traces
his descent to a shark and a heroic woman. Directed by an oracle, she
swam beyond sight of land to meet her revolting paramour, and received
at sea the seed of a predestined family. "I think lie," is the king's
emphatic commentary; yet he is proud of the legend. From this
illustrious beginning the fortunes of the race must have declined; and
Tenkoruti, the grandfather of Tembinok', was the chief of a village at
the north end of the island. Kuria and Aranuka were yet independent;
Apemama itself the arena of devastating feuds. Through this perturbed
period of history the figure of Tenkoruti stalks memorable. In war he
was swift and bloody; several towns fell to his spear, and the
inhabitants were butchered to a man. In civil life his arrogance was
unheard of. When the council of Old Men was summoned, he went to the
Speak House, delivered his mind, and left without waiting to be
answered. Wisdom had spoken: let others opine according to their folly.
He was feared and hated, and this was his pleasure. He was no poet; he
cared not for arts or knowledge. "My gran'patha one thing savvy, savvy
pight," observed the king. In some lull of their own disputes the Old
Men of Apemama adventured on the conquest of Apemama; and this unlicked
Caius Marcius was elected general of the united troops. Success attended
him; the islands were reduced, and Tenkoruti returned to his own
government, glorious and detested. He died about 1860, in the seventieth
year of his age and the full odour of unpopularity. He was tall and
lean, says his grandson, looked extremely old, and "walked all the same
young man." The same observer gave me a significant detail. The
survivors of that rough epoch were all defaced with spearmarks; there
was none on the body of this skilful fighter. "I see old man, no got a
spear," said the king.

Tenkoruti left two sons, Tembaitake and Tembinatake. Tembaitake, our
king's father, was short, middling stout, a poet, a good genealogist,
and something of a fighter; it seems he took himself seriously, and was
perhaps scarce conscious that he was in all things the creature and
nursling of his brother. There was no shadow of dispute between the
pair: the greater man filled with alacrity and content the second
place: held the breach in war, and all the portfolios in the time of
peace: and, when his brother rated him, listened in silence, looking on
the ground. Like Tenkoruti, he was tall and lean and a swift walker--a
rare