338 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XIV. 
intended to proceed to New Plymouth as soon as I 
should have concluded the Company's business at 
Pf^anganui. 
Although a recent feud had broken out between the 
Ngatiraukawa and the TVanganm tribes, and several re- 
taliatory outrages had been committed on either side 
of every sort except actual bloodshed, E Ahu readily 
intrusted his son to my care and protection. 
At Hm'owenua, however, I met with serious op- 
position to the young chief's accompanying me. I 
staid there one night, having to settle with TVatanui 
about the removal of several tons of flax which his 
family and his tribe of slaves at a pa on the lake had 
been collecting. Watanui, although of a younger 
branch of the family than E Ahu, is an older 
man, and has more to say on especial family matters. 
He called TVahine id his mokopuna, or " grandchild," 
although the relationship existing between them is 
much more distant. After breakfast jn the morning, 
the old man said very quietly to me, " The boy shall 
not go with you ; he will be killed." I reminded 
Tf^atanui of his recent alliance with E Kuru ; and 
appealed to him whether that chief had not good faith 
enough to repay his hospitality by taking care of his 
grandchild. He acknowledged this, but feared that 
the boy would be makuti, or injured by sorcery and 
incantations on hostile territory; and this, he said, 
neither I nor E Kuru could prevent. I remonstrated 
with him on the unfitness of these fears in a Christian ; 
but he would not be persuaded. I claimed the per- 
mission given by E Ahu, the father of the boy ; but 
ff^atanui said E Ahu was porangi, " a fool;" and 
persisted in putting his veto on the licence. TVatanui^ 
wife, too, Peropero, or " War-dance," told me that 
Wahine iti was a great chief, and not fit to carry 
