“Now that I have made you a goddess again, you must sit here in this cavern and sing to me all through the day and all through the night.”
And so for many days and nights Kasawayo sang and sang till her throat was tired. At length her heart began to long for the voice of Kora, and her eyes for one sight of his beauty.
One evening, as the sun was setting, she said to the god Buli-buli, who was at that moment dozing by the cavern’s door:
“Oh, I am so tired of singing away in this cave; though I love you, Buli-buli, still I feel that I would like to go out into the forest by night alone.”
For a moment the god looked at Kasawayo, growled, and then said:
“If you go out into the forest alone, I shall be turned into a serpent again till you come back; and, were you to be unfaithful to me by allowing the lips of a mortal to touch your own, I should be doomed to remain ever in the shape of a serpent.”
Saying this, the god looked fiercely at Kasawayo, as though he would read her soul.
Kasawayo, being a true Fijian goddess-woman, put her most innocent look into her bright eyes.
Then the god continued:
“Now, will you promise me that, if I let you go out into the forest alone, you will be faithful and return again?”