berry fights like we used to."

But the girls said, as brave as could be:

"Would we?"

And the boys answered:

"Let's see you then!"

So they all ran off and collected puriri berries, big purply red ones,
rather squashy. Then the boys all yelled in chorus:

_Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!
Tenei te tangata puhuru huru
Na na nei i tiki mai--
whaka whiti te ra! Upane! Upane! Upane!
kaupani whiti te ra!_

which means something very warlike, and the girls answered shrilly:

_Ka whawhai tonu! Ake! Ake! Ake!_

They said that because they had heard that someone had said that
sometime about something, and it means "we will fight for ever and
ever."

But they didn't! At the very first volley the berries stained their
dainty frocks, and the girls fled, screaming angrily:

"You horrid things! You've ruined our frocks!"

And the boys grinning delightedly, and rolling their black eyes, thumped
their little brown heels on the ground, and beat their little bare,
brown knees and chanted all together:

"_Akarana Mototapu Rangitoto Ra!_"

And of course you all know what that means! You don't? Well, I'm not
quite sure myself, because I couldn't find it in the dictionary (so
careless of Mr. Webster!) but it really doesn't matter.

[Illustration]

CABBAGE PALM.

(Pickled Cabbages).

Little Swanki, the Piccaninny girl, and Tiki, the
Piccaninny boy, were up in a karaka tree eating the pulp of the ripe
berries. When I was young I was told I would die if I ate the karaka
berries, but I suppose Piccaninny tummies are different.

Anyhow, there they were, skinning the soft yellow pulp, which _does_
took nice, off the hard inside of the berry with their sharp little
white teeth, and throwing the hard part at a kiwi wandering about below
their tree, and thinking it great fun to watch his surprised face as he
tried to dodge the berries.

Swanki had just eaten her fourteenth berry and was reaching for the
fifteenth, when she sighed discontentedly.

"Oh, Tiki," she said, "aren't you sick and tired of eating the same old
foods for ever and ever? Berries--berries--berries! Roots--roots--roots!
And only a few leaves that are worth eating."

But Tiki was a contented little boy, and he couldn't think of anything
nicer to eat than a handful of ripe puriri berries, or the root of a
young fern.

[Illustration: "Oh, Tiki, aren't you sick of eating the same old foods
for ever and ever!"]

"But what el