364 Transactions . — Miscellaneous. 



great fame. And Koira said to this tohunga, ' I have been in- 

 sulted by Marn-ka, of Te Maru-iwi ; yea! even struck by that 

 man, sir ! It is not well that this tribe should remain here. 

 Eather let them be driven from these lands, driven away 

 towards the setting sun.' Eakei-ao, the man of knowledge, 

 agreed to this ; he said, ' Let this place be swept and made 

 quite clean.' This was done, and then the priest said, ' Now 

 you must dig a hole, even a deep hole, that I may perform 

 therein the necessary ceremonies and incantations [karakia — 

 T.W.] to enable me to drive away the Maru-iwi to other lands. 

 But you must be careful and not laugh at anything I do, or 

 my work and prayers will be in vain.' So ended the words 

 of Eakei-ao, the tohunga. Then this priest, with his sacred 

 girdle around him, descended into the hole which had been 

 prepared. He did not descend in the ordinary manner, as 

 other men do, but went down head first, and performed the 

 necessary ceremonies in that position. The meaning of this 

 was, ' a driving-away or expelling of Maru-iwi ' [hei wliaka- 

 tere-tere i a Maru-iivi). Even so were Koira and his people 

 enabled to expel the Maru-iwi from Wai-mana, their ancient 

 home. And thej^ fled — fled with a great fear upon them — far 

 away from their well-loved homes of many generations, away 

 to the region whei-e the sun goes down. 



" So went forth the Maru-iwi, pressing onwards through 

 the ancient lands of Te Earauhe-maemae and Te Ma-ranga- 

 ranga, of Te Po-kiki and Te Po-kaka. They left their tribal 

 lands, they left the hills and valleys, they left the rivers and 

 forests. As they looked back at the well-known mountains 

 which encircled their former home they paused and greeted 

 each known peak and deserted valley, the forests wherein so 

 many generations of their tribe had hunted and fought, the 

 sacred places wherein lay the bones of their dead. Far avvay 

 across the White World was borne the wailing of Maru-iwi as 

 they chanted a song of farewell to the Land of the Ancient 

 People, for the Maori had come, the Maori of Hawaiki, of the 

 Dark Ocean, trained to war and slaughter in the crowded isles 

 of Polynesia. 



" So fled the Maru-iwi with the battle-crv of the Coming 

 Eace ringing in their ears, with the fear of death upon them. 

 By rugged mountains and lonely valleys, across swift rivers 

 and pathless jungles, over wide plains and amidst the mur- 

 muring 'children of Tane ' [forest-trees — T.W.] the Maru- 

 iwi fled. They saw in each moving shrub an armed enemy ; 

 they heard the relentless foe in the sighing winds, in the 

 mysterious voices of the night. Strong men hurried forward 

 to an unknown haven ; women carrying little children pressed 

 wearily onward ; the old and the weak died by the way ; still 

 the Maru-iwi fled. Thev reached Titi-o-kura, and the black 



