Ka mate! Ka mate!
The tohunga is creating a nightmare vision of how disaster can
befall our tribe: in this terrible dream we are part of a crew
exhausted after a long stormy ocean voyage, now beaching our waka at
the end of the Hauraki Gulf. Lacking the energy to fight, we are
slaughtered in the shallows by Ngati Paoa warriors led by
Tutawirirangi. (as indeed Tutawirirangi and his
warriors had defeated these enfeebled Ngati Whatuiapiti people in
recent times)
 A
dying warrior mutates into a dolphin: it is Karo-timu-timu, the
totem animal of Ngati Whatuiapiti - it lives in the sea between
Awahuri and Te Awanga. Our dolphin is hacked open and its heart
removed, skewered on a stick, roasted over a nearby fire. Now the
Ngati Paoa warriors are taking turns to eat our dolphin heart,
devouring our Ngati Whatuirangi mauri. We are gone,
annihilated, ka mate, ka mate... Aue......
|