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We shouted back, saying that those men had been roasted upon the fire and eaten, and that thus we would do to all men of Atuona. And we laughed at them." Kahuiti emitted a hearty guffaw at thought of the trick played upon those devoured enemies. "But Tufetu, the grandfather of my friend Mouth of God?" I persisted. "Epo! There was war. The men of Atuona gathered at Otupoto, and rushed down upon us.
We met them at the Stinking Springs, and there I killed Tufetu, uncle of Sliced and Distributed and Man Whose Entrails Were Roasted On A Stick. I pierced him through with my spear at a cocoanut-tree's length away. I was the best spear-thrower of Taaoa.
We drove the Atuonans through the gorge of the Stinking Springs and over the divide, and I ate the right arm of Tufetu that had wielded the war-club. That gives a man the strength of his enemy." He turned again to plaiting the rope of faufee. "O ia aneihe, I have finished," he said. "Will you drink kava?" "No, I will not drink kava," I said sternly.
A great splotch of red gleamed as a blot of blood on the green floor of the hollow. "Vai piau!" said Exploding Eggs. He made a sign of lifting water in his hands, of tasting and spitting it out. The Stinking Springs where Tufetu was slain!
"My uncle, the Catechist, is Tioakoekoe, Man Whose Entrails Were Roasted on a Stick, and his brother is called Pootuhatuha, meaning Sliced and Distributed. That is because their father, Tufetu, was killed at the Stinking Springs in Taaoa, and was cooked and sent all over that valley. You should see that man who killed him, Kahuiti! He is a great man, and strong still, though old.
"Mouth of God, of the family of Sliced and Distributed and Man Whose Entrails Were Roasted On A Stick, has told me of the slaying of Tufetu, their ancestor," I ventured, to steer our bark of conversation into the channel I sought. At the names of the first three, Kahauiti smiled, but when Tufetu was mentioned, he broke into a roar. I had evidently recalled proud memories.
On his haunches, he slid nearer to me. "Afu! Afu! Afu!" he said, the sound that in his tongue means the groan of the dying. "You came by the Fatueki?". "I tasted the water and smelled the smell," I answered. "It was there that Tufetu died," he observed. "I struck the blow, and I ate his arm, his right arm, for he was brave and strong. That was a war!" "What caused that war?"
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