and its life, which would no doubt have largely enlightened Felix,
had it not been for two drawbacks to their means of inter-communication.
In the first place, the Boupari dialect, though agreeing in all
essentials with the Polynesian of Fiji, nevertheless contained a great
many words and colloquial expressions unknown to the Fijians; this being
particularly the case, as Felix soon remarked, in the whole vocabulary of
religious rites and ceremonies. And in the second place, the Shadow was
so rigidly bound by his own narrow and insular set of ideas, that he
couldn't understand the difficulty Felix felt in throwing himself into
them. Over and over again, when Felix asked him to explain some word or
custom, he would repeat, with naive impatience, "Why, Korong is Korong,"
or "Tula is just Tula; even a child must surely know what Tula is; much
more yourself, who are indeed Korong, and who have come from the sun to
bring fresh fire to us."

In the adjoining hut, Muriel, who was now beginning in some small degree
to get rid of her most pressing fear for the immediate future, and whom
the obvious reality of the taboo had reassured for the moment, sat with
Mali, her own particular Shadow, unravelling the mystery of the girl's
knowledge of English.

Mali, indeed, like the other Shadow, showed every disposition to indulge
in abundant conversation, as soon as she found herself well within the
hut, alone with her mistress, and secluded from the prying eyes of all
the other islanders.

"Don't you be afraid, missy," she said, with genuine kindliness in her
tone, as soon as the gifts of yam and bread-fruit had all been duly
housed and garnered. "No harm come to you. You Korong, you know. You very
great Taboo. Tu-Kila-Kila send King of Fire and King of Water to make
taboo over you, so nobody hurt you."

Muriel burst into tears at the sound of her own language from those dusky
lips, and exclaimed through her sobs, clinging to the girl's hand for
comfort as she spoke, "Why, how did you ever come to speak English?--tell
me."

Mali looked up at her with a half-astonished air. "Oh, I servant in
Queensland, of course, missy," she answered, with great composure. "Labor
vessel come to my island, far away, four, five years ago, steal boy,
steal woman. My papa just kill my mamma, because he angry with her, so no
want daughters. So my papa sell me and my sister for plenty rum, plenty
tobacco, to gentlemen in labor vessel. Gentlemen in labor v