Although I did not anticipate a compliance with my request, still, with
a view of testing the truth of my suspicions, I proposed to Kory-Kory
that, according to our usual custom in the morning, we should take a
stroll to the Ti: he positively refused; and when I renewed the
request, he evinced his determination to prevent my going there; and,
to divert my mind from the subject, he offered to accompany me to the
stream. We accordingly went, and bathed. On our coming back to the
house, I was surprised to find that all its inmates had returned, and
were lounging upon the mats as usual, although the drums still sounded
from the groves.
The rest of the day I spent with Kory-Kory and Fayaway, wandering about
a part of the valley situated in an opposite direction from the Ti, and
whenever I so much as looked towards that building, although it was
hidden from view by intervening trees, and at the distance of more than
a mile, my attendant would exclaim, “Taboo, taboo!”
At the various houses where we stopped, I found many of the inhabitants
reclining at their ease, or pursuing some light occupation, as if
nothing unusual were going forward; but amongst them all I did not
perceive a single chief or warrior. When I asked several of the people
why they were not at the “Hoolah Hoolah” (the feast), they uniformly
answered the question in a manner which implied that it was not
intended for them, but for Mehevi, Narmonee, Mow-Mow, Kolor, Womonoo,
Kalow, running over, in their desire to make me comprehend their
meaning, the names of all the principal chiefs.
Everything, in short, strengthened my suspicions with regard to the
nature of the festival they were now celebrating; and which amounted
almost to a certainty. While in Nukuheva I had frequently been informed
that the whole tribe were never present at these cannibal banquets, but
the chiefs and priests only; and everything I now observed agreed with
the account.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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