sleeper and the mouse, were hailed with joy; but the chief marvel

and delight was in the gospel series. Maka, in the opinion of his

aggrieved wife, did not properly rise to the occasion. 'What is

the matter with the man? Why can't he talk?' she cried. The

matter with the man, I think, was the greatness of the opportunity;

he reeled under his good fortune; and whether he did ill or well,

the exposure of these pious 'phantoms' did as a matter of fact

silence in all that part of the island the voice of the scoffer.

'Why then,' the word went round, 'why then, the Bible is true!'

And on our return afterwards we were told the impression was yet

lively, and those who had seen might be heard telling those who had

not, 'O yes, it is all true; these things all happened, we have

seen the pictures.' The argument is not so childish as it seems;

for I doubt if these islanders are acquainted with any other mode

of representation but photography; so that the picture of an event

(on the old melodrama principle that 'the camera cannot lie,

Joseph,') would appear strong proof of its occurrence. The fact

amused us the more because our slides were some of them ludicrously

silly, and one (Christ before Pilate) was received with shouts of

merriment, in which even Maka was constrained to join.

Sunday, July 28.--Karaiti came to ask for a repetition of the

'phantoms'--this was the accepted word--and, having received a

promise, turned and left my humble roof without the shadow of a

salutation. I felt it impolite to have the least appearance of

pocketing a slight; the times had been too difficult, and were

<<BackPagesTo menuNext>>