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[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
SANTO : 5 3 '
mourning her husband, who had been dead ninety-
nine days. To-morrow, on the hundredth day, there
was to be a death-feast, to which all the neighbours
were invited. Of course, this man, too, had been
poisoned.
The fire of revolt was smouldering in my boys.
They sat round the camp-fire in groups, whispering
and plotting, grumbling and undecided; but I felt
safe enough, as they were evidently divided into two
parties, one faithful and the other mutinous, and the
former seemed rather more influential. They proved
their goodwill to me by delightful servility, and took
excellent care of me.
Next morning we were wakened by the howls
of the unhappy widow, and soon the guests appeared,
some from far off, and all bringing contributions to
the feast. They killed several pigs, and while the
men cut them up in a manner rather more clever
than appetizing, the women prepared the fires by
lighting large quantities of wood to heat the cooking-
stones. This lasted several hours. Meanwhile, every
person present received his share of a half-rotten
smoked pig, of the freshly killed pigs, yam, taro and
sweet potatoes. The women took the entrails of the
pigs, squeezed them out, rolled them up in banana
leaves, and made them ready for cooking. When
the fire was burnt down they took out half of the
stones with forks of split bamboo, and then piled up
the food in the hole, first the fruit, then the meat,
so that the grease should run over the fruit ; then the
hole was covered with banana leaves, the hot stones
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