HAKA ON GALLIPOLI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16035, 29 September 1915, Page 9

HAKA ON GALLIPOLI.

ARRIVAL OF MAORIS.

SERENADE FOR TURKS.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

London, August IS. A New Zealand officer describes in The Times the arrival at Gaba Tepe of the Maori contingent, who had been for some time in Malta.

" In the afternoon the Maoris started to dig themselves in, and they made their bivouacs in an old watercourse on the left flank Near the beach two swarthy young privates, working with a will, dug into a Turkish grave— grim reminder of the first days of the attack. It was their initial experience of the realities of war, and they went hurriedly and dug ekewhere. Then the pakeha general came along and addressed them, and afterwards occuried a scene that has no counterpart in the weird and varied annals of the Dardanelles. The Maoris, privates and officers, lined up. With protruding tongues and a rhythmical slapping of hands on thighs and chests, with a deep concerted 'a-a-ah' ending abruptly, they began the Maori haka. As the dancers became more animated the beat of their feet echoed through the gullies of Gallipoli. A hundred oards away in the Turkish trenches perplexed Moslems listened to this bloodcurdling serenade, and one of them in explanation produced his copy of the Tanin. Ominous nods and head-shakings followed its readings. 'For the first time in history the 'Straits have had to endure attack by cannibals.' And the leader of the haka, a full-blooded Maori, wrote M.A., LL.D. after his name, and spoko better English than many a white man."