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126 A Hauhau charged right into the redoubt, and killed the captain with his long-handled tomahawk. Making a clean cut in his breast, he tore out the heart, a trophy for the terrible ceremony of the mawé offering. Then he darted back as quickly as he had come, yelling a frightful cry of triumph. And another heart was torn from a white man's body even before it had ceased to beat. This was the corpse of Lennon, the keeper of the store and canteen. He had been killed alongside his little hut, just outside the redoubt, when the fight began. He was tomahawked almost to pieces and his heart cut out.

And in the very midst of that battle in the dark the pagan ceremony of the whangai-hau was performed, the oblation to the god of war. The priest of the war-party offered up one of the pakeha hearts—some Maoris say it was Captain Ross's, although Lennon's would really be the heart of the mata-ika, the "first-fish" slain, which was usually the one offered to the gods. The savage tohunga lit a match (he carried pakeha matches for this dreadful purpose), and held the bleeding heart over the flame. Immediately it began to sizzle and smoke, he cried in an exultant voice, "Kei au a Tu!" ("I have Tu!"), meaning that Tu, the supreme god of war, was with him, or on his side. Then he threw down the burnt sacrifice, and, clutching his long-handled tomahawk, rushed into the fight again. The captain's heart