Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/312
The Legend of Gough’s Bay.
Where thy dark surge, Okeruru,[1] rolls to its deafening ending,
Smiting the rolling sand and the base of the cliffs of obsidian—
There stood the fated few, the last of the pride of Ngai Tahu.[2]
News had been brought in the evening that mad Ngatiawas’[3] dread warriors,
Full of revenge and hate, had found the pass through Waimomo,
And waited the coming of eve to sweep them to utter oblivion.
Then spake Paihora, the chieftain, last of Arikis’[4] relations,
Spoke to the trembling forty—all that were left of the Hapu—
“Take our remaining treasures; take our pounamou meres[5];
“Take the tikis,[6] that symbol the Atuas that once were protectors;
“Take the teeth of the shark, the mats of flax and of feathers;
“Take our choicest treasures, the wealth of our tottering hapu;
“Place in the wakas[7] of Hiwi, the wakas that ply the wai Maori.[8]
- ↑ Okeruru is the Maori name of Gough’s Bay
- ↑ The Ngai Tahu were the dominant tribe on the Peninsula
- ↑ The Ngatiawas were Northern Natives, who, under Rauparaha, drove the Ngai Tahu, first to the remote Bays, like Okeruru, and then almost annihilated them.
- ↑ The Ariki was the supreme chief.
- ↑ Greenstone clubs.
- ↑ Amulets, supposed to give peculiar luck to the wearer.
- ↑ Canoes.
- ↑ Fresh water.