Now there was war between one side of the island and the other side. The Koro-orongo, the Tupahotu, the Ureohei and Ngaure fought the Haumoana, Miru, Marama, Hamea, and the Raa. Kainga fought with his spear against one of the Miru named Toari, and was angry because he could not kill him. He went to his house and killed a white cock and gave it to the child Huriavai to eat, and then he took five mataa and bound them on wood. That evening Huriavai went to sleep; he dreamed that the white cock was coming towards him, and that he threw a stone at the bird and killed it, and he waked up afraid. Kainga said, “What is it, child?” and the boy answered, “It is the white cock; he is dead”; and Kainga was glad of the dream, and said joyfully, “He is dead! To-morrow morning early, at five o’clock, we will go and fight.” So on the morrow he took the five mataa in his hand and Huriavai on his back. The men of Hotu Iti fought the men of Anakena and Hanga Roa. Kainga did not go into the battle, but he stood a little way off with the child, and he saw that Toari no one could kill, and he said to the child, “Go, boy, and take two spears.” Huriavai was frightened, but he took two spears and went into the battle. The men of Anakena came to kill the boy, but he did not run away. They threw their spears, but they glanced off the child. Then all Kainga’s men came forward, and they threw their spears at Toari; but Huriavai threw one spear, and he killed him and he lay dead. Kainga saw his enemy was slain, and took the boy on his back and went away quickly. When Kainga was gone, all the people of Hotu Iti fled, and the people of Anakena pursued, and they killed all the people of Hotu Iti, thousands and thousands and thousands, women and children and little children, big children and young men, and old men who could not walk away quickly. Some of those who escaped took refuge in the cave known as Ana Te Ava-nui, and others fled to the island of Marotiri (fig. 123). Kainga went to Marotiri, but Huriavai hid in a hole on the mainland opposite; his brother, who had two faces, was killed by a man named Pau-a-ure-vera. The face behind said, “I see Pau-a-ure-vera; he comes to me with a spear in his hand. You look too.” But the face in front said, “I do not like to look; you look.” The face behind was angry, and said, “You look too.” And while the two faces talked, Pau struck the boy with his spear in the neck, and he fell dead, and Kainga saw from the island the fall of his son.

FIG. 123.
EASTERN HEADLAND AND ISLAND OF MAROTIRI.

FIG. 124.
ANA HAVEA.
The figure in the sea stands at a spring of fresh water.

The day after the battle, when Hotu Iti had been vanquished, Poié, who was one of the Haumoana and a big man, came to live at Ana Havea, the cave near Tongariki (fig. 124), and took a large boat with thirty men and went to the island of Marotiri. On the island were many thousands of the people of Hotu Iti, but among them there was one man, Vaha; his father was of Hotu Iti, but his mother was of Anakena. He was the father of Toari, who was killed by Huriavai, so he hated the men of Hotu Iti, but no man dared kill him. When Poié came in his boat, he said to Vaha, “Give me men to cook.” Vaha gave him one thousand in the boat, and Poié went back to the shore and gave each of the men of Anakena a man to eat; he took thousands of children by the leg and dashed them against the stone. Every day he did the same again, and brought a thousand men from Marotiri. One day, when the boat came back, a man called Oho-taka-tori, a Miru, was at Ana Havea and saw Poié throwing the men on shore, and among them a man named Hanga-mai-ihi-te-kerau; and Oho-taka-tori said to Poié, “Give me for my fish that man with a fine name.” Poié said, “I give no fish with a fine name to you who begin work at nine o’clock in the morning.” Oho was angry with Poié; he was wearing a hat with cocks’ feathers sticking out in front, and he turned it round back side front, and went to the house of his daughter, who had married a man of Hotu Iti called Moa, and lived near Tongariki. He said to her, “Do not let your husband mourn for the men of Hotu Iti”; the girl replied, “He does not tell me, but I think he mourns much.” She gave her father food to eat, and he went to his own home, the other side of the island. When Moa came in from digging potatoes, his wife said, “Your father-in-law has been here, and he said that you were not to cry for the men of Hotu Iti”; and Moa replied, “I must mourn, but you are of Hanga Roa,” and he did not eat any potatoes, but wept.

The men who had not taken refuge on Marotiri were, as has been told, in Ana Te Ava-nui,[[71]] and the men of Anakena had made twenty holes in a row in the cliff above, and they stood in the holes one behind the other, and lowered a net over the edge of the cliff with two men in it with spears, and the men in the holes held the rope and let down the net, and the men in the net shouted to them “Pull up,” or “Give way,” till they were opposite the cave, and then they killed the men in the cave with their spears, and three brothers of Oho worked with these men.

At five o’clock in the evening, when his wife did not know, Moa took all sorts of food, and buried them so that no man should see, and at seven o’clock he said to his wife, “Give me the big net,” and she said, “Are you going to take fish?” and he said, “Yes,” but he lied; he was going to Te Ava-nui. He took the net and the food. By and by he left the net behind, but he kept the food and went to Maunga Tea-tea.[[72]] There were many of Poié’s men there, and all over Poike, but they were asleep. He gathered there eight branches of palm, put them on his back, and went to the cave, and all the men on the top of the cliff were asleep, and Moa went down the cliff by the track and entered the cave. The men inside did not sleep. They said, “Who are you?” and he said, “Hush, I am Moa.” There were only thirty men alive. For two and a half months they had had nothing to eat in the cave, and only the strongest were left. Moa gave the men the juice of the sugar-cane like water, and little bits of potato, and then he asked, “Where are the bones of the warrior Peri-roki-roki?” They replied, “He is down there.” So Moa said, “Bring them to me”; and Moa made fish-hooks of bone, and bound a hook to a palm branch; then he said to the men, “I have made one for you; make seven,” and he went back. When the net came down in the morning, the men in the cave caught it with the hooks on the branches of palm, and the men in the net called to those above to “drag up,” but the men gave more line, and the men in the cave killed the men in the net, and then they climbed up the rope and killed all the men at the top except the brothers of Oho, those they did not kill.

Three days before this the men on Marotiri had rid themselves of Vaha; it was in this way. The boy Huriavai, who was in a hole on the mainland, was very hungry, for he was not old enough to catch fish, and he ate seaweed. Vaha on the island opposite took the stem of a banana and cut it into pieces, so that it looked like yams, and put it where the boy could see it, and Huriavai said, “My father has plenty of food.” So he swam across, and Vaha killed him. Then Vaha took the corpse and swam with it to the mainland. It was dark, but Kainga listened, and heard the swish of the water, and he too went into the sea and followed him, and when he got to shore he hid behind a big stone, and when he saw Vaha coming, carrying on his back the body of the child, he wept, and Kainga said, “Who are you?” and he replied, “I am Vaha”; and Kainga said, “I am Kainga, the slayer of Vaha.” And he slew him, and took the corpse of Huriavai to the ahu, and then came and took the body of Vaha as fish-man for food, brought it to Marotiri, and gave pieces to all the people on the island. There were thirty men then left there, but they had no fire, so they cooked the flesh in their armpits.