388 MYSTIC ISLES 



sorcerer was kind, and when he awoke, spoke so softly 

 to them they thought they heard the sough of the hupe, 

 the wind of the night, out of the valley below them. 



"When he spoke, the spirit with whom the tahu was 

 familiar let down a cloud and from it fell a fringe of 

 varied hues. Pipiri Ma seized the threads that looked 

 the most seducing, threads of gold and rose, and upon 

 these they climbed to the skies. Their parents who saw 

 them as they ascended, begged them, 'Pipiri Ma, come 

 back ! Oh, come back to us !' but the babes were already 

 high in the heavens, higher than Orohena, the loftiest 

 mountain, and their voices came almost from under the 

 sun: 'No, we will never return. The fishing with the 

 torches might be bad again. It might not be good for 

 the children.' 



"Taua and Rehua went back to their hut in tears. 

 Whenever the torchlight fishing was bountiful, and the 

 fish were glowing on the hot stones of the umu, Rehua 

 lifted sorrowful eyes toward the skies, and vainly sup- 

 plicated, 'Pipiri Ma, return to us!' and Taua answered, 

 shaking his head with a doleful and unbeheving nod, 

 'Alas! it is over. Pipiri Ma will not come back, for one 

 day the torchlight fishing was bad for the children.' " 



Tiura finished with a finger pointing to Antares, of 

 the Scorpion constellation. 



"That," he concluded, "is the cloud which was itself 

 transformed." 



The doctor shook out his pipe as we entered the flimsy 



hut. 



"Sounds hke it was written by a child who wanted a 

 continuous supply of sweets, but these people are so 

 crazy on children that their legends point a moral to par- 



