SURVIVALS FROM MARRIAGE BY CAPTURE. 209 



lady would prove successful, the chief of the Ngatiroa was in- 

 duced, through the influence of a new wife, the sister of the 

 suitor, to proclaim a tawa tango. An ambassadress was sent to 

 give notice to the Mania tribe, and two large canoes full of men 

 accompanied her. The ambassadress saw the tawa received at a 

 friendly village, where it was arranged it should remain for a day 

 or two, and then went on to the settlement of the Mania. There 

 she was received with great respect and distinction, nor was there 

 the slightest change made in the manner of her hosts when she 

 announced that a tawa would arrive the next day or the day after 

 to carry off a certain maiden. " Of whom did the tawa consist ? " 

 she was asked; and when the Mania learned that it was only 

 composed of about one hundred and sixty men in two canoes, 

 they felt rather offended at so small a taiva coming to attempt 

 the abduction of one of their maidens. However, in the mean 

 time, and without the knowledge of the ambassadress, who 

 would have been obliged by custom to declare the true strength 

 of the party, the tawa had been re-enforced by seven more 

 canoes full of men, which had started a few hours after the 

 first two. The warriors in these canoes reached the Mania 

 settlement and hid in a gully close below the pa, or stockaded 

 fort, leaving the two original canoes to approach alone. When 

 the Mania saw only these two canoes, they opened the gates 

 of their pa, and the chiefs, having marshaled their men, per- 

 formed the customary dance of welcome. The Ngatiroa who had 

 landed below the pa, formed in a long, oblong phalanx, the 

 rear of which rested upon the gully in which their friends lay 

 concealed, and, upon the conclusion of the dance of the Mania, 

 commenced their share in the performance. The oblong wedge, 

 the Maori order of battle, advanced singing in a low tone, and 

 gesticulating in what they would have called a mild manner. On 

 they advanced, the movement raising no suspicion in the breasts 

 of their adversaries, it being part of the customary ritual of the 

 war-dance, until the thin end of the phalanx overlapped the Mania, 

 and stood between them and the gates of the pa. Suddenly a 

 change was visible in the antics of the Ngatiroa ; their gesticu- 

 lations became violent, their eyes protruded, their heads were 

 thrown back, and their throats uttered a mighty shout. As the 

 cry passed their lips, a stream of warriors rushed up the banks of 

 the gully and joined the cluster of their comrades, now swollen to 

 a compact mass of six hundred men. When the Mania realized the 

 ruse practiced upon them, they never for a moment thought of giv- 

 ing up the fair cause of the incursion without a struggle. Into the 

 pa poured both parties the Mania to rally round the girl ; the 

 Ngatiroa, except the small party expressly told off to carry away 

 the lady, seeking every man an opponent to wrestle with. Each 



VOL. XXXIX. 16 



