Tregear. — Polynesian Folk-lore. 493 



nut branch, and broke it to pieces on the back of the unfortunate 

 girl. Again and again Ngaetaa fetched new cocoanut branches 

 and cruelly beat Ina. The father now took his turn in be- 

 labouring the gu-1, until a divine spirit {mami) entered and took 

 possession of Ina, and in a strange voice ominously said — 



' Most sacred is my person, 

 Untouched has been my person, 

 I will go to the Sacred Isle, 

 That Tinirau alone may strike it.' 



" The astonished father desisted ; her younger brother Kupe 

 cried over his beloved sister. After a while Ina got up, as if 

 merely to saunter about, but no sooner had she eluded the eyes 

 of her parents than she ran as fast as her legs could carry her 

 to the sandy beach. When nearly there, she fell in with her 

 elder brother Tangikuku, who natin-ally asked her where she 

 was going. She gave an evasive answer ; but, fearing lest he 

 should inform her parents of her flight, she snatched his bamboo 

 fishing-rod, broke it to pieces with her foot, and selected one of 

 the fragments as a knife. She now said to her brother, ' Put 

 out your tongue.' In an instant she cut off its tip. Tangikuku 

 vainly essayed to speak ; so that Ina was certain that he could 

 not reveal the secret of her sudden departure. She kissed her 

 maimed brother, and pressed on to the shore, where she gazed 

 long and wistfully towards the setting sun, where the Sacred 

 Isle is. Looking about for some means of transit, she noticed 

 at her feet a small fish named the avini. Knowing that all 

 fishes were subjects to the royal Tinirau, she thus addressed the 

 little avini that gazed at the disconsolate girl : — 



' Ah, little fish, art thou a shore-loving avini ? 

 Ah, little fish, art thou an ocean-loving avini ? 

 Come, bear me on thy back 

 To my royal husband Tinirau, 

 With him to live and die.' 



" The little fish intimated its consent by touching her feet. 

 Ina mounted on its narrow back ; but when only half-way to 

 the edge of the reef, unable any longer to bear so unaccustomed 

 a burden, it turned over, and Ina fell into the shallow water. 

 Angry at this wetting, she repeatedly struck the avini : hence 

 the beautiful stripes on the sides of that fish to this day, 

 called ' ina's tattooing.' The disappointed girl returned to the 

 sandy beach to seek for some other means of transit to the 

 Sacred Isle. A fish named the paoro, larger than the avini, 

 approached Ina. The intended bride of the god Tinirau 

 addressed this fish just as she had the little «rini; and then 

 mounted on its back, and started a second time on her voyage. 

 But, like its predecessors, the prtoro was unable long to endure 

 the burden, and dropping Ina in shallow water sped on its way. 

 Ina struck the paoro in her anger, producing for the first time 



