So they went into a cave that no one had ever gone into before. And at Po-po-lo-au’s desire they lighted a great fire to keep themselves from the cold. And then, although there were things in the cave [[175]]that they should have been fearful about, they both went to sleep.
In the middle of the night Po-po-lo-au was startled by something that he thought was happening. He wakened up, and he saw that the fire was burning Po-o. He called him, but the servant would not waken up. He went to him and tried to rouse him, but still he would not awaken. The fire, which had been burning the man’s feet, went farther up his body. Po-po-lo-au lifted him and tried by every way to bring him to wakefulness, but there was no stir from Po-o. Then, when the fire had burned up to his neck, Po-po-lo-au let him lie there and ran out of the cave. He ran towards a hill. When he reached the top of it he heard a voice calling to him, “Wait until I come to you, and we will go home together.” He looked back, and he saw a head with fire streaming out of it coming up the hill after him.
He ran to the valley, and the head rolled down the hill after him. He looked back, and he saw tongues of fire shooting out of the rolling head, and he became more frightened than before. He ran on and on. Through many valleys he raced, and always the head raced behind him. He reached the plain, and then he could hardly go on because of the terror he was in.
It happened that at that time a wizard was walking with his friends along that plain. “Do you see the person who is coming towards us?” he said. “If [[176]]he is not caught until he comes up to us, he will be saved. But if he is caught before that, I do not know what will happen to him.” As he said that, Po-po-lo-au came running up to them; and then the head did not come any nearer.
Po-po-lo-au told the wizard all that had befallen him. Then he went to his sister, the wife of Mo-e Mo-e. She asked about her servant, and he told her of how he had been burned and how his head had chased him.
Then the wizard came into the house. “I have come to you,” he said, “because I fear you may be burned. The head that chased this man will come here. It will want to come within and stay in the house, but do not ask it to come in, or you will come into its power. It will ask you to go outside to it, but do not go out. It will ask you to send your child out to it, but do not send him out.”
And then he said: “When you hear a whistle outside, it will mean that the head is near. Then move into a corner of the house and keep very still. When the outside is all lighted up you will know that it has come, and when the inside is lighted up you will know that it has entered the house.”
The woman stayed within the house, and about the middle of the night she heard a whistle outside; then all outside was lighted up, and the voice of Po-o called to her asking her to come without. “I [[177]]will not go outside, for it is raining,” she said. “There is no rain,” said the voice of Po-o.
Then the voice spoke again and said to her, “Send out to me your little child.” And the voice went on to say: “I have what your child liked well—ripe bananas. Send him out to me, and I will give them to him.”
“I will not send him out to you,” the woman said, “for the child is now asleep.”