“The Two Rivals.”

A young man said, “Yes; men are such good haters that they can do the most spiteful things to get their own way; and they even play with the gods to get the revenge they seek. Now listen to my tale, which shows how bad men are:-

“Once there was a fine-looking chief, whose fine face was so beautifully tattooed that all the girls wished to have him, but there were only two out of the great number who told their love to him. Each of these young women knew that the other wanted to have him.

“He was a kind-hearted man; he loved all the young women who loved him; he was like the tui on a koroi-tree when the fruit is ripe; out of the great quantity of fruit before him he does not know which to eat; even so this chief loved all the girls, but did not know which to have. The two young women went to him whenever they liked, and sat by him, and talked to him.

“He talked to each of them in the same way. One of the girls, Poki, made a koki kanae,¹ which she knew he liked better than any other kind of food, and put a dead papa² in the centre of it, and told a slave to carry it to him, and tell him that Kahi (the name of the other girl) had sent it. He took a mouthful of the koki, but what was his horror to find he had a papa in his mouth; he vomited, and jumped, and danced, and got into a furious rage, and at last sat down and page 320 thought that women were worse than the spirits of children who died before they had seen the light of this world, for such are the most malicious gods. Soon after this Kahi came to see him. He talked about nothing but lizards, and asked her if she liked to eat lizards.

“Some days after this she found out from the slave what had been done; she also overheard Poki and the chief agree to go together in the evening to the place where Poki's relations lived. Kahi took a large calabash, and cut eyes, a nose, and a mouth in it; she took this, and went and sat by the road by which they were to pass. She had with her a smothered fire, the embers of which she put into the calabash when she heard them coming, and blew the fire into a blaze, which made the eyes, and nose, and mouth in the calabash look like those of a god. At this spot the road ran close to a cliff, at the bottom of which there was a deep creek. When the two saw the god of fire, the chief ran away as fast as he could, while Poki was so frightened that she could not run as fast as her lover. She cried out to him to stop and help her, for the god had hold of her feet. But on he ran. In her fright she ran off the road, and fell over the cliff, and although the cliff was not very high, yet was stunned, and falling into the water, she was drowned.

“Kahi again went after her beloved, and after many moons got him. So you see, young women, that men are a very revengeful set of fellows.”

“Stop!” said a girl. “You have eyes, yet when you page 321 look at an object you do not see the thing looked at as though it were two; even so, you young men, though you have eyes to see, and minds to think, and thoughts to try, still with these three powers you are led, as in the case of your eyes, to see only one object, and that is your praise or honour. What evil did that woman do? If she tried to get the object of her love, when he did not know his own mind, it was quite right that he should be taught. But what a coward he was! Did he love the girl when he ran away and let the god catch her? If I had been in her place, I would have caught him, and pulled him over the cliff.

“But women are cowards also,” said Humpy. “Now listen, and I will tell you a tale.”

“Yes,” answered a girl, “tell a tale. That is all you can do to amuse yourself during your life, poor lizard that you are! You may tell tales of love until you are as old as the rock which has stood for generations at the mouth of the Wairere river, even from the time when Maui was a boy, and still not gain a wife.”

“Quite true,” answered Humpy; “yet I know there is no hump on my heart or soul. What does it matter that the tree looks crooked, if the wood is good? It is not always beauty that can sway by words. It may do so with girls; but the time may come when girls may not speak, and my hump will not be seen in the beauty of the words my tongue shall utter.”

“Yes, yes,” cried out a young man; “we will listen to that when that time comes. Now for the tale.”