aria Peato. The
captain was like a man mad with _namu_. He called to the sailors to
climb higher. But when one reached to take her by the foot, she
threw herself into the air and fell a great distance into the water.

"The captain cried that he would give four litres of rum to the man
that brought her back. Some ran to get the boat, others dived after
her. I was one of these.

"I have said that it was a black night. When in the water we could
get no sight of her. Then on the ship one turned a bright lantern on
the sea, and all of us saw her arm as it was raised to swim. She was
a hundred feet before us, and swimming with great swiftness. The
sailors meantime had set out in the boat, but they had drunk much rum,
and rowed around and around. We three men swimming in the beams of
the lantern came closer to her at every stroke.

"Almost my hand was upon her, when the largest shark I have ever
seen rose beside her. You know it is at night that these devils look
for their prey. Anna saw the _mako_ at the same moment, and made a
great splashing. I heard her call out the name of Bernadette the
Blessed.

"The men with me turned about, but I kept on. I cried to the boat to
hurry to us. I could see the _mako_ turn in the water, as he must do
to take anything into his mouth. I kicked him and I struck him, and
I cursed him by the name of _Manu-Aiata_, the shark god. If I had
had a knife I could have killed him easily.

"But, Menike, I could do nothing. He did not want me. The boat came,
but not in time. I saw the devil take her in his jaws as the wild
boar takes a bird that is helpless, and I felt him descend into the
depths of the sea. I could do nothing."

A cat's-paw stole across the sea from the southeast, the boat rolled
hard, and Tetuahunahuna sprang erect.

"_A toi te ka!_ Make sail!" he said.

They raised the slender mast, a rose-wood tree, roughly shaped in
the forest, and fastened it to either thwart with three ropes.
Through a ring at its head was passed the lift, and the sail of mats,
old and worn, was set, men and women all fastening the strings to
the boom. Two sheets were used, one cleated about five feet from the
rudder, the other at the disposition of the steersman, who let out
the boom according to the wind.

The breeze sprang up and died, and sprang up again. At last the
deathly calm, the sickening heat, were over, and we sped across the
freshening waves.

Mast and sail out of the way, we stretched o