Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/524

 512 shut close upon them. On his return, they heard him open the cave's mouth with the same words, and he brought out of the hole in his back, in which he had stowed them, a pig and yams, which they cooked, and he ate raw. Thus they lived in the cave, while their parents and friends in the village counted the days for their death, ate the death-meals, and then forgot them. One day, when he was longer absent than usual, they agreed to try whether the cave would open and shut for them, as it did for him, at the sound of the same words, and they found that it would.

Now there was one part of the cave which Hole-in-his-Back always, when he went out, forbade them to go near; and here, when at last they ventured to approach, they found a heap of conch trumpets; and this was the reason why he had forbidden them to go there, because, being a Vui, he was afraid of the sound of a conch-shell trumpet. The boys began to plan a way of escape, and accordingly prepared for themselves tamate dresses, in which they proposed to show themselves in the village blowing shell trumpets, after the fashion of the tamates whose dress they were assuming. Accordingly, when all was ready, they put on each his tamate hat, and took each his conch trumpet in his hand, and waited for the return of Hole-in-his-Back with his pig and food. They heard him coming; they heard him saying: "Close, cave! be open, cave!" and, as the cave's mouth opened, before he could say a word, they ran out blowing their trumpets. He ran away affrighted, and they chased him into the village, through the village to the beach and on to the reef, blowing their trumpets as they ran; from the reef he leapt into the sea, the water poured into the hollow in his back, and he was drowned. The boys returned and made themselves known again to their parents in the village.

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