When Kakepuku put on his fog-cap, and the mists filled the long-dead crater of the volcano and crept down the upper slopes, the countryside knew that rain was at hand. The other mountains, such as Pirongia, might cloud themselves with mist and the sign go unheeded, but Kakepuku’s tohu-ua never failed. Then there is the curious nature-myth which tells how gently-rounded Kawa was Kakepuku’s wife, a story told with much circumstantial detail by the old Maoris of the Waipa and the Puniu, a story over-long to be told here with its tale of battle between the jealous Kakepuku and that mountain Lothario Karewa—now Gannet Island, off Kawhia; one which seems dimly to reveal the geological past of these volcanic peaks. [1] This singular beauty of landscape setting cannot but enhance the love of one’s native land in those whose lives are cast within sight of the mountains and hills of the border. The Maori loved the country, albeit he made comparatively little use of it, with an intensity which not many pakehas realise. There is a song of Ngati-Maniapoto often chanted in the old days when a fighting column paraded in the village marae before setting out on the warpath. The chief, facing the parade of warriors, uplifted his taiaha and shouted as he pointed to the blue mountain looming near: Ko whea, ko whea— Ko whea tera maunga E tu mai ra ra? (“What is yonder mountain soaring high above us?”) And with one voice the warriors yelled, as they burst into the ferocious stamp and weapon-thrusting of the tutu-ngarahu or peruperu dance: ’Tis Kakepuku! ’Tis Pirongia! Ah, ’tis Kakepuku! Ah, draw close to me, Draw close to me, That I may embrace thee, That I may hold thee to my breast! A—a—ah! A similar chant, applying to Mount Egmont, was used by the Taranaki Maoris. In each case the mountain was regarded as a lover, and symbolised nationality and clanship, and a reference to it never failed as a patriotic stimulus. Now the ancient owners of the Waipa and Puniu plains are but a remnant and their tales and songs are but the faintest memory; but the old volcano-gods remain, graceful nature-carved monuments, and their poetry no less than their beauty of form should inspire even the matter-of-fact pakeha with something of the Maori love and veneration for the high places of the land.