"
At length he reached the chief, who looked and said, "Speak to us, O
man, that we may know why you persist in coming."
"I come," he answered, looking round on all the people, "so that you
may all learn of the true God, and that you, like all the people in
the far-off islands of the sea, may take your gods made of wood, of
birds' feathers and of cloth, and burn them."
A roar of anger and horror burst from the people. "What!" they cried,
"burn the gods! What gods shall we then have? What shall we do without
the gods?"
They were angry, but there was something in the bold face of Papeiha
that kept them from slaying him. They allowed him to stay, and did not
kill him.
Soon after this, Papeiha one day heard shrieking and shouting and wild
roars as of men in a frenzy. He saw crowds of people round the gods
offering food to them; the priests with faces blackened with charcoal
and with bodies painted with stripes of red and yellow, the
warriors with great waving head-dresses of birds' feathers and white
sea-shells. Papeiha, without taking any thought of the peril that he
rushed into, went into the midst of the people and said:
"Why do you act so foolishly? Why do you take a log of wood and carve
it, and then offer it food? It is only fit to be burned.
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