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Updated: May 6, 2025
"I speak the beggars' patter pretty well now," Bludger went on; "and I see Catharmata means more than just mere dirt. It means two unlucky devils." "William?" I exclaimed. "It means, saving your presence, two poor coves, as has no luck, like you and me, and that can be got rid of once a year, at an entertainment they call the Thargeelyah, I dunno why, a kind o' friendly lead.
"So help me!" cried the wretched man, "except a drop of Pramneian I took, the morning I cut and run, and that was three days ago, nothing stronger than castor-oil berries have crossed my lips. It ain't that, sir; it ain't the drink. It's it's the Thargeelyah. Next week, sir, they are going to roast us you and me flog us first, and roast us after. Oh Lord! Oh Lord!"
They even smiled, and, in their conversation, which assumed a lighter tone, I caught and recorded in pencil on my shirt-cuff, for future explanation, words which sounded like aiskistos aneer, farmakos, catharma, and Thargeelyah. Finally the aged priest hobbled back into his temple, and the chief, beckoning me to follow, passed within the courtyard of his house.
Man after man spoke, and finally the chief rose, as I had little doubt, to sum up the discussion. He pointed to myself, and to William Bludger alternately, and the words which I had already noted, Thargeelyah, and farmakoi, frequently recurred in his speech. His ideas seemed to meet with general approval; even the old priest laid aside his sickle, and beat applause with his hands.
I had never forgotten the hideous sacrifice, doubtless the Thargeelyah, as they called it, that greeted me when I was first cast ashore on the island. To think that I had only been saved that I might figure as a victim of some of their heathen gods!
I did my best, shouting, in English, "I am no Thargeelyah. I am no farmakos" supposing those words to be the native terms for one or other of their gods. On this the whole assembly, even the gravest, burst out laughing, each man poking his neighbour in the ribs, and uttering what I took to be jests at my expense.
The week went by, as all weeks must, and at length came the solemn day which they call Thargeelyah, the day more sacred than any other to their idol, Apollon. Long before sunrise the natives were astir; indeed, I do not think they went to bed at all, but spent the night in hideous orgies.
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