Bt The Waters Of Rakaunui #4

A greybeard of the kainga[tribe/family] had stories to tell of the great Rauparaha’s days.

He recited the cannibal conqueror’s farewell chant to Kawhia,

when he marched forth southward more than a century ago, after burning his village behind him.

It may have been such a morning as to-day when the migrating tribe halted on Moeatoa Mountain and looked their last on the glistening harbour and stretched forth their hands and wept and sang their song of parting.

“Tera te tai o Kawhia,” it began.

“Yonder are Kawhia’s waters,
alas, we are going away.
We leave Te Motu Pa;
we are going away.
We leave our land;
we shall grieve for it far away.
We leave the flowing waters,
the leaping tide,
the fast-speeding tide.
We are going away,
like seabirds flying,
seeking a home.”

There was a tale of the years before that tribe-flitting of Ngati-Toa when Rauparaha and his warriors engaged in many a battle with invaders from Waikato.

A war-party of Waikato men was attacked and defeated by the Ngati-Toa near Te Maika, at the south head of Kawhia Harbour.

A fugitive warrior took refuge in a rata tree that grew on the edge of a high precipice.

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Far below was a rocky gully.

He thought to escape detection, but some keen-eyed fellow saw him through the branches.

The tree was surrounded by his foes, and he was ordered to descend.

He defied them, though his plight was hopeless, and menaced with his taiaha

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any who attempted to climb up after him.

As the fierce Ngati-Toa stood there, ready to receive the Waikato man on their spears should he attempt to dash through the cordon, they heard him begin a high chant.

He was singing his dying song.

He fare-welled his tribe and friends, he defied his enemies, and he invoked the names of great ancestors, whom he was so soon to join in the Reinga.[Heavens]

Standing there in the out leaning rata tree, the doomed hero sang his waiata poroporoaki, the farewell to light and life.

Silent as death, his enemies listened with admiration to the high song of a man who knew how to die.

His chant ended, the Waikato warrior stepped out firmly along the lowest bough that overhung the cliff.

Then he leapt, and went flying through space, his taiaha still grasped firmly in his outstretched right hand and vanished into the dark gulch below

Info From

The first of the below posts has a list of the previous posts of Maori Myths and Legends

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-war-was-declared-between-tainui-and-arawa

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-curse-of-manaia-part-1

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-curse-of-manaia-part-2

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-hatupatu-and-his-brothers

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/hatupatu-and-his-brothers-part-2

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-the-emigration-of-turi-an-ancestor-of-wanganui