Trembled a little. As a maid beseems,

Her eyes drooped from his gaze, yet not too soon

To miss the gleam with which he caught the first

Flash of her beauty. With that glance he gained—

Half conscious of a gladness—that this maid

Was still for winning. As the custom is

Her hair fell in twin braids, and were she wed

They had been sacrificed to that estate.

Maiden she was, his eyes caressed the sign

Black o'er the topaz beauty of her breast.

The stranger spoke. "Malua am I called;

I hold for title Tui Tua Kau.

Over the violent seas, beneath the frown,

Cold and untoward, of a starless sky,

18

The waves of chance have borne me; thro' the night

Around me and above the pitiless trades

Were blind with darkness, blown like maiden's hair

Across my face. As palm trees beaten by wind,

The tortured breakers tossed their streaming crests,

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