g fish, come paddling in from
the lagoon; and then came the night. And in the night I heard the sound
of the _vivo_{*} and the beat of the drum, and the songs and laughter
and the shouts of the people as they made merry and sang and danced,
and ate and drank, till the red sun burst out from the sea, and they lay
down to sleep.

* Nasal flute.

'And then, behold there came into my dream, a small black cloud. It
gathered together at Pare, and rose from the ground, and was borne
across the sea to Tetuaroa.{*} As it came nearer, darker and darker
grew the shadows over this land, till at last it was wrapped up in the
blackness of night. And then out of the belly of the cloud there sprang
a woman arrayed as a bride, and behind her there followed men with faces
strange to me, whose stamping footsteps shook the island to its roots in
the deep sea. Then came a mystic voice to me, which said,--

"Follow and see."

* Tetoro's canoe, in which he sent his daughter to Tetuaroa,
was painted black by an English sailor who, living under his
protection, afterwards married his daughter.

'So I followed and saw'--she sprang to her feet, and her voice rang
sharp and fierce--'I saw the strange woman and those with her pass
swiftly over the land like as the shadows of birds fall upon the ground
when the sun is high and their flight is low and quick. And as they
passed, the plantains and taro and arrowroot were torn up and stripped
and left to perish; and there was nought left of the swarms of turtle
and fish but their bones; for the black cloud and the swift shadows
that ran before it had eaten out the heart of the land, and not even one
coco-nut was left.

'And then I heard a great crying and weeping of many voices, and I saw
men and women lying down in their houses with their bones sticking out
of their skins; and wild pigs, perishing with hunger, sprang in upon
them and tore their bellies open with their tusks, and devoured them,
and fought with each other among the bones and blood of those they ate.'

A groan of terror burst from the listening people, and the slave girl,
with her lips parted and her white teeth set, looked with gleaming,
angry eyes slowly round the group.

'Again I heard the cries and the groans and the weeping; and I saw thee,
Foani, take thy suckling child from thy withered breast, and give it to
thy husband, so that it might be slain to feed thy other children. And
then thou, too, Tiria, a