18 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



When her rage had exhausted itself and she was calmed down, then 

 Karihi went near her and struck her a gentle slap on one of her eyes. She 

 started and uttered an exclamation of joy, for with it there had come a light in 

 her eye. Immediately, Tawhaki hit her a gentle slap on the other eye, with 

 the same result. Now her eye-sight was restored ; and when she then learned 



that the two handsome young men were her grandsons she became very 



friendly and asked them what the object was of their coming to her. They told 

 her that they were going to avenge the death of their father, and wished her to 

 show them the way. " Stay with me for a while," she said ; " by and by I will 

 show you." Then she took them to her house near by. 



It seems that they had already partly avenged their father's death when 

 they liberated their mother from captivity, but the accounts about that are not 

 clear here, therefore I left out that part— it is clearer in Sir George Grey's 

 collection. However, there are several people named who had taken part in 

 that murder, and it may be that there was still a party left who had not yet 

 been punished. The young men did not feel at ease in their grandmother's 

 house, for in it there lay a large heap of human bones, the flesh of which had 

 been eaten by her. They could not trust her ; they feared that she might kill 



ery watchful. But it was 



They 



and eat them also. 



must, therefore, try to deceive her. For that purpose they went to the 

 sea-shore and got some shells from the rocks, which looked just like eyes. 

 When they put them on their closed eyes they gave them the appearance of 

 open eyes. Then, at night, when they could keep awake no longer, they 

 fastened the shells over their eyes and went to sleep, and when their 

 grandmother looked at them she believed that they were wide awake, and was 

 therefore afraid to kill them. 



However, the young men did not like to prolong their stay, and kept on 

 asking the old woman to show them the road. But she put them off, saying, 

 " by and by she would show them." After some time and trouble she showed 

 them a path, and then they took leave and went on ; but they found that the 

 path only led into the bush, where firewood had been carried, aid no farther. 

 So they had to go back and beg the old woman to show them the light road. 

 After some delay and more deceiving she at last said : « Well, if vou are 

 determined, I hold the road to that part of the sky you want to reach." « Then, 

 where is the road?" they asked. "The road is on my neck," she replied; 

 "loose tins cord." When they had untied the cord on her neck they found 

 that the other end was fastened to the sky. « Now," she said, « you must 

 climb up by this cord. But I am afraid the wind will blow you from one side 

 of the heavens to the other, and you will lose your hold and fall down : 



