Grandfather’s Yarns.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 21, 18 August 1894, Page 12

Grandfather’s Yarns.

A GRIM TIT FOR TAT. HARRY MAGKIB AND THE MAORIES. FRANK, THE CARPENTER. (All Rights Reserved). No. If. “ Grandfather, isn’t there anything more you could tell us about the Wakataupuka ?” demanded Jack. “ Nothing I can think of just now, my boy,” answered grandfather. “ Oh, yes though, I remember a trick he played on a fellow named Harry Mackie once, though he was generally so good to white people. “ Harry Mackie had been mate on a vessel with Captain Anglem once, but for some reason he stopped at Codfish to seal, and there he took a Maori wife.

“He never would call a Maori by his name, but it was always ‘ you cannibal here,’ and ‘you cannibal there,’ with Mackie. The Wakataupuka noticed this and asked what it meant. Some of the white people who could talk Maori explained to him what a cannibal meant.

“ ‘ Oh, that it,’ said he, ‘ all right,’ and he laughed—such a low, musical laugh he had, too. “"Harry Mackie was very fond of Maori cabbage and mutton bird fat boiled, and whenever he came to Rhuapuka the first thing he did was to get the women he knew to make this, Jhis favorite dish. The Wakataupuka knew this, so he said to the women —‘ Next time Harry Mackie comes here and wants cabbage, you get the fat out of this kelp bag.’ The bag indicated contained man’s fat; and had been procured from an old Maori who was rather given to eating his fellow-men.

“ The women did not dare disobey, and the next time he came all of his boat’s crew and himself were just finishing their cabbage and mutton bird fat, as they thought, when up came the Wakataupuka. ‘ You the cannibal now, Harry Mackie,’ said he.

“‘No,’ said Maekie, ‘ I’m no cannibal, but you are,’ with a sneer. “Again the Wakataupuka laughed his low amused laugh, and kept saying ‘ Harry Maekie cannibal; all right, Harry Maekie.’ Some of the others were a bit alarmed by this time, and enquired of the women what he meant. When they found out, they were nearly all terribly sick, and everyone said they were sure that it shortened Harry Mackie’s days. “Not dong afterwards Jim Brown and Bloody Jack were helping him to move from Codfish to the old Neck One afternoon they landed on a small island over at Stewart Island and camped there. When they went to bed Maekie complained of great pains, and in two hours he was dead.

“ They put up at the head of his grave part of an old canoe, and a fellow that was with them whom we always called ‘ Frank the carpenter ’ —I never knew him by any other name —carved his name, age, and the date of his death most beautifully. I have often seen the Yankees go ashore to look at it, for really it was a regular work of art.

“ When they lowered the coffin into the grave Jack threw off his mat and let it fall in too—that would prevent any Maori from digging up the body and eating it when they saw his mat.” “ But they didn’t dig bodies up to eat them, surely P” gasped Fred. “ Of course they did. I remember one notorious old cannibal named Karapipi dug up the body of Captain Strange and ate it after it had been buried for three weeks. “ The dirty old brute,” said Jack. “ Fred' looks ready to cry, so tell us what became of Frank, the carpenter, please.” “Well, there’s nothing very pleasant to tell about poor Frank, either,”

said Grandfather'. “In ’35, I think it was, he went carpentering to Preservation for a chap named Jim Wareham ; he and Wareham were always quarrelling about something and did not get on well at all. “ One morning the boats were going out, and it was dreadfully rough. Just as .they were starting Wareham passed the remark to the others that he’d give Frank a good ‘ drilling ’ today, meaning plenty of disagreeable work and abuse. When they got as far as Anglem’s Point the other boats stopped, but Wareham ran over to Codfish. Somehow or other his boat capsized. They all managed to scramble ashore but Frank, poor fellow, who was drowned. ‘'What Wareham had said seemed to pray on his mind terribly; he never dreamt that he’d repent his words so soon. He went to America shortly afterwards, and was himself drowned in a storm off; Newfoundland.”