“I do not doubt,” he replied quietly, showing me his palm. “These last days are full of dreams to me. My eyes are growing dim, and I see strange things against the setting sun. O people of the Great Tribe, take no heed of an old man’s dreams. Tiki!”—he turned to the be-trousered one with a return of his indignation—“hasten to the pa and bid them prepare a feast, and tell my maidens that a mountain lily will take root among them. Go, O Tiki, and tell them not to waste their time in laughing at a man who was once a warrior, with the blood of the Tane-nui-a-Rangi in his veins, but is now a thing that has been hatched from an egg like a bird.”
Tiki did not wait for the point of this piece of satire. He and his trousers vanished in all haste, and Te Makawawa, bidding us follow, strode before in silence.
“What a lordly savage,” said Grey, as we followed on; “but why did he seem so startled at the sight of my daughter?”
“He seemed to doubt my identity,” said Crystal.
“Perhaps it was his way of demanding proof,” I suggested, but I could not conceal from myself that there was something to be cleared up in his strange behaviour.
When we reached the pa on the high cliff Grey and I were allotted a house to ourselves, while Crystal was handed over by Te Makawawa to the charge of the maidens of highest rank, who were forcible in their expressions of joy when they found she could speak their own tongue. I caught sight of her standing among a little group, like a fair white queen among her dusky maidens. I saw by the gestures of the Maori girls that they were asking her to let down her hair. She hesitated a moment, then, withdrawing the pins, let it fall and shook the long, heavy masses out over her shoulders, till they rippled down almost to her knees. Loud cries of admiration came from the girls as they took up the loosened tresses in their hands and stroked and patted them tenderly, likening them to the undulating seaweed called rimu rehia, long, shining, glistening; and again to the darkness of the furthest caves, where the winds were bound by Maui. Thus they lifted it up and stroked and talked to it, while it awoke their simple hearts to poetry. Then, as Crystal gathered it all together again and fastened it up, they stood wide-eyed, with many expressions of wonder that pakeha women should do this strange thing.
As a result of a private talk with the old chief, I learnt that Ngaraki had paid him a visit some days before, and had told him strange things. The Great Tohungas of the Earth had spoken to him, saying that the return of Hinauri was near, and that he must lay the foundations of a new priesthood in the temple, and gather the tribes upon the Table Land. Messages had been sent to many tribes, and some had already settled upon the high plain under the rule of Ngaraki. Te Makawawa assured me they were gathered for peace, and not for war. Within the space of a few days his own tribe would journey on to the Great Tapu.
“And what is your plan for restoring Keritahi Kerei to her mother?” I asked.
“Listen, Pakeha!” he replied, lowering his voice. “The Great Tohungas do not speak to Ngaraki only. I too have heard their words—when all the world was dark and still. I will guide you and the maiden, and the Man-who-has-forgotten to the white cave where the woman still lives. But I would not meet the eye of Ngaraki, for he is fierce and terrible, and I could not explain this thing to him. Because of these things, friend, we must wait until Ngaraki goes into the islands of the south to gather together the men to whom he will teach the ancient wisdom. That will be on the morning after the full moon, for you must know, O son, that an ancient rite of the temple requires the presence of the priest on the night when the moon is full. We shall set out then on the third day from this, so that we shall reach the Table Land as Ngaraki leaves it.”
I agreed to this plan, and it was settled. In the meantime it occurred to me that, unknown to Crystal, I might take a journey to the hut of Kahikatea. Accordingly, early on the following day, I set out and arrived at the hut just as my friend was preparing for a journey.