At the
conclusion of the feast, Willis took a pinch of snuff out of a
canister. Their Majesties insisted upon doing so likewise. Willis
handed them the canister, and they filled their noses with the
treacherous powder. Then followed a duet of sneezing, accompanied with
facial contortions. The royal personages thinking, probably, that they
were poisoned, leaped into the sea like a couple of frogs, and swam to
the royal barge.
"Holloa, sire," cried Jack, "where are you off to?"
This was answered by the barge paddling away rapidly towards land.
Hitherto, the whole affair had been a farce; but now the natives, who
had collected in great numbers along the shore, seeing their king and
queen leap into the water with a terrified air, supposed that an
attempt had been made to cut short their royal lives, and, under this
impression, discharged a cloud of arrows at the pinnace, and matters
began to assume a serious aspect.
"What!" exclaimed Jack, "shooting at the great Rono!"
"That," said Fritz, "only proves they are men like ourselves. He who
is covered with incense one day, is very often immolated the next."
"And that simply because Rono treated Mr. and Mrs. What's-their-names
to a pinch of snuff. Serve them right to discharge the contents of the
four-pounder amongst them."
"No, no," cried Willis; "the worthy people are, perhaps, fond of their
king and queen.
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