six in the morning
When Mauki goes to war with villages beyond his realm , he invariably gets out this head , and alone in his grass palace , contemplates it long and solemnly . At such times the hush of death falls on the village , and not even a pickaninny dares make a noise . The head is esteemed the most powerful devil-devil on Malaita , and to the possession of it is ascribed all of Mauki 's greatness . He was a whiskey-guzzling Scotchman , and he downed his whiskey neat , beginning with his first tot punctually at six in the morning , and thereafter repeating it at regular intervals throughout the day till bedtime , which was usually midnight . He slept but five hours out of the twenty-four , and for the remaining nineteen hours he was quietly and decently drunk . During the eight weeks I spent with him on Oolong Atoll , I never saw him draw a sober breath . In fact , his sleep was so short that he never had time to sober up .