MAORI WOMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2258, 10 June 1897, Page 41

MAORI WOMEN.

IV.-RIHA. &i 9 ft 1 * t°*"^ Beaten and weather worn, Lack-lustre eyes forlorn, Under the pent-house shaggy of grey-brown, Peer from their flaccid lids Rheumy and pendulous ; And the tan flesh, Shrunk from the sagging skin. Wrinkled and ribbed, Shows fr~>m within Tho purple veins of lagging flow. The tanxled mat of elf-locks Fall while around the brow Unlike all human, save, I trow, Some ancient sybil of the long ago Returned, vaticinating woe. Was this — hast ever been — A maid, and wife, and mother? Aye, so ; I ween She has been all, Aud bred brave sons, who, at the call Of gtllant sire, Went out iato the fire And din of otrife. Risking their haughty life (Rebels so called) against the might Of th' encroaching white. There were to her sons young and brave \ But warrior sire and sons lie in the grave, And she, their dame, is left Lone, old, bereft ! The pasfis hers alone — The future and the present are as not I But in her heart, her own, Holds she the active past all unforgot \ Aud, as they say In their soft Maori tongue. Her going is not long. Fare tliee well, Riha ! Soon shalt tbou meet Those faces thou wouldst greet In the dim land of shades, When from the utter north Shall glad thy soul leap forth To find again its youth, That fades ' 3?or never, never more. Dunedin, May 1897. —J. Atheley.