Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1894-06-21
CHAPTER Ike
SOWING THE WINE.

vaguely anu lIuCu1l1USiJ OllC USIIIUlC
truth had been forced by slow degrees
upon Felix's mind: whatever else ko-
rong meant, it implied at least some
fearful doom in store, sooner or later,
for the persons who bore it. How aw-
full that doom might be, he could hardly
imagine: but he must devote himself
henceforth to the task of discovering
what it's nature was, and, if possible,
of averting it.
Yet how to reconcile this impending
terror with the other obvious facts Of
the situation? the tact that they were
considered divine beings and treated
like gods; and the fact that the whole
population seemed really to regard
them with a devotion and kindliness
closely bordering on religious rever-
ence? If Korongs were gods, why
should the people want to kill them?
If they meant to kill them, why pay
them meanwhile such respect and af-
lection?
One point at least was now, however,
quite clear to Felix. While the ma
t1ves, especially the women, displayed
toward both of them in their personal
aspect a sort of regretful sympathy, he
could not help noticing at the same
time that the men, at any rate, re-
garded them also largely in an i'm
personal light, as sort OF generalized
abstraction of the powers of nature
an embodied form of the rain and the
weather. The islanders were anxious
to keep their white guests well sup
piled, well fed, and in perfect health,
not so much for the strangers sakes as
for their own advantage; they evil
IDENTIFY considered that if anything
went wrong with either of their two
new gods, corresponding misfortunes
might happen to their crops and the
produce of their breadfruit groves
Some mysterious sym pathy was held to
subsist between the persons of the
castaways and the state of the weather.
The natives effusively thanked them
after welcome rain, and looked ask
ance at them, scowling, alter long dry
spell. 1t was for this, no doubt, that
they took SUCH pains to provide them
with attentive Shadows, and to grid
round their movements with taboos of
excessive stringency. Nothing that
the newcomers said or did was indif-
ferent, it seemed, to the welfare of the
community: plenty and prosperity de-
pended upon the passing state of Mnri-
els health, and famine or drought might
be brought about at any moment by the
slightest imprudence in Felix's diet.
How stringent these taboos really
were Felix learned by slow degrees
alone to realize. From the very be-
ginning he had observed, to be sure,
that they might only eat and drink the
food provided for them: that they were
supplied with a clean and fresh-built
hut as we'll as with brand-new cocoa
nut cups spoons, and platJers: that no
litter of any sort was allowed to ac-
cumulate near their enclosure; and
that their Shadows never left them, or
went out of their sight, by day or by
night, Tor single moment. Now,
however, he began to perceive also
that the Shadows iwere there for that
very purpose, to watch over them, as
it were, like guards, on behalf Of the
community; to see that they ate Or
drank no tabooed object; to keep them
from heedlessly transgressing any Nm
written law of the creed Of Boupari;
and to be answerable for their good
behavior generally. They were partly
servants, it was true, and partly sure
ties; but they were partly also keep
ers, and keepers who kept close and
constant watch upon the persons of
their prisoners. Once Or twice Felix,
growing tired for the moment of this
continual surveillance, had tried to-
give Toxic the slip, and to stroll away
from his but. for walk through the
island, in the early morning before his
Shadow had walked; but on each such
occasion he found to- his surprise that,
as he opened the hut door, the Shadow
rose at once and confronted him an
grily with an inquiring eye: and in
time he perceived that thin string
was fastened to the bottom Of the door,
re other end Of which was tied to the
Shadows ankle: and this string could
not be cut without letting fall a sort of
latch or bar which closed the door out
side, only to be raised again by some
external person.
Clearly it was intended that the KOr-
ong should have no chance of escape
without the knowledge OF the Shadow.
who, as Felix afterward learned, would
have paid with his own body by a cruel
death for the korong's disappearance.
He might as we'll have tried to es-
capped his own shadow as to escape the
one the islanders had tackled on to him.
All Felix's energies were now de-
voted to the arduous task of discover
ing what korong really meant, and
| what possibility he might have of saw
ing Muriel from the mysterious fate
that seemed to be held in store for them.
One evening, about six weeks after
! their arrival in the island, the young
Englishmanwas strolling bv himself
! latter the sun sank low in heaven
along a pretty tangled hillside path.
overhung with lionas and rope-like
/ tropical creepers, while his faithful
| Shadow fingered step or two behind,
keeping sharp lookout meanwhile on
| his movements.
Near the top of a little crag of vol
canic rock. in the center of the hills,
he came suddenly upon hut with a
cleared space around it, somewhat
heater in appearance than any of the
native cottages he had yet seen, and
surrounded bv a broad. white belt OF
coral sand, exactly like that which
ringed round and protected their own
Enclosure. But what specially attract
ed Felix's attention was the fact that
the space outside this circle had been