Just discovered that the tribal chief will even take firewood to the fire. It is at least something he can do when he becomes an adult.

I have two coral and two feathers left... plus more than half of the tablets (I think). I've upgraded to level 3 on everything, completed all the puzzes and studied the scene closely whenever the chief was making food and got the rainbow thing. Nothing. Nada. I am getting dizzy from all this looking.

What's the deal?

I'm not sure I understanding what you are asking...are you wondering about the chief pointing out collectibles?

I don't know what I should be wondering. I know the chief doesn't directly point out collectibles, but I looked all over for them when he had a rainbow over his head. I paused, moved around the scene, looked at the map. Ridiculous.

I have only 5 of 12 tablets! How is that possible when I've done everything except build one more hut and one clothing store?

That's the problem that I think many people are having. They pause the game as soon as the chief points out the collectible, which prevents it from appearing. In VV3, collectibles don't appear (or disappear) while the game is paused. Since it can take up to a minute (maybe a bit more) for the collectible to appear, the act of pausing the game actually prevents the rare collectible from appearing at all. When the chief "does his thing" you should not pause the game until you've searched for at least a minute without finding it.

The Tribal Chief will light the fire and bury the dead, even as a young child, as well.

Wow. Glad I checked. It would have taken me a while to start to try children. I didn't realize there was a chosen "one" at any given time and kept trying the same villagers over and over. I now have a Chief who's a four year old girl. Rock and roll!

This time I didn't pause and still nothing showed up. However, about 10 mins later I tried moving the chief around the mountain and he pointed out a collectible. So I looked and after about seconds, I paused and found nada.

Woe!

Don't pause; the chief's collectible can take up to a minute or two to show, sometimes, from what I gather from one of CFII's posts. If you pause, you can lose it entirely. Collectibles don't appear while the game is paused; if you are paused when the chief collectible is supposed to show, it's gone.

Yesterday when it was time for the chief to point out a rare collectable, and for the first time it did not show after searching for it, and even moved a kid around and only found a common collectable. I still need 1 rare feather and 1 turtle shell