w
clothes to show off; however, it suited me to the ground, and I made the
less of it. The queer thing was that I came next door to going to
church after all, a thing I'm little likely to forget. I had turned out
for a stroll, and heard the hymn tune up. You know how it is. If you
hear folk singing, it seems to draw you: and pretty soon I found myself
alongside the church. It was a little, long, low place, coral built,
rounded off at both ends like a whale-boat, a big native roof on the top
of it, windows without sashes and doorways without doors. I stuck my
head into one of the windows, and the sight was so new to me--for things
went quite different in the islands I was acquainted with--that I stayed
and looked on. The congregation sat on the floor on mats, the women on
one side, the men on the other, all rigged out to kill--the women with
dresses and trade hats, the men in white jackets and shirts. The hymn
was over; the pastor, a big buck Kanaka, was in the pulpit, preaching
for his life; and by the way he wagged his hand, and worked his voice,
and made his points, and seemed to argue with the folk, I made out he
was a gun at the business. Well, he looked up suddenly and caught my
eye, and I give you my word he staggered in the pulpit; his eyes bulged
out of his head, his hand rose and pointed at me like as if against his
will, and the sermon stopped right there.

It isn't a fine thing to say for yourself, but I ran away; and if the
same kind of a shock was given me, I should run away again to-morrow. To
see that palavering Kanaka struck all of a heap at the mere sight of me
gave me a feeling as if the bottom had dropped out of the world. I went
right home, and stayed there, and said nothing. You might think I would
tell Uma, but that was against my system. You might have thought I would
have gone over and consulted Case; but the truth was I was ashamed to
speak of such a thing, I thought every one would blurt out laughing in
my face. So I held my tongue, and thought all the more; and the more I
thought, the less I liked the business.

By Monday night I got it clearly in my head I must be tabooed. A new
store to stand open two days in a village and not a man or woman come to
see the trade was past believing.

"Uma," said I, "I think I am tabooed."

"I think so," said she.

I thought a while whether I should ask her more, but it's a bad idea to
set natives up with any notion of consulting them, so I went to Case.