To the land of the Namunu-ura, {1j} to Paea, at length
she came,
To men who were foes to the Tevas and hated their
race and name.
There was she well received, and spoke with Hiopa
the king. {1k}
And Hiopa listened, and weighed, and wisely considered
the thing.
“Here in the back of the isle we dwell in a
sheltered place,”
Quoth he to the woman, “in quiet, a weak and
peaceable race.
But far in the teeth of the wind lofty Taiarapu lies;
Strong blows the wind of the trade on its seaward
face, and cries
Aloud in the top of arduous mountains, and utters
its song
In green continuous forests. Strong is the wind,
and strong
And fruitful and hardy the race, famous in battle
and feast,
Marvellous eaters and smiters: the men of Vaiau
not least.
Now hearken to me, my daughter, and hear a word of
the wise:
How a strength goes linked with a weakness, two by
two, like the eyes.
They can wield the omare well and cast the javelin
far;
Yet are they greedy and weak as the swine and the
children are.
Plant we, then, here at Paea, a garden of excellent
fruits;
Plant we bananas and kava and taro, the king of roots;
Let the pigs in Paea be tapu {1l} and no man fish
for a year;
And of all the meat in Tahiti gather we threefold
here.
So shall the fame of our plenty fill the island, and
so,
At last, on the tongue of rumour, go where we wish
it to go.
Then shall the pigs of Taiarapu raise their snouts
in the air;
But we sit quiet and wait, as the fowler sits by the
snare,
And tranquilly fold our hands, till the pigs come
nosing the food:
But meanwhile build us a house of Trotea, the stubborn
wood,
Bind it with incombustible thongs, set a roof to the
room,
Too strong for the hands of a man to dissever or fire
to consume;
And there, when the pigs come trotting, there shall
the feast be spread,
There shall the eye of the morn enlighten the feasters
dead.
So be it done; for I have a heart that pities your
state,
And Nateva and Namunu-ura are fire and water for hate.”
All was done as he said, and the gardens prospered;
and now
The fame of their plenty went out, and word of it
came to Vaiau.
For the men of Namunu-ura sailed, to the windward
far,
Lay in the offing by south where the towns of the
Tevas are,
And cast overboard of their plenty; and lo! at the
Tevas feet
The surf on all of the beaches tumbled treasures of
meat.
In the salt of the sea, a harvest tossed with the
refluent foam;
And the children gleaned it in playing, and ate and
carried it home;
And the elders stared and debated, and wondered and
passed the jest,
But whenever a guest came by eagerly questioned the
guest;
And little by little, from one to another, the word
went round:
“In all the borders of Paea the victual rots
on the ground,
And swine are plenty as rats. And now, when
they fare to the sea,
The men of the Namunu-ura glean from under the tree