Page:Old Westland (1939).pdf/35

Rh after preparing the same in Maori ovens. The Ngai-Tahu were not slow in returning the compliment, and thus an interchange of visits across the mountains was kept at the cost of much consumption of warriors; and many fights and great devastation ensued. In the long run the Port Cooper natives had the best of it, and the Ngatiwairangi were abolished, the land being occupied by five divisions of the Ngai-Tahu tribe. The original possessors of the Grey district were all wiped out by a war party under the leadership of my father, Tuhuru. I was only a little boy then. There was a great pa at the Ahaura. We attacked it and wasn’t there a slaughter! Those who got away fled to that high mountain you see at the back, but bless you, they were soon hunted down and knocked on the head! My father was something like a man. If we had been able to draw likenesses as you are, there would have been something for the Pakeha to look at. He was square built and at least eight feet high. Talk of Mr. Revell, pooh! He’s a baby to him. However, he died, and his bones are in that cave along by my house (the Mawhera Pa). My elder brother, Tarapuhi, is buried there also, and I live in my corner under the hill, keeping watch over those great men, my ancestors, who lie buried in the cave close by.”

In answer to a question how the war parties got across the mountains, Tainui said: “As for tracks for the war parties, they did without