in Manning' s ' Old New Zealand ' 357 



' Though your followers may lie 

 In their blood on battle-plain, 

 They alone will never die, 

 For in song they live again ; 

 And their names, remembered long, 

 Twine in many a warlike tale ; 

 And the TangVs plaintive song ^ 

 Makes for them the parting wail.' 



'Twas thus the mad seer prayed with offering fell ; 

 But what that offering was, I may not tell. 



The seer has left the hill ! heard you that awful cry ? 

 The shades he saw were the braves of his tribe, to the 

 Reinga ^ passing by.' 



Berserker to the backbone ! 



1 The wailing song of sorrow — like tlie Keen of Ireland, but 

 infinitely more tender and touching. 



2 Te Reinga, the Maori Hades, to which the souls of men depart 

 after death. It is a cave at the North Cape, overshadowed by an 

 enormous Pohetiikaiiau tree. It is a sort of pious pilgrimage for 

 ancient men to walk in that direction, hoping to meet with erring 

 souls who have lost their way. 



