these common articles of every-day use, than the priest’s knees began to knock together, and his old hands trembled so that he could scarcely fix the spectacles on his nose.  When he had managed this it was plain that he found much less difficulty with his documents.  He now turned them rapidly over, and presently discovered one thin sheet of lead, from which he began to read, or rather chant, in a slow measured tone, every now and then pausing and pointing to me, to my hat, and to the spectacles which he himself wore at the moment.  The chief listened to him gravely, and with an expression of melancholy that grew deeper and sadder till the end.  It was a strange scene.

I afterwards heard the matter of the prophecy, as it proved to be, which was thus delivered.  I have written it down in the language of the natives, spelling it as best I might, and I give the translation which I made when I became more or less acquainted with their very difficult dialect. {23a} It will be seen that the prophecy, whatever its origin, was strangely fulfilled.  Perhaps the gods of this people were not mere idols, but evil spirits, permitted, for some wise purpose, to delude their unhappy worshippers. {23b} This, doubtless, they might best do by occasionally telling the truth, as in my instance.  But this theory—­namely, that the gods of the heathen are perhaps evil and wandering spirits—­is, for reasons which will afterwards appear, very painful to me, personally reminding me that I may have sinned as few have done since the days of the early Christians.  But I trust this will not be made a reproach to me in our Connection, especially as I have been the humble instrument of so blessed a change in the land of the heathen, there being no more of them left.  But, to return to the prophecy, it is given roughly here in English.  It ran thus:—­“But when a man, having a chimney pot on his head, and four eyes, appears, and when a sail-less ship also comes, sailing without wind and breathing smoke, then will destruction fall upon the Scherian island.”  Perhaps, from this and other expressions to be offered in a later chapter, the learned will be able to determine whether the speech is of the Polynesian or the Papuan family, or whether, as I sometimes suspect, it is of neither, but of a character quite isolated and peculiar.

The effect produced on the mind of the chief by the prophecy amazed me, as he looked, for a native, quite a superior and intelligent person.  None of them, however, as I found, escaped the influence of their baneful superstitions.  Approaching me, he closely examined myself, my dress, and the spectacles which the old priest now held in his hands.  The two men then had a hurried discussion, and I have afterwards seen reason to suppose that the chief was pointing out the absence of certain important elements in the fulfilment of the prophecy.  Here was I, doubtless, “a man bearing a chimney on his head” (for in this light they regarded my hat), and having