Page:Fairytales•Tregear•1891.pdf/75

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THE SHARK-GOD.
69

the rubbish heap, but just at the wrong moment the pig belonging to Kama gave a squeal, and the poor fellow’s retreat was discovered. Kauhu lifted the priest high up with both hands, and was just putting Kama’s head and shoulders into his mouth, when the victim prayed aloud, saying, “O Kauhu, eat me up if you will, but hear my petition first.” “You only spoke just in time,” answered Kauhau, setting his prey down. “What have you to say? Be quick about it.” Kama then rehearsed his pitiful story, and offered his pig to the god as a sacrifice. Compassion stirred in the shark-god’s breast. “If you had not come to worship me and ask my assistance,” he said, “I would have eaten you up. Now I perceive that your cause is a sacred one; I will espouse it and avenge you on Kupa. Go back to your dwelling and plant a sacred fence around it; gather together four hundred black hogs, four hundred red fish, and four hundred white fowls; then await my coming. One day you will see a little cloud the size of a man’s hand, white as snow, rising over the sea. This cloud will increase till it rests on the mountain peaks of Kupa’s island. Then a rainbow will span the valley from side to side, and you will know that I am there and that the hour of your revenge has come. Go now, you