esents of yam, bananas, and bread-fruit, neatly arranged in little
palm-leaf baskets. A few of them brought eggs as well, and one offering
even included a live chicken. But the people who brought them, and who
were mostly young girls just entering upon womanhood, did not venture to
cross the white line of coral-sand that surrounded the huts; they laid
down their presents, with many salaams, on the ground outside, and then
waited with a half-startled, half-reverent air for one or other of the
two Shadows to come out and fetch them. As soon as the baskets were
carried well within the marked line, the young girls exhibited every sign
of pleasure, and calling aloud, "Korong! Korong!"--that mysterious
Polynesian word of whose import Felix was ignorant--they retired once
more by tortuous paths through the surrounding jungle.

"Why do they bring us presents?" Felix asked at last of his Shadow, after
this curious pantomime had been performed some three or four times. "Are
they always going to keep us in such plenty?"

The Shadow looked back at him with an air of considerable surprise. "They
bring presents, of course," he said, in his own tongue, "because they are
badly in want of rain. We have had much drought of late in Boupari; we
need water from heaven. The banana-bushes wither; the flowers on the
bread-fruit tree do not swell to breadfruit; the yams are thirsty.
Therefore the fathers send their daughters with presents, maidens of the
villages, all marriageable girls, to ask for rainfall. But they will
always provide for you, and also for the Queen, however you behave; for
you are both Korong. Tu-Kila-Kila has said so, and Heaven has accepted
you."

"What do you mean by Korong?" Felix asked, with some trepidation.

The Shadow merely looked back at him with a sort of blank surprise that
anybody should be ignorant of so simple a conception. "Why, Korong is
Korong," he answered, aghast. "You are Korong yourself. The Queen of the
Clouds is Korong, too. You are both Korong; that is why they all treat
you with such respect and reverence."

And that was as much as Felix could elicit by his subtlest questions from
his taciturn Shadow.

In fact, it was clear that in the open, at least, the Shadow was averse
to being observed in familiar conversation with Felix. During the heat of
the day, however, when they sat alone within the hut, he was much more
communicative. Then he launched forth pretty freely into talk about the
island