In short,in the whole field of the South Seas,there is not one to blame another.Half blood and whole,pious and debauched,intelligent and dull,all men believe in ghosts,all men combine with their recent Christianity fear of and a lingering faith in the old island deities.So,in Europe,the gods of Olympus slowly dwindled into village bogies;so to-day,the theological Highlander sneaks from under the eye of the Free Church divine to lay an offering by a sacred well.
I try to deal with the whole matter here because of a particular quality in Paumotuan superstitions.It is true I heard them told by a man with a genius for such narrations.Close about our evening lamp,within sound of the island surf,we hung on his words,thrilling.The reader,in far other scenes,must listen close for the faint echo.