The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-10-22

ing, throwing the boomerang and spear, and
In time came to be looked .on as TIE Where
Where's successor. The old man himself
made me take his name, and the rest of the
tribe call me 'Marama,' which means Light,
or the Moon, from my white skin. had
but one quarrel with lie Where, and that
nearly ended in my death. 1t was this. When
TIE Where was old, and near dying he took
great fancy to the daughter of Monganni;
powerful chief of the neghboring tribe Of
the Ngatiwai. and a relative of TIE Whero.-
The girl was only sixteen years old, and
very beautiful indeed, she was famed Tor it,
and called 'Pepepe' ('the winged fower'). We
THAT is, she and ~ had been frequently to-
gether, and, from being my playmate, grew
to love her, and wished to make her my wife.
She seemed in no way reluctant, and Waino-
ma greatly favored it. TeWhero wished to
kill her; you start,-for 1 did when l heard
him-but it is one of our customs to kill our
fayorte attendants, to accompany and wait
on us in the other world. TIE Where wished
to have Pepepe, for he believed he should
become young again there. He sent for her
when he was lying ON his mat, expecting to
die soon. When she came, he ordered me to
give him his gun l hardly dared refuse,
though knew he wanted 10 shoot her, and l
did not know what to do. l went and told
Wainona; she hid the gun, and then told
him l could not. find it. In great rage, to
our establishment. he sprang up off the mat;
and saying to me, 'Ka tohe koe Xxi ahaw? edo
you dare strive with me?') he flung at me
tomahawk; it just missed sme, and I rushed
out of the aohGre. He also went out, passion
lending him strength, and ordered the poor
girl to 60 with him. She dared not refuse, or
he would have killed her there and 0en.-
His house was built on yon steep rock point
ing to one short distance off, rising sheer
IF 4I,a hoxy a,,1 I,
an old ruined hut was still to be seen about
one hundred yards back from the precipice).
He led the girl to the edge of the rock, and
then suddenly pushed her over; her scream
as she fell still rings in my ears, my heart
seemed to cease beating, and my blood ran
cold. We all fully expected to find her dash
ed to pieces on the sharp, jagged, scoria rocks
below. Some -Four or five started to bring
back her bruised, lifeless corpse; but you may
judge of our delight and thankfulness when
we saw her bravely stemming the waves, and
swimming to yon small island. II happened,
fortunately, to be high tide, and the rocks
were all covered. TIE Where ground his teeth
with rage, but his strength was gone, and he
could barely crawl back to his mat; there he
died, an hour or two later, before they could
bring Pepepe back. At his death / was chos-
en- chief in his place, and have ruled ever
SINCE"
"And Pepepe," inquired, "what become of
her?"
'You have seen her," he answered; "she
brought the water and melons to you"
AS his wife just then re.entered the hut. I
and Gay friend looked at her with increased
interest. She bore evident marks of having
once been beautiful, and was still fine-IooE-
ing woman. TIE Where, Or Mariana, made us
stay and have dinner, aud we lett him, much
pleased with our reception and entertainment.
Ii any of my readers visit the Bay OF Islands,
any one there will direct him where to find
Jacky Mariana, the New Zealand chief, once
the little American boy from New London. l
will only add, in conclusion, he persuaded and
induced his tribe long ago to give up tho hor-
| rid practice of cannibaism,