THE LOVE CHARM OF PARATENE by ALAN ARMSTRONG The whole pa was waiting expectantly for the annual meeting of courtship. There were several ways in which a marriage was arranged amongst the Maoris. The choice of husband or wife by parents and family was very common particularly amongst the high born. Although this arbitrary method sometimes caused unhappiness the arrangement was nearly always accepted by the children concerned. However the people were still gossiping busily and shaking their heads over Ratimira and Taneroroa. Taneroroa was a girl of high rank and her parents had strongly objected to Ratimira a commoner pressing his suit. So the couple had eloped and set up house together in a lonely spot in the mountains for many months until the hubbub had died down. Only recently, through the help of friendly messengers, they had arranged for their safe return to the tribe as married people. However, before they had had time to settle down again in the pa they had, as was customary, been visited by a plundering party. Though ostensibly the visit was a surprise, Ratimira and Taneroroa had eagerly prepared for the event for they regarded it as a mark of prestige. People of no account would never be plundered. Their friends had arrived, performed a fierce war dance in front of their whare punctuated with licentious songs deemed appropriate to the occasion and then there had been a great feast. Finally after seizing everything on which they could lay their hands, the plunderers had left laden with spoils whilst the destitute couple settled down to married bliss and to build up their material resources afresh. Another method of forming a marriage was by the free consent of the two young people concerned. Most unions of this type were contracted during the long evenings in the House of Amusement where the younger set met for sport and games when the day's work was over. The most common way of arranging a marriage amongst the River People however was the annual or parliamentary form of courtship where the whole tribe gathered in the Whare Matoro or House of Amusement and the young people stood up one by one and named the mate of their choice whereupon the person indicated was expected to publicly accept or reject the proposal. The young people of marriagable age amongst the River people were eagerly awaiting the event and giving a great deal of their time to the sorting out of prospective mates and trying in some way to discreetly make their feelings known to he or she in whom they were interested. Paratene had long wished to have the fair Hinauri as his wife and he was determined to ask for her hand at the coming meeting of courtship. He was not sure what success he would have for he had recently decided to test her feelings and one evening whilst she was sitting on the marae watching the young men wrestling he had approached her and dropped at her side a love token in the form of a loose slip knot of flax. To his dismay the haughty Hinauri had unfastened the noose and left it lying on the ground and walked away, a clear enough indication that she did not return Paratene's feelings of affection. “Why do you not want Paratene as your husband” Hinauri's sister had said to her later. “He is very handsome and his father is one of the bravest warriors of our tribe.” “Yes he is handsome,” replied Hinauri, “but he is also very conceited and more