t? None,
save only Fire and Water, my ministers. King of the Rain there is none;
for I, who was he, am now Tu-Kila-Kila. Tu-Kila-Kila there is none, save
only me; for the other, that was, I have fought and conquered. The Queen
of the Clouds is with me. The King of the Birds is with me. Consider,
then, O friends, that if you kill us all, you will have nowhere to turn;
you will be left quite godless."

"It is true," the people murmured, looking about them, half puzzled. "He
is wise. He speaks well. He is indeed a Tu-Kila-Kila."

Felix pressed his advantage home at once. "Now listen," he said, lifting
up one solemn forefinger. "I come from a country very far away, where the
customs are better by many yams than those of Boupari. And now that I am
indeed Tu-Kila-Kila--your god, your master--I will change and alter some
of your customs that seem to me here and now most undesirable. In the
first place--hear this!--I will put down all cannibalism. No man shall
eat of human flesh on pain of death. And to begin with, no man shall cook
or eat the body of Lavita, the son of Sami. On that I am determined--I,
Tu-Kila-Kila. The King of the Birds and I, we will dig a pit, and we will
bury in it the corpse of this man that was once your god, and whom his
own wickedness compelled me to fight and slay, in order to prevent more
cruelty and bloodshed."

The young chief stood up, all red in his wrath, and interrupted him,
brandishing a coral-stone hatchet. "This is blasphemy," he said. "This is
sheer rank blasphemy. These are not good words. They are very bad
medicine. The white-faced Korong is no true Tu-Kila-Kila. His advice
is evil--and ill-luck would follow it. He wishes to change the sacred
customs of Boupari. Now, that is not well. My counsel is this: let us eat
him now, unless he changes his heart, and amends his ways, and partakes,
as is right, of the body of Lavita, the son of Sami."

The assembly swayed visibly, this way and that, some inclining to the
conservative view of the rash young chief, and others to the cautious
liberalism of the gray-haired warrior. Felix noted their division, and
spoke once more, this time still more authoritatively than ever.

"Furthermore," he said, "my people, hear me. As I came in a ship
propelled by fire over the high waves of the sea, so I go away in one. We
watch for such a ship to pass by Boupari. When it comes, the Queen of the
Clouds--upon whose life I place a great Taboo; let no man dare t