A Canoe In the Mist Read Online Free Page B

great boulder close to the shore, covered with yellow lichen, halfway down a long inlet. To each traveller Sophia gave a frond of fern to be tossed on to the rock as a koha. After they had all obeyed amidst good-natured laughter, the oldest of the boatmen bunched the rest of the fern together and tapped the rockwith it several times, to the rhythm of a chant.
    The tourists didn’t know whether to smile or be solemn. Only Mrs Fazackerley said when it ended, ‘What was all that about?’
    ‘It is a karakia,’ answered Sophia.
    ‘What, a sort of prayer to the old devil?’
    ‘Call it that if you like. The karakia is as old as the custom.’
    ‘Do you really believe in that bad-weather spirit?’ asked Dr Ralph more politely.
    ‘We never scorn a legend,’ said Sophia. ‘Didn’t your St George have to deal with a dragon? You will see that we end our journey safely.’
    Very soon afterwards the boat was gliding smoothly in to the landing place at Te Ariki.

4
The Fairy Staircase
    T e Ariki was another pretty village with whares scattered up a hillside above a broad flat where the small Kaiwaka River entered the lake. The whale-boat passed by many canoes and fishing nets along the shore before stopping a short way up the river, behind a long thin canoe. ‘All ashore,’ said Ruka after jumping out himself.
    People were hurrying down to join the boatmen in anxious conversation about the wave, which had also risen here. But there was no holding back the cluster of small children. They made hilarious fun with an impromptu haka of welcome.
    A cloud of steam gave its signal. ‘A ngawha!’ cried Lillian, all excitement as she raced through the trees to find it. Oh, how beautiful! The hot spring bubbled cleanly out of a cave overhung by climbing ferns, at the foot of a tall cliff lush with greenery, making a gentle hissing sound.
    ‘Oh Mattie!’ she exclaimed, ‘you must like this one!’
    But Mattie wasn’t there. Lillian ran back to the boat and found only Sophia, who said the others had gone with Dr Ralph to see how the fishing nets were made. Lillian was huffed. She’d do her own looking, then. She let the local children show her where kits of food were cooking in a steam vent, and flax fibre soaking to softness in a dark pool, ready for weaving. Ngatoro had done well for the people of Te Ariki.
    And still she was first back at the river. Idly she dipped her hand into the water just as a tall Maori came by with a large, bulging kit.
    ‘Why, the water’s warm!’ she said.
    The man laughed. ‘It has come from Rotomahana, the warm lake,’ he said.
    Lillian felt foolish. She knew that was the meaning of the name. ‘Do we go in the canoe?’ she asked and at once felt foolish again, for obviously they could never all fit in. But the man answered politely, ‘No, the river is too strong. We take the lunch. You walk. At the lake we give you a ride.’
    ‘Lillian! Here we are,’ broke in Mattie’s cheery voice.
    ‘Why did you go away?’ Lillian demanded, still in a huff.
    ‘I told you I don’t like hot springs, but I knew you wanted to see it so I let you go,’ said Mattie mildly.
    ‘But this was a pretty one, coming out among ferns, like our waterfall!’
    ‘We didn’t know that, did we?’ Mattie put her arm round Lillian’s waist. ‘We’ll stick together from now on.’
    ‘We didn’t mean to take Mattie away from you,’ said Mrs Hensley kindly.
    The whole party was now gathered and Sophia handed out currant buns and apples. She introduced the two canoemen: Hato, the tall one who had spoken to Lillian, and a younger man named Pera. The boatmen would wait at Te Ariki until they returned.
    When all were busily munching, Lillian found a private moment to ask Sophia a question she knew would not be answered in front of tourists.
    ‘Please,’ she said, ‘how did you know the big canoe would not answer?’
    ‘Because it is a waka wairua.’
    ‘I don’t know what that means!’
    ‘Never mind. You will