Page:Adventures of Kimble Bent.djvu/250

222 active and agile as a wild cat. He ran up and down in front of his slain enemies, turning from one side to the other, pukana-ing—only the whites of his eyes showing—and his tongue protruded in derision and defiance. He flashed his tomahawk in the air; he yelled, "We must have one body—one body to cook in the hangi!"

"Yes," said another ot the clan, "the customs of our fathers must be observed. What is the use of killing so many pakehas if we cannot have one to eat?"

No man making objection, several Hauhaus jumped up and ran to the heap of slain Constabulary men. They selected a body, and dragged it off to the cooking-place at the rear of the marae. "He is the fattest of the pakehas," said the saturnine Timoti.

All eyes watched them, but no man said a word.

Bent, after a while, rose with some of his Hauhau companions, and walked over to the cooking-hangis, and watched the cooks at their horrible work.

They were roasting the white man's body on the great fire of hot stones, in a hollowed-out earthoven. "It was being cooked," says Bent, "much as you would roast a piece of mutton; they turned it over and over until it was thoroughly done, and then they cut it up for the feast."

When the cannibal meal was ready, it was brought on to the marae with much ceremony in flax