Hokitika

“ The only harbour-master south of Hokitika came and told us tales of a wonderful region where few have been; where the olivine rocks shine blood-red on either side of a tremendous gorge. “It’s the finest sight you’ll ever see,” said he; “the road’s none too good; you’ll need be careful in the rivers, specially the Haast; there’s many a man’s been washed down in the Haast, and they never come out alive—no, nor do the bodies neither.” ”

“ Hokitika might boast a fine harbour, were it not for the dangerous bar and shoal-water at the mouth of its river. A long mole has been run out to sea, and moderate-sized steamers can lie alongside the wharf, close to the town. Here we found a busy little launch awaiting passengers for the Mahinapur Creek. I know that this and the lake are among the beauty spots of the West, but a wet day left us only the impression of weird swamps, where white pines grew out of brown water, their branches draped with streamers of ghostly white lichen. ”

“ Let the lives of the pioneers inspire us so that as a corporation we might see the town further progress and be made more and more worthy of the honor done it by associating with its fortunes for all time the names of men distinguished in their professions and in their public life. Let our motto be: “Forward, Hokitika,” and work and strive to achieve that municipal importance which will come from honest effort and unquenched endeavour. ”

“ Mr Buller was the pioneer to prepare the way for the Revd. Harper, who was appointed to Hokitika and came later by sea. Speaking of the gold find here in 1865, Mr Buller comments: “Nothing populates a waste howling wilderness” like gold. When Mr Buller debauched on the ocean beach at the Teremakau he found a stampede of miners going north to a new rush at Greymouth. The beach was alive with men, pack horses and teams tearing north. ”

“ When the find was made known, then miners from the Hokitika, Grey, Otago, Nelson, and Australian gold fields came long in hundreds to try their luck in the new fields for fortunes. The place was immediately named Addison’s Flat, after the discoverer, although the Maori name for that township was Whenua-Pakura, which means red earth. The reason for the Maor’s calling it by that name is because of the red cement that is so plentiful out there. ”

“ Some others, of which one has the form of a regular cone, stand at the foot of the outrunning spurs of the high ranges which bound the horizon.
We now left the busy abode of the mining population, and entered the solitude, although many trial shafts along the river-bed, and afterwards along the high banks near the Hokitika Gorge, proved that numerous prospecting parties had tried their fortune in many localities, without obtaining the desired results. ”

“ In 1864, the Hokitika gold rush broke out, and after the alluvial gold was got rid of, and other small gold rushes was visited, a large number of the miners came to Addison’s in 1867. A large majority of them settled down there and lived the greater part of their lives there. To-day very few of the gallant six thousand pioneers of Addison’s remain on this side of the Great Divide. Some of them travelled to the four corners of the globe. Others who made and saved good sums of money, went to the four large cities of N.Z. and most of them got on well in life, in different speculation. ”

“ Be guided by them and grow great; reject them and die a wanderer, a little man of no account. But first, this is the price that you shall swear by the sacred oath to pay to Hokosa, if his wisdom finds favour in your sight and through it you come to victory: That after you, the king, he, Hokosa, shall be the first man in our land, the general of the armies, the captain of the council, the head of the doctors, and that to him shall be given half the cattle of Nodwengo, who now is king. ”

“ Is not the plan good, Prince?”
“It is very good, Hokosa—save for one thing only.”
“For what thing?”
“This: the white man who is named Messenger might chance to be a true prophet of a true God, and to recover the king.”
“Oho, let him do it, if he can; but to do it, first he must know the poison and its antidote. There is but one, and it is known to me only of all men in this land. When he has done that, then I, yes, even I, Hokosa, will begin to inquire concerning this God of his, who shows Himself so mighty in person of His messenger.” ”

“ Hokosa, you have indeed lost that which you loved, and henceforth you must follow after that which you did not desire. In the very grave of error you have found truth, and from the depths of sin you shall pluck righteousness. ”

“ Hokosa, you have been famous in your day, but it seems that henceforth you who have led must follow.”
“The battle is not yet fought, King,” answered Hokosa. “To-day I met the lightnings without my medicines, and it was a little storm; when I am prepared with my medicines and the tempest is great, then I will challenge this white man to face me yonder, and then in that hour my god shall show his strength and his God shall not be able to save him.” ”

“ The Hokkai are most jealously attached to their own ritual, and to other observances peculiar to themselves; and, inheriting the disposition attributed to their founder, exhibit a narrowness and intolerance rarely met with in Japan. Their characteristic may be said to consist in an emotional fanaticism; and a visitor to one of their temples will generally find a number of devotees,—who thus remain engaged for hours at a time,—chanting the invocation of the sect, “Adoration to the Lotus of the Law,” to a deafening accompaniment of drums. ”

“ Should you so much as dare to approach one of the gates of the Great Place, that moment you shall die.”
“Have no fear, O King,” said Hokosa humbly, “for I have emptied all my heart before you. The past is the past, and cannot be recalled. For the future, while it pleases you to spare me, I am the most loyal of your servants.”
“Can a man empty a spring with a pitcher?” asked the King contemptuously. “By to-morrow this heart of yours may be full again with the blackest treachery, O master of sin and lies. Many months ago I spared you at the prayer of the Messenger ”

“ In vain did we offer explanations.
“‘Peace!’ said Hokosa at length, ‘your words weary us. Look now, either you have preached to us a false god and are liars, or you are traitors to the King you preach, since, lacking faith in Him, you cannot do such works as He gives power to do to those who have faith in Him. Out of your own mouths are you judged, White Men. Choose which horn of the bull you will, you hang to one of them, and it shall pierce you. ”

“ Now, Noma, when he has sworn this oath in your ear, calling down ruin upon his own head, should he break one word of it, and not before, you shall continue the message thus: ‘These are the other words that Hokosa set in my mouth: “Know, O Prince, that the king, your brother, grows very strong, for he is a great soldier, who learned his art in bygone wars; also the white man that is named Messenger has taught him many things as to the building of forts and walls and the drilling and discipline of men. ”

“ Hokosa winced at the sarcasm, and turning to his visitor, said:—
“Now tell me your tale; but say first, why are you so frightened?”
“I am frightened, master,” she answered, “lest any should have seen me enter here, for I have become a Christian, and the Christians are forbidden to consult the witch-doctors, as we were wont to do. For my case, it is——”
“No need to set it out,” broke in Hokosa, waving his hand. “I see it written on your face; your husband has put you away and loves another woman, your own half-sister whom you brought up from a child.” ”

“ The Jap spoke earnestly, as he fell into a kneeling posture in front of Chot.
“Get up, Hoki,” commanded Chot. “There is no need to kneel. We’ll take your word for it.”
But it was easily apparent that Hoki knew more than he would tell. He was afraid, no doubt, of Mr. Lawrence. Beg and plead with him as they might during the rest of the evening, he maintained the strictest secrecy. Anything he knew of the lodge—anything of the mysterious happenings of the previous day and night—would remain locked within his breast. Hoki was at least faithful to his master, and the boys admired him for it. ”

“ I do never mean that the Hokku poems are lyrical poetry in the general Western understanding; but the Japanese mind gets the effect before perceiving the fact of their brevity, its sensibility resounding to their single note, as if the calm bosom of river water to the song of a bird. One of the English critics exclaims from his enthusiasm over Hokku: “That is valuable as a talisman rather than as a picture. It is a pearl to be dissolved in the wine of a mood. ”

“ Hokosa gasped. Why should this woman have spared him?
No further question was asked of her, and the judges consulted together. At length the king spoke.
“Woman,” he said, “you are condemned to die. You will be taken to the Doom-tree, and there be hanged. Out of those who are assembled to try you, two, the Messenger and myself, have given their vote in favour of mercy, but the majority think otherwise. They say that a law has been passed against murder by means of witchcraft and secret medicine, and that should we let you go free, the people will make a mock of that law. ”

“ Listen now, Hokosa: you love me, do you not?—next to this new creed of yours, I am most of all to you. Well, since you have divorced me, I will tell you, I go straight to another man. Now, look your last on me; for you love me, do you not?” and she slipped the mantle from her shoulders and except for her girdle stood before him naked, and smiled.
“Well,” she went on, resuming her robe, “the last words of those we love are always dear to us; therefore, Hokosa, you who were my husband, I leave mine with you. You are a coward and a traitor, and your doom shall be that of a coward and a traitor. ”

“ Nay, I am but a common man without authority; but I am charged to make you another offer, and if you will not hear it then there is an end. Let Hokosa advance alone to that flat rock you see yonder, and there he shall be met, also alone, by one having power to talk with him, namely, by the Lady Noma, who was once his wife. Thus they can confer together midway between the camps and in full sight of both of them, nor, no man being near, can he find cause to be afraid of an unarmed girl. ”

“ But perchance, Hokosa, there are some in this town who may use them as messengers to the prince”—and he looked at him keenly.
“I think not, King,” said Hokosa. “None but a fool would make use of women to carry secret words or tidings. Their tongues are too long and their memories too bad, or too uncertain.”
“Yet I have heard, Hokosa, that you have made use of women in many a strange work. Say now, what were you doing upon a night a while ago with that fair witch-wife of yours yonder in the burying-place of kings, where it is not lawful that you should set your foot? Nay, deny it not. ”

“ I have been sick at heart, and therefore I have not come.”
“What, Hokosa, do your doubts still torment you? I thought that my prayers had been heard, and that power had been given me to set them at rest for ever. Man, let me hear the trouble, and swiftly, for cannot you who are a doctor see that I shall not be here for long to talk with you? My days are numbered, Hokosa, and my work is almost done.”
“I know it,” answered Hokosa. “And, Messenger, my days are also numbered.”
“How is this?” asked Owen, “seeing that you are well and strong. Does an enemy put you in danger of your life?” ”

“ CHAPTER XXI HOKOSA IS LIFTED UP “What would you?” asked Hokosa of the herald as he halted a short spear-cast from the wall.
“My master, the Prince Hafela, desires to treat with your master, Nodwengo. Many men have fallen on either side, and if this war goes on, though victory must be his at last, many more will fall. Therefore, if any plan can be found, he desires to spare their lives.” ”

“ From the standpoint of Buddhism, Hokusai was the crowning glory, the supreme efflorescence of countless previous incarnations. In his career he epitomized the theory of evolution, the embryonic stages being exemplified by his progress through the schools. Trained in the atelier of Shunsho, the most skillful exponent of Ukiyo-ye art, he rapidly absorbed the methods of his master; but even the Popular School was trammelled by convention, and Hokusai’s genius, rejecting academic fetters, winged its flight through all the realms of oriental art. ”

“ And again the Hokku poem is a bell helpless, silent, when with no reader to cooperate; when I say that the readers of Japanese poetry, particularly this Hokku poem, should be born like a poet, I count, I should say, their personal interest almost as much as that of the writers themselves. Therefore in our poetry the readers assume an equally responsible place; and they can become, if they like, creators of poems which in fact are not their own work, just as if one with a bell-hammer did create the bell in the real sense. ”

“ Does Hokosa desire to set up his god against my God—the false against the true?”
“I do,” answered the wizard with passion, “and according to the issue let the judgment be. Let us halt no longer between two opinions, let us become wholly Christian or rest wholly heathen, for to be divided is to be destroyed. The magic of the Messenger is great; once and for all let us learn if it is more than our magic. Let us put him and his doctrines to the trial by fire.”
“What is the trial by fire?” asked Owen.
“You have seen something of it, White Man, but not much. ”

“ She repeated it word for word, making no fault. “Have no fear,” she added, “I shall forget nothing when I stand before the prince.”
“You are a woman, but your counsel is good. What think you of the plan, Noma?”
“It is deep and well laid,” she answered, “and surely it would succeed were it not for one thing. The white man, Messenger, will be too clever for you, for as you say, he is a reader of the thoughts of men.”
“Can the dead read men’s thoughts, or if they can, do they cry them on the market-place or into the ears of kings?” asked Hokosa. ”