he repeated after a pause, in the same deep tone of profound conviction.

The stouter man in the short white cape stepped forward in his turn. He
toed the line with his naked left foot; in his brown right hand he
carried a calabash of water. "Taboo! Taboo! Taboo!" he exclaimed aloud,
pouring out the water upon the ground symbolically. "If any man dare to
transgress this line without leave, I drown him in his canoe. If any
woman, I drag her alive into the spring as she fetches water. Taboo to
the King of the Rain and the Queen of the Clouds. Taboo! Taboo! Taboo!
Korong! I say it."

"What does it all mean?" Muriel whispered, terrified.

Felix explained to her, as far as he could, in a few hurried sentences.
"There's only one word in it I don't understand," he added, hastily, "and
that's Korong. It doesn't occur in Fiji. They keep saying we're Korong,
whatever that may mean; and evidently they attach some very great
importance to it."

"Let the Shadows come forward," the chief said, looking up with an air of
dignity.

A good-looking young man, and the girl who said her name was Mali,
stepped forth from the crowd, and fell on their knees before him.

The chief laid his hand on the young man's shoulder and raised him up.
"The Shadow of the King of the Rain," he cried, turning him three times
round. "Follow him in all his incomings and his outgoings, and serve
him faithfully! Taboo! Taboo! Pass within the sacred circle!"

He clapped his hands. The young man crossed the line with a sort of
reverent reluctance, and took his place within the ring, close up to
Felix.

The chief laid his hand on Mali's shoulder. "The Shadow of the Queen of
the Clouds," he said, turning her three times round. "Follow her in all
her incomings and outgoings, and serve her faithfully. Taboo! Taboo!
Pass within the sacred circle!"

Then he waved both hands to Felix. "Go where you will now," he said.
"Your Shadow will follow you. You are free as the rain that drops where
it will. You are as free as the clouds that roam through heaven. No man
will hinder you."

And in a moment the spearmen dropped their spears in concert, the crowd
fell back, and the villagers dispersed as if by magic, to their own
houses.

But Felix and Muriel were left alone beside their huts, guarded only in
silence by their two mystic Shadows.

CHAPTER VI.

FIRST DAYS IN BOUPARI.

Throughout that day the natives brought them, from time to time, numerous
pr