. Its merits as a preparation for
the hair are undeniable,--it imparts to it a superb gloss and a silky
fineness.

CHAPTER XXXI

Apprehensions of evil--Frightful discovery--Some remarks on
cannibalism--Second battle with the Happars--Savage
spectacle--Mysterious feast--Subsequent disclosures.

From the time of my casual encounter with Karky the artist, my life was
one of absolute wretchedness. Not a day passed but I was persecuted by the
solicitations of some of the natives to subject myself to the odious
operation of tattooing. Their importunities drove me half wild, for I felt
how easily they might work their will upon me regarding this, or anything
else which they took into their heads. Still, however, the behaviour of
the islanders toward me was as kind as ever. Faraway was quite as
engaging; Kory-Kory as devoted; and Mehevi the king just as gracious and
condescending as before. But I had now been three months in their valley,
as nearly as I could estimate; I had grown familiar with the narrow limits
to which my wanderings had been confined; and I began bitterly to feel the
state of captivity in which I was held. There was no one with whom I could
freely converse; no one to whom I could communicate my thoughts; no one
who could sympathize with my sufferings. A thousand times I thought how
much more endurable would have been my lot had Toby still been with me.
But I was left alone, and the thought was terrible to me. Still, despite
my griefs, I did all in my power to appear composed and cheerful, well
knowing that by manifesting any uneasiness, or any desire to escape, I
should only frustrate my object.

It was during the period I was in this unhappy frame of mind, that the
painful malady under which I had been labouring--after having almost
completely subsided--began again to show itself, and with symptoms as
violent as ever. This added calamity nearly unmanned me; the recurrence of
the complaint proved that, without powerful remedial applications, all
hope of cure was futile; and when I reflected that just beyond the
elevations which bound me in, was the medical relief I needed, and that,
although so near, it was impossible for me to avail myself of it, the
thought was misery.

In this wretched situation, every circumstance which evinced the savage
nature of the beings at whose mercy I was, augmented the fearful
apprehensions that consu