heads; and even if they
had, it would be a good joke if it was to apply to a white man. It would
be a strange thing if we came all this way and couldn't do what we
pleased. The mere idea has always put my monkey up, and I rapped my
speech out pretty big. Then Case translated it--or made believe to,
rather--and the first chief replied, and then a second, and a third, all
in the same style, easy and genteel, but solemn underneath. Once a
question was put to Case, and he answered it, and all hands (both
chiefs and commons) laughed out aloud, and looked at me. Last of all,
the puckered old fellow and the big young chief that spoke first started
in to put Case through a kind of catechism. Sometimes I made out that
Case was trying to fence and they stuck to him like hounds, and the
sweat ran down his face, which was no very pleasant sight to me, and at
some of his answers the crowd moaned and murmured, which was a worse
hearing. It's a cruel shame I knew no native, for (as I now believe)
they were asking Case about my marriage, and he must have had a tough
job of it to clear his feet. But leave Case alone; he had the brains to
run a parliament.

"Well, is that all?" I asked, when a pause came.

"Come along," says he, mopping his face; "I'll tell you outside."

"Do you mean they won't take the taboo off?" I cried.

"It's something queer," said he. "I'll tell you outside. Better come
away."

"I won't take it at their hands," cried I. "I ain't that kind of a man.
You don't find me turn my back on a parcel of Kanakas."

"You'd better," said Case.

He looked at me with a signal in his eye; and the five chiefs looked at
me civilly enough, but kind of pointed; and the people looked at me, and
craned and jostled. I remembered the folks that watched my house, and
how the pastor had jumped in his pulpit at the bare sight of me; and the
whole business seemed so out of the way that I rose and followed Case.
The crowd opened again to let us through, but wider than before, the
children on the skirts running and singing out, and as we two white men
walked away they all stood and watched us.

"And now," said I, "what is all this about?"

"The truth is, I can't rightly make it out myself. They have a down on
you," says Case.

"Taboo a man because they have a down on him!" I cried. "I never heard
the like."

"It's worse than that, you see," said Case. "You ain't tabooed--I told
you that couldn't be. The people won't go near you,