their conversation, which assumed a lighter tone, I caught and recorded
in pencil on my shirt-cuff, for future explanation, words which sounded
like aiskistos aneer, farmakos, catharma, and Thargeelyah. {25} Finally
the aged priest hobbled back into his temple, and the chief, beckoning me
to follow, passed within the courtyard of his house.



IV. AT THE CHIEF'S HOUSE.


The chief leading the way, I followed through the open entrance of the
courtyard. The yard was very spacious, and under the dark shade of the
trees I could see a light here and there in the windows of small huts
along the walls, where, as I found later, the slaves and the young men of
the family slept. In the middle of the space there was another altar, I
am sorry to say; indeed, there were altars everywhere. I never heard of
a people so religious, in their own darkened way, as these islanders. At
the further end of the court was a really large and even stately house,
with no windows but a clerestory, indicated by the line of light from
within, flickering between the top of the wall and the beginning of the
high-pitched roof. Light was also streaming through the wide doorway,
from which came the sound of many voices. The house was obviously full
of people, and, just before we reached the deep verandah, a roofed space
open to the air in front, they began to come out, some of them singing.
They had flowers in their hair, and torches in their hands. The chief,
giving me a sign to be silent, drew me apart within the shadow of a plane
tree, and we waited there till the crowd dispersed, and went, I presume,
to their own houses. There were no women among them, and the men carried
no spears nor other weapons. When the court was empty, we walked up the