"It's a pity you are not to be here at balola time," said one of the residents to Fred, when the latter had explained that their visit was to be a very brief one.
Fred thought the gentleman said bakola, and immediately his thoughts ran on the cannibalism of the Feejeeans in times past. He remarked that he supposed those days were gone forever, but his informant answered, to the great astonishment of the youth, that they had the festival every year, and it was something not to be missed.
Then the gentleman went on to explain, and Fred soon ascertained the difference between bakola and balola.
"The balola, or balolo," said he, "is a sea-worm whose scientific name is palolo viridis. It looks like a string of vermicelli, being little larger than a thread, and varying from an inch or two to a yard in length. It lives somewhere in the sea, no one knows where; on two days of the year it comes to the surface, and all the rest of the three hundred and sixty-five it keeps carefully out of sight. The natives know exactly when it will come; it first appears in October, the date being fixed by the position of certain stars, and its second appearance is at the full moon, between the twentieth and twenty-fifth of November.
ONE VARIETY OF SEA-WORM.
"The worms are far more numerous in the November than in the October appearance, and hence the October one is called the 'Little Balola,' while the November coming is the 'Great Balola.' At the great festival the sea is covered in some places to the depth of several inches with these worms, which are red, green, and brown in color, and form a writhing and wriggling mass not altogether pleasant to look at. They come a little past midnight, and when the sun rises they sink down out of sight and remain there until the next year."
"How curious!" exclaimed the youth, in astonishment.
"No one has been able to explain the phenomenon," was the reply, "nor tell how and where the worm passes the rest of his time. Why he appears on these occasions and no other, or why he appears at all, nobody has yet found out, and you may be sure the worms won't give up the secret.