THE TRAIL TO THE RANGES 95 



opened, the ceremony of the laying of the foundation-stone had still 

 to be accomplished. In lieu of the coins nowadays buried on such 

 occasions, it was the New Zealand custom to use up a slave. Titi-a- 

 Punga either had none to spare, or had higher ideals as to what was 

 owing to himself and his new edifice ; he had, in fact, determined on 

 his brother-in-law, Te Rangi-nukai, as the votive offering. It was his 

 body which was to be buried beneath the poupous uprights sup- 

 porting the framework of the whare, his death which was to 

 celebrate the house - warming. Friendly messages accordingly were 

 despatched to Mohaka, requesting his attendance at the dedication 

 of the new building. The wife of Titi-a-Punga, however, knew of her 

 husband's intention ; she warned her brother, who came, but came pre- 

 pared ; he arrived, moreover, by an unexpected route, thereby avoiding 

 the ambush laid for him. It thus happened that whilst Titi-a-Punga 

 and his merry men lay in wait on one side of the gorge, Te Rangi-nukai 

 and his people arrived from Mohaka on the pa side of the river ravine. 

 Few or none of Titi-a-Punga's band were in the village. Those few 

 fled. The women were pitched over the cliff into the stream beneath 

 hence its name to this day, Te Wai-o-nga- Wahine, " The water of the 

 women." 



Titi-a-Punga was taken alive by his brother-in-law, and foreseeing 

 his fate thus spake : " Taihoa ahau e pataa " " Kill me presently." 

 He then uttered his farewell, still famous in the land : " Tamai pakani 

 a Taha-rangi toroa uta ka he i torod tcti taratara o Mctungdhdruru Jca 

 whatiwhctti," " Strong son of Taha-rangi, the bird of the mountain has 

 been destroyed by the bird of the shore ; the crest of Maungaharuru has 

 bowed itself and fallen." After that, as old Anaru quaintly put it, " he 

 was killed quite dead." 



Crossing the ford the track passed through the locality Pukerimu, 

 and later continued in a northerly direction through the slopes and 

 flats east of the Otukehu range the "Nobbies." It then swung sharp 

 to the west between the end of that chain of hills and an isolated peak, 

 where at one time dwelt another robber chief called Tarakihi. He, 

 like the better-known Titi-a-Punga, also levied a toll on the track, 

 until at last, killing some person of importance, he was himself set 

 upon and slain. 



Above the sandy ford of the upper Waikari the trail forked, one 

 of the two branches climbing until it reached Patu-wahine and dis- 



