Turn back again hither,
That may be poured out
Tears from my eyes.
It was not I who first spoke of love.
You it was who made advances to me
When I was but a little thing.
Therefore was my heart made wild.
This is my farewell of love to thee.
A young woman, who had been carried away prisoner from Tuhua, gives vent to her longing in these lines:
"My regret is not to be expressed. Tears like a spring gush from my eyes. I wonder whatever is Te Kaiuku [her lover] doing: he who deserted me. Now I climb upon the ridge of Mount Parahaki; from whence is clear the view of the island Tahua. I see with regret the lofty Taumo, where dwells Tangiteruru. If I were there, the shark's tooth would hang from my ear. How fine, how beautiful, should I look. But see whose ship is that tacking? Is it yours? O Hu! you husband of Pohiwa, sailing away on the tide to Europe.
"O Tom! pray give me some of your fine things; for
beautiful are the clothes of the sea-god.
"Enough of this. I must return to my rags, and to my
nothing-at-all."
In this case the loss of her finery seems to trouble the girl a good deal more than the loss of her lover. In another ode cited by Shortland a deserted girl, after referring to her tearful eyes, winds up with the light-hearted
Now that you are absent in your native land,
The day of regret will, perhaps, end.
There is a suggestion of Sappho in the last of these odes I shall cite: