Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson Part 2

About the blazing feast-house cl.u.s.tered the eyes of the foe, Watching, hand upon weapon, lest ever a soul should flee, Shading the brow from the glare, straining the neck to see Only, to leeward, the flames in the wind swept far and wide, And the forest sputtered on fire; and there might no man abide.

Thither Rahero crept, and dropped from the burning eaves, And crouching low to the ground, in a treble covert of leaves And fire and volleying smoke, ran for the life of his soul Unseen; and behind him under a furnace of ardent coal, Cairned with a wonder of flame, and blotting the night with smoke, Blazed and were smelted together the bones of all his folk.

He fled unguided at first; but hearing the breakers roar, Thitherward shaped his way, and came at length to the sh.o.r.e.

Sound-limbed he was: dry-eyed; but smarted in every part; And the mighty cage of his ribs heaved on his straining heart With sorrow and rage. And "Fools!" he cried, "fools of Vaiau, Heads of swine-gluttons-Alas! and where are they now?

Those that I played with, those that nursed me, those that I nursed?

G.o.d, and I outliving them! I, the least and the worst- I, that thought myself crafty, snared by this herd of swine, In the tortures of h.e.l.l and desolate, stripped of all that was mine: All!-my friends and my fathers-the silver heads of yore That trooped to the council, the children that ran to the open door Crying with innocent voices and clasping a father's knees!

And mine, my wife-my daughter-my st.u.r.dy climber of trees Ah, never to climb again!"

Thus in the dusk of the night, (For clouds rolled in the sky and the moon was swallowed from sight,) Pacing and gnawing his fists, Rahero raged by the sh.o.r.e.

Vengeance: that must be his. But much was to do before; And first a single life to be s.n.a.t.c.hed from a deadly place, A life, the root of revenge, surviving plant of the race: And next the race to be raised anew, and the lands of the clan Repeopled. So Rahero designed, a prudent man Even in wrath, and turned for the means of revenge and escape: A boat to be seized by stealth, a wife to be taken by rape.

Still was the dark lagoon; beyond on the coral wall, He saw the breakers shine, he heard them bellow and fall.

Alone, on the top of the reef, a man with a flaming brand Walked, gazing and pausing, a fish-spear poised in his hand.

The foam boiled to his calf when the mightier breakers came, And the torch shed in the wind scattering tufts of flame.

Afar on the dark lagoon a canoe lay idly at wait: A figure dimly guiding it: surely the fisherman's mate.

Rahero saw and he smiled. He straightened his mighty thews: Naked, with never a weapon, and covered with scorch and bruise, He straightened his arms, he filled the void of his body with breath, And, strong as the wind in his manhood, doomed the fisher to death.

Silent he entered the water, and silently swam, and came There where the fisher walked, holding on high the flame.

Loud on the pier of the reef volleyed the breach of the sea; And hard at the back of the man, Rahero crept to his knee On the coral, and suddenly sprang and seized him, the elder hand Clutching the joint of his throat, the other s.n.a.t.c.hing the brand Ere it had time to fall, and holding it steady and high.

Strong was the fisher, brave, and swift of mind and of eye- Strongly he threw in the clutch; but Rahero resisted the strain, And jerked, and the spine of life snapped with a crack in twain, And the man came slack in his hands and tumbled a lump at his feet.

One moment: and there, on the reef, where the breakers whitened and beat, Rahero was standing alone, glowing and scorched and bare, A victor unknown of any, raising the torch in the air.

But once he drank of his breath, and instantly set him to fish Like a man intent upon supper at home and a savoury dish.

For what should the woman have seen? A man with a torch-and then A moment's blur of the eyes-and a man with a torch again.

And the torch had scarcely been shaken. "Ah, surely," Rahero said, "She will deem it a trick of the eyes, a fancy born in the head; But time must be given the fool to nourish a fool's belief."

So for a while, a sedulous fisher, he walked the reef, Pausing at times and gazing, striking at times with the spear: -Lastly, uttered the call; and even as the boat drew near, Like a man that was done with its use, tossed the torch in the sea.

Lightly he leaped on the boat beside the woman; and she Lightly addressed him, and yielded the paddle and place to sit; For now the torch was extinguished the night was black as the pit Rahero set him to row, never a word he spoke, And the boat sang in the water urged by his vigorous stroke.

-"What ails you?" the woman asked, "and why did you drop the brand?

We have only to kindle another as soon as we come to land."

Never a word Rahero replied, but urged the canoe.

And a chill fell on the woman.-"Atta! speak! is it you?

Speak! Why are you silent? Why do you bend aside?

Wherefore steer to the seaward?" thus she panted and cried.

Never a word from the oarsman, toiling there in the dark; But right for a gate of the reef he silently headed the bark, And wielding the single paddle with pa.s.sionate sweep on sweep, Drove her, the little fitted, forth on the open deep.

And fear, there where she sat, froze the woman to stone: Not fear of the crazy boat and the weltering deep alone; But a keener fear of the night, the dark, and the ghostly hour, And the thing that drove the canoe with more than a mortal's power And more than a mortal's boldness. For much she knew of the dead That haunt and fish upon reefs, toiling, like men, for bread, And traffic with human fishers, or slay them and take their ware, Till the hour when the star of the dead {51a} goes down, and the morning air Blows, and the c.o.c.ks are singing on sh.o.r.e. And surely she knew The speechless thing at her side belonged to the grave. {51b}

It blew All night from the south; all night, Rahero contended and kept The prow to the cresting sea; and, silent as though she slept, The woman huddled and quaked. And now was the peep of day.

High and long on their left the mountainous island lay; And over the peaks of Taiarapu arrows of sunlight struck.

On sh.o.r.e the birds were beginning to sing: the ghostly ruck Of the buried had long ago returned to the covered grave; And here on the sea, the woman, waxing suddenly brave, Turned her swiftly about and looked in the face of the man.

And sure he was none that she knew, none of her country or clan: A stranger, mother-naked, and marred with the marks of fire, But comely and great of stature, a man to obey and admire.

And Rahero regarded her also, fixed, with a frowning face, Judging the woman's fitness to mother a warlike race.

Broad of shoulder, ample of girdle, long in the thigh, Deep of bosom she was, and bravely supported his eye.

"Woman," said he, "last night the men of your folk- Man, woman, and maid, smothered my race in smoke.

It was done like cowards; and I, a mighty man of my hands, Escaped, a single life; and now to the empty lands And smokeless hearths of my people, sail, with yourself, alone.

Before your mother was born, the die of to-day was thrown And you selected:-your husband, vainly striving, to fall Broken between these hands:-yourself to be severed from all, The places, the people, you love-home, kindred, and clan- And to dwell in a desert and bear the babes of a kinless man."

NOTES TO THE SONG OF RAHeRO

INTRODUCTION.-This tale, of which I have not consciously changed a single feature, I received from tradition. It is highly popular through all the country of the eight Tevas, the clan to which Rahero belonged; and particularly in Taiarapu, the windward peninsula of Tahiti, where he lived. I have heard from end to end two versions; and as many as five different persons have helped me with details. There seems no reason why the tale should not be true.

{5} Note 1, page 5. "_The aito_," _quasi_ champion, or brave. One skilled in the use of some weapon, who wandered the country challenging distinguished rivals and taking part in local quarrels. It was in the natural course of his advancement to be at last employed by a chief, or king; and it would then be a part of his duties to purvey the victim for sacrifice. One of the doomed families was indicated; the aito took his weapon and went forth alone; a little behind him bearers followed with the sacrificial basket. Sometimes the victim showed fight, sometimes prevailed; more often, without doubt, he fell. But whatever body was found, the bearers indifferently took up.

{7} Note 2, page 7. "_Pai_," "_Honoura_," and "_Ahupu_." Legendary persons of Tahiti, all natives of Taiarapu. Of the first two, I have collected singular although imperfect legends, which I hope soon to lay before the public in another place. Of Ahupu, except in s.n.a.t.c.hes of song, little memory appears to linger. She dwelt at least about Tepari,-"the sea-cliffs,"-the eastern fastness of the isle; walked by paths known only to herself upon the mountains; was courted by dangerous suitors who came swimming from adjacent islands, and defended and rescued (as I gather) by the loyalty of native fish. My anxiety to learn more of "Ahupu Vehine" became (during my stay in Taiarapu) a cause of some diversion to that mirthful people, the inhabitants.

{10a} Note 3, page 10. "_Covered an oven_." The cooking fire is made in a hole in the ground, and is then buried.

{10b} Note 4, page 10. "_Flies_." This is perhaps an anachronism.

Even speaking of to-day in Tahiti, the phrase would have to be understood as referring mainly to mosquitoes, and these only in watered valleys with close woods, such as I suppose to form the surroundings of Rahero's homestead. Quarter of a mile away, where the air moves freely, you shall look in vain for one.

{13} Note 5, page 13. "_Hook_" of mother-of-pearl. Bright-hook fishing, and that with the spear, appear to be the favourite native methods.

{14} Note 6, page 14. "_Leaves_," the plates of Tahiti.

{16} Note 7, page 16. "_Yottowas_," so spelt for convenience of p.r.o.nunciation, _quasi_ Tacksmen in the Scottish Highlands. The organisation of eight subdistricts and eight yottowas to a division, which was in use (until yesterday) among the Tevas, I have attributed without authority to the next clan: see page 33.

{17} Note 8, page 17. "_Omare_," p.r.o.nounce as a dactyl. A loaded quarter-staff, one of the two favourite weapons of the Tahitian brave; the javelin, or casting spear, was the other.

{21} Note 9, page 21. "_The ribbon of light_." Still to be seen (and heard) spinning from one marae to another on Tahiti; or so I have it upon evidence that would rejoice the Psychical Society.

{23a} Note 10, page 23. "_Namunu-ura_." The complete name is Namunu-ura te aropa. Why it should be p.r.o.nounced Namunu, dactyllically, I cannot see, but so I have always heard it. This was the clan immediately beyond the Tevas on the south coast of the island. At the date of the tale the clan organisation must have been very weak. There is no particular mention of Tamatea's mother going to Papara, to the head chief of her own clan, which would appear her natural recourse. On the other hand, she seems to have visited various lesser chiefs among the Tevas, and these to have excused themselves solely on the danger of the enterprise. The broad distinction here drawn between Nateva and Namunu-ura is therefore not impossibly anachronistic.

{23b} Note 11, page 23. "_Hiopa the king_." Hiopa was really the name of the king (chief) of Vaiau; but I could never learn that of the king of Paea-p.r.o.nounce to rhyme with the Indian _ayah_-and I gave the name where it was most needed. This note must appear otiose indeed to readers who have never heard of either of these two gentlemen; and perhaps there is only one person in the world capable at once of reading my verses and spying the inaccuracy. For him, for Mr. Tati Salmon, hereditary high chief of the Tevas, the note is solely written: a small attention from a clansman to his chief.

{25} Note 12, page 25. "_Let the pigs be tapu_." It is impossible to explain _tapu_ in a note; we have it as an English word, taboo. Suffice it, that a thing which was _tapu_ must not be touched, nor a place that was _tapu_ visited.

{34} Note 13, page 34. "_Fish_, _the food of desire_." There is a special word in the Tahitian language to signify _hungering after fish_.

I may remark that here is one of my chief difficulties about the whole story. How did king, commons, women, and all come to eat together at this feast? But it troubled none of my numerous authorities; so there must certainly be some natural explanation.

{41} Note 14, page 41. "_The mustering word of the clan_."

_Teva te ua_, _Teva te matai_!

Teva the wind, Teva the rain!

{51a} Note 15, page 51. "_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 circ.u.mstances, by ninety per cent of Polynesians: and here I probably understate by one-tenth.

{51b} Note 16, page 51. See note 15 above.

THE FEAST OF FAMINE MARQUESAN MANNERS