THE INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF HIA.
The moon, looking a trifle faded, was just above the western hills
when I started up out of my sleep as if I had heard a sudden noise,
but all was still as the grave. For several seconds I wondered what
had awakened me; then I recollected my whereabouts, and, missing the
sound of the stream, knew that its sudden stoppage had served the
purpose of an alarum clock.
My first thought was to make sure that it had only just stopped, and I
soon settled this, for when I hurried to inspect the channel I found
that the water was still trickling slightly from one pool to another
before ceasing entirely.
Now was my chance. I obliterated all the signs of my camp as far as
was possible, and, stowing my rifle and ammunition in a safe place,
hurried along the bank towards the deep pool. Scarcely had I reached
the last group of bushes, however, when I had cause to start back and
hide myself. There was someone climbing out of the empty pool. Peering
through the branches I saw Ngaraki raise himself to the bank. He had a
large Maori kit in his hand, and with this he walked along the bank
towards me. The light was dim, and I crouched among the bushes while
he passed by within several feet of where I stood. He was evidently
going to fill the kit with kumaras and fruit, and take it within the
mountain again. Why was this lordly chief, whose back was tapu,
playing the part of a slave, if not for the same reasons that had
actuated Te Makawawa before him--to serve the woman with the stars in
her eyes?
I saw my best chance was to enter at once. Accordingly, as soon as
Ngaraki was out of immediate earshot, I slipped from my concealment,
and, climbing cautiously down the bank, dropped on to the shingly bed
of the stream. Before me in the wall of the rock, its lower lip level
with the bottom of the channel, was the now vacant aperture, between
six and seven feet in diameter, and beyond this was the inky blackness
of the cavern within.
I entered the gloomy place, and felt slight gusts of wind upon my
face. Advancing a pace or two on the hard, smooth, rocky floor within,
I looked about me. At first I could see nothing, but presently my eyes
grew accustomed to the gloom, and I found that the cavern--for such it
was--was not as dark as I had thought; I could discern great spaces,
with vast shadows beyond them. Immediately before me, some ten paces
away, was visible the dim outline of a colossal rock, smooth and
rounded. From this a tremendous spar sloped upwards towards the
further wall of the cavern. But these things were towering above me,
and I could get but the vaguest idea of their outline.
I now felt at a loss to know which way to proceed; and, fearing that
at any moment Ngaraki might return, or that a torrent of water might
spring up out of the darkness and wash me out of the mountain like a
bruised rat out of a hole, I made up my mind to risk lighting a match
to see if I could find the source of the stream. I advanced further
into the cavern, testing every footstep, then, striking a match, I
held it up and took a hurried glance round. The floor, worn smooth by
the action of water, sloped up to a huge basin-shaped rock about five
yards in advance of where I stood, and from the lower part of this
rock I caught sight of water trickling as if from a crevice. Quickly
I ran towards this and examined it. In the lower part of the side of
the great vessel was an aperture five or six feet in diameter, which
appeared to be stopped up by a rock fitting the inner edge so neatly
that there was hardly a crevice except that through which trickled the
small escape which had attracted my notice. I could hear the sound of
waves lapping against the rocks above me, and concluded that there was
a large body of water in some reservoir there.
I immediately set to work to find a way up the sheer wall which, with
the great basin, enclosed the space where I stood, making a kind of
rugged courtyard some ten or twelve yards square. The wall which ran
round this space joined with the wall of the cavern on each side of
the aperture by which I had entered, and also with the basin on each
side of the orifice which was stopped by the stone, leaving just
enough of its curved contour to suggest the idea that it _was_ a
basin. It was quite twenty feet high, and at the top there appeared to
run a platform. It was this that I set myself to reach.
A hasty search of the water-worn wall all round, by the light of a
match, revealed, on the left hand as I faced the entrance, a series of
holes in the rock, evidently designed as a ladder. Up these I made my
way and scrambled on to the platform above. Here a strange and
wonderful scene lay spread out before me in a dim, misty light--a
scene whose details appeared indeed to be the handiwork of some giant
race. The vast cavern itself was apparently the work of some
disruptive agency, but it was simpler to believe that the objects
which it contained had been fashioned with human purpose and design,
than that they were the slow work of natural forces during the lapse
of ages. Before me, and occupying the whole of the cavern to my right,
stretched a large lake, with its waters seething as if in a boiling
cauldron. Flung up in a tumult from below, with huge bubbles bursting
on the surface, it rolled outwards to the almost circular margin, and
lapped against the platform on which I was standing. Beyond the foam
and turmoil of this lake was dimly visible the further bank, and above
that rose the craggy sides of the cavern, arching up far overhead into
the darkness. At a glance I saw how the place was lighted. Towards the
left, at the end of a gradually narrowing prolongation of the cavern,
running off obliquely from some outstanding crags straight across the
lake, I could see an opening, with huge perpendicular bars like the
irons of a grating. Through this colossal window, which opened on the
other side of the mountain wall, the rosy dawn was sending its first
messengers into the gloomy place, shedding a soft, diffused glow, in
which everything found a spectral outline.
The topography of this vast cavern was so remarkable and awe-inspiring
that I must describe it here in detail, though briefly. The huge rock
which I had seen from below I now made out to be a bowl-shaped
receptacle some thirty feet in diameter, filled with water from the
lake by means of a narrow channel, so that the flat surface which led
round the top of the basin was continuous with the rim of the lake. It
seemed possible, by means of this continuous and level pathway, to
walk round the top of the basin and strike right across to the other
side of the cavern, upon a narrow partition that separated the lake on
the right from a profound abyss on the left--an abyss which I saw
occupied the whole of the remaining part of the place, including the
gulf with the giants’ window at its far end. It would have been
possible to get across the cavern in this way, had it not been for a
gap in the partition, through which the overflow of the lake rolled
into the depths below. Upon the further lip of the basin which faced
the abyss rested a gigantic spar of granite, the long tapering point
of which sloped upwards for some fifty yards towards the further roof
of the cavern, while its more compact and weighty end lay beneath the
water in the huge vessel. It was evidently the head of this long spar
which now blocked the hole in the bottom and prevented the water from
escaping.
As I was gazing in wonder at these extraordinary stones, I was aroused
by the sound of a footstep crunching on the shingle at the entrance
below. It was Ngaraki coming back. My first impulse was to plunge into
the water and hold on to the rim of the lake, and so conceal myself;
but, thinking there might be some recess near at hand I glanced along
the wall of the cavern to my right, and, seeing a spot nearly half-way
round where the rock seemed to be a shade darker than the general
gloom, I made towards it along the narrow margin of the lake. When I
reached it I found that it was a little recess stocked with what
appeared, by the feel of them, to be pieces of the resinous rimu-heart
which the Maoris use for torches. I could not stay there, as no doubt
Ngaraki would want a torch, and would come to the recess to get one.
Getting a trifle flurried, I continued my way round to the other side
of the lake. There was less light here, owing to the buttress of crags
round which the light from the grating came but faintly, and
consequently I ran less risk of being seen; but if I was to learn
anything of the secrets of the place and of Miriam Grey, as well as
avoid an unnecessary conflict with Ngaraki, I must hide, and that
quickly, for now I saw the dim form of the tohunga moving on the other
side. He was carrying something, probably the kit full of provisions,
along the margin of the lake towards the recess where I knew the
torches were stored.
All this while I was groping among the rocks for some place of
concealment. At length I found a rock about three parts of the way
round, which stood out a little way from the cavern side, offering a
very narrow passage between itself and the main rock. Slipping behind
this, I felt comparatively safe, and stood there awaiting events.
A glance round my barrier showed the shadowy form of the tohunga busy
with something half-way round the lake. It appeared to me as if he was
hanging the basket to a peg on the wall of the cavern, for when he
stood away it remained there. Then he disappeared in the dark recess,
and I conjectured he was going to light a torch. But no--he reappeared
almost immediately with his kaitaka, which he wrapped about him after
the fashion of a Roman toga, and sat down on the margin of the lake.
Apparently he was waiting for something.
The morning light now streamed brighter round the bend of the wall,
and I could see more clearly the great spar sloping upwards to the
roof above. A little beyond my place of concealment was a broad space
of rock, where the partition that held the water up out of the abyss
met the rim of the lake on my side of the cavern. Keeping close in the
dark shadow of the crags I ventured to approach this ledge. A feeling
of awe crept over me as I peered into what seemed to be a vast
bottomless pit--black, profound, and impenetrable. The overflow of the
lake rushing through the gap in the partition made a faint swishing,
hurtling sound as it poured down into the darkness, but no roar as of
falling water came up from below. This fact appalled me: was there,
then, no bottom to that awful abyss? Above the dark, forty feet or
more from where I crouched, hung the gigantic spar, tapering upwards
until its point almost touched the top of the overhanging crags
against the roof. It presented the appearance of a mighty lever, the
fulcrum of which was the lip of the basin on the other side of the
abyss.
A faint glow now struck across past the craggy buttress which at
present concealed the gulf from my view. It hung above the pit and
fell upon the wall of the cavern high on the other side of the lake.
It was the first red ray of the rising sun coming in through the
giants’ window at the end of the gulf. It was this for which Ngaraki
had been waiting, for, with one eye always on him sitting there, I saw
him get up and replace his garment in the recess. Now he was coming
round the lake towards me, and I hurried back to my hiding-place. He
passed on the other side of the rock, which I carefully kept well
between us, and proceeded to climb the crags of the buttress.
While I stood wondering what he was going to do the red glow deepened,
glinting on the long arm of the spar, and falling on the waters of the
lake with a vivid emerald. The deep, high reaches of the cavern wall
showed up in russet light and dark shadow, but most strange and
terrible of all was the lowest shaft, which cut sheer through the inky
blackness of the abyss, and fell upon its steep, smooth wall some
thirty feet below the basin, showing the down-pouring overflow of the
lake like a flying greenstone arch. The light increased, and small
clouds of mist rising out of the abyss threw fleeting rainbows upon
the sides of the basin, upon the under surface of the long spar, and
into the vaulted arches of the vast granite walls.
It was with a hasty glance round that I noted these strange effects,
for all the while I was intent upon Ngaraki’s doings. He had climbed
up the rocks, and was now standing erect upon a narrow ledge high up,
almost on a level with the point in space where the spar’s jagged and
flinty-looking sides tapered off to a fine point. Looking more
closely, I saw that to the extreme end of the spar was lashed a wooden
sprit, which reached a point on a level with Ngaraki’s shoulders, and
about six feet from him. I stood and gripped the rock with nervous
hands, as it slowly dawned upon me what the Maori was going to do.
Surely he was mad--none but a maniac would take such a leap as that!
The sunlight streamed past a corner of the cavern wall beyond, and
tipped the end of the spar with light. The wooden sprit attached now
showed clear and well defined. This was evidently what he was waiting
for. Gathering himself together he took the daring leap without the
slightest hesitation, and in another moment his long figure was
suspended above the dark abyss.
It was with difficulty that I suppressed a cry at witnessing this, but
what followed took my breath away altogether. The long arm began
gradually to swing downwards through space, descending towards the
abyss. Slowly and ponderously the great spar moved until its point,
with the depending figure of the Maori, passed out of the line of
sunlight into the gloom cast by the overhanging crags. Leaning
forward, I strained my eyes towards the dark, moving mass. Surely he
was not going to descend into the abyss! No--he evidently knew what he
was doing. His feet touched a broad ledge of rock a few yards on this
side the buttress, and his body straightened as if for an effort. The
sprit descended upon his shoulder. It bent beneath the weight of the
spar, which quivered at the shock; but the downward course of the
lever was arrested; and, as he stood aside leaving it suspended there
balanced by its own weight, my eye ran along its whole length, and the
cause of this strange equilibrium was at once apparent. A huge round
stone of many tons in weight rested in a hollow of the spar just above
the basin’s rim. The working of the thing was simple, and could be
seen at a glance. The part of the lever in the basin contained a large
hollow, into which the round stone rolled when the arm was raised,
thus forcing the lower part of the head of the spar against the
aperture at the bottom of the basin, and stopping the flow of the
water. When, on the other hand, the arm was lowered, as had just been
effected by the Maori, the stone rolled up from the hollow and settled
in a groove immediately above the fulcrum, thus maintaining the whole
spar in a state of equipoise. So neatly balanced it was that when
Ngaraki let go and stood away, it remained stationary, quivering
throughout its whole length, as the rolling stone oscillated for a few
moments in its socket. In the very centre of the arm that stretched
across the abyss was a narrow constriction. So thin was the rock at
this point that it offered an explanation of the artifice of the
supple sprit at the end, and also of the Maori’s action in steadying
the spar before standing aside, for it was evident that if it were
brought to a standstill by a sudden impact against the rocky ledge,
there was danger of a breakage at the constricted point--in which case
the whole thing, rolling stone and all, would go hurtling down into
the abyss below. As my eye fell on the gap in the partition, I noticed
that there was a change in the overflowing torrent. It was reduced to
half its bulk. This was the work of the stupendous lever; its head,
rising out of the aperture in the basin, had liberated the water,
which was now escaping through the hole in the mountain side, and,
thus relieved of half its flood, the torrent which poured down into
the abyss was diminished accordingly.
Strange thoughts flashed through my mind in the few seconds that had
passed since the descent of the spar. Was this the work of some race
of giants, long since dead and gone? Who had hewn that round stone out
of the solid granite? What giant hand had shaped that colossal bowl
and balanced the long spar so neatly on its lip? For answer I
considered two things: first, the saying of Te Makawawa that the giant
sorcerers of old had fashioned a false image of Hinauri as a long spar
in the lower parts of the temple, and had bound it down with a great
round stone, and, second, that science would call these things freaks
of nature, formed by the age-long action of water.
Between these two things I was unable to choose, for they flashed
through my mind just as Ngaraki was coming along the edge of the abyss
towards me. There was now considerable danger that I should be seen,
for it was fairly light, even in the shadow of the crags. However, the
spot behind the rock was dark enough, and I crouched there thinking he
would pass, but what was my dismay to hear the sound of his footsteps
coming round my barrier. He stood still. Surely he had seen me. I was
preparing for a struggle, to be concluded either beneath the water of
the lake or in the depths of the abyss, when I heard the Maori
climbing up the rock above me.
There was dead silence for nearly a minute. The water in the lake
hissed and boiled, and the torrent of the abyss whiffled down into the
darkness; but, beyond that, there was no sound, for the roaring of the
escape through the mountain side had ceased, by which I knew that the
waters had risen above the aperture, and the current was flowing
silently beneath.
Suddenly I heard a forcible exclamation from the rock above me, and, a
moment later, the sound of a plunge. Darting from my hiding-place I
saw, by the commotion on the surface, where the Maori had gone down
into the bubbling depths. With one hand on my sheltering rock to help
me back into the shadows when he rose to the surface, I stood on the
rim of the lake and watched the unfolding waters. Something strange
was taking place beneath there, for the lake was now twisting and
whirling as if a gigantic fish was turning round at the bottom.
I was prepared for almost anything now, after witnessing the
extraordinary evolutions of the spar, but still I must confess I was
staggered at what took place. If anyone could have photographed me
then they would no doubt have secured a fine sample of a
terror-stricken face, with gaping mouth and staring eyes. The boiling
of the water ceased, and there, near the margin of the lake on the
side opposite to the gap in the partition, a wave heaved up beneath
the movement of something rising to the surface. A dark object reared
its head out of the depths. At the same moment there was a hollow,
booming sound overhead. Then, with a rush and a roar, from the side of
the cavern some forty feet above, issued a frothing cascade, which
fell into the centre of the lake with a sound like thunder, dashing
the spray over my face and churning the water into tumultuous foam.
The lower part of the cascade and the whole of the lake now gleamed
like silver in the light of the rising sun. But the Maori had not
risen to the surface. Had he perished down there, or was this simply
another lever contrivance beneath the water?
Half a minute elapsed, during which I stood in utter astonishment
watching the torrent, whose roar and tumult seemed to drown all
thought and feeling. While engaged in collecting my scattered ideas my
eye caught a movement of some object ascending the wall of the cavern
on the right of the cascade. I looked more closely: it was evidently
the kit of provisions which I had seen Ngaraki attach to something
there. That something I now knew to be a cord, but who could be
drawing it up from above? Utterly at a loss, I could only conjecture
that it was Ngaraki, who had passed by some more secret ‘way of the
fish’ beneath the lake, and had now reached a part of the cavern high
above. Fearing that, if this was the case, he might see me, I withdrew
further into the shadows. Well I knew that this ‘way of the winged
fish’ was a passage which it would be worse than useless to attempt,
for I now saw the truth of Te Makawawa’s words to the effect that none
could pass that way without being taught. I realised that my chances
of reaching Miriam Grey without Te Makawawa’s guidance were hopeless,
and that I must turn my attention to the search for her daughter.
Nevertheless, before leaving that strange place I was resolved to
explore its accessible parts and see what hidden things of forgotten
time it might contain.