The approaching canoe, its four paddles flashing in the sun and dipping again all together, was seen from the _kainga_ while still some little distance up the river, and the men and women of the Hukatéré gathered on the water-side and cried and waved their welcome to the long-absent people of the bush. "_Kumea mai te waka!_" they chanted, and the women waved shawls and green branches in the poetic greeting of the _powhiri_. "_To-o-ia mai te waka!_ Oh, haul up the canoe! Draw hitherwards the canoe. To the resting-place--that canoe! To the sleeping-place--that canoe! Oh, welcome, welcome, strangers from the forest-land! Urge swift your paddles, for home darts your canoe!" So, chanting their ancient song, the villagers received the new arrivals, and, still waving their garments and their leafy branches, retired slowly before them as they landed and walked up the sloping banks until the open _marae_ in the centre of the _kainga_ was reached. There the guests from Rukumoana were received by a dignified chief, white-bearded old Nga-waka-taurua (Double-canoe). Now the _powhiri_ was succeeded by the doleful sounds of the _tangi_, and one after another the Hukatéré tribespeople pressed their noses to those of Rupé and his household; and they wept long and unrestrainedly for the dead, for those who had passed away since they last met. And then the feasting. The bush-family and their "tame white man" enjoyed a meal of truly huge proportions and variety in comparison with the meagre forest-fare to which they had been confined so long. And when the _pakeha_ tobacco and _pakeha_ grog came out--unwonted luxuries to the _mohoao_, the bush-people--old Rupé and his household were indeed in the Promised Land for which they had longed for many a month; they had all that the heart of the Hauhau could desire. The feast over, the dried eels and honey, conveyed with so much toil from distant Rukumoana, were brought up to the _marae_, and ceremoniously presented to old "Double-Canoe," who distributed the food amongst the people of the village. The canoe itself was similarly presented to the chief as a gift of _aroha_ from Rupé. In return, the men of Hukatéré placed before the visitors their gifts--£5 in money (representing the sum total of the _pakeha_ cash in the village), and blankets, shirts, and other articles of clothing, of which Bent and his companions were in much need after their rough life in the bush.