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diff --git a/24641.txt b/24641.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb1d6c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/24641.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1276 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of "Martin Of Nitendi"; and The River Of Dreams, by +Louis Becke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: "Martin Of Nitendi"; and The River Of Dreams + 1901 + +Author: Louis Becke + +Release Date: February 18, 2008 [EBook #24641] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARTIN OF NITENDI *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +"MARTIN OF NITENDI"; and THE RIVER OF DREAMS + +By Louis Becke + +T. Fisher Unwin, 1901 + + + + +"MARTIN OF NITENDI" + +Half-way up the side of the mountain which overlooked the waters of +the little land-locked harbour there was a space clear of timber. Huge, +jagged rocks, whose surfaces were covered with creepers and grey moss, +protruded from the soil, and on the highest of these a man was lying at +full length, looking at the gunboat anchored half a mile away. He was +clothed in a girdle of _ti_ leaves only; his feet were bare, cut, and +bleeding; round his waist was strapped a leather belt with an empty +cartridge pouch; his brawny right hand grasped a Snider rifle; his +head-covering was a roughly made cap of coconut-nut leaf, with a +projecting peak, designed to shield his blood-shot, savage eyes from +the sun. Yet he had been a White Man. For nearly an hour he had been +watching, ever since the dawn had broken. Far below him, thin, wavering +curls of pale blue smoke were arising from the site of the native +village, fired by the bluejackets on the previous evening. The ruins of +his own house he could discern by the low stone wall surrounding it; +as for the native huts which, the day before, had clustered so thickly +around his own dwelling, there was now no trace save heaps of grey +ashes. + +A boat put off from the ship, and as the yellow-bladed oars flashed in +the sunlight the man drew his rifle close up to his side and his eyes +gleamed with a deadly hatred. + +"Officers' shootin' party," he muttered, as he watched the boat ground +on the beach and three men, carrying guns, step out and walk up the +beach--"officer's shootin' party. Christ A'mighty! I'd like to pot every +one o' the swine. An' I could do it, too, I could do it. But wot's the +use o' bein' a blarsted fool for nothin'?" + +The boat's crew got out and walked about the smouldering remains of the +village, seeking for curios which had escaped the fire, pausing awhile +to look at a large mound of sand, under which lay seven of the natives +killed by the landing-party on the preceding day. Then, satisfied that +there was nothing to be had, the coxswain grumblingly ordered the men +back to the boat, which pushed off and returned to the ship. + +The wild, naked creature lying upon the boulder saw the boat pull off +with a sigh of satisfaction. There was, under the ashes of his house, +and buried still further under the soil, a 50-lb. beef barrel filled +with Chilian and Mexican dollars. And he had feared that the bluejackets +might rake about the ashes and find it. + +He rose and stepped down the jagged boulder to where, at the base, +the thick carpet of dead leaves, fallen from the giant trees which +encompassed it, silenced even the tread of his naked feet. Seated +against the bole of a many-buttressed _vi_-tree was a native woman, +whose right arm, shattered by a bullet and bound up in the spathe of a +coconut-palm, was suspended from her neck by a strip of soft bark. She +looked at him inquiringly. + +"A boat has come ashore," he said in the native tongue, "but none of the +white men are seeking for my money." + +"Thy money!" The woman's eyes blazed with a deadly fury. "What is thy +money to me? Is thy money more to us than the blood of our child? O, +thou coward heart!" + +Grasping his Snider by the tip of the barrel the man looked at his wife +with sullen, dulled ferocity. + +"I am no coward, Nuta. Thou dost not understand. I wish to save the +money, but I wish for revenge as well. Yet what can I do? I am but one +man, and have but one cartridge left." + +* * * * * + +This naked, sun-tanned being was one of the most desperate and +blood-stained beachcombers that had ever cursed the fair isles of the +South Pacific, and in those days there were many, notably on Pleasant +Island and in the Gilbert Group. Put ashore at Nitendi from a Hobart +Town whaler for mutinous conduct, he had disassociated himself for ever +from civilisation. Perhaps the convict strain in his blood had something +to do with his vicious nature, for both his father and mother had "left +their country for their country's good," and his early training had been +given him under the shadow of the gallows and within the swishing sound +of the "cat" as it lacerated the backs of the wretched beings doomed to +suffer under the awful convict system. + +From the simple, loafing beachcomber stage of life to that of a leader +of the natives in their tribal wars was a simple but natural transition, +and Jim Martin, son of a convict father and mother whose forbears were +of the scum of Liverpool, and knew the precincts of a prison better than +the open air, followed the path ordained for him by Fate. + +The man's reckless courage won him undoubted respect from his +associates; the head chief of the village alone possessed a greater +influence. A house was built for him, and a wife and land given him; and +within a year of his arrival on the island he signalised himself by a +desperate attempt to cut-off a barque bound from Hobart to China as +she lay becalmed off the island. The attempt failed, and many of his +followers lost their lives. A few months later, however, he was more +successful with a Fijian trading cutter, which, anchoring off the +village, was carried during the night, plundered of her cargo of trade +goods (much of which was firearms), and then burnt. This established his +reputation. + +Five years passed. But few vessels touched at the island now, for it had +a bad name, and those which did call were well armed and able to beat +off an attack. Then one day, two years before the opening of this story, +a trading schooner called off the village, and Martin, now more a savage +native than a white man, was tempted by her defenceless condition, and +by the money which the captain carried for trading purposes, to capture +her, with the aid of the wild, savage people among whom he had cast +his lot. Of what use the money would be to him he knew not. He was an +outcast from civilisation, he was quickly forgetting his mother tongue; +but his criminal instincts, and his desire to be a "big man" with the +savages among whom he had lived for so long, led him to perpetrate this +one particular crime. In the dead of night he led a party of natives +on board the schooner, and massacred every one of her crew, save one +Fijian, who, jumping overboard, swam to the shore, and was spared. A few +months later this man escaped to a passing whaler, and the story of the +massacre of the captain and crew of the _Fedora_ was made known to +the commodore of the Australian station, who despatched a gunboat "to +apprehend the murderers and bring them to Sydney for trial." Failing the +apprehension of the murderers, the commander was instructed "to burn +the village, and inflict such other punitive methods upon the people +generally" as he deemed fit. + +So Commander Lempriere, of H.M. gunboat _Terrier_, went to work with +a will. He meant to catch the murderers of the crew of the _Fedora_ if +they possibly could be caught, and set to work in a manner that would +have shocked the commodore. Instead of steaming into the bay on which +the village was situated--and so giving the natives ample time to clear +out into the mountains--he brought-to at dusk, when the ship was twenty +miles from the land, and sent away the landing party in three boats. The +Fijian--he who had escaped from the massacre of the _Fedora_--was the +guide. + +"You know what to do, Chester," said Commander Lempriere to his first +lieutenant as the boatswain's whistles piped the landing party away; +"land on the north point, about two miles from the village, and surround +it, and then wait till daylight. You can do it easily enough with thirty +men, as it lies at the foot of the mountain, and there is no escape +for the beggars unless they break through you and get into the bush. Be +guided by the Fiji boy; and, as the Yankees say, 'no one wants a brass +band with him when he's going duck-hunting,' so try and surround the +village as quietly as possible. I'll see that none of them get away in +their canoes. I'll work up abreast of the harbour by daylight." + +Guided by the boy, Lieutenant Chester and the landing party succeeded in +getting ashore without being seen, and then made a long detour along the +side of the mountain, so as to approach the village from behind. Then +they waited till daylight, and all would have gone well had not his +second in command, just as the order was given to advance, accidentally +discharged his revolver. In an instant the village was alarmed, and some +hundreds of natives, many of them armed with rifles, and led by Martin, +sprang from their huts and made a short but determined resistance. Then, +followed by their women and children, they broke through the bluejackets +and escaped into the dense mountain jungle, where they were safe from +pursuit. But the fire of the seamen had been deadly, for seven +bodies were found; among them was a boy of about ten, whom the Fijian +recognised as the renegade's son--a stray bullet had pierced his body +as he sat crouching in terror in his father's house, and another +had wounded his mother as she fled up the mountainside, for in the +excitement and in the dim morning light it was impossible for the +attacking party to tell women from men. + +Then by the commander's orders the village and fleet of canoes was +fired, and a dozen or so of rockets went screaming and spitting +among the thick mountain jungle, doing no damage to the natives, but +terrifying them more than a heavy shell fire. ***** + +"Let us away from here, Nuta," said Martin, "'tis not safe. In the hut +by the side of the big pool we can rest till the ship has gone and our +people return. And I shall bind thy arm up anew." + +The woman obeyed him silently, and in a few minutes they were skirting +the side of the mountain by a narrow leaf-strewn path, taking the +opposite direction to that followed by the two officers and bluejackets. +Half an hour's walk brought them to the river bank, which was clothed +with tall spear-grass. Still following the path, they presently emerged +out into the open before a deep, spacious pool, at the further end of +which was a dilapidated and deserted hut. Here the woman, faint with the +pain of her wound, sank down, and Martin brought her water to drink, and +then proceeded to re-examine and properly set her broken arm. + +***** + +The two officers--the second lieutenant and a ruddy-faced, fair-haired +midshipman named Walters--had hardly proceeded a hundred yards along the +beach, when the boy stopped. + +"Oh, Mr. Grayling, let us turn back and go the other way. There's a big +river runs into the next bay, with a sort of a lake about a mile up; I +saw it in the plan of the island, this morning. We might get a duck or +two there, sir." + +"Any way you like," replied the officer, turning about, "and walking +along the beach will be better than climbing up the mountain in the +beastly heat for the sake of a few tough pigeons." + +Followed by the three bluejackets, who were armed with rifles, they set +off along the hard white sand. In a few minutes they had rounded the +headland on the north side and were out of sight of the ship. For quite +a mile they tramped over the sand, till they came to the mouth of the +river, which flowed swiftly and noisily over a shallow bar. A short +search revealed a narrow path leading up along the bank, first through +low thicket scrub, and then through high spear-grass. Further back, amid +the dense forest, they could hear the deep notes of the wild pigeons, +but as young Walters was intent on getting a duck they took no heed, but +pressed steadily on. + +"By jove! what a jolly fine sheet of water!" whispered the midshipman as +they emerged out from the long grass and saw the deep, placid pool lying +before them; then he added disappointedly, "but not a sign of a duck." + +"Never mind," said Grayling consolingly, as he sat down on the bank and +wiped his heated face, "we'll get plenty of pigeons, anyway. But first +of all I'm going to have something to eat and drink. Open that bag, +Williams, and you, Morris and Jones, keep your ears cocked and your +eyes skinned. It's lovely and quiet here, but I wouldn't like to get a +poisoned arrow into my back whilst drinking bottled beer." + +"I'm going to have a swim before I eat anything," said Walters, with a +laugh. "Won't you, sir?" he asked, as he began undressing. + +"Looks very tempting," replied the officer, "but I'm too hot. Take my +advice and wait a bit till you're cooler." + +The youngster only laughed, and, having stripped, took a header from +the bank, and then swam out into the centre of the pool where it was +deepest. + +"Oh, do come in, sir," he cried; "it's just splendid. There's a bit of a +current here and the water is delightfully cool." + +***** + +Martin was aroused from his sleep by the sound or voices. He seized his +rifle, bent over his wife, and whispered to her to awake; then crawling +on his hands and knees from the hut he reached the bank and looked out, +just as young Walters dived into the water. + +Hardened murderer as he was, he felt a thrill of horror, for he knew +that the pool was a noted haunt of alligators, and to attempt to swim +across it meant certain death. + +His wife touched his arm, and crouching beside him, her black eyes +filled with a deadly hatred, she showed her white teeth and gave a low, +hissing laugh. + +"Before one can count ten he will be in the jaws," she said, with savage +joy. + +"Nuta," whispered Martin hoarsely, "'tis but a boy," and the veins stood +out on his bronzed forehead as his hand closed tighter around his rifle. + +"What wouldst thou do, fool?" said the woman fiercely as she seized the +weapon by the barrel; "think of thy son who died but yesterday... ah! +ah! look! look!" + +Tearing the rifle from her grasp he followed the direction of her eyes; +a swiftly-moving black snout showed less than thirty yards from the +unconscious bather, who was now swimming leisurely to the bank. + +"He must not die," he muttered; "'tis but a boy!" Then turning to the +woman he spoke aloud. "Quick! run to the forest; I shall follow." + +Again she sought to stay his hand; he dashed her aside, raised the rifle +to his shoulder and took a quick but steady aim; a second later the loud +report rang out, and the monster, struck on his bony head by the heavy +bullet, sank in alarm; and then, ere Martin turned to run, two other +shots disturbed the silence and he pitched forward on his face into the +long grass. + +* * * * * + +"We just saw the beggar in time, sir," cried Jones. "I happened to look +across and caught sight of him just as he fired at Mr. Walters. Me and +Morris fired together." + +Grayling had sprung to his feet. "Are you hit, Walters?" he shouted. + +"No," replied the boy as he clambered up the bank; "what the deuce is +the matter?" + +"A nigger took a pot-shot at you! Get under cover as quick as you can. +Never mind your clothes!" + +Ten minutes passed. No sound broke the deathly stillness of the place; +and then, cautiously creeping through the grass, the officer and Morris +crawled round to where the latter had seen the man fall. They came upon +him suddenly. He was lying partly on his face, with his eyes looking +into theirs. Morris sprang up and covered him with his rifle. + +"I'm done for," Martin said quietly "my back is broken. Did the +crocodile get the boy?" + +"Crocodile!" said Grayling in astonishment. "Did you fire at a +crocodile? Who are you? Are you a white man?" + +"Never mind who I am," he gasped; "let me lie here. Look," and he +pointed to a bullet-hole in his stomach; "it's gone clean through me and +smashed my backbone. Let me stay as I am." + +He never spoke again, and died whilst a litter was being made to carry +him down to the beach. + + + + + +THE RIVER OF DREAMS + + + + +I + +There is a river I know which begins its life in a dark, sunless canyon +high up amid the thick forest-clad spurs of the range which traverses +the island from east to west. Here, lying deep and silent, is a pool, +almost encompassed by huge boulders of smooth, black rock, piled +confusedly together, yet preserving a certain continuity of outline +where their bases touch the water's edge. Standing far up on the +mountainside you can, from one certain spot alone, discern it two +hundred feet below, and a thick mass of tangled vine and creepers +stretching across its western side, through which the water flows on its +journey to the sea. + +A narrow native path, used only by hunters of the wild pigs haunting the +depths of the gloomy mountain forest, led me to it one close, steaming +afternoon. I had been pigeon shooting along the crests of the ridges, +and having shot as many birds as I could carry, I decided to make a +short cut down to the level ground, where I was sure of finding water, +resting awhile and then making my way home along the beach to the +village. + +I had descended scarcely more than fifty yards when I struck the path--a +thin, red line of sticky, clay soil, criss-crossed by countless roots of +the great forest trees. A brief examination showed me that it had been +trodden by the feet of natives quite recently; their footprints led +downward. I followed, and presently came to a cleared space on the +mountainside, a spot which had evidently been used by a party of hunters +who had stayed there to cook some food, for the ashes of a fire lay in +the ground-oven they had made. Laying down my gun, I went to the edge +and peered cautiously over, and there far below I could see the pool, +revealed by a shaft of sunlight which pierced down through the leafy +canopy. + +Feeling sure that the track would lead me to the water, where I should +have the satisfaction of a long drink, I set out again, and after +narrowly escaping pitching down headlong, I at last reached the bottom, +and, with a sigh of relief, threw down my gun and birds, and in another +moment was drinking eagerly of the ice-cold, crystal water in one of the +many minor pools which lay everywhere amid the boulders. + +After a few minutes' rest I collected some dead wood and lit a fire, +being hungry as well as thirsty; then leaving it to burn down, I +climbed one of the highest boulders to get a good view, and sighed with +admiration at the scene--there lay before me a deep, almost circular +sheet or water, about thirty yards across. Directly beneath me I could +see the rocky bottom; fifty feet further out towards the centre it was +of unfathomable blueness. On the opposite side a tree of enormous girth +had fallen, long years before, yet it was still growing, for some of its +mighty roots were embedded in the rich red soil of the mountain-side. + +As I looked, a fish, and then another, splashed just beside the fallen +tree. Slipping down from the boulder, I made my way round, just in time +to see scores of beautiful silvery fish, exactly like English grayling +in shape, dart away from under the tree out into the deep water. In +other streams of the island I had caught many of these fish, but had +never seen any so high up inland; and, elated at the prospect of much +future sport, I went on with my explorations. + +I was about to climb over the tree, when I discovered that I could pass +underneath, for here and there it was supported on boulders standing +out two or three feet above the water. On the other side a tiny stream +trickled over a flat ledge of rock, to fall into a second but much +smaller pool ten or fifteen feet below; beyond that lay a long, narrow +but shallow stretch of crystal water, running between highly verdured +banks, and further away in the distance I could hear the murmur of a +waterfall. + +Turning over a stone with my foot, a crayfish darted off and tried +to hide. There were scores, hundreds of them, everywhere--fine, fat, +luscious fellows, and in ten minutes I had a dozen of the largest in my +bag, to roast on the now glowing fire beside a juicy pigeon. Salt I had +none, but I did possess a ship biscuit and a piece of cold baked taro, +and with pigeon and crayfish, what more could a hungry man desire? + +The intense solitude of the place, too, was enchanting. Now and then +the booming note of a pigeon, or the soft _coo-coo_ of a ringdove, would +break the silence; overhead there was a sky of spotless blue; an hour +before I had sweltered under a brazen sun; here, under the mountain +shade, though there was not a breath of wind to stir a leaf, it was +surprisingly cool. + +To lean against the soft white moss clothing the buttresses of a giant +maruhia-tree and smoke a pipe, was delightful after a tramp of six +or eight miles through a mountain forest; and to know that the return +journey would be through easy country along the banks of a new river was +better still. + +I set off with a feeling of joyful expectancy, taking a last glance at +the beautiful little lake--I meant to return with some native friends to +fish it on the morrow--ere I struck into the forest once more to pick up +the path. + +Every now and then I caught glimpses of the river, now gradually +widening as it was joined by other streamlets on either side. Some of +these I had to wade through, others I crossed on stones or fallen trees. + +Half-way to the beach I came to a broad stretch of shallow water covered +with purple water-lilies; three small ducks, with alarmed quacking, shot +upward from where they had been resting or feeding under the bank, and +vanished over the tree-tops; and a sudden commotion in the water showed +me that there were many fish. Its beautiful clearness tempted me to +strip off and swim about the floating garden resting on its bosom, and +I was just about to undress when I heard a shot quite near. The moment +after, I fired in return, and gave a loud hail; then the high reedy cane +grass on the other side parted, and a man and a woman came out, stared +at me, and then laughed in welcome. They were one Nalik and his wife, +people living in my own village. The man carried a long single-barrelled +German shot-gun, the woman a basket of pigeons. Stepping down the bank, +they waded across and joined me. + +"How came ye here?" they asked, as we sat down together to smoke. + +I told them, and then learnt that the river ran into the sea through the +mangroves at a spot many miles from the village. Then I asked about the +big pool. Nalik nodded. + +"Ay, 'tis deep, very deep, and hath many fish in it. But it is a place +of _jelon_ (haunted) and we always pass to one side. But here where we +now sit is a fine place for fish. And there are many wild pigs in the +forest." + +"Let us come here to-morrow. Let us start ere the sun is up, and stay +here and fish and shoot till the day be gone." + +"Why not?" said Sivi his wife, puffing her cigarette, "and sleep +here when night comes, for under the banks are many thousand _unkar_ +(crayfish), and I and some other women shall catch them by torchlight." + +And that was how I began to learn this island river and its ways, so +that now it has become the river ot my dreams. + + + + +II + +But with the dawn there came disappointment keen and bitter, for in the +night the north-east trade had died away, and now wild, swooping rain +squalls pelted and drenched the island from the westward, following each +other in quick succession, and whipping the smooth water inside the +reef into a blurred and churning sheet of foam, and then roaring away up +through the mountain passes and canyons. + +With my gear all ready beside me, I sat on the matted floor of the +hut in which I lived, smoking my pipe and listening to the fury of the +squalls as the force of the wind bent and swayed the thatched roof, and +made the cinnet-tied rafters and girders creak and work to and fro under +the strain. Suddenly the wicker-work door on the lee side was opened, +and Nalik jumped in, dripping with rain, but smiling good-naturedly as +usual. + +"_Woa!_" he said, taking his long, straight black hair in his hands and +squeezing out the water, "'tis no day for us." + +I ventured an opinion that it might clear off soon. He shook his head as +he held out his brown hand for a stiff tot of Hollands, tossed it off, +and then sat down to open a small bundle he carried, and which contained +a dry jumper and pair of dungaree pants. + +Then quickly divesting himself of the soddened girdle of grass around +his loins, he put on the European garments, filled his pipe, and began +to talk. + +"The wind will soon cease, for these squalls from the westward last not +long at this time of the year; but when the wind ceases, then comes rain +for two days sometimes--not heavy rain such as this, but soft rain as +fine as hair, and all the forest is wetted and the mountain paths are +dangerous even to our bare feet, and the pigeons give no note, and the +sun is dead. So we cannot go to the river to-day. To-morrow perhaps it +may be fine; therefore let us sit and be content." + +So we sat and were content, remaining indoors in my own house, or +visiting those of our neighbours, eating, drinking, smoking, and +talking. I was the only white man on the island, and during my three +months' residence had got to know every man, woman, child, and dog +in the village. And my acquaintance with the dogs was very extensive, +inasmuch as every one of the thirty-four families owned at least ten +dogs, all of which had taken kindly to me from the very first. They were +the veriest mongrels that ever were seen in canine form, but in spite of +that were full of pluck when pig hunting. (I once saw seven or eight of +them tackle a lean, savage old wild boar in a dried-up taro swamp; two +of them were ripped up, the rest hung on to him by his ears and neck, +and were dragged along as if they were as light as feathers, until a +native drove a heavy ironwood spear clean through the creature's loins.) + +During the evening my native friends, in response to my inquiries about +the river, told me that it certainly took its rise from the deep pool I +have before described, and that had I made a more careful examination I +should have seen several tiny rivulets, hidden by the dense undergrowth, +flowing into it from both sides of the gorge. During severe rains an +immense volume of muddy water would rush down; yet, strangely enough, +the two kinds of fish which inhabited it were just as plentiful as ever +as soon as the water cleared. + +About four o'clock in the morning, when I was sound in slumber, a voice +called to me to awaken. It was Nalik. + +"Come out and look." + +I lifted (not opened) my Venetian-sashed door of pandanus leaf, and +stepped out. + +What a glorious change! The rain had ceased, and the shore and sea lay +bright and clear under a myriad-starred sky of deepest blue; the white +line of surf tumbling on the barrier reef a mile away seemed almost +within stone-throw. A gentle breeze swayed the fronds of the coco-palms +above us, and already the countless thousands of sea birds, whose +"rookery" was on two small islets within the reef and near the village, +were awake, and filling the air with their clamour as they, like us, +prepared to start off for their day's fishing. + +Our party consisted of-- + +(1) Nalik, his wife and five dogs. + +(2) Three young women, each with several dogs. + +(3) Old Sru, chief of the district, with numerous dogs. + +(4) Two boys and three girls, who carried baskets of food, crayfish +nets, boar-spears, &c. Large number of dogs, male and female. + +(5) The white man, to whom, as soon as he appeared, the whole of the +dogs immediately attached themselves. + +(6) Small boy of ten, named Toka, the terror of the village for +his illimitable impudence and unsurpassed devilry. But as he was a +particular friend of the white man (and could not be prevented) he was +allowed to come. He had three dogs. + + +Before we started old Sru, Nalik, and myself had some Hollands, two +bottles of which were also placed in the care of Nalik's wife. The +"devil," as Toka was called, mimicked us as we drank, smacked his lips +and rubbed one hand up and down his stomach. One of the big girls cuffed +him for being saucy. He retaliated by darting between her legs and +throwing her down upon the sand. + +Presently we started, the women and children going ahead, with the +exception of the "devil," who stuck close to me, and carried my Snider +in one hand and my double-barrel muzzle-loader in the other. + +For the first two or three miles our way lay along the hard, white +beach, whose sands were covered everywhere by millions of tiny, +blue-backed, red-legged soldier crabs, moving to and fro in companies, +regiments, and divisions, hastening to burrow before the daylight +revealed their presence to their dreaded enemies--the golden-winged sand +plovers and the greedy sooty terns, who yet knew how to find them by the +myriad small nodules of sand they left to betray their hiding-place. + +Oh, the sweet, sweet smell of the forest as it is borne down from the +mountains and carried seaward, to gladden, it may be, the heart of some +hard-worked, broken-spirited sailor, who, in a passing ship, sees from +aloft this fair, fair island with its smiling green of lear, and soft, +heaving valleys, above the long lines of curving beach, showing white +and bright in the morning sun! And, as you walk, the surf upon the reef +for ever calls and calk; sometimes loudly with a deep, resonant boom, +but mostly with a soft, faint murmur like the low-breathed sigh of a +woman when she lies her cheek upon her lover's breast and looks upward +to his face with eyes aglow and lips trembling for his kiss. + +Far, far above a feint note. 'Tis but a snow-white tropic bird, +suspended in mid-air on motionless wing, his long scarlet pendrices +almost invisible at such a height. Presently, as he discerns you, he +lets his aerial, slender form sink and sink, without apparent motion, +till he is within fifty feet, and then he turns his graceful head from +side to side, and inquiringly surveys you with his full, soft black eye. +For a moment or two he flutters his white wings gently and noiselessly, +and you can imagine you hear his timid heart-beats; then, satisfied with +his scrutiny, his fairy, graceful form floats upward into space again, +and is lost to view. + +Leaving the beach and the sound of the droning surf behind us we turned +to the starboard hand, and struck through the narrow strip of littoral +towards the mountains. For the first mile or so our way was through a +grove of pandanus-palms, nearly every one of which was in full fruit; on +the branches were sitting hundreds of small sooty terns, who watched +our progress beneath with the calm indifference borne of the utter +confidence of immunity of danger from any human being. + +Once through the sandy stretch on which the pandanus loves to grow, +we came to the outlier of the mountain lands--low, gently undulating +ridges, covered on both sides of the narrow track with dense thickets +of pineapples, every plant bearing a fruit half-matured, which, when +ripened, was never touched by the hand of man, for the whole island was, +in places, covered with thickets such as this, and the wild pig only +revelled among them. + +"They grow thickly," I said to Nalik. + +"Ay, _tahina_* they grow thickly and wild," he replied, with some +inflection of sadness in his voice; "long, long ago, before my father's +father lived, there was a great town here. That was long before we of +this land had ever seen a white man. And now we who are left are but as +dead leaves." + + * Friend. + +"How came it so to be?" + +He shook his head. "I cannot tell. I only know that once we of this land +numbered many, many thousands, and now we are but hundreds. Here, where +we now walk, was once a great town of houses with stone foundations; if +ye cut away the _fara_ (pineapples) thou wilt see the lower stones lying +in the ground." + +We pressed onward and upward into the deeper forest, then turned +downwards along a narrow path, carpeted thick with fallen leaves, damp +and soft to the foot, for the sun's rays never pierced through the dense +foliage overhead. And then we came out upon a fair, green sward with +nine stately coco-palms clustered, their branches drooping over the +river of my dreams, which lay before us with open, waiting bosom. + + + + +III + +Under the shade of the nine cocos we made our camp, and old Sru and the +women and children at once set to work to build a "house" to protect us +in case it rained during the nights. Very quickly was the house built. +The "devil" was sent up the cocos to lop off branches, which, as they +fell, were woven into thatch by the deft, eager hands of the women, who +were supervised by Sivi, Nalik's handsome wife, amid much chatter and +laughter, each one trying to outvie the other in speed, and all anxious +to follow Nalik and myself to the river. + +The place was well chosen. For nearly a hundred yards there was a clear +stretch of water flowing between low, grassy banks on which were growing +a few scattered pandanus-palms--the screw pine. Half a mile distant, a +jagged, irregular mountain-peak raised high its emerald-hued head in the +clear sunshine, and from every lofty tree on both sides of the stream +there came the continuous call of the gentle wood-doves and the great +grey pigeons. + +With Nalik and myself there came old Sru and the imp Toka, who at once +set to work and found us some small crayfish for bait. Our rods were +slender bamboos, about twelve feet long, with lines of the same length +made of twisted banana fibre as fine as silk, and equally as strong. My +hook was an ordinary flatted Kirby, about half the size of an English +whiting hook; Nalik preferred one of his own manufacture, made from a +strip of tortoise-shell, barbless and highly polished. + +Taking our stand at a place where the softly-flowing current eddied and +curled around some black boulders of rock whose surfaces were but a few +inches above the clear, crystal stream, we quickly baited our hooks and +cast together, the old chief and the boy throwing in some crushed-up +crayfish shells at the same time. Before five seconds had passed my +brown-skinned comrade laughed as his thin line tautened out suddenly, +and in another instant he swung out a quivering streak of shining blue +and silver, and deftly caught it with his left hand; almost at the +same moment my rod was strained hard by a larger fish, which darted in +towards the bank. + +"First to thee, Nalik; but biggest to the _rebelli_"* cried old Sru, +as with some difficulty--for my rod was too slight for such a fish--I +landed a lovely four-pounder on the grass. + + * White man. + +Nalik laughed again, and before I had cleared my hook from the jaw of +my prize he had taken another and then a third, catching each one in his +left hand with incredible swiftness and throwing them to the boy. The +women and girls on the opposite bank laughed and chaffed me, and urged +me to hasten, or Nalik would catch five ere I landed another. But the +_rebelli_ took no heed of their merriment, for he was quite content to +let a few minutes go whilst he examined the glistening beauty which lay +quivering and gasping on the sward. It was nearly eighteen inches in +length, its back from the tip of the upper jaw to the tail a brilliant +dark blue flecked with tiny specks of red, the sides a burnished silver, +changing, as the belly was reached, to a glistening white. The pectoral +and lower fins were a pale blue, flecked with somewhat larger spots +of brighter red than those on the back, and the tail showed the same +colouring. In shape it was much like a grayling, particularly about +the head; and altogether a more beautiful fresh-water fish I have never +seen. + +We fished for an hour or more, and caught three or four dozen of this +particular fish as well as eight or nine dark-scaled, stodgy bream, +which haunted the centre of the pool where the water was deep. Then as +the sun grew fiercer they ceased to bite, and we ceased to tempt them; +so we lay down and rested and smoked, whilst the women and children made +a ground-oven and prepared some of the fish for cooking. Putting aside +the largest--which was reserved for the old chief and myself--Nalik's +kindly, gentle-voiced wife, watched the children roll each fish up in +a wrapper of green coconut leaf and lay them carefully upon the glowing +bed of stones in the oven, together with some scores of long, slender +green bananas, to serve as a vegetable in place of taro or yams, which +would take a much longer time to cook. On the top of all was placed the +largest fish, and then the entire oven was rapidly covered up with wild +banana leaves in the shape of a mound. + +The moment Nalik and I had laid down our rods, and whilst the oven was +being prepared, Toka and the two other boys sprang into the water at +one end of the pool and began to disturb the bottom with their feet. The +young girls and women, each carrying a small finely-meshed scoop-net, +joined them, and in a tew minutes they had filled a basket with +crayfish, some of which were ten inches in length, and weighed over a +pound, their tails especially being very large and fleshy. + +"Shall we boil or bake them?" asked Nalik as the basketful was brought +up to me for examination. + +"Boil them," I replied, for I had brought with me several pounds of +coarse salt taken from our wrecked ship's harness cask and carefully +dried in the sun, and a boiled crayfish or crab is better than one +baked--and spoiled. + +A tall, graceful girl, named Seia, came forward with a large wooden +bowl, nearly eighteen inches in diameter at the top, and two feet in +depth--no light weight even to lift, for at its rim it was over an inch +thick. Placing it on the ground in front of Sru and myself, she motioned +to the other girls to bring water. They brought her about two gallons +in buckets made of the looped-up leaves of the taro plant, and poured it +into the vessel; then Nalik and old Sru, with rough tongs formed of the +midrib of a coconut branch, whipped up eight or ten large red-hot stones +from a fire near by, and dropped them into the vessel, the water in +which at once began to boil and send up a volume of steam as Seia tipped +the entire basketful of crustacean delicacies into the bowl, together +with some handfuls of salt. Then a closely-woven mat was placed over the +top and tied round it so as to keep in the heat--that is the way they +boil food in the South Seas with a wooden pot! + +From time to time during the next quarter of an hour more red-hot stones +were dropped into the bowl until old Sru pronounced the contents to be +_tunua_, _i.e._, well and truly cooked, and then whilst the now bright +red crayfish were laid out to cool upon platters of green woven coconut +leaf, the first oven of fish and bananas was opened. + +What a delightful meal it was! The fat, luscious fish, cooked in their +own juices, each one deftly ridden of its compact coating of silvery +scales by the quick hands of the women, and then turned out hot and +smoking upon a platter of leaf, with half a dozen green, baked bananas +for bread! Such fish, and so cooked, surely fall to the lot of few. Your +City professional diner who loves to instruct us in the daily papers +about "how to dine" cannot know anything about the real enjoyment of +eating. He is _blase_ he regulates his stomach to his costume and to +the season, and he eats as fashion dictates he should eat, and fills +his long-suffering stomach with nickety, tin-pot, poisonous "delicacies" +which he believes are excellent because they are expensive and are +prepared by a _chef_ whose income is ten times as much as his own. + +So we ate our fish and bananas, and then followed on with the crayfish, +the women and children shelling them for us as fast as we could eat, the +largest and fittest being placed before the old chief and the white man. +And then for dessert we had a basket of red-ripe wild mangoes, with a +great smooth-leaved pineapple as big as a big man's head, and showing +red and green and yellow, and smelling fresh and sweet with the rain of +the previous night. Near by where we sat was a pile of freshly-husked +young coconuts, which a smiling-faced young girl opened for us as we +wanted a drink, carefully pouring out upon the ground all the liquid +that remained after Sru and myself had drank, and then putting the empty +shells, with their delicate lining of alabaster flesh, into the fire to +be consumed, for no one not of chiefly rank must partake even of that +which is cast aside by a chief or his guests. + +Our first meal of the day finished, we--that is, Nalik, Sru, and +myself--lay down under the shade or the newly-built thatched roof and +smoked our pipes in content, whilst the women and children, attended by +the dogs, bathed in the deepest part of the pool, shouting, laughing, +and splashing and diving till they were tired. The dogs, mongrel as they +were, enjoyed the fun as much as their masters, biting and worrying each +other playfully as they swam round and round, and then crawling out upon +the bank, they ran to and fro upon the grassy sward till they too were +glad to rest under the shade of the clump of coco-palms. + +In the afternoon--leaving the rest of our party to amuse themselves by +catching crayfish and to make traps for wild pigs--Sru, Nalik, Toka, and +myself set out towards _the_ pool at the head of the river, where, I +was assured, we were sure to get a pig or two by nightfall. The dogs +evidently were equally as certain of this as Nalik and Sru, for the +moment they saw the two men pick up their heavy hunting-spears they +sprang to their feet and began howling and yelping in concert till they +were beaten into silence by the women. I brought with me a short Snider +carbine--the best and handiest weapon to stop a wild pig at a short +range--and a double-barrelled muzzle-loading shot-gun. The latter I gave +to the "devil" to carry, and promised him that he should fire at least +five shots from it at pigeons or mountain fowl before we returned to the +village. + +Following a narrow footpath which led along the right bank of the +stream, we struck directly into the heart of the mountain forest, and in +a few minutes the voices, shouts, and laughter of our companions sounded +as if they were miles and miles away. Now and then as we got deeper +into the dark, cool shade caused by the leafed dome above, we heard +the shrill cry of the long-legged mountain cock--a cry which I can +only describe as an attempt at the ordinary barnyard rooster's +"cock-a-doodle-do" combined with the scream of a cat when its tail is +trodden upon by a heavy-booted foot. Here in these silent, darkened +aisles of the forest it sounded weird and uncanny in the extreme, and +aroused an intense desire to knock the creature over; but I forebore to +fire, although we once had a view of a fine bird, attended by a hen and +chicks, scurrying across the leaf-strewn ground not fifty feet away. +Everywhere around us the great grey pigeons were sounding their booming +notes from the branches overhead, but of these too we took no heed, for +a shot would have alarmed every wild pig within a mile of us. + +An hour's march brought us to the crest of a spur covered with a species +of white cedar, whose branches were literally swarming with doves and +pigeons, feeding upon small, sweet-scented berries about the size of +English haws. Here we rested awhile, the dogs behaving splendidly by +lying down quietly and scarcely moving as they watched me taking off my +boots and putting on a pair of cinnet (coir fibre) sandals. Just beneath +us was a deep canyon, at the bottom of which, so Nalik said, was a tiny +rivulet which ran through banks covered with wild yams and _ti_ plants. + +"There be nothing so sweet to the mouth of the mountain pig as the thick +roots of the _ti_," said Nalik to me in a low voice. "They come here +to root them up at this time of the year, before the wild yams are well +grown, and the _ti_ both fattens and sweetens. Let us start." + +At a sign from Sru, Nalilc and the boy Toka, followed by the dogs, went +off towards the head of the canyon, so as to drive down to the old man +and myself any pigs which might be feeding above, whilst we slipped +quietly down the side of the spur to the bank of the rivulet. Sru +carried my gun (which I had loaded with ball) as well as his spear. I +had my Snider. + +We had not long to wait, for presently we heard the dogs give cry, and +the silence of the forest was broken by the demoniac yells of Nalik and +the "devil," who had started a party of two boars and half a dozen +sows with their half-grown progeny, which were lying down around the +buttressed sides of a great tika-tree. They (the pigs) came down the +side of the rivulet with a tremendous rush, right on top of us in fact. +I fired at the leader--a great yellow, razorbacked boar with enormous +tusks--missed him, but hit a young sow who was running on his port side. +Sru, with truer aim, fired both barrels of his gun in quick succession, +and the second boar dropped with a bullet through both shoulders, and a +dear little black and yellow striped four-months'-old porker went under +to the other barrel with a broken spine. Then in another three or four +minutes we were kicking and "belting" about half of the dogs, who, +maddened by the smell of blood from the wounded animals, sprang upon +them and tried to tear them to pieces; the rest of the pack (Heaven save +the term!) had followed the flying swine down the canyon; they turned up +at the camp some three or four hours later with bloodied jaws and gorged +to distension. + +The boar which Sru had shot was lean enough in all conscience, but +the young sow and the four-months'-old porker were as round-bodied as +barrels, and as fat as only pigs can be fat. After disembowelling them, +we hoisted the carcasses up under the branch of a tree out of the reach +of the dogs, and sent Toka back to the camp to tell the women to come +and carry them away. + +Then, as we had still another hour or two of daylight, and I longed to +see the deep, deep pool at the head of the river, even if it were but +for a few moments, the old chief Nalik and I started off. + +It lay before us with many, many bars of golden sunlight striking down +through the trees and trying to penetrate its calm, placid bosom with +their warm, loving rays. Far below the sound of the waterfall sung to +the dying day, and, as we listened, there came to us the dulled, distant +murmur of the combing breakers upon the reef five miles away. + +"'Tis a fair, good place this, is it not?" whispered Nalik, as he sat +beside me--"a fair, good place, though it be haunted by the spirits." + +"Aye, a fair, sweet place indeed," I answered, "and this pool aid the +river below shall for ever be in my dreams when I am far away from +here." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of "Martin Of Nitendi"; and The River Of +Dreams, by Louis Becke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARTIN OF NITENDI *** + +***** This file should be named 24641.txt or 24641.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/4/24641/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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