Part 11 (1/2)
”You see that flat rock, Friend, with the hole beyond, which is the reat storht you to our land? They are used to convey offerings which are laid upon the rock Beyond it no one”
”Offerings to whoreat dead who live there”
”Oro to do with Oro Who and what is Oro?”
”Oro is a God, Friend, though it is true that the priests say that above hiai, the Creator, the Fate who s”
”Very well, but why do you suppose that Oro, the servant of Degai, lives in that rove yonder where your priests, as I ae of him”
”I do not know, Friend-fro The irove is only visited by his spirit from time to time Now, I pray you, come back and before the priests discover that you have been here, and forget that there are any canoes upon this lake”
So, thinking it wisest, I turned the e On our road I tried to extract some more information but without success He did not knoho built the ruin upon the mountain, or who destroyed it He did not kno the terraces ca the convulsion of Nature which resulted in the tidal wave that had thrown our shi+p upon the island, the mountain had been seen to quiver like a tree in the wind as though within it great forces were at work Then it was observed to have risen a good ht be noted by the water mark upon the shore, and then also the mouth of the cave had appeared The priests said that all this was because the Ororeat things Indeed great things had happened--for had we not arrived in their land?
I thanked hi more to be learned, dropped the subject which was neverwhile But in my heart I deterh to do so Isee drawn by a o to the ed It ca on with his missionary work He replied: Very well indeed, but there was one great obstacle in his path, the idol in the Grove Were it not for this accursed ie he believed that the whole island would become Christian I asked him to be more plain
He explained that all his as thwarted by this idol, since his converts declared that they did not dare to be baptised while it sat there in the Grove If they did, the spirit that was in it would bewitch theht andour friends the sorcerers,” I suggested
”That's it, Arbuthnot Do you know, I believe those devilish men sometimes offer huht or anything of that sort”
”I can quite believe it,” I answered, ”but as they will scarcely remove their God and with it their own livelihood and authority, I am afraid that as we don't want to be sacrificed, there is nothing to be done”
At thissouess as going on in his pious but obstinate mind In effect it was this--that if no one else would remove that idol he was quite ready to do it hi over that business, almost Jesuitical indeed Not one word did he breathe of his dark plans to me, and still less to Bickley He just went on with his teaching, la-block of the idol and expressing wonder as to how it e in the hearts of the islanders, or otherwise Sad as it is to record, in fact, dear old Bastin went as near to telling a fib in connection with this matter as I suppose he had ever done in his life It happened thus One day Bickley's sharp eye caught sight of Bastin walking about hat looked like a bottle of whisky in his pocket
”Hallo, old fellow,” he said, ”has the self-denying ordinance broken down? I didn't know that you took pegs on the sly,” and he pointed to the bottle
”If you are insinuating, Bickley, that I absorb spirits surreptitiously, you are ood deal This bottle contains, not Scotch whisky but paraffin, although I admit that its label may have misled you, unintentionally, so far as I a to do with the paraffin?” asked Bickley
Bastin coloured through his tan and replied aardly:
”Paraffin is very good to keep away mosquitoes if one can stand the sht it here with that sole object The truth is that I an made--um--of native wood,” and he departed in a hurry
”When next old Bastin wants to tell a lie,” commented Bickley, ”he should make up his mind as to what it is to be, and stick to it I wonder what he is after with that paraffin? Not going to dose any ofthe other day that it is a great re quite unaware that the lamp variety is not used for that purpose”
”Perhaps he ht,” I suggested
”The stomach-pump is at hand,” said Bickley, and the ht Having soe of the main facts of astronomy, which remained with me from boyhood when I had attended lectures on the subject, which I had tried to refresh by help of an encyclopedia I had brought from the shi+p, I wished to attempt to obtain an idea of our position by help of the stars In this endeavour, I may say, I failed absolutely, as I did not kno to take a stellar or any other observation