hile they dug, and no pig came. Then he said,
'Where is the pig?' And at that moment the _u'u_ crashed upon his
skull, so that he fell without life and lay in the oven. Wood was
piled about him, and he was baked, and there was feasting in Hanamenu.

"In the twilight Tahia came over the hills, weary and hungry, and
asked for her white man. 'He has gone to the beach,' they said.

"He will return soon, therefore sit and eat, my daughter," said her
father, and gave her the meat wrapped in leaves. So she ate heartily,
and waited for her husband. And all the feasters laughed at her, so
that little by little she learned the truth. She said nothing, but
went away in the darkness.

"And it is written, Haabunai, that searchers for the _mei_ came upon
her next day in the upper valley, and she was hanging from a tall
palm-tree with a rope of _purau_ about her neck."

"That may be a true story," said Haabunai. "Though it is the custom
here to eat the _eva_ when one is made sick by life. And very few
white men were ever eaten in the islands, because they knew too much
and were claimed by some woman of power." He paused for a moment to
puff his cigarette.

"Now there was a sailor whom my grandfather ate, and he was white.
But there was ample cause for that, for never was a man so provoking.

"He was a harpooner on a whale-ship, a man who made much money, but
he liked rum, and when his ship left he stayed behind. They sent two
boats ashore and searched for him, but my grandfather sent my father
with him into the hills, and after three days the captain thought he
had been drowned, and sailed away without him.

"My grandfather gave him my father's sister to wife, and like that
man of whom you told, he was much loved by her, though he would do
nothing but make _namu enata_ and drink it and dance and sleep.
Grandfather said that he could dance strange dances of the sailor
that made them all laugh until their ribs were sore.

"This man, whose name was Honi--"

"Honi?" said I. "I do not know that word."

"Nor I. It is not Marquesan. It was his name, that he bore on the
ship."

"Honi?" I repeated incredulously, and then light broke. "You mean
Jones?"

"It may be. I do not know. Honi was his name, as my grandfather said
it. And this Honi had brought from the whale-ship a gun and a harpoon.
This harpoon had a head of iron and was fixed on a spear, with a
long rope tied to the head, so that when it was thrust into the
whale he wa