THE SHINING CUCKOO & THE PENNY DOCTOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1937, Page 8

THE SHINING CUCKOO & THE PENNY DOCTOR

(Written for the Ringr by "White Fox," 12, Auckland.) PIPI and Koko, living in Raiatea, were two Hawaiian children who, beim fond of each other, played together. Pipi was a girl and Koko a boy. Pipi's father, Nuku, was a great magician; Koko's father, Turi, was a great waTicr. The two men quarrelled, and while Koko and Pipi were swimming and playing one day, Pipi said: "Last night my father ""g a song about your father." "What did he say?" asked Koko. Pipi answered: "He said, 'His bones will make my fishhooks'." Presently the children ran off to help to prepare breakfast. After the meal was over, Koko helped'to build a large canoe that his father was making out of a big tree trunk." As he worked hard keeping in the fire that burned a hollow in the tree, he hummed over and over again to himself: "His bones shall make my fishhooks. His bones shall make my ashliooks." Suddenly his father asked: "Who told you that?" Koko said, "Pipi." Turi kept silent, but he knew now that old Nuku 3neant to kill him. He knew, too, he would have ■to go away, for Nuku had more fighting men than he had. Turi hastened away and came to New Zealand. Koko and Pipi sobbed and cried when they parted. Koko gave Pipi . a pretty gold shell and Pipi gave Koko a pearl necklace. Aftei they had parted, Koko longed for his playmate, and he wasted away until he was only an inch high. One day a patupaiarehe came and said to Koko: "Who are you?" Then Koko said: "I'm a boy." Then aaid the fairy: "You're too small," and she turned him into a penny doctor. As the cold winter was approaching, he dug a hole in the ground and slept till spring, with the pretty pearl necklace lying there beside him. Pipi also was grief-stricken at Koko's loss, and she fastened his gift on to her breast. Her father bade her stop lamenting, and, as she continued her wailing, he became angry, and, saying this magic prayer, "Kui, kui, kui, kui, whiti, whiti, ora" turned her into ashining cuckoo which flew to New Zealand. It flew over the country calling "Kui," until at last it saw a pearl necklace on the ground and recognised it as the one she had given Koko. Hearing her, Koko ran out of his hole to greet her, and that's why, every ' spring, when the shining cuckoo reaches New Zealand, the penny doctof comes out of his hole to see her.