Page:Ballads, Stevenson, 1890.djvu/41

 And wielding the single paddle with passionate sweep on sweep,

Drove her, the little fitted, forth on the open deep.

And fear, there where she sat, froze the woman to stone:

Not fear of the crazy boat and the weltering deep alone;

But a keener fear of the night, the dark, and the ghostly hour,

And the thing that drove the canoe with more than a mortal's power

And more than a mortal's boldness. For much she knew of the dead

That haunt and fish upon reefs, toiling, like men, for bread,

And traffic with human fishers, or slay them and take their ware,

Till the hour when the star of the dead15 goes down, and the morning air

Blows, and the cocks are singing on shore. And surely she knew

The speechless thing at her side belonged to the grave.16

It blew

All night from the south; all night, Rahéro contended and kept

The prow to the cresting sea; and, silent as though she slept,

The woman huddled and quaked. And now was the peep of day.

High and long on their left the mountainous island lay;

And over the peaks of Taiárapu arrows of sunlight struck.

On shore the birds were beginning to sing: the ghostly ruck

Of the buried had long ago returned to the covered grave;

And here on the sea, the woman, waxing suddenly brave,

Turned her swiftly about and looked in the face of the man.

And sure he was none that she knew, none of her country or clan: 29