[CHAPTER XXVIII.]
THE AUKATI LINE.
Manga-o-rongo—Mangatutu River—The encampment—A sumptuous repast—The kainga—Surrounding scenery—Old warriors—The tribes—The Korero—Arrival of Te Kooti—His wife—His followers—A tête-à-tête—A song of welcome—A haka—Departure from Manga-o-rongo—Waipa River—Valley of the Waipa—Our last difficulty.
The nearest way for us to have reached civilization from Hengia would have been to travel straight to Kihikihi; but there was great talk of a native meeting to be held at Manga-o-rongo, a settlement situated at some distance further south from where we were, and as it was stated that Te Kooti and a large number of natives from all parts would be there, I determined to attend the korero, as much as anything to see the ex-rebel chief of whom I had heard so much, and afterwards pass to Alexandra by way of the valley of the Waipa.
We left Hengia at daybreak with a party of natives, who were going in the same direction as ourselves, and took a southerly course through a district known as Wharepapa, and which led us in the direction of the Rangitoto Mountains. As we approached the valley of the Mangatutu River, the country became more undulating, until we gained the bed of the stream, which wound in a remarkably serpentine course from the Rangitoto Mountains. In the bed of the river the natives pointed out several curious kinds of stone, in form not unlike the blade of an axe, and which were formerly sharpened and used as tomahawks by the tribes of the district. The country hereabouts fell rapidly from 500 to 300 feet, and gradually became of a lesser altitude as we went on. Crossing the river, we continued our course through the open, fern-clad plains known to the natives as Manutarere, passing on our right a rock which rose like a rude monument from the centre of a circular basin of low hills.
Beyond this point we passed through a native kainga, known as Patokatoka, and soon afterwards reached Manga-o-rongo. A large encampment of natives was already formed, and great preparations were being made for the gathering; pigs were being slaughtered by the dozen, bevies of women and girls were busy at work with delicacies intended for the feast, while mounted natives were riding to and fro in every direction.
We rode into the kainga with the natives who had accompanied us from Hengia, and were received with loud shouts of haeremai from the women, who danced about and circled their arms in the air in the wildest way.
When the hongi had been performed, and a tangi had been held—for they wept here as they had done at Pouotepiki—we were invited to sit down in a circle with the natives who had accompanied us, and soon afterwards a number of women and girls, who came tripping along in Indian file, singing a wild refrain, brought us pork and potatoes and bread and kumaras, in plaited flax baskets, each hapu present contributing according to custom, a certain quantity, so that in a short time we had food enough around us to last us for a month. We ate heartily of the good things placed before us, but we had great fights over our banquet with the half-starved dogs assembled from all parts of the country, and which became so audacious in their efforts to obtain our luxuries, that we had to keep our whips going right and left all the time.
