MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 March 1940, Page 8

MAORI MEMORIES

TE KOOTI’S DANCERS. (Recorded by J.H.S. for the “Times-Age.”) After his pardon and before it. Te Kooti was hailed by his followers as a victorious martyr, and more genuinely so than other Maori heroes, because of the grave injustice which had been inflicted upon him by an anonymous British officer. Every Maori knew why Te Kooti was sent to the Chathams as one of the prisoners among those enemies whom he had captured; but the discreditable secret was at that time not known among white soldiers —only to the perpertator of the crime. Seeing and hearing this notorious chief indulging in the wild contortions of the haka, and chanting at intervals in low musical tones, was a revelation to the only two pakehas present. At a given signal a hundred athletic men and women clad in the costume of our first parents, joined their leader in that wild orgy. They formed ranks, then singly and in sections of ten, stood firmly on their bare soles, their features, bodies, arms, hands and legs from the knees upwards trembling as with lhe thrill of an electric current. The bodies then swung to right and left front and back, heads thrown upwards, tongues protruding, the points actually touching rounded chins, eyes turned up. and side to side until only the whites wore visible. Then in pairs, a man and ;i woman, one after another, indulged in contortions of dancing which may not be described. The climax of the wondrous scene was jumping, yelling and clapping open palms on naked thighs all iin perfect unison.