{1o} "The star of the dead." Venus as a morning star. I have collected
much curious evidence as to this belief. The dead retain their taste for a
fish diet, enter into copartnery with living fishers, and haunt the reef and
the lagoon. The conclusion attributed to the nameless lady of the legend
would be reached to-day, under the like circumstances, by ninety per cent of
Polynesians: and here I probably understate by one-tenth.

{1p} See note "1o" above.



THE FEAST OF FAMINE
MARQUESAN MANNERS




I. THE PRIEST'S VIGIL

In all the land of the tribe was neither fish nor fruit,
And the deepest pit of popoi stood empty to the foot. {2a}
The clans upon the left and the clans upon the right
Now oiled their carven maces and scoured their daggers bright;
They gat them to the thicket, to the deepest of the shade,
And lay with sleepless eyes in the deadly ambuscade.
And oft in the starry even the song of morning rose,
What time the oven smoked in the country of their foes;
For oft to loving hearts, and waiting ears and sight,
The lads that went to forage returned not with the night.