530 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



indicate that the alliance was broken, and with his men marched off 

 the held. 



On the road he stopped at Vaka-piko, at the house of his daughter- 

 in-law, to inquire after his son. The " lady" received him with demon- 

 strations of respect, and while listening to the story of his wrongs, 

 stood behind him and picked fleas out of his head, which, in accord- 

 ance with the native customs, was the most delicate compliment that 

 one individual could show another. 



Upon the return of her husband, whose name was Moa, the woman 

 related the particulars of the visit of his father. Moa said nothing 

 about the state of his feelings, but arose at sunrise and dug up a lot 

 of potatoes and yams, which he baked in an oven. Towards evening 

 he brought out his fish-net and employed himself iu arranging the 

 floats and sinkers. After dark he wrapped up his potatoes and yams 

 in sugar cane and leaves, shouldered his net, and started off, after in- 

 forming his wife that he was going fishing, fie hid his net in the 

 rocks at Kahiherea and then went to Mounga-tea-tea, where a palm tree 

 was growing, from which he cut and trimmed eight large branches. 

 At Ngaua Moa he found the camp of the men who guarded the cliff over- 

 looking the cave where the Hotu-iti people were imprisoned, so he 

 turned and went down by the sea-shore. The men stationed there to 

 guard the approach were all asleep, and Moa managed by great cau- 

 tion to pass them without being discovered. Having arrived near the 

 cave he was challenged, and replied, "I am Moa, who seeks revenge 

 while helping you." One of the besieged men, named Tokihai, de- 

 scended from the cave and received the grip of friendship by being 

 clasped around the belly. Moa took his food into the cave and dis- 

 tributed it among the thirty famished and thoroughly discouraged 

 men who remaiued alive. 



While the great canoe was making its predatory excursions to the 

 islet, the combined forces had not neglected the people who had taken 

 refuge in the cave. Every day a large net filled with men was lowered 

 from the top of the cliff, and from it stones were hurled into the cave, 

 killing and maiming the defenseless people. Moa produced his palm 

 branches and instructed his friends how to make hooks from pieces of 

 human bone, which could be fastened to the poles and used as grapples. 



Before daylight everything was in readiness, and when the net was 

 lowered abreast of the opening, it was caught by the hooks and drawn 

 in the cave, and the men in it dispatched almost without resistance. 

 The prisoners got into the net and were hoisted to the top, where by rea- 

 son of the surprise and the fierceness of their fighting their enemies 

 were defeated and put to flight. 



It happened that on the night of Moa's visit to the cave, Huriarai and 

 a man named Vaha, who were with the party on the small island of Ma- 

 rori, became desperate from hunger and made an effort to capture one 

 of the men guarding the sea-beach, The sentry saw one of the men 



