Page:Adventures of Kimble Bent.djvu/181

Rh were the garments of war; she had karakia'd over them and charmed them so that the bullets of the enemy should not touch them, and so that we, their wearers, might conquer in the fight. And very proud and confident tamariki tapu we were now, parading the pa in our bullet-proof korowai, and dancing our weapons in the air as we leaped with our elders in the haka and roared out the great chorus of the war-song beginning, Kia kutia—au—au! and that other one which our fathers had chanted when first they set up the Maori Land League, E kore Taranaki e makere atu! ('Taranaki will not be cast away from us!')

"One of the songs which we chanted as we wildly danced was this:

The 'singing of the birds' was a figure of speech for the voices of the soldiers on the march.

"That maro-taua was all the clothing I wore in the fight. Round my brows I bound a handkerchief, which held in place my tiparé rangatira, my chief-like war-feathers. My weapons were a double-barrelled gun (tupara), and a short-handled toma-