,
they settled the matter in question, whatever it might be.
    Could it have been, then, that when I asked him whether he desired to go to
this heaven of bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, and young ladies, which he had been
describing, he answered by saying something equivalent to our old adage - »A
bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?« - if he did, Kory-Kory was a
discreet and sensible fellow, and I cannot sufficiently admire his shrewdness.
    Whenever, in the course of my rambles through the valley, I happened to be
near the chief's mausoleum, I always turned aside to visit it. The place had a
peculiar charm for me; I hardly know why, but so it was. As I leaned over the
railing and gazed upon the strange effigy, and watched the play of the feathery
head-dress, stirred by the same breeze which in low tones breathed amidst the
lofty palm-trees, I loved to yield myself up to the fanciful superstition of the
islanders, and could almost believe that the grim warrior was bound heavenward.
In this mood, when I turned to depart, I bade him »God speed, and a pleasant
voyage.« Ay, paddle away, brave chieftain, to the land of spirits! To the
material eye thou makest but little progress; but, with the eye of faith, I see
thy canoe cleaving the bright waves, which die away on those dimly looming
shores of Paradise.
    This strange superstition affords another evidence of the fact, that however
ignorant man may be, he still feels within him his immortal spirit yearning
after the unknown future.
    Although the religious theories of the islands were a complete mystery to
me, their practical everyday operation could not be concealed. I frequently
passed the little temples reposing in the shadows of the Taboo groves, and
beheld the offerings - mouldy fruit spread out upon a rude altar, or hanging in
half-decayed baskets around some uncouth, jolly-looking image. I was present
during the continuance of the festival. I daily beheld the grinning idols
marshalled rank and file in the hoolah-hoolah ground, and was often in the habit
of meeting those whom I supposed to be priests. But the temples seemed abandoned
to solitude; the festival had been nothing more than a jovial mingling of the
tribe; the idols were quite as harmless as any other logs of wood; and the
priests were the merriest dogs in the valley.
    In fact, religious affairs in Typee were at a very low ebb. All such matters
sat very lightly
