{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/the-feast-of-famine",
 "title": "The Feast of Famine",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "Marquesan Manners",
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Ballads",
 "book_slug": "ballads",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 2,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1890,
  "venue": "Ballads (1890)",
  "note": "This 1890 volume is the first book printing of these five ballads, but it is not certainly the first printing of each of them: the volume's own notes record that 'Ticonderoga' had already appeared in Scribner's Magazine. Whether the others were printed in a periodical before 1890 has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/ballad00stev"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-louis-stevenson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlvol28stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlou14stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/newpoemsandvaria00stevuoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemshithertounp00stevrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31291",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30659",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/441",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Poems,_by_Robert_Louis_Stevenson,_hitherto_unpublished"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 394,
  "n_stanzas": 30,
  "n_parts": 4,
  "longest_line_chars": 76,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": "The Priest’s Vigil",
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    5
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": "The Lovers",
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    15
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": "The Feast",
   "stanza_range": [
    15,
    25
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": "The Raid",
   "stanza_range": [
    25,
    30
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "In all the land of the tribe was neither fish nor fruit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the deepest pit of popoi stood empty to the foot.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The clans upon the left and the clans upon the right",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now oiled their carven maces and scoured their daggers bright;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They gat them to the thicket, to the deepest of the shade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lay with sleepless eyes in the deadly ambuscade.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And oft in the starry even the song of morning rose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What time the oven smoked in the country of their foes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For oft to loving hearts, and waiting ears and sight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lads that went to forage returned not with the night.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now first the children sickened, and then the women paled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the great arms of the warrior no more for war availed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hushed was the deep drum, discarded was the dance;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And those that met the priest now glanced at him askance.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The priest was a man of years, his eyes were ruby-red,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He neither feared the dark nor the terrors of the dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He knew the songs of races, the names of ancient date;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the beard upon his bosom would have bought the chief’s estate.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He dwelt in a high-built lodge, hard by the roaring shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Raised on a noble terrace and with tikis at the door.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within it was full of riches, for he served his nation well,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And full of the sound of breakers, like the hollow of a shell.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For weeks he let them perish, gave never a helping sign,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But sat on his oiled platform to commune with the divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But sat on his high terrace, with the tikis by his side,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And stared on the blue ocean, like a parrot, ruby-eyed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dawn as yellow as sulphur leaped on the mountain height:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out on the round of the sea the gems of the morning light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up from the round of the sea the streamers of the sun;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But down in the depths of the valley the day was not begun.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the blue of the woody twilight burned red the cocoa-husk,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the women and men of the clan went forth to bathe in the dusk,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A word that began to go round, a word, a whisper, a start:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hope that leaped in the bosom, fear that knocked on the heart:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“See, the priest is not risen⁠—look, for his door is fast!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He is going to name the victims; he is going to help us at last.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thrice rose the sun to noon; and ever, like one of the dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The priest lay still in his house, with the roar of the sea in his head;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There was never a foot on the floor, there was never a whisper of speech;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only the leering tikis stared on the blinding beach.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Again were the mountains fired, again the morning broke;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the houses lay still, but the house of the priest awoke.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Close in their covering roofs lay and trembled the clan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the aged, red-eyed priest ran forth like a lunatic man;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the village panted to see him in the jewels of death again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the silver beards of the old and the hair of women slain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Frenzy shook in his limbs, frenzy shone in his eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And still and again as he ran, the valley rang with his cries.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All day long in the land, by cliff and thicket and den,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He ran his lunatic rounds, and howled for the flesh of men;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All day long he ate not, nor ever drank of the brook;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all day long in their houses the people listened and shook⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All day long in their houses they listened with bated breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And never a soul went forth, for the sight of the priest was death.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Three were the days of his running, as the gods appointed of yore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Two the nights of his sleeping alone in the place of gore:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The drunken slumber of frenzy twice he drank to the lees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the sacred stones of the High-place under the sacred trees;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a lamp at his ashen head he lay in the place of the feast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the sacred leaves of the banyan rustled around the priest.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Last, when the stated even fell upon terrace and tree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the shade of the lofty island lay leagues away to sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the valleys of verdure were heavy with manna and musk,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wreck of the red-eyed priest came gasping home in the dusk.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He reeled across the village, he staggered along the shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And between the leering tikis crept groping through his door.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There went a stir through the lodges, the voice of speech awoke;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once more from the builded platforms arose the evening smoke.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And those who were mighty in war, and those renowned for an art",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sat in their stated seats and talked of the morrow apart.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hark! away in the woods⁠—for the ears of love are sharp⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stealthily, quietly touched, the note of the one-stringed harp.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the lighted house of her father, why should Taheia start?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taheia heavy of hair, Taheia tender of heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taheia the well-descended, a bountiful dealer in love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nimble of foot like the deer, and kind of eye like the dove?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sly and shy as a cat, with never a change of face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taheia slips to the door, like one that would breathe a space;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Saunters and pauses, and looks at the stars, and lists to the seas;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then sudden and swift as a cat, she plunges under the trees.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swift as a cat she runs, with her garment gathered high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leaping, nimble of foot, running, certain of eye;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ever to guide her way over the smooth and the sharp,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ever nearer and nearer the note of the one-stringed harp;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till at length, in a glade of the wood, with a naked mountain above,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sound of the harp thrown down, and she in the arms of her love.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Rua,”⁠—“Taheia,” they cry⁠—“my heart, my soul, and my eyes,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And clasp and sunder and kiss, with lovely laughter and sighs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Rua!”⁠—“Taheia, my love,”⁠—“Rua, star of my night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clasp me, hold me, and love me, single spring of delight.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Rua folded her close, he folded her near and long,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The living knit to the living, and sang the lover’s song:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Night, night it is, night upon the palms.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Night, night it is, the land-wind has blown.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Starry, starry night, over deep and height;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love, love in the valley, love all alone.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Taheia, heavy of hair, a foolish thing have we done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bind what gods have sundered unkindly into one.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why should a lowly lover have touched Taheia’s skirt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taheia the well-descended, and Rua child of the dirt?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "—“On high with the haka-ikis my father sits in state,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ten times fifty kinsmen salute him in the gate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round all his martial body, and in bands across his face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The marks of the tattooer proclaim his lofty place.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I too, in the hands of the cunning, in the sacred cabin of palm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have shrunk like the mimosa, and bleated like the lamb;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round half my tender body, that none shall clasp but you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For a crest and a fair adornment go dainty lines of blue.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love, love, beloved Rua, love levels all degrees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the well-tattooed Taheia clings panting to your knees.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "—“Taheia, song of the morning, how long is the longest love?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A cry, a clasp of the hands, a star that falls from above!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ever at morn in the blue, and at night when all is black,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ever it skulks and trembles with the hunter, Death, on its track.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hear me, Taheia, death! For tomorrow the priest shall awake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the names be named of the victims to bleed for the nation’s sake;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And first of the numbered many that shall be slain ere noon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rua the child of the dirt, Rua the kinless loon.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For him shall the drum be beat, for him be raised the song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For him to the sacred High-place the chanting people throng,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For him the oven smoke as for a speechless beast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the sire of my Taheia come greedy to the feast.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Rua, be silent, spare me. Taheia closes her ears.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pity my yearning heart, pity my girlish years!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flee from the cruel hands, flee from the knife and coal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lie hid in the deeps of the woods, Rua, sire of my soul!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Whither to flee, Taheia, whither in all of the land?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fires of the bloody kitchen are kindled on every hand;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On every hand in the isle a hungry whetting of teeth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eyes in the trees above, arms in the brush beneath.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Patience to lie in wait, cunning to follow the sleuth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Abroad the foes I have fought, and at home the friends of my youth.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Love, love, beloved Rua, love has a clearer eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hence from the arms of love you go not forth to die.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There, where the broken mountain drops sheer into the glen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There shall you find a hold from the boldest hunter of men;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There, in the deep recess, where the sun falls only at noon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And only once in the night enters the light of the moon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor ever a sound but of birds, or the rain when it falls with a shout;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For death and the fear of death beleaguer the valley about.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tapu it is, but the gods will surely pardon despair;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tapu, but what of that? If Rua can only dare.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tapu and tapu and tapu, I know they are every one right;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the god of every tapu is not always quick to smite.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lie secret there, my Rua, in the arms of awful gods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sleep in the shade of the trees on the couch of the kindly sods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sleep and dream of Taheia, Taheia will wake for you;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And whenever the land-wind blows and the woods are heavy with dew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alone through the horror of night, with food for the soul of her love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taheia the undissuaded will hurry true as the dove.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Taheia, the pit of the night crawls with treacherous things,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spirits of ultimate air and the evil souls of things;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The souls of the dead, the stranglers, that perch in the trees of the wood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waiters for all things human, haters of evil and good.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Rua, behold me, kiss me, look in my eyes and read;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are these the eyes of a maid that would leave her lover in need?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brave in the eye of day, my father ruled in the fight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The child of his loins, Taheia, will play the man in the night.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So it was spoken, and so agreed, and Taheia arose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And smiled in the stars and was gone, swift as the swallow goes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Rua stood on the hill, and sighed, and followed her flight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there were the lodges below, each with its door alight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From folk that sat on the terrace and drew out the even long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sudden crowings of laughter, monotonous drone of song;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The quiet passage of souls over his head in the trees;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from all around the haven the crumbling thunder of seas.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Farewell, my home,” said Rua. “Farewell, O quiet seat!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tomorrow in all your valleys the drum of death shall beat.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dawn as yellow as sulphur leaped on the naked peak,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the village was stirring, for now was the priest to speak.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forth on his terrace he came, and sat with the chief in talk;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His lips were blackened with fever, his cheeks were whiter than chalk;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fever clutched at his hands, fever nodded his head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, quiet and steady and cruel, his eyes shone ruby-red.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the earliest rays of the sun the chief rose up content;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Braves were summoned, and drummers; messengers came and went;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Braves ran to their lodges; weapons were snatched from the wall;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The commons herded together, and fear was over them all.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Festival dresses they wore, but the tongue was dry in their mouth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the blinking eyes in their faces skirted from north to south.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now to the sacred enclosure gathered the greatest and least,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from under the shade of the banyan arose the voice of the feast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The frenzied roll of the drum, and a swift monotonous song.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Higher the sun swam up; the trade-wind level and strong",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Awoke in the tops of the palms and rattled the fans aloud,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And over the garlanded heads and shining robes of the crowd",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tossed the spiders of shadow, scattered the jewels of sun.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forty the tale of the drums, and the forty throbbed like one;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A thousand hearts in the crowd, and the even chorus of song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swift as the feet of a runner, trampled a thousand strong.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the old men leered at the ovens and licked their lips for the food;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the women stared at the lads, and laughed and looked to the wood.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As when the sweltering baker, at night, when the city is dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alone in the trough of labour treads and fashions the bread;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So in the heat, and the reek, and the touch of woman and man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The naked spirit of evil kneaded the hearts of the clan.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now cold was at many a heart, and shaking in many a seat;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For there were the empty baskets, but who was to furnish the meat?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For here was the nation assembled, and there were the ovens anigh,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And out of a thousand singers nine were numbered to die.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till, of a sudden, a shock, a mace in the air, a yell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, struck in the edge of the crowd, the first of the victims fell.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Terror and horrible glee divided the shrinking clan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Terror of what was to follow, glee for a diet of man.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Frenzy hurried the chant, frenzy rattled the drums;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The nobles, high on the terrace, greedily mouthed their thumbs;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And once and again and again, in the ignorant crowd below,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once and again and again descended the murderous blow.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now smoked the oven, and now, with the cutting lip of a shell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A butcher of ninety winters jointed the bodies well.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unto the carven lodge, silent, in order due,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The grandees of the nation one after one withdrew;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a line of laden bearers brought to the terrace foot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On poles across their shoulders, the last reserve of fruit.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The victims bled for the nobles in the old appointed way;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fruit was spread for the commons, for all should eat today.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now was the kava brewed, and now the cocoa ran,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now was the hour of the dance for child and woman and man;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And mirth was in every heart and a garland on every head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all was well with the living and well with the eight who were dead.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only the chiefs and the priest talked and consulted a while:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Tomorrow,” they said, and “Tomorrow,” and nodded and seemed to smile:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Rua the child of dirt, the creature of common clay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rua must die tomorrow, since Rua is gone today.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Out of the groves of the valley, where clear the blackbirds sang,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sheer from the trees of the valley the face of the mountain sprang;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sheer and bare it rose, unscalable barricade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beaten and blown against by the generous draught of the trade.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dawn on its fluted brow painted rainbow light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Close on its pinnacled crown trembled the stars at night.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here and there in a cleft clustered contorted trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or the silver beard of a stream hung and swung in the breeze,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High overhead, with a cry, the torrents leaped for the main,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And silently sprinkled below in thin perennial rain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dark in the staring noon, dark was Rua’s ravine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Damp and cold was the air, and the face of the cliffs was green.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here, in the rocky pit, accursed already of old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On a stone in the midst of a river, Rua sat and was cold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Valley of midday shadows, valley of silent falls,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rua sang, and his voice went hollow about the walls,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Valley of shadow and rock, a doleful prison to me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What is the life you can give to a child of the sun and the sea?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Rua arose and came to the open mouth of the glen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whence he beheld the woods, and the sea, and houses of men.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wide blew the riotous trade, and smelt in his nostrils good;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It bowed the boats on the bay, and tore and divided the wood;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It smote and sundered the groves as Moses smote with the rod,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the streamers of all the trees blew like banners abroad;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ever and on, in a lull, the trade-wind brought him along",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A far-off patter of drums and a far-off whisper of song.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Swift as the swallow’s wings, the diligent hands on the drum",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fluttered and hurried and throbbed. “Ah, woe that I hear you come,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rua cried in his grief, “a sorrowful sound to me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mounting far and faint from the resonant shore of the sea!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Woe in the song! for the grave breathes in the singers’ breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I hear in the tramp of the drums the beat of the heart of death.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Home of my youth! no more through all the length of the years,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No more to the place of the echoes of early laughter and tears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No more shall Rua return; no more as the evening ends,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To crowded eyes of welcome, to the reaching hands of friends.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All day long from the High-place the drums and the singing came,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the even fell, and the sun went down, a wheel of flame;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And night came gleaning the shadows and hushing the sounds of the wood;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And silence slept on all, where Rua sorrowed and stood.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But still from the shore of the bay the sound of the festival rang,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And still the crowd in the High-place danced and shouted and sang.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now over all the isle terror was breathed abroad",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of shadowy hands from the trees and shadowy snares in the sod;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And before the nostrils of night, the shuddering hunter of men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hurried, with beard on shoulder, back to his lighted den.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Taheia, here to my side!”⁠—“Rua, my Rua, you!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cold from the clutch of terror, cold with the damp of the dew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taheia, heavy of hair, leaped through the dark to his arms;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taheia leaped to his clasp, and was folded in from alarms.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Rua, beloved, here, see what your love has brought;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Coming⁠—alas! returning⁠—swift as the shuttle of thought;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Returning, alas! for tonight, with the beaten drum and the voice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the shine of many torches must the sleepless clan rejoice;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Taheia the well-descended, the daughter of chief and priest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taheia must sit in her place in the crowded bench of the feast.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So it was spoken; and she, girding her garment high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fled and was swallowed of woods, swift as the sight of an eye.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Night over isle and sea rolled her curtain of stars,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then a trouble awoke in the air, the east was banded with bars;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dawn as yellow as sulphur leaped on the mountain height;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dawn, in the deepest glen, fell a wonder of light;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High and clear stood the palms in the eye of the brightening east,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lo! from the sides of the sea the broken sound of the feast!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As, when in days of summer, through open windows, the fly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swift as a breeze and loud as a trump goes by,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But when frosts in the field have pinched the wintering mouse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blindly noses and buzzes and hums in the firelit house:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So the sound of the feast gallantly trampled at night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So it staggered and drooped, and droned in the morning light.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It chanced that as Rua sat in the valley of silent falls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He heard a calling of doves from high on the cliffy walls.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fire had fashioned of yore, and time had broken, the rocks;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There were rooting crannies for trees and nesting-places for flocks;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he saw on the top of the cliffs, looking up from the pit of the shade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A flicker of wings and sunshine, and trees that swung in the trade.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The trees swing in the trade,” quoth Rua, doubtful of words,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“And the sun stares from the sky, but what should trouble the birds?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up from the shade he gazed, where high the parapet shone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he was aware of a ledge and of things that moved thereon.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“What manner of things are these? Are they spirits abroad by day?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or the foes of my clan that are come, bringing death by a perilous way?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The valley was gouged like a vessel, and round like the vessel’s lip,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a cape of the side of the hill thrust forth like the bows of a ship.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the top of the face of the cape a volley of sun struck fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the cape overhung like a chin a gulf of sunless air.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Silence, heart! What is that?⁠—that, which flickered and shone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the sun for an instant, and in an instant gone?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was it a warrior’s plume, a warrior’s girdle of hair?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swung in the loop of a rope, is he making a bridge of the air?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once and again Rua saw, in the trenchant edge of the sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The giddy conjuring done. And then, in the blink of an eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A scream caught in with the breath, a whirling packet of limbs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A lump that dived in the gulf, more swift than a dolphin swims;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there was a lump at his feet, and eyes were alive in the lump.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sick was the soul of Rua, ambushed close in a clump;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sick of soul he drew near, making his courage stout;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he looked in the face of the thing, and the life of the thing went out.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he gazed on the tattooed limbs, and, behold, he knew the man:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hoka, a chief of the Vais, the truculent foe of his clan:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hoka a moment since that stepped in the loop of the rope,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Filled with the lust of war, and alive with courage and hope.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Again to the giddy cornice Rua lifted his eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And again beheld men passing in the armpit of the skies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Foes of my race!” cried Rua, “the mouth of Rua is true:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never a shark in the deep is nobler of soul than you.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There was never a nobler foray, never a bolder plan;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never a dizzier path was trod by the children of man;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Rua, your evil-doer through all the days of his years,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Counts it honour to hate you, honour to fall by your spears.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Rua straightened his back. “O Vais, a scheme for a scheme!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cried Rua and turned and descended the turbulent stair of the stream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leaping from rock to rock as the water-wagtail at home",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flits through resonant valleys and skims by boulder and foam.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Rua burst from the glen and leaped on the shore of the brook,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And straight for the roofs of the clan his vigorous way he took.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swift were the heels of his flight, and loud behind as he went",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rattled the leaping stones on the line of his long descent.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ever he thought as he ran, and caught at his gasping breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“O the fool of a Rua, Rua that runs to his death!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the right is the right,” thought Rua, and ran like the wind on the foam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The right is the right forever, and home forever home.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For what though the oven smoke? And what though I die ere morn?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There was I nourished and tended, and there was Taheia born.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Noon was high on the High-place, the second noon of the feast;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And heat and shameful slumber weighed on people and priest;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the heart drudged slow in bodies heavy with monstrous meals;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the senseless limbs were scattered abroad like spokes of wheels;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And crapulous women sat and stared at the stones anigh",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a bestial droop of the lip and a swinish rheum in the eye.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As about the dome of the bees in the time for the drones to fall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dead and the maimed are scattered, and lie, and stagger, and crawl;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So on the grades of the terrace, in the ardent eye of the day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The half-awake and the sleepers clustered and crawled and lay;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And loud as the dome of the bees, in the time of a swarming horde,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A horror of many insects hung in the air and roared.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rua looked and wondered; he said to himself in his heart:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Poor are the pleasures of life, and death is the better part.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But lo! on the higher benches a cluster of tranquil folk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sat by themselves, nor raised their serious eyes, nor spoke:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Women with robes unruffled and garlands duly arranged,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gazing far from the feast with faces of people estranged;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And quiet amongst the quiet, and fairer than all the fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taheia, the well-descended, Taheia, heavy of hair.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the soul of Rua awoke, courage enlightened his eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he uttered a summoning shout and called on the clan to rise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over against him at once, in the spotted shade of the trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Owlish and blinking creatures scrambled to hands and knees;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the grades of the sacred terrace, the driveller woke to fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the hand of the ham-drooped warrior brandished a wavering spear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Rua folded his arms, and scorn discovered his teeth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above the war-crowd gibbered, and Rua stood smiling beneath.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thick, like leaves in the autumn, faint, like April sleet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Missiles from tremulous hands quivered around his feet;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Taheia leaped from her place; and the priest, the ruby-eyed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ran to the front of the terrace, and brandished his arms and cried:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Hold, O fools, he brings tidings!” and “Hold, ’tis the love of my heart!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till lo! in front of the terrace, Rua pierced with a dart.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Taheia cherished his head, and the aged priest stood by,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gazed with eyes of ruby at Rua’s darkening eye.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Taheia, here is the end, I die a death for a man.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have given the life of my soul to save an unsavable clan.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See them, the drooping of hams! behold me the blinking crew;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fifty spears they cast, and one of fifty true!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And you, O priest, the foreteller, foretell for yourself if you can,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Foretell the hour of the day when the Vais shall burst on your clan!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the head of the tapu cleft, with death and fire in their hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thick and silent like ants, the warriors swarm in the land.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And they tell that when next the sun had climbed to the noonday skies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It shone on the smoke of feasting in the country of the Vais.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}