A bowl of kava was prepared by chewing the root and ejecting the contents of the mouth into a bowl, which was filled up with water, then mixed and strained. In addition to the kava, there were raw yams served, and cooked food consisting of figs and fowls. The women had their meal apart from the men.
Meri repeated a short prayer before the meal, wishing them success in their crops and in the battles in which they were often engaged.
Edgar, having seen the kava prepared, did not relish tasting it, but at a sign from Wal Jessop, he took the bowl and sipped a little.
‘They would have been greatly offended had you refused it,’ Wal explained.
After the meal, which, with the exception of the kava, Edgar relished, the men made speeches and danced, flourishing their clubs. It amused Edgar to watch the children, of whom the men seemed very fond. The copper-skinned little ones imitated their elders with precocious dexterity.
It was a curious sight to see these natives holding a marum under the huge banyan tree, and as the shades of night quickly fell their figures loomed in the light with a peculiarly weird effect as they danced and chanted their monotonous song.
Meri sat between Wal Jessop and Edgar, and as the dance proceeded, he caught them one by each arm and nodded across the opening. Edgar and Wal looked in the direction Meri indicated, and saw a strange figure standing looking at the scene.
Edgar sprang to his feet and shouted:
‘The captain or his ghost!’
‘The very image of him,’ said Wal.