the
time. He sings this way--"

And then the Shadow, with that wonderful power of accurate mimicry which
is so strong in all natural human beings, began to trill out at once,
with a very good Parisian accent, a few lines from a well-known song in
"La Fille de Madame Angot:"

"Quand on conspi-re,
Quand sans frayeur
On pent se di-re
Conspirateur,
Pour tout le mon-de
Il faut avoir
Perruque blon-de
Et collet noir--
Perruque blon-de
Et collet noir."

"That's how the King of the Birds sings," the Shadow said, as he
finished, throwing back his head, and laughing with all his might at his
own imitation. "So funny, isn't it? It's exactly like the song of the
pink-crested parrot."

"Why, Toko, it's French," Felix exclaimed, using the Fijian word for a
Frenchman, which the Shadow, of course, on his remote island, had never
before heard. "How on earth did he come here?"

"I can't tell you," Toko answered, waving his arms seaward. "He came from
the sun, like yourselves. But not in a sun-boat. It had no fire. He came
in a canoe, all by himself. And Mali says"--here the Shadow lowered his
voice to a most mysterious whisper--"he's a man-a-oui-oui."

Felix quivered with excitement. "Man-a-oui-oui" is the universal name
over semi-civilized Polynesia for a Frenchman. Felix seized upon it with
avidity. "A man-a-oui-oui!" he cried, delighted. "How strange! How
wonderful! I must go in at once to his hut and see him!"

He had lifted his foot and was just going to cross the white line of
coral-sand, when his Shadow, catching him suddenly and stoutly round the
waist, pulled him back from the enclosure with every sign of horror,
alarm, and astonishment. "No, you can't go," he cried, grappling with him
with all his force, yet using him very tenderly for all that, as becomes
a god. "Taboo! Taboo there!"

"But I am a god myself," Felix cried, insisting upon his privileges. If
you have to submit to the disadvantages of taboo, you may as well claim
its advantages as well. "The King of Fire and the King of Water crossed
my taboo line. Why shouldn't I cross equally the King of the Birds',
then?"

"So you might--as a rule," the Shadow answered with promptitude. "You are
both gods. Your taboos do not cross. You may visit each other. You may
transgress one another's lines without danger of falling dead on the
ground as common men would do if they broke taboo-lines. But this is the
Month of Birds. The king is in retreat