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Suppose you were part Kanaka, an' the kid 'ad done what 'e did? I've seen some things myself in these waters. That's what's eatin' Llewellyn, an', believe me, it's goin' to kill 'im if he don't bloody well drink 'imself dead, first. I've seen too many Kanakas go that way when the tahua got the tupapau after them.
All the Davids in the world could croak on my doorstep, and if the police couldn't get me for it, I'd worry. "Belay there!" Lying Bill shouted at Hallman. "You don't know Llewellyn like I do. How about the tupapau, the bloody ghosts? You forget that Llewellyn's a quarter Kanaka, an' born 'ere. All that German university stuff ain't no good against the tupapau.
Beliefs in the ghosts of Tahiti, the tupapau, ihoiho, and varua ino, are common to all of them." "My dear Mr. Stroganoff," I expostulated, "your czars believed in icons. My grandmother believed in werewolves and banshees, and we burned blessed candles and sprinkled holy water in our houses on All Souls' night to keep away demons.
The men never wore beards, though mustaches, copying the French custom, are common on chiefs, preachers, and those who sacrifice beauty and natural desires to ambition. The hair on the face is removed as it appears, and it is scanty. They abhor beards, and their ghosts, the tupapau, have faces fringed with hair. The usual movements of both men and women are slow, dignified, and full of pride.
The kid was 'is sister's only child, an' 'is uncle left a thousand francs with the American consul for a proper tombstone on 'is grave in the cemetery. The ol' gent worshipped that kid." Our session was over, the dinner hour having come; but Hallman had his final say: "If Llewellyn 's got the tupapau horrors, for God's sake! let him stay away from the club.
I have seen it, and I will tell you honestly. I have thought often of it, for all who live in Tai-o-hae know that woman, and her foster-sister sits there with the ena upon her. She does not lie in the cemetery, this girl of whom I speak, nor is her body beside that of her fathers in the ua tupapau.
"One aspiration, and he might be washed as white as snow. 'This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise," said the commander, who was known as the parson skipper, dour, but ever on the watch for the first sign of repentance. On the other hand, Hallman more nearly stated the general feeling: "By God, he spoiled sport, that black ghost on deck. He was like a tupapau, a Polynesian demon."
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