The Great Taboo

s of yam, bananas, and bread-fruit, neatly arranged in little palm-leaf baskets.

aams, 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 y

ow, after this curious pantomime had been performed some three o

we need water from heaven. The banana-bushes wither; the flowers on the bread-fruit tree do not swell to breadfruit; the yams are thirsty. Therefore the fathers send their daughters with presents, maidens of the vi

Korong?" Felix asked,

mple a conception. "Why, Korong is Korong," he answered, aghast. "You are Korong yourself. The Queen of the

ould elicit by his subtlest que

inter-communication. In the first place, the Boupari dialect, though agreeing 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 vocabulary of religious rites and ceremonies. And in the second place, the Shadow was so rigidly bound by his own narrow and

g fear for the immediate future, and whom the obvious reality of the taboo had reassured for the moment

undant conversation, as soon as she found herself well within the hut, alone w

nd bread-fruit had all been duly housed and garnered. "No harm come to you. You Korong, you know. You very

lips, and exclaimed through her sobs, clinging to the girl's hand for co

gry with her, so no want daughters. So my papa sell me and my sister for plenty rum, plenty tobacco, to gentlemen in labor vessel. Gentlemen in labor vessel take Jani and me away, away, to Queensland. Big sea; long voyage. We stop there three yam-three years-do ser

"Then you've been for t

ed English. Why, wh

ter, me housemaid, live three year in gentleman's house, good gentleman that buy me. Take care of little girl; clean rooms; do everyt

ou told him," she cried. "If we have to stop here long, before a ship takes us off, it'll be so nice to

y," she answered, with emphasis. "Me your Shadow. That great Taboo. Tu

oking hard at the girl's pleasant brown face, "if you we

ad in passive acquiesc

red. "Of course me Ch

o Queensland. That what

ther names on my own i

ptize us, call us Mali a

ery good. But Methodist

st here any longer. Tu-

power

his morning!" Muriel exclaimed, in horror. "Oh, Mali, you ca

Jani go too near him temple, against taboo-because her not belong-a Tu-Kila-Kila temple; and last night, when it great feast, p

urse for three years in Queensland. To her it was a common incident of everyday lif

drop suddenly. "You can't mean it," she cried. "You can't mean he's

to make sure whether any one was listening. "Oh, hush," she said, anxiously. "Don't must talk like

oes such awful things?" Mur

she said again. "Him god! Him powerful! Him can do no wrong. Him King of the Trees! Him Ki

xclaimed, contemptuously. "He's noth

; but him no god like Tu-Kila-Kila. Methodist god in sky, him only god that live in Queensland. But no use worship Methodist god over here in Boupari. Him no live here. Tu-Kila-Kila live here. All god here make out of m

ried, "they bring me these things

ent. "Same like people

red, promptly. "Ask yo

row, make banana, make p

Queenie, people give y

ated, with a curious sense of dis

all bundle of palm-leaves at Muriel's back by way of a cushion. "For now you Korong. B

od come into somebody," she said, nodding toward Muriel in a mysterious way, "then him god himself; him Korong. When the god go away from

parasitic from the trees, and is commonly known as "old man's beard." As both Mali and Felix assured her confidently no harm would come to her within so strict a Taboo, Muriel, worn out with fatigue and terror, lay down at last and slept soundly on this

Shadow, at his feet, slept still unmoved; but 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 bo

ith the water indefinitely reminded him of? Wasn't there some Greek or Roman superstition about shaking your head when water was poured upon it? What could that superstition be, and wh

or other victim. If the victim shook its head and knocked off the drops, that was a sign that it was fit for the sacrifice, and that the god accepted it. If the victim trembled visibly, that was a most favorable omen. If it stood quite still and didn't move its neck, then the god rejected it as unfit

strange word, "Korong." Clearly, it

f the worst came to the worst-those wretc

h over and protect her. He would save he