handsomest of cannibals, who lived in the valley of Taaoa, strolled
into Atuona and made it known that he would hold a meeting in the
High Place where of old many of his tribe had been eaten by Atuona
men.

Exploding Eggs, Malicious Gossip, and I climbed the mountain early.
The population of the valley, eager for counsel, was gathered on the
old stone benches where half a century earlier their sorcerers had
sat. In the twilight Kahuiti stood before us, his long white beard
tied in a Psyche knot on his broad, tattooed chest. His voice was
stern.

We were fools, he said, to be denied food and smoke by the foreigner.
What of matches before the French came? Had he known matches in his
youth? _Aue!_ The peoples of the islands must return to the ways of
their fathers!

He leaped from the top of the Pekia, and seizing his long knife, he
cut a five-foot piece of _parua_-wood and shaped it to four inches
in width. With our fascinated gaze upon him, he whittled sharp a
foot-long piece of the same wood, and straddled the longer stick.
Holding it firmly between his two bare knees he rubbed the shorter,
pointed piece swiftly up and down a space of six inches upon his
mount. Gradually a groove formed, in which the dust collected at one
end.

Soon the wood was smoking hot, and then the old man's hands moved so
rapidly that for several moments I could not follow them with the eye.
The smoke became thicker, and suddenly a gleam of flame arose,
caught the dust, and was fed with twigs and cocoanut-husks by scores