The adventures of Kimble Bent: A story of wild life in the New Zealand bushCowan, James
History
The adventures of Kimble Bent: A story of wild life in the New Zealand bush
Cowan, James
Bent, Kimble, 1837-1916; New Zealand -- Description and travel
The absolute faith the Hauhaus reposed in Te Ua's precepts and his
pretences to supernatural power has parallels in the records of the
Mahdi's wars in the Soudan, and in other campaigns waged under the
banner of Islam, and more recently still in the Zulu rebellion in
Natal. He assured his followers that when they went into battle the
bullets of the white soldiers would be turned aside in their flight if
they but raised their right hands as if warding the ball off, at the
same time repeating the words "_Hapa! Pai mariré!_" ("Pass over me!
Righteousness and peace!") The expression "_Pai mariré_" was adopted
as one of the designations of the Hauhau religion; and the sign of the
upraised hand became the outward sign and symbol of the warrior faith.
To-day, should you visit the large European-built house of the late
Te Whiti, the Prophet of the Mountain, at Parihaka, you will see a
picture of Te Ua on the wall of the speech-hall, his right hand raised
to his shoulder, palm outwards, as if in the act of invoking his gods
to turn the _pakeha_ bullets aside--"_Hapa! Pai mariré!_" And many a
deluded Hauhau fell to the rifles of the white men before the Maori
confidence in the efficacy of the charm was shaken. But Te Ua had a
very good explanation to offer for any casualties--that if the _pakeha_
bullet refused to be waved aside and insisted on entering the body of a
"righteous and peaceful" son of the faith, it was because the stricken
man had lost faith in the _karakia_--the ritual--and, very properly,
suffered for his unbelief.
A sublimely simple explanation, and one that was perfectly satisfactory
to the prophet and every one concerned, except perhaps the Hauhau who
had happened to stop the bullet.
Even when the glacis of the Sentry Hill redoubt was strewn with the
dead bodies of Hepanaia and fifty of his red-painted braves, the best
manhood of Ngati-Ruanui and Nga-Ruahiné--who fell in a mad attack upon
the walled fort in open daylight chanting their "_Hapa! Pai mariré!
Hau!_"--the faith in Te Ua and his charms was but little abated. And,
unlike the Moslem warrior, who fought to the death in the certain
hope of a speedy translation to Paradise, the Maori fanatic expected
no heavenly reward for his faith and his death-despising ferocity.
No _houris_ with welcoming arms; no eternity of fleshly bliss. No,
it was just utter blind bravery, a sheer trust in a mad creed of
Death-to-the-Whites and Maori Land for the Maori Race.
So the visit of the high-priest of Hauhauism was a great event in the
bush _pa_. The prophet was received with a _powhiri_, or chant and
dance of welcome, by the people of the village; then the _tangi_ and
the doleful hum of weeping for the dead. The _tangi_ over, the prophet
addressed his disciples in the meeting-house; and hearing that there
was a white runaway soldier in the _pa_, he sent for Bent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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