The Tia Kau. 
33 
food, trots slowly to the door, and stands 
eyeing the basket. His sleepy grunt betrays 
him, and awakens the girl, who flings her 
bamboo pillow at his head with a muttered 
curse ; and, crawling over to where her sleeping 
parents lie, she pillows her head upon her 
mother’s naked thigh, and falls asleep again. 
Another hour passes, and then a faint breath 
moves and sways and rustles the drooping 
palms around the village, and the girl awakes. 
Had she been dreaming, or did she hear a far¬ 
away curious sound—a mingling of sharp, 
whistling notes and hoarse, deep gutturals, such 
as one may hear when a flock of terns and 
boobies are darting down upon their prey ? 
Tossing back her black mane of hair, she 
bends her head seaward and listens intently, 
and then, rising, goes to the open door, and 
looks out upon the shimmering blue. The 
white man, too, has heard, and she sees him 
running to the village. The dulled, sleepy look 
in her big eyes vanishes, and darting over to 
her slumbering father, she slaps his brawny arm. 
“ Ala ! Ala! awake, my father. There be a 
flock of gogo crying loudly, and the white man 
is running hither.” 
4 
