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THE HUNTERS STORY How a Whole People Vanished Away in the South Seas. "While the pipe went from mouth to mouth Kitu-the leader of the hunters, related the following: "The Iiina of Fit-nui had always lived here on the plateau of Ahao. The wise men chronicled a hundred and twenty generations since the clan began. But, old as was the clan, there came a time when it grew small in number. For longer than old mem remembered they had been at war with the Piina of Hana-uaua. who lived in the next valley below this plateau. These two people were kinsmen, but the hate between them was bitter. The enemy gave the Piina of Fiti-nui no rest. Their popoi pits were opened and emptied, their women were stolen, and their men seized and eaten. Month after month and year after , year the clan lost its strength. They had almost ceased to tattoo their bodies, for they asked what it served them when they were so soon to bake in the ovens of the Hana-uaua people. They could not defeat the Hana-uaua, for they were small in number and the Hana-uaua were great. The best fighters were killed. Only the gods could save the last of the tribe from the yeinahae, the vampire who seizes the dead. "The taua went into the High Tlacc and besought the gods, but they were deaf. They made no answer. Then in despair the" chief, Atituahuci, set-a time when, if the gods gave no counsel, he would lead every man of the tribe against the foe, and die while the war clubs sang. Atituahuei went with the taua to the giant rock, Mae-Topaiho, the sacred stone shaped like a spear that stood between the lands of the warring peoples, and there he said this vow. to the gods. And the people waited. They waited for the space of the vraxing and waning of the moon, and the gods said nothing. Then the warriors made ready their uu of polished iron-wood, and filled their baskets with stones, and mnde ready the spears. On the darkest night of the moon the Piina of Fiti-nui was to go forth to fight and be killed by the Hana-uaua. But before the moon had gone, the taua came down from the High Place and said that the gods had spoken. They commanded the people to depart from Ahao, and to sail beyond the Isle of Barking Dogs until tljey came to a new land. The gods would protect them from the waves. The gods had shown the taua a hidden valley, which ran to the beach, in which to build the canoes. "For many months the Piina of Fiti-nui labored in secret in the hidden .valley. They built five canoes, giant, double canoes, with high platforms and houses on them, the kind that are built no more. In these canoes they placed the women and children and the aged and when all was ready the men raided the villlage of the Piina of Hana-uaua, and in the darkness brought all their food to the canoes. "When the four canoes were in the sea beyond the village of Hana-uaua, all their people beat their war drums and blew the trumpets of shell. The people of Hana-uaua rushed to the shore and there they saw on the sea the people of the Fiti-nui, who called to them and said that they were going far away. "Then the Hana-uaua tribe wept. For they remembered that they were brothers, and though they had fought long, the warriors of Fiti-nui had been good fighters and- brave. The two tribes talked together across the waves, and the tribe of Hana-uaua begged their brothers not to go. They said that they would fight no""mo"rc;"that the prisoners who had not been eaten should -be returned to their own valley; that the two clans would live forever in friendship. Then the people of Fiti-nui wept again, but they said that the gods had ordered them to sail away, and they must go. "That was four generations ago, and ever since that time the people of Hana-uaua have looked for some sign from their brothers who went away.. Their names were kept in the memories of the tribe. Ten years ago many men were brought here to work on the plantations from Puka-Puka and Na-Puka in the Pautnotas, and they talked with the people. Aue! They were the childrens children of the Piina of Fiti-nui. In those low islands to which their fathers and mothers went they kept the words and the names of old. But the Hana-uaua people, too, were dying now. None was left of the blood of the chiefs daughter. No man was left alive on the plateau of Ahao. "Their popoi pits are the wallows of the wild boar; on their paepaes sit the wild white dogs. The horned cattle wander where they walked. Hee i te fenua ke! They are gone, and the stranger shall have their graves." Frederick OBrien and Rose Wilder Lane in Asia Magazine.
