TE AU MAKAATU.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 148, 23 June 1923, Page 17

TE AU MAKAATU.

THE FISH CAIRN. '(WYXFTmi REVELL.) XVhen Tniro. the. philosopher and Inurh-travrlicd Polynesian, agreed to akatu te an makaatu (build a fish cairr) with atioiher European, we will call Okini, and myself, we felt it was a decided compliment. The liilcs suit nil. and it was a sparkling tropic morn when, aftpr our frugal coffee and i i«cuits, Mr throe foregathered on the while eornlsand shore, clad in the scantiest of garments—how delightful i> ihr freedom from clothes. The tide was dead low; there are times when there nre prneiieally no tides at all: the water inside the reef a series of pin spy emernld pools, while here and there the eonil rocks in fantastic shapes prnjeet above them. We evaded out 10 the edge of the coral bank, the island's bulwark against the great Pacific rollers heating ceaselessly upon it into foam. Here at a large pool we set to work. Pairo selected several slabs of coral. Okini and 1 holding one each on e<3ee; he placed a third slab upon the top. another at each end on the slant, and tlie nucleus of our cairn was formed. We then piled up and around large coral rocks, as the cairn grew using them smaller nn>l smaller, until after a ■while the interior win a dark cavern, and the cairn itself about four to five feet high and a? many long. Onr labour completed for the time, we waced back to breakfast again off coffee, :abin bread, tinned butter, and hanana■*. And while the tide made we lazed beneath the palms smoking and yarning of island tilings. And as th> time passed with 1 hal lazy pleasure peculiar to the clime, the day grew brassier and hotter, hour by hour. Finally the tide was full, and the Bext stage of our labour began. Aβ we had not been the last to use the seine it was necessary to bury it; and from now on all smoking was taboo. The net having been buried in the sand for half an hour we scraped it out." loaded it into the canoe, plus a few stakes, pushed off, climbed aboard and paddled away to the cairn. The water was now neck high, and, staking the centre of the seine some distance to the seaward of the cairn, we took the two ends to either side and well to shorewards of the cairn, and staked them, the cairn now being near the apes of a triangle, the base towards the beach open. Paddling the catamaran to shore again, we broke armfuls of boughs from the yellow hybiseus trees growing beneath the palms. Pairo noticing us selecting the most leafy boughs, warned us that there must be no picking and choosing, but to break them haphazard, or bad luck would ensue. Our craft completely hidden beneath our leafy cargo, we set out again. Anchoring the canoe handy, up to our necks in the warm, green tide, we each grabbed an armful of branches, and taking them one by one we groped, with feet where our Beads had been, for a lump of coral to weigh each branch in place up against the outside of the net. To come at intervals gasping to the surface, retrieve another bough floating away with the tide, and repeat the performance, until the sides of the net had become a subterranean avenue of green. This accomplished to the satisfaction of our cicerone, we off to shore again to await low tide. Now we might smoke, and so while our two garments dried on the hot sand we lay beside them in our birthday Etiits, and indulged in the joys of cigarettes and coconut milk. It was well towards sundown when the tide was low enough for us to reap the reward, if any, for our daylong labour. Towing the catamaran behind us we waded out to the sea side of the cairn, made fast the craft, filled our arms with ■lumps of coral, then turned shorewards in line, casting them before us on either side of the net, and beat upon the water with the open hand, making all the noise possible. The open ends of the net were brought together, and Pairo laced them into the form of a pocket, into this we placed several clumps of green stuff, and also at the other end. Pairo and I stepped into the enclosure and began casting away slowly, and with as little disturbance as possible, the rocks of the cairn, while Okini did duty on the net to grab if possible any strays which might try a premature get-away. As the cairn grew smaller our curiosity increased as to the possible catch bidden below. Now and again a fish would flash out, and back again to the false security of the darkness. I was unlucky enough to find a rock on which was a sea centipede and my hand duly paid for it. Pairo sympathetically advised mc that the only cure wae to rub it in a woman's hair. We'd not brought one for the contingency, so the only thing was to cuss and bear it. The bitten lingers were numb for several day 3. At last the critical moment arrives; ■we are down to the last few big rocks. Several fish have flashed from the cavern into the pockets of greenery: a peep through a crevice reveals an indistinct mass of whirling forms. How many? Great is the. excitement. Now is the moment: Acting exactly as Pairo instructs the cairn suddenly falls like a card house. Fish! Fish! Fish! What a medley, a flashing and a splashing. Blue, yellow, red, black, green: all and more colours than the rainbow. Small fry Hash through the masses, a large one or two with marvellous precision discover weak spots, and gain their freedom. A sea snake or two with sinuous speed vanishes immourncd. But in less time than this as told we have gathered the net up so that all the weight of the struggling mass is. in one poiket of the net. I drag the catamaran alongside: a heave, a splash, and the catch' is aboard. A good load! Manini, ttipii-lupu, a few Patuki, others, names forgotten, and one Wg tie, or species of parrot lisli. All arc delighted, but Pairo i> in e-estaey. Shoreward through the water of rose and orango, the netting of a fairy land, lor the sun has dipped below the western ocean, we pull tin- canoe behind us. The women folk of Pairo's and Okini's kaingas are waiting on the shore, a few of the tamaiti, all bathed in the golden ■light. They are humorous at our expense: "What have the fishermen got? -i few sea snakes? Did the papaa (white men) ever catch fish in a cairn? fchow us ont . : -> yy,. reiort: ''Are the Maoris the gods of the sea? Wait!" They look into the canoe, then raise their hands in surprise on beholding the squirming rainbow mass within. We count them out on to the sand. One hundred and twenty, and the poisonous ue. "Mcitaki te anga-anga!" Kgood work). We are proven fishermen. An Aitutakj woman takes the big tie with delight, the has a way of rooking it which renders it harm Us*. Will, well laden kits we all trudge .o (he kainga to await Mc meal the women prepare. A Mior the godsl. ._ t l,i — .