and _toetoe_ reeds and earth. To any assault that could be delivered by the Government forces then available, the fort was practically impregnable. At one angle of the _pa_ the Hauhau garrison erected a roughly timbered watch-tower, about thirty-five feet in height. This tower, or _taumaihi_, was a feature of the ancient _pas_ of Maoridom; on its upper platform a sentinel was posted, day and night, to give warning of the approach of the enemy. In front of the _pa_, outside the palisades, a tall flagstaff was set up, and on this staff the Hauhau war-flags were hoisted. There were two gateways in the rear stockading, giving access to the bush. In one end of the _pa_ near the rear was a small tent occupied by Titokowaru. Bent, the cartridge-maker, lived in a little rush-built _wharé_ towards the other end, near one of the gateways. When the stockade was finished the Hauhaus constructed a _tekoteko_, a great marionette-like figure of a man, cut out of a _pukatea_-tree. It was so placed that its head stood about fifteen feet above the ground, well above the front stockade, and it had loose-jointed arms, to which flax ropes were fastened, leading down to the trench below. By manipulating these ropes the arms of the wooden warrior were made to move in the actions of the _haka_, just as if some painted Hauhau were dancing a dance of defiance on the fortress walls. When the fort was finished the garrison gathered in their food supplies, saw to their arms, and for many weeks waited for the _pakeha_. Hauhau scouts and small war-parties daily sallied out from the fort, seeking game in the shape of stray _pakehas_. One of these savage man-hunters was a Ngati-Maniapoto man from the King Country, whose name was Pairama, and who had married a Nga-Rauru woman. He used to go out by himself, looking for some one or something to kill. Te Pairama returned to the stockade in huge jubilation one day, bearing as a trophy of his prowess on the trail a white man's leg! He had, says Bent, scouted down until he was close to Kai-iwi. There he spied a white settler in a grass paddock, carrying a rifle. Down he crouched at once, and stealthily stalked the _pakeha_. Just as the unsuspecting settler came to the paddock gate, the Maori leaped out from behind the fence, with a furious snatch tore the rifle from the man's grasp, and shot him dead with it. He cut off one of the _pakeha's_ legs with his tomahawk, and brought it home as proof of his success on the war-path as proudly as any Indian ever flourished his take of scalps. Up and down the _marae_ of the _pa_ he bounded, exhibiting the captured rifle and severed limb, yelling his war-song, and loudly boasting that he would that night cook the _pakeha's_ leg and eat it all himself.