Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/64

52 dwelt in a cave in a rough inaccessible place, and eluded the destroyer by always doing their cooking at night. The dog lived in a cave closed by a rock, which opened and shut of its own accord. When the Mauis arrived they pulled their boat ashore, and set to work to find the dog, but fruitlessly. So they returned to their boat on the beach, which, as it happened, was drawn up close to the dog's hiding-place, and refreshed themselves with bathing and sporting in the surf. Atalanga's older blood was chilled sooner than that of his vigorous son, and he presently left the water to warm himself on the sunny beach, whilst Kijikiji continued his sport in the surf. The father sat down on the warm sand, knees drawn up to his chin, his body revelling in the genial sunshine. By degrees drowsiness overpowered him, and soon he was fast asleep, sitting as before, with knees drawn up to his chin. Kijikiji went on playing in the waves, and as he swam about and shot the breakers a man-eating shark darted at him. Unafraid the boy grasped the monster, and seizing its head, slew it with his bare hands. Then with a dexterous fling he threw it ashore, calling out, "Father, there's a fish for you." But Atalanga slept on. Kijikiji resumed his sport in the breakers, but soon another shark (of a variety not so fierce as the first) darted at him, and met a like fate with the first attacker. This time Kijikiji noticed that his father did not answer his call, and looking he saw that he had disappeared. Whilst he was swimming about the dog's cave had opened, and the beast had slunk quietly up behind Atalanga, and gulped him down whole at a single mouthful. Then he had gone back and lain down in his cave, and the door had shut. Kijikiji, suspecting that the notorious dog was at the bottom of this mysterious disappearance, at once went ashore, and, on examining the place where Atalanga had been sitting, found the animal's footprints and traces of blood. "Hang it all," he exclaimed, "here's a fine how-d'ye-do. Dad's come to grief with this dog." Then he started tracking the foot and blood marks to find where his father had been taken to and eaten. Presently he lost the scent; the tracks led to a dead wall of rock, and there stopped. He climbed on top of the rock. He could find nothing. So giving