THE EXILE'S LAMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 19 (Supplement)

THE EXILE'S LAMENT.

" Afar the tide of Kawhia laps the shore ; Alas ! we are parted now. Over the well-known hills The clouds are creeping slowly up to me ; To pass over me, and lock me to thee. Land of my childhood, Here, from afar, I greet thee '"

In Mr A. Hamilton's "Maori Art" the translation of one of their most graceful love songs is given, side by side with the original. The musical accompaniment was played on th ■> pakura — a quaint instrument consisting of two sticks, onj being held between the teeth while lightly struck or lapped with the other:

Many of their most subtle and beautiful proverbs are inadmissible as- examples, because a knowledge of their traditions, usages, rites, or beliefs is absolutely necessary in order to understand the allusions on which they are based One or two examples of what we may style the most obvioiis class therefore must constitute our illus 1 rations cf Maori "Proverbial Philosophy" :

"Tc toto o te tangata, he kai ; te 01 align, o te tangaia he whenua."

"The blood of man is frcm food ; the sustenance of man is from land." Signifying : Hoid to your land, c pecially that from which you derive your living.

"In the planting season, merely a relative ; at harvest lime, a so/i" — a sarcastic rendering of the valueless nature of 'cupboard love."

"Chiefs of the titoki year" refers 1 to the ancient custom of anointing the hair and persons of their chiefs with oil from the berries of the titoki (aleciryon cxcelsum). Now a- tlm titoki was observed to fruit plentifully only every fourth year "a chief of the titoki year" was one who, when oil was abundant, might assume the appearance of a great man, without being one.

"Whence was the drifting sea-weed torn ?" was a polite and impersonal proverb used to question the whence of a stranger.