is a pleasure to forget, which it is perhaps the better wisdom not

to dwell on. Crime, pestilence, and death are in the day's work;

the imagination readily accepts them. It instinctively rejects, on

the contrary, whatever shall call up the image of our race upon its

lowest terms, as the partner of beasts, beastly itself, dwelling

pell-mell and hugger-mugger, hairy man with hairy woman, in the

caves of old. And yet to be just to barbarous islanders we must

not forget the slums and dens of our cities; I must not forget that

I have passed dinnerward through Soho, and seen that which cured me

of my dinner.

CHAPTER V--A TALE OF A TAPU--continued

Tuesday, July 16.--It rained in the night, sudden and loud, in

Gilbert Island fashion. Before the day, the crowing of a cock

aroused me and I wandered in the compound and along the street.

The squall was blown by, the moon shone with incomparable lustre,

the air lay dead as in a room, and yet all the isle sounded as

under a strong shower, the eaves thickly pattering, the lofty palms

dripping at larger intervals and with a louder note. In this bold

nocturnal light the interior of the houses lay inscrutable, one

lump of blackness, save when the moon glinted under the roof, and

made a belt of silver, and drew the slanting shadows of the pillars

on the floor. Nowhere in all the town was any lamp or ember; not a

creature stirred; I thought I was alone to be awake; but the police

were faithful to their duty; secretly vigilant, keeping account of

time; and a little later, the watchman struck slowly and repeatedly

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