d have said that the man was a brother of one of my friend's four
wives; which being the case, I dare say he had a sufficient number of
brothers-in-law to afford to kill one now and then.

A worse mishap, however, occurred to him on another occasion. He was
returning from a successful expedition from the south (in the course of
which, by-the-by, he and his men killed and cooked in Shortland-crescent,
several men of the enemy, and forced three others to jump over a cliff
which is, I think, now called Soldier's-point), when off the Mahurangi
a smoke was seen rising from amongst the trees near the beach. They at
once concluded that it came from the fires of people belonging to that
part of the country, and who they considered as game; they therefore
waited till night, concealing their canoes behind some rocks, and when
it became dark, landed; they then divided into two parties, took the
supposed enemy completely by surprise, and attacked, rushing upon them
from two opposite directions at once. My _rangatira_, dashing furiously
among them, and--as I can well suppose--those eyes of his flashing
fire, had the happiness of once again killing the first man, and being
authorized to shout "_Ki au te mataika!_" A few more blows, and the
parties recognize each other: they are friends!--men of the same tribe!
Who is the last _mataika_ slain by this famous warrior? Quick, bring a
flaming brand--here he lies dead! Ha! It is his father!

Now an ancient knight of romance, under similar awkward circumstances,
would probably have retired from public life, sought out some forest
cave, where he would have hung up his armour, let his beard grow,
flogged himself twice a day "regular," and lived on "pulse"--which I
suppose means pea-soup--for the rest of his life. But my old
_rangatira_ and his companions had not a morsel of that sort of romance
about them. The killing of my friend's father was looked upon as a very
clever exploit in itself; though a very unlucky one. So after having
scolded one another for some time--one party telling the other they
were served right for not keeping a better look out, and the other
answering that they should have been sure who they were going to attack
before making the onset--they all held a _tangi_ or lamentation for the
old warrior who had just received his _mittimus_; and then killing a
prisoner, whom they had brought in the canoes for fresh provisions,
they had a good feast; after which they returned all