Note 27 — CONTENTS. (continued 2)

Then Pele again said to the niece: “There is food above.” The niece asked: “What kind of food is it?” The aunt replied: “There is ohelo; it must be ripe now; that is what we are eating.”27 When the niece heard this she went up and saw the ripe ohelo; she grasped and broke some. But when it was broken, blood flowed forth like a human being’s. She smelled it and it was stinking, so she left it and went down again. She said to Pele, “I thought it was a good thing you directed me to get, but when I broke it blood flowed out, and when I smelt it, it was stinking.” Pele replied, “Why, that is what we have been eating, but to you it has changed.”