Folk-Tales of the Maori (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE GIRL WHO WAS COURTED WITH EELS. RUKU' was a pretty maiden who loved eels, and Tupou was a young warrior who loved Ruku'; but whereas she often gratified her appetite, he was left desiring, for Ruku' had no thoughts of marriage. Beside which, Tupou lived with his tribe ou one side of the river, and Ruku' lived with her tribe on the other side; and between the two tribes there was a little friction and heat, owing, strangely enough, to an eeling difficulty. It was what in European politics would be called a fishery dispute?both tribes claimed the sole right to the eels in the river, and as has been stated, Ruku's love of eels was her prevailing passion. Moreover, she was the chieftainess of her tribe, and if there was a firm and lasting plank in her political platform it was resistance to her neighbours' pretensions to an eeling monopoly. Tupou might as well have courted the moon. But fortunately he had a friend named Hikaka, a man of resource and imagination, a great schemer, who stood by him like a friend and a brother. Hikaka saw the solution of the problem at a glance. " It is of no use to send Ruku' love-messages through her walking-about friend," said he. " You should send her eels." " First catch your eels," answered Tupou. " You know that if we fished in the river, Ngati-Maru "?that was the name of Ruku's tribe?" would probably declare war, though Ruku' might eat our eels." " Well, then," retorted Hikaka, " let Ngati-Maru catch the eels?we shall make the present to Ruku' just the same." "I don't understand," said Tupou. "I think you're mad to talk such nonsense." "When Ngati-Maru next go a-fishing," said Hikaka, " send your sister across to their village to visit Hinekino, Ruku's walking-about friend, and leave the rest to me." "Had we not better...