In some cases they would build a special house for this event. Such house is termed a whare pakuwha, but would receive a special name also, and be kept closed and unused until my party, the ope pakuwha, arrive there, when we take up our quarters in it. The tapu pertaining to all new houses of importance remains upon it until our arrival, when it is removed and the house rendered noa (common, free from tapu) by the priest of my party. Such a house would be built only when the parties are of high birth. In special cases it may be an elaborately carved house, in others a plain one having no embellishments of that kind, and in yet others it is merely a temporary house. The house is for the entertainment of the pakuwha party (ope pakuwha).”

(Sometimes the husband and wife go together to this function along with her relatives, and at others the relatives of the girl escort her to the home of the young man, where she is formally handed over to be his wife. Which amounts to this: that the pakuwha feast may be held either at the time of the marriage, or, in other cases, same time after the couple have been cohabiting. But always the first feast or entertainment (the whare tuatahi, or “first house,” as natives term it, in allusion to the building of the special house) is given by the man's relatives, never by the woman's. The latter it is who give the second feast, or whakahoki pakuwha).

“Those Te Whaiti people have been busy collecting and preparing food for us. The realms of Tane and of Tangaroa have been called upon to furnish food-supplies for many months. Potted birds, dried fish, and divers vegetable products are ready in large quantities. Fuel is piled up in apaapa around the cooking-sheds, and parties of young people roam the forests for such woods as burn brightly without emitting much smoke. This is for the purpose of warming and lighting the houses at night, such fires being probably supplemented by crude lamps burning fat obtained from birds. There will be much talking in these houses at night, many speeches delivered by eloquent speakers, and much posture dancing.

“We send word to Te Whaiti by messenger as to the day of our arrival at that place. We time our arrival there so as not to arrive late in the day, even if it is necessary to encamp for the night within a short distance of the village of our hosts. When we march into the village we do so in close column and with a slow regular movement, albeit we do not keep step, as do the white men in their marching. Our column advances in silence, and each person thereof looks to his front, apparently unconscious of the noisy welcome of the village.

“As we march into the marae, or plaza, we see that the village people are drawn up in a mass by the side of the new house, the whare pakuwha (not in front of it), where they are crying us welcome; and in advance of them are some of the old women, standing singly out in the marae or mounted on shed-roofs or on the defences of the village, where each cries loudly in the doleful tones of the Maori a welcome to our party. And each of them is waving a cloak or shoulder-cape, waving us forward to our destination. This is the tawhiri, or powhiri. It is the welcome of the Maori people, even from the days of our ancestors.

“Slowly we march forward until we are opposite the column of the village people, and then we halt, with perhaps a space of fifty yards separating us. The wild welcome of our hosts still rings out, but no sound comes from our party. We do not tangi^* unless some misfortune has lately afflicted one of the parties, or my son-in-law has been long absent from his people. At such a meeting there is no general hongi (the native salute by pressing noses together). The priest of our party alone might so salute a few of the village people in that manner.

“The next thing done is the rahiri whare—i.e., the lifting of the tapu from, the whare pakuwha. This is performed by the priest of our party, who mounts the roof of the house and, standing on the ridge-pole thereof, recites the invocation known as a kawa whare. This was an important rite to the Maori of former days, but we will not go into that matter now, it is too long. Leave it for the days that lie before.

“The house is now free from tapu and may be used. Our party enter and rest therein. Then, one after another, the leading men of the village come and make speeches to us. The speaker does not enter the house; he walks back and forth in the front thereof as he delivers his speech, for this is the ancient custom of the Maori. The speeches made are a welcome to us—first to my daughter, who has married into this clan, and also to us, her elders and relatives. The leading remarks of all these speeches are a welcome to the young wife, as, ‘Haere mai taku taonga,’ &c. (‘Welcome, my treasure,’ and so forth). When the speeches of the village people are over, then one of our party will go forth from the house and make a speech, returning the greetings of the other party. But all remarks centre round and upon the young couple. After the first speaker finishes and retires to the house another goes forth to have his say, and so on, until all who wish to speak have done so.

“Then a procession of people of the village appears on the scene, each bearing a basket of cooked food, and all singing a weird song as they slowly advance. They place the baskets in a row before the whare pakuwha and retire. Then our party leave the house and, seating themselves before the food, proceed to satisfy their hunger.

“In addition to the above cooked food given to our party, there is also a supply of food presented to us, and which we can either use during our stay at Te Whaiti or take home with us when we return. This food is brought into the house in baskets, &c., and placed before us. The interior of the house is now quite free from tapu, the bringing of this food into it is the last act of the whakanoa, or freeing from tapu. This latter supply of food is often termed kai kotore, and is for the relatives of the young wife. It is composed of the best sorts of food, such as preserved birds. On the following day a large heap of food is stacked up in the marae and presented to our party. This is termed a tahuaroa.

“After the kai kotore is brought in the village people then carry in their presents of clothing, fine cloaks, capes, aprons, as also greenstone and shark's-tooth ornaments, &c.; and, in modern times, horses also, which, however, are left outside. These are placed in front of the young couple, who are seated together. Probably no formal or lengthy speech is made; each person bearing a gift lays it down, outspread if a garment, saying, ‘Tenei te taonga ki a koe.’ For these gifts are to the husband.

“When these gifts are all presented the young husband rises and presents them all to his wife's people, to myself and relatives, who have escorted him and his wife from Rua-tahnna to this place. He keeps none of the gifts for himself, nor yet any for his wife. If he did so he would be considered an ignorant, low-bred sort of fellow. Kāti ki a raua ko te mānā—the prestige of the thing is enough for them.

“Sometimes at these functions a turanga-a-tohu would be performed, usually the day after the arrival of the visitors. This is a kind of war-dance, but simply given as an exhibition.

“Our party would stay a few days at Te Whaiti as the guests of my son-in-law's people, or possibly a week. Probably the young couple would stay there for some time, possibly until the return feast came off at Rua-tahuna, when they would, of course, attend that, and perhaps settle down there.

“The return feast mentioned is known as a whakahoki pakuwha. We, the relatives of the young wife, give this feast to my son-in-law's people. A special house might or might not be built by us for the event, and the description already

given will apply to this function. We make presents to our guests as they did to us.”

The above is a description of the pakuwha as it obtained in Tuhoeland, and still does, with the exception of several items, as the rahiri whare and turanga-a-tohu. This custom was not carried out with low-born people. Also, the elders of the husband would probably decline to give a feast and gifts to, and entertain, the relatives of the wife if she was known as a kai-rau (fornicator).

When the son of Te Purewa married a Turanga woman the house built for the pakuwha, near Gisborne, was a temporary one, but it was a gift to the guests, and a valuable one; for it was a long house, and the walls thereof were composed of calico print, while the roof was covered with new blankets.

Some time ago Paora, of Tuhoe, married a Ngati-Raukawa woman here at Rua-tahuna. They lived here about two years, and then went, accompanied by some of Paora's relatives, to the wife's people. The young couple lived there about a year, then they returned to Rua-tahuna, escorted by some of Ngati - Raukawa, who were entertained here by Paora's relatives. This latter was a whakahoki pakuwha. The couple have since returned to the wife's home, where they are now living.

The expression ta pakuwha is applied to affinitative relatives—i.e., relatives by marriage. A company of related people travelling together to visit the parents-in-law of one of their number is so termed. (Compare ta tataeto = a flock of whiteheads—a bird.) It appears to be applied only to a company of persons. A couple visiting their son-in-law would be termed simply pakuwha.

Kaupapa pakuwha: “Suppose I marry your daughter. I select a greenstone weapon or ornament or a fine cloak and present it to you (my father-in-law) as a kaupapa, pakuwha. Hence we hear such questions as, ‘Where are the kaupapa of the pakuwha?”’ Then such gifts are exhibited for inspection. Or a man may ask, “Where did you obtain that weapon of yours?” “Oh, it is a kaupapa pakuwha of the daughter of such a person.”

The term whakatakoto pakuwha seems to apply to any or all of the arrangements for a marriage, from the taumou to the marriage feast.

Ope pakuwha always carried their arms with them in former times. It was not well to move abroad without weapons in the old fighting-days, for treachery was a common occurrence, and no man knew when he was safe.

Very often the pakuwha party were greeted by a turanga a tohu, which is practically a war-dance, all the performers being armed; but it is merely given as an exhibition, and not, as

in time of war, as a species of divination to see what fate has in store for the tribe. The guests were challenged in the orthodox manner as they marched on to the plaza, while the village people would be divided into several columns, all kneeling and waiting for the signal of the fugleman to spring to their feet and, with brandished weapons, to roar out the resounding ngeri. In late times a pakuwha party is often welcomed with a volley from the guns of their hosts.

Neither the tumahana, nor the pongaihu, nor yet whakareka pertained to the ope pakuwha, but only to the kaihaukai.^*

We will here give a few words of explanation in regard to the careful supervision and arrangement of marriages among the natives. To a great extent it was caused by tribal anxiety to avoid a mésalliance, to prevent a person of good birth from marrying into a family of ware, or low-born people, to keep unmixed the blood of the rangatira class, to uphold the rank, fame, and dignity of first-born lines of descent, and hence to prevent all tipuheke, or degeneration, of blue-blooded lines.

For the Maori were ever true aristocrats, ever looked down upon the low-born, and exalted rank and birth. They treated with respect and deference even those members of the aristocratic class who were not endowed with the qualities necessary for the leading of men and the supervision of tribal affairs. And their method of preserving such rank and prestige was by a strict observance and retention of the aho matamua—i.e., of primogeniture. For the rangatira or high-born class were descendants of some noted, and probably remote, ancestor through the eldest-born of each succeeding generation, while the lower classes were the descendants of younger sons of by-gone centuries. The first-born lines retained the mana (power, prestige) of the tribe, hence they were careful not to allow any of their members to marry into the ware, or lower classes—i.e, into younger branches—but always within their own class. Formerly, as we have seen, marriages of the “upper class” were arranged by the elders of the young people and by the tribe, in order to avoid such mésalliances. But most of these old customs have been deserted by Tuhoe since the advent of Europeans. Young people now please themselves as to whom they marry, hence typuheke abound (i.e., degeneration).

The Maori custom of building a special house in order to signalise, as it were, any important event was a very peculiar one. We have seen that such a house was built in order to emphasize a marriage. A similar custom obtained when