War Dance.

Thames Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 9968, 14 June 1901, Page 3

War Dance.

( The Arawa and Lake t Taupo tribes had a great war dance yesterday. In the excitement of the charge one of the Arawa men was accidentally wounded by the last sharp wooden spear, whiohi penetrated right through the calf of his leg.

Mounted rifle volunteer corps from Tauranga, Te Puke, Opotiki and Whakatane have arrived here, and are camped on the Pukeroa reserve. A large contingent of Urewera Maoris arrived yesterday by way of Galatea, and were welcomed by the* assembled tribes. MAORI CUSTOMS. It will not surprise colonisjta to find that the natives at Rotorua are enacting old ceremonies, and the emulation created by the presence of Btrangers is leading to great enthusiasm, and great vigor on the part, of those engaged in the dances and smgThe visiting tribes having been received according to ancient otusitom by their hosts, the Arawa.' people, they in turn greeted their entertainers with great enthusiasm and display. Man- of the songs of welcome uttered to the Arawas were those to be given before the Duke of Cornwall. The advance of the Arawas is well described by the Auckland Star reporter. He says a brass band led the advance. ."•.,'

A solid bod*y of several hundred Arawa people slowly marched out on to the big marae, from their quarters amongst the hot springs at OKinemutu.

As the people of the soil they had come to formally welcome the assembled tribes to tlie meeting place, the land of ngawhas, puias and sulphur,: and to greet them in the ancient style of Maoridom. ,

They halted at the entrance to the, main avenue of the camp, and here in a, soft drizzling rain they waited' for the greeting of the tribes of "The Fish of Maui."

The visiting tribes, or most of them, turned out in good force to receive their hosts.

In front, facing the oncoming Arawas, were a larere band of women of the various tribes, bearing green boughs in their hafidsi and wearing green foliage entwined round tlieir heads in accordance with old custom.

The women, gaily gressed in the vivid colors so dear to the Maori, and wearing rustling flax waist mate or soft shoulder mats •of feathers <;r

carefully woven flax, lifted up their voices in a loud high pitched chant of welcome.

"Come oh strangers, from beyond the sky; come to your marae, come to see the people!, Approach, oh. ye of the Arawa canoe / welcome, welcome; "Oh. haul up The canoe, To the resting place— The canoe 1 To the sleeping place— Tha, canoe! To the abiding place where shall rest The canoe! Welcome ye, welcome ye ! Pull the canoe to the shore."

This was the "powhiri," the song of welcome, the women and girls waving their green, boughs as they sang, and dancing to and fro rhythmically in a awing semi-waltz. The Arawa halted, and when the "powhiri" songs were ended, the warriors turn came.

All this time two warlike looking bodies, of nearly naked Maorie, each iixty or seventy strong, all in fighting array, were crouching on the "marae" in the rear of the band of shrillychanting wahines. • These were the Whanganui and Ngatikahungunu war parties, who had come out from their tents to receive the Arawa. in the —■-J <*ld fashion, and at the same time rehearse their martial dances for the Duke. Meanwhile the old women of each side, "Manuhiri" and "tangatawhenua" had met, and squatting on the ground opposite each other, with clasped hands, the tearful, nose-rubbings were performed, and the mournful choir lifted up their voices in doleful monotonous wail, the "tangi" for those of the tribes who had died since last they met.

The Araiwae seated themselves in a body at the feet of their tribal flags.

In their midst, carefully and reverentl attended, was a grey old man, with tattooed cheeks and chin, and a straggling beard, a rare and hamdsoine white dogskin mat thrown round his bent shoulders.

This waa the noted Pokiha Taranui, one of the most respected chiefs of the Arawa "Waka."

Opposite the Arawa party sat in a semi-circle the representatives of the assembled visiting tribes.

The feeble old Major was the first to speak. Supporting himself with the aid of his red-plumed taiaha, he spoke his words of poetic greeting and sang his quavering waiate of welcome to

"Come ye, oh chief like friends, I greet ye, oh ye spirits of the> dead, ye mighty chiefs who are no more." Oh, friends, oh, chiefs, who have departed to the all-swallowing night, I greet you 1 Gone are you to the Po, to oblivion, but here I greet living souls. Welcome ye, welcome! Ye bereaved ones, welcome 1 - Come ye to lament before our faces. And although we are all assembled here on this day. Let it not be said that we are gathered here only for Maori matters, ",. for the Kotahitanga (the Union of Tribes).* It ia for the Government, for the Europeans, That we are here. Yes, yes, we are all one nation now, we are one." Other chiefs also spoke, after which Kipai Ite Whatjanui, of Otaki], responded to the Arawa saluatiom. Flourishing a greenstone mere and gesticulating with the vigorous yet graceful motions of the Maori orator, he spoke in poetical language of the spiritis of the dead : "Cry ye forth, cry ye to the ghosts of thie departed. Wail ye, lament and wail, for the multitude who have vanished to the Nights Who will return no more."

The next speaker was Paora Taia, a Whakatohea chief, from Opotiki way, who made an energetic speech, "taki" ing or pacing and leaping up and down in the orthodox style.

He would shout a rapiu sentence of welcome as he "doubled up across the green for five or six yards, concluding with a leap into the air and a heavy stamp on the ground when he lalnded again.

Then he would pace back post haste in silence, to the other end of his beat, and, turning, pour forth another "Karanga mai 1 Karanga mai!" as he ran; another astonishing jump and another thud. Then the agile Paora sang a weird solo of sorrow, which was taken up by his tribesmen behind him.

The Arawas loudly saluted the singers and their chief.

' Among the visitors was noticed Eori Ngakapa te Whanaungai, the last' surviving chief of rank in the Ngatiwhanaunga tribe, of Coromandel and the 'Miranda.

Old Hori, the descendant of Marutuahu, has ai remarkable history.

He was one of the young braves of the Hauraki Gulf who invaded Auckland in their fleet of war canoes in 1851, to obtain "utu" for an affront to one of their chiefs, and who danced their fierce war-dance on the beach at Waipapa (Mechanics' Bay), but who prudently backed, down before the firmness of the Governor (Sir G. Grey) and the'presence of the military and the ominous-looking guns of H.M.s. Fly, and sulkily paddled home again.

In 1863 Hori took up his trusty "tupara" and his stone mere and went on the warpath to help his cousins, the Waikatos, against the all-grasping pakeha.

He ambushed a company, of the 18th Regiment, at Martin's Clearing nep.r Drury, and had a narrow escape from death in the lively bush skirmish which followed.

Later on he was one of the garrison of the Rangiriri pa, but escaped capture by swimming. At Paterangi, too, Hbri and his band of snipers from the shores of the Hauraki helped to garrison the Kingite redoubt; and then when Waikato was overrun by the white soldiers he went home and hung up, his gun and club for good, afterwards doing good §er* vice to thei Government in the opening up of the goldfield,