THE BOOK OF WIRIMU

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 100, 23 May 1941, Page 47

THE BOOK OF WIRIMU

Story by STELLA MORICE, with Drawings by JOHN HOLMWOOD Chapter VIII. THE PIG HUNTERS HE morning was brilliant with spring as Mary Waterford went over to the kumara patch. "Good morning, Hori, I suppose those boys went off with Henry, did they? They say they’re going pig-hunting in the river bush after lunch. Oh dear, there are never any pigs as far down as that are there Hori? I don’t want to stop

--- them, because it’s so good for Tony to rough it. He’s been very spoilt, Hori-not like Wiri. He did nothing but whine the first day because he hadn't brought his beloved blue train with him." "Tony the fine boy," said Hori. "I go to the store on Friday. I like Helen’s boy. He go home Saturday?"

"on™ "Yes . .. Hori, I never know what you do to kumaras to make them grow-you must have magic fingers. Hello Wiri-Hello Tony-what do you want?" "Mary, can we have our lunch? We're going hunting pigs and Wiri says if you give us chops we can light a fire and cook them. What about Tiger, Wiri, will he need a chop too-he has to do all the work Mary-he’s the one that catches the pigs, not us." So Mary packed them each a parcel of lunch and gave Wiri a box of matches. "Tony, for goodness sake do everything Wiri tells you," she said, as she followed them down to the river. She watched Wiri help .Tony into the canoe. Tiger jumped in too, and Wiri paddled them across the river, over the longest pool in the Wai-tuki-tuki. He tied the canoe to a bush on the other side. Then Tiger scrambled out with Tony following and they went out of sight into the bush. They walked up the track and Wiri had to help Tony over the fallen trees while Tiger ran along ahead, sniffing, sniffing for pig. When they had been climbing for a quarter of an hour, Tony said: "It’s great fun hunting pig, isn’t it, Wiri? But I think we’d better have our lunch now, don’t you?" They gathered some dry sticks and built a fire and Wiri made Tony keep away while he lit it, and Tony danced with excitement when he saw the blaze. They put on more wood and ate their sandwiches till the fire was hot enough to cook their chops. ; . se Sa aus

Then they got two sticks and poked them into the fatty end of each chop and dangled them in the fire. And oh, the sizzling, wonderful smell, and oh, the luscious juicy burntness when they ate them. Kapai, kapai. Oh boy, oh boy. And in all his life Tony had never tasted anything so perfect. "I’m pretty full, Wiri, are you? It makes you a bit sleepy, doesn’t it?" So they lay on a soft bed of leaves and were soon sound asleep. And the weka who stalked out to eat the crumbs thought they were "bush babies," one brown, one white, because no one had told him they were two mighty pig hunters. "By corry, Tony, wake up! Hi, Tony, pig!" Wiri _ pulled Tony up and the bush was filled with Tiger’s furious barking. "The tree, Tony, by corry we climb the tree." They ran to a hoe-hoe, and Wiri pulled Tony up after him, while all the time the air was filled with Tiger’s barks and could you believe it, the angry snorting grunts of a PIG! "I hope I had a gun," said Wiri. "Would I shoot that pig and take him home to Hori?" Tony was shaking with excitement. "J wish I had a gun, too-I’d shoot him. We would, wouldn’t we, Wiri?" The noise grew louder and louder as Tiger chased the pig crashing through the undergrowth, nearer and nearer to the boys. é "It sounds as big as aa elephant. Wiri, are wild pigs very hig?" "Yes," said Wiri. "They big, big pig." "Are they black, Wiri, awfully black?" "Sometimes they are." "Pigs have tusks, don’t they, Wiri, big ones, like a sort of rhinoceros, aren’t they?" "Yes, boar, he have the big, big tusk." "Do pigs ever kill people, Wiri, with their tusks?" "One Maori, he get kill-he no gun." "Can pigs climb trees, Wiri . . 0-000, Wiri, it’s coming closer-it’s here, Wiri, . 2’ And rushing below them came a huge black boar with Tiger barking after him. Down, down they crashed through the bush and out of sight. Gradually the crashing stopped and there was only the sound of Tiger’s angry barks and the desperate snorting grunts of the trapped pig. "Tiger, he baled him up by the rock," said Wiri. "We have to stay here all night till someone come." "My mother will be asleep in bed then, won't she, Wiri. . . Wiri, will someone come? ... Wiri. . -" and Tony’s voice trembled and wouldn’t work any more. "You the big boy, Tony. Hori come soon, he hear Tiger bark. You take your mother a big, big pair tusk when you go home-and when you go home you have ice-cream and you play with your blue train-I hope I had a blue train-he have the real engine?" "Yes. Will Hori. come soon?" "BANG!" The noise of the shot thundered round the rocks below them and faded thinly through the trees. Then Hori’s voice. "Haeremai, Wirimu." "Hi, Hori!" And the two boys scrambled down the tree and ran to meet him. Then they all went together to where the pig lay-and Hori patted, their heads and talked laughingly to them and in all the world there were never two prouder pig hunters than Anthony and Wirimu. te (Next week's chapter is called "Hori’s Gold’)