"TI HAERE": What They Saw and Told to Hanauru.

Otago Witness, Issue 2285, 16 December 1897, Page 26

"TI HAERE": What They Saw and Told to Hanauru.

B "^ZT JS/L .A. LDO" (§s\@®^

(Specially Written for the Otago Witness Christmas Number of 1897.)

live on the hillside, and have seen strange sights and could tell strange tales, but we do not speak to the sons of men. When Hanauru wanders among us trying to steal our secrets and carry them away to tell to his strong friend Pawhakarua we are not angry, and sometimes we whisper to him of what pleases us. We would not tell of these things to the fierce man Pawhakarua, for he would force us to do so, making us bend to him, and tearing off our blossoms in his anger when we tried to remain erect before him. Many years have we lived upon this hill.' Our children have grown up around us, looking out upon the world with their brown eyes just as we did in our youth, but they have seen little. We have seen war and bloodshed and the great chiefs of old times. We have seen the war dance (" haka ") and heard the wild women urging warriors to battle; but these things are over now and we are at peace. It is when the wars are over that we have time to think, and we have thought and learned much since those far-off days.

Once we told a tale to our friend Hanauru when he came wandering over the hill, and if you will sit close to us he will whisper it word for word in your ear ; for if we spoke you could not understand us, for we are Maori, but he speaks in all ears. Now, I did as the Ti-trees told me, and sat close to them, and

to the Ti-trees, and from him the pakeha learnt much of Maori customs. More than Horo could have told them, though he was descended from a great chief. The pakehas were learned, but Horo, like the young Ti-trees, knew and had seen little. Now, the Ti-trees, who are very old and wise, had noticed a great stir going on in the camp, and wondered what it meant. Everyone seemed unusually busy, as if some one was expected. So the Ti-trees watched and waited.

" By-and-bye the punt came back, but now a wahine (woman) was in it, and the youth laughed and talked with her, while Horo looked on, wondering and smiling, too, with great watchful brown eyes — the same colour as the ej r es' of the young Ti-tree, only larger and rounder — for he could not quite understand what it. all meant. When the punt came to the narrow water and the mudbanks the wahine laughed, and the young men. used the handle of their oars to pole the punt up to the landing. Then we saw (for 1 was among the Ti-trees, although in their curiosity they had forgotten me) the tohunga (head man) of the camp go to meet them. He leant on a stick and seemed unable to walk so fast as he wished. He was quite near the Ti-tree bushes, and I passed close to his face. He lifted his hat, and I could see his eyes bright with love and eagerness. Ah ! yes ; the wahine must be his wife and the mother (though she did not look very old) of the youth. When I came again to the Ti-trees they told me that tJiet/ were now great friends of the tohunga and wahine, for often when the weather

" Next year, when the old Ti-brees were hung with wild clematis, I wandered far away from the hillside and made my way to the city of the pakeha^ I could nob stay long in the crowded streets, but left them for green lanes and hedges. Then 1 saw hillsides again, with but few of my friends the Ti-trees. Fresh grass grew on some, and strange stones were scattered among it, but not such stones as I had seen on the hillsides of the country I had left. I sped softly to one of these where the grass looked freshest, and there, oh, strangest of all, I found old friends ! The wahine and the youth were there, looking as if searching for something they had lost. 1 Then 1 thought of Ti Haere and koukou (the night owl), and my heart was sad within me. 1 passed sot'tly by my friends, but they did not recognise me, although I was unchanged.

"I did not care to stay longer, but quickly reached myi.old friends the ancient Ti-trees. This time I had a tale to tell them

" Years have passed away, but we still love the hillside, and the creek, and the old camping ground. All the old marks are overgrown and the paths entangled that had been so pleasant to the wahine. But we, her old friends, love to remember she was happy here. When the fierce Pawhakarua rushed over the camping ground where the tohunga's tent had stood he disturbed* the