You were immediately selected by Tu-Kila-Kila, for some reason of his own, which I do not sufficiently understand, but which is, nevertheless, obvious to all the initiated, as the next representatives of the rain-giving gods.
You were presented to Heaven on their little platform raised about the ground, and Heaven accepted you.

Then you were envisaged with the attributes of divinity; the care of the rain and the clouds was made over to you; and immediately after, as soon as you were gone, the old king and queen were laid on an altar near Tu-Kila-Kila's home, and slain with tomahawks.

Their flesh was next hacked from their bodies with knives, cooked, and eaten; their bones were thrown into the sea, the mother of all waters, as the natives call it.

And that is the fate, I fear the inevitable fate, that will befall you and mademoiselle at these wretches' hands about the commencement of a fresh season." Felix knew the worst now, and bent his head in silence.

His worst fears were confirmed; but, after all, even this knowledge was better than so much uncertainty.
And now that he knew when "his time was up," as the natives phrased it, he would know when to redeem his promise to Muriel..