But these were the foes of his clan, And he trod upon pity, and came, and civilly greeted the king, And gravely entreated Rahero; and for all that could fight or sing, And claimed a name in the land, had fitting phrases of praise: But with all who were well-descended he spoke of the ancient days. And "'Tis true," said he, "that in Paea the victual rots on the ground; But, friends, your number is many; and pigs must be hunted and found, And the lads must troop to the mountains to bring the feis down, And around the bowls of the kava cluster the maids of the town. So, for to-night, sleep here; but king, common, and priest To-morrow, in order due, shall sit with me in the feast." Sleepless the live-long night, Hiopa's followers toiled. The pigs screamed and were slaughtered; the spars of the guest-house oiled, The leaves spread on the floor. In many a mountain glen The moon drew shadows of trees on the naked bodies of men Plucking and bearing fruits; and in all the bounds of the town Red glowed the cocoa-nut fires, and were buried and trodden down. Thus did seven of the yottowas toil with their tale of the clan, But the eighth wrought with his lads, hid from the sight of man. In the deeps of the woods they laboured, piling the fuel high In fagots, the load of a man, fuel seasoned and dry, Thirsty to seize upon fire and apt to blurt into flame. And now was the day of the feast. The forests, as morning came, Tossed in the wind, and the peaks quaked in the blaze of the day-- And the cocoa-nuts showered on the ground, rebounding and rolling away: A glorious morn for a feast, a famous wind for a fire. To the hall of feasting Hiopa led them, mother and sire And maid and babe in a tale, the whole of the holiday throng. Smiling they came, garlanded green, not dreaming of wrong; And for every three, a pig, tenderly cooked in the ground, Waited; and fei, the staff of life, heaped in a mound For each where he sat;--for each, bananas roasted and raw Piled with a bountiful hand, as for horses hay and straw Are stacked in a stable; and fish, the food of desire,[13] And plentiful vessels of sauce, and bread-fruit gilt in the fire;-- And kava was common as water. Feasts have there been ere now, And many, but never a feast like that of the folk of Vaiau. All day long they ate with the resolute greed of brutes, And turned from the pigs to the fish, and again from the fish to the fruits, And emptied the vessels of sauce, and drank of the kava deep; Till the young lay stupid as stones, and the strongest nodded to sleep. Sleep that was mighty as death and blind as a moonless night Tethered them hand and foot; and their souls were drowned, and the light Was cloaked from their eyes. Senseless together, the old and the young, The fighter deadly to smite and the prater cunning of tongue, The woman wedded and fruitful, inured to the pangs of birth,