Page:Fairytales•Tregear•1891.pdf/46



Through a narrow gap in the rocks on the southern side of Mangaia pass waters which overflow from a small lake which itself receives the streams from the valleys in that district. The distance from the lake to the sea is only about a mile, but the stream passes through rugged chasms and gloomy rifts in the rock; among these cliffs and caverns is the favourite haunt of the goddess Echo, whose voice will answer when she is called, but her bodily presence is unseen.

Near the little lake lived a woman named “the profound sleeper,” for like some hibernating animal she was able to sleep through the unpleasant months of winter, only awaking when the breadfruit was ripe and crabs were plentiful. Her limbs grew stiff and rigid as the heat of the sun declined, but the warm rays of summer melted her lethargy and she awoke to the season of brightness. The time came when she brought forth a son, but so small and feeble was he that the unnatural mother placed him in a spot on the green border of the lake, and deserted him, leaving him to die. A sudden