Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/263

 Rh away the mast and sail of the canoe, and the chief ordered his crew to paddle back to land. After paddling nearly all day they became exhausted, and could do no more. The chief ordered the future hero's mother to be killed for them to eat; but she jumped overboard with her infant, and came up between the canoe and the outrigger, where she was concealed by the deck, supporting herself on the steering-oar, which had dropped into the sea in the confusion caused by her escape. Here she remained till darkness set in, and then floated quietly away, holding her child on the blade of the steer-oar. The great sea-birds swooped down upon them as they drifted, and, in spite of all her efforts, one of them struck the child and tore out one of his eyes. Hence he was afterwards known by the name of Matandua, "The One-eyed." They drifted to the island of Fiji, where they were found on the beach by an old man. The poor mother was lying dead on the sand, holding the living child to her bosom. The old man took Matandua home to his wife, and they brought him up as their own son. When he came to manhood they told him his history so far as they knew it, and his mother appeared to him in a dream, confirming the tale, and directing him to return to Tonga. So he set sail in a small canoe, and his mother flew before him in the shape of a little green bird, showing him the course. When he reached Tonga, he found that an enormous giant had killed most of the men, and taken for his own purposes all the women who were worth appropriating. The green bird led Matandua to the place in the forest where the few survivors had concealed themselves, and he found them in wretched case, afraid to stir abroad in quest of food because of the giant. Matandua at once set out to destroy the monster, to whom warning had been given of his approach by a great bat, which was the giant's familiar. The giant issued forth, and the fight began. Matandua's mother had revealed to him in a dream that the giant was only vulnerable in one part of his body, namely, behind his knee. Matandua struck him there, avoiding his return blows by nimble movements, until at last the giant fell; whereupon the women came out and helped to strangle him with a long rope. Thus Tonga was delivered, and Matandua, being the only survivor of the chief's lineage, became the chief of the land.