ABSTRACT
As the dead are concerned, only he can determine when their appetites are satisfied. From time to time the celebrant raises an amber monocle to his eye and peers around, to detect some belated spirit whose tardy arrival has handicapped his complete satisfaction. At last he announces that the last has departed, and that the coast is clear. This is the supreme moment for the congregation, which loses no time in the scramble for the luck of the year. The higher the cake, the greater the honour conferred by its acquisition, so the youth of the island swarm up the scaffolding in a wild race to reach the summit and detach the crowning bun. As there are thirty thousand more, there are plenty of consolation prizes for the less active, and the organisers are not without their compensation, for they sit' down to a banquet of thirty-six tables to break their fast.
