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CHAPTER IX. 



TRAILS FROM THE COAST TO TUTIRA. 



MAORI footpaths in olden times followed the lines of scantiest vegetation 

 such as open river reaches, unfertile hill-tops, ridges bare of cover, lines 

 of ingress and egress, in fact, least liable to ambuscade. There were two 

 main trails connecting Tutira with the coast, the one from Arapawanui on 

 the east, the other from Tangoio on the south. These, as also the tracks 

 round the lake and the outward track to the ranges, I shall use as 

 threads on which to string our narrative ; from them I shall invite the 

 reader to listen to the legends, folk-lore, and history of the localities 

 traversed. 



Starting from Arapawanui on the coast, the track inland followed 

 the general line of the river Waikoau as far as the eastern corner of 

 Tutira. The going was fairly open and level ; fhe river, flowing only a 

 few score feet above sea-level, had deposited along its banks sand, grit, 

 and limestone rubble washed from its upper reaches. At its great bend, 

 near to the several boundaries of Arapawanui, Tangoio, and Tutira, 

 precipitous marl cliffs compelled a deviation. Almost exactly opposite 

 the spot where the Mangahinahina stream joins the main river, our trail 

 crossed on to Tutira soil. Immediately after passage of the Umungoiro 

 ford a faintly defined subsidiary track followed for a quarter of a mile 

 the general direction of the river-bed to a little clearing in a patch of 

 bush. Doubtless it had been the home of some outlier, a residence only 

 habitable under the conditions of the second phase of native life on the 

 run ; like every settlement of that later period, it was marked by the 

 presence of peach-trees. Reverting to the main track from the Waikoau, 

 it followed the line of the Mangahinahina brook until that streamlet, as 

 streamlets do on Tutira, narrowed into a gorge. It continued along a 

 narrow ridge, first in a northerly line, then along the ridge of another 



