not betray them; and they considered themselves the
guardians of our lives.

CHAPTER LXIII.
TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS.

WHAT a suggestive tradition of the Fall came to me in one of those early
days on Aniwa! Upon our leaving the hut and removing to our new house,
it was seized upon by Tupa for his sleeping-place, though still
continuing to be used by the Natives as club-house, court of law, etc.
One morning at daylight this Tupa came running to us in great
excitement, wielding his club furiously, and crying, "Missi, I have
killed the Tebil. I have killed Teapolo. He came to catch me last night.
I raised all the people, and we fought him round the house with our
clubs. At daybreak he came out and I killed him dead. We will have no
more bad conduct or trouble now. Teapolo is dead!"

I said, "What nonsense; Teapolo is a spirit, and cannot be seen."

But in mad excitement he persisted that he had killed him. And at Mrs.
Paton's advice, I went with the man, and he led me to a great Sacred
Rock of coral near our old hut, over which hung the dead body of a huge
and beautiful sea-serpent, and exclaimed, "There he lies! Truly I killed
him."

I protested, "That is not the Devil; it is only the body of a serpent."

The man quickly answered, "Well? but it is all the game! He is Teapolo.
He makes us bad, and causes all our troubles."

Following up this hint by many inquiries, then and afterwards, I found
that they clearly associated man's troubles and sufferings somehow with
the serpent. They worshiped the Serpent, as a spirit of evil, under the
name of Matshiktshiki; that is to say, they lived in abject terror of
his influence, and all their worship was directed towards propitiating
his rage against man.

Their story of Creation, at least of the origin of their own Aniwa and
the adjacent Islands, is much more an outcome of the unaided Native
mind. They say that Matshiktshiki fished up these lands out of the sea.
And they show the deep print of his foot on the coral rocks, opposite
each island, whereon he stood as he strained and lifted them up above
the waters. He then threw his great fishing-line round Fotuna,
thirty-six miles distant, to draw it close to Aniwa and make them one
land; but, as he pulled, the line broke and he fell, where his mark may
still be seen upon the rock--so the Islands remain separated unto this
day.

Matshiktshiki placed men and women on Aniwa. On the southern end of the
Island there was a bea