In the centre of the village square or _marae_ stood a rough-hewn pole or flagstaff, about fifteen feet high, on which flew one or two coloured flags. This was the _Niu_, the sacred staff which the Hauhau prophet Te Ua had commanded his followers to erect as a pole of worship in each of their villages. [The _Niu_ was in more ancient times the name of a peculiar ceremony of divination often resorted to by the _tohungas_ or priests; it is perhaps worth noting, too, that in the Islands of Polynesia, the traditional Maori Hawaiki, it is the general name for the coco-nut-tree.] All the inhabitants of the village--men, women, and children--formed up, and began to march round and round the _Niu_, with a priest in their midst, rushing frantically to and fro, and brandishing a Maori weapon as he yelled a ferocious-sounding chant. The people, too, lifted up their voices as they marched, and, after listening a while, Bent found to his astonishment that part of what they were chanting in a singular wild cadence were these words in "pidgin" English: "Big river, long river, big mountain, long mountain, bush, big bush, long bush," and so on, ending with a loudly chanted cry, "_Riré, riré, hau!_" This meaningless gibberish formed part of the incantations solemnly taught to the Hauhaus by Te Ua, who professed to have the "gift of tongues" of which the _pakeha's_ New Testament spoke; his disciples fondly believed that they were endowed by their prophet's "angel" with wonderful linguistic powers. The singular march suddenly ceased, at an order from the shawl-kilted _tohunga_ in the centre, and then the people filed into the village meeting-house, a large _raupo_-reed-built structure, taking Bent with them. He was motioned to a seat beside a Maori, whose name, he afterwards found, was Hori Kerei (George Grey), and who could speak English fairly well. Sitting opposite Bent was a white-bearded old fighting-man, a dour-faced savage, his brown face deeply scored with the marks of blue-black tattoo; his sole attire was a blanket; in his right hand, and partly concealed by the blanket, he held a tomahawk. His hand twitched now and then, as if he were about to flash out the tomahawk and use it on the _pakeha_, from whose face he never withdrew his fierce old eyes. He was the chief, Te Rangi-tutaki. A long talk began. Hori Kerei interpreted. The Maoris asked Bent why he had come to them, why had he run away from his own people. The deserter frankly told them that he was tired of being a soldier, that he had been ill-treated and imprisoned, and that he came to them for protection. "_Pakeha_," said Kerei, "they want to know if you will ever leave the Maori and go back to the soldiers." "No," said Bent; "tell them I'll never run away from the Hauhaus. I want to live with them always; I don't ever want to see a white man again!" "_Kapai!_" said Grey good-humouredly. "That the talk! All right, I tell them true."