In the Wrong Paradise | Page 7

chapter, the learned will be able to determine
whether the speech is of the Polynesian or the Papuan family, or
whether, as I sometimes suspect, it is of neither, but of a character quite
isolated and peculiar.
The effect produced on the mind of the chief by the prophecy amazed
me, as he looked, for a native, quite a superior and intelligent person.
None of them, however, as I found, escaped the influence of their
baneful superstitions. Approaching me, he closely examined myself,

my dress, and the spectacles which the old priest now held in his hands.
The two men then had a hurried discussion, and I have afterwards seen
reason to suppose that the chief was pointing out the absence of certain
important elements in the fulfilment of the prophecy. Here was I,
doubtless, "a man bearing a chimney on his head" (for in this light they
regarded my hat), and having "four eyes," that is, including my
spectacles, a convenience with which they had hitherto been
unacquainted. It was undeniable that a prophecy written by a person not
accustomed to the resources of civilization, could not more accurately
have described me and my appearance. But the "ship without sails" was
still lacking to the completion of what had been foretold, as the chief
seemed to indicate by waving his hand towards the sea. For the present,
therefore, they might hope that the worst would not come to the worst.
Probably this conclusion brought a ray of hope into the melancholy
face of the chief, and the old priest himself left off trembling. They
even smiled, and, in their conversation, which assumed a lighter tone, I
caught and recorded in pencil on my shirt-cuff, for future explanation,
words which sounded like aiskistos aneer, farmakos, catharma, and
Thargeelyah. {25} Finally the aged priest hobbled back into his temple,
and the chief, beckoning me to follow, passed within the courtyard of
his house.

IV. AT THE CHIEF'S HOUSE.
The chief leading the way, I followed through the open entrance of the
courtyard. The yard was very spacious, and under the dark shade of the
trees I could see a light here and there in the windows of small huts
along the walls, where, as I found later, the slaves and the young men
of the family slept. In the middle of the space there was another altar, I
am sorry to say; indeed, there were altars everywhere. I never heard of
a people so religious, in their own darkened way, as these islanders. At
the further end of the court was a really large and even stately house,
with no windows but a clerestory, indicated by the line of light from
within, flickering between the top of the wall and the beginning of the
high-pitched roof. Light was also streaming through the wide doorway,
from which came the sound of many voices. The house was obviously

full of people, and, just before we reached the deep verandah, a roofed
space open to the air in front, they began to come out, some of them
singing. They had flowers in their hair, and torches in their hands. The
chief, giving me a sign to be silent, drew me apart within the shadow of
a plane tree, and we waited there till the crowd dispersed, and went, I
presume, to their own houses. There were no women among them, and
the men carried no spears nor other weapons. When the court was
empty, we walked up the broad stone steps and stood within the
doorway. I was certainly much surprised at what I saw. There was a
rude magnificence about this house such as I had never expected to find
in the South Sea Islands. Nay, though I am not unacquainted with the
abodes of opulence at home, and have been a favoured guest of some of
our merchant princes (including Messrs. Bunton, the eminent
haberdashers, whose light is so generously bestowed on our
Connection), I admit that I had never looked on a more spacious
reception-room, furnished, of course, in a somewhat savage manner,
but, obviously, regardless of expense. The very threshold between the
court and the reception-room, to which you descended by steps, was
made of some dark metal, inlaid curiously with figures of beasts and
birds, also in metal (gold, as I afterwards learned), of various shades of
colour and brightness.
At first I had some difficulty in making out the details of the vast
apartment which lay beyond. I was almost dizzy with hunger and
fatigue, and my view was further obscured by a fragrant blue smoke,
which rose in soft clouds from an open fireplace in the middle of the
room. Singular to say, there was no chimney, merely a hole in the lofty
roof, through which most of