The next schooner was not expected for two months, as the last was but a fortnight gone.  Le Brunnec had not a match, nor Kriech.  The governor had not returned.  The only alternatives were to go lightless and smokeless or to assault the heartless oppressor.  Many dark threats were muttered on the cheerless paepaes and in the dark huts, but in variety of councils there was no unity, and none dared assault alone the yellow-walled hut in which O Lalala smiled among his gains.

On the second day there was a growing tension in the atmosphere of the valley.  I observed that there were no young men to be seen on the beach or at the traders’ stores.  There were rumors, hints hardly spoken, of a meeting in the hills.  The traders looked to their guns, whistling thoughtfully.  There was not a spark of fire set in all Atuona, save by O Lalala, and that for himself alone.

So matters stood until the second night.  Then old Kahuiti, that 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 of trembling brown hands.  In a few minutes a roaring fire was blazing on the sward.

Pipes sprang from loin-cloths or from behind ears, and the incense of tobacco lifted on the still air of the evening.  Brands were improvised and hurried home to light the fires for breadfruit-roasting, while Kahuiti laughed scornfully.

“A hundred of this tribe I have eaten, and no wonder!” he said as he strode away toward Taaoa.