The Great Taboo

ied at least some fearful doom in store, sooner or later, for the persons who bore it. How awful that doom might be, he could hard

ed like gods; and the fact that the whole population seemed really to regard them with a devotion and kindliness closely bordering on religious reve

d, well fed, and in perfect health, not so much for the strangers' sakes as for their own advantage; they evidently considered that if anything went wrong with either of their two new gods, corresponding misfortunes might happen 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 the state of the weather. The natives effusively thanked them after welcome rain, and looked askance at t

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 heedlessly transgressing any unwritten law of the creed of Boupari; and to be answerable for their good behavior generally. 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, a

thout the knowledge of the Shadow, who, as Felix afterward learned, would h

e his own shadow as to escape the on

what Korong really meant, and what possibility he might have of saving

the sun sank low in heaven) along a pretty tangled hill-side path, overhung with lianas and rope-like tropical cree

ve 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 enclosure. But what specially attracted Feli

d in Polynesian, turning round in

ered, with a certain air of awe, often observable in his speech when taboos were

aguely to himself whether here, perchance, he might h

h obvious reserve. "He is a very great god. I may not speak much of him. But he is n

-Kila-Kila?" Felix asked

only king of the birds, which is a little province, while Tu-Kila-Kila is king of heaven and earth, of plants and animals, of gods and men, of all things created. At

y. "And he speaks the bird language? What do you mean by that? Does h

ks shriller and higher, and still more bird-like. It is chatter, chatter, chatter, like the parrots in a tree; tirra, tirra, t

trong in all natural human beings, began to trill out at once, with a very good

on co

sans f

nt se

pira

out le

aut

que b

llet

que b

llet

hrowing back his head, and laughing with all his might at his own imitation.

d for a Frenchman, which the Shadow, of course, on his remote i

selves. But not in a sun-boat. It had no fire. He came in a canoe, all by himself. And Mali

d Polynesia for a Frenchman. Felix seized upon it with avidity. "A man-a-oui-oui!" he cr

tly round the waist, pulled him back from the enclosure with every sign of horror, alarm, and astonishment. "No, you can't go,"

disadvantages of taboo, you may as well claim its advantages as well. "The King of Fire and the

this is the Month of Birds. The king is in retreat. No man may see him except his own Shadow, the Little Cockatoo, who brings him his food and drink. Do you see that hawk's head, stuck upon the post by the door at the side. That is his Special Taboo. He keeps it for this

when from the recesses of the hut a rollicking

on con-

sans fr

us? This is horrible, horrible! We have broken taboo. We have heard the god's voice. The sky will fall on us. If his Shadow were to find it out a

nd anxiety for the moment, and patiently wait till the Month of Birds had run its course, and taken its inconvenient taboo along with it. These limitations were terrible. Yet he counted much upon the in

gh the woods with a h

r own huts he met

she said-for they were naturally by this time very much at home with one another, "did you ever know anything so dreadful as the mystery of these taboos? It seems as if we should never get really to the bottom of them. M

urid, tropical, red-and-gre

w well in Fiji as wholesome and agreeable. He broke off a small branch as he passed; and offered a couple thoughtlessly to Muriel. She took the

ed one into his own mouth, and

the wedding, the people in the cottages ran out, with every sign of fear and apprehension, and, se

face. "They were much too sharp for us. Their hearts are black. How could we two inter

he said, angrily, pointing toward the white man; "and she will, too. Their hearts are indeed black. They have sown the seed of the win

xact crime, and closely followed by a scowling but despondent mob of natives. As they crossed their sacred boundary, Muriel crie

ndescribable panic. "She has eaten the storm-fruit, and already she cries! Oh, clouds, restrain

hed around, beating thei

And all the time, just beyond the barrier line, they could hear, above the whistle of the wind around the hut, the droning voices of dozens of n

x asked of his Shadow at last, afte

your mightiness, and to avert the omen, lest the rain should fall, and the wind

e in Fiji, was also the season when the great Pacific cyclones most often swept over the land in full fury-storms unexample

fruit seed, you will reap the breadfruit. If you sow the wind, you will rea