W. T. L. Travers. — The Life and Times of Te Eaupa/raha. 11 



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 lip 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 j he spared him, but killed the descendants of Tutea- 

 huka. 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 borue 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, ' son, do notj 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, Avhich 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 



