THE LOVE OF PETI

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume VIII, Issue 2, 1 May 1903, Page 109

THE LOVE OF PETI

By JOHANNES C. ANDERSEN.

lPij| ETI was a little woman, II pi judged by the native standI pjft ard, but with vitality for IJLu, one with twice her stature, and vivacity for two. hi

her passionate nature there ran a strong undercurrent of jealousy, which her husband Tamaiti discovered, and attempted toi stem it more than once, not unpleased with his want of success.

Her eyes were thei full lustrous brown eyes oif the Maori girl, lighted in her vivacity like a mount din lake when the evening sun is about the shoulders of its confining peaks and ridges ; but when her love was crossed, even in jest, her whole nature was concentrated to light-ning-like looks, words and gestures, and her eyes were sinister as hot lakes reflecting the fierce flashes of intermittent volcanoes.

It was this jealous tendency that one evening 1 induced the contemplative mood in Tama as he sat before his whare. Quietly smoking, he sat gazing, steadily on the bushclad mountains before him, as thoy faded from green to purple, and from purple to the sombre tints of night.

As a warrior, Tamaiti had been but indifferent : not sufficient, intrepidity to secure him the name of toa — a hero, and not sufficient backwardness to cause Ms being dubbed hume — a coward. He was too prone to debate on probabilities — no characteristic of a. warrior man.

Thus even now he was debating ; but with a bias.

His caution had not advanced him greatly in his native sphere ; but it had brought him wealth from the pakeha ; enough to justify him in considering the question of procuring for Peti a " helper/

*' Peti I" he called at last. " Tama/' and she came from within, her flax mat flung over her shoulder like a bandolier, leaving her left breast and shoulder bare. He puffed lazily, but his thoughts were not idle. He was still revolving ways and means. " It has seemed to me, Peti, (puff) that our whare, (puff) which grows with my wealth, (puff) calls for much of thy time." In surprise, her brows arched towards the glossy hair billowed over her forehead. "It is nothing," said she. '" I could wish another kaitaka ; (puff) finely woven and ample ; (puff) mine is now but ngetangeta ; (puff) rags." " It was finished but a moon ago; it is yet good, and becoming withal." Was it vanity, thought she, and why ? " Ngetangeta ;" he insisted ; " Humu's is magnificent ; (puff) but thy time is little ; (puff) wherefore Peti,"— and he paused. " Anana ?" she queried, " well ?" " Thou knowest Waimarie ?" " Ac," with a quick glance, and a momentary gleam in her full eyes. " A daughter of Ata, deity of morning ;" said Tama, dreamily. "Of Punga, god of all things ugly '," interrupted Peti, though scarcely above her breath. " Nay ; nay ;" remonstrated Tama ; " for she is to be thy helper." " And thy helpmate ?" asked Peti, sharply and bitterly. " There is enough for two — " " Then why three ?" again interrupted Peti. " Helpmates :" Tama finished placidly ; for the volcano was but threatening, and in the darkness the lakes reflected nothing, as yet.

" Have I given thee cause for complaint ? or have I myself complained ? hast thou even once been able to call me To kaha kei te kaki — strong to eat, weak to work ? — have not I loved thee well ? — then why is thy heart turned aside ?" " She is but a little one." " Ac, — the sweeter therefore to cherish ; but/ with, venom, " needs must thy love for her be deep that in it she may lose the fear of my hate."

The volcano was lurid, and Tama winced at first touch of the lava. Yet to-night he cared not to see the reflections ; rather the thought of them troubled him. Therefore he arose, saying, " Enough, kaka (chatterbox) ; I have said it ;" and stalked away.

Peti followed him with her eyes till he disappeared in the increasing darkness ; then, moaning " Aue, aue, alas/ she turned back into the whare.

Tama soon returned ; for no native loves to roam in the Hark. Peti was kind and caressing as ever. Tama smiled, but doubtfully ; for he knew. * * * * Afternoon was wearing towards evening, when two women, one twenty, one perhaps eighteen, i-txt in the mahau, or verandah, of Tama's whare. The elder, Peti, was pounding fern-root. " Lo, I thought to have made me an enemy," said Waimarie, " but find a friend." " Wait till thy friends have come and have left thee," Raid Peti, smiling, " then may'st thou be in need at least of one.'"' This she said, for the relatives of Waimarie would soon appear, and in a party seek to carry her to her hapu again, Tama in duty resisting. This was the custom, and this Waimarie dreaded. But Tama sat close by, his eyes glistening : he awaited their coming ; and the greater their number, the greater his honor. " Hearest thou aught, Peti ?" at length he asked. "As yet, nothing ; but the ours are barking as at the coming of many." Quietly he sat, but alert with expectation. In the manuka scrub close by were hidden friends, ready to answer his call for aid, if need were. Peti and Waimarie prattled together ; Waimarie as a child, and afraid, Peti as a child in words only, and unafraid. " Hearest thou aught, Peti ?" again Tama enquired, his head bent forward, and eyes on the ground, but all his muscles a-quiver. " A tramp of many feet, Tama," said she ; and Waimarie was still : " yea, a score of braves," she continued, as she peered round to right of the whare ; " great and mighty men of war. I go/ she said, rising, " farewell awhile, Waimarie, and remember thy friend." So saying, she placed her pounded

fern-root in a corner, and slowlysauntered to the thicket ol manuka, joining the men there lying hidden. Waimarie commenced to whimper, and wring her hands. A score ; mighty men of war, with hearts untamed and hands untender : perhaps they would remember their little rata-bloom and be merciful. " It is well," thought Tama, and arose. " Get thee within, Waima/' said he, softly touching her on the shoulder. His mere hung at his waist, but no weapon was in his hand, for there was to be no bloodshed — if possible. He stood before his whare and turned toward the visitors; and seeing them near, he cried, " Haere mai ! Haere mai ! Welcome ! whom seek ye V " Is it Tamaiti ?" " Know ye not his arm V " He hath stolen a woman." " And what he stealeth he keepeth." "If he prove he can hold.' Therewith six of their number rushed on him to force a way into his whare, where Waimarie cowered on her couch of fern, her face hidden in her arms. But Tamaiti stood firm, and ere long the front was torn apart, and Waimarie seized on. Then Tamaiti cried to his fellows, and they broke from their covert and also seized on Waimarie, part of them standing by to close with those of the party not now in the struggle. The maid was dragged this way and that, helpless, naked, and crying for pity.

At even, as the korimakos, or bell birds, were uttering their incessant calls of te te te te te te, Tamaiti lay amid the ruins of his whare, panting, but exultant ; Waimarie lay beside him, catching her breath and moaning. Her friends had departed, and Tamaiti had won his wife. Presently Peti returned, equable and smiling. She touched Waimarie here and there, each time causing her to shrink and moan with pain. " Sore need hast thou of a friend.

Waimarie/' said she ; never was so lusty a wooing \" and she laughed softly, beating her hands together.

" Alas, Alas/ moaned Waimarie

Peti was kind to Waimarie, as the injured girl lay on her bed of fern in the rebuilt whare. Tamaiti saw, and quoth, he, "It is good for the woman that I have taken this other to wife/ And he, went forth, leaving the two together.

For five nights Waiinarie slowly, very slowly, bettered of her hurts ; but on the sixth, she was seized with convulsions ; and, the fits continuing with delirium through the night, she died ere morning. As her last throe passed, Peri, who held her head on her arm as she knelt beside her, turned to Tamaiti and said softly, " Again we are two, 0 Tamaiti."

But Tama sat moodily silent : again he was debating.

She let the head fall on the rustling, fern, and glided to his side, sliding her arm round him as he sat, and looking up sideways from his breast, she repeated, more .^oftiy> " Again we are two, 0 Tama. '' The flickering fire made demoniac glows in her eyes ; and he shuddered as he gloomily assented. " At even, Peti, I saw . tutu berries ; and now, convulsions." " As for the berries, Tama, surely they were, hinau," she answered,

smiling ; " for I myself gave her. of them." He looked at the dead girl, quiet and stricken ; then he looked at Peti, quiet and potential ; and he sighed. " How I love thee, soul of my life," said she. " Nor hate her, .... now ?" said he. Tutu berries, unless prepared in a certain way, are poisonous. Hinau berries, which resemble them except in size, are used as food.