"War to the Knife;" or, Tangata Maori by Rolf Boldrewood (100 best novels of all time TXT) 📕

A few hours of soundest sleep sufficed for the guest's present needs. Looking through his casement, he beheld the sun just clearing the tops of the pines ere he summoned this secluded world to its occupations. Early as was the hour, Mannering was already dressed, and strolling through the garden with his matutinal pipe. The kainga was alive and busy; women hurrying to and fro, preparing the food for the day; children clustering around in expectation; the young people bathing in the river or launching their canoes. The hovering flock of sea-birds showed where a shoal of kakahai, at which they dashed from time to time, ruffled the surface of the water or leaped above it. All nature was responding to the day-god's summons, as a warmer glow suffused the sky and tipped the crown of the frowning dark-hued pah with gold. Massinger betook himself to the jetty at the foot of the garden, and, plunging into the clear cool depths, felt refreshed and strengthened for whatever the coming day might provide, returning after a lengthened swim just in time to dress for breakfast.

"I thought that you and my father would never leave off talking last night," said Erena, as she came [Pg 214] into the hall, looking as fresh as the morn, which she not inappropriately typified. "You did not disturb me, for I slept soundly for hours, and when I awoke, thinking it was near morning, I heard your voices, or rather my father's."

"I am not certain that I should have gone to bed at all if he had not suggested it," said Massinger. "I never had such a glorious night."

"I am glad to hear you say so. It is such a treat to him to have a visit from any one who knows about books and the world, that he cannot find it in his heart to leave off. When Mr. Waterton pays us a visit, they talk all day and all night nearly."

"What is that you're saying?" called out the man referred to from the garden. "Who is taking away my character? I have no better answer than a paraphrase of Charles Lamb's: 'If I go to bed late, I always get up early.' There will be plenty of time to sleep when there is nothing better to do; that is, if Te Rangitake and his Waikato friends will let us enjoy ourselves in our own way, which I begin to doubt. In the mean time, let us take short views of life. So you two young people are going to look at the pah?"

"With your permission. I should like to examine it well. The knowledge may come in useful by-and-by. Who knows? When was the last attack made upon it?"

"Twice in Heke's war, more than twenty years ago. I was younger then, and had the honour of being one of the defence force. We beat off the besiegers with loss."

"I suppose firearms were used?"

[Pg 215]

"Certainly. Every tribe was well provided at that time. They bought them dearly, too, as the chiefs compelled them to work so fearfully hard at the flax-dressing—Phormium tenax being the purchase-money for muskets—that many died of the unhealthy conditions, marshy levels, and crowded whares in which they lived. However, there was nothing else for it. The tribe which first became armed proceeded at once to crush its nearest neighbour or enemy, as the case might be."

"So it was a case of life and death?"

"Nothing short of it," said Mannering. "The first use which Hongi Ika made of his civilizing visit to England, where he 'stood before kings,' was to grasp the immense significance of the gunpowder invention, and make bad resolutions, to be carried out when he should return to his own country. With characteristic Maori reticence, he kept his own counsel when staying with the worthy pioneer missionary, Marsden, at his house in Parramatta, where Admiral King often met him, and was much struck with his dignified and aristocratic carriage. By the way, it was the admiral's father, Governor King, who took the trouble to return to their own country two deported Maoris from Norfolk Island, where they were languishing in exile, having been carried there with some idea of teaching the art of flax-dressing. This, of course, they could not do."

"Why? Did they not know?"

"Of course not. They were chiefs, and as such incapable of menial labour."

The weather being favourable to the expedition to the pah, Roland Massinger and his fair guide set [Pg 216] out with that sanguine expectation of pleasure which the exploration of the unknown in congenial company excites in early youth. The path lay across the cultivated plots of the tribe, where he noticed the neatness and freedom from weeds which everywhere prevailed. The plantations were chiefly on an alluvial flat, through which a creek ran its winding course. It had been swollen by recent rains, so, encountering a small party of women and children carrying baskets, Erena inquired in the vernacular as to the best place to cross. A pleasant-looking woman asked, apparently, who the pakeha was, and after receiving Erena's reply, in which Massinger detected the word "rangatira," laughed as she made a jesting reply, and volunteered to guide them. This she did by leading the way to the side of a boundary fence; from this she extemporized a bridge, which, though narrow, answered the purpose. The pakeha gave a shilling to a bright-eyed elf running beside her, the sudden lighting up of whose face told that the value of coin of the realm was not unknown even in this Arcadian spot.

"What did the woman say?" he asked, as they went on their way towards the steep ascent.

The girl's eyes sparkled with merriment, as she replied—

"She wished to know who you were, and when I said a pakeha rangatira, her reply was, 'Oh, quite true; he looks like one.' They are keen observers, you see, and very conservative. It would astonish you to see how quickly they find out the different rank and standing of the white people they meet."

"They have no modern craze for equality or socialistic rule?"

[Pg 217]

"None whatever. A chief is born to his exalted rank, which is undisputed. At the same time, he must keep up to a certain standard in war or peace, otherwise his mana, his general reputation and influence, would suffer."

"And a slave?" inquired he.

"Oh, a slave is forced to work at the pleasure of his owner, and may be killed for any reason or none at all. So also the common people of the tribe must obey the chiefs, more particularly in war, though, like those of other nations, they can make their voices heard at critical times."

"And the women?" queried Massinger.

"Oh, the women!" said Erena, while a graver expression overspread her face. "I am afraid that they have to work hard, and are not so much considered as they might be. They do most of the cultivation, mat-making, cooking, and general household duties, particularly when grown old. The younger ones have a better time of it."

"So they have everywhere. It is the prerogative of the sex. It only shows that human nature is much the same everywhere, and that all societies differ less in the essentials of life than is generally supposed."

Having skirted the river-shore, a part of which was of the nature of quicksand, and so needed a guide to the manner born, they began to ascend the slope of the volcanic hill, which, as throughout the North Island, had been selected for the tribal castrum. After a lengthened climb, which would have tested the powers of less practised pedestrians, they stood upon the wind-swept summit, artificially levelled, and [Pg 218] through the heavy sliding gates entered the ancient fortress. Before doing so they had to cross trenches, to scale embankments, and had time to note the various strategic preparations which, though crumbling or partially dismantled, exhibited the skill with which they had been constructed. The water-supply, as in most of the "castles" of the period, was the weak point, the besieged having to steal out in the night at the peril of their lives to procure the indispensable element.

"What a glorious view!" exclaimed he, as, side by side, they looked on the wide expanse of land and sea which lay beneath and around them—the broad estuary, the broken and fantastic outlines of the mountain range beyond the river-bank.

The surf was breaking on the bar between the heads of the Hokianga, while southward lay the valley, studded with the whares of the kainga and the garden-like plots of the kumera fields. Almost unchanged was the scene since the rude warrior, standing on stages behind these palisades, launched his spear at the foe, or, wounded in the assault, looked his last upon mountain and valley, sea and shore, but died shouting defiance.

"What a strange thing is this life of ours!" said Massinger, musingly. "It is less than a year since I was living contentedly in an English county, on an estate which my forefathers had held for centuries. I had then no more idea of quitting England than I have of setting out for the planet Mars."

"And do you not regret the leaving such a paradise as England is said to be, when one is born to wealth and honour?"

"I cannot say that I do. So far from it, that I [Pg 219] consider I have made a distinct advance in knowledge and development. My life then was narrow and monotonous, leading to nothing save contentment with