Not only was old Bashti a stern law-giver, but he was a unique one.  He had selected this day at the one time to administer punishment to two quarrelling women, to give a lesson to all other women, and to make all his subjects glad once again that they had him for ruler.  Tiha and Wiwau, the two women, were squat and stout and young, and had long been a scandal because of their incessant quarrelling.  Bashti had set them a race to run.  But such a race.  It was side-splitting.  Men, women, and children, beholding, howled with delight.  Even elderly matrons and greybeards with a foot in the grave screeched and shrilled their joy in the spectacle.

The half-mile course lay the length of the village, through its heart, from the beach where the Arangi had been burned to the beach at the other end of the sea-wall.  It had to be covered once in each direction by Tiha and Wiwau, in each case one of them urging speed on the other and the other desiring speed that was unattainable.

Only the mind of Bashti could have devised the show.  First, two round coral stones, weighing fully forty pounds each, were placed in Tiha’s arms.  She was compelled to clasp them tightly against her sides in order that they might not roll to the ground.  Behind her, Bashti placed Wiwau, who was armed with a bristle of bamboo splints mounted on a light long shaft of bamboo.  The splints were sharp as needles, being indeed the needles used in tattooing, and on the end of the pole they were intended to be applied to Tiha’s back in the same way that men apply ox-goads to oxen.  No serious damage, but much pain, could be inflicted, which was just what Bashti had intended.

Wiwau prodded with the goad, and Tiha stumbled and wabbled in gymnastic efforts to make speed.  Since, when the farther beach had been reached, the positions would be reversed and Wiwau would carry the stones back while Tiha prodded, and since Wiwau knew that for what she gave Tiha would then try to give more, Wiwau exerted herself to give the utmost while yet she could.  The perspiration ran down both their faces.  Each had her partisans in the crowd, who encouraged and heaped ridicule with every prod.

Ludicrous as it was, behind it lay iron savage law.  The two stones were to be carried the entire course.  The woman who prodded must do so with conviction and dispatch.  The woman who was prodded must not lose her temper and fight her tormentor.  As they had been duly forewarned by Bashti, the penalty for infraction of the rules he had laid down was staking out on the reef at low tide to be eaten by the fish-sharks.

As the contestants came opposite where Bashti and Aora his prime minister stood, they redoubled their efforts, Wiwau goading enthusiastically, Tiha jumping with every thrust to the imminent danger of dropping the stones.  At their heels trooped the children of the village and all the village dogs, whooping and yelping with excitement.