nd thou, Hini, and many other women, did I see
slay thy children and their children, and cook and eat them, even as the
wild pigs had eaten those men and women that lay dying on their mats.
And this, O people! is all of the dream that came to me; for then a
great sweat ran down over my body, and a heavy pain came upon my heart,
so that I awoke.'

She trembled and sank down again among the women, in the midst of whom
she had been sitting, and then growling, angry murmurs ran round the
assemblage, and the names of Narue and the king's daughter passed from
lip to lip.

* * * * *

Well as they liked their chief's son--for he was distinguished alike
for his bravery and generosity--they yet saw that his marriage with Laea
would mean a continued existence of misery to them all, or at least so
long as the young man's passion for his wife lasted.

Past experience had taught them many a bitter lesson, for ever since
their island had been conquered, they had been subjected to the payment
of the most exacting tribute.

Fertile as was Tetuaroa, the continued demands made upon its people
for food by the royal family of Tahiti had frequently reduced them to a
condition bordering upon starvation.

But these requests had, of late years, been so much modified, that the
island, under the rule of Mahua, had become renowned for its wealth of
food and the prosperous condition of its inhabitants.

It was, therefore, with no pleasant feelings that the people viewed
the approaching marriage of the son of their chief to the child of the
grasping Tetoro, a man who would certainly see no abatement made in
the extortions he had succeeded in inducing his vassal Mahua to again
inaugurate.

* * * * *

At midnight, long after the women were asleep, the principal men of the
island met together and talked of the dream described by the slave girl.
So firmly were they convinced that she had been chosen by the gods as
a means of warning them of their impending rate if the marriage took
place, that they firmly resolved to frustrate it, even if it cost every
one of them his life.

But, so that neither Mahua nor his son should suspect their intentions,
they set about to prepare for the great feast ordered by Tetoro; and for
the next week or so the whole population was busily engaged in bringing
together their various presents of food and goods, and conveying them
to the chief's house,