MODEL YACHTING IN VICTORIA LAKE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17223, 14 December 1923, Page 2 (Supplement)

MODEL YACHTING IN VICTORIA LAKE.

scheme, Hotu? Not while Potiki breathes the breath of the gods of i hate !” So saving, he flung a spear in | through the doorway, and departed, f Tuku was the first to lift the spear. Examining it closely, she found the peculiar carvings that marked the weapons of Potiki. “He has made a mistake. Hotu. In the darkness he has thrown the wrong spear. This is. his sacred wand. Without it his power is no more. Bury it deep in the bowels of the earth. Then Potiki will be yours.” Together they toiled far into the night, -digging a hole in the mountain side. There they deposited the spear, and then returned to the house. In the meantime Potiki hurried back | to the river bank, seething with fury, I and vowing vengeance on the hapless ! Hotu. j “ Kura.” lie called. “ Light of the Childless Hills! Kura! The beautiful j daughter of Toto! Come to me now. ] You arc mine for ever and ever.” ! But Kura was not there. There reI niained only the palms and leaves and ■ tho empty fishing kits. Puzzled and angry, Potiki lay down jto sleep—having first felt for his | trusted sacred spear, and placing it by i his side, as lie thought, j Early in the morning, before the first j bell-bird had sounded tho loud ve-

1 veillo. Kura returned for her fishing ! baskets- There on the grassy bank she i found Potiki fast asleep. | “Taukiri!” she said. “He is mine. I O Mighty! The gods be thanked. Tuku j too shall die.” ). So saying, she stole up to the sloep- \ ing man and lifted his spear. One decisive stroke sent the sharp point quivering through the heart of her ; father’s eternal foe. Then, tossing her j kits and rug to the edge of the stream, die* fled unclothed thiougli the awaking bush. j The day wore on. Weary with his j heavy work and late night, Hotu did | not rise early. When at last Tuku bade | him get up the sun was high in the heavens. “We must now search for Kura,” said Tuku. “ A jealous woman is no friend to man or bea-st. I forebode me evil, unless her anger be appeased. To the river, Hotu.” From the trees a tui called to his mate, and the answering echo rang in the cars of Tuku and Hotu as they wandered towards the stream. . “ An omen of love,” whispered Tuku. “ There shall he marriage to-day.” “ Who?” queried Hotu. “ Wait for the tui to say.” laughingly answered the woman. As they drew near to the river, a scream escaped the unguarded lips of Tuku. “Potiki.” she cried. “He has i thrown himself on his own spear. Ah! Death has come to the death-river.” For a moment or two they gazed on . the body of-the slain man, and then j turned towards the fishing pool. “I do not like the appearance of the ground here. The leaves are disturbed. | The palms are strew about. 1 here has j been mischief. The kiss of Potiki!. ’ . Saying this, Tuku glanced knowingly at her companion. j On the edge of the stream they dis- . covered Kura's rug and fishing bags. ! ! “I thought so,” exclaimed Tuku. : j “ The kiss of Potiki ! ! Kura floats on . i a hod of palms and leaves down the i sullen stream to the Ocean of Death. 1 J Potiki has caught her as she sat a-fish-I ing. and —died with her in the death j of shame. Hark to the tui, Hotu!!” I According to tho simple customs of their tribes. Tuku' and Hotu were married that night. And in the little wliare on the side ot the Hills of Blue they invoked on their love the nuptial blessings of the gods. While all this was happening, the jealous Kura was hurrying across the river, over the manuka plains, to the village where her father, the great chief Toto. dwelt. “Avenge me! Avenge me!” she wailed. “Death to Tuku, the daughter of Ivupe-rapa.” The old chief heard the cry. "Memories of tribal strife stirred within his breast. “A wife for the avenger of Kura! Tuku the Sly-eyed for tho man who brings her here.” At the call, a score of valiants seized their axes and spears and raced through ! the bonding manuka. Far off to the ' Hills of Blue they travelled. The day ! was far spent when they reached the ■ fifth ravine, and slowly over the hills | the curtain of night was lowered. "With ! panther-like steps, and scarcely daring ; to breathe, the Bravest of All crawled on his hands and feet ro the door of I Hotu’s whare. Satiated v ith love. , Hotu lay fast asleep. In the far cor- : ner, reclining on a mat. Tuku gazed ! suspiciously towards the half opened ' door, the silver moon illuminating her I anxious face. “ Hotu.” she cried. “Awake! * Awake! Toto has come.” ! Tuku had rightly divined the meaning of the cracking, twigs outside. Instinctively she felt that her day had come, and that Kura had escaped to arouse her father's people. Before Hotu could more, however, a well-thrown axo left him stunned where lie was lying. Tuku sought to escape, hut in passing through the doorwav she ran into the- ams of Wl l ak:itail, her former suitor. With ! dolt movement ho raised the now help- | loss woman to his shoulder and carried la r off. 1 There was grmii ica-icmc in ih.* vil-

' lage when the men returned hearing ' in their midst the captive daughter o„ Kupe-rapa. That night she became tho wife of Whakatau. No sooner had the triumphant warriors left tho. wharc of Hotu than a woman stole in through the open door, j With cool water and many kisses, she | bathed the face of the insensible Hotu. • Hotu.” she cried. “Come back! I I love you ! You are mine until the i flax ceases to wave in the evening i breeze, and until the last bell-bird for- ; gets to sing.” “ And longer,” Vie answered, in the first moments of regaining consciousness. “I dreamt you were floating on the bosom of death, wrapped in a shroud of palms and leaves.” “ The wicked Tuku,” muttered Kura. “I love you, Kura, with the love of a tui for his mate,” sighed Hotu. And like most women, Kura believed the story the man had to tell.