Volume II Part 3 (2/2)
”A clear field--not a convert yet. Your predecessor, who went through the office of being eaten a year ago, had not even learned the language.”
”The blissid saints watch over us! To hear the likes av that, whin I expected to be a G.o.d, like, among these wretches! Well, it's our duty we must do, h.e.l.ler; we mustn't run away from our post; indade, we can't.
Moreover, I feel a sthrong confidence that the howly Catholic Church is to be greatly glorified by me on these islands. What do ye say now to meself exhibitin' the gift av miracles an' tongues? If I should discoorse to these cannebals in their own contimptible language, would it surprise ye, h.e.l.ler?”
”No,” smiled the professor. ”I have seen greater marvels in my time. I have seen men preach not merely words, but feelings and faiths, that they were ignorant of.”
Father Higgins, closely followed by h.e.l.ler, now advanced to a green hillock, a few rods from the sh.e.l.ly and pebbly beach, knelt down upon the thin sward, and repeated a prayer. Meantime the population gathered; behind them canoe after canoe touched the sh.o.r.e; before them there was a swift, tumultuous hurrying from the villages; presently they were surrounded by a compact, eager, barbaric mult.i.tude. The babble of its wonder turned to silence as the priest rose, extended his fat hands, and commenced a sermon.
Father Higgins was not a bit astonished at hearing himself pour forth a torrent of words which he did not understand, nor at seeing in the faces of his wild listeners that they perfectly comprehended his discourse. It was merely a supernatural inspiration; it was but another exhibition of the heavenly gifts of the Church; he was as much at his ease as if he had been in the habit of working miracles from his cradle. At the close of his harangue he took out his breviary, and translated a prayer into the unknown tongue. Evidently the auditors understood this also, for while some crouched to earth in undisguisable terror, others looked upward as if expecting an answer from the sky.
Presently a savage, in a many-colored robe of feathers, stepped in front of the mult.i.tude, and uttered a few sentences.
”It's a mighty quare providence that this miracle works ownly wan way,”
observed Father Higgins to h.e.l.ler. ”It's meself can prache acceptably to this poor haythin, an' it's meself, loikewise, can't sense a blissid word he gabbles.”
”He is comparing you with your predecessor,” exclaimed the professor.
”He says the other man called himself a messenger from G.o.d; but as he could not talk Feejee, they saw that he was a liar, because G.o.d knows every language; and so, having found him a liar, they fattened him with fish and cocoa-nuts, and ate him. As for you, they admit that you are a heavenly personage, and they mean to wors.h.i.+p you.”
”How came ye to larn the language, annyway?” demanded the priest.
”I have wandered to and fro in the earth a good deal,” replied h.e.l.ler.
”I have performed some of my best black-art in these islands.”
Father Higgins, rather bothered by these statements, was about to ask further questions, when he was seized by four st.u.r.dy natives, who mounted him upon their naked shoulders, while four others uplifted the professor in like manner, all then setting off rapidly toward the village, followed by the whole crowd in procession.
”An' what if I should tell ye I had conscientious scruples agenst lettin' meself be adored for a heavenly personage?” objected the good Father.
”Don't think of it,” counselled h.e.l.ler. ”Being wors.h.i.+pped is infinitely more agreeable than being eaten. Besides, consider the interests of the Church. If you are set up as a G.o.d, you can use the position to sprinkle holy water on your adorers, and so convert the whole island without trouble.”
”Sure y' are mighty well va.r.s.ed in the precepts and customs av the Jesuit Fathers,” answered the priest, with a stare of wonder and admiration. ”I moind me now that the missionaries in Chaynee baptized las.h.i.+ns av haythin babies under pretinse av rubbin' um with medicine.
An' it's a maxim that whin the ind is salvatory, the manes are justified. It's a maxim, also, that y' ave no business to lead yer felly-crachurs into sin. Now cannebalism is a sin; it ud be a sin capital for these fellies to ate us; an', av coorse, it follies that it ud be a sin in me to timpt um to do it. But, by sufferin' meself to be wors.h.i.+pped I prevint that same. So, I advise an' counsel, h.e.l.ler, that we go on as we are for a bit longer, until a proper time comes to expose the whole av the thrue faith.”
Beguiling the way with such like discourse, Father Higgins journeyed on to the nearest village, where his bearers halted before an unusually large hut, evidently serving as a temple. In the door of this building the princ.i.p.al chief took post, and waving his hand toward the crowd, made the following speech:
”Hear, O chiefs! hear, O priests of our religion ye men of Feejee, hear!
The G.o.d who can come over the waters is greater than the G.o.d who can only abide upon the land, and shall have his house and his sacrifices.
Whosoever disapproves of this, let him offer himself for the trial of the sacred poison; if he is not ready so to do, let him hereafter hold his peace and submit.”
No one objecting, the chief beckoned the bearers to follow him, and led the way into the temple. Mounting a platform eight or ten feet high, he advanced to an ugly scarecrow of an idol, slapped it, kicked it, and toppled it to the ground. Then, with vast labor and much joyful shouting, the ponderous form of Father Higgins was hoisted aloft, and installed in the seat of the dethroned deity. Next Professor h.e.l.ler was set down upon his feet beside an altar which stood in front of the platform.
”What are ye afther doin', h.e.l.ler?” inquired the clergyman from his eminence.
”I am about to sacrifice to your divinity two green cocoa-nuts, two roasted bread-fruit, and half a dozen fishes,” was the answer.
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