of these chants the eel-fisher's voice was lifted in a quick burst of passionate remembrance—a defiant haka-song the Hauhaus of Taranaki, too, had adopted as a composition exactly expressing their opinion of pakehas in general, and of the pakeha Governor in particular. It likened Governor Grey to a bush-bullock devouring the tender leaves of the raurekau shrub—a Maori simile for the land-hunger of the whites:
"A he kau ra.
He kau ra!
Uu!
He kau kawana koe
Kia miti mai
Te raurekau.
A he kau ra.
He kau ra!
Auu!
("Ha! A beast art thou,
A beast that bellows—
Oohooh!
A beast art thou, O Governor,
That lickest in
The leaves of the raurekau.
Ho! A beast, indeed,
A beast art thou!
Ooooooh!")
The old Hauhau, warming to the haka, almost yelled the virulent words. The chant broke the white man's drowsing, and he sat up and listened as his companion repeated the vigorous dance-song.
