He heard me very patiently; but when I had finished, shook his head, and told me in confidence that they were 'taboo'.
As for the animal that made the fortune of the ex-lord-mayor Whittington, I shall never forget the day that I was lying in the house about noon, everybody else being fast asleep; and happening to raise my eyes, met those of a big black spectral cat, which sat erect in the doorway, looking at me with its frightful goggling green orbs, like one of those monstrous imps that torment some of Teniers' saints! I am one of those unfortunate persons to whom the sight of these animals are, at any time an insufferable annoyance.
Thus constitutionally averse to cats in general, the unexpected apparition of this one in particular utterly confounded me.

When I had a little recovered from the fascination of its glance, I started up; the cat fled, and emboldened by this, I rushed out of the house in pursuit; but it had disappeared.

It was the only time I ever saw one in the valley, and how it got there I cannot imagine.

It is just possible that it might have escaped from one of the ships at Nukuheva.

It was in vain to seek information on the subject from the natives, since none of them had seen the animal, the appearance of which remains a mystery to me to this day.
Among the few animals which are to be met with in Typee, there was none which I looked upon with more interest than a beautiful golden-hued species of lizard.