68 Transactions. 
After remaining with Rauparaha for some months he returned to Taupo with 
part of his followers, where he reported the improved position of Ngatitoa, 
and urged his own section of the tribe to join them. Finding them still 
unwilling to do so, and being determined to effect his object, he ordered the 
whole of their houses and stores to be burned down, declaring it to be the will 
of the atwa or spirit, angry at their refusal to obey the words of their chief. 
This being done the people gave way, and he took the necessary measures for 
the journey. In the meantime Whatanui and Te Heuheu had also determined ` 
to visit Rauparaha, in order to inspect the country he had conquered ; the 
former chieftain intending, if it met his approval, to carry out his original 
design of joining the N gatitoa in its occupation. In pursuance of this 
determination they, with a strong force of their own warriors, joined Te Ahu 
Karamu’s party, the whole travelling down the Rangitikei River along the 
route followed by Te Ahu on his previous journey. During this journey they 
attacked and killed any of the original inhabitants whom they happened to 
fall in with. This migration is known amongst the N gatiraukawa as the 
heke whirinui, owing to the fact that the whiri, or plaited collars of their 
mats, were made very large for the journey. Amongst the special events 
which occurred on the march was the capture of a Ngatiapa woman and two 
children, on the south side of the Rangitikei. The unfortunate children were 
sacrificed during the performance of a solemn religious rite ; and the woman, 
though in the first instance saved by Te Heuheu, who wished to keep her as a 
Slave, was killed and eaten by Tangaru, one of the N gatiraukawa leaders, 
Shortly after this Ta Whiro, one of the greatest of the Ngatiapa chiefs, with 
two women, were taken prisoners, and the former was put to death with great 
ceremony and cruelty, as utu for the loss of some of Te Heuheu’s people who 
had been killed by the N gatiapa long before, but the women were spared, On 
the arrival of this hehe at Kapiti, Te Heuheu and Whatanui held a long 
conference with the N gatitoa chieftains, and Whatanui was at last persuaded 
to bring down his people. For this purpose he and Te Heuheu returned to 
Taupo, some of the party passing across the Manawatu Block, so as to strike 
the Rangitikei River inland, whilst the others travelled along the beach to 
the mouth of that river, intending to join the inland party some distance up. 
The inland party rested at Rangataua, where a female relative of Te Heuheu, 
named Reremai, famed for her extreme beauty, died of wounds inflicted upon 
her during the journey by a stray band of N gatiapa. A great tangi was held 
over her remains, and Te Heuheu caused her head to be preserved, he himself 
calcining her brains and strewing the ashes over the land, which he declared 
to be for ever tapu. His people were joined by the party from the beach road 
at the junction of the Waituna with the Rangitikei, where the chief was 
presented with three Ngatiapa prisoners, who had been taken during the 
