OF THE SOUTH SEAS 287 



Doctor Cassiou, a very old resident, and not at all 

 fierce, asked his confrere against whom would the grape- 

 shot be directed. Would he gather the fishermen from 

 all over Tahiti, and decimate them, the way the Little 

 Corporal purged mutiny out of his regiments? Lon- 

 tane was sent out again. In the Cercle Bougainville he 

 took a rum punch before starting on his bicycle, and he 

 swore by his patron saint, Bacchus, that he would solve 

 the problem even if denied the remedy of force majeure. 



Within three hours of his return from Patutoa, a 

 meeting was called of the council of state, the governor, 

 the doctors, the druggist, a merchant or two, and a 

 lawyer, and before it M. Lontane disclosed that the na- 

 tives were possessed by a new devil that he feared was 

 a recrudescence of the ancient struggle for indepen- 

 dence. 



Each fisherman he had examined refused to answer 

 his interrogations, saying only, "I dobbebelly dobbe- 

 belly." 



The governor scratched his ear, and the mayor wig- 

 gled his hands behind, as he had on the wharf after the 

 battle of the limes, coal, and potatoes. The lawyer said 

 it must be an incantation, but that it was not Tahitian, 

 for that language had no "d" in its alphabet. INI. Lon- 

 tane and all his squad were given peremptory orders to 

 unriddle the enigma. 



Meanwhile the fishless market continued. It was not 

 entirely fishless, for before the bell rang we would see 

 over the railings a few handfuls of varos, crayfish, and 

 shrimps and perhaps a dozen small baskets of oysters. 

 A policeman prevented a riot, but could not stay the 

 rush when the bell rang and the gate was opened. The 



