GENEALOGY OF TAMAHAE, HIS FRIENDS AND HIS ENEMIES weapon. Fearing that this man's prowess might dismay that wing of his own force which was sustaining his attack, Tamahae forced his way through the melee in order to match himself with the giant. As they matched weapons Tamahae realized he had met a master of the weapon and no doubt he “felt that stern joy which warriors feel in foemen worthy of their steel”. If he did, however it was not in Maori tradition to show it, for his was a punitive expedition and on such occasions the victory was not complete with the mere taking of an enemy's life, but only with the destruction of his mana as well. So when, after a keen bout, Tamahae succeeded in disarming his enemy he laid aside his taiaha and drew his greenstone mere to administer the death-blow. “What a pity,” he said in an insulting tone, “that I must sully so noble a weapon with the blood of a low born slave.” The fallen warrior drew himself up, proudly though with difficulty, on his elbow. “Who says that Kuri Teko is of low degree?” he demanded. “I am of the same blood as you. In all the many generations of my whakapapa there is not one ancestor who was not bred on the chevroned mat of chieftainship.” “Ah!” said Tamahae. “So you are the famed Kuri Teko. Well, if it is any satisfaction to you, I will concede that you are a passable performer on the taiaha. Under other circumstances I might have spared you, but I took a great oath on Mount Maramaramaterangi that I would spare none of my enemies.” Whereupon he slew Kuri Teko. The loss of their chieftain disheartened the Ngai Tawhiri and they fled. Among those who lived to fly was a great chief of Ngati Rakaipaakka named Te Huke, the same Te Huke of whom it was later said that his relationship to so many chiefs of exalted rank was as the posts upholding the net of mana over the East Coast.

DEATH OF TE HUKE Te Huke was overtaken and slain at the crossing of the Te Arai river at a point near to where the Manutuke Bridge now spans the main highway between Gisborne and Wairoa. Te Huke's head they cut off, and left it on a pole at te Karaka. The spot is still known as te upoko o te Huke, and is just north of Te Karaka, on the Otoko road, at a spot where rail and road converge. They took with them back to Te Kaha te Huke's famous greenstone toko-pou-tangata which bore the name of Te Waiwharangi. It was deposited in a secret cave, and for all I have been able to learn to the contrary it may be there still. So great a warrior was Te Huke and so high stood he in the aristocracy of Ngati Kahungunu that