ting the second verse,--

"Na-ya, Ha-te Oyo-y[=a]-u[=a],
U[=a]-tir-anyi Tya-au-era-nyi,"--

and the jokers had dispersed, Say slowly retreated within the room,
cowered down by the hearth, a sharp stone-splinter in her hand and her
eyes fixed upon the door, watching lest anybody should appear. She
listened with throbbing heart to discover whether there was any
shuffling sound to betray the approach of one of the Koshare. She saw
nothing, and no sound was heard except the beats of the drum and the
monotonous rhythm,--

"Heiti-na, Heiti-na,
Nat-yu-o-o, Nat-yu-o-o, Ma-a-a-se-e-e-ua."

The woman began to dig. She dug with feverish haste. The dance lacked
interest for her; time and again had she witnessed it, and well knew the
figures now being performed. She made the hole as small as possible,
digging and digging, anxiously listening, eagerly looking up now and
then at the doorway, and starting timidly at the least sound.

At last her instrument struck a resisting though elastic object; it was
the feathers.

Cautiously she pulled, pulled them up until she had drawn them to the
top of the hole, then peered about her, intently listening. Nothing!
Outside the uproar went on, the chorus shouting at the top of their
voices,--

"Ei-ni-a-ha, Ei-ni-a-ha-ay,
Tu-ua Se-na-si Tyit-i-na,
Tyit-i-na-a-a, Ma-a-a-se-ua."

Wrenching the bundle from its hiding-place, she concealed it in her
bosom; then carefully replaced the earth and clay; put ashes on this,
then clay; rubbed the latter with a stone; threw on more ashes and more
clay; and finally stamped this with her feet,--all the while listening,
and glancing into the outer room. At last, when it seemed to her that
the most rigid search could detect no trace of her labours, she brushed
the ashes from her wrap and went out under the doorway again.

She appeared composed and more cheerful, but her heart was palpitating
terribly; and at every pulsation she felt the dangerous bundle concealed
beneath her clothing, and she tightened still more the belt encircling
her waist.

The third act of the dance soon ended, and the jesters went to work once
more,--women and girls now became the objects of their attentions. The
screams and shrieks from the roof terraces when a Koshare is tearing
about amongst the women, loud as they are, are drowned by the uproarious
laughter of the men, who enjoy hugely the disgust and terror of the
ot