[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

74 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

sky, so that it looked like one of those old-fashioned
engravings of God behind a cloud. When every-
thing had melted into one gorgeous fire, and we were
still helpless before all that glory, the colours faded
away to the most DELICATE combinations of half-tones;
soon the stars came out glittering on the deep sky, first
of all the Southern Cross. Halley’s comet was still
faintly visible.

In the morning the sky was cloudless, and
changed from one lovely colour to the other, until the
sun rose to give it its bright blue and paint the shore
in every tint. Then every stone at the bottom of the
sea was visible, and all the marvellous coral forma-
tions, with their weird shapes and fiery colours,
glowed in rose and violet and pure golden yellow.
Above lay big sea—stars, and large fish in bright hues
floated between the cliffs in soft, easy movements,
while bright blue little ones shot hither and thither
like mad.

Bourbaki arrived with his younger brother, a neat
and gentle-looking boy. The feast was to begin that
evening, and I asked Bourbaki if they had plenty
of pigs to eat. “Oh no,” he said; “but that is of
no importance: we have a man to eat! Yesterday
we killed him in the bush, and to-day we will eat
him.” He said this with the most innocent ex—
pression, as if he were talking about the weather.
I had to force myself not to draw away from him,
and looked somewhat anxiously into his face; but
Bourbaki stared quietly into the distance, as if
dreaming of the past excitements and the coming