He felt pretty sure, therefore, that Felix had by this time learned another white man was living on the island; and he thought it an ominous fact that the new-comer should make his way toward his fellow-European's hut on the very first morning when the law of taboo rendered such a visit possible.
The savage is always by nature suspicious; and Tu-Kila-Kila had grounds enough of his own for suspicion in this particular instance.

The two white men were surely brewing mischief together for the Lord of Heaven and Earth, the Illuminer of the Glowing Light of the Sun; he must make haste and see what plan they were concocting against the sacred tree and the person of its representative, the King of Plants and of the Host of Heaven.
But it isn't so easy to make haste when all your movements are impeded and hampered by endless taboos and a minutely annoying ritual.

Before Tu-Kila-Kila could get himself under way, sacred umbrella, tom-toms, and all, it was necessary for the King of Fire and the King of Water to make taboo on an elaborate scale with their respective elements; and so by the time the high god had reached M.Jules Peyron's garden, Felix Thurstan had already some time since returned to Muriel's hut and his own quarters.
Tu-Kila-Kila approached the King of the Birds, amid loud clapping of hands, with considerable haughtiness.

To say the truth, there was no love lost between the cannibal god and his European subordinate.

The savage, puffed up as he was in his own conceit, had nevertheless always an uncomfortable sense that, in his heart of hearts, the impassive Frenchman had but a low opinion of him.