Stack. — Traditional TliRlonj of the South Island Maoris. 73 



Te Kane managed to keep tlie enemy from coming to close quarters by 

 the help of his nephew, who, acting upon his instructions, watched his 

 opportunity whenever they came close enough to seize the man nearest to 

 him, jerk him on board his own canoe, and kill him by cleaving open his 

 skull ; and as his blood spirted out over his comrades, they drew back with 

 horror, and gave Te Kane a slight advantage in the race. This was repeated 

 again and again till they got quite close to the shore, when the fog rose and 

 discovered the combatants to the j)eople of the pa, who were wondering what 

 it could be that was causuig such a din. Manawa and others ran down to 

 the landing place, where they saw Tau hiku, their tohunga, lying bound in 

 the bottom of the Ngatimamoe canoe, which had pursued Te Kane to 

 within a few yards of the beach. The Ngai Tahu were overwhelmed with 

 grief and alarm, and wailed forth their last farewell to the old priest doomed 

 to fill the enemy's oven ; in acknowledgment of their parting cries, he held 

 up two fingers. 



Ngai Tahu were paralyzed by the loss of their wisest tohunga, for there 

 was no one to take his place — no one who could read the omens and tell 

 the propitious time for attack, or forewarn them of approaching danger. 

 The chiefs assembled and continued long in anxious consultation. " Have 

 we no one," they asked, " of the race of Tau hiku who can enlighten us — 

 one with whom he has left his knowledge ?" They called his daughter and 

 questioned her. She advised them to summon Tau hiku's son Pohatu, 

 but they ridiculed the idea ; he had never displayed any talent, and had 

 from boyhood consorted with slaves in preference to persons of his own 

 rank. " Can such a one as Pohatu enlighten and direct us ? His place is 

 in the kitchen beside the cooking fire ; what can the defiled know about 

 sacred things!" Still his sister urged that he might be sent for and 

 questioned ; so at last they took Pohatu, and, having stripped him of his 

 clothes, they took him to the water and cleansed him, and then performed 

 certain incantations over him to consecrate him and make him " tapu." 

 When the ceremonies were completed they asked him what Tau hiku meant 

 by holding up two fingers. " Two years," he replied. " You must wait for 

 that time before you attempt to avenge his death, in order that the grass 

 may hide the oven in which he was cooked." 



During this period of forced inaction, the Ngai Tahu were particularly 

 anxious to know what their enemies were doing, and in this they were 

 greatly assisted by a man named Kiti, who was related to both tribes, and 

 who by common consent acted as spy for both. Kiti alarmed the Ngai Tahu 

 with the reports he brought to them of the formidable preparations being 

 made by Ngatimamoe for the coming struggle. Besides the ordinary 

 weapons, they had prepared spears pointed with the barbed and poisonous 



