CoLENSO. — On a better Knoxoledge of the Maori Eace. 77 



love ; it is as if a demon, or a lizard, were within me gnawing. If, indeed, my people, you 

 are not willing to dwell with me, and bear me company in my distress, — you had better 

 separate yourselves to a distance ; for' the love within me is very great ; far, indeed, 

 beyond expression. 



ye light, fleecy clouds, flitting above ; fly on, fly away, and carry tidings, that my 

 beloved one may hear of me in her anxiety. Here, also, am I, in very great perplexity. 

 I must hide my strong affection for the one I love. Alas ! alas ! my very eye-sight is fast 

 faihng me ; when I look at the distant headlands, they quiver and are dim ! 



If the burning sulphur-crater at White Island were near me, — gladly thither would I 

 go ; turning away from all my friends, — never more to return hither ; but for ever remain 

 absent in the dreary cold South. — (MS., ined.) 



(17.) 

 A Love-song, or Lament. By a Wife for her Absent Husband. 

 The eye is strained and wearied with the long looking-out ; 

 Thou art, to me, the peaks of firmly-fixed affection ! 

 If I were but a bird, then I could fly away, 

 Then, indeed, my wings would quickly become extended. 



My own very heart is no longer faithful to me. 

 Hanging, far away, suspended ! I see the fine white clouds 

 Above me, flying hither, over the far-off mountain tops. 

 Beyond which is the husband so dearly loved by me. 



In the house I am being eaten up with anxiety ; 



The husband was unwilling to dwell here with me ! 



But now thou art separated, a long way off from me, 



And my remembrances come crowding in hundreds, 



Causing the flowing tears to trickle down from my eyelids. 



(Grey, loc. cit., p. 62.) 

 Those few examples of striking natural imagery herein brought forward, 

 are both varied and brief. Among them are, — melancholy, warhke, cere- 

 monial, humourous, and love pieces ; some whole, some only in part; — 

 having purposely excepted the long historical, legendary, martial, revenge- 

 ful, and ceremonial ones (as such would require much explanation for a 

 European reader) ; also, all of a licentious character, — of which there are 

 many, as might be supposed, among a j)eople where all and everything was 

 open and naked. Yet, no doubt, in the martial and revengeful pieces, so 

 truly characteristic of the people, the Maori poets more fully rise with the 

 occasion ; there the poet shows himself as absolutely " dowered with the 

 hate of hate, and scorn of scorn !" I might, also, have shown much more 

 of their numerous natural beauties, had I confined myself to a line or two, 

 here and there, containing a single beautiful image or expression, and so 

 have picked them out from a large number of poetical pieces ; and such 

 would also have been easier for me, — but I considered, that in following 

 the plan I had adopted, I have given both longer and more continuous 

 (unbroken) specimens, and done the Maori poets justice, I have mostly 



