White. — Ou the Flight of the Maru-iioi. 365 



fear was on them, for the savage foe may be hard upon their 

 trail. Wiio might know ? The dreadful foe, who killed for 

 killing's sake ; who slew old and young of both sexes ; who 

 roasted and ate the bodies of the dead — a truly terrible foe. 

 Thus the Maru-iwi hurried on. In the darkness of night 

 they clambered up the rugged mountains, they traversed the 

 darkling woods of the unknown land. The foremost reached 

 a deep chasm in the range — a caiion with perpendicular 

 walls. Unknowingly they stepped into the abyss and met a 

 fearful death; unknowingly the others pressed on, and were 

 in turn forced into the gulch by the pressure of those behind 

 them. And there in that dark and fearsome chasm lav strong 

 men and feeble women, warriors and little children, crushed 

 and lifeless. For the death they dreaded from the rear had 

 met them face to face in the mountains of the Eirio.* Hence 

 came the expressions : — 



Te Heke a Maru-iwi ki te Po. 

 Te Heke a Maru-iwi ki te Waro. 



These have conle to be used as synonyms for death. And 

 the few survivors of Maru-iwi fled onwards to Wai-rarapa 

 and to the Land of the Pounamu [the South Island — T.W.] , 

 and their name is lost to the World of Life, and no man may 

 know their descendants. Only this remains : ' Te Heke a 

 Maru-iwi ki te Po ! ' 



"And Maru-a-hangaroa, of Kahu-huna, married Eakei-ao 

 [the tohunga of this story — T.W.] , and had Puhi-awe, who 

 married Awa-tope, and had Ira-wharo and Koira ; and Koira 

 had Koko-wai, who had Tua-hina-rau, who had Hika-pua- 

 pua, who married Te Uru-hina, and had Te Eangi-patai and 

 Hine-oho ; and Hine-oho had Tua-hiwi, who had Te Mokena, 

 who had Hamiora,t who had Te Mate-kuare, who had 

 Whare." 



This ends Mr. Elsdon Best's graphic description of this 

 terrible incident of the olden time. 



Excluding Koira, from Koko-wai to Hamiora gives seven 

 generations, which, taken at twenty-five years for each gene- 

 ration, gives one hundred and seventy-five years, and add to 

 this the two persons named after Hamiora and we have two 

 hundred and twenty-five years as having lapsed since the 

 flight of Maru-iwi. 



The Maru-iwi lived contiguous to the east coast, in a dis- 

 trict till lately known as "the King-country." The pakeha. 



* "The Ure-wera inform me that the Ririo is the leading atua (god, 

 spirit) of the Taupo tribes, as Te Rehu-o-tai-nui is of Tuhoe, and Makawe 

 that of the Arawa tribes. 



i " Old Hamiora, of Ngati-whare, who gave the above information 

 [concerning the flight of Maru-iwi.— T.W.] ." 



