By all the towns of the Tevas they went, and Papara last, The home of the chief, the place of muster in war; and passed The march of the lands of the clan, to the lands of an alien folk.
And there, from the dusk of the shoreside palms, a column of smoke Mounted and wavered and died in the gold of the setting sun, "Paea!" they cried. "It is Paea." And so was the voyage done.
In the early fall of the night, Hiopa came to the shore, And beheld and counted the comers, and lo, they were forty score:
The pelting feet of the babes that ran already and played, The clean-lipped smile of the boy, the slender breasts of the maid, And mighty limbs of women, stalwart mothers of men.
The sires stood forth unabashed; but a little back from his ken Clustered the scarcely nubile, the lads and maids, in a ring, Fain of each other, afraid of themselves, aware of the king And aping behaviour, but clinging together with hands and eyes, With looks that were kind like kisses, and laughter tender as sighs.
There, too, the grandsire stood, raising his silver crest, And the impotent hands of a suckling groped in his barren breast.
The childhood of love, the pair well married, the innocent brood, The tale of the generations repeated and ever renewed -Hiopa beheld them together, all the ages of man, And a moment shook in his purpose.
But these were the foes of his clan, And he trod upon pity, and came, and civilly greeted the king, And gravely entreated Rahero; and for all that could fight or sing, And claimed a name in the land, had fitting phrases of praise;But with all who were well-descended he spoke of the ancient days.
And "'Tis true," said he, "that in Paea the victual rots on the ground;But, friends, your number is many; and pigs must be hunted and found, And the lads troop to the mountains to bring the feis down, And around the bowls of the kava cluster the maids of the town.
So, for to-night, sleep here; but king, common, and priest To-morrow, in order due, shall sit with me in the feast."Sleepless the live-long night, Hiopa's followers toiled.
The pigs screamed and were slaughtered; the spars of the guest-house oiled, The leaves spread on the floor. In many a mountain glen The moon drew shadows of trees on the naked bodies of men Plucking and bearing fruits; and in all the bounds of the town Red glowed the cocoanut fires, and were buried and trodden down.
Thus did seven of the yottowas toil with their tale of the clan, But the eighth wrought with his lads, hid from the sight of man.
In the deeps of the woods they laboured, piling the fuel high In fagots, the load of a man, fuel seasoned and dry, Thirsty to seize upon fire and apt to blurt into flame.
And now was the day of the feast. The forests, as morning came, Tossed in the wind, and the peaks quaked in the blaze of the day And the cocoanuts showered on the ground, rebounding and rolling away:
A glorious morn for a feast, a famous wind for a fire.
To the hall of feasting Hiopa led them, mother and sire And maid and babe in a tale, the whole of the holiday throng.
Smiling they came, garlanded green, not dreaming of wrong;And for every three, a pig, tenderly cooked in the ground, Waited, and fei, the staff of life, heaped in a mound For each where he sat; - for each, bananas roasted and raw Piled with a bountiful hand, as for horses hay and straw Are stacked in a stable; and fish, the food of desire, (13)And plentiful vessels of sauce, and breadfruit gilt in the fire; -And kava was common as water. Feasts have there been ere now, And many, but never a feast like that of the folk of Vaiau.
All day long they ate with the resolute greed of brutes, And turned from the pigs to the fish, and again from the fish to the fruits, And emptied the vessels of sauce, and drank of the kava deep;Till the young lay stupid as stones, and the strongest nodded to sleep.
Sleep that was mighty as death and blind as a moonless night Tethered them hand and foot; and their souls were drowned, and the light Was cloaked from their eyes. Senseless together, the old and the young, The fighter deadly to smite and the prater cunning of tongue, The woman wedded and fruitful, inured to the pangs of birth, And the maid that knew not of kisses, blindly sprawled on the earth.
From the hall Hiopa the king and his chiefs came stealthily forth.
Already the sun hung low and enlightened the peaks of the north;But the wind was stubborn to die and blew as it blows at morn, Showering the nuts in the dusk, and e'en as a banner is torn, High on the peaks of the island, shattered the mountain cloud.
And now at once, at a signal, a silent, emulous crowd Set hands to the work of death, hurrying to and fro, Like ants, to furnish the fagots, building them broad and low, And piling them high and higher around the walls of the hall.
Silence persisted within, for sleep lay heavy on all;But the mother of Tamatea stood at Hiopa's side, And shook for terror and joy like a girl that is a bride.
Night fell on the toilers, and first Hiopa the wise Made the round of the house, visiting all with his eyes;And all was piled to the eaves, and fuel blockaded the door;And within, in the house beleaguered, slumbered the forty score.
Then was an aito dispatched and came with fire in his hand, And Hiopa took it. - "Within," said he, "is the life of a land;And behold! I breathe on the coal, I breathe on the dales of the east, And silence falls on forest and shore; the voice of the feast Is quenched, and the smoke of cooking; the rooftree decays and falls On the empty lodge, and the winds subvert deserted walls."Therewithal, to the fuel, he laid the glowing coal;And the redness ran in the mass and burrowed within like a mole, And copious smoke was conceived. But, as when a dam is to burst, The water lips it and crosses in silver trickles at first, And then, of a sudden, whelms and bears it away forthright:
So now, in a moment, the flame sprang and towered in the night, And wrestled and roared in the wind, and high over house and tree, Stood, like a streaming torch, enlightening land and sea.
