Читать книгу Lolóma, or two years in cannibal-land. A story of old Fiji онлайн

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Then rose an old priest of uncanny aspect. “Not so,” quoth he, “or evil days will assuredly fall upon the land. When we first saw the gleam of a foreign sail, like a spirit walking on the waters, at the meeting place of sea and sky, where the sun is daily drowned,^[2] we said, ‘These are god-ships,’ and we longed for a visit from those divine navigators. The white man came, as we have heard, and was believed to be a god. With his arms of might he has done wonders for Naulivou of Bau. But when for his oppression he fell under the avenging club of his former friends, it was seen that he bled and was no god, but mortal as ourselves. The white man’s gods are not the gods of Fiji. If they are to be set up here the wrath of the great Dengeh will be aroused; he will shake with anger in his cave, and the whole earth will be barren. It is he who has sent us these castaways. They must die. The customs of our country and our religion not only sanction but demand and sanctify the deed.”

ssss1. The Fijian expression for horizon.