party was sent to join the Taumutu people, and again with reinforcements from Otago, a new attack was launched against Wairewa. Once more Taiaroa sent warning against the defenders, but although many got away from the pā in canoes, they were followed and most of them were killed or drowned. Among those killed were two sisters of Tama-i-hara-nui. This battle ended in a cannibal feast, which was considered particularly atrocious because of the close relationship of the victors and the slain. The war party then went on to attack Purau and Ripapa Island, and although many of the occupants of these villages escaped, some going up the steep hills behind the island and rolling stones down upon their pursuers, very many, including Taununu, were killed. The fighting then ended for a time, mainly because the fear of reprisals drove the people of Taumutu to abandon their village, and together with some of their allies, to seek sanctuary in Otago under the protection of Taiaroa. How long they remained there is not clear, but subsequently Tama-i-hara-nui went down to Otago and assured them that if they went back to Taumutu they would be allowed to live in peace. Most of the exiles believed his assurances, gathered their families, and set out on the northward march. Tama-i-hara-nui's promises, however, were no more than a ruse to get them back within his reach. Gathering a large force from Kaiapoi, he waylaid them as they travelled up the coast. Although, like their attackers, some of the Taumutu warriors were armed with muskets, they were hopelessly outnumbered, and men, women, and children were slaughtered. This was the last major event of the 'eat-relation' feud. Never was a conflict in Canterbury more aptly named, or distinguished by greater confusion, for among the Ngāi Tahu of Canterbury, lines of allegiance had become so involved that strict application of the laws of vengeance, once the first few blows had been struck, gave almost every subdivision of the tribe and almost every family group a reason for attacking or distrusting its neighbours. Even after this destruction of the people of Taumutu in the late 1820s, the feud would probably have flared up again, but within a year or two the Canterbury Ngāi Tahu found it necessary to forget internal differences and to face the threat of invasion as Te Rauparaha and his Ngāti Toa struck their first blows against