The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-24 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

" send one of your female friends to tell him
" of your love, perchance he will not be pleased
" with you." At last Tutanekai takes courage
and sends her a loving message, and when
Hine-Moa had heard the words of his message,
" Eli-hu!" she cried, " and have we then each
" loved alike?" One night it happened that
Tutanekai's brothers were each asserting that
they had made a conquest of Hine-Moa, and
Tutanekai could not bear this, and he told
them that he alone had pressed Hine Moa'a
hand, and received a pressure in return, bat
his elder brothers cried out, " No such thing!
" do you think she would take any notice of
" such a low-born fellow as you are?" Tutane-
kai replied not, but laid his plans to secure
Hine-lodes, and arranged with her at last that
when he sounded his trumpet she should
paddle her canoe to that place. But Hine-
Moa's friends began to suspect something,
and so every night they hauled up all the
canoes high u; nn the beach; and alter many
nights she reflected in her heart how she
could cross the lake, and as she sat down to
rest, the soft music from the horn of Tutane-
kai reached her, and she felt as if tai earth
quake shook her, to make her go to the be-
loved of her heart; and at last she thought that
she might swim across. Then she threw off her
clothes and plunged into the water, and after
much weariness she reached the island; and
she found a warm spring, and she got into
this, for she trembled all over, partly from
cold, and partly from modesty at the thoughts
of meeting Tutanekai. Now, it happened that
Tutanekai was very thirsty, and sent his slave
with a calabash to get some water from this
warm spring; and Hine-Moe., hiding herself in
the water, assumed the gruff voice of a man,
asked for whom the water was required, and
the slave replied for Tutanekai ; then she took
the calabash and broke it, and the slave
returned for another, and each time she asked
to drink and broke the calabash. At last the
slave complained to Tutanekai, and he cried
out, " Who is this rascal that dares to break
" my calabashes : why, 1 shall die for rage ;"
and he rushed down to the spring and cried
out, " Where's that fellow who broke my
" calabashes?"—
And Hine-Moa knew the voice, that the sound of it was
that of the beloved of her heart; and she hid herself under
the overhanging rocks of the hot-spring; but her biding
was hardly a real hiding, but rather a bashful concealing of
herself from Tutanekai, that he might not find her at once,
but only after trouble and careful searching for her; so he
went feeling about along the banks of the hot spring,
searching everywhere, whilst she la 3 coyly hid under the
ledges of the rock, peeping out. wondering when she would
be found. At last he caught hold of a hand, and cried out,
" Hollo, who's this ? " And Hine-Moa answered, " 1,
Tutanekai." And he said, " But who are you?—who's
I? " Then she spoke louder, and said. " It's 1, 't is Hine-
Moa." And he amid, "Ho ! ho ! ho ! can such in very
truth be the case? let us two go then to my house." And
she answered, "Yes ; " and she rose up in the water as
beautiful as the wild white hawk, and stepped upon the
edge of the bath as graceful as the shy white mime ; and
he threw garments over her and took her, and they pro-
ceeded to his house, and reposed there ; and thenceforth,
according to the ancient laws of the Maori, they were man
and wife.

There are some beautiful touches of nature
in this little story. Hine-Moa's modesty and
her hiding herself behind the rocks are
exquisitely described, and so true to nature.
The result of each legend has generally given
rise to a proverb, and some are remarkably
good. We met with one. which was appended
to the story of a great battle and a successful
assault upon the enemy's town, which would
do no harm to be transcriLed for the benefit
of European generals. After at once defeat-
ing the enemy and assaulting the town, we are
told that they entered the breaches in the
town as easily as if they had been walking in
at the door of a house left open to receive
them, whence this proverb has been handed
down—" As soon as ever you have defeated
" your enemy. storm his town ! "
Of the accuracy of Sir George's translations
it is impossible to speak, as the New Zealand
language is not studied in Europe, but he
appears to have thoroughly caught the spirit
and vivacity of the people, without losing
one single trait of their highly poetical mode
of expression. We regard the book as a
very valuable and interesting contribution
to our knowledge of the traditional history of
the almost extinct mythology of the South Sea
Islands.