63 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



window, so tliat they might take the tapu off the wood aud stones which 

 they had got ready to cook him and his friends with, as the intention had 

 defiled them. Havmg clambered through the window and embraced his 

 grandson, Tuahiu'ui felt that he was safe ; nevertheless he did not forget 

 the indignity to which he had been subjected by his own relations, and he 

 determined to take the first oi)iDortimity of punishing them for it. When 

 returning to his own home with Kahukura te ^Daku a few weeks afterwards, 

 the people of AVainiea begged Tuahuriri to come back and visit them in the 

 autumn, when food would be plentiful, and they could entertain him more 

 hospitably. But instead of doing so, he waited till he knew that they had 

 planted their fields, and had nothing in then- storehouses, then, taking one 

 hundi-ed men in addition to the seventy who went with him before, he 

 re-crossed the straits. When he landed with all his followers the inhabitants 

 of Waimea welcomed him very warmly, but apologised for the smallness of 

 the quantity of food which they set before him, which, they assured him, was 

 owing, not to inhospitahty, but to the emptiness of then- stores. When 

 every particle of food in the place was consumed Tuahuriri returned home. 

 Shortly after his departure the house he occupied was accidentally burnt 

 down ; the site of it was soon covered with a luxtuiant crop of wild cabbage, 

 which the people of the pa were driven by hunger to gather and eat, and 

 in consequence of their doing so, they all died. For the greens were tapu, 

 because grown on the site of a house once occupied by Kahukura te paku 

 and his grandson. The colic produced by famished people gorging on 

 greens proved fatal because the pain was attributed to the agency of the 

 offended atuas of their chiefs. This incident throws Ught upon the frequent 

 occurrence in past years of fatal effects arising from breaches of tapu. 



The taking of Te mata ki kai poika is the next event of importance in 

 the history of Ngai Tahu. 



Tuahurhi had from some cause incurred the ill-will of a powerful 

 member of his own tribe, the veteran warrior Hika oro roa, who assembled 

 his relations and dependents and led them to the attack of Tuahuriri' s pa, 

 situated somewhere on the east coast. They reached the place at dawn of 

 day, and as the leader was preparing to take the foremost place in the 

 assault, a youth named Turuki, eager to distinguish himself, rushed past 

 Hika oro roa, who uttered an exclamation of surprise and indignation, 

 asking, in sneering tones, " Why a nameless warrior should dare to try and 

 snatch the credit of a victory he had done nothing to win?" Turuki, 

 burning with shame at the taunt, rushed back to the rear and addressed 

 himself to Tutekawa, who was the head of his family, and besought him to 

 withdraw his contingent and to attack the pa himself from the other side, 

 and for ever prevent such a reproach from being uttered again. Tutekawa, 



