Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/396

374 they hewed out bows, each for himself, and put points to their arrows; and when that was done Marawhihi said, Let us go after him one by one. So one went first, and came to the garden, and saw him sitting up in the banana-tree, and went on tiptoe towards him to shoot him. But Dilingavuv stretched out his arms like a bat, and the man was afraid, and ran back and told the others. It can't possibly be done, said they. But Marawhihi said that one must go again, and another went, and the same thing happened again. Thus they all went in turn, and came back and disputed with Marawhihi, saying, It can't possibly be done. Then said Marawhihi, I shall do it myself, I shall shoot him and kill him. And this Marawhihi they say was more clever than them all; and he went last and saw Dilingavuv sitting in the banana-tree, and he stepped along on tiptoe under the banana, and when Dilingavuv stretched out his arms he was not frightened at him; but he shot him with a bird arrow of casuarina wood, and hit him on the ear, and shot it right off; and he fell headlong to the ground. So Marawhihi ran and told his friends; but Diligavuv got up from under the banana and went home to his mother. When he reached his mother's house, he called to her within, and she answered him and said, What is it, my son? And he said, Give me an axe. And his mother said, What are you going to do with it? But he deceived her, and did not tell her that Marawhihi had shot his ear off. Then he went and cut another ear for himself out of the root of a tree, and the name of that tree is the Raw, and as he was chopping the Raw root, he said, Chop in pieces! chop asunder! But Marawhihi had sent one of his men who went and listened, and heard him saying this, Chop in pieces! chop asunder! and he ran back and told Marawhihi that Dilingavuv was chopping himself out an ear in place of the other. After this Marawhihi and his men made a feast and danced, and danced every day. And when Dilingavuv heard of it, he said, I will go and have my revenge. So he gathered a great quantity of Tahitian chestnuts, and took fire, and collected stones, and took a dancing cloak of leaves, and went to them. But he did