while, they must remain on the
island and continue to cultivate the fields.

This order threw the poor creatures, who were evidently much attached
to their mistress and her daughter, into a great state of consternation.
The eldest of them all, a tall, thin old lady with white wool and pink
eyes who looked, as Stephen said, like an Angora rabbit, prostrated
herself and kissing the Mother's foot, asked when she would return,
since she and the "Daughter of the Flower" were all they had to love,
and without them they would die of grief.

Suppressing her evident emotion as best she could, the Mother replied
that she did not know; it depended on the will of Heaven and the
Motombo. Then to prevent further argument she bade them bring their
picks with which they worked the land; also poles, mats, and
palmstring, and help to dig up the Holy Flower. This was done under
the superintendence of Stephen, who here was thoroughly in his element,
although the job proved far from easy. Also it was sad, for all these
women wept as they worked, while some of them who were not dumb, wailed
aloud.

Even Miss Hope cried, and I could see that her mother was affected with
a kind of awe. For twenty years she had been guardian of this plant,
which I think she had at last not unnaturally come to look upon with
some of the same veneration that was felt for it by the whole Pongo
people.

"I fear," she said, "lest this sacrilege should bring misfortune upon
us."

But Brother John, who held very definite views upon African
superstitions, quoted the second commandment to her, and she became
silent.

We got the thing up at last, or most of it, with a sufficiency of
earth to keep it alive, injuring the roots as little as possible in the
process. Underneath it, at a depth of about three feet, we found several
things. One of these was an ancient stone fetish that was rudely shaped
to the likeness of a monkey and wore a gold crown. This object, which
was small, I still have. Another was a bed of charcoal, and amongst the
charcoal were some partially burnt bones, including a skull that was
very little injured. This may have belonged to a woman of a low type,
perhaps the first Mother of the Flower, but its general appearance
reminded me of that of a gorilla. I regret that there was neither time
nor light to enable me to make a proper examination of these remains,
which we found it impossible to bring away.

Mrs. Eversley told me afterwards, however,