1 5 1 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



among whom were Te Hiakai, Hore, Mama te Kanawa, ami 

 other-', and but for the bravery of Potatau in rallying his people 

 the position would have been much worse. 



As illustrating the peculiarities of Maori procedure, and what 

 chiefs of rank might do in such cases, may this incident be nar- 

 rated : Potatau, to whom Rauparaha was related by consan- 

 guinity — a matau (parent), a sort of grand-uncle, a few degrees 

 removed perhaps — recognising the dangerous predicament his 

 party were in, suffering from a defeat, with the certainty that 

 the fighting Ngatitama coming from south of Mokau with the 

 morning light would with their victorious enemies converge on 

 and annihilate them, called in the waning light to Rauparaha. 

 " E Raha, he aha to koha ki au ?" (0 Raha, what is your boon 

 to me ?) to which tersely and quickly came the reply, " Go 

 south, you will be safe ; go north, and the upper jaw will close 

 on the lower one." Quickly grasping the situation, without 

 another word, and with the ebbing tide, they struck camp, ford- 

 ing or swimming the mouths of the rivers. They forded the 

 W'aitara at the mouth, and then proceeded straight inland to 

 tb. sir besieged relations in Pukerangiora, where they were safe, 

 and joined in one huge wail over their disaster. Later on, thus 

 reinforced, they returned to Waikato, neither attacking nor 

 being attacked, to croon over their losses, and meditate on 

 revenge for about ten years, in the meantime acquiring many 

 firearms. When they did return they found both Ngatitama and 

 Ngatimutunga, all but a few, gone south; and with the basest 

 ingratitude they attacked and killed the owners of the very pa 

 that had protected them, together with hundreds of other hapus 

 who crowded in for shelter. Neither did they take the pa by 

 assault ; but the starving multitudes of outsiders, unable to bring 

 in supplies — the Waikato having come before the crops were 

 gathered in — and being no longer able to bear the strain, foolishly 

 broke out in the day-time, when the Waikato, seeing the cloud 

 of dusl raised by the escaping starving multitudes, with fierce 

 yells at mice attacked and pursued the flying horde, who, panic- 

 stricken, rushed over a deep ravine and were smothered in hun- 

 dreds, the stronger ones alone escaping over the squirming and 

 smothering bodies of their friends into the forest beyond. A 

 number, however, who knew the place, escaped by means of an 

 aka woodbine, and a tree fallen across the ravine, with which 

 they swung across the chasm, getting away scathless. 



Meanwhile Rauparaha, taking the advice of Ins friend Waka 

 N'cnc, migrated south with a certain number of Ngatimutunga 

 am! others partly related to the Ngatitoa, who went to Kapiti 

 Island and set l led there. They did not dare to live on the main- 

 land until later on. when a large body of the Ngatimutunga 



