“MIST-OF-THE-RIVER"

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 305, 24 December 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

“MIST-OF-THE-RIVER"

AN IP—STREAM ROMANCE. (By R.W.0.) Lengthening shadows crept across ihe surface of the river, shading the water to black obsidian, as the two youths clambered on to the eminence and sat on a large Hat stone, dropping their rifles as they did so. As the water rippled and gurgled on its way between banks of ferns and trailing willows it seemed to sigh for the days of yore, before the time when noisy steamers fussed their way up and down, and broke the silence that had ruled for centuries. From the road which wound its tortuous way along the heights on the opposite bank came the mutter of a motorlorry and the shriek of a horn as it rounded a corner and was lost to View. As the man-made thing which disturbed the peace disappeared there was left only the throb of its engine, and this faded until there was a silence that seemed deeper than ever. Darkness was approaching, and one of the young men stood, slung his rifle across a shoulder, and turned to go. As he moved off down the hill the other also stood and at the same moment slipped and fell across the rock. Looking down he perceived that his knife had fallen into a dry hole at the side of the rock upon which they had been sitting. Calling on his companion to wait, he stooped and groped about in the cavity until his hand encountered something cold and hard. Withdrawing his hand he found there a greenstone mere, dusty and grimed, but none the less recognisable. Attracted by the elder's cry the other youth returned to the lock, ana scornfully inspected lhe object which was of such great interest to the younger man. “Where did it come from?—why, probably some old Maori was enjoying the view the same as we, and lost it lhe same as you did your knife!” .... but the grimacing i.iki on the mere seemed to leer even more • * * ♦ It is night on the river, and the moon casts her mellow light on the scene as she has done for ages past and will do it for ages to come. All is quiet, a stillness that is made even more apparent by the occasional cry of a morepork and the splash of a leaping fish in the water below. The bush, Khich is normally dark green in the light of the noonday sun, now assumes shades of velvety black, relieved by the white of clematis which has surmounted the heights of the forest giants. The silence is but gradually penetrated by sounds of humans, and two figures can be seen clambering wildly Up the slope to the eminence topped by a flat rock. Their progress is arrested by the growth of ferns and bushes and lawyer vines, but they {scramble ever upwards unmindful of the inpedimenta that would lay detaining hands on them. As the couple draw nearer their features are discernible as those of a Maori youth and a maiden, but they are distorted with fear. Panting, they reach the summit and 4he girl flings herself on the cold surface of the grey rock. “Go! Wait not for me! she tells the man with her. but he resolutely grips his mere and faces the river from which they had but recently climbed. “Ah.” she sighs. “Had but I stayed with my people, and you with yours, my love, this fate which is at hand would ne’er overtaken us.” not.” he comforts her. “Our love, Mist-of-thc-River, is great, so great that even in death we shall not part. J, 100, regret that all must end with our death following, as utu to the wrath of your people, but so it is.” From Ihe river come other sounds, the splash of water, the voices of men —angry men - -and then shadows clamber up through the fern. A cry breaks the air as the couple on the rock above arc sighted, and the men quicken their speed up the hill. Dawn Is at hand, and in the distance the sky Is paling, and the moon is losing her lustre before the oncoming king of the heavens. On the lock the young warrior thrusts the girl behind him and turns to face the oncoming men. The foremost reaches the summit warily surveying the couple. Silently the grim file follow lhei’’ loader and purposefully circle around the rod;. They keep a respectful distance, for the hunted man snarls ’ike a boast at bay. and will tight while there is breath in his young body. The girl, her eyes gleaming strangely, sits on lhe rock with her back to her lover's knees. The end comes suddenly. M ith a swift movement a short throwing spear is launched, and lhe man on ee rock sinks with the snaft quiver'll in his breast. With a moan the drl bends and touches his head, and swiftly turn and lightly runs along the brow of lhe hili. Quick as her purer ers are, the maiden is quicker. S.ic react os the place w here the hill gives wav to a precipice that falls sheer to the papa rocks in lhe river below’, with the hands of lhe men yards lehmo her. Her cry echoes from the dark hills around as she leaps from the cliff. “I come. 1 come!” All is peace again. In lhe bush the lazy twittering nf birds greets the (coming dawn. The river swings on its Way to the ocean, dark and mysterious, untouched by the lingers of light iwhich have caught the tops of the forest giants on the hills, 't he drama gs done, no mortals disturb the peace of this place where nature again feigns supreme. A light breeze stirs the hair of the dead warrior who lies across the flat, cold rock, with hand trailing in the grass at the side. From this grasp has slipped his beloved mere So its place in lh° dark hole beneath the stone. He-Who-Snarcs-Birds u fvith his beloved Mist-of-the-Rivexl