The Luck-Bringer.

“That is well, old woman,” Compton replied. “Enough of that. No more about money. But I have something to ask you. My wife is with child; if all goes well she will give birth to it in three months. I am anxious about her, for it will be her first child. Now, your heitiki is a bringer of good fortune. The image of man is laid on the body of a woman with child to mould and assist the unborn one and cheer the mother. I have many a tiki, but they are dead; they are long cut off from the living; their mana has departed. But yours holds the life of man within it still. Will you not lend it to me for a little while, so that it may rest on the bosom of my wife, to give her good cheer and fond hope, and to give of its life to the growing child within?”

This and much more Compton said, in his persuasive way, and with the Maori idioms and allusions that went with such an appeal.