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