Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/457

Rh girl came to see who was there, supposing that perhaps her master had returned from his fishing. But on seeing a stranger with a disfigured face, she exclaimed, "Eh, Torn-eye, where do you come from?" But he only replied by bidding her open the door. "Get out of here as fast as you can, Torn-eye," responded the girl; "don't you know that this is Bunga's home?" "Yes," replied Muni, "I know that it is Bunga's home, but you open the door before I pull it down." Then the wives from within shouted abuse at him, bidding Torn-eye make off as fast as he could. Thereupon Muni, wrenching open the door, went in and humbled all the wives. Coming out again he plucked up the kava plant with one hand—the hole where it stood is still visible in Boha. Then, as he went off, he bade the women tell Bunga on his return to pursue him and avenge the insult in combat.

Now, when the kava plant was torn up, the flying-foxes set up a clamour which the distant Bunga noted as a warning that an intruder had entered his home, but seeing the white flying-fox coming to him he determined to put the matter to the test and know the certainty. Long bamboo rods are used in the atu fishing, and Bunga determined that according to the kind of rod on which the flying-fox alighted would he know whether things were well or ill at home. On came the flying-fox, alighting at once on a rod that, according to the predetermined sign, meant that intruders had broken in. The indignant Bunga lost no time, but ordered in the fishing tackle, and the rowers made their best speed to shore. There the angry chief soon learned from the weeping women that they had been insulted and the kava rooted up. Asking where the kava then was, he was told that it had been carried off, and he at once set out in pursuit. It happened that Bunga overtook Muni just as he had torn the huge plant in two and shaken the earth out from the roots, holding one half out on either side of him. The earth shaken out from these giant roots can be seen to-day, forming two little hills, one on either side of the road at Holonga. Before they closed, Bunga inquired how they should fight. "Oh, any way," carelessly replied Muni, "with arms, or boxing or wrestling." Then they wrestled. At the first onset Bunga threw Muni, but he was on his feet again in a twinkling, and seized Bunga in a terrible grasp, in which he was