The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Great Taboo, by Grant Allen

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Great Taboo

Author: Grant Allen

Release Date: October 26, 2004 [eBook #13876]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT TABOO***

E-text prepared by Mary Meehan and the Project Gutenberg Online
Distributed Proofreading Team

THE GREAT TABOO

by

GRANT ALLEN

PREFACE

I desire to express my profound indebtedness, for the central
mythological idea embodied in this tale, to Mr. J.G. Frazer's admirable
and epoch-making work, "The Golden Bough," whose main contention I have
endeavored incidentally to popularize in my present story. I wish also to
express my obligations in other ways to Mr. Andrew Lang's "Myth, Ritual,
and Religion," Mr. H.O. Forbes's "Naturalist's Wanderings," and Mr.
Julian Thomas's "Cannibals and Convicts." If I have omitted to mention
any other author to whom I may have owed incidental hints, it will be
some consolation to me to reflect that I shall at least have afforded an
opportunity for legitimate sport to the amateurs of the new and popular
British pastime of badger-baiting or plagiary-hunting. It may also save
critics some moments' search if I say at once that, after careful
consideration, I have been unable to discover any moral whatsoever in
this humble narrative. I venture to believe that in so enlightened an age
the majority of my readers will never miss it.

G.A.

THE NOOK, DORKING, October, 1890.

CHAPTER I.

IN MID PACIFIC.

"Man overboard!"

It rang in Felix Thurstan's ears like the sound of a bell. He gazed about
him in dismay, wondering what had happened.

The first intimation he received of the accident was that sudden sharp
cry from the bo'sun's mate. Almost before he had fully taken it in, in
all its meaning, another voice, farther aft, took up the cry once more in
an altered form: "A lady! a lady! Somebody overboard! Great heavens, it
is _her_! It's Miss Ellis! Miss Ellis!"

Next instant Felix found himself, he knew not how, struggling in a wild
grapple with the dark, black water. A woman was clinging to him--clinging
for