102 Transactions. 



Finding they were unable to take the ish^nd, the war-party retreated, 

 but almost immediately returned to the attack, and on this occasion they 

 killed Kakaho, the daughter of Te Ahuru, and others ; but again they 

 were unsuccessful in taking the pa, and so again they retired. 



" The murder of this poor girl," said my informant, " was a very dis- 

 creditable act " ; and while he gave the follownng details, the old man's 

 eyes filled with tears. 



Before Te Ahuru went to fight Te Rau-paraha at Kapiti he had a pre- 

 sentiment that he would be killed at that battle, for in a vision (dream) he 

 had seen his own head fixed on the top of a pole ; so he gave to his daughter 

 his mere pounamu called Te Rito-harakeke (young blade of the flax), with 

 the instructions that she was never to part with it, and also that she was 

 to wear it night and day, but in svich a manner that the cord which held 

 it round her neck was to be kept concealed beneath her mat. 



When the poor girl was captured at Awa-mate, her captors formed a 

 ring round her. and she was ordered to sit down in the enclosed space ; but 

 she refused, and said, " Why should I sit down to be killed ? Allow me to 

 stand and sing my death-song, after which I will be ready." Then she 

 asked Te Kahawai to give her his mat so that her body might be covered 

 after she was dead, and Te Kahawai without a moment's thought complied 

 with her request and laid down his mahiti (dog-skin mat) on the ground 

 before her. 



WTiile she was singing Te Kahawai noticed the tears trickling down her 

 cheeks, and when the tangi was finished he said to her, " WTiy were you crying 

 just now?" Kakaho replied, "Do you ask me why I was crying? If 

 you were a woman, as I am, you would know very well why I was crying." 

 Continuing, she said, " I, like you, am going to be a fish of the sea, for I am 

 a woman of much blood ; and may this thought carry you to death, for 

 you are not a man of your word." (Some reference to the fact that the 

 kahawai fish, when caught, bleeds more freely than an}" other fish known 

 to the Maori.) 



Then one of the party took a tokotol'o, and, giving it to anoth.n' chief, 

 he said, " Kill her with this." Kakaho overheard the order, and immediately 

 cried out, " Let me not die by such a mean weapon. If die I must, kill me 

 with this." And as she spoke she drew from her bosom the mere Te Rito- 

 harakeke, and held it aloft. The man who had the tokotoko seized the 

 mere, calling out, " Yes, it is a good weapon, and a good girl," at the same 

 time striking her a blow that laid her low for ever. 



Then it was noticed that her body was tafu, being protected by the mahiti, 

 which by this time was wet with blood welling from the death- wound ; 

 consequently she was not eaten, but buried as befitted a chief's daughter. 



As soon as it was discovered that the girl was dead, Te Kahawai turned 

 to Paihure, the man who had killed her, and said, " Why did you kill her 

 in defiance of my protection ? " and, receiving no satisfactory answer, he 

 took the mere, and Paihure also fell to the ground, a dead man. 



After the siege, Maero and Tau-iri were so worried by the appearance 

 of the Ngati Apa almost daily, and also by the shortage of their food-supply, 

 that they determined to evacuate the pa and go to Ao-rangi. So they 

 quietly left Te Awa-mate and went to Oroua ; but the Ngati Apa people 

 followed them up and killed several, but the chief person killed was a woman 

 named Hiango, and she was killed by Wai-tene. After this the Maero 

 people resolved to scatter ; so Hura, Rihi-mona, and Rene-hura went to 

 Horo-whenua for safety, the others all going to different places. 



