Page image
Page image

collected, and, when ready, were carried away for Ngatira.* The crawfish were preserved after this manner: they were taken alive, and in their shells were planted thickly in the bed of a running stream of fresh water, much like shingles are placed on the roof of a house; there they were kept down under water with stones placed on them. In a day or two they would be taken out, their shells slipped easily off, and the flesh hung up separately in the wind on light frame-work stages to dry. The flesh shrunk amazingly in the drying process, and when dried each one was very thin and light, all the legs, etc., having been packed on to the body of the fish in its damp state and there consolidated and compressed, were not now plain, so that each bore no resemblance to its original. When quite dry and hard they were put up in bundles and packed away in baskets, and kept in a dry store. They might well be called fish-cakes. They were greatly prized, especially by the Natives in the interior, to whom presents of them were sometimes sent, who gave potted forest birds in return. Hence it was that Ngatira and his people afterwards suffered dreadfully in their fort when besieged through want of water, for the water of the place being outside of the village was soon in the possession of the besieging party, and the people of the fort could not get at it with their calabashes. But the friends and relatives of the foe living in that place took with them their heavy, thick flax-mat garments when they went down to see their relatives;‡ Their relations by marriage; a practice always allowed in their wars, though highly injurious to both sides, which they also well knew. these they used instead of calabashes to carry up water to the besieged, soaking them in the water (although, after all, scarcely any water remained in the said garments), and when they returned to the fort they wrung the water out for the children and the women, while others desperately chewed and eagerly sucked the loose hanging flax-fringes of the wetted garments, just to moisten a little their parched throats. The water to drink was also the more required through their still eating the dried crawfish, being impelled thereto through hunger. For some time they managed miserably in this way; but at last, on trying it again, they found the armed party (who had become suspicious) watching the water, so that when the women and others went into it to wet their flax garments as before those watchers rushed in upon them, and they fled back to their fort with scarcely and water! Soon after this the final assault was made, and though the picked band of brave and fearless fighters, Koparakaitarewarewa and his friends, went boldly outside and withstood the besiegers, and that more than once, they were obliged to give way, being all faint and half-dead through want of water, for it was this alone that slew them. So Ngatira was killed, and Pakaurangi was taken. This battle was called “The death in the wet garments,” or, “The death in the time of the wetted garments.” The remnant who escaped of this people fled various ways, some went to Kaiora and dwelt there, building a fort (pa) for themselves; some fled further north; some haunted the neighbourhood of their

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert