"MAKUTU"
(Written for "The Listener" by
STELLA
MORICE
HERE were once seven little: Maori girls. Their names were Martha, Sarah, Milly, Lily, Tilly, Amy, and Jane. The whole family were girls because near the beginning they had a brother called Moses who died. They had a great tangi over that in the Maori way. Whenever they had any more brothers the little girls said to each other: "Will this little brother die like Moses?" But the mother looked at them with her soft, wild, brown eyes and said, "My little boy, he look thin, not like the fat girl baby, he get sick soon and die." And she shook her head from side to side and pulled her rug more tightly round her crouched shoulders, So they died, two more boys. When the next little brother came the Father said, "I give this one away to his Auntie before he die." And the boy
was sent away to his new home where he lived for his Auntie, and grew big and strong. So his Auntie kept him. After that the mother had girls for a while. Then came Honi, the one they kept the longest, and the little girls loved him and played with him all they could for the forty-eight days of his life. "My brother chop the wood when he grow up. My brother help my father make the fence when he big. My brother go shearing when he a man." And they were proud of their brother. But the mother rocked her head from side to side, from side to side. "My little boy got a cold, he die soon." And she threw some leaves into a billy on the fire. Maori medicine for the boy. But Honi died. And no one cried: "We had him the long long time," said the girls. "That make us glad." — So they all went catching koura up the creek because it was the thing they liked doing best. They rode on their ponies, dragging one behind the other along the hot dusty track. In front there was Martha, then Sarah, then Milly, Lily, and Tilly, who all looked the same, sounded the same, and all rode the same pony. Amy rode with Martha, Jane behind Sarah. They had the happiest day anyone could have, and they came home with their kits full of koura, which they ate for their tea, along with some apples they had taken from an orchard they must have thought was their own,
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19460531.2.22
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 362, 31 May 1946, Page 11
Word count
Tapeke kupu
417"MAKUTU" New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 362, 31 May 1946, Page 11
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Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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