Page:Papuan Fairy Tales.djvu/32

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PAPUAN FAIRY TALES

discerned a man seated among the leaves, and, looking steadfastly on him, she knew him to be her father, and straightway ran to her mother and told her the tidings. But her mother answered, "How can this be, my daughter? Thy father is dead, and I have mourned for him these many years. It is another man thou hast seen."

Nevertheless, at her daughter's word she went out and found even as she had said. Then was her heart glad, and she bade her husband come down and enter the house that she might make ready food for him to eat. She therefore brought food from the gardens and cooked it and set it before her husband, and he ate, and his hunger was stayed.

Being now refreshed, he minded him of the companions who had aforetime treated him evilly, and appeared unto them with many fair words and kindly greetings. He also bade them to a feast he was about to make. Much taro was boiled, and a pig was slain, and, all being made ready, the guests were gathered together in the potuma, which is the clubhouse. But the man himself did not enter, for he desired to take vengeance on his enemies. So he closed the doorways of the potuma and made them fast that no one might chance to escape, and then he set fire to each corner of the house. The flames rose high and thick smoke filled the potuma, as the feasters looked for a way of escape. But they looked in vain, and soon their cries were stilled, and their charred bodies clinging to the roof of the potuma