Page:Ballads, Stevenson, 1890.djvu/19

 He broiled in the sun, he breathed in the grateful shadow of trees,

In the icy stream of the rivers he waded over the knees;

And still in his empty mind crowded, a thousand-fold,

The deeds of the strong and the songs of the cunning heroes of old.

And now was he come to a place Taiárapu honored the most,

Where a silent valley of woods debouched on the noisy coast,

Spewing a level river. There was a haunt of Pai.1

There, in his potent youth, when his parents drove him to die,

Honoura lived like a beast, lacking the lamp and the fire,

Washed by the rains of the trade and clotting his hair in the mire;

And there, so mighty his hands, he bent the tree to his foot—

So keen the spur of his hunger, he plucked it naked of fruit.

There, as she pondered the clouds for the shadow of coming ills,

Ahupu, the woman of song, walked on high on the hills.

Of these was Rahéro sprung, a man of a godly race;

And inherited cunning of spirit and beauty of body and face.

Of yore in his youth, as an aito, Rahéro wandered the land,

Delighting maids with his tongue, smiting men with his hand.

Famous he was in his youth; but before the midst of his life

Paused, and fashioned a song of farewell to glory and strife.

House of mine (it went), house upon the sea,

Belov'd of all my fathers, more belov'd by me!

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