W. T. L. Travers.—The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha. 77 
that the battles in which the Kaiapoi natives were defeated were not 
followed up by occupation on the part of the victors. According to our view 
the killing of the Kaiapoi natives was caused by the Rangitane, who said 
that Te Rauparaha was to be killed with a stick used for beating fern-root. 
He then attacked the Rangitane, and defeated them. When Rerewhaka heard 
that his relatives had been slain, he said that he would rip Te Rauparaha’s 
belly up with the tooth of a barracoota; it was through that that this evil 
visited this place. Rerewhaka was living amongst the people of Kaiapoi 
when he said that. Te Rauparaha should have killed that man, for he was ~ 
the cause of the crime; he spared him, but killed the descendants of Tutea- 
huka. O friends, the men of Kaiapoi were in deep distress on account of 
the killing of their relatives at Kaikoura and at Omihi. Now these two pas 
were destroyed by Te Rauparaha ; then Ngatituteahuka and Ngatihikawai- 
kura, the people of Kaiapoi, bewailed their defeat. Te Rauparaha should 
have borne in mind that the flesh of our relatives was still sticking to his 
teeth, and he should have gone away and left it to us to seek payment for our 
dead after him, but he did not, he came to Kaiapoi. When he came the 
old chiefs of Kaiapoi wished to make peace, and sent Tamaiharanui to Te 
Rauparaha. On their meeting they made peace, and the talk of Tamaiharanui 
and Te Pehi was good. ‘After Tamaiharanui had started to come back Te 
Rauparaha went to another pa of ours, called Tuahiwi, and there sought for 
the grandmother of Tamaiharanui. They dug her body up and ate it, all 
decomposed as it was. Tamaiharanui was greatly distressed, and threatened 
to kill the war party of Te Rauparaha. Then his elder relatives, the great 
chiefs of Kaiapoi, said to him, ‘O son, do not, lest further evil follow in 
your footsteps.’ He replied, ‘It would not have mattered had I been away 
when this decomposed body was eaten, but, as it is, it has taken place in my 
very presence.’ Well, as the chief gave the word, Te Pehi, a great chief of 
Ngatitoa, and others were killed. Then Te Rauparaha went away.” 
Such is the Ngaitahu account of the origin of the quarrel, which I am 
inclined to accept. It will be thought strange that Te Rauparaha did not, 
without seeking any pretence for the act, attack the pa in force, but to have 
done so would have been a violation of the Maori etiquette in matters relating 
to war. He had taken vengeance for the threat of Rerewhaka, and it was 
for the relatives of the latter to strike the next blow, which it appears they 
were unwilling to do, dreading the very results which afterwards followed in 
revenge for the killing of Te Pehi. 
Rauparaha brooded much over this murder of his relative, who, having 
accepted a secondary position in the tribe, no longer excited his jealousy, and 
had greatly assisted him as a wise counsellor and valiant leader. After full 
consultation with the other chiefs of the tribe, he resolved that his revenge 
