| faithful husband of a devoted Felefele, stern but generous ┃┃ father of seven sons and live obedient daughters, and the ┃┃ most respected alii in the village of Malaelua woke with a ┃┃ strange bitter taste in his mouth to find, as he looked out to ┃┃ the rain and his village, and then at his wile snoring softly ┃┃ beside him in the mosquito net, and thc rest of his aiga ┃┃ (about sixty bodies wrapped in sleeping sheets) who filled ┃┃ the spacious fale, that everything and everybody that he was ┃┃ used to and had enjoyed, and that till then had given ┃┃ meaning to his existence, now filled him with an almost ┃┃ unbearable feeling of revulsion yes, that was the only word ┃┃ for it, revulsion. He despised everything he had been, had ┃┃ become, had achieved: his tk~rty years as a deacon and lay ┃┃ preacher; his almost unlimited power in the nmtai council: ┃┃ his large profitable cacao plantation; his title as the highest- ┃┃ ranking matai in Malaelua : his nationally respected reputa- ┃┃ tion as an orator; his detailed knowledge of genealogies ┃┃ and history, which was envied by other matai; his utter ┃┃ loyalty and devotion to his village and alga and church; his ┃┃ unquestioned reputation as a just, honourable, courageous, ┃┃ and humble man of unimpeachable integrity; and his perfect ┃┃ health. (In his seventy-six years he had only been seriously ┃┃ ill once. He still had nearly all his teeth and hair.) Even the ┃┃ familiar smell of his fale and relatives now repelled him. He ┃┃ snitfed back the mucus in his nose, caught it at the back of ┃┃ his throat, pulled up the side of the mosquito net, and spat ┃┃ it out on to the paepae. But the feeling of nausea surged up ┃┃ from the centre of his chest and hc started coughing loudly, ┃┃ repeatedly; and then he was vomiting uncontrollably, the |
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