A perfumed wood which, according to the native ideas, personified incense, was burned in large quantities round the temple, and nearly choked the boys with its smoke.
Upon the fifth day, it was clear that some expedition was being prepared.

Four large war canoes were dragged down and placed in the water; and the great idols, which stood in the bow of each, were removed and carried up to the temple, and placed there in position.
Then the boys were motioned to come down to the beach.
"I do believe," said Tom, bursting into a shout of laughter, "that they are going to put us in the bows of their canoes, in place of their old gods." The others joined in the laughter, for to act as the figurehead of a canoe was indeed a comical, if an unpleasant situation.
When they reached the boats, the boys saw that their suspicions were correct, and that the natives were preparing to lash them to the lofty prows; which rose, some twelve feet above the water, in a sweep inwards.
"This will never do," Tom said.

"If we are fastened like that, our weight will cut us horribly.

Let us show them how to do it." Whereupon, with great gravity he took a large piece of flat wood, and motioned to the savages to lash this in front of the bow of one of the boats, at a height of three feet above the water, so as to afford a little platform upon which he could stand.

The natives at once perceived the drift of what he was doing, and were delighted that their new deities should evince such readiness to fall in with their plans.