"WAEWAE RAKAU"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 190, 24 July 1940, Page 6

"WAEWAE RAKAU"

THE ONE THAT DID NOT GET AWAY HUNTING THE PIG A boar's skull, with an enormous pair of tusks, a new wooden leg. and a new nickname, "Waewae rakau," meaning "wooden foot/' have been taken back by a Granity resident from a holiday. visit to Opotiki, says the Gisborne Herald. One day during his holiday lie took a rifle into the bush to look for a wild pig, his only companion being' a Maori youth who had no firearm. They had no dog with them,, and had no idea there was any pork near until a huge old "Captain Cooker," nearly as big as a Shetland pony, suddenly charged them from out of the dense undergrowth. The sportsman had no time "to fire; he dropped his rifle, and, though handicapped by the wooden'leg that replaces the one he left 111 Francv in 1917, shinned smartly np the nearest tree, a rika Gin in diameter. The boar was in a thoroughly bad temper. It gouged viciously at the rika with its tusks and threw its Aveight against It until the quivering of the thin trunk loosened the unhappy sportsman's grip, so that he started to slide down. The Maori bov, dancing around with a sheath knife in his hand, yelled, "Gi\ r e him the Avaewae rakau! GiA r e him te AvacAvae rakau." Fortunately the pakeha had not for j gotten his Maori under stress, as 1 the Maori had forgotten his Eng- | lish. He slid doAvn" and jammed his i wooden foot hard into the boar's mouth. It Avas crunched to splinters in the poAverful jaws, but the Maori boy got the ehanc?. he Avas watching for, and, diving in, knifed the brute.