for want of food, and he laid himself down under a tree and slept. And as he slept he dreamed that a beautiful maiden was near him. Therefore when he woke he went down to the beach to see if she were there, and lo, she stood as he had seen her in his dream, and, looking upon him even as he was, she loved him and asked him to be her husband.
Then she took him to the hill village where she dwelt, and undid the coconut roots which were twined about him, and when he had bathed she laid healing leaves upon his skin, and anointed him with coconut oil, and removed the tangles from his hair.
Then was he fair to look upon once more, and a girl, who was also a witch, beholding him, loved him, and she said to the beautiful maiden, "It is I who should have married the stranger."
"Nay, sister," answered the beautiful girl, "did I not find him upon the shore? It is for that cause that he is mine." Then the witch went away, but hatred and jealousy still lived in her heart.
But as for the man and his wife, they cared little for that, and for a time no ill came of it. When the sun rose far out to sea many moons after, a little son was born to them, and they loved him dearly. And it came to pass that on a day the mother went to the gardens to dig taro for the evening meal, and the man lay in the house asleep with his little son beside him. Then crept in the girl who was a witch, and in her hand she held a sharp stone with which to kill the man whom she would have married.
