Tihi-o-te-Rangi

Also known as: Tihi · Role: warrior and ariki · First appears: Chapter XV · Tihi-o-te-Rangi · Part 1

In Chapter XV · Tihi-o-te-Rangi · Part 1, Tu-poho led the Nga-puhi in a night attack that killed many of Tihi-o-te-Rangi’s people. Tihi killed Ma-tata and offered its blood to Maru for the war-tapu, then went to find Tu-poho and followed his enemies to free his sister, Matike, who had been given as a slave to Te-marama. He declared that he would take his tribe’s war-weapon into Tu-poho’s land to avenge his people and destroy the Nga-puhi.

In Part 2, Tihi left the tribe by night and returned to his destroyed pa, where he summoned the mountain tribes to take revenge on Tu-poho. He built high palisades around the pa. After Te-marama began wandering across the land and eventually reached Kau-ara-paua asking for Tihi, the slave escaped and told him that Te-marama had been killed. Tihi struck the slave dead with his mere; then he killed Rongo-mai and his kin, and began a war against Tu-poho. The account says that he sat alone, sorrowing, and that happiness never again entered his heart; the war between the two chiefs followed.