Page:Ballads, Stevenson, 1890.djvu/31

 The pelting feet of the babes that ran already and played,

The clean-lipped smile of the boy, the slender breasts of the maid,

And mighty limbs of women, stalwart mothers of men.

The sires stood forth unabashed; but a little back from his ken

Clustered the scarcely nubile, the lads and maids, in a ring,

Fain of each other, afraid of themselves, aware of the king

And aping behavior, but clinging together with hands and eyes,

With looks that were kind like kisses, and laughter tender as sighs.

There, too, the grandsire stood, raising his silver crest,

And the impotent hands of a suckling groped in his barren breast.

The childhood of love, the pair well married, the innocent brood,

The tale of the generations repeated and ever renewed—

Hiopa beheld them together, all the ages of man,

And a moment shook in his purpose.

But these were the foes of his clan,

And he trod upon pity, and came, and civilly greeted the king,

And gravely entreated Rahéro; and for all that could fight or sing,

And claimed a name in the land, had fitting phrases of praise;

But with all who were well-descended he spoke of the ancient days.

And "'Tis true," said he, "that in Paea the victual rots on the ground;

But, friends, your number is many; and pigs must be hunted and found,

And the lads troop to the mountains to bring the féis down,

And around the bowls of the kava cluster the maids of the town. 19