Chapter Thirty-two - Page 2

often excited my
curiousity. Several times I had asked Kory-Kory to show me their
contents, but my servitor, who, in almost every other particular
had acceded to my wishes, refused to gratify me in this.

One day, returning unexpectedly from the 'Ti', my arrival seemed
to throw the inmates of the house into the greatest confusion.
They were seated together on the mats, and by the lines which
extended from the roof to the floor I immediately perceived that
the mysterious packages were for some purpose or another under
inspection. The evident alarm the savages betrayed filled me
with forebodings of evil, and with an uncontrollable desire to
penetrate the secret so jealously guarded Despite the efforts of
Marheyo and Kory-Kory to restrain me, I forced my way into the
midst of the circle, and just caught a glimpse of three human
heads, which others of the party were hurriedly enveloping in the
coverings from which they had been taken.

One of the three I distinctly saw. It was in a state of perfect
preservation, and from the slight glimpse I had of it, seemed to
have been subjected to some smoking operation which had reduced
it to the dry, hard, and mummy-like appearance it presented. The
two long scalp locks were twisted up into balls upon the crown of
the head in the same way that the individual had worn them during
fife. The sunken cheeks were rendered yet more ghastly by the
rows of glistening teeth which protruded from between the lips,
while the sockets of the eyes--filled with oval bits of
mother-of-pearl shell, with a black spot in the
centre--heightened the hideousness of its aspect.

Two of the three were heads of the islanders; but the third, to
my horror, was that of a white man. Although it had been quickly
removed from my sight, still the glimpse I had of it was enough
to convince me that I could not be mistaken.

Gracious God! what dreadful thoughts entered my head; in solving
this mystery perhaps I had solved another, and the fate of my
lost companion might be revealed in the shocking spectacle I had
just witnessed. I longed to have torn off the folds of cloth and
satisfied the awful doubts under which I laboured. But before I
had recovered from the consternation into which I had been
thrown, the fatal packages were hoisted aloft, and once more
swung over my head. The natives now gathered round me
tumultuously, and laboured to convince me that what I had just
seen were the heads of three Happar warriors, who had been slain
in battle. This glaring falsehood added to my alarm, and it was
not until I reflected that I had observed the packages swinging
from their elevation before Toby's disappearance, that I could at
all recover my composure.

But although