And so the natives make much of the parrot to the present day, saying he is greater than any, save a Korong or a god, for he is the Soul of a dead race, summing it up in himself, and he knows the secret of the Death of Tu-Kila-Kila." "But you can't tell me what language he speaks ?" Felix asked with a despairing gesture.

It was terrible to stand thus within measurable distance of the secret which might, perhaps, save Muriel's life, and yet be perpetually balked by wheel within wheel of more than Egyptian mystery.
"Who can say ?" the Frenchman answered, shrugging his shoulders helplessly.

"It isn't Polynesian; that I know well, for I speak Bouparese now like a native of Boupari; and it isn't the only other language spoken at the present day in the South Seas--the Melanesian of New Caledonia--for that I learned well from the Kanakas while I was serving my time as a convict among them.

All we can say for certain is that it may, perhaps, be some very ancient tongue.

For parrots, we know, are immensely long-lived.