ime or other he would go in his own canoe.'

Thus far, I think, I clearly comprehended Kory-Kory. But there was a
singular expression he made use of at the time, enforced by as singular
a gesture, the meaning of which I would have given much to penetrate.
I am inclined to believe it must have been a proverb he uttered; for I
afterwards heard him repeat the same words several times, and in what
appeared to me to be a somewhat: similar sense. Indeed, Kory-Kory had
a great variety of short, smart-sounding sentences, with which he
frequently enlivened his discourse; and he introduced them with an air
which plainly intimated, that in his opinion, they settled the matter in
question, whatever it might be.

Could it have been then, that when I asked him whether he desired to go
to this heaven of bread-fruit, cocoanuts, and young ladies, which he had
been describing, he answered by saying something equivalent to our
old adage--'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush'?--if he did,
Kory-Kory was a discreet and sensible fellow, and I cannot sufficiently
admire his shrewdness.

Whenever, in the course of my rambles through the valley I happened to
be near the chief's mausoleum, I always turned aside to visit it. The
place had a peculiar charm for me; I hardly know why, but so it was. As
I leaned over the railing and gazed upon the strange effigy and watched
the play of the feathery head-dress, stirred by the same breeze which in
low tones breathed amidst the lofty palm-trees, I loved to yield myself
up to the fanciful superstition of the islanders, and could almost
believe that the grim warrior was bound heavenward. In this mood when
I turned to depart, I bade him 'God speed, and a pleasant voyage.' Aye,
paddle away, brave chieftain, to the land of spirits! To the material
eye thou makest but little progress; but with the eye of faith, I see
thy canoe cleaving the bright waves, which die away on those dimly
looming shores of Paradise.

This strange superstition affords another evidence of the fact, that
however ignorant man may be, he still feels within him his immortal
spirit yearning, after the unknown future.

Although the religious theories of the islands were a complete mystery
to me, their practical every-day operation could not be concealed. I
frequently passed the little temples reposing in the shadows of the
taboo groves and beheld the offerings--mouldy fruit spread out upon
a rude altar, or hanging in half-decay