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Hine-Moa got into this to warm herself, for she was trembling all over, partly from the cold, after swimming in the night across the wide lake of Rotorua, and partly also, perhaps, from modesty at the thought of meeting Tutanekai.
Whilst the maiden was thus warming herself in the hot spring, Tutanekai happened to feel thirsty and said to his servant, 'Bring me a little water. So his servant went to fetch water for him, and drew it from the lake in a calabash, close to the spot where Hine-Moa was sitting. The maiden, who was frightened, called out to him in a gruff voice like that of a man: 'Whom is that water for?
He replied, 'It's for Tutanekai. 'Give it here then, said Hine-Moa. And he gave her the water and she drank, and, having finished drinking, she purposely threw down the calabash and broke it. Then the servant asked her, 'What business had you to break the calabash of Tutanekai? but Hine-Moa did not say a word in answer.
So he went feeling about, along the banks of the hot spring, searching everywhere, whilst she lay coyly hid under the ledges of the rocks, peeping out, wondering when she should be found. At last he caught hold of a hand and cried out, 'Hullo, who's this? And Hine-Moa answered: 'It's I, Tutanekai. And he said: 'But who are you? Who's I? Then she spoke louder, and said: 'It's I, 'tis Hine-Moa.
He therefore took a second calabash and went back and drew water in the calabash from the lake and Hine-Moa again said to him, 'Whom is that: water for? So the slave answered as before, 'For Tutanekai. And the maiden again said, 'Give it to me, for I am thirsty. And the slave gave it to her and she drank and purposely threw down the calabash and broke it.
And Hine-Moa knew the voice, that the sound of it was that of the beloved of her heart; and she hid herself under the overhanging rocks of the hot spring. But her hiding was hardly a real hiding; rather a bashful concealing of herself from Tutanekai that he might not find her at once, only after trouble and careful search for her.
'Now, O Governor, spoke the Maori chief, 'look round you and listen to me, far there is something worth seeing here. Sir George was sitting on the very spot where sat Hine-Moa, the great ancestress of the tribe, when she swam the lake to join her sweetheart Tutanekai. She was a maiden of rare beauty and high rank, and many young men desired to wed her.
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