After they had sat for a little under the shade of the spreading banyan, to cool down from their walk--for it was an oppressive morning--M.

Peyron led her round to his aviary at the back of the hut, and introduced her, by their native names, to all his subjects.

"I am responsible for their lives," he said, gravely, "for their welfare, for their happiness.

If I were to let one of them grow old without a successor in the field to follow him up and receive his soul--as in the case of my friend Methuselah here, who was so neglected by my predecessors--the whole species would die out for want of a spirit, and my own life would atone for that of my people.
There you have the central principle of the theology of Boupari.

Every race, every element, every power of nature, is summed up for them in some particular person or thing; and on the life of that person or thing depends, as they believe, the entire health of the species, the sequence of events, the whole order and succession of natural phenomena." Felix approached the mysterious and venerable bird with somewhat incautious fingers.