e?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Come out into the sunlight, Friend, and I will explain to you."

I hesitated till I saw Marama lifting the heavy wooden spear he carried
and remembered that I was unarmed. Then I came out.

"What does all this mean, Chief?" I asked angrily when we were clear of
the patch of cotton palm.

"I mean, Friend, that you have been very near to making a longer journey
than you thought. Have patience now and listen to me. I saw you leaving
the village this morning and followed, suspecting your purpose. Yes,
I followed alone, saying nothing to the priests of Oro who fortunately
were away watching the Bellower for their own reasons. I saw you
searching out the secrets of the mountain with those magic tubes that
make things big that are small, and things that are far off come near,
and I followed you to the canoes."

"All that is plain enough, Marama. But why?"

"Have I not told you, Friend-from-the-Sea, that yonder hill which is
called Orofena, whence this island takes its name, is sacred?"

"You said so, but what of it?"

"This: to set foot thereon is to die and, I suppose, great as you are,
you, too, can die like others. At least, although I love you, had you
not come away from that canoe I was about to discover whether this is
so."

"Then for what are the canoes used?" I asked with irritation.

"You see that flat rock, Friend, with the hole beyond, which is the
mouth of a cave that appeared only in the great storm that brought you
to our land? They are used to convey offerings which are laid upon the
rock. Beyond it no man may go, and since the beginning no man has ever
gone."

"Offerings to whom?"

"To the Oromatuas, the spirits of the great dead who live there."

"Oromatuas? Oro! It is always something to do with Oro. Who and what is
Oro?"

"Oro is a god, Friend, though it is true that the priests say that above
him there is a greater god called Degai, the Creator, the Fate who made
all things and directs all things."

"Very well, but why do you suppose that Oro, the servant of Degai, lives
in that mountain? I thought that he lived in a grove yonder where your
priests, as I am told, have an image of him."

"I do not know, Friend-from-the-Sea, but so it has been held from the
beginning. The image in the grove is only visited by his spirit from
time to time. Now, I pray you, come back and before the priests discover
that you have been here, and forget that there are any c