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THE WATER-KELPIES.
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their mother had crept just outside the door to meet them, they by her advice stopped up all chinks through which the daylight might shine. Uru told them that if the sunlight was to fall upon the bodies of the fairies, these nocturnal creatures would die at once. Then Uru crept into the house again and waited.

When dawn was near at hand one of the Pona called out, “Oh Keeper of the Door, is it nearly morning?” Uru answered, “No; it is night, dark night.” Dawn appeared outside the sacred dormitory, and another voice called out, “Oh Keeper of the Door, is there no sign of day?” The woman replied, “No; it is deep dark night; sleep on! sleep on!” The moments passed away, until the sun rose bright and clear in the eastern sky. Then Uru called out to her children, “Withdraw the obstacles with which you have darkened the place.” The young men darted forward, and removed the plugs with which they had stopped up the crevices. Uru threw the door wide open, and in streamed the bright rays of the sun upon the foul spawn of the mud and wave. All the Pona perished in the brilliant beams. Uru and her sons took the bones of Hema reverently down from the rafters of the evil dwelling, and bearing the relics, returned to their home.