A Rotorua Canoe Chant.

The following tuki-waka was given me by a veteran of the Arawa tribe who narrated that it was sung as a great time-song on a war-canoe expedition from Ohinemutu to Rotoiti Lake in the fighting of 1864 against the East Coast invaders. There were seven large canoes, containing about three hundred men. The captains all chanted this song together, as they swept across the lake abreast of each other:

Rité, ko te rité!
Te ihu takoto atu,
Waenga kia hinga,
Te kei akina—Aha—ha!
Tera koia ko Tioriori
E purehurehu ana i runga ra.
E aku kai kamo e wairutu nei.
Tiaia, a tiaia!
Toki hika toki,
Toki hika toki,

E kai ongeonge ahau ki te noho.
E titiro pi au ko Honehone;
Whakamau kau atu te titiro
Ki te wahapu ki Ohau ra;
I hara mai ra koe
Taku ka tuku kai rau roto.
Tiaia!

Rité, ko te rité!
Hūkeré ka hukeré:
Ka reré—e, a ka reré,
Ka reré ake te papai huruhuru
Ki te papa o te waka nei.
Toki hika toki,
Toki hika toki!

(Translation.)
Together—all together!
Bow-paddles there, dip together;
'Midships there, keep time!
Stern-paddles, all together.
Now we're going along!
See you brightly shining star
Tioriori, flashing in the morning sky,
My eyes are dim with the heat of paddling.
Plunge in your paddles;
Dig away, dig away!

I weary with sitting at my paddle.
How our eyeballs wildly glare!
Steersman, straight for the Ohan River mouth
There before me lies my food—
You, my foe, food for my battle axe!
Paddle away!

All together, all together!
Quickly plunge your paddle blades.
How bravely fly the feathers
That deck our war canoe!
Paddle away
And away!

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