Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1894-05-03
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CHAPTER IL.
THE TEMPLE OF THE DEITY.

meanwhile beneath those waving
palms, on the island Of Boupari. It
was strange, to be sure, as Felix Thurs
tan had said, that such unspeakable
heather orgies should be taking place
within sight of a passing Christian
English steamer. But if he had
known Or reflected to what sort Of Land
he was trying now to struggle ashore
with Muriel he might well have
doubted whether it were not bettertO let
her perish where she was, in the pure,
clear ocean, rather than to submit an
English girl to the possibility of under
going such horrible rites and cere-
monies.
For on the island of Boupari it was
high feast with the worshipers OF
their god that night. The sun had
turned on the Tropic of Capricorn at
noon, and was making his way north
ward, toward the Equator once more,
and his vOtarieS, as was their wont,
had come forth to do him honor in due
season, and to pay their respects, in the
almost and sacredest grove on the
island, to his incarnate representative
the living spirit of trees and fruits and
vegetation, the very high god, the di-
vine Tu-Kila-Kila.
Early in the evening, as soon as the
suns rim had disappeared beneath the
ocean, strange noise doomed forth
from the central shrine OF Bourari.
Those who heard it clapped their hands
TO their ears and ran hastily forward.
IL was a noise like distant rumbling
thunder, or the whirl of some great
English mill Or factory, and at it's
sound every woman on the island threw
herself on the ground PROSTATE, with
her face in the dust, and waited there
reverently till the audible voice Of the
god had once more subsidized. For no
woman knew how that sound was pro-
<duced. Only the grown men, initiated
into the mysteries Of the shrine when
theV came OF age at the tattOOing cere-
mony, were aware that the strange,
buzzing, whirring noise was nothing
more or less than the cry Of the bull
ruarer.
4 bull-rOarer, as many English
school boys know, is merely piece OF
oblong wood, pointed at either end,
and fastened by q leather throng at
one corner. But when whirled around
the head by practiced priestly hands.
it produces a low rumbling noise like
the wheels of distant carriage, grow
ing gradually louder and clearer, from
moment to moment, till at last it wakes
itself into q frignttul din, or bursts in
TO perfect peals Of imitation thunder.
Then it decreases once more. as grad
ua!Iy as it rose, becoming fainter and
ever fainter, like thunder as it re-
,cedes, till the horrible believing, as
of Surernatural bulls, dies away in the
end, by slow degrees, into low and soft
and imTerceptible murmurs.
But when the savage hears the dis
&ant humming of the bull-roarer, at
-, t,n hot hn
mysteries of his god are in full swing,
ssnd he hurries forward in haste, leav-
ing his work or his pleasure, and run
ming, naked as he stands. to take his
share in the worship, lest the anger of
heaven should burst forth in devourlng
Games to consume him. But the
women, knowing themselves unworthy
to face the dread presence of the high
god in his wrath, rush wildly from t he
spot, and. fling ing themselves down at
full length. with their mouths to the
dust, wait patiently till the voice Of
their deity is no longer audible.
And as the bull-rOarer on Bouparl
gang out with wild echoes from the
coral caverns in the central grove that
evening. Tu-Kila-Kila, their god, rose
SLOWLY from his place, and stood out
from his hut, q deity revealed, before
his reverential worshipper5.
AS he rose, hushed whisper ran
wavelike through the dense throng of
-t,usi1y forms that bent low, like corn
beneath the wind, before him, ''Tu-
kila-kila rises, He rises to speak.
Hush! for the voice of the mighty man
gods
The god, looking around him super
ciliously with cynical air of con-
tempt, stood forward with firm and
elastic step before his silent worship
}xars. He was a stalwart savage, in the
very prime OF life. tall, 1.-the, and ac-
tive. His figure was that of man
well used to command; but his face
though handsome, was visibly marked
by every external sign Of cruelty, lust,
and extreme blood-thirstiness. One
might have said merely to look at
him, he was a being debased by all
forms of brutal and hateful self-indul-
.Serce A baleful light burned in his
keen gray eyes. His lips were thick,
Sult. purple, and wlstfu
My people may look upon me-" he
said. III strangely atfable voice, stand
ing forward and smiling with curious
Lait-cruel, half-compassionate smile
rYron his awe struck followers. Ion
every day OF the suns course but this.
none save the ministers dedicated to
ahe service of Tu-kila-kila dare gaze
unhurt upon his sacred. If any other
did, the light from his holy eyes would
wither them up, and the glow of his
glorious countenance would scorch
them to ashes" He raised his two
hands, palm outward, in front of him.
$50 all the year round he went on,
'sTu-kila-kila, who loves his people.
and sends them the earlier and the
later rain in the wet season, and makes
their vans and their taro grow, and
causes his sun to shine upon them
freely-all the year round. Tu-Kila-
kila, your god, sits shut up in his own
house among the skeletons OF those
whom he has killed and eaten. or
walks in his walled paddock, where
his bread-fruit ripens and has plan