THE STORY OF TU AND REI. 607 



with strong sennit-cord, and pulling them into the larger 

 dwelling, tied them to the principal posts. Husband and 

 wife then proceeded to heat tlie oven in order to bake the two 

 great robber-crabs. Now the crabs were made fast to separate 

 posts [to prevent their escape.] The daughter [Ina] came 

 and sat down near the captive robber-crabs, who now 

 plaintively spake thus with human voice : — 



" Oh ! Ina, we have the same father, even Tu ; and the 

 same mother, even Rei." At this the girl ran to tell Tu, 

 who replied, " Don't go^ near them, lest you be tempted to 

 release them, and so they escape." Ina, however, came 

 back, and the robber-crabs again plaintively uttered the same 

 words. The girl again ran to her father and told him what 

 they said. Tu desired her to ask their names. Ina did so, 

 and the robber-crabs informed her that Taramaakiaki was 

 the name of the elder, and Taramahetonga the name of the 

 younger. As soon as Tu was told this, he grasped the 

 situation, for he now recollected the covenant he had [long 

 ago] made with his wife as to the names of the twins when 

 they should be born. He reflected, too, that the woman 

 whom he and his daughter called Rei had been seemingly 

 pregnant for six or seven years without giving birth to a child! 



Tu ran into the hut, but the lads now resumed their 

 human form. He demanded of them whether they knew the 

 the house-iucantation. They replied, "Yes." Tu immediately 

 put their knowledge to the test. The elder lad went through 

 it, dropping out, however, as Tu noted, a word here and 

 there. The younger lad then went through it, and Tu knew 

 that it was absolutely correct. It was in this way that Tu 

 became convinced that these lads were his own children. 



Tu now asked the demon wife whether she knew the house- 

 incantation. " A little bit of it has slipped from my memory," 

 she replied. The husband said, "^Chant it then." She 

 accordingly chanted these words : — 



In the far-away deep sports the great white shark ; 

 But in the near sea moves the common bhie shark. 

 Catch ! Slay ! ! 



At this Tu gripped the hands of the demon wife — inasmuch 

 as this was not the house-incantation — and threw her on the 



' Tu was sceptical about tlie statement of these wonderful crabs ; but that 

 the crabs should speak did not surprise him at all. 



*The demon-wife utters an incantation which smacks of her original form 

 and true home in ocean depths. She is made to tell the man she so cruelly 

 wronged to " catch " and " kill " the denizen of the deep, which he does with 

 great zest. 



