flesh to his guests.  Invariably the guests are obliged to witness the slaughter of the animal which is to supply their dinner.  This slaughter is performed as a kind of sacrifice; the legs of the beast are the portions of the gods, and are laid, with bits of fat, upon the altars.  Then chops, or rather kabobs, of meat are hacked off, spitted, and grilled or roasted at the fire.  Consequently all the meat tasted in this island is actually “meat offered to idols.”

When I made this discovery the shock was very great, and I feared I was repeating a sin denounced from the earliest ages.  But what was I to do?  Not the meat only, but the vegetables, the fruit, the grain, the very fish (which the natives never eat except under stress of great hunger), were sacred to one or other of their innumerable idols.  I must eat, or starve myself to death—­a form of suicide.  I therefore made up my mind to eat without scruple, remembering that the gods of the nations are nothing at all, but the fancies of vain dreamers, and the invention of greedy and self-seeking priests.

These scruples were of later growth, after I had learned that their meals were invariably preceded by a sacrifice, partly to provide the food, partly as grace before meat.  On the present occasion I made an excellent supper, though put to a good deal of inconvenience by the want of forks, which were entirely unknown on the island.  Finding that I would not taste the alcoholic liquor, which the natives always mixed with a large proportion of water, Doto rose, went out, and returned with a great bowl of ivy-wood, curiously carved, and full of milk.  In this permitted beverage, as my spirits were rising, I drank the young lady’s health, indicating my gratitude as well as I could.  She bowed gracefully, and returned to her task of embroidery.  Meanwhile her father and mother were deep in conversation, and paid no attention to me, obviously understanding that my chief need was food.  I could not but see that the face of the chief’s wife was overclouded, probably with anxiety caused by the prophecy of which I was, or was taken for, the subject.

When my hunger was satisfied, I fell, it seems, into a kind of doze, from which I was wakened by the noise of people rising, moving, and pushing back chairs.  I collected my senses, and perceived that the room was almost dark, most of the inmates had gone, and the chief was lighting a torch at one of the braziers.  This torch he placed in my hand, indicating, as I understood, that I was to put myself under the guidance of two of the young women who had been spinning.  At this I was somewhat perplexed, but followed where they went before me, each of them holding a burning torch.  The light flared and the smoke drifted among the corridors, till we came within sound of running water.  In a lofty green chamber was a large bath of polished marble, carved with shapes of men armed with pitchforks, and employed in spearing