Part 10 (1/2)

”You see,” said Bickley, ”we are following our trades Arbuthnot is a lawyer and acts as a judge I aeneral--practitioner and work at lected practice Therefore, you, being a clergyo and do likewise There are some ten thousand people here, but I do not observe that as yet you have converted a single one”

Thus spoke Bickley in a light and unguardeda rise” out of Bastin Little did he guess what he was doing

Bastin thought a while ponderously, then said:

”It is very strange from what peculiar sources Providence sometimes sends inspirations If wisdos, why should it not do so fronostics and mockers?”

”There is no reason which I can see,” scoffed Bickley, ”except that as a rule wells do not flow”

”Your jest is ill-timed and I may add foolish,” continued Bastin ”What I was about to add was that you have given me an idea, as it was no doubt intended that you should do I will, ird up ht into all this heathen blackness”

”Then it is one of the first you ever had, old fellow But what's the need of girding up your loins in this hot climate?” inquired Bickley with innocence ”Pyjareen umbrella of yours would do just as well”

Bastin vouchsafed no reply and sat for the rest of that evening plunged in deep thought

On the followinghe approached Marama and asked his leave to teach the people about the Gods The chief readily granted this, thinking, I believe, that he alluded to ourselves, and orders were issued accordingly They were to the effect that Bastin was to be allowed to go everywhere unmolested and to talk to whom he would about what he would, to which all an his ood and earnest man that he was, in a way that excited even the admiration of Bickley He started a school for children, which was held under a fine, spreading tree These listened well, and being of exceedingly quick intellect soon began to pick up the elee But when he tried to persuade them to clothe their little naked bodies his failure was coirls did arrive with a chaplet of flowers--round their necks!

Also he preached to the adults, and here again was very successful in a way, especially after he becae They listened; to a certain extent they understood; they argued and put to poor Bastin the most awful questions such as the whole Bench of Bishops could not have answered Still he did answer them somehow, and they politely accepted his interpretation of their theological riddles I observed that he got on best when he was telling them stories out of the Old Testament, such as the account of the creation of the world and of hue, etc Indeed one of their elders said--Yes, this was quite true They had heard it all before froe had taken place round Orofena, sing up great countries, but sparing theood

Bastin, surprised, asked thee They replied, Oro which was the name of their God, Oro elt yonder on the mountain in the lake, and whose representation they worshi+pped in idols He said that God dwelt in Heaven, to which they replied with calm certainty:

”No, no, he dwells on the mountain in the lake,” which hy they never dared to approach thatthe naht dwell in the mountain as well as everywhere else, that Bastin was able toconceded this, not without scruples, however, he did ress, so much, in fact, that I perceived that the priests of Oro were beginning to grow very jealous of hi authority with the people Bastin was naturally triuly that within a year he would have half of the population baptised

”Within a year, my dear fellow,” said Bickley, ”you will have your throat cut as a sacrifice, and probably ours also It is a pity, too, as within that time I should have stamped out ophthalmia and so Bastin and his good work aside for a while, I will say a little about the country Froathered on some journeys that I made and by inquiries from the chief Marama, who had becoe place In shape the island was circular, a broad band of territory surrounding the great lake of which I have spoken, that in its turn surrounded a smaller island from which rose the mountain top No other land was known to be near the shores of Orofena, which had never been visited by anyone except the strangers a hundred years ago or so, ere sacrificed and eaten Most of the island was covered with forest which the inhabitants lacked the energy, and indeed had no tools, to fell They were an extreh bananas and other food to satisfy their immediate needs In truth they lived mostly upon breadfruit and other products of the wild trees

Thus it caht or cli, they suffered very er In such years hundreds of them would perish and the remainder resorted to the dreadful expedient of cannibalism

Someti the which roareat numbers, for they had never taken the trouble to breed it in captivity Their resources, therefore, were limited, which accounted for the comparative smallness of the population, further reduced as it was by a wicked habit of infanticide practised in order to lighten the burden of bringing up children

They had no traditions as to how they reached this land, their belief being that they had always been there but that their forefathers were s in a language which themselves they could not understand; they said that it was the tongue their forefathers had spoken Also they had several strange custoin My own opinion, which Bickley shared, was that they were in fact a shrunken and deteriorated ree and inter-breeding About theery which in its qualities much resembled that of other Polynesians, there was a very curious air of antiquity One felt that they had known the older world and its e, which in time we came to speak perfectly, was copious, musical, and expressive in its idio about the country I observed all over it enor as much as a hundred yards across, with a depth of fifty feet or h there traces of them existed also, but in solid rock What this rock was I do not know as none of us were geologists, but it seeranite Certainly it was not coral like that on and about the coast, but of a primeval formation

When I asked Maraed his shoulders and said he did not know, but their fathers had declared that they were ested meteorites to my mind I submitted the idea to Bickley, who, in one of his rare intervals of leisure, came with me to make an examination

”If they were meteorites,” he said, ”of which a shower struck the earth in soe, all life ht to exist at the bottoh explosives, but that, of course, is ih I don't knohat else could have caused such craters”

Then he went back to his work, for nothing that had to do with antiquity interested Bickley very h for him, he would say, who neither had lived in the past nor expected to have any share in the future