| Translation. | ||
| Ki nga kupu. Whakapuru tonu, Whakapuru tonu Te tai ki Harihari, Ka tangi tere Te tai ki Mokau. Ka ao atu te ra, Ka ao mai te ra Ki tua o nga pae ra. E—e! I—a—we! |
The surf rolls in On Harihari's cliffs, And loudly sounds the restless sea On Mokau's coast. Now yonder, lo! the sun— The sun leaps up Above the mountain-tops. |
Late one night, as the Hauhaus lay behind their palisades, Colonel Thomas McDonnell—a man who spoke Maori like a native—rode boldly up to the pa wall with his escort, and asked for Titokowaru. He called out in the native tongue, "O Titoko—where are you? "
Titoko, summoned from his tent, went down to the stockade. "I am here!" he shouted.
The white officer cried: "Titoko, I have been trying to discover your atua, the god which guides you in your battles. Now I have found it—I know the source of your mana. When the wind blows hard from the whakarua (the north-east), I know it is the breath of your god, the wind of Uenuku! But your atua is only a tutua—a low fellow! "
Spoke Titoko angrily, and said: "McDonnell, go! Depart at once! If you do not ride away directly, there will be a blazing oven ready for you!"
McDonnell rode away, and the angry chief returned to his tent. Why McDonnell should have paid this daring night visit to the stockade is not
