tate and history which it is
a pleasure to forget, which it is perhaps the better wisdom not to dwell
on. Crime, pestilence, and death are in the day's work; the imagination
readily accepts them. It instinctively rejects, on the contrary,
whatever shall call up the image of our race upon its lowest terms, as
the partner of beasts, beastly itself, dwelling pell-mell and
huggermugger, hairy man with hairy woman, in the caves of old. And yet
to be just to barbarous islanders we must not forget the slums and dens
of our cities: I must not forget that I have passed dinnerward through
Soho, and seen that which cured me of my dinner.

FOOTNOTE:

[7] Gin and brandy.

CHAPTER V

A TALE OF A TAPU--_continued_

_Tuesday, July 16_.--It rained in the night, sudden and loud, in Gilbert
Island fashion. Before the day, the crowing of a cock aroused me and I
wandered in the compound and along the street. The squall was blown by,
the moon shone with incomparable lustre, the air lay dead as in a room,
and yet all the isle sounded as under a strong shower, the eaves thickly
pattering, the lofty palms dripping at larger intervals and with a
louder note. In this bold nocturnal light the interior of the houses lay
inscrutable, one lump of blackness, save when the moon glinted under the
roof, and made a belt of silver, and drew the slanting shadows of the
pillars on the floor. Nowhere in all the town was any lamp or ember; not
a creature stirred; I thought I was alone to be awake; but the police
were faithful to their duty; secretly vigilant, keeping account of time;
and a little later, the watchman struck slowly and repeatedly on the
cathedral bell; four o'clock, the warning signal. It seemed strange
that, in a town resigned to drunkenness and tumult, curfew and reveille
should still be sounded and still obeyed.

The day came, and brought little change. The place still lay silent; the
people slept, the town slept. Even the few who were awake, mostly women
and children, held their peace and kept within under the strong shadow
of the thatch, where you must stop and peer to see them. Through the
deserted streets, and past sleeping houses, a deputation took its way at
an early hour to the palace; the king was suddenly awakened, and must
listen (probably with a headache) to unpalatable truths. Mrs. Rick,
being a sufficient mistress of that difficult tongue, was spokeswoman;
she explained to the sick monarch that I was an intimat