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The Lone Sentinel’s Song.

When the Urewera Hauhaus in arms against the Government evacuated Matuahu Pa, on the north side of Lake Waikaremoana, in 1870, and it was occupied by Hamlin’s and Witty’s force of Government Maori from the Wairoa (H.B.), the sole occupant found in the deserted hill pa was an old woman named Mihi-ki-te-kapua (Lament to the Clouds), a woman of rank in the Urewera and Arawa tribes. Old Mihi had been left behind by the garrison when they took to their canoes and crossed to Tikitiki Pa, on the opposite side of the narrow strait leading up to the Mokau arm of the lake. She had been a sentry for the garrison, and had been left to keep watch outside the village. She gave expression to her feelings of pouritanga (sorrow and dejection) in this song, which she composed while crouched in the forest close to the pa when her companions abandoned her. It is often sung to this day by members of the Ngati-Ruapani and Urewera.

(Recited to the author by Hurae Puketapu, of Waimako, Waikaremoana.)

Engari te titi
E tangi haere ana-e!
Whai tokorua rawarawa-e!
Tenei ko au nei,
E manu-e!
Kai te hua-kiwi
Mahue i te tawai
Ka toru te rakau kai runga.
Ka hoki mai ki te pao,
Ka whai uri ki ahau,
Noku ano ko te wareware,
Te whai ao, te tira haere
No Te Hirau.
Whakangaro ana nga hiwi-maunga
Ki Huiarau.
Kia ringia ki te roimata-e!
Kei te rere au
Ki Ohinemutu ra-e!
Ko au anake mahue iho-e!
He heteri^* kiritai ki te Matuahu,
Ki titiro noa atu ra ki waho,
He waka hera e rere atu ra.
Whakatika rawa ake ki runga ra,
Ka momotu ki tawhiti.
Ma wai ra e whai atu, i—a!

[Translation.]

No sound, no cry
But the titi-birds,
Calling through the dark,
Crying as they go!
They ever fly in pairs,
But here alone am I,
Like the kiwi’s solitary egg,
Lost in the tawai woods.
Three forest trees above my head.
Now I’ll arise, I’ll seek my friends,
By whom I am forgotten.
I’ll search for Hirau’s band;
Perchance they are lost in the
Vast hills of Huiarau.
Fast fall my tears;
Would I could fly
To Ohinemutu, far, far away.
They left me here, lone sentinel,
On watch beside Matuahu’s scarped wall;
Watchful was I, gazing o’er the lake
For sign of sail of war canoe,
On Waikare’s dark sea.
I’d rise and seek my friends,
Those vanished ones,
But whither shall I go?
Ah me!