'i^wi^w^"'-' ',"■
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♦
THE GREAT TABOO
a
WORKS BY GRANT ALLEN.
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THE GREAT TABOO
r.Y
GRANT ALLEN
AUTHOR Ol--
IN At.l, SHADES," "STRANGE STORIES," "THE TENTS OF SHEM," ETC.
E n u
CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1890
P K E F A C E .
I DESIKE to express my profound iiidebtediiuss, for
tlie central mythological idea embodied in tliis tale,
to My. J. (>. Frazer's admirable and epocli-makin<.'-
work, " The Golden Bough," whose main contention
I have endeavoured incidentally to popularize in my
liresent story. I wish also to express my obligations
in other ways to Mr. Andrew Lang's " Myth, Ilitual,
and Tteligion," Mr. H. O. Forbes's "Naturalist's
Wanderings," and Mr. Julian Thomas's " Cannibals
and Convicts." If I have omitted to mention any
(jther autlior to whom I may have owed incidental
iiints, it will Ijc some consolation to me to reflect
tliat I shall at least have afforded an opportunity
for legitimate sport to the amateurs of the new and
popular ]]ritish pastime of badger-baiting or plagiary-
hunting. It may also save critics some moments'
search if I say at once that, after careful considera-
tion, I have been unable to discover any moral
wliatsoever in this humble narrative. I venture to
believe tliat in so enlightened an age the majority of
my readers will never miss it.
CJ. A.
Tlli: N03K, DOHKING,
October, ISOO.
CONTENTS.
(HAITHK
I. In .^Iid Pacific
J I. Tin: Ti:mi'Ll: of tiii: Deity
HI. I-and: r.iT ^YHAT Land?
IV. The (iLESTS of Heaven ...
V. Enrolled in Olympus
VI. TiKsT Days in IJoiPAiii ...
\l\. Inteimiaxge of Civilities
VIII. The Cu.sto.ms of Boltaiii
IX. Sowing the Wind ...
X. ItEAriNG THE WllIIJLWINlt.. .
XI. Afteu THE Storm
XII. A Point of TnEOLoiiv ...
XIII. As BETWEEN Gods
XIV. '• 3Ir. TiIURSTAN, 1 niESUME"
XV. The Secret of Kokonq
XVI. A vEitv Faint Clue
XVII. Facing the Worst ...
XVIII. Tu-KlLA-KlLA ILAYS A CakK
XIX. Domestic Bliss
XX. Council of War
XXI. IMethuselah gives Sign
XXII. Tantalizing, Very
1 AGB
1
11
21
.35
4G
oG
Go
7G
87
i)8
105
113
121
129
13G
145
152
157
1G8
180
IS7
lOG
viii COXrENTS.
( HAITI i:
XXIir. A Messagi; fko.m thk L)i,ai.
XXIV. An T'nfinisiiei) Tai.i: ...
I'.VilK
202
210
XXV. TL'-KiI.A-KiLA .STHIKES ... ... ••■ -l^'
XXVI. A ItASlI IlESOLVE ... ... ••• -25
XXVI r. A Stkanci: Ally ... ... ... ••• 232
XXVIII. Waoeu uv B.uTLi: ... ... .•■ 2 to
XXIX. Victory— AND AiteuV ... ... ... 2»'.>
XXX. SusrENfii ... ... .-■ ••• '-.»/
XXXI. At Sea: Oil' liuLi'Aiti ... ... .•• 205
XXXII. The Downfall of a Pantheon ... 272
THE GREAT TAROO.
CHArTEK I.
IN' MID rACTFir.
" Man overboard I "
It rang in Felix Tlmistan's ears like the sound of
ii bell. He gazed aliout liim in disniav, wondcrin'^
wliat bad happened.
The first intimation he received of tlie accident
was that sudden sharp cry from the bo'sun's mate.
Almost before he had fully taken it in, in all its
meaning, another voice, further aft, took up the cry
once more in an altered form: "A lady! a lady!
►Somebody overboard ! Great heavens, it's her ! It's
Miss Ellis ! Miss Ellis ! "
Next instant Felix found himself, he knew not how,
struggling in a wild grapple with the dark black water.'
A woman was clinging to him— clinging for dear life.
But he couldn't have told you himself that minute
how it all took place. He was too stunned and
dazzled.
He looked around him on the seething sea in a
sudden awakening, as it were, to life and conscious-
ly
-r
2 THE GREAT TABOO.
1U3SS. All al)out, the great water stretched dark and
tumultuous. White breakers surged over liim. Far
ahead the steamer's lights gleamed red and green in
long lines upon the ocean. At first they ran fast ;
then they slackened somewliat. She was surely
slowing now : they must be reversing engines and
trying to stop her. They would put out a boat. But
what hope, wliat chance of rescue by night, in sucli
a wild waste of waves as that ? And Muriel Ellis
was clinging to liiui for dear life all tlic while, witli
the despairing clutcli of a half-drowned woman !
The people on the Austral((sui/i, for their jiarl,
knew l)etter what had occurred. There was bustle
and commotion en(jugh on deck and on the captain's
bridge, to be sure: "Man overboard!" — three sharp
rings at the engine l)ell : — " Stop her short ! — reverse
engines ! — lower the gig ! — look sharp, there, all of
you ! " Passengers hurried up breathless at the first
alarm to know what was the matter. Sailors loosened
and lowered the boat from the davits with extra-
ordinary quickness. Officers stood l)y, giving orders
in monosyllal)les with practised calm. All was hurry
and turmoil, yet with a marvellous sense of order
and prompt obedience as well. But, at any rate,
the people on deck hadn't the swift swirl of the
boisterous water, the hampering wet clothes, the
pervading consciousness of personal danger, to make
their brains reel, like Felix Thurstan's. They could
ask one another with comparative composure "what had
happened on board ; they <■ aid listen without terror
to the story of the accident.
It was the thirteenth day out from Sydney, and
JN MIT) PACIFIC.
the Amtralamui was rapidly nearing the e(|uatur.
Towards evening, the wind had freshened, and tlie
sea was running]: hi<di aiijainst her weather side. But
it was a fine starlit night, though the moon had not
yet risen ; and as the brief tropical twilight faded
away l)y quick degrees in the west, the fringe of
coco-nut palms on the reef that hounded the little
island of J3oupari showed out for a minute or two in
dark relief, some miles to leeward, against the ])ale
]>ink horizon. In s[)ite of the heavy sea, many
passengers lingered late on deck that night to see
the last of tliat coral-girt sliore, which was to lie
their final glimpse of land till they readied Honolulu,
fii route for San Francisco.
Bit by bit, however, the coco-nut palms, silliouetted
witli tlieir graceful waving arms for a few In'ief
minutes in black against the glowing background,
merged slowly into the sky or sank Itelow the
horizon. All grew dark. One by one, as the trees
disa})peared, the passengers dropped oft' for wliist in
the saloon, or retired to the uneasv solitude of their
own state-rooms. At last only two or three men
were left smoking and chatting near the top of the
companion ladder ; while at the stern of tlie ship,
Muriel Ellis looked over towards the retreatin<>'
island, and talked with a certain timid maidenlv
frankness to Felix Thurstan.
Tliere's nowhere on earth for getting really to know
people in a very short time like the deck of a great
Atlantic or l*acific liner. You're thrown together so
much, and all day long, that you see more of your
fellow-passengers' inner life and nature in a few
4 THE GREAT TABOO.
])rief ^veek.s than you would ever be likely to see in
a long twelvemonth of ordinary town or country
acquaintanceship. And Muriel Ellis had seen a
great deal in tliose thirteen days of Felix Thnrstan ;
enough to make sure in lier own heart that she really
liked him — well — so much, that she looked up with
a pretty blush of self-consciousnes? every time he
approached and lifted his hat to her. Muriel was an
English rector's daughter, from a country village in
Somersetshire ; and she was now on her wav ))[ick
from a long year's visit, to recruit her hcaltli, to an
aunt in Paramatta. She was travelling under the
escort of an amiable old cliaperon whom the aunt in
([uestion had picked up for her before leaving
Sydney ; but, as the amiable old cliaperon, being but
an indifferent sailor, sjient most of her time in her
(nvn l)erth, closely attended by the oljliging stewardess,
Muriel had found her chaperonage interfere very
little with opportunities of talk with that nice Mr.
Thurstan. And now, as the last glow of sunset died
out in the western sky, and the last palm-tree faded
away against the colder green darkness of the tropical
night, Muriel was leaning over the bulwarks in con-
fidential mood, and watching the big waves advance
or recede, and talking the sort of talk that such an
hour seems to favour, with tlie handsome young civil
servant who stood on guard, as it were, beside her.
For Felix Tluirstan held a Government appointment
at Levuka, in Fiji, and was now on his way home, on
leave of absence after six years' service in that new-
made colony.
" How delightful it would be to live on an island
IN MID PACIFIC. S
like that ! " Muriel murmured, half to herself, as she
gazed or.t wistfully in the direction of the dis-
appearing coral reef. *' With those beautiful palms
waving always over one's head, and that delicious
evening air blowincj cool through their branches ! It
looks such a Paradise ! "
Felix smiled and glanced down at her, as he
steadied himself with one hand against the bulwark,
while the ship rolled over into the trough of the sea
heavily. "Well, I don't know about that, Miss
Ellis," he answered with a doubtful air, eyeing her
close as he spoke with eyes of evident admiration.
" One might be happy anywhere, of course — in
suitable society ; but if you'd lived as long among
coco-nuts in Fiji as I have, I dare say the poetry of
these calm palm-grove islands would be a little less
real to you. Iiemember, though they look so beauti-
ful and dreamy against the sky like that, at sunset
especially (that was a heavy one, that time ; I'm
really afraid m'c must go down to the cabin soon ;
she'll be shipping seas before long if we stop on deck
nmch later — and yet, it's so delightful stopping up
here till the dusk comes on, isn't it ?) well, remember,
I was saying, though they look so beautiful and
dreamy and poetical — ' Summer isles of Eden lying
in dark purple spheres of sea,' and all that sort of
thing — these islands are inhabited by the fiercest and
most bloodthirsty cannibals known to travellers."
" Cannibals ! " Muriel repeated, looking up at him
in surprise. "You don't mean to say that islands
like these, standing right in the very track of
European steamers, are still heathen and cannibal ? "
r
G THE QltEAT TABOO.
" Oh dear, yes," Felix replied, holding his hund
out as he spoke to catch his companion's arm gently,
and steady her against the wave that was just goinj.
to strike the stern : — " Excuse me : just so : the sea's
rising fast, isn't it ? — Oh dear, yes ; of course they
are: they're all lieatlion and cannibals. You couldn't
imagine to yourself the horrible bloodthirsty rites
that may this very minute be taking place upon that
idyllic-looking island, under the soft waving branches
of tliose whispering palm-trees. AVliy, T knew a
man in the Marquesas myself — a liideous old native,
as ugly as you can fancy him — who was supposed to
be a god, an incarnate god, and was worshipped
accordingly with, profound devotion by all the other
islanders. You can't picture to yourself how awful
their worship was. I daren't even repeat it to you ;
•it was too, too horrible. He lived in a hut by
himself among the deepest forest, and human victims
used to be brought — well, there, it's too loathsome !
AVhy, see ; there's a great liglit on the island now ; a
big l)onfire or something : don't you make it out i
You can tell it by the red glare in the sky overliead."
He paused a moment : then he added more slowly,
" I shouldn't be surprised if at this very moment,
while we're standing here in such perfect security on
the deck of a Christian English vessel, some unspeak-
able and unthinkable heathen orgy mayn't be going
on over there beside that sacrificial fire ; and if some
poor trembling native girl isn't being led just now,
with blows and curses and awful savage ceremonies,
her hands bound behind her back Oh, look out,
Miss Ellis ! "
IN MID PACIFIC. 7
He was only just in time to utter the warning
words. He was only just in time to put one hand on
each side of lier slender waist, and hold her tiglit so,
when the hig wave which he saw coming struck full
tilt against the vessel's flank, and broke in one white
drenching sheet of foam against lier stern and
quarter-deck.
The suddenness of the assai./c took Felix's breath
away. For the first few seconds lie was only aware
that a heavy sea had been shipped, and had wet him
through and tlu'ough with its unexpected deluge. A
moment later, he was dimly conscious that his com-
jjanion had slipped from his grasp, and was nowhere
visible. The violence of the shock, and the slimy
nature of the sea-water, had made him relax his hold
without knowing it, in the tumult of the moment,
and had at the same time caused Muriel to glide
imperceptibly through his fingers, as he had often
known an ill-caught cricket-ball do in his school-
days. Then he saw he was on his hands and knees
on the deck. The wave had knocked him down, and
dashed him against the bulwark on the leeward side.
As lie picked himself up, wet, bruised, and shaken,
lie looked about for Muriel. A terrible dread seized
upon his soul at once. Impossible ! Impossible !
she couldn't have been washed overboard !
And even as he gazed about, and held his bruised
elbow in his hand, and wondered to himself what it
could all mean, that sudden loud cry arose beside
him from the quarter-deck, " Man overboard ! Man
overboard ! " followed a moment later by the answer-
ing cry, iiom the men who were smoking under the
8 THE on EAT TABOO.
lee of the companion, " A lady ! a lady ! It's Miss
Ellis ! Miss Ellis ! "
He didn't take it all in. He didn't reflect. He
didn't even know lie was actually doing it. But he
did it, all the same, with the simple, straightforward,
instinctive sense of duty which makes civilized man
act aright, all unconsciously, in any moment of
supreme danger and difficulty. Leaping on to the
taff-rail without one instant's delay, and steadying
himself for an indivisible fraction of time with his
hand on the rope ladder, he peered out into the dark-
ness with keen eyes for a glimpse of Muriel Ellis's
head above the fierce black water ; and espying it for
one second, as she came up on a white crest, he
plunged in before the vessel had time to roll back to
windward, and struck boldly out in the direction
where he saw that helpless object dashed about like
a cork on the surface of the ocean.
Only those who have known such accidents at sea
can possibly picture to themselves the instantaneous
haste with which all that followed took place upon
that bustling quarter-deck. Almost at the first cry
of "Man overboard!" the captain's bell rang sharp
and quick, as if by magic, with three peremptory
little calls in the engine-room below. The Australa-
sian was going at full speed, but in a marvellously
short time, as it seemed to all on board, the great
ship had slowed down to a perfect standstill, and
then had reversed her engines, so that she lay, just
nose to the wind, awaiting further orders. In the
mean time, almost as soon as the words were out of
the bo'sun's lips, a sailor amidships had rushed to
7.V MID PACIFIC. 9
the safety belts hang up by the companion ladder,
and liad Hung lialf a dozen of tlieni, one after another,
with hastv but well-aimed throws, far, far astern, in
the direction wliere Felix had disappeared into the
black water. The belts were painted white, and they
showed for a few seconds, as they fell, like bright
specks on the surface of the darkling sea ; then they
sunk slowly behind as the big ship, still not (piite
stopped, ploughed her way ahead with gigantic force
into the great abyss of darkness in front of her.
It seemed but a minute, too, to the watchers on
Ijoard, before a party of sailors, summoned by the
whistle with that marvellous readiness to meet any
emergency which long experience of sudden danger
has rendered habitual among seafaring men, had
lowered the boat, and taken their seats on the thwarts,
and seized their oars, and were getting under weigh
on their hopeless cpiest of search, through the dim
black night, for those two belated souls alone in the
midst of the angry Tacific.
It seemed but a minute or two, I say, to the
watchers on board ; but oh, what an eternity of time
to Felix Thurstan, struggling there with his live
l)urden in the seething water!
He had dashed into the ocean, which was dark but
warm with tropical heat, and had succeeded, in spite
of the heavy seas then running, in reaching Muriel,
who clung to him now with all the fierce clinging of
despair, and impeded his movement through that
swirling water. More than that, he saw the white
life- belts that the sailors flung towards him; they
were well and aptly flung, in the inspiration of the
.lit
10 THE GREAT TABOO,
moment, to allow for tlie sea itself carrying them on
tlio crest of its waves towards tlie two drowning
crcaturi'S. Felix saw them distinctly, and making a
great Innge as they passed, in spite of Muriel's
struggles, which sadly hampered liis movements, he
managed to clutch at no less than three before the
great billow, rolling on, carried them off on its top for
ever away from Inm. Two of these he slipped hastily
(»\'er Muriel's shoulders ; the other, he put, as best he
might, round his own waist ; and then, for the first
lime, still clinging close to his companion's arm, and
buffeted about wildly by that running sea, he was
able to look about him in alarm for a moment, and
realize more or less what had actually happened. \
By this time, the Australasian was a quarter of a
mile away in front of them, and her lights were
beginning to become stationary as she slowly slowed
and reversed engines. Then, from the summit of a
great wave, Felix was dimly aware of a boat being
lowered — for he saw a separate light gleaming across
the sea — a search was being made in the black night,
alas, how hopelessly ! The light hovered about for
many, many minutes, revealed to him now here, now
there, searching in vain to find him, as wave after
wave raised him time and again on its irresistible
summit. The men in the boat were doing their best,
no doubt : but what chance of finding any one on a
dark night like that, in an angry sea, and with no clue
to guide them towards the two struggling castaways ?
Current and wind had things all their own way. As
a matter of fact, the light never came near the cast-
aways at all: and after half an hour's ineffectual search^
IN MID PACIFIC. 11
which seemed to Felix a whole long UrL'tiiiie, it
returned slowly towards the steamer from which it
came — and left th(jse two alone on the dark racilic.
"Tliere wasn't a chance of ])icking 'em uj)," the
Captain said, M'ith pliilosophic calm, as the men
clambered on board a^^ain, and the Australasian got
under weigh once more for the port of ]Ionolulu.
"I knew there wasn't a chance; l)ut in common
liumanity, one was V>ound to make some show of
trying to save 'em. lie was a brave fellow to go after
her, though it was no good, of course. He couldn't
even find her, at night, and with such a sea as
tliat running."
And even as he spoke, Felix Tliurstan, rising once
more on the crest of a much smaller billow — for some-
how, the waves were getting incredibly smaller as he
drifted on to leeward — felt his heart sink within him
as he observed to his dismay that the Australasian
must be steaming ahead once more, by the movement
of liur lights, and that they two were indeed aban-
doned to their fate on the open surface of that vast
and trackless ocean.
I CHAPTKU II.
i
'i
THE TEMPLE OF THE DEITV.
I While these things were happening on the sea close
% by, a very different scene indeed was being enacted
I meanwhile, beneath those waving palms, on the island
I of Boupari. It was strange, to be sure, as Felix
I Thurstan had said, that such unspeakable heathen
12 THE GREAT TABOO.
orgies should be taking place within sight of a passing
Christian English steamer. But if only he had
known or reiiected to what sort of land he was try-
ing now to struggle ashore with Muriel, he might
well have doubted whether it were not better to
let her perish where she was, in the pure clear ocean,
rather than to submit an English girl to the possi-
})ility of undergoing such horrible heathen rites and
ceremonies.
For on the island of Boupari, it was high feast with
the worshippers of their god tliat night. The sun
had turned on the Tropic of Capricorn at noon, and
was making his way northward, toward the equator
once more ; and his votaries, as w\as their wont, had
all come forth to do him honour in due season, and
to pay their respects, in the inmost and sacredest
grove of the island, to his incarnate representative,
the living spirit of trees and fruits and vegetation,
the very high god, the divine Tu-Kila-Kila !
Early in the evening, as soon as the sun's rim had
disappeared beneath the ocean, a strange noise boomed
forth from the central shrine of Boupari. Those who
heard it clapped their hands to their ears and ran
liastily forward. It was a noise like distant rumbling
tlmnder, or the wlurr of some great English mill or
factory ; and at its sound, every woman on the island
tlirew herself on the ground prostrate, with her face
in the dust, and waited there reverently till the
audible voice of the god had once more subsided. For
no woman knew how that sound was produced. Only
the grown men, initiated into the mysteries of the
shrine when they came of age at the tattooing cere-
THE TEMPLE OF THE DEITY,
V,
niony, were awiire that the strange buzzing whirring
noise was nothing more or less than the cry of the
Bull-roarer.
A Bull-roarer, as many English schoolboys know,
is merely a piece of oblong wootl, pointed at either
end, and fastened bv a leather thong at one corner.
But when whirled round the head l)y practised priestly
hands, it ])roduces a Inw rumbling n(»is;e like the
wheels of a distant carriage, growing gi'adually louder
and clearer, from moment to moment, till at last it
waxes itself into a frightful din, or bursts int(j perfect
peals of imitation thunder. Then it decreases again
once more, as gradually as it rose, coming fainter and
ever fainter, like thunder as it recedes, till the hor-
rible bellowing, as of supernatural bulls, dies away in
the end, bv slow degrees, into low and soft and
imperceptible murmurs.
]5ut when the savage hears the distant humminirof
tlie Bull-roarer, at whatever distance, he knows that
the mysteries of his god are in full swing, and he
] lurries forward in haste, leaving his work or his
])leasure, and running naked as he stands, to take his
sliare in the worship, lest the anger of heaven should
l)urst forth in devouring flames to consume him.
J)Ut the women, knowing themselves unworthy to
face the dread presence of the high god in his wrath,
rush wildly from the spot, and flinging themselves
down at full length, with their mouths to the dust,
wait patiently till the voice of their deity is no
longer audible.
And as the Bull-roarer on Boupari rang out with
wild echoes from tlie coral caverns in the central
It THE GREAT TABOO.
{ijrovc that eveninj:;, Tii-Kila-Kila, tlicii* ^od, rose
slowly from liis placo, and stood out from his hut, a
d<'ity revealed, belbre his reverential worshippers.
As he rose, a hushed whisper ran wave-like through
the dense throng of dusky forms that bent low, like
corn beneath the wind, Ijefore him, " Tu-Kila-Kila
rises! H(i rises to speak! Hush! for the voiee of
the mighty man-god ! "
The god, looking around iiim superciliously witii a
cynical air of contem})t, stood forward with a firm
and clastic stej) before his silent wors]ii])j>crs. Jlc
was a stalwart savage, in tlie very prime of life, tall,
lithe, and active. His figure was that of a man well
used to connnand ; l)ut his face, thougli handsome,
was visibly marked by every externnl sign of cruelty,
lust, and extreme bloodthirstiness. One might have
said, merelv to look at him, he was a l»ein«' debased
1>V all forms of brutal and hateful self-indulgence.
A baleful light burned in his keen grey eyes. His
lips were thick, full, purple, and wistful.
"My people may look upon me," he said, in a
strangely aifable voice, standing forward and smiling
with a curious half-cruel, half-compassionate smile
upon his awestruck followers. "On every day of
the sun's course l)ut this, none save the ministers
dedicated to the service of Tu-Kila-Kila dare uaze
unhurt upon his sacred person. If any others did,
the light from his holy eyes would wither them up,
and the glow of his glorious countenance would
scorch them to ashes." He raised his two hands,
palm outward, in front of him. "So all the year
round," he went on, " Tu-Kila-Kila, who loves his
Till-: TEMPLE OF THE DEITY.
15
^
i
])Oopl(*, and sends them the earlier and tlie hiter rain
ill tlie wet season, and makes their yams and tlieir
taro grow, and causes his sun to sliine upon tin in
freely — all tlie year round Tu-Kihi-Kila, your god,
sits sliut up in his own house among the skeletons
of those wliom he has killed aiul eaten, or Malks in
liis walh'd paddoek, wliere Ids hread-fruit rijxMis and
Ins ]»lantains spring, — himself, .and the nnnisters
lliat liis trihesmen liave given Inn;."
At tlie sound of their mvstic deitv's voice llie
savages, hcnding lower still till their foreheads
loudied tlie ground, repeated in ''horns, to the
cla}>[)iiig of hands, like some solemn litany: " Tu-
Kilii-lvila speaks true. Oiir lord is merciful. He
sends down his sliowers U])on our crops and fields.
He causes his sun to shine l»rightly over us. He
makes our jiigs and our slaves Itring forth their
increase. Tu-lvila-Kila is good. His people praise
liim."
The g(jd took another step forward, the divine
mantle of red feathers glowing in the sunset on
liis dusky shoulders, and smiled once more that
hateful gracious smile of liis. He was standing near
the open door of his wattled hut, overshadowed l>v
the huge spreading arms of a gigantic banyan tree.
Through the open door of the hut it was ])ossible to
catch just a passing glimpse of an awful sight within.
On the beams of the house, and on the l)0ughs of the
tic3e behind it, human skeletons, half covered with
dry flesh, hung in ghastly array, their skulls turned
downward. They were the skeletons of the victims
Tu-Kila-Kila their prince had slain and eaten : tliey
IC THE a HEAT TABOO.
were the trophies of the cannil-al man-god's hateful
prowess.
Tu-Kiha-Kihi raised his right hand erect and spoke
again. " I am a great god," he said slowly. " I am
very powerful. I make the sun to shine, and the
yams to grow. I am tlio spirit of plants. Without
me there would l)e notliing for you all to eat or
drink in Boupari. If I were to grow old and die, tlie
sun would fade away in tlie heavens overhead; the
l)read-fruit trees would witlier and cease to bear on
earth ; all fruits would come to an end and die at
once ; all rivers would stop forthwith from running."
His worshippers Ijowed down in acquiescence with
awestruck faces. " It is true," they answered, in the
same slow sin<f-son<:' of assent as before. "Tu-Kihi-
Kila is the greatest of gods. "We owe to him
everything. We luing upon liis favour."
Tu-Kila-Kila started l)ack, laughed, and showed
his pearly white teeth. Tliey were beautiful and
regular — like the teeth of a tiger, a strong young
tiger. '■ P>ut I need more sacrifices than all the
other gods," he went on, melodiously, like one who
plays with consummate skill upon some difficult
instrument. " I am greedy ; I am thirsty ; I am a
hungry god. You must not stint me. I claim more
human victims than all the other gods beside. If
you want your crops to grow and your rivers to
run, the fields to yield you game, and the sea fish
— this is what I ask : give me victims, victims !
That is our compact. Tu-Kila-Kila calls you."
The men bowed down once more and repeated
humbly, " Yow sliall have victims as you will, great
THE TEMPLE OF THE DEITY. 17
god ; only give us yam and tare and bread-fruit, and
cause not your briglit light, the sun, to grow dark in
heaven over us."
"Cut yourselves," Tu-Kila-Kila cried in a pe-
remptory voice, clapping his hands thrice. "I am
tliirsting for blood. I want your free-will oftering."
As he spoke, every man, as by a set ritual, took
from a little skin wallet at his side a sharp Hake of
coral-stone, and, drawing it deliberately across his
breast in a deep red gash, caused the blood to flow
out freely over his chest and long grass waistband.
Then, having done so, they never strove for a moment
to staunch the wound, but let the red drops fall as
tiiey would on to the dust at their feet, without
seeming even to be conscious at all of the fact that
tliey were flowing.
Tu-Kila-Kila smiled once more, a ghastly self-
satisfied smile of unquestioned power. '* It is well,"
he went on. "My people love me. They know my
strength, how I can wither them up. They give me
their blood to drink freely. So I will be merciful to
them. I will make my sun shine and my rain drop
IVom heaven. And instead of taking all, I will
choose one victim." He paused, and glanced along
their line significantly.
• " Choose, Tu-Kila-Kila," the men answered, with-
out a moment's hesitation. " We are all your meat.
Choose which one you will take of us."
Tu-Kila-Kila walked with a leisurely tread down
X the lines and surveyed the men critically. They
were all drawn up in rows, one behind the other,
1 according to tribes and families ; and the god walked
'% (J
I
18 THE GREAT TABOO.
along each row, examining them with a curious and
interested eye, as a farmer examines sheep fit for the
market. Now and then, he felt a leg or an arm with
his finger and thumb, and hesitated a second. It was
an important matter, this choosing a victim. As he
passed, a close observer might have noted that each
man trembled visibly while the god's eye was upon
him, and looked after him askance with a terrified
sidelong gaze as lie passed on to his neighbour. But
not one savage gave any overt sign or token of his
terror or his reluctance. On the contrary, as Tu-
Kila-Kila passed along the line with lazy, cruel de-
liberateness, the men kept chanting aloud, without
one tremor in their voices, ** We are all your meat.
Choose which one you will take of us ! "
On a sudden, Tu-Kila-Kila turned sharply round,
and, darting a rapid glance towards a row he had
already passed several minutes before, he exclaimed
with an air of unexpected inspiration, " Tu-Kila-Kila
has chosen. He takes Maloa."
The man upon whose shoulder the god laid his
heavy hand as he spoke stood forth from the crowd
without a moment's hesitation. If anger or fear was
in his heart at all it could not be detected in his
voice or his features. He bowed his head with
seeming satisfaction, and answered humbly, "What
Tu-Kila-Kila says must needs be done. This is a
great honour. He is a mighty god. We poor men
must obey him. We are proud to be taken up and
made one with divinity."
Tu-Kila-Kila raised in his hand a large stone axe
of some polished green material, closely resembling
M
THE TEMPLE OF THE DEITY. 19
jade, which lay on a block by the door, and tried its
edge with his finger, in an abstracted manner.
" Bind him ! " he said quietly, turning round to his
votaries. And the men, each glad to have escaped
liis own fate, bound their comrade willingly with
green ropes of plantain fibre.
" Crown him with flowers ! " Tu-Kila-Kila said ;
and a female attendant, absolved from the terror of
the Bull-roarer by the god's command, brought
forward a great garland of crimson hibiscus, which
she flung around tlie victim's neck and shoulders.
"Lay his head on the sacred stone block of our
fathers," Tu-Kila-Kila went on, in an easy tone of
comn ind, waving his hand gracefully. And the
men, moving forward, laid their comrade, face down-
wards, on a huge flat block of polished greenstone,
which lay like an altar in front of the hut with the
mouldering skeletons.
** It is well," Tu-Kila-Kila murmured once more,
, half aloud. " You have given me the free-will offer-
ing. Now for tlie trespass ! Where is the woman
who dared to approach too near the temple-home of
,^hc divine Tu-Kila-Kila ? Bring the criminal for-
ward : "
The men divided, and made a lane down their
middle. Then one of them, a minister of the man-
god's shrine, led up by the hand, all trembling and
shrinking with supernatural terror in every muscle,
a well-formed young girl of eighteen or twenty,
per naked bronze limbs were shapely and lissome ;
Wt her eyes were swollen and red with tears, and her
4ce strongly distorted with awe for the man-god.
20 THE GREAT TABOO.
When she stood at last before Tu-Kila-Kila's dreaded
face, she Hung herself on the ground in an agony of
fear.
" Oh, mercy, great god ! " she cried, in a feeble
voice. "I have sinned, 1 have sinned. Mercy,
mercy ! "
Tu-Kila-Kila smiled as before, a smile of imperial
pride. No ray of pity gleamed from those steel-grey
eyes. " Does Tu-Kila-Kila show mercy ? " he asked,
in a mocking voice. " Does lie pardon his suppliants ?
Does he forgive trespasses? Is he not a god, and
must not his wrath be appeased ? Slie, being a
woman, and not a wife sealed to Tu-Kila-Kila, lias
dared to look from afar upon his sacred home. She
has spied the mysteries. Therefore she must die.
My people, bind her."
h\ a second, without more ado, while the poor
trembling girl writhed and groaned in her agony
before their eyes, that mob of wild savages, let loose
to torture and slay, fell upon her with hideous shouts,
and bound her, as they had bound their comrade before,
with coarse native ropes of twisted plantain fibre.
" Lay her head on the stone," Tu-Kila-Kila said
grimly. And his votaries obeyed him.
*' Now light the sacred fire to make our feast,
before I slay the victims," the god said, in a gloating
voice, running his finger again along the edge of his
huge hatchet.
As he spoke, two men, holding in their hands hollow
bamboos with coals of fire concealed within, which
they kept aglow meanwhile by waving them up and
down rapidly in the air, laid these primitive matches
THE TEMPLE OF THE DE/TY. 21
to tlie l)ase uf ii great pyramidal pile of wood and
palm-leaves, ready prepared bctbreliand in the yard
of the temple. In a second, the dry fuel, catching
the sparks instantly, blazed up to heaven with a wild
outl)urst of llame. Great red tongues of lire licked
up the mouldering mass of leaves and twigs, and
caught at once at the trunks of palm and li-wood
within. A hucre conflat^ration reddened the skv at
once like lightning. The effect was magical. The
glow transfigured the whole island for miles. It was
in fact the blaze that Felix Tlmrstan had noted and
remarked upon as he stood that evening on the
silent deck of the Australasian.
Tu-Kila-Kila gazed at it with horrid childish glee.
"A fine fire!" he said gaily. "A fire worthy of a
god. It will serve me well. Tu-Kila-Kila will have
a Gfood oven to roast his meal in."
Then he turned toward the sea, and held up his
hand once more for silence. As lie did so, an
answering light upon its surface attracted his eye
for a moment's space. It was a bright red light,
mixed with white and green ones ; in point of fact,
the Australasian was passing. Tu-Kila-Kila pointed
towards it solemnly with his plump, brown fore-
finger. "See," he said, drawing himself up and
looking preternaturally wise; " your god is great. 1
am sending some of this fire across the sea to where
Day sun has set, to aid and reinforce it. That is to
keep up the fire of the sun, lest ever at any time it
fdiould fade and fail you. While Tu-Kila-Kila lives,
the sun will burn bright. If Tu-Kila-Kila were to
«Ke it would be night for ever."
22 THE GREAT TABOO.
His votaries, following their god's forefinger as it
pointed, all turned to look in the direction he
indicated with blank surprise and astonishment.
Such a sight had never met their eyes before, for the
Australasian was the very first steamer to take the
eastward route, through the dangerous and tortuous
Boupari Channel. So their awe and surprise at the
unwonted sight knew no bounds. Fire on the ocean !
Miraculous light on the waves ! Their god must
indeed be a mighty deity if he could send flames like
that careering over the sea ! Surely the sun was safe
in the hands of a potentate who could tlms visibly
reinforce it with red light, and white ! In their
astonishment and awe, they stood with their long
hair falling down over their foreheads, and their
hands held up to their eyes that they might gaze the
farther across the dim dark ocean. The borrowed
light of their bonfire was moving, slowly moving
over the watery sea. Fire and water were mixing
and mingling on friendly terms. Impossible ! In-
credible ! Marvellous 1 Miraculous ! They prostrated
themselves in their terror at Tu-Kila-Kila's feet.
" Oh, great god," they cried, in awestruck tones, "your
power is too vast ! Spare us, spare us, spare us ! "
As for Tu-Kila-Kila himself, he was not astonished
at all. Strange as it sounds to us, he really believed
in his heart what he said. Profoundlv convinced of
his own godhead, and abjectly superstitious as any
of his own votaries, he absolutely accepted as a fact
his own suggestion, that the light he saw was the
reflection of that his men had kindled. The inter-
pretation he had put upon it seemed to him a perfectly
- ■.■.«(
THE TEMPLE OF THE DEITY. 23
natural and just one. His worshippers, indeed, mere
men that they were, might be terrified at the sight ;
but why should he, a god, take any special notice
of it?
He accepted his own superiority as implicitly as
our European nobles and rulers accept theirs. He
had no doubts himself, and he considered those who
had little better than criminals.
By-and-by, a smaller light detached itself by slow
degrees from the greater ones. The others stood still,
and halted in mid ocean. The lesser light made as
if it would come in the direction of Boupari. In
point of fiict, the gig had pu^ out in search of Felix
and Muriel.
Tu-Kila-Kila interpreted the facts at once, how-
ever, in his own way. " See," he said, pointing with
his plump forefinger once more, and encouraging witli
his words his terrified followers, " I am sending back
a light again from the sun to my island. I am
doing my work well. I am taking care of my
people. Fear not for your future. In the light is
yet another victim. A man and a woman will come
to Boupari from the sun, to make up for the man
and woman whom we eat in our feast to-night. Give
me plenty of victims, and you will have plenty of
yam. Make haste, then; kill, eat; let us feast Tu-
Kila-Kila ! To-morrow the man and woman I have
sent from the sun will come ashore on the reef, and
reach Boupari."
At the words, he stepped forward, and raised that
heavy tomahawk. With one blow each he brained
the two bound and defenceless victims on the altar-
24 THE a BEAT TABOO.
stone of his fathers. The rest, a European liand
vsln-inks from revealing. The orgy was too horrible
even for description.
And that was the land towards which, that
moment, Felix Thurstan was struggling, with all
his might, to carry Muriel Ellis, from the myriad
clasping arms of a comparatively gentle and merciful
ocean !
CHAFIER III.
LAND : BUT WHAT LAND ?
As the last glimmering lights of the Anstralasian
died away to seaward, Felix Thurstan knew in his
despair there was nothing for it now but to strike
out boldly, if he could, for the shore of the island.
By this time the breakers had subsided greatly.
Not, indeed, tliat the sea itself was really going
down. On the contrary, a brisk wind was rising
sharper from the east, and the waves on the open
Pacific were growing each moment higher and loppier.
But the huge mountain of water that washed Muriel
Ellis overboard w^as not a regular ordinary wave : it
was that far more powerful and dangerous mass, a
shoal-water breaker. The Australasian had passed
at that instant over a submerged coral-bar, quite
deep enough, indeed, to let her cross its top without
the slightest danger of grazing, but still raised so
high towards the surface as to produce a considerable
constant ground-swell, which broke in windy weather
into huge sheets of surf, like the one that had just
LAND: BUT WHAT LAND f
25
struck iiiid wa.slied over the Australasian, currvinn
Muriel ^vit]l it. Tlie very same cause tliat produced
the breakers, however, bore Felix on their summit
rapidly landward ; and once lie had got well beyond
tlie region of the bar tliat b(\qot them, he found
himself soon, to his intense relief, in comparatively
calm shoal-water.
Muriel Ellis, for her part, was faint with terror
and witli the buffeting of the waves; but she still
iloated by his side, upheld by the life-belts. He
had been able by immense efforts to keep unseparated
from her amid the rending surf of the lireakers.
Now that they found themselves in easier waters for
a while, Felix began to strike out vigorously through
tlie darkness for the shore. Holding up his com-
panion with one hand, and swimming with all his
mij^jht in the direction where a vaque white line of
surf, lit up by the red glare of some fire far inland,
made him suspect the nearest land to lie, he almost
thought he had succeeded at last, after o long hour
of struggle, in feeling his feet after all on a firm
coral l)ottom.
At the very moment he did so, and touched the
ground underneath, another great wave, curling
resistlessly behind him, caught him up on its crest,
whirled him heavenward like a cork, and then
dashed him down once more, a passive burden, on
some soft and yielding substance, which he con-
jectured at once to be a beach of finely powdered
coral fragments. As he touched this beach for an
instant, the undertow of that vast dashing breaker
sucked him back with its ebb again, a helpless,
2G THE GREAT TABOO.
breathless creature ; and then the succeeding wave
rolled him over like a ball, upon the beach as before,
in quick succession. Four times the backcurrent
sucked him under with its wild pull in the selfsame
way, and four times the return wave flung him up
upon the beach again like a fragment of seaweed.
With frantic efforts Felix tried at first to cling still
to Muriel — to save her from the irresistible force of
that roaring surf — to snatch her from the open jaws
of death by sheer struggling dint of thews and
muscle. He might as well have tried to stem
Niagara. Tlie great waves, curling irresistibly in
huge curves landward, caught either of them up by
turns on their arched summits, and twisted them
about remorselessly, raising tliem now aloft on their
foaming crest, beating them back now prone in their
hollow trough, and flinging them fiercely at last with
pitiless energy against the soft beach of coral. If
the beacli had been hard, they must infallibly have
been ground to powder or beaten to jelly by the
colossal force of those gigantic blows. Fortunately
it was yielding, smooth, and clay-like, and received
them almost as a layer of moist plaster of Paris
might have done, or they would have stood no
chance at all for their lives in that desperate battle
with the blind and frantic forces of unrelenting
nature.
No man who has not himself seen the surf break
on one of these far-southern coral shores can form
any idea in his own mind of the terror and horror of
the situation. The water, as it reaches the beach,
rears itself aloft for a second into a huge upright
LAND: HUT ]V/IAT LAXDf
27
wall, which, advancing slowly, curls over at last in a
hollow circle, and pounds down upon the sand or
roef with all the crushing force of some enormous
sledge-hammer. But after the fourth assault, Felix
felt himself flung up higli and dry hy the wave, as
one may sometimes see a bit of light reed or pith
flung up some distance ahead by an advancing tide
on the beach in England. In an instant he steadied
liimself and staggered to his feet. Torn and bruised
as he was by the pummelling of the billows, he
looked eagerly into the water in search of his com-
panion. The next wave flung up ^luriel, as the last
had flung himself. He bent over her with a panting
heart as she lay there, insensible, on the long white
shore. Alive or dead ? that was now the question.
Raising her hastily in his arms, with her clothes
all clinging wet and close about her, Felix carried
her over the narrow strip of tidal beach, above high-
water level, and laid her gently down on a soft green
])ank of short tropical herbage close to the edge of
tlie coral. Then he bent over her once more, and
listened eagerly at her heart. It still beat with faint
pulses — beat — beat — beat. Felix throbbed with joy.
She was alive ! alive ! He was not quite alone, then,
on that unknown island !
And strange as it seemed, it was only a little
more than two short hours since they had stood and
looked out across the open sea over the bulwarks of
the Australasian together !
But Felix had no time to moralize just then.
The moment was clearly one for action. Fortunately,
he happened to carry three useful things in his pocket
28 THE riREAl TA/iOO.
wlu.'ii liu juiiiped ovc'ilioard iiftcr ^ruricl. Tlu; first
was a pocket-knife ; the second was a ilask with a
little whiskey in it; and tlie tliird, perliaps the most
important of all, a small metal l)ox of wax vesta
matches. Pouring a little whiskey into the cup of
the flask, he held it eagerly to Muriel's lips. The
fainting girl swallowed it automatically. Then Felix,
stooping down, tried the matches against the box.
They were unfortunately wet, but half an hour's ex-
posure, he knew, on sun-warmed stones, in that hot,
tropical air, would soon restore them again. So he
opened the box and laid them carefully out on a
flat white slab of coral. After that, he had time to
consider exactly where they were, and what their
chances in life, if any, might now amount to.
ritch dark as it was, he had no difficulty in
deciding at once by the general look of things that
they had reached a fringing reef, such as he was
already familiar with in the Marquesas and else-
where. The reef was no doubt circular, and it
inclosed within itself a second or central island,
divided from it by a shallow lagoon of calm still
water. He walked some yards inland. From where
he now stood, on the summit of the ridge, he could
look either way, and by the faint reflected light of
the stars, or the glare of the great pyre that burned
on the central island, he could see down on one side
to the ocean, with its fierce white pounding surf, and
on the other to the lagoon, reflecting the stars over-
head, and motionless as a mill-pond. Between them
lay the low raised ridge of coral covered with tall
stems of coco-nut palms, and interspersed here and
LA ND : D V T WIIA T LAND f
20
there, as far as his eye couhl Judge, witli little
rectangular clumps of plantain and taro.
But wluit alarmed Felix most was the fire that
hlazed so briglitly to heaven on the central ishuul :
for he knew too well tluit meant — there were men on
the place; the land was inhabited.
The coco-nuts and taro told the same doubtful tale.
From the way tliey grew, even in that dim starlight,
Felix recognized at once they had all been planted.
Still, he didn't hesitate to do what he thouglit l)est
for Muriel's relief for all that. Collecting a few
sticks and fragments of palm-branches from the
jungle about, he piled them into a heap, and waited
patiently for his matches to dry. As soon as they
were ready — and the w^armth of tlie stone nuide
them quickly inilammalde — he struck a match on
the box, and proceeded to light his fire l)y Muriel's
side. xVs her clothes grew warmer, the poor girl
opened her eyes at last, and gazing around her,
exclaimed in blank terror, " Oh, Mr. Thurstan, when;
are we ? Wliat does all this mean ? Where liave
we got to i On a desert island ? "
" Xo, not on a desert island," Felix answered
shortly ; " Fm afraid it's a great deal worse than that.
To tell you the truth, I'm afraid it's inhabited."
At that moment, b} the hot embers of the great
sacrificial pyre on the central hill, two of the savage
temple-attendants, calling their god's attention to a
sudden blaze of flame upon the fringing reef, pointed
with their dark forefingers and called out in surprise,
" See, see, a fire on the barrier ! A fire ! A fire !
30 THE GREAT TABOO.
What can it mean ? There are no men of our people
over there to-night. Have war-canoes arrived ? Has
some enemy landed ? "
Tu-Kila-Kila leant back, drained liis coco-nut cup
of intoxicating kava, and surveyed the unwonted
apparition on the reef long and carefully. " It is
nothing," he said at last, in his most deliberate
manner, stroking his cheeks and chin contentedly
with that plump round hand of his. " It is only the
victims ; the new victims I promised you. Korong !
Korong ! They have come ashore with their light
from my home in the sun. They have brought fire
afresh, holy fire to Boupari."
Three or four of the savages leaped up in fierce
joy, and bowed before him as he spoke, with eager
faces. " Tu-Kila-Kila ! " the eldest among them
said, making a profound reverence, " shall we swim
across to the reef and fetch them home to your house ?
Shall we take over our canoes and bring back your
victims ? "
The god motioned them back with one outstretched
palm. His eyes were flushed and his look lazy.
"Not to-night, my people," he said, readjusting the
garland of flowers round his neck, and giving a care-
less glance at the well-picked bones that a few hours
before had been two trembling fellow-creatures.
" Tu-Kila-Kila has feasted his fill for this evening.
Your god is full ; his heart is happy. I have eaten
human flesh : I have drunk of the juice of the kava.
Am I not a great deity ? Can I not do as I will ?
I frown, and the heavens thunder ; I gnash my teeth,
and the earth trembles. What is it to me if fresh
LAND: BUT WHAT LAND J
victims come, or if they come not ? Can I not make
with a nod as many as I will of them ? " He took
up two fresh finger-bones, clean gnawed of their
flesh, and knocked them together in a w^ild tune
carelessly. " If Tu-Kila-Kila chooses," he went on,
tapping his chest with conscious pride, " he can
knock these bones together — so — and bid them live
a^ain. Is it not I who cause women and beasts to
bring forth their young ? Is it not I who give the
turtles their increase ? And is it not a small thing
to me, therefore, whether the sea tosses up my
victims from my home in the sun, or whether it does
not ? Let us leave them alone on the reef for to-
night: to-morrow we will send over our canoes to
fetch them."
It was all pure brag, all pure guesswork ; and
yet, Tu-Kila-Kila himself profoundly believed it.
As he spoke, the light from Felix's fire blazed out
against the dark sky, stronger and clearer still ; and
through that cloudless tropical air, the figure of a
man, standing for one moment between the fiames
and the lagoon, became distinctly visible to the keen
and practised eyes of the savages. " I see them ; I
see them ; I see the victims ! " the foremost worship-
per exclaimed, rushing forward a little at the sight,
and beside himself with superstitious awe and sur-
prise at Tu-Kila-Kila's prescience. " Surely our god
is great ! He knows all things ! lie brings us meat
from the setting sun, in ships of fire, in blazing canoes,
across the golden road of the sun-bathed ocean 1 "
As for Tu-Kila-Kila himself, leaning on his elbow
at ease, he gazed across at the unexpected sight with
32 THE ORE AT TABOO.
very languid interest. He was a god, and he liked
to see things conducted with proper decorum. This
crowing and crying over a couple of spirits — mere
ordinary spirits, — come ashore from the sun in a fiery
boat, — struck his godship as little short of childish.
" Let them be," he answered petulantly, crushing a
Idossom in his hand. "Let no man disturb them.
They shall rest where they are till to-morrow morning.
We have eaten ; we have drunk ; our soul is happy.
The kava within lis has made us like a god indeed.
I shall give my ministers charge that no harm
liappen to them."
He drew a wliistle from his side and whistled once.
There was a moment's pause. Then Tu-Kila-Kila
spoke in a loud voice again. " The King of Fire ! "
lie exclaimed in tones of princely authority.
From within the hut, there came forth slowly a
second stalwart savage, big built and burly as the
great god himself, clad in a long robe or cloak of yellow
leathers, which shore bright with a strange metallic
gleam in the ruddy, light of the huge pile of li-wood.
" The King of Fire is here, Tu-Kila-Kila," the
lesser god made answer, bending his head slightly.
" Fire," Tu-Kila-Kila said, like a monarch giving
orders to his attendant minister, " If any man touch
the new-comers on the reef before I cause my sun to
rise to-morrow morning, scorch up his flesh with
your flame, and consume his bones to ash and cinder.
If any woman go near them before Tu-Kila-Kila bids,
let her be rolled in palm-leaves, and smeared with
oil, and light her up for a torch on a dark night to
lighten our temple."
LAND: BUT WHAT LAND 1 3.J
The Kiii!]f of Fire bent liis head iu assent. '' It is
as Tu-KUa-KUa wills," he answered submissivelv.
Tii-Kila-Kila whistled ai^ain, this time twice.
" The King of Water ! " he exclaimed in the same
loud tone of command as before.
At the words, a man of about forty, tall and
sinewy, clad in a short cape of white albatross
feathers, and with a girdle of nautilus shells inter-
spersed with red coral, tied around his waist, came
forth to the summons.
" The King of Water is here," he said, bending liis
head, but not his knee, before the greater deity.
" Water," Tu-Kila-Kila said, with half-tipsy solem-
nity, ''you are a god too. Your power is very great.
But less than mine. Do, then, as I bid you. If any
man touch my spirits, whom I have brought from
my home in the sun in a fiery ship, before I bid him
to-morrow, overturn his canoe, and drown him in
lagoon, or spring, or ocean. If any woman go near
them without Tu-Kila-Kila's leave, bind her hand
and foot with roj^es of porpoise hide, and cast her out
into the surf, and dash her with your waves, and
pummel her to pieces."
The King of Water bent his head a second time.
" I am a great god," he answered, " before all others
save you ; but for you, Tu-Kila-Kila, I haste to do
your bidding. If any man disobey you, my billows
shall rise and overwhelm him in the sea. I am a
great god. I claim each year many drowned victims."
" But not so many as me," Tu-Kila-Kila inter-
posed, his hand playing on his knife with a faint air
of impatience.
D
34 THE OREAT TABOO.
" But not so many as you," the minor god added,
in haste, as if to appease his rising anger. "Fire
and Water ever speed to do your bidding."
Tu-Kila-Kila stood up, turned towards the distant
flame, and waved his hands round and round three
times before him. " Let this be for you all a great
taboo," he said, glancing once more towards his awe-
struck followers. " Now the mysteries are over.
Tu-Kila-Kila will sleep. He has eaten of human
ilesh. He has drunk of coco-nut rum and of new
kava. He has brought back his sun on its way in the
heavens. He has sent it messengers of fire to rein-
force its strength. He has fetched from it messengers
in turn with fresh fire to Boupari, fire not lighted
from any earthly flame ; fire, new, divine, scorching,
unspeakable. To-morrow we will talk with the
spirits he has brought. To-night we will sleep.
Now all go to your homes : and tell your women of
this great taboo, lest they speak to the spirits, and
fall into the hands of Fire or of Water."
The savages dropped on their faces before the eye
of their god and lay quite still. They made a path
as it were from the pyre to the temple door with
their prostrate bodies. Tu-Kila-Kila, walking with
unsteady steps over their half-naked forms, turned to
his hut in a drunken booze. He walked over them
with no more compunction or feeling than over so
many logs. Why should he not, indeed ? For he
was a god, and they were his meat, his servants, his
worshippers.
( 35 )
CHArTER IV.
THE GUESTS OF IIKAVEN'.
All that night through — tlieir first lonely night on
the island of Boupari — Felix sat np by liis ilickering
tire, wide awake, half expecting and dreading some
treacherous attack of the unknown savages. From
time to time, he kept adding dry fuel to his
smouldering pile ; and he never ceased to keep a
keen eye both on the lagoon and the reef, in case an
assault should he made npon them suddenly by hind
(•r water. He knew the South Seas quite well
enough already to have all the possibilities of mis-
fortune floating vividly before his eyes. He realized
at once from his own ])revious experience the full
loneliness and terror of their unarmed condition.
For Boupari was one of those rare remote islets
where the very rumour of our European civilization
has hardly yet penetrated.
As for Muriel, though she was alarmed enough, of
course, and intensely shaken by the sudden shock
she had received, the whole surroundings were too
wholly unlike any world she had ever yet known to
enable her to take in at once the utter horror of the
situation. She only knew they were alone, wet,
bruised, and terribly battered; and the Australasian
had L>'one on, leaving them there to their fate on an
unknown island. That, for the moment, was more
than enough for her of accumulated misfortune.
She came to herself but slowlv, and as her torn
36 THE GREAT TABOO.
clothes dried by degrees before the lire and tlie iieat
of tlie tropical night, she was so far from fully
realizing the dangers of their position that her first
and principal fear for the moment was lest she might
take cold from her wet things drying upon her. She
ate a little of the plantain that Felix picked for her ;
and at times, towards morning, she dozed off into an
uneasy sleep, from pure fatigue and excess of weari-
ness. As she slept, Felix, bending over her, with
the biggest blade of his knife open in case of attack,
watched with profound emotion tb.e rise and fall ot
her bosom, and hesitated with himself, if the worst
should come to the worst, as to what he ought to do
with her.
It would be impossible to let a pure young
English girl like that fall helplessly into the hands
of such bloodthirsty wretches as he knew the islanders
were almost certain to be. Who could tell what
nameless indignities, what incredible tortures they
might wantonly inflict upon her innocent soul ?
AVas it right of him to have let her come ashore at
all ? Ought he not rather to have allowed the more
merciful sea to take her life easily without the chance
or possibility of such additional horrors ?
And now — as she slept — so calm and pure and
maidenly — what was his duty that minute, just there,
to her ? He felt the blade of his knife with his
finger cautiously, and almost doubted. If only she
could tell what things might be in store for her,
would she not, herself, i)refer death, an honourable
death, at the friendly hands of a tender-hearted
fellow-countryman, to tlie unspeakable insults of
THE GUESTS OF HEAVE 21 S7
tliese iiiaii-eating Polynesians ? If only lie had tlu-
courage to release her by one blow, as she lay there,
from the coming ill ! Uiit he hadn't : he hadn't.
Even on board the Aui^trcdasian.ha had been vas^'uelv
aware that he was getting very fond of that pretty
little Miss Ellis. And now that he sat there, after
that desperate struggle for life with the pounding
waves, mounting guard over her through the livelong
night, his own heart told him plainly, in tones he
could not disobey, he loved her too well to dare what
he thought best in the end for her.
Still, even so, he was brave enough to feel he must
never let the very worst of all befall her. He be-
thought him in his doubt and agony, of how his
uncle. Major Thurstan, during the great Indian
mutiny, had held his lonely bungalow, with his
wife and daughter by his side, for three long hours
against a howling mob of native insurgents ; and
how, when further resistance was hopeless, and that
great black wave of angry humanity burst in upon
them at last, the brave soldier had drawn his re-
volver, shot wife and daughter with unerring aim,
to prevent their falling alive into the hands of the
natives, and then blown his own brains out v;ith his
last remaininc: cartrick^e. As his uncle had done at
Jliansi, thirty years before, so he himself would do
on that nameless Pacilic island — for he didn't know
even now on what shore he had landed. If the
savages bore down upon them with hostile intent,
and threatened Muriel, he would plunge his knife
lirst into that innocent woman's heart ; and then
bury it deep in his own, and die beside her.
38 THE GREAT TABOO.
Su till' lung night wore uii — Muriel, [)il lowed on
loose coco-nut husk, dozing now and again, and
waking with a start, to gaze round about her wihlly,
and realize once more in what plight she found her-
self; Felix crouching by her feet, and keeping watch
with eager eyes and ears on every side for the least
sign of a noiseless, naked footfiill through the tangled
growth of that dense tropical underbush. Time after
time he clapped his hand to his ear, shell- wise, and
listened and peered, with knitted brow, suspecting
some sudden swoop from an ambush in the jungle
of creepers behind the little plantain patch. Time
after time, he grasped his knife hard, and puckered
his eyebrows resolutely, and stood still with bated
l)reath for a fierce, wild leap upon his fancied as-
sailant. I)Ut the night wore away by degrees, n
minute at a time, and no man came ; and dawn
began to brighten the sea-line to eastward.
As the day dawned, Felix could see more clearly
where exactly he w^as, and in what surroundings.
Without, the ocean broke in huge curling billows on
tlie shallow beach of the fringing reef with such
stupendous force that Felix w^ondered how they
could ever have lived through its pounding surf and
its fiercely retreating undertow. Within, the lagoon
spread its calm lake-like surface aw\ay to the white
coral shore of the central atoll. Between these two
waters, the greater and the less, a w^^ving palisade
of tall-stemmed palm-trees rose on a narrow ribbon
of circular land that formed the fringing reef. All
night through, he had felt with a strange eerie mis-
giving the very foundations of the land thrill under
TlfE QUESTS OF HEAVEN. 39
his feet Jit every dull thud or boom uf ihc surf on
Its restrainiu.rr barrier. Now that he couhl see that
thin belt of shore in its actual sliape and size he
was not astonislied at this constant shock ; wliat
surprised him rather was the fact tluit sucli a speck
of land could hold its own at all against the cease-
less cannonade of that seemingly irresistible ocean.
He stood up, hatless, in his battered tweed suit
and surveyed the scene of their present and future
adventures. It took but a glance to show liim that
the whole ground-plan of the island was entirely
circular. In the midst of all rose the central atoll
itselt, a tmy mountain peak, just projecting with its
lulls and gorges to a few hundred feet above the
surface of the ocean. Outside it came the la^roon
with Its placid ring of glassy water surroundin ° the
circular island, and separated from the sea by an
equally circular belt of fringing reef, covered thick
with waving stems of picturesque coco-nut. It was
on the reef they had landed, and from it they now
looked across the calm lagoon with doubtful eyes
towards the central island.
As soon as the sun rose, their doubts were quickly
resolved into fears or certainties. Scarcely had its
rim begun to show itself distinctly above the eastern
horizon, when a great bustle and confusion was
noticeable at once on the opposite shore. Brown-
skinned savages were collecting in eager groups by a
white patch of beach, and putting out rude but well-
manned canoes into the calm waters of the lagoon. At
sight of their naked arms and bustling gestures,
Muriel's heart sank suddenly within her. " Oh, Mr!
40 THE GREAT TABOO.
Thurstan," slu' cried,' clinging t(» his arm in her
terror, " what docs it all mean ? Are they going to
hurt us ? Arc these savages coming over ? Are
they coming to kill us ? "
Felix grasped his trusty knife hard in his right
hand, and swallowed a groan, as he looked tenderly
down upon her. " Muriel," he said, forgetting in the
excitement of the moment the little conventionalities
and courtesies of civilized life, " if they are, trust me,
you never shall fall alive into their cruel hands.
Sooner than that " he held up the knife signiti-
cantly, with its open blade before her.
The poor girl clung to him harder still, w'ith a
ghastly shudder. " Oh, it's terrible, terrible," she
cried, turning deadly pale. Then, after a short pause,
she added, " But I would rather have it so. Do as
you say. I could bear it from you. Promise me tliaf,
j-ather than that those creatures should kill me."
"I p)romise," Felix answered, clasping her hand
hard, and paused with the knife ever ready in his
right, awaiting the approach of the half-naked
savages.
The boats glided fast across the lagoon, propelled
by the paddles of the stalwart Polynesians who
manned tlieni, and crowded to tlie water's edge with
groups of grinning and shouting warriors. They
were dressed in aprons of dracaena leaves only, with
necklets and armlets of shark's teeth and cowrie
shells. A dozen canoes at least were making towards
the reef at full speed, all bristling with spears and
alive with noisy and boisterous savages. Muriel
shrank back terror-stricken at the sight, as thev
THE GUESTS OF HE A VEX. 41
drew nearer and nearer. But Felix, holding his
lireath liard, grew somewhat less nervous as the men
approached the reef. He had seen enough of
Polynesian life before now to feel sure these people
were not upon the war-path. AVhatever tlieir
ultimate intentions towards the castaways might be,
their immediate o])ject seemed friendly and good-
humoured. The l)oats, though large, were not regular
war-canoes; tlie men, instead of brandishing their
spears, and lunging out with tliem over the edge in
threatening attitudes, held them erect in their hands
at rest like standards ; they were laughing and talk-
ing, not crying their war-cry. As they drew near the
shore, one big canoe shot suddenly a length or so
ahead of the rest ; and its leader, standing on the
grotesque carved figure tliat adorned its prow, held
up both his hands open and empty before him, in sign
of peace, while at the same time he shouted out a
word or two three times in his own langnag(>, to
reassure the castaways.
Felix's eye glanced cautiously from Ijoat tu boat
" He says, ' We are friends,' " the young nuin re-
marked in an undertone to his terrified companion.
" I can understand his dialect. Thank heaven it's
very close to Fijian. I shall be able at least to
palaver to these men. I don't think they mean just
now to harm us. I believe we can trust them, at
any rate for the present."
The poor girl drew back in still greater awe and
alarm than ever. "Oh, are they going to land h^re?"
she cried, still clinging close with both hands to her
one friend and protector.
42 TIIK GRKAT TABOO.
<< M\
Try n<jt to look so fii<,'liteneil ! " Felix exclaimed,
Mitli a warning glance. " IJenieniber, nnicli depends
upon it; savages judge you greatly l)y wliat de-
meanour you liap])en to assume. If you're iViglitened,
they know their power ; if tliey see you're resolute,
they suspect you have some su2)ernatural means of
I)rotection. Try to meet them frankly, as if you
were not afraid of tliem." Then advancing slowly
to the water's edge, lie calhMl out aloud in a strong
clear voice, a few words whicli Muriel didn't under-
stand, but which were really the Fijian for "We
also are friendly. Our medicine is good. We mean
no magic. We come to you from across the great
water. We desire your peace. Receive us and pro-
tect us ! "
At the sound of words which he could readilv
understand, and which differed but little, indeed,
from his own language, the leader on the foremost
canoe, who seemed by his manner to be a great chief,
turned round to his followers and cried ont in tones
of superstitious awe, " Tu-Kila-Kila spoke well.
These are, indeed, what he told us. Korong !
Korong ! They are spirits who have come to us from
the disk of the sun, to bring us light and pure fresh
lire. Stay back there, all of you. You are not holy
enough to approach. I and my crew, who are
sanctified by the mysteries, w^e alone will go forward
to meet them."
As he spoke, a sudden idea, suggested by his
words, struck Felix's mind. Superstition is the great
lever by which to move the savage intelligence.
Gathering up a few dry leaves and fragments of stick
THE acKsrs of hi: a vex. in
on the slioiv, Ik; laid them to;^'etIiL'r in a [»ile, au<l
awaited in silence the arrival of tlie foremost
islanders. The first canoe advanced slowly and
cantiously, the men in it eyein<j; these proceedin;^'s
witli evident suspicion: the rest hun;.,' Itack, ^villl
their spears in array, {ind their liands just ready to
use tliem witli effect should occasion demand it.
The leader of the first canoe, comin<,r close to the
shore, jumped out u[)on tlie reef in sluiUow ^vater.
Half a dozen of his followers jumped after him
without hesitation, and brandislied their weapons
round their heads as they advanced, in savage unison.
But Felix, pretending hardly to notice these hostile
demonstrations, stepped boldly up towards his little
pile with great deliberation, though trembling
inwardly, and proceeded before their eyes to take a
match from his box, which he displayed ostenta-
tiously, all glittering in the sun, to the foremost
savage. The leader stood by and watched him close
with eyes of silent wonder. Then Felix kneeling
down, struck the match on the box, and applied it,
as it lighted, to the dry leaves beside him.
A chorus of astonishment burst unanimously from
the delighted natives as the dry leaves leapt all at
once into a tongue of flame, and the little pile caught
quickly from the fire in the vesta.
The leader looked hard at the two white faces, and
then at the fire on the beach, with evident appro-
bation. " It is as Tu-Kila-Kila said," he exclaimed
at last, with profound a\ve. " They are spirits from
the sun, and they carry with them pure fire in
shining boxes."
44 THE GREAT TABOO.
Tlieii advancing a pace and pointing towards the
canoe, ho motioned Felix and Muriel to take their
seats within it with native savage politeness. " Tu-
Kila-Kila has sent for you," lie said, in his grandest
aristocratic air — for your chief is a gentleman. " He
wishes to receive you. He saw your message-fire on
the reef last night, and he knew you had come. He
has made you a very great Taboo. He has put you
under the protection of Fire and Water."
The people in the boats, with one accord, shouted
out in wild chorus, as if to confirm Ids words,
" Taboo ! Taboo ! Tu-Kila-Kila has said it ! Taboo 1
Taboo ! Ware Fire ! Ware Water ! "
Though the dialect in which tliey spoke differed
somewhat from that in use in Fiji, F'^elix could still
make out wdth care almost every word of what the
chief had said to him : and tlie universal Polynesian
expression," Taboo," in particular, somewhat reaf5sured
him as to their friendly intentions. Among remote
heathen islanders like these, he felt sure, the very
word itself was far too sacred to be taken in vain.
They would respect its inviolability. Fie turned
round to Muriel. " We must go with them," he said
shortly. " It's our one chance left of life now. Don't
be too terrified ; there is stdl some hope. They say
somebody they call Tu-Kila-Kila has tabooed us.
No one will dare to hurt us against so great a taboo ;
for Tu-Kila-Kila is evidently some very important
King or Chief. You must step into the boat. It
can't be avoided. If any harm is threatened, be sure
I won't forget my promise."
^Muriel shrank back in alarm, and clung still to
TIJK GUESTS OF HEAVEN. 1."
his arm now as naturally as she would have clung to
a brother's. " Oh, Mr. Thurstan," she cried — " Felix,
I don't know what to say ; I caiit go witli them."
Felix put his arm gently round her girlish waist,
and half lifted her into the boat in spite of her
reluctance. " You must," he said with great firmness.
" You must do as I say. I will watch over you, and
take care of you. If the worst conies, I have always
my knife, and I won't forget. Now, friend," lie
went on in Fijian, turning round to the chief, as he
took liis seat in the canoe fearlessly among all those
dusky half-clad figures, " we are ready to start. We
do not fear. We wish to go. Take us to Tu-lvila-Kila."
And all the sava^jjes around, slioutin<::j in their
surprise and awe, exclaimed once more in concert,
" Tu-Kila-Kila is great. We will take them, as he
l)ids us, forthwith to Heaven."
" What do they say ? " Muriel cried, clinging
close to the white man's side in her speechless terror.
" Do you understand their lanifua^e ? "
" Well, I can't quite make it out," Felix answered,
much puzzled : " that is to say, not every word of it.
They say they'll take us somewhere, I don't quite
know where: but in Fijian, the word would certainly
mean, to Heaven."
Muriel shuddered visi])ly. "You don't think,"
she said, with a tremulous tongue, " they mean to
kill us ! "
" No, I don't think so," Felix replied, not over
confidently. " They said we were Taboo. But with
savages like these, of course, one can never in any
case be quite certain."
46 THE GREAT TABOO.
CHAPTER V.
ENROLLED IN OLYMPUS.
TiiEY rowed across the lagoon, a mysterious procession,
almost in silence— tlie canoe with the two Europeans
''oinuj first, the others folio wincj at a slight distance —
and landed at last on the brink of the central island.
Several of the Boupari people leaped ashore at
once; then they helped Felix and Muriel from tlic
frail bark with almost deferential care, and led the
way before them up a steep white path that zig-
zagged through the forest towards the centre of tlie
island. As they went, a band of natives preceded
them in regular line of march, shouting "Taboo,
taboo ! " at short intervals, especially as they neared
any group of fan-palm cottages. The women whom
they met fell on their knees at once, till the strange
})rocession had passed them by; the men only bowed
their heads tlirice, and made a rapid movement on
their breasts with their fingers which reminded Muriel
at once of the sign of the cross in Catholic countries.
So on they wended their ^vay in silence through
the deep tropical jungle, along a pathway just wide
enough for three to walk abreast, till they emerged
suddenly upon a large cleared space, in whose midst
grew a great banyan tree, with arms that dropped and
rooted themselves like buttresses in the soil beneath.
Under the banyan tree a raised platform stood upon
posts of bamboo. The platform was covered with
tine network in vellow and red: and two little stools
ENROLLED IN OLYMPUS. 47
occupied the middle, as it' placed there on purpose
and waiting for their occupants.
The man who had headed the first canoe turned
round to Felix and motioned him forward. " This is
Heaven," he said glibly in his own tongue. J* Spirits,
ascend it ! "
Felix, much wondering what the ceremony could
mean, mounted the platform without a word, in
obedience to the chiefs command, closely f(jllu\ved by
Muriel, who dared not leave him for a second.
" iiring water ! " the chief said shortly in a voire of
authority to one of his followers.
The man handed np a calabash with a little water
in it. The chief took the rude vessel from his hands
in a reverential manner, and poured a few drops of
the contents on Felix's head ; the water trickled down
over his hair and forehead. Involuntarily, Felix shook
his head a little at the unexpected wetting, and
scattered the drops right and left on his neck and
shoulders. The chief watched this performance
attentiely with profound satisfaction. Then he
turned to his attendants.
" The spirit shakes his liead," he said with a deeply
convinced air. " All is well. Heaven has chosen
him. Korong ! Korong ! He is accepted for his pur-
pose. It is well ! It is well ! Let us try the other
one."
He raised the calabash once more, and poured a
few drops in like manner on Muriel's dark hair. The
poor girl, trembling in every limb, shook her head
also in the same unintentional fashion. The chief
regarded her with still more complacent eyes.
■ A q-jf '^ r. ';'«fi^:r^
48 HIE GREAT TABOO.
" It is well," he observed once more to his coin-
panions, smiling. " She too gives the sign of accept-
ance. Korong ! Korong ! Heaven is well pleased
with both. See how her body trembles ! "
At that moment a girl came forward with a little
basket of fruits. The chief chose a banana with care
from the basket, peeled it with his dusky hands, broke
it slowly in two, and handed one half very solemnly
to Felix.
" Eat, King of the Eain," he said, as he presented
it. " The offering of Heaven."
Felix ate it at once, thinking it best under the
circumstances not to demur at all to anything his
strange hosts might choose to impose upon him.
The cliief handed the other half just as solemnly to
Muriel. " Eat, Queen of the Clouds," he said, as he
placed it in her fingers. '' The offering of Heaven."
Muriel hesitated. She didn't know what his words
meant, and it seemed to her rather the offering of a
very dirty and unwashed savage. The cliief eyed her
hard. " For God's sake eat it, my child ; he tells you
to eat it ! " Felix exclaimed in haste. Muriel lifted
it to her lips and swallowed it down with difficulty.
The man's dusky hands didn't inspire confidence.
But the chief seemed relieved when he had seen
her swallow it. " All is well done," he said, turning
again to his followers. " We have obeyed the words
of Tu-Kila~Kila, and his orders that he gave us. We
have offered the strangers, the spirits from the sun, as
a free gift to Heaven, and Heaven has accepted them.
We have given them fruits, the fruits of the earth,
and they liave duly eaten them. Korong ! Korong !
ENROLLED IN OLYMPUS. J It
The King of tlie Kain and the (^^iiecn of the Clouds
have indeed come among nss. They are truly gods.
We will take tliem now, as he hid us, to Tu-Kila-
Kila."
" What have they done to us ? " IMuriel asked aside,
in a terrified undertone of Felix.
" I can't quite make out," Felix answered in the
self-same voice. " They call us the King of the Rain
and the Queen of the Clouds in their own lancua<>-e.
I think they imagine we've come from the sun and
that we're a sort of spirits."
At the sound of these words the girl who lield the
basket of fruits gave a sudden start. It almost seemed
to Muriel as if she understood tliem. lint when
Muriel looked again slie gave no furtlier sign. Slie
merely held her peace, and tried to ap[)ear wholly
undisconcerted.
The eliief beckoned them down from the platform
with a M^ave of his hand. Tiiey rose and Ibllowed
him. As they rose the people around them bowed
low to the ground. Felix could see tliev were bowiuf
to Muriel and himself, not merely to the chief. A
loubt ilitted strangely across his mind for a moment.
, What could it all mean ] Did tliey take; the two
strangers, then, for supernatural Iji'ings i Had they
enrolled them as gods ? If so, it might serve as some
little protection for them.
The procession formed again, three and tliree, three
and three, in solemn silence. Then the chief walked
in front of them with measured steps, and Felix and
Muriel followed behind, wondering. As they went,
the cry rose louder and louder than before, ''Taboo!
E
(
60 THE GREAT TABOO.
Taboo ! " I'cople who met them fell on their faces at
once, as the chief cried out in a loud tone, " The King
of the Kain ! the Queen of the Clouds ! Korong !
Korong ! They are coming ! They are coming ! "
At last they reached a second cleared space, stand-
ing in a large garden of manilla, lorpiat, poncians, and
hibiscus trees. It was entered by a gate, a tall gate
of bamboo posts. At the gate all the followers fell
back to right and left, awe-struck. Only the chief
went calmly on. He beckoned to Felix and Muriel
to follow him.
They entered, half-terrihed. Eclix still grasped his
open knife in his hand, ready to strike at any moment
that might be necessary. The chief led them forward
towards a very large tree near the centre of the
garden. At the foot of the tree stood a hut, some-
what bigger and better built than any tliey had yet
seen : and in front of the trunk a stalwart sava<]:e,
very power^^uUy built, but with a sinister look in his
cruel and lustful eye, was pacing up and down, like
a sentinel on guard, a long spear in his riglit hand,
and a tomahawk in his left, held close by his side, all
ready for action. As he prowled up and down he
seemed to be peering warily about him on every side,
as if each instant he expected to be set upon by an
enemy. But as the chief approached, tlie people with-
out set up once more the cry of "Taboo! Taboo!"
and the stalwart savage by the tree, laying down his
spear and letting his tomahawk fall free, dropped in
a second the air of watchful alarm, and advanced with
some courtesy to greet the new-comers.
"We have found them, Tu-Kila-Kila," the chief
ENllOLLEU jy OLYMPUS. 51
said, prcdoatiug tlieiu to the god with agraeclui wave
of Ins hand. " We liave found tlie spirits that you
brought from the sun, witli the fire in their hands
and the light in boxes. We have taken them to'
Heaven. Heaven has accepted them. We have
offered them fruit, and they liave eaten the banana
Ihe King of tlie Kain-tlio Queen of the Clouds '
Korong ! Jieceivc them ' "
Tu-Kiia-Kila glanced at them with an approving
glance, strangely compounded of pleasure and terroi-
Ihey are plump," he said sliortly. ^'Thev are
indeed Korong. My sun has sent me an acceptal.h'
in'esent."
" What is your will that wc shoiiM do witi,
the.n ?'' the chief asked iu a deeply deferential tone
iii-Jvila-Ivila looked hard at Muriel-sueh a Irite
fill h.ok that the knife trembled irresolute for i
second in Felix's hand. "Give then, two fresi,
liuts, he saul, in a lordly way. '■ Give them dixine
l-latters. Give them all that thev uee.l. Make
everything right for them."
The chief bowed, and retired with an awed air
roni the presence. Exactly as he passed a certain
liue on the ground, marked white with a row of
eoral-sand. T..-Kila-Kila seized his spear and his
toinalmwk once more, and mounted guanl, as before
at the foot of the great tree where they had seen him'
piieing. An instantaneous change seemed to Muriel
come over his demeanour at that moment While
ho spoke with the chief she noticed he looked all
cruelty, lust, and hateful self-indulgence. Now that
he paced up and down warily in front of that sacred
52 THE GREAT TABOO.
floor, peering iiroiiiul liim witli keen siisiticioii, he
seemed rather the personification of watchfulness,
fear, and a certain slavish bodily terror. Especially,
she observed, he cast upon Felix as he went a glance
of angry hate ; and yet he did not attempt to hurt or
molest him in any way, defenceless as they both
were before those numerous savages.
As they emerged from the enclosure, the girl witli
the fruit basket stood near the gate, looking outward
from the wall, her face turned away from the awful
home of Tu-Kila-KiLi. At the moment when Muriel
passed, to her immense astonishment, the girl spoke
to her. "Don't be afraid, missy," she said in
English, in a rather low voice, without obtrusively
approaching them. " Boupari man not going to hurt
you. ^le going to be your servant. Me name ]\Iali.
]\Ie very good girl. Me take plenty care of you."
The unexpected sound of her own language in tlio
nddst of so much unmitigated savagery took Muriel
fairly l»y surprise. She looked hard at the girl, but
thought it wisest to answer nothing. This particular
young woman, indeed, was just as dark, and to all
appearance just as much of a savage, as any of the
rest of them. But she could speak English, at any
rate ! And she said she was to Ije IMuriel's servant !
The chief led them back to the shore, talking
volubly all the way in Polynesian to Felix. His
dialect differed so much from the Fijian that wdien
he spoke first Felix could hardly follow him. But
he gathered vaguely, nevertheless, that they were to
be well housed and fed for the present at the public
expense ; and even that something which the chief
ENROLLED IN OLYMPUS. 53
clearly regarded as a very great honour was in store
for them in the future. Whatever these people's
particular superstition niiglit be, it seemed pretty
evident at least tliat it told in the strangers' favour.
Felix almost began to hope they might manage to
live there pretty tolerably for the next two or three
weeks, and perhaps to signal in time to some passing
Australian liner.
The rest of that wonderful eventful day was wholly
occupied witli practical details. Before long, two
adjacent huts were found for them, near the shore ot
the lagoon : and Felix noticed with pleasure, not only
that the huts themselves were new and clean, l)ut
also that the chief took great care to place round botli
of them a single circular line of white coral-sand,
like the one he had noticed at Tu-Kila-Kila's palace-
temple. He felt sure this white line made the space
within taboo. No native would dare without leave
to cross it.
When the line was well marked out round the
two huts together, the chief went away for a while,
leaving the Europeans within their broad white
circle, guarded by an angry-looking band of natives
with long spears at rest, all pointed inward. The
natives themselves stood well without the ring, but
tlie points of their spears almost reached the°line,
and it was clear they would not for the present
permit the Europeans to leave the charmed circle.
Presently, the chief returned again, followed by
two other natives in official costumes. One of them
was a tall and handsome young man, dressed in a
long robe or cloak of yellow feathers. The other was
rA THE an EAT taboo.
stouter, and perhaps forty or thereabouts ; he wore a
short cape of wliite albatross phnnes, witli a girdle of
shells at his waist, interspersed with red coral.
" The King of Fire will make Taboo," the chief
said solemnly.
The young man with the cloak of yellow feathers
stepped forward and spoke, toeing the line with his
left foot, and brandishing a lighted stick in his right
hand. "Taboo! Taboo! Taboo!" he cried aloud,
with emphasis. " If any man dare to transgress this
line without leave, I burn him to aslies. If any
woman, I scorch her to a cinder. Taboo to the King
of the Eain and the Queen of the Clouds. Taboo !
Taboo ! Taboo ! Korong ! I say it."
He stepped back into the ranks with an air of
duty performed. The chief looked about him
curiously a moment. "The King of Water will
make Taboo," he repeated, after a pause, in the same
deep tone of profound conviction.
The stouter man in the short white cape stepped
forward in his turn. He toed the line with his
naked left foot : in his brown right hand he carried
a calabash of water. " Taboo ! Taboo ! Taboo ! " he
exclaimed aloud, pouring out the water upon the
ground symbolically. " If any man dare to trans-
gress this line without leave, I drown him in his
canoe. If any woman, I drag her alive into the
spring as she fetches w\ater. Taboo to the King of
the Eain and the Queen of the Clouds. Taboo !
Taboo ! Taboo ! Korong ! I say it."
" What does it all mean ? " Muriel whispered
terrified.
ENROLLED IN OLYMPUS. 65
Felix explained to her, as far as he could, in a
few hurried sentences. "There's only one word in
it I don't understand," he added hastily, "and
that's Korong. It doesn't occur in Fiji. They keep
saying we're Korong, whatever that may mean ; and
evidently they attach some very great importance
to it."
"Let the Shadows come forward," the chief said,
h)oking up with an air of dignity.
A good-looking young man, and the girl wlio said
her name was Mali, stepped forth from the crowd,
and fell on tlieir knees before him.
The chief laid his hand on the young man's
shoulder and raised him up. " The Shadow of the
King of the liain," he cried, turning him three times
round. " Follow him in all his incomings and his
outgoings, and serve him faithfully ! Taboo ! Taboo !
Pass within the sacred circle ! "
He clapped his hands. The young man crossed
the line with a sort of reverent reluctance, and took
his place within the ring, close up to Felix.
The chief laid his hand on Mali's shoulder. " The
Shadow of the Queen of the Clouds," he said, turn-
ing her three times round. " Follow her in all her
incomings and her outgoings, and serve her faith-
fiilly. Taboo! Taboo! Pass within the sacred
circle ! "
Then he waved both hands to Felix. " Go where
you will now," he said. " Your Shadow will follow
you. You are free as the rain that drops where it
will. You are as free as the clouds that roam
through Heaven. Xo man will hinder you."
sj'WW'^ 'H*'^ W'^r.'w W.I
60 77/ A' a HEAT TABOO.
And ill II moiiiunt, tlie speiiniii'ii (1i'(i1)[)L'(1 tlieir
spGurs ill concert, tlic crowd IcU Itack, and the
villa<^'er8 dispersed as if by magic to their own
lionses.
But Felix and Muriel were left alone beside their
huts, guarded only in silence by tlieir two mystic
►Sliadows.
CITAPTKK \'l.
riKST DAYS IN IJOUPAItl.
TliU(jUi)llOUT that day the natives brought tliem from
time to time numerous presents of yam, bananas, and
bread-fruit, neatly arranged in little palm-leaf baskets.
A few of them brought eggs as well, and one offering
even included a live chicken. But the people who
brought them, and who were mostly young girls just
entering upon wonumliood, did not venture to cross
the white line of coral-sand that surrounded the
lints: they laid down their presents, M'ith many
salaams, on the ground outside, and then waited
with a half-startled, half-reverent air for one or other
of the two Shadows to come out and fetch them. As
soon as the baskets were carried well within the
marked line, the young girls exhibited every sign of
pleasure, and calling aloud '' Korong ! Xorong ! " —
that mysterious Polynesian word of whose import
Felix was ignorant — they retired once more by
tortuous paths through the surrounding jungle.
"Why do they bring us presents?" Felix asked
at last of his Shadow, after this curious pantomime
FJIiST DAYS IN liOUVAlil. 57
liad been performed some three or four times. " Are
they always going to keep us in sucli plenty ?"
The Shadow looked back at him with an air of
considerable surprise. " Tliey l,ring presents, cf
courses" lie said in his own tongue, " because they
are badly in want of rain. We have lia.l much
•Irouglit of late in JJoupari ; wo need water iV,.ni
Heaven. The l)anana-buslies wither; tlie iloweis
on the bread-fruit tree do not swell to l)read-fruit ;
the yams are tliirsty. Tlierefore the fathers send'
their daughters with presents, maidens of the villa-es,
all marriageable girls, to ask for rainfall. Ihit they
will always provide for you, and also for the Queen
liowever you behave; for you are both Korong. Tu-'
Kila-Kila has said so, and Pleaven has accepted you."
"What do you mean by Korong?" Felix asked,
with some trei)idation.
The Shadow merely looked back at him with a
sort of Idank surprise that anybody should be
Ignorant of so simple a conception. '' Why, Korong
is Korong," he answered, aghast. " You are' Koron"
yourself. The Queen of the Clouds is Korong, tor"
You are both Korong ; that is why they all treat you
with such respect and reverence."
And that was as much as Felix could elicit by his
subtlest ciuestions from his taciturn Shadow.
In fact, it was clear that in the open, at least, the
Shadow was averse to being observed in fam'iliar
conversation with Felix. During the heat of the
day, however, when they sat alone within the hut,
he was much more communicative. Then ho
launched forth pretty freely into talk about the
58 THE GREAT TABOO.
island and its life, which would no doubt have
largely enlightened Felix, had it not been for two
drawbacks to their means of inter-communication.
In the first place, tlie Boupari dialect, though agree-
ing in all essentials with the Polynesian of Fiji,
nevertheless contained a great many words and
colloquial expressions unknown to the Fijians ; this
being particularly the case, as Felix soon remarked,
in the whole vocabularv of religious rites and
ceremonies. And in the second place, the Shadow
was so rigidly bound by his own narrow and insular
vset of ideas, that he couldn't understand the difficulty
Felix felt in throwing himself into them. Over and
over again, when Felix asked him to explain some
word or custom, he would repeat, with naive
impatience, '' Why, Korong is Korong," or, ** Tula
is just Tula : even a child must surely know what
Tula is ; much more yourself, who are indeed Korong,
and who have come from the sun to bring fresh fire
to us."
In the adjoining hut, Muriel, who was now
beginning in some small degree to get rid of her
most pressing fear for the immediate future, and
whom the obvious reality of the taboo had reassured
for the moment, sat with Mali, her own particular
Shadow, unravelling the mystery of the girl's know-
ledge of English.
Mali, indeed, like the other Shadow, showed every
disposition to indulge in abundant conversation, as
soon as she found herself well within the hut, alone
with her mistress, and secluded from the prying eyes
of all the other islanders.
FIRST DAYS IN BOUPAIU. nO
"Don't you be afraid, missy," she said, with
.ueimine kindliness in her tone, as soon as the gifts
of yam and hread-fruit liad all been duly housed and
j^Mvnered, " No harm come to you. You Korong,
you know. You very ^^a-eat taboo. Tu-Kila-Kila
send King of Fire and King of Water to make taboo
over you, so nobody Imrl you."
Muriel burst into tears at the sound of her own
language from those dusky lips, and exclaimed
tlu'ough her sol)S, clinging to the girl's hand foi-
comfort as slie spoke, '' AVhy, how did you ever come
to speak English, tell me ? "
Mali looked up at her with a half ast(jnished air.
" Oh, I servant in Queensland, of course, missy," she
answered, witli great composure. " Labour vessel
come to my island, far away, four, five years ago,
steal boy, steal woman. My pa[)a just kill my
mamma, because he an^rv with her, so no want
daughters. 80 my papa sell me and my sister for
plenty rum, plenty tobacco, to gentlemen in labour
vessel. Gentlemen in labour vessel take Jani and
me away, away, to Queensland. Big sea ; long
voyage. We stop there three yam — three years — d<t
service ; then great chief in Queensland send us back
to my island. My island too far away; gentleman
on ship not find it out ; so he land us in little boat
on Boupari. Boupari people make temple slave of
us." And that was all : to her (juite a common[)lac(',
everyday history.
"1 see," Muriel cried. "Then you've been for
three years in Australia 1 And there you learned
English. Wliv, what di<l vou do th"re ? "
60 THE GREAT TABOO.
Mali looked back at her with the same matter-of-
fact air of composure as before, " Oh, me nurse at
first," she said shortly. " Then after, me housemaid,
live three year in gentleman's house, good gentleman
that Ijuy me. Take care of little girl ; clean rooms ;
do everything. Me know how to make English lady
quite comfortable. Me tell that to chief; that make
him say, ' Mali, you be Queenie's Shadow.' "
To Muriel in her loneliness even such companion-
ship as that was indeed a consolation. "Oh, I'm so
glad you told him," she cried. "If we have to stoji
liere long, before a ship takes us off, it'll be so nice
to have vou here all the time with me. You won't
go away from me ever, will you ? You'll always
stop with me ! "
The girl's surprise showed more profoundly than
ever. "Me can't uo awav," she answered with
emphasis. " Me your Shadow. That great Taboo.
Tu-Kila-Kila great god. If me go away, Tu-Kila-
Kila kill me and eat me."
^luriel started back in horror. " But, Mali," she
said, looking hard at the girl's pleasant brown lace,
" if you were three years in Australia, you're a
Christian, surely ! "
The girl nodded her head in passive acquiescence.
"Me Christian in Australia," she answered. "Of
course me Christian. All folk make Christian when
him go to Queensland. That what for me call Mali,
and my sister Jani. \Ve have other names on my own
island ; but when we go to Queensland, gentleman
baptize us, call us Mali and Jani. ]\Ie Methodist in
Queensland. Methodist very good. But Methodist
FIRST DAYS IN BOUFAHL
01
god 110 live in Boupari. Not any good l)e Methodist
liere any longer. Tu-Kila-Kila god liere. Him ^-erv
powerful."
"What! Xot that dreadful creature they took us
to see this morning ' " Muriel exclaimed in horror.
" Oh, Mali, you can't mean to say they thiidv lie's a
rjod, that awful man tliere ! "
Mali nodded lier assent with profound conviction.
"Yes, yes; him god," slie repeated confidentlv.
"ilim very ]iowerful. Uy si-jter Jaiii go too near
him temple, against tahco— because her not belong-a
Tu-Kila-Kila temple:— and last iii-lit, wlien it great
feast, plenty men catcli Jani, and tie him up in rope;
nnd Tu-Kila-Kila kill him, and plenty j^oupari men'
hel[) Tu-Kila-Kila eat up Jani."
She said it in the same simple matter-of-fact way
as she had said that she was a nurse for throe years
in Queensland. To her it was a common incident of
everyday life. Such accidents icUl happen, if you
I're.ak taboo and go too near forbidden temples.
But Muriel drew back, and let the pleasant-lookin-'
brown girl's hand drop suddenly. - You can't mean
it," she cried. - You can't mean he's a god ! Sucli
a wicked man as tl,at ! Oh, his very look's too
horrible."
Mali drew back in her turn with a somewhat
terrified air, and peeped suspiciously around her, as
if to make sure whether any one was listening. " Oh,
hush," she said anx^'ously. "Don't must talk like'
that. If Tu-Kila-Kila hear, him scorch us up to
ashes. Him very great god! Him good! Him
powerful ! "
62 THE GREAT TABOO.
" How can lie be good if lie does such awful
things ? " Muriel exclaimed energetically.
Mali peered around lier once more witli terrified
eyes in the same uneasy way. " Take care," she said
again. '' Him god ! Him powerful ! Him can do
no wrong. Him King of the Trees. Him King of
Heaven ! On lioupari island, Methodist god not
much; no god so great like Tu-Kila-Kihi."
"But a man can't be a g<»dl" Muriel exclaimed
contemptuously. '' He's notliing Itut a man ! a savage I
a cannibal ! "
]\Iali looked back at her in wondering surprise.
" Not in Queensland," she answered calmly — to her,
all the world naturally divided itself into Queensland
and Polynesia — " no god in Queensland. Governor,
him very great chief; but him no god like Tu-Kila-
Kila. Methodist god in sky, Inm only god that live
in Queensland. But no use worship ]\Iethodist god
over here in Boupari. Him no live liere. Tu-Kihi-
Kila live here. All god here make out of man.
Live in man. Koron<:j ! What for vou say a man
can't be a s];od ! You liod vourself ! AVhitc gentleman
tliere, god ! Korong, Korong. Chief put you in
Heaven, so make you a god. People pray to you
now. I'eople bring you presents."
" You don't mean to say," Muriel cried, " they
bring me these things because they tliink me a
goddess ? "
Mali nodded a grave assent. " Same like people
give money in church in Queensland," she answered
promptly. " Ask you make rain, make plenty crop,
make bread-fruit grow, make banana, make plantain.
FIRST DAYS IN BOUPARI.
G3
You Korong now While your time last, Queenie,
people give you plenty present."
•; While my time lasts ? " Muriel repeated, with a
curious sense of discomfort creeping over her slowly.
ihe gir nodded an easy assent, " Yes, «hile your
t.me kst, she answered, laying a small bundle of
pahn-leaves at Muriel's back by way of a cushion,
lor now you Korong. liy-and-by, Korong pass
t.. somebody else. This year, y„n Kor„ng. S„
people worship you."
But nothing that Muriel could say would nnh.e
he girl further to e.xplain her meaning. She shook
her head and looked ^■ery wise. " ^Vhen a god come
into somebody," she said, nodding towards Muriel
■u a mysterious way, " tliei, him god himself;
hmi korong. When the god go away from him, him
Korong no longer; somebody else Korong. Qneeni,-
Korong now; s., people worship him. AMnle bin,
time last, people plenty kind to him."
The day pas.sed away, and night came on. .U ii
approached heavy clouds drilte.l „,, from eastward.
Mall bu.s.ed hersell' with laying out a rough l,cd in
the hut for Muriel, and making her a pillow of soft
luoss and the curious lichen-like material tiiat ham^s
parasitic from the trc'es, and is commonlv known as
old mans beard." As both Mali and Kdi.x assured
her confidently no harm would come to her within
•so strict a taboo, Muriel, worn out with latigue and
tei-ror, lay down at last and slept soundly on this
native substitute for a bedstead. She slept without
dreaming, while Mali lay at her feet, ready at a
moment's call. It was all so strange : and yet she
64 THE OliEAT TAB 00.
was too utterly wearied to do otherwise than sleep,
ill spite of her strange and terrible surroundings.
Felix slept, too, for some hours, but woke with a
start in the night. It was raining heavily. He
could hear the loud patter of a fierce tropical shower
on the roof of his hut. His Shadow, at his feet, slept
still unmoved ; Ijut when Felix rose on his elbow, the
Shadow rose on a sudden, too, and confronted him
curiously. The young man heard the rain ; then he
bowed down his face with an awed air, not visible,
but audible, in tlie still darkness. "It has come!"
he said with superstitious terror. "It has come at
last ! my lord has brought it ! "
After that, Felix lay awake for some hours,
hearing the rain on the roof, and puzzled in his own
liead by a half uncertain memory. What was it in
his school reading that that ceremony with the water
indefinitely reminded him of ? Wasn't there some
Greek or Pioman superstition al)out shaking your
head when water was poured upon it ? AVliat could
that superstition be, and what liglit might it cast on
tins mysterious ceremony I He wished he could
remember; Imt it was so long since he'd read it, and
he never cared much at school for Greek or liomiui
antiquities.
Suddenly, in a lull of the rain, the whole context
at once came back with a rush to him. He remem-
bered now he had read it, some time or other, in
some Classical Dictionary. It was a custom con-
nected with Greek sacrifices. Tlie officiating priest
poured water or wine on the head of the sheep,
bullock, or other victim. If the victim shook its-
1 1
INTERCHANGE OF CIVILITIES. 05
head and knocked off the drops, tliat wj;^ a sign tliat
it was fit for the sacrifice, and that the god accepted
it. If the victim trembled visibly, tliat was a most
favoural)le omen. If it stood (^iiite still and didn't
move its neck, then the god rejected it as unfit for liis
purpose. Could tJuU be the meaning of the ceremony
performed on Muriel and himself in " Heaven " that
morning ? AVere tliey merely intended as human
sacrifices ? Were they to be kept meanwhile and, as
it were, fed up for the slaughter ? It was too horrible
to believe ; vet it almost looked like it.
He wished he knew the meaning of tliat strange
word " Korong ! " Clearly, it contained the true key
to the mystery.
AnyhoM', he had always his trusty knife. If the
worst came to the worst — those wretclios should
never harm his spotless ]\Iuriel.
For he loved her to-night ; he would watch over
her and protect her. He would save her at least
from the deadliest of insults.
CHAPTER VII.
I2^TP:KCnANGE OF CIVILITIES.
All night long, without intermission, the heavy
tropical rain descended in torrents ; at sunrise it
ceased, and a bright blue vault of sky stood in a spot-
less dome over the island of Boupari.
As soon as the sun was well risen, and the rain
had ceased, one shy native girl after another came
straggling up timidly to the white line that marked
r
or, THE GREAT TABOO.
the taboo round Felix and Mnriel's huts. Tliey
came with more baskets of fruit and eggs. Humbly-
saluting three times as tlioy drew near, they hiid
down their gifts modestly just outside the line, with
many loud ejaculations of praise and gratitude to the
gods in their own language.
" What do they say ? " Muriel asked, in a dazed
and frightened way, looking out of tlie hut door, and
turning in wonder to Mali.
"They say, 'Thank you, Queenie, for rain and
fruits,' " Mali answered, unconcerned, bustling about
in tlie hut. " j\Iissy want to wasli him face and
hands tl lis morn in u' ? Ladv nlwavs wash every day
over yonder in Queensland."
IMuriel nodded assent. It was all so strange to
her. But ]\Iali went to the door and beckoned care-
lessly to one of the native girls just outside, who
drew near the line at tlie summons, with a somewhat
frightened air, putting one finger to her mouth in
coyly uncertain savage fashion.
" Fetch me M^ater from the S])ring I " Mali said
authoritatively, in Polynesian. AVithout a moment's
delay the girl darted off at the top of her speed, and
soon returned with a hirge calabash full of fresh cool
water, which she laid down respectfully by the taboo
line, not daring to cross it.
'' Why didn't you get it yourself ? " ^luriel asked
of her Shadow, rather relieved than otherwise that
Mali hadn't left her. It was something in these dire
straits to have somebody always near who could at
least speak a little English.
Mali started back in surprise. '' Oh, that would
INTEPiCTTANOE OF CIVILITIES. 67
never do," she answered, catching a colloquial phrase
she had often heard long before in Queensland.
" Me missy's Shadow. That great taboo. If me go
away out of missy's sight, very big sin — very big
danger. Man-a-l)Oupari catch me and kill me like
Jani, for no me stop and wait all the time on missy."
It was clear that human life was held very cheap
on the island of Boupari.
Muriel made her scanty toilet in the hut as well
as she was able, with the calabash and water, aided
by a rough shell comb which ]Mali had provided for
her. Tlien she breakfasted, not ill, off eggs and fruit,
which Mali cooked w4th some rude native skill over
the open-air fire without in the precincts.
After breakfast, Felix came in to inquire how she
had passed the night in her new quarters. xVlready
Muriel felt how odd was the contrast between the
quiet politeness of his manner as an English gentle-
man, and the strange savage surroundings \ii which
they Itoth now found themselves. Civilization is an
attribute of communities; we necessarily leave it
behind when we find ourselves isolated amon^'
barbarians or savages. I>ut culture is a purely
personal and individual possession ; we carry it with
us wherever w^e go ; and no circumstances of life can
ever deprive us of it.
As they sat there talking, with a deep and abiding
sense of awe at the change (Muriel more conscious
than ever now of how deep was lier interest in Felix
Tliurstan, who represented for her all that was
dearest and Ijest in England), a curious noise, as of a
discordant drum or tom-tom, beaten in a sort of
68 THE GREAT TABOO,
recurrent tune, was heard towards the liills ; and at
its very first sound Loth the Shadows, flinging them-
selves upon their faces with every sign of terror,
endeavoured to hide themselves under the native
mats with which the bare little hut was roughly
carpeted.
" What's the matter ? " Felix cried in English to
Mali ; for Muriel had already explain' 1 to him how
the girl had picked up some knowledge of our tongue
in Queensland.
Mali trembled in every limb, so that she could
liardly speak. " Tu-Kila-Kila come," she answered,
all breathless. "No blackfellow look at him.
Burn blackfellow up. You and Missy Korong. All
right for you. Go out to meet him ! "
" Tu-Kila-Kila is coming," the young man Shadow
said in Polynesian, almost in the same breath, and
no less tremulously. "We dare not look upon his
face lest he burn us to ashes. He is a very great
taboo. His face is fire. But you two are gods.
Step forth to receive him."
Felix took Muriel's hand in his, somewhat trem-
bling himself, and led her forth on to the open space
in front of the huts to meet the man-god. She
followed him like a child. She was woman enough
for that. She had implicit trust in him.
As they emerged, a strange procession met their
eyes unawares, coming down the zigzag path that led
from the hills to the shore of the lagoon, where their
huts were situated. At its head marched two men —
tall, straight, and supple — wearing huge feather
masks over their faces, and beating tom-toms.
INTEnCIIANOE OF CIVILITIES. 69
decorated witli lung strings uf shiny cowries. After
them, in order, came a sort of liollow square of chiefs
or warriors, surrounding with fan-pahns a central
ohject all shrouded from the view with the utmost
precaution. This central object was covered with a
liugc regal umbrella, from wliose edge hung rows of
small nautilus and other shells, so as to form a kind
( »f screen, like the Japanese portieres now so common
in English doorways. Two supporters held it up,
one on either side, in long cloaks of feathers. Under
the umbrella, a man seemed to move ; and as he
approached, the natives to right and left, fled pre-
cipitately to their huts, snatching up their naked
little ones from the ground as they went, and crying
aloud, " Taboo, taboo ! He comes I he comes ! Tu-
Kila- Kila ! Tu-Kila-Kila ! "
The procession wound slowly on, unheeding these
common creatures, till it reached the huts. Then
the cliiefs who formed the hollow square fell bock
one by one, and the man under tlie umbrella, witii
Ills two supporters, came forward boldly. Felix
noticed that they crossed without scruple the thick
white line of sand which all the other natives so
carefully respected. The man within the umbrella
drew aside the curtain of hanging nautilus shells.
His face was covered with a thin mask of paper
mulberry bark ; but Felix knew he was the self-same
I person whom they had seen the day before in the
central temple.
Tu-Kila-Kila's air was more insolent and arrogant
than even before. He was clearly in high spirits.
" You have done well, oh King of the Eain," he said,
J#
70 THE GREAT TAliOO.
turuiiig gaily to Felix; " uud you, too, uh Qiieeii <»!'
the Clouds ; you have done right bravely. We have
all ac(iuitted ourselves as our people would wish.
We have made our showers to descend abundantly
from heaven ; we have caused the crops to grow ; we
have wetted the plantain bushes. See ; Tu-Kila-Kila,
who is so great a god, has come from his own home
on the hills to greet you."
" It has certainly rained in the night," Felix
answered drily.
But Tu-Kila-Kila was not to be put off thus.
Adjusting his thin mask or veil of bark, so as to hide
his face more thoroughly from the inferior god, he
turned round once more to the chiefs, who even so
hardly dared to look openly upon him. Then he
struck an attitude. The man was clearly bursting
with spiritual pride. He knew himself to be a god,
and was tilled with the insolence of his supernatural
power. " See, my people," he cried, holding up his
hands, palm outward, in his accustomed god-like
way ; " 1 am indeed a great deity — Lord of Heaven,
Lord of Earth, Life of the AVorld, Master of Time,
Measurer of the Sun's Course, Spirit of Growth,
Creator of the Harvest, Master of ^lortals, Bestower
of Breath upon Men, Chief Pillar of Heaven ! "
The warriors bowed down before their bloated
master with unquestioning assent. "Giver of Life
to all the host of the Gods," they cried, " you are
indeed a mighty one. Weigher of the equipoise of
Heaven and Earth, we acknowledge your might;
we give you thanks eternally."
Tu-Kila-Kila swelled with visible importance.
ISTFJiailANOK OF CIVILITIES, 71
'• i>id I not tell you, my muut," he oxuhiiinetl, " I
would brill*,' you new gods, great spirits from the
sun, fetchera of fire from my bright home in tlie
heavens ? And have they not come ? Are tliey nut
here to-day ? Have they not brought the precious
gift of fresh fire with them ? "
"Tu-Kila-Xila speaks true," the cliiefs eclioed
submissively with l)ended heads.
"Did 1 not make one of them King of tlie Uain ? "
Tu-Kila-Kila asked once more, stretching one hand
i toward tlie sky with theatrical magnificence. " Did
I not declare the otlier Queen of the Clouds in
Heaven ? And have 1 not caused them to bring
down showers this night upon our crops ? Has not
the dry earth drunk ? Am I not the great god, the
saviour of Boupari ? "
•'Tu-Kila-Kila says well," the chiefs responded
i once more in unanimous chorus.
Tu-Kila-Kila struck another attitude with childish
self-satisfaction. - I go into tho hut to speak with
I my ministers," he said grandiloquently. " Fire and
Water, wait you here outside while I enter and
speak with my friends from the sun, whom I have
brought for the salvation of the crops to Boupari."
The King of Fire and the King of Water, support-
ing the umbrella, bowed assent to his words. Tu^
■ Kila-Kila motioned Felix and Muriel into the nearest
I hut. It was the one where the two Shadows lay
crouching in terror among the native mats. As the
god tried to enter, the two cowering wretches set up
a loud shout, "Taboo! Taboo! Mercy! Mercy!
Mercy ! " Tu-Kila-Kila retreated with a contemp-
72 THE QBE AT TABOO.
tuous suiile. " I want to see yuii alone," he said in
Polynesian to Felix. " Is the other hut empty ?
If not, go in and cut their throats who sit there, and
make the place a solitude for Tu-Kila-Kila."
*' There is no one in the hut," Felix answered with
a nod, concealing his disgust at the command as far
as he was able.
" That is well," Tu-Kila-Kila answered, and walked
into it carelessly. Felix followed him close, and
deemed it best to make Muriel enter also.
As soon as they were alone, Tu-Kila-Kila's manner
altered greatly. *' Come, now," he said quite genially,
yet with a curious under-current of hate in his steely
grey eye ; " we three are all gods. We wiio are in
Heaven need have no secrets from one another.
Tell me the truth ; did you really come to us direct
from the sun, or are you sailing gods dropped from a
great canoe belonging to the warriors who seek
labourers for the white men in t\ni distant country ? "
Felix told him briefly in as few words as possible
the story of their arrival.
Tu-Kila-Kila listened with lively interest; then
he said very decisively with great bravado, " It was
/ who made the big wave wash your sister overboard.
I sent it to your ship. I wanted a Korong just now
in Boupari. It was / who brought you."
"You are mistaken," Felix said simply, not think-
ing it worth while to contradict him further. " It
was a pure natural accident."
"Well, tell me," the savage god went on once
more, eyeing liim close and sharp, " they say you
have brought fresh fire from the sun with you, and
INTERCnANOE OF CIVILITIES. 73
that you know how to make it burst out like light-
ning at will. My people have seen it. They tell
me the wonder. I wisli to see it too. We are all
gods here ; we need have no secrets. Only, I didn't
want to let these common people outside see I asked
you to show me. Make fire leap forth. I desire to
behold it."
Felix took out the match-ljox from his pocket, and
struck a vesta carefully. Tu-Kila-Kila looked on
with profound interest. " It is wonderful," he said,
taking the vesta in his own hand as it burned, and
examining it closely. " I have heard of this before,
but I have never seen it. You are indeed gods, you
white men, you sailors of the sea." He glanced at
Muriel. "And the woman, too," he said, with a
horril)le leer, "the woman is pretty."
Felix took the measure of his man at once. He
opened his knife, and held it up threateningly. " See
here, fellow," he said in a low, slow tone, but with
great decision, "if you dare to speak or look like
that at that lady — god or no god, I'll drive this knife
straight up to the handle in. your heart, though your
people kill me for it afterward ten thousand times
over. I am not afraid of you. These savages may
be afraid, and may think you a god; bu* i^ you are,
then I am a god ten thousand times stronger than
you. One more word, — one more look like that, J
say — and I plunge tliis knife remorselessly into you."
Tu-Kila-Kila drew back, and smiled benignly.
Stalwart rufllan as he was, and absolute master of
his own people's lives, he was yet afraid in a way of
the strange new-comer. Vague stories of the men
't
74 THE GREAT TABOO.
with whitu faces — the " sailing f>ods " — had reached
him from time to time ; and though only twice
within his memory had European boats landed on
his island, he yet knew enough of the race to know
that they were at least very powerful deities — more
powerful with their weapons than even he was.
Besides, a man who could draw down fire from
Heaven with a piece of wax and a little metal box
might surely wdther him to ashes, if he would, as he
stood before him. The very fact that Felix bearded
him thus openly to his face astonished and somewhat
terrified the superstitious savage. Everybody else on
the island was afraid of him ; then ' ertainly a man
who was not afraid must be the possessor of some
most efficacious and magical medicine. His one fear
now was lest his followers should hear and discover
his discomfiture. He peered about him cautiously,
with that careful gleam shining bright in his eye ;
then lie said with a leer, in a very low voice, " We
two need not quarrel. We are both of us gods.
Neither of us is the stronger. We are equal, that's
all. Let us live like brothers, not like enemies on
the island."
" I don't want to be your brother," Felix answered,
unable to conceal his loathing any more. ** I hate
and detest you."
" What does he say ? " Muriel asked, in an agony
of fear at the savage's black looks. " Is he going to
kill us ? "
" No," Felix answered boldly. " I think he's
afraid of us. He's going to do nothing. You needn't
fear him."
JNTERCITANGE OF CIVILITIES. 75
" Can aliu not .speuk ? " the savage asked, pointing
with his finger somewhat rudely towards Muriel.
"Has she no voice but this, the chatter of birds?
Does she not know the human lanLifuaii-e ? "
" 8he can speak," Felix replied, placing himself
like a shield between Muriel and the astonished
savage. " She can speak the language of the peo])le
of our distant country — a beautiful language which
is as far superior to the speech of the brown men of
Polynesia as the sun in the heavens is superior to
the light of a candlenut. But she can't speak the
wretched tongue of you Boupari cannibals. I thank
Heaven she can't, for it saves her from understand-
ing the hateful things your people would say of her.
Now go 1 I have seen already enough of you. I am
not afraid, liemember, I am as powei-ful a god as
you. I need not fear. You cann(jt hurt me."
A baleful light gleamed in the cannibal's eye.
But he thought it best to temporize. Powerful as
he was on his island, there was one thing yet more
powerful by far than he ; and that was Taboo — the
custom and superstition handed down from his an-
cestors. These strangers were Korong ; ho dare not
touch them, except in the way and manner and time
appointed ])y custom. If he did, god as he was, his
people themselves would turn and rend him. He
was a god, but he was bound on every side by the
strictest taboos. He dare not himself offer violence
to Felix.
So he turned with a smile and bided his time.
He knew it would come. He could afford to laugh.
Then, going to the door, he said with his grand aflable
76 Tm: QREAT TABOO.
iiitiiiiier tu liis eliit'fs aroiiiul, " 1 have spokuii with
the gods, my ministers, within. They have kissed
my hands. My rain has flillen. All is well in the
land. Arise, let us go away hence to my temple."
The savages put themselves in marching order at
once. " It is the voice of a god," they said reverently.
"Let us take back Tu-Kila-Kila to his temple
home. Let us escort the lord of the divine umbrella.
Wherever he is, there trees and plants put forth
green leaves and flourish. At his bidding, flowers
bloom, and springs of water rise up in fountains.
His presence diffuses heavenly blessings."
" I think," Felix said, turning to poor terrified
Muriel, " I've sent the wretch away with a bee in his
bonnet."
CHAPTER VIIL
THE CUSTOMS OF BOUPARI.
Human nature cannot always keep on the full stretch
of excitement. It was wonderful to botli Felix and
Muriel how soon they settled down into a quiet
routine of life on the Island of Boupari. A week
passed away — two weeks — three weeks — and the
chances of release seemed to grow slenderer and
slenderer. All they could do now was to wait for
the stray accident of a passing ship, and then try, if
possible, to signal it, or to put out to it in a canoe, if
the natives would allow them.
Meanwhile, their lives for the moment seemed
fairly safe. Though for the first few days they lived
I
THE CUSTOMS OF BOUFAIil. 77
in constant alarm, this feeling after a time gave way
to one of comparative security. The strange institu-
tion of tal)oo protected them more efficiently in their
wattled huts tlian the whole police force of London
could have done in a Ikdgravian mansion. Tliere
thieves break through and steal, in spite of jjolts and
bars, and metropolitan constables; ])ut at Boupari
no native, however daring or however wicked, would
ever venture to transgress the narrow line of white
coral sand which protected the castaways like an
intangible wall from all outer interference. Witliin
this impalpable ring-fence they were absolutely safe
from all rude intrusion, save that of the two Sliadows
wlio waited upon tliem, day and night, with unfailin-
willingness. '^
In other respects, considering tlie circumstances
their life was an easy one. The natives brou-lit
tliem freely of their simple store-yam, taro, bread-
fruit, and coco-nut, with plenty of fish, crabs, and
lobsters, as well as eggs l)y the basketful, and even
sometimes chickens. They required no pay l)eyond
a nod and a smile, and went away happy at those
slender recognitions. Felix discovered, in fact, that
they had got into a region where the arid generaliza-
tions of political economy do not apply ; where Adam
Smith is unread, and Mill neglected; where the
medium of exchange is an unknown quantity, and
where supply and demand readjust themselves con-
tinuously by simpler and more generous principles
than the familiar European one of ''the ]ii<TCTlinfr of
the market." °'' ""
The people, too, though utter savages, were not in
78 THE GliEAT TABOO.
their own way altogether impleasing. It was tlieir
customs and tlieir superstitions, rather than them-
selves, that were so cruel and liorrible. Personally,
tliey seemed for the most part simple-minded and
good-natured creatures. At first, indeed, Muriel was
afraid to venture for a step beyond the precincts of
their own huts: and it was long before she could
make up her mind to go alone through the jungle
paths with Mali unaccompanied by Felix. ]5ut Ijy
degrees she learnt that she could walk by herself
(of course, with tlie inevitalde Shadow ever l)y lier
side) over the wdiole island, and meet everywhere
with nothing from men, women, and cliildren })ut
the utmost respect and gracious courtesy. The
young lads as slie passed would stand aside from the
path, with downcast eyes, and let lier go by with all
the politeness of chivalrous English gentlemen. The
old men would raise tlieir eyes, but cross their hands
on their breasts, and stand motionless for a few
minutes till she had got almost out of sight. The
women would bring their pretty brown babies for
the fair English lady to admire or to pat on the
liead ; and when Muriel now and again stooped
down to caress some fat little naivcd child, lolling in
the dust outside a hut, with true tropical laziness,
the mothers would run up at the sight with delight
and joy, and throw themselves down in ecstasies of
gratitude for the notice she had taken of their
favoured little ones. " The gods of Heaven," they
would say, with every sign of pleasure, " have looked
graciously upon our Unaloa."
At first Felix and Muriel were mainly struck with
THE CUSTOMS OF DOUPAUI.
ro
tlie politeness nud deference which the natives dis-
played towards them. But after a time Felix at
least began to ohserve, behind it all, that a certain
amonnt of affection, and even of somothin- like
commiseration as well, seemed to be mingled with
the_ respect and reverence showered npon them by
their hosts. The women, especially, were often
evidently tonched by Mnriel's innocence and beauty
As she walked past their hnts with her lioht ^irlish
tread they would come forth shyly, bowing "many
times as they approached, and offer her a Ion- spray
of^ the ilowering hibiscus, or a pretty garhmd of
crimson ti-leaves, saying at the same time, many
times over, in their own tongue, '' J^eceive it, Koron- •
receive it. Queen of the Clouds ! You are good.'
You are kind. You are a daughter of the Sun. '^ We
are glad you have come to us."
A young girl soon makes herself at home any-
where; and Muriel, protected alike by her native
innocence and l)y the invisible cloak of Polynesian
taboo, quickly learnt to understand and to sympathize
With these poor dusky mothers. One morning, some
weeks after their arrival, she passed down the main
street of the village, accom])aiiied by Felix and their
two attendants, and reached the r,iame~tU open
torum or place of public asseinbly-which stood in
Its midst ; a circular platform, surrounded by bread-
truit trees, under whose broad, cool shade the people
were sitting in little groups and talking together
^^^^7 were dressed in the regular old-time festive
costume of Polynesia; for Boupari, being a small
and remote island, too insignificant to be visited by
80 THE GREAT TABOO.
European ships, retained still all its aboriginal
heathen manners and customs. The sight was,
indeed, a curious and picturesque one. The girls,
large-limbed, soft-skinned, and with delicately-
rounded figures, sat on the ground, laughing and
talking, with their knees crossed under them ; their
wrists were encinctured with girdles of dark red
dracctna leaves, tlieir swelling bosoms half concealed,
half accentuated by hanging necklets of flowers.
Their beautiful brown arms and shoulders were bare
throughout ; tlicir long, black hair was gracefully
twined and knotted with bright scarlet flowers. The
men, strong and stalwart, sat behind on short stools
or lounged on the buttressed roots of the bread-fruit
trees, clad like the women in narrow waist-belts of
the long red dracoena leaves, w^ith necklets of sharks'
teeth, pendent chain of pearly shells, a warrior's cap
on their well-shaped heads, and an armlet of native
beans, arranged below the shoulder, around their
powerful arms. Altogether, it was a striking and
beautiful picture. Muriel, now almost released from
her early sense of fear, stood still to look at it.
The men and girls were laughing and chatting
merrily together. Most of them were engaged in
holding up before them fine native mats ; and a row
of mulberry cloth, spread along on the ground, led
to a hut near one side of the 7narac. Towards this
the eyes of all the spectators were turned. '' What
is it, Mali ? " Muriel whispered, her woman's instinct
leading her at once to expect that something special
was going on in the way of local festivities.
And Mali answered at once, with many nods and
niK crsTOMs OF noupAnr.
81
m
.«miIo«.".^ll,.igIu,Mi.s.yQueonio. Hin, a .0,1,11,,.
ii iiinrriaire.
1
Tl,e words l,a,l ],„,,lly e^oapcl \m- lip, wl,e„ „
^ery pretty you,,, .i,.], i„,f .„„„t,,,,,„, ,■„ „
^uu clocke.1 out ,•„ ,,ea„.s a,.,l fa„ey .,.,1, en,,:,'
o«h ,.o,„ tl,. i,ut, ,M took l,or wav u-ith stately
tn..cl along tl,c pa.i, ca,.pote,l witl,' „ative
at.., ^^I„el, f„„n,,i , ,„ , j,,,,; ,.,^,.
Jl'.' ts t],o brule, I suppose;- Muriel M-l,ispere,l
«K,ee, she „,ny i,,, ca„ ,esist ll,e se,l,„.live
•' Ves, her a l,ri,le," Mali ausweiv,! • -a,,,! l.,,,,-,,,
what foil,™, the.u her l„.i,les,„ai,I. " ■""""^''-
At .1,.. w,„,l, six other gi,ls, si.uihulv cl,.ess,.,l
'l'""Kl' w"l-"t -he trai,,, a„,I .!e„,„,.e' as ,^ '
;■";"■«;■' ^'■""' ""^ '-t '" «!„„. ome,., tw„ a,„l '
Muriel a,„l K.,ix „,o^•ed f,„.war,l with „atu,.l
uuiost) t,nvar,ls the scene. The natives now
;-.o n, a row along the path, with n.at'tu,: Z
Tint" U ^ '"' "'"" «''""^-- ^" '^-n'
0,0, tl '"' '''°"''' "'"^ •''"■^Pieiously
.0. ,u the oeeas„,n; an,l the bride herselt; as woH
the hr,,legrooni who, ,leeked in shells and teeth
■"l^- nee,l fro.n the opposite side alon« the pX to
~ana liih^s-'r-Sier::
""' ^'"' "'""''"^ -f--" f™.., l,en,ling ,oru-a,,i a
G
s2 THE QUE AT TABOO.
liLLlc to look at the \(\v\:^ really graceful costume.
As she (lid so, the skirt of her own European dress
lirushed for a second against the hride's train, trailed
carelessly many yards on the ground 1»elund lier.
Aluiost before they could know what had hap-
pened, a wild commotion arose as if by magic in
the crowd around them. Loud cries of " Taboo !
Taboo ! " mixed with inarticulate screams, burst on
every side from the assemlded natives. In the
twinkling of an eye, they were surrounded by an
angry tlireatening throng, who didn't dare to draw
near, but standing a yard or two off drew stone
knives freely and shook their fists, scowling, in tlie
strangers' faces. Tlie cliange was appalling in its
electric suddenness. Muriel drew back horrified, in
an agony of alarm. " Oh, what have I done ! " she
cried piteously, clinging to Felix for support. " ^Vhy
on earth are they angry witli us ? "
" I don't know," Felix answered, taken aback him-
self. " I can't say exactly in what you've trans-
gressed. l)Ut you must, unconsciously, in some way
have offended their prejudices. I hope it's not mucli.
At any rate they're clearly afraid to touch iis."
"Missy Queenie break taboo," j\Iali explained at
once, withj\)lynesian frankness. " That make people
angry. So him want to kill you. Missy Queenie
touch bride with end of her dress. Korong may
smile on bride — that very good luck : but Korong
taboo ; no must touch him."
The crowd gathered around them, still very
threatening in attitude, yet clearly afraid to approach
within arm's length of the strangers. Muriel was
Till': CUSTOMS OF BOUPARI. fl3
iiiucli IVi'Mituiiod iiL their iiuirie and ut their rrantic
gestures. " Come away," she cried, catching Felix by
tlie arm once more. " Oh, what arc they going to do
to us ? Will tliey lull us for this ? I'm so liorribly
afraid ! Oh, why did I ever do it ! "
The poor little bride, meanwhile, left alone on the
carpet, and unnoticed by everybody, sank suddenly
down on the mats where she stood, buried her face in
her hands, and began to sob as if her heart would
l)rcak. Evidently, something very untoward of some
sort had happened to the dusky lady on her wedding
morning.
This final touch was too much for poor Muriel's
overwrought nerves. She, too, gave way, in a tempest
of sobs, and subsiding on one of the native stools
hard by, burst into tears herself with half hysterical
violence.
Instantly, as she did so, the whole assembly seemed
to change its mind again as if by contagious magic.
A loud shout of " She cries ; the Queen of the Clouds
cries ! " went up from all the assembled mob to heaven.
"It is a good omen," Toko, the Shadow, whispered
in IVtlynesian to Felix, seeing his puzzled look.
•' We shall have plenty of rain now; the clouds will
break; our crops will flourish." Almost before she
understood it, Muriel was surrounded by an eager and
friendly crowd, still afraid to draw near, but evidently
anxious to see and to comfort and console her. Many
of the women eagerly held forward their native mats,
wliicli Mali took from them, and pressing them for a
second against Muriel's eyes, handed them back with
just a suspicion of wet tears left glistening in the
81 THE GREAT TABOO.
corner. The happy recipients leaped and shouted witli
joy. "No more drought! " they cried merrily, with
loud shouts and gesticulations. " The Queen of the
Clouds is good : slie will weep well from heaven upon
my yam and taro plots ! "
Muriel looked uj), all dazed, and saw, to her
intense surprise, the crowd was now nothing but
affection and sympathy. Slowly they gathered in
closer and closer, till they almost touched the hem of
her robe : tiip.n the men stood by respectfully, laying
their fingers on whatever she liad wetted with her
tears, while the women and girls took her hand in
tlieirs and pressed it sympathetically. Mali explained
their meaning with ready interpretation. "No cry
too much, them say," she observed, nodding her liead
sagely. " Not good for Missy Queenie to cry too
much. Them say, kind lady, be comforted."
There was genuine good-nature in the way tliey
consoled her ; and Felix was touched by the tender-
ness of those savage hearts : but the additional
explanation, given him in Polynesian by his own
Shadow, tended somewliat to detract from the dis-
interestedness of their sympathy: "They say, 'It is
good for the Queen of the Clouds to weep : ' " Toko
said, with frank bluntness ; " * but not too much : —
for fear the rain sliould wasli away all our yam and
taro plants.' "
By this time the little bride had roused herself from
her stupor, and, smiling away as if nothing had
liappened, said a few words in a very low voice to
Felix's Shadow. The Shadow turned most respect-
fully to his muster, and tonclu'ng liis sleeve-link, which
ta
! THE CUSTOMS OF DO UP A HI. «5
was of bright gold, said in a very dou])tfal voice,
" She asks you, oh King, will you allow her, just for
to-dav, to wear this ornament ? "
Fdlix unbuttoned the shining bauble at once, and
was about to hand it to the bride with polite gallantry.
" She may wear it for ever, for the matter of that, if
I slie likes," he said good-humouredly. " I make her a
present of it."
]5ut the bride drew back as before in speechless
terror, as he held out his hand, and seemed just on
the point of bursting out into tears again at this
untoward incident. The Shadow intervened with
fortunate perception of the cause of the misunder-
standing. " Korong must not touch or give anything
j I to a bride," he said quietly ; " not with his own hand.
" lie nuist not lay his finger on her; that would bo
unlucky. But he may hand it by his Shadow."
Then he turned to his fellow-tribesmen. " These
gods," he said, in an explanatory voice, like one
bespeaking forgiveness, " though they are divine, and
Korong, and very powerful — see, they have come
from the sun, and they are but strangers in Boupari —
they do not yet know the ways of our island. They
have not eaten of human flesh. They do not under-
stand Taboo. But they will soon be wiser. They
mean very well, but they do not know. Behold, he
gives her this divine shining ornament from the
sun as a present!" And taking it in his hand, he
held it up for a moment to public admiration. Then
he passed on the trinket ostentatiously to the bride,
who, smiling and delighted, hung it low on her breast
among her other decorations.
86 THE QREAT TABOO.
The whole party seemed so surprised and gratified
at this proof of condescension on the part of the
divine strangers, that they crowded round Felix once
more, praising and thanking him volubly. Muriel,
anxious to remove the bad impression she had created
by touching the bride's dress, hastily withdrew her
own little gold brooch and offered it in turn to the
Shadow as an additional present. But Toko, shaking
his head vigorously, pointed with his forefinger many
times to Mali. " Toko say him no can take it," Mali
explained hastily in her Ijroken Englisli. '' Him no
your Shadow ; me your Shadow ; me do everything
for you ; me give it to the lady." And taking the
brooch in her hand she passed it over in turn amid
loud cries of delight and shouts of approval.
Thereupon, the ceremony began all over again.
They seemed by their intervention to have inter-
rupted some set formula. At its close the women
crowded around Muriel and took her hand in theirs,
kissing it many times over, with tears in their eyes,
and betraying an immense amount of geniune feeling.
One phrase in Polynesian they repeated again and
again ; a phrase that made Felix's cheek turn white,
as he leaned over the poor English girl with a pro-
found emotion.
" What does it mean that they say ? " Muriel
asked at last, perceiving it w<as all one phrase, many
times repeated.
Felix was about to give some evasive explanation,
when Mali interposed with her simple, unthinking
translation. " Them say, Missy Queenie very good
and kind. Make them sad to tliink. ^lake them
SOWING THE WIND. 87
cry to see her. Make them cry to see Missy Queen i(>
Korong. Too good. Too pretty."
" Why so ? " Muriel exclaimed, drawing l)ack witli
some faint presentiment of unspeakable horror.
Felix tried to stop her; Init the girl would not be
stopped. "Because, when Korong time up," slie
answered, blurting'it out, " Korong must "
Felix clapped his hand to her mouth in wild haste,
and silenced her. He knew the worst now. He had
divined the truth. But Muriel at least must be
spared that knowledge.
CHAPTER IX.
sowing' THE WIXD.
Vaguely and indefinitely one terrible trutli liad
been forced by slow degrees upon Felix's mind ;
whatever else Korong meant, it implied at least
some fearful doom in store sooner or later for the
persons who bore it. How awful that doom might
be he could hardly imagine; but he must devote
himself henceforth to the task of discovering what
its nature was, and, if possible, of averting it.
Yet how to reconcile this impending terror with
the other obvious facts of the situation? the fact
that they were considered divine beings and treated
like gods; and the fact that the whole population
seemed really to regard them with a devotion and
kindliness closely bordering on religious reverence ?
If Korongs were gods, why should the people want
88
TT1E GREAT TABOO.
tu kill thciii '. \i tlu'y iiii'iiiit to kill Llieiii, why pay
tli(3iii jueanwliilc sudi respect and affection t
One point at least was now, however, quite clear
to Felix. While tlie natives, especially the women,
displayed towards both of them in their personal
aspect a sort of regretful sympathy, he could not
help noticing at the same time that the men, at any
rate, regarded them also largely in an impersonal
light, as a sort of generalized abstraction of the
powers of nature — an embodied form of the rain and
the weather. The islanders were anxious to keep
their white guests well supplied, well fed, and in
perfect health, not so much for the strangers' sakes
as for their own advantage; they evidently con-
sidered that if anything went wrong with either of
their two new gods, corresponding misfortunes might
ha])pen to their crops and the produce of their bread-
fruit groves. Some mysterious sympathy was held to
subsist between the persons of the castaways and tho
state of the weather. The natives effusively thanked
them after welcome rain, and looked askance at
them, scowling, after long dry spells. It was for
this, no doubt, that they took such pains to
provide them with attentive Shadows, and to gird
round their mo\'ements with taboos of excessive
stringency. Nothing that the new-comers said or
did was indifferent, it seemed, to the welfare of the
comnmnity ; plenty and prosperity depended upon
the passing state of Muriel's health, and famine or
drought might be brought about at any moment by
the slightest imprudence in Felix's diet.
How stringent these taboos really were Felix learnt
SOWISG THE WIND.
80
liv .slow de'fi'ees alone to realize. From the verv
Iteginniii;^ lie had observed, to he sure, that tliev
might only eat and drink tlie food provided for them ;
tliat they were supplied with a clean and fresh-
built hut, as well as with l)ran-nevv coco-nut cups,
spoons, and platters ; tliat no litter of any sort was
allowed to accumulate near their sacred inclosure ;
and that their Sliadows never left them, or went out
of their sight, l>y day or l)y night, for a single
moment. Now, however, he l^egan to perceive also
that the Shadows were there for that very purpose,
to watch over them, as it were, like guards, on behalf
of the community ; to see that they ate or drank no
tabooed object ; to keep them from hee<llessly trans-
gressing any unwritten law of the creed of ]>oupari ;
and to he answerable for their good behaviour gene-
rally. They were partly servants, it was true, and
partly sureties ; but they were partly also keepers,
and keepers who kept a close and constant watch
upon the persons of their prisoners. Once or twice
Felix, growing tired for the moment of this continual
surveillance, had tried to give Toko the slip, and to
stroll away from his hut, unattended, for a walk
through the island, in the early morning, before his
Shadow had waked ; but on each such occasion he
found to his surprise that as he opened the hut door
the Shadow rose at once and confronted him angrily,
with an incpiiring eye ; and in time he perceived
that a thin string was fastened to the bottom of the
door, the other end of which was tied to the Shadow's
ankle ; and this string could not be cut without
letting fall a sort of latch or bar which closed the
00
THE GREAT TABOO.
door outside, only to be raised again by some
external person.
Clearly, it was intended that the Korong should
have no chance of escape, without the knowledge of
the Shadow, who, as Felix afterwards learned, would
have paid witli his own body by a cruel death for
the Korong's disappearance.
He might as well have tried to escape his own
sliadow as to escape the one tlie islanders had tacked
on to him.
All Felix's energies were now devoted to the ar-
(bious task of discovering what Korong really meant,
and what possibility he might have of saving Muriel
from the mysterious fate that seemed to be held in
store for them.
One evening, about six wrecks after their arrival
in the island, the young Englishman was stroll-
ing by himself (after the sun sank low in heaven)
along a jiretty tangled hillside path, overhung with
li;nias and rope-like tropical creepers, while his
faithful Shadow lingered a step or two behind,
keeping a sharp look-out meanwhile on all his
movements.
Near the top of a little crag of volcanic rock, in
the centre of the hills, he came suddenly upon a hut
with a cleared space around it, somewhat neater in
appearance than any of the native cottages he had
yet seen, and surrounded by a broad white belt of
coral sand, exactly like that which ringed round and
protected their own inclosnre. But what specially
attracted Felix's attention was the fact that the
space outside this circle had been cleared into a
SOWING THE WIND.
91
regular flower-garden, quite European in tlic ilefinito-
ness and orderliness of its quaint arrangement.
"Why, who lives liere ? " Felix asked in Polvne-
sian, turning round in surprise to his respectful
Shadow.
The Shadow waved his hand vaguely in an ex-
I)ansive way towards the sky, as he answered with a
certain air of awe often observable in his speed i
when taboos were in question, " The King of Birds.
A very great god. He speaks the bird language."
"Who is he?" Felix inquired, taken aback, won-
dering vaguely to himself whether here, percliance,
he might have lighted upon some stray and s]ii[)-
wrecked compatriot.
"He comes from the sun like yourselves," the
Shadow answered, all deference, but with obvious
reserve. " He is a very great god. I may not speak
much of him. But he is not Korong. He is greater
than that, and less. He is Tula, the same as Tu-
Kila-Kila."
"Is he as powerful as Tu-Kila-Kila T' Felix asked
with intense interest.
" Oh no, he's not nearly so powerful as that," the
Shadow answered, half terrified at the bare sugges-
tion. " No god in Heaven or Earth is like Tu-Kila-
Kila. This one is only King of the r,irds, Mhich is
a little province, while Tu-Kila-Kila is King of
Heaven and Earth, of Plants and Animals, of CJods
and Men, of all things created. At his nod the sky
shakes, and the rocks tremble. But still, this god is
Tula, like Tu-Kila-Kila. He is not for a year. He
goes on for ever, till some other supplants him."
92
TTTE GREAT TABOO.
" Von s.iy lie coinos from tlu* ■^uii," Felix ])iit in,
tlevoiirecl M'itli curiosity. "And he speaks the bird
language ? AVhat do you moan by that ? Does lie
speak like the Queen of the Clouds and myself when
we talk together i "
" Oh dear, no," the Shadow answered in a very
confident tone. " He doesn't speak the least bit in
the world like that. ITe speaks shriller and higher
and still more bird-like. It is chatter, cliatter,
chatter, like the parrots in a tree ; tirra, tirra, tirra ;
tarra, tarra, tarra ; la, la, la ; lo, lo, lo ; hi, lu, lu ;
li-la. And he sings to himself all the time. Ho
sings this way "
And then the Shadow, wdth that wonderful power
of accurate mimicry which is so strong in all natural
human beings, began to trill out at once, with a very
^ood Parisian accent, a few lines from a well-known
song in "La Fille do Madame Angot,"
" QuanJ ou conspi-ro,
Qutiml sans t'rayour
On pout sc (li-ro
Conapirateur,
Pour tout Ic mon-(k>
II faut avoir
Perruquo blon-do
Et collet noir—
Perrnque blon-de
Et cullot noir."
" That's how the King of the Birds sings," the
Shadow said, as he finished, throwing back his head,
and laughing with all his might at his own imitation.
*' So funny, isn't it ? It's exactly like the song of
the pink-crested parrot."
sowjxa THE wisd.
'.•;:
"Why, Toko, it's Freiicli," Felix cxclaime.l,
using the Fijian word for a Frenchman, wliicli the
Shadow of course, on his remote island, had never
before heard. " How on earth did he come here ? "
" I can't tell you," Toko answered, Maving his
arms seaward. "IFe came from the sun, like your-
selves. But not in a sun-hoat. It had no lire. IFe
came in a canoe, all by himself. And Mali says " —
here the Sliadow lowered his voice to a most
mysterious whisper — " he's a man-a-oui-oui."
Felix quivered with excitement. "jMan-a-oui-oui "
is the universal name over semi-civilized Polynesia
for a Frenchman. Felix seized ui)on it with avidity.
"A man-a-oui-oui," he cried, delighted. ''JIuw
strange ! How womU'rful ! I must go in at once tn
his hut and see him ! "
He had lifted his foot and was just going to cross
tlie white line of coral-sand, when his Shadow,
catching him suddenly and stoutly round tlie waist,
iiulled him back from the enclosure with everv siun
of horror, alarm, and astonishment. "Xo, you can't
go," he cried, grappling with him with all his force,
yet using him veiy tenderly for all that, as l)ecom('s
a god. "Taboo! Taloo there!"
\ " But I am a god Myself," Felix cried, insisting
upon his privileges. If you have to submit to the
disadvantages of taboo, you may as well claim its
advantages as well " The King of Fire and the
King of AVater crossed mj/ taboo line. Why
shouldn't I cross e(|ually the King of the Birds',
then?"
"So you might — as a rule," the Shadow answered
— ■ m' <*•
!)|
THE GREAT TABOO.
with promptitude. " You arc butli gods. Your
taboos do not cross. You may visit each other. You
may transgress one another's lines witliout danger of
falling dead on the ground, as common men would
do if they broke taljoo-lines. But tliis is the Month
of lUrds. The King is in retreat. No man may see
liini except his own Sliadow, tlie Little Cockatoo,
who brings him his food and drink. Do you see
that liawk's head, stuck upon the post by the door at
the side. That is his Special Taboo. lie keeps it
for his month. Even gods must respect that sign,
for a reason which it would be very bad medicine to
mention. While the Month of Birds lasts, no man
may look upon the King or hear him. If they did,
they would die, and the carrion birds would cat them.
Come away. This is dangerous."
Scarcely were the words well out of his mouth
when from the recesses of the hut a rollickin^T Frencli
voice was heard trilling out merrily :
" Quaud on con-spi-re,
Quantl, sans frayeur "
Without waiting for more, the Shadow seized
Felix's arm in an agony of terror. " Come away," he
cried hurriedly, " come away I What will become of
us ? This is horrible, horrible ! We have broken
taboo ! We have heard the god's voice. The sky
will fall on us. If his Sliadow were to find it out
and tell my people, my people would tear us limb
from limb. Quick, quick ! Hide away ! Let us run
fast through the forest before any man discover it."
The Shadow's voice rang deep with alarm. Felix
SOWIXa THE WIND.
0."
felt he dure not tritle wiili this superstiLiun. Tro-
foiind as was his curiusity abuut the mysterious
Frencliman, he was compelled to bottle up his cajrer-
ness and anxiety for the moment, and patiently wait
till the Month of lUrds had run its course, and taken
its inconvenient taboo along with it. These limita-
tions were terrible. Yet he counted much upon the
information the Frenchman could give him. The
man had been some time on tlie island, it was clear,
and doubtless he understood its wavs thorou<rhlv:
lie might cast some light at last_ upon the Xorong
mystery.
So he went back through the woods with a heart
somewhat lighter.
Not far from their own huts he met Muriel and
Mali.
As they walked home together, Felix told his
companion in a very few words the strange discovery
about the Frenchman, and the impenetraljle taboo by
which he was at present surrounded. jMuriel drew
a deep sigh. " Oh, Felix," she said — fur they were
naturally by this time very much at home with one
anutlier, " did you ever know anything so dreadful as
tlie mystery of these taboos ? It seems as if we
slioidd never get really to the bottom of tlicm.
Mali's always springing some new one upon mc. I
don't believe we shall ever be able to leave tlie
island — we're so hedged round with taboos. Even if
we were to see a ship to-day, I don't believe they'd
allow us to signal it."
There was a red sunset: a lurid, tropical, red and
groon sunset. It boded mischief
DO
THE QBE AT TABOO.
They WLTG passing l>y souk' huts at tlio uutiiient,
aiul over tlie stockade of one of them a tree was
liaiiging with small yellow fruits, wliieli Felix knew
well in Fiji as wholesome and ngrceable. lie broke
off a small branch as he passed, and offered a couple
thoughtlessly to Muriel. She took them in her
lingers, and tasted them gingerly. " They're not so
bad," she said, taking another from the bough.
" They're very nmch like gooseberries."
At the same moment, Felix popped one into his
own mouth, ami swallowed it without thiidving.
Almost before they knew what had happened,
with the same extraordinary rapidity as in the case
of the wedding, the people in the cottages ran out,
with every sign of fear and apprehension, and seizing
the branch from Felix's hands, began npbraiiiing the
two Shadows for their want of attention.
"AVe couldn't help it," Toko exclaimed, with
every appearance of guilt and horror on his face.
'• They were nmch too sharp for us. Their hearts
are black. How could we two interfere ? These
gods are so quick ! They had picked and eaten them
])efore we ever saw them."
One of the men raised his hand with a threatening
aii._l)ut against the Shadow, not against the sacred
person of Felix. " He will be ill," he said angrily,
pointing towards the white man ; '' and She will, too.
Their hearts are indeed black. They have sown the
seed of the wind. They have 1 'h of them eaten of
it. They will both be ill. You deserve to die ! And
what will come now to our trees and plantations ? "
The crowd gathered round tliem, cursing low and
SOWING THE WIND.
!»7
horribly. The two terrified Europeans slunk off to
their huts, unaware of their exact crime, and closely
followed by a scowling but despondent mob of
natives. As they crossed their sacred boundary,
Muriel cried, with a sudden outburst of tears, " Oh,
Felix, what on eartli shall we ever do to get rid of
this terrible, unendurable godship ? "
The natives without set up a great shout of horror.
'•Sec, see! she cries!" they exclaimed, in inde-
scribable panic. " She has eaten the Storm-fruit,
and already she cries ! Oh, clouds, restrain your-
selves ! Oh, great Queen, mercy ! Whatever will
])ecome of us and our poor huts and gardens ! "
And for hours they crouched around, beating their
breasts and sliriekini:^.
That evening, ]\Iuriel sat up late in Felix's liut,
with jMali by her side, too frightened to go back into
her own alone l)efore those angry peo[>le. And all
the time, just beyond the barrier line, they could
liear, above the whistle of the wind around tlie liut,
the droning voices of dozens of natives, cowering low
on the ground : they seemed to be going through
some litany or chant, as if to deprecate the result of
this imprudent action.
" What are they doing outside ? " Felix asked of
his Shadow at last, after a peculiarly long wail of
misery.
And the Shadow made answer, in very solemn
tones, " They are trying to propitiate your Mightiness,
and to avert the omen, lest the rain should fall, and
the wind should blow, and the storm-cloud should
burst over the island to destroy them."
H
98 THE ORE AT TABOO.
Then Felix remembered suddenly of himself that
the season when this Storm-fruit, or Storm-apple, as
they called it, was ripe in Fiji, was also the season
when the great Pacific cyclones most often swept
over the land in full fury ; — storms unexampled on
any other sea, like that famous one which wrecked
so many European men-of-war a few years since in
the harbour of Samoa.
And without, tlie wail came louder and clearer
still : " If you sow the bread-fruit-seed, you will reap
the bread-fruit. If you sow the wind, you will reap
the whirlwind. They have eaten the Storm-fruit.
Oh, great King, save us ! "
CHAPTER X.
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND.
Towards midnight, Muriel began to doze lightly
from pure fatigue.
" Put a pillow under her head, and let her sleep,"
Felix said in a whisper. " Poor child, it would be cruel
to send her alone to-night into her own quarters."
And Mali slipped a pillow of mulberry paper under
her mistress's head, and laid it on her own lap, and
bent down to watch her.
But outside, beyond the line, the natives murmured
loud their discontent. "The Queen of the Clouds
stays in the King of the Rain's hut to-night," they
muttered angrily. " She will not listen to us. Before
morning, be sure, the Tempest will be born of their
meeting to destroy us."
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND.
99
About two o'clock, there came a lull in the wind,
which had beer, rising steadily ever since that lurid
sunset. Felix looked out of the hut door. The
moon was full. It was almost as clear as day with
the briglit tropical moonlight, silvery in the open,
pale green in the shadow. The people were still
squatting in great rings round the hut, just outside
the taboo line, and beating gongs and sticks and
human bones, to keep time to the lilt of their lugu-
brious litany.
The air felt unusually heavy and oppressive.
Felix raised his eyes to the sky, and saw wisps of
light cloud drifting in rapid flight over tlie scudding
moon. Below, an ominous fog bank gathered steadily
westward. Then one clap of thunder rent the sky.
After it, came a deadly silence. The moon was veiled.
All was dark as pitch. The natives themselves fell
on their faces and prayed with mute lips. Three
minutes later, the cyclone had burst upon them in
all its frenzy.
Such a hurricane Felix had never liefore
experienced.
Its energy was awful. Kound the palm-trees, the
wind played a frantic and capricious devil's dance.
It pirouetted about the atoll in the mad glee of
unconsciousness. Here and there, it cleared lanes,
hundreds of yards in length, among the forest trees
and the coco-nut plantations. The noise of snapping
and falling trunks rang thick on the air. At times
the cyclone would swoop down from above upon the
swaying stem of some tall and stately palm that
bent like grass before the wind, break it off short
100 THE Git EAT TABOO.
witli a roar at the Ijottom, and lay it low at once on
the ground, with a crash like thunder. In other
places, little playful wliirlwinds seemed to descend
from the sky in the very midst of the dense brush-
wood, where they cleared circular patches, strewn
thick underfoot with trunks and branches in their
titanic sport, and yet left unhurt all about the
surrounding forest. Then again a special cyclone of
gigantic proportions would advance, as it were, in a
single column against one stem of a clump, whirl
round it spirally like a lightning flash, and, deserting
it for another, leave it still standing but turned and
twisted like a screw by the irresistible force of its
invisible fingers. The storm god, said Toko, was
dancing with the palm-trees. The sight was awful.
Such destructive energy Felix had never even
imagined before. No wonder the savages all round
beheld in it the personal wrath of some nn'ghty
spirit.
For in spite of the black clouds they could sec it
all — both the Europeans and the islanders. The
intense darkness of the night was lighted up for them
every minute by an almost incessant blaze of sheet
and forked lightning. The roar of the thunder
mingled with the roar of the tempest, each in turn
overtopping and drowning the other. The hut where
Felix and Muriel sheltered themselves shook before
the storm ; the very ground of the island trembled
and quivered — like the timbers of a great ship before
a mighty sea — at each onset of the breakers upon the
surrounding fringe-reef. And side by side with it all,
to crown their misery, wild torrents of rain, descend-
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND.
lOi
%
ing in water-spoiits, as it seemed, or dashed in great
sheets against the roof of their frail tenement, poured
fitfully on with fierce tropical energy.
In the midst of the hut Muriel crouched and
prayed with bloodless lips to Heaven. This was too,
too terrible. It seemed incredible to her that on top
of all thuy had been called upon t^^ suffer of fear and
suspense at the hands of the savages, the very dumb
forces of nature themselves should thus be stirred up
to open war against them. Her faith in Providence
was sorely tried. Dumb forces, indeed ! Why, they
roared with more terrible voices than any wild beast
on earth could possibly compass, The thunder and
the wind were howling each other down in emulous
din, and the very hiss of the lightning could be
distinctly heard like some huge snake at times above
the creaking and snapping of the trees before the
gale in the surrounding forest.
Muriel crouched there lonf;:, in the mute misery of
utter despair. At her feet ]\Iali crouched too, as
frightened as herself, but muttering aloud from time
to time, in a reproachful voice, " I tell Missy Queenie
what going to happen. I warn her not. I tell her
she must not eat that very bad storm-apple. But
Missy Queenie no listen. Her take her own way,
then storm come down upon us."
And Felix's Shadow, in his own tongue, exclaimed
more than once in the self-same tone, half terror, half
expostulation, " See now what comes from breaking
taboo ? You eat the storm-fruit. The storm -fruit
suits ill with the King of the Kain and the Queen of
the Clouds. The heavens have broken loose. The
102 THE GREAT TABOO.
sea has boiled. See what wind and what flood you
are bringing upon us."
By-and-by, above even the fierce roar of the
mingled thunder and cyclone, a wild orgy of noise
burst upon them all from without the hut. It was
a sound as of numberless drums and tom-toms, all
beaten in unison with the mad energy of fear : a
hideous sound, suggestive of some hateful heathen
devil-worship. Muriel clapped her liands to her ears
in horror. " Oh, what's that ? " she cried to Felix, at
this new addition to their endless alarms. " Are the
savages out there rising in a ])ody ( Have they come
to murder us ? "
" Perhaps," Felix said, smoothing her hair with his
hand, as a mother might soothe her terrified child,
"perhaps they're angry with us for having caused
this storm, as they think, by our foolish action. I
believe they all set it down to our having unluckily
eaten that unfortunate fruit. I'll go out to the door
myself and speak to them."
Muriel clung to his arm with a passionate clinging.
" Oh, Felix," she cried, " no. Don't leave me here
alone. My darling, I love you. You're all the world
there is left to me now, Felix. Don't go out to those
wretches and leave me here alone. They'll murder
you ! they'll murder you ! Don't go out, I implore
you. If they mean to kill us, let them kill us botii
together, in one another's arms. Oh, Felix, I am
yours, and you are mine, my darling ! "
It was the first time either of them had acknow-
ledged the fact; but there, before the face of that
awful convulsion of nature, all the little deceptions
yW
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND. 10:5
and veils of life seemed rent asunder for ever as by
a Hash of lightning. They stood face to face with
each other's souls, and forj^ot all else in the acjonv of
the moment. Felix clasped the trembling girl in his
arms like a lover. The two Shadows looked on and
shook with silent terror. If the King of the Rain
thus embraced the Queen of the Clouds before their
\'ery eyes, amid so awful a storm, what unspeakable
effects might not follow at once from it ! But they
liad too nmch respect for those supernatural creatures
to attempt to interfere with their action at such a
moment. They accepted their masters almost as
passively as they accepted the wind and the thunder,
which they believed to arise from them.
Felix laid his poor ^luriel tenderly down on the
mud floor again. " I iimst go out, my child," he said.
" For very love of you, I must play the man, and find
out what these savages mean by their drumming."
He crept to the door of the hut (for no man could
walk upright before that awful storm), and peered
out into the darkness once more, awaiting one of the
frequent Hashes of lightning. He had not long to
wait. In a moment the sky was all ablaze a^^ain from
end to end, and continued so for many seconds con-
secutively. By the light of the continuous zigzags of
fire, Felix could see for himself that hundreds and
hundreds of natives — men, women, and children,
naked, or nearly so, with their hair loose and wet
about their cheeks — lay fiat on their faces, many
courses deep, just outside the taboo line. The wind
swept over them with extraordinary force, and the
tropical rain descended in great fioods upon their bare
— -.- .^ — .^-
104 THE on EAT TABOO.
backs and shoulders. But the savages, as if entranced,
seemed to take no heed of all these earthly things.
They lay grovelling in the mud before some unseen
power ; and b'viting their tom-toms in unison, with
barbaric concord, they cried aloud once more as
Felix appeared, in a weird litany that overtopped
even the tumultuous noise of the tempest, " Oh, Storm-
( Jod, hear us ! Oh, great spirit, deliver us ! King
of the l\ain and Queen of the Clouds, befriend us I
Be angry no more 1 Hide your wrath from your
people ! Take away your hurricane, and we will
bring you many gifts. Eat no longer of the storm-
apple — the seed of the wind — and we will feed you
with yam and turtle, and much choice bread-fi'uit.
Great King, we are yours ; you shall choose which
you will of our children for your meat and drink ;
you shall sup on our blood. But take your storm
away; do not utterly drown and submerge our
island ! "
As they spoke they crawled nearer and nearer,
with gliding serpentine motion, till their heads
almost touched the white line of coral. But not a
man of them all went one inch beyond it. They
stopped there and gazed at him. Felix signed to
them with his hand, and pointed vaguely to the sky,
as much as to say he was not responsible. At the
gesture the whole assembly burst into one loud shout
of gratitude. " He has heard us, he has heard us,"
they exclaimed, with a perfect wail of joy. " He will
not utterly destroy us. He will take away his storm.
He will bring the sun and the moon back to us."
Felix returned into the hut, somewhat reassured
AFTER THE STORM.
10
o
SO far as the attitude of the sava.i^es went. " Don't
be afraid of them, Muriel," he cried, taking her
passionately once more in a tender embrace. " They
daren't cross the taboo. They won't come near ;
they're too frightened themselves to dream of
hurting us."
CHAPTER XI.
AFTEK THE STOKM.
Mext morning, the day broke bright and calm, as if
the tempest had been but an evil dream of the niglit,
now past for ever. The birds sang loud ; tlie lizards
came forth from their holes in the wall, and basked,
green and gold, in the warm dry sunshine. But
though the sky overhead was blue and the air clear,
as usually happens after these alarming tropical
cvclones and rain-storms, the memorials of the j^a-eat
wind that had ra^ed all niojht Ion'' anions the forests
of the island were neither few nor far between.
Everywhere the ground was strewn with leaves and
branches and huge stems of coco-palms. All nature
was draggled. Many of the trees were stripped
clean of their foliage, as completely as oaks in an
English winter; on others, big strands of twisted
fibres marked the scars and joints where mighty
boughs had been torn away by main force; while
elsewhere, bare stumps alone remained to mark the
former presence of some noble dracoena or some
gigantic banyan. Bread-fruits and coco-nuts lay
tossed in the wildest confusion on the ground: the
lOG THE GREAT TABOO.
banana and plantain-patches were beaten level witli
the soil or buried deep in the mud : many of the
huts had given way entirely : abundant wreckage
strewed every corner of the island. It was an awful
sight. Muriel shuddered to herself to see how much
they two tliat night had passed through.
What the outer fringing reef had suffered from
the storm they hardly knew as yet ; but from the
door of the hut Felix could see for himself how even
the calm waters of the inner lagoon had been lashed
into wild fury by the fierce swoop of the tempest.
Round the entire atoll the solid conglomerate coral
iloor was scooped under, broken up, chewed fine
by the waves, or thrown in vast fragments on the
beach of the island. By the eastern shore, in
particular, just opposite their huts, Felix observed a
regular wall of many feet in height, piled up by the
waves like the familiar Chesil Beach near his old
liome in Dorsetshire. It was the shelter of that
temporary barrier alone, no doubt, that had preserved
their huts last night from the full fury of the gale,
and that had allowed the natives to congregate in
such numbers prone on their faces in the mud and
rain, upon the unconsecrated ground outside their
taboo line.
But now, not an islander was to be seen within
earshot. All had gone away to look after their
ruined huts or their beaten-down plantain-patches,
leaving the cruel gods, who, as they thought, had
wrought all the mischief out of pure wantonness, to
repent at leisure the harm done during the night to
their obedient votaries.
!;■
AFTER THE STORM. 107
Felix was just about to cross the taboo-line and
walk down to the shore to examine the barrier, when
Toko, his Shadow, laying his hand on his slioulder
with 'more genuine interest and aflection than he
had ever yet shown, exclaimed with some horror,
" Oh no ! Not that ! Don't dare to go outside ! It
would be very dangerous for you. If my people
were to catch you on profane soil just now, there's
no saying what harm they might not do to you."
" Why so ? " Felix exclaimed in surprise. " Last
night, surely, they were 'all prayers and promises
and vows and entreaties."
The young ^nan nodded his head in acquiescence.
"Ah yes; last night," he answered. "That was very
well then. Yows were sore needed. The storm was
raging, and you were within your taboo. How
could they dare to touch you, a mighty god of the
tempest, at the very moment when you were rend-
ing their banyan-trees and snapping their coco-nut
stems with your mighty arms like so many little
chicken-bones ? Even Tu-Kila-Kila himself, I
expect, the very high god, lay frightened in his
temple, cowering by his tree, annoyed at your wrath ;
lie sent Fire and Water among the worshippers, no
doubt, to offer up vows and to appease your anger."
Then Felix remembered, as his Shadow s^^oke,
tliat, as a matter of fact, he had observed the men
who usually wore the red and white feather cloaks
among the motley crowd of grovelling natives who
lay flat on their faces in the mud of the cleared
space the night before, and prayed hard for mercy.
Only they were not wearing their robes of office at
•**•"
108
THE GREAT TABOO.
the moiiieiit, in accorclaiice with a well-known
savage custom : they had come naked and in disgrace,
as befits all suppliants. Tliey had left behind them
the insignia of their rank in their own shaken huts,
anJ. bowed down their bare backs to the rain and
the li'ditnin".
o o
"Yes, I saw them among the other islanders,"
l^'elix answered, half smiling, but prudently remain-
ing within the taboo-line as his Shadow advised him.
Toko kept his hand still on his master's shoulder.
" Oh, King," he said, beseechingly, and with great
solemnity, " I am doing wrong to warn you ; I am
breaking a very great taboo. I don't know what
harm may come to me for telling you. Perliaps Tu-
Kila-Kila will burn me to ashes with one glance of
his eyes. He may know this minute what I'm say-
ing here alone to you."
It is hard for a while man to meet scruples like
this ; but Felix was bold enough to answer outriglit,
" Tu-Kila-Kila knows nothing of the sort, and can
never find out. Take my word for it. Toko, nothing
that you say to me will ever reach to Tu-Kila-Kila."
The Shadow looked at him doubtfully, and
trembled as he spoke. " I like you, Korong," he
said, with a genuinely truthful ring in his voice.
"You seem to me so kind and good — so different
from other gods, who are very cruel. You never
beat me. Nobody I ever served treated me as well
or as kindly as you have done. And for your sake, I
will even dare to break taboo, — if you're quite, quite
sure Tu-Kila-Kila will never discover it."
" I'm quite sure," Felix answered with perfect
AFTER THE STORM.
109
cMjiitldenco. " I know it for cortiuii. I swear a c,'roal
oath to it."
"You swear 1)V Tu-Kila-Kila liiinself" tlip
young savage asked anxiously.
" I swear by Tu-Kila-Kila liinisclf," Felix replied
at once. " I swear, without doubt. lie can never
know it."
" Tliat is a great taboo," the Shadow went on,
meditatively, stroking Felix's arm. "A very great
taboo indeed. A terrible medicine. And you are a
god : I can trust you. "Well, then, you see, the
secret is this : you are Korong, but you are a
stranger, and you don't uiulerstand the ways of
P>oupari. If for three days after tlio end of this
storm, which Tu-Kila-Kila has sent Fire and Water
to pray and vow against, you or the Queen of the
Clouds show yourselves outside your own taboo-
liue, — why, then, the people are clear of sin : whoever
tiikes you may rend you alive ; they will tear you
limb from limb and cut you into pieces."
" Why so ? " Felix asked, aghast at this discovery.
They seemed to live on a perpetual volcano in this
wonderful island ; and a volcano ever breaking out
in fresh places. They cndd never get to the l)ottoni
f'f its horrible superstitions.
" Because you eat the storm-apple," the Shadow
answered confidently. " That was very wrong. You
brought the tempest upon us yourselves by your own
trespass; therefore, by the custom of r»oupari, which
we learn in the mysteries, you become full Korong
for the sacrifice at once. That makes the term for
you. The people will give you all your dues ; then
■ ■•■HtK <<■
110
THE GREAT TABOO.
they will say, * We are free ; we have bought you
with a price ; we have brought your coco-nuts. No
sin attaches to us ; we are righteous, we are
righteous.' And then they will kill you, and Fire
and AVater will roast you and boil you."
" But only if we go outside the taboo-line ? " Felix
asked anxiously.
" Only if you go outside the taboo-line," the
Shadow replied, nodding a hasty assent. " Inside it,
till your term comes, even Tu-Kila-Kila himself, the
very high god, whose meat we all are, dare never
liurt you."
" Till our term comes ? " Felix inquired, once
more astonished and perplexed. " What do you
mean by that, my Shadow ? "
But the Shadow was either bound bv some
superstitious fear, or else incapable of putting him-
self into Felix's point of view. " Why, till you are
full Korong," he answered, like one who speaks of
some familiar fact, as who should say, till you are
forty years old, or, till your beard grows white. " Of
course, by-and-by, you will be full Korong. I can-
not help you then ; but, till that time comes, I would
like to do my best by you. You have been very
kind to me. I tell you much. More than this, it
would not be lawful for me to mention."
And that was the most that, by dexterous ques-
tioning, Felix could ever manage to get out of his
mysterious Shadow.
" At the end of three days we wdll be safe, though ? "
he inquired at last, after all other questions failed to
produce an answer.
AFTER THE STOIiM. Ill
" Oh yes, at the end of three days, the storm will
have blown over," the young man answered easily.
" All will then be well. You may venture out once
more. The rain will have dried over all the island.
Fire and Water wuU have no more power over you."
Felix went back to the hut to inform Muriel of
this new peril thus suddenly sprung upon them.
Poor Muriel, now almost worn out with endless
terrors, received it calmly. " I'm growing accus-
tomed to it all, Felix," she answered resignedly. " If
only I know that you wiU keep your promise, and
never let me fall alive into these wretches' hands, I
shall feel quite safe. Oh, Felix, do you know, when
you took me in your arms like that last night, in
spite of everything, I felt positively happy."
About ten o'clock they were suddenly roused by
a sound of many natives, coming in quick succession,
single file, to the huts, and shouting aloud, "Oh,
King of the Kain, Oh, Queen of the Clouds, come
forth for our vows ! Eeceive your presents ! "
Felix went forth to the door to look. With a
warning look in his eyes, his Shadow followed him.
The natives were now coming up by dozens at a time,
bringing with them, in great arm-loads, fallen coco-
nuts and bread-fruits, and branches of bananas, and
large draggled clusters of half-ripe plantains.
*' Why, what are all these ? " Felix exclaimed in
surprise.
His Shadow looked up at him as if amused at the
absurd simplicity of the question. " These are yours,
of course," he said ; " yours, and the Queen's ; they
are the wind- falls you made. Did you not knock
112 THE GREAT TABOO.
them all oil' the trees for yourselves when you were
coming down in such sheets from the sky last
evening ? "
Felix wrung his hands in positive despair. It was
clear indeed that to the minds of the natives there
was no distinguishing personally between himself
and Muriel and the rain or the cyclone.
" Will they bring them all in ? " he asked, gazing
in alarm at the huge pile of fruits tlic natives were
making outside the huts.
" Yes, all," tlie Shadow answered ; " they are
vows ; they are god-sends ; but if you like, you can
give some of them Imck- If you give mucli back, of
course it will make my people less angry with you."
Felix advanced near the line, holding his hand up
before liiui to conmiand silence. As he did so, he
was absolutely appalled himself at the perfect storm
of execration and abuse which his appearance excited.
The foremost natives, brandishing their clubs and
stone-tipped spears, or shaking their fists by the line,
poured forth upon his devoted head at once all the
most frightful curses of the Polynesian vocabulary.
" Oh, evil god," they cried aloud with angry faces ;
"oh, wicked spirit ! you have a bad heart. See wliat
a wrong you have purjjosely done us. If your heart
were not bad, would you treat us like this I If you
are indeed a god, come out across the line, and let us
try issues together. Don't skulk like a coward in
your hut and within your taboo, but come out and
fight us. Wc are not afraid, who are only men.
Why are you afraid of us ? "
Felix tried to speak once more, but the din
A POINT OF THEOLOGY. 113
drowned his voice. As lie paused, the people set up
their louds shouts n<'aiu. "Oh, vou wicked <-'od !
You eat the storm-apple ! You have wrought us
much harm. You have spoilt our harvest. How
you came down in great sheets last night ! It was
pitiful, pitiful ! AVe would like to kill you. You
might have taken our bread-fruits and our l)ananas,
if you would ; we give you them freely ; they are
yours ; here, take them. We feed you well ; we
make you many offerings. But why did you wish to
liave our huts also ? Why did you beat down our
young plantations and break our canoes against the
beach of the island ? That shows a bad heart ! You
are an evil god ! You dare not defend yourself.
Come out and meet us."
CHAPTER XII.
A POINT OF TIIEOLOCY.
At last, with great difficulty, Felix managed to
secure a certain momentary lull of silence. The
natives, clustering round the line till they almost
touched it, listened with scowling brows, and
brandished threatening spears, tipped with points of
stone, or shark's teeth, or turtle-bone, while he made
his speech to them. From time to time, one or
another interrupted him, coaxing and wheedling him,
as it were, to cross tlie line ; but Felix never heeded
them. He was beginning to understand now how to
treat this strange people. He took no notice of their
threats or their entreaties either.
I
114 THE GREAT TABOO.
By-and-by, partly "by words and partly by gestures,
lie made them understand that they might take back
and keep for themselves all the coco-nuts and bread-
fruits they had brought as wind-falls. At this, the
people seemed a little appeased. " His heart is not
quite so bad as we thouglit," they murmured among
themselves ; " but if he didn't want them, what did
he mean ? Why did he beat down our huts and our
plantations ? "
Then Felix tried to explain to them — a somewhat
dangerous task — that neither he nor IMuriel were
really responsible for last night's storm ; but at that,
the people with one accord raised a great loud shout
of unmixed derision. '' He is a god," they cried, " and
yet he is ashamed of his own acts and deeds, and
afraid of what we, mere men, will do to him ! Ha !
Ha! Take care! These are lies that he tells.
Listen to him ! Hear him ! "
Meanwhile, more and more natives kept coming
up with wind-falls of fruit, or with ol)jects they had
vowed in their terror to dedicate during the night ;
and Felix all the time kept explaining at tlie top of
his voice, to all as thoy came, that he wanted nothing,
and that they could take all back again. This curiously
inconsistent action seemed to puzzle the wondering
natives strangely. Had he made the storm, then,
they asked, and eaten the storm-apple, for no use to
himself, but out of pure perverseness ? If he didn't
even want the wind-falls and the objects vowed to
him, why had he beaten down their crops and broken
their houses ? They looked at him meaningly : but
thev dared not cross that fjreat line of taboo. It
A POINT OF 'JIIEOLOGY. Ho
\vas their own superstition alone, in that moment of
danger, that kept their hands off tho.^e defenceless
wliite people.
At last, a happy idea seemed to strike tlie crowd.
'' What he wants is a child ! " tliey cried effusively.
" He thirsts for blood ! Let us kill and roast him a
jtroper victim ! "
Felix's horror at this appalling proposition knew
no bounds. " If you do," he cried, turning their own
superstition against them in this last hour of need,
" I will raise up a storm worse even than last night's !
You do it at your peril ! I want no victim. The
people of my country eat not of human flesh. It is a
thing detestable, horrible, hateful to (lod and man.
AVith us, all human life alike is sacred. We spill no
l)lood. If you dare to do as you say, I will raise
such a storm over your heads to-night as will sub-
merge and drown the whole of your island."
The natives listened to him with profound interest.
" We must spill no blood ! " they repeated, looking
aghast at one another. " Hear what the King says !
We must not cut the victim's throat. We must
bind a child with cords and roast it alive for him ! "
Felix hardly knew what to do or say at this
atrocious proposal. " If you roast it alive," he cried,
" you deserve to be all scorched up with lightning.
Take care what you do ! Spare the child's life ! I
will have no victim. Beware how you anger me ! "
But the savage no sooner says than he does. AVitli
him, deliberation is unknown, and impulse every-
thi?ig. In a moment, the natives had gathered in a
circle a little way off, and began drawing lots
110 TIIK on EAT TABOO.
Several children, seized hurriedly up among the
crowd, were huddled like so many sheep in tlie
centre. Felix looked on from his enclosure, half
petrified with horror. The lot fell upon a pretty
little girl of five years old. Without one word of
warning, without one sign of remorse, before Felix's
very eyes, they began to bind the struggling and
terrified child just ouside the circle.
The white man could stand this horrid barbarity
no longer. At the risk of liis life — at the risk of
Muriel's, he must rush out to prevent them. They
should never dare to kill that helpless child before
his very eyes. Come what might — though even
Muriel should suffer for it — he felt he 7nust rescue
that trembling little creature. Drawing his trusty
knife, and opening the big blade ostentatiously before
their eyes, he made a sudden dart like a wild beast
across the line, and pounced down upon the party
tliat guarded the victim.
Was it a ruse to make him cross the line, alone?
or did they really mean it ? He hardly knew ; but
lie had no time to debate the abstract question,
l^ursting into their midst, he seized the child with a
rush in his circling arms, and tried to hurry back
with it within the protecting taboo-line.
Quick as lightning, he was surrounded and almost
cut down by a furious and frantic mob of half-naked
savages. " Kill him ! Tear him to pieces ! " they
cried in their rage. " He has a bad heart ! He
destroyed our huts ! He broke down our plantations I
Kill him, kill him, kill him ! "
As they closed in upon him, with spears and
H
n
'#
A POINT OF THEOLOGY. 117
tomahawks and clubs, Felix saw he had nothing left
for it now but a hard fight for life to return to the
taboo-line. Holding the child in one arm, and
striking wildly out with his knife with the other, he
triej to hack his way back by main force to the
shelter of the taboo-line in frantic lunges. The
distance was but a few feet, but the savages pressed
round him, half frightened still, yet gnashing their
teeth and distorting their faces with anger. " He
has broken the taboo," they cried in vehement tones.
" He has crossed the line willingly. Kill him ! Kill
him ! We are free from sin. We have bought him
with a price — with many coco-nits ! "
At the sound of the struggle going on so close
outside, Muriel ruslied in frantic haste and terror
from the hut. Her face was pale, but her demeanour
was resolute. Before Mali could stop her, she too
had crossed the sacred line of the coral-mark, and
had flung herself madly upon Felix's assailants, to
cover his retreat with her own frail body.
"Hold off!" she cried in her horror, in English,
but in accents even those savages could read. " You
shall not touch him ! "
Witli a fierce effort Felix tore his way back,
through the spears and clubs, towards the place of
safety. The savages wounded him on the way more
than once with their jagged stone spear-tips, and
blood flowed from his breast and arms in profusion.
But they didn't dare even so to touch Muriel. The
sight of that pure white woman rushing out in her
weakness to protect her lover's life from attack
seemed to strike them with some fresh access of
118 THE GREAT TABOO.
superstitions awe. One or two of themselves were
wounded by Felix's knife, for they were unaccustomed
to steel, though they had a few blades made out of
old European bari-cl-lioops. For a minute or two
the conflict was sharp, and hotly contested. Then
at last Felix managed to fling tlie cliild across the
line, to push Muriel with one hand at arm's length
before him, and to rush himself within the sacred
circle.
Xo sooner had he crossed it than the savages drew
up around, undecided as yet, but in a threatening
body. IJank behind rank, their loose hair in their
eyes, they stood like wild beasts baulked of their
prey, and yelled at him. Some of them brandished
their spears and their stone hatchets angrily in their
victim's faces. Others contented themselves with
howling aloud as before, and piling curses afresh on
the heads of the unpopular storm-gods. " Look at
her," they cried in their wrath, pointing their skinny
brown fingers angrily at Muriel. " See, she weeps
even now. She would flood us with her rain. She
isn't satisfied with all the harm she has poured down
upon Boupari already. She wants to drown us."
And then a little knot drew up close to the line of
taboo itself, and began to discuss in loud and serious
tones a pressing question of savage theology and
religious practice.
" They have crossed the line within the three
days," some of the foremost warriors exclaimed in
excited voices. "They are no longer taboo. "We
can do as we please with them. We may cross the
line now ourselves if we will, and tear them to
A POINT OF THEOLOGY. 110
pieces. Come on ! Who follows ? Koronu ! Korong !
Let us rend them ! Let us eat them ! "
But though they spoke so bravely, they hung
back themselves, fearful of passing that mysterious
barrier. Others of the crowd answered them back
warmly, " No, no ; not so. Be careful what you do.
Anger not the gods. Don't ruin Boupari. If the
taboo is not indeed broken, then how dare we break
it ? They are gods. Fear their vengeance. They
are indeed terrible. See what happened to us when
they merely eat of the storm-apple ! What might
not happen if we were to break taboo without due
cause and kill them ? "
One old grey-bearded warrior in particular held
his countrymen back. " Mind how you trifle with
gods," the old chief said, in a tone of solemn warn-
ing. " Mind how you provoke them. They are
very mighty. When I was young, our people killed
three sailing gods who came ashore in a small canoe
built of thin split logs; and within a month an
awful earthquake devastated Boupari, and fire burst
forth from a mouth in the ground, and the people
knew that the spirits of the sailing gods were very
angry. Wait, therefore, till Tu-Kila-Kila himself
comes, and then ask of him, and of Fire and Water.
As Tu-Kila-Kila bids you, that do you do. Is he
not our great god, the King of us all, and the
guardian of the customs of the Island of Boupari ? "
" Is Tu-Kila-Kila coming ? " some of the warriors
asked, with bated breath.
" How^ should he not come ? " the old chief asked,
drawing himself up very erect. " Know you not the
120 THE QBE AT TABOO.
mysteries ? The rain lias put out all tlic fires in
Boupari. The Kincj of Fire himself, even his heartli
is cold. lie tried his hest in the storm to keep liis
sacred embers still smoulderini;' ; hut the Xing of
the llain was stronger than he was, and put it out at
last in spite of his endeavours, lie careful, tliere-
fore, how you deal with the King of the JJain, wlio
comes down among lightnings, and is so very
powerful."
" And Tu-Kila-Kila comes to fetcli fresh fire ? "
one of the nearest savages asked, with profound awe.
" He comes to fetch fresh fire, new fire from the
sun," the old man answered, with awe in his voice.
" Tliese foreign gods, are they not strangers from the
sun ? They have brought the divine seeds of fire,
growing in a shining box that reflects the sunlight.
They need no rubbing-sticks and no drill to kindle
fresh flame. They touch the seed on the box, and,
lo, like a miracle, fire bursts forth from the wood
spontaneous. Tu-Kila-Kila comes, to beliold this
miracle."
The warriors hung back with doubtful eyes for a
moment. Then they spoke witli one accord, " Tu-
Kila-Kila shall decide. Tu-Kila-Kila! Tu-Kila-
Kila ! If the great god says the taboo holds good,
we will not hurt nor offend the strangers. But if the
great god says the taboo is broken, and we are all
without sin — then, Korong ! Korong ! we will kill
them ! AVe will eat them ! "
As the two parties thus stood glaring at one
another, across that narrow imaginary wall, another
cry went up to heaven at the distant sound of a
AS BETWEEN GODS.
121
])cciiliar tom-tom. "Tu-Kila-Kila comes!" tlicy
shouted. "Our j^'rciit '^od ri])])roaclies ! WuiniMi,
bcgoiu' ! Men, liide your eyes! Fly, fly from the
])rightness of his face, which is aa the sun in glory I
Tu-Kila-Kila comes! Fly far, all prof.me ones !"
And in a moment, the women had disappeared
into space, and the men hiy Hat on the moist ground
with low groans of surprise, and hid their faces in
their hands in ahject terror.
CHAPTER XIII.
AS BETWEEN GODS.
Tu-KILA-KILA came up in his grandest panoply. The
great umbrella, with the hanging cords, rose high
over his head ; the King of Fire and the King of
Water, in their robes of state, marched slowly by his
side ; a whole group of slaves and tem[)le attendants,
clapping hands in unison, followed obedient at his
sacred heels. But as soon as he reached the open
space in front of the huts and began to speak, Felix
could easily see, in spite of his own agitation and
the excitement of the moment, that the implacable
god himself was profoundly frightened. Last night's
storm had indeed been terrible ; but Tu-Kila-Kila
mentally coupled it with Felix's attitude towards
himself at their last interview, and really believed
in his own heart he had met after all with a stronger
god, more powerful than himself, who could make
the clouds burst forth in fire and the earth tremble.
The savage swaggered a good deal, to be sure, as is
122 Till': a BEAT TABOO.
often the fa.sliiuii with saviai^es wlieii frightened; but
Felix coulil see between tlie lines, that he swaggered
only on the familiar principle of whistling to keep
your courage up, and that in his heart of hearts he
was most unspeakably terrified.
" You did not do well, uh King of the llain, last
night," he said, after an interchange of civilities, as
becomes great gods. "You have put out even the
sacred flame on the holy hearth of the King of Firo.
Y''ou have a l>ad heart. Why do you use us so ? "
" Why do you let your people offer human sacri-
fices ? " F'elix answered boldly, taking advantiige of
his position. " They are hateful in our sight, these
cannibal ways. While we remain on the island, no
human life shall be unjustly taken. Do you under-
stand me ? "
Tu-Kila-Kila drew back, and gazed around him
suspiciously. In all his experience no one had ever
dared to address him like that. Assuredly, the
stranger from the sun must be a very great god —
how great, he hardly dared to himself to realize. He
shrugged his shoulders. " When we mighty deities
of the first order speak together, face to face," he
said, with an uneasy air, " it is not well that the
mere common herd of men should overhear our pro-
found deliberations. Let us go inside your hut. Let
us confer in private."
They entered the hut, alone, Muriel still clinging
to Felix's arm, in speechless terror. Then Felix at
once began to explain the situation. As he spoke, a
baleful light gleamed in Tu-Kila-Kila's eye. The
great god removed his mulberry-paper mask. He
A8 BETWEEN GODS.
123
Wiis cviik'iiLly delighted at the turn tiling's luul taken.
It' only he dared — Ijut there; ho dared not. " I-'ire
and Water wouhl never allow it," he murmured
softly to himself. " They know the tal)oos as well
as I do." It was clear to Felix that tlie sava<fo
would gladly have sacriliced him if he dared, and
that he made no hones alxMit letting him know it ;
but the custom of the islanders bound him as tightly
as it bound themselves, and he was afraid to trans-
gress it.
"Now listen," Felix said, at last, after a long
palaver, looking in the savage's face with a resolute
jur : " Tu-Kila-Kila, we are not afraid of you. Wo
are not afraid of all your people. I wont out alone
just now to rescue that child, and, as you see, I
succeeded in rescuing it. Your people have wounded
mo — look at the blood on my arms and chest — but I
don't mind for wounds. I mean you to do as I say,
and to make your people do so too. Understand,
the nation to which I Ijelong is very powerful. You
have heard of the sailing gods who go over the sea in
canoes of fire, as swift as the wind, and whose
weapons are hollow tubes, that belch forth great
bolts of lightning and thunder? Very well, I am
one of them. If ever you harm a hair of our heads,
those sailing gods will before long send one of their
mighty fire-canoes, and bring to bear upon your
island their thunder and lightning, and destroy your
huts, and punish you for the wrong you have ventured
to do to us. So now you know. Eemember that
you act exactly as I tell you."
Tu-Kila-Kila was evidently overawed by the
124 THE GREAT TABOO.
white man's resolute voice and manner. He had
heard before of the sailing gods (as the Polynesians
of the old school still call the Europeans) ; and
though but one or two stray individuals among them
had ever reached his remote island (mostly as cast-
aways), he was quite well enough acquainted with
their might and power to be deeply impressed by
Felix's exhortation. So he tried to temporize.
** Very well," he made answer, with his jauntiest air,
assuming a tone of friendly good-fellowship towards
his brother-god. " I will bear it in mind. I will try
to humour you. While your time lasts, no man shall
hurt you. But if I promise you that, you must do a
good turn for me instead. You must come out liefore
the people and give me a new fire from the sun, that
you carry in a shining box about with you. The
King of Fire has allowed his sacred flame to go out
in deference to your flood ; for last night, you know,
you came down heavily. Never in my life have I
known you come down heavier. The King of Fire
acknowiedges himself beaten. So give us light now
before all the people, that they may know we are
gods, and may fear to disobey us."
" Only on one condition," Felix answered sternly ;
for he felt lie had Tu-Kila-Kila more or less in liis
power now, and that he could drive a bargain with
him. Why, he wasn't sure ; but he saw Tu-Kila-Kila
attached a profound importance to having the sacred
fire relighted, as he thought, direct from heaven.
" What condition is that ? " Tu-Kila-Kila asked,
glancing about him suspiciously.
" Why, that you give up in future human sacrifices."
AS liETWEEK CODS. 125
Tu-Kila-Kila gave a start. Then he reilected for
a moment. Evidently, the condition seemed to him
a very hard one. " Do you want all the victims for
yourself and her, then ? " he asked, with a casual nod
aside towards Muriel.
Felix drew back with horror depicted on every
line of his face. " Heaven forbid 1 " he answered
ferventlv. " AVe want no bloodshed, no human
victims. We ask you to give up these horrid
[)ractices, because they shock and revolt us. If you
would have your fire lighted, you must promise us
to put down cannibalism altogether henceforth in
your island."
Tu-Kila-Kila hesitated. After all, it was only for
a very short time that these strangers could thus
beard him. Their day would come soon. They
were but Korongs. Meanwhile, it was best, no
doubt, to effect a compromise. "Agreed," he
answered slowly. "I will put down Imman sacri-
fices — so lon<^- as vou live amonf^ us. And I will
tell the people your taboo is not broken. All shall
be done as you will in this matter. Now, come out
before the crowd and light the fire from Heaven."
*' Remember," Felix repeated, " if you break your
word, my people will come down upon you, sooner
or later, in their mighty fire-canoes, and will take
vengeance for your crime, and destroy you utterly."
Tu-Kila-Kila smiled a cunning smile. " I know
all that," he answered. " I am a god myself, not a
fool, don't you see ? You are a very great god, too ;
but I am the greater. No more of words between us
two. It is as between gods. The fire ! the fire ! "
120 THE GREAT TABOO.
Tu-Kila-Kila replaced his mask. They proceeded
from the hut to the open space witliin the taboo-line.
The people still lay all flat on their faces. " Fire
and Water," Tu-Kila-Kila said in a commanding
tone, " come forward and screen me ! "
The King of Fire and the King of "Water unrolled
a large square of native clotli, which they held up as
a screen on two poles in front of their superior deity.
Tu-Kila-Kila sat down on the ground, hugging his
knees, in the common squatting savage fashion,
l)elnnd the veil tlms readily formed for him. " TalxH)
is removed," lie said, in loud clear tones. " ]\Iy
people may rise. The light will not burn them.
They may look towards the place where Tu-Kila-
Kila's face is hidden from them."
Tlie people all rose with one accord, and gazed
straight before them.
" The King of Fire will bring dry sticks," Tu-Kila-
Kiha said, in his accustomed regal manner.
The King of Fire, sticking one pole of the screen
into the ground securely, brouglit forward a bundle
of sun-dried sticks and leaves from a basket beside
liim.
" The King of the llain, who has put out all our
liearths with his flood last night, will re-light them
again with new fire, fresh flame from the sun, rays of
our disk, divine, mystic, wonderful," Tu-Kila-Kila
proclaimed in his droning monotone.
Felix advanced as he spoke to the pile, and struck
a match before the eyes of all the islanders. As they
saw it light, and then set fire to the wood, a loud cry
went up once more, '' Tu-Kila-Kila is great ! His
AS BETWEEN GODS. 127
words are true ! He has brought fire from the sun !
His ways are wonderful ! "
Tu-Kila-Kila, from liis point of vantage behind
the curtain, strove to improve the occasion with a
tlieological lesson. " That is the way we have
learned from our divine ancestors," he said slowly ;
" the rule of the gods in our island of ])Oupari.
Eacli god, as he grows old, reincarnates himself
visibly. liefore he can grow feeble .ind die he
immolates himself willingly on his own altar ; and
a younger and a stronger than he receives his s])irit.
Thus tlie gods are always young and always with
you. Behold myself, Tu-Kila-Kila ! Am I not from
old times ? Am I not very ancient ? Have I not
passed through many bodies ? Do I not spring ever
fresh from my own ashes ? Do I not eat perpetually
the flesh of new victims ? Even so with fire. The
flames of our island were becoming impure. Tlie
Kin" of Fire saw his cinders flickerinij'. So I "ave
my word. The King of tlie Eain descended in floods
upon them. He put them all out. And now he
rekindles them. They l)urn up brighter and fresher
than ever. Thev burn to cook mv meat, the limbs
of my victims. Take heed that you do the King of
the Eain no harm as long as he remains within his
sacred circle. He is a very great god. He is fierce ; he
is cruel. His taboo is not broken. Beware ! Beware !
Disobey at your peril. I, Tu-Kila-Kila, have spoken."
As he spoke, it seemed to Felix that these strange
mystic words about each god springing fresh from
his own ashes must contain tlie solution of that
dread i)roblem they were trying in vain to read.
'~y.'- M»^*, -•TW)"'*^' »'*«r»»'"-^'"
128 THE GREAT TABOO.
That, perhaps, was the secret of Koroiig. If only
tliey could ever manage to understand it !
Tu-Kila-Kila beat his tom-tom twice. In a second
all the peo[>le fell flat on their faces again. Tu-Kila-
Kila rose ; the Kings of Fire and Water held the
umbrella over him. The attendants on either side
clapped hands in time to the sacred tom-tom. With
proud slow tread the god retraced his steps to his
own palace-temple ; and Muriel and Felix were left
alone at last in their dusty enclosure.
" Tu-Kila-Kila hates me," Felix said, later in the
day, to his attentive Shadow.
" Of course," the young man answered, with a tone
of natural assent. " To be sure he hates you. How
could he do otherwise ? You are Korong. You may
any day be his enemy."
" But he's afraid of me, too," Felix went on. " He
would have liked to let the people tear me in pieces.
Yet he dared not risk it. He seems to dread offend-
ing me."
" Of course," the Shadow replied, as readily as
before. ** He is very nnich afraid of you. You are
Korong. You may any day supplant him. He
would like to get rid of you, if he could see his way.
But till your time comes he dare not touch you."
" When w^ill my time come ? " Felix asked, with
that dim apprehension of some horrible end coming
over him vet again in all its vague weirdness.
The Shadow shook his head. " That," he answered,
" it is not lawful for me so much as to mention. I
tell you too far. You will know soon enough. Wait,
and be patient."
( 120 )
CHAPTER XIV.
"MR. THUESTAN, I PKESUME."
Naturally euougli, it was some time l)efore Felix
and Muriel could recover from the shock of their
deadly peril. Yet, strange to say, the natives at tlie
end of three days seemed positi\'ely to have forgotten
all about it. Their loves and th(3ir hates were as
short-lived as children's. As soon as the period of
seclusion was over, their attentions to the two
strangers redoubled in intensity. They were evi-
dently most anxious, after this brief disagreement*
to reassure the new gods, who came from the sun,
of their gratitude and devotion. The men who htid
wounded Felix, in particular, now came daily in the
morning with exceptional gifts of fish, fruit, and
flowers ; they would bring a crab from the sea, or a
joint of turtle-meat. " Forgive us, oh ! King," they
cried, prostrating themselves humbly. " We did not
mean to hurt you ; we thought your time had really
come. You are a Korong. AVe would not oil'end
you. Do not refuse us your showers because of our
sin. AVe are very penitent. AVe will do what you
ask of us. Your look is poison. See, here is wood j
here are leaves and fire; we are Init your meat;
choose and cook which you will of us 1 "
It was useless Felix's trying to explain to them
that he wanted no victims, and no propitiation. The
more he protested, the more they brought gifts.
"He is a very great god," they exclaimed. "He
K
130 THE OBEAT TABOO.
wants nothing from us. Wliat can we give liini that
will he an acceptable gift ? Shall we offer liim our-
selves, our wives, our children ? "
As for the women, when they saw how thoroughly
frightened of them Muriel now was, they couldn't
find means to express their regret and devotion.
Mothers brought their little children, whom she had
patted on the head, and offered them, just outside
the line, as presents for her acceptance. They ex-
plained to her Shadow that they never meant to
hurt her, and that, if only she would venture without
the line, as of old, all should be well, and they would
love, and adore her. j\Iali translated to her mistress
these speeches and prayers. "Them say, 'You come
back, (^ueenie,' " she explained in her broken Queens-
land English. '''Ijoupari women love you very much.
l)Oupari women glad you come. You kind ; you
beautiful! All lioupari man an<l woman very nuich
pleased w^ith you and the gentleman, because you
give back him coco-nut and fruit that you pick in
the storm, and Ijecause you bring down fresh fire
from heaven.' "
Gradually, after several days, Felix's confidence
was so far restored that he ventured to stroll beyond
the line again ; and he found himself, indeed, most
popular among the i)eople. In various ways he
picked up gradually the idea that the islanders
generally disliked Tu-Kila-Kila, and liked himself;
and that they somehow regarded him as Tu-Kila-
Kila's natural enemy. What it could all mean he
did not yet understand, though some inklings of an
explanation occasionally occurred to him. Oh, how
"il/7?. TIIURSTAN, I PRESUME.'' 131
he longed now for the Month of Lirds to end, in
order that he might pay his long-deferred ^•isit to
the mysterious Frenchman from whose voice his
Sliadow had fled on that foteful evenimx with sucli
sudden precipitancy. The Frenelunan, h^ judged,
must liave been long on the island, and could prolj-
ably give him some satisfactory solution of tins
abstruse problem.
So he was glad indeed wlien one evening some
weeks later liis Shadow, observing tlie sky narrowly,
remarked to him in a low voice, " New moon to-
morrow ! Tlie Montli of Uirds will tlien l)e up. In
the morning you can go and see your l)r(»ther god at
the Abode of lUrds witliout breaking taboo. Tlie
Month of Turtles begins at sunrise. My family god
is a turtle, so I know the day for it."
80 great M'as Felix's impatience to settle this
question, that almost before the sun was up next day
he had set forth from his hut, accompanied as usual
by his faithful Shadow. Their way lay past Tu-
Kila-Kila's temple. As they went by the entrance
with the bamboo posts, Felix happened to glance
aside through the gate to the sacred enclosure.
Farly as it was, Tu-Kila-Kila was afoot already ;
and, to Felix's great surprise, was pacing up and
down, with that stealthy, wary look upon his cun-
ning face that Muriel had so particularly noted on
the day of their first arrival. His spear stood in
his hand, and his tomahawk hung l)y his left side ;
he peered about him suspiciously, with a cautious
glance, as he walked round and round the sacred
tree he guarded so continually. There was some-
132 THE GREAT TABOO.
thing weird and awful in the sight of that savage
god, thus condemned by his own superstition and
the custom of his people to tramp ceaselessly up and
down before the sacred banyan.
At siglit of Felix, however, a sudden burst of
frenzy seemed to possess at once all Tu-Kila-Kila's
limbs. He brandished his spear violently, and set
himself spasmodically in a posture of defence. His
brow grew l)lack, and liis eyes darted out eternal
liate and suspicion. It was evident lie expected an
instant attack, and was prepared with all his might
and main to resist aggression. Yet he never offered
to desert his post by the tree, or to assume the
offensive. Clearly, he was guarding the sacred grove
itself with jealous care, and w^as as eager for its
safety as for his own life or honour.
Felix passed on, wondering what it all could mean,
and turned with an inquiring glance to his trembling
Sliadow. As for Toko, he had held his face averted
meanwhile, lest he should behold the great god, and
be scorched to a cinder; but in answer to Felix's
mute inquiry, he murmured low, "Was Tu-Kila-Kila
there ? Were all things right ? Was he on guard
at his post by the tree already ? "
"Yes," Felix replied, with that weird sense of
mystery creeping over him now more profoundly
than ever. " He was on guard by the tree, and he
looked at me angrily."
" Ah," the Shadow remarked, with a sigh of regret,
"lie keeps watch well. It will be hard work to
assail him. No god in Boupari ever held his place
so tight. Who wishes to take Tu-Kila-Kila's divinity
must get up early."
"il/7?. T/miiSTAN, I PliESUMEy 1^3
They went on in silence to the little volcanic
knoll near the centre of tlie island. There in the
neat garden plot they had observed before, a man in
the last relics of a very tattered European costume
much covered witli a sliort cape of native clotli, was
tending his flowers and singing to himself merrily.
His back was turned to them as tliey came up.
i^elix paused a moment unseen, and caught tlie
words the stranger was sin<Tino- :_
" Tres jolie,
Peu polie,
Possetlant uu gros magot ;
Fort en gneiile,
Pas begueule ;
Telle etait "
The Stranger looked up, and paused in the midst
of his lines, open-mouthed. For a moment he stood
and stared astonished. Then raising his native cap
with a graceful air, and bowing low, as he would
have bowed to a lady on the Boulevard, he advanced
to greet a brother European witli tlie familiar
words, in good educated French, '' Monsieur, I salute
you ! "
To Felix, the sound of a civilized voice, in the
midst of so much strange and primitive ' barbar-
ism, was like a sudden return to some forgotten
world, so deeply and profoundly did it move and
impress him. He grasped the sunburnt Frenchman's
rugged hand in his. " Who are you ? " he cried
111 the very best Parisian he could muster up on
the spur of the moment. "And how did you come
here ? "
i:U THE QUE AT TABOO.
"Monsieur," the Freiicliinaii answered, no less
profoundly moved tlian liiniself, " this is indeed
wonderful ! Do I liear once more that beautiful
language spoken ? Do I find myself once more in
the presence of a civilized person ? What fortune !
What happiness ! Ah, it is glorious, glorious."
For some seconds they stood and looked at one
another in silence, grasping their hands hard again
and again witli intense emotion ; then Felix repeated
liis question a second time : " Wlio are you, Monsieur ?
and where do you come from ? "
" Your name, surname, age, occupation ? " the
Frenchman repeated, hursting forth at last into
national levity. "Ah, Monsieur, what a joy to hear
those well-known inquiries in my ear once more. I
hasten to gratify your legitimate curiosity. Name :
Peyron ; Christian name : Jules ; age : forty-one ;
occupation : convict, escaped from New Caledonia."
Under any other circumstances that last qualifica-
tion might possibly have been held an undesirable
one in a new acquaintance. But on the island of
J)Oupari, among so many heathen cannil)als, pre-
judices pale before community of blood; even a
New Caledonian convict is at least a Christian
l^^uropean. Felix received the strange announce-
ment without the faintest shock of surprise or dis-
gust. He would glady have shaken hands then and
there with M. Jules Peyron, indeed, had he intro-
duced himself in even less equivocal language as a
forger, a pickpocket, or an escaped housebreaker.
" And you, Monsieur ? " the ex-convict inquired
politely.
^V/A Til UR STAN, I PliESUMEy ,.33
Felix tuld liiia ill a U\\y words f],o i,; .^ , .• , •
accident a„athoi.an.ivaliu:;;^:;i';'^''''>''''^''-
"Co„.,aentr' tl.e Frencl„„au oxclaiiucl will,
Kn 'lish la,l . w < ^ ^^ "' '"'■■" ; ••^ charming.
l.o„i,a„! Qnclleoha,i,e! Quel houhau- ! Monsieur
you are welcon>e, and Maden.oiselle to,,' Z l'
hat ,uaht, do you live here ? Vou are a ,
«ee, otherwise, yon would n„t have .larcM t,,
•an,,r.,.s my taboo, nor would tln'.s yonn. „
our Shadow r .uppo.e-,,ave ,^^^^
110 60. I.ut whieh sort of "od dvqv? t.'
Xi,].^?" ■■'""' I"''y- Korony:— or
"They call me Korono," Felix answered .,11
trenudous feeli,>, himself now on the verv l «
solving this pr.,found mvstery '
ox-dl'llin'"?"'"?'^,'."^ "•'^"■" "- ^'■'^"chman
exclaimed in a tone of dismay.
"■'^"J Mademoiselle as well," Felix replied "At
least, so I make out. We are both Korono- I have
many times heard the natives call us so " °'
His new acauaintance seized his hand with every
appearance of genuine alarm and regret. " My po r
fnend " he exclaimed, with a horrifie.l face " H,
ternble, terrible: Tu-Kila-Kila is a v«.y ™d
mn. What eau we do to save yourWe J
Mademoiselle',, - We are powerless' IWlI
I have only that much to say. I condole wM -^ i
I commiserate you ! " ^ '
"Why, what does Korong mean?" Felix aske.l
with blanched lips " Is if Thpn o .1 '
terrible ? " '" something so very
130 77//; OnfCAT 7AJW0.
"Tun-ihlcl All, terriblu!" tlio Fieiichmini answi^rcd,
lioldiiiL,' up liis liiinds in liorror and alarm. " 1 hardly
know how wo can avort your fate. Stop within my
poor hut, or under tlie shade of my Tree of Liberty
here, and I will tell you all the little I know about
it."
CHAriKU XV.
THE SECRET OF KOItONG.
'* You have lived here long ? " Felix asked with
tremulous interest, as he took a seat on the bench
under the big tree, towards which his new host
politely motioned liim. " You know the people well,
and all their superstitions ? "
" llelas, yes, Monsieur," the Frenchman answered
with a sigh of regret. " Eighteen years have I spent
altogether in this beast of a l^acitic ; nine as a con-
vict in New Caledonia, and nine more as a god here ;
and, believe me, I hardly know which is the harder
post. Yours is the first white face 1 have ever seen
since my arrival in tliis cursed island."
" And how did you come here ? " Felix asked half
breathless, for the very magnitude of the stake at
issue — no less a stake than Muriel's life — made him
hesitate to ^nit pointblank the question he had most
at heart for the moment.
"Monsieur," the Frenchman answered, trying to
cover his rags with his native cape, " that explains
itself easily. I was a medical student in Paris in
the days of the Commune. Ah ! that beloved Paris
— how far away it seems now from Boupari ! Like
rilE SECRET OF KOIiONO.
137
4
all nthfir students I was advanced — IJejmblicaii,
Socialist — what you will — a political enthusiast.
When the events took ]»lace — the events ftf '70 — I
espoused with all my heart the cause of the i)eoj)le.
You know the rest. The hour^^eoisie conquered. I
M'as taken red-handed, as the Versaillais said — my
pistol in my f^rasp — an open revolutionist. They
tried me by court-nuirtial — br'r'r — no dehiy — guilty,
M. le President — hard labour to perpetuity. They
sent me with that l)rave Louise Michel and so many
other good comrades of the cause to New Caledonia.
There, nine years of convict life was more than
enough for me. One day I found a canoe on the
shore — a little Kanaka canoe — you know the type —
a mere shiipeless dug-out. Hastily 1 loaded it with
food — yam, taro, bread-fruit — I pushed it off into the
sea — I embarked alone — I entrusted myself and all
my fortunes to the Bon Dieu and the wide racific.
The Bon Dieu did not wholly justify my confidence.
It is a way he has — that inscrutable one. Six weeks
I floated hither and thither before varying winds.
At last one evening I reached this island. I floated
ashore. And, enfijiy mc voild ! "
" Then you were a political prisoner only ? " Felix
said politely.
M. Jules Peyron drew himself up with nuich
dignity in his tattered costume. " Do I look like a
card-sharper, Monsieur ? " he asked simply, with
offended honour.
Felix hastened to reassure him of his perfect con-
fidence. " On the contrary, Monsieur," he said, " the
moment I heard you were a convict from New
138 THE QREAT TABOO.
Caledoiiiii, T felt certain in my heart you eonld be
notliin^ less than one of those unfortunate and
ill-treated Communards."
" Monsieur," the Frenchman said, seizing his hand
a second time, " I perceive that I have to do with a
man of honour and a man of feeling. Well, I landed
on this island, and they made me a god. From that
day to this I have been anxious only to shuffie off
my unwelcome divinity, and return as a mere man
to the shores of Europe. Better be a valet in Paris,
say I, tlian a deity of the best in Polynesia. It is a
monotonous existence liere — no society, no life — and
the cuimiG — bah, execrable ! But till the other day,
when your steamer passed, I have scarcely even
sighted a European ship. A boat came here once,
worse luck, to put off two girls (who didn't belong
to Boupari), returned indentured labourers from
(^),ueensland ; but, unhappily, it was during my taboo
— the IMonth of Birds, as my jailers call it — and
though I tried to go down to it or to make signals of
distress, the natives stood round my hut with their
spears in line, and prevented me by main force from
signalling to them or comnmnicating with them.
Even the other day, I never heard of your arrival
till a fortnight had elapsed, for I had been sick with
fever, the fever of the country, and as soon as my
Shadow told me of your advent it was my taboo
again, and I vvas obliged to defer for myself the
honour of calling upon my new acquaintances. I
am a god, of course, and can do what I like ; but
while my taboo is on, mafoi, Monsieur, I can hardly
all my life my own, I assure you."
THE SECRET OF KOltONQ. l.'.O
" But your taboo is up tu-day," Felix saiil, " so my
JSliadow tells me."
" Your Shadow is a very well-informed younj^^
man," M. Peyron answered with easy French spright-
liness. "As for my donkey of a valet, he never by
any chance knows or tells me anything. I had just
sent him out — the pig — to learn, if possible, your
nationality and name, and what hours you preferred,
as I proposed later in the day to pay my respects to
Mademoiselle your friend, if she would deign to
receive me."
" Miss Ellis would be charmed, I'm sure," Felix
replied, smiling in spite of himself at so much
Parisian courtliness under so ragged an exterior.
" It is a great pleasure to us to find we are not
really alone on this barbarous island. But you were
going to explain to me, I believe, the exact nature
of this peril in which we both stand — the precise
distinction between Korong and Tula."
"Alas, Monsieur," the Frenchman replied, draw-
ing circles in the dust with his stick with much
discomposure, "I can only tell you I have l)een
trying to make out the secret of tliis distinction
myself ever since the first day I came to the island ;
l)ut so reticent are all the natives about it, and so
deep is the taboo by which the mystery is guarded,
that even now I, who am myself Tula, can tell you
but very little with certainty on the sul)ject. All I
can say for sure is this — that gods called Tula retain
their godship in permanency for a very long time,
although at the end some violent fate, which I do
not clearly understand, is destined to befall them.
140 THE GREAT TABOO.
That is my condition as King of tlie Birds — for no
doubt they have told you that I, Jules I'eyron —
Eepublican, Socialist, Communist — have been
elevated against my will to the honours of royalty.
That is my condition, and it matters but little to me,
for I know not when the end may come ; and we can
but die once ; how or where, what matters ? Mean-
while, I have my distractions, my little agremcnts —
my gardens, my music, my birds, my native friends,
my coquetteries, my aviary. As King of the Birds,
I keep a small collection of my subjects in the living
form, not unworthy of a scientific eye. Monsieur is
not ornithologist ? Ah, no, I thought not. Well,
for me, it matters little ; my time is long. But for
you and Mademoiselle, who are both Korong ! "
He paused significantly.
" What happens, then, to those who are Korong ? "
Felix asked, with a lump in his throat — not for
liimself, but for Muriel.
The Frenchman looked at him with a doubtful
look. " Monsieur," he said, after a pause, " I hardly
know how to break the truth to you properly. You
are new to the island, and do not yet understand
these savages. It is so terrible a fate. So deadly.
So certain. Compose your mind to hear the worst.
And remember that the worst is very terrible."
Felix's blood froze within him ; but he answered
bravely all the same, "I think I have guessed it
myself already. The Korong are offered as luiman
sacrifices to Tu-Kila-Kila."
" That is nearly so," liis new friend replied, with a
solemn nod of his head. " Every Korong is bound
THE SECRET OF KOIiONG. 141
to die, wlien his time comes. Your time will depend
on the particular date when you were admitted to
Heaven."
Felix reflected a moment. " It was on the 26th
of last month," he answered, shortly.
" Very mtU," M. Peyron replied, after a brief calcu-
lation. " You have just six months in all to live from
that date. They will offer you up by Tu-Kila-Kila's
hut the day the sun reaches the summer solstice."
" But why did they make us gods then ? " Felix
interposed, with trenmlous lips. "Why treat us
with such honours meanwhile, if they mean in the
end to kill us ? "
He received his sentence of death with greater
calmness than tlie Frenchman had expected.
" Monsieur," the older arrival answered, with a
reflective air, " there comes in the mystery. If we
could solve that, we could find out also the way of
escape for you. For there is a way of escape for
every Korong : I know it well ; I gather it from all
the native J say: it is a part of their mysteries; but
what it may be, I have hitherto, in spite of all my
efforts, failed to discover. All I do know is this :
Tu-Kila-Kila hates and dreads in his heart every
Korong that is elevated to Heaven, and would do
anything, if he dared, to get rid of him quietly, ihit
he doesn't dare, because he is bound hand and foot,
himself, too, by taboos innumerable. Taboo is the
real god and king of Boupari. All the island alike
bows down to it and worshij)S it."
" Have you ever known Korongs killed ? " Felix
asked once more, trembling.
142 THE OBEAT TABOO.
" Yes, Monsieur. Many of them, alas ! And this
is what happens. When the Korong's time is come,
as these creatures say, either on the summer or winter
solstice, he is bound witli native ropes, and carried
up so pinioned to Tu-Kila-Kila's temple. In the
time before this man was Tu-Kila-Kila, I re-
member "
" Stop," Felix cried. " I don't understand. Has
there then been more than one Tu-Kila-Kila ? "
"Why, yes," the Frenchman answered. " Certainly,
many. And there the mystery comes in again. We
have always amongst us one Tu-Kila-Kila or another.
He is a sort of Pope, or Grand Lama, voyez vous ?
No sooner is the last god dead tlian another god
succeeds him and takes his name, or rather his titk'.
This young man who now holds tlie place was known
originally as Lavita, the son of Sami. But wliat is
more curious still, the islanders always treat the new-
god as if he were precisely the self-same person as
the old one. So far as I have been a])le to under-
stand their theology, they believe in a sort of trans-
nngration of souls. The soul of the Tu-Kila-Kila
who is just dead passes into and animates the body
of the Tu-Kila-Kila who succeeds to the office. Thus
they speak as though Tu-Kila-Kila were a con-
tinuous existence : and the god of the moment, him-
self, will even often refer to events which occurred to
him, as he says, a hundred years ago or more, but
which he really knows, of course, only by the persis-
tent tradition of the islanders. They are a curious
people, these ]3ouparese. But what would youliave ?
Among savages, one expects things to be as among
savages."
THE SECRET OF KORONQ. lia
Felix drew a quiet sigh. It was certain tliat on
the island of Boupari that expectation, at least, was
never doomed to be disappointed. " And wlien a
Korong is taken to Tu-Kila-Kila's temple," lie asked,
continuing the subject of most immediate interest,
" wliat happens next to him ? "
" Monsieur," the Frenchman answered, " I hardly
know whether I do right or not, to say the truth to
you. Each Korong is a god for one season only :
when the year renews itself, as the savages believe,
by a change of season, then a new Korong must be
chosen by Heaven to fill the place of the old ones
who are to be sacrificed. This tloy do in order that
the seasons may be ever fresh and vigorous.
Especially is that the case with the two meteoro-
logical gods, so to speak, the King of the luiin and
the (.^hieen of the Clouds. Those, I understand, are
the posts in their pantheon which you and the lady
who accompanies you occupy."
" You are right," Felix answered, with profoundly
painful interest. "And what then becomes of the
King and the Queen who are sacrificed ? "
" I will tell you," M. Feyron answered, dropping
his voice still lower into a. sympathetic key. " Jhit
steel your mind for the worst beforehand. It is
sufficiently terrible. On the day of your arrival,
this, I learn from my Shadow, is just what happened.
That night, Tu-Kila-Kila made his great feast, and
offered up the two chief human sacrifices of the year,
the free-will offering, and the scapegoat of trespass.
They keep then a festival, which answers to our own
New Year's day in Europe. Xext morning, in
Hi THE GREAT TABOO.
accordance with custom, the King of tlie Eain, and
the Queen of the Clouds were to be publicly slain, in
order that a new and more vigorous King and Queen
should be chosen in tlieir place, who might make the
crops grow better, and the sky more clement. In
the midst of this horrid ceremony, you and Made-
moiselle by pure cliance arrived. You were im-
mediately selected l)y Tu-Kila-Kila, for some reason
of his own, which I do not sufficiently understand,
but which is nevertheless obvious to all the initiated,
as the next representatives of the rain-giving gods.
You were presented to Heaven on their little plat-
form raised above the ground, and Heaven accepted
you. Then you were envisaged with the attributes
of divinity ; the care of the rain and the clouds was
made over to you ; and immediately after, as soon as
you were gone, the old King and Queen were laid on
an altar near Tu-Kila-Kila's home, and slain with
tomahawks. Then- flesh was next hacked from their
bodies with knives, cooked, and eaten; their bones
were thrown into the sea, the mother of all waters,
as the natives call it. And that is the fate, I fear the
inevitable fate, that will befall you and Mademoiselle
at the^6 wretches' hands about the commencement
of a fresh season."
Felix knew the worst now, and bent his head in
silence. His worst fears were confirmed ; but after
all, even this knowledge was better than so much
uncertainty.
And now that he knew when " his time was up,"
as the natives phrased it, he would know when to
redeem his promise to Muriel.
C 1 1.-. )
CHAPTEK XVI.
A VERY FAINT CLUE.
" But you hinted at some hope, some chance of
escape," Felix cried at hist, looking np from the
f;i'ound and mastering his emotion. "Wliat now is
tliat h(j[»e ? Conceal nothing from me."
" iMonsieur," the Frenchman answered, slirnu'-inu'
liis shoulders with an expression of utter impotence,
" I have as good reasons for wishing to iind out all
tluit as even you can have. Your secret is mi/ secret ;
l)ut witii all my pains and astuteness, I liave been
unable to discover it. The natives are reticent, very
reticent indeed, about all tliese matters. Tliey fear
taboo ; and they fear Tu-Kila-Kila. 'J'he women, to
be sure, in a moment of expansion, might possibly
tell one; but then, the women, unfortunately, are
not admitted to the mysteries. They knuw no more
of all these things than we do. The most I have
been able to gather for certain is this — that on the
discovery of the secret depend Tu-Kila-Kila's life
and power. Every Boupari man knows this Great
Taboo ; it is communicated to him in the assembly
of adults when he gets tattooed and reaches man-
hood. But no Boupari man ever communicates it to
strangers ; and for that reason, perhaps, as I believe,
Tu-Kila-Kila often chooses for Korong as far as
possible those persons who are cast by chance upon
the island. It has always been the custom, so far as
I can make out, to treat castaways or prisoners taken
110 THE GliEAT TABOO.
in war as gods, and then at the end of their term to
kill them ruthlessly. This plan is popular with the
people at large, because it saves themselves from the
dangerous honours of deification ; but it also serves
Tu-Kila-Kila's purpose, because it usually elevates
to Heaven those innocent persons who are un-
acquainted with that fatal secret which is, as the
natives sav, Tu-Kila-Kila's death — his word of
disnussal."
"Then if only we could find out this secret "
Felix cried.
His new friend interrupted him. " What hope is
there of your finding it out, Monsieur," he exclaimed,
" — you, who have only a few months to live — when
1, who have spent nine long years of exile on the
island, and seen two Tu-Kila-Kilas rise and fall, have
been unable with my utmost pains to discover it ?
Toicz ; you have no idea yet of the superstitions of
these people, or the difficulties that lie in the way of
tathoming them. Come this way to my aviary ; I
will show you something that will help you to realize
the complexities of the situation."
He rose and led the way to another cleared space
at the back of the hut, where several birds of gaudy
plumage were fastened to perches on sticks by
leathery leashes of dried shark's skin tied just above
their talons. "I am the King of the Birds, Mon-
sieur, you must remember," the Frenchman said,
fondling ^one of his screaming lovoteges. " These are
a few of my subjects. But I do not keep them for
mere curiosity. Each of them is the Soul of the
tribe to which it belongs. This, for example, — my
A VERT FAINT CLUE. 117
Cluseret — is the Soul of all the grey parrots ; that
that you see yonder — Badinguet, I call him — is the
Soul of the hawks ; this, my Mimi, is the Soul of the
little yellow-crested kingfisher. My task as King of
the Birds is to keep a representative of each of these
ahvays on hand ; in which endeavour I am faithfully
aided by the wliole population of the island, who bring
me eggs and nests and young birds in abundance. If
the Soul of the little yellow kingfisher now were to
die, without a successor being found ready at once
to receive and embody it, then the whole race of
little yellow kingfishers would vanish altogether ;
and if I myself, tlie King of the Birds, who am, as it
were, the Soul and life of all of tliem, were to die
without a successor being at hand to receive my
spirit, then all the race of birds with one accord
would become extinct forthwith and for ever."
He moved among his pets easily, like a king
among his subjects. Most of them seemed to know
him and love his presence. Presently, he came to
one very old parrot, quite different from any Felix
had ever seen on any trees in the island ; it was a
parrot with a black crest and a red mark on its
throat, half-blind with age, and tottering on its
l)edestal. This solemn old bird sat apart from all
the others, nodding its head oracularly in the
sunlight, and blinking now and again with its white
eyelids in a curious senile fashion.
The Frenchman turned to Felix with an air of
profound mystery. " This bird," he said solemnly,
stroking its head with his hand, while the parrot
turned round to him and bit at his finger with half-
148 THE QliEAT TABOO.
doddering tillectiun, " this bird is the oldest of all my
birds — is it not so, Methuselah ? — and illustrates
well in one of its aspects the superstition of these
people. Yes, my friend, you are the last of a kind
now otherwise extinct, are you not, mon vicux ? No,
no, there — gently 1 Once upon a time, the natives
tell me, dozens of these parrots existed in the island ;
they Hocked among the trees, and were held very
sacred; but they were hard to catch, and difficult to
keep, and tlie Kings of the Birds, my predecessors,
failed to secure an heir and coadjutor to this one.
So as the Soul of the species, which you see here
Ijefore you, grew old and feeble, the whole of the race
to which it belonged grew old and feeble with it.
One l)y one they withered away and died, till at last
lliis solitary specimen alone remained to vouch for
tlie former existence of the race in the island. Now,
the islanders say, nothing but tlie Soul itself is left ;
and when the Soul dies, the red-throated parrots will
be gone for ever. One of my predecessors paid with
his life in awful tortures for his remissness in not
providing for the succession to the soulship. I tell
you these things in order that you may see whether
they cast any light for you upon your own position ;
and also because the oldest and wisest natives say
that this parrot alone among beasts, or birds, or
uninitiated things, knows the secret on which depends
the life of the Tu-Kila-Kila for the time being."
" Can the parrot speak ? " Felix asked, with pro-
found emotion.
" Monsieur, he can speak, and he speaks frequently.
But not one word of all he says is comprehensible
A VEliY rAIXT CLUE. IIU
fitliui to iiu' (jr tn any otliur living' huing. lli.s
toii^iio is that of a tbrL^otten nation. TIu; islanders
understand him no more than I do. He lias a very
lon^H' sermon or ])oem, whicli lie knows hy heart, in
some unknown lan.L,niage, and he repeats it often at
full len<;th from time to time, especially when he has
eaten well, and feels full and hapjiy. Tlie oldest
natives tell a romantic legend about tliis strani^e
recitation of tlie good jNIethuselah — I call him
]\Iethuselali l)ecausc of his great ag(; — but I do not
really know whether their tale is true or purely
fanciful. You never can trust these Polynesian
traditions ! "
"What is the legend ?" Felix asked with intense
interest. " In an island where we find ourselves so
girt round by inystery within mystery and taboo
within taboo as this, every key is worth trying. It
is well for us at least to learn everything we can
about the ideas of the natives. Who knows what
clue may supply us at last with the missing link
which will enable us to break tlirough this intolerable
servitude ? "
" Well, the story they tell is this," the Frenchman
replied, " though I have gathered it only a hint at a
time from very old men, who declared at the same
moment that some religious fear — of which they have
many — prevented them from telling me any further
about it. It seems that a long time ago — how many
years ago nobody knows (only that it was in the
time of the thirty-ninth Tu-Xila-Kila, before the
reign of Lavita, the son of Sami) — a strange Korong
was cast up upon this island by the waves of the sea,
150 THE ORE AT TABOO.
much as you and I liave been in the present genera-
tion. By accident, says the story, or else, as others
aver, througli the indiscretion of a native woman
who fell in love with him, and wlio worried the
taboo out of her husband, the strai.ger became
acquainted with the secret of Tu-Kila-K:la. As the
natives themselves put it, he learnt the Death of the
High (rod, and where in the world his Soul was
hidden. Thereupon, in some mysterious way or
other, he became Tu-Kihi-Kila liimself, and ruled as
High God fur ten years or more here on tliis island.
Now up to that time, the legend goes on, none but
the men of the island knew the secret ; they learnt it
as soon as they were initiated in the great mysteries
which occur before a boy is given a spear and
admitted to the rank of complete manhood. But
sometimes a woman was told the secret wrongfully
by lier husband or her lover ; and one such woman
apparently, told the strange Korong, and so enabled
him to become Tu-Kila-Kila."
" But where does the parrot come in ? " Felix
asked, with still profounder excitement than ever.
Something within him seemed to tell him instinc-
tively he was now within touch of the special key
that must sooner or later unlock the mystery.
" Well," the Frenchman went on, still stroking the
parrot affectionately with his hand, and smoothing
down the feathers on its ruflied back, " the strange
Tu-Kila-Kila who thus ruled in the island, thousli
he learned to speak Polynesian well, had a language
of his own, a language of the birds, which no man on
earth could ever talk with liim. So, to beguile his
i
A VERY FAINT CLVK. Vd
time and to hav(; some one who oould converse
with liim in liis native dialect, lie tani^dit this ])niTot
to speak his own tonL,nie, and spent most of Ids days
in talkimj with it and fondlinif it. At last, after lie
had instrncted it l)y slow de'^rees liow to rept'at this
long sermon or poem — wliicli I have often heard it
reeite in a sing-song voice from l»(\t,dnning to end —
his time came, as tliey say, and lie had to give way
to another Tii-Kila-Kila ; for the Bou])arese have a
l^'overl) like our own ahout the king, ' The High (iod
is dead; may tlie High (iod live for ever!' Ihit
hefore he gave up his soul to his successor, and was
eaten or huried, whichever is the custom, he handed
over his pet to the King of the lUrds, strictly
charging all future bearers of that divine office to
care for the parrot as they would care for a son or a
daughter. And so tlie natives make much of the
j»arrot to tlie present day, saying he is greater than
any, save a Korong or a god, for he is the S(jul of a
dead race, summing it up in himself, and he knows
the secret of the Death of Tu-Kila-Kihi."
" But you can't tell me what language he speaks ^"
Felix asked, with a despairing gesture. It was
terrible to stand thus within measundjle distance of
the secret which might, perhaps, save ^Muriel's life,
and yet be perpetually baulked by wheel within
wheel of more than Egyptian mystery.
" Who can say ? " the Frenchman answered,
shrugging his shoulders helplessly. " It isn't I*oly-
nesian; that I know well, for I speak Bouparese now
like a native of Boupari ; and it isn't the only other
language spoken at the present day in the South Seas
152 THE GREAT TABOO.
— tlieMcluiicsiau of Ne^v Caludonia — I'or lliat 1 luariil
ML'll from tliG Kanakas Avliile 1 wjis sorvinu; inv tiino
as u convict aiuon'^^ them. All we can sav for certain
is tliat it may pcrliaps be some very ancient tongue.
For ])arrots, we know, arc immensely lon^-lived.
Some of them, it is said, exceed tlieir century. Is ii
not so, eh, my friend ^lethuselah ? "
("TIArTER xvir.
FAflNG THE WORST.
MuKiEL meanwliile sat alone in lier hut, Iriujhtened
at Felix's unexpected disappearance so early in tlio
morning, and anxiously awaiting her lover's return,
f<n' she made no pretences now to herself that she did
not really love Felix. Tliougli they two nnglit never
return to Kuro})e to be husband and wife, she did not
(h)ubt that ))efore the eye of Heaven tliey wen;
already betrothed to one anotlier as trulv as thouiih
they ]iad plighted tlieir troth in solemn fashion. Felix
had risked liis life for her, and had brouglit all this
misery upon himself in the attempt to save her.
Felix was now all the world that was left her. AVith
Felix, she was happy, even on this liorrible island ;
without him, she was miserable and terrified, no
matter what happened.
" Mali," she cried to her faitliful attendant, as soon
as she found Felix was missing from his tent,
" what's become of Mr. Thurstan ? Where can he be
gone I wonder this morning ? '
FACING THE WOIiSll ir,;^,
'• Ydii no ll'iir, Missy Quoenio," Mali answerod,
witli the cliildisli confidciirc of the native Polynesian.
" Mistali Thurstan, him <fone to sec nian-a-oui-oni,
tlic Kin<4' of the Birds. ^Montli of r»irds finish last
night; man-a-oni-oui no taho ) any longer. King of
the lUrds keep very old parrot, l)on])ari folk tell me :
and old parrot very wise, know how to make Tn-
Kila-Kila. Mistah Tlnirstan, him cjone to lind man-
a-oiii-oni. Parrot tell him plenty wise thing. Parrot
wiser than Bonpari peo])le ; know very good medicine ;
wise like Queensland ladv and gentleman." And
j\Iali set herself vigorously to work to wash the
wooden platter on whieli she served np her mistress's
yam for breakfast.
It was curious to ]\Iuriel to see how readily Mali
had slipped from savagery to civilization in Queens-
land, and how easily she had slip]ied l>ack again IVom
civilization to savagery in Bou})ari. In waiting on
her mistress she was just the ordinary trained native
Australian servant; in every otlier respect slie was
the simple unadulterated heathen Polynesian. She
recognized in IMuriel a white lady of the English sort,
and treated her within tlie hut as white ladies were
invariably treated in (^lueensland ; but she considered
that at Boupari one nmst do as Boupari does, and it
never for a moment occurred to her simple mind to
doubt the omnipotence of Tu-Kila-Kila in his island
realm any more than she had doubted the omni])o-
tence of the white man and his local religion in their
proper place (as she thought it) in Queensland.
An hour or two passed liefore Felix returned. At
last he arrived, very white and pale, and IMuriel saM'
154 THE GREAT TABOO.
at once by the mere look on liis face that he had
learned some terrible njws at the Frenchman's.
" Well, you found him ? " she cried, taking his
hand in hers, but hardly daring to ask the fatal
question at once.
And Felix, sitting down, as pale as a ghost,
answered faintly, " Yes, Muriel, I found him ! "
" And he told you everything ? "
" Everything he knew, my poor child. Oh, Muriel,
Muriel, don't ask me what it is. It's too terrible to
tell you."
Muriel clasped her white hands together, held
bloodless downwards, and looked at him fixedly.
"Mali, you can go," she said. And the Shadow,
rising up with childish confidence, glided from the
hut, and left them, for the first time since their
arrival on the central island, alone together.
Muriel looked at him once more with the same
deadly fixed look. "AVith you, Felix," she said
slowly, " I can bear or dare anything. I feel as if
the bitterness of death were past long ago. I know
it must come. I only want to be quite sure when.
. . . And besides, you must remember, I have your
promise."
Felix clasped his own hands despondently in
return, and gazed across at her from his seat a few
feet off in unspeakable misery.
"Muriel," he cried, "I couldn't. I haven't the
heart. I daren't."
Muriel rose and laid her hand solemnly on his arm.
** You will ! " she answered boldly. " You can ! You
must ! I know I can trust your promise for tliat.
I
FACING THE WOJRST. 155
This moment, if you like. I would not shrink But
you will never let me fall alive into the hands of
these wretches. Felix, from 7/oiir hand I could stand
anything. I'm not afraid to die. I love you too
dearly."
Felix held her white little wrist in his -rasp and
sobbed like a cliild. Her very bravery and confidence
seemed to unman him utterlv.
She looked at him once more. " When ? " she
asked quietly, but with lips as pale as death.
" In about four months from now," Felix answered
endeavouring to be calm.
" And they will kill us both?"
" Yes, both. I think so."
" Together ? "
" Together."
Muriel drew a deep sigh.
''Will you know tlie day beforeliand ? " .slio
asked.
"Yes. The Frenchman toLl me it. He has
known others killed in the selfsame fashion."
'' Then, Felix-the night before it comes, you will
promise me, will you ? "
"Muriel, Muriel, I could never dare to kill you "
She laid her hand sootliingly on his. She stroked
him gently. '' You are a man," she said, lookin. ui)
mo his eyes with confidence. " I trust vou" I
believe in you. I know you will never let these
savages hurt me. . . . Felix, in spite of everythimr
I ve been happier since we came to this island
together tlian ever I have been in my life before.
I ve had my wish. ] didn't want to miss in life the
150 THE GREAT TABOO.
one tliin<>' that life lias l)est woitli "ivinu". I. liavcn't
missed it now. I know I liaven't; for 1 love you,
and you love nie. After that, I ran die, juid die
gladly. If I die with you, that's all I ask. These
seven or eight terrible weeks have made me feel
somehow unnaturally ealm. AVhen I came here
first I lived all the time in an agony of terror. I've
got over the agony of terror now. I'm quite resigned
and happy. All I a?k is to be saved — by you — from
the cruel hands of these hateful cannibals."
Felix raised her Avliite hand just once to his lips.
It was the first time he had ever ventured to kiss
her. He kissed it fervently. She let it drop as if
dead by her side. "Now tell me all that happened,"
she said. " I'm strong' enou'Tli to bear it. I feel
such a woman now — so wise and calm. These few
weeks have made nie grow from a girl into a woman
all at once. There's nothing I daren't hear, if you'll
tell me it, Felix."
Felix took up her hand again and held it in his,
as he narrated the whole story of his visit to the
Frenchman. AVhen Muriel had heard it, she said
once more slowly, " I don't think there's any hope
in all these wild plans of playing ofi' superstition
against superstition. To my mind there are only
two chances left for us now. One is to concoct with
the Frenchman some means of getting away by
canoe from the island — I'd rather trust the sea than
the tender mercy of these dreadful people ; the other
is to keep a closer look-out than ever for the merest
chaiice of a passing steamer."
Felix drew a deep sigh. " I'm afraid neither's
TU-KILA-KILA PLAYS A CAltD. i:>7
luucli use," lie said. "If we tried to get away,
dogged as we are, day and night, by our Shadows,
the natives would follow us with their war-canoes
in battle array and hack us to pieces ; for Peyron
says tliat, regarding us as gods, they think tlie rain
would vanish from their island for ever, if once they
allowed us to get away alive and carry the luck witli
us. And as to tlic steamers, we haven't seen a trace
of one since we left the AuHlnda^iaii. l*robably it
was only by the purest accident that even she ever
came so close in to Boupari."
"At any rate," j\Iuriel cried, still clas2)ing his hand
tight, and letting the tears now trickle slowly down
her pale white cheeks, '* we can talk it all over some
day with ]\I. Peyron."
'• AVe can talk it over to-day," Felix answered, " if
it comes to that ; for Peyron means to step round,
he says, a little later in the afternoon, to pay his
respects to the first white lady he has ever seen since
he left New Caledonia."
("ITAPTEP XV IIP
Tl-KILA-KIL.V TLAVS A CARD.
Before the Frenchman could carry out his ])lan,
however, he was himself the recipient of the iiigh
honour of a visit from his superior god and chief, Tu-
Kila-Kila.
Every day and all day long, save on a few rare
occasions when special duties absolved him, the
custom and religion of the islanders prescribed that
I
]58 THE GREAT TABOO,
their supreme incarnate deity should keep watch and
ward without cessation over the great spreading
banyan-tree tliat overshadowed with its dark boughs
his temple-palace. High god as he was held to be,
and all-powerful within the limits of his own strict
taboos, Tu-Kila-Kila was yet as rigidly ])ound within
tliose iron laws of custom and religious usage as the
meanest and poorest of his subject worshippers.
From sunrise to sunset, and far on into the night,
the I'illar of Heaven was compelled to prowl up and
ijwn, with spear in hand and tomahawk at side, as
Felix had so often seen him, before the sacred trunk
of whicli he appeared to be in some mysterious way
the appointed guardian. His very power, it seemed,
was intimately bound up with the performance of
that ceaseless and irksome duty : he was a god, in
whose hands the lives of his people were but as dust
in the ])alance ; ])ut he remained so only on the
onerous condition of pacing to and fro like a sentry
for ever before the still more holy and venerable
object he was cliosen to protect from attack or injury.
Had he failed in his task, had he slumbered at his
post, all god though he might be, his people them-
selves would have risen in a body and torn him
limb from limb before their ancestral fetish as a
sacrilegious pretender.
At certain times and seasons, however, as for
example at all high feasts and festivals, Tu-Kila-Kila
had respite for awhile from this constant treadmill of
mechanical divinity. Whenever the moon was at
the half-quarter, or the planets were in lucky con-
junctions, or a red glow lit up the sky by night, or
TU-KILA'KILA PLAYS A CAIiD. 151)
the sacred sacrificial fires of liuinan llesli were lighted,
then Tu-Kila-Kila could lay aside his tomaliawk and
spear, and hecome for a while as the islanders, Ins
fellows, were. At other times, too, when he went
out in state to visit the lesser deities of his court, the
King of Fire and the King of Water made a solemn
taboo before he left his liome, wliich ])rotected the
sacred tree from afTirression duriii'^ its {guardian's
absence. Then Tu-Kila-Kila, shaded by his (Uvine
umljrella, and preceded by the noise of the holy tom-
toms, could go like a monarcli over all parts of his
realm, giving sucli orders as he pleased (within the
limits of custom) to his inferior othcers. It was in
this way that he now paid his visit to M. Jules
Peyron, King of the Binls. And he ditl so for what
to him w'ere amply sufficient reasons.
It had not escaped Tu-Kila-Kila's keen eye, as lie
paced among the skeletons in his yard that morning,
that Felix Thurstan, the King of the Eain, had taken
his way openly towards the Frenchman's quarters.
. He felt pretty sure, therefore, that Felix had by this
time learned another white man was living on the
island ; and he thought it an ominous fact that the
new-comer should make his way towards his fellow
European's hut on tlie very first morning when the
law of taboo rendered sucli a visit possible. The
savage is always by nature suspicious ; and Tu-Kila-
Kila had grounds enough of his own for suspicion in
this particular instance. The two white men were
surely brewing mischief together for the Lord of
Heaven and Earth, the Illumiiier of the Glowinfr
Light of the Sun ; he must make haste and see wliat
I
KiO THE QHEAT 'lABOO.
pliiii lliut tlioy were concocting against the sacred
tree and tlie person of its representative, the King of
Plants and of the Host of Heaven.
But it isn't so easy to make haste when all your
movements are impeded and hampered by endless
taboos and a minutely annoying ritual. Before Tu-
Kila-lvila could get himself under way, sacred um-
brella, tom-toms, and all, it was necessary for the
Kinu' of Fire and the Kinfj of AVater to make taboo
(in an elaborate scale with their ivspective elements ;
and so by the time the high god had reached M. Jules
I'eyron's garden, I'elix Thurstan had already some
time since returned to JMuriel's hut and Ids own
(|uarters.
Tu-Kila-Kila approached the King of the liirds,
amid loud clapping of hands, with consideral)le
haughtiness. To say the truth, there was no love
lost between the cannibal god and his European
subordinate. The savage, puffed up as he was in his
own conceit, had nevertheless always an uncomfort-
able sense that in his heart of hearts the impassive
Frenchman had but a low opinion of him. 80 ho
invaria1)ly tried to make up l»y the solemnity of his
manner and the loudness of his assertions for any
trilling scepticism that might possibly exist in the
mind of his follower.
On this particular occasion, as he reached the
Frenchman's plot, Tu-Kila-Kila stepped forward
across the white taboo line with a suspicious and
peering eye. '• The King of the Bain had been here,"
he said, in a pompous tone, as the Frenchman rose
and saluted him ceremoniouslv. " Tu-Kila-Kila's
TU-KILA'KILA PLAYS A GAUD. IGl
eyes arc sharp. They never sk'ep. The sun is his
sin-lit. He beliohls all things. You cannot hide
aught in heaven or earth from the knowled^^e of him
that dwells in heaven. I h)ok down upon land and
sea, and spy out all that takes place or is planned in
them. I am very holy and very cruel. I see all
earth and I drink the blood of all men. The Kim;
of the Rain has come this mornin*; to visit the Kinj,'
of the Birds. Where is he now ? What has your
divinity done with him ? "
He spoke from under the sheltering:,' cover of his
veiled uml)rella. The Frenchman looked hack at
him with as little love as Tu-Kila-Kila himself
would have displayed had his flice been vi8il)le.
*• Y'es, you are a very great god," he answered, in the
conventional tone of Polynesian adulation, with just
a faint undercurrent of ironv runniuLT throu<di his
accent as he spoke. " You say the truth. You do,
indeed, know all things. What need for me, then, to
tell you, whose eye is the sun, tliat my brother, the
King of the liain, has l)een here and gone again ?
You know it yourself. Your eye has looked upon it.
\ My brother was indeed with me. He consulted me
i as to the showers I shoidd need from his clouds for
'I the birds my subjects."
" And where is he gone now ? " Tu-Kila-Kila
asked, without attempting to conceal the dis[)leasure
in liis tone, for he more than half suspected the
Frenchman of a sacrilegious and monstrous design of
chaffing him.
The King of the Birds bowed low once more.
" Tu-Kila-Kila's glance is keener than my hawk's,"
M
102 THE GREAT TABOO.
he answered, with tlie accustomed Polynesian imagery.
" He sees over tlie land witli a glance like my
l)arrots, and over the sea witli sharp sight like my
allmtrosses. He knows where my l)r()ther the King
of the llain has gone. For me, who am the least
among all tlie gods, I sit here on my perch and blink
like a crow. 1 do not know these things. Thev are
too high and too deep for me."
Tu-Kila-Kila did not like the turn the conversa-
tion was tidying. Before his own attendants such
hints, indeed, were almost dangerous. Once let the
savage begin to doubt, and the ]\ Loral Order goes
with a crash immediately. Besides, he must know
what these white men had l)een talking jdjout.
" Fire and Water," he said in a loud voice, turning
round to his two chief satellites, " go far down the
path, and beat the tom-toms. Fence off with flood
and llanie the airy height where the King of the
lUrds lives; fence it off from all profane intrusion.
I wish to confer in secret with this god, my brother.
When we gods talk togetlier, it is not well that
others should hear their converse. Make a great
taboo. I, Tu-Kila-Kila, myself have said it."
Fire and Water, bowing low, backed down the
path, beating tom-toms as they went, and left the
savage and the Frenchman alone together.
As soon as they were gone, Tu-Kila-Kila laid aside
his umbrella with a positive sigh of relief. Now his
fellow-countryinen were well out of the way, his
manner altered in a trice as if ])y magic. Barbarian
as he was, he was quite astute enough to guess that
Fuiopeans cared nothing in their hearts for all his
T(-KILA-KILA PI.AY^^ A rARD.
in;i
nuiiul)u-juml)o. He bcliuvu I in it liiiusclt', Imt they
(lid not, and their very unbelief niaiU^ liini respect
jiiid fear them.
"Now that wc two arc ahjuc," he said, .^lancin.Lj;
carelessly around hiui, " \ve two ^vho are gods, and
know ti\e world well— we two who see cverythin.n m
heavtni or earth— tliere is no need for concealment —
w(> may talk as ])lainly as we will with one anotlu'r.
(.'ome, tell ine the truth ! The new white man has
seen you ? "
" He has seen me, yes, certainly," tiie Frenchman
admitted, taking a kvvn hn.k dee]) into the savage's
cunning eyes.
"I^oes he «;u\nk your Lniguage — the language of
l)irds?" Tu-Kila-Kila asked (mce more, M'ith in-
sinuating cunning. " \ haye heard that the sailing
gods are of many languages. Are you and he of one
speech or two ? Aliens, or countrymen ? "
" He .;peaks my languagi; as he speaks Poly-
nesian," the Frenchman replied, keeping his eye
firmly fixed on his doubtful guest, " but it is not his
own. He has a tongue apart— the tongue of an island
not far from my country, which we call England."
Tu-Kila-Kila drew nearer, and dropped his voice;
to a confidential whisper. " Has he seen the Soul of
all dead parrots ? " he asked, with keen interest in
his voice. "The parrot that knows Tu-Kila-Kila's
secret? That one over there— the old, the very
sacred one ? "
M. Peyron gazed round his ayiary carelessly.
" Oh, that one," he answered, with a casual glance at
i\Iethuselah, as though one panot or another were
int THE GREAT TABOO.
much the same to him. " Yes, I think he saw it. I
pointed it out to him, in fact, as the oklest and
strangest of all my subjects."
Tu-Kila-Kila's countenance fell. "Did he hear it
speak ? " lie asked, in evident alarm. " Did it tell
liim the story of Tu-Kila-Kila's secret ?"
" No, it didn't speak," the Frenchman answered.
" It seldom does now. It is very old. And if it did,
1 don't suppose the King of the liain would have
understood one word of it. Look here, great god,
allay your fears. You're a terrible coward. I
expect the real fact about the parrot is this : it is
the last of its own race : it speaks the language of
some tribe of men who once inhabited these islands,
but are now extinct. No human being at present
alive, most probably, knows one word of that for-
gotten language."
''You think not?" Tu-Kila-Kila asked, a little
relieved.
" 1 am the King of the Birds, and 1 know the
voices of my subjects by heart ; I assure you it is as
I say," M. Peyron answered, drawing himself up
solemnly.
Tu-Kila-Kila looked askance, with something very
closely approaching a wink in his left eye. '' We
two are both gods," he said, with a tinge of irony in
his tone. " We know what that means . . . / do
not feel so certain." He stood close by the parrot
with itching fingers. *' It is very, very old," he went
on to himself musingly. " It can't live long. And
then — none but Boupari men will know the secret."
As he spoke, he darted a strange glance of hatred
TU-KILA-KJLA PLAYS A CARD.
IGf)
'I
towards the unconscious bird, tlio innocent repository,
as he firmly believed, of the secret that doomed him.'
The Frenchman had turned his back for a moment
now, to fetch out a stool. Tu-Kila-Kila, casting
a .luick, suspicious eye to right and left, took a step
nearer. Tlie parrot sat mumbling on its perch,
inarticulately, putting its head on one side, and
blinking its half-blinded eyes in the bright tropical
sunshine. Tu-Kila-Kila paused irresolute before its
face for a second. If only he dared— one wring of
the necl^ —one pinch of his finger and thumb almost !
—and all would be over. But he dared not! he
dared not ! Your savage is over-awed by the blind
terrors of taboo. His predecessor, some elder Tu-
Kila-Kila of forgotten days, had laid a great charm
upon that parrot's life. Whoever hurt it was to die
an awful death of unspeakable torment. The King
of the l^>irds had special charge to guard it. If even
the Cannibal God himself wrought it harm, who
could tell what judgment might fall upon him forth-
with, what terrible vengeance the dead Tu-Kila-Kila
might wreak upon him in his ghostly anger ? And
that dead Tu-Kila-Kila was his own soul ! His own
soul might Hare up within him in some mystic way
and burn him to ashes. '
And yet— suppose this hateful new-comer the
Knig of the Eain, whom he had himself made Korona
I on purpose to get rid of him the more easily, and so
had elevated into his own worst potential enemy-
suppose this new-comer, the King of the Eain, were
by chance to speak that other dialect of the bird-
language which the King of the Birds himself knew
16f3 THE GREAT TABOO.
not, but wliicli tlie parrot liad learnt from his old
master, tlic ancient Tn-Kila-Kila of other days, and
in which tlie bird still recited the secret of the sacred
tree and the IJeath of the Clreat God — ah, then, lie
might still have to fight hard for his divinity. Tie
gazed angrily at the bird. Methuselah blinked, and
put his head on one side, and looked craftily askance
at him. Tu-Kila-Kila hated it, that insolent creature.
Was he not a god, and should he l)e thus bearded in
his own island by a mere Soul of dead birds, a pooi-
wretched parrot ? But the curse ! AVhat niiglit not
that portend ? Ah, well, he would risk it. (llaneing
around him once more to right and left, to make sure
that nol)ody was looking, the cunning savage put
forth his hand stealthily, and tried with a friendl}'
caress to seize the parrot.
In a moment, before he had time to know what
was happening, Methuselah — sleepy old dotard as he
seemed — had woke up at once to a sense of danger.
Turning suddenly round upon the sleek caressing
hand, he darted his beak with a vicious peck at his
assailant, and bit the divine finger of the Pillar of
Heaven as carelessly as he would have bitten any
child on IJoupari. Tu-Kila-Kila, thunderstruck, drew
back his arm with a start of surprise and a loud cry
of pain. The bird had wounded him. He sliook his
hand and stamped. Blood was dropping on the
ground from the man-god's finger. He hardly knew
w'hat strange evil this omen c f harm might portend
for the world. The Soul of all dead parrots had
carried out the curse, and had drawn red drops from
tlie sacred veins of Tu-Kila-Kila
TC-KILA-KILA PLAYS A CARD. 167
One must hv a savage nue's self, and superstitions
at that, {"ully t(t understand tlie awful significance of
this deadly occurrence. To draw ])lood from a god
and, above all, to let that hlood fall upon the dust of
the ground, is the very worst hick — too awful for the
human luind to contemplate.
At the selfsame moment, the pari'ot, awakened l.y
the unex])eeted attack, threw l)a('k its head on its
])erch, and laughing loud and long to itself in its own
harsh way, began to pour forth a whole \ olley of
oaths in a guttural language of which neither
Tu-Kihi-Ivila nor the Frenchman understood one
syllable. And at the same moment, too, M. Tevron
himself, recalled from the door of his hut ])\-
Tu-Kila-Kila's sharp cry of pain ami l)y his liege
subject's voluble How of loud si)eech and lau"hter.
ran \\\) all agog to know what was the matter.
Tu-Kila-Kila, with an effort, tried to hide in his
rol)e his wounded linger. But the Frenchman cauuht
at the meaning of the whole scene at once, and
interposed himself hastily between the i)arrot and its
assailant. "He! my Methuselah," he cried in
French, stroking the exultant bird with his hand,
and smoothing its rufHed feathers, " did he tiy to
choke you then ■ Did he try to get over vou ?
That was a brave bird! You did well man foni, to
bite him? . . . Xo, no. Life of the World, and
Measurer of the Sun's Course," he went on in Polv-
nesian, ''you shall not go near him. Kee[) your
distance, I beg of 3'ou. You may b(^ a high god
though you were a scurvy wictch enough, don't you
recollect, when you were only Laxita, the son of Sami,
IGS THE GREAT TABOO.
— but 1 know your tricks. Hands off from my
birds, sav T. A curse is on the head of the Soul of
dead parrots. You tried to hurt him, and see how
the curse has" worked itself out! Tlie blood of the
great god, the Pillar of Heaven, has stained the grey
dust of the island of Boupari."
Tu-Kila-Kila stood sucking his finger, and looking
the very picture of the most savage sheepishness.
CHAPTER XIX.
DOMESTIC BLISS.
Tu-KiLA-KiLA went home that day in a very bad
humour. Tiie portent of the Ijitten finger had
seriously disturbed him. For, strange as it sounds
to us, he really believed himself in his own divinity ;
and the bare thought that the holy soil of earth
should be dabbled .tnd wet with the blood of a god
gave him no little uneasiness in his own mind on his
way homeward. Besides, what would his people
think of it if they found it out ? At all hazards
almost, he must strive to conceal this episode of the
bite from the men of Boupari. A god who gets
wounded, and, worse still, gets wounded in the very
act of trying to break a great taboo laid on by
himself in a previous incarnation — such a god un-
doubtedly lays himself open to the gravest misappre-
hensions on the part of his worshippers. Indeed,
it was not even certain whether his people, if they
knew, would any longer regard him as a god at
all. The devotion of savages is profound, but it is
DOMESTIC BLISS. IGO
far from personal, Wliere deities pass so readily
from one body to another, you must always keep
a sliarp look-out lest the great spirit should at any
minute liave deserted his earthly tabernacle, and have
taken up his al)ode in a fresh representative. Honour
the gods by all means ; but make sure at the same
time what particular house they are just then in-
habitini''.
It was the liour of siesta in Tu-Kila-Kila's tent.
For a short space in the middle of the day, during
tlie heat of the sun, while Fire and Water witli their
embers and their calabash, sat on guard in a porcli
l)y the bamboo gate, Tu-Kila-Kila, Pillar of Heaven
and Threshold of Eartli, had respite for a while from
his daily task of guarding the sacred Ijanyan, and
could take his ease after his meal in his own
quarters. While that precious hour of taboo lasted,
no wandering dragon or spirit of tlie air could liurt
the holy tree, and no human assailant dare touch or
fipproach it. Even the disease-making gods, who
walk in the jtcstilence, could not Idight or wither
it. At all other tiuiis, Tu-Kila-Kila mounted guard
over his tree with a jealousy that fairly astonished
■^ Felix Thurstan's soul ; for Felix Thurstan only dhnly
understood as yet how implicitly Tu-Kila-Kila's own
life and office were bound up with the inviolability
of the banyan he protected.
Within the hut, during that play-time of siesta,
while the lizards (who are also gods) ran up and
down tlie wall, and puffed their orange throats, Tu-
Kila-Kila lounged at his ease that afternoon, with
one of his manv wives, — a tall and l)eautiful Poly-
i
170 THE GREAT TABOO.
iiesiau woman, lithe and supple, as is the wont of her
race, and as excpiisitely formed in every limb and
feature as a sculptured Greek goddess. A graceful
wreath of crimson liiluscus adorned her shapely liead,
round which her long and glossy black hair was
coiled in great rings with artistic profusion. A
festoon of blue flowers and dark red dracana leaves
hung like a clia])let over lier oli\'e-l)rown neck and
swelling bust. One breadth of native cloth did duty
for an apron or girdle round lier waist and hips. All
else was naked. Her plump brown arms were set
off by the green and crimson of the flowers that
decked her. Tu-Kila-Kila glanced at his slave with
a])proving eyes. He always liked Ula ; she pleased
liim tlie best of all his women. And she knew his
ways, too : slie never contradicted him.
Among savages, guile is woman's Ijcst protection.
'I'he wife who knows when to give way with hypo-
critical obedience, and when to coax or wlieedle her
yielding lord, runs the best chance in the end for
her life. Her model is not the oak, Ijut the willow.
Slie must be able to watch for the risiu" signs of
ill-humour in her master's mind, and guard against
them carefully. If she is wise, she keeps out of
her husband's way wdien his anger is aroused, but
soothes and flatters him to the top of his bent
when his temper is just slightly or momentarily
ruflled.
" The Lord of Heaven and Earth is ill at ease,"
I' la murmured insinuatintilv, as Tu-Kila-Kila winced
once with the pain of his swollen finger. "What
has happened to-day to the Increaser of Bread-fruit ^
DOMESTIC BLISS. 171
^[y lonl is sad. His eye is downcast. Wlio lias
crossed my master's will ( Who has dared to aimvr
Inm ? "
Tii-Kihi-Kihi kept the wounded hand wrap])ed u]>
in a soft leaf, like a woolly nmllein. All the wav
home, he had been obliged to conceal it, and disguise
the pain he felt, lest Fire and Water should discover
his secret. For he dared not let his people know
that the Soul of all dead ])arr(jts luid bitten his finoci-
and drawn blood from the sacred veins of the man-
god. But he almost hesitated now whetlier or not
he should confide in Ula. A goil may surely trust
his own wedded wives. And yet— such need to be
careful — women are so treacherous! He suspected
Ula sometimes of being a great deal too fond of that
young man Toko, who used to be one of tlie temple
attendants, and whom he had given as Shadow
accordingly to the King of the Ptain, so as to get rid
of him altogether from among the crowd of Ids
followers. 80 he kept his own counsel for the
moment, and disguised his misfortune. " I have
been to see the King of the Birds this morning," he
said, in a grumbling voice; "and I do not like him.
That God is too insolent. For my part I hate these
strangers, one and all. They have no respect i'ov
Tu-Kila-Kila like the men of Boupari. They are as
bad as atheists. They fear not the gods, and the
customs of our fatliers are not in them."
Ula crept nearer, with one lithe round arm laid
caressingly close to her master's neck. " Then why
do you make them Korong ? " she asked, with
feminine curiosity, like some wife who seeks lu
172 THE OR?: AT TABOO.
worm out of her husband the secret of freeuiasoiiiy.
"Why do you not cook them and eat them at once,
as soon as they arrive ? Tliey are very good food —
so white and fine. Tliat last new-comer, now — the
Queen of tlie Clouds — why not eat her ? She is
plump and tender."
" T like her," Tu-Kila-Kila responded, in a gloatinf^
tone. " I like her everyway, 1 would have brought
her here to my temple and admitted her at once to
be one of Tu-Kila-Kila's wives — only that Fire and
Water would not have permitted nie. They have too
manv taboos, those awkward gods. I do not love
them. P>ut I make my strangers Korong for a very
wise reason. You women are fools ; you understand
nothing ; you do not know the mysteries. These
things are a great deal too high and too deep for you.
You could not comprehend them. But men know
well why. They are wise ; they have been initiated.
]\luch more, then, do I, who am the very high god —
who eat human tlesh and drink blood like water —
who cause the sun to shine and the fruits to grow
— without whom the day in heaven would fade and
die out, and the foundations of the earth would be
shaken like a plantain leaf."
Ula laid her soft brown hand soothingly on the
great god's arm just above the elbow. "Tell me,"
she said, leaning forward towards him, and looking
deep into his eyes with those great speaking grey
orbs of hers ; " tell me, oh ! Sustainer of the Equi-
poise of Hea^'en ; I know you are great ; I know you
are mighty ; I know you are holy and wise and
cruel ; but why must you let these sailing gods who
DOMESTIC BLISS, 17.3
come from unknown lands beyond the place where
the sun rises or sets—why must you let them so
trouble and annoy you ? Wliy do you not at once
eat them up and be done witli tlieni ? Is not their
flesh sweet? Is not their blood red? Are they
not a dainty well fit for the banquet of Tu-Kila-
Kila ' "
The savage looked at her for a moment and
hesitated. A very beautiful woman this Ula, cer-
tainly. Not one of all liis wives had larirer brown
limbs, or whiter teeth, or a deeper respect for his
divine nature. He had almost a mind— it was only
Ula! Why not break tlie silence enjoined upon
gods towards women, and explain this matter to her ?
Not the great secret itself, of course— the secret on
which hung the Death and Transmigration of Tu-
Ivila-Kila — oh no ; not that one. The savage was
far too cunning in his generation to entrust that
final terrible taboo to the ears of a woman. But the
reason why he made all strangers Korong. A woman
might surely be trusted with that— especially Ula.
She was so very handsome. And she was always so
respectful to him.
" Well, the fact 'of it is," he answered, laying his
hand on her neck, tluit plump brown neck of hers,
under the garland of dracoena leaves, and stroking it
voluptuously, "the sailing gods who hai)pen upon
this island from time to time are made Korong — luit
hush ! it is taboo." He gazed around the hut sus-
piciously. " Are all the others away ? " he asked, in
a frightened tone. " Fire and Water would denounce
me to all my people if once lliey found I had told a
174 THE a HE AT TAIiOO.
tal)Oo t(j a woman. And as for you, they would take
you, because you knew it, and woukl [)ull your Hesh
from your bones witli liot stone-pincers ! "
Ula rose and kjoked about lier at the door of the
tent. She no(kled tlnice ; then slie ,L,dided Ixick,
serpentine, and tlirew lierself j^racefuUy, in a
statuesque pose, on tlie native mat beside him.
" Here, drink some more kava," she cried, hokling a
bowl to his lips, and wheedling him Avith her eyes.
" Kava is good ; it is fit for gods. It makes them
royally drunk, as becomes great deities. The spirits
<»f our ancestors dwell in the 1)0wl ; when you driid<
of tlie kava they mount by degrees into your heart
and liead. They inspire brave words. They give
you thoughts of heaven. Drink, my master, drink.
1'he liuler of the Sun in Heaven is thirstv."
She lay propped on one elbow, with her face close
to his ; and offered liim, with one l)rown irresistirile
hand, the intoxicating liquor. Tu-Kila-KOa took the
bowl, and drank a second time, for he had drunk of
it once with his dinner already. It was seldom he
allowed himself the luxury of a second draugiit of
that very stupefying native intoxicant, for he knew
too well the danger of insecnrely guarding his sacred
tree : but on this particular occasion, as on so many
others in the collective life of humanity, " the woman
tempted him," and he acted as slie told him. He
drank it off deep. '' Ha, ha ! tliat is good ! " he cried,
smacking his lips. " That is a drink fit for a god.
No woman can make kava like j^ou, Ula." He toyed
with her arms and neck lazilv once more. " You are
the queen of my wives," he went on, in a dreamy
DOMESTIC BLISS.
( .»
voice. " I like you so well, that, plump as vou are,
T really believe, Ula, I could never uiakj ui) my
uiind to eat you."
"My lord is very gracious," Ula uiade answer, in
a soft low tone, pretending to caress liini. And foi-
some mmutes more, she continued to make nnirl, „t'
hiHi m tlie fulsome strain of Polynesian flattery.
At last the kava had clearly not into Tu'-Xila-
Ivila's head. Then Ula 1)ent forward once more an.l
again attacked him. "Xow I know you will tell
ine," she said coaxingly, - wliy vou\nake tliem
Ivorong. As long as I live, I will never speak (,r
hint of It to anybody anywhere. And if 1 do— why
the remedy is near. I am your meat-take me an\i
eat me."
Even canni])als are human; and at the toudi of
her soft hand, Tu-Kila-Kila gave wav slowly. " I
made tliem Korong," lie answered in" rather" thick
accents, " because it is less dangerous for nu; to
make tliem so than to choose for the post irom
among our own islanders. Sooner or later, my day
must come ; but I can put it oK best by making my
enemies out of strangers who arrive upon our island,
and not out of those of my own household. All
JJoupari men who have been initiated know the
terrible secret—they know where lies the JJeath of
Tu-Kila-Kila. The strangers who come to us from
the sun or the sea do not know it ; and therefore my
life is safest with them. 80 I make them Korong
whenever I can, to prolong inv own days, aiid to
guard my secret."
'' And the Death of Tii-Kila-Xila ? " tiie woman
170 THE GREAT TAB 00.
wliispered very low, still sootliinf^f his arm with her
liiuid and patting' his elieek softly from time to time
witli a ^^eiitle caressin^,' motion. " Tell me where
does tliat live ? Who liolds it in charge ? Where
is Tu-Kila-Kila's great spirit laid by in safety ? I
know it is in the tree ; but where and in what part
of it ? "
Tii-Kila-KiLa drew back with a little cry of sur-
prise. " You know it is in the tree ! " lie cried.
"You know my soul is kept there ! Why, Ula, who
told you that ? and you a woman ! ]>ad medicine
indeed ! Some man has been blabbing what lie
learned in the mysteries. If this should reach the
ears of the King of the Kain " he paused mys-
teriously.
" What ? What ? " Ula cried, seizing liis hand in
hers, and pressing it hard to her bosom in her
anxiety and eagerness. " Tell me the secret ! Tell
me ! "
With a sudden sharp howl of darting pain, Tu-
Kila-Kila withdrew his hand. She had squeezed
the finger the parrot had bitten, and blood began
once more to flow from it freely.
A wild impulse of revenge came over the savage.
He caught her by the neck with his other hand,
pressed her throat hard, till she was black in the
face, kicked her several times with ferocious rage,
and then flung her away from him to the other side
of the hut with a fierce and untranslatable native
imprecation.
Ula, shaken and hurt, darted away towards the
door, with a face of abject terror. For every reason
DOMESTIC BLISS. ,77
on earth slie was intensely alarni(>(l. Weio it merely
as a matter of purely earthly fear, she lia.l crround
enough for fright in having so roused thnluisty
aiiger of that powerful and implacable creature
He would kill her and eat her with far less com-
punction than an English farmer would kill and eat
one ol his own barnyard chickens. i>,ut besides that
It terrified her not a little in more mysterious ways
to see the blood of a god tailing upon the earth so
treely. She knew not what awful results to her-
self and her race might follow from s.j terrible
a desecration.
But, to her ntter astonishment, the great god liini-
^elt, mad with rage as he was, seemed none the less
almost as profoundly friglitened and surprised as she
herself was. « What did you do that for ? " he cried
nr V sufficiently recovered for thought and speech'
wringing ]:is hnnd with i)ain, and then poppin- his
finger hastily into his mouth to ease it. " You are a
clumsy thing. And you u'ant to destrov me, t...'.
with your foolish clumsiness."
He looked at her and scowled. lie was v,.rv
angry. But tlie savage woman is nothing- if nc^t
quick-witted and politic. In a flash of i'^ituition
Ula saw at once he was more frightened than hurt '
he was afraid of the eflect of this strange revelation'
upon his own reputation for supreme godship. With
every mark and gesture of deprecatory servility the
woman sidled back to his side like a\vhii.ped do-
ior a second she looked down on the floor at tlu^
drops of blood ; then, without one word of warnino-
or one instant's hesitation, she bit her own fin-er
N"
178
THE GREAT TABOO.
hard till blood llowed from it freely. " 1 will show
this to Fire and Water," she said, holding it up
before his eyes, all red and bleeding. " I will say
you were angry with me and bit me for a punish-
ment, as you often do. They will never find out it
was the blood of a god. Have no fear for their eves.
Let me look at your finger."
Tu-Kila-Kila, half appeased by her clever quick-
ness, held his hand out sulkily, like a disobedient
child. Ula examined it close. " A bite," she said
sliortly. " A bite from a ])ird I a peck from a
parrot."
Tu-Kila-Kila jerked out a surly assent. "Yes,
the Soul of all dead parrots," he answered, with an
angry glare. " It bit me this morning at the King
of the Birds'. A vicious brute. ]jut no one else
saw it."
Ula put the finger up to her own mouth, and
sucked the wound gentlv. Her medicine staunched
it. Then she took a thin leaf of the paper mulberry,
soft, cool, and soothing, and bound it round the
place wdth a stri]) of the lace-like inner bark, as deftly
as any hospital nurse in London would have done it.
These savage women are capital hands in sickness.
Tu-Kila-Kila sat and sulked meanwhile, like a dis-
appointed child. When Ula had finished, she nodded
her head and glided softly away. She knew her
chance of learning the secret was gone for the
moment, and she had too much of the guile of the
savage woman to spoil her chances by loitering
about unnecessarily while her lord was in his present
ungracious humour.
DOMESTIC BLISS.
17H
As she stole from the hut, Tu-Kila-Kihi, looking
ruefully at his wounded liand, and tlien at that light
and supple retreating figiu'e, muttered sulkily to
himself with a very bad grace, " the woman knows
too much. She nearly wormed my secret out of me.
She knows that Ju-Kila-Kila's life and soul are
bound up in the tree. She knows that I bled, jind
that the parrot bit me. If she blabs, as women will
do, mischief may come of it. I am a great god, a
very great god — keen, bloodthirsty, cruel. And I
like that woman. But it would be wiser and safer,
perhaps, after all, to forego my affection and to make
a great feast of her."
And Ula, looking back with a smile and a nod,
and holding up her own bitten and bleeding hand
with a farewell shake as if to remind her divine
husband of her promise to show it to Fire and
AVater, murmured low to herself as she went, " He is
a very great god ; a very great god, no doubt ; but I
hate him, I hate him ! He would eat me to-morrow
if I didn't coax him and wheedle him and keep him
in a good temper. You want to be sharp, indeed, to
be the wife of a god. I got off to-day M'ith the skin
of my teeth. He might have turned and killed me.
If only I could find out the Great Taboo, I would
tell it to the stranger, the' King of the Eain ; and
then, perhaps, Tu-Kila-Kila would die. And the
stranger would become Tu-Kila-Kila in turn, and I
would be one of his wives ; and Toko, who is his
Shadow, would return again to the service of Tu-
Kila-Kila's temple."
But Fire, as she passed, was saying to Water,
180 THE GREAT TABOO.
" We arc gettincj tired in r.oupari of Lavita, tlic
son of Saiiii. If the luck of the island is not
to change, it is high time, I tliink, we should liave
a new Tu-Kila-Kila."
CHAPTER XX.
COUNCIL OF AVAR.
That same afternoon, Muriel had a visitor. M.
Jules Peyron, formerly of the College de France, no
longer a mere Polynesian god, ])ut a French gentle-
man of the boulevards in voice and manner, came to
pay his respects, as in duty hound, to Mademoiselle
Ellis. M. Peyron luid ])erformed Ins toilet under
trying circumstances, to the best of his ability. The
remnants of his European clothes, much patched and
overhung witli sipiares of native tappa cloth, were
liidden as much as possilde by a wide feather cloak,
very savage in effect, but more seemly at any rate;
than the tattered garments in which Felix had first
found liim in his own garden parterre. M. Peyron,
however, was fully aware of the defects of his cos-
tume, and ]irofonndly apologetic. " It is with ten
thousand regrets, ]\Iademoiselle," lie said many times
over, bowing low and simpering, "that I venture to
appear in a lady's m/on — for after all, wherever a
European lady goes, there her scdon follows her — in
such a tc7iuc as that in which I am now compelled to
present myself. Mais que voulcz-vons ? Nous ne
sommcs pas a Paris ! " For to M. Peyron, as inno-
COUNCIL OF WyiR. 181
cent in his way as Mali herself, the whole world
divided itself into Paris and the Provinces,
Neve.vlheless, it was touching to both the new-
comers to see tlie Frenchman's deli'dit at meeting
once more with civilized bein<jjs. " Fii>ure to your-
self, Mademoiselle," lie said, witli true French t'lTu-
sion, " ligure to yourself the joy and surprise with
whicli 1, this morning, receive Monsieur your friend
at my hundjle cottage! For the first time after nine
years on this hateful island, I see again a European
face ; I hear again the sound, the beautiful sound
of that charming French language. My emotion,
believe me, was too i)rofound for words. When
Monsieur was gone, I retired to my liut, I sat
down on tlie floor, I gave myself over to tears,
tears of joy and gratitude, to tliink I should once
more catch a glimpse of civilization ! This after-
noon, I ask myself, can I venture to go out and pay
my respects, thus attired, in these rags, to a Euro-
pean lady ? For a long time 1 iloubt, I wonder, I
hesitate. In my quality of Frenchman, I would
have wished to call in civilized costume upon a civil-
ized household. But what would you have ? neces-
sity knows no law. I am compelled to envelope
myself in my savage robe of oifice as a Polynesian
god — a robe of office which, for the rest, is not with-
out an interest of its own for the scientific ethnologist.
It belongs to me especially as King of the ]*)irds,
and in it, in effect, is represented at least one featlier
of each kind or colour from every part of the body of
every species of bird that inhabits Boupari. I thu3
sum up, pour ainsi dire, in my official costume all the
182 THE GREAT TABOO.
birds of the island, as Tu-Kila-Kila, tlie very high
god, sums up in liis quaint and curious dress the
land, and tlie sea, the trees and the stones, earth, and
air, and fire, and water."
Familiarity with danger begets at last a certain
callous indifference. Muriel was surprised in her
own mind to discover how easily they could chat
with M. Peyron on such indifferent subjects, with
that awful doom of an approaching death hanging
over them so shortly. But the fact was, terrors of
every kind had so encompassed them round since
tlieir arrival on the island, that the mere additional
certainty of a date and mode of execution was rather
a relief to tlieir minds than otherwise. It partook of
the nature of a reprieve, not of a sentence. Besides,
this meeting with another speaker of a European
tongue seemed to them so full of promise and hope,
that they almost forgot the terrors of their threatened
end in their discussion of possible schemes for escape
to freedom. Even M. Peyron himself, wlio had
spent nine long years of exile in the island, felt that
the arrival of two new Europeans gave him some
hope of effecting at last his own retreat from this
unendurable position. His talk was all of pass-
ing steamers. If the Australasian had come near
enou,L(h once to sight the island, he argued, then the
homeward-bound vessels, en 7'outc for Honolulu, must
have begun to take a new course considerably to the
eastward of the old navii^able channel. If this were
so, their obvious plan was to keep a watch, day and
night, for another passing Australian liner ; and when-
ever one hove in sight, to steal away to the shore.
COUNCIL OF WAn. 183
seize a stray canoe, overpower if possible tlieir
Shadows, or give them the sli^), and make one bold
stroke for freedom on the open ocean.
K'one of them coidd conceal from their own minds,
to be sure, the extreme difficulty of carrying out this
progranmie. In the first place, it was a toss-up
whether they ever sighted another steamer at Jill ;
for during the weeks they had already passed on the
island, not a sign of one had appeared from any
(piarter. Then, again, even supposing a steamer
ever hove in sight, what likelihood that they could
make out for her in an open canoe in time to attract
attention before she had passed the island ? Tu-
Kila-Kila would never willingly let them go ; their
Shadows would watch them with unceasing care ;
the whole body of natives would combine together
to prevent their departure. If they ran away at
all, they must run for their lives ; as soon as the
islanders discovered they were gone, every war-canoe
in the place would be manned at once with blood-
thirsty savages, who would follow on their track
with relentless persistence.
As for Muriel, less prepared for such dangerous
adventures than the two men, she was rather in-
clined to attach a certain romantic importance (as a
girl might do) to the story of the parrot and the
possible disclosures which it could make if it could
only communicate with them. The mysterious
element in the history of that unique bird attracted
her fancy. *' The only one of its race now left alive,"
she said, with slow reflectiveness. " Like Dolly
I'entreath, the last old woman who could speak
••w
184 THE a BEAT TABOO.
Cuniisli ! I wonder how long })airots ever live ? iJu
you know at all, Monsieur ? You are the King of
the ]»irds — you ought to be an authority on their
habits and manners."
The Frenchman smiled a gallant smile. " T^n-
happily, Mademoiselle," he said, " though, [is a
medical student, I took up to a certain extent l.)io-
logical science in general at the College de France, I
never paid any special or peculiar attention in Paris
to ])irds in })articidar. lUititis the universal (»[)inion
of the natives (if that counts for nuTcli) that parrots
live to a very great age ; aiul this one old parrot of
mine, wliom I call Methuselah on account of his
advanced years, is considered by them all to be a
perfect })atriarch. In effect, when the oldest men now
living on the island were little boys, they tell me
that Methuselah was already a venerable and much
venerated parrot. He must certainly have outlived
all the rest of his race by at least the best part of
three-quarters of a century. For the islanders them-
selves not infrequently live, Ijy unanimous consent,
to be over a hundred."
" I remember to have read somewhere," Felix said,
turning it over in his mind, " that when Humbold
was travelling in the wilds of South America he
found one very old parrot in an Indian village,
which the Indians assured him spoke the language
of an extinct trilje, incomprehensible then by any
li\ing person. If I recollect aright, Humboldt
believed that particular bird must have lived to be
nearly a hundred and fifty."
"That is so. Monsieur," the Frenchman answered.
I
COUNCIL OF WAB. 185
" I remember the case well, and have often recalled
it. I recollect our professor mentioning it one day
in the course of his lectures. And I have always
UK^ntally coupled that })arr(»t of }Iuml)oldt's with my
own old friend and subject, ^Fethuselah. However,
tliat only im[»resses upon one more fully tlie folly
of hoping tliat we can h-arn anything worth know-
ing from him. 1 have heard him recite his story
many times over, thougli now he repeats it less fre-
(piently than he used formerly to do; and I feel con-
vinced it is couched in some unknown and no dou))t
forgotten language. It is a much more guttural and
unjdeasant tongue than any of the soft dialects now
spoken in Polynesia. It l)elonged, I am convinced,
to that yet earlier and more savage race which the
Polynesians must have displaced ; and, as such, it is
now, I feel certain, practically irrecoverable."
" If they were more savage than the Polynesians,"
Muriel said, with a profound sigh, " I'm soriy for
anybody who fell into their clutches."
" But what would not many philologists at home in
England give," Felix nmrmured philosophically, "for
a transcript of the words that parrot can speak —
perhaps a last relic of the very earliest and most
primitive form of human language."
And at the very moment when these things were
passing under the wattled roof of Muriel's hut, it
happened that on the taboo-space outside, Toko, the
Shadow, stood talking for a moment with Ula, the
fourteenth wife of the great Tu Kila-Kila.
" I never see you now, Toko," the beautiful
186 THE GREAT TABOO.
Polynesian said, leaning almost across the white line
of coral-sand whicli she dared not transgress. " Times
are dull at the temple since you came to he Shadow
to the white-faced stranger."
" It was for that that Tu-Kila-Kila sent me here,"
the Shadow answered, M'ith profound conviction. "lie
is jealous, tlie great god. He is had. He is cruel.
He wanted to get rid of me. So he sent me away to
the King of the l\ain that I might not see you."
Ula pouted, and held up her wounded finger hefore
his eyes coquettishly. *' See what he did to nie," she
said, with a mute appeal for sympathy — though in
that particular matter the truth was not in her.
" Your god was angry with me to-day because I hurt
his hand, and lie clutched me hy the throat, and
almost choked me. He has a bad heart. See how
he bit me and drew blood. Some of these days, I
believe, he will kill me and eat me."
The Shadow glanced around him suspiciously with
an uneasy air. Then he whispered low, in a voice
half grudge half terror, " If he does, he is a great god
— he can search all the w^orld — I fear him much, but
Toko's heart is warm. Let Tu-Kila-Kila look out for
vengeance."
The woman glanced across at him open-eyed, with
her enticing look. " If the King of the Eain, who is
Korong, knew all the secret," she murmured slowly,
" he would soon be Tu-Kila-Kila himself ; and you
and I could then meet together freely."
The Shadow started. It was a terrible suggestion.
" You mean to say " he cried ; then fear overcame
him, and crouching down where he sat he gazed
METIIUSELAn GIVES SIGN. ls7
iirouiid liim terrifietl. Who could say that the wind
would not report his words to Tu-Kila-Kila ?
Ula laughed at hisi fears. " Pooh," she answered,
smiling. " You are a man ; and }'et you are afraid of
a little taboo. I am a woman ; and yet, if I knew
the secret as you do, I would break taboo as easily
as I would break an eggshell. I would tell the white-
faced stranger all — if only it would bring you and me
together for ever."
" It is a great risk, a very great risk," the Shadow
answered, trembling. " Tu-Kila-Kihi is a mighty
god. He may be listening this moment, and may
pinch us to death l)y his spirits for our words, or burn
us to ashes with a flash of his anger."
The woman smiled an incredulous smile. " If you
had lived as near Tu-Kila-Kila as I have," she
answered boldly, " you would think as little, perhaps,
of his divinity as I do."
For even in Polynesia, superstitious as it is, no
liero is a god to his wives or his valets.
CHAPTER XXL
METHUSELAH GIVES SIGN.
All the hopes of the three Europeans were concen-
trated now on the bare off-chance of a passing
steamer. M. Peyron in particular was fully con-
vinced that if the Australasian had found the inner
channel practicable, other ships in future would
follow her example. With this idea firmly fixed in
his head, lie arranged with Felix that one or other
188
THE OliEAT TAIWO.
of thein sliould keep watch iilteriiately by night as
far as possible ; and he also nndertcjok that a canoe
sliould cunslantlv be in rejidiness to carry them awav
to tlie su})p(tsitious shij), if occasion arose for it.
Muriel took counsel witli IMali on the (piestion of
rousing the Frenchnian, if a steamer a]»i>eared, and
they were tlie lirst to siglit it ; and Mali, in wliom
renewed intercourse with wliite people had restored
to some extent the civihzed Queensland attitude of
mind, readily enough jjromised to assist in theii'
scheme, provided she was herself taken with them,
and so relieved from the terrible vengeance which
would otherwise overtake her. " If Boupari man
catch me," she said, in her simple grai)hic Polynesian
way, " Boupari man kill me, and lay me in leaves,
and cook me very nice, and make great feast of me,
like him do with Jani." From that untimely end,
both Felix and Muriel promised faithfully, as far as
in them lay, to protect her.
To connnunicate witli M. Peyron by day-time,
witliout arousing the ever-M'akeful suspicion of the
natives, Felix hit upon an excellent plan. He bur-
nished his metal match-box to the very highest polish
it was capable of taking, and then heliographed by
means of sun-flashes on the Morse code. He had
learnt the code in Fiji in the course of his official
duties ; and he taught the Frenchman now readily
enough how to read and reply with the other half of
the box, torn off for the purpose.
It was three or four days, however, before the two
English wanderers ventured to return M. Peyrou's
visit. They didn't wish to attract too greatly the
METnUSElAII GIVES SIGN.
IRO
atteutioii of the islaiulois. (Jradually, as their stay
on the island went on, they leariUMl tlie trutli tliat
Tu-Kihi-Ivihi's eyes, as he himselt' liad hoasted, weiv
literary every wliore. I'or he had spies of his own,
told olT in every direction, who (l()Lji>(!(l tlie steps of
his victims nnseen. Sometimes, as Felix and ^Muriel
walked unsuspecting' throu^u,]i the .jun(,de paths, closely
followed by their Shadows, a stealtliy brown figure,
crouched low to the ground, would cross the road for
a moment behind them, and disappear again nois(>-
Icssly into the dense mass of underbrush. Tlicn ^Mali
or Toko, turning round, all hushed, witli a terrified
look, would murmur low (o tlieniselves, or to one
another, "There goes one of the Eyes of Tu-Kila-
Kila ! " It was only by slow degrees that this system
of espionage grew elear to the strangers ; but as soon
as they had learnt its reality and ubi(iuity, they felt
at once how undesirable it would 1)0 for them to
excite the terril)le man-god's jealousy and suspicion
l)y being observed too often in close personal inter-
course with their fellow exile and victim, the French-
man. It was this that made them liavi^ recourse to
the device of the heliograph.
So three or four days passed Itefore IMuriel dared
to ai)proach M. Teyron's cottage. Wlion she did a(
last go there with Felix, it was in tlie early morning,
before the fierce tropical sun that beat full on the
island, had begun to exert its midday foiee and
power. The path that led there Liy through the thick
and tangled mass of brushwood wliieh covered the
greater part of the island with its dense M'getation ;
it was overhung by huge tree-ferns and broad-leaved
190
TIJE GREAT TABOO.
southern bushes, and abutted at last on the little
wind-swept knoll where the King of the Birds had
his appropriate dwelling-place. The Frenchman
received them with studied Parisian hospitality. He
had decorated his arljour with fresh tiowers for the
occasion, and bright tropical fruits on their own green
leaves did duty for the coffee or the absinthe of his
fatherland on his home-made rustic table. Yet in
spite of all the rudeness of the pliysical surroundings,
lliey felt themselves at home again with this one
exiled European ; tlic faint flavour of civilization
pervaded and permeated the Frenchman's liut, after
the unmixed savagery to which they had now been so
long accustomed.
Muriel's curiosity, however, centred most about
the mysterious old parrot of whose strange legend so
much had been said to her. After they had sat for a
little under the shade of the spreading banyan, to cool
down from their walk — for it was an oppressive
morning — M. Peyron led her round to Ids aviary at
the back of the hut, and introduced her, l)y their
native names, to all liis subjects. " I am responsible
for their lives," he said gravely, " for their welftire,
for their liapjaness. It' I were to let one of them
cjrow old without a successor in the field to follow
him up and receive his soul, — as in tlie case of my
friend Methuselah here, who was so neglected by my
predecessors — the whole species would die out for
want of a spirit, and my own life would atone for that
of my people. There you have the ntral principle
of the theology of Boupari. Every race, every ele-
ment, every power of nature, is summed up for them
METIIUSELAFI GIVES SIGN. 191
iu some particular person or thing ; and on the life
of that person or tiling depends, as they believe, the
entire health of the species, the sequence of events,
the whole order and succession of natural phenomena."
Felix approached the mysterious and venerable
bird witli somewhat incautious fingers. " It looks
very old," he said, trying to stroke its head and neck
with a friendly gesture. " You do well indeed in
calling it Methuselah."
As he spoke, the bird, alarmed at the vague con-
sciousness of a hand and voice which it did not recog-
nize, and mindful of Tu-Kila-Kila's recent attack,
made a vicious peck at the fingers outstretched to
caress it. "Take care!" the Frenchman cried, in a
warning voice. " The patriarch's temper is no longer
what it was sixty or seventy years ago. He grows
old and peevish. His humour is soured. He will
sing no longer the lively little scraps of Olfenbach 1
have taught him. He does nothing but sit still and
mumble now in his own forgotten language. And
he's dreadfully cross, — so crabbed — mo7i dieu, what a
character ! Why, the other day, as I told you, he bit
Tu-Kila-Kila himself, the high god of the island, with
a good hard peck, when that savage tried to touch
him ; you'd have laughed to see his godsliip sent off
bleeding to his hut with a wounded finger ! I will
confess I was by no means sorry at the sight myself.
1 do not love that god, nor he me ; and I was glad
when Methuselah, on whom he is afraid to revenge
himself openly, gave him a nice smart bite for trying
to interfere with him."
" He's very snappish, to be sure," Felix said, with a
^SP
192 TTIE GREAT TABOO.
smile, tiyino- once more to push forward one hand and
stroke the Ijird cautiously. But Methuselah resetted
all such autliorized intrusions. He was growing too
old to put up with strangers. He made a second
vicious attempt to peck at the hand lield out to
sootlie liim, and screamed as lie did so in the usual
discordant and unpleasant voice of an angry or
frightened parrot.
" Wliy, Felix," ]\luricl ])Ut in, taking him by the
arm with a girlish gesture — for even the terrors by
wliicli tliey were surrounded hadn't wholly succeeded
in killing out the woman within her — " liow clums}'
vou are I You don't understand one bit liow to
manage parrots. I had a parrot of my own at my
aunt's in Australia, and I know their ways and all
about tliem. Just let me trv liim." She held out
lier soft white hand towards tlie sulkv bird with a
fearless caressing gesture. " Pretty Poll, pretty Poll ! ''
she said, in English, in the conventional tone of
address to their kind. '' Did tlie nauglity man go and
frighten lier then ? Was she afraid of his hand ?
Did Polly want a lump of sugar ? "
On a sudden, the bird opened its eyes quickly witli
an awakened air, and looked lier back in the face,
half Idindly, half t|uizzingly. It preened its wings
for a second, and crooned with pleasure. Then it put
forward its neck, with its head on one side, took her
dainty finger gently between its beak and tongue, bit
it for pure love with a soft short pressure, and at
once allowed her to stroke its liack and sides with a
very pleased and surprised expression. The success
of her skill Hattered Muriel. " There ! it knows
METnUSELAII GIVES SIGN.
193
I >>
me; ' she cried, with chikUsli deliglit ; *'it uiidev-
stands I'm a friend I It takes to me at once ! Pretty
Toll ! Pretty Poll ! Coine, Poll, come and kiss me ! "
The bh'd drew 1)aek at tlic Avords, and steadied
itself for a moment knowingly on its perch. Then
it held np its head, gazed aronnd it with a vacant air
as if suddenly awakened from a very long sleep, and,
opening its mouth, exclaimed in loud, clear, sharp,
and distinct tones — and in Eiiglisli — " Pretty Poll !
Pretty Poll ! Polly wants a buss ! Tolly wants a
nice sweet bit of apple ! "
For a moment, M. Peyron couldn't imagine what
had happened. Felix looked at Muriel. ^Muriel
looked at Felix. The Englishman hehl out both his
hands to her in a wild fervour of sur^jrise. JMuricl
took them in her own, and looked dee[) into his eyes,
whilst tears rose suddenly and dropjx'd down her
cheeks, one by one, unchecked. They couldn't say
why themselves ; they didn't know wherefore ; yet
this unexpected echo of their own tongue in the
mouth of that strange and mysterious bird thrilled
through them instinctively with a strange unearthly
tremor. In some dim and unexplained way, they
felt half unconsciously to themselves that this di.^-
covery was, perhaps, the first clue to the solution of
the terrible secret whose meshes encompassiid them.
M. Peyron looked on in mute astonishment. He
liad heard the bird repeat that strange jargon so
often that it had ceased to have even the possibility
of a meaning for him. It was the way of Methusaleh
— ^just his language that he talked; so harsh! so
guttural! "Pretty Poll! Pretty Poll!" he had
o
194 THE ORE AT TABOO.
noticed the bird liarp upon those quaint words again
and again. They were part, no doubt, of that old
primitive and forgotten Pacific language the creature
had learned in other days from some earlier bearer
of the name and ghastly honours of Tu-Kila-Kila.
Why should these English seem so profoundly moved
by them ?
" Mademoiselle doesn't surely understand the bar-
barous dialect which our Methuselah speaks ! " he
exclaimed in surprise, glancing half suspiciously
from one to the other of these inc(jmprehensible
Britons. Like most other Frenchmen, he had been
brought up in total ignorance of every European
language, except his own ; and the words the parrot
pronounced, when delivered with the well-known
additions of parrot harshness and parrot volubility,
seemed to him so inexpressibly barbaric in tlieir
clicks and jerks, that he hadn't yet arrived at the
faintest inkling of the truth, as he observed their
emotion.
Felix seized his new friend's hand in his and
wrung it warmly. " Don't you see what it is ?" he
exclaimed, half beside himself with this vague hope
of some unknown solution. " Don't you realize liow
the thing stands ? ])on't you guess the truth ? This
isn't a Polynesian dialect at all. It's our own
mother tongue. Tlie bird speaks English ! "
" English ! " M. Peyron replied, with incredulous
scorn. '•' AVhat ! Methusaleh speak English ! Oh
no. Monsieur, impossible. Vans vous trom^^cz, fen
suis sti)\ I can never believe it. Those harsh in-
articulate sounds to belong to the noble language of
METnUSELAU OTVES SlOy.
loa
Shaxper and Newtowne ! A/i, Moimeiw, incroi/idlc !
vous voHS trompcx ; was vous tromjuz ! "
As he spoke, tlie bird put its head on one side
once iiKji'e, and looking out of its half blind old eyes
with a crafty glance round the corner at ]\Iuri(d,
observed again in not very polite luiglisli, "Pretty
Poll: Pretty Poll : Polly wants some fruit. I'olly
wants a nut ! l*olly wants to g;i to bed ! . . . Cu)d
save the King ! To hell with all Papists ! "
" Monsieur," Felix said, a certain solemn feeling
of surprise coming over him slowly at this last
strange clause, " it is perfectly true. The bird
speaks English. Tlie bird that knows the secret of
which we are all in search — the bird tliat can tell us
the truth about Tu-Kila-Kila — can tell ns in the
tongue which ^Mademoiselle and I speak as our
native language. And what is more — and more
strange — I gather from his tone and the tenor of
his remarks, he was taught, long since — a century
ago or more — and bv an English sailor ! "
Muriel held out a bit of banana on a sluirp stick
to the bird. Methuselah-Polly took it gingerly off
the end like a well-behaved parrot! " (led save the
King ! " Muriel said in a quiet voice, trying to draw
him on to speak a little further.
Methuselah twisted his eye sideways, first this
way, then that, and responded in a very clear tone
indeed, " God save the King ! Coidbund the Duke of
York! Long live Dr. Gates ! And to hell with all
Papists!"
19G THE a BEAT TABOO.
CHAPTEIt XXII.
TANTALIZING, VERY.
TiiEY looked at one another again with a wihl sur-
mise. The voice was as the voice of some long past
age. Could the parrot be speaking to them in the
words of seventeenth-century English ?
Even M. I'eyron, who at first had received the
strange discovery with incredulity, woke up before
long to the importance of this sudden and unexpected
revelation. Tlie Tu-Kila-Kila who liad taiiglit
Methuselah that long poem or sermon wliich nati\'e
tradition regarded as containing the central secret of
their creed or its mysteries, and whicli the cruel iind
cunning Tu-Kila-Kila of to-day believed to be of
immense importance to his safety — that Tu-Kila-Kila
of other days was, in all probability, no other than
an English sailor. Cast on these shores, perhaps, as
they themselves had been, by the mercy of the waves,
he had managed to master the language and religion
of the savages amoncj whom he found himself tlirown ;
he had risen to be the representative of the cannibal
god : and, during long months or years of tedious
exile, he had beguiled his leisure by imparting to tlie
unconscious ears of a bird tlie weird secret of his
success, for the benefit of any otliers of his own race
who might be similarly treated by fortune in future.
Strange and romantic as it all sounded, tliey could
hardly doubt now that this was the real explanation
of the bird's command of English words. One
I
i
TANTALIZING, VERY, 107
problem alone reiuaincd to disturb their souls. Was
the bird really in possession of any local secret and
mystery at all, or was this the whole bunlen of the
message he had brought down across the vast abyss
of time — " God save the King, and to hell with all
Papists ? "
Felix turned to M. IVyron in a perfect tumult of
suspense. "What he recites is long?" he said
interrogatively, w^ith profound interest. " You have
heard him say much more than this at times ? The
words he has just uttered are not those of the sermon
or poem you mentioned ? "
M. Peyron opened his hands ex])ansively before
him. " Oh, man dlcu, no, Monsieur," he answered
with effusion. "You should hear him recite it. He's
never done. It is whole chapters — vrhole chapters ;
a perfect Henriade in parrot-talk. When once he
begins there's no possibility of checking or stopping
him. On, on he goes. Farewell to rest ; he insists
upon pouring it all forth to the very last sentence.
Gabble, gabble, gabble ; chatter, chatter, chatter ;
pouf, pouf, pouf ; boum, boum, boum ; he runs ahead
etern.ully in one long discordant sing-song monotone.
The person who taught him must have taken entire
months to teach him, a i)hrase at a time, paragraph
by paragraph. It is wonderful a bird's memory could
hold so much. Put till now, taking it for granted he
spoke only some wild South Pacific dialect, I never
paid much attention to Methuselah's vagaries."
" Hush. He's going to speak," ^luriel cried, hold-
ing up, in alarm, one warning finger.
And the bird, his tongue-strings evidently loosened
198 THE aHEAT TABOO.
l>y the strange lecurreiice after so many years ol"
tliose familiar Englisli sounds, " Pretty I'oU \ Pretty
Poll ! " opened liis mouth again in a loud chuclvle of
delight, ant" cried, with persistent shrillness, " God
save the King! A fig for all arrant knaves and
roundheads ! "
A creepier feeling than ever came over the two
English listeners at those astounding words. "(Jreat
heavens ! " Felix exclaimed to the unsuspecting
Frenchman, "he speaks in the style of the Stuarts
and the Connnonwealth ! "
The Frenchman started. " Ei)o(inv Louis QiiaAurzc !"
he murmured, translating the date mentally into his
own more familiar chronolociv. " Two centuries
Of
since ! Oh, incredible ! incredible ! Methuselah is
old, 1)ut not quite so much of a patriarch as that.
F^'en Humljoldt's parrot could hardly have lived f(.)r
two hundred years in the wilds of South America."
Felix regarded the venerable creature with a look
of almost superstitious a^e. "Facts are facts," he
answered shortly, shutting his mouth with a little
snap. " Unless this bird has been deliberately taught
historical details in an archaic diction — and a ship-
wrecked sailor is hardly likely to be antiquarian
enough to conceive such an idea — he is undoubtedly
a survival from the davs of the commonwealth or the
restoration. And you say he runs on with his tale
for an hour at a time! Good heavens, what a thought !
I wish we could manaue to start him now. Does he
begin it often ? "
" Monsieur," the Frenchman answered, " when I
came here first, though Methuselah was already very
TANTALIZING, VERY.
109
old and feeble, he was not quite a dotard, and he used
to recite it all every morning rei-ularly. That was
tlie hour, I supjtose, ut which the master, who first
taught him tliis leni^'thy recitation, used originally to
impress it upon him. In those days liis sight and his
memory were far more clear tlian now. But by
degrees, since my arrival, he has grown dull and
stupid. The natives tell nij that fifty years ago,
^\■hile he was already old, he was still bright and
lively, and would recite the wliole poem whenever
anybody presented him with his greatest dainty, the
claw of a moora-crab. Nowadays, however, when
he can hardly eat, and hardly mumble, he is nnich
less persistent and less coherent than formerly. T(j
say the truth, I have discouraged him in liis efforts,
because his pertinacity annoyed me. So now he
seldom gets through all his lesson at one bout, as he
used to do at the beginning. The best way to get
him on is for me to sing him one of my French songs.
That seems to excite him, or to rouse him to rivalry.
Then he will put his head on one side, listen critically
for a while, smile a superior smile, and finally begin
— ^jabber, jabber, jabber — trying to talk me down, as
if I were a brother parrot."
" Oh, do sing now ! " Muriel cried, with intense
persuasion in her voice. " I do so want to hear it."
She meant, of course, the parrot's story.
But the Frenchman bowed, and laid his hand on
his heart. " Ah, Mademoiselle," he said, " your wish
is almost a royal command. And yet, do you
know, it is so long since I have sung, except to
please myself — my music is so rusty, old pieces you
200 THE a BEAT TABOO.
liiiVL! liL'iml — 1 have no acccniipaiiiiiient, no score —
mais cnfin, we are all so far from Taris I "
Muriel didn't dare to undeceive him as to her
meaning, lest lie should refuse to sing in real earnest,
and tlie chance of learning tlie parrot's secret miglit
sh'|) by them irretrievably. "Oh, Monsieur," she
cried, fitting herself to his Immour at once, and
s[)eaking as ceremoniously as if she were assisting at
ji musical party in tlic Avenue Victor Hugo, "don't
decline, I l)eg of you, on those accounts. We arc
both most anxious to hear your song. ])on't disap-
point us, pray. Please begin immediately."
"All, Mademoiselle," the Frenchman said, "who
could resist such an appeal ? You are altogether too
ilattering." And then, in the same cheery voice
that Felix had heard on the llrst day he visited the
King of the Birds' hut, M. I'eyron began in very
decent style to pour forth the merry sounds of his
rollicking song —
" Quaml on conspi-ro,
QnaiKl sans frayciu'
On pent HO di-ro
Conspiratonr —
rour tout le mon-dc
II i'aut avoir
Pcrruqiie blon-do,
Et collet noir."
He had hardly got as far as the end of the iirst
stanza, however, when ^Methuselah, listening, with
his ear cocked up most knowingly, to the French-
man's song, raised his head in opposition, and, sitting
bolt upright on his perch, began to scream forth a
voluble stream of words in one unbroken flood, so
TANTALIZISa, VERY.
'JO I
fast that Muriel could hardly i'olhnv tlieiu. The
bird spoke iu a thick and very harsli voice, and,
what was more remarkable still, with a distinct and
extremely peculiar north country accent. " In the
nineteenth year of the reign of his Most (Jracious
Majesty, King Charles the Second," he blurted out
viciously, with an angry look at the Frenchman, " I,
Xathaniel Cross, of the borough of Sunderland, iu
the county of ])oorham, in England, an able-bodied
mariner, then sailing the South Seas in the good
barque Martyr rrincc, of the Tort of Clreat (Irimsby,
whereof one Thomas Wells, Gent., under Cod, was
master "
" Oh, hush, hush," Muriel cried, unalde to catch
the parrot's precious words through the emulous
echo of the Frenchman's music. " Whereof one
Thomas Wells, Cent., under (.iod, was master
Co on, Tolly."
" rcrruqnc Ijloiulo
Et collet noir,"
the Frenchman repeated, with a half-oirended voice,
linishing his stanza.
But just as he stopped, Methuselah stopped too,
and throwing back his head in the air with a
triumphant look, stared hard at his vanquished and
silenced opponent out of those blinking grey eyes of
his. *' I thought I'd be too much for you ! " he seemed
to say wrathfully.
"Whereof one Thomas Wells, Cent, under God,
was master," ^Muriel suggested aeain, all agog with
excitement. " Co on, good bird ! Co on, pretty
Polly."
«p
202 THE GREAT TABOO.
])Ut Metlmsoliili was evidently put oft' tlie scent
now l)y the iinseasonaltle interruption. Instead of
continuing;, he threw l)ack his liead a second time
^^ith a triumi»hant air and hinglied ahmd boister-
ously. "Pretty Tolly," he cried. "Pretty Polly
wants a nut. Tu-Kila-Kila niaroo ! Pretty Poll !
Pretty Polly ! "
"Sing again, for heaven's sake I" Felix exelainietl,
in a profoundly agitated mood, ex})laining l)riefly to
tlie Frenchman the full significance of the words
^[ethuselah had just begun to utter.
The Frenchman struck up his tune afresh to give
tlie bird a start ; Init all to no avail. ^letluiselah
was evidently in no humour for talking just then.
lie listened with a callous, uncritical air, bringing
his white eyelids down slowly and sleepily over his
bleared grey eyes. Then he nodded his head slowly.
" Xo use," the Frenchman murmured, pursing his
lips up gravely. " The Ijird won't talk. It's going
off to sleep now. Methuselah gets visibly older
every day, Monsieur and ^lademoiselle. You are
only just in time to catch his last accents."
CHAPTER XXIII.
A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAD.
Early next morning, as Felix still lay in his hut,
dozing, and just vaguely conscious of the buzz of a
mosquito close to his ear, he was aroused by a sudden
loud cry outside — a cry that called his native name
three times running: "0, King of the Pain, King of
A MESSAGE FliOM Till: DEAD.
the Iiiiiii, Kiii,<i- of tlu' Ivain, awake ! Hii^li time U\
be 111) ! The KiiiLT ef the Jiinls semis voii health and
X o 1/
I »>
greeting,' !
Felix rose at once : aiul his Shadow, vising' heOn'e
him, and unltolting the loose wooden fastener of th(^
door, went out in haste to see who called beyond the
white taboo-line of their saered precincts.
A native woman, tall, lithe, and handsome, stood
there in the full light of morning, beckoning. A
strange glow (tf hatred gleamed in her large grey
eyes. ]ler shapely l)rown bosom heaved and panted
heavily. ])ig beads glistened moistly on her smo(»th
high brow. It was clear she had run all the wav in
haste. She was deei»ly excited and full of eager
anxietv.
"Why, what do you want here so early, Via?"
the Shadow asked in surprise — for it was indeed she.
" llow have you slipped away, as soon as the sun
has risen, from the sacred hut of Tu-Kila-Kila ? "
llii's grey eyes flashed angry tire as she answered.
*' He has beaten me again," she cried, in revengeful
tones ; " see the weals on my back ! See my arms
and shouLlers ! He las drawn Idood from my
wounds. He is the most hateful of gods. I should
love to kill him. Therefore I slipped away from him
with the early dawn and came to consult with his
enemy, the King of the Birds, because I heard the
words that the Eyes of Tu-Kila-Kila, who pervade
the world, r'.'port to their master. The Eyes have
told him tliat the King of the llain, the Queen of the
Clouds, and the King of the Birds are plotting
together in secret against Tu-Kila-Kila. AVhen I
201 THE GREAT TABOO.
lioard tliat, I was glad: I went to tlic King of the
lairds to warn liini of liis danger ; and the King of
tliG Birds, concerned for yonr safety, has sent me in
haste to ask his brotlier gods to go at once to him."
In a minute Felix was up and liad called out Mali
from the neiglibouring hut. "Tell Missy Queenie,"
he cried, '' to come with me to see the nian-a-oui-oui !
The man-a-oui-ovu has sent me for u.^ to come. Slie
must make great haste. He wants us immediately."
AVith a word and a sign to Toko, Ula glided away
stealthily with tlie cat-like tread of the native
Polynesian woman, l)ack to her hated husband.
Felix went out to the door and heliographed with
liis l)right metal plate, turned on the Frenchman's
hill, ''What is it?"
In a moment the answer flashed l)ack, word l»y
word, " Come quick, if you want to hear. Methuselah
is reciting ! "
A few seconds later Muriel emerged from her hut,
and tlie two Europeans, closely followed, as always,
by their inseparable Sliadows, took the winding side-
patli that led through the jungle by a devious way,
avoiding the front of Tu-Kila-Kila's temple, to the
Frenchman's cottage.
They found ]\I. Peyron very much excited, partly
by Ula's news of Tu-Kila-Kila's attitude, but more
still by Methuselah's agitated condition. " The whole
night through, my dear friends," he cried, seizing
their hands, *' that bird has been chattering, chatter-
ing, chattering. Oh^ mon dicu, quel oiseau I It seems
as though the words he heard yesterday from
Mademoiselle had struck some lost chord in the
Hi-
A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAD. 205
creature's memory. But lie is also very feeble. I
can see that well. Ilis garrulity is the garrulity of
old age in its h\st flickering moments. lie mumbles
and mutters. He chuckles to himself. If you don't
hear his message now and at once, it's my solemn
conviction you will never hear it."
He led them out to the aviarv, where Methuselah
in effect was sitting upon his percli, most tremulous
and woebe^'one. His feathers shuddered visil)lv ;
he could no longer preen himself. " Listen to what
he says," the Frenchman exclaimed, in a very serious
voice. " It is your last, last chance. If the secret
is ever to be unravelled at all, l»y Methuselah's aid,
now is, without dou])t, the proper moment to
unravel it."
]\Iuriel ])ut out her hand and stroked the l)ird
gently. "Pretty I*oll," she said soothiugly, in a
sympathetic voice. " I'retty Poll ! Poor Poll ! Was
he ill ? Was he sufferinu,' ? "
At the sound of those familiar Mords, unheard so
long till yesterday, the parrot took her finger in his
l)eak once more, and bit it with the tenderness of his
kind in their softer moments. Then he threw back
his head with a sort of mechanical twist, and screamed
out at the top of his voice, for the last time on earth,
his mysterious message.
" Pretty Poll ! Pretty Poll : God save the King !
Confound the Duke of York. Death to all arrant
knaves and roundheads !
" In the nineteenth year of the reign of his Most
(Iracious Majesty, King Charles the Second, I,
Nathaniel Cross, of the borough of Sunderland, in
20G TUE GREAT TABOO.
the county of Doorliam, in England, an able-bodied
mariner, then sailing the South Seas in the good
barque Martiir Frl /ia\ of the Port of Great Grimsby,
whereof one Thomas "Wells, Gent, under God, was
master, was, by stress of weather, wrecked and cast
away on the shores of tliis island, called by its
gentile inhabitants by the name of Boo I'arry. In
which wreck, as it befell, Thomas Wells, Gent., and
all his equipment were, by divine disposition, killed
and (bownded, save and except three mariners,
whereof I am one, who in God's good providence,
swam safely through an exceeding great flood of
waves and landed at laast on this island. There my
two companions, Owen Williams of Swansea in the
parts of Wales, and Lewis Le Pickard, a Frencli
Hewgenott refugee, were at once, by the said gen-
tiles, cruelly entreated, and after great torture cooked
and eaten at the temple of their chief god, Too-Keela-
Keela. But I, myself, having through God's grace
found favour in their eyes, w'as promoted to the post
which in their speech is called Korong, the nature of
which this bird, my mouthpiece, will hereafter, to
your ears, more fully discover."
Having said so much, in a very jerky way, ]\Ie-
thuselah paused, and Idinked his eyes wearily.
" AVliat does he say ? " tlie Frenchman l)egan, eager
to know the truth. But Felix, fearful lest anv in-
terruption might break the thread of the Ijird's
discourse and cheat them of the sequel, held up a
warning finger, and then laid it on his lips in mute
injunction. Methuselah threw back his head at that
and laughed aloud. " God save the King ! " he cried
A MESSAGE FROM TTIE DEAD.
20-;
again, ill a still feel )lcr way, "and to hell with all
Papists ! "
It was strange liow they all Ining on the words of
that unconscious messenger from a dead-and-gone
age, who himself knew nothing of the import of the
words he was utterinu*. Methuselah lau'died at their
earnestness, shook his head once or twice, and seenuHl
to think to liimself. Then he remembered afresli
the point he had broken off at.
"More fully discover. For seven years have I
now lived on this island, never liaving seen or h'ard
(,'hristian face or voice ; and at the end of that time,
feeling my health feail, and being ap|U'ehensive lest
any of my fellow-countrymen shouLl liereafter sutler
the same fate as I have done, I began to teach this
parrot his message, a few words at a time, impressing
it duly and fully on his memory.
" Larn, then, wayfarer, that the people of JJoo
Parry are most arrant gentiles, heathens, and carri-
bals. And this, as I discover, is the nature and
method of their vile faith. They hold that the gods
are each and several incarnate in some one particular
human being. This human being they worship and
reverence with all ghostly respect as his incarnation.
And chiefly, above all, do they revere the great god
Too-Keela-Keela, wliose representative (may the
Lord in Heaven forgive me for the sanu>) I myself
am at this present speaking. Having thus, for my
sins, attained to that impious honour.
" God save the King ! Confound the Duke of
York ! To hell with all l»apists !
/'It is the fashion of this people to iiold that their
208 THE GBEAT TABOO.
gods must alwjtys be strong and lusty. For they
argue to themselves tlius : that the continuance of the
rain must needs depend upon the vigour and subtlety
of its soul, the rain-god. 80 the continuance and
fruitfulness of the trees and plants which yield them
food, nnist needs depend upon the liealth of the tree-
god. And the life of the world, and the light of the
sun, and the well-ljeino: of all thinccs that in them
are, must depend upon the strengtli and cunning of
the high god of all, Too-Keela-Keela. Hence they
take great care and woorship of their gods, surround-
ing them witli many rules wliicli they call Taboo,
and restricting them as to what they shall eat, and
what drink, and wherewithal they shall seemly clothe
themselves. For they think that if the King of the
Eain at' anything that might cause the colick, or like
humour or distemper, the weather will tliereafter be
stormy and tempestuous ; but so long as the King
of the Eain fares well and retains his health, so long
will the weather over tlieir island of Boo Parry be
clear and prosperous.
" Furtliermore, as I have larned from tlieir theo-
logians, l)eing myself, indeed, the greatest of their
gods, it is evident that they may not let any god die,
lest that department of nature over which he pre-
sideth shoiild wither away and feail, as it were, with
liim. But reasonably no care that mortal man can
exercise will prevent the possibility of their god —
seeing he is but one of themselves — growing old and
feeble and dying at laast. To prevent which calamity,
these gentile folk have invented (as I believe, by the
id and device of Sathan) this horrid and most on-
A MESSAGE FJiOM THE DEAD. '2&J
natural practice. The man-god must ha killed so
soon as he showetli in body or mind that his native
powers are l)eginning to feail. And it is necessary
tliat he be killed, according to their faith, in this
ensuing fashion.
" If the man-god were to die slowlv bv a death in
tlie course of nature, tlie wavs of the woorld might
be stopped altogether. Hence these savages catcli
the soul of their god, as it were, ere it grow old and
feeble, and transfer it betimes, Ijy a magic device, to
a suitable successor. And surely, they say, this
suitable successor can be none otiier than him that is
able to take it from him. This, then, is their liorrid
counsel and device — that each one of tlieir gods should
kill his antecessor. In doing thus, he taketh the
old god's life and soul, which thereupon migrates
and dwells within him. And l»y this tenure (may
Heaven be merciful to me, a sinner) do I, Nathaniel
Cross, of the county of Doorham, now hold this
dignity of Too-Keela-Keela, having slain, therefor,
in just (piarrel, my antecessor in the liigh godship."'
As he reached these words ]\Ietliuselah paused,
and choked in his throat sliglitlv. The mere me-
chanical effort of continuing the speech he liad
learned Ijy heart two hundred years before, and re-
peated so often since that it had become part of
liis being, was now almost too much for him. The
Frenchman was right. Tlicy were only just in time.
A few days later, and the secret would have died
with the bird that preserved it.
210 THE OliEAT TABOO.
CHAPTER XXIV.
AN VNFINLSIIKD TALE.
Foil a iiiinutc or two ^letliuselali mumbled in-
articulately to himself. Tlien, to their intense dis-
comfiture, he began once more, " In the nineteenth
year of the reign of His Most Clracious Majesty,
King Charles the Second, I, X'athtmiel Cross "
" Oh, this will never do," Felix cried. " We
haven't got yet to the secret at all. Muriel, do try
to set him right. He must waste no breath. We
can't afford now to let him a:o all over it."
Muriel stretched out her hand and soothed the
bird gently as before. " Having slain, therefore, my
predecessor in the high godship," she suggested in
the same sing-song voice as the parrot's.
To her immense relief, Methuselah took the hint
with charming docility.
" In the high god-ship," he went on, mechanically,
■where he had stopi)ed. "And this here is the
manner whereby I ol)tained it. The Too-Keela-Keela
from time to time doth generally appoint any cast-
away stranger that comes to the island to the post of
Ivorong — that is to say, an annual god or victim.
For as the vear doth renew itself at each change of
seasons, so do these carribals in their gentilisme
believe and hold that the gods of the seasons — to
wit, the King of the Eain, the Queen of the Clouds,
the Lord of Crreen Leaves, the King of Fruits, and
others — must needs be sleiiin and renewed at the
AN UNFINISHED TALE. 2U
(livui'SG sulsticcs. Xow, it so happened that I, on my
arrival in the ishind, was a])i)ointe(l Kornn",', and
promoted to the post of King of the Piain, having a
native woman assigned me as (>_hieen of the Clouds,
witli wliom I might keep company. This woman
lieing, after lier kind, enamoured of me, and anxious
to (escape her own fate, to he sleain l)y my side, did
betray to me that secret M'hich they call in tlieir
toniiue the Clreat Taboo, and which had been
betrayed to herself in turn by a native man, lier
former lover. For the men are instructed in these
things in tlie mysteries when they coom of age, but
not the women.
"And the Great Talx.io is this. Xo man can
becoom a Too-lveela-Keela unless lie first sleay the
man in whom the hi<>h u;od is incarnate for the mo-
nient. But in order that he may sleay him, he nuist
also himself be a full Korong, only those i)ersons
who are already gods being capable for the highest
])ost in their hierarchy ; even as with ourselves, none
but he that is a deacon may become a priest, and
none but he that is a priest may be made a bishop.
c For this reason, tlien, the Too-Keela-Keela prefers
; to advance a stranger to the post of Korong, seeing
I that such a person will not have been initiated in the
I mysteries of the island, and therefore will not be
I aware of those sundry steps which must needs be
I taken of him that would inherit the godship.
I " Furthermore, even a Korong can only obtain the
I highest rank of Too-Keela-Keela if he order all
I things according tu the lV)rms and ceremonies of
I the taboo parfectly. For these gentiles arc very
I
OIO
THE GREAT TABOO.
careful of the Icvitical part of tlieir religion, deriving
the same, as it seems tu me, from the polity of the
Hebrews, tlie fame of whose taborniicle must sure
have gone fortli through the ends of the woorld, and
the knowledge of whose temple must luive been yet
more wide dispersed by Solomon his ships when tliey
came into these parts to fetch gold from Ophir. And
tlie ceremony is, that before any man may sleay tlie
'artldy tenement of Too-Keela-Keela and inherit his
soul, wliich is in very truth (as they do think) the
god himself, he must needs fight with tlie person in
whom Too-Keela-Keela doth then dwell, and for this
reason. If tlie holder of the soul can defend himself
in light, then it is clear that his strength is not one
whit decayed, nor is his vigour feailing; nor yet has
his assailant been able to take his soul from him.
But if the Korong in open fight do sleay the person
in whom Too-Keela-Keela dwells, he becometh at
once a Too-Keela-Keela himself — that is to say, in
their tongue, tlie Lord of Lords, because he hath
taken the life of him that preceded him.
"Yet so intricate is the theology and practice of
these loathsome savages, that not even now have I
explained it in full to you, sliip-wrecked mariner,
for your aid and protection. For a Korong, though
it be a part of his privilege to contend if he will with
Too-Kila-Kila for the high godship and princedom of
this isle, may only do so at certain appointed times,
places, and seasons. Above all things it is necessary
that he should first find out the hiding place of the
soul of Too-Keela-Keela. For though the Too-Keela-
Keela for the time that is be animated by the god,
AN UNFINISHED TALE. 213
yet, fur greater security, lie dutli not keep his soiil
in his own hody, but (being above all things the god
of fruitfulness and generation, who causes women to
bear children, and the plant called taro to bring forth
its increase) he keepeth his soul in the great sacred
tree behind his temide, which is thus the Father of
All Trees, and the chiefest abode of the great god
Too-Keela-Keela.
" Nor does Too-Keela-Keela's soul abide equally
in every part of this aforesaid tree ; but in a certain
bough of it, resembling a mistletoe, which hath
yellow leaves, and, being broken off, groweth ever
1 green and yellow afresh ; which is the central
mystery of all their Sathanic religion. For in this
very bough — easy to Ije discerned by the eye among
the green leaves of the tree " the bird paused and
faltered.
Muriel leaned forward in an agony of excitement.
''Among the green leaves of the tree," she went on,
soothing him.
Her voice seemed to give the parrot a fresh
impulse to speak. " Is contained, as it were," he
continued feebly, " the divine essence itself, the soul
and life of Too-Keela-Keela. AVhoever, then, being
a full Korong, breaks this off, hath thus possessed
himself of the very god in person. This, however,
he must do by exceeding stealth ; for Too-Keela-
Keela, or rather the man that bears that name, being
the guardian and defender of the great god, walks
ever up and down, by day and by night, in exceed-
ing great cunning, armed with a spear and with a
hatchet of stone, around the root of the tree, watch-
2U THE QliEAT TABOO.
ing jealously over the bmucli wliicli is, as he
believes, his own soul and beinr,'. I, tlierefore, being
warned of tlio tal)00 l)y the woman that was my
consort, did craftily, near the appointed time for my
own death, creep out of my liut, and my consort,
Iiaving induced one of tlie wives of Too-Keela-Kecla
to make liim (hunkcu witli too much of that in-
toxicating drink which they do call kava, did proceed
— did proceed — did proceed — In the nineteenth year
of tlie reimi of His ^lost CJracious Maiestv,
King Cliarles the Second "
Muriel bent forward once mori^ in an agony of
suspense. " Oh, go on, good Poll ! " slie cried. '• (Jo
on. Uemember it. Did proceed to "
The single syllable helped Methuselah's memory.
"Did proceed to stealthily pluck the bougli, and
liaving sliown the same to Fire anil Water, tiie
guardians of the taljoo, did l)oldly challenge to single
C(jmbat tlie l)odily tenement of the god, with spear
and liatchet, provided for me in accordance witli
ancient custom by Fire and Water. In whicli
combat, lieaven mercifully befriending me against
my enemy, I did coom out conqueror; and was
thereupon proclaimed Tu-Keela-Keela myself, with
ceremonies too many and Ijarbarous to mention, lest
I raise your gorge at them. Ijut that which is most
important to tell you for your own guidance and
safety, mariner, is this — that being the sole and
only end I have in imparting this history to so
strange a messenger — that after you have by craft
plucked the sacred branch, and by force of arms
overcoom Too-Keela-Keela, it is by all means
AN rNFINISriED TALK. 215
needful, whether you will or not, that sublnittin.^• to
the liatcful and gentile custom of this people — of
this people— Pretty Toll! Tretty Tull ! God save
■ — God save tlie Kin*,'! Death to the uineteenlli
year of tlie reign of all arrant kna\'es and round-
heads."
He dropped liis head on liis Ijreast, and ])linkod liis
white evelids more fci^blv tlian e\er. I lis strength
was failing him fast. The Soul of all dead ]»arrols
was wearing out. ^I. Peyrijn, who had sb^od by all
this time, not knowing in any way what might Ix^
the value of the bird's disclosures, came forward and
stroked poor Methuselah with his caressing hand.
]>ut Methuselah was incapable n(.)W of any i'urthcr
effort. He opened his blind (iyes sleepily lor the
last, last time, and stared around him with a blaidc
stare at the fading universe. "God save the King ! "
he screamed aloud with a terriljle gasp, true to his
colours still. " God save the King, and to hell with
all rapists!"
Then he fell off his perch, stone dead, on the
ground. They were never to hear the conclusion of
that strange, qiuaint message from a forgotten age ttj
our more sceptical century.
Felix looked at Muriel, and Muriel looked at
Felix. They could hardly contain themselves with
awe and sur[)rise. The parrot's words were so
human, its speech was so real to them, that they felt
as though the English Tu-Kila-Kila of two hundred
years back had really and truly been speaking to
them from that perch ; it was a human creature
indeed that lay dead before them. Felix raised the
21G TIW QUEAT TAllOO.
AViinu l)()(ly IVuiii tlie «^i'()Uii(l with positive reverence.
"We will liiiry it decently," he said in French, tnrn-
ing to M. Teyron. "He was ii plucky l)ird, indeed,
and he has carried out his master's intentions
nobly."
As they s])oke, a little rustlinL*' in the jun^^de hard
l)y attracted their attention. Felix turned to look.
A stealthy brown fii^un^ glided away in silence
through the tangled brushwood. M. Peyron started.
" We are observed, Monsieur," he said. " We must
look out for squalls! It is one of the Eyes of
Tu-Kila-Kila ! "
"Let him do his worst ! " Felix answered. "We
know his secret now, and can protect ourselves
against him. Let us return to the shade, Monsieur,
and talk this all over. Methuselah has indeinl given
us something very serious for to-day to think
about."
CHAriER XXA^
TU-KILA-KILA STHIKES.
AxD yet, when all w^as said and done, knowledge of
Tu-Kila-Kila's secret didn't seem to bring Felix and
Muriel much nearer a solution of their own great
problems than they had been from the beginning.
In spite of all Llethuselah had told them, they were
as far off as ever from securing their escape, or e^•en
from the chance of sighting an English steamer.
This last was still the main hope and expectation
of all three Europeans. j\L Peyron, who was a bit
TU'KILA'KILA STRIKES, L'l7
of a inatlieiiiiitician, luid accurately calculatcil the
time, from what Felix told him, wlicii the Australn-
siioi would ])ass agaiu on her next homeward voyage ;
and when that time arrived, it was tlieir unite(l
intention to watch night and day lor tlie faintest
glimmer of her lights, or the faintest wreath of her
smoke on the far eastern horizon. Thc^y had ventured
to confide their (h'sign to all three of their Shadows ;
and the Shadows, attached l)y the kindness to which
I they were so little accustomed among their own
people, had in every case agreed to assist them wilh
the canoe, if occasion served them. So for a tinu;
I the two doomed victims subsided into their ac-
customed calm of mingled hope and despair, waiting
patiently for the expected arrival of tlie luncli longed-
for Austmlasian.
I If she took that course once, why not a second
time ? And if ever she hove in sight, might they
not hope, after all, to signal to her with their rudely
constructed heliograph, and stop her ?
As for Methuselah's secret, there was only one
way, Felix thought, in which it could now prove of
any use to them. AVhen the actual day of their
doom drew nigh, he might perhaps be tempted to try
the fate which Nathaniel Cross of Sunderland had
successfully courted. That might gain them at least
a little respite. Though even so, he hardly knew
what good it could do him to be elevated for awliile
into the chief god of the island. It might not even
avail him to save Muriel's life ; f(jr he did not doubt
that when the awful day itself had actually come,
the natives would do their best to kill her in spite of
218 THE GREAT TABOO.
liiiii, unless ho anticipated them by fulfilling his own
terriljle yet merciful promise.
Week after week went by, — month after month
passed — and tlie date when the Australasian might
reasonably be expected to reappear drew nearer and
nearer. They waited and trembled. At last, a few
days before the time M. Peyron had calculated, as
Felix was sitting under the Ijig shady tree in his
garden one morning, while Muriel, now worn out
with hope deferred, lay within lier liut (done witli
Mali, a sound of tom-toms and beaten palms was
heard on the liill-path. The natives around fell on
tlieir faces or fled. It announced the speedy approacli
of Tu-Kila-lvila.
By this time, both the castaways had grown com-
paratively accustomed to that hideous noise, and to
the hateful presence which it preceded and heralded.
A dozen temple-attendants tripped on either side
down the hill-path, to guard him, clapping their
hands in a barbaric measure as they went ; Fire and
Water, in the midst, supported and flanked the
divine umbrella. Felix rose from liis seat with very
little ceremony indeed as the great god crossed the
white taboo-line of his precincts, followed only
beyond the limit by Fire and Water.
Tu-Kila-Kila was in his most insolent vein. He
glanced around with a horrid light of triumph dancing
visiljly in his eyes. It was clear he had come, intent
upon some grand theatrical coiip. He meant to take
the white-faced stranger l)y surprise this time.
" Good-morning, oh, King of the llain," he exclaimed
in a loud voice and with boisterous fanuliaritv*
k<iia#
TU'KILA-KILA STRIKES. 210
" How do you like your outlook now ? Things are
getting on. Things are getting on. The end of your
rule is drawing very near, isn't it ? ]iefore long, I
must make the seasons clianire. I nmst make mv
O V
sun turn. Inuist twist round my sky. And tlien, I
shall need a new Korong instead of you, oh, pale-
faced one ! "
Felix looked l)ack at him without mov*- g a muscle.
" I am well," he answered sliortly, restraining his
anger. " The year turns round whether you will or
not. You are riglit tliat the sun will soon begin to
move southward on its path again. lUit many things
may haj^pen to all of us meanwhile, /am not afraid
of you."
As lie spoke, he drew his knife, and opened tlie
blade, unostentatiously l)Ut firndy. If tlie worst
were really coming now, sooner than he expected, lie
would at least not forget his promise to Muriel.
Tu-Kila-Kila smiled a hateful and ominous smile.
"I am a great god," he said calmly, striking an atti-
tude as was his wont. " Hear how my ])eople clap
their hands in my honour ! I order all tilings. I
dispose the course of nature in heaven and earth. H'
I look at a coco-nut tree, it dies; if I glance at
a bread-fruit, it withers away. AVe will see before
long wliether or not you are afraid of me. i\Iean-
while, oh Korong, I have come to claim my dues at
your hands. I'repare for your fate. To-morrow the
()ueenof the Clouds must be sealed mv bride. Fetch
her out that I may speak with her. 1 have come to
tell her so."
It was a tliunder1)olt from a clear skv, and it fell
220 THE GREAT TABOO.
with terriljlc eilect on loUx. Fur a moment the
knife trembled in his grasp with an ahnost irresistible
impnlse. He could hardly restrain himself as he
lieard those horrible, incredible words, and saw the
loathsome smirk on the speaker's face by which they
were accompanied, from leaping then and tliere at
the savage's throat, and plunging his blade to the
haft into the vile creature's body. But by a violent
effort he mastered his indignation and wrath for the
]n'esent. l^lanting himself full in front of Tu-Kila-
]vila, and blocking' the Avav to the door of that sacred
Englisli girl's hut — oh, how horrible it was to him
even to think of her purity being contaminated by
the vile neighbourhood, for one minute, of that loatli-
some monster ! he looked full into the wretch's face,
and answered very distinctly, in low, slow tones, '' If
you dare to take one step towards the place where
that lady now rests, if you dare to move your foot
one inch nearer, if you dare to ask to see her face
again, I will plunge the knife hilt-deep into your
vile heart, and kill you where you stand without one
second's deliberation. Now you hear my words and
you know what I mean. My weap'^n is keener and
iiercer than any you Tolyncsians ever saw. liepeat
those words once more, and by all Lliat's true and
holy, before they're out of your mouth, I leap upon
you and stab you."
Tu-Kila-Kila drew back in sudden surprise. He
was unaccustomed to be so bearded in his own sacred
island. "Well, I shall claim her to-morrow," he
faltered out, taken aback by Felix's unexpected
energy. He paused for a second, then he went on
I
lU-KILA-KlLA STRIKES. 221
more slowlv, " To-movrow I will conic with all niv
people to claim my Itride. This afternoon they will
brini*' her mats of grass and necklets of nautilus shell
to deck her for her wedding, as becomes Tu-Kila-
Kila's chosen one. The young maids of lioupari will
adorn her for her lord, in the accustomed dress of
Tu-Kila-Kila's wives. They will clap their hands ;
thev will sin^• the marriaue sons'. Then early in the
morniuGj I will come to fetch her — and woe to him
who strives to prevent me ! "
Felix looked at him long, with a iixed and dogijcd
look. " What has nuide you think of this devilry t "
ho asked at last, still grasping his knife hard, and
half undecided whether or not to use it. " You have
invented all these ideas. You have no claim, even
in the horrid customs of your savage country, U)
demand such a sacrifice."
Tu-Kila-Kila laughed loud, a laugh of triumphant
and discordant merriment. " Ha, ha ! " he cried, " vou
do not understand our customs, and will you teach
vie, the very high God, the guardian of the laws and
practices of Boupari ? You know nothing ; you are
as a little child. I am absolute wisdom. AVith
every Korong, this is always our rule. Till the moon
is full, on the last month before we offer up the
sacrifice, the (^ueen of the Clouds dwells apart with
her Shadow in her own new temple. 80 our fathers
decreed it. But at the full of the moon, when tlie
day has come, the usage is that Tu-Kila-Kil;i, tlie
very high Ci-jd, confers upon her the honour of
making her his bride. It is a mighty honour. The
feast is great. Bloud Hows like water. For seven
222 THE GREAT TABOO.
days and iiiglits, then, she lives with Tu-Kilu-Kihi in
his sacred abode, tlie threshold of Heaven ; she eats
of human flesh ; she tastes human blood ; she drinks
abundantlv of the divine kava. At the end of tliat
time, in accordance with the custom of our fathers,
tliose great dead gods, Tu-Kila-Kila performs the
high act of sacrifice. He puts on his mask of the
iace of a shark, for he is holy and cruel ; he brings
forth the Queen of the Clouds before the eyes of all
his people, attired in her wedding robes, and made
drunk with kava. Then he gashes her with knives ;
he offers her up to Heaven that accepted her ; and
the King of the Eain he offers after her ; and all the
people eat of their flesh, Korong 1 and drink of their
blood, so that the body of gods and goddesses may
d\\ell within all of them. And when all is done, the
higli god chooses a new king and fpieen at his will
(for he is a mighty god), who rule for six moons more,
and then are offered up, at the end, in like fashion."
As he spoke, the ferocious light that gleamed in
the savage's eye made Felix positively mad with
anger. But he answered nothing directly. " Is this
so ?" he asked, turning for confirmation to Fire and
AYater. " Is it the custom of Boupari that Tu-Kila-
Kila should wed the Queen of the Clouds seven days
Itefore the date appointed for her sacrifice ?"
The King of Fire and the King of Water, tried
guardians of the etiquette of Tu-Kila-Kila's court,
made answer at once with one accord, " It is so,
oh, King of the Bain. Your lips have said it. Tu-
Kila-Kila speaks the solemn truth. He is a very
great god. Such is the custom of Boupari."
TU-KILA-KILA STRIKES. 223
Tu-Kila-Kila laughed his triumph in harsh savage
outbursts.
But Felix drew back for a second, irresolute. At
last he stood face to face with the absolute need
for immediate action. Xow was almost the moment
when he must redeem his terrible promise to Muriel.
And yet, even so, there was still one chance of life,
one respite left. Tlie mystic yellow bough on the
sacred banvan ! the Great Taboo! the washer of
battle with Tu-Kila-Kila! Quick as lightning, it
all came up in his excited brain. Time after time,
since he heard Methuselah's strange message from
the grave, had he passed Tu-Kila-Kila's temple
enclosure, and looked up with vague awe at that
sacred parasite that grew so conspicuously in a
fork of the branches. It was easy to secure it, if
no man guarded. There still remained one niijht.
In that one short night, he must do his best — and
worst. If all then failed, he must die himself, with
Muriel :
For two seconds he hesitated. It was hateful
even to temporize with so hideous a proposition.
lUit for Muriel's sake, for her dear life's sake, he
must meet tliese savages with guile f<.)r guile. *' If
it be, indeed, the custom of Boupari," he answered
back, with pale and tremljling lips, " and if I, one
man, am powerless to prevent it, I will gi\e your
message, myself, to the Queen of the Clouds, and
you may send, as you say, your wedding decorations,
]>ut come what will — mark this — you shall not sec
her yourself to-day. You shall not speak to her.
There, I draw a line — so, with my stick in the dust.
221 THE GliEAT TABOO.
If yuu try to advance one step beyond, I stab you
to the heart. Wait till to-morrow to take your
prey. CJive me one more night. (Jreat god as you
are, if you are "svi.se, you will not drive an angry
man to utter desperation."
Tu-Kila-Kila looked A\ith a suspicious side glance
at the i-leaminr' steel Ijlade he still fiuGjered tremu-
lously. Though Boupari was one of those rare
and isolated small islands unvisited as yet l)y
European trade, he had, nevertheless, heard enough
of the sailing gods to know that their skill was deep
and their weapons very dangerous. It would be
foolish to provoke this man to wrath too soon.
To-morrow, wlien taboo was removed, and all was
free licence, he would come when he willed and take
his bride, backed up by the full force of his assembled
people. Meanwhile, why provoke a brother god too
far ] After all, in a little more than a week from
now, the pale-faced Korong would be eaten and
di nested !
"Very well," he said sulkily, but still with the
sullen light of revenge gleaming bright in his eye.
" Take my message to the queen. You may be my
herald. Tell her what honour is in store for her — to
be first the wife and then the meat of Tu-Kila-Kila !
She is a very fair woman. I like her well. I have
longed for her for months. To-morrow, at the early
dawn, by the break of day, I will come with all
my people and take her home by main force to
me."
He looked at Felix and scowled, an angry scowl
of revenge. Then, a-s he turned and walked away,
A HASH HE SOLVE. 225
under cover of tlve great iinibrella, with its dangling
pendents on either side, the temple attendants clapped
their hands in unison. Fire and "Water marched
slow and held the umbrella over him. As ho dis-
appeared in the distance, and the sound of his
tom-toms grew dim on the hills, Toko, the Shadow,
who had lain ilat, trembling, on his face in the liut
while the god was speaking, came out and looked
anxiously and fearfully after him.
" The time is ripe," he said, in a very low voice
to Felix. "A Korong may strike. All the people
of Boupari murmur among tliemselves. They say
this fellow has held the spirit of Tu-Kila-Kila within
himself too long. He waxes insolent. They think
it is high time the great Crod of Heaven should find
before long some other fleshly tabernacle."
CHAPTER XXVI.
A HASH KESOLVE.
The rest of that day was a time of profound and
intense anxiety. Felix and Muriel remained alone
in their huts, absorbed in plans of escape, but mes-
sengers of many sorts from chiefs and gods kept
continually coming to them. The natives evidently
regarded it as a period of preparation. The Eyes of
Tu-Kila-Kila surrounded their precinct ; yet Felix
couldn't help noticing that they seemed in many
ways less watchful than of old, and that they
whispered and conferred very much in a mysterious
foshiou with the people of the village. More than
Q
220 THE a BEAT TABOO.
once Toko shook his head sagely. " If only any one
dared break the Great Taboo," he said with some
terror on liis face, " our people would be glad. It
would greatly please them. They are tired of this
Tu-Kila-Kila. lie has held the god in his breast
far, far too long. They would willingly see some
other in place of him."
Before noon, the young girls of the village, bring-
ing native mats and huge strings of nautilus shells,
trooped up to the hut, like bridesmaids with flowers
in their hands, to deck Muriel for her approaching
wedding. Ijefore them they carried quantities of
red and brown tappa cloth and very fine net- work,
the dowry to be presented by the roytd bride to
her divine husband. Within the hut, they decked
out the Queen of the Clouds with garlands of flowers
and necklets of shells, in solemn native fashion,
bewailing her fate all the time to a measured dirge
in their own language. Muriel could see that their
sympathy, though partly conventional, was largely
real as well. Many of the young girls seized her
hand convulsively from time to time, and kissed it
with genuine feeling. The gentle young English
woman had won their savage hearts by her purity
and innocence. '" Poor thing, poor thing," they said,
stroking her hand tenderly. " She is too good for
Korong ! Too good for Tu-Kila-Kila ! If only we
knew the Great Taboo like the men, we would tell
her everything. She is too good to die. We are
sorry she is to be sacrificed ! "
But when all their preparations were finished, the
chief amonj]f them raised a calabash with a little
A RASH RESOLVE. 221
scented oil in it, and poured a few drops solemnly
on Muriel's head. " great god," she said, in her
own tongue, " we offer this sacrifice, a goddess herself,
to you. We obey your words. You are very holy.
We will each of us eat a portion of her llesh at your
feast. So give us good crops, strong health, many
children ! "
" What does she say ? " Muriel asked, pale and
awe-struck, of Mali.
Mali translated the words with perfect sang-froid.
At that awful sound Muriel drew back, chill and
cold to the marrow. How inconceivable was the
state of mind of these terrible people ! They were
really sorry fur her ; they kissed her hand with
fervour; and yet, they deliberately and solenndy
proposed to eat her !
Towards evening the young girls at last retired, in
regular order, to the clapping of hands, and Felix
was left alone with Muriel and the Shadows.
Already he had explained to Muriel what he
intended to do ; and Muriel, half dazed with terror
and paralyzed by these awful preparations, con-
sented passively. " But how if you never come
back, Felix ? " she cried at last, clinging to him
passionately.
Felix looked at her with a fixed look. " I have
thought of that," he said. " M. Peyron, to whom I
sent a message by flashes, has helped me in my
difficulty. This bowl has poison in it. I'eyron sent
it to me to-day. He prepared it himself from the
root of the kava bean. If by sunrise to-morrow
you have heard no news, drink it off at once. It
*
228 THE a HEAT TABOO.
will instantly kill you. Vuii sliull not full alive into
that creature's clutclies."
By slow der^rocs the evening wore on, and niglit
approached — the last niglit that remained to them.
Felix had decided to make his attempt a])Out one
in the morning. The moon was nearly full now,
and there would be plenty of light. Supposing he
succeeded, if tliey gained nothing else, tliey would
gain at least a day or two's respite.
. As dusk set in, and they sat by the door of tlie
hut, they were all surprised to see Ula approach the
precinct stealthily tlirough the jungle, accompanied
by two of Tu-Kila-Kila's Eyes, yet apparently on
some strange and friendly message. She beckoned
imperiously with one finger to Toko to cross the
line. The Shadow rose, and without one word of
explanation w^ent out to speak to her. The woman
gave her message in short, sharp sentences. " We
have found out all," she said, breathing hard. '* Fire
and Water have learnt it. But Tu-Kila-Kila him-
self knows nothing. We have found out that the
Kin;:; of the Bain has discovered the secret of the
Great Taboo. He heard it from the Soul of all dead
parrots. Tu-Kila-Kila's Eyes saw, and learnt, and
understood. But they said nothing to Tu-Kila-Kila.
For my counsel was wise : I planned that they
should not, with Fire and Water. Fire and Water
and all the peoj)le of Boupari think, with me, the
time has come that there should arise among us a
new Tu-Kila-Kila. This one let his blood fall out
upon the dust of the ground. His luck has gone.
We have need of another."
A HASH LESOLVE. 229
"Then for what have you come?" Toko asked,
all awo-stniek. It wag terrible to him for a woman
to meddle in such high matters.
"I have come," Ula answered, layino;' her hand on
his arm, and holding her face close to his, with
profound solemnity, " I have come to say to the
King of the Kain, * Whatever you do, that do quickly.'
To-night I will engage to keep Tu-Kila-Kila in his
temple. lie shall see nothing. He shall hear
nothing. I know not the Great Taboo ; l)ut I know
from him this much — that if by wile or guile I keep
him alone in his temple to-night, the King of the
Eain may fight with him in single combat; and if
the King of the IJain conquers in the battle, he
becomes himself the home of the great deity."
She nodded thrice, with her hands on her foreheads
and withdrew as stealthily as she had come through
the jungle. The Eyes of Tu-Kila-Kila, falling into
line, remained behind, and kept watch upon the huts
with the closest apparent scrutiny.
More than ever they were hemmed in by mystery
on mystery.
The Shadow went back and reported to Felix.
Felix, turning it over in his own mind, wondered
and debated. Was this true, or a trap to lure him to
destruction ?
As the night wore on and the hour drew nigh,
Muriel sat beside her friend and lover, in blank
despair and agony. How could she ever allow him
to leave her now ? How could she venture to
remain alone with Mali in her hut in this last
extremity ? It was awful to be so girt with
230 THE GliEAT TABOO.
mysterious cncinies. " I must go with you, Felix !
I must go too ! " she cried over and over again. " I
daren't remain l)eliind witli all tliosc awful men.
And then, if he kills either of us, he will kill us
at least both together."
])Ut Felix knew he miglit do nothing of the sort.
A more terrible chance was still in reserve. He
might spare Muriel. And against that awful pos-
sibility lie felt it his duty now to guard at all hazard.
"No, Muriel," he said, kissing her, and holding
her pale hand, " I must go alone. You can't come
with me. If I return, we will have gained at least
a respite, till the Australasian may turn up. If I
don't, you will at any rate have strength of mind
left to swallow the poison before Tu-Kila-Kila
comes to claim you."
Hour after hour passed by slowly, and Felix
and the Shadow watched the stars at the door,
to know when the hour for the attempt had arrived.
The Eyes of Tu-Kila-Kila, peering silent from just
beyond the line, saw them watching all the time,
but gave no sign or token of disapproval. With
heads bent low and tangled hair about their faces,
they stood like statues, watching, watching sullenly.
Were they only waiting till he moved, Felix
wondered ; and would they then hasten off by short
routes through the jungle to warn their master of
the impending conflict.
At last the hour came when Felix felt sure there
was the greatest chance of Tu-Kila-Kila sleeping
soundly in his hut, and forgetting the defence of the
sacred bough on the holy banyan tree. He rose
A HASH RESOLVE. 231
from his scat witli a j:,'CStnro for silenoo, nnd moved
forward to Muriel. The poor girl ihiiiLj lierself, nil
tears, into his arms. •* Oh, Felix, Felix," she cried,
"redeem your promise now! Kill us Ixith here
together, and then at least I shall never he separated
from you! It wouldn't he wrong! It can't he
wrong ! We would surely he forgiven if we did it
only to escape falling into the hands of these terrihle
savages ! "
Felix clasped her to his l)osom with a faltering
heart. " No, Muriel," he said slowly. " Not yet.
Not yet. I must leave no opening on earth nntried
by wdiich I can possibly or conceivably save you.
It's as hard for me to leave you here alone, as for
you to be left. But for your own dear sake, I must
steel myself I must do it."
He kissed her many times over. He wiped away
her tears. Then with a gentle movement he un-
twined her clasping arms. " You must let me go,
my own darling," he said. ''You must let me go,
without crossing the border. If you pass beyond
the taboo-line to-night, heaven only knows what
perhaps may happen to you. We must give these
people no handle of offence. Good-night, Muriel,
my own heart's wife; and if I never come back,
then good-bye for ever."
She clung to his arm still. He disentangled
himself gently. The Shadow rose at the same
moment and followed in silence to the open door.
Muriel rushed after them wildly. " Oh, Felix,
Felix, come back," she cried, iMU'sting into wild
floods of hot fierce tears. " Come back and let me
•"H, ^ftt^v'T
232 THE GREAT TABOO.
die with you ! Let me die ! Let mc die with
yoii!"_
Felix crossed tlie white lino without one word of
reply, and went forth into the ni<;ht, half unmanned
by this effort. IMuriel sank where she stood into
Mali's arms. Tlie girl caught her and supported
her. P)ut before she liad fainted quite away, Muriel
had time vaguely to see and note one significant
fact. The Eyes of Tu-Kila-Kila, wlio stood watch-
ing the huts with lynx-like care, nodded twice to
Toko the Shadow as he passed between them ; then
they stealthily turned and dogged the two men's
footsteps afar off in the jungle.
Muriel was left by herself in the hut, face to face
with Mali.
"Let us pray, IMali," she cried, seizing her
Shadow's arm.
And Mali, moved suddenly by some lialf-oljliterated
impulse, exclaimed in concert, in a terrified voice,
"Let us pray to Methodist Clod in heaven !"
For her life, too, hung on the issue of that rash
endeavour.
CHAPTER XXVI L
A STKANGE ALLY.
Ix Tu-Kila-Kila's temple-lmt, meanwliile, the jealous,
revengeful god, enshrined among his skeletons, was
haviii!'- in his turn an anxious and doubtful time of
it. Ever since his sacred blood had stained the dust
of earth by the Frenchmjiu's cottage and in his own
A STRANGE ALLY. 233
temple, Tu-Kihi-Kila, for all his bluster, had been
deeply stirred and terrified in his inmost soul by
that unlucky portent. A savage, even if he be a
god, is always superstitious. Could it be that liis
own time was incited drawinj:? nifrji ? that he, wlio
liad remorselessly killed and eaten so many hundreds
of human victims, was himself to fall a prey to some
more successful competitor ? Had the white-faced
stranger, tlie King of the liain, really learnt the
secret of the Great Taboo from the Soul of all dead
parrots ? Did that mysterious bird speak the tongue
of these new fire-bearing Korongs, whose doom was
fixed for the approaching solstice ? Tu-Kila-Kila
wondered and doubted. His suspicions were keen,
I and deeply aroused. Late that night he still lurked
by the sacred banyan tree, and when at last he
I retired to his own inner temple, white with the
I grinning skulls of the victims he had devoured, it
I was with strict injunctions to Fire and "Water, and
5 to his Eyes that watched there, to bring him word at
once of any projected aggression on the part of the
stranger,
, Within the temple- hut, however, Ula awaited him.
j That was a pleasant change. The beautiful, supple,
\ satin-skinned Polynesian looked more beautiful and
I more treacherous than ever that f\iteful evening.
Her great brown limbs, smooth and glossy as i)earl,
were set off by a narrow girdle or waistband of green
and scarlet leaves, twined spirally around her. Arm-
lets of nautilus shell threw up tlie dainty plumpness
of her soft round forearm. A garland lumg festooned
across one shapely shoulder : her bosom was bare or
2U THE GREAT TABOO.
but half hidden by the crimson hibiscus that nestled
voluptuously upon it. As Tu-Kila-Kila entered, she
lifted her large eyes, and, smiling, showed two even
rows of pearly white teeth. " My master has come ! "
she cried, holding up both lissome arms with a
gesture to w^elcome him. " The great god relaxes
his care of the world for a while. All goes on well.
He leaves his sun to sleep, and his stars to shine,
and he retires to rest on the unworthy bosom of
her, his mate, his meat, that is honoured to love
him."
Tu-Kila-Kila was scarcely just then in a mood for
dalliance. " The Queen of the Clouds comes hither
to-morrow," he answered, casting a somewhat con-
temptuous glance at Ula's more dusky and solid
charms. " I go to seek her with the wedding gifts
early in the morning. For a week she shall be
mine. And after that " he lifted his tomahawk
and brought it down on a huge block of w^ood
significantly.
Ula smiled once more, that deep treacherous smile
of hers, and showed her wdiite teeth even deeper than
ever. " If, my lord, the great god, rises so early to-
morrow," she said, sidling up toward him volup-
tuously, " to seek one more bride for his sacred
temple, — all the more reason he should take his rest
and sleep soundly to-night. Is he not a god ? Are
not his limbs tired ? Does he not need divine silence
and slumber ? "
Tu-Kila-Kila pouted. " I could sleep more soundly,"
lie said with a snort, " if I knew what my enemy the
Korong is doing. I have set my Eyes to watch him
A STUANGE ALLY. 235
yet I do not feel secure. They are not to be trusted.
I shall be happier far when I liave killed and eaten
him." He passed his hand across his bosom with a
reflective air. You have a great sense of security
toward your enemy, no doubt, when you know that
he slumbers, well digested, within you.
Ula raised herself on her elbow and gazed snake-
like into his face. *' My lord's Eyes are everywliere,"
she said reverently, with every mark of respect.
" He sees and knows all things. Who can hide
anytliing on earth from his face ? Even when lie is
asleep, his Eyes watch well for him. Tlien wliy
should the great god, the measurer of lieaven and
earth, the King of Men, fear a white-faced stranger ?
To-morrow, the Queen of the Clouds will be yours,
and the stranger will be abased: lia, ha, he will
grieve at it ! To-night, Fire and Water keep guard
and watch over you. Whoever would hurt you must
pass through Fire and Water before he reach your
door. Fire would burn. Water would drown. This
is a Great Taboo. No stranger dare face it."
Tu-Kila-Kila lifted himself up in his thrasonic
mood. " If he did," he cried, swelling himself, " I
would shrivel him to ashes with one flash of my
eyes. I would scorch him to a cinder with one
stroke of my lightniiig."
Ula smiled again, a well-satisfied smile. She was
working her man up. " Tu-Kila-Kila is great," she
repeated slowly. "All earth obeys him. All heaven
fears him."
The savage took her hand with a douljtful air.
"And yet," he said, toying with it, half irresolute,
236 THE GREAT 2AB00.
" when I went to the white-faced stranger's hut this
morning, he did not speak fair : he answered me
insolently. His words were over bold. He talked
to me as one talks to a man, not to a great god. Ula,
I wonder if he knows my secret ? "
Ula started back in well-affected horror. "A
white-faced stranger from the sun know your secret,
great King ! " she cried, hiding her face in a square
of cloth. ''See me beat my breast! Impossilde !
Impossible ! No one of your subjects w^ould dare
to tell him so great a taboo. It would be rank
blasphemy. If they did, your anger w^ould utterly
consume them ! "
" That is true," Tu-Kila-Kila said practically, " but
1 might not discover it. I am a very great god. My
Eyes are everywhere. No corner of the w^orld is hid
from my gaze. All the concerns of Heaven and
earth are my care. And therefore, sometimes, I
overlook some detail."
" No man alive would dare to tell the Great
Taboo ! " Ula repeated confidently. " Why, even I
myself, who am the most favoured of your wives,
and who am permitted to bask in the light of your
presence — even I, Ula — I do not know it. How
much less, then, the spirit from the sun, the sailing
god, the white-faced stranger ! "
Tu-Kila-Kila pursed up his brow and looked
preternaturally wise, as the savage loves to do.
" But the parrot," he cried, " the Soul of all dead
parrots ! He knew the secret, they say : — I taught
it him myself in an ancient day, many, many years
ago — when no man now living was born, save only T
.1 STHANOE ALLY. 2n7
— in aiiothor incarnation — and he may have told it.
For the strangers, they say, speak the hmgnage of
birds ; and in the language of birds did I tell the
Great Taboo to liim."
Ula pooh-poohed the mighty man-god's fear3.
** No, no," she cried with conhdence ; " lie can never
have told them. If he had, would not your Eyes,
that watch ever for all that happens on Heaven or
earth, have straightway reported it to you ? The
parrot died without yielding up the tale. AVere it
otherwise. Toko, who loves and worships you, would
surely have told me."
The man-god puckered his brow", slightly, as if he
liked not the security. "Well, somehow, Ula," he
said, feeling her soft brown arms with his divine
hand, slowly, " I have always had my doubts since
that day the Soul of all dead parrots bit me. A
vicious bird ! AVhat did he mean by his bite ? "
He lowered his voice and looked at her fixedly.
" Did not his spilling my blood portend," he asked,
with a shudder of fear, " that through tliat ill-omened
bird I, who was once Lavita, should cease to be
Tu-Kila-Kila ? "
Ula smiled contentedly again. To say the truth,
that was precisely the interpretation she herself had
put on that terrific omen. The parrot had spilt Tu-
Kila-Kila's sacred blood upon the soil of earth.
According to her simple natural philosophy that was
a certain sign that through the parrot's instru-
mentality Tu-Kila-Kila's life would be forfeited to
the great eternal earth-spirit. Or rather, the earth-
spirit would claim the blood of the man, Lavita, in
238 THE QUEAT TABOO.
whose body it dwelt, and would itself migrate to
some new earthly tabernacle.
- But for all that, she dissembled. " Great god,"
she cried, smiling a benign smile, " you are tired !
You are thirsty ! Care for Heaven and earth has
wearied you out. You feel the fatigue of upholding
the sun in Heaven. Your arms nnist ache. Your
thews must give under you. Drink of the soul-
inspiring juice of the kava! My hands have pre-
pared the divine cup. For Tu-Kila-Kila did I make
it — fresh, pure, invigorating ! "
She held the bowl to liis lips with an enticing
smile. Tu-Kila-Kila hesitated and glanced around
him suspiciously. " What if the white-faced stranger
should come to-night ? " he whispered hoarsely. " He
may have discovered the Great Taboo after all. Who
can tell the ways of the world, how they come about ?
My people are so treacherous. Some traitor may
have betrayed it to him."
''Impossible," the beautiful snake-like woman
answered, with a strong gesture of natural dissent,
"And even if he came, would not kava, the divine
inspiriting drink of the gods, in wdiich dwell the
embodied souls of our fathers — would not kava make
you more vigorous, strong for the fight ? Would it
not course through your limbs like fire ? W^ould it
not pour into your soul the divine abiding strength
of your mighty mother, the eternal earth-spirit ? "
''A little," Tu-Kila-Kila said, yielding, "but not
too much. Too much would stupefy me. When the
spirits that the kava-tree sucks up from the earth
are too strong within us, they overpower our own
A STRANGE ALLY. 239
strength, so that even I, the high god — even I can
do nothing."
ULa held the bowl to his lips and enticed him to
drink with her beantifiil eyes. " A deep dranght, oh
supporter of the sun in Heaven," slie cried, pressing
his arm tenderly. '' Am I not Ula ? Did I not
brew it for you ? Am I not the chief and most
favoured among your women ? I will sit at the
door. I will watch all night. I will not close an
eye. Not a footfall on the ground, but my ear
shall hear it."
" Do," Tu-Kila-Kila said laconically. " I fear Fire
and Water. Those gods love me not. Fain would
they make me migrate into some other body. But I
myself like it not. This one suits me admirably. —
Ula, that kava is stronger than you are used to
make it."
*' No, no," Ula cried, pressing it to his lips a
second time passionately. " You are a very great
god. You are tired ; it overcomes you. And if you
sleep, I will watch. Fire and Water dare not dis-
obey your commands. Are you not great ? Your
Eyes are every wliere. And I, even I, will be as one
of them."
The savage gulped down a few more mouthfuls of
the intoxicating liquid. Then he glanced np again
suddenly with a quick suspicious look. The cunning
of his race gave him wisdom in spite of the deadly
strength of the kava Ula had brewed too deep for
him. With a sudden resolve, he rose and staggered
out. " You are a serpent, woman ! " he cried angrily,
seeing the smile that lurked upon Ula's face. " To-
240 THE ORE AT TABOO.
morrow I will kill you. 1 will take the white
woman for my bride, and she and I will feast off
your carrion body. You have tried to betray me,
but you are not cunning enough, not strong enough.
No woman shall kill me. I am a very great god. I
will not yield. I will wait by the tree. This is a trap
you have set, but I do not fall into it. If the King
of the Eain comes, I shall be there to meet him."
He seized his spear and hatchet and walked forth,
erect, without one sign of drunkenness. Ula trembled
to herself as she saw him go. She was playing a
deep game. Had she given him only just enough
kava to strengthen and inspire him ?
CHAPTER XXVIIT.
WAGER OF BATTLE.
Felix wound his way painfully through the deep
fern-brake of the jungle, by no regular path, so as to
avoid exciting the alarm of the natives, and to take
Tu-Kila-Kila's palace -temple from the rear, where
the big tree which overshadowed it with its drooping
branches was most easily approachable. As he and
Toko crept on, bending low, through that dense
tropical scrub, in deathly silence, they were aware
all the time of a low crackling sound that rang ever
some paces in the rear on their trail through the
forest. It was Tu-Kila-Kila's Eyes, following them
stealthily from afar, footstep for footstep, through
the dense undergrowth of bush, and the crisp fallen
leaves and twigs that snapped light beneath their
WAG Eli OF BATTLE. 211
footfall. What hope of success with tln^sc watchful
spies, keeu as beagles and cruel as bloodhounds,
following ever on tlieir track ? AVliat chance of
escape for Felix and Muriel, with the cannibal man-
god's toils laid round on everv side to ensure their
destruction ?
Silently and cautiously the two men groped their
way on tlu'ougli the dark gloom of the woods, in
spite of their mute pursuers. The moonliglit Hickered
down athwart the trackless soil as they went ; the
hum of insects innumerable droned deep among the
underbrush. Now and then the startled scream of a
night-jar broke the monotony of the buzz that was
worse than silence ; owls boomed from the hollow
trees, and fireflies darted dim through the open spaces.
At last they emerged upon the cleared area of the
temple. There Felix, without one moment's hesita-
tion, with a firm and resolute tread, stepped over the
white coral line that marked the taboo of the great
god's precincts. That was a declaration of open war ;
he had crossed the Eubicon of Tu-Kila-Kila's empire.
Toko stood trembling on the far side; none might
pass that mystic line unbidden and live, save the
Korong alone who could succeed in breaking off the
bough " with yellow leaves, resembling a mistletoe,"
of which Methuselah, the parrot, had told Felix and
Muriel, and so earn the right to fight for his life with
the redoubted and redoubtable Tu-Kila-Kila.
As he stepped over the taboo-line, Felix was
aware of many native eyes fixed stonily upon him
from the surrounding precinct. Clearly they were
awaiting him. Yet not a soul gave the alarm ; that
li
b
242 THE GREAT TABOO.
ill itself would liave been to break taboo. Every
man or woman among the temple attendants within
that charmed circle stood on gaze curiously. Close
by, Ula, the favourite wife of the man-god, crouched
low by tlie hut, with one finger on her treacherous
lip, bending eagerly forward, in silent expectation of
what next might happen. Once, and once only, she
glanced at Toko with a mute sign of triumph ; then
she fixed her big eyes on Felix in tremulous anxiety ;
for to her as to him, life and death now hung
absolutely on the issue of his enterprise. A little
furtlier back the King of Fire and tlie King of
Water, in full sacrificial robes, stood smiling sar-
donically. For them it was merely a question of
one master more or less, one Tu-Kila-Kila in place
of another. They had no special interest in the
.n})shot of the contest, save in so far as they always
hated most the man who for the moment held by
his own strong arm the superior godship over them.
Around, Tu-Kila-Kila's Eyes kept watch and ward
in sinister silence. Taboo was stronger than even
the commands of the high god himself. Wlien once
a Korong had crossed that fatal line, unbidden and
unwelcomed by Tu-Kila-Kila, he came as Tu-Kila-
Kila's foe and would-be successor ; the duty of every
guardian of the temple was then to see fair play
between the god that was and the god that might be
— the Tu-Kila-Kila of the hour and the Tu-Kila-Kila
who might possibly supplant him.
" Let the great spirit itself choose which body it
will inhabit," the King of Fire murmured in a soft
low voice, glancing towards a dark spot at the foot
WAQER OF BATTLE. 213
of the big tree. The moonlight fell dim tliroiigh the
hnuiches on the place where he looked. The gibber-
ing bones of dead victims ruttled lightly in the wind.
Felix's eyes followed tlie King of Fire's, and saw,
lying asleep upon the ground, Tu-Kila-Kila himself
with his spear and tomahawk.
He lay there, huddled up by the very roots of the
tree, breathing deep and regularly. Eight over his
head projected the branch in one part of whose
boughs grew the fateful parasite. By the dim light
of the moon, stragglinif through the dense folia<'e,
Felix could see its yellow leaves distinctly. Jjeneath
it, hung a skeleton, suspended by invisible cords, head
downward from the Ijrancli. It was the skeleton of
a previous Korong who had tried in vain to reach
the bough, and perished. Tu-Kila-Kila had made
high feast on the victim's flesh; his bones, now
collected together and cunningly fastened with
native rope, served at once as a warning and as a
trap or pitfall for all who might rashly venture to
follow him.
Felix stood for one moment, alone and awestruck,
a solitary civilized man, among those hideous sur-
roundings. Above, the cold moon ; all about, the grim,
stolid, half-hostile natives; close by, that strange
serpentine savage wife, guarding, cat-like, the sleep of
her cannibal husband ; behind, the watchful Eyes of
Tu-Kila-Kila, waiting ever in the background, ready to
raise a loud shout of alarm and warning the moment
the fateful branch was actually broken, but mute,
by their vows, till that moment was accomplished.
Then a sudden wild impulse urged him on to the
244 THE GliEAT TAliOO.
attempt. The banyan luid dropped down rootinj,'
offsets to tlie <:,'round, after the fashion of its kind,
from its main branches. Felix seized one of tliese
and swung himself lightly Tip, till he reached the
very limb on which the sacred parasite itself was
growing.
To get to the parasite, however, he must pass
directly above Tu-Kila-Kila's head, and over the
point where tint ghastly grinning skeleton was
suspended, as by an unseen hair, from the fork that
bore it.
He walked along, balancing himself, and clutching
as he went at the neiuhbourinGf boughs, wliilc Tu-
Kila-Kila, overcome with the kava, slept stolidly
and heavily on beneath him. At last he was almost
within grasp of the parasite. Could he lunge out
and clutch it ? One try — one effort ! No, no ; he
almost lost footing and fell over in the attempt. He
couldn't keep his balance so. He must try further
on. Come what might, he must go past the skeleton.
The grisly mass swung again, clanking its bones
as it swung, and groaned in the wind ominously.
Tlie breeze whistled audibly through its hollow skull
and vacant eye-sockets. Tu -Kila-Kila turned un-
easily in his sleep below. Felix saw there was not
one instant of time to be lost now. He passed on
boldly ; and as he passed, a dozen thin cords of paper
mulberry, stretched every way in an invisible net-
work among the boughs, to small to be seen in the
dim moonlight, caught him wdth their toils and almost
overthrew him. They broke with his weight, and
Felix himself, stumbling blindly, fell forward. At
^
WAflEli OF nATTLE. 215
tlio cost of a sprained wrist and a groat Jerk on his
bruised fin<:;crs, lie caught at a bough ])y liis side, but
M'renched it away suddenly. It was touch and go.
At the very same moment, the skeleton fell heavily,
and rattled on the ground beside Tu-Kila-Kila.
before Felix could discover what had actually
happened, a very great shout went up all round
below and made him stagger with excitement. Tu-
Kila-Kila was awake, and had started up, all intent,
mad with wrath and kava. Glaring about him wildly,
and brandishing his great spear in his stalwart hands,
he screamed aloud in a perfect frenzy (jf passion and
despair. "Where is he, the K(jrong ? Ihing him
on, my meat I Let me devour his heart ! Let me
tear him to ])ieces ! Let me drink of his blood !
Let me kill him and eat him ! "
Sick and desperate at the accident, Felix, in turn,
clinging hard to his bough with one hand, gazed
wildly about him to look for the parasite. ]>ut it
had gone as if by magic. lie glanced around in
despair, vaguely conscious that nothing was left for
it now but to drop to the ground and let liimself be
killed at leisure by that frantic savage. Yet even
as he did so, he was aware of that great cry — a cry
as of triumph — still rending the air. Fire and Water
had rushed forward, and were holding back Tu-Kila-
Kila, now black in the face from rage, with all
their might. Ula was smiling a malicious joy.
The Eyes were all agog with interest and excite-
ment. And from one and all, that wild scream rose
unanimous to the startled sky : " He has it ! He
has it ! The Soul of the Tree ! The Spirit of the
246 THE GltEAT TABOO.
World ! The great god's abode. Hold off your
hands, Lavita, son of Sanii ! Your trial has come.
He has it ! He has it ! "
Felix hooked about him witli a wliirlincf l)rain.
His eye fell suddenly. There, in his own hands, lay
the fateful bougli. In his efforts to steady himself,
he had clutched at it by pure accident, and broken
it off unawares with the force of his clutchincj. As
fortune would liave it, he grasped it still. His
senses reeled. He was almost dead with excitement,
suspense, and uncertainty, mingled with the pain of
liis wrenclied wrist. Ijut for Muriel's sake, lie
pulled himself together. Gazing dov/n and trying
hard to take it all in — that strange savage scene —
he saw that Tu-Kila-Kila was making frantic
attempts to lunge at him with the spear, while the
King of Fire and the King of Water, stern and
relentless, were holding him off by main force, and
striving their best to appease and quiet him.
Tliere was an awful pause. Then a voice broke
the stillness from beyond the taboo-line.
'* The Shadow of the Iving of the Eain speaks," it
said, in very solemn conventional accents. " Korong !
Korontj ! The Great Taboo is broken. Fire and
Water, hold him in whom dwells the god till my
master comes. He has the Soul of all the spirits of
the wood in his hands. He will fight for his right.
Taboo ! Taboo ! I, Toko, have said it."
He clapped his hands thrice.
Tu-Kila-Kila made a wild effort to break away
once more. But the King of Fire, standing
opposite him, spoke still louder and clearer. " H'
WAGER OF BATTLE. 247
you touch the Korong before the line is drawn," he
said, with a voice of authority, "you are no Tu-Kihi-
Kila, but an outcast and a criminal. All the people
will hold you with forked sticks, while tlie Korong
burns you alive slowly, limb by limb, with me, who
am Fire, the fierce, t'.e consuming. I will scorch
you and bake you till you are as a bamboo in the
flame. Taboo ! Taboo ! Taboo ! I, Fire, have
said it."
The King of Water, with three attendants, forced
Tu-Kila-Kila on one side for a moment. Ula stood
by and smiled pleased compliance. A temple slave,
trembling all over at this conflict of the gods, Ijronght
out a calabash full of white coral sand. The King
of Water spat on it and blessed it. By this time a
dozen natives at least had assembled outside the
taboo line, and stood eagerly watching the result of
the combat. The temple slave made a long white
mark with the coral sand on one side of the cleared
area. Then he handed the calabash solemnly to
Toko. Toko crossed the sacred precinct with a few
inaudible words of muttered charm to save the taboo,
as prescribed in the mysteries. Then he drew a
similar line on the ground on his side some twenty
yards off. " Descend, oh, my lord ! " he cried to
Felix; and Felix, still holding the bough tight in
his hand, swung himself blindly from the tree, and
took his place by Toko.
*' Toe the line ! " Toko cried, and Felix toed it.
"Bring up your god!" the Shadow called out
aloud to the King of Water. And the Kim:; of
Water, using no special ceremony with so great a
1
248 THE GREAT TABOO,
duty, dragged Tu-Ivila-Kila helplessly along with
him to the further taboo line.
The King of Water brought a spear and tomahawk.
He handed them to Felix. " With these weapons,"
he said, " fight, and merit heaven. I hold the bough
meanwlnle — the victor takes it.'*
The King of Fire stood out between the lists.
" Korongs and gods," he said, " the King of the Rain
has plucked the sacred bou;^h, according to our
fathers' rites, and claims trial which of you two shall
henceforth hold the sacred soul of the world, the
great Tu-Kila-Kila. Wager of Battle decides the
day. Keep toe to line. At the end of my words,
forth, forward, and fight for it. The great god knows
his own, and will choose his abode. Taboo, Taboo,
Taboo ! I, Fire, have spoken it."
Scarcely were the words well out of his mouth,
when, with a wild whoop of rage, Tu-Kila-Kila, who
had the advantage of knowing the rules of the
game, so to speak, dashed madly forward, drunk
with passion and kava, and gave one lunge with his
spear full tilt at the breast of the startled and un-
prepared white man. His aim, though frantic, was
not at fault. The spear struck Felix high up on the
left side. He felt a dull thud of pain ; a faint
gurgle of blood. Even in the pale moonlight his eye
told him at once a red stream v/as trickling out over
his flannel shirt. He was pricked, at least. The
great god had wounded him.
( 249 )
chaptp:r XXIX.
VICTORY — AND AFTER ?
The great god had wounded him. But not to tlie
licart. Felix, as good hick would have it, liappened
to he wearing huckled hraces. He had worn them
on board, and, like the rest of his costume, had, of
course, never since been able to discard them. They
stood him in good stead now. The buckle caught
the very point of the bone-tipped spear, and broke
the force of the blow as the great god lunged forward.
The wound was but a graze; and Tu-Kila-Kila's
light shaft snapped short in the middle.
Madder and wilder than ever, the savage pitched
it away, yelling, rushed forward with a fierce curse
on his angry tongue, and Ihmg himself, tooth and
nail, on his astonished opponent.
The suddenness of the onslaught aim ;st took the
Englishman's breath away. By this time, however,
Felix had pulled together his ideas and taken in tlic
situation. Tii-Kila-Kila was attacking liim now
with his heavy stone axe. He must parry those
deadly blows. He must be alert, but watchful. He
must put himself in a posture of defence at once.
Above all, he must keep cool, and have his wits
about him.
If he could but have drawn his knife, he would
have stood a better chance in that hand-to-hand
conflict. But there was no time now for such
I tactics as those. Besides, even in close figlit with a
t
250 THE OREAT TABOO.
bloodthirsty savage, an English gentleman's sense
of fair play never for one moment deserts liim.
Felix felt, if they were to fight it out face to face for
their lives, they should fight at least on a perfect
equality. Steel against stone was a mean advantage.
Parrying Tu-lvila-Kila's first desperate bhjw with
the haft of his own hatchet, he leaped aside half a
second to gain breath and strength. Then he ruslied
on, himself, and dealt one deadly down-stroke with
the ponderous weapon.
For a minute or two they closed, in perfectly savage
single combat. Fire and Water, observant and
impartial, stood by like seconds to see the god him-
self decide the issue, which of the two combatants
should be his living representative. The contest was
brief but very hard fought. Tu-Kila-Kila, inspired
with the last frenzy of despair, rushed wildly on liis
opponent wdth hands, and fists, and teeth, and nails,
dealing his blows in blind fury, right and left, and
seeking only to sell liis life as dearly as possible. In
this last extremity, his very superstitions told against
liim. Everything seemed to show his hour had come.
The parrot's bite — the omen of his own blood that
stained the dust of earth — Ula's treachery — the
chance by which the Korong had learned the Great
Taboo — Felix's accidental or providential success in
breaking off the bough — the lengtli of time he him-
self had held the divine honours— the probability
that the god would by this time begin to prefer a
new and stronger representative — all these things
alike combined to fire the drunk and maddened
savage with the energy of despair. He f.!l upon his
vicTonr — AXD afteh? 251
enemy like a tiger upon an elephant. He fonglit
with liis tomahawk and his feet and liis wliole litlio
body ; he foamed at the mouth with impotent rage ;
he spent his force on the air in the extremity of his
passion.
Felix, on the other hand, sobered by pain, and
nerved by the fixed consciousness that Muriel's safety
nowdepended absolutely on his perfect coolness, fought
with the calm skill of a practised fencer. Happily,
lie had learned the gentle art of thrust and parry
years before in England ; and though both weapon
and opponent were liere so different, the lessons of
quickness and calm watchfulness he had gained in
that civilized school stood him in good stead, even
now, under such adverse circumstances. Tu-Kila-
Kila, getting spent, drew back for a second at last,
and panted for breath. That faint breathing space
of a moment's duration sealed his fate. Seizing his
chance with consummate skill, Felix closed upon the
breathless monster, and brought down the heavy
stone hammer point blank upon the centre of his
crashing skull. The weapon drove home. It cleft a
great red gash in the cannibal's head. Tu-Kila-Kila
reeled and fell. There was an infinitesimal pause of
silence and suspense. Then a great shout went up
from all round to heaven, " He has killed him ! He
has killed liini ! We have a new-made god ! Tu-
Kila-Kila is dead ! Long live Tu-Kila-Kila ! "
Felix drew back for a moment, panting and breath-
less, and wiped his wet brow witli his sleeve, his
brain all whirling. At his feet, tlie savage lay
stretched like a log. Felix gazed at the blood-
252 THE a HEAT TABOO.
bespattered face remorsefully. It is an awful tiling,
even in a just quarrel, to feel that you have really
taken a human life ! The responsibility is enough
to appal the bravest of us. He stooped down and
examined the prostrate body witli solemn reverence.
Blood was flowing in torrents from the wounded
head. But Tu-Kila-Kila was dead— stone dead for
ever.
Hot tears of relief w^elled up into Felix's eyes.
He touched the body cautiously with a reverent hand.
Xo life. No motion.
Just as he did so, the woman Ula came forward,
bare-limbed and beautiful, all triumph in her walk,
a proud, insensitive savage. One second she gazed
at the great corpse disdainfully. Then she lifted
her dainty foot, and gave it a contemptuous kick.
" The body of Lavita, the son of Sami," she said, with
a gesture of hatred. "He had a bad heart. We
will cook it and eat it." Next, turning to Felix,
"Oh, Tu-Kila-Kila," she cried, clapping her hands
three times and bowing low to the ground, " you are
a very great god. We will serve you and salute you.
Am not I, Ula, one of your wives, your meat ? Do
with me as you will. Toko, you are henceforth the
great god's Shadow ! "
Felix gazed at the beautiful heartless creature, all
horrified. Even on Boupari, that cannibal island, he
was hardly prepared for quite so low a depth of
savage insensibility. But all the people around,
now a hundred or more, standing naked before their
new god, took up the shout in concert. " The body
of Lavita, the son of Sami," they cried. " A carrion
VICTORY — AND AFTER* 253
corpse! The god has deserted it. The great soul of
the world has entered the heart of the white-faced
stranger from the disk of the sun ; the King of the
Rain ; the great Tu-]vila-Kila. "We will cook and
eat the body of Lavita, the son of Sanii. lie was
a bad man. He is a worn-out shell. Nothing re-
mains of him now. The great god has left him."
They clapped their hands in a set measure as they
recited this hynm. The King of Fire retreated into
the temple. Ula stood by, and whispered low with
Toko. There was a ceremonial pause of some fifteen
minutes. Presently, from the inner recesses of the
temple itself, a low noise issued forth as of a rising
wind. For some seconds it buzzed and hunmied,
droningly. But at the very first note of that holy
sound, Ula dropped her lover's hand, as one drops a
red hot coal, and darted wildly off at full speed, like
some frightened wild beast, into the thick jungle.
Every other woman near began to rush away with
equally instantaneous signs of haste and fear. Tlie
men, on the other hand, erect and naked, with their
hands on their foreheads, crossed the taboo line at
once. It was the summons to all who had been
initiated at the mysteries — the sacred bull-roarer was
calling the assembly of the men of Boupari.
For several minutes it buzzed and droned, that
mystic implement, growing louder and louder till it
roared like thunder. One after another, the men of
the island rushed in as if mad or in flight for their
lives before some fierce beast pursuing them. They
ran up, panting, and dripping witli sweat ; their
hands clapped to their foreheads ; their eyes starting
251 THE OltEAT TABOO.
wildly iVuiii their staring sockets ; torn, and bleeding,
and lacerated by the thorns and branches of the
jungle, for each man ran straight across country frcnn
the spot where he lay asleep, in the direction of the
sound, and never paused or drew breath, for dear
life's sake, till he stood beside the corpse of the dead
Tu-Kila-Kila.
And every moment the cry pealed louder and
louder still. '* Lavita, the son of Sami, is dead,
praise heaven ! The King of the liain has slain
him, and is now the true Tu-Kila-Kila ! "
Felix bent irresolute over the fallen savage's blood-
stained corpse. "What next was expected of him he
hardly knew or cared. His one desire now was to
return to Muriel — to Muriel, whom he had rescued
from something worse than death at the hateful hands
of that accursed creature who lay breathless for ever
on the ground beside him.
Somebody came up just then, and seized his hand
warmly. Felix looked up with a start. It was their
friend the Frenchman. " Ah, my captain, you have
done well," M. Peyron cried, admiring him. " What
courage ! What coolness ! What pluck ! What
soldiership ! I couldn't see all. But I was in at the
death! And ©h, mon Deiu, how I admired and
envied you ! "
By this time, the bull-roarer had ceased to bellow
among the rocks. The King of Fire stood forth. In
his hands he held a length of bamboo-stick with a
lighted coal in it. " Bring wood and palm-leaves,"
he said, in a tone of command. " Let me light my-
self up, that I may blaze before Tu-Kila-Kila."
VICTORY— AND AFTER* 255
Ho turned, and b(jwed thrice very low before Felix.
"The accepted of Heaven," he cried, holding his
hands above him. " The very high god ! The King
of all Things ! He sends down his showers upon our
crops and our fields. He causes his sun to shine
brightly over us. He makes our pigs and our slaves
bring forth their increase. All we are but his meat.
We, his peo})le, praise him."
And all the men of Boupari, naked and bleeding,
bent low in response. " Tu-Kila-Kila is great," they
chanted, as they clapped their hands. " We thank
him that lie has chosen a fresh incarnation. The
sun will not fade in the lieavens overliead, nor the
bread-fruits wither and cease to bear fruit on cai'tli.
Tu-Kila-Kila, our god, is great. He springs ever
young and fresh like the herbs of the field. He is a
most high god. We, his people, praise him."
Four temple attendants Ijrought sticks and leaves,
while Felix stood still, half dazed with the newness
of these strange preparations. The King of Fire
with his torch set light to the pile. It blazed merrily
on high. " I, Fire, salute you," he cried, bending
over it towards Felix. "Now cut up the body of
Lavita, the son of Sami," he went on, turning towards
it contemptuously. " I will cook it in my flame,
that Tu-Kila-Kila the great may eat of it."
Felix drew back with a face all aglow with horror
and disgust. "Don't touch that body!" he cried
authoritatively, putting his foot down firm. " Leave
it alone at once. I refuse to allow you." Then he
turned to M. Peyron. " The King of the Birds and
I," lie said, with calm resolve, " we two will bury it."
25G THE GREAT TABOO,
The Ivini^' of Fire drew l)aek at these strange words,
nonphissed. This was indeed an ill-omened break
in the ceremony of initiation of a new Tu-Kila-Kila
to which he had never before in his life Ijcen accus-
tomed. He hardly knew how to comport himself
under such singular circumstances. It was as though
the sovereign of England, on coronation-day, should
refuse to be crowned, and intimate to the Arch'jishop,
in his full canonicals, a confirmed preference for the
repuldican form of government. It was a contingency
that law and custom in Boupari had neither, in their
wisdom, foreseen nor provided for.
The King of Water whispered low in the new
god's ear. " You nnist eat of his body, my lord," he
said. " That is absohitely necessary. Every one of
us must eat of the flesh of the god ; but you, above
all, must eat his heart, his divine nature. Otherwise
you can never be full Tu-Kila-Kila."
" I don't care a straw for that," Felix cried, now
aroused to a full sense of the break in Methuselah's
story, and trembling with apprehension. " You may
kill me if you like ; we can die only once ; but human
flesh I can never taste ; nor will I, while I live, allow
you to touch this dead man's body. We will bury it
ourselves, the King of the Birds and I. You may
tell your people so. That is my last word." He
raised his voice to the customary ceremonial pitch.
** I, the new Tu-Kila-Kila," he said, " have spoken
it."
The King of Fire and the King of Water, taken
aback at his boldness, conferred together for some
seconds privately. The people meanwhile looked on
SUSrj'JXSE. '257
Riid woiulercJ. Wliat could this strange hitch in the
ilivin(3 proceedings mean ? Wus tlie god liiniself
recalcitrant ? Never in their lives had the oldest
men among them known anything like it.
And as they whispered and d(,'bated, awestruck luit
^lisc()rdant, a shout arose (nice more from the outer
circle — a mighty sliout of minglud surjirise, alarm,
and terror. ''Taboo! Tahoo ! Fence the mysteries!
3>eware ! Oh, great god, we warn you. Tlie mysteries
are in danger ! Cut her down ! Kill lier ! A woman!
A woman ! "
At the words, Fulix was aware of somebody burst-
ing through the dense crowd and ruh^hing wildly
towards him. Xext moment, Muriel hung and
sobbed on his shoulder, while Mali just behind her
,stood crying and moaning,
Felix held the poor startled girl in his arms and
soothed her. And all around, another great cry arose
from five hundred lips : " Two women have profaned
the mysteries of the god. They are Tu-Kila-Kila's
trespass-offering. Let us kill them and eat them ! "
CHAPTEU
SUSPKXSE.
Ix a moment, Felix's mind was fully made up.
There was no time to think ; it was the hour for
action. He saw how he must comport himself
towards this strange wild people. Seating Muriel
gently on the ground, with ^Mali beside her, and
stepping forward himself with Peyron's hand in
258 THE a HEAT TAD 00.
his, ho bo(!knne(l t<» tho vast uwl supping civiwd ta
bosnoalv rcHitectful silence.
A iiii.L;lity hush fell at uiict* iiprni the people. Tlio
Kiiijij of Fire and tlie Jviii^^- of Water stood hack,
ohcdient to his nod. 'I'hcy waiteil for the iipsliot of
this stran^i^o new deveh>pnient.
'•'Men of P)Oupari," Felix l»egan, S[K'akiiiL;- with a
inarvellons fluencv in their (j\vn tongue, for the
excitement itself sii])plied him with eloquence ; " I
liave killed your late god in the jnescrihed way ; I
have plucked the sacred hough, and fought in singliv
rombat by the established rules of your own religion.
Fire and AVater, you guardians of the customs of this
lioly island, is it not so ? You saw all things done,
did you not, after the precepts of your ancestors ? "
The King of Fire bowed low and answered, "Tu-
Kila-Kila speaks, indeed, the truth. AVater and 1
with our own eves have seen it."
"And now," Felix went on, '' I am myself, by your
own laws, Tu-Kila-Kila."
The King of Fire made a gesture of dissent. " Oh,
great god, pardon me," he nnu*mured, '• if I say ought,
now, to contradict you ; but you are not a full 'J'u-
Kila-Kila yet till you have eaten of the heart of the
god your predecessor."
"Then where is now the spirit of Tu-Kila-Kila,
the very high god, if 1 am not he ? " Felix asked
abruptly, thus puzzling them with a hard problem in
their own savage theology.
The King of Fire gave a start, and pondered. This
was a detail of his creed that had never before sr>
much as occurred to him. All faiths have their
suspiuysi:. 2.v.»
mixes. '* r (l(» not wull know," he {in.swei('<l,
" wlietiiur it is in the heart of Lavita, the son of Sanii,
nr in yonr own Itody. Ihit [ t'eel sure it must now
l»c certainly somewhere, tliou^h just where, our
tathcrs have never told us."'
Felix reeognized at oneo that he had i^ained ;i
]>oiiit. "Then look to it well," he said austerelv.
"lie careful how you act. Do nothing' rash. For
either the soul of the rjod is in the heart of Lavitii,
the son of Sanii ; and then, since I refuse to eat it, it
will decay away as La\ita's hody decays, {ind the
world will shrivel up, and all thinj:»s will perisli,
because the god is dead and cruinl>led to (hist for
ever. Or else it is in my hody, who am god in hi>
place; and then, if anybody does nut harm or Inirt,
he will be an imi)ious wretch, and will have bntiveu
taboo, and heaven knows what evils and misfortunts
may not therefore fall on each and all of you."
A very old chief rose from the ranks fuitside. His
hair was white and his eyes l)leared. '• Tu-Kila-Kil,i
speaks well," he cried in a loud but muml)Iing voico.
" His words are wise. He argues to the point. }\i-
is very cunning. I advise you, my people, to bo
careful how you anger tlic white-faced stranger, for
you know what he is; he is cruel; he is powerful.
There never was any storm in my time — and I am
an old, old man — so great in IJoupari as the storm
that arose wdien the King of the liain eat the storm -
apple. Our yams and our taros even now are sufl'er-
inor for it. He is a mif:[litv strong nod. lieware how
you tamper with him !"
He sat down, trembliuL'. A vounr^er chief ros'j
^i4
2G0 11 IB GREAT TABOO.
Iroin a nearer rank, and said liis say in turn. " I do
not agree witli our fatlier," he cried, pointing to the
(.'hief wlio liad just spoken. " His word is evil ; he
is mucli mistaken. I liave another thought. ^ly
thought is tliis. Let us kill and eat the white-faced
stranger at once, by wager of battle ; and let \\ hoso-
ever fights and overcomes him receive his honours,
and take to wife tlie fair woman, the Queen of the
Clouds, the sun-faced Korong, whom he brought from
the sun witli him."
"But wlio will then bo Tu-Kila-Kila ? " Felix
asked, turning r(jund upon him quickly. Habitua-
tion to danger liad made him unnaturally alert in
sucli utmost extremities.
*' Why, the man who slays you," the young chief
answered pointedly, grasping his lieavy tomahawk
M'ith profound expression.
" I think not," Felix answered. " Your reasoning
is bad. For if I am not Tu-Kila-Kila, how can any
man become Tu-Kila-Kila by killing me? And if
I am Tu-Kila-Kila, how dare you, not ])eing yourself
Korong, and not having broken off the sacred bough,
as I did, venture to attack me ? You wish to set
aside all the customs of Loupari. Are you not
ashamed of such gross impiety ? "
" Tu-Kila-Kila speaks well," tlie King of Fire put
in, for he had no cause to love the aggressive young
chief, and he thought better of liis chances in life as
Felix's minister. " ]]esi(les, now I think of it, he
must be Tu-Kila-Kila, becu^ise lie has taken the life
of the last great god, whom he slew with his hands ;
and therefore the life is now his — he holds it."
SUSPENSE. 201
Felix was emboldened by tliis favourable opinion
to strike out a fresh line in a farther direction. ITe
stood forward once more, and beckoned again for
silence. "Yes, my people," lie said calmly, with
slow articulation, '' by the custom of your race and
the creed you profess I am now indeed, and in very
truth, the abode of your great god, Tu-Kila-Kila.
But, furthermore, T liave a new revelation to make
to you. I am going to instruct you in a fresh way.
This creed that you hold is full of errors. As Tu-
Kila-Kila, I mean to take my own course, no islander
hindering me. If you try to depose me, wliat great
gods have you now got left ? Kone, save only Fire
and Water, my Ministers. King of the liain there
is none; for I, who was he, am now 'fu-Kihi-Kila.
Tu-Kila-Kihi there is none, save onlv me ; for th.e
other, that was, I have fought and C(jnfpiered. The
Queen of the Clouds is with me. The King of the
Birds is with me. Consider, then, i) friends, that if
you kill us all, you will have ntj where to turn ; you
will be left quite godless."
" It is true," the people murmured, looking al)Out
them, half puzzled. *' He is wise. He speaks well.
He is indeed a Tu-Kila-Kila."
Felix pressed his advantage home at once. " Xo^v
listen," he said, lifting up one solemn forefinger. " I
come from a country very far away, where the
customs are better by many yams than those of
Boupari. And now that I am indeed Tu-Kila-Kila
— your god, your master — I will change and alter
some of your customs that seem to me here and now
most undesirable. In the first place — hear this ! — I
M
2'V2 THE GRKAT TABOO.
will puL down all caimibalisni. Xo man sliall eat of
linman ilcsli on i)ain of deatli. And to begin witli,
no man sliall cook or eat tlie body of Lavita, the son
of 8ami. (^n that I am determined — I, Tu-Kihi-
Kila. The Xing of the Lii-ds and I, we will dig a
]iit, and we will bury in it the corpse of this man
that was once your god, and whom his own wickedness
(ompclled me to fight and slay, in order to prevent
more cruelty and bh3odshed."
The young chief stood u]), all red in his wrath, and
interrupted him, brandishing a coral-stone haichet.
"This is Idasphemy," he said. "This is sheer rank
blasphemy. These are not good words. They arc
very bad medicine. Tlie white-faced Korong is no
true Tu-Kila-Kila. llis advice is evil — and ill-luck
would follow it. He wishes to change the sacred
customs of r>oupari. Xow, that is not well. My
counsel is this : let us eat him now, unless he changes
his heart, and amends his ways, and partakes, as is
)ight, of the body of Lavita, the son of Sami."
The assemldy swayed visibly, this way and that,
some inclining to the conservative view of the rash
young chief, and others to the cautious liberalism of
the grey-haired warrior. Felix noted their division,
and spoke once more, this time still more authorita-
tively than ever.
"Furthermore," he said, "my people, hear me.
As I came in a ship propelled by fire, over the high
waves of the sea, so 1 go away in one. We watch
f(i]' such a shij) to pass l)y Boupai'i. When it comes,
the (j>ueen of the Clouds — upon whose life I place a
great talioo; let )io man dare to touch her at his
SUSPENSE. '26:*s
peril: if he does, T wil] nisli upon liim and kill liim
;is I killed Lavitn, the son of Saini. "Wlien it comes,
the Queen of the donds, tlie King of tlie lUrds, and
J, we will go away back in it to the land whence we
<;anie, and be quit of rxjiipari. But we will not leave
it fireless or godless. Wlicn I i-eturn back home
;igain to my own far land, I will send out messengers,
very good men, wlio will tell you of a (Jod more
l)Owerfnl by much tlian any you ever knew, and very
lighteous. Tliey will teacli y(ju great things you
have never dreamed of. Tlicrcfn-e, I ask you now to
<lisperse to your own liomes, wliile tlie King of the
liirds and I bury the body of Lavita, the son of
.Sami.
All this time Muriel had l)een seated on the
ground, listening with ])rofound interest, but scarcely
understanding a word, though here and there, after
her six months' stay in the island, a single phrase
was dimly intelligible to her. But now, at tliis
<jritical moment, she rose, and standing upright by
Felix's side, in her spotless English purity among
those assembled savages, she pointed just once with
her uplifted linger to the calm vault of heaven, and
then across the moonlit hoi'izon of the sea, and last
of all to the clustei'ing liuts and villages of lioupari.
''Tell them," she said to Felix, with Idanched lips,
but without one sign of a tremor in her fearless voice,
''Iwill ])ray for them to heaven, when 1 go across
the sea, and will tliink of their children that I loved
to pat and jday with, and will send out messengers
from our home bcyon<l the waves to make them
wiser and happier and better."
J
1
20'! THE GREAl TABOO.
Felix translated lier simple message to them in its
pure womanly goodness. Even the natives were
touched. They whispered and hesitated. Then after
a time of much murmured debate, the King of Fire
stood forward as a mediator. "Tliere is an oracle, oh
Korong," lie said, not to prejudge the matter, " wliicli
decides all tliese thint>s, — a threat conch-shell at a
sacred grove in the neigldjouring island of Aloa
Mauna. It is the holiest oracle of all our holy
religion. AVe gods and men of r)0upari have taken
counsel together, and have come to a conclusion.
AVe will put forth a canoe and send men with blood
on their fixces to inquire at Aloa Mauna of the very
great oracle. Till then, you are neither Tu-Kila-Kila,
nor not Tu-Kila-Kila. It I »ehoves us to be very care-
ful how we deal with gods. Our people will stand
round your precinct in a row and guard you with
their spears. You shall not cross the taboo line to
them, nor they to you : all shall be neutral. Food
shall be laid by tlie line, as always, morn, noon, and
niglit; and your Shadows shall take it in; Ijut you
shall not come out. Xeitlier shall you bury the body
of Lavita, tlie son of Sami. Till the canoe comes
back, it shall lie in. the sun and rot there."
He clapped his hands twice.
In a moment, a tom-tom began to beat from behind,
and the people all crowded without the circle. The-
King of Fire came forward ostentatiously and made
taboo. " If any man cross this line," he said in at
droning sing-song, " till the canoe return from the great
oracle of our faith on Aloa Mauna, I, Fire, will scorcli
him into cinder and ashes. If any woman transgress^
AT SEA: OFFBOUPAni '.(\:>
I will pitch lior with palm oil, and liglit her up fur a
lamp on a moonless nioht to lighten this temple."
The King of Water distributed shark's-tooth spears.
At once a great serried wall hemmed in the Juiropeans
all round, and they sat down to wait, the three
whites together, for the upshot of the mission to Aloa
Manna.
^xud the dawn now gleamed red on the eastern
horizon.
CHAPTEK XXX r.
AT SEA; OFF liOri'Ai;!.
Thirteex days out from Sydney, tlie good shi[) Aus-
tralasian was nearing the equator.
It was four of the clock in the afternoon, and tlui
captain (off duty) paced the deck, puffing a cigar, and
talking idly with a passenger on former experiences.
Eight bells went on the fiuarter-deck : time to
change watches.
" This is only our second trip through this channel,"
the captain said, gazing across with a casual glance at
the palm-trees that stood dark against the blue
horizon. " "We used to go a hundred miles to east-
ward, here, to avoid the reefs. But last voyage I
came through this way quite safely— thougli we had
a nasty accident on the road — unavoida1)le— unavoid-
able! Big sea was running free over the sunken
shoals; caught the ship aft unawares and stove in
better than half a dozen port-holes. Lady passenger
on deck happened to be leaning over the weatlier
li'JO THE a HEAT TABOn.
.miijwalc; big sea c'liuglit her up on its crest in a
jiffey, lifted her like ii l)aby, and laid her down again
gently, just so, on tlie l)ed of tlie ocean. By George,
sir, 1 was annoyed. It was quite a romance, poor
thing ; quite a romance ; we all felt so put out about
it the lest of tliat voyage. Young fellow on board,
nephew of Sir Theodore Tliurstan of tlie Colonial
Office, was in love \\\.i\\ Miss Ellis — girl's name was
Ellis — father's a parson somewhere d(»wn in Somer-
setshire — an«l as soon as the big sea took her up on
its crest, what does Tliurstan go and do, but he ups
■on the talfrail, and, before you could say Jack
liobinson, jumps over to save her."
" liut he didn't succeed?" the passenger asked, with
languid interest.
" Succeed, my dear sir ? and with a sea running
twelve feet high like that ? Why, it was pitch dark,
and such a surf on that the gig could hardly go
through it." The caj^tain smiled, and puffed away
])ensively. "Drowned," he said, after a brief pause,
with complacent composure. " Drowned. Drowned.
Drowned. "Went to tlie ])ottom, both of 'em. Davy
-lones's locker. lUit unavoidable quite. These acci-
dents v'lll happen, even on the best regulated liners.
Why, there was my brother Tom, in the Cunard
service — same that boast they never lost a passenger ;
there was my brother Tom, he was out one day off
the Newfoundland banks, heavy swell setting in from
the nor-nor-east, icebergs ahead, passengers battened
down Bless my soul, how that light seems to
<?ome and go, don't it ? "
It was a reflected light, flashing from the island
AT SEA: OFFJiOUPAni. 2<;7
fitvai-lit in tlie captiiin's eyes, small and insigniticant
as to size, but strong for all that in the full tropical
sunshine, and glittering like a diamond from a vague
•<devation near the centre of the island.
"Seems to come and l;o in remilar orders," tlu^
passenger observed reflectively, withdrawing his cigar.
'• Looks for all the world j'ust like naval signalling."
The captain paused, and shaded his eyes a moment.
" Hanged if that isn't just what it />/' he answered
slowly. "It's a ligged uj) heliograph, and they're
using the ]\Iorse C(jde ; dash mv eves if they aren't.
Well, tliis ^s' civilization' AVhat the dickens can
have come to the ivLind of Doupari ? There isn't a
•darnecrKuropean soul in the place, nor ever has Ijeen.
Anchorage unsafe ; no harbour; bad reef; too small
for missionaries to make a living, and natives got
nothing wortli speaking of to trade in."
'' AVhat d(j they say ? " the passenger asked, with
suddenly quickened interest.
" How the devil should I tell yon yet, sir i " the
ca})tain retorted with choleric grumpiness. "Don't
you see I'm spelling it out, letter by letter ? 0, r, e,
s, c, n, e, n, s, c, o, m, e, w, e, 1, 1, a, r, m, e, d,— yes,
yes, I twig it." And the captain jotted it down in
his note-book for some seconds silently.
"IJun up the Hag there," he shouted a moment
later, rushing hastily forward. ^' Stop her at once,
Walker. Easy, easy. Get ready the gig. Well,
upon my soul, this /-v a rum start, any way."
"AVhat does tlie message sav?" th(i i)assenger
nKjuired with intense surprise.
"Say? AVell, there's what I make it out," the
208 THE cm AT TABOO.
captiihi answorod, liaudiug iiiiu the sciap of ] taper oi»
which lie liad jotted down the letters. " [ missed thi^
begiiiiiiiif>', but tlie end's all riglii. Look alive there,
boys, will you. Ihing out the Winchester. Take
cutlasses, all hands. I'll go along myself in her."
The passenger took the piece of paper on which he
read, "and send a boat to rescue us. Come well
armed. Savages on guard. Thurstan, Ellis."
In less than three minutes the boat was lowered
and manned, and the captain, with the "Winchester
six-sl looter by his side, seated grim in the stern, took
connnand of the tiller.
On the island it was the first day of Felix and
Muriel's imprisonment in the dusty precinct of
Tu-lvila-Kila's temple. All the morning through,
they had sat under the shade of a sniallei" l^anyan in
the outer corner : for Muriel could neither enter the
noisome but, nor go near the great tree with the
skeletons on its branches ; nor could she sit where
the dead savage's body, still festering in the sun,
attracted the buzzing blue Hies by thousands to drink
up the blood that lay thick on the earth in a pool
around it. Hard by, tlie natives sat keen as lynxes
in a great circle just outside the white taboo-line,
where with serried spears they kept watch and ward
over the persons of their doubtful gods or victims.
M. Peyron, alone preser^•ing his equanimity under
tliese adverse circumstances, hummed low to himself
in very dubious tones ; even he felt his French gaiety
had somewhat forsaken him ; this revolution iii
P>oupari failed to excite his Parisian ardour.
AT SEA: OFF BOUPAUI.
209
About une o'clock in the day, liowcver, lookin-
n.^xsually seaward—wliat was this that M. Peyi-on to
Ills great surprise, doscriea far away on tlie dim
southern Iiorizou i A low black line' lying close to
the water ? X(^, no : not a steamer !
Too prudent t.. excite the natives' attention
unnecessarily, the cautious frenchman whispered in
the most commonplace voice on earth to Felix : " I )on't
look at once ; and when you do look, mind you <lon't
exhibit any agitiition in your tone or manner, liut
what do you make that out to be— that long black
liaze on the horizon to southward ? "
Pelix looked, disregarding the friendly injunction
at once. At the same moment, Muriel turned her
eyes quickly in the self-same direction. Neither
made the faintest sign of outer emotion : ])ut Muriel
clenched her white hands hard till the nails du- into
the palm in her effort to restrain herself, as she
murmured very low in an agitated voice, " u]i vapcur
71/1 Tccpeur !"
"So I think," M. I'eyron answered, very low and
calm. " It is indeed a steamer ! "
For three long hours those anxious souls waited
and watched it draw nearer and nearer. Slowly the
natives, too, began to perceive the unacccustomed
object. As it drew abreast of the island, and the
decisive moment arrived for prompt action, Felix rose
m his place once more and cried aloud, " My people
I told you a ship propelled by fire would come from
the far land across the sea to take us. The ship lias
come: you can see for yourselves the thick black
smoke that issues in huge puffs from the mouth of
270 TIIIC aiilCAT TAIiOO.
tlie monster. Xow, listen to iiie, and dare nut t^-
disobey nic. My word is law : let all mcii see to it.
I am I'oiiic,' to send a message of fire from the sun to
tlie great eanoe tiiat walks u])on the water. If any
man ventures to stop me from doing it, the people
from the great canoe will land on this isle and take
vengeance for his act, jind kill him with the thunder
which the sailing gods carry ever about with them."
By this time the island was alive with citmmotioii.
Hundreds of uatives, with their long hair falling
unkempt about their keen brown faces, were gazing
with open eyes at the big black ship that ploughed
her way so liist against wind and tide over the surface;
of the waters. Some of them shouted and gesticulated
with panic feav ; others seemed half inclined to waste
no time on ])reparation or doul»t, l)ut to rush on at
once and immolate their capti\'es before a rescue was
possil)le. ]jut Felix, keeping ever his cool head
undisturl)ed, stood on the dusty mound by Tu-Kila-
Kila's house, and taking in his hand the little mirror
he had made from the matchbox, flashed the light
from the sun full in their eyes for a moment, to the
astonishment and discomfiture of all those gaping
savages. Then he focussed it on the Australasian,
across the surf and the waves, and with a throbbing
heart began to make his last faint bid for life and
freedom.
For four or live minutes he went flashing on, uncer-
tain of the effect, whether they saw or saw not. Then
a cry from Muriel burst at once upon his ears. She
clasped her hands convulsively in an agony of joy.
" They see us ! They see us ! "
AT SEA: OFF IIOUIWUI,
.1
AiKl sure enuugh, s,-uivoly half a niimiU'. Inter, a
Briti.sli flag run gaily up the inaiiimast. and a huat
scGined to drop down o\er the siih; of the vessel.
As for the natives, they watched these i)i'oceediii[r.s
with consideralde surprise and wu htllc di.sconifiture
—Fire and Water, in particular, w hisperin^- together,
iimeh aLirnicd, with many superstitious "nu(?s and'
taboos, in the corner of the enchjsure.
Gradually, as the hoat drew nearer and nearer,
divided counsels prevailed auK.ng tlie savages. With
no certainly-recoo-nized Tu-Kila-Kila to in;n'shalthcir
movements, cacli nian stood in douU from whom to
take Ids orders. At last, the K'uv^ ,,f i-'i,.,., in ^
hesitating voice, gave tlie word of command. -^ If;, li-
the warriors to the shore to repel the enemv ; haJf I.,
watch round the taboo line, lest tlie Xor.jngs escaj»e
us ! Let Breathless Fear, our war-god, go before the
face of our troops, invisible ! "
And, (piick as thought, at liis word, the warriors
had paired off, two and two, in long lines; some
running hastily down to the beach to^ man the W{ir-
canoes, while others remained ^\•ith sluirk's-tooth
spears still set in a looser circle round the great
temple-enclosure of Tu-Kila-Xila.
For ^Muriel, this suspense was i»ositively terrible.
To feel one was so chxse to the hope of rescue, and
yet to know that before that help arriwd, or even as
it came up, those savages might any moment I'un their
ghastly spears through them.
But Felix made the best of his position still.
"Bemember," he cried, at the top of his voice, as the
warriors started at a run for the water's edge,' "vour
212 THE CHEAT TABOO.
Tii-Kila-Kila tells you, these iiew-coiners are his
friends. AVIioevcr liurts them, does so at his peril.
Tliis is a great taboo. 1 bid you receive them.
Eeware for your lives. I, Tu-Kila-Kila the Great,
have said it."
CIIAITKK XXXII.
TJIE DOWNFALL OF .\ rANTIIF.OX.
Tuv. Aus/ i'(daslan's gig entered the lagoon through the
fringing-reef by its narrow seaward mouth, and
rowed steadily for the landing-place on the main
island.
A little way out Irom shore, amid loud screams and
yells, the natives came up with it in their laden war-
<3anoes. Shouting and gesticulating and brandishing
their spears witli the shark's-tooth tips, they endea-
voured to stop its i»rogress landward by pure noise
and bravado,
"We must be careful what we do, boys," the
captain observed, in a (piiet voice of seamanlike
resolution to his armed companions. " We mustn't
frighten the savages too much, or show too hostile a
front, for fear they sho\dd retaliate on our friends on
the island." ]Ie hold up his hand, with the gold
braid on the wrist, to command silence; and the
natives, ga/ing o])en-mouthed, looked and wondered
at the gesture. These sailing gods were certainly
arrayed in most gorgeous vestments, and their canoe,
though devoid of a grinning figure-head, was provided
\vith a most admirable and well-uniformed e(piipment.
THE DOWXFALL OF A PAX THE OX.
A coral rock jutted liigli out of tlie sea to left hard
by. Its snnimit was crowded witli a basking popu-
lation of sea-gulls and pelicans. Tlie captain gave
the word to "easy all." In a second tlie gig stopped
short, as those stout arms held lier. He rose in his
])lace and lifted the six-sliooter. Then he itointed it
ostentatiously at tlni rock, away from the native
canoes, and held up liis liand yet again for silence.
" We'll give 'em a taste of what we can do, boys," he
said, "just to show "em, not to hurt 'em." At that he
<lrew the tri^c^er twice. His first two cliambers were
loaded on purpose with duck-sliot cartridges. Twice
the big gun roared ; twice the fire llaslied red from
its smoking inoutli. As the smoke cleared away,
llie natives, dumb witli sur])rise, and perfectly cowed
witli terror, saw ten or a dozen torn and bleedincr
l)irds float mangled u])on tlie water.
" Now for the dynamite ! " the captain said cheerily,
procee ling to lower a small object overboard by a
single wire, while he held up his hand a third time to
bespeak silence and attention.
The natives looked again, with eyes starting from
their heads. The captain gave a little click, and
pointed with his finger to a spot on the water's top a
little way in front nf him. Instantly, a loud report,
and a column of water spurted u]) into the air some
ten or twelve feet in a boisterous fountain. As it
subsided a2;ain, a hundred or so of the briijht-coloured
fish that browse among the submerged coral-groves of
these still lagoons, rose dead or dying to the seething,
boiling surface.
The captain smiled. Instantly the natives set up
274 THE ORE AT TABOO.
a terrified slioiit. *' It is even as he said," they cried.
"Tliese "ods are his ministers! The white-faced
Korong is a very great diety ! He is iiuU^ed the
true Tu-Kila-Kila. These wds liave come for him.
They are very miglity. Thunder and lightning and
waterspouts are tlieirs. The waves do as they l>id.
The sea ol)cys them. Tliey are here to take away
our Tu-Kila-Kila from our midst. And what will
then become of the island of Boupari ? "Will it not
sink in the waves of the sea and disappear ? Will
not the sun in heaven grow dark, and the moon cease
to shed its benign light on the earth, when Tu-Kila-
Kila the great returns at last to his own far country? "
" That lot Tl do for 'em, I expect," the captain said
cheerily, with a confident smile. "Now forward all,
boys. I fancy we've astonished the natives a trifle."
They rowed on steadily, but cautiously, towards
the white bank of sand which formed the usual
landing-place, the captain holding the six-shooter in
readiness aP, the time, and keeping an eye firmly
fixed on every movement of the savages. But the
warriors in the canoes, thoroughly cowed and over-
awed by this singular exhil)ition of the strangers^
prowess, paddled on in whispering silence, nearly
abreast of the gig, l)ut at a safe distance, as they
thought, and eyed the advancing Europeans with
(^uiet looks of unmixed sus])icion.
At last, the adventurous young chief who had
advised killing Felix off-hand on the island, mustered
up courage to paddle his own canoe a little nearer,
and Hung his spear madly in the direction of the gig.
It fell short by ten yards. He stood eyeing it angrily.
THE DOWSFALL OF A VAXTllEON. 275
V)\\i the captain, .urimly (luiet, raisin.^' liis Wincliostor
t(^ liis slioulder \viilioiit one second's d<_'lay, and
marking liis man, iired at the young cliiet' as lie
stood, still half in the attitude of throwino- on the
prow (»f his canoe, an easy aim for fire-arms. The
})all went cluan throu!:,di the savage's breast, and
then ricocheted three times on the water afar off.
TJie young chief fell stone dead into the sea like a
log, and saidv instantly to the bottom.
Tt was a critical moment. The captain felt un-
<'.ertain whether the natives would close round them
in force or not. It is always dangerous to fire a
shot at savages. Ihit the IJoupari men were too
utterly awed to venture on defence. "He was Tu-
Kila-Kila's enemy," they cried, in astonished tones.
■" He raised his voice against the very high god.
Therefore, the very high god's friends have smitten
him witli their lightning. Their thunderbolt went
through him, and hit the water beyond. IIow strong
is their hand ! Tliey can kill from afar. 1'hey are
mighty gods. Let no man strive to fight against the
friends of Tu-Kila-Kila."
The sailors rowed on and reached the landing-
place. There, half of them, headed by the captain,
disembarked in good order, with drawn cutlasses,
while the other half remained behind to guard the
iriiU', imder the third ollicer. The natives also dis-
embarked, a little way off, and, making humble signs
of submission with knee and arm, endeavoured by
pantomime to express the idea of their willingness to
guide the strangers to their friends' quarters.
The captain waved them on with his hand. The
270 THE GREAT TAUO<>.
natives, reassure" I, led the wny, at some distance
ahead, along tlie i)atlis tlirongh tlie jungle, The
captain had his finger on his six-shooter tlie wliile ;
every sailor grasped Ids cutlass, and kept his revrdver
ready for action. " I don't half like the look of it,"
the captain oltserved, partly to himself. ** They seem
to be leading us into an ambuscade or something.
Keep a sharp look-out against surprise from the
jungle, boys; and if any native shows fight, shoot
him down instantly."
At last, they emerged upon a clear space in tlie
front, where a great grou]> of savages stood in a
circle with serried spears round a large wattled hut
that occupied the elevated centre^ of the clearing.
For a minute or two, the action of the savages
was uncertain. Half of the defenders turned round
to face the invaders angrily; tlie other half stood
irresolute, with tlieir spears still held inward, guard-
ing a white line of sand with inilexible devotion.
The warriors who lind preceded them from the
shore called aloud to their friends by the temple in
startled tones. The captain and sailors had no idea
what their words meant. Ikit just then, from the
midst of the circle, an English xoica cried out in
haste, " I )on't tire ! 1 )o nothing rash ! We're safe.
Don't be frightened. The natives are disposed to
parley and palaver. Take care how you act. They're
terrildy afraid of you."
Just outside the taboo-line the captain halted.
The grey-headed old chief, who had accompanied his
fellows to the shore, si)oke out in Polynesian. " 1 >o-
not resist them," he said, "my people. If you do,
THE DOWNFALL OF A FASTHF.OS.
- < I
you will be Ijlastcd liv lliuir licjlitiiin^' like a liiiic
baniboo in a ini-'litv cvclone. They carrv thuiulcr
ill their liands;. Thcv are iniirhtv, init'htv wds. The
white-faced Koroiig spoke no more tlian tlie truth.
Let them do as thev will with us, AVe are but their
meat. We are as dust beneath llieir sole, and as
driven mulberry leaves Itefore the l>reath of the
tem]iest."
The defenders hesitated still a liuh'. Then,
suddenly losing heart, they l»roke rank at last at a
point elose by M'here the captain of the Aiistralas'uni
stood, one man after another falling aside slowly
and shamefacedly a pace or two. The ca)»tain, un-
hesitatingly, overstep])ed the white t.aboo-line. Next
instant, Felix and jNIuriel were grasping his hand
hard, and M. Teyron was bowing a polite Parisian
reception.
Forthwith, the sailors crowded round them in a.
hollow square. Muriel and Felix, half faint with
relief from their long and anxious suspense, staggered
slowly down the seaward path Ijetween them. I>ut
there was no need now i'or further show of delence.
The islanders, pressing near and flinging away their
weapons, followed the procession close with tears and
lamentations. As they went on, the women, rush-
ing out of their huts while the fugitives passed, tore
their hair on their heads, and beat their breasts in
terror. The warriors who had come from the shores
recounted with their own exauiierative additions the
miracle of the six-shooter and the dvnamite cartridge.
(Iradually they approached the landing-phice on the
beach. There, the third officer sat waitino- in the cjig
•278 THE (I BEAT TAB 00,
to VL'ceivu tlicm. Tluj lamL'iitatitjns of tlic islanders
now became positively jxtiL^niant. " 01 1, my father,"
they cried aloud, "my brother, my rev^ii'ed one, you
are indeed the true Tu-Kila-Kila. ])o not go away
like this and desert us ! Oh, our mother, great
(^)ueen, mighty goddess, sto]) with us! Take not
away your sun from the heavens, nor your rain from
the crops. We acknowledge we have sinned ; we have
done very wrong ; but the chief sinner is dead ; the
wrong-doer has paid : spare us who remain : spare us,
great deity : do not make the bright lights of heaven
become dark over us. Stay w4th your worshippers,
and we will give you choice young girls to eat every
day ; we will sacrifice the tenderest of our children
to feed you."
It is an awful thing for any race or nation when
its taboos fail all at once and die out entirely. To
ihe men of Boupari, the Tu-Kila-Kila of the moment
represented both the floral Order and the regular
sequence of the physical universe. Anarchy and
chaos might rule wdieii he was gone. The sun might
bj quenched, and the people run riot. No wonder
•tliey shrank from the fearful consequences that might
next ensue. King and priest, god and religion, all
at one fell blow, were to be taken away from them !
Felix turned round on the shore and spoke to
them again. " My people," he said, in a kindly tone
— for after all he pitied them — "you need have no
fear. When I am gone, the sun will still shine and
the trees will still bear fruit every year as formerly.
1 will send the messengers I promised from my own
land to teach you. Until they come, I leave you
THE DOWNFALL OF A VASTIIEOX. L'71>
tliis us a, great taboo. Tu-Kila-Kila enjoin.s it. Shod
no human hlood ; eat no liunian flesli. Tlmsc who
do will be inniished when another fire-canoe conies
from the lav land to \)n\v^ my messengers."
The King of Fire bent low at the words. "Oh,
Tu-Kila-Kila," he said, " it shall be done as you say.
Till your messengers come, every man sliall live at
peace with all his neighbours."
They step])ed into the gig. ]\Iali and Toko
followed before ]\I. l\'yron as naturally as they had
always followed their masters on the island before.
"Who are the.^e ? " the captain asked, smiling.
" Our Shadows," Feli.v answered. " Let tliem come.
I will pay their passage when \ reach San Francisco.
They have been very faithful to us, and they arc
afraid to remain lest the islanders should kill them
for letting us go or for not accompanying us."
"Very well," the captain answered. '' F'orward
all there, boys ! Now, aheail for the ship. And thank
God, we're well out of it ! "
But the islanders still stood on the sliore and
wept, stretching their hands in vain after tlie depart-
ing boat, and crying aloud in piteous tones, "(jh, my
father, return! Oh, my mother, come back! Oh,
very great gods, do not lly and desert us ! "
Seven weeks later, ]\Ir. and Mrs. Felix Thurstan,
who had been married in the cathedral at ir()n(,)lulu
the verv inorninf:r the Aunf ra.laslan arrived there,
sat in an eminently respectable drawing-room in a
London square, where ]\[rs. F'dlis, jMuriel's aunt Ity
marriage, was acting as their hostess.
liJ-0 TJIK a HEAT TABOO.
" liUt Ijow dreadful it is Id tliink, dear," Mrs.
Kllis remarked ior tin; twentieth tiiiu! since tlieir
arrival, witli a deep-drawn sigli, "how dreadful to
think tliat you and Felix should liave been all those
niontlis alone on the island together without being
married ;
Muriel looked up with a qui(!t smile towards Felix.
" I think, Aunt Mary," she said dreamily, " if you'd
been there yourself, and suffered all those fears, and
])assed through all those horrors that we did together,
vou'd have troubled your head very little indeed
iibout such conventionalities as whether or not you
liappened to 1)0 married. . . . Besides," she added
after a pause, with a fine perception of the inexorable
stringency of ]\Irs. CJrundy's law, " we weren't quite
without chaperons, either, don't you know ; for our
Shadows, of course, were always with us."
AVhereat Felix smiled an equally (piiet smile.
"And terrible as it all was," he put in, " I shall
never regret it, because it made Muriel know how
profoundly 1 loved her, and it made me know how
brave and trustful and pure a woman could be under
such awful conditions."
But Mrs. Ellis sat still in her chair and smiled
uncomfortably. It affected her spirits. Taboos, after
all, are much the same in England as in Boupari.
THE END.
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October, i8:)6.
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All Sorts and Conditions of Men.
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Dorothy Forster.
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Children of Gibeon.
The World Went Very Well Then.
Herp Puulus.
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Chronicles of No-man's Land.
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An Heiress of Red Dog.
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Gabriel Conroy. | Flip.
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Uncle Sam at Home.
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My Misceilanies
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Man and Wife.
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Leo. I Paul Foster's Daughter*
30
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Sketchea by Boz. i Oliver Twist.
Pickwick Papers. | Nicholas Nickleby
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Strange Secrets.
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A Point of Honour. | Archio Lovell.
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Felicia.
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Roxy.
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Bella Donna. I Never Forgotten.
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Polly. I Fatal Zero.
Seventy five Brooke Street.
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Filthy Lucre.
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Romances of Law.
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Seth's Brother's Wife.
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One of Two.
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Capel Girls.
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Robin Gray. ! In Honour Bound
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What will thBj Forest.
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Queen of the Mca- Loving q Dream.
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A Heart's Problem i Heart's Delight.
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Dr Austin's Guests. I James Duke.
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Brueton's Bayou. | Country Luck.
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"My Love." | lone.
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Gideon Fleyce.
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Whlteladles. I The Primrose Path.
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Skippers and Shellbacks.
Grace Baimaign's Sweetheart.
Schools and Scholars.
32 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO 6- WINDUB.
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Round the Galley Fire.
On the Fo'k'slo Head.
In the Middle Watcli.
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A Bool< for the Hammock.
The Mystery of the "Ocean Star."
The Romance of Jenny Harlowe,
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Heart Salvage. I Sebastian.
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Diamond Cut Diamond.
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