or animal to be injured, and, in consequence, was called the
'king of the birds.'"

[Footnote 52: It will be remembered that Teuila was the
native name of Mrs. Stevenson's daughter.]

[Footnote 53: In the old times _kava_, or _ava_, as it
is sometimes spelled, was prepared by being chewed by
young girls especially chosen for the purpose, and then
made into a brew.]

As the war-cloud grew blacker, the superstitious fears of Lafaele
increased, and every day some new portent was reported. "On May 16,"
says the diary, "Lafaele and Araki reported that while walking on the
road they met Louis riding on my horse Musu. What was their surprise
and terror when they reached home to find that he had not left the
house all day. Great anxiety and alarm are felt all over the place,
for it is supposed that Louis sent his other self to see what Lafaele
and Araki were about." Araki was a runaway "black boy," or Solomon
Islander, from the German plantations, who became a member of the
Vailima household in a rather dramatic way. One day a strange figure
was seen flitting about the lawn behind the trees. The servants ran
out and dragged in a thin, terrified black boy, who fell on his face
before the master and begged for protection. Such a plea could not be
refused, and Mr. Stevenson went down to the German firm and made
arrangements to keep him. He soon began to fill out, and grew to be a
saucy, lively fellow. Although the natives of Samoa look upon the
Solomon Islanders as cannibals and savages, at Vailima they made a pet
of Araki and dyed his bushy hair red and hung wreaths round his neck.

"_May 19._ This is the twelfth anniversary of our marriage. It seems
impossible. Also impossible that two years ago (or a little more) we
came up to live in the bush. Everything looks settled and as though we
had lived here for many years.

"_May 22._ Saturday the captain of the _Upolu_ came up and had
luncheon with us. We had nothing but vegetables, curried and cooked in
various ways, but no meat. Sunday there came a German vegetarian when
there were no vegetables and nothing but meat.... We are having a
great deal of trouble with the servants, as Tomasi, the Fiji man, says
his wife, Elena, is too good to associate with the other women, and
Lafaele's little girl is terribly afraid of Araki, the black boy,
although he speaks of her most tenderly as 'that little gi