These two worthies at first were by no means keen to take me, as they did not consider I was hard enough, but I managed to overcome their scruples, and when they found I soon became as hard and untiring as themselves they quickly began to instruct me in their wonderful bush lore. Yes, and bush lore is a very wonderful science, and to be mastered by no one who does not give himself up heart and soul to its study. First of all there are so many things a new chum must learn and remember, and it must be impressed on him that the bush is revengeful and if treated with disrespect is apt to exact a mortal punishment. Let me enumerate a very few of the things a man must thoroughly master before he can call himself a scout: He must learn to use his senses to an unnatural degree. His eye must get accustomed to see and note everything, although he is giving his attention to something else. At the same time his senses of smell, hearing and feeling must also always be on deck, while his memory must retain every mortal thing his senses have discovered and noted. He must be able to pass through the bush day or night as noiselessly as a bat and in as straight a line as a bee, although in crossing it he will surely be encountered by many obstacles, which he must be able to get over, get under, or get round and pick up again his straight line. He must be able to approximately tell the time, day or night, and also to steer his course without compas, sun or stars. He must learn the different call and note of every day or night bird and be able to distinguish them so as to be sure that any bird is calling with its natural note at its proper time and in its correct locality. These are only a few of the things a tyro has to learn and digest, or if he does not do so don’t let him go scouting when Hau Haus are hostile. I am not going to turn this chapter into an article on scouting, but have simply told you a few of the subjects I had to learn, and which I did learn, and digested so carefully that at last I became, and mark you it was after long and weary work, cognisant that I owned another sense or instinct that informed me if I was going right or wrong and eventually became so acute that in some ways it warned me of approaching danger. All this was not learned in a day or without undergoing great hardship, but I stuck at it, wandering through the rough country with my queer companions, and gradually mastering some of their marvellous skill and bush-craft. Our duty chiefly consisted in searching for pahs in the most inaccessible parts of the country, for although the fighting had, for a time, ceased, yet we were well aware that the natives were still hostile, and in fact so long as they clung to the Hau Hau or Pai Marire faith they must continue to remain so.