his gorge as he put his arm around her dirt-crusted shoulders and
felt the contact of her rancidoily and kinky hair with his neck and
chin. But he nearly screamed when she succumbed to that caress so
at the very first of the courtship and mowed and gibbered and
squealed little, queer, pig-like gurgly noises of delight. It was
too much. And the next he did in the singular courtship was to
take her down to the stream and give her a vigorous scrubbing.

From then on he devoted himself to her like a true swain as
frequently and for as long at a time as his will could override his
repugnance. But marriage, which she ardently suggested, with due
observance of tribal custom, he balked at. Fortunately, taboo rule
was strong in the tribe. Thus, Ngurn could never touch bone, or
flesh, or hide of crocodile. This had been ordained at his birth.
Vngngn was denied ever the touch of woman. Such pollution, did it
chance to occur, could be purged only by the death of the offending
female. It had happened once, since Bassett's arrival, when a girl
of nine, running in play, stumbled and fell against the sacred
chief. And the girl-child was seen no more. In whispers, Balatta
told Bassett that she had been three days and nights in dying
before the Red One. As for Balatta, the breadfruit was taboo to
her. For which Bassett was thankful. The taboo might have been
water.

For himself, he fabricated a special taboo. Only could he marry,
he explained, when the Southern Cross rode highest in the sky.
Knowing his astronomy, he thus gained a reprieve of nearly nine
months; and he was confident that within that time he would either
be dead or escaped to the coast with full knowledge of the Red One
and of the source of the Red One's wonderful voice. At first he