“Why, that you give up in future human sacrifices.”
Tu-Kila-Kila gave a start. Then he reflected for a moment. Evidently, the condition seemed to him a very hard one. “Do you want all the victims for yourself and her, then?” he asked, with a casual nod aside toward Muriel.
Felix drew back, with horror depicted on every line of his face. “Heaven forbid!” he answered, fervently. “We want no bloodshed, no human victims. We ask you to give up these horrid practices, because they shock and revolt us. If you would have your fire lighted, you must promise us to put down cannibalism altogether henceforth in your island.”
Tu-Kila-Kila hesitated. After all, it was only for a very short time that these strangers could thus beard him. Their day would come soon. They were but Korongs. Meanwhile, it was best, no doubt, to effect a compromise. “Agreed,” he answered, slowly. “I will put down human sacrifices—so long as you live among us. And I will tell the people your taboo is not broken. All shall be done as you will in this matter. Now, come out before the crowd and light the fire from Heaven.”
“Remember,” Felix repeated, “if you break your word, my people will come down upon you, sooner or later, in their mighty fire-canoes, and will take vengeance for your crime, and destroy you utterly.”
Tu-Kila-Kila smiled a cunning smile. “I know all that,” he answered. “I am a god myself, not a fool, don’t you see? You are a very great god, too; but I am the greater. No more of words between us two. It is as between gods. The fire! the fire!”
Tu-Kila-Kila replaced his mask. They proceeded from the hut to the open space within the taboo-line. The people still lay all flat on their faces. “Fire and Water,” Tu-Kila-Kila said, in a commanding tone, “come forward and screen me!”
The King of Fire and the King of Water unrolled a large square of native cloth, which they held up as a screen on two poles in front of their superior deity. Tu-Kila-Kila sat down on the ground, hugging his knees, in the common squatting savage fashion, behind the veil thus readily formed for him. “Taboo is removed,” he said, in loud, clear tones. “My people may rise. The light will not burn them. They may look toward the place where Tu-Kila-Kila’s face is hidden from them.”
The people all rose with one accord, and gazed straight before them.
“The King of Fire will bring dry sticks,” Tu-Kila-Kila said, in his accustomed regal manner.