and honour their parents, and that
it was their duty, the older, the more infirm and helpless they became,
the more faithfully to cherish and protect them. In speaking on this
subject, I grew earnest and excited, and probably my voice and manner
too strongly expressed the abhorrence I felt for such monstrous and
unnatural crimes.

"At this point, Barton, who had for some time been looking on in
astonishment at the serious turn which the matter had so unexpectedly
taken, interrupted me with the whispered caution--

"`Be careful, Arthur! I fear from the black looks of one of your
clerical fathers here, that you are giving offence to the cloth, and
trenching upon perilous ground.'

"But the warning came too late. Just as I glanced round in search of
the threatening looks, to which Barton alluded, a frightful figure
sprang up on the outer edge of the circle of listeners, directly in
front of me, and with cries of rage forced its way towards the spot
where I stood. I recognised at once the old priest of the marae, but
how changed since I last saw him! Every sign of age and decrepitude had
vanished: his misshapen frame seemed dilated, and instinct with nervous
energy: his face was pale with the intensity of his fury, and his small
eyes flashed fire.

"`Perish, reviler of Oro, and his priests!' he cried, and hurled at me a
barbed spear, with so true an aim, that if I had not stooped as it left
his hand, it would have struck my face. Whizzing over my head, it
pierced the tough bark of a bread-fruit tree, ten yards behind me, where
it stood quivering. Instantly catching a club from the hands of a
bystander, he rushed forward to renew the attack. He had reached the
foot of the rock where I stood, when Rokoa with a bound placed himself
between us, and though without any weapon, motioned him back, with a
gesture so commanding, and an air at once so quiet, and so fearless,
that the priest paused. But it was for an instant only; then, without
uttering a word, he aimed a blow full at Rokoa's head. The latter
caught it in his open palm, wrenched the weapon from him, and, adroitly
foiling a furious attempt which he made to grapple with him, once more
stood upon the defensive with an unruffled aspect and not the slightest
appearance of excitement in his manner.

"The baffled priest, livid with rage, looked round for another weapon.
Half a dozen of the men who had arrived upon the ground with him,
uttered a wild yell, and