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Chapter VII. Evil Omens.

The sun was in the zenith when five war-canoes, each carrying fifty warriors, left Kapiti and steered straight for Wairauki. As the fleet approached the latter place, the songs of the rowers were heard commingling with splashing of the paddles, and producing a pleasing rhythmical, throbbing music. A cheery cry of welcome rose from the beach, whither the inmates of the pah had hastened when the fleet was descried in the offing: quickly the canoes shot up on the silvered sand, and the islanders, who were a near branch of the Mauopoko family, landed in the order of rank, their young chief, Te page 39Koturu, taking the precedence in the disembarkation. The youthful warrior was the only son of Te Kanohi, whose sub-section of the Mauopoko tribe lived on Kapiti island. Te Koturu was the intended husband of Ena: in their infancy they had been affianced by their parents, and as they passed from childhood to adolescence their attachments ripened into love.

On the occasion of this visit, Te Koturu wore the insignia of his rank; a handsome, bordered white flax mat hung gracefully from his shoulders, a kilt of the feathers of the wild pigeon and green parrot hung from his waist to the knees: a taiha, or spear, held in his hand, gave the chief a superiority over his followers, who were habited in mats with yellow and black tassels, that rattled as the wearer walked. The inhabitants of the hill-foot welcomed their friends with noisy demonstrations of joy, and the women hastened to garland their heads in honour of their guests.

Seated on a green spot beneath the shadow of the sentinel's stage, Te Rangitukaroa awaited the arrival of his friends. On Te Koturu's approach, the old man immediately rose and warmly embraced him; expressions of welcome and greetings were exchanged, the absent inquired for, and the motive of the present visit explained: the latter as follows:—Te Kanohi of page 40Kapiti was ill, and supposed to be on his deathbed: the chief believing that his end was near, had dispatched his son to acquaint his friends and allies with the message of his approaching dissolution, also with the intelligence of a meditated attack upon the hill-fort by the Ngatiraukawa, which latter fact he had learned from a runaway slave. These unwelcome tidings were delivered in the full assemblage of the hapu, as they sat in silence round the erect figure of the narrator. When he concluded, the pahu, or wooden gong, was struck, and this was the signal to a yell of fierce defiance that burst like a thunderbolt from the infuriate assembly: when the uproar subsided, other and kindred passionate outbursts made the welkin ring; then the terrible war-dance was performed by hundreds of warriors, whose motions were regulated and directed by an old crone, displaying a vigour and precision only attained after years of patient practice. As one man, the warriors leaped in the air, stamped, ejaculated, growled, twirled their left and their right arms alternately, and sank exhausted on the ground, that trembled as if moved by an earthquake beneath their feet. This paroxysm of fury having subsided, the islanders were duly honoured, and every attention was given to their wants. Te Kanohi's orders to his page 41son were that he must return ere sundown: in vain did Te Rangitukaroa urge the youth to remain with him for the night, so as to accompany him to the priest's cell.

After faithfully delivering his message, Te Koturu hastened to see Ena, whom he found in the whare with Mary: the meeting of the lovers was interesting, and their mutual tenderness seemed at strange variance with the uncouthness and primitive natures of the people; so at least thought Mary, but she soon discovered that beneath the rough exterior and unsophisticated manners of the natives there lay the germs of true nobility, gentleness, honour, and fidelity, united with and inseparable from fierce passions hammered into steeled impulses that became brighter, harder, and colder as misfortune drove them through the bloody furnace of adversity.

Regarding Mary with intense admiration and sympathy as he listened to Ena's account of her, the young chief advanced and took Mary's proffered hand in his; and as he held it, he gazed with politeness and affection upon her. At the same instant Raukawa entered the whare, his face lit up with a sweet joyousness on seeing. Mary looking composed and happy. Turning toward Te Koturu, his features assumed the warrior's glance: a few words to his friend page 42explained the current of his thoughts; the impending danger from their hostile neighbours, confirmed by late tidings, froze all the better instincts of his heart. To the elevating and purifying influences of love, as to the debasing and corrupting pursuits of pleasure, the young warrior was, as yet, an entire stranger, Hahaki having early instilled into his mind the severest maxims of his own ascetic life and experience.

Revenge was the darling passion of his life: never to forget or forgive an injury, never to injure the weak, and to die, if such were possible, a hundred deaths sooner than exhibit fear or cowardice; these were the ruling principles that guided and guarded his thoughts and his actions. From the moment in which he first saw Mary he knew that a change had crept over his mind: now, when he saw Te Koturu and his sister Ena so happy in each other's society, and surrounded as they all were by so many dangers from their foes, he clearly understood that it was love for each other that alone could confer such happiness, fleeting and precarious as its possession might be, on those so happy beings who could, and who really did, surrender themselves to the undescribable blessedness of a love pure and undivided. Hastily, and half in anger with himself for giving way to the softer page 43emotions, he brushed away a tear: then, as Te Koturu bade the girls farewell, he accompanied his friend down to his canoes on the beach, where already the people were assembled, awaiting the departure of the islanders. The sea was calm: the bright warm sun shone in the sky. The scene was one of grand proportions and wild sublimity: the farewells of the people rang out over the water; the songs of those in the canoes responded with a melancholy harmony that accorded most agreeably with Nature in her softest and gentlest mood.