Read A Canoe In the Mist Online
Authors: Elsie Locke
A Canoe In the Mist (14 page)
The call for kai rang out and people began to line up. ‘You will come with us,’ said Sophia.
‘Mattie says she’s too sad to eat anything,’ said Lillian.
‘Too sad? No. A tangi is not all sadness, even a tangi for as great a tragedy as this. Our orators say: “Let the dead be with the dead, the living with the living. Even while our tears of sorrow flow in parting from those we love,
we reach out our arms to those who remain. To eat is to live, therefore we share our food.” Mattie, surely you are rejoicing in your heart that you and your parents have come through this catastrophe alive?’
‘Yes I am,’ said Mattie honestly. ‘Mr McRae made a joke of it. He said to wish my parents a tour without fireworks after this. I thought he was awful, but—he must have been glad to have been with his wife and six daughters safe and sound.’
‘He has been through the greatest dangers,’ said Sophia. ‘Miriam and Kanea, what have you got behind your backs?’
‘Presents for you,’ said Miriam, almost dancing with impatience, so that when she swung the pois forward they hit Mattie on the forehead, and Kanea, not to be outdone, made hers hit Lillian on purpose.
‘For me too?’ cried Lillian. And the four girls hugged one another in delight.
They were just like the pair that Mattie had lost in the eruption, patterned in red over the natural flax. ‘We made them yesterday,’ said Kanea proudly.
‘I’ll hang them on my wall at home in England, as I promised,’ said Mattie.
‘And I…’ Lillian didn’t know what to say. She had not expected this.
‘They speak with different voices, these pois,’ said Sophia. ‘For you, Mattie, the charm is in music and rhythm
and a glimpse of a far-away country. For you, Lillian, a little of the Maori spirit has entered your heart. Perhaps they will lead you to another marae where you will learn to use them.’
‘We talk so much, we miss our kai,’ said Kanea anxiously. ‘Wild pork and kumara and watercress, you ready, Mattie?’
Mattie hooked the strings of her pois around the fancy buttons decorating her new dress.
‘I’ve never tasted wild pork,’ she said.
‘Another new experience?’ said Lillian.
Vowel sounds in Maori may be long or short, and are often run together Every syllable ends in a vowel. This is a rough guide to pronunciation:
a—
as in a and fathere—
as in then and therei—
as in inch and sardineo
—as in orb and ordealu—
as in put and ruseae—yes
aroha—love, compassion
aue—alas
aukati board—notice board
e hine—my girl (friendly mode of address)
e hoa—my friend
e hoa m,
kia ngawari—friends, relax, take your ease
e pa—sir
haere mai—welcome, come here
haka—a vigorous dance to chorus spoken in rhythm
hapu—sub-tribe
hui—meeting, assembly
kai—food
kaihaut—man who directs the paddlers in a canoe
kainga—village, home
kaitoa—serves you right
karakia—incantation, prayer
kia ora—my you be well; indicates approval
koha—gift
korowai—cloak of finely woven flax fibre
koura—crayfish
kuia—old lady, grandmother
kumara—sweet potato
maihi—sloping boards at the porch of a house
mana—prestige, status, authority
manuka—a common shrub
marae—open meeting ground in a Maori village
matakite—second sight
ngawha—hot spring
pakaru—broken
Pakeha—white person
paua—univalve shellfish with iridescent shell
poi—ball of flax swung by a cord
porangi—crazy
pukeko—a swamp bird
rahui—a sign or order forbidding something
taihoa—wait a while
taipo—devil
tangata marae—people of the village concerned
tangata whenua—people of the district concerned
tangi—burial gathering and ceremonies
taniko—patterned fabric made of dyed and natural flax fibre
taniwha—mythical water monster
tapu—sacred, not to be touched
te tamaiti.
e pai ana kia
haere ki waho?—little boy, are you ready to go outside?
tn koe—hullo; greeting to one person
tekoteko—carved figure surmounting the gable of a meeting house
tiki—carved amulet of bone or jade worn by women
toetoe—tall grassy plant with plumed flower heads
tohunga—an expert, often with special powers
wahine tino pai—good-looking woman
waiata—chant or song
waka taua—war canoe
waka wairua—ghost or spirit canoe
whakahihi—boasting, showing off
whanaunga—relation
whare—house
wharetua—species of lycopodium or club-moss
wharepuni—meeting house
E
lsie Locke (1912–2001) was born in Waiuku, a country town south-west of Auckland, and was raised on stories of goldfields and bushfelling. She gained a B.A. degree from Auckland University and moved to Christchurch in 1941 where she married Jack Locke and raised a family of four children.
She began to write seriously when her elder children were in high school, and was drawn mainly to historical themes or contemporary problems. She was deeply interested in world peace and in the environment and was one of the founders of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in New Zealand. She also wrote a series of social history booklets for schools and studied the Maori language in order to better understand the Maori culture and history she wrote about.
In 1987 Elsie Locke was awarded an honorary D.Litt. from Canterbury University in recognition of her contribution to New Zealand society as a writer, historian and leader in peace movements and women’s affairs. She received the Margaret Mahy Medal Award in 1995 for her contributions to children’s literature. Among her many popular books for children are
The Runaway Settlers
and
The End of the Harbour
.
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HarperCollins
Publishers
First published in 1984
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollins
Publishers
(New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1, Auckland
Copyright © Elsie Locke 1984
Elsie Locke asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
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National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Locke, Elsie, 1912-
A canoe in the mist / Elsie Locke.
(Collins modern New Zealand classics)
ISBN 1-86950-568-9 (pbk.)
ISBN 978 0 7304 4477 0 (epub)
1. Tarawera, Mount (N.Z.)—Eruption, 1886—Juvenile fiction.
[2. Volcanic eruptions—Fiction. 3. Maori (New Zealand people)
—Fiction. 4. Tarawera, Mount (N.Z.)—Eruption, 1886—Fiction.]
I. Title. II. Series.
NZ823.2—dc 22
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