which could ward off evil, and all of these she repeated over her son, but without avail.

There came an evening when the moon shone brightly on the sea beyond Rangitoto and all the stars shone like a myriad glow-worms in the forest. We had eaten our evening meal, and the young men were all laughing and talking by the whare matoro. Not a sound had been heard from the house of the old people. There were no visitors in the pa at this time, but some of the young men noticed several people in the house. One, more inquisitive than the rest, went up and looked inside. On the floor Tahau was laid at full-length, and someone was standing over him muttering in a low voice. As the young man watched, Tahau rose to his feet, and said, "Why should he die? What has he done? All must speak, or he will die."

There was another man sitting in the east corner of the house. He did not speak or move until he heard the word "die." "Die!" he repeated, as he stood up. "Who says he must die?" He strode out of the door with the step of a man who will do what he will do and let no one hinder him. As he passed the young man who had been looking in at the door, he pulled page 32 from beneath his mat a long pu-tara ²⁰ and going directly to the little hill between the strangers' and the old people's houses, he put the pu to his mouth and blew a long blast towards the south. Turning, he blew another blast to the east, then to the north, and then to the west. The note of the pu was a "ho ho hoho" which, in the calm, clear night air, could be heard from Takapuna to Wairaka and Otahuhu and Mangere. As soon as we heard it we knew that the blower of the trumpet must be Tata, the brother of Atua, who was then the priest of our tribe, and that on the morrow we should have a great meeting of all the tribes at Mount Eden.

We could not guess what the meeting was to be called for, as the pu-tara was never sounded in the night except when a meeting of all the people was called for a council of great moment. The young women said it must have something to do with love, as Popo was ill, and what could make him ill but love?

The next day dawned, and from all the pa crowds of people could be seen coming in long lines towards our pa. Ah! It was then that the proverb was true of us when it says, "When the son of the Kiripunai was alive men were numberless, but since his death evil has befallen the people." We could distinguish] the chiefs as they came round each turn of the road by the huia ²¹ feathers which flaunted in the wind as they nodded their heads. As they came closer we could see their mats—the kiwi ²² mat, the pigeon-

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feather mat, the dog-skin mat, and the beautiful kaitaka ²³—while here and there we saw the glitter of the mere pounamu, ²⁴ like a flash of running water congealed in the hand of the chief who was carrying it.

From east and west, north and south, streams of our people came. We were a great people then. Then was our proverb true, that "Our pa could not be taken till the enemy attacking us were in number as great as the ahuahu."²⁵ We had assembled on the marae, and as the people of each pa came up the road, our young people stood at the gate to welcome them.

When they had all arrived and were seated in family tribes as the custom is when any matter is to be discussed, there was silence for some time. Then Tahau rose in an old, dirty mat, with his head besmeared with dirt, and a piece of firewood in his hand. He stepped on to the marae and paced up and down from one end to the other. Then he turned to where the young men who had accompanied Popo to Puponga were sitting. Some of them were holding Popo in a sitting posture.

"I am looking to find something," said Tahau, "and you, O chiefs and priests, must assist me in my search." Then, addressing us, he said, "Rise, one of you young men, and tell us what you did, what you said, and what you saw when you were fishing for shark at Puponga."

A young man came on to the marae. He said, "O fathers, look towards the west. That is the land we were in when we were fishing for shark. Popo was page 34 with us. You can see Puponga and Awhitu now from the top of this pa. We had caught many shark when a woman came out on to the beach, which you can just see below the Tipitai point and bay, and waved to us. We had done our fishing for that day, so we paddled to Awhitu, where the people were kind to us. We had the food of chiefs sent to us, but the girl who brought a basket with taro and the food for great men said that Ata had sent it to Popo. We had finished our food, and none of us would eat of the food sent to Popo. In the evening a girl came and said that Ata had sent for Popo. I went with him. Ata was not like a woman, but a body without a spirit. Old Ha Kawau was there and Ata, who said we were welcome and that when the riroriro sang again this summer, we were to go there again with Popo. We were told then by the people that Ata was a puhi to Tiriwa of the Ngatipou of Waikato. But she will not have him. We young men could see that she loves Popo, and that he loves her. That is all I have to say."

As he sat down another young man rose, and said, "I will say a few words that have not been told. We slept one night at Awhitu, but after that we slept several nights at Puponga, and there we cooked our food on the spot ever occupied by our people when they stay there."

Tata, the brother of Atua, said, "Stand still! What firewood did you burn while you were there?"

"We burnt the sticks that were there. We had no need to collect wood as it was there all ready for us. Popo did not say it was tapu."

Tata motioned for him to sit down. "I will now ask Popo what he knows of Puponga. Did you, O Popo, have any fear in your heart when you were out fishing or when you were at Puponga?" page 35 Popo was too weak to speak aloud, but he whispered to one of the young men, who spoke for him, "No."

"What was the basket like which contained the food that Ata sent to Popo?"

"A new basket," said the young man.

"Was it made of the common flax or of wharariki?" ²⁶

"Of the common flax."

"What was in the basket?"

"Taro, kanae, dried shark and nani."

"Did you notice a knot on the end of the flax which bound up the paro ²⁷ where it is turned round to tie up the upoko?" ²⁸

"It was tied in the usual way," said the young man.

Atua stood up. (He was a young man then.) He said, "O Popo, did you ever tell any girl in this or any other of our pa that you loved them?"

The young man spoke for Popo again. "No," he said, after Popo had whispered to him.

"Has any young woman let you know in any way that she loves you?"

"I do not know what they may say to others, but I often think that they speak to me as they do—with their talk of liking me and giving me the best food they can cook—because it is the way they speak to many of the young men. I like to show my love to all the people, but if I were to take the kindness of the girls to me as meaning love, they might each and every one be a lover of mine. Even the old women might be the same to me."

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"Did you tell Ata that you loved her, or did she say she loved you?"

"Ha Kawau told me that she loved me, but I did not say that I loved her. But I do love her more than I ever loved any young woman."

Atua turned to the people. "Where is the greenstone, the heirloom of our family?" he asked.

Tahau said, "The mother of Tihe has it"

"Bring it here and let us all look at it."

Tihe rose from the midst of a group of girls and brought the hei ²⁹ heirloom, and laid it down before Atua.

"Stay where you are, Tihe," ordered Atua.

"You have slaves, O Atua," answered the girl. "Order them" and with her head in the air she went back to her place.

Atua held the hei up before the people and said, "This is a sacred heirloom, and many a time has it spoken when asked if evil were coming to our tribe. It is a piece of the sacred block of stone called Whaka-rewa-tahuna. It has been worn in the ears of generations of chiefs and priests. O Tata, my elder brother, I will repeat the sacred words to it, and do you all see if this colour which is now clear becomes a little clouded."

Atua held it up to his mouth and muttered a few words to it which no one could hear, and then held it up to the gaze of the people. "If it becomes darker," he continued, "it is death. If it becomes lighter it is life, but Popo will have been bewitched."

The hei became clouded—we could see it changing colour as we watched.

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Atua lowered it, and said, "Come, Tihe, and take your god."

Before Tihe could rise, Tata stepped forward quickly and held out his hand.

"No," said Tata, "I will wear it now for some moons, and then Tihe may have our heirloom and keep it in her charge once more. She can have it when I have finished with it."

Atua dropped the hei into his brother's hand.

"live, O Popo!" said Tata. "Live, O Popo. Let me talk with the gods and make them tell me who has done this evil towards you."

The Takapuna people were at this meeting, and the chief of that pa rose and said, "Did someone say that Popo's food was cooked with sticks collected at Puponga without notice being taken whether they were the sticks which you, the priests, had used for your huts when you went to karakia to Kai-whare ? Maybe the god Kai-whare is angry with Popo."

An old woman who had come from the Mangere pa said, "What do you all say to the taro and shark being put into one basket ? Why did they put the food which we put into the hands of the dead with the child of Tangaroa?³⁰ I wish to know if that basket of food was bewitched."

Popo's mother said, "I must say my words. I can see that my child is bewitched. I know he is, for he is wasting away. Within the last few days he has page 38 become quite thin. He does not eat Someone has bewitched him."

"O people," said Tata, in a loud voice, addressing the whole assembly, "you have all heard what has been spoken. Say ye, is Popo bewitched? Or is it only the sickness to which we are all liable? Speak, O people, that we may take action."

Everyone, in a single voice, replied, "Popo has been bewitched."

"Whom do you, O people, say is the man or the tribe who has done this act? Was it the food that Ata gave to Popo? Was it what he ate at Puponga?"

The people said, "No, it was not then. He has been bewitched by someone not known to us."

"What must we do to save our child from death?"

There was a mumbling of voices, and then a chief cried, "Let someone go and ask Ha Kawau to repeat the powerful incantations."

"But what shall we give to the gods?" asked Tata. The hum of many voices rose, and then there was a stir and bustle as the girls and women and the men, both old and young, rose up from every part of the marae, and went to the various houses round the side of the pa. In a few moments they came back, half breathless, and each with a solemn, firm step went up to where Tata was standing, and in silence laid before him the garments and ornaments they most greatly prized. There were greenstone ear-drops, tiki, ³¹ huia feathers, fine mats of all descriptions, and page 39 some greenstone mere. Tata regarded them,carefully as they were laid before him. The people sat down again in silence, and Tata looked round him. He was deeply moved. "Great is your love for our child!" he exclaimed. "I will take these to the tuahu, and when the spirit of these has been taken by the gods, and the tapu has been taken off, then I will give them to you again, O people. Now I will see what message the gods may give of the death of Popo."

He threw off his mat, and keeping on only his maro, he laid all the offerings in a heap. Taking up the greenstone hei, he held it in his outstretched hand and repeated a karakia in a low voice. He waved the ear-drop over the heap of offerings and then laid it on top again. He stood erect and said, "I shall repeat a karakia over the hei. If it falls down Popo will die. If it does not drop down, then he will live."

In a tense and palpable silence, the words of the karakia were chanted by the priest. Every eye was riveted to the heap of offerings. The people all held their breath with suspense, and the only sound that could be heard anywhere was the laboured breathing of Popo. As they watched, the ear-drop began to move. It slid gently from the top of the pile and down the side. When it had gone about half-way down it page 40 suddenly checked, balanced a little unsteadily for a moment, and then settled firmly in its place.

By this time the whole crowd had risen into a half-erect posture, and, as the hei ceased its motion, the people put their hands on their knees as if resting after some great toil. A great cry of joy burst forth from them. It was like the gasp of a monster waking from death to life.

Tata now spoke with tears in his eyes. "O Popo, live! The gods say 'Live!' You have not half died yet. You are too good to die yet. Stay, O our bird of beauty and song! You who art the joy of all our eyes, O Popo, say that you will battle with death and stay with us!" Many of the people were now sobbing. With outstretched arms they approached Popo as he lay reclining by his friends, and waved their hands as if scratching something away from him. After a little while Popo said in a feeble voice, "I will try to live, O great people. Great is your love to me!"

The sun was setting behind the Titirangi forest,

and all the sky above Awhitu and Puponga was as red as kokowai. ³² Popo was looking in that direction when his companions said, "We will go into the house —or do you prefer that we take you to the house of your mother?"

"Take me there," he said. They led him down the hill just below the food-store for strangers, and on to the little plot of ground where Popo and his sub-tribe lived. A road led from there to the Remu-wera and Tikopuke pa, and on to Otahuhu.

It was now twilight, and all the sub-tribes had page 41 gone to their homes. The offerings made, at Tata's request, for the propitiation of the gods still lay on the marae. As the moon rose over the Coromandel hills and with full face looked right down on the pa, the young men were ordered by Tata to take the offerings and go down the road that led to his house. They passed it in due course and went on till they came to a plot of scoria, on which was a little green knoll covered with shrubs. Here they laid all the offerings they had brought. When they had finished, the ornaments were spread over the grass and they all lay down to sleep. Tata slept apart from the rest, and none of them ate food that night.

In the grey dawn Tata awoke, and taking twigs of karamu and kawakawa ³³ he went apart from the others and stuck the two branches in the ground. Then, with only his maro on, he squatted down in front of them and repeated incantations. This done, he called the young men. They rose, each clad only in a maro of leaves, and took the articles they had brought from the marae and followed Tata to the tuahu. They laid the offerings down about two paces from where Tata was standing and retired close to the swamp, where they all sat down. Tata repeated the incantations offering the gifts to the gods, and rubbed his hands at the conclusion of each karakia. Last of all, Tata passed from the tuahu, and at his call "Haere taua," ³⁴ the young men rose and preceded him back to the pa.

The sun was now high in the heavens. The people had partaken of their morning meal and were at their usual work in the kumara plantations. The previous evening some of the young girls who were of the family tribe of Popo had said that they would page 42 go the next morning and get some eels from the swamp to the east of the Rarotonga pa. Following the path from their house they descended to the flat between Remu-wera and Tikopuke, and, crossing the scoria ground, they arrived at the outflow of the Waiata-rua lake on the north-east of Rarotonga. Here the girls had a bathe in the fresh water flowing from that spring and left their mats on the rocks ready for their return. They caught a good many eels in the swamp, and then, turning to the spring, they lit a fire and cooked some of their catch. These girls were full of sport, and they challenged each other to see who could throw the heaviest stone. They had played for some time, when one of the girls lifted up a stone and discovered an old mat under it. She gave a cry, and the others gathered round her. The mat was quickly taken out of its hiding place and scanned by all. One of the girls who had seen it before exclaimed, "It is Popo's mat!" It was placed on one side, and when they had finished their game they returned and brought the mat with them and gave it to Popo, saying, "Is this your property?" Tata was sitting with Popo when the girls came in, and when he saw the dirt-encrusted mat, he took it and put it to his nose and gave a short grunt. The girls were afraid of the priest and retired hastily. Tata got up and tied the mat to the end of a stick and stuck it up outside at a little distance from the door of the house.

The girls took the eels and gave them to Popo's mother, saying, "We could not look at him and not try to bring him something he could eat as a kinaki with his kumara." The eels were cleaned, and five or six of them were put between the split halves of a stick. The top of the split stick was then tied with flax and the end stuck in the ground before a good page 43 fire. When the oil began to ooze from the fish the stick was turned so that every part might be cooked. When they were finished they were brought to Popo, who ate them with greater relish than anything he had touched for days.

All that afternoon Tata remained silent and motionless in the gloom of Tahau's house. When it grew dark he went outside and took the stick with Popo's mat, and, holding it at arm's length behind him, he walked over the knoll, past the sacred food store and down the hill, and stuck the stick up in the ground amongst the shrubs, where he and the young men had previously laid the offerings for Popo. At dawn the next day he took the mat, holding it as before, and went down the road past the tuahu till he reached the creek. Descending the steep bank, he followed the creek down towards Orakei Bay.

In a bend of the creek was a pool and a little sandy bank. On this bank he sat and collected a few pebbles. He put them near to the big toe of his right foot. With his hands he scraped the sand into a small mound and deposited the pebbles on the top of the mound. Then he took the stick with the mat still tied to it and stuck it into the pool as far as he could reach. He sat down again between the stick in the pool and the mound he had made, and repeated his karakia. After one incantation had been repeated he waved his hand over the mound and began to repeat another. Before he had finished this second karakia the sand on the top of the mound began to run down the sides and the pebbles to move from top to bottom. He had stripped a kawakawa twig of its leaves and had placed it on the mound. Now it fell over, towards Tata's left hand. He turned towards the mat on the stick in midstream, repeated a karakia, and then, holding the page 44 kawakawa twig in his right hand, he once more began another karakia. Ere he had finished there appeared the likeness of two faces in the water at the foot of the stick, on which the mat was tied.

Tata looked steadfastly at them, as though puzzled what to do next. A frown appeared on his forehead as he said in a low whisper, "And that slave Mapu was one!" Rubbing his eyes with the back of his left hand he looked again at the foot of the stick. "Tihe must have been in love with Popo," he muttered, "else why did she make Mapu bewitch him?" He frowned again. "Not I, but the gods kill them if they like," and with his right hand holding the kawakawa twig uplifted, he said aloud, "Let the evil you have sought to bring on Popo come on you!" At the same time he hit the water where he had seen the face with the twig, and, like a flash, drew back his arm and slapped his forehead with his palm. Then, reaching over, he took the mat, still tied on the stick, and holding it behind him, he retired to the tuahu and there stuck the stick up in front of the flat stone, and returned to his house.

On the day that the girls had brought the eels for Popo, Tihe and all her family had been induced by old Mapu to go on a visit to the family tribe, who occupied the two pa beyond Otahuhu, at Manurewa and Matu-ku-rua. Old Mapu had said that Tihe did not appear to be so full of life as she had been before the great talk in the pa. There was a deformed priest at Matuku-rua called Hake, who could cure all diseases. At the time, therefore, that Tata had gone on his mission with the mat, Tihe and her relatives had left the pa, though some of the family, and the people of page 45 Tihe's father, had stayed to look after the kumara and taro cultivations. The sun had not set before the people had heard of the mat found by the eel-catchers, and that the mat belonged to Popo. This news was repeated by all the old women till it became one of the most notable pieces of gossip that had been heard for many moons.

Tihe and her relatives had not been long in the Matuku-rua pa when the news was brought to them by one of their people. When she heard that the mat had been found, Tihe became downcast, and seemed to be in constant trouble. No one knew why she had become so, but they remembered what Mapu had said, and, as he was a priest from Taranaki, though now a slave, no doubt the gods had told him. There was no doubt that Tihe was unwell. She almost appeared as if insane. Mapu said she was not to leave the pa until he had gone to Patumahoe for old Hake.

Now Hake was a man of rank and was related to the noted sorcerer, Tamure, of Waikato. In the days of his childhood he had laughed at Tamure, who had bewitched the boy in his anger. He did not intend to kill him, but instead he had made him as ugly as a child could be—humped in his back, crooked in his legs, his eyes as though he had red clay in them, and pis mouth all awry. At this time Hake was one of the ugliest men in all the land.

Mapu went to fetch Hake, but Hake was a most curious fellow. No one could be certain of his movements. He had a most amusing way of dressing his body at times. He thought it made him look prepossessing, but in actual fact he became more ugly still, and no one took any notice of him, save to gain his power as priest, when it was required to repeat the karakia for fishing, or bird or rat-catching, or on such page 46 as occasions as the present, when Tihe needed to be restored to health. Even then he would not come to those who waited for him until days after he was sent for.

The girls of Manurewa were making floor mats for the houses, and as the flax which they used grew on the road that leads from the Karaka pa to Patu-mahoe, on the Turorirori plain, they had to go there for it. After much persuasion they induced Tihe to accompany them to cut flax in the swamp there. They went from Manurewa to Karaka by canoe, and then walked some distance along the beach towards Te Toro and inland up Te Maire creek. Now it happened that the road from Patumahoe, where Mapu had gone, and which Hake would come by, was in this direction. The girls had dispersed to cut the flax, and Tihe wandered off by herself. She sat down at a little distance from the road and went to sleep. While she was sleeping Mapu had seen her, but had passed on without waking her. Hake had not been with him, for he had stayed to put fresh apparel on his body, and to make his head—as he said—look fine.

Tihe was still sleeping when Hake came along the road, and, as Mapu had done he, too, saw the sleeping girl. Not wishing to wake her, and having a whimsical idea in his head, he sat down at some distance from her, but in a position where she could see him in all his finery when she awoke. At last Tihe stretched herself and opened her eyes. She had been dreaming about lizards.³⁵ and Hake heard her say something about them in her sleep. As she woke her first sight was of the deformed body of the priest Hake had his long hair tied in a heap in front of his page 47 face; his hump back was bare; he had a short maro tied round his waist, and a number of shells, which he had broken in the centre and strung on a piece of flax, tied round his legs and arms. He soon saw that the young woman was awake and had seen him. Although he had loved many girls, Hake had never been able to obtain a wife, but he was always hopeful. Now he began to move about and dance. The shells on his ankles and wrists clattered together, his hair flew up and down, and as it rose and fell, Tihe could see the moist, ugly, deformed mouth and lizard-like tongue. She gave a single loud shriek and fell back. Hake sat down again and for some time kept silent. The girl moved and looked up, and still seeing the ugly figure, she ran away, panic-stricken, not knowing where she was going, crashing through the thick undergrowth. In her blind terror she at last fell on to a ledge of rock at the bottom of the creek, and there she was found by her companions, who had been alarmed by her screams. She was unconscious and had to be carried to the pa, where she could be attended to by her mother.

Old Mapu had not got down to the crossing at Te Karaka when he heard Tihe's scream, and, fearing some evil, he crossed the creek and was ascending the north bank when he saw Hake return up the rising ground on the way back to Patumahoe. Hake returned to his own place and said no word about the young woman who had fled from him in fright.

It was days before Tihe could speak in a rational manner. All the time she lay in a stupor she raved about a monster, crying continually to her mother to take the monster Kai-whare away from her. Mapu had done all he could by repeating his karakia to drive away the atua from his young protector, as Tihe was the only one of the family who treated him as though page 48 he were not a slave. At last the time came when she was able to converse with her mother, who then learned for the first time all that had driven her child over the steep bank of the creek. Tihe begged to be taken back to Mount Eden, and shortly after her recovery her family departed from Matuku-rua. When they got to the spring where the mat had been cursed, Mapu looked significantly at Tihe, and on some pretext left the party and went towards the spot where the mat had been hidden.

Tihe was taken to her home, and for a few days could not venture abroad as she was so feeble that someone had to help her even to move from side to side of the house. She did not speak to anyone save to ask for water to drink, but she listened intently to anyone who might happen to speak of Popo. But whenever Tata's name was mentioned she appeared to be uncomfortable. One day, she saw one of the girls who had obtained the eels for Popo, and wishing for something fresh in her diet, she said in the hearing of the girl, "Did Popo like the eels those girls got for him?"

"Oh, yes," said the girl. "We can get some more if you can eat them."

"Yes," said an old woman, who was listening, "you are the child of a chief. Your words say so. Only those of a great heart ever think of the sick."

But Tihe was not to be diverted from her subject. "Girls at times find fine mats where they did not think such things were kept?"

"Yes," the girl replied. "We found one of Popo's mats at the spring under some stones."

"And what did you do with it?" asked Tihe.

"We gave it to Popo."

"And he wore it again?" page 49 "No, he did not. Do you think he has so few mats that he would wear one that had been taken from him and put beneath the surface of the soil to rot?"

"Then he threw it away?"

"I clo not know. I have heard it said that old Tata kept it."

"And now Tata wears it?"

"I do not know," the girl repeated. "I have not seen it on him. Well, now we will go and get some eels for you as you have been so ill. If you eat them you may get strong and be able to come to the whare matoro in the evenings as you used to do. Since Popo has been ill we have no one who can lead in the haka as he did. You know he is the best player we have. But what is there that Popo cannot do? He is the best swimmer, the best spear-man, the best singer, and the kindest man in our pa!"

"Is he ill now?" asked Tihe.

"Oh, no," said the girl. "He is quite strong compared with the day of the great meeting. Tata has pronounced karakia over him many times, and Ata has heard of his illness and has sent her greenstone tiki for him to wear."