Page:Fairytales•Tregear•1891.pdf/19

 not treated unkindly; but the Ogress always ate her food raw, and she disgusted her captive by insisting that he should eat the same uncooked viands. The youth, however, only pretended to eat his portion of the raw flesh, putting the pieces to his mouth and then letting them fall unobserved. When at dawn Kura departed to spear birds, Hatu stayed behind and managed to cook some food for himself. After he had satisfied his hunger, he usually went in to inspect the treasures which his goblin mistress had stored up. There was a grand cloak of red feathers, another of dog-skin, another of beautifully woven flax; a two-handed sword made of hard wood and beautifully carved; also many little lizards and birds. At last he made up his mind to attempt to escape, so he said to Kura in the morning, “Now, you had better go a long way to-day, past the first mountain range, to the hundredth, to the thousandth, and when you get there you will catch a fine lot of birds.”

Kura departed, and Hatu remained quietly cooking food for himself until he thought that she must have got a long distance away; then he gathered up her cloaks of red feathers, of dog-skin, and of flax, armed himself with the sword, did as much harm to the place as he could, set