378 MYSTIC ISLES 



came from, and the name of which means 'Land of the 

 Big House Canoes.' With a good wind we could sail a 

 hundred and twenty miles a day in those vessels. We 

 would attend the faa-Rua, which we now call the 

 ha'a-Piti, the wind that blows both ways, for we waited 

 for the northeast or southwest trade-winds according to 

 the direction we made for." 



The chief lifted his glass of wine, and chanted: 



*^Aue mouna, mouna o H avail f 

 H avail tupu al te ahl veavea!" 



"Hail ! mighty mountains, mountains of Havaii ! 

 Havaii where the red, flaming fire shoots up high !" 



Brooke had been to Lake Vaihiria, and suggested 

 that I go. The excursion had been long in my mind, 

 for every time an eel was caught or served some one 

 exclaimed, "Aue! You should see the eels in Vaihiria. 

 But, be careful!" 



The warning referred to the dangers of the climb, 

 but also to a mysterious menace of tupapaus, or ghosts. 

 I had seen a canoe with the head of an eel carved in 

 w^ood, and had heard often a hesitant reference to a 

 legend of metempsychosis, of a human and eel transmi- 

 gration. The chief, after much persuasion, said that 

 the clans of Mataiea had always believed they were de- 

 scended directly from eels ; that an eel of Lake Vaihiria 

 had been the progenitor of all the people of the valley. 

 A vahine of another clan had been overcome by the eel's 

 sorcery, as Mother Eve by the serpent, which doubtless 

 was an eel. 



As the eel and the water-snakes are the only serpen- 

 tine animals in Tahiti, his reasoning was sound. The 



