journeymen were plying their tools;--some
chiseling noses; some trenching for mouths; and others, with heated
flints, boring for ears: a hole drilled straight through the occiput,
representing the auricular organs.

"How easily they are seen through," said Babbalanja, taking a sight
through one of the heads.

The last finish is given to their godships, by rubbing them all over
with dried slips of consecrated shark-skin, rough as sand paper,
tacked over bits of wood.

In one of the farther arbors, Hevaneva pointed out a goodly array of
idols, all complete and ready for the market. They were of every
variety of pattern; and of every size; from that of a giant, to the
little images worn in the ears of the ultra devout.

"Of late," said the artist, "there has been a lively demand for the
image of Arbino the god of fishing; the present being the principal
season for that business. For Nadams (Nadam presides over love and
wine), there has also been urgent call; it being the time of the
grape; and the maidens growing frolicsome withal, and devotional."

Seeing that Hevaneva handled his wares with much familiarity, not to
say irreverence, Babbalanja was minded to learn from him, what he
thought of his trade; whether the images he made were genuine or
spurious; in a word, whether he believed in his gods.

His reply was curious. But still more so, the marginal gestures
wherewith he helped out the text.

"When I cut down the trees for my idols," said he, "they are nothing
but logs; when upon those logs, I chalk out the figures of, my images,
they yet remain logs; when the chisel is applied, logs they are still;
and when all complete, I at last stand them up in my studio, even then
they are logs. Nevertheless, when I handle the pay, they are as prime
gods, as ever were turned out in Maramma."

"You must make a very great variety," said Babbalanja.

"All sorts, all sorts."

"And from the same material, I presume."

"Ay, ay, one grove supplies them all. And, on an average, each tree
stands us in full fifty idols. Then, we often take second-hand images
in part pay for new ones. These we work over again into new patterns;
touching up their eyes and ears; resetting their noses; and more
especially new-footing their legs, where they always decay first."

Under sanction of the Pontiff, Hevaneva, in addition to his large
commerce in idols, also carried on the highly lucrative business of
canoe-building; the profits whereof,