imminent arrival. Also, the tooth was beautiful--an extraordinary
specimen, while the coloring of it was of the rarest order. The tooth
was presented publicly. The Buli of Gatoka, seated on his best mat,
surrounded by his chief men, three busy fly-brushers at his back,
deigned to receive from the hand of his herald the whale tooth
presented by Ra Vatu and carried into the mountains by his cousin,
Erirola. A clapping of hands went up at the acceptance of the present,
the assembled headman, heralds, and fly-brushers crying aloud in
chorus:

"A! woi! woi! woi! A! woi! woi! woi! A tabua levu! woi! woi! A mudua,
mudua, mudua!'

"Soon will come a man, a white man," Erirola began, after the proper
pause. "He is a missionary man, and he will come today. Ra Vatu is
pleased to desire his boots. He wishes to present them to his good
friend, Mongondro, and it is in his mind to send them with the feet
along in them, for Mongondro is an old man and his teeth are not good.
Be sure, O Buli, that the feet go along in the boots. As for the rest
of him, it may stop here."

The delight in the whale tooth faded out of the Buli's eyes, and he
glanced about him dubiously. Yet had he already accepted the tooth.

"A little thing like a missionary does not matter," Erirola prompted.

"No, a little thing like a missionary does not matter," the Buli
answered, himself again. "Mongondro shall have the boots. Go, you
young men, some three or four of you, and meet the missionary on the
trail. Be sure you bring back the boots as well."