298 JOHN FRASER. 
_ advised him to pretend to have sore feet, and to make that an 
excuse for not bathing when he went with his brother to the bath- 
ing place, and to watch his opportunity to run off with the crown 
while the latter was bathing, since he would, of course, lay aside 
his turban while he performed his ablutions. Ali‘a-tama did not . 
make the attempt on the occasion suggested, because he feared 
his brother might pursue and overtake him, if he then attempted. 
to run off with the ‘fau,’ the emblem of royalty, while he was in the 
water. He therefore waited for a more favourable opportunity. 
This he was not long in getting. One day, when they went to 
bathe, he proposed that they should cleanse their heads with 
detergent, made of the expressed oily juice of old cocoa-nuts. 
When this ointment had been prepared, a contention arose as to 
which of them should use it first. Ali‘a-matua urged that his 
younger brother should use it first, lest if he, the king, dipped 
his head in first, and thus rendered the preparation sacred, it 
should cause the death of his brother. To this Ali‘a-tama replied, 
“No; you dip in first, lest you die if I dip first.” This idea the 
other resented, and urged his brother to dip first. He accordingly 
did so, and then went to the water to bathe. Ali‘a-matua then 
dipped in his head, and immediately fell down into the pool. 
stupefied. When his brother returned, he found the king in this 
condition ; he rolled him out of the pool, but found him still in- 
sensible ; he roused him a little, and said to him, ‘‘ Did I not warn 
you of the consequences of my dipping my head in first”? And 
then he prayed to Tangaloa, and said, ““O Tangaloa, if thou hast 
given me this secret power (‘mana’), let my brother immediately 
revive.” At once the king came to, and got up, and walked, 
They went away together, but the king was envious of the power 
of his brother; and, being weak, when they came to a place called 
‘Q-le-Luu, he wished for a cocoa-nut to drink. Ali‘a-tama excused 
himself from going up the tree by saying that his feet, which were 
bandaged, were sore, and that he had heard their father say that 
it was not forbidden (‘sa’) to a king to ascend a cocoa-nut tree. 
The king therefore hung his crown on a branch of a ‘fau’ tree 
/ 
