Then, all most reverently standing still, Ngahue gathered a little soil and scattered it to the four quarters of the earth and, having cast his most cherished ornament into the sea in propitiation, he chanted this prayer to the Spirit of the Land:-- We arrive where an unknown earth is under our feet; We arrive where a new sky is above us. We arrive at this land, A resting-place for us. O Spirit of the Earth! We strangers now humbly Offer our hearts as food for thee.[12] And Ngahue loved the new land, for the forest trees were tall and splendid, and the flowers beautiful and radiant as _kahukura_[13] in the sky. Great eels swarmed in the rivers, fish in plenty swam in the sea, and sharks, whose teeth are for ornament and for women when they raise the _tangi_. Whales, also, played in the near seas, and seals basked upon the rocks. Birds of song and birds for food flew in the air or ran along the ground or swam upon the lakes and rivers. But one giant bird with feeble wings stalked with long legs over the hills; and, though this bird was twice the height of an ordinary man, and of a strength prodigious, yet did Ngahue slay one such in his wanderings about the new land.[14] Earth, too, gave of her treasures a most beautiful stone, green of hue and clear as light at dawn or dense as a storm-cloud, and so hard withal that a club which Ngahue fashioned from it cracked the skull of one of his foes, yet itself brake not in pieces. So, looked Ngahue north or south or east or west; looked he inland where the tall mountains hid their snowy peaks in the bosoms of the rosy clouds, or looked he upon the "many dimpled smile of ocean," behold, the land was very good. Then Ngahue, having gathered many things which would not perish by the way, called his friends and said, "See now; let us return to Hawaiki, taking these our treasures, which, when our kinsmen see, they will eagerly follow us hither. So shall they gain a peaceful home, and so shall the land the gods have given us be filled with stout hearts, and our seed increase and multiply. What say ye, O my brothers?" And Te Weri and Te Waerau joyously cried, "_Kapai!_"[15] and the warriors shouted their war-cry; but the _tutua_ raised their voices and wept for happiness that they should be free of war's alarms. So they came again after many days to Hawaiki, whence all their kinsmen were willing to go with them to the new and beautiful land which had been given to Ngahue. Moreover, strife still raged; wherefore, they of the weaker side came privately to Ngahue and begged that they might go with him; to which the chief willingly consented, knowing that the more the folk the better for the new land.