THE sad Hawahee was strangely happy that day in the thought that Sestrina had smiled over his perfidious spying on her! Sestrina could hear him singing his pagan melodies as he chopped firewood on the huge log by the yam patch. Hawahee’s mind was full of glorious schemes for the future. Since he had discovered that the leprosy spot was almost cured, the outlook of his life had completely changed. He had decided to tell nothing about his wonderful discovery to Sestrina until he had quite made his plans for the future. He felt assured that his castaway companion loved him from the soul as well as the flesh. There was no denying that the heathen melodies he sang were cheerful strains, lacking all the sombre beauty of those chants he had sang till Sestrina’s heart had ached. And so the long hot tropic day was full of anticipation and happiness for Hawahee as well as for Sestrina.
When the sun had set and the shadows were thickening the stars over the seas, Sestrina stole from her chamber. She knew that Hawahee had gone down to the shell-temple to pray to his beloved gods. As she passed by the bamboos on the ridge of the little hill to the right of the valley she looked seaward. Even the big, calm, bright moon seemed to stare with curiosity as it peered gently over the sea’s horizon, its lovely eye sending a searchlight stream of ethereal beams over the dark palms of the isle. Away she ran! In a few minutes she was creeping along in the shadows of the palms by the temple of shells. The winds were blowing softly, only a faint murmur came from the shell-organ. Still she crept nearer, and then half in fright she peered round the portal’s edge and stared into the great rocky sacred interior. Hawahee was not there! Only the great unlidded stone eyes of Pelé and the gods gazed in their solemn immobility on her fearful intrusion. Where was Hawahee? She could distinctly hear him chanting—she knew that he was worshipping some one. She pushed the feathery pulu leaves aside and peered, her eyes staring, fascinated by the sight she saw. Hawahee knelt with hands upraised before the carven, beautiful form of insensate stone! Again she gazed on the wonderfully raised crown of hair that rippled down to the cold lovely grace of the stone shoulders. He was singing, chanting some melodious melody for the deaf ears—so beautifully shaped, like rosy pearl shells of the ocean—she heard him whisper words of passion as he gazed into the wide-open, wonder-lidded, delicately lashed stone eyes! She saw the warm glow of his own. A thrill of uneasy joy tinged with uncanny fright seized her heart as she watched. She remembered Hawahee’s long absences from her side, when he told her he was away in the forest busy mat-weaving! She gazed down the veined marble-like limbs and on the artistically chiselled ankles and perfect sandalled feet—they were shod with the second pair of sandals—the sandals which Hawahee had given her by mistake when he presented her with the rami and tappa-weaved bodice.
Even she gazed in ecstatic admiration on that wonderful carven shape of herself. The veined limbs, the curves, the symmetrical hues of the rounded flanks were perfect! In the inherent modesty of her nature, a tiny tinge of resentment came to her, a warm blush suffusing her face, as a nervous wonder leapt into her mind. How had the impassioned sculptor been able to achieve such perfect detail? In a flash she thought of her morning bathings in the lagoon when Hawahee was supposed to be far away on the other side of the isle seeking seagulls’ eggs. She thought of his marvellous power of seeing her dreams and hearing the hidden voices of the soul—perhaps he had the power of seeing her visionary shape?
She swiftly forgave. A great love and tenderness for the kneeling worshipper swept through her soul. She knew how true he was to his gods. “Truer than I am!” she murmured as she watched and knew how easily she herself would have fallen had Hawahee been a godless man.
“Hawahee!” she cried.
In a moment the worshipper turned round. He stood as though riveted to the ground in his shame and surprise. He looked like some big child caught in some sinful act wherefrom there was no escape.
“Sestra! Aue! O forgiver me!” he murmured, lapsing into pidgin English in his shame.
“Hawahee, am I sweeter in the stone than in the flesh? Is my loveliness only divine in the curves and lines of your own mind and its creationary work?” she cried, a great wave of jealousy sweeping into her heart as she stared on her breathless, bloodless rival. And still the solemn-looking fanatic did not fly to the warm, living arms that were outstretched in appeal as she spoke.
“Sestra, ’tis beautiful; see the shoulders, the face, the brow, the hair, and the lips of my goddess—Sestra! ’Tis the divine beauty of thyself, thy soul’s calm beauty in stone,” he murmured, as he pointed to the wonderfully chiselled face that seemed to stare from the shadows in stony sorrow and fright at its bright-eyed startled living shape.
Sestrina felt that she stood gazing upon herself—divine, divested of the mortality of the flesh. Yes, there she stood, expressing in loveliest grace and perfect form all that Hawahee had created, made of her by the lovely creative-light of his imagination!