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138 "Nay, brother," answered he from within the house. "How may I dare to do such a thing? Will not the sharp rei enter thine eye and blind thee? Or perchance it will prick the skin of thy children and cause a rash to rise upon it." Thus was the man met with his own words, and had nought wherewith to make answer. Sad was his plight and that of his wife and children as they turned away, and the wife of the man who had built the house of rei looking on them pitied them, and besought her husband to give them shelter. He therefore, not wishing to displease his wife, opened up the doorway, and bade then enter. The man who had built his house of mud was sad of heart as he sat in shelter, and his head cooled with shame as he thought of his empty boast. When therefore the rain ceased, he set himself with speed to build a house like unto his neighbour's, and from that day even until now is mud contemned and our houses built of rei as it was in the beginning.



tell thee now, even as it hath been told to me by my father, how it is that we of Wamira are few while the tribes in the west are many.

In the old days there lived in a certain village a