Page:Ballads, Stevenson, 1890.djvu/34

 And piling them high and higher around the walls of the hall.

Silence persisted within, for sleep lay heavy on all.

But the mother of Támatéa stood at Hiopa's side,

And shook for terror and joy like a girl that is a bride.

Night fell on the toilers, and first Hiopa the wise

Made the round of the house, visiting all with his eyes;

And all was piled to the eaves, and fuel blockaded the door;

And within, in the house beleaguered, slumbered the forty score.

Then was an aito dispatched and came with fire in his hand,

And Hiopa took it.—"Within," said he, "is the life of a land;

And behold! I breathe on the coal, I breathe on the dales of the east,

And silence falls on forest and shore; the voice of the feast

Is quenched, and the smoke of cooking; the rooftree decays and falls

On the empty lodge, and the winds subvert deserted walls."

Therewithal, to the fuel, he laid the glowing coal;

And the redness ran in the mass and burrowed within like a mole,

And copious smoke was conceived. But, as when a dam is to burst,

The water lips it and crosses in silver trickles at first,

And then, of a sudden, whelms and bears it away forthright:

So now, in a moment, the flame sprang and towered in the night,

And wrestled and roared in the wind, and high over house and tree,

Stood, like a streaming torch, enlightening land and sea.

But the mother of Támatéa threw her arms abroad,

"Pyre of my son," she shouted, "debited vengeance of God, 22