Even the other day, I never heard of your arrival till a fortnight had elapsed, for I had been sick with fever, the fever of the country, and as soon as my Shadow told me of your advent it was my taboo again, and I was obliged to defer for myself the honor of calling upon my new acquaintances.

I am a god, of course, and can do what I like; but while my taboo is on, _ma foi_, monsieur, I can hardly call my life my own, I assure you." "But your taboo is up to-day," Felix said, "so my Shadow tells me." "Your Shadow is a well-informed young man," M.Peyron answered, with easy French sprightliness.

"As for my donkey of a valet, he never by any chance knows or tells me anything.

I had just sent him out--the pig--to learn, if possible, your nationality and name, and what hours you preferred, as I proposed later in the day to pay my respects to mademoiselle, your friend, if she would deign to receive me." "Miss Ellis would be charmed, I'm sure," Felix replied, smiling in spite of himself at so much Parisian courtliness under so ragged an exterior.
"It is a great pleasure to us to find we are not really alone on this barbarous island.

But you were going to explain to me, I believe, the exact nature of this peril in which we both stand--the precise distinction between Korong and Tula ?" "Alas, monsieur," the Frenchman replied, drawing circles in the dust with his stick with much discomposure, "I can only tell you I have been trying to make out the secret of this distinction myself ever since the first day I came to the island; but so reticent are all the natives about it, and so deep is the taboo by which the mystery is guarded, that even now I, who am myself Tula, can tell you but very little with certainty on the subject.