l-less
ship also comes, sailing without wind and breathing smoke, then will
destruction fall upon the Scherian island." Perhaps, from this and other
expressions to be offered in a later chapter, the learned will be able to
determine whether the speech is of the Polynesian or the Papuan family,
or whether, as I sometimes suspect, it is of neither, but of a character
quite isolated and peculiar.

The effect produced on the mind of the chief by the prophecy amazed me,
as he looked, for a native, quite a superior and intelligent person. None
of them, however, as I found, escaped the influence of their baneful
superstitions. Approaching me, he closely examined myself, my dress, and
the spectacles which the old priest now held in his hands. The two men
then had a hurried discussion, and I have afterwards seen reason to
suppose that the chief was pointing out the absence of certain important
elements in the fulfilment of the prophecy. Here was I, doubtless, "a
man bearing a chimney on his head" (for in this light they regarded my
hat), and having "four eyes," that is, including my spectacles, a
convenience with which they had hitherto been unacquainted. It was
undeniable that a prophecy written by a person not accustomed to the
resources of civilization, could not more accurately have described me
and my appearance. But the "ship without sails" was still lacking to the
completion of what had been foretold, as the chief seemed to indicate by
waving his hand towards the sea. For the present, therefore, they might
hope that the worst would not come to the worst. Probably this
conclusion brought a ray of hope into the melancholy face of the chief,
and the old priest himself left off trembling. They even smiled, and, in
their conversation, which assumed a lighter tone, I caught and recorded
in pencil on my shirt-cuff, for future explanation, words which sounded
like aiskistos aneer, farmakos, catharma, and Thargeelyah. {25} Finally
the aged priest hobbled back into his temple, and the chief, beckoning me
to follow, passed within the courtyard of his house.

IV. AT THE CHIEF'S HOUSE.

The chief leading the way, I followed through the open entrance of the
courtyard. The yard was very spacious, and under the dark shade of the
trees I could see a light here and there in the windows of small huts
along the walls, where, as I found later, the slaves and the young men of
the family slept. In the middle of the space t