"For I am the champion of my land."

"Give thanks! Give thanks! Give thanks!"

Next, a single voice arose out of the din, asking:

"Where is the brave man?"

A hundred voices bellowed the answer:

"Gone to be dragged into the oven and cooked."

"Where is the coward?" the single voice demanded.

"Gone to report!" the hundred voices bellowed back. "Gone to report!
Gone to report!"

Narau groaned in anguish of spirit. The words of the old song were
true. He was the coward, and nothing remained to him but to go and
report.



MAUKI

He weighed one hundred and ten pounds. His hair was kinky and negroid,
and he was black. He was peculiarly black. He was neither blue-black
nor purple-black, but plum-black. His name was Mauki, and he was the
son of a chief. He had three tambos. Tambo is Melanesian for taboo,