across their shoulders, the last reserve of fruit. The victims bled for the nobles in the old appointed way; The fruit was spread for the commons, for all should eat to-day.

p. 78

p. 79And now was the kava brewed, and now the cocoa ran, Now was the hour of the dance for child and woman and man; And mirth was in every heart, and a garland on every head, And all was well with the living and well with the eight who were dead. Only the chiefs and the priest talked and consulted awhile: “To-morrow,” they said, and “To-morrow,” and nodded and seemed to smile: “Rua the child of dirt, the creature of common clay, Rua must die to-morrow, since Rua is gone to-day.”

p. 79

Out of the groves of the valley, where clear the blackbirds sang. Sheer from the trees of the valley the face of the mountain sprang; Sheer and bare it rose, unscalable barricade, Beaten and blown against by the generous draught of the trade. p. 80Dawn on its fluted brow painted rainbow light, Close on its pinnacled crown trembled the stars at night. Here and there in a cleft clustered contorted trees, Or the silver beard of a stream hung and swung in the breeze. High overhead, with a cry, the torrents leaped for the main, And silently sprinkled below in thin perennial rain. Dark in the staring noon, dark was Rua’s ravine, Damp and cold was the air, and the face of the cliffs was green. Here, in the rocky pit, accursed already of old, On a stone in the midst of a river, Rua sat and was cold.

p. 80

“Valley of mid-day shadows, valley of silent falls,” Rua sang, and his voice went hollow about the walls, “Valley of shadow and rock, a doleful prison to me, What is the life you can give to a child of the sun and the sea?”

p. 81And Rua arose and came to the open mouth of the glen, Whence he beheld the woods, and the sea, and houses of men. Wide blew the riotous trade, and smelt in his nostrils good; It bowed the boats on the bay, and tore and divided the wood; It smote and sundered the groves as Moses smote with the rod, And the streamers of all the trees blew like banners abroad; And ever and on, in a lull, the trade wind brought him along A far-off patter of drums and a far-off whisper of song.

p. 81

Swift as the swallow’s wings, the diligent hands on the drum Fluttered and hurried and throbbed. “Ah, woe that I hear you come,” Rua cried in his grief, “a sorrowful 

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