EAST COAST LAMENTS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1794, 27 June 1906, Page 3

EAST COAST LAMENTS

TANGISONGS AT THE FONERAL

At tho tangi in connection with the funeral of tho lato Premier, tho veteran Wi Pore, ex-M.H.R. for tho Eastern Maori electorate, had a prominent place in tho ordor of " Whaikoreo.” “ Farewell,” he oriod, “ farewell, 0 friend of mino ! Depart to tho groat night, To Po, that opens wido for you.” When ho began his tribal funeral ohant, " Haoro ra e Koto,” ho was j fined by his people of To Aitanga a-unhnki, ToßoDgowhakata, and Ngatiporou in tho stentorian song ; Farewell, 0 Friend 1 Depart to thine anoeatral ooinpany, Thou’rt plucked from us as tho flax shoot is pluokod from tho bush and held aloft arnoDg tho mourners. Tbou that were our boast, our pride, whose name has soared high. Thy people now aro lone and desolate, lodeod, thou’rt gone, 0 friend ! Thou’rt vanished like our oooan Host of old. The famed canoe Atamire, HotutaihlraDgi, Taiopuapua, Te Rjrctuamaheu’a, To Araiteuru, and Nukutaimemeha, Tho canoe that drew up from tho sea this solid land, ,

Tho allusion in this poom to the ‘‘shoot of the flaxbush ” (To Rite Harakeke) requires a little explanation. It refers to one of tho old-time methods of Divination practised by tho tohungas prior to a war party setting out on the onemy’s trail. Tho omen reader would pluck up the 11 irte ”or middle shoot of a flax plant. If the end broke off evenly and straight it

was a good sign, pcrsaging «n easy victory If it was jagged and gapped or torn, that was a “ Tohu kino," or evil omen, a warning that a leading chief of the war party would bo Blain.

Tho anoiont oaooes enumerated were sorno of those wbioh brought the ancestors of the E rst Coast tribes to this country frem the islands of Polynesia. The Aralteuru is the sailing canoo which was wrecked on the beach near Moeraki. South Canterbury, six centuries ago. Nukntiamemeha is one of tho mythological names of the osnoe from whiob ia tho days of remote antiquity the great rnaui “ fished up ” this Norih Island of New Zealand. A moment’s breathing spaoo, and Wi began again, and all his peoplo ohanted with him thoir lament, beginning : Marumaru Rawa mai Te whske Ki Poneke :

Affiiotion’s deepest glcom enfolds this house, For in it Seddon lies, Whoso death eats out our hearts, Twas he to whom we closest clung—

In days gone by,

O whispering north-west breeze,

Flow far for me. Waft me to Poneke, and take me (o the

friend I loved In days gone by. 0 people aud all tribes, Raise the loud ory of grief,

For the ships of Fate have passed Po t Jackson’s distant cepe, And on the all-destroying sea our great one died.