And gazed with eyes of ruby at Rua's darkening eye.
"Taheia, here is the end, I die a death for a man.
I have given the life of my soul to save an unsavable clan.
See them, the drooping of hams! behold me the blinking crew:
Fifty spears they cast, and one of fifty true!
And you, O priest, the foreteller, foretell for yourself if you can,
Foretell the hour of the day when the Vais shall burst on your clan!
By the head of the tapu cleft, with death and fire in their hand,
Thick and silent like ants, the warriors swarm in the land."

And they tell that when next the sun had climbed to the noonday skies,
It shone on the smoke of feasting in the country of the Vais.


NOTES TO THE FEAST OF FAMINE


In this ballad, I have strung together some of the more striking
particularities of the Marquesas. It rests upon no authority; it is in no
sense, like "Rahero," a native story; but a patchwork of details of manners
and the impressions of a traveller. It may seem strange, when the scene is
laid upon these profligate islands, to make the story hinge on love. But
love is not less known in the Marquesas than elsewhere; nor is there any
cause of suicide more common in the islands.

{2a} "Pit of Popoi." Where the breadfruit was stored for preservation.

{2b} "Ruby-red." The priest's eyes were probably red from the abuse of
kava. His beard (ib.) is said to be worth an estate; for the beards of old
men are the favourite head adornment of the Marquesans, as the hair of women