FROM A CHIEF

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 209, 23 November 1927, Page 6

FROM A CHIEF

Redfeather, —' List, O great and wise one. I have a tale to tell. . . . One summer evening, when the long shadows had fallen over the land and the bright moon drifted slowly across the pine-tops, I lay awake in my tepee, enwrapped in an ecstasy of reverie. I could hear the gentle lapping of the waves upon the shore, mingled with the soft murmuring of the trees as the wind sighed through them. Suddenly, the entrance of my tepee was darkened by some great shadow on sitting up, I beheld two large, gleaming eyes confronting me. Instantly, I seized my spear, which lay nearby, and threw it at those horrifying eyes. At once they opened wider, blinked a few times and closed. Then, with a sound like that of distant thunder, the shadowy beast backed away from my tepee and collapsed. I shuddered, but only for a moment. . . . On advancing, I found a huge bear with my trusty spear plunged deep into the lower part of his neck. From that day my name has been fulfilled —BRAVE HUNTER. A splendid wardrobe, just found, is regarded as one of the greatest treasures yet recovered from Pompeii because it is the only important wooden object that has escaped the action of the heat and ashes cast up by Vesuvius.