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Te Rou, or, The Maori at Home

“The Boy Who Swallowed a Live Eel.”

The Boy Who Swallowed a Live Eel.”

A young girl said, “He did not gain the love of that woman, or she would have lived with him. You can see, young men, that lies always grow and come to seed when the man who planted them thought they had rotted in the ear; men little think the memory is where page 317 they grow. This woman saw his lies about the food-houses. All men tell lies when they are in love; and men are such large talkers, even from their youth. Listen to my tale:—

“There was a very large tribe, the children of which were so numerous that the boys would not allow the girls to join in their play. A party of these boys went to fish for eels. They went to a swamp, and trod it into a mud puddle, until the eels were so suffocated that they had to come up to breathe, when they caught them. These boys were the same boasters that all boys are. One of the boys said, ‘I can eat a large raw fish.’

“Another one answered, ‘That is no feat of bravery.’ A third asked, ‘But who can eat a raw live eel?’

“‘I can! I can!’ answered many of them.

“But in the attempt to get the eels down their throats something always sent them back with a kick. But one boy more determined than the others did swallow an eel; it was one he had just caught, and was alive and full of power, and from the muck in which it could scarcely breathe into the boy's mouth was not a bad exchange. The boy put the eel's head into his tongue, and of its own accord it slipped down his throat with one kick. All the other boys stared at the eel swallower, who stood with his eyes wide open.

“One of the boys asked him, ‘How does it taste?’

“He did not answer; there was a move in his throat as if large words were tumbling over each other, but no sound came from his mouth.

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“Tears came into his eyes; still he stood. The other boys began to laugh, and sing, and scream at the fun.

“His sister heard the noise, and heard some of them say, ‘He has gone mad.’ She went to them, and found her brother still standing, but his face was turning quite black. She spoke to him; but not a word did he answer. She put her arms round his neck. He fell down and rolled over and over. The boys gathered round him, laughing, and screaming that he was a brave boy. His sister followed him in his pain. He moved, and looked at his sister with his big staring eyes. She took hold of his hand and sat him up, when he pointed to his throat, and turned his eyes up, as if in severe pain.

“His sister cried out, ‘He is choking.’ And being older than he, she laid him on the ground, and rolled him over and over, when an eel shot out of his month, and wriggled towards the mud pool out of which it had been taken.

“The boy stood up and said to his sister, ‘Who told you to come here and make these boys laugh at me. I would rather die than be laughed at. I am the only boy that can swallow a live eel. Go away! go away.’

“You see, young men, that you men are stupids, and rather than be laughed, at you would die, you are such boasters. And when you tell a lie, you must make it look true, even if you die for it.”

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