Chapter Thirty-two

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

APPREHENSIONS OF EVIL-- FRIGHTFUL DISCOVERY--SOME REMARKS ON
CANNIBALISM--SECOND BATTLE WITH THE HAPPARS--SAVAGE
SPECTACLE--MYSTERIOUS FEAST--SUBSEQUENT DISCLOSURES

FROM the time of my casual encounter with Karky the artist, my
life was one of absolute wretchedness. Not a day passed but I
was persecuted by the solicitations of some of the natives to
subject myself to the odious operation of tattooing. Their
importunities drove me half wild, for I felt how easily they
might work their will upon me regarding this or anything else
which they took into their heads. Still, however, the behaviour
of the islanders towards me was as kind as ever. Fayaway was
quite as engaging; Kory-Kory as devoted; and Mehevi the king just
as gracious and condescending as before. But I had now been
three months in their valley, as nearly as I could estimate; I
had grown familiar with the narrow limits to which my wandering
had been confined; and I began bitterly to feel the state of
captivity in which I was held. There was no one with whom I
could freely converse; no one to whom I could communicate my
thoughts; no one who could sympathize with my sufferings. A
thousand times I thought how much more endurable would have been
my lot had Toby still been with me. But I was left alone, and
the thought was terrible to me. Still, despite my griefs, I did
all in my power to appear composed and cheerful, well knowing
that by manifesting any uneasiness, or any desire to escape, I
should only frustrate my object.

It was during the period I was in this unhappy frame of mind that
the painful malady under which I had been labouring--after having
almost completely subsided--began again to show itself, and with
symptoms as violent as ever. This added calamity nearly unmanned
me; the recurrence of the complaint proved that without powerful
remedial applications all hope of cure was futile; and when I
reflected that just beyond the elevations, which bound me in, was
the medical relief I needed, and that although so near, it was
impossible for me to avail myself of it, the thought was misery.

In this wretched situation, every circumstance which evinced the
savage nature of the beings at whose mercy I was, augmented the
fearful apprehensions that consumed me. An occurrence which
happened about this time affected me most powerfully.

I have already mentioned that from the ridge-pole of Marheyo's
house were suspended a number of packages enveloped in tappa.
Many of these I had often seen in the hands of the natives, and
their contents had been examined in my presence. But there were
three packages hanging very nearly over the place where I lay,
which from their remarkable appearance had