diff options
Diffstat (limited to '24732-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 24732-h/24732-h.htm | 6994 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 24732-h/images/p1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 24343 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 24732-h/images/p2.jpg | bin | 0 -> 37154 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 24732-h/images/p3.jpg | bin | 0 -> 43327 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 24732-h/images/p4.jpg | bin | 0 -> 54056 bytes |
5 files changed, 6994 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/24732-h/24732-h.htm b/24732-h/24732-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..39e5a9e --- /dev/null +++ b/24732-h/24732-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6994 @@ + +<!DOCTYPE html +PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> + +<!-- This HTML file has been automatically generated from an XML source, using XSLT. If you find any mistakes, please edit the XML source. --> +<html lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> + +<title>Myths and Legends of Our New Possessions and Protectorate</title> +<link rel="schema.DC" href="http://dublincore.org/documents/1998/09/dces/"> +<meta name="author" content="Charles Montgomery Skinner (1852–1907)"> +<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Charles Montgomery Skinner (1852–1907)"> +<meta name="DC.Title" content="Myths and Legends of Our New Possessions and Protectorate"> +<meta name="DC.Date" content="#####"> +<meta name="DC.Language" content="en"><style type="text/css"> +/* Standard CSS stylesheet */ + + + +body +{ +font: 100%/1.2em "Times New Roman", Times, serif; +margin: 1.58em 16%; +text-align: left; +} + +.titlePage +{ +border: #DDDDDD 2px solid; +margin: 3em 0% 7em 0%; +padding: 5em 10% 6em 10%; +} + +h1.docTitle +{ +font-size:1.6em; +line-height:2em; +} + +h2.byline +{ +font-size:1.1em; +font-weight:normal; +line-height:1.44em; +} + +span.docAuthor +{ +font-size:1.2em; +font-weight:bold; +} + +h2.docImprint +{ +font-size:1.2em; +font-weight:normal; +} + +.transcribernote +{ +background-color:#DDE; +border:black 1px dotted; +color:#000; +font-family:sans-serif; +font-size:80%; +margin:2em 5%; +padding:1em; +} + +.div0 +{ +padding-top: 5.6em; +} + +.div1 +{ +padding-top: 4.8em; +} + +.index +{ +font-size: 80%; +} + +.div2 +{ +padding-top: 3.6em; +} + +.div3, .div4, .div5 +{ +padding-top: 2.4em; +} + +.footnotes .body, +.footnotes .div1 +{ +padding: 0; +} + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 +{ +clear: both; +font-style: normal; +text-transform: none; +} + +h3 +{ +font-size:1.2em; +line-height:1.2em; +} + +h3.label +{ +font-size:1em; +line-height:1.2em; +margin-bottom:0; +} + +h4 +{ +font-size:1em; +line-height:1.2em; +} + +h4.lghead +{ +margin-left:10%; +margin-right:10%; + +} + +.alignleft +{ +text-align:left; +} + +.alignright +{ +text-align:right; +} + +.alignblock +{ +text-align:justify; +} + +p.tb, hr.tb +{ +margin-top: 1.6em; +margin-bottom: 1.6em; +margin-left: auto; +margin-right: auto; +text-align: center; +} + +p.poetry +{ +margin:0 10% 1.58em; +} + +p.line +{ +margin:0 10%; +} + +p.argument, p.note, p.tocArgument +{ +font-size:0.9em; +line-height:1.2em; +text-indent:0; +} + +p.argument, p.tocArgument +{ +margin:1.58em 10%; +} + +p.tocChapter +{ +margin:1.58em 0%; +} + +p.tocSection +{ +margin:0.7em 5%; +} + + +div.epigraph +{ +font-size:0.9em; +line-height:1.2em; +width: 60%; +margin-left: auto; +} + +.epigraph .bibl +{ +text-align: right; +} + +.epigraph .poem +{ +margin-left: 0; +} + +.epigraph .line +{ +margin-left: 0; +text-indent: 0; +} + +.trailer +{ +clear: both; +padding-top: 2.4em; +padding-bottom: 1.6em; +} + +.floatLeft +{ +float:left; +margin:10px 10px 10px 0; +} + +.floatRight +{ +float:right; +margin:10px 0 10px 10px; +} + +p.figureHead +{ +font-size:100%; +text-align:center; +} + +.figure p +{ +font-size:80%; +margin-top:0; +text-align:center; +} + +p.smallprint,li.smallprint +{ +color:#666666; +font-size:80%; +} + +span.parnum +{ +font-weight: bold; +} + +.leftnote +{ +font-size:0.8em; +height:0; +left:1%; +line-height:1.2em; +position:absolute; +text-indent:0; +width:14%; +} + +.pagenum +{ +display:inline; +font-size:70%; +font-style:normal; +margin:0; +padding:0; +position:absolute; +right:1%; +text-align:right; +} + +a.noteref +{ +font-size: 80%; +text-decoration: none; +vertical-align: 0.25em; +} + + +.red +{ +color: red; +} + +.displayfootnote +{ +display: none; +} + +div.footnotes +{ +margin-top: 1em; +padding: 0; +} + +hr.fnsep +{ +margin-left: 0; +margin-right: 0; +text-align: left; +width: 25%; +} + +p.footnote +{ +font-size: 80%; +margin-bottom: 0.5em; +margin-top: 0.5em; +} + +p.footnote .label +{ +float: left; +text-align:left; +width:2em; +} + +.footnotes td, .footnotes th, .footnotes .tablecaption +{ +font-size: 80%; +} + + +.poem +{ +margin-left:5%; +position:relative; +text-align:left; +width:90%; +} + +.poem h4 +{ +font-weight:normal; +margin-left:5em; +} + +.poem .linenum +{ +color:#777; +font-size:90%; +left:-2.5em; +margin:0; +position:absolute; +text-align:center; +text-indent:0; +top:auto; +width:1.75em; +} + +.versenum +{ +font-weight:bold; +} + +/* right aligned page number in table of contents */ +.tocPagenum, .flushright +{ +position: absolute; +right: 16%; +top: auto; +} + +.footnotes .line +{ +font-size:80%; +margin:0 5%; +} + +.poem .i0 +{ +display:block; +margin-left:2em; +} + +.poem .i1 +{ +display:block; +margin-left:3em; +} + +.poem .i2 +{ +display:block; +margin-left:4em; +} + +.poem .i3 +{ +display:block; +margin-left:5em; +} + +.poem .i4 +{ +display:block; +margin-left:6em; +} + +.poem .i5 +{ +display:block; +margin-left:7em; +} + +.poem .i6 +{ +display:block; +margin-left:8em; +} + +.poem .i7 +{ +display:block; +margin-left:9em; +} + +.poem .i8 +{ +display:block; +margin-left:10em; +} + +.poem .i9 +{ +display:block; +margin-left:11em; +} + +span.corr +{ +border-bottom:1px dotted red; +} + +span.abbr +{ +border-bottom:1px dotted gray; +} + +span.measure +{ +border-bottom:1px dotted green; +} + +.letterspaced +{ +letter-spacing:0.2em; +} + +.smallcaps +{ +font-variant:small-caps; +} + + +.caps +{ +text-transform:uppercase; +} + +.fraktur +{ +font-family: 'Walbaum-Fraktur'; +} + +hr +{ +clear:both; +height:1px; +margin-left:auto; +margin-right:auto; +margin-top:1em; +text-align:center; +width:45%; +} + +h2.docImprint,h1.docTitle,h2.byline,h2.docTitle,.aligncenter,div.figure +{ +text-align:center; +} + +h1,h2 +{ +font-size:1.44em; +line-height:1.5em; +} + +h1.label,h2.label +{ +font-size:1.2em; +line-height:1.2em; +margin-bottom:0; +} + +h5,h6 +{ +font-size:1em; +font-style:italic; +line-height:1em; +} + +p,p.initial +{ +text-indent:0; +} + +p.firstlinecaps:first-line +{ +text-transform: uppercase; +} + +p.dropcap:first-letter +{ +float: left; +clear: left; +margin: 0em 0.05em 0 0; +padding: 0px; +line-height: 0.8em; +font-size: 420%; +vertical-align:super; +} + +.poem +{ +padding: .5em 0% .5em 0%; +} + +p.quote,div.blockquote,div.argument +{ +font-size:0.9em; +line-height:1.2em; +margin:1.58em 5%; +} + +.pagenum a, a.noteref:hover, a.hidden:hover, a.hidden +{ +text-decoration:none; +} + + +ul { list-style-type: disc; } +ol { list-style-type: decimal; } +ol.AL { list-style-type: lower-alpha; } +ol.AU { list-style-type: upper-alpha; } +ol.RU { list-style-type: upper-roman; } +ol.RL { list-style-type: lower-roman; } +.lsoff { list-style-type: none; } + +.castlist, .castitem { list-style-type: none; } + + + + + +/* Supplement CSS stylesheet "style/arctic.css.xml +" */ + + + +body +{ +background: #FFFFFF; +font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; +} + +body, a.hidden +{ +color: black; +} + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 +{ +color: #001FA4; +font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; +} + +p.byline +{ +font-style: italic; +margin-bottom: 2em; +} + +.figureHead, .noteref, span.leftnote, p.legend, .versenum, .stage +{ +color: #001FA4; +} + +.rightnote, .pagenum, .linenum, .pagenum a +{ +color: #AAAAAA; +} + +a.hidden:hover, a.noteref:hover +{ +color: red; +} + +p.dropcap:first-letter +{ +color: #001FA4; +font-weight: bold; +} + + + +</style></head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths & Legends of our New Possessions & +Protectorate, by Charles M. Skinner + +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: Myths & Legends of our New Possessions & Protectorate + +Author: Charles M. Skinner + +Release Date: March 2, 2008 [EBook #24732] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS & LEGENDS OF NEW POSSESSIONS *** + + + + +Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="front"><div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><p class="aligncenter">Myths and Legends <br> +of <br> +Our New Possessions + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><p></p> +<div id="d0e97" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p1.jpg" alt="Gate of the Walled City of Manila." width="387" height="280"><p class="figureHead">Gate of the Walled City of <span id="d0e100" class="corr" title="Source: Manilla">Manila</span>. +</p> +</div><p> + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="titlePage"> +<h1 class="docTitle">Myths & Legends<br> +Of Our<br> +New Possessions +& Protectorate +</h1> +<h2 class="byline">By<br> +<span class="docAuthor">Charles M. Skinner</span></h2> +<h2 class="docImprint">Philadelphia & London<br> +J. B. Lippincott Company<br> +1900 +</h2> +</div><div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><p class="aligncenter">Copyright, 1899<br> +By<br> +J. B. Lippincott Company + + +</p> +<p class="aligncenter">Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U. S.A. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><p class="aligncenter">This book is<br> +affectionately<br> +dedicated to<br> +Cornelia Otis<br> +Skinner, our<br> +new possession + + +<a id="d0e149"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e149">15</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e150" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Table of Contents</h2> +<ol class="lsoff"> +<li><a href="#d0e680">In the Caribbean</a> <span class="tocPagenum">PAGE</span> + + +<ol class="lsoff"> +<li><a href="#d0e684">The Mysterious Islands</a> <span class="tocPagenum">23</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e725">The Buccaneers</a> <span class="tocPagenum">33</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e797">The Boat of Phantom Children</a> <span class="tocPagenum">46</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e806">Early Porto Rico</a> <span class="tocPagenum">48</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e841">The Deluge</a> <span class="tocPagenum">55</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e854">How Spaniards were Found to be Mortal</a> <span class="tocPagenum">56</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e867">Ponce</a> <span class="tocPagenum">58</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e887">Water Caves</a> <span class="tocPagenum">61</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e907">How a Dutchman Helped the Spaniards</a> <span class="tocPagenum">65</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e924">The Ghost of San Geronimo</a> <span class="tocPagenum">67</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e942">Police Activity in Humacao</a> <span class="tocPagenum">71</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e963">The Church in Porto Rico</a> <span class="tocPagenum">74</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e982">The Mermaids</a> <span class="tocPagenum">78</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1005">The Aborigines</a> <span class="tocPagenum">83</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1030">The Caribs</a> <span class="tocPagenum">88</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1051">Secret Enemies in the Hills</a> <span class="tocPagenum">92</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1076">Sacred Shrines</a> <span class="tocPagenum">98</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1099">Tobacco</a> <span class="tocPagenum">103</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1115">The Two Skeletons of Columbus</a> <span class="tocPagenum">106</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1128">Obeah Witches</a> <span class="tocPagenum">108</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1150">The Matanzas Obeah Woman</a> <span class="tocPagenum">113</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1200">How Havana Got its Market</a> <span class="tocPagenum">121</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1280">The Justice of Tacon</a> <span class="tocPagenum">127</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1366">The Cited</a> <span class="tocPagenum">133</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1411">The Virgin’s Diamond</a> <span class="tocPagenum">141</span><a id="d0e312"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e312">16</a>]</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1429">A Spanish Holofernes</a> <span class="tocPagenum">144</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1474">The Courteous Battle</a> <span class="tocPagenum">150</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1489">Why King Congo was Late</a> <span class="tocPagenum">153</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1506">The Chase of Taito Perico</a> <span class="tocPagenum">156</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1541">The Voice in the Inn</a> <span class="tocPagenum">163</span></li> +</ol> + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e1679">In the Pacific</a> + + +<ol class="lsoff"> +<li><a href="#d0e1683">Finding of the Islands</a> <span class="tocPagenum">177</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1690">Ancient Faiths of Hawaii</a> <span class="tocPagenum">178</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1732">The Giant Gods</a> <span class="tocPagenum">188</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1741">The First Fire</a> <span class="tocPagenum">189</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1750">The Little People</a> <span class="tocPagenum">190</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1768">The Hawaiian Iliad</a> <span class="tocPagenum">194</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1801">The Hawaiian Orpheus and Eurydice</a> <span class="tocPagenum">201</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1826">The Rebellion of Kamiole</a> <span class="tocPagenum">206</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1868">The Japanese Sword</a> <span class="tocPagenum">212</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1892">Lo-Lale’s Lament</a> <span class="tocPagenum">217</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1931">The Resurrections of Kaha</a> <span class="tocPagenum">220</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1951">Hawaiian Ghosts</a> <span class="tocPagenum">224</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1963">The Three Wives of Laa</a> <span class="tocPagenum">225</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1970">The Misdoing of Kamapua</a> <span class="tocPagenum">226</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2007">Pele’s Hair</a> <span class="tocPagenum">233</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2019">The Prayer to Pele</a> <span class="tocPagenum">234</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2036">Lohiau and the Volcano Princess</a> <span class="tocPagenum">237</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2047">A Visit of Pele</a> <span class="tocPagenum">239</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2067">The Great Famine</a> <span class="tocPagenum">243</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2105">Kiha’s Trumpet</a> <span class="tocPagenum">248</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2130">How Moikeha Gained a Wife</a> <span class="tocPagenum">252</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2143">The Sailing of Paao</a> <span class="tocPagenum">254</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2158">The Wronged Wife</a> <span class="tocPagenum">256</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2177">The Magic Spear</a> <span class="tocPagenum">259</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2197">Hawaiian Witches</a> <span class="tocPagenum">262</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2225">The Cannibals</a> <span class="tocPagenum">267</span><a id="d0e505"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e505">17</a>]</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2239">The Various Graves of Kaulii</a> <span class="tocPagenum">270</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2258">The Kingship of Umi</a> <span class="tocPagenum">273</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2275">Keaulumoku’s Prophecy</a> <span class="tocPagenum">276</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2284">The Tragedy of Spouting Cave</a> <span class="tocPagenum">277</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2345">The Grave of Pupehe</a> <span class="tocPagenum">283</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2356">The Lady of the Twilight</a> <span class="tocPagenum">285</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2365">The Ladrones</a> <span class="tocPagenum">286</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2381">Old Beliefs of the Filipinos</a> <span class="tocPagenum">290</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2430">Animal Myths</a> <span class="tocPagenum">300</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2460">Later Religious Myths and Miracles</a> <span class="tocPagenum">304</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2513">Bankiva, the Philippine Pied Piper</a> <span class="tocPagenum">315</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2521">The Crab Tried to Eat the Moon</a> <span class="tocPagenum">317</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2529">The Conversion of Amambar</a> <span class="tocPagenum">319</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2543">The Bedevilled Galleon</a> <span class="tocPagenum">322</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2678">Two Runaways from Manila</a> <span class="tocPagenum">329</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2698">The Christianizing of Wong</a> <span class="tocPagenum">333</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2709">The Devil’s Bridge</a> <span class="tocPagenum">335</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2728">The Great Earthquake</a> <span class="tocPagenum">339</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2780">Suppressing Magic in Manila</a> <span class="tocPagenum">345</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2796">Faith that Killed</a> <span class="tocPagenum">348</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2826">The Widow Velarde’s Husband</a> <span class="tocPagenum">351</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2841">The Grateful Bandits</a> <span class="tocPagenum">352</span></li> +</ol> +</li> +</ol><a id="d0e638"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e638">19</a>]</span></div> +<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Illustrations</h2> +<ol class="lsoff"> +<li><span class="smallcaps"><a href="#d0e97">Gate of the Walled City of <span id="d0e647" class="corr" title="Source: Manilla">Manila</span></a></span> <span class="tocPagenum"><i>Frontispiece</i></span></li> +<li><span class="smallcaps"><a href="#d0e1445">A Cuban Residence</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">Page 146</span></li> +<li><span class="smallcaps"><a href="#d0e2000">Down the Valley came Pouring a Flood of Lava</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">Page 232</span></li> +<li><span class="smallcaps"><a href="#d0e2193">Avenue of Palms, Hawaii</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">Page 262</span></li> +</ol> +</div> +</div><a id="d0e678"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e678">21</a>]</span><div class="body"> +<div class="div0" id="d0e680"> +<h2 class="normal">In the Caribbean</h2><a id="d0e683"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e683">23</a>]</span><div id="d0e684" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Mysterious Islands</h2> +<p>Somewhere—anywhere—in the Atlantic, islands drifted like those tissues of root and sedge that break from the edges of northern +lakes and are sent to and fro by the gales: floating islands. The little rafts bearing that name are thick enough to nourish +trees, and a man or a deer may walk on them without breaking through. Far different were those wandering Edens of the sea, +for they had mountains, volcanoes, cities, and gardens; men of might and women lovelier than the dawn lived there in brotherly +and sisterly esteem; birds as bright as flowers, and with throats like flutes, peopled the groves, where luscious fruit hung +ready for the gathering, and the very skies above these places of enchantment were more serene and deep than those of the +storm-swept continents. Where the surges creamed against the coral beaches and cliffs of jasper and marble, the mer-people +arose to view and called to the land men in song, while the fish in the shallows were like wisps of rainbow. + +</p> +<p>It was the habit of these lands never to be where the seeker could readily find them. Some legends <a id="d0e691"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e691">24</a>]</span>pertaining to them appear to do with places no farther from the homes of the simple, if imaginative, tellers than the Azores, +Canaries, and Cape Verdes; but others indicate a former knowledge of our own America, and a few may relate to that score or +so of rocks lying between New England and the Latin shores; bare, dangerous domes and ledges where sea fowl nest, and where +a crumbling skeleton tells of a sailor who outlived a wreck to endure a more dreadful death from cold and thirst and hunger. +Some of these tales reach back to the Greek myths: survivals of the oldest histories, or possibly connected America with the +old world through voyages made by men whose very nations are dead and long forgotten; for the savages and ogres that inhabited +these elusive islands may be European concepts of our Indians. But in the earlier Christian era all was mystery on those plains +of water that stretched beyond the sunset. It was believed that as one sailed toward our continent the day faded, and that +if the mariner kept on he would be lost in hopeless gloom. + +</p> +<p>Perhaps the most ancient story in the world tells of the sinking of Atlantis. When the Egyptian priest told it to Solon it +was already venerable beyond estimate; yet he recounted the work and pleasures of the Atlantans, who were a multitude, who +drank from hot and cold springs, who had mines of silver and gold, pastures for elephants, and plants that yielded a sweet +savor; who prayed in temples of white, red and black stone, sheathed in <a id="d0e695"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e695">25</a>]</span>shining metals; whose sculptors made vast statues, one, representing Poseidon driving winged horses, being so large that the +head of the god nearly touched the temple roof; who had gardens, canals, sea walls, and pleasant walks; who had ten thousand +chariots in their capital alone; the port of twelve hundred ships. They were a folk of peace and kindness, but as they increased +in wealth and comfort they forgot the laws of heaven; so in a day and a night this continent went down, burying its millions +and its treasures beneath the waters. A few of the inhabitants escaped to Europe in their ships; a few, also, to America. +It has been claimed that Atlantis may still be traced in an elevation of the ocean floor about seven hundred miles wide and +a thousand miles long, its greatest length from northeast to southwest, and the Azores at its eastern edge—mountain tops not +quite submerged. As some believe, it was from this cataclysm that has sprung the world-wide legend of a deluge. + +</p> +<p>From some of the enchanted lands, perhaps near the American shore, Merlin went to England, piled the monoliths of Stonehenge +on Salisbury moor, and after gaining respect and fear as a magician and prophet, sailed back across the waste. The Joyous +Island of Lancelot; the island where King Arthur wrestled and bested the Half Man; Avalon, the Isle of the Blest, where Arthur +lived in the castle of the sea-born fairy, Morgan le Fee, were probably near the British or Irish coasts. +<a id="d0e699"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e699">26</a>]</span></p> +<p>Many days’ sail from Europe was the Island of Youth. A daring Irish lad reached it, borne by a horse as white as the foam, +that never sank. He paused on the way to slay a giant who held a princess in his enchantment, and reached, at length, a land +where birds were so many that the trees shook with the burden of them, and the air rang with their song. There, with his wife +and a merry band of youths and maids, he spent a hundred years—one long joy of killing; for from dawn till dark the deer met +death at his hand, bleeding from the stroke of dart and knife. A floating spear was found near the shore one day, rusted and +scarred with battle, and as he grasped it memories of old wars returned to him, so that he was sick with longing to go home +and hurl the cutting metal through the ribs of his enemies and see the good red flood burst from their hearts. He remounted +his white steed and reached Ireland, careless of the happiness he had left: for those who deserted the island might never +return. He reached his home to find men grown too small and mean to fight him, which probably means that he had waxed so great +as to make them seem like dwarfs. Appalled at this change, dismayed at the loss of all chance for battle, he sank to the earth. +His age came suddenly upon him, and he died. + +</p> +<p>In one of the great Irish monasteries lived St. Brandan, of the holy brotherhood that tilled the soil, taught the permitted +sciences, copied and illumined <a id="d0e704"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e704">27</a>]</span>the works of the early Christians, fed four hundred beggars daily, though living on bread, roots, and nuts themselves, lodging +and studying in unwarmed cells of stone. Once in seven years the people saw from shore the island of Hy-Brasail. The monks +tried to stop its wanderings by prayer and by fiery arrows, yet without avail. Kirwan claimed to have landed on it, and he +brought back strange money that he said was used by its people. So late as 1850 Brasail Rock remained on the British Admiralty +chart, to show how hard tradition dies. The appearance of this phantom land made Brandan long to explore the realm of mystery +wherefrom it had emerged. He hoped to find even the Promised Island of the Saints, when at last he was able to leave the convent +where he had endured so many hardships and embarked on Mernoc’s ship; blessed region where fruit was borne on every tree, +flowers on every bush; region strewn with precious stones and full of perfume that clung to one’s garments for weeks, like +an odor of sanctity. + +</p> +<p>Seventeen priests set sail in the coracle, or boat of basket work covered with leather. They had no fear, for they were holy +men, and in those days Christians were immune from peril. Not long before a company of nuns had been blown across the sea +and back again, seated on a cloak that rode the waves like a ship. After forty days Brandan’s company found a group of islands +peopled by courteous natives. Next they disembarked on what <a id="d0e708"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e708">28</a>]</span>they thought to be a rock to cook a dinner, but it was no rock; it was a whale, that, feeling the sting of flame through his +thick hide, rushed off for two miles, carrying their fire on his back. They hastily re-entered their boat before the monster +had gained much headway and ere long reached the Paradise of Birds, where they enjoyed the music made by thousands of little +creatures with their wings—a music like fiddling. After this came visits to a den of griffins; to a land of grapes such as +the Norsemen told about; to a mountain country aflame with the forges of one-eyed people, or cyclops. Twice, on Easter Sunday, +they put lambs to death, and so, being blessed for the sacrifice, were allowed to reach the Island of Saints, where an angel +bade them take all the precious stones they wished, as they had been created for holy people, but to attempt no exploration +beyond that point. No men appeared; still, in order to leave the impress of their calling, St. Malo, one of the company, dug +up a giant who had died several years before, preached to him and baptized him. These reformatory services revived the giant +a little, though he was pretty far gone, and he died again as soon as the priest stopped preaching. St. Brandan went back +to Clonfert, where three thousand monks joined him in good works, and mendicants swarmed from all over the land to benefit +by their labor. He often told the people and the brethren of the wonders he had seen in lands Columbus was to rediscover nine +hundred <a id="d0e710"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e710">29</a>]</span>years later, and he dwelt with marvelling on the mercy of God as shown to Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ, who was +encountered in the northern seas, lying naked on an iceberg in silent delight. St. Brandan recognized him by portraits he +had seen and hailed him. Judas then told his story; he was roasting in hell when the Lord remembered that once in Joppa this +disciple had thrown his cloak over the shoulders of a leper who was agonized by a wind that blew sharp sand into his sores. +An angel was sent to tell the doomed one that for this mercy he would be allowed, for one hour in every year, to breathe the +wholesome air of the upper world, and stretch his scorched body on the ice. Moved by this tenderness toward the most despised +of men, St. Brandan bowed and prayed, just as Judas, with despair in his upturned face, slipped down again to the deeps of +fire. + +</p> +<p>Some men of Ross, Ireland, had killed their king, despite his successful wars against his rival monarchs, some of whose kingdoms +were as large as a township. For this offense the heir to the throne, or his advisers, decreed that sixty couples should be +set adrift on the ocean, to meet what fate they might. A guard was put along the shore to keep them from landing again, and +an easterly gale blew them quickly out of sight of their relatives and friends. For years none dared to seek for them. Conall +Ua Corra, of Connaught, had prayed in <a id="d0e714"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e714">30</a>]</span>vain to the Lord for children, so in anger he prayed to the devil, and three boys were born to his wife. The neighbors jeered +at them as the fiend’s offspring, and harassed them and made them bitter. They said, one to the other, “If we are really sons +of Satan we will justify these taunts,” and collecting all the vicious boys of their village they robbed farmers, ruined churches, +killed men who resisted plunder, and were about to murder their father when they were warned in a vision of the eternal punishment +they would endure in blazing sulphur pits if they did not repent. Their father had long regretted his hasty prayer to the +evil one, and had tried to regain the good-will of heaven by industry, and by giving freely of his substance to the sick and +pauperized. By advice of St. Finnen, to whom they confessed, the boys repaired the churches they had injured and mourned the +victims of their brutality; yet, as the people doubted their conversion, they resolved to leave the country and go to some +land where they would not be constantly exposed to the danger of breaking their good resolves by reproaches and attacks. Where +to go? It was suggested by some designing neighbor that if they were to search for the one hundred and twenty exiles they +would be doing a service to heaven and the world. This suggestion was promptly acted on. In a frail coracle they swept the +sea, discovering strange lands, in one of which the half-forgotten people of Ross were found, living so contentedly <a id="d0e716"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e716">31</a>]</span>that few of them cared to go back. The most exciting incidents of the voyage were the three meetings with the Island of Satan’s +Hand, a lone rock in icy waters, where fogs always brooded. At the will of a malignant demon it changed its place from time +to time, and it was the hand of this monster, a vast, rude shape looming out of the mist, which endangered all the ships that +passed, for it struck at them,—as it did at the coracle of these three voyagers,—injuring hulls, tearing sails, or knocking +the crews overboard, when it did not send them to the bottom. If the blow fell short it made the sea boil and sent billows +rolling for a mile. Some of the shore folk said it was icebergs that the shipmen saw; but icebergs never sailed so far from +the pole, they answered. Despite its wandering habit, the map-makers eventually agreed on a site for this rock of the smiting +hand, calling it Satanaxio. It can be seen on charts of the eighteenth century. + +</p> +<p>A thousand years before Columbus it was reported that tropic islands had been discovered and ruled by Archbishop Oppas, of +Spain, who was fain to leave his country because he had betrayed his king to the Moors. He found a race friendly and gentle, +sharing with one another whatever was given to them, as not knowing selfishness. This prelate burned his ships, that his people +might not return, laid off the largest island into seven bishoprics, and, impressing the natives into his service, built churches +and convents, for there were women in his company <a id="d0e720"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e720">32</a>]</span>whom he placed in nunneries. This island, which figures on early maps as Antillia and as Behaim, was known also as the Land +of the Seven Cities, from its seven bishoprics. When Coronado heard of the pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico, he may have +confounded them with the towns of Oppas, and to this day the seven cities of Cibola are a legend of our desert. Harold’s Norsemen +were told by the wild Skraelings of Maine of a pale-faced people farther south, who walked in processions, carrying white +banners and chanting. + +</p> +<p>Near Florida was the island of Bimini, with its fountain of youth. Juan and Luis Ponce de Leon sought it vainly among the +Bahamas, then crossed to Florida and kept up the search among the pine barrens, the moss-bearded cypresses, the snaky swamps, +and alligator infested rivers. The Indians, strong, active, healthy with their simple, outdoor life, their ignorance of wine +and European diseases, seemed so favored that the Spaniards believed they must have bathed in the magic fountain and drank +its waters. Green Cove Spring, near Magnolia, is the one where Luis bathed, hoping that he had found at last the restorative +fountain; but an angry Indian shot a poisoned arrow through his body, and neither prayers nor water stayed long the little +life that was in him. So the spring is in the unfound Bimini, after all. + + +<a id="d0e724"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e724">33</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e725" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Buccaneers</h2> +<p>How the free traders in the West Indies became smugglers, how by easy stages they passed from the profession of illicit dealing +to piracy, are matters that concern history rather than legend. Their name of buccaneers comes from buccan, an Indian word +signifying a smoke-house, in which beef and other meats were dried; as one of the earliest enterprises of the rovers was the +stealing of Spanish cattle in San Domingo, and the drying of their flesh in the native buccans for use at sea. + +</p> +<p>A general hatred or jealousy of Spain, that was shared by the English, Dutch, and French, led to the first privateering expeditions. +Indeed, throughout the seventeenth century the pirates operated principally against Spain, and were tolerated because of the +injury they did to her ships, her people, her property, and her trade. Having finally ruined her commerce, they sacked her +colonies, and, the lust for blood and treasure having been roused to a sort of madness, they cast off patriotic allegiances +and became mere robbers and outlaws. The history of the successes of L’Ollonois, Morgan, Davis, and the rest, is an exciting +though painful one, inasmuch as all sense of right and mercy seems to have been crushed in the breasts of these men by their +brutal business. For a handful of dollars they were ready to wreck a city, reduce even its ruins to ashes, <a id="d0e732"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e732">34</a>]</span>slaughter women and babes, and cut the throats of the aged. They were as harsh and treacherous toward one another as they +were toward peaceable men, and for acts of rebellion against a leader they were killed off-hand, while it was customary, also, +to butcher a sailor whenever a chest of treasure was buried, and place his body on or in the chest, that his ghost might guard +it and terrify intruders. Yet the ultimate influence of the buccaneers was for good, inasmuch as they wrested a part of the +rich Antilles from the cruel and ignorant Spaniard and gave it to more enlightened powers. + +</p> +<p>When the freebooting days were at their height there was no harbor of safety between Rio and Halifax; but there was, in every +town the rascals visited, an element that profited by their robberies: the keepers of inns, brothels, and gaming-houses, and, +lastly, the royal governors. These bloody-fingered varlets would sack a church, get tipsy on the communion wine, and demand +the blessing of the priests on the next enterprise of the same kind they had in contemplation. With the chalices, candlesticks, +and altar furnishings, they would go to the nearest city, where they were sure of finding this friendly element, and riot +away the last piece of metal in their pockets; or, if pipes of wine were among the prizes, any island would serve for a long +debauch. Devil’s Island, the place of Dreyfus’s captivity, was a popular rendezvous, though it is so named not because of +these gatherings, but because <a id="d0e736"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e736">35</a>]</span>of a particularly unmanageable prisoner who was once confined there. + +</p> +<p>The governors of some of the West Indies were as keen on the scent of the sea-robbers as the latter were in the chase of merchant-men, +and they were unable to see a good many sad goings-on when a few pieces-of-eight were held before their eyes. Gaming was no +disgrace in those times, nor was hard drinking, nor coarse speech, and even piracy had a sort of sanction when the victims +were people of a nation with whom the buccaneers were at war. Many tales of gamesters’ luck are told, but a couple will suffice. +Vent-en-Panne, a Frenchman, had received five hundred crowns as his share of a robbery, and on the first night ashore, at +Kingston, Jamaica, he staked and lost it all, with three hundred more that a reckless comrade had lent to him. Though penniless, +he was not discouraged. He became a wine-drawer and pipe-lighter in the tavern, and with a few pennies received for tips he +bet on the cards again. This time he won, and his fortune mounted to twelve thousand crowns. With this amount in hand he felt +he could be virtuous, so he took ship for home, intending to settle in Paris and fulfil the ambition of every honest Frenchman,—to +own a furnished room, fish in the Seine, and hear the bands play. He got only as far as Barbadoes, for at that island a rich +Jew came aboard, persuaded him to play for a small amount, and lost everything to Vent-en-Panne,—money, houses, sugar, and +slaves. The <a id="d0e740"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e740">36</a>]</span>fever was on them both, however, and so soon as the Jew could borrow a little his luck also turned, and Vent-en-Panne was +stripped of every sou,—even the clothes he wore. Paris became an iridescent dream, and the gambler found his way to the Tortugas, +where he doubtless shipped with Morgan, Teach, or some other of the scourges of the Spanish main. + +</p> +<p>Two rovers are credited with beating the governor of Jamaica at another game, after they had lost to him a matter of ten thousand +crowns,—the earnings of several weeks faithfully devoted to privateering. In order to continue the game (to their complete +beggary), the fellows had borrowed from acquaintances in Kingston, who, seeing no way to get their money back, decided to +have them imprisoned for debt. Hearing of this plan, the elder of the precious pair reported to the governor that he had a +negro whom he would like to sell, cheap, in order to pay his debts and start in a mechanic trade, such as he had followed +in years gone by. The governor bade him have the fellow brought in, and finding him to be a sturdy, intelligent man, with +a skin as black as the ten of clubs, he bought him and set him at work. Next day the negro had disappeared. Notice and offers +of reward were sent to all parts of the island, but nothing came of it. The two ex-pirates followed a peaceful and thriving +trade of making keys, possibly for burglars, and in a few years had saved enough to enable them to return to England. Before +sailing they called on the ex governor, who had <a id="d0e744"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e744">37</a>]</span>drank and gambled himself into poverty, and emptied a fistful of gold before him. + +</p> +<p>“That’s for the nigger, with interest,” said one. + +</p> +<p>“The nigger? What, the one that ran away?” asked the governor. + +</p> +<p>“Oh, he didn’t run far. Here he is.” And the speaker clapped his companion on the shoulder. “He had only to curl his hair +with a hot iron and rub charcoal on his chops to deceive a governor.” + +</p> +<p>The tickled old fellow drank their health and wished them a safe journey, out of Jamaica. + +</p> +<p>While luck seemed to bide with the rovers, it was not always smooth sailing on the Spanish seas. Now and then the buccaneers +attacked an innocent looking ship that waited until they had come within musket-reach, when it ran up the Spanish standard, +opened a dozen ports, and let fly at them with hot-shot and a hail of bullets. Now and again a mutiny would occur, and the +victorious either forced the defeated to walk the plank or marooned them on some desolate sand key to perish of thirst and +sunstroke. + +</p> +<p>Blackbeard’s men once found a fishing-vessel drifting off the Burmudas and eagerly boarded her to look for treasure. In a +minute they tumbled out of the cabin and scrambled into the sea like the swine possessed of devils. The vessel had but one +living man on board, and he had not many hours of life before him, while corpses strewn about the floor were spotted with +small-pox. Half of the pirate crew were slain by the pestilence. +<a id="d0e758"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e758">38</a>]</span></p> +<p>When Roberts was cruising off Surinam a supposed war-ship bore down on him in a fog. He pelted her with all his guns, but +she kept her way unheeding. The fog then breaking showed that it was not a frigate, but a sloop, which had been magnified +by the mist, and he quickly grappled her and sent his men to see what manner of ship she was. Ten or twelve Spaniards lying +about the deck with their throats cut proved that some other buccaneer had been before him. As the men were about to leave +their floating charnel-house to hold her way whither the gales might send her, a furious swearing in Spanish caused them to +shiver and look back. Were the dead speaking? Had some crazed sailor escaped, and was he gibbering from the roundtop? No: +it was a parrot in the rigging, and he was saying all he knew. + +</p> +<p>Montbar, having discovered a company of Spanish on one of the Windward Islands, went ashore with guns, knives, and axes, and +destroyed them all, except one. This man told how he and his fellows had been put ashore. They were the crew of a slaver, +and were on their way from Africa to Cuba with a cargo of slaves, when the ship began to leak badly. The carpenter, accompanied +by several of the more intelligent of the blacks, made a careful inspection of the hold, yet could find no leak; so the constant +inflow, that kept all hands at the pumps, was at length declared to be the devil’s work. The slaves wailed and wrung their +hands, the captain <a id="d0e763"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e763">39</a>]</span>swore and prayed, the crew toiled to exhaustion. When it seemed as if the ship could not float for another day the island +appeared ahead, and quickly loading arms, provisions, and water into the boats, the Spaniards abandoned ship and left the +negroes to their fate. Great was their surprise and dismay when the slaves ran, cheering, over the deck, hoisted all sail, +and squared away for the eastward, the vessel rising higher in the water as her former crew sat watching her. These blacks, +who were confined in the hold, had got possession of knives with which they cut through the outer planking, causing the ship +to leak alarmingly. They had also fitted plugs to these leaks, and packed them with oakum, so that when the carpenter made +his rounds no water came in. As soon as he returned to the deck the holes were opened again, for it was known that the Antilles +were near, and the scheme to frighten their captors to land was successful. These facts the crew learned from the negro cook, +who had accompanied them to shore. + +</p> +<p>The devil, who was supposed in this case to have been the enemy instead of the ally of the slavers, often mixed in the affairs +of a class that must have filled him with admiration. Some of the pirates are reported to have placed themselves entirely +in the hands of the foe of the human race, swearing on strange objects to give their souls to him, and formally burying a +Bible on shore as a token that they were through forever with religion and mercy. <a id="d0e767"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e767">40</a>]</span>Yet they were a superstitious lot, fearful of signs and portents, and do not, therefore, appear to have been trusting subjects +of His Satanic Majesty. They always had an ear and a coin for a fortune-teller, and early in the eighteenth century there +were negroes and Indians in the West Indies and the tropic Americas who openly practised that trade and art of witchcraft +for which their white brethren in Salem had been hanged. Their principal customers were pirates and buccaneers, who went to +them for a forecast of fortune, and also bought charms that would create fair winds for themselves and typhoons for their +enemies. These witches kept open ears in their heads, and information carelessly dropped by the outlaws they sold for an aftermath +of gain to the Spaniards, who found truth in so many of the prophesies that they respected the soothsayers and fully believed +that the English were the chosen of the fiend. + +</p> +<p>Among the most trusted of the witches was a withered Indian woman of Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. She was close upon +her fifth score of years before she departed this life, but the rumor that she had lived in New Providence since the flood +was not denied, for it made her the more regarded. Her best commodity was strings. For a large price she would sell a string +in which she had tied several knots, each one of which represented the particular wind that the captain might wish to prosper +him on his way. Captain Condent was a <a id="d0e771"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e771">41</a>]</span>blaspheming corsair from the wicked town of New York, who had left that port as quartermaster on a merchant-man and next morning +had appeared with a battery of pistols and had calmly taken the ship out of the hands of her officers. This fellow had bought +a string from the witch that carried him to the Cape Verdes and back to America, but when he had cut off all the knots, except +two or three, he feared that he might run out of winds altogether; so he put upon certain servants of the Lord the task for +which he had paid the servant of the devil. He had with him two or three Spanish monks whom he had stolen in the Cape Verdes, +though what he wanted of them neither he nor they could have guessed. They were having a most unhappy time of it. Now and +then the scallawag sailors would force them upon all fours, and sitting astride their backs would compel them to creep about +the deck, pretending to be horses, while Condent whipped them smartly with the rope’s end. Thinking to save his precious twine, +he ordered these monks to pray for favoring winds, and he kept them on their marrow bones petitioning from daylight until +sunset. Often they would fall exhausted and voiceless. At last, believing that the wind <span id="d0e773" class="corr" title="Source: pedler">peddler</span> of Nassau had more power over the elements than a shipload of monks, he threw the wretched friars overboard, and, as luck +would have it, the wind he wanted came whistling along a few minutes after. +<a id="d0e776"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e776">42</a>]</span></p> +<p>He came to the end of his string at Zanzibar, where he was caught in a tremendous storm, and was in hourly peril of destruction. +His masts had cracked, his sails had split, his water barrels had gone by the board. It was time to hold the witch to her +bargain. He swung the cord about his head three times, called the woman’s name, and although eight thousand miles of sea and +continent lay between them, she heard the call. The string was pulled through his fingers so smartly that it made them burn, +and was whisked out of sight in the wind and the spray. Within an hour the gale abated. Next day Condent attempted to make +his way by dead reckoning, but whenever he went wrong a bird flew in his face, and a ship crowded with skeletons approached +him in the mist. He presently gained the Isle of Bourbon, or Reunion, where his stealings enabled him to cut such a figure +in society that he married into the family of the governor and died in an odor of—well, maybe it was sanctity. At all events, +he died. + +</p> +<p>It was a witch also that had foretold the march of the buccaneers across Panama isthmus, and her warning was considered of +such importance that the Spanish troops and merchants were notified, though they made but a feeble resistance when the foray +actually occurred. + +</p> +<p>One of the Spanish slavers bound for our coasts was overhauled by the English pirate Lewis. She was a fast sailer and had +nearly escaped when Lewis <a id="d0e783"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e783">43</a>]</span>ripped a handful of hair from his head, flung it to the wind, and shouted, “Ho, Satan, keep that till I come.” Instantly the +wind rose to a gale. In a few minutes the Spaniard was in the hands of the pirates, and the slaves, being only an encumbrance, +were tossed overboard to the sharks, as one might fling away a damaged cargo. One of the black men was a dwarf, gnarly, wrinkled, +misshapen, with eyes that blazed like a cat’s in the dark. No sooner had this man been pushed over the side than he uttered +an ear-splitting yell, and seemed to bound back to the deck. It was a cat, however, not a human being, that was seen to rush +into the cabin, and it looked into Lewis’s face with the same shining, menacing eyes that he had seen in the dwarf. A negro +boy who had been spared to act as a servant for the captain having unconsciously roused his anger, Lewis rushed upon him with +his sword, cut him through the heart and beat his corpse, the cat sitting by and squealing with glee at the sight. When a +mate struck at the animal in a tort of disgust and fear, the creature leaped at him and almost blinded him with its claws. +From that time the cat became Lewis’s familiar; was before him at the table, on his pillow when he slept, on his shoulder +when he gave orders. The crew agreed that it could be none other than the devil himself. On Lewis’s last night alive, while +he was quite drunk, the cat seemed to be whispering into his ear. He arose and staggered away, saying, <a id="d0e785"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e785">44</a>]</span>“The devil says I shall be killed to-night.” An hour later his ship was boarded by French pirates, and Lewis was despatched. +After scratching the faces of nearly all the enemy, the cat ran up the mainmast, throwing off sparks and screeching, scrambled +to the end of the topsail-yard, and leaped off into the night. + +</p> +<p>Morgan, the English sea robber, had captured a number of Spanish prisoners in Panama, among them a woman of beauty and distinction, +who had been left without other protection than that of a faithless servant during her husband’s absence in Peru. The dignity +and refinement of his prisoner made a certain impression on Morgan. After he had put to sea a cabin was reserved for her, +she was treated with respect by the crew, but a guard kept her in sight always. The gross nature of the pirate disclosed itself +in a few days, when, fresh from a debauch and reeking with the odors of rum, he forced her cabin door and attempted to embrace +her. She sprang back with a cry of loathing, and grasping a dagger swore that if he ever intruded himself in her presence +again she would drive the weapon into her own heart, since she could never hope to reach his by any means, violent or gentle. +In a fit of anger, the pirate ordered his sailors to cast her into the hold among the slaves and hostages, there to endure +fever, crowding, hunger, and thirst. + +</p> +<p>A week or two later these lean, half-dead wretches were kicked out of their dark and stifling dungeon <a id="d0e791"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e791">45</a>]</span>to be sold to some planters. A woman among them asked for a few words with Morgan. Haggard, tear-stained, ragged, neglected +as she was, the captain did not at first recognize her as the one whom he had insulted by his show of love. When he did recall +her name and state he asked indifferently what she wanted. She told him that an injustice had been done; that she had at first +told him it was in her power to buy her liberty, believing it to be so; but her hope was destroyed, and she was so ill and +wasted that she would be useless as a slave. As she was going on board of the ship she had whispered to a couple of Spanish +priests telling them where her money was concealed, and asking them to pay her ransom with it. They also were under guard, +but they persuaded one of the buccaneer officers to go with them, recovered the money, bought their own freedom with it, and +ran away. Hearing this, Morgan sent the woman back to Panama, succeeded in capturing the priests, and sold them into slavery. + +</p> +<p>It is said of Morgan that he had a fire ship, which he would tow as close as possible to the fleets of his enemies, both to +draw their fire and kindle a more disastrous one. What appeared to be its crew were logs of wood, placed upright between the +bulwarks, each log surmounted by a hat. As to fire, it is recorded that Teach, or Blackbeard, now and then shut himself into +his cabin and burned sulphur to prove to his crew that he was a devil. He used <a id="d0e795"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e795">46</a>]</span>to tie his whiskers with red ribbons into pigtails that he tucked over his ears, and he looked the part. Yet he was less of +a monster than L’Olonnais, who so hated Spaniards that he would not only slaughter his prisoners, but would bite their hearts +like a savage beast after he had cut them out. Beside Blackbeard there was a Redbeard and a Bluebeard. All three of these +gentlemen had castles in St. Thomas, and that of Bluebeard had a room in which it is alleged that he killed his wives after +the fashion of his Eastern relative. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e797" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Boat of Phantom Children</h2> +<p>Sir Francis Drake, destroyer of many of the “invincible” ships of Spain, came to America with Sir John Hawkins, to subdue +the Spanish colonies with the heaviest fleet he ever commanded. Though wrangles between the commanders made this expedition +a comparative failure, still wherever the head of a don was seen, a cracking blow was struck at it. War was a crueller business +then than it is to-day, in spite of our high explosives, our armored ships, our mighty guns, and our nimble tactics, and things +were done that no captain would dare in these times; at least, no captain with a fear of the world’s rebuke, or that of his +own conscience. Just before Christmas, 1594, Drake was scourging the coast of Colombia, burning houses, and shipping and despoiling +the towns. <a id="d0e802"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e802">47</a>]</span>The people of one village near Rio de la Hache, having been warned of his coming, buried their little property, closed their +houses, put fifty of their children on a fishing smack, while they hurriedly provisioned some boats to carry all the people +to a distant cape, where they would remain in hiding until after Drake had destroyed their homes and passed on. The fisherman +who owned the smack set sail too soon; he was separated from the others in a gale, and Drake, who then appeared, ran between +him and the shore, and with a couple of shots drove him farther into the wild sea. The smack never returned. After the English +had passed, the people watched for it, and, truly, on the next day, a boat was seen beating against the gale and trying to +make the pier. As it came nearer, the parents saw their children holding out their arms and laughing. Then the outlines of +the hull and sail grew dim, the children’s forms drooped as if weary; and in another moment the vision had passed. Long was +the grief and loud were the curses on the English. When Drake learned that he had fired on a harmless fishing vessel and driven +a company of little ones away from land to be sunk in a tempest, he was filled with compunction and misgiving. The same vision +that the parents had seen crossed the path of his own ships. Before every storm the boat of phantoms appeared, and when he +sailed for Escudo and Porto Bello it followed him. Wearied with many wars, ill with tropical fever, repentant <a id="d0e804"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e804">48</a>]</span>for this useless killing, he sank into a depression from which nothing could rouse him, and in January he died on his ship, +at Nombre de Dios. His remains were consigned to a sailor’s grave—the wide ocean—and as the ship moved on her way, the crew, +looking back to the place where the body had gone down, saw the phantom smack rise from the deep, rush like a wind-blown wrack +across the spot, and melt into the air as it neared the shore. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e806" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Early Porto Rico</h2> +<p>Though Columbus made his first landing in Porto Rico at Naguabo, where the Caribs afterward destroyed a Spanish settlement, +he gave its present name to the island when he put in Aguada for water. Charmed with the beauty of the bay, the opulence of +vegetation, the hope of wealth in the river sands, he christened it “the rich port,” and extending this, applied to the whole +island the name of San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico—St. John the Baptist of the Rich Port. The natives knew their island as +Boriquen. Later came Ponce de Leon, who founded Caparra, now Pueblo Viejo, across the bay from San Juan, to which spot he +shifted a little later and built the white house that may still be seen. San Juan is the oldest city of white origin in the +Western world, except Santo Domingo, albeit Santiago de Cuba and Baracoa claim <a id="d0e811"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e811">49</a>]</span>to be contemporary. The body of Ponce is buried in San Juan, in the church of Santo Domingo. + +</p> +<p>When this fair island was claimed by Spain, it had a population of over half a million, but Ponce at once set about the extinction +of the native element. The populace was simple, affectionate, confiding, and in showing friendship for the invaders it invited +and obtained slavery. It has been ingeniously advanced that the Spaniards disliked the natives because of the cleanliness +of the latter. On account of the heat they wore no clothing, to absorb dirt and perspiration, and bathed at least once every +day. In those times white people were frugal in the use of water, Spain being more pronounced against it than almost any other +nation. Listen to one of the Spanish writers, though he is talking, not of our Indians, but of the Moors: “Water seems more +needed by these infidels than bread, for they wash every day, as their damnable religion directs them to, and they use it +in baths, and in a thousand other idle fashions, of which Spaniards and other Christians can make little account.” We know +that a Spanish queen refrained, not only from washing, but from changing her clothes for a whole year. The Porto Ricans were +naked, but unaware of their nakedness, therefore they were moderately virtuous; at least, more virtuous than their conquerors. +Had they been treated with justice and mercy they would have remained friendly to the white men, and would have been of great +<a id="d0e815"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e815">50</a>]</span>service to them in the development of the island. As early as 1512, Africans were shipped to the island to take the places, +at enforced labor, of the Indians who had been destroyed. A religion was forced down the throats of the natives that they +did not understand, especially as the friars preached it; and being unable at once to grasp the meaning or appreciate the +value of discourses on the spiritual nature, the trinity, vicarious atonement, transubstantiation, and the intercession of +saints, the soldiers, always within call, followed their custom when the congregations proved intractable: killed them. + +</p> +<p>It is said that the Spaniards acquired such ease in the slaying of Indians that they would crack a man’s head merely to see +if it would split easily or if their swords were keeping their edge, and that they varied their more direct and merciful slaughters +by roasting one of the despised infidels occasionally. Slavery in damp mines, fevers in swamps, unaccustomed work, strain, +anxiety, grief, insufficient food, lack of liberty, separation from friends and families, killed more than the sword. It was +the same in all the conquered lands. In Hayti a million people were oppressed out of existence or slain outright in fifteen +years, and but sixty-five thousand were left. In less than a century that island had not a single native. So in Porto Rico: +not a man is to be found there to-day who is a pure-blooded aborigine. Even their relics and monuments, their traditions and +history, were obliterated by their conquerors—the race <a id="d0e819"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e819">51</a>]</span>that destroyed the libraries of the Moors and the picture records of the Aztecs. Few even of their burial places are known, +although the Cave of the Dead, near Caguana, was so named because of the Indian skeletons found in it. + +</p> +<p>Some of the tools and implements of stone found on the island are so strange that one cannot even guess their purpose. Of +the heavy stone collars that have been preserved, a priest holds that they were placed about the necks of the dead, that the +devil might not lift them out of their graves, but this sounds like an invention of the church, for there is no proof that +a belief in the devil existed among these people. They had a god, as well as minor spirits, and sang hymns to them; they had +some crafts and arts, for they made canoes, huts, chairs, nets, hammocks, pottery, weapons, and implements, and, although +the fierce Caribs vexed them now and again, they were accounted as the gentlest and most advanced of the native people in +the Antilles. Speaking of the hammock, that is one of their devices that the world has generally adopted, and the name is +one of the few Indian words that have survived the Spanish oppressions, though there are many geographic titles. Other familiar +survivals are the words hurricane, canoe, tobacco, potato, banana, and a few other botanical names. + +</p> +<p>It is probable that these Boriqueños were allied in speech and custom, as well as in blood, to their neighbors the Haytiens, +of whom saith Peter <a id="d0e825"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e825">52</a>]</span>Martyr, “The land among these people is common as sun and water. ’Mine’ and ’thine,’ the seeds of all mischief, have no place +among them. They are content with so little that in this large country they have more than plenty. They live in a golden world +without toil, in open gardens, not intrenched, defended, or divided. They deal truly with one another, without laws, judges, +or books. He that will hurt another is an evil man, and while they take no pleasure in superfluity, they take means to increase +the roots that are their food—diet so simple that their health is assured.” Still, it is known that in their defence against +the marauding Caribs the Porto Ricans were courageous, and had become adept with arrow and club, and it was believed by some +of the first explorers that they ate their captives. + +</p> +<p>The aborigines of Porto Rico probably differed little, if at all, from the Haytiens in their faith in an all-powerful, deathless +god, who had a mother but no father, who lived in the sky and was represented on earth by zemes or messengers. Every chief +had his zemi, carved in stone or wood, as a tutelary genius, to whom he addressed his prayers and who had a temple of his +own. Zemes directed the wind, waves, rains, rivers, floods, and crops, gave success or failure in the hunt, and gave visions +to or spoke with priests who had worked themselves into a rhapsodic state by the use of a drug (it may have been tobacco), +in order to receive <a id="d0e829"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e829">53</a>]</span>the message, which often concerned the health of a person or of a whole village. The Spaniards regarded these manitous as +images of the devil, and in order to keep them the natives hid the little effigies from the friars and the troops. In the +festivals of these gods there were dances, music, and an offering of flower-decorated cakes. + +</p> +<p>Hayti was the first created, the sun and moon came from the cave near Cape Haytien known as <i lang="fr">la voute a Minguet</i>, through a round hole in the roof. Men came from another cave, the big ones through a large door, the little men from a smaller +one. They were without women for a long time, because the latter lived in trees and were slippery; but some men with rough +hands finally pulled four of them down from the branches, and the world was peopled. At first, the men dared to leave their +cave only at night, for the sun was so strong it turned them to stone, though one man who was caught at his fishing by the +sun became a bird that still sings at night, lamenting his fate. When a chief was dying in pain he was mercifully strangled,—though +the common people were allowed to linger to their end,—and his deeds were rehearsed in ballads sung to the drum. There was +a belief in ghosts, albeit they could not be seen in the light, unless in a lonely place, nor by many persons. When they did +mingle with the people it was easy to distinguish them from the living, as they had no navel. What became of the wicked after +death we <a id="d0e836"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e836">54</a>]</span>do not know, but the good went to a happy place where they met those whom they loved, and lived among women, flowers, and +fruits. During the day the departed souls hid among the mountains, but peopled the fairest valleys at night, and in order +that they should not suffer from hunger the living were careful to leave fruit on the trees. + +</p> +<p>From these quaint and simple faiths the people were roused by the professors of a more enlightened one, who made their teaching +useless, however, if not odious, to the brown people by their practises. It was an old belief, at least among the Haytiens, +that a race of strangers, with bodies clad, would cross the sea and would reduce the people to servitude. This prophecy may +have made them the more unwilling to yield to the Spaniards, in respect of religious faith, despite the signs and wonders +that were shown to them. When chief Guarionex raided a Spanish chapel and destroyed the sacred images within, the shattered +statues were buried in a garden, and the turnips and radishes planted there came up in the form of the cross. But even this +did not convince the savages, whom it became necessary to burn, in order to smooth the way to reform. + + +<a id="d0e840"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e840">55</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e841" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Deluge</h2> +<p>Like many unschooled peoples, the Antillean tribes had their legend of a time when the earth was covered by a flood. The island +of St. Thomas was one of the first to rise out of the sea. The Haytiens said that the deluge did not subside and that the +present islands are the summits of mountains that formerly towered to a great height above the plains. Far back in the days +when people lived more simply, and white men, with their abominable contrivings for work, had not even been invented, a <i>cacique</i> or chief of their island killed his son, who had tried to harm him, albeit when the lad was dead a natural affection prompted +the father to clean his bones and conceal them in a gourd. Some time afterwards the <i>cacique</i> and his wife opened this vegetable tomb, to look on the mortal relics of their child, when a number of fish jumped out. Believing +that he now had in the gourd a magic receptacle, from which he could take food at any time, the chief placed it on his roof, +where mischief-makers might not reach it. While absent on a hunting-trip his four surviving sons took down the gourd to see +what peculiar properties it had, and why it had been thus set apart. In passing it from one to the other it fell and was broken +into little pieces. Instantly a vast quantity of water gushed from it, increasing in volume every instant. The water arose +so that it reached their knees, and they had to climb the hills. <a id="d0e852"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e852">56</a>]</span>Whales, sharks, porpoises, dolphins, and smaller creatures came swimming forth, and the flow of the water never ceased until +the whole world was flooded, as we see it now, for the ocean came from that gourd. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e854" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">How Spaniards were Found to be Mortal</h2> +<p>The first Spaniards to reach the American islands were everywhere greeted as heavenly visitors, and the natives would not +have been astonished had the caravels spread their sails—their wings, as they first were called—and flown into the clouds, +carrying Columbus and his wrangling, jealous, sensual, gold-greedy company with him. Afterward they would have been more astonished +than sorry. When the white men discovered this simple faith among the savages they encouraged it, for it induced the Indians +to give up their wives, daughters, houses, weapons, and, above all else, their gold, to the strangers. The little bells and +beads they gave in return were treasured because of their celestial origin and adored as fervently as the bones of saints +are adored in some of the European churches. Everywhere and always the demand was for gold, and in the belief that the supply +was going to last forever, Spain began to ruin herself with more industry than she had ever shown in peaceful callings. Her +wars, her splendors, her vanities, her neglect of education and morality, bore their fruit when she <a id="d0e859"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e859">57</a>]</span>pulled her flag down from the staff on Havana’s Moro, and gave up her claims to the last foot of land in the Western world. + +</p> +<p>Ponce de Leon permitted the fiction that the Spaniards were angels—save the mark!—for it smoothed his progress in stripping +the Porto Ricans of their poor little possessions, taking their lands for settlement, foraging over the island, forcing his +religion upon them, and compelling them to serve him as miners, carriers, farmers, fishermen, and laborers. Many died because +it was thought to be cheaper to work them to death and get fresh ones than to feed them. After a time the Indians began to +have doubts, and when the friars enlarged on the glories of heaven, and described it as the abode of Spaniards, more of them +than Hatuey were anxious to be allowed to go to the other place. They did not at first dare to attack the intruders, for what +could men avail against gods, and of what use were spears and clubs against their thunderous arms and smashing missiles? + +</p> +<p>As the aggressions increased and became less and less endurable, Chief Agueynaba resolved, out of the soreness of his heart, +to test this reputed immortality of his guests. A messenger, one Salzedo, was to be sent away from San Juan on some official +errand, with a little company of natives as freighters and servants. This was Agueynaba’s chance. He ordered his men to slip +Salzedo into a river and hold him under water for a time. If he was an immortal this would not hurt him, and if he died, why—they +<a id="d0e865"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e865">58</a>]</span>would try very hard to bear up under the loss. While crossing the river—the spot is still shown—the men who bore Salzedo on +their shoulders pitched him off and detained him beneath the surface for a couple of hours; then, fearing that he might be +still alive and vicious, they put him on a bank and howled apologies to his remains for three days. By that time there was +no longer a doubt about his deadness. Reports of this discovery traversed the island with the speed of a South American mail +service, so that within a week people even forty miles away had heard about it. Thus encouraged to resistance by the discovery +that white men were mortal, the populace fell upon their persecutors and troubled them, although after one defeat the Spaniards +rallied and drove the Indians back to the mines. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e867" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Ponce</h2> +<p>When Ponce de Leon visited and conquered Porto Rico he heard of the elixir of life. It may not have been among the springs +of that island, but the natives had a faith in it and some of them referred it to the Bahamas. Their possible reason for this +was to persuade the white men to go there and look for it, for they were not popular in Porto Rico, and this was the more +to be regretted in Ponce’s case, because he was far from popular at home. At the court of Ferdinand and Isabella was a page +who was handsome, spirited, and saucy. One <a id="d0e872"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e872">59</a>]</span>of the daughters of the royal pair, wearied with the forms and ceremonies of her state, which, in the most punctilious court +in Europe, were especially trying, found means to converse with this well-appearing, quick-witted scamp. A tattling courtier, +recalling a <i lang="fr">faux pas</i> of the last queen, and desiring no more scandals, reported that the princess had been seen to smile on the youngster. No +guilt was proven upon him, but handsome pages were ill-chosen company for young women of blue blood. + +</p> +<p>Ponce de Leon was the page, and he was sent to the New World to discover something to the advantage of his own modesty, and +incidentally to accumulate for shipment anything that might be useful to the Spanish treasury. He landed in Boriquen, as Porto +Rico was then called, and began a general subjugation and slaughter of the natives. Some were slain in battle, but thousands +were carried away and made to work in mines and on distant plantations, as slaves, until their health was destroyed, and they, +too, were no longer an obstacle to Spanish control, though the lack of their hands was a hindrance to Spanish enterprise. +Ponce took his share of the gold and treasure he had forced these unfortunates to supply, and went back to Spain with it. +Sea air had spoiled his complexion, fighting had roughened his manners, slave-driving had made his voice coarse. Possibly, +also, his princess had recovered from her disappointment. Maybe she had been married off to some nobody of Portugal, or France, +or Austria, for state <a id="d0e879"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e879">60</a>]</span>reasons, and had entered on the usual loveless life of royalty. Or she may have beguiled her maidenly solitude by drinking +much wine of Oporto, Madeira, and Xeres with her dinner, thereby acquiring that amplitude of girth, that ruddiness of countenance, +and that polish of nose, which add so little to romance. At all events, we hear nothing more of the affair. + +</p> +<p>In the course of years Ponce took to himself the gout, rheumatism, dyspepsia, and a few such matters, and he scolded his dresser +more than usual because his clothes did not fit at the waist as they had done, once. He parted his hair with a towel, and +it was grizzled where it curled about his neck and temples. Then he recalled the tales the Boriqueños had told of the bright +waters that gushed from the earth amid banks of flowers,—waters so sweet that who drank would drink again, and with every +draught would throw off years and pain until at last he was a youth once more,—a youth with hot blood, sparkling eyes, lithe +muscles; a youth who saw the world full of beauty and adventure. Ah, to be once more as he was when the princess beamed on +him; to throw away his cares, his ails, his conscience, his regrets; to sing and dance, to ruffle it with other cavaliers, +to dice, to drink, to feast, to win the smiles of ladies! It was a joy worth trying to attain. + +</p> +<p>He sailed once more, an older, sober man. He discovered Florida, bathed in its springs, drank from its flower-edged streams, +but to no avail. Bimini, <a id="d0e885"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e885">61</a>]</span>the place of the living waters, evaded him. Boriquen, renamed Porto Rico, could offer no more. But, though his living presence +passed, the first building on the island—the White House, near San Juan—remains, and he left his name in the town that was +first among the Antillean cities to raise the flag of a republic that should wave over the continent he had helped to discover +and colonize:—the city of Ponce. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e887" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Water Caves</h2> +<p>As in most of the Spanish American countries, so in Porto Rico, ghosts are common,—so common that in some towns the people +hardly turn to look at them; and if on a wild night in the hurricane season they hear them gibbering at their doors, they +patter an <i>ave</i> or throw a piece of harness at the disturbance, and sleep again. Ponce, for instance, has a number of these spooks, such +as the man who searches for his hidden money, and the child with a snowy face that knocks on the panes, then stares fixedly +in, with corpse eyes, at the windows. Best known among these supernatural citizens are two lovers who “spoon” on dark nights, +and are faintly outlined on the landscape as figures of quivering, smoky blue. Their favorite haunt is their death-place, +eight miles from Ponce, in a hollow among limestone hills, now environed by a coffee plantation. Here are found three basins—results +of erosion, most likely—that are described as natural <a id="d0e895"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e895">62</a>]</span>bath-tubs. The middle and largest of these pools is partly filled with silt, probably occluding the entrance to a cavern which +formerly opened into it, a fathom or so below the water-surface. This cave was the hiding-place of a native woman whose father +had discovered her love for one of Ponce de Leon’s soldiers. He forbade her to have anything to do with the enemies of his +country, enlarged on their rapacity, cruelty, and treachery, and tried to create in her a sense of shame that she should have +chosen a Spaniard, instead of a Boriqueno chief, for a lover. There were no locksmiths in the Antilles for love to laugh at, +but there were spears and knives to fear, and the young couple, who seemed to be inspired by genuine affection, met at this +lonely spot to do their courting. On the least suspicion of a hostile approach, the maid could slip into the water, enter +the cave, and wait for an hour or a day, until the intruder had retired. However it happened nobody could tell,—or would,—but +the Spaniard was found drowned one morning in that pool. He may have been found waiting there, by the angry parent, thrown +in, on general principles, and held to the bottom by his steel arms and armor; or he may have been trying to find the cave +in which his charmer had secreted herself, and while so engaged may have bumped his head against the rocky wall and stunned +himself, or he may have been a poor swimmer and lost his wits and his wind. At all events, drowned he was, and the dusky virgin +who loved him, seeing <a id="d0e897"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e897">63</a>]</span>his form at the bottom of the water, sang her sorrow chant, dived in, and, holding to his body, perished wilfully at his side. +Their love endures, and that is why their luminous shadows sit at the brink of the pool, with locked arms and meeting lips, +to the disgust of voting women and confirmed bachelors. + +</p> +<p>This legend, with variants, is found in many parts of the world. There are two or three instances of it in the Hawaiian islands, +and a tradition pertaining to Hayti is worth quoting here, as it refers to the same period and illustrates the same enmity +between the white and native races. Near the city of San Domingo is, or was, a “water cave,” so named because the entrance +to it was several feet below the lake whose shore it undermines. When the young half-breed, Diaz, returned from Spain to his +native island of Hispaniola in 1520, his mother, Zameaca, queen of the Ozamas, had disappeared, possibly killed outright by +the Spaniards, or more slowly killed by enslavement at the mines in vainly trying to satisfy the rapacity of the white race +for gold. Diaz, though partly of Spanish blood, was allied in his sympathies to the Indians. Hence, they planned to make him +ruler. Their conspiracy was quelled for the time being, with such brutality that those natives who escaped death hated their +tyrants with a deeper hatred than ever, and fixed them the more strongly in their resolution to be avenged. The leading chiefs +and warriors of the Ozamas took refuge in the water cave, spying on their enemies and going about to make converts among the +islanders <a id="d0e901"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e901">64</a>]</span>at night. It was not long before the watchful Spaniards discovered that mischief was afoot, and there were reasons for believing +that the chiefs had their hiding place not many miles from town. By following various suspects into the country, and noticing +the time and way of their return, they became convinced that the leaders of the rebellion were somewhere near the lake. + +</p> +<p>A young woman, a slave in the family of the Spanish governor, was so often absent on mysterious errands that the authorities +at last fixed on her as the one most likely to betray her countrymen. She was won to their purpose through her vanity. Her +mistress had a comb of elaborate and curious workmanship, and to have one like it was the principal object in her existence. +The governor told her that she should have this priceless treasure itself if she would tell him where the chiefs were meeting. +To this act of treachery she finally agreed on condition that her lover, who was one of the chiefs, should be pardoned. That +evening she carried bread and fruit to the lake, and sitting on the bank sang loudly for some minutes. The Spanish soldiers, +who were watching from the shrubbery, were astonished to see a man rise like a seal from the water, swim to the shore, take +the parcel from the girl’s hands, exchange a few words with her, and disappear again beneath the surface. The song was a signal +for one of the men to come out and receive the food, and it was heard through a crevice in the cave roof. <a id="d0e905"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e905">65</a>]</span>Next day the girl sang again, and the whole company left the cave. They had no sooner gained the shore than the Spaniards +sprang from the shrubbery and surrounded them. As they were led away to death, one of the chiefs levelled his finger at the +girl and said, “I am going to a land of peace. You will never find the way to it.” Her lover cast her off with bitter reproaches. +Then, as the murderous volley pealed across the fields, and the rebellion was ended, her heart broke. She still sits at the +lakeside in the evening, weeping over her comb. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e907" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">How a Dutchman Helped the Spaniards</h2> +<p>Had any Dutchman been charged with intending a <span id="d0e912" class="corr" title="Source: kindnesss">kindness</span> to the dons when his country was smarting under the Spanish scourge he would have offered the life of some distant relative +to disprove the accusation. Without a guess that he could be injuring his own land and enriching that of his enemy, an innocent +magistrate of Amsterdam did that for which he would afterward have submitted to the abuse of his friends, and if sackcloth +and ashes had been in vogue he would have worn them. It all came about through his wish to be pleasant to a Frenchman, the +same being Louis XIV. He sent to this monarch a curiosity in the form of a young coffee-tree, thinking, no doubt, that a warm +corner could be found for it in the Jardin <a id="d0e915"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e915">66</a>]</span>des Plantes among the orchids and cacti, and little recking that Louis had a Spanish father-in-law. At that time Holland enjoyed, +in her colonies, almost a monopoly of the coffee trade of the world, but that one little tree broke her monopoly, just as +one little leak in her dikes led to the eating away of miles of <span id="d0e917" class="corr" title="Source: earthern">earthen</span> wall and an in-rush and devastation of the sea. + +</p> +<p>For Louis was more clever than some other kings, almost clever enough to have been in trade, or else he had smart advisers. +He had slips cut from the coffee tree, and ere many moons had passed a promising dozen of young plants were ready for shipment +to Martinique, the new French colony in the Antilles. A botanist was sent in charge of them, it being the purpose of Louis +to turn the island into a coffee plantation and be free of obligation to Holland. The voyage was long, because of head winds +and storms, and the precious plants were in peril. Long before the American shores were reached the water supply had run low, +and there was much suffering; yet the loyal botanist gave up half of his daily allowance in order that his coffee-trees should +live. Salt water would have killed them, and in those days ships had no distilling apparatus. Martinique was reached in safety, +however, the little trees struck their roots into congenial soil, and thus the seeds, such as first yielded their aroma to +a surprised and gratified Abyssinian chief more than a thousand years before, now spring from the strong earth of the Western +world. <a id="d0e922"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e922">67</a>]</span>Whether Spaniards stole some of these trees, or bought them, or whether they got away by accident, certes, they reached Porto +Rico, and so became a source of pleasure and profit to people whom the Dutchman did not have in mind when he made his little +gift to King Louis. It is believed that all the coffee raised in Batavia for the Dutch also grew from a handful of seeds that +had been sent from Arabia to Java. And, oh, that ever the time should have come when France had to buy coffee from her own +plant in Porto Rico, and send to that same island for logwood to make claret with,—the kind she sells to New York for bohemian +tables d’hote! + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e924" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Ghost of San Geronimo</h2> +<p>The castle of San Geronimo, San Juan de Porto Rico, was founded a century ago. It occupies a rocky point at the east end of +San Juan Island, and year by year had been strengthened until, when the American ships appeared in the offing, it was thought +important enough to garrison. Six guns were emplaced, two other gun mounts were found by our troops when they entered, and +a hole was discovered extending from a dungeon fifteen feet toward the breastworks. This had been freshly dug, and, it is +believed, was devised for the storage of explosives, that the citadel might be blown up when the boys in blue entered to take +possession. That the fort was abandoned without resorting to <a id="d0e929"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e929">68</a>]</span>this revengeful and unmilitary act may be due to the ghost. He would naturally be in evidence at such a time, and would do +what he could to thwart the schemes of his enemies. For he gave his body to the worms fifty years or more ago. In the flesh +he was a revolutionist, and had been dreaming vain things about liberty for his beloved island. It is not recorded that he +ever harmed any one, or that his little insurrection attained the dignity of anything more than a rumor and an official chill, +but the Spaniards caught him, threw him into the dark prison of this castle, and after he had undergone hunger, thirst, and +illness, they went through their usual forms of trial and condemned him to death. This among the civilized would have meant +that he would be sent to the gallows or the garrote; but this victim was alleged to have accomplices, and quite likely he +was suspected of having a small fund; for the first thing to do when you overthrow a government, or want to, is to pass the +hat. To secure the names of his fellow-conspirators, but more especially their money, the revolutionist was therefore consigned +to the torture chamber, where the rack, the thumb-screw, the hot irons, the whip, and other survivals of the Inquisition were +applied. When the officers had extorted what they wanted, or had made sure there was nothing to extort, the poor, white wreck +of a human being was delivered by the judges to an executioner, and a merciful death was inflicted. +<a id="d0e931"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e931">69</a>]</span></p> +<p>Shortly after this occurrence the officers of the San Geronimo garrison began to request transfers, and the social set that +had been formed in and near the castle was broken up. Gradually the troops thinned away, and although the works were kept +in moderate repair and occasionally enlarged, the regular force was finally withdrawn, and even the solitary keepers who were +left in charge died unaccountably. This was because the ghost of the tortured one pervaded its damp rooms and breathed blights +and curses on the occupants. Its appearance was always heralded by a clatter of hoofs on the stone bridge leading into the +court. The on-rush of spectre horses is variously explained, some believing that the dead man is leading an assault on the +fort, others wondering if it may not be a conscience-smitten governor hurrying to rescue or reprieve his victim, and arriving +too late,—a theory quite generally rejected on the ground that there never was that kind of a Spanish governor. + +</p> +<p>An American officer, who took up his home in San Geronimo after the occupation, was disturbed for three successive nights +by the ghost, and on learning the tradition of the place he investigated the palace and brought to light the torture chamber +with its rows of hooks and rings and chains about the walls. The piercing of its roof, so that the sun came in and the ghosts +and malaria went out, the removal of the grim relics of mediævalism, the cleaning and whitewashing of the apartments, have +<a id="d0e936"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e936">70</a>]</span>probably induced the spectre to take up his quarters elsewhere, for his old haunts are hardly recognizable, and he can have +no grudge against the soldiers of a republic who carried out his plans with a perfection and promptness of which he could +not have dreamed. + +</p> +<p>The climate of the West Indies has ever been favorable to the preservation of spirits, and this haunted castle of San Juan +has counterparts in the island, and in other islands, and the ghosts are not always victims of the Spaniards, either. The +appearance of spectres in the New World was almost contemporary with Columbus. Indeed, one of the most startling of supernatural +appearances occurred in the town he founded,—the town of Isabella, Hayti, the first white man’s city in America. It was created +by the great navigator on his second voyage, but it remained for only a few years on the map. The dons whom he brought with +him refused to work, even when the colony was starving, and reported him in Spain as a tyrant for asking them to put up their +own shelters, cook their own food, and grind their own flour. They would not even work in the mines where gold could be seen +in the river sands, because they had expected to pick up the metal in lumps, or force it from the natives in such quantities +that each adventurer might return with a bushel. Hardship, illness, short commons, the need of occasional labor, the heart-breaks +over the gold failure, the retaliations <a id="d0e940"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e940">71</a>]</span>of the natives for the cruelties and injustices of the invaders, led to the rapid decline of the city of Isabella. Its foundations +may still be visible; at least they were a few years ago; but it is peopled only by ghosts. Some years after it had been deserted, +two Spaniards, who had been hunting in that part of the island, entered its ruined streets. They had heard from the Indians +of strange, booming voices that echoed among its dead houses, but had dismissed this tale as invention or fancy. The sun was +low and mists were gathering. As the hunters turned a corner they were astonished to see a company of cavaliers drawn up in +double rank, as if for parade, sword on hip, plumed hats aslant, big booted, leather jacketed, grim, and silent. The two men +asked whence they had come. The cavaliers spoke no word, but all together lifting their hats in salute, lifted their heads +off with them, then melted into air. They were the dead of the fated town. The two spectators fainted with horror, and did +not recover their peace of mind in many days. + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e942" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Police Activity in Humacao</h2> +<p>For three centuries a Spanish convict station was kept in Porto Rico. The unpleasant and undesirable found, not a welcome +here, but a more congenial company than in the home land. Life was easier because one needed less food and clothes, and <a id="d0e947"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e947">72</a>]</span>they were furnished by the authorities, anyway. What with the convicts and discontented slaves, it is a wonder that any sort +of comfort or safety existed on the island, and especially that so much of pleasant social life was to be found in the cities. +Those who knew Porto Rico in those days, however, say that class distinctions were not sharply marked; that the master was +kind to the slave, and the slave felt as if he were a member of his master’s family, rather than a dependent; that the two +were often seen at the cockpit sitting elbow to elbow, kneeling side by side in the same church, greeting the same friends +or cracking the heads of the same enemies before the church doors at Epiphany, and in the humbler homes sitting at the same +table. + +</p> +<p>In those simple times the robber gangs were a great vexation. Killing was something to grow used to, and a disagreement over +cards was liable to result in having one’s head snipped off by a machete; but to be robbed of one’s machete, or of one’s jug +of rum, or of one’s only trousers, was a sad affliction, and soldiers and police were as active as Spanish functionaries could +persuade themselves to be, in running down—or walking down—these outlaws. It is said that the detectives were especially amusing. +They would go about in such obvious disguises, with misfit wigs, window-glass spectacles, and the costumes of priests or notaries, +that a robber could barely keep his countenance when he met them in the street. The thief always <a id="d0e951"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e951">73</a>]</span>escaped, either through the incompetence of the officers, or by sharing his profits with them. + +</p> +<p>But there was one fellow who made such trouble that the police began to chafe beneath the public criticism. To impugn their +honor did not hurt them much, though they ruffled a good deal under it, but to threaten them with reduction of pay or removal +was a serious matter; so the chief of the San Juan constabulary bestirred himself, after a particularly daring robbery had +occurred in his bailiwick, the rogue making off with six thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry. He got safely away from town +and was traced to Humacao, where his footprints were found leading to the door of a small, tumble-down, deserted house, and +none of these prints could be seen with toes pointing away from it. The chief dismissed his men and prepared to conduct a +siege. He had a dagger, a machete, two pistols, and a gun, with a box of ammunition. Thus equipped he went to the front door, +gave it a sounding whack with the flat of his machete, and bawled, “Open, in the name of the law!” + +</p> +<p>There was no response, so he struck his weapon impatiently against the panels two or three times and called on the bandit +to emerge and give himself up. Again there was no reply. A bolder move was necessary. He pushed open the window, crouching +down outside, that he might not become a target for the fellow, who was probably lurking in the dark interior, and after calling +on him for a third <a id="d0e957"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e957">74</a>]</span>time to appear and go to jail, he thrust his firearms in and began to blaze in all directions over the floor. + +</p> +<p>After emptying the pistols and gun he shouted, “If you don’t come out I’ll blow you to the bad place, for I have one hundred +and fifty cartridges here, and I can surely shoot you.” + +</p> +<p>All this time the robber had been lying on the floor, just below the window, very flat and very still. As the chief did not +show himself to take aim, but reached up from his kneeling position and fired at random, the bold, bad man in-doors began +to feel a return of confidence. He waited until a second fusillade was over, when he slipped softly through the back door, +went around to the front, waited until a third volley had been fired, when he pounced on the chief from behind, and in a trice +had a stout rope around him. In a few seconds more he had the astonished and indignant functionary tied securely to one of +the posts of the veranda. Then, calmly taking possession of the weapons, he lifted his hat, wished the officer a very good +day and a pleasant siesta, and sauntered off to some other town where the police were still less active. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e963" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Church in Porto Rico</h2> +<p>If the Spanish colonies have been immoral, it must be granted that they have been religious. This fact has made them easier +to govern, for the words of the priests and friars have been accepted as <a id="d0e968"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e968">75</a>]</span>divinely inspired at times when, as a matter of fact, they have been inspired only by the governor or the garrison colonel. +The church in the colonies is nothing like the modern and American institution that we know. It is a survival from the Middle +Ages. Yet it has shown shrewdness in Porto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines, its prosperity proving that the Spaniard can be +a thrifty mortal whether he wears a monkish cowl or a military uniform. Much money has been demanded by the church, but much +of it has been honestly spent in the beautifying of altars and the dressing of the statues. Our Lady of the Remedies, in the +Church of La Providencia, San Juan, for example, wears a cloak worth fifteen hundred dollars, and is emblazoned with twenty +thousand dollars’ worth of jewels; but then, she is the patron of the island. The priests have been quick to see an advantage +in benefits or disasters and have often impressed the natives by lessons drawn from natural phenomena. Thus, in 1867, a conspiracy +for the overthrow of Spanish rule had been organized, and violence was hourly expected: but on the eve of an uprising the +island was shaken by an earthquake. The priests made the most of this, assuring the natives that it was a warning from heaven +never to interfere with Spaniards; so the insurrectos stealthily laid down their arms and stole away to their various substitutes +for employment, leaving their Lexington unfought. + +</p> +<p>In one way this willingness to keep out of fights has <a id="d0e972"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e972">76</a>]</span>been a bad thing for the island, because insurrection became a matter of business with some of the natives. They used it as +a mode of blackmail. These insurrectos would throw a wealthy planter into a state of alarm by pretending to hold meetings +on his premises. He knew that if the authorities got wind of this it might go hard with him, for if he were suspected of being +a member of a lodge of the White Saber or the Red Hand, it could mean imprisonment, perhaps death; so he paid the revolution +something to move on and occur on some other man’s land. By levying thus on fear and policy a few members of an alleged junta +managed to live quite comfortably without work, and it is whispered that the padres of certain villages received their share +of the reluctant tributes. + +</p> +<p>Porto Rico has been the place of abode of some noted fathers of the church, including two martyrs who were canonized by Pius +IX. as saints: Charles Spinola and Jerome de Angelis. They left Portugal for Goa in 1596, but having been blown far out of +their course, they put in at this island to repair their ship, and there for two months they preached with success. On their +return to Lisbon they were captured by English pirates, who treated them kindly, however, and set them safely down in London. +They reached Portugal eventually, and ended their work in Japan, where the people killed them. These and other saints receive +the prayers of the people on stated occasions, for in Porto Rico the saints have <a id="d0e976"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e976">77</a>]</span>not only their special days, but their special crops, and guard them from special injuries. Thus, the farmer prays to St. +James, it is said, when he asks for deliverance from tobacco-worms, while he must address St. Martial if he wants to free +his field from ants. + +</p> +<p>Of the holy hermits who have resided on the island, several have dwelt in the caves where Caribs or Arawaks buried their dead, +but the best-known shrine is that of Hormigueros. The Church of Our Lady of Monserrate, which crowns a hill and is a conspicuous +landmark, is said to have been copied from the chapel of a Benedictine monastery in Barcelona, which is famous in Spain for +its statue of the Virgin, carved by St. Luke and carried to Barcelona in the year 50 by St. Peter. The Monserrate church was +founded in 1640 by a poor farmer. He had been ploughing over the hill-top, though weak with fever, and before he could finish +his work he fell to the ground exhausted. After he had partly recovered, and had gone back to the plough, he turned a tile +up from the earth, on which was engraved a portrait of the Virgin, and no sooner had he taken this object into his hands than +his pain, his fever, his lassitude disappeared. Convinced that the relic was sacred, he carried it to his priest, and on that +very day he gave the land he had ploughed for a votive church. It has become the best known sanctuary in Porto Rico, for the +large painting of the Virgin, copied from the smaller portrait on the tile, is just as potent <a id="d0e980"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e980">78</a>]</span>as the original in curing diseases. In the last half-century a hundred miracles have been performed, and the silver and golden +arms, legs, ears, eyes, fingers, feet, livers, and hearts that have been given to the church, in thanks and testimony, amount +in value to sixty thousand dollars; for a patient who has been cured or helped is expected to send a little model, in precious +metal, of the part of him that needed mending. At intervals these offerings are melted up for the altar service and decorations, +and few churches in America have such resplendent candlesticks, chalices, draperies and vestments. The altar is of silver +plates, and the gold cross upon it weighs thirteen pounds. Pilgrims to Hormigueros go from all parts of the West Indies. They +are lodged, free of charge, in an old house behind the church, each cripple or invalid receiving a bed and chair, but no food. +The pilgrims must supply their own sustenance. On entering the church, in procession, they are sprinkled with water from the +Jordan, and then kneel before the cross, where the cures are worked. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e982" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Mermaids</h2> +<p>In dime museums and county fairs one may still find among the “attractions” a mermaid, dried and stuffed, consisting of the +upper half of a monkey artlessly joined to the lower half or two-thirds of a codfish, the monkey’s head usually adorned with +a handful of oakum or horse-hair. When this kind <a id="d0e987"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e987">79</a>]</span>of thing was first exhibited by the lamented P. T. Barnum, it is just possible that some bumpkin really believed it to be +a mermaid, but the invention has become so common of late that it is found in the curio-shops of every town, and as an eye-catching +device is often put into show-cases by some merchant who deals in anything rather than mermaids. Trite and ridiculous as this +patchwork appears, it symbolizes a belief of full three thousand years. Men have always been prone to fill with imaginations +what they have never sounded with their senses, and it is to this tendency we owe poetry and the arts. The sea was a mystery, +and is so still. It was easy to people its twilight depths with forms of grace and beauty and power, for surely the denizens +taken from it were strange enough to warrant strange beliefs. + +</p> +<p>And so the old faith in men and women who lived beneath the water was passed down from generation to generation, and from +race to race, changing but little from age to age. Ulysses stopped the ears of his crew with wax that they should not hear +the sirens luring them toward the rocks as his ship sailed by, and knowing the magic of their song had himself bound to the +mast, so, hearing the ravishing music, he might not escape if he would. In a later day we hear of the Lorelei singing on her +rock, striking chords on her golden harp, and, as the raptured fisherman steered close, with eyes filled by her beauty and +ears by her music, he had a moment’s <a id="d0e991"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e991">80</a>]</span>consciousness of a skull leering at him and harsh laughter clattering in echoes along the shore; then his boat struck and +filled, and the dark flood curtained off the sky. Wagner has made familiar the legend of the Rhine daughters, singing impossibly +under the river as they swim about the reef of gold,—the treasure stolen by the gnome, Alberich, who in that act brought envy, +strife, greed, and injustice into the world, and accomplished the destruction of the gods themselves. The wild tales of Britain +and Brittany, of thefts and revenges by the sea-creatures, are among the oldest of their myths, and when we cross to our side +of the sea, the ocean people are close in our wake and they follow us through the fresh waters and far out in the Pacific. + +</p> +<p>Among the Antilles, as in the South Seas, the tritons blow their conchs and shake their shaggy heads, while the daughters +of the deep gather, at certain seasons, on the water, or about some favorite rock, and sing. Always, in Eastern versions of +the myth, there is music, save in the case of Melusina, who became a half fish only on Saturdays, when her husband was supposed +not to be watching, and this music follows the myth around the world. Among the vague traditions of certain Alaskan Indians +is one of an immigration from Asia, under lead of “a creature resembling a man, with long, green hair and beard, whose lower +part was a fish; or, rather, each leg a fish.” He charmed them so with his singing that they followed him, unconsciously, +<a id="d0e995"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e995">81</a>]</span>and reached America. We find in Canada the tale of a dusky Undine, a soulless water sprite, who, through love of a mortal, +became human. Some of the beings of the sea were of more than human power and authority,—gods, in fact; barbarian Neptunes. +Such was the Pacific god, Rau Raku, who, being entangled in a fishing-net, was lugged to the surface, sputtering tremendously. +Yet he had no grudge against the fisherman. That trembling unfortunate was too small for his revenge. He would devastate the +whole earth to which he had been thus unceremoniously dragged, and, bidding his captor take himself away while he made trouble, +he deluged the globe until all upon it had perished, except the fish, the fisherman, and a few land animals that the sole +human survivor had taken to a lofty island with him. + +</p> +<p>The mermaid of story was a damsel fair to view, until she had risen from the waves so as to show her fish-like ending. It +was her habit to sit on sunny beaches, comb her golden hair with a golden comb, and sing delightfully, though her wilder sisters +would perch on juts of rock on lonely islands and scream in frightening ways when a gale was coming. When the sea-maidens +went ashore they sometimes met sailors and fishermen, and if they liked these strangers a frank avowal of love was made; for +it is always leap year in the ocean. It was a most uncomfortable position for a mortal to be placed in, especially one who +had a wife waiting for him at <a id="d0e999"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e999">82</a>]</span>home, because if their addresses were rejected the mermaids were liable to throw stones, and always with fatal results; or +they would brew mists, and set loose awful storms; yet, if the man who inspired this affection was not coy, and yielded to +one of these slippery denizens, she dragged him under the sea forthwith, unless he could persuade her to compromise on a cave +or a lonely rock as a home, for it is reputed that mortals have formally wedded them and raised amphibious families. On the +Isle of Man they tell of one caught in a net, who was woman to the waist and fish as to the rest of her. As she sulked in +captivity, refusing to eat or speak,—perhaps they forgot to offer raw fish for her supper,—it was decided to let her escape; +and as she wriggled over the beach she was heard to tell her people (in Manx?), as they arose to greet her, that the earth-men +did nothing wonderful except to throw away water in which they had boiled eggs! + +</p> +<p>The home of the mermaids was at the bottom of the deep. A diver, who said he had reached it, reported a region of clear water, +lighted from below by great, white stones and pyramids of crystal. These haunts contained bowers of coral, gardens of bright +sea weeds and mosses, tables and chairs of amber, floors of iridescent shell and pearls, gems strewn about the jasper grottoes,—diamonds, +rubies, topazes,—and the sea people had combs and ornaments of gold. Columbus was disappointed in the mermaids that he saw +in the Caribbean. They <a id="d0e1003"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1003">83</a>]</span>were not, to his eyes, so handsome as the romancers had alleged, nor were their voices sweet. The doubters claim that he was +asleep when the mermaids appeared, and that he saw nothing but the sea cow, or manatee, which is neither tuneful nor pretty. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1005" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Aborigines</h2> +<p>In following the southern coast of Cuba, Columbus supposed he was working toward India. He died ignorant of the fact that +he had discovered a new world, and he gave up the exploration of this island when almost in sight of open water at its western +end. Of the first inhabitants of Cuba (called by some Macaca, and by others Caboi, “land of the dead,” for the people killed +their prisoners), little is known, for they were exterminated as a distinct race, and their few relics were disregarded as +worthless or destroyed as idolatrous. It is believed, however, that they had some knowledge of the arts; they worked gold +into ornaments, and copper and stone into tools and weapons, and they wore helmets of feathers, like those of the Hawaiian +chiefs. Near Bayamo have been found farming tools, painted pottery, and little statuettes supposed to represent gods. Their +houses were hardly more than shelters, frames of bamboo or light boughs, though they were prettily environed by walks and +flowers, and their clothing—sometimes of fur, oftener of leaves and coarse cloth—<a id="d0e1010"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1010">84</a>]</span>was of the scantiest. Heavy dresses in a tropic country, or in a temperate country in tropic weather, are manifestly absurd. + +</p> +<p>As on the other Antilles, the people of Cuba were brown, broad, straight-haired, flat-faced, and decorated with slashes and +tattooing. They were singularly mild, honest, and trusting. They were frightened by the Spanish ships, believing them to be +great birds that had come down from the sky, bringing the white adventurers in their brave array; but when Columbus had sent +a few beads and hawks’ bells to them, they expressed their confidence and delight in a hundred ways, swam and rowed about +his caravel offering fish and fruit, not in trade, but as gifts, and when a crowd of hungry sailors ashore invited themselves +to a feast that had been prepared for a religious ceremony the Indians made no objection, because they could prepare one like +it by another night’s work. Food, indeed, was free to whoso needed it, like air and water, and no stranger needed to go hungry. +While the Spaniards did little to invite their confidence, were insolent to most other people and even to one another, the +Indians set an example of charity in conduct and in faith. The dons were intolerant of all religions except their own, whereas +the Cubans were quick to realize that the performance of the mass was of some sacred significance, and they preserved a reverent +attitude throughout a ceremony whose details they did not understand. When missionary <a id="d0e1014"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1014">85</a>]</span>work had fairly begun it is said that some Spaniards drove Indians into the water, forcibly baptized them, then cut their +throats that they might not repent their acceptance of the true faith. In their own belief there appeared to be a purgatory +and a paradise, but no hell or devil; and, as beliefs reveal the character of the people who hold them, it speaks well for +the Cubans that the grewsome images invoked by certain mediæval theologians had never been created in their more generous +imaginations. When a soul left the body it had two journeys before it: one to a dismal place, where the cruel and unjust awaited; +the other to a fair land, like the best of earth, where all was pleasant and peaceful; for, in spite of the warlike undertakings +made necessary by irruptions of the fierce Caribs, these people held to peace as the highest good. + +</p> +<p>Of these Indians hardly a dozen are remembered by their names, but the chief Hatuey was revered among them for his courage +and his military skill. He had fled from Hayti to Cuba in a vain hope of escaping his white enemy, and counselled the natives +to throw all their gold into the sea, that the Spanish might not linger on their coasts. He might have been the one who ordered +gold to be melted and poured down the throats of his prisoners, that for one and the last time they might have enough. The +Spaniards caught him and burned him to death at Baracoa. As he stood on the logs in chains, just before the flames were applied, +the friars pressed <a id="d0e1018"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1018">86</a>]</span>about him and earnestly advised him to become a Christian, that he might not be required to roast in hell, which would be +worse than the torture he was about to endure, and which would last forever. If only he would be baptized he could go direct +to heaven. “The white man’s heaven?” he asked. “Yes.” “Are there any Spaniards in that heaven?” “Oh, yes, many.” “Then light +the fire.” + +</p> +<p>Columbus was the more convinced that he had reached Asia because the name of one Cuban province, Mangon, he assumed to be +Mangi, a rich district of China. That its people had tails, like monkeys, was nothing against this theory; that footprints +of alligators should be the tracks of griffins, which had the bodies of lions and the wings and heads of eagles, was quite +in order; but most convincing of all was the discovery by an archer, who had entered a wood in search of game, of thirty men +with pale faces, armed with clubs and lances, and habited in white gowns, like friars. The man fled in fear. When his comrades +returned with him to find this white company, not a human being appeared to them, and, except for the chatter of birds and +the clicking of land-crabs as they scuttled over the stones, the place was still. The coast Indians were understood to say +that among the mountains dwelt a chief whom they called a saint, who wore a flowing robe of white and never spoke aloud, ordering +his subjects by signs. This was surely Prester John, the shadowy king of a shadowy kingdom, of <a id="d0e1022"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1022">87</a>]</span>whom much was said and written a few centuries ago. He was declared by one author to rule a part of India and was reputed +to be a Nestorian priest who had made himself king of the Naymans. Other travellers placed him in China, Persia, and Timbuctoo. +In a battle with the infidel Tartars Prester John mounted a number of bronze men on horseback, each figure belching clouds +of smoke from a fire of punk within, and lashed the horses against the enemy, filling them with such terror, and so veiling +in smoke the dash of his flesh and blood cavalry, that his victory was easy. So, it was a great satisfaction to Columbus to +think that he had reached the confines of a Christian kingdom. + +</p> +<p>While working through the thousand little islands off the southern coast of Cuba, that he called the Queen’s Gardens, Columbus +found added reason for believing that this was the Asiatic shore, and he hoped shortly to reach Cipango, or Japan, where pearls +and precious stones abounded, and where the king abode in a palace covered with plates of gold more than an inch thick. The +attempts of the Mongols to overrun the Asian islands were defeated, because the Cipangalese were invulnerable, having placed +between the skin and the flesh of their right arms a little stone that made them safe against swords, arrows, clubs, and slings. +The people of Cuba fell too easy a prey to Spanish blades—of both sorts—to allow a belief like this to last long. + +</p> +<p>That Columbus thought he was approaching the <a id="d0e1028"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1028">88</a>]</span>earthly paradise, the mountain-guarded Eden where our first parents lived, when he neared these lovely shores, inhaled the +fragrance of fruits and flowers, heard the cries of birds and saw the flash of bright waters, is probable. That paradise he +sought. The serpent of oppression and wrong has left it, and as America comes into her own, that paradise shall be. + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1030" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Caribs</h2> +<p>Had it not been for the Caribs the Antilleans would have led a placid existence. Those warlike and predacious Indians would +not keep the peace, nor would they allow other people to do so. Though they had their capital in Guadaloupe, they extended +their military enterprises in every direction, and Cuba, Porto Rico, Hayti, Jamaica, and the lesser islands suffered from +their assaults. They were trained to fight from childhood, and attained to great proficiency in arms. Being active voyagers, +they had some knowledge of astronomy. When operating in the waters of a hostile country it was their custom to mask their +boats with palm leaves, for in this guise they stole upon the enemy the easier. Like the red men of our plains, they painted +their faces, and, indeed, they retained many of the practices common to our tribes. In their traditions they came from the +North, like other strong races, their old home being among the Alleghanies, and they conquered their way from Florida <a id="d0e1035"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1035">89</a>]</span>to Brazil. Their tribe, they say, grew up from stones that their remote ancestors had sowed in the soil. They buried their +dead in a sitting posture that they might be ready to leap up when the spirit came for them, and they faced the sunrise that +they might see the day of resurrection the quicker. + +</p> +<p>In their mythology the first men came down from heaven on clouds to purify the world and make it as clean as the moon; but, +while they were looking about at this untidy planet, the clouds floated back and they were left in a sorry plight, for they +had brought no provisions with them. Their hunger having sharpened so as to become unbearable, they scraped up clay and baked +it to make it less tough and more eatable, and were grieved when it came out of the fire as hard as stone. Then the birds +and beasts had pity on them, and led them to the groves and fields where they could find fruit, nuts, maize, and yams. One +tree was of such size that they chopped it with stone axes for ten months before it fell, and they ate all of it. Beneath +its roots, in a cave, lived the Water Mother, who, possibly because she was angered by the destruction of the tree, released +a flood that would have covered the earth had not a rock fallen into the throat of the cavern and stopped the flow. This rock +had life and speech. It warned the new race that when its founders should grow old they were to expect a deluge. Until that +appeared they should find in the atone their best adviser and protector, and if they <a id="d0e1039"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1039">90</a>]</span>would pray to it, giving a deaf ear to the wood-devils, it would cure them of illness, gray hair, and age. After a time came +the monkey out of the woods, beguiling and wheedling, while at every chance, with a monkey’s love of mischief, he worked at +the stone, trying to dislodge it from the mouth of the cave. At last he succeeded, and out poured the flood. An old woman +ran to a palm that touched the sky with its vast leaves, and climbed with feverish haste, but fright and fatigue brought her +to a stop when half-way up, and she hardened to stone, thus blocking the way to all behind her, who, when they touched her, +became stone likewise. Some scrambled down, splashed through the rising waters, and reached another palm tree, which they +climbed to its top, and so saved their lives. + +</p> +<p>As the waters were subsiding, Amalwaka came sailing across the ocean from the east, ascended the Orinoco, carved the figures +found near the head of that river, without leaving his canoe, smoothed the rugged hills and invented the tides, so that men +might go from place to place on the current, but, being unable to make the Orinoco flow up stream, he sailed away again into +the arch of the rising sun, guided at night by the constant star and by the tapir and Serikoai,—which is another story, told +by the Arawaks, to this effect: The bride of Serikoai was seduced by the tapir god, who had first aroused her curiosity and +interest by his attentions, and had finally won her love by promising to put <a id="d0e1043"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1043">91</a>]</span>off his swinish shape and reveal himself as a finer being than her husband. If only she would follow him to the edge of the +earth, where the sky comes down, she would see that he was a god. The poor husband was crippled by the wife, that he might +not follow, for she chopped off his leg as he descended an avocado pear-tree, in which he had been gathering fruit for her. +He nearly bled to death, but a wandering spirit revived him and called his mother, who healed the wound with gums and helped +to make a wooden leg, on which he stumped over the earth in search of his runaway wife. It is known that the aborigines performed +trepanning with skill, but this is probably the earliest appearance in an American legend of a wooden leg. Though he found +no foot-prints, it was easy to trace the couple, because avocados were springing up from seeds that the woman spat out as +she journeyed on. At the edge of the earth he caught the tapir and killed him; yet the creature’s shadow arose from the body +and kept on its flight with the wife. Straightforth she leaped into the blue vast, and there she hangs, only we call her the +Pleiades. The brute is the Hyades. He glares and winks with his red eye: Aldebaran. The husband is Orion, who follows the +others through the sky. + +</p> +<p>The Caribs were a handsome people, and one tradition narrates the madness that afflicted a governor of Antigua, because of +his jealousy of a native chief. In 1640 this dusky Paris stole the <a id="d0e1047"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1047">92</a>]</span>English woman and her child, and carried them to Dominica. The governor pursued. Arrived where Roseau now stands, he learned +that a captive woman and her child had been landed there, and had been taken to some stronghold in the forest. Drops of blood, +pricked out by cactus thorns on the march, formed a trail which he was able to follow, and believing that they betokened murder, +he killed all the Caribs he encountered. His wife and boy were safe, however, except for their bleeding feet, and he found +them in the otherwise deserted cabin of the chief and took them back to Antigua. The affair preyed on his mind. He began to +doubt his wife, thinking she had accompanied the savage willingly, and his jealousy so increased that his friends had to secrete +her, to save her from his wrath. He probably recovered his senses in time. + +</p> +<p>The Spaniards chased the Caribs out of several of the islands. That of Grenada terminates on the north in a tall cliff called +Le Morne des Sauteurs, over which the white men compelled the flying Indians to leap to their death. Not one Carib was left +alive on this island. + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1051" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Secret Enemies in the Hills</h2> +<p>The brutalities of the Spaniards who first occupied the West Indies would seem incredible if so many of them had not continued +to our own day. It is estimated that half of the natives of <a id="d0e1056"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1056">93</a>]</span>Porto Rico were killed, and within sixty or seventy years after the seizure of Cuba its populace of three hundred thousand +had been destroyed or removed by war, murder, slavery, hunting with blood-hounds, imported vices and diseases, flight and +forced emigration. These natives are said to have been a peaceful and happy race, practised in the simpler arts, observing +the moralities better than their oppressors, holding a faith in one god—a god of goodness, not of hate—and in the immortality +of the soul, and abstaining from useless forms and ceremonies. They held that when the soul had left the body it went into +the woods and hills or abode in caves, and took its food and drink as in the flesh. When a man calls out in a solitary place +among the mountains and an answering voice comes back, it is not an echo, but a wandering soul that speaks. + +</p> +<p>Even the relics of these folk—the Cubans or Siboneyes—have vanished, save in the instance of the temple remains near Cobre, +and an occasional caney or mound of the dead, a truncated cone of earth and broken stones. Some fossil skeletons found in +caves, and of an alleged age of fifty thousand years, denote an ancient race of large, strong people. There are other skeletons +of Siboneyes, Chinese, and negroes in the caves,—victims of herding, slavery, fever, cruelty, and suicide. There is little +doubt that of the aboriginal stock not a man remains. Yet there are stories of strange people who were seen by hunters and +explorers among the mountains, <a id="d0e1060"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1060">94</a>]</span>or who peered out of the jungle at the villagers and planters and were gone again, without track or sound,—people with swarthy +faces, sinewy forms, long black hair, decorations of coral shells and feathers, and bracelets, armlets, and anklets of gold. +Almost from the first, the conduct of the Spaniard toward his enemies and dependents was such as to earn for him a permanent +hate; so, when his cruelty had been practised, and the futility of opposing arms against his heavy weapons and his coat of +steel had been proved, it was natural that those who escaped him should keep as far from reach as possible, and it is idle +to suppose that he traversed the seven hundred and thirty miles of Cuba’s length, whipping every forest and climbing every +mountain, for no more than the pleasure of killing. Negro slavery was introduced into the New World before its existence had +been known in Spain for a century, and although the black men have usually been tractable, the severities of their masters +led to many revolts and to the organization of bands for retaliation. These bands often degenerated, and during this century +the Spanish Antilles have been troubled by companies of beggars and outlaws, mostly blacks and half-breeds, who have robbed +and murdered in the dark, run off stock from the farms, burned houses and shops, and because of their secret and cowardly +methods have been feared as much as the Spaniards were hated. + +</p> +<p>The Nañigos originally formed a secret order of <a id="d0e1064"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1064">95</a>]</span>negroes, banded for protection against unkind slave-owners and overseers, but feeling their power, and being swayed by passion +and superstition, they constituted, after a time, a body correspondent to the voodoos, or wizards, of our Gulf States. With +hideous incantations, with mad dances, with obscene songs, with the slaughter of animals, with oaths on an altar and crucifix, +they invoked illness, ruin, and death on their enemies. In time they gained accessions to their fraternity from Spanish residents,—thieves, +vagrants, deserters from the army, the half-witted and wrong-hearted outcasts from the towns,—and the fantastic ceremonies +of the jungle came to mean something more to the purpose of mischief, for the newer Nañigos had more skill and courage than +the slaves, and were familiar with more sins. To enter this order it was required of the candidate that he steal a cock, kill +it, and drink the warm blood. A darker tale is that they were required to drink human blood. In Havana this part of the initiation +was performed on the Campo Marti. The man’s right nostril was pierced, and a skull and crossbones branded on his chest. It +was then expected of him that within fifteen days he would kill an official or a policeman, a white, black, or yellow marble, +drawn by chance from a globe, deciding whether he was to slay a white man, negro, or mulatto. When he had, by this crime, +attained to full membership, a little shield was given to him which he might wear beneath his coat, and which was <a id="d0e1066"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1066">96</a>]</span>decorated with the device of a skull and bones. For every murder he committed a red stitch was put in at the edge of the skull. +Once a month, in the dark of the moon, the Nañigos paraded the streets of the towns, their naked forms painted fantastically, +their faces ghastly with flour, tramping and leaping to the thud of drums and clash of cymbals, yelling defiance to the military, +brandishing knives and firing pistols. It was a kind of thing that in an American city could have happened for one consecutive +time, but no more. In Havana the Spaniards were terrorized. The police refused to make arrests, lest they should fall victims +to the outlaws. One judge who refused to liberate an assassin was slain in his own house by his servant. + +</p> +<p>As a partial revenge on the Cubans for wishing liberty the Spanish captains-general have at times pardoned some hundreds of +these rascals and set them free to prey on the people; while, in retaliation, the insurgents adopted some of the methods of +the Nañigos and carried on a guerilla warfare that neither troops nor trochas could abate. Many are these more or less bold +spirits of the hills who are celebrated in inland stories: aborigines, Frenchmen, Creoles, mulattoes, who have gathered bands +of reckless fellows about them from time to time and raided the Spaniard, flouting him in his strongholds, pillaging from +his farms, striking him, hip and thigh, and making off to the woods before he knew how or by whom he had been struck. Sometimes +even <a id="d0e1070"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1070">97</a>]</span>the name of the guerilla has been forgotten, but the tradition remains of a predecessor of Lopez, Gomez, and Garcia, who aided +the English before Havana in 1762. In that year Lord Albemarle took the town with two hundred ships and fourteen thousand +soldiers, beating a Spanish army of almost double that size, though it was covered by heavy walls and well provided with artillery. +It took two months to reduce the city. + +</p> +<p>During one of the land operations the red-coats lost themselves in a dense wood, and were in considerable peril from bodies +of Spaniards who were almost within speaking distance. To advance or to retreat was an equal risk. As the column was halted, +pending a debate and a reconnoissance, there was a rustle in a clump of bushes beside which the colonel was standing; then, +as every sword was drawn and a row of muskets held ready, a tall man bounded into the space, laid his finger on his lip to +enforce silence, and, beckoning all to follow, crept on stealthily through the chaparral. He was a man advanced in years, +a long white beard flowed over his chest, yet he was lithe and quick, and his look and manner were those of one who lives +in the open and in frequent danger. He spoke not a word, but after a time drew himself erect and pointed before him. He had +led the English to the rear of one of the Spanish batteries. The colonel, who had at first regarded him with doubt, as a lunatic +or a false guide, ordered his men to attack, and after a <a id="d0e1074"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1074">98</a>]</span>short fight he returned to his lines with prisoners and trophies of victory. He sought in all directions for the old man, +to thank him, but the jungle had swallowed him, and he was never seen again. + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1076" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Sacred Shrines</h2> +<p>Cuba has many shrines containing evidences of divine blessing, and some of these are of wide renown. When the image of our +Lady of Charity was found in Nipe Bay it was delivered to the priests of Cobre, the centre of the copper-mining industry, +and they erected a church above it. The statue is fifteen inches high, and is seemingly carved from gold. A splendid shrine +has been made as a setting, and for years it has been the object of pilgrimages during the Lady’s festival in September. Those +who ask for special favors, such as the cure of lameness and blindness, ascend the long flight of steps before the statue +on their knees. The figure was found in 1627 by two Indians and a Creole boy who were crossing the bay at dawn in a search +for salt. It appeared to them as a white body rising from the water, but as they approached it revealed itself as the image +of the Virgin, the holy child on her left arm, a golden cross in her right hand. The board on which it stood was inscribed, +“I am the Virgin of Charity.” After it had been shown in the fold at Verajagua and venerated by the multitude it was placed +in a chapel, a number of priests leading <a id="d0e1081"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1081">99</a>]</span>the march with a pomp and joy of banners, while bells and guns signalized its progress. The Virgin was dissatisfied, however, +with the lack of splendor in her shrine and with the site on which the chapel had been placed. She told her displeasure to +a girl named Apolonia, while she burned pale lights on a hill above the mines, to mark the place on which she wished her church +to be erected. Her request was heeded so soon as the needed funds could be collected. It was generally believed that the statue +was given by Ojeda to a native chief who, afraid of the enmity of his people as a result of accepting a gift from a treacherous +and hated race, or, more reasonably, afraid that the Spaniards would kill him for the sake of the gold that adorned it, set +it afloat in the bay. A thief despoiled it of thirty thousand dollars’ worth of jewels after the American occupation. + +</p> +<p>This ambulatory practice of sacred images is not uncommon, and a similar instance is recorded in Costa Rica, where in 1643 +the state had been thrown into a panic by the devil, who lives in the volcano of Turrialba, when he is at home, and who generally +was at home in those days, for he seized upon every wayfarer who ventured on the peak. General joy was therefore felt at the +discovery of a Madonna by a peasant woman at Cartago. She carried it to her hut, but it was dissatisfied and ran away—twice—three +times. The village priest then took it and put it under lock and key in his <a id="d0e1085"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1085">100</a>]</span>house. Again it ran away. It was carried to church in procession, and it ran away again. Then the priest laid a heavy assessment +on his flock for silk and gold and emeralds with which to deck the image, and this concession having been made to a feminine +fondness for appearance, the statue has remained patiently on its pedestal ever since. One of the treasures of the Church +of Mercy, Havana, is a painting of the cross, with a woman seated on one arm of it, holding a child. Spanish soldiers and +proud-looking Indians are gathered about the emblem. The origin of the picture is involved in doubt, but it was installed +in recognition of an appearance vouchsafed by the Virgin to Columbus at Cerro de la Vega, in presence of the Indians. The +natives, alarmed at this vision in the air, and associating it—justly, as it fell out—with calamity, discharged their arrows +at it, and were still more frightened when their darts passed through the apparition without causing a flow of blood. This +onslaught put the Spaniards into an instant rage, and, encouraged by the Virgin’s smiles, they fell upon the heathen with +sword and musketoon and stamped them out of existence. + +</p> +<p>Some of these supernatural appearances had so occult a purpose that it has never been fathomed. At Daiquiri, for example, +where the American troops landed in the late war, a native reported to the wondering community that while walking through +the wood he met a tall, shaggy stranger, <a id="d0e1089"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1089">101</a>]</span>who looked as though he might have been one of the fisherman disciples, and who pointed to the earth with an imperious gesture. +So soon as the Cuban had looked down the tall man melted into air. On the ground was the print of the face of Christ. A stone +was placed on the spot to mark the miracle. + +</p> +<p>When the fiery Ojeda set out on his several voyages of discovery and adventure,—and no man ever had more excitement and tribulation,—he +carried in his knapsack a small painting of the Virgin, the work of a Fleming of some artistic consequence. During his halts +in the jungle it was his custom to affix this picture to a tree, say his prayers before it, receive spiritual assurance of +protection, then, grasping sword and buckler, to undertake the slaughter of the natives with fresh alacrity and cheer. So +confident was he in his heavenly guard that he exposed himself recklessly in fight, and the Indians were fain to believe him +deathless, until one of their arrows pierced his leg. If this injured his confidence it did not stint his courage. He ordered +his surgeon to burn the leg with hot irons, threatening to hang him if he refused, for he fancied that the arrow was poisoned. +When wrecked on the south coast of Cuba with seventy varlets, who had no concern for exploration and much for booty, he struck +out bravely for the east end of the island, floundering through marshes and breaking his way through tangles of vegetation, +the company living <a id="d0e1093"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1093">102</a>]</span>for several days on a few pounds of raw roots, moldy cassava, and cheese, and at last breaking down in despair. In thirty +days they had crossed ninety miles of morass, and were too feeble to go farther. Ojeda set up his picture for the last time +and besought the thirty-five cut-throats who survived to pray to it also, assuring the Virgin that if she would only guide +them through their peril this time he would make a chapel for her in the first village he might reach. + +</p> +<p>In answer to this prayer a path was disclosed that led them to dry ground, and they soon arrived at the hamlet of Cuebas, +where the natives received them with every kindness, and went to the marsh to rescue such of the party as had been abandoned +but were still alive. These rascals afterward reached Jamaica, where some were hanged for their various murders and sea-robberies, +while others re-enlisted in various freebooting enterprises. Ojeda kept his promise. He explained to the chief at Cuebas the +principal points in the Christian faith, built a little oratory in the village, and placed the picture above the altar, with +orders that the Indians should always treat it with reverence. Though they did not comprehend the relation of the painting +to the white man’s religion, they saw from the demeanor of Ojeda and his friends that it was a thing of value and might avert +hoodos. Therefore it was attired and cared for with as much assiduity as if it had been consigned to a Spanish cathedral, +and although the <a id="d0e1097"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1097">103</a>]</span>Indians had not been Christianized, they decorated the oratory, overhung its walls with sacrifices, while at stated intervals +they sang and danced before it. When Father Las Casas tried to get this picture away from them, afterward, it was hidden in +the forest until he had passed on. Ojeda reformed, killed several of his associates who had attempted his life, turned monk, +and was buried under the door-stone of his monastery, that the populace might trample on his pride. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1099" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Tobacco</h2> +<p>Tobacco suggests Cuba, or Cuba more than suggests tobacco. Havana cigars are the synonym for excellence, and it was on this +island that the native American was first seen with a cigar in his mouth. It was not much like the cigars of our day, for +it consisted of loose leaves folded in a corn-husk, as a cigarette is wrapped in paper. It amazed the Spaniards as much to +see these dusky citizens eating fire and breathing smoke as it astonished the Filipinos when the Spaniards, having learned +the trick, and having landed on their islands, proceeded to swallow flame and utter smoke in the same fashion,—a proceeding +which convinced the people of the Philippines that the strangers were gods. The white adventurers never found the palace of +Cubanacan, whose gates were gold and whose robes were stiff with gems, but they found <a id="d0e1104"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1104">104</a>]</span>the soothing and mischievous plant that was eventually to create more wealth for them than the spoil of half a dozen such +palaces. The Cuban word for this plant was cohiba. The word tobago, which we have turned into tobacco, was applied to a curious +pipe used by the Antilleans, which had a double or Y-shaped stem for inserting into the nostrils, the single stem being held +over a heap of burning leaf. The island of Tobago was so named because its explorers thought its outline to resemble that +of the pipe. + +</p> +<p>In one form or another the use of the weed was prevalent throughout the Americas. Montezuma had his pipe after dinner, and +rinsed his mouth with perfume. For medicinal purposes snuff was taken through a tube of bamboo, and tobacco leaves were chewed. +The practice of chewing also obtained to a slight extent among the natives as a stay against hunger, and they are said to +have indulged it in long and exhaustive marches against an enemy. They would chew in battle, because in a fight at close range +they tried to squirt the juice into the eyes of their foemen and blind them. The herb was taken internally as a tea for medicinal +reasons, was used as a plaster, and was valued as a charm. Francisco Fernandez took it to Europe; Drake and Raleigh introduced +it in England, and though its use was regarded as a sin, to be checked not merely by royal “counterblasts” and by edicts like +that of William the Testy, but by laws prescribing torture, <a id="d0e1108"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1108">105</a>]</span>exile, whipping, and even death, it was not long in reaching the uttermost parts of the earth. + +</p> +<p>Men of all races and conditions incline to the tradition of the Susquehannas, that the plant was the gift of a benevolent +spirit. In their account this manitou had descended to eat meat, which they had offered to her in a time of famine. As she +was about to go back to the skies she thanked them for their kindness, and bade them return to the spot in thirteen months. +They did so, and found maize growing where her right hand had rested, beans at her left, and tobacco where she had been seated. + +</p> +<p>The Indians of Guiana say that tobacco was given by a sea-goddess to a man who was begging the gods to do something for him,—he +didn’t know exactly what; he would merely like to have somebody do something for him on general principles. As a divine gift, +therefore, it was used in certain of the rites of the Indians, and the man who wished to go into a trance and see visions +would starve for a couple of days, then drink tobacco water. He generally saw the visions,—if he lived. In some islands the +priests inhaled the smoke of a burning powder and thereupon fell into a stupor or a frenzy in which they talked with the dead. +Was this the smoke of tobacco, plus a little abandon, a little falsehood, a little enthusiasm? Its enemies in King James’s +time would have said that the smokers deserved not merely to talk with the dead, but to join them. + + +<a id="d0e1114"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1114">106</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1115" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Two Skeletons of Columbus</h2> +<p>Following the return of the vanquished army of Spain to its home country was another solemn voyage, undertaken for the transfer +of the bones of Christopher Columbus from the world he had discovered to the land that grudgingly, cautiously permitted him +to discover it. Spain claimed all the benefits that arose from his knowledge, his bravery, his skill, his energy, and his +enthusiasm, and rewarded his years of service with dismissal from office and confinement in chains as a prisoner, but now +it repented, and wished to house his unwitting relics in state. Once before these bones had crossed the sea. After the death +of the great navigator, in Valladolid, Spain, in 1506, his body remained in that city for seven years. Then it was taken to +Seville and placed in Las Cuevas monastery with that of his son, Diego. In 1536 both bodies were exhumed and sent to Santo +Domingo, or Hispaniola, an island that Columbus appeared to hold in a warmer liking than either of the equally picturesque, +fertile, and friendly islands of Cuba, Porto Rico, or Jamaica. In the quaint old cathedral of Santo Domingo, built in 1514, +the bodies of the great admiral, his son, and also his grandson, Louis, first Duke of Veragua, rested for more than a century +without disturbance. + +</p> +<p>On the appearance of the English fleet, however, in 1655, the archbishop was so fearful of a raid on <a id="d0e1122"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1122">107</a>]</span>the church and the theft of the bodies that he ordered them to be hidden in the earth. During the years in which they remained +so covered the exact burial-place of the admiral may have been forgotten, or, it may be, as several people allege, that the +San Dominicans tricked the Spaniards when, in 1795, the latter gave their island to France and carried with them to Havana +the supposed skeleton of Columbus. Bones of somebody they certainly did take, but it is no uncommon belief in the Antilles +that the monks of Santo Domingo had hidden the precious ones and sent to the monks of Havana the bones of the son, Diego, +albeit a monument was erected to the memory and virtues of the great Columbus in Havana cathedral. + +</p> +<p>In 1878 the old church in Santo Domingo was undergoing repair when the workmen came upon a leaden box containing the undoubted +remains of the first Duke of Veragua. Breaking through the wall of the vault they found themselves in a larger one, and here +was a box two feet long, enclosing a skull, bones, dust, jewelry, and a silver plate bearing the words “C. Colon,” and on +the end of the box, according to some witnesses, the letters “C. C. A.,” meaning Christopher Columbus, Admiral (the English +initials being the same as for the name and title in Spanish). A more circumstantial account places the time of this rediscovery +in 1867, and says that a musket-ball was the only object found in the little coffin, while the silver plate on the lid was +<a id="d0e1126"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1126">108</a>]</span>thus inscribed, “Una pt. de los restos del Primar Alm. to Du Christobal Colon.” The Santo Dominicans claim their right to +the relics on the ground that in his life the Spanish misused the discoverer, though his grief was not deep enough to justify +the ancient rumor of his electing to be buried with the chains in which he was carried back to Spain. Meantime Seville is +to build a monument, and Santo Domingo is putting up another, each city claiming to have his only real skeleton. + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1128" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Obeah Witches</h2> +<p>From the earliest days of Spanish occupancy the Antilles have been the haunt of strange creatures. Mermen have sung in their +waters, witches and wizards have perplexed their villages, spirits and fiends have dwelt among their woods. Everybody fears +the jumbie, or evil spirit that walks the night; and the duppy, the rolling calf, the ghost of the murdered one; all pray +that they may never meet the diablesse, the beautiful negress with glittering eyes, who passes silently through fields where +people are at work, and smiling on any one of them compels him to follow her,—where? He never returns. Anansi (grotesquely +disguised sometimes as Aunt Nancy) is a hairy old man with claws, who outwits the lesser creatures, as Br’er Rabbit does. +To him and his familiars are attributed all manner <a id="d0e1133"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1133">109</a>]</span>of queer tales, one of which, from Jamaica, may be quoted as an illustration: + +</p> +<p>Sarah Winyan, an orphan of ten, lived with her aunt, while her two brothers kept house by themselves a mile or two away. This +aunt was an Obeah witch, the duppy, or devil ghost, that was her familiar, appearing as a great black dog that she called +Tiger. Sarah stood between this old woman and a little property, and after finding that the child endured her abuse with more +or less equanimity and was not likely to die, she told her that she was too poor to support her any longer, and she must go. +Sarah sat on a stone before the house, wondering how she could make a living, and all the time sang mournfully. A racket as +of some heavy creature plunging about in the bushes aroused her with a start and she scrambled into a tree. It was Tiger who +had been making the disturbance. He told her to descend at once. If she would go with him peacefully, and would be his servant, +all would be well, but if she refused he would gnaw the tree down and tear her into a thousand pieces. He showed his double +row of teeth, like daggers, whereupon Sarah immediately descended. As she walked beside him to his lair she sang low, in the +hope of being heard and rescued. It was well that she did so, for her brothers, who were hunting in the wood, recognized her +voice and softly followed. Peering in at the cave where Tiger made his home, they saw him sleeping soundly with his head in +Sarah’s lap. Cautiously, <a id="d0e1137"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1137">110</a>]</span>slowly, she drew away, leaving a block of wood for his head to rest upon, and crept out of the cavern. Then the boys entered, +and with their guns blew the head of the beast into bits, cut his body into four parts, buried them at the north, south, east +and west edges of the wood; then killed the wicked aunt. And since that day dogs have been subject to men. + +</p> +<p>The evil eye is not uncommon in the Antilles. It blights the lives of children, and it is one of the worst of fates to be +“overlooked” by an Obeah man possessing it. Higes, or witches, too, are seen, who take off their skins, and in that state +of extra-nudity go about looking for children, whose blood they suck, like vampires. Lockjaw is caused by this loss of blood. +There is a three-footed horse, also, that gallops about the country roads when it has come freshly out of hell and is looking +for victims it can eat. If it halts before a house, that stop means death to somebody within, and the peculiar sound made +by its three hoofs tells what has passed. It is not well to look, because the creature has an eye in the centre of its forehead +that flashes fire. One who meets it is so fascinated by this blazing eye that he cannot look away. He stares and stares; presently +paralysis creeps over him, and in a little while he falls dead. Sometimes a creature is seen riding on this horse,—a man with +a blue face, like that of a corpse, and with that face turned toward the tail. Related, in tradition, to the horse was the +<a id="d0e1141"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1141">111</a>]</span>king-snake of Carib myth, a frightful creature that wore a brilliant stone in its head, which it usually concealed with a +lid, like that of the eye, but which it would uncover when it went to a river to drink, or played about the hills. Whoever +looked on this dazzling stone would lose his sight on the instant. + +</p> +<p>The Obeah man has an hereditary power that comes to him in advanced age, and that, when at its strongest, enables him to send +an evil spirit into any object he pleases. Not only do the people believe in him, but he has the fullest faith in himself. +When he boils a witch broth of scorpions’ blood, toads’ heads, snake bellies, spider poison, and certain herbs picked by moonlight +(an actual mixture used by Obeah witches),—boils it over a fire of dead men’s bones, between midnight and dawn,—he has no +more doubt of its power to harm than the physician doubts the power of his quinine and antipyrin for good. + +</p> +<p>A Cuban planter who suspected one of his older slaves of being an Obeah man determined to punish him if he were found guilty, +and to suppress the diabolism attending the midnight meetings. Watching his chance, he followed his slaves into the wood, +peeped through the crevices of the deserted hut which they had entered to perform their fantastic rites, saw their mad dance, +when, stripped and decorated with beads, shells, and feathers, they leaped about with torches in their hands; then saw his +suspected slave enter through a back door, his black <a id="d0e1147"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1147">112</a>]</span>skin painted to represent a skeleton. The old man held up a fat toad, which, he said, was his familiar, and the company began +to worship it with grotesque and obscene ceremonies. Though he felt a thrill of disgust and even a dim sense of fear at the +spectacle, the planter broke in at the door and confronted the Obeah man. Had he ordered the old fellow to do any given task +about his house or grounds in the daytime, that order would have been obeyed. What was the planter’s astonishment, therefore, +when the slave calmly disregarded his command to return to quarters, and bade his master leave the place at once and cease +to disturb the meeting, or prepare for a great misfortune. Enraged, and fearing lest this defiance might encourage the other +slaves to mutiny, the master shot the old man dead. A few days later the planter’s wife died while seated at the table. A +week after his daughter died, a seeming victim of poison. All the latent superstition in his nature having been aroused, he +sought out another Obeah man, to beg that he would intercede with the powers of darkness, but the wizard was stern. He told +him that the slave he had killed was the most powerful master of spirits in the country, and that nothing could stay the revenges +of fate. When the planter reached his home he found a letter there announcing the death of his only son in Paris. + + +<a id="d0e1149"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1149">113</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1150" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Matanzas Obeah Woman</h2> +<p>On a hillock near Matanzas, with a ragged wood behind it, stood for many years an unkempt cottage. In our land we should hardly +dignify it by such a name. We would call it, rather, a hovel. Some rotting timbers of it may still be left, for the black +people who live thereabout keep away, especially at night, believing that the hillock is a resort of spirits. Yet not many +of them remember the incident that put this unpleasant fame upon it, for—that was back in the slavery days. The brutal O’Donnell +was governor-general then. He found Cuba in its usual state of sullen tranquillity, and no chance seemed to offer by which +he could make a name for himself, so he magnified every village wrangle into an insurrection. It looked well in his reports +when he set forth the skill and ease with which he had suppressed the uprisings, and, as he did not scruple to take life in +punishment for slight offences, nor to retaliate on a community for the misconduct of a single member of it, he almost created +the revolution that he described to his home government. The merest murmur, the merest shadow was enough to take him to the +scene of an alleged outbreak, and he would cause slaves to be whipped until they were ready to confess anything. + +</p> +<p>A black boy in Matanzas, arrested on suspicion of inciting to rebellion, was condemned to seven hundred blows with the lash. +At the end of the <a id="d0e1157"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1157">114</a>]</span>flogging, being still alive, he was shot, at O’Donnell’s order. He would confess nothing, because he had nothing to confess. +This boy had been brought up in a well-to-do Spanish family, and was the play-mate, the friend, of the son of that family, +rather than his slave. The white boy begged for the life of his associate, the family implored mercy, and asked for at least +a trial, but the governor-general would not listen to them, and after the shooting the white boy became insane with shock +and grief. Thus much of the legend is declared to be fact. + +</p> +<p>It was the mother of the black boy who lived in this cabin outside of the town. She had also been a slave until the Spanish +family, giving up its plantation, moved into the city, sold the younger and stronger of their human properties, and set free +the elderly and rheumatic, taking with them only a couple of servants and the boy, who went with his mother’s consent, for +she knew he would be cared for, and she could see him often, the relation between slave and owner, being more commonly affectionate +than otherwise. At its best, slavery is morally benumbing to the enslaved, destructive of the finer feelings, and when the +old woman learned of her son’s death,—and such a death—she did not go mad, as his playfellow had done. She lamented loudly, +she said many prayers, she accepted condolences with seeming gratitude, but the tears had ceased to flow ere many weeks, and +she was seen to smile when her old mistress, whose <a id="d0e1161"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1161">115</a>]</span>affliction was indeed the heavier, had called on her in her cabin, no doubt feeling as much in need of her servant’s sympathy +as the servant felt of the creature comforts she took to her. + +</p> +<p>Yet deep in Maumee Niña’s nature a change had taken place. She did not know it herself for many months. Her loss had not affected +her conduct or appearance greatly, yet her heart had hardened under it and she began to look upon the world with a different +eye. She cared less for her friends, and went to church less often,—a suspicious circumstance, for when a negro failed to +go to mass, and kept away from confession, it was surely because he had something mischievous to confess. The rumor got about +that Maumee Niña had become an Obeah woman,—a voodoo worker, a witch. It is not unlikely that the accusation inspired her +to live down to it. Not only were witches held in respect and fear, but she might be able, through evil arts, to plague the +race that had worked her husband to death in the mines, and now had killed her only son. She kept still more at home, brooding, +planning, yielding farther and farther to the evil suggestions that her repute as a voodoo priestess offered to her, yet keeping +one place in her heart even warmer than before,—the place filled by her daughter, Juanita. + +</p> +<p>This girl of fifteen or sixteen was not black, like her mother. She was a handsome mulatto. In a country where relations are +so easily established without marriage, and where marriage is so difficult <a id="d0e1167"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1167">116</a>]</span>and has so little force, the fatherhood of many children is in doubt. If Juanita knew her father’s name she was not known +to him. It mattered little. The old woman intended to bring her up as a lady,—that is, to qualify her for a place as waiting-maid +in the house of some good family; so she made many sacrifices on her account, clothing her vividly, requiring less work of +her than she should have done, and even, it was said, paying money to have reading taught to her, and that was an accomplishment, +indeed. + +</p> +<p>Considering the pains and self-denials that the rearing of this child incurred, it was a trifle inconsistent that Maumee Niña +should have opposed the friendly advances of gallants from the town. She was not of a class that is wont to consider the etiquette +of such attentions, nor would she have refused to give her daughter in marriage to any Cuban. It was that her feeling toward +the Spaniards was deepening into hate, and it rejoiced her to learn that a revolution was really intended. By her native shrewdness +she was able to do something for her people’s cause. Whenever a young negro went to her to have his fortune told,—and from +this art she began to realize a steady income,—she managed to hint at his future greatness as a military leader, his gains +in the loot of Spanish camps, his prowess in bush-fighting when hostilities should really have begun. + +</p> +<p>In this way she really incited a number of the <a id="d0e1173"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1173">117</a>]</span>ambitious, the quarrelsome, and the greedy to enlist in the schemes for Cuba’s liberation. Nañigo meetings were held in and +near her house; there were wild dances and uncanny ceremonies, sacrificing of animals in the moonlight, baptisms of blood, +weird chants and responses, and crime increased in the town. All this being reported to the military the guard lines were +extended and a squadron was posted at a house not over a mile from Maumee Niña’s, with Lieutenant Fernandez in command. Fernandez +was a dashing fellow, with swarthy countenance, moustachios that bristled upward, close-trimmed hair and beard, a laughing, +pleasure-loving eye, and he wore a trig uniform that set off his compact shape to advantage. Old Niña heard, though it was +not true, probably, that he had carried out the order of O’Donnell for the shooting of her boy. Naturally he was the last +man she could wish to see, and she made no secret of her dislike when, on returning to her home from a visit to Matanzas, +she found this young officer seated on a chair before her door, twirling his moustache and gayly chatting with her daughter. +She instantly ordered the girl to go indoors, and bade the lieutenant pack off about his business. Being an easy-going fellow, +with no dislike for the people among whom the fortunes of his calling had cast him, and with a strong fondness for pretty +maids, the young man deprecated the anger of the woman, but finding, after some persiflage, that it was of small use to try +<a id="d0e1175"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1175">118</a>]</span>to make friends with her, he marched away toward his quarters, trolling a lively air and drumming with his fingers on his +sword-hilt. On the next evening he was at Maumee Niña’s again, and before the very nose of that indignant dame chaffed her +daughter, whom he also chucked under the chin; and he gazed long and searchingly at a couple of low-browed, shifty-looking +blacks who were talking with the old woman when he entered. + +</p> +<p>“Who are these fellows?” he demanded. + +</p> +<p>“What right have you, señor lieutenant, to question me about my guests, in my own house?” replied Niña. “It is enough that +they were invited, and you were not.” + +</p> +<p>The lieutenant glanced sharply at Juanita. She looked at the shabby fellows for an instant, smiled contemptuously, and gave +her head a saucy fling. The officer’s good-nature was restored in a moment. “Give me a calabash of water from that spring +of yours, your grace, and I’ll take myself off,” said he. “But, mind, there are to be no more dances here,—no more voodoo +practice.” + +</p> +<p>Old Niña left the room grumbling to herself, while Fernandez talked with Juanita, quite disregarding the sour and silent pair +of black men. As he glanced through a crack in the timbers of the house he saw the old woman raise a gourd of water, wave +her hand above it three times, mutter, and shake her head. Then she drew from her pocket a tiny object and dropped it in the +water, stirring it <a id="d0e1185"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1185">119</a>]</span>around and around, as if to dissolve it. There was a quiet smile on the lieutenant’s face as he received the calabash from +the old woman’s hand. + +</p> +<p>“In the old days, señora,” he said, “it was the way to sweeten the drink of a cavalier by getting the fairest lady of the +house to sip from it before he drank. Señora Juanita, you will take a little from this shell, and I will then drink to your +eyes.” + +</p> +<p>Juanita had taken the calabash and had lifted it to her mouth, when Niña sprang forward and struck it to the floor. The lieutenant +looked steadily into the face of the old woman. Her eyes, at first expressing fear, then anger, dropped under his gaze. “I +thought so,” he said, calmly, and left the house without a backward look or another word. + +</p> +<p>Late that night a subaltern, who had called on Fernandez to carry a report to headquarters, set off alone in the direction +of the city. When half a mile on his way a man suddenly confronted him and asked him for a light. He promptly offered his +cigar. Puffing fiercely the stranger created a glow, and in the shadow behind it he eagerly scanned the face of the soldier. +He then returned the stump, saying, “Pass on, sir. You are not he I seek. Your cigar has saved your life.” There was a click, +as of a knife thrust into its sheath, and the stranger was gone. + +</p> +<p>Fernandez heard of this and drew an inference, but it did not deter him from another visit to the Obeah woman’s house next +evening. The old <a id="d0e1195"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1195">120</a>]</span>woman was away. Juanita was there alone. Truly, the girl was fair, her eye was merry, she had white teeth and a tempting lip; +moreover, she appeared by no means indifferent to the young officer. In ten minutes they were talking pleasantly, confidently, +and Fernandez held the maiden’s hand. + +</p> +<p>The hours went by without any one there to take account of them. It was a fair and quiet night, except for the queer and persistent +call of some insects that seemed always to be drawing nearer to the house. Faint now came the sound of the clock in Matanzas +striking twelve. As if it were a signal to the dead, shadows appeared about the house of the Obeah woman, creeping, nodding, +motioning, moving toward the door. One stood close beside it and struck it twice, loudly, with a metal implement that rang +sharply; then it waited. Steps were heard inside,—the steps of a man in military boots: Fernandez. There was a swish of steel, +too, like a sword whipped out of its scabbard, but almost at the instant when this was heard the door was opened. A blow, +a faint cry, a fall, a hurry of steps in the grass; then a light. Fernandez held it. A long, agonized scream quavered through +the darkness, and Maumee Niña, with blood on her hands, fell prone on the body of her daughter, her Juanita, lying there on +the earth with a knife in her heart. + + +<a id="d0e1199"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1199">121</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1200" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">How Havana Got its Market</h2> +<p>Among the Spanish governors of Cuba, some of whom managed by strict economy to save a million dollars out of a salary of forty +thousand dollars,—men of Weyler’s stamp,—it is pleasant to know of one or two who really had the good of the island at heart. +Such was the honest Blanco, and such was Tacon, to whom Havana owes much of its beauty and architectural character. He did +what he could to abolish brigandage, which under preceding administrations had become common. He organized a force of night +watchmen; he dealt with offenders according to their deserts, and if at times he was too severe it was because he believed +that a lesson in the impartiality of justice was needed by certain favored classes. He had a Latin’s love of the sensational +and spectacular, though in conduct, rather than in appearance, and in these days some of his acts would be set down to a love +of self-advertising. As they had their effect, those who profited by increased safety could afford to be incurious of reasons. +He startled the populace on the very day he landed. Cuba had been overrun with bandits, some masquerading as insurgents, while +others prowled through the towns cutting throats in the shadow of the church. Cries of “Stop thief!” and “Murder!” were common +at midday. More than one hundred people had been stabbed to death before the Chapel of Our Lord of the Good Death. <a id="d0e1205"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1205">122</a>]</span>Police and soldiery were terrorized, and no man cheerfully went through the side streets after dark. Startling depravity was +instanced. Jose Ibarra, a mulatto, had killed seventeen people before he was hanged at the age of seventeen. It was supposed +that Tacon would arrive with a flourish of trumpets and would try to impress the public. The Spanish army was represented +at the landing-place by generals and colonels bedizened with bullion and buttons; there were troops with silken flags and +glittering sabres and bayonets; there was a copious exhibit of bunting; society was there in carriages, with liveried footmen +and outriders; foreign diplomats were in uniform, as if to meet royalty, and the clergy had a place of honor. The boat touched +the pier. A small man in civilian dress walked smartly to the land. He had a riding-whip in his hand,—symbol of his rule: +for this was Tacon, and within a month he was to whip crime into its dens and make the capital of Cuba safe. His first order +carried consternation to the advocates of fuss and feathers. It was to dismiss the parade, remove the decorations, send the +police to their posts, and declare Havana in a state of siege. This was startling, but it gratified and assured those who +had long begged for an honest and watchful government, and had continued not to get it. Crime recognized and feared this master. +“In a little while,” says a Cuban, “you could have gone about the streets at any hour of the night with diamonds in your open +<a id="d0e1207"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1207">123</a>]</span>hands and nobody would have touched you, not even the Spanish Robert Macaire or Robin Hood, who is remembered bitterly in +Andalusia,—Diego Corrientes.” Merchants going to and from the bank with money had formerly been compelled to hire soldiers +as guards, and when they complained of violence the magistrates had said, “Go to bed at seven, as we do, and you’ll have no +trouble.” Thieves bought their liberty from jailers. Tacon arrested the jailers in that case. + +</p> +<p>It does not take long to erect a reputation when it has a basis of desert. An odd modern instance is told in the case of an +American newspaper reporter, John C. Klein, who, after ten years of absence, was canonized by the Samoans, among whom he had +lived for some years, as a hero in battle, a slayer of Germans, and a wizard who closed his own wounds by magic. The gods +approved him, and the people in their trouble prayed for the return of Talaini o le Meleke (Klein, the American) to rescue +them. And with Tacon it took hardly longer to become a sort of national hero. The qualities he showed in reforming, building, +extending, and protecting Havana were so unusual that the people willingly credited others to him he may not have possessed. +He has become legendary already. + +</p> +<p>Tacon, after gathering in two thousand of the riff-raff and putting them at work on roads, piers, and prisons, applied himself +with special energy to the suppression of Marti, the most daring, yet the <a id="d0e1213"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1213">124</a>]</span>slyest and most cautious of all the robbers in the country. He and his band thought no more of splitting the weasand of a +soldier than tossing off a glass of brandy, and the people were more than half his friends, because he joined smuggling to +his other industries, and was therefore able to provide them with many necessities, such as wine and bandanas, at a price +much lower than they commanded in the shops. Yet the secret agents, the constabulary, and the troops began to make it perilous +for these law-breakers, and General Tacon was hopeful of their speedy capture. On a certain morning he looked up abstractedly +from some letters he was writing on the case of Marti and was astonished to see a burly but well-dressed stranger standing +before his desk. “How in the devil did you get in here, sir, unannounced?” he asked, in some irritation. + +</p> +<p>“I come on secret business,” replied the other, in a lower tone. + +</p> +<p>“Ha! About ——” + +</p> +<p>“Exactly. About Marti.” + +</p> +<p>“Speak, then. You will not be overheard. What do you know?” + +</p> +<p>“First, your Excellency, let us understand the situation. There is a large reward for this man, is there not?” + +</p> +<p>“There is. Capture him and the money is yours. Ah, I see! You wish to turn state’s evidence. So much the better. You shall +be protected.” + +</p> +<p>“But suppose I had been associated with the <a id="d0e1229"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1229">125</a>]</span>worst of these men? Suppose I had committed crimes? Suppose I had been a leader?” + +</p> +<p>“Even in that case you shall be protected.” + +</p> +<p>“Give me your word, as an officer and a gentleman, that, no matter what my offences have been, I shall have an official pardon +when I put you on the track of the outlaws.” + +</p> +<p>“You must earn the pardon. If you know the haunts of the smugglers we shall expect you to pilot us to every one of them.” + +</p> +<p>“I will do it. I am tired of an evil life, tired of hiding, tired of fear, tired of hate. I wish to come back and live among +men.” + +</p> +<p>“Well spoken. And Marti?” + +</p> +<p>“I shall be pardoned, absolutely, when I bring him here?” + +</p> +<p>“Absolutely. When may we expect him?” + +</p> +<p>“Now.” + +</p> +<p>“Where?” + +</p> +<p>“Here.” + +</p> +<p>“What! To-day? This Marti ——” + +</p> +<p>“You are looking at him.” + +</p> +<p>Tacon started, and his glance fell on a couple of pistols that lay on the desk before him. He always kept them there, primed +and loaded. Marti smiled, drew from beneath his coat two larger ones, handsomely mounted with silver, and placed them on the +desk. “I am through with them,” said he. + +</p> +<p>Tacon looked at him almost with admiration. “You begin well,” he admitted, “and you shall <a id="d0e1259"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1259">126</a>]</span>have your pardon. But until you have fulfilled your promise and helped us to break up these bands of smugglers and—ah——” + +</p> +<p>“Oh, speak out: Thieves! That is right.” + +</p> +<p>“Well, thieves,—we must keep you under guard.” + +</p> +<p>“I am satisfied; only, let us get to work as soon as possible, and have the business over.” + +</p> +<p>“We will start to-morrow.” + +</p> +<p>Marti was placed in a large room in a hotel under watch of the constabulary, but free to order any comfort or luxury he could +pay for. On the very next morning he set out with a posse of soldiers and visited all the resorts of his former associates +in the vicinity. The fellows had evidently suspected something, for they had made off. Their haunts being thus disclosed, +however, much of their plunder was afterward recovered, and Marti’s surrender having left them without a leader, they retreated +to distant provinces, and safety and peace were restored to the island. + +</p> +<p>If Marti had any misgivings as to the certainty of his pardon after this exploit, he did not show them. He returned to General +Tacon’s office as cool and self-possessed as if he were running a boat-load of spirits under the noses of the customs officers. + +</p> +<p>“You have been true to your part of the agreement,” said the general, “and I will be to mine. Here is your pardon, signed +and sealed, and this is my order on the treasury for the reward for your arrest. Sly dog!” +<a id="d0e1275"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1275">127</a>]</span></p> +<p>“I accept the pardon with gratitude, your Excellency, but I do not need the money. My country is poor. Let her keep it. I +am rich. Never mind how I became so. Yet, if I may claim a reward, give me a monopoly of the fisheries on this coast. Havana +will not suffer if your generosity takes this form.” + +</p> +<p>And it did not. He got the fisheries, but he spent his profits freely, and one of the first of his benefactions was the construction +of a market that had no superior in beauty and fitness elsewhere in the world. + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1280" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Justice of Tacon</h2> +<p>When the parades were over, or church was out, or it was near time for the play, one always found a dozen officers and gallants +sauntering down the Calle de Comercio, bound for the same place: the tobacco shop of Miralda Estalez. In 1835 Miralda was +known all over the town as “the pretty cigar girl,” and it was quite the thing for young sprigs of family to lounge against +her counter, tell her how charming she was, make her light their cigarettes and sometimes take the first puff from their cigars. +All this she took with jesting good-nature, chaffing all of her customers, commiserating with them in mocking tones on their +fractured hearts, and lamenting the poverty that confined their purchases to the cheaper brands of her wares. She knew how +far to allow a compliment to go. If it became too <a id="d0e1285"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1285">128</a>]</span>free the smile faded from her lip, her black eyes flashed, and an angry rose mounted into the clear olive of her cheek. + +</p> +<p>If there was one young man who, more than any other, caused these angry symptoms to appear it was the Count Almonte. His attentions +had become annoying. She had told him that his flattery was distasteful; that her betrothed was Pedro Mantanez, the boatman, +and that they were waiting to be married only until their savings had reached a certain figure. After one of these dismissals +of more than usual frankness, the count went to his apartments in town, arrayed himself in his uniform of honorary lieutenant +of the guards, asked the commandant to let him have an escort of half a dozen men, as he expected trouble at his country-place +at Cerito, and within an hour or two appeared before Miralda’s little shop. He entered this time with an easy, confident air +and an evil smile. “You must come with me, my beauty,” he said, trying to chuck her under the chin. + +</p> +<p>“Leave my place at once, señor. I have nothing more to say to you.” + +</p> +<p>“Oh, but I have much to say to you; and to begin with, I have a warrant for your arrest.” + +</p> +<p>“Arrest!” + +</p> +<p>“For theft,—the theft of a heart,—my heart.” + +</p> +<p>“Your jokes are always in such wretched taste. Your heart! You never had one.” + +</p> +<p>“Then my duty becomes all the easier. You see <a id="d0e1301"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1301">129</a>]</span>this paper? It is an order for your arrest. Will you go quietly, or do you prefer to go under guard of a whole company.” + +</p> +<p>Astonished, confused, afraid, yet hoping that one of those wretched pleasantries known as practical jokes would be the upshot +of this seeming outrage, the girl locked her door, allowed the count to assist her into the carriage that was in waiting, +and was rapidly driven, not to the jail, not to the forts, not to the police office, but out of town—to Cerito. He assisted +her to alight, urged her hastily in at the door of a handsome residence, where she was received by a couple of servants, and +escorted to a large, comfortably furnished apartment, with windows barred after the fashion usual in Spanish houses. + +</p> +<p>“This, my pretty one, is your home for the future,” explained the count, dropping easily upon a divan and lighting a cigar. + +</p> +<p>“What place is this?” + +</p> +<p>“It is my house. Ah, but it shall be yours, if only you are kind. It is for you to say how long you will be a prisoner.” + +</p> +<p>“But the arrest—the order——” + +</p> +<p>“Ha! ha! Mere sham. I was bound to have you in one way, if I could not get you in another. All’s fair in love and war. You +made war. I made love.” + +</p> +<p>There was an explosion of wrath, of scorn, of hate; there were tears, cries, prayers, threats, promises. <a id="d0e1317"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1317">130</a>]</span>Count Almonte merely laughed, and left the young woman to weep herself into a state of resignation or exhaustion. + +</p> +<p>Mantanez, the boatman, learned before long that the shop was closed, and naturally fearing that Miralda had been taken ill, +he hurried around to make inquiry. What he heard was disquieting enough, but he could not, would not believe it, until he +had gone to Cerito to see for himself. In the gown of a monk he gained access to the grounds, and walked slowly by, singing +the verse of a song that Miralda liked, meanwhile scanning the windows closely. His heart gave a leap, and then sank miserably +low, for his love appeared behind the bars of an upper window. She stretched her hands to him appealingly, told him in a few +half-whispered words the story of her abduction, implored him to hurry back to town, put the case before General Tacon and +demand justice. + +</p> +<p>Mantanez did so. The tale was so unusual that the general made him swear to the truth of it on his knees before the crucifix. +Then he sent for the count and ordered him to bring the girl with him. In two hours they were at the palace. The general looked +searchingly at Almonte. “It is a strange charge that has been brought against you, count,” said he, “that of stealing a woman +in open day, taking her to your house and keeping her under lock and key.” + +</p> +<p>“The young woman has been well treated, general.” +<a id="d0e1325"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1325">131</a>]</span></p> +<p>“You arrested her?” + +</p> +<p>“Yes.” + +</p> +<p>“In our uniform?” + +</p> +<p>“It was the only way. I loved her.” + +</p> +<p>“You still love her?” + +</p> +<p>“To distraction.” + +</p> +<p>“Humph! We shall see. Orderly, send a priest to me, and tell him to come prepared to perform a marriage ceremony.” + +</p> +<p>Tacon was sphinx-like, and busied himself with his papers. The count was puzzled, yet smiling, and disposed to be incredulous. +The girl and her lover wore looks of doubt and fear. The priest arrived. + +</p> +<p>“Father,” said Tacon, “you will make the Count Almonte and Miralda Estalez man and wife.” + +</p> +<p>“Impossible!” exclaimed the count. + +</p> +<p>“You have just said that you loved her.” + +</p> +<p>“But, your Excellency, you seem to forget that she is but a girl of the people. I have to remind you that I am of the Spanish +nobility; that my ancestors—” + +</p> +<p>“Tush, tush! What have your ancestors to do here? You have ruined the girl, and you shall make amends, here and now.” + +</p> +<p>Miralda clasped her hands in a passion of entreaty, and her betrothed, the boatman, sank upon a bench, overcome with despair. + +</p> +<p>“I am sorry for you,” continued Tacon, “but there is no other way. Proceed with the ceremony.” +<a id="d0e1356"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1356">132</a>]</span></p> +<p>Knowing Tacon to be inflexible, and with a wholesome dread of punishment in case of refusal, the young rake finally expressed +his willingness to yield to the command, and with a freckled trooper for bridesmaid, and another for groomsman, the marriage +rites were said. While the priest was speaking Tacon had written a note which he gave to an orderly, instructing him to deliver +it to the captain of the guard. After the nobleman, flushed and trembling with anger, and the half-fainting girl had been +pronounced man and wife, the boatman meanwhile abandoning himself to a frenzy of tears, Tacon said to the count, “Your wife +will remain here for the present. It is my order that you return to your country-house alone. You will depart at once.” + +</p> +<p>With blazing eye, widened nostril, and hard-set jaw, Count Almonte left the room without any recognition of his bride, without +the usual acknowledgment of the governor-general’s presence. Tacon bade the young woman be seated, and told Mantanez also +to remain, as he wished to speak with them after a time. Ten minutes passed. Some guns were heard at a distance. In ten minutes +more an officer hastily entered the room. Tacon looked up from his writing. “Report, captain,” he commanded. + +</p> +<p>“I have to inform your Excellency that your orders have been obeyed. The Count Almonte lies dead with nine bullets in his +body.” +<a id="d0e1363"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1363">133</a>]</span></p> +<p>The general arose, took the hand of the young woman and placed it in that of the boatman. “Countess,” he said, “you are the +widow of a rich man. You are sole heir to the estate of the late Count Almonte. As to you, sir, I presume you have no objection +to wedding a lady so well provided with this world’s goods. Adieu, Madame Countess, and may your second marriage be happier +than your first.” + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1366" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Cited</h2> +<p>Did Alonzo Morelos begrudge liberty or happiness to Felipe Guayos? Surely the life of a Havanese artisan could have mattered +little to a prosperous lawyer. Politics may have set the big man’s enmity against the little one, or it may possibly have +been that more advanced form of politics that is called patriotism. It was a good time for a man to refrain from airing his +opinions, unless they were orthodox, for the revolution of 1829 had just been declared. If Guayos was a party to this rising +he was an indifferent and inactive one, or else he kept his counsel wondrous well. His acquaintances testified that he was +industrious,—that is, he practised what in Havana passed for industry,—was fond of his wife, cared little for cock-fighting +or the bull-ring, was of placid demeanor, and was altogether the sort of man who could be relied on <i>not</i> to attend secret meetings or lose valued sleep by <a id="d0e1374"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1374">134</a>]</span>drilling in hot barns or chigger-infested clearings in the woods. Yet it was on Morelos’s oath that this obscure citizen was +arrested. + +</p> +<p>The tongues clacked up and down the by-ways: What was the rich man’s interest in the poor one? the professional man’s in the +mechanic? the man of society in the man unknown? Then it was true, eh? that the mulatto (for Guayos was a “yellow man”) had +spoken to the lawyer familiarly in the street in presence of ladies and officers? Maybe. The laundress at the second house +down the street had said so, but, fie! it was only on a matter of business. Tut! Business was no excuse, considering that +Don Alonzo was of Spanish parentage, while the other had been nothing but a Cuban for two centuries. To forget this breach +or try to bridge it, to presume on the tolerance of an occasional employer, unless one were a slave or a servant and used +to indulgence—that was not to be forgiven. A rumor that travelled more quietly was that Morelos himself was a revolutionary +and had caused this arrest as a blind, or in order to silence a tongue that might speak damage. A third rumor, that went in +a whisper, and so went farther than the others, said that the yellow man had a pretty wife, and that the lawyer had been seen +to call at the little house in the master’s absence. This tale seemed to be doubted, for the wife of the butcher gave it as +her opinion that the Señora Guayos was too rusty of complexion to be pleasing, and the Señor Morelos was so faultless <a id="d0e1378"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1378">135</a>]</span>in his appearance and his taste; the club steward’s unmarried sister declared the señora’s manners to be rustic and her voice +loud; the woman in the carpenter’s family would lend no ear to such a scandal because the subject of it was dumpy, shapeless, +and dressed absurdly, even for the wife of a stonemason. Howbeit, the little woman was now in grief, for her husband lay in +jail awaiting trial on the gravest charge that could be brought against a Cuban,—the charge of treason. In that day, as on +many sad days that were to follow, to be charged with disaffection toward the crown was virtually to be sentenced to death. + +</p> +<p>Cuban law was at least as tardy and involved as any, but on the day when they tried Guayos it was strangely brisk. The stifling, +unclean court-room was crowded, but of all the company none seemed to feel so little concern in the proceedings as the accused +man himself. Through an open window he saw a couple of palms swinging softly against the sky in the warm wind. The trees appeared +to pacify, to fascinate him. They were his realities, and the goggling throng, the judge, the officers, were visions. Often +when his name was spoken by a witness or examiner he would look around with a start, then fall into his dreams again. His +case was traversed without waste of words. Evidence was adduced to prove that he had once owned a gun, had attended a certain +meeting, had carried letters to such and such persons, had spoken equivocal <a id="d0e1382"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1382">136</a>]</span>phrases, had been seen to lift his nose in passing certain men, had admitted a suspect to his house at night. He was declared +guilty. The celerity in reaching this verdict led his friends to believe that it had been agreed upon in advance. + +</p> +<p>During the last hour of the trial Guayos had aroused from his revery, had turned from the window, and had fixed his eyes steadily +on Morelos, who was seated among the lawyers in the centre of the room. Morelos returned the gaze calmly for a time; then +he frowned and turned the pages of a law-book. After a little he moistened his lips with his tongue, took a studied attitude +of listlessness, and showed signs of weariness and boredom. He did not look at the prisoner again until the verdict had been +given. + +</p> +<p>When the chief judge put the usual question as to whether the convicted man had anything to say why death-sentence should +not be passed upon him, Guayos arose, his face pale but fixed in a stony calm. Looking at neither judge nor audience, but +straight at his accuser, with eyes that were no longer the eyes that had dreamed upon the palms, so great and black they were +and searching, he said, in a clear, tense voice, “I go to my death. It is useless to speak, for you have condemned me. But +I cite you, Don Alonzo Morelos, to appear beside me at the bar of God, one year from my death-day, and testify how I came +to my end.” + +</p> +<p>There was a moment of silence; then moans and <a id="d0e1390"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1390">137</a>]</span>murmurs in the crowd. The lawyer was white, as with wrath. The judges gestured to the officers and left the bench. The court +was cleared. As he was led away, Guayos looked once more at the palms, and half smiled as a breath of freshened air came in +at the window. Palms! Where had he been told of them? What did they mean? Had they not somewhere, in some far land, been waved +in victory when One innocent was about to suffer? Were not palms awarded in another world to the meek and the honest who had +been despitefully used in this? + +</p> +<p>Last to leave the room was Morelos. He had remained, seated at a table, biting a pen, fingering some papers, gazing abstractedly +at the vacant bench. The whoop of a barefooted, black-faced urchin in the corridor roused him. With a scowl and a shrug he +slowly resumed his hat and went to his home by a roundabout way. + +</p> +<p>Priests called daily at the prison. Guayos made no appeal, asked for no delay. The loyalists were clamoring for an example +that should stay the revolution. In a week the condemned man was hanged. An odd thing happened at the execution: the rope +had slipped a little, and the knot, working toward the front, had left an impress there after the body was cut down, as of +two crossed fingers. The friends of Guayos held this to be a sign of grace. + +</p> +<p>Now, if there were any in the world to pray for <a id="d0e1398"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1398">138</a>]</span>the peace of a human soul, it was not the soul of Guayos that asked it. He had affirmed his innocence to the end, had been +shrived, had gone to the gallows with a dauntless tread, and there were palm branches on his coffin. But the lawyer? In a +month after the trial white hairs appeared among his locks, hitherto as black as coal. He grew gray and dry in his complexion, +his shoulders began to stoop, his eyes lost their clearness and boldness, his mouth was no longer firm. Often he wore a harried, +hunted look. Yet they said he was growing softer in his humor, that he oftener went to church, that he gave more for charity +than other men of his means, and that if the widow Guayos did not know from whom the five hundred pesetas came that a messenger +left at her home one night the neighbors pretended to. Don Morelos became an object of a wider interest than he knew. Even +the boys in the street would point as he passed, with head bent and hands clasped behind his back, and whisper, “There goes +El Citado” (the cited), and among the commoners he was known as well by that name as by the one his parents had given to him. +But he appeared less and less in public. He began to neglect his practice; he resigned from his club; he avoided the company +of his former associates, taking his walks at night alone, even though the sky was moonless, storms were threatening, and +the cut-throat crew were abroad that made life at some hours and in some quarters of the city not of a pin’s fee in <a id="d0e1400"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1400">139</a>]</span>value. His housekeeper told a neighbor that on some nights he paced the floor till dawn, and that now and again he would mutter +to himself and appear to strike something. Was he smiting his own heart? + +</p> +<p>Before long it was rumored, likewise, that the grave of Guayos was haunted, or worse, for a black figure had been seen, on +some of the darkest nights, squatted or kneeling before his tomb. It was remarkable that this revolutionist should have had +a burial-place of his own, when all his relatives and a majority of the people in his station were interred in rented graves, +and their bones thrown into the common ditch if the rent were not paid at the end of the second year. Certain old women affirmed +that this watching, waiting figure in the dark had horns and green eyes, like a cat’s, while other people said that it was +merely the form of a man, taller, thinner, more bent than Guayos; therefore not his ghost. But what man? + +</p> +<p>The anniversary of the hanging had come. The small hours of the morning were tolling, heavily, slowly, over the roofs of the +sleeping city. Sleeping? There was one who had no rest that night. An upper window of the house of Morelos looked out upon +a court in which two palm trees grew. They had been tall and flourishing. One might see them from the court-room. But for +a year they had been shedding their leaflets and turning sere. Tonight their yellow stems had clashed and whispered <a id="d0e1406"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1406">140</a>]</span>until the wind was down, leaving the night sullen, brooding, thick, starless, with dashes of rain and a raw chill on the ground +that brought out all the malefic odors of the pavement. The window on the side toward the court was closed and curtained. +The one overlooking the street was slightly open, and if the night-bird prowling toward the den he called his home had looked +up, or had listened, he would have seen the glimmer of a candle and heard the eager scratching of a pen and rustling of papers. +For an hour in the first half of the night Morelos had been walking about his chamber. At about three in the morning the housekeeper, +whose room was at the opposite end of a corridor from her master’s, found herself sitting upright in bed. She did not know +why. Nobody had called to her. Listening intently, as if she knew that somebody was about to speak, she distinguished a faint +sound of crumpling paper. A chair was moved hastily, and there was a cry in a strained voice, “No, no! My God!” Then the house +shook. She bolted her door and prayed. In the morning twilight Don Alonzo Morelos lay very still on the floor of his chamber, +with a mark on his throat like that made by the pressure of two crossed fingers. + +</p> +<p>The citation had been obeyed! + + +<a id="d0e1410"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1410">141</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1411" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Virgin’s Diamond</h2> +<p>Miguel Jose was a loving and dutiful son, but he could help the old folks only a little. He had a heartache every time a letter +came from Leon, for he knew it held a request for money, and a private’s pay, which at best is small, is frequently nothing +in a Spanish regiment. Young Miguel had been on service in Havana for a couple of years, and his parents had been growing +steadily poorer. He could hardly buy cigarettes. First it was a pig that was wanted at home; then a better roof on the cottage; +then a contribution for a new altar in the village church; finally it was illness, and his mother needed medicines and delicacies. +How could he get money? The paymaster had received none in months, he said, and even the officers were in debt. His fellow-soldiers? +No; they were as poorly off as he,—so he could not borrow. He could not steal in the streets, for his uniform would betray +him. He was not allowed to accept work from civilians, for that was against the army regulations. After dress-parade one evening +he went to a lonely place behind the barracks and cried. Then, having leave of absence, he went to one of the churches and +knelt for a long time before the Virgin’s shrine, imploring her, with moans and tears, to give him some means of relieving +his mother’s distress. She was a mother. She would understand. She would pity the sufferings of others. There was no answer. +<a id="d0e1416"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1416">142</a>]</span>He left the dark and empty building tired and disheartened. + +</p> +<p>Next evening he returned, and for an hour and more he begged the Virgin to bestow some material mercy on his mother. Looking +up he was startled, though delighted, to see that the statue of Mary was rolling its glass eyes upon him, and tears stood +in them. He bent to the floor, overcome by his emotions. Then a light step sounded over the stones, and, behold! the Virgin +had left her pedestal and was regarding him with kindness and pity in her face. Slowly she extended her hand. He gazed with +new astonishment, for this was the right hand, bearing the famous diamond which had been placed upon it some years before +by a pious resident of Havana. It could not be that she intended this treasure for him! Yes, she smiled and nodded assuringly. +With trembling fingers he withdrew the jewel, kissed the outreached hand, stammered his thanks, and, hardly waiting till she +had remounted her pedestal, ran from the church. + +</p> +<p>There was in the city at that time one Señor Hyman Izaaks, whose business—which a cruel law required him to follow in secret—was +the relief of pecuniary embarrassments, on security, and our soldier went straightway to the office of that philanthropist, +arriving breathless but happy. Señor Izaaks advanced a larger sum on the diamond than Jose had dared to hope for. He wrote +a hasty letter, enclosing the banknotes, and mailed it to his parents on that very night. +<a id="d0e1422"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1422">143</a>]</span></p> +<p>Next morning the sacristan of the church, who was making his rounds and placing fresh candles on the altar, received a shock. +The Virgin’s diamond was gone! The priests, the bishop, the governor, the general, the police were notified, and there was +a mighty coil. What sacrilegious wretch had done this thing? Miguel had been seen to enter the church on the previous night; +therefore suspicion attached to him. He was arrested and charged with the crime. To the astonishment of all, he made no secret +of it, though he protested against the word “theft.” He was proud to have been the recipient of kindness from heaven, and +he related, frankly and circumstantially, how he had appealed to the Virgin, for what good purpose, how she had answered, +how Señor Izaaks had taken the stone and given him money for it. A military court was ordered to try him, but it was puzzled +to know what to do with him. If the fellow were a common thief he deserved more than prison: he merited the gallows and a +quicklime burial, for he had added sacrilege to robbery. But if he were a thief, why did he confess so freely, and even glory +in his sin? Then, too, if it were the wish of the Virgin that he should receive this gift, by what right did any civic or +military body interfere, for would it not be blasphemy to doubt or deny the designs of Providence? Was not the accused soldier +under the acknowledged protection of the Virgin? Would she not visit with indignation, if she did not vigorously <a id="d0e1425"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1425">144</a>]</span>punish, the attempt to set aside her benefits? + +</p> +<p>Truly, here was a pickle! The confession of the accused man had enabled the police to secure the diamond,—which they did without +any formalities of payment to Señor Izaaks, to his unbounded grief,—and the ring being restored to the finger of the statue, +and the money being on its way across the sea, and the soldier being entitled to some part of it as back-pay, the court-martial +at length resolved to release Miguel Jose from arrest. It did so with the historic finding of “Not guilty, but don’t do it +again.” + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1429" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">A Spanish Holofernes</h2> +<p>While it has been the fate of women in the Spanish islands to suffer even more than their husbands and brothers from severity +and injustice, instances are not lacking in which they have shown an equal spirit with the men. In the insurrections a few +of them openly took the field, and the Maid of Las Tunas is remembered,—a Cuban Joan of Arc, who rode at the head of the rebel +troops, battled as stoutly as the veterans, and was of special service as scout and spy. Three times she fell into the hands +of the Spaniards. Twice she coaxed her way to freedom. The third time the governor gave her to a crowd of brutal soldiers, +who afterward burned her alive. + +</p> +<p>Quite another sort of woman was Niña Diaz, <a id="d0e1436"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1436">145</a>]</span>whom Weyler intended to compliment when he said she was the only loyal Cuban, and who is hated by all other Cubans as a fiend. +Her love for a Spanish captain was cleverly played upon by Weyler, who induced her to become his spy. She begged contributions +for the insurgents. Of course, those who gave were in sympathy with the insurrection, so that all she had to do was to place +her list of subscribers in the hands of Weyler, who promptly shot or imprisoned them, or herded them among the reconcentrados +to die of starvation. When the Cubans caught her she said that she had a father and a brother in their ranks,—which was true,—and +was on her way to them. Where could they be found? They told her and set her free, and in the morning the Spanish troops were +on the march to their hiding-place. + +</p> +<p>It is pleasanter to read of Spanish women serving their own cause than of Cuban women who betrayed their country, and the +Spanish dames have often shown as much grit and pride as the dons. Pauline Macias is alleged to have led the soldiers back +to their guns in San Juan de Puerto Rico after they had run from Sampson’s shells. She seized a sword from an officer, beat +the runaways with it, roused them by pleas and commands, and kept them at their work until their pieces were disabled or the +ammunition had given out. + +</p> +<p>In the tradition of an earlier and slighter war the heroine is a woman of still different type. Isabella, <a id="d0e1442"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1442">146</a>]</span>wife of the Doctor Diaz, was often called “the queen” in Bayamo, not merely because of her name, but because of her piety, +her charities, her beauty, and her dignified bearing. She was young, well reared, distinguished, and her home was a centre +for the best society of the town. Among those who felt free to call without invitation were several of the officers of the +garrison, most of them models in deportment and dress, and of sufficient breeding to refrain from allusion to politics; for +the Diazes, though Spanish by only one remove, were avowedly Cuban in their sympathies, and the revolution was fast coming +to a focus. It was understood, however, that Doctor Diaz would remain a non-combatant, for the duty he owed to suffering humanity +was higher than the duty his friends tried to persuade him he owed to his country. Hence, the physician and his wife would +be under the white flag, it was supposed, and if remarks were made as to their share in the approaching hostilities, it was +always with a frank and laughing admission on their part and a jest on that of the accusers. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e1445" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p2.jpg" alt="A Cuban Residence." width="417" height="421"><p class="figureHead">A Cuban Residence.</p> +</div><p> + + +</p> +<p>Among all the men in <span id="d0e1451" class="corr" title="Not in source">the </span>garrison but one was actually disliked by the young practitioner and his wife. Captain Ramon Gonzales had been quartered upon +them once for a week in an emergency, and his removal to another household had been asked for. It was not that he lacked manners +or was obviously disrespectful, but his compliments to the lady of the house were something too frequent, his regard of <a id="d0e1454"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1454">147</a>]</span>her too admiring, his air toward the doctor that of the soldier and superior, rather than the friend. Señora Diaz never saw +him alone, never invited him to call. He disappeared one afternoon, and it was understood that he had received a summons to +return to Havana. + +</p> +<p>The rising came at last. Fires glimmered on the hills, bodies of men assembled in the woods, the drumming and brawling of +troops were heard in hitherto quiet villages, and prayers for the success of the Cuban arms were offered in a hundred churches. +But not all the women were content to pray. They were helping to arm their husbands, brothers, sweethearts, sons; they worked +together in assembling supplies, hospital stores, clothing, and even in casting bullets. + +</p> +<p>One or two nights after the first blow had been struck there came a loud summons at the door of Doctor Diaz. Thinking it a +call for his services, he stepped into the dark street, when he was seized, handcuffed, placed between two lines of soldiers, +and marched away to prison. The despairing cry of his wife, as she peered from the open door and saw this arrest, was the +only farewell. He never heard her voice again. He was shot a few days later as an enemy to Spain, the specific charge against +him being that of “aiding and sheltering” a rebel, the said rebel being a feeble-minded youth, a “moon-struck,” to whom, as +a matter of charity, he had given occasional work in weeding his garden. On <a id="d0e1460"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1460">148</a>]</span>the night after Doctor Diaz’s arrest his wife was requested by a messenger to go quickly to a small house on the edge of the +town to meet one who might secure his release, but wished to consult with her as to the means. Hastily wrapping a mantilla +about her, she followed the messenger to the street; then, as acting under sudden impulse, left him waiting for a moment, +while she returned to bolt a door. In that moment, unseen by the messenger, she slipped a sheathed stiletto into the bosom +of her dress. + +</p> +<p>The house was a ramshackle cottage, with a damp and moldy air pervading it within and without. The negro messenger opened +the door without knocking, held it open while she passed in, then abruptly closed it and turned a key on the outside. The +woman was trapped. In a minute voices were heard in the street; that of the messenger, and one that she knew better,—and worse,—the +voice of Captain Gonzales. + +</p> +<p>The situation flashed upon her. Her husband had been falsely charged. She had been lured to this place, and would leave it +dead or dishonored. The walls of the cabin swam before her, and she had nearly fallen when the sound of the key in the lock +aroused her. A fierce chill shook her frame. She held to a table for support. A tumult of thought possessed her, but as the +door swung open it quieted to a single idea: hardly a thought: a purpose. +<a id="d0e1466"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1466">149</a>]</span></p> +<p>In the light of the single candle that stood on the table she saw Captain Gonzales enter. He had been at the wine. His eyes +were heavy, his cheeks a dusky red, his mouth was more sensual, his jaw more cruel than ever. He stepped inside and locked +the door. “Your pardon, señora, for these strong measures,” he said, in a thick tone. “I am a victim of love and hate. Your +hus—another—has hated me. Your husband is—is—likely to be absent for some time. You will require a protector. I have the honor +to offer myself. I throw myself at the feet of the loveliest lady in Cuba. I tell her of the love that for the past year has +turned my life to torture. I will be her companion, her adorer, only—ha! You smile! It is not possible you care for me? It +is joy too great. Señora! Isabella! Can it be?” + +</p> +<p>“And you never suspected it before?” + +</p> +<p>The face was white, the lips twitched, but the smile remained. The woman cast down her eyes—what star-bright eyes they were!—then +slowly opened her arms. With a roaring laugh Gonzales strode across the room. The laugh changed to a gurgling cry as he placed +his hands upon her waist. His hand went to his sword, but fumbled; his knees shook; then he fell backward at full length, +with his heart’s blood pulsating from a dagger-wound. The wife of Doctor Diaz picked up the key that had fallen from his fingers, +unlocked the door, and returned to her home alone. + + + +<a id="d0e1473"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1473">150</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1474" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Courteous Battle</h2> +<p>In the bay where more than three and a half centuries later the Spanish fleet was to be destroyed the don once fought the +enemy with different result. It was in 1538, in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, that the battle occurred,—Santiago of sad +memory, with its shambles, where insurgents were shot by platoons; with its landings, where slaves were unloaded at night +and marched thence to the plantations, like mules and cattle; with its Morro, connected by wells and traps with caves in the +rock beneath, where bodies of men mysteriously done to death slipped away on the tide. A French privateer had appeared before +the town, demanding ransom or surrender. Luckily for Santiago, a Spanish caravel had arrived a few days before, under command +of Captain Diego Perez, and this gallant sailor offered to go out and defend the town. His ship was attacked as soon as it +came within range of the enemy’s guns, and, turning so as to deliver an effective fire, he gave as good as he got. All that +day the people of the town heard the pounding of the brass pieces and saw the smudge of powder against the blue to the south, +yet at the fall of evening little damage had been done: the ships lay too far apart, and the aim on both sides was ridiculous. + +</p> +<p>Each commander had seen enough of his adversary to respect him, however, and moved by a common impulse they raised white flags, +declared for a <a id="d0e1481"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1481">151</a>]</span>cessation of hostilities through the night, and every night, so long as they should continue to oppose one another. Then followed +an exchange of fruit and wine, of which both crews were in need, and, confident in the honor of their enemies, all hands slept +as tired men usually sleep. Said the Spanish captain to the French commander in the morning, “Artillery is a cowardly and +abominable invention. It is desired to hurt a foe while those who serve it run no risk. How say you if we put the tompions +back into our cannon and fight, as chivalric men should ever fight, with sword and pike?” + +</p> +<p>To this the Frenchman gave willing consent, and, the ships ranging near, the battle reopened, after prayers and breakfast, +to some purpose. With cries of “Santo Iago!” the Spanish tried to board the pirate ship, but could not secure a footing. Blows +were exchanged throughout the day, save when one ship or the other drew off, that the wounded might have attention, and the +dying prayers, for much blood was shed and several lost their lives. At the end of the day both commanders declared their +admiration for the skill and courage of their opponents, and again gave presents of fruit and wine as they stopped work until +the morrow. Perez sent ashore that night to tell the people of Santiago that fighting was an exhausting business, and to some +extent a risky one, and would they kindly send a few able-bodied fellows to replace the dead and disabled on his ship? +<a id="d0e1485"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1485">152</a>]</span></p> +<p>The response to this call was so meagre that he began to mistrust his countrymen, and he asked if, in case he lost his ship, +the town would reimburse him, considering that he was risking his all in their defence. After much debate the townsmen replied, +through their officials, that they were not in a position to make good his loss, but they trusted that such a calamity would +not be possible; that he would maintain a stout heart and fight on to prove the superiority of Spanish valor to French craft; +that the blessed Santo Iago would watch over him and his gallant crew; that their best wishes were with him, and that his +kindness would never, never be forgotten. A trifle disheartened, Captain Perez nevertheless resumed the fight on the next +day, and again on the fourth day, and after the usual exchange of courtesies at evening, he told the privateer on the fifth +day that he would encounter with him as usual. The persistence of the Spaniard in thus holding out against seeming odds—for +the Frenchman had the larger crew—set the privateer to thinking, and a sudden fear arose within him that Spanish reinforcements +were on their way, and that Perez was merely fighting for time until they should arrive. This fear grew until it became belief, +though a baseless one, and, hoisting sail as quietly as possible, he stole out of Santiago Bay on the fourth night after hostilities +had opened. As thanks are cheap, Perez received a good many of them. + + + +<a id="d0e1488"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1488">153</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1489" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Why King Congo was Late</h2> +<p>As in all the Spanish Americas, there were churchly feasts and celebrations in Cuba whose origin has been forgot. Why did +the slaves serenade their masters on New Year morning, jingling huge tambourines, and in the villages how came it to be thought +that the cause of righteousness was advanced by parades and music on saints’ days? Hatred of the Jews was an inheritance rather +than an experience, and for lack of Jews to prove it upon there was an annual display of wrath at Judas, who was represented +by a grotesque effigy made up of straw, old clothes, and a mask. In the cities this figure was merely called The Jew, and +after being carried through the streets with revilings, on the day after Good Friday, it was hanged in some conspicuous place +and there stoned and shot by the crowd. + +</p> +<p>In Santiago there used to be a queer celebration on the 6th of January, “the day of the kings,” or “All Kings’ day,” meaning +the kings who journeyed to Bethlehem to worship the new-born Christ. In time this function lost its dignity and became a sport, +a gasconade, in which the slaves attired themselves extravagantly and paraded about, begging, blowing horns, beating drums, +and bandying jokes with the spectators. In the days of King Congo the procession had some claim to show and importance, if +only because he was at the head of it, for he had, in ways known only to himself, come into <a id="d0e1496"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1496">154</a>]</span>possession of the chapeau of a captain-general, a lieutenant’s coat, one epaulette, a pair of blue breeches, and a belt; hence, +attired in all these grandeurs at once, and mounted on a mule, he looked every inch the king he said he was. For, albeit, +he had been a slave, he claimed an African king as his father, and as that parent was dead, for aught he could certify to +the contrary, the title, if not the crown and emoluments, descended to him; leastwise, nobody on this side of the sea could +dispute it; and he bore it with conscious dignity. His family name, if he had one, has been lost, and it is as King Congo +that he was known. That his royalty was genuine the other negroes never doubted, and to parade on the day of the kings without +a real king of their own color to marshal the procession was not to be thought of. + +</p> +<p>El Rey Congo was aware of his power and of the impression he made on the humbler residents of Santiago. Every now and then +he heightened his superiority to common clay by appearing in public in a starched collar, looking over the top of it with +an assumption of pride and ease, as of one born to such luxury, but in reality chafing his neck against its ragged edges and +longing to be in the fields, where he would not need to be spectacular. One year the day of the kings dawned without a cloud, +and Santiago was in a holiday humor. Everybody who had work to do postponed it till to-morrow, as if All Kings’ Day were like +every other day; for the <a id="d0e1500"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1500">155</a>]</span>procession that year was to be extra large and fine. King Congo was to ride with spurs, though barefooted, and was to have +a military guard of four men. The band had been increased, especially in the drum department, and the ladies, who would have +figured in the king’s court if he had had a court, were turbaned in new bandanas of red and yellow. The clergy and officers +of the garrison had promised to review the parade, and the cooper, down by the custom-house, suggested that he’d better put +a few hoops around King Congo to keep his swelling heart from cracking his ribs. + +</p> +<p>A long trumpet-call from the square announced the hour for assembly, and all eyes turned toward the street through which the +king had been used to make his entry. He did not come. Tardiness is a privilege of kings. It proves them superior to the obligations +laid upon the vulgar herd. Beside, what is an hour in a mañana country? But as the hour went by and the king kept refraining +from his arrival, some presuming subjects went to look him up, and after much inquiry and pedestrian exercise they found the +sovereign in jail. His Majesty explained that he had been arrested for debt a few days before, and that because of a shortage +in the paltry coin of a white man’s state—a wretched matter of $4.15—he was doomed to remain behind the bars, perhaps forever. +The messengers ran back to the square, made an excited appeal to the populace, scratched the required sum together in penny +subscriptions, <a id="d0e1504"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1504">156</a>]</span>paid the innkeeper every centavo that the king owed him, woke up the sheriff and the magistrate, and before noon King Congo +was a free man, in the same old uniform, riding the same old mule, and stiffly bowing to the admiring populace as he passed. +The parade was a great success. So was the scheme conceived that morning by el Rey Congo; for, every year thereafter, three +or four days before the festival of the adoration, he laid in supplies of rum and cigars, with even a new hat or a second-hand +medal, and after getting the goods safely bestowed in his cabin, defied his creditors to collect their pay. The shopkeepers +winked at this device, and regularly sent him to jail, for they knew that on the 6th of January their royal customer would +pay, though by proxy. And that is more than you can say of some kings. Isn’t it? + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1506" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Chase of Taito Perico</h2> +<p>In 1779 the Bishop of Havana took into his household as servants, and into the cathedral as altar-boys, three harum-scarum +Indians, then said to have come from Florida, now believed to have been of Mexican origin, though there were not wanting citizens +who solemnly declared that the trio had come from a warmer place than any on the surface of this planet. The object in the +bishop’s mind was to Christianize the scapegraces and turn them loose among their own people, that they, too, might <a id="d0e1511"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1511">157</a>]</span>be made to see the light. The poor old clergyman little knew with whom he had to deal. When the astonishment of the youngsters +at the glories of Havana had subsided, and even a regiment with a band could parade without their company, the Indian in them +asserted itself once more, and they grieved the bishop by playing hookey, shirking mass, running off to the mountains on hunting +trips, and once, when he went out in his night-cap to inquire the cause of a rumpus in his yard, they tripped him up and circled +around and around, whooping like demons while he was trying to regain his feet and apply his cane. + +</p> +<p>At last they upset, not the clergy but the laws. Their offence was not grave, being rather a result of high spirits than of +malice, but it brought the constabulary upon them and they were carried to the arsenal to work out the term of their imprisonment +at loading ships and other heavy, uncongenial labor. Not many days had passed here before a chance offered for their escape, +and they seized upon it, vanishing under the noses of the guard—at least, that was the way the guard reported it—like shadows +before the sun. In fact, from that hour they were looked upon as a bit uncanny. The three lads found a hiding-place in the +Falaco vegas, among a vagrom populace of brigands, runaway slaves, and wreckers, and there for several weeks they supported +themselves by hunting, fishing, gambling, even working a little when sore pressed. Better if <a id="d0e1515"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1515">158</a>]</span>they had been left alone to live out their lives there. If useless, they at least were harmless. But, no; the majesty of the +law again asserted itself. They were caught by a company of soldiers and marched back to Havana. Their protector and friend, +the bishop, was dead. Again they were laden with chains and returned to the arsenal to work out some months of penal servitude. +Their natures seemed to change in a day. To them Spaniards and Cubans now stood for tyranny and injustice. They did not understand +their imprisonment as a correction: it was an act of oppression, and how were they to know that it would not last for the +remainder of their lives? Every waking moment from the time of their second arrest they gave to plots for liberty and vengeance. +The escape came presently. It seemed as if walls and bars were not made that could restrain them. + +</p> +<p>Two days after this last escape the country-side was stirred with horror, for just before dawn a hamlet near Guanes was burned, +and when the neighbors, attracted by the flame and smoke seen above the tree-tops, arrived on the ground they found the gashed +bodies of the inhabitants lying about on the gore-sodden earth. The quickness, the secrecy of the act were terrifying. All +sorts of fantastic reports were spread about the province, especially after the massacre and the burning had been repeated +in a second village—and a third—and a fourth. The vega was in a panic. The people <a id="d0e1519"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1519">159</a>]</span>went from place to place only in armed bands. The Vuelta Abajo was completely cowed, and sentries patrolled every settlement. +It was reported that the murders had been committed by three giants who cut down men, horses, and cattle as they stalked across +the country, and whose weapons were charmed, so that they always struck a vital spot, no matter how carelessly they were aimed. +The three monsters were of vast strength and horrible countenance; they climbed tall cliffs as cats climb fences, and leaped +chasms fifty feet across as other men skip over gutters. + +</p> +<p>A cave near Cape San Antonio that the aborigines had chambered for tombs was their reputed hiding-place, where they also worshipped +their master, Satan, with fantastic ceremonies, and sacrificed in his honor the best of the cattle, sheep, and horses they +captured on their raids. And the utter helplessness of the Spanish authorities gave a certain color to these rumors, for the +giants snapped their fingers at their pursuers and went on killing, looting, burning, running off stock, always appearing +in unexpected places and disappearing like mists at sunrise. Thus, two and a half years went by, and the offer of five thousand +dollars each for the heads of the devil-brigands had come to nothing. Finally the Havana authorities were prayed and pestered +into a spell of activity. They organized a troop of one hundred and fifty men and sixty dogs, put twenty officers at the head, +and sent along four chaplains to pray <a id="d0e1523"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1523">160</a>]</span>the evil charms away. The three savages were cornered on a mountain, where two of them were killed after they had inflicted +many hurts on their pursuers. The heads of these two were lopped, forwarded to the capital, and every one supposed that the +reign of terror was at an end. + +</p> +<p>But, as if the strength of the slain ones had passed into his arm, the third man, Taito Perico, who had escaped during the +fight, became a greater scourge than ever. He was fury incarnate, and so sudden were his visitations, so quick and deadly +his work, so complete his disappearances, that more than ever it was believed he was a fiend. He resumed the work of slaughter +in the Vuelta Arriba. He had a horse now, carried a huge lance, and killed or wounded almost every one he met,—but not all. +There was in this black heart a core of sympathy. Once he stole a little child and kept her with him for some time, lavishing +on her the affection of a barbarian big brother, and so endearing him to her that when she was rescued from his jungle haunt, +while he was absent hunting, she wept for the kind Taito Perico, even in her parents’ arms. Then he stole a boy of eight years +and kept him for some months, allowing him at the end of that time to return unharmed to his parents. + +</p> +<p>It was in one of these abductions that he worked his own undoing. Near St. John of the Remedies lived the pretty Anita de +Pareira, daughter of a frugal and worthy couple and fiancée of a prosperous <a id="d0e1529"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1529">161</a>]</span>planter of the district. The time for the wedding having been set, the father and mother were in their little garden discussing +ways and means, and Anita was indoors trimming the gown in which she was to walk to the altar. Her head was full of pretty +fancies, and she hummed softly to herself as she plied her needle or gazed into the distance, smiling at the pictures created +by her own fancy. She was rudely awakened from these pleasing reveries. The door was burst in by a tremendous blow with a +fist and there stood glaring upon her a Caliban with mighty neck and shoulders, great goggling eyes, a hooked nose, a bush +of coarse hair erect upon his head, and a stout lance in his hand. As this creature advanced into the room with extended arms +she swooned and did not regain her senses until she had been carried for a mile or more from her home. She found herself lying +across the back of a horse that was galloping furiously toward the hills with the savage in the saddle behind her. + +</p> +<p>The father and mother ran into the road tossing their hands in despair; a dozen belated rescuers hurried to them, each arrival +adding his screams to the hubbub; then each advising the rest what should be done, and nobody doing anything. The young planter, +Anita’s betrothed, was quickly on the ground, and he alone was resolute and cool. He gathered the bolder men about him, saw +that they were supplied with proper arms and mounts, and with encouraging words to those who were left <a id="d0e1533"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1533">162</a>]</span>behind, he rode away on the outlaw’s trail. Over pastures, through ravines, across rivers, under forest arches dim as twilight, +they hurried on, a pack of hounds yapping in advance, a broken branch, a trampled bush, a hoof-print in the margin of a stream +also giving proof that they were on the right path; a herder, who had seen the ruffian pass, likewise testifying to the fact, +and giving his service to the company; and so they came to a clearing, where they found the marauder’s abandoned and exhausted +horse. + +</p> +<p>Putting their own horses under guard of negroes, twenty of the men pressed on afoot through tangled vines and thorny bushes, +still led by the dogs, until they brought up at the bottom of a tall cliff, and here the hounds seemed to be at fault, for +they ran around and around a tree, looking up into it and whining. The herder swung himself into the branches and scrambled +almost to the top. “Nobody here,” he called. Then, when he had partly descended, they heard him utter an exclamation of surprise. +He crept to the end of a long branch and swung lightly to a shelf on the face of the crag. “Footsteps!” he exclaimed, in a +low, strained voice, and pointed to a thin turf that covered the jut of rock. The dogs were right. Taito Perico had climbed +the tree and scaled the cliff. The dogs were hoisted by means of a lariat, the men gained the shelf, and clambering along +in single file they presently reached the summit. A furious barking led them on; then <a id="d0e1537"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1537">163</a>]</span>those in the rear heard a shout. The savage was seen, half a mile away, crossing an opening at a run and striking at the dogs +that leaped and yelped around him. Leaving his companions to follow the Indian, the lover devoted himself to the search for +Anita, and presently found her at the foot of a tree, bound, gagged, but safe and thankful. + +</p> +<p>For several days and nights the chase went on and on with reinforcements, and the Indian was at last overtaken on the mountain +that, in memory of the event, bears the name of Loma del Indio, where he was slain, to the great relief of the whole island. +Even in death his aspect was so terrific that the people along the way were set a-shaking and a-praying as his body was carried +on to Puerto Principe. Though he could do harm no longer, the post-mortem punishment inflicted on him gave general satisfaction; +for the corpse was first hanged, then dragged at a horse’s heels, then chopped apart and buried in several places, and the +head, in a cage, was exposed on a pole in Tanima. And if three men like Taito Perico could terrorize all Cuba, a hundred of +such would have freed it. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1541" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Voice in the Inn</h2> +<p>“No trifling, señor. Speak up plainly and say what you heard.” The prosecuting attorney gave a nervous twitch at his pointed +beard, a habit peculiar to him, and leaned a little toward <a id="d0e1546"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1546">164</a>]</span>the witness. The elder judge blinked drowsily, straightened in his chair, then turned and looked at the crucifix on the wall, +for when the sun touched the bloody figure on the cross it was time for lunch. It was still in shadow. He sighed. His associates +of the tribunal were duly attent. + +</p> +<p>“I’m afraid you will not believe me,” objected the witness. + +</p> +<p>“Never mind your fears. Come, now: You were passing the deserted inn on the Minas road, you say, when you heard a voice. The +voice of one of the brigands?” + +</p> +<p>“I hardly think so, señor.” + +</p> +<p>“How? You charge this defendant here ——” + +</p> +<p>“With attempted robbery. Yes, señor attorney. But it was not his voice that spoke. I think worse mischief has been done near +the inn.” + +</p> +<p>“Worse mischief?” + +</p> +<p>“Truly. For when this thief heard the words he let his pistol fall and dropped the bridle of my mule. By the moon I could +see his face glisten with sweat, and it looked white.” + +</p> +<p>“He was afraid, eh? He was a coward? This poor cheat of a creature could not even be a brigand?” + +</p> +<p>“Afraid! Any one would be. As for myself, I gave my mule a cut and he was off at a lope, with this fellow coming after as +fast as his legs could carry him, until he ran plump into the arms of the civil guard.” +<a id="d0e1569"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1569">165</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Yes, yes. You have told all that. But this voice. You heard it plainly?” + +</p> +<p>“Why, yes, although it sounded as if it came from a distance, or from under a building, or—or—out of a tomb. I couldn’t—I +couldn’t help thinking it sounded like a man beneath a floor.” + +</p> +<p>The attorney twisted his beard again impatiently, coughed, then tightly folded his arms. He was silent for a little. Then, +as if surprising himself out of a revery, he commanded, “Well, well. Go on.” + +</p> +<p>“This voice, señor,” resumed the witness, leaning forward and speaking mysteriously, “it was so hollow and low, and spoke +the words so long, like a creature dying and in pain, and it gave me a chill.” + +</p> +<p>“Are you never to tell us what it said?” + +</p> +<p>“It moaned, ‘For the sake of the Virgin, of Her Blessed Son, of the Holy Saint Peter, of the Good God, pray for me. Pray for +a sinner. Beg the good fathers at Nuevitas to say a mass for the soul of Enrique Carillo.’ Then there was a sort of groan——” + +</p> +<p>“My God!” It was the prosecutor who had gasped the words. + +</p> +<p>“Yes, just like that. Ah! Pardon, señor. I did not see. You are ill.” + +</p> +<p>For the lawyer’s face had become of a deathly pallor, his head had sunk forward, his lips trembled, his hands shook as they +clutched the edge of the <a id="d0e1588"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1588">166</a>]</span>table behind him. The idlers in the back of the room were awake in a moment. The sun touched the figure of Christ, splashed +with blood in the fashion of the official crucifix, and it seemed to look down on the scene below as in torture. The prisoner’s +counsel sprang forward, placed a chair for his opponent and helped him to be seated. An officer brought a glass of water, +which the lawyer drank eagerly, then sat as in a daze for an instant, shuddered, passed his hands over his face, and said, +“I ask the indulgence of the court. I have lost my sleep for the last few nights. I—I——” + +</p> +<p>The senior judge had half-risen, his wig awry, his hands gripping the arms of the chair. “Clear the court! It is the fever!” +he cried. + +</p> +<p>There was a stampede of the unoccupied in the back of the room. The others in the court reached for their hats and drew away, +leaving the prosecutor alone. He smiled faintly. “No, your Honor,” he said. “It is over now. It was a touch of faintness; +nothing more.” + +</p> +<p>“With the consent of counsel I will adjourn the case.” + +</p> +<p>The face of the prosecutor hardened; he set his jaw doggedly, he regained his feet with a sort of spring. The judges slipped +back deeper into their seats; the elder wiped his brow and puffed. + +</p> +<p>“We will go on,” said the attorney, in a calmer voice. “The testimony is practically exhausted. I have to confess that I have +been somewhat disappointed <a id="d0e1600"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1600">167</a>]</span>in the witnesses, but I submit the case on the evidence without argument.” + +</p> +<p>It was plain that the people’s representative was not at his best that morning. The trial was hurried on, the lawyer for the +defence insisting principally that, as the complainant had fled from the scene of the attempted robbery without looking back, +he could not possibly swear that the man in the prisoner’s dock was the one who had held his bridle. Was it not at least probable +that the accused had told the truth when he said he had been roused by the outcry of the man on mule-back and had run down +the road to see what the matter was? Moreover, as no loss had been suffered, was it not a slender ground for prosecution? +The old judge looked back at the crucifix. The illumination was passing. The knees were already in shadow. He was an hour +late for his lunch. He whispered with the other judges for a moment, then smote the desk before him. “No evidence. The prisoner +is discharged. Adjourn the court,” he exclaimed. And for once in the history of Puerto Principe the law had been prompt. The +accused, who had been stolid and dull throughout the trial, now smiled cunningly to himself, and saying no word to any one, +but with a sidelong look at the lawyers, left the building without loss of time, and after investing a few coppers in bad +brandy at the least inviting groggery in town, disappeared down the road leading toward Minas. There were several anxious +inquiries <a id="d0e1604"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1604">168</a>]</span>at the house of Prosecutor Ramirez that evening, but he was in his usual health. There was no occasion for alarm as to the +fever. + +</p> +<p>Two nights after this a couple of planters were stopped near the old inn by a man of rough appearance, whose face was masked, +and were forced at the pistol’s point to give up their watches and money. A few nights later a man left town with money to +discharge a bill. He never reached his destination. In each case the criminals left no trace. The environs of Puerto Principe +were growing in ill-repute. + +</p> +<p>The prosecutor was leaving home on an evening when rain seemed threatening. This was probably his reason for wearing a cloak,—a +protection seldom needed, except at night and in bad weather. It was against his usual habit that he had drawn his cloak high +about his shoulders, so that his face was half-concealed, and this made it the more difficult for one who was following to +know if he were, or were not, the man he sought. Convinced, after a little, that he was, he hurried forward and placed his +hand on his arm. The lawyer started and uttered an exclamation. “Are you not Don Pablo Ramirez<span id="d0e1610" class="corr" title="Not in source">?</span>” asked the unknown. + +</p> +<p>The prosecutor looked long and searchingly at the frank-faced stranger, then answered, shortly, “I am he.” + +</p> +<p>“I thought so. Allow me: I am Captain Alfonso Garcia Estufa, of the Engineer Corps. I <a id="d0e1617"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1617">169</a>]</span>come from Havana with authority from the governor-general to confer with you about the brigands in this province.” + +</p> +<p>“Ah, indeed! You are welcome, señor captain. I was about to make a business call on a tenant in this street. May I ask if +you will make my house your own till I return? I shall be absent but a few moments. I will go back with you and open the door. +Enter, if you please. The sherry is on the sideboard. Cigars you will find on the table. Call my servant, if you require anything.” +Then, hurrying out once more, the lawyer almost ran upon his errand. In a quarter of an hour he returned and the two began +their discussion over a decanter of choice Madeira. + +</p> +<p>“It still seems to me,” said the young officer, after the talk had been going on for some minutes, “that the bold policy is +the better, though we may need secrecy in certain cases, for these devils of brigands smell powder a mile away. On my life, +they do. I’ve dealt with them in Pinar del Rio, and they tell me they are more slippery and far-seeing, or far-smelling, in +this province. They must have confederates here in town.” + +</p> +<p>“Confederates? Preposterous, señor! Why do you think that?” + +</p> +<p>“Oh, I’ve been investigating a little. Either the brigands here are clever, or some man who is more clever has them in hand, +and knows enough not to mix with them,—some man who can persuade them, <a id="d0e1627"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1627">170</a>]</span>or terrorize them, or shield them. Have you no conceit as to who in this city is fitted for a chieftainship like that?” + +</p> +<p>“I? None.” + +</p> +<p>“I had hoped you knew your fellow-citizens well enough to advise me whom to watch. No? Then, at least, tell me where it would +be best to place my men.” + +</p> +<p>“The trails toward Sibanicu.” + +</p> +<p>“Trails? Sibanicu? Why, there’s no travel in that quarter. The robberies have happened between here and Minas.” + +</p> +<p>“Exactly. So many have happened that the brigands must abandon it henceforth. They know they are watched, and I’ll warrant +your coming here, and the object of it, are already common talk among them.” + +</p> +<p>“Humph!” + +</p> +<p>“People who are bound for the coast are beginning to go around already, so as to avoid the Minas road. If our scamps are as +clever as you think, they will not be long in following.” + +</p> +<p>“There is something in that, and I thank you for the hint. We will meet again shortly. Meanwhile, pray study the situation.” + +</p> +<p>“You are not going?” + +</p> +<p>“I cannot stop with you, señor, greatly as I should be pleased to do so, for I have agreed to meet my lieutenants at the other +end of the town. Good-night.” +<a id="d0e1649"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1649">171</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Good-night, then, if you will not stay. Tell me early what success you have in the chase of our good citizens of Puerto Principe.” + +</p> +<p>The captain left the house with a light and jaunty step, yet he looked about him thoughtfully. He had not gone far when the +night stillness was broken by the crack of a fire-arm not ten paces away. A bullet cut his hat. He turned quickly. Nobody +was in sight. The air was thick with mist, and nobody was stirring. “Scoundrel!” cried the officer, shaking his fist at the +darkness. “You shall pay dear for that—you and your people. Do you hear?” + +</p> +<p>There was no answer. He walked on at a faster pace. + +</p> +<p>Before the sun was up next morning the captain and his men had withdrawn from Puerto Principe. Few in the town knew that he +had been there. None knew whither he had gone. + +</p> +<p>It was nine o’clock on the night following the interview. A fitful wind stirred the trees that densely shadowed the Minas +road. From a chink in the walls of a dilapidated house that stood back from the highway a light shone faintly, but except +for the sough of the leaves and the whirring and lisping that betoken the wakefulness of insect life there was no sound. None? +What was that? Down the road, from Nuevitas way, came a blowing and stamping of horses laboring through mud. The crack of +light still shone, and nothing moved along <a id="d0e1660"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1660">172</a>]</span>the wayside. As the horses came nearer a lantern could be seen hanging from the sheep-neck of the older one, and two voices +could be heard in talk,—such village gossip as farmers might exchange when the way was tiresome. The horses plodded on till +they were abreast of the house, when there was a whistle; the crack of light widened, suddenly there was a rush of feet, a +torch was brandished, and brown hands fell upon the bridles. + +</p> +<p>One of the riders cried out, flung up his arms, and begged for mercy. They might take his master’s money, if they would, but +for the sake of St. Isaac, St. Matthew, and St. John, let them spare his life. The other horseman, tall, spare, wrapped in +a cloak, swung down from his saddle in a business-like way, addressed a remark in a low tone to the brigands, took the lantern +from the neck of his neighbor’s nag,—it was a fine, mettled black he rode himself,—turned up the flap of his hat a little, +only a little, not enough to reveal his face, and proceeded to rifle the pockets and saddle-bags of his amazed companion. +The lantern and the torch shone on six or eight as hang-dog faces as would be met in a day’s journey, and among them was one +closely resembling the prisoner who had been discharged on a trial two or three weeks before for lack of evidence. The victim +of this robbery having given up all he seemed to possess was told to ride straight into town without word or halt, else he +would be shot, and a fierce stroke being given with the whip, his <a id="d0e1664"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1664">173</a>]</span>horse was off at such a gallop that he had much ado to keep his seat. The thieves heaped the saddle-bags and parcels into +the middle of the road and bent near, while the man in the cloak opened them and examined their contents in the flickering +light. A gust of wind made the torch flare and put the lantern out. The cloaked man muttered an oath, and had partly risen +to his feet, when there came a sound that caused him to stagger and hold his hands to his head as if in mortal terror. It +was a wailing voice, and it pleaded, “For the sake of the Virgin, of Her Blessed Son, of the Holy Saint Peter, of the Good +God, pray for me. Pray for a sinner. Beg the good fathers at Nuevitas to say a mass for the soul of Enrique Carillo.” + +</p> +<p>The cloaked man groaned. The others crouched, shuddering, and their eyes in the red torch-flame were the eyes of goblins. +In another moment a shock ran through the group, for another voice, clear and stern, commanded, “As you value your lives, +don’t stir. Men, do not fire unless I tell you.” + +</p> +<p>A light flashed up, then another, and the bandits discovered themselves in the centre of a ring formed by twenty men, with +the young captain in command. Resistance would have been foolish, flight impossible; yet, as the captain stepped toward the +brigand leader, the man in the cloak attempted the foolish and impossible; he fired his pistol full at the captain’s head, +flung the weapon after the bullet, <a id="d0e1670"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1670">174</a>]</span>missing his aim each time, then started to run, upsetting one of the soldiers as he did so. + +</p> +<p>“Fire!” cried the captain. + +</p> +<p>Two musket-shots came upon the word. The tall man tumbled headlong. “It is one the less to hang,” exclaimed the officer, as +he snatched a torch from the hand of one of his men. He bent over the prostrate form: the robber had been killed instantly. +He withdrew the cloak from the face and looked long without speaking. Finally he said, “I was a better ghost than I supposed. +These brigands will have to elect a new leader, and Puerto Principe must have a new prosecuting attorney.” + +</p> +<p>In the deserted inn, under the kitchen floor, were found the remains of Enrique Carillo and several other victims of the robbers. +And it is said that on All Souls’ eve their ghosts block the road and beg all who pass to pray for them and to pay for a few +masses. Most importunate of all is the ghost of Pablo Ramirez. + + + +<a id="d0e1678"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1678">175</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div0" id="d0e1679"> +<h2 class="normal">In the Pacific</h2><a id="d0e1682"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1682">177</a>]</span><div id="d0e1683" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Finding of the Islands</h2> +<p>One of the oldest legends of the Hawaiians relates to the finding of their islands by Hawaiiloa, a great chief and great-grandson +of Kinilauamano, whose twelve sons became the founders of twelve tribes. Guided by the Pleiades he sailed westward from America, +or northward from some other group,—doubtless the latter,—and so came to these pleasant lands, to the largest of which he +gave his own name, while the lesser ones commemorate his children. In another tradition the islands of Oahu and Molokai were +the illegitimate children of two of his descendants, who were wedded, but jealous of one another and faithless. Still another +folk-tale runs to the effect that an enormous bird, at least as large as the American thunder-bird or the roc of Arabia, paused +in its flight across the sea and laid an egg which floated on the water. The warmth of the ocean and the ardor of the sun +hatched the egg, and from it came the islands, which grew, in time, to their present size, and ever increased in beauty. Some +years after they were found by a man and a woman who <a id="d0e1688"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1688">178</a>]</span>had voyaged from Kahiki in a canoe, and liking the scenery and climate, they went ashore on the eastern side of Hawaii, and +remained there to become the progenitors of the present race. It suggests the ark legend that this pair had in their canoe +two dogs, two swine, and two fowls, from which animals had come all that were found running wild there a hundred years ago. +The people can never be thankful enough that these visitors differed from Nuu in their lack of regard for the snakes, scorpions, +centipedes, tarantulas, and mosquitoes that are so common to tropic lands, for, having neglected to import these afflictions, +the islands got on without them until recently. Mosquitoes were taken to Hawaii on an American ship. The hogs and dogs are +descendants of animals that escaped from the wreck of the Spanish galleon Santo Iago in 1527. + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1690" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Ancient Faiths of Hawaii</h2> +<p>Hawaiians claim descent from the Cushites of Arabia, and in their folk-lore they have the same agreement with the Jewish myths +which we find so strangely in other tribes that seem to have no relation to one another. Like the Israelites, they believed +in a first pair that forfeited paradise by sinning, and were put out of it. Like the Israelites, they built temples and places +of worship. Like the Israelites, they practised circumcision. Their priests and chiefs were kin of the gods, and well may +they <a id="d0e1695"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1695">179</a>]</span>have seemed so if it is true that the kings of the islands were men whose height was nine feet, and who flourished spears +ten yards long. Even Kamehameha, who died in 1819, and who was politically the greatest of these rulers, as he established +one government over all of the islands, is said to have been a giant in strength. + +</p> +<p>Without compasses, guided only by sun and stars, the people made long voyages in their canoes—vessels of a length of a hundred +feet—and did battle with other races, fighting with spears, slings, clubs, axes, and knives, but not with bows or armor. Doubtless +they exaggerate their numbers and their heroism, and in the last great battle, by which Kamehameha became ruler of the group, +it may be that there were not quite the sixteen thousand men he claimed to have when he forced the troops of Oahu over the +cliff of Nuuanu. The language of Hawaii resembles the tongues spoken in the southern archipelagoes, thereby bearing out the +legend of early migrations. As, in the East, we hear tales that seem to hark back to the lost Atlantis, so among the Pacific +tribes are faint beliefs in a continent in the greater ocean that sank thousands of years ago, and of coral islands built +on its ruins that crumbled or were shaken down in their turn, albeit they served their purpose as stepping-stones between +the surviving groups. + +</p> +<p>The Columbus of Hawaii was Nanaula, a Polynesian chief, who reached them in the sixth century, <a id="d0e1701"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1701">180</a>]</span>either blown upon them by gales or actuated in a long search by love of adventure. He carried dogs, swine, fowls, and seeds +of food-plants, and for several centuries the people increased, lived in comfort, and enjoyed the blessings of peace. Four +hundred years later a large emigration occurred from Samoa and the Society group to these islands, and the new-comers proved +to be the stronger. Each island had its chief or chiefs until this century, but their families had intermarried until a veritable +aristocracy had been set up, with a college of heraldry, if you please, that recorded the ancestry brags of the Four Hundred. +Captain Cook chanced on evil days when his turn came to discover the islands again, for although the people at first thought +him to be the god Lono, they were so busy hating each other that they had not time to extend as many courtesies to him as +they might have granted at some other period. When they killed him he had incurred their wrath by his overbearing manner, +his contempt for their customs, and by trying to make prisoner of a chief who was innocently pulling one of the ship’s boats +apart to get the nails out. Juan Gaetano, a Spanish captain, sailing from Mexico to the Spice Islands in 1555, is said to +have discovered Hawaii, but he said little about it. There are traditions of other white visitors likewise. + +</p> +<p>While Christian missionaries claimed to have worked the moral regeneration of the islands, the Martin Luther of the group +anticipated them by <a id="d0e1705"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1705">181</a>]</span>half a year. Liholiho—that was his name—publicly kicked the idols, burned the temples, ate from the dishes of women, and defied +the taboo. So soon as the natives discovered that the sea did not rise nor the sky fall, they rejoiced exceeding, and when +one of the priests gathered an army and mutinied against the new order, they vehemently suppressed him. Yet the gods whom +this soldier-priest defended are said to lament his fall in battle, and the south wind, stirring the shrubbery about his grave, +is often heard to sob. The first missionaries were Yankees. They made some converts, acquired real estate, their example and +teaching in political and industrial matters were profitably heeded, and peace and prosperity returned to the islands. Catholic +missionaries were forbidden by the government to land until 1839, when they were put ashore under the guns of a French man-of-war, +and have remained in safety ever since. + +</p> +<p>The religious faith that white men drove from Hawaii, or think they did, is based on the customary moral precepts, while the +theogeny comprehends a trinity, composed of Kane, who plans and who lives in the east; Ku, who builds, and Lono, who directs. +These three gods in one, who had existed from the beginning, created light; next they built the three heavens; they then made +the earth, sun, moon, and stars. The angels were spat from their mouths, and after the fruitless or experimental creation +of Welahilana and Owe, the chief god, Kane, with his <a id="d0e1709"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1709">182</a>]</span>saliva, mixed with red earth, made the first man, Kumuhonua, and from his rib took the first woman, Keolakuhonua. These parents +of the race were put into a beautiful garden, divided by three rivers that had their source in a lake of living water, which +would bring the dead to life when sprinkled over them, and which was filled with fish that fire could not destroy. This living +water was found again, ages after, by Kamapikai, who led some of the Hawaiians back to it that they might bathe, and they +emerged young, strong, and handsome; but from their third voyage to the lake they never returned. In the garden stood a bread-fruit +tree and an apple tree, both taboo. Whether Kanaloa, the rebellious angel, persuaded the first pair to pluck the forbidden +fruit, or whether he wrought their downfall in some other fashion, we do not know; but he was angry because they refused to +worship him, and because the man whom he had created could neither rise nor speak; so, in the form of a lizard, he went into +the garden and beguiled the pair. Kane sent a large white bird and drove them out. Of the three sons of the parents of the +race the elder slew the second, and in the thirteenth generation came the deluge, from which Nuu was saved, for at the command +of Kane he built an ark, took refuge in it with his family, and, with pairs of every species of bird, beast, and reptile, +was released by the gods after the water had gone down, and found that his ark was resting on the top of Mauna Loa. The rainbow +was the <a id="d0e1711"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1711">183</a>]</span>stair by which Kane descended to him, and it was left in the sky as a token of forgiveness. As the history proceeds we recognize +the story of Abraham, and of Joseph and his brethren, and the likeness to the Bible narrative ceases after an account of the +long wanderings and troubles of the people in their search for the land set apart for them by Kane,—a search in which they +were led by two brothers. + +</p> +<p>It was only in the eleventh century that the priesthood became a power, exalted itself above the kings, prescribed senseless +ceremonials and forms of worship, invented so many gods that they often forgot the names of them, and devised the prohibition, +or taboo, the meaning of that word being “Obey or die.” Among these gods none are more curious than the stones of Kaloa beach, +Ninole, Hawaii. The natives, who believed that they had sex, and propagated, chose male specimens for their household deities. +In order to make sure whether or not they were really gods, the stones were blessed in a temple, wrapped in a dress, and taken +to see a game of skill or strength. If the owner of the god won he gave to the piece of stone the credit for his victory and +established it in his house; but if he lost, the stone was thrown aside. If the believer wanted to make sure of finding a +god he would take a beach pebble of each sex, wrap the two in cloth, and put them away for a time. When they were brought +back to the light a smaller pebble, the result of their union, was found with them. This grew, like an <a id="d0e1715"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1715">184</a>]</span>animal, until it was of a size to be blessed by the priests and formally declared to be a god. The original pebbles are of +black trap, compact lava, and white coral. Beside the gods there were spirits that could be called from the grave by wizards, +although this power rested only with the strongest and most righteous of the class. The soul of a living creature might also +leave his body and exhibit itself to one at a distance, as Margrave projected his luminous apparition in Bulwer’s “Strange +Story.” + +</p> +<p>It was the gods of the second rank, however, that seemed most busy for good or mischief in human affairs: such gods as Pele, +the spirit of the volcanoes, with her five brothers and eight sisters who lived in the flaming caverns of Kilauea; or as Kalaipahoa, +poison-goddess of Molokai, and her two sisters, who put a bane on the trees so deadly that they rivalled the fabled Upas of +Java, and birds fell lifeless as they attempted to fly above them (a volcanic sulphur vent was probably the origin of this +tale); or, as Kuahana, who slew men for sport; or, as Pohakaa, who rolled rocks down the mountains to scare and hurt travellers; +or, as the shark and lizard gods that lashed the sea into storms and wrecked canoes. War gods of wood were carried in battle, +among them the fierce-looking image of Kalaipahoa, born in the van of the army of Kamehameha, and made at a cost of many lives +from one of the trees poisoned by that goddess. Its fragments were divided among his people after the king’s death. <a id="d0e1719"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1719">185</a>]</span>Apropos of this figure, a gamester had lost everything except a pig, which he did not dare to stake, as it had been claimed +for a sacrifice by a priest with a porkly appetite. At the command of a deity, however, who appeared in his dreams, he disregarded +the taboo and wagered the pig next day. Being successful in his play, he in thankfulness offered half of his gains to the +deity. This god appeared on a second night and told him that if the king would make an idol of a certain wood growing near +she would breathe power into it, and would make the gambler her priest. So the king ordered a tree to be cut. As the chips +flew into the faces of the choppers they fell dead. Others, covering their bodies with cloth and their faces with leaves, +managed to hew off a piece as large as a child’s body, and from this the statue was carved with daggers, held at arm’s-length; +and Kalaipahoa means Dagger-cut. Another god of the great king was Kaili, which was of wood with a head-dress of yellow feathers. +This image uttered yells of encouragement that could be heard above the din of conflict. + +</p> +<p>Statues of the gods were kept in walled enclosures, sometimes four or five acres in extent, within which stood the temples +and altars of sacrifice, and there the people read the fates, as did the Greek and Roman soothsayers, in the shapes of clouds +and the forms and colors of entrails of birds or of pigs killed on the altars. Human sacrifices were offered <a id="d0e1723"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1723">186</a>]</span>on important occasions, but always of men,—never of women or children. If no criminals or prisoners were available, the first +gardener or fisherman was captured, knocked on the head, and his body left to decay on the altar. Oil and holy water were +used to anoint the altar and sacred objects, and when a temple was newly finished its altar was piled with the dead. There +is a striking universality among people in the brutal stage of development in this practice of pacifying their deities by +murder. When a king or high priest offered a sacrifice of a foeman the butcher gouged the left eye from the body and gave +it to his superior, who pretended to eat it. If a victim succeeded in escaping to a temple of refuge he was safe, even though +he had killed a king or slapped the chops of a wooden god. + +</p> +<p>All over the islands are natural monuments associated with instances that prove the faith of the people in gods, fiends, spirits, +and heroes. At Mana Beach the “barking” or whistling of the sands under the tread is held to be the wailing of buried Hawaiians, +complaining that they are disturbed. Here, too, dwells the ghost of the giant Kamalimaloa, rising through the earth with spear +and helmet at certain seasons and seeking two beautiful girls who scorned him in life, and whom he is doomed never to meet +in death. Holes and caves that abound in the lava—old craters, bubbles, and steam-vents—also have their stories. On Kauai +they show a series called Pele’s Jumps, because <a id="d0e1727"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1727">187</a>]</span>when the fire-goddess was driven from that island by the water-gods she made three long steps in the soft crust before undertaking +the final leap that landed her on the slope of Kilauea. Each of these pits would hold a hotel. Another chasm was made by pulling +a monster turtle out of his lair, while he slept, with the intent of eating him. This pit is thousands of cubic yards in extent, +and the turtle may be seen on a neighboring mountain, turned to stone by the curses of the chief from whom he tried to sneak +away when he noticed that preparations for cooking were forward. Near the famous Hanapepe Falls is the cave of Makaopihi, +variously regarded as a chief, a devil, and a god, who took refuge here from his enemies, but every now and then showed his +contempt for them by going down the long slope that is still called his slide,—a recreation that to an ordinary mortal would +mean death. + +</p> +<p>It is curious, if not significant, that in the language of Tahiti, which is related to that of these islands, Maui appears, +not as a place, but as a sun god who destroyed his enemies with a jaw-bone, while the word hawaii means hell. Strange, indeed, +that one of the most heavenly corners of the earth should have taken on a name like that. The volcanoes may have terrified +the early comers to such a degree that it seemed the only fitting one if they chanced to arrive in the time of an eruption. + + + +<a id="d0e1731"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1731">188</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1732" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Giant Gods</h2> +<p>Gods and demi-gods as vast as their mountains are celebrated in the traditionary chants of the Hawaiians. While the largest +island in the group seems to have been their favorite residence, it was the easiest thing imaginable to move, since they had +only to step on board of their enchanted canoes and make a wish and they were at once wafted to any port they desired. A few +of them did not need any canoes: they were of such height they could step from island to island, and could wade through the +deepest oceans without submerging their heads. Kana would often straddle from Kauai to Oahu, like a colossus of Rhodes, and +when a king of Kahiki, who was keeper of the sun, undertook to deprive the people of it, because of some slight, Kana waded +across the sea and forced that king to behave himself instanter; then, having seen the light properly placed in the sky, he +spread his breech-clout over a few acres of volcano to dry, and took a nap on a mile or so of lava bed. This deity had the +power of compressing himself into a small space, and likewise of pulling himself out to any desired length, like an accordion, +so that there was not water in the eight seas deep enough to drown him. + +</p> +<p>And Maui, the demi-god, was even more tremendous in his bulk. Whales were his playthings, and sharks were minnows beside him. +He had to swim in water that reached only to his waist, because <a id="d0e1739"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1739">189</a>]</span>there was no deeper, and even then his head was circled by clouds. He had a wife of an immensity comparable to his own. Once, +while busily beating out a piece of bark-cloth, the sun sank low before she had finished her task. Like the excellent housewife +that she was, she did not wish the day to end on work unfinished, so, at her request, Maui reached out into the west, seized +the sun, without burning his fingers much, pulled it back to noon and held it there for two or three hours while the making +of the cloth proceeded. Then it resumed its journey through the heavens, and has kept excellent time ever since. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1741" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The First Fire</h2> +<p>The demi-god Maui lived near Mauna Kea, and in roaming over that mountain he often felt the chill that is in high places. +It set him wondering why the volcano gods had never given to men the secret of fire, that so warmed and comforted one at night. +To take it from the craters was dangerous. One was liable to be stifled by sulphur, blinded by dust, scalded by steam, and +destroyed by lava, for the crust was continually breaking and falling. The mud-hens, or bald coots, had the secret, however, +and when he came upon their little fires in the woods, Maui hid among the trees and watched. Despite his vast bulk, he was +not observed, or was more probably mistaken for a hill, <a id="d0e1746"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1746">190</a>]</span>for presently the mud-hens assembled in a glade, before his eyes, and made a fire by rubbing dry sticks together. They cooked +fish and roots over the fire, and the savor of the banquet was so appetizing that Maui could not resist the temptation: he +reached out and confiscated the dinner, and the mud-hens flew off crying. + +</p> +<p>His attempt to catch the hens and learn from them how to make fire did not succeed until he had rolled himself in bark-cloth; +for, so disguised, and after patient waiting, he captured the mother hen. She tried to deceive him, for she did not want the +secret to leave her family. She told him to rub taro stalks on the line of their spirals, the twist being put there for that +purpose. He tried it without effect, and gave the old hen’s neck a twist to make her tell the truth. She finally showed him +how to make sparks with old, dry chips, and he let her go, but not until he had rubbed her head until it was raw, to punish +her delay and falsehoods. And to this day the head of this bird is bare of feathers. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1750" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Little People</h2> +<p>Hawaiians believe in “little people” that live in deep woods and peep and snicker at travellers who pass. This belief is thought +to go back to the earliest times, and to hint at the smallness of the original Hawaiians, for one may take with a grain of +salt these tales of the giant size of their kings <a id="d0e1755"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1755">191</a>]</span>and fighters. The first “little people” were grandchildren of Nuu, or Noah, and the big people who came after were Samoans. +While anybody may hear these fairies running and laughing, only a native can see them. They are usually kind and helpful, +and it is their law that any work they undertake must be finished before sunrise; for they dislike to be watched, and scuttle +off to the woods at dawn. + +</p> +<p>Pi, a Kauai farmer, wanted a ditch to carry water from the Waimea River for the refreshment of his land near Kikiloa, and, +having marked the route, he ordered the menehune, as they call the little people, to do the work. It would have been polite +to ask rather than to command; still, they did what was required of them, each oaf lugging a stone to the river for the dam, +which may be seen to this day. The hum and bustle of the work were heard all night, and so pleased was the farmer, when morning +came and the ditch was built, that he set a feast for the menehune on the next night, and it was gone at daybreak. There were +no tramps in Hawaii, so the menehune must have eaten it. Conceiving that he had acquired what our ward statesmen call a “pull” +with these helpers, he planned an elaborate fish-pond and put them at work again. He had staked off such an immense area that +the little people could not possibly finish it by morning. As light streaked the east and the cocks crew they scampered away +to the mountains, dripping with sweat and angered at the man who had so abused <a id="d0e1759"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1759">192</a>]</span>their willingness. And they could never be induced to work for him again. + +</p> +<p>Although of supernatural power themselves, the little people are religious, and have built several houses to the gods. On +the face of the mountain wall, two thousand feet high, back of the leper settlement at Molokai, is a ledge that can be reached +neither from above nor below, and on it stands a temple of their construction. In Pepeeko, Hilo, the natives labored for a +month in quarrying and dressing stone, but when it was ready the elves built their temple in a night. So at Kohala they formed +a chain twelve miles long between the quarry and the site, and, passing the blocks from hand to hand, finished the great enclosure +before sunrise. + +</p> +<p>Yet these fairies had a taste for mischief, and could be as active in it as so many boys. When a child on Maui, Laka was so +loved by his father that he would travel many miles to buy a toy for him, and hearing of a strange new plaything in Hawaii, +the father sailed to that island to get it. He never returned, for the natives killed him and hid his skeleton in a cave. +When Laka had come to man’s estate he began preparations for a voyage to that island, that he might either find his father +or know his fate, for of his death he did not learn until long after. In these preparations he was oddly thwarted. Every time +he hewed down a tree for a canoe it was gone in the morning. Out of patience, he resolved to catch the thieves. In order to +make their task <a id="d0e1765"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1765">193</a>]</span>especially hard, he dug a hole into which the tree fell, when he had chopped it, so that his enemies would have to lift it +out before they could carry it away. Then, in the shadow, he waited. At midnight a small humming and giggling were heard in +the bushes and a company of menehune stole out into the shine of the moon. They began to tug at the fallen tree. Laka sprang +upon them and captured two, the others running away with shrill screams. Laka threatened to kill his prisoners for the trouble +they had made, but he did not really intend to hurt them. Their tears and cries and the rapid beating of their hearts, that +he could feel as he held them under his arms, stirred his pity, and he agreed to let them go if they would promise to assemble +their tribe, drag the tree to his canoe shed on the shore and fashion it into a boat. This they promised so eagerly that he +put them back on the earth and laughed as they scampered into the thicket. True to their promise, they dragged the tree to +the ocean that very night, and carved and hollowed it into the finest vessel to be seen on the island; so, friendly relations +being thus established, Laka set a feast for them, which they ate in thankfulness and never troubled him more. Whether he +succeeded in the search for the parental bones, or left his own to whiten on the same soil, is not recorded, but you can see +for yourself the hollow he dug for the tree, and his canoe shed was standing after white men reached the group. + + + +<a id="d0e1767"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1767">194</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1768" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Hawaiian Iliad</h2> +<p>Kaupepee, who might have governed Molokai in the twelfth century, had he not chosen war as his vocation, was a believer in +home rule. He did not like the immigrants who were swarming northward from Tahiti and Samoa. Though they resembled his own +race, to be sure, and spoke a language he could understand, he regarded them as greedy and revolutionary, and they worshipped +strange gods and sometimes misused the people among whom they had cast their fortunes. So Kaupepee resigned his kingship to +his brother, and became a fighter, a devastator. With some hundreds of hardy men at arms and the finest ships of the time, +hewn from Oregon pines and Canada spruces that had drifted to the islands, he bitterly harassed the other kingdoms, dashing +ashore at the principal towns in buccaneer fashion, laying violent hands on their stores, capturing their handsomest women, +breaking the taboo in their temples, killing a dozen of their men, then flying to his canoes again, hoisting his red sails, +and putting off before the astonished people knew exactly what had happened. + +</p> +<p>This prince had fortified himself in quite a modern fashion at Haupu, in his native kingdom. From the land side the tract +was reached only by a narrow dike which he had walled across with lava blocks, a tunnel beneath this obstruction affording +the only <a id="d0e1775"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1775">195</a>]</span>exit toward the mountains. On the ocean front he had also built his forts of stone, although the sea boiled five hundred feet +below and the plateau ended in an almost sheer precipice. Deep ravines on either side of the stronghold bent around it to +the rocky neck, thus making the place almost an island. In these ravines were narrow paths by which his people descended to +their boats, secreted on the dark and winding waters or hoisted on the rocks. This was the Troy of the Pacific; Kaupepee was +the Paris, and here he brought his Helen, who was Hina, the most beautiful woman of her day, and the wife of a chief in Hawaii. +Kaupepee, encouraged by his oracles, inflamed by reports of the woman’s charm, had been lurking along the coast for some time, +watching for his opportunity. It came when Hina ventured into the sea to bathe on a moonlight evening. Kaupepee, dashing from +his concealment, intercepted her escape, shouted to his men who were in waiting behind a wooded point, and while the woman’s +friends and attendants fled shrieking to the shore, he lifted her into his canoe, paddled away to his double barge a half +mile out, placed his lovely captive in a shelter on board, and began the return voyage. The drum could be heard in the village +rousing the people, and lights twinkled among the trees, showing that a pursuit was intended. In vain. The dusky Menelaus +may have put to sea, but he never appeared in view of the flying ships. During the two days occupied in the <a id="d0e1777"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1777">196</a>]</span>run to Molokai the prisoner refused food, and begged to be put to death. She was assured that no harm was intended to her. +On arriving at the fort of her captor she was surprised by the appearance of women who had been stolen from her villages before, +and who were now to be her maids; nor could she restrain an exclamation of pleasure when she was ushered into what for the +next eighteen years was to be her home. It was hung and carpeted with decorated mats; its wooden frame was brightly painted, +festooned with flowers, and friezed with shells; couches of sea-grass were overspread with cloth beaten from palm fibre; heavy +curtains hung at the doors; ranged on shelves were ornaments and carved calabashes, while there was a profuse array of feathered +cloaks and other modish millinery and raiment. + +</p> +<p>All, from Kaupepee to the humblest soldier, had paid the respect to her that was the due of a queen. She was told that she +could enjoy a certain amount of liberty, and if she suffered from her slight captivity she was asked what might be thought +of her new lord whose heart she had absolutely in her keeping, and who was therefore less free than she. This pretty speech +and the really kind treatment she had received, together with a hearty and needed meal of fruit, fish, potatoes, and poi, +caused her to look on her situation with less of despair. She belonged to a simple race, whose moral code was different from +ours; she was more luxuriously surrounded <a id="d0e1781"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1781">197</a>]</span>than she had ever been before; Kaupepee was bold and handsome; he was, moreover, strangely gentle in her presence, thoughtful +of her comfort, and—well, she fell out of love with her old husband and in love with the new. + +</p> +<p>Matters were not so very dull while the war lord was away on his forays. A considerable populace had been drawn to Haupu, +and there were dances and feasts, games, excursions, trials at arms, races, and swimming matches, in which Hina shared when +it pleased her. Reservoirs for water, storehouses for food, and parks of ammunition were also to be established, for none +could tell when the fort might be attacked. A long time passed before it was besieged. That time might never have come had +not Hina left at home two sons with long memories. For years, as they approached manhood, they devoted themselves to rousing +the people of all the islands and preparing a navy that should be invincible. Kaupepee kept himself informed of these measures, +and now and again discouraged them by swooping on their shipyards, destroying their craft, and running off with a priest or +two for a sacrifice. This kind of thing merely hastened his punishment, and in time ten thousand soldiers in two thousand +boats were sighted from the battlements of Haupu. A land force was sent to attack the stronghold from the hills. Kaupepee’s +brother could not prevent this. He was allowed to remain neutral. He foresaw the inevitable. When he implored the chief to +<a id="d0e1785"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1785">198</a>]</span>give up Hina, save himself and his warriors, and agree to a future peace, Kaupepee would not listen. He had a thousand men, +well armed, and his enemies had an almost life-long hate to gratify. “If my day has come,” he said, “let it be as the gods +will. When the battle is over, look for me on the walls. I shall be there among the dead.” The king went away with bowed head, +for he knew he should never see the defender of Molokai again. + +</p> +<p>Early in the morning the fleet put out from its harborage, where the gods had been invoked and the priests had declared the +omens kindly. The mother of Hina stood in the prow of one of the first canoes, her white hair blowing about her head in snaky +folds, her black eyes glittering. A fire burned before her on an altar of stone, and on this she threw oils and gums that +yielded a fragrant smoke. As the walls of Haupu came in sight, bristling with spears, she began a battle-song, which her warriors +took up, crew by crew, until the mighty chant echoed from the crags and every heart thrilled with the hope of conflict. As +the boats advanced almost within reach of the slings from the citadel, the land army was seen advancing over the mountains +far in the distance. Haupu would be beleaguered shortly. Kaupepee gathered his people around him, told of the odds against +them, and confessed that the end might be defeat, adding that if there was one whose heart failed him the gates were open +<a id="d0e1789"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1789">199</a>]</span>and he could leave, freely, with the good-will of all who stayed. + +</p> +<p>Not a man moved. With one cry of “Close the gates!” they declared for death, if so be that the gods were against them. The +chief smiled and prepared for the defence. Some cried that the shore was crowded with enemies. Kaupepee replied, in Spartan +phrase, “Our spears will be the less likely to miss.” A messenger arrived offering terms if Hina were given up. The answer +was, “She is here. Come and take her.” + +</p> +<p>The land force had been making a demonstration against the narrow bridge of rock that led to the fortress, and had succeeded +so well, according to a prearranged plan, that almost the entire garrison had crossed the plateau to that side, when shouts +of triumph arose from the ravines. The enemy had entered them and was smashing the boats of Kaupepee to fragments. That cry +of defiance was mis-timed. In a few moments a thunderous roar was heard that echoed through the abyss and paralyzed the hands +of those who were attacking the gates. The men who had run to the walls, on hearing the shouts below, had let loose, into +the depths, a deadly avalanche of earth, rocks, and timber. When the dust of it had drifted out, scores, hundreds, of dead +and dying were seen half-buried in the fallen mass. Armed with spears, knives, and axes, a little company sprang over the +parapet, and, running down the narrow trail to the bottom, despatched the survivors,<a id="d0e1795"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1795">200</a>]</span>—all save a few who swam to the reserve boats, and six who were carried up to the fort for sacrifice. One majestic chief, +who had led this attack from the sea, avoided knives and missiles and drew away in safety with the other few who escaped. +He was one of the sons of Hina. “He is brave; I am glad he remains unharmed,” said Kaupepee. + +</p> +<p>For several days the siege went on, the men within the defences taking heart from this first success, that had cost the enemy +two thousand men. The sea approach was abandoned, and now that Kaupepee’s boats were destroyed or injured, so that he could +not get away, the assailants concentrated their efforts on the landward side. They had devised a movable wall of wood, heavily +braced, like that used by the Romans and Assyrians in their military operations. Foot by foot they gained the isthmus and +slowly crossed it, those immediately behind this defence being protected from the slings and javelins of the garrison,—that +reached those at a greater distance, however. On a rainy night they pushed this wall against the gates, found the entrance +to the tunnel, and at dawn were ready for the final assault. It began with a downpour of spears and stones, before which it +was impossible to stand. Then the heavy slab that masked the inner door to the tunnel was lifted, and in another minute five +thousand men were pouring over the walls and through the passage. Not one man attempted flight. <a id="d0e1799"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1799">201</a>]</span>Contesting every inch of ground and fighting hand to hand, the men of Molokai retired before the invaders. There was an incessant +din of weapons and voices. At last, the garrison—the fifty who were left of it—and their chief were crowded to the temple +in the centre of the plain. One of the besieging party scrambled to the roof and set it afire with a torch. The fated fifty +rushed forth only to hurl themselves against the hedge of weapons about them. Kaupepee was transfixed by a spear. With his +last strength he aimed his javelin at the breast of a tall young chief who suddenly appeared before him,—aimed, but did not +throw; for he recognized in the face of the man before him the features of the woman he loved,—Hina. The javelin fell at his +side and he tumbled upon the earth, never to rise again. Every man in Haupu was killed, and its walls were levelled: Hina +was found in her cottage, and although she bewailed the death of her lover, she rejoiced in her restoration to her mother +and her sons. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1801" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Hawaiian Orpheus and Eurydice</h2> +<p>Upon the slopes of Hualalai, just under the clouds and among the fragrant sandal-woods, lived Hana and her son, Hiku. They +made their living by beating bark into cloth, which the woman took to the coast to swap for implements, for sea <a id="d0e1806"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1806">202</a>]</span>food, for sharp shells for scraping the bark, and she always went alone, leaving Hiku on the mountain to talk to the animals, +to paint pictures on the cloth, and to play on curious instruments he had made from gourds, reeds, and fibre, for he could +play music that made the birds stop in their flight to listen. The mother loved the son so much that she wished to keep him +by her so long as she lived, and that was why she never let him go with her to the shore. She believed that if he visited +the towns and tasted the joys of surf-riding, shared in the games of the athletes, and drank the beer they brewed down there, +and especially if he saw the pretty girls, he would never go back to his mountain home. And though Hiku wondered what life +was among the people on the shore, he was obedient and not ill content until he had passed his eighteenth birthday. + +</p> +<p>As he sat one evening with eyes fixed on the far-off sea, sparkling under the moon, the wind brought the hoarse call of the +surf and a faint sound of hula drums, and a sudden impulse came upon him to see the world for himself. He called to his mother +that he was going down the mountain. She tried with tears and prayers and warnings to stay him, but his resolution was taken, +and off he went, saying that he would be back again some day. Though he was as green as grass and untaught in the practices +of the settlements, Hiku was a fellow of parts. He was not long in making a place for himself in society, <a id="d0e1810"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1810">203</a>]</span>and his first proceeding was to tumble head over heels in love. His flame was Kawelu. She received him graciously, flung wreaths +of flower petals about his neck in the pretty fashion of her people when he called, as he did every day from sunrise until +dark; and when he could row a canoe and had learned how to swim and to coast over the breakers in her company, he had gained +paradise. + +</p> +<p>The day came, however, when these pleasures palled upon him, when he wondered if his mother had kept on sorrowing, when he +had a longing to see his old home, to breathe the pure, cool air of the hills. He was an impulsive fellow, so he kissed Kawelu +and told her that he must go away for a while; that she could not go with him, because his mother would probably dislike her. +He had not walked a mile before he discovered that Kawelu was following secretly. He increased his speed, yet still she followed, +and presently this persistence on her part began to anger him. The one thing he had taken from home was a magic staff that +would speak when questions were put to it, and the youth now asked what could be done to turn the girl homeward. It told him +to order vines to spring so thickly behind him that she could not break through, and they so sprang at his command. He could +no longer see Kawelu when he looked back, though he heard her voice calling softly, reproachfully, and when he reached home, +to the joy of his mother, he knew that the girl must have given up the pursuit, <a id="d0e1814"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1814">204</a>]</span>as she really had; for, discouraged by the steepness of the mountain and the ever-increasing tangle of vegetation, she returned +to her village. + +</p> +<p>This seeming indifference on the part of the young mountaineer was more than she could bear. She lost interest in sports and +work, fell into a lovesickness, and though her father, the chief, sacrificed many black pigs on her behalf, it was of no use,—she +died of a broken heart. They wrapped her body in the finest cloth, beaten by the widow and her son, and placed it, with many +lamentations, in a burial cave hard by. Such was the dismal news that Hana took to her son after she had been to the settlement +to sell a batch of fabric, and it filled Hiku with consternation, for he had intended to go back for the girl as soon as he +could reconcile his mother to the idea of a daughter-in-law. He realized what a fool and a brute he had been, and it was of +little use for him to tear out his hair and roll upon the ground in the way he did. He left his work and wandered among the +lava fields, muttering to himself, gesturing wildly, and beating his breast. Finally it occurred to him to ask his staff how +he could amend for his wrong-doing, and was told there was but one way: to rescue the girl from the place of the dead, in +the pit of Milu, on the other side of the island. + +</p> +<p>He lost no time in obeying this oracle, and on arriving at the wild and lonely spot he made a swing of morning-glory vine, +which here grows very long, <a id="d0e1820"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1820">205</a>]</span>and let himself down, having first smeared himself with rancid grease to make the shades believe he was dead. Thousands of +spirits were chasing butterflies and lizards in the twilight gloom of the place or lying under trees. He despaired of being +able to discover the spirit of Kawelu. But she had seen him; she hurried to him; she clasped him in a fond embrace; for she +had forgiven his wrong conduct, and now she was asking him, sympathetically, how he had died. He evaded an answer, but bestowed +on her a thousand endearments, the while he was slowly working his way up the vine, in which he affected to be merely swinging; +then, just as she began to show alarm at having been taken so far from her new home, he clapped a cocoanut shell over her +head and had her safe, a prisoner. + +</p> +<p>With the soul enclosed in the shell, he tramped back to her home, living on wild fruits and yams on the way, and on poi that +was offered to him by strangers whom he met. The chief received him and his news joyfully, but he did not know how to restore +a soul to a body until his oldest priest took the case in hand. Kawelu’s corpse was taken from the tomb, its shiny wrappings +were removed and incantations were performed about it. Then the priest raised a toe-nail, took the soul from the shell and +pressed it under the nail, working it upward with both hands. It passed the ankle and knee with difficulty, but was finally +pushed into place in the heart. Kawelu gasped, opened her <a id="d0e1824"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1824">206</a>]</span>eyes, sat up, embraced Hiku, and the people cried that their princess was alive again. There was a great pounding of drums, +much singing, dancing, and feasting; every one wore wreaths, and Hiku was praised without stint for his love and daring. The +lovers were married, never to part again. Kawelu remembered nothing of what had happened to her after she was turned back +by the vines on the mountain, and did not know that her soul had been among the dead. And though he might have taken a dozen +wives when he succeeded his father-in-law as chief, Hiku loved Kawelu so well that he never thought of taking even a second +helpmate. He brought his mother from her solitary hut on the mountain, and she and the bride became very fond of one another. +So all the days of Hiku and Kawelu thereafter were days of happiness. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1826" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Rebellion of Kamiole</h2> +<p>In the year 1170, or thereabout, Kanipahu was king of Hawaii. He was of Samoan origin, grandson of the builder of that temple +whose ruins are still to be seen at Puepa in walls over eight hundred feet around, twenty-six feet high, and eight feet thick +at the top. It is recorded that the stone for this construction was passed from hand to hand by a line of men reaching all +the way to Niuli, a matter of nine miles. Despite the improvements in building and other arts that had come in with the Samoans, +<a id="d0e1831"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1831">207</a>]</span>the Normans of this Pacific Britain; despite the centralizing of power that enabled them to break down the oppressions of +petty lords; despite the satisfaction of the common people, the aristocracy was restive, and sought constantly for excuses +to rouse their subjects against the new domination. Wikookoo, head of King Kanipahu’s army, having eloped with the sister +of Kamiole, a disaffected chief, the latter burst in upon the king’s privacy soon after with a demand for vengeance. He had +met the woman near the king’s house and had struck her dead, as he supposed, that she might not be “degraded” by bearing children +to a plebeian immigrant. + +</p> +<p>The king was a just and patient man, and kept his temper, in spite of the visitor’s harshness, not only to Wikookoo but to +all his people. Though he could have ordered him to be slain, he yielded to his general’s demand for permission to fight a +duel. The pair faced each other at fifty feet, hurled two spears without effect, then closed with javelins. Wikookoo was hurt, +and deeming that honor was satisfied the king ordered the fight to cease. Kamiole gave no heed to his words. He had a tiger’s +thirst for blood. Like a flash he leaped upon the fallen man and pounded the weapon into his heart. This rebellion against +the king and the savagery of the killing caused an outcry of rage and horror. The murderer’s chance was desperate. “Face down!” +commanded the king. This was the command to <a id="d0e1835"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1835">208</a>]</span>put the offender to death. A dozen sprang to execute the order. Kamiole tugged the javelin out of his foeman’s body and hurled +it at the king. It wounded a young man, who had flung himself in front of his liege, and in the confusion of the moment Kamiole +escaped, running like a deer through a shower of stones and darts, gaining his boat and sailing away for his native state +of Kau. + +</p> +<p>Blown with pride in his exploit, the rebel set about the raising of an army to drive the new people from the island. It needed +only a leader, like him, to urge disaffection into revolt, and not many weeks after nearly all Hawaii was on the march against +the king. Deserted by thousands of his followers, and being a man of peace, albeit having no lack of courage, the king withdrew +to the island of Molokai and became a simple farmer among a strange people. He was nearly seven feet in height,—a common stature +among men of the first families in that day,—and the neighbors marked him; but he stooped his shoulders and worked hard; so, +ere long, his appearance was not accounted strange. Kamiole was now the first man in Hawaii. He was not a reformer. Consumed +with pride, arrogant, brutal, brooking no opposition, he made enemies day by day. Only because the people had had enough of +war did they endure in silence, and hope for an illness or an accident to remove the now hateful tyrant. + +</p> +<p>Unknown to Kamiole, the sister he had struck <a id="d0e1841"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1841">209</a>]</span>down survived his assault, and bore a daughter to the late Wikookoo, a pretty maid, who, in good time, married the son of +the exiled king, a quiet, dreamy youth, who lived apart from his fellows in the interior of Hawaii, finding his company and +his employ in the woods and on the vast mountain slopes. Eighteen years had passed when this prince was rudely waked from +his idyllic life. An old priest, who alone knew the hiding-places of the king and his son, had tried to rouse the former to +reassert his rule. The king welcomed him and wished success to the movement for the overthrow of Kamiole, but he refused command +of his old army,—refused to return to Hawaii. “I am old,” said he, “and so bent that I can no longer look over the heads of +my people, as becomes a king. I am no longer served with dainties; in the noon heat no servant fans me or brings water; I +live in a hut and fare on coarse food; but, old friend, I eat with an appetite, I sleep like a tired and honest man; I have +forgotten ceremony and care, and I am happy. Not to be king of all these islands, and the islands of our fathers likewise, +would I return. See how blue the sky is, how fresh the trees and grass! What music in the roll of the ocean and in the birds’ +songs! What sweetness in the flowers!” + +</p> +<p>Wondering at this change in his former master, the priest dropped his hands in a gesture of despair. “Then our cause is lost,” +said he. + +</p> +<p>“Not so,” answered the king. “Go to my son. <a id="d0e1847"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1847">210</a>]</span>Tell him his father wishes him to reign. Untried as he is, he has my strength; he is resolute, he is wise, he loves justice. +He will head your men of war.” + +</p> +<p>The prince was found to be a willing leader. The arrogance of Kamiole, the decreasing liberties of the people, the thought +that the dictator had attempted the lives of his father and his wife’s parents, stirred in him resolves of vengeance. The +fickle masses that eighteen years before had overturned his dynasty now gathered under his standard, and battle was offered +at Anehomaloo. Kamiole had the fewer men, but the better position, being defended in front by a stone wall five feet high +that stretched across the plain, and at the back by a gorge too deep and steep, as he imagined, for an enemy to cross. The +fight was fierce and long, and thousands fell on both sides. The prince was cautious, however, for he was waiting the result +of a secret move: an assault on the rear of his foe by a large body of spearmen who were making a long detour to prevent detection +of this manœuvre. Presently he saw the stir and shimmer of arms on the hill beyond the chasm, and ordering a general charge +on Kamiole, kept him so occupied for a quarter of an hour that the advance from the hill was not observed until the detachment +had descended the ravine, clambered up again, and was now rushing upon the doomed army. Penned between two forces, Kamiole’s +men were beaten to the earth, and the battle ended in a massacre. +<a id="d0e1851"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1851">211</a>]</span></p> +<p>When the successful movement was made across the ravine the prince was astonished to see at the head of his troops in the +distance a stranger,—a tall, weathered, sinewy man with a mass of white beard and hair that flowed over his chest and shoulders,—who +hewed a passage through the battling legion with a club that few men could have lifted. After the fight this stranger stood +long before the fallen Kamiole and looked into his fading eyes. As the prince hastened to the dying tyrant, his princess followed +with a calabash of water; for in those times women accompanied their husbands and brothers to the field, waiting at a little +distance to dress their wounds and supply food and drink. His stature had enabled her to keep him in sight, and she was now +about to offer the drink to him, when Kamiole, though he had never before seen his niece, appeared to recognize her voice, +and faintly exclaimed, “Iola!” + +</p> +<p>“My mother’s name!” cried the princess, in surprise. “Then you must be her brother.” Dropping on her knees at his side, she +gave the water to Kamiole. The dying man extended his hands toward her and drew a deep breath,—his last. + +</p> +<p>The prince, who had been smiling at this unusual mercy to an enemy, now looked up and caught the eye of the stranger fixed +intently upon him. “By whose arm did Kamiole fall?” he asked. + +</p> +<p>“By mine,” replied the white-haired man. + +</p> +<p>“Are you a god?” asked the prince, a sense of <a id="d0e1862"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1862">212</a>]</span>awe creeping over him as he noted the strength and dignity of this form. + +</p> +<p>“I am Kanipahu,—your father.” + +</p> +<p>And among the heaped dead the two embraced. Having seen his son enthroned and peace restored, the old king refused all offers +and persuasions, and went back to Molokai to end his days in peace as a simple farmer. The prince, whose name was Kalapana, +and who was the ancestor of the great Kamehameha, reigned tranquilly and died lamented. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1868" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Japanese Sword</h2> +<p>More than two centuries before Columbus reached America on its Atlantic side a Japanese junk visited the western shore. The +tradition is too vague to specify whether the navigators attempted a landing or not, but as their boat was small and could +not have been provisioned for a voyage of thousands of miles, it is probable that they took on fresh supplies of food and +water before they put about and started on the homeward journey. They never saw Japan again, for their vessel went to wreck +on Maui, whose king personally rescued five of them,—three men and two women. This was the second appearance in the Hawaiian +islands of “white people with shining eyes.” When the captain of the junk reached the shore he still carried the keen sword +of steel he had girded on in the expectation of an attack from savages. There was no attack. He and <a id="d0e1873"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1873">213</a>]</span>his mates were received with kindness, and provided with houses, although they shocked the multitude by their ignorance of +the taboo, the men and women eating from the same dishes. It was explained that their gods were poor, half-enlightened creatures, +and that it was as well to let them alone until they should learn truth and manners. + +</p> +<p>In time these castaways took Mauians to husband and wife, the captain’s sister marrying the king himself, but the captain +was held in superstitious reverence because of his sword. The natives had daggers, knives, axes, adzes, hammers, and spears +of stone, bone, shark teeth, and fire-hardened wood, but metals were unknown to them, and this long, glittering blade, that +cut a javelin stem as the javelin would crack a rib, was a daily wonder. It was the common belief on that island that whoever +wielded the weapon would win a victory, though his enemies should be thousands in number. This belief was comforting, but +it did not last, for Kalaunui, king of Hawaii, undertook in the year 1260 the subjugation of the whole group, and although +his force was defeated with great slaughter on Kauai, he had subdued Maui, Oahu, and Molokai, for the time being, with his +fleet of two thousand well-manned, well-armed canoes. + +</p> +<p>In the great fight on Maui the Japanese warrior fought to the last, but was struck down by a Hawaiian captain, one Kaulu, +who buried the precious sword on the spot where he had taken it, and recovered it by <a id="d0e1879"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1879">214</a>]</span>starlight. Knowing that the king would demand it if it were seen, he gave it in charge of his mother Waahia, a seer of such +renown and verity that she accompanied the army at the request of its leaders. The old woman concealed the blade in the hollow +of a rock. Unhappily for her cause, she had not foreseen the result of this campaign, for the expedition met its Waterloo +on the shores of Kauai, hundreds of the men being drowned or slain by slings and javelins before a landing could be made. +King Kalaunui was made prisoner, the kings of Maui, Oahu, and Molokai, whom he had taken with him as hostages for the surrender +of their islands when he should return, were released, and a remnant of the invading force, under lead of Kaulu, returned. +The queen was filled with wrath at the failure of this expedition, and rebuked Kaulu for treachery and cowardice,—Kaulu, who +had stood by his lord to the moment of his capture, and who had wrested the magic sword from its owner. + +</p> +<p>Burning under this charge, he sought his mother and asked what he should do to disprove it. She replied that he should not +only be cleared by the king himself, but he should marry the king’s daughter. The queen began at once to negotiate for the +release of her husband. That monarch was confined in a hut, surrounded by a stone wall and strongly guarded, but was, nevertheless, +treated with the respect and distinction worthy of the Napoleon that he was. A fleet of canoes with many spears <a id="d0e1883"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1883">215</a>]</span>was offered in exchange; but, with the spoils of battle still in their possession, the victors only smiled at this. Next came +an offer of twenty feather cloaks, with stone axes, ivory, and whalebone; but this, too, was rejected. A third proposition +by the queen was that the ruler of Kauai should wed her daughter and agree to a perpetual peace. This came to nothing. Several +attempts were made to renew the war, but they fell flat, for the experience had been too bitter and the people refused. Three +years thus passed,—a time sufficient to convince the queen of her political weakness. She had almost resigned hope when old +Waahia sought an audience at court, and said, when she had received permission to break the taboo and speak before the councillors, +that she, and she alone, could rescue the king, but she would not undertake this unless the chiefs would promise to grant +her request, whatever it might be, on their lord’s return. + +</p> +<p>This pledge they gave with the understanding that it was not to affect life or sovereignty or possessions, and the seer left +for Kauai, with but a single oarsman, in the morning. She arrived while the new-year festivities were in progress, and everybody +was in good-humor. There were music, dancing, chanting of poems and traditions, feasting, and much swigging of spirits, not +to speak of indulgences that would have shocked civilization. Unannounced, a weird-like, commanding figure, Waahia sought +the presence of the court. She had come, she said, to <a id="d0e1887"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1887">216</a>]</span>make a final offer for the release of the royal prisoner: the offer of a sword that flashed like fire, that was harder than +stone, that broke spears like reeds, that gave to its owner supreme fortune and supreme command. The fame of the bright knife +had gone abroad ere this, and an offer had at last been made that carried persuasion with it. The liberty of the king was +promised when it should be brought. But first she wished the prisoner’s assurance that on his return he would give his daughter +in marriage to her son, since the young people loved each other, and the marriage would also remove the disgrace that the +queen had angrily tried to fix upon Kaulu. + +</p> +<p>This was agreed to, and a few days later the old woman reappeared at the palace with the splendid weapon,—one that would still +be splendid, for such blades are not made nowadays,—and with general rejoicing at the possession of this wonder, the chiefs +liberated Kalaunui, and he returned to Hawaii, cured of ambition for leadership and military glory. His daughter was married +to Kaulu, captain of the royal guard, and kings were their descendants. For many years the glittering prize remained with +the ruling house of Kauai, but its virtue had fled when the invincible Kamehameha undertook the conquest of the islands and +their union under a single king, for he succeeded in that enterprise, as Kalaunui had not. + + + +<a id="d0e1891"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1891">217</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1892" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Lo-Lale’s Lament</h2> +<p>Lo-Lale, a prince of Oahu in the fifteenth century, took no joy in the sea after the girl had been drowned in it who was betrothed +to him. Retiring inland, he led a quiet, thoughtful life, to the regret of those who had looked to see him show some fitness +in leadership, for as youth verged toward middle age he was repeatedly besought to marry, that his princely line might be +continued. Tired of these importunities, and possibly not averse to the lightening of his spirit, he consented that a wife +should be sought for him, and appointed his handsome, dashing cousin, Kalamakua, as his agent in the choice. The cousin sailed +at once for Maui, where rumor said a young woman of rare beauty was living at the court, whose hand had been sought by a dozen +chiefs. On arriving near the shore of the king’s domain the messenger and his rowers were startled by the uprising from the +waves of a laughing, handsome face, and behold! the woman who introduced herself in this unusual fashion was the one they +sought: Kelea, the king’s sister. She had been surf-riding on her board, and in the delight of swimming had ventured farther +from shore than usual. + +</p> +<p>The captain of the canoe helped this dusky Venus to rise completely from the sea, and as she did not wish to return at once, +he put his boat at her service for the exhilarating and risky sport of coasting the breakers; but putting far out to meet +a wave of uncommon <a id="d0e1899"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1899">218</a>]</span>size, they were struck by a squall and blown so far that they found it easier to put in for shelter near the home of Lo-Lale +than to return to Maui. The storm, the spray, the chilling gusts, compelled Kelea to sit close in the shelter of Kalamakua’s +sturdy form. He levied on the scant draperies of his crew for cloth to keep her warm, and all the men dined scantily that +she might be fed. It is not strange that a friendship was born on that voyage between the two people who had been so oddly +introduced. Lo-Lale had never heard of John Alden and Myles Standish, principally, no doubt, because they had not been born, +but it must be allowed in his behalf, or in hers, that he had never seen the damsel whom he was courting thus by proxy. When +he did behold her he was vastly pleased, and as he appeared in all the paraphernalia of his rank and instituted in her honor +a series of feasts and entertainments unparalleled in Oahu, the consent of Kelea to a speedy marriage was obtained, a courteous +notice to that effect being sent to her relatives, who had mourned for her as lost in the storm. He built a temple and adorned +it with a statue as a thank-offering for having blown so fair a bride to his domain. No prettier compliment could be paid +to a wife, even by a white man. + +</p> +<p>For a time Kelea was content. Lo-Lale was a kind husband, and he was constantly studying to advance her happiness, but he +was meditative and silent; he loved the woody solitudes, while she was fond of company, babble, sport, and especially of <a id="d0e1903"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1903">219</a>]</span>swimming and surf-riding. Presently it was noticed that she laughed less. She did not welcome Lo-Lale when he returned from +his walks or his communings with Nature on the hills. The voice of the sea was calling her,—and the voice of Kalamakua. A +separation had to come. It was without any spoken bitterness. The husband wished her well, bestowed on her some parting gifts, +and sent her to the shore in a palanquin borne by four men and attended by a guard of three hundred, as became her station. +Kalamakua was waiting on the beach,—Kalamakua, handsome, reckless, ardent. She never returned to Maui. Though Lo-Lale resumed +his old, still way and kept his dignity and countenance before his people, his lament, that has been preserved by the treasurers +of island traditions for more than four centuries, discovers a pang in his heart deeper than he could or would have voiced +when he parted from his wife. The English version is by King Kalakaua: + + +</p> +<div class="
 poem
 "> +<p class="line" style=""><span>“Farewell, my partner on the lowland plains, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>On the waters of Pohakeo, above Kanehoa, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>On the dark mountain spur of Mauna-una! +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>O, Lihue, she is gone! +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Sniff the sweet scent of the grass, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The sweet scent of the wild vines +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>That are twisted by Waikoloa, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>By the winds of Waiopua, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>My flower! +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>As if a mote were in my eye. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The pupil of my eye is troubled. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Dimness covers my eyes. Woe is me!”</span></p> +</div><a id="d0e1930"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1930">220</a>]</span></div> +<div id="d0e1931" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Resurrections of Kaha</h2> +<p>Kaha was granddaughter of the Wind and the Rain, whose home is still among the vapory darks that settle in the valley of Manoa, +back of Honolulu, her remote ancestors being the mountain Akaaka and the Cape Nalehuaakaaka. She was of such beauty that light +played about her when she bathed, a rosy light such as the setting sun paints on eastern clouds, and an amber glow hovered +above the roof that sheltered her. From infancy she had been betrothed to Kauhi, a young chief whom every one supposed to +be worthy of her, because his parentage was high, and he could name more grandfathers than he had toes and fingers. He did +not deserve this esteem, for he was not only cruel and jealous, but spoiled, petulant, and thick-headed. His qualities were +exhibited on his very first meeting with his promised bride, for neither had seen the other until reaching marriageable age. +Two braggarts, who were so ill formed and ugly that their boasts of winning ladies’ favor would have been taken by any one +else for lies, declared, in Kauhi’s hearing, that they were lovers of Kaha, and they wore wreaths of flowers which they said +she had hung over their shoulders. + +</p> +<p>Setting his teeth with a vengeful scowl and wrenching a stout branch from a tree, the prince strode over to the house of his +bride-to-be. She received <a id="d0e1938"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1938">221</a>]</span>him modestly and pleasantly, and her beauty struck him into such an amazement that he could not at first find words to express +the charge he wished to make. At last, by turning his back, he managed to speak his base and foolish thought. She, thinking +this a jest, at first made light of it, but when he faced her once more, frowning this time, like a thunder-cloud, and brandishing +the cudgel above his head, she was filled with fear and could hardly keep her feet. She denied the charge. She begged that +he would tell the names of her accusers that she might prove her innocence. + +</p> +<p>“You are fair to see and to hear, but you are as fickle as your parents. I will have no such woman for a wife,” shouted the +chief, lashing himself into a rage. She extended her arms appealingly. He struck her on the temple, and she fell dead. He +had gone but a mile or so when her voice was heard in song behind him, and the fall of her steps on the path. To his astonishment, +she now appeared bearing no mark of injury, save that the rough way had cut her feet, and again she besought him to say on +whose charge he had so foully wronged her in his thought, and why he wished to kill her. His answer was another blow, more +savage than the first, and this time there was no doubt that he left her dead. Yet, before he had gone another mile, her lamenting +song was heard; she came to him, and he struck her down again. Five times this monster laid the defenceless girl a corpse, +and the last time <a id="d0e1942"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1942">222</a>]</span>he scraped a hole under the tough roots of a tree, crowded her body into it, covered it with earth, and went on to Waikiki +without further interruption. + +</p> +<p>The owl-god had been Kaha’s friend. After each stroke he had flown to her, rubbed his head against the bruised and broken +temple, and restored her to life. To drag her from under the tangled roots was beyond his strength, and he flapped away into +the depths of the wood, filled with sadness that such beauty had been lost to the world. But it was not lost. The girl’s spirit +could not rest under the false accusal that had caused her death. All bloody and disfigured, her ghost presented itself before +Mahana, a young warrior of the nearest town, with whom she had in life exchanged a kind though casual word or two, and understanding, +through his own deep but unspoken love, the reason for this visitation, he hurried after the phantom as it drifted back to +the tree. The disturbed earth and the splashes of blood explained enough. He set to work vigorously, exhumed the body while +it was still warm, and holding it close to his breast, with eyes fixed on the hurt but lovely face, he carried it to his home. + +</p> +<p>Once more the gods befriended her and restored Kaha to life. For many days she was ill and weak, and throughout those days +it was Mahana’s delight to serve her, to talk with her, to sit at her side, and hold her hand. This life of love and tenderness +<a id="d0e1948"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1948">223</a>]</span>was a new and delightful one; yet she sorrowfully declared that she must become the wife of Kauhi, because her parents had +so intended. The lover was not content with this. He made a visit to Kauhi, and in the course of their talk he mentioned, +as the merest matter of fact, the visit of the famous beauty to his home. Kauhi pooh-poohed this. He was sure of the girl’s +death. Mahana adroitly kept the conversation on this theme until Kauhi lost his temper, confessed that he had killed Kaha +for faithlessness, and swore that the woman whom Mahana sheltered was a spirit or an impostor. He would wager his life that +it was so. The lover took the wager. It was agreed that the loser should be roasted alive. A number of chiefs, priests, and +elderly men were assembled, and the girl was brought into their presence. It was no spirit that bent the grass and fixed on +the quailing ruffian that look of soft reproach. No impostor could boast such beauty. Kauhi tried to exonerate his conduct +by repeating the falsehoods of the two men who claimed to have received her favors. They were dragged before the assembly, +confronted by the innocent Kaha, made confession, and were ordered to the ovens, where Kauhi also went to his death, vaunting +to the last. The lands and fish-ponds of this chief, who had no owl-god to resurrect his ashes, were, with general acclaim, +awarded to Mahana, and as chief he ruled happily for many years with the fair Kaha for his wife. + + + +<a id="d0e1950"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1950">224</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1951" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Hawaiian Ghosts</h2> +<p>Hawaii has its “haunts” and “spooks,” just as do some countries that do not believe in such things. One of the spectres troubles +a steep slope near Lihue, Kauai. An obese and lazy chief ordered one of his retainers to carry him to the top of the slope +on his shoulders. It was a toilsome climb, the day was hot, hence it is no wonder that just before he gained the summit the +man staggered, fell, and sent his dignified and indignant lord sprawling on the rocks. This was a fatal misstep, for the chief +ran the poor fellow through with his spear. And the ghost possibly laments because it did not drop its burden sooner and with +more emphasis. + +</p> +<p>Another place that the natives avoid is the Sugar Loaf on Wailua River, Kauai. Hungry robbers broke a taboo and ate some bananas +that had been consecrated to a local god, Kamalau. Missing the fruit, the deity turned himself into the rock known as the +Sugar Loaf, which is sixty feet high, that he might watch his plantation without being identified. The thieves noticed the +rock, however, could not recall that it had been there on the day before, and suspecting something kept away. The sister of +the god, believing him to be lost, leaped into the river and became a stone herself. And so, having rid themselves of the +flesh, these two are free to wander in the spirit. +<a id="d0e1958"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1958">225</a>]</span></p> +<p>Another deity that is occasionally seen is Kamehameha’s large war god, from his temple in Hawaii, that even in his lifetime +would leave its pedestal and thrash among the trees like a lost comet. + +</p> +<p>At Honuapo, Hawaii, is the rock Kaverohea, jutting into the sea, where at night a murdered wife calls to her jealous husband, +assuring him of her love and innocence. The voice is oftenest heard when a great disaster is at hand: war, storm, earthquake, +the death of a chief, or a season of famine. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1963" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Three Wives of Laa</h2> +<p>Laa, a young man of distinguished family, who had gone to Raiatea in his boyhood, returned a number of years after to visit +his foster-father, Moikeha, then chief of Kauai. The boats that were sent for him were painted yellow, the royal color, and +Laa was invested in a feather robe that had cost a hundred people a year of labor, and caused the killing of at least ten +thousand birds, since the mamo had but one yellow feather under each wing. Hawaiian millinery was, therefore, as cruel a business +as it became in America several centuries later. When this favorite scion landed his path was strewn with flowers, and the +feasts in his honor lasted for a month. He had agreed to go back to Raiatea, for he had been accepted there as heir-apparent, +yet it was thought a pity that his line should cease in his native land; and while he felt that for state reasons he must +<a id="d0e1968"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1968">226</a>]</span>take a Raiatea woman for his queen,—for the people there would never consent to his carrying home a Hawaiian to help rule +over them,—he cheerfully consented to take a temporary wife during his stay in Kauai. His house and grounds were, therefore, +decorated, the nobility was assembled, musicians and poets and dancers were engaged, and a great feast was ordered, when a +hitch arose over the choice of a bride. Each of the three leading priests had a marriageable daughter of beauty and proud +descent. How were their claims to be settled? Easily enough, as it fell out. Laa married all three on the same day, and before +his departure for Raiatea each wife on the same day presented a son to him. From these three sons sprang the governing families +of Oahu and Kauai. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e1970" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Misdoing of Kamapua</h2> +<p>When a child was born to Olopana, a lord of Oahu, in the twelfth century, he conceived a dislike to it, and freely alleged +that his brother was its father. Such as dared to speak ill of dignitaries, and there were gossips in those days, as in all +other, chuckled, at safe distance, that if Olopana’s suspicions were correct, the boy should have somewhat of his—er—uncle’s +good looks and pleasant manner, whereas he was hairy, ill-favored, and, as his nature disclosed itself with increasing years, +violent, thievish, treacherous; in short, he was Olopana at his <a id="d0e1975"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1975">227</a>]</span>worst. Every day added to the bad feeling between the boy and his father, for when he had grown old enough to appreciate the +position to which he had been born, the youngster repaid the hate of his parent, and strove to deserve it. Vain the attempt +of the mother to make peace between them and direct her offspring into paths of rectitude. In contempt, the chief put the +name of Kamapua, or hog-child, on the boy, and in some of the older myths he actually figures as a half-monster with a body +like that of a man, but with the head of a boar. + +</p> +<p>Kamapua gathered the reckless and incorrigible boys of the neighborhood about him, and the band became a terror by night, +for in the dark they broke the taboo and heads as well, stripped trees of their fruit, stole swine and fowls, staved in the +bottoms of canoes, cut trees, and in order to look as bad as he felt, the leader cropped his hair and his beard (when one +came to him) to the shortness of an inch, tattooed the upper half of his body in black, and wore a hog-skin over his shoulders +with bristles outward. On attaining his majority he left his parents, taking with him some of his reprobates, and set up in +life as a brigand, making his home in lonely defiles of the hills, and subsisting almost entirely by pillage. Several attempts +were made to catch him, and a local legend at Hauula has it that when close pressed by an angry crowd he turned himself into +a monstrous hog, made a bridge of himself across a narrow chasm, so that his <a id="d0e1979"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1979">228</a>]</span>companions could run over on his back, scrambled on after them, and so escaped. + +</p> +<p>The neighbors endured these goings-on until Kamapua had added murder to his other crimes, when they resolved that he was no +longer a subject for public patience. An army was sent against him, most of his associates were killed, he was caught, and +was taken before his father for judgment. Olopana sternly ordered that he be given as a sacrifice to the gods. His mother +was in despair at this, for though he was a most unworthy fellow, a nuisance, a danger, still, he was her son, and she loved +him better than her life. She bribed the priests, whose duty it was to slay him, and they, having smeared him with chicken-blood, +laid him on the altar. The eye that was gouged from the body of a victim, and offered to the chief who made the sacrifice, +was in this case the eye of a pig. Olopana did not even pretend to eat this relic, as he should have done, to follow custom, +but flung it aside and gazed with satisfaction at the gory features of the man who was shamming death. He had turned to leave +the temple when Kamapua leaped from the altar, picked up the bone dagger with which a feint had been made of cutting out his +eye and stabbed his father repeatedly in the back. At the sight of a corpse butchering their chief the people fled in panic, +the priests, awe-struck at the result of their corruption, hid themselves, and the murderer, so soon as he was sure that Olopana +was dead, hurried away, assembled <a id="d0e1983"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1983">229</a>]</span>the forty surviving members of his band, leaped into his canoe, and left Oahu forever. + +</p> +<p>He landed at Kauai, on the cliff of Kipukai, and remembering a well of sweet water on its side, he sought for it, up and down, +and back and forth, for he had a raging thirst. Two spirits of the place, knowing him to be evil, had concealed the spring +under a mass of shrubbery that he might not pollute it; but he found it, and as he drank he saw their figures reflected in +the surface, despite their concealment in the shadow, and heard their laughter at his greed and his uncouthness. That angered +him. He sprang up, chased them through the wood, caught them, and with a swing of his great arms hurled them to the hill across +the valley, where they became stone and art seen to this day. So ill did he behave in Kauai, assailing innocent people and +destroying their taro patches, that they determined to despatch him, and in order to have him under their advantage it was +resolved to fence him in near Hanalei. The wall of mountain now existing there is the fence. Just before it was finished the +prince in charge of the work sat to rest in a gap which admits the present road. He heard a harsh laugh, and looking up saw +Kamapua sitting on the top of Hoary Head. A running fight ensued, in which the outlaw escaped across the mountain, and the +prince, hurling his spear, but missing his mark, sent the weapon through the crest of the peak, making the remarkable window +that is one of the sights of the island. And <a id="d0e1987"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1987">230</a>]</span>now, when a cloud rests on this mountain, the people say that Kamapua is sitting there. + +</p> +<p>Some years before this Pele and her brothers had migrated from the far southern islands and had made their home in Hawaii, +close to the crater of Kilauea,—so close that they were believed to be under the special protection of the gods; and from +that belief no doubt grew the later faith that Pele and her family were gods themselves; that they lived in the cones thrust +up from the floor of Kilauea by gas and steam while it was in a viscid state; that the music of their dances came up in thunder +gusts, and that they swam the white surges of lava in the hell-pit. + +</p> +<p>Having heard of the beauty of this woman, Kamapua resolved to abduct her, and after a visit, in which the usual courtesies +and hospitalities were observed, but which he paid in order to estimate the strength of her following, he attacked the outlying +huts of the village in the night and killed their occupants, intending to follow this assault by surrounding Pele’s house +and forcing the surrender of all within: but hearing the outcry in the distance and divining its meaning, she and her brothers +hastily gathered weapons and provisions and fled to a cave in the hills three miles away. There was a sufficient spring in +this place, and the entrance was defended by heavy blocks. The fugitives could have endured a siege of a week with little +likelihood of loss. In the morning a dog, following their scent, led Kamapua to this stronghold. An attack costing several +<a id="d0e1993"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1993">231</a>]</span>lives on his side, and making no effect on those entrenched within, convinced him that it was useless to expect success from +this method, so he piled fuel against the entrance and set it afire, hoping to suffocate the defenders to unconsciousness, +when he would force his way to the interior and rescue Pele. Here again he failed, for a strong draft blowing from the cave +carried the smoke into his own face. Then he ordered a hole to be cut in the cavern roof, for this appeared to be not more +than fifteen or twenty feet thick, and being friable was easily worked by the stone drills and axes of his men. The workers +plied their tools industriously, while Kamapua shouted threats and defiance through the chinks in the wall before the cavern +door. + +</p> +<p>His taunts were vain. While the sinking of the shaft was in progress, a strange new power was coming upon Pele. The gods of +the earth and air had seen this assault and had resolved to take her part. The sky became overcast with brown, unwholesome-looking +clouds, the ground grew hot and parched, vegetation drooped and withered, birds flew seaward with cries of distress, and a +waiting stillness fell upon the world. Kamapua had cut away ten feet of rock, when the voice of Pele was heard in long, shrill +laughter, dying in far recesses of the mountain, as if she were flying through passages of immense length. The hills began +to shake; vast roarings were beard; a choking fume of sulphur filled the air, dust rolled upward, making a darkness like <a id="d0e1997"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1997">232</a>]</span>the night; then, with a crash like the bursting of a world, the top of Kilauea was blown toward the heavens in an upward shower +of rock; a fierce glow colored the ash-clouds that volleyed from the crater, and down the valley came pouring a flood of lava, +a river of white fire, crested with the flame of burning forests, as with foam. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e2000" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p3.jpg" alt="Down the Valley came Pouring a Flood of Lava." width="566" height="409"><p class="figureHead">Down the Valley came Pouring a Flood of Lava.</p> +</div><p> + + +</p> +<p>Kamapua and his bandits fled, but again he heard the laughter, this time from the crater, which Pele had reached from within, +and was now mounting, free, vaulting through the clouds, revelling in the heat and blaze and din, and hurling rocks and thunderbolts +at the intruder. At the ocean’s edge the lava was still close at his heels. Its heat blistered his skin. He had no time to +reach his boats. With his spear he struck a mighty blow on the ground and cracked the mountain to its base, so that the ocean +flowed in, and a fearful fight of fire and sea began. Steam shot for miles into the air, with vast geysers leaping through +it, and the hiss and screech and bellow were appalling. The crater filled with water, so that Pele and her brothers had to +drink it dry, lest the fires should be quenched. When they had done this they resumed the attack on Kamapua, emptying the +mountain of its ash and molten rock, and hurling tons of stone after the wretch, who was now straining every muscle to force +his boat far enough to sea to insure his safety. He did not retaliate this time, but was glad to make his escape; for Pele +had come to her godhood at last. + + + +<a id="d0e2006"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2006">233</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2007" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Pele’s Hair</h2> +<p>Fiercest, though loveliest, of all the gods is Pele, she whose home is in Kilauea, greatest of the world’s volcanoes. When +this mountain lights the heavens, when lava pours from its miles of throat, when stone bombs are hurled at the stars, when +its ash-clouds darken the sun and moon, when there are thunders beneath the earth, and the houses shake, then does this spirit +of the peak, in robes of fire, ride the hot blast and shriek in the joy of destruction,—a valkyrie of the war of nature. Kanakas +try to keep on the good side of this torrid divinity by secret gifts, either of white chickens or of red ohelo berries, and +an old man once put into a guide’s hand the bones of a child that he might throw them down the inner crater,—Halemaumau, the +House of Eternal Burning, whose ruddy lava cones are homes of the goddess and her family. The dogs sacrificed to Pele, when +human victims were scant, were nursed at the breasts of slaves, and the priests and virgins received as their portion, after +the killing, the heart and liver. Next to her eyes, of piercing brightness, the most striking thing in the aspect of this +deity is her wealth of hair, silky, shining red in the glow, and shaken from her head in a cloud-like spread as of flame. +When the eruption is at an end and a sullen peace follows the outbreak, tufts <i>of</i> this hair are found in hollows for miles around. Birds gather it for their nests, and <a id="d0e2015"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2015">234</a>]</span>unfearing visitors collect it for cabinets and museums. + +</p> +<p>Science tells us that Pele’s hair is a molten glass; threads of pumice: a stony froth. When a mighty blast occurs, or when +steam escapes through the boiling mass, particles of pumice shred off in the upward flight, or are wire-drawn by winds that +rage over the earth. These viscid threads cool quickly in that chill altitude, and float down again. They can be artificially +made by passing jets of steam through the slag of iron furnaces while it is in a melted state, the product, which resembles +raw cotton, being used, in place of asbestos, for the packing of boilers, steam-pipes, and the like. To such base uses might +the goddess’ shining locks be put, if she tore them out in large enough handfuls during the carnival of fire and earthquake; +but they are not found in quantities to justify this search by commercial-minded persons, and conservative Kanakas might be +alarmed by thought of revenges which Pele would visit on them should they misuse her hair as the foreign heathen do. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2019" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Prayer to Pele</h2> +<p>Although Pele is the most terrible of deities, she can be kind. If a village makes sacrifices to her she is liable at any +hour to continue to keep the peace. Otherwise, she loses her temper and pours out floods of lava or showers of ashes on <a id="d0e2024"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2024">235</a>]</span>the neglectful people, or dries their springs and wastes their farms. Sacrifices of unhappy beings were made to her whenever +the volcano spirits began to growl, the victims being bound and thrown into the crater of the threatening mountain. Princess +Kapiolani was probably the first native to protest against these sacrifices, and in 1824, after her conversion to Christianity, +she gave an instructive exhibition by defying the taboo of Kilauea, eating the berries growing on the sides of the peak, in +defiance of the priestly order, and throwing rocks contemptuously into the pit. + +</p> +<p>Pele is the Venus of the islands, and is of wondrous beauty when she takes a human form, as she does, now and again, when +she falls in love with some Mars or Adonis of the native race, or when she intends to engage in coasting down the slippery +mountain sides,—a sport of which she is fond. As always with distinguished company, you must let your competitor win, if you +fancy that it is Pele in disguise who is your rival in a toboggan contest; for a chief of Puna having once suffered himself +to distance her, she revengefully emptied a sea of lava from the nearest crater and forced him to fly the region. Many tales +of her amours survive. Kamehameha the Great was among her most favored lovers. It was to help him to a victory that she suffocated +a part of the army of his enemy with steam and sulphur fumes. + +</p> +<p>It fared less happily with the debonnair Prince <a id="d0e2030"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2030">236</a>]</span>Kaululaau when he attempted force in his wooing. He found Pele watching the surf-riders at Keauhou, and was ravished by her +loveliness. Her skirt glittered with crystal, her mantle was colored like a rainbow, bracelets of shell circled her wrists +and ankles, her hair was held in a wreath of flowers. His admiration was not returned. She was contemptuous toward him,—one +could almost say cold, but Pele was seldom that, for when the young chief approached, the earth about her was blistering hot +and he was compelled to dance. With his magic spear he dissipated her power for a little and lowered the temperature she had +inflamed the very earth withal. So soon, however, as she had regained her freedom, and had passed beyond the influence of +this spear, she undertook to avenge herself by opening the gates of the mountain and letting loose a deluge of lava. Again +with his spear-point Kaululaau drew lines on the ground, beyond which the deadly torrent could not pass, and through the hot +air, amid the rain of ashes and the belching of sulphurous steam, he regained his canoe and escaped. + +</p> +<p>Only so far back as 1882 this goddess was petitioned by one of the faithful, and with effect. Mauna Loa was in eruption. A +river of lava twenty-five miles long was creeping down the slope and was threatening the town of Hilo. The people raised walls +and breaks of stone to deflect this stream; they dug pits across its course to check it, but without avail. The vast flow +of melted rock kept on, lighting <a id="d0e2034"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2034">237</a>]</span>the skies, charring vegetation at a distance, and filling the air with an intolerable heat. Princess Ruth, a descendant of +Kamehameha, was appealed to. She hated the white race, and would have seen with little emotion the destruction of all the +European and American intruders in Hilo; but it was her own people who were most in danger, so she answered, “I will save +the Hilo fish-ponds. Pele will hear a Kamehameha.” A steamer was obtained for her, and with many attendants she sailed from +Honolulu to the threatened point. Climbing the slope behind the village, she built an altar close to the advancing lava, cast +offerings upon the glowing mass, and solemnly prayed for the salvation of Hilo. That night the lava ceased to flow. It still +forms a shining bulwark about the menaced town. The princess sailed back to Honolulu, and the faithful asked the Christians +why the pagan divinity alone had answered the many prayers. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2036" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Lohiau and the Volcano Princess</h2> +<p>With gods, as with men, who would speed his affairs must keep them in his own hands. Pele, the volcano goddess, fell in love +with Lohiau, a Kauaian prince, and in human guise remained with him so long that her sisters were afraid the Kilauea fires +would go out. The prince took an illness, and appeared to die, ere the honeymoon was over, so, wrapped in cloth of bark, he +was put under guard to <a id="d0e2041"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2041">238</a>]</span>lie in state. When Pele had gone back alone to her mountain home a longing came upon her to feel the young man’s arms about +her once more and hear the words of love he had such a pretty talent for telling. But, instead of going herself, she sent +her sister Hiika to rescue his soul and bring it to her. This was a mistake, for the sister was not a serious creature. Stopping +to brave the devils and giant lizards of the woods, turning the boards of surf-riders to stone for a prank, and scaring a +fisherman by causing him to pull a human head out of the sea, the sister next found a half-released spirit hovering near a +dying chief. She tied it in a corner of her skirt and slapped the skirt against a rock, so the chief finished his dying promptly. +In Kauai, at last, her search was rewarded. She saw the ghost of Lohiau beckoning from a cave, in which it had been imprisoned +by demons, who fled, hissing, on her approach. She broke the bars of moonbeam that confined it, tied it in her skirt, carried +it to its body, restored the prince to life, then led him to Hawaii and with him scaled the mountain where Pele was waiting +in great dudgeon. For Hiika had been gone so long on this journey that a wrong construction had been put on her delay. Lohiau +and Hiika had, indeed, learned to esteem each other, but they had not violated the trust imposed in them by the goddess. + +</p> +<p>Pele was madly jealous, however. She turned the prince to stone on the crater brink,—the poor fellow was growing used to dying +now,—and, dismayed <a id="d0e2045"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2045">239</a>]</span>by this act of cruelty, Hiika descended through the five spheres to the dark underworld where the spirits lived. She hoped +that the young man’s ghost would follow her, for pity in his sufferings had fast increased to love. As the spirit did not +come, she returned to the surface of the earth and went on a voyage of search in a boat that a god had lent to her,—a boat +of cowrie shell, which in overland travel would shrink so that it could be carried in the hand; then, at the word, would swell +to a stately barge of pearl with ivory masts and sails as white as the snow on the mountain. This vessel moved with the speed +of the wind in any direction the occupant indicated by pointing the finger. The prince’s wandering spirit was found in Kauai, +its old home; was taken by a messenger to the stone image on the crater, and put back into the body, and the prince lived +again. Pele was by this time in a soft and repentant humor. She asked forgiveness of Lohiau and bade him love and wed her +sister, who was good, and had earned his love. This Lohiau did, whereupon Pele restored to life several of Hiika’s friends +whom, also, in her first anger, she had turned to statues of lava. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2047" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">A Visit of Pele</h2> +<p>While a great storm was raging over Hawaii a boy was born to a woman chief in the camp of King Alapai. At once the soothsayers +proclaimed him as the man of prophecy who should <a id="d0e2052"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2052">240</a>]</span>conquer the eight islands and end their strifes. It seemed as if for once—or oftener—the kahunas were wrong, for the babe +disappeared that very night. There were rumors of foul play; rumors that Alapai had killed him, that he might not stand in +the way of his own progeny, for this barbarian Macbeth would have no Banquo to intercept his line or wrest the crown from +him. It was five years before the fate of the child was known. He was not dead: Naole, a chief, had kidnapped him that the +prophecy might come to pass. When the king heard of this he commanded that the boy be placed at court, where he might learn +manners and the laws, and be kept under the eyes of the great; but, doubting his master’s motive, Naole did not send the child; +he sent another of the same age, who was to cut no figure in the history of the islands, not being the favored of the gods. + +</p> +<p>The real prince was kept in so secluded a place and the secret of his parentage so well preserved—it was prophecy that he +should be fathered of three kings—that he had reached the age of twenty before Naole deemed it safe to let him mingle with +the multitude. He then made it known that the young man was Kamehameha. By this time King Alapai was dead, or helpless with +age; but the prince, albeit liberal and just, was rough, strong, dictatorial, a natural military leader, and he did not lack +enemies. Worst among these was his uncle, Pepehi, an elderly chief, who had read omens in the entrails <a id="d0e2056"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2056">241</a>]</span>of sacrifice warning him to be discreet and guarded in his life or it would be taken from him by one related to him, and of +greater power. He could not brook the thought of Kamehameha’s ascendency, for he was a man used to deference, a man of weight +and dignity, while this new-found prince was a boor. He therefore made himself unpleasant by criticisms and carpings, by false +interpretations of signs, by implications against his nephew, and finding that the young man did not retaliate, he resolved +to have his life. + +</p> +<p>Pretending anger with Kamehameha because he would not study for the priesthood and succeed to his honors, the soothsayer dinned +a tirade into his ears in the temple ground, hoping to receive a blow, that he might stab, in return, for he wished the killing +to appear as if done in self-defence. Stung by his insolence, Kamehameha did knock him down: a good, stout blow, well won. +So soon as he had recovered his wits and got upon his feet the priest plucked out his long bone knife and made a stroke, but +the priestess of the temple, her eyes blazing with anger at this trespass, caught his wrist and cried, “Down to your knees! +Ask pardon of your future king and mercy of the gods.” + +</p> +<p>At that instant came a rush of wings and a blaze of light filling the temple space. All fell to the earth, for they had recognized +the tall form before them with the coronet of vari-colored sparks bound on the golden hair that swept around it like a cloud +<a id="d0e2062"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2062">242</a>]</span>of glory, and the robe of tissue that was like flame of silver whiteness. It was the volcano goddess. + +</p> +<p>“Peace!” she commanded. “This boy is in the charge of Pele. Let no hand be lifted against him. No knife, no art, no poison, +and no spell shall shorten his life. He will be your greatest king: your best. He will put an end to these wretched wars between +your families, and prepare for the day when a pale race will come to these lands, making them a step in their conquering march +around the world. As for you, Pepehi, speak another word against those I love, lift a hand against them, and I turn you to +a cinder. Aloha!” She had vanished like flame. Kamehameha, on this revelation of his destiny, sprang to his feet. His breath +was quick and strong, a smile was on his lips, and he looked into the distance with lifted face and flashing eye, as if a +glorious vision had arisen there. A touch on his foot brought him to himself. Pepehi was grovelling before him, baring his +breast and offering to Kamehameha the poisoned dagger he had but a few moments before aimed at the young king’s heart. Lifting +him from the ground, Kamehameha comforted the priest with a few words and sent him homeward with bowed head and dragging step. + + + +<a id="d0e2066"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2066">243</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2067" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Great Famine</h2> +<p>Hua, the licentious king of Maui,—who kept a hundred hula dancers, was drunk for days together on awa, and spared no wife +or daughter of a friend or subject if she took his fancy,—had been chafing under the restraints imposed or attempted by his +high priest, a blameless man whose age and long service should have gained even a king’s consideration. It was approaching +a new-year feast (the end of December), toward the close of the twelfth century, and Hua had made such levies on his people +for useless wars and wasteful orgies that the old man was moved to protest. Hua paid no attention to him, but loudly ordered +his hunters to go to the mountains and bring him some water-birds for his table. + +</p> +<p>“Those birds can be found only by the sea,” ventured the priest. + +</p> +<p>“You countermand my orders, do you?” roared the monarch. + +</p> +<p>“I gave no order,” protested the venerable man. + +</p> +<p>“Hark you,” insisted the king. “My men are going to the mountain. If they find the birds there—and they will—you shall be +slain as a rebel and a false prophet.” + +</p> +<p>Seeing that his master desired his death, the priest bowed and made no answer. He went to his sons, who were studying for +the priesthood, prevailed on them to fly to Mount Haleakala, and probably hoped to follow them, but being slow and lame with +years, <a id="d0e2082"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2082">244</a>]</span>the hunters had returned before he could escape. They bore their prey, the water-birds, and said they had found them inland. +Knowing this to be a lie, told by the king’s command, the priest said, “These birds came from the sea. You can smell it upon +them. Look.” And he cut open two or three of their bodies. “Here are little fish and bits of seaweed they have eaten within +the hour.” + +</p> +<p>Enraged at the discovery of his paltry subterfuge, the king caught up a spear and thrust it into the old man’s heart. Though +everything is permitted to a king, the people could not repress a groan of horror, and one by one they stole away from the +spot, fearful of what might follow this sacrilege. Well might they fear. The body of the priest had barely reached the wooden +cross that marked the temple-ground as sacred when its bearers dropped it upon the earth and fled, for a sudden fever smote +the ground; hot, stifling winds began to blow; the images of the gods wailed and moaned; the sky was red and dripped blood, +and the altar that was to have received the body sank through the rock, leaving a hole from which gushed steam and dust. At +that hour every well, brook, and spring in the island went dry, save a rill in a cave back of Hana that the gods devoted to +the daughter-in-law of the murdered priest and to the old woman who attended her, while a nightly dew fell thereafter about +the sons of the dead man, providing drink to them and encouraging a growth of fruit and taro sufficient for their needs. +<a id="d0e2086"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2086">245</a>]</span></p> +<p>In a day or two the people were desperate. Their crops were withering, the forests shedding their leaves. Some men killed +their neighbors and drank their blood; others drank from the ocean and their increased thirst drove them mad; a few took poison; +several offered themselves as sacrifices and were forthwith killed on the altars; but in vain. Prayer and offering were unheeded. +The wickedness of the people in submitting to a king like Hua had brought its punishment. Frightened, repentant, maybe, Hua +himself fled to Hawaii, and his retainers scattered themselves in Molokai, Oahu, and Kauai. They could not escape the curse. +Like the Wandering Jew, they carried disaster with them. Blight, drouth, thirst, and famine appeared wherever they set foot, +and though the wicked king kept himself alive for three and a half years, he succumbed to hunger and thirst at last, and in +Kohala his withered frame ceased to be animate. To this day “the rattle of Hua’s bones in the sun” afford a simile in common +speech. And the wrath of the gods was heavy, so that the people died by thousands. + +</p> +<p>Hua being dead, the survivors looked anxiously for a return of rain and of life to the islands, and many turned to Naula, +of Oahu, imploring him to intercede with the gods in their behalf. This priest was of great age, and was reverenced and feared. +He could command the spirits of the living, as well as the spirits of the dead, and talk with them, far from the place where +their bodies lay in trance. He <a id="d0e2091"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2091">246</a>]</span>had descended into hell, had risen to paradise, and had brought back from the region of the blessed a calabash of the water +of life. The animals knew and obeyed him so well that when he journeyed to Kauai and his canoe capsized, a whale swallowed +him and vomited him forth on the beach at the very spot where he had intended to land, while at another time two sharks towed +his vessel against a head wind with such speed that the sea fowl could hardly keep him in sight. Clearing his eye by a fast +and prayer, he climbed to the topmost height of the Waianae Mountains and closely scanned the horizon. The earth was as brick, +and the sky as brass, and the sea as silver, save in one quarter: a tiny blur on the universal glare could be seen, he fancied, +over Maui. He would wait, in order to be sure. Yes, in the morning the vapor was still there. + +</p> +<p>“The sons of the murdered priest are in Maui. I will go to them,” he said, and descending to the shore he entered his canoe +alone, with neither oar nor sail, yet in the dawn he was at Maui, and the cloud was now plainly seen waving about the great +peak of Hanaula. From their eyrie on the mountain the two young men had seen the approach of Naula, for his boat shone in +the dark with a moon-like radiance. They knew that it bore some message for them, and when the old man arrived at Makena landing +they were there to meet him. His white beard swept the earth as he bowed, and they bent low while waiting for him to speak. +“You are the sons of <a id="d0e2095"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2095">247</a>]</span>the most worthy priest who was slain by Hua,” he said. “That evil man has expiated his crime, and his bones lie unburied in +the light. The people suffer and die. The punishment for Hua’s crime has been severe and long. Let us join our prayers to +the gods that they may turn to mercy. I am Naula.” + +</p> +<p>The elder of the sons replied, “Great priest, we will gladly pray with you for our people, but first tell me of my wife. Is +she alive?” + +</p> +<p>The old man wrapped his head in his cloak and put against his forehead an amulet of stone. After some moments of silence he +flung off the covering and spoke, “She lives, and is well. The gods have cared for her in the valley back of Hana.” + +</p> +<p>This announcement carried joy to the heart of the questioner, and he began at once the erection of an altar, the aged priest +sprinkling it with blessed water and placing beside it the phallic symbol of the trinity. The invocation was over, but no +living creature appeared in the desert to serve as a sacrifice. A rustling was heard among the dead bushes and the snout of +a black hog was thrust out. Before it could escape they had seized the creature, with a cry of joy, lifted it to the altar, +stabbed it again and again, and its blood flowed over the stones. Then all bent about it and prayed with fervor. As they prayed +their shadows grew fainter, and the hot wind lulled. A low rumble was heard in the south. They looked up. The heavens were +darkening. <a id="d0e2103"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2103">248</a>]</span>The rain was coming. “Praise the gods, who are merciful and who receive our sacrifice!” the priests cried. And with that immolation +the days of suffering were over. + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2105" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Kiha’s Trumpet</h2> +<p>Waipio, in Hawaii, is claimed by people who live thereabout to be the loveliest valley on the island. It was a low and marshy +stretch until a great fish that lived there begged the god Kane to give him sweeter water and more of it. Kane therefore tumbled +rocks across the stream, so as to dam it into wide pools, and also opened new springs at the source. The marks of his great +hands are still seen on the stone. In this valley, now so peaceful and so rich in charm, lived Kiha, king of Hawaii, in the +earlier years of the fifteenth century, a great and dreaded monarch. Of all his possessions he valued none more highly than +his war-trumpet, a large shell adorned with the teeth of chiefs who had been killed in war. The roar of this instrument could +be heard for ten miles, for it was a magic shell, and when blown in battle it reproduced the cries of victory and shrieks +of the dying; when blown to summon the people it was like the gale in the forest, and when it called a sea-god to listen to +a prayer it was like surges thundering against the cliffs. + +</p> +<p>That day was long remembered when the horn <a id="d0e2112"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2112">249</a>]</span>was stolen. It had been taken from its wrapping and its box, and a hideous mask of stone had been found in its place. Search +availed nothing, and the only comfort that the priests could offer was a promise of restoration by a being without cloak or +hands, when a cocoa palm, to be planted by the king at the next full moon, should bear fruit. The tree was planted, but seven +years passed before the nuts appeared. These were eaten by the king, and on that very night a strange man was arrested on +a charge of thieving and taken before the king for sentence. All through the questioning a dog with one white eye and a green +one kept close beside the prisoner, appearing to understand every word that was spoken. The intelligence of this animal was +so remarkable as to divert all thought of punishment for the time, and when the robber had given instances of the creature’s +more than human cleverness, Kiha realized suddenly that this was the agency whereby the magic horn was to be restored to him. + +</p> +<p>If the dog could find and restore that shell the captive should not merely be set free, but should be fed at the royal table +for the rest of his life. On hearing this promise, the dog, who had been watching the king so fixedly out of his green eye +as to make his Majesty uncomfortable, sprang up with a joyous bark, and capered about with every token of enthusiasm for the +task that was to be put upon him. + +</p> +<p>At the time when the trumpet disappeared from <a id="d0e2118"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2118">250</a>]</span>Kiha’s house a band of mountebanks and thieves disappeared from Hawaii. They had camped in the woods above Waipio, and had +been stealing pigs, fowls, fruit, and taro from the farmers, and had occasionally visited the settlements to show their skill +in juggling and hanky-panky, hoping to earn as a reward some drinks of the native beer, and perhaps a weapon or a strip of +cloth. It was the chief of this band who had stolen the trumpet. He had learned its history,—how the god Lono had blown it +on the top of Mauna Kea until trees were uprooted in the blast that came from it, until the fires kindled in the crater below +and threw a red light against the stars, until the earth shook and the sea heaved like a monster sighing. It had the voice +of a god from that hour, and other gods obeyed it. The band fled to Oahu with the prize and there led a graceless life until +the populace drove them out, and they returned to Hawaii. + +</p> +<p>The arrival of these suspicious characters had been reported to the king, and he suggested that the dog seek the shell in +their camp at the head of the valley. No sooner was the suggestion made than the animal rushed away in that direction with +the speed of the wind. Some hours passed, and the night was wearing on wearily, when a tremendous burst of sound issued from +the hills, echoing far and wide. The king leaped to his feet, the men of his village roused and grasped their spears, for +this was the call to arms,—the first time they had heard it in <a id="d0e2122"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2122">251</a>]</span>seven years. But who was blowing it? Nearer and nearer came the sky-shaking peal, and presently the dog, bearing the magic +shell in his mouth, ran in, sank at his master’s feet, gasped, shook, stiffened. He was dead from exhaustion. + +</p> +<p>His master, overcome with grief for the loss of his little friend, was liberated at once; then, confident that the returned +thieves had had the trumpet in their possession, the king led his forces against them without waiting for the sun to rise, +and slew nearly all. From one or two survivors of the band he learned that their captain had offended them by his arrogance +and selfishness until they were forced to reduce him to their own state by silencing the instrument whereby he called to the +gods and gained their help. During one of his drunken sprees they carried the shell to a wizard, who put a secret taboo mark +on its lip, and when the pirate blew it, on regaining his wits, it made only a low, dull moaning. Try as he would, he could +never restore it. It was chiefly to propitiate the gods and give its notes back to the trumpet that he had returned to Hawaii. + +</p> +<p>When the dog seized the shell, as it lay on the earth near the sleeping chief, he bit off the edge that had been marked by +the wizard and instantly its voice came back. The wind blown into it long before by the robber chief was now liberated in +quantities in those tremendous blasts that had roused the king and his people and appalled the robbers. In this respect it +resembled the post-horn of Baron Munchausen’s <a id="d0e2128"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2128">252</a>]</span>story, which, on being hung before a fire, allowed the notes that had been played into it (but not heard) to thaw out and +entertain the company. And if the story of the shell is doubted, one has only to look at it in the Honolulu Museum to be convinced. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2130" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">How Moikeha Gained a Wife</h2> +<p>Puna, lord of Kauai, was a well-beloved and merciful man. Though he would not brook insolence, he was always ready to pardon +a fisherman or servant who, in ignorance of his personality, broke the taboo by stepping on his shadow. His love for Hooipo, +his daughter, was so strong that he delayed her marriage until the gallants began to complain, and the girl herself became +uneasy, lest her charms should expand to a maturity that might hurt her matrimonial chances. As she had no preference, however, +she agreed that her father might name the happy man. He, loth to incur the enmity of any at his court, resolved to offer her +as a prize, and the fairest contest seemed in his mind to be a run to Kaula and back, each contestant to be allowed to use +sail and carry four oarsmen, and the winner of the race to marry Hooipo. + +</p> +<p>A couple of days before the race was undertaken there arrived at Kauai a sturdy mariner, one Moikeha, who had just returned +from a voyage to Raiatea, two thousand five hundred miles to the southward. Long trips of this sort were not unusual <a id="d0e2137"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2137">253</a>]</span>among the adventurous islanders, and there is a tradition that one of them brought to Hawaii two white men who became priests, +and on a later exploration secured four “foreigners of large stature, bright, staring, roguish eyes, and reddish faces,” who +may have been American Indians. Moikeha became the guest of Puna. He had not been long in the daughter’s company before Hooipo +regretted the arrangement for a race, for she had found a man whom she could love. It was too late to argue with the candidates; +there could be no hope of peace if the princess were withdrawn as an object of competition and thrown at the head of this +stranger. By general consent he was allowed to take part in the race, provided he could cite an honorable parentage. This +he did, for he was the son of a former chief in Oahu, and he rattled off the names of his ancestors for sixteen generations, +ending the catalogue in this fashion, “Maweke and Niolaukea, husband and wife; Mulilealii and Wehelani, husband and wife; +Moikeha and Hooipo, husband and wife.” This little joke, his assumption that the girl was already his, made everybody laugh +and put the company in good humor. + +</p> +<p>At the word of command a score or more of lusty fellows pushed their boats through the surf, hoisted sail, and pointed their +prows for Kaula, fifty miles away. Moikeha alone showed no haste. He bade a cheerful farewell to his host and the pretty daughter, +marked with delight her serious look as he took <a id="d0e2141"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2141">254</a>]</span>his leave, then, with a single attendant and the smallest boat in the fleet, he set off across the blue water. Directly that +her sail was up the little craft sprang through the sea as if blown by a hurricane, while the other boats slid over the glassy +waves under the push of oars. “It is the fish-god, Apukohai, who drags his canoe,” declared the rowers, as he passed. In twenty-four +hours he was at the side of Kooipo with the whale-tooth, proof of his voyage, that was delivered to him at Kaula by a servant +who had been sent there with it in advance. He was easily the victor, the other contestants arriving from one to three days +later. No objection being offered, the couple were married with rejoicings, and on the death of Puna the husband became chief, +and married off eight or ten youngsters of his own. Not for a long time was it known that in the race for a wife his lone +but potent companion was Laamaomao, the wind-god, who, loosing favorable breezes from his magic calabash, that blew whither +he listed, carried him swiftly past all other competitors. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2143" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Sailing of Paao</h2> +<p>Paao, who afterward became a high priest in Hawaii, migrated thither in the eleventh century from Samoa, after a quarrel with +his brother, Lonopele. Both of these men were wizards, and were persons of riches and influence. It came about that Lonopele +had missed a quantity of his choicest <a id="d0e2148"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2148">255</a>]</span>fruit, which was conveyed away at night, and although he could see visions and tell fortunes for others, he could not reveal +for his own satisfaction so simple a matter as the source of these disappearances. In a foolish rage he accused his nephew, +the son of Paao. Paao was indignant, but, with even greater foolishness, he killed his son, in order to open the boy’s stomach +and prove that there was no fruit in it. This act so rankled in his mind that he decided to leave the country and forget it, +and to that end he built several strong canoes and stored them well with food and water. + +</p> +<p>Before sailing, Paao revenged himself for his own folly by killing a son of Lonopele. The latter discovered the murder too +late to retaliate with weapons, so he summoned the powers of magic to his aid. He sent a hurricane in chase of the receding +boats, but a great fish pushed them on, despite the wind, which was against them, while another friendly monster of the sea +swam around and around the little fleet, breaking the force of the waves. Lonopele then sent a colossal bird to vomit over +the canoes and sink them, but mats were put up in tent-form as protections, and this project also failed. + +</p> +<p>Paao landed in Hawaii with about forty followers, one of whom was a powerful prophet. As the canoes were setting off, several +would-be wizards begged to be taken to the new land. Paao called to them to leap into the sea, if they trusted their own powers, +and he would take them on board. All who jumped <a id="d0e2154"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2154">256</a>]</span>were killed by striking on rocks or by drowning,—all but the real prophet, who did not leave the shore till the boats were +a mile or so away from land. Paao answered his thunderous hail by an equally thunderous refusal to return, as to go back after +starting was bad luck, but added, “There is room for you, if you will fly to us.” Putting all his strength into his arms and +legs, the prophet swam through the air and reached the boats without injury. + +</p> +<p>The real Paao is said to have been a Spanish priest who was cast away on the islands by the wreck of the galleon Santo Iago +in 1527. The ship was bound from Acapulco to Manila with shrines and images. The priest grafted Christian practices on the +native religion, abolished sacrifice, and begat a line of chiefs. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2158" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Wronged Wife</h2> +<p>In 1530, or thereabout, a Spanish ship from Molucca was driven across the Pacific and flung, in a dismantled condition, on +the Keei Reefs, Hawaii. Only the captain and his sister were rescued. Until it was discovered that these strangers required +food and sleep, like themselves, the natives worshipped them as gods. They were hardly less welcome when it was found that +they were human, and they married among the islanders. The woman’s grandchild, Kaikilani, was reputed to be the most <a id="d0e2163"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2163">257</a>]</span>beautiful woman ever born in Hawaii. Kaikilani became the wife of the heir-apparent, who cared so little for government, however, +that the young woman was made chief. Her marriage to this easy-going, ambitionless, though generous prince had been a failure. +As it was a state marriage, she cared little for him. His stalwart brother, Lono, was the object of her love and admiration. +When the people resolved that Lono should be king, Kaikilani was divorced and given to him as queen, for her first husband +prized her happiness above his own. Lono built a yacht worthy of this Cleopatra, a double canoe eighty feet long and seven +wide, floored and enclosed for twenty feet amidships, so that the queen had an apartment which was luxuriously furnished with +couches, cloths, festoons of flowers, shells, and feathers, and containing a sacred image and many charms against evil. The +twin vessels were striped with black and yellow, figures of big birds with men’s heads were at the prow, and on calm days, +when the sails hung idly, forty oarsmen pulled the royal barge at a gallant rate. + +</p> +<p>During a long honeymoon tour the bridal party landed on Molokai, to await the passing of heavy weather, and the young couple +were playing draughts to beguile the time, when a dark and sudden cloud fell upon their happiness. One of the servants of +the queen was a girl named Kaikinani, who had a lover, and while the king was studying his next move he heard a man’s voice +call, as he thought, “Come, <a id="d0e2167"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2167">258</a>]</span>Kaikilani, your lover is waiting.” The man was calling Kaikinani. He abruptly asked his wife who had dared to address the +queen in that easy fashion, and taking her own surprise and confusion for a token of guilt, he struck her with the checker-board, +rushed away to the beach, ordered his private canoe to be launched, and seizing one of the paddles, he rowed with his twenty +attendants until he was exhausted. That night he gained the shores of Oahu. + +</p> +<p>When Kaikilani had come out of a delirium of nine days, and understood the nature of the mistake that had separated her from +her husband, she hastily equipped her barge and began a search for him,—a search that lasted for months. Lono, ensconced at +the court of Oahu, was trying to stifle his regrets; he would not reveal his name; he refused all companionship with women; +he worked at play most earnestly, hunting, rowing, swimming, surf-riding, racing, leaping, casting the spear, halting at nothing +that involved peril or that would tire him at night to a forgetful sleep. His stay was drawing to an end. He was to sail for +Hawaii in a day or two, for rebellions were threatening in his absence, and his departure was none too early, for certain +of the gallants were jealous of his success in sports and of the unrewarded admiration that the fair sex gave to him. One +of these men taunted him with being a nameless chief. Lono, scowling down on him, answered that he would tear the skin from +his living body if he ever caught him beyond his king’s protection, <a id="d0e2171"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2171">259</a>]</span>and producing a big calabash filled with rebels’ bones, he chanted the names of those he had slain. + +</p> +<p>He was interrupted by a soft voice, outside of the enclosure, chanting his name-song. Who could have learned his name? The +court had risen. “Yes,” he said, “the singer is true. I am Lono, and she whom I hear is my wife. The gods be praised.” + +</p> +<p>Leaping the wall, he found, as he had hoped, Kaikilani, smiling through her tears. He held her in a long embrace. Next day +they returned to their native island, where they reigned to an old and happy age. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2177" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Magic Spear</h2> +<p>Kaululaau, prince of Maui, had misbehaved so grossly, painting the sacred pigs, imitating the death-bird’s call before the +doors of nervous people, opening the gates of fish-ponds, tippling awa, and consorting with hula dancers, that his father, +believing him to be incorrigible, shipped him off to Lanai in disgust. Knowing that island to be infested with gnomes, dragons, +and monsters, the lad would fain have turned the usual new leaf, but he had promised reform so many times and failed that +his father was deaf to his pleadings. Just before he embarked the old high priest called him aside—he always had a soft spot +in his heart for this scape-grace—and entrusted to him an ivory spear which had been dipped in the river of the dead and left +on <a id="d0e2182"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2182">260</a>]</span>an altar by Lono, the third person of the trinity. With that, which was both weapon and talisman, the possessor need fear +nothing. + +</p> +<p>Kaululaau had been but a little while in his new home when he was compelled to put his gift to use. There were malignant beings +on Lanai who hurt people, hogs, fowls; blighted cocoanuts, bananas, and taro patches, and were a common sorrow to the inhabitants. +Worst among these tormentors was the gnome Mooaleo, who, in the guise of a big mole, burrowed under houses and caused them +to settle, with a thump. The prince caught this fellow within a circle he had drawn on the earth, for the witchery of the +spear was so strong that the effect of drawing that line was felt to the centre of the globe. Burrow as he would,—and he did +burrow until he reached fire,—Mooaleo could not escape from it. The magic barrier confined him like iron. He came to the air +at last and begged to be released, promising to leave the island forever, if he might gain his liberty. Kaululaau rubbed out +twenty or thirty yards of the enchanted line, whereupon the creature rushed madly through the gap and dived into the sea, +never again emerging in the sight of men. + +</p> +<p>For a year the prince kept up his war against the demons and slew or banished every one of them. For this the men rewarded +him with praise and gifts and service, the women with love, the children with trust. He was glad he had been exiled. Of course, +so soon as his father heard of his changed life and <a id="d0e2188"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2188">261</a>]</span>his courage in knight-errantry he repented his hardness of spirit and sent messengers to bid Kaululaau return. This was an +unwelcome summons, and while he dared not refuse, he took his own time in getting home again, his alleged reason for delay +being that he wished to see the world and further instruct himself; his real reason being a love of praise and adventure. +He stirred up strife in Hawaii; visited, without harm, the wind-god’s home on Molokai and Kalipahoa’s poison grove, and on +Oahu found another chance to win the people’s favor. A bird so huge that its head weighed near two hundred pounds had been +depredating among the villages, tearing children from their mothers and killing domestic animals, yet always defended by the +priests, who, having confused it with a strange species of owl, considered it as sacred. The rover did not ask permission +to slay it. Nobody knew him, or guessed why he was going among the hills. He came upon the bird in the mountains, when its +beak was dripping with human blood, and at a mile distance hurled the spear, which flew through the air, as if self-directed, +and pierced the creature through and through. For this he was arrested and consigned to the sacrificial altar; but when he +abandoned his disguise, appeared in the feather cloak and helmet of a chief, and made known that he was Kaululaau, the trembling, +stammering priest owned that he was mistaken in supposing the bird to be taboo. Its huge head was produced; its eyes rolled, +its jaws clashed, and with <a id="d0e2190"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2190">262</a>]</span>a scream an evil human spirit that had lived in its body flew into the air. The ne’er-do-weel had a royal reception when he +returned. Finding that his old friend, the high priest, was dead, he fulfilled a promise by secretly burying the magic spear-point +in his grave. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e2193" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p4.jpg" alt="Avenue of Palms, Hawaii." width="497" height="416"><p class="figureHead">Avenue of Palms, Hawaii.</p> +</div><p> + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2197" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Hawaiian Witches</h2> +<p>To the native Hawaiian, who shuns work, dresses only for decorative purposes, and is willing to subsist on fruits that grow +without teasing, life is not so simple as we should suppose, to look at him. Nature abhors a vacuum, even in a man’s head, +and when the man cares to put nothing in his noddle that will increase his understanding and resource, his ancestry will have +planted something there which is sure to swell and grow until it may dominate his conduct and his fate. And if you open the +head of an average barbarian you will find a flourishing crop of superstition fungi inside. So surely as he is a barbarian +he will believe in witches. If he contents himself with imagining wizards and spooks, he may find recreation enough in the +dark, but when he accuses other people of practising against him, and gets them hanged or roasted, his imagination has become +too frisky to be at large. Death for the practice of witchcraft is no longer possible, however, unless it results from private +revenge. +<a id="d0e2202"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2202">263</a>]</span></p> +<p>To this day fear and ignorance paint gnomes and elves in the palm groves and among the wild Java uplands of the mid-Pacific, +and Honolulu itself is not free from the lingering and traditionary kahuna. This is the wizard, or medicine man, or voodoo +worker, who does by prayer and spell what his employers would do with a club if it were not for the awkward institution of +the law. When a Kanaka has endured an injury he hires a kahuna to pray his enemy to death. This imposes on the victim the +necessity of hiring a kahuna to pray down the other one, or of running away, if he cannot afford the expense. The wizard calls +on his intended victim and tells him what is about to happen, and you would naturally suppose that the visitee would take +the visitor by the collar and the “bosom of his pants” and persuade him away from the premises, even if he did not go out +and exercise upon him in the yard. In fact, record has been made of explosive exits of these wizards from Americans’ houses +when they made their usual courtesy call before praying the resident out of existence, and ’tis said that they bore marks +of Lynn-made shoe-soles on their seats of honor for a week after. + +</p> +<p>But your Kanaka fears his medicine man and receives the news of doom politely. The kahuna tells him that his conduct has displeased +some god or goddess and that he must die. Every kahuna claims what statesmen call a “pull” with his deities that enables him +to have his prayers answered, while <a id="d0e2207"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2207">264</a>]</span>opposition kahunas are snubbed. After a couple of days the kahuna drops around to see how his victim is getting on, and generally +he finds him in low spirits, with a meagre appetite, because this process is as reliable as its opposite, which is called +faith-cure. If a man can sufficiently persuade himself that nothing ails him, he is almost sure to recover from an illness +that he hasn’t got; and, by the same token, if he makes himself believe that he is going to have indigestion, or a fall on +the ice, or must die, he unnerves himself and makes it easy for the expected to happen. If he runs away and hides, the kahuna’s +prayers do not work as well, and if he has been to school and reads the papers, they do not work at all. Indeed, the islanders +have given up white people as tough subjects, so seasoned in whisky and a wrong religion that curses are wasted on them as +water is wasted on ducks and Kentucky colonels. The goddess Pele has resigned the foreigner in discouragement. + +</p> +<p>Well, on this second visit the victim remembers all his misfortunes of the past two days, his stomach ache, his thirst, his +stubbed toe, his failure to collect eight cents that a neighbor owes him, his nightmare after a supper of poi,—not mince-pie: +just poi,—his discovery of a bottle too late to know what was in it, and his wife’s demand for a new dress. All these miseries +he ascribes to the left-handed prayers of which he is the subject, and he offers to temporize. As in other parts of the world, +silver is a <a id="d0e2211"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2211">265</a>]</span>strong dissuader. If he has hired a kahuna himself to neutralize his enemy’s bad prayers with good ones, the two <span id="d0e2213" class="corr" title="Source: voodo">voodoo</span> workers will retire and consult as to a settlement, each preserving a dignity and courtesy worthy of his high profession, +for, although the Roman soothsayers could not keep from snickering when they met one another in the street, these kahunas +really believe in themselves, for they have prayed too many people out of the world not to do so. + +</p> +<p>If an apology and a couple of dollars fail to soften the enemy, or if the kahunas believe they can raise the stake to three +dollars by toiling a while longer, a prayer duel follows and the best man wins. Kahuna number one delivers a veritable anathema, +bestowing on his subject more aches and illnesses and deformities and difficulties than Pius IX. conferred on Victor Emmanuel, +while number two sweats with the haste and force of his invocations for the continued or increased health and fortune of his +client. If he can afford them, the victim may hire two kahunas and have them pray around the house until the opposition is +silenced or the malevolent employer’s money gives out. When one of the two prays for his patron, in such a case the other +may pray against the enemy who began the trouble, so that, instead of doing a deadly injury, the instigator of the disturbance +may discover, to his alarm, that he is in more danger than his foe, and some morning he may find himself dead. +<a id="d0e2218"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2218">266</a>]</span></p> +<p>King David Kalakaua made a law against praying folks into their graves, but the kahunas, to a man, cried, “Why, this will +kill business! If you don’t abolish that law we will pray you to death in two days.” And King David took the law away, quick. +In order to make a prayer for death effectual the kahuna must possess himself of some object closely associated with the person +he intends to kill. Finger-nails, hair, and teeth are especially desired, but if they cannot be had, a few drops of saliva +will do. The kings were always so careful of their precious selves that nail-parings and hair-croppings were burned to keep +them from falling into the hands of ghoulish kahunas, and they were always attended by a spittoon-bearer, who was a chief +of high rank, and whose duty it was to see that none of the royal spittle was accessible to wizards or suspicious strangers. +The spittoon was emptied into the sea at a distance from land secretly and in the middle of the night. What a lecture Charles +Dickens would have read to the Americans out of this circumstance! + +</p> +<p>The last death attributed to the kahunas was that of Princess Kaiulani in the spring of 1899. Though this young woman was +enlightened, had travelled and studied in Europe and America, and presumably disbelieved in the superstitions of her ancestors, +it is whispered that the rumor of kahuna influence against her shortened her days by many. The people believed so, at any +rate, though they were perplexed by the failure of the little red fish to run into the <a id="d0e2223"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2223">267</a>]</span>harbor just before she breathed her last, as it was believed that they always made their appearance prior to a death in the +royal family. The rumbling and hissing and the sounding of a heavy major chord in the depths of Kilauea that followed the +funeral of Kaiulani were directly attributed to her death. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2225" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Cannibals</h2> +<p>Despite the denials of Hawaiians that their ancestors ever ate the flesh of men, it is admitted that a large company of cannibals, +strong, dark, tattooed, and speaking a strange language, were storm-blown to Kauai in the seventeenth century. It is guessed +that they were Papuans. The daughter of Kokoa, their chief, a beautiful girl of eighteen or so, with braided hair that almost +touched the ground, and strings of pearls at her neck and ankles, found an admirer and a husband in an island chief who tried +to instruct her in the taboo, for he had seen with horror and apprehension that the new-comers allowed their women to eat +bananas, cocoanuts, and certain fish, and even to take them from the dishes used by the men. The bride promised to reform +and live on poi, but she had not been bred to this sort of victual, and had never been reproved by the gods for eating other, +so it was almost inevitable that she should backslide in her virtuous intention, and when she so far defied public opinion, +and thunders, and earthquakes as to eat a banana in view of the <a id="d0e2230"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2230">268</a>]</span>priests, the public arose as one man and demanded punishment. The chief begged that he might be allowed to send her back to +her father, but the high priest told him that the gods had been flouted beyond endurance, and would be satisfied only with +her death. The beautiful and hapless woman was therefore torn from the arms of her afflicted husband, strangled, and thrown +into the sea,—a warning to all the sex against forbidden fruit. + +</p> +<p>Then trouble began. Women’s appetites might be restrained, but not those of men,—especially the appetite for blood. Kokoa +revenged himself for his daughter’s murder by killing a relative of her husband and serving him hot to an eager, because long +abstemious, congregation. The taste of Hawaiian chops and shoulders revived a greed for this sort of meat, and they preyed +openly on the populace of Kauai until those who remained arose as several men and drove them out of the island. The cannibals +fled in haste to Oahu, taking possession of the plateau of Halemanu, which was high, reachable by only one or two paths, and +those of steepness, difficulty, and under constant guard, and here they established themselves as a sort of Doone band, literally +living upon the people in the country below. They had their temple,—oh, yes, indeed, they could pray as long and as loud as +any one,—and a creditable piece of masonry it was, with its walls two hundred feet by sixty, and seven yards high. Near it +was an oven where five human bodies could be roasted at a time, <a id="d0e2234"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2234">269</a>]</span>and a carving stone six feet long, lightly hollowed, where the hungry were served, Kokoa claiming the hearts and livers as +a chief’s right. + +</p> +<p>It did not take long for the Oahuans to become bashful about visiting the neighborhood of Halemanu, and the man-eaters then +took to eating one another. One big, savage fellow, named Lotu, began to kill off his wife’s relatives. This roused one of +her brothers to revenge. He strengthened himself in exercises of all kinds until his muscles were like steel, and encountered +with Lotu on the edge of the precipice near the principal path. They fought hand-to-hand until both were covered with blood, +then, finding that he was about to be forced over the brink, Lotu clasped his brother-in-law and enemy about the neck and +both went to their death together. The wife and sister of the two combatants either fainted at the verge and fell or wilfully +cast herself from the same cliff. It is not recorded whether these victims of an unruly passion were interred in earth or +conveniently disposed of otherwise, but the affair created such a gloom in the neighborhood that the cannibal colony moved +away to parts unknown, to the vast relief of the community in the more peaceful districts. + + +<a id="d0e2238"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2238">270</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2239" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Various Graves of Kaulii</h2> +<p>When the Hawaiians were discovered by Captain Cook, in 1779, they had not been visited by white men, so far as any native +then living could remember. At all events, they had acquired only a fair assortment of vices and not many diseases. Human +sacrifice and the worship of phallic emblems and effigies of their gods and dead kings were common. The king expected everybody +to fall prostrate before him when he appeared and pretend to go to sleep,—to be of as little account as possible. And the +people were pliant and willing under their restraints. They allowed that the king was absolute master. Yet they were contented +usually and not ill looking; lithe and graceful, too, and gay, fond of sports and swimming, lovers of music, dancing, flowers, +and color, friendly in disposition, and good-natured. Except in shedding a few of their beliefs with the taking on of more +clothes, they have not changed greatly. As to cannibalism, white men have become too numerous and too tough for eating, anyway, +and they feel safe in any native company of Pacific Islanders in these times. + +</p> +<p>Hawaiians claim that they never were cannibals, and that if they ate such of Captain Cook as they did not return to his second +in command it was because they were absent-minded or mistook him for pork. They had ceased to believe him a god, for he had +displayed infirmities of temper and consideration <a id="d0e2246"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2246">271</a>]</span>that led to his death. A tradition of theirs may account for a once general belief in their man-eating propensities. It dates +back to the chieftaincy of Kaulii, in Oahu. The people were careful in the sepulture of their chiefs, fearing that enemies +might find the remains and commit indignities on the senseless relics, or that the bones might be used for spear-points and +fish-hooks, such implements having magic power when they were whittled from the shins of kings. To prevent such a possibility, +so soon as the spirit tenant had gone the wise men took charge of the body and prepared it for the grave. This they did by +first cutting off the flesh, which, being transitory and corruptible, they said was not worthy to be kept, so was therefore +burned; then cleaning the skeleton, soaking it in oil, and painting it red with turmeric. This melancholy, if gaudy, object +was tied in a parcel and buried in some cave or cranny where no foeman would be likely to find it. Sometimes the bodies were +sunk at sea, with rocks tied at the feet, and the hearts of Hawaiian kings were often flung into the molten lava of Kilauea. + +</p> +<p>Kaulii was chief in Oahu in the seventeenth century. Most of his ninety years he had faithfully devoted to killing other chiefs +and the people of other islands, wherefore he knew that many would try to find his bones and break them. Just before his death +he enjoined his councillors to place his skeleton in some receptacle whence it could not easily be taken. After his death +his head councillor <a id="d0e2250"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2250">272</a>]</span>took it into the mountains and was gone for several days. When he returned he sent an invitation to every one whom his messengers +could reach to share in a feast in memory of the dead chief. Free lunch was just as great an incentive in that century as +it will be in the next. They came, those faithful people, afoot and in boats, and camped in thousands near the kitchen. After +the games had been dutifully performed—for funerals were seasons of cheer in those times—the dinner was served to the assembly. +There were boiled dogs, roots, fruits, fish, sour beer, and poi. + +</p> +<p>When the last calabash had been emptied and the company had taken a long breath, an elder in the party asked the councillor +if he had obeyed his master’s command and buried the skeleton where it would be safe from the vendetta that pursues an enemy +to the grave. The councillor made an embracing gesture above the multitude. “Here,” he cried, “are the graves of Kaulii. His +bones can never be disturbed again.” + +</p> +<p>The people looked about the grass and under their dishes, and, seeing nothing, asked to be enlightened. Then the councillor +explained that he had not only cleaned the bones of his dead lord, but had dried and pounded them to a fine meal, had stirred +them into the mass of poi which these warriors and statesmen had enveloped, so that every man who had shared in that feast +was a grave. And they agreed that he was a faithful and sagacious servant, <a id="d0e2256"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2256">273</a>]</span>and passed a resolution to keep his memory a bright green for several years after he was dead. They say that was the only +time they ate a man, and they did not know it then. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2258" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Kingship of Umi</h2> +<p>When King Liloa died he left his younger son, Hakau, to rule Hawaii in his place, but an older and natural son, Umi, whose +mother had been a farm-worker among the hills, he appointed as guardian of the temples and their sacred statues. Umi had not +learned of his royal parentage until he had grown to be a fine stout fellow. He had lived a lonely though adventurous life, +and his kingly origin was shown in the fact that he could never be induced to work or do anything useful, unless it might +be hunting and fishing. Impulses were his guides. He was in nowise disturbed when he learned that Liloa was his father. On +the contrary, he took on a new dignity, donned the feather cloak and helmet of a prince, walked, in a couple of days, to the +king’s house, passed the guards without a word, carelessly striking down their threatening spears with his own; then, gaining +the king’s presence unannounced, he plumped himself into the old gentleman’s lap. For one of low descent to venture on a liberty +like this was death, and for a moment Liloa was mightily offended. He sprang up, spilling the prince upon the earth; then, +recognizing <a id="d0e2263"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2263">274</a>]</span>on the young man’s breast an ivory necklace clasp that had been his love-token to the girl on the mountain farm years before, +and admiring the courage of the youngster, he kissed him and welcomed him to his family. + +</p> +<p>The old king died soon after, his skeleton being duly hidden in the sea, and Hakau, who from the first had been jealous of +his half-brother, now began a series of slights and rebukes which hardly justified rebellion, yet were so irritating that +after enduring them for a little, Umi retired to the hills and resumed his old, lonely, wandering life. Not for long, however. +Hakau developed into a tyrant, narrow-minded, selfish, suspicious, cruel. One by one his followers left him; treasons were +rumored in his own household; his very priests connived against him. At last, reports came to him of a resort to arms,—of +a company advancing from the other side of Hawaii, led by Umi and Maukaleoleo, the latter a giant eleven feet high, who wore +a thicket of hair that fell to his shoulders, bore a spear thirty feet long, and inspired terror by his very aspect, albeit +in times of peace he was one of the gentlest of men. When this giant was a child the god Kanaloa had given him a golden fish, +bidding him eat it and be strong. He had done so, and on that very night began his wonderful growth, his strength so increasing +that presently he could hurl rocks no two other men could lift. + +</p> +<p>Troubled by reports of the uprising, the king <a id="d0e2269"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2269">275</a>]</span>consulted the oracles in a temple he had promised to endow, but never had,—his principal gift (to be)—consisting of a figure +of the war god Akuapaao. This had long before been taken to Hawaii by a prophet whose canoe had been drawn to its landing-place +by the shark god and the god of the winds. In darkness he entered the inner chamber of the temple. An unknown voice, speaking +from the holy of holies, bade him send his people to the woods next day for plumage of birds, with which to decorate the statue, +when he should get it, and thereby atone for the neglect and contempt of the gods that had done so much to bring him into +disfavor with the people. + +</p> +<p>Clever priests! They were already in league with Umi, and this was but a ruse to dissipate the king’s forces. The oracle was +obeyed; the people were sent out to collect the feathers of bright-hued birds, grumbling that they should be made to labor +because of the laxity and impiety of their ruler; and while they hunted, Umi, almost within hearing, was praying before the +very statue Hakau had sent his messengers to fetch. He had imposed a strict taboo on his two thousand warriors for half a +day, the taboo in this instance imposing silence, fasting, and retirement, the forsaking of all industries, the extinction +of all fires and lights, the muzzling of pigs and dogs, and quieting of fowls by putting them under calabashes. As Umi advanced +toward the statue to decorate it with wreaths a beam of light fell through <a id="d0e2273"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2273">276</a>]</span>a rent in the temple roof and crowned him and the god. It was a promise. Fires on the mountain tops that night assembled all +the insurgent forces, who were awaiting these signals, and a few hours later Umi sat on the throne of his father, and the +hated tyrant Hakau was offered to his neglected gods: a sacrifice. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2275" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Keaulumoku’s Prophecy</h2> +<p>Keaulumoku died in 1784. He was a poet, dreamer, prophet, and preserver of the legends of his people. For more than three-score +years he had roamed about Hawaii, esteemed for his virtues and his wisdom by those who knew him, tolerated as harmless by +those who did not. He wandered about the vast and desolate lava fields and talked with spirits there. He learned rhythm and +music from the swing of the waves. The “little people” in the wood were his servants when he needed help. In his closing years +he occupied a cabin alone near Kauhola. Though not churlish, he cared little for human society,—it seemed so small to him +after daily contemplation of the ocean and mountain majesties and the nightly vision of the stars; but he was alive to its +interests, and when the future opened to him he was always willing to read it for comfort or warning. + +</p> +<p>It was reported in the villages at last that he would look on the faces of his people but once more, and <a id="d0e2282"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2282">277</a>]</span>they were asked to assemble at his hut on the next evening, when he would chant his last prophecy. Before sunset they gathered +about his cabin a thousand or more, waiting quietly or talking in whispers, and presently the mat which hung in the entrance +was drawn aside, disclosing the shrunken form and frosted hair of the venerable prophet. He began his chant in the quavering +voice of age, but as he sang he gained strength, and his tones were plainly heard by all in the assemblage. He foretold the +union of the islands under Kamehameha, the death of monarchy, the ruin of the temples, the oncoming of the white race, the +disappearance of the Hawaiian people from the earth. Then blessing the company with uplifted hands, Keaulumoku sank back lifeless. +He was buried with solemn rites in a temple, and, under the inspiration of his prophecy, Kamehameha began his work of conquest. +In eleven years the islands were one nation. The rest of the prophecy is coming true. + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2284" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Tragedy of Spouting Cave</h2> +<p>Many caves pierce the igneous rock of the Hawaiian group, some with entrances below the ocean level, and discovered only by +accident. Famous among them is the spouting cave of Lanai. Old myths make this a haunt of the lizard god, but the shark god, +thinking this venture below the water an intrusion on his territory, threatened to block the <a id="d0e2289"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2289">278</a>]</span>entrance with rocks, so the lizard god swam over to Molokai and made his home in the cave near Kaulapana, where the people +built temples to him. An attempt of a daring explorer to light the cave of Lanai with fire hid in a closed calabash was also +resented, the vessel being dashed out of the hand of the adventurer by some formless creature of the dark, who also plucked +stones from the cave roof and hurled at him until he retreated. + +</p> +<p>To this island, at the end of the eighteenth century, came King Kamehameha to rest after his war and enjoy the fish dinners +for which the island was famous. One of his captains was Kaili, a courageous and susceptible Hawaiian, who celebrated the +outing by falling head-over-heels in love. Kaala, “the perfumed flower of Lanai,” returned his vows, and would have taken +him for a husband, without ceremony or delay, save for the stern parent, who is a frequent figure in such romances. This parent, +Oponui, had a reason for his hate of Kaili, the two having encountered in the last great battle. Kaili had probably forgotten +his opponent, but Oponui bitterly remembered him, for his best friend had been struck down by the spear of the young captain. +Another cause for opposing this marriage was that Kaala had been bespoken by a great, hairy, tattooed savage known as “the +bone-breaker.” It occurred to Oponui that a good way to be rid of the cavalier would be to let him settle his claim with the +famous wrestler. He chuckled as he thought of the outcome, <a id="d0e2293"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2293">279</a>]</span>for the bone-breaker had never been beaten. The challenge having been made and accepted, the king and his staff agreed to +watch the contest. It was brief, brutal, and decisive. Though the big wrestler had the more strength, Kaili had the more skill +and quickness. He dodged every rush of his burly opponent, tripped him, broke both his arms by jumping on them when he was +down, and when the disabled but vengeful fighter, with dangling hands, made a bull-like charge with lowered head, the captain +sprang aside, caught him by the hair, strained him suddenly backward across his knee, and flung him to the earth, dying with +a broken spine. Kaili had won his bride. + +</p> +<p>The girl’s father was not at the end of his resources, however. He appeared in a day or two panting, as with a long run, and +begged Kaala to fly at once to her mother in the valley, as she was mortally ill and wished to see her daughter before she +died. The girl kissed her lover, promising to return soon, and was hurried away by Oponui toward the Spouting Cave. Arrived +there, she looked up and down the shore, but saw none other than her father, who was smiling into her face with a look of +craft and cruelty that turned her sick at heart. In a broken voice she asked his purpose. Was her mother dead? Had he killed +her? Oponui seized her arms with the gripe of a giant. “The man you love is my foe,” he shouted. “I shall kill him, if I can. +If not, he shall never see you again. When he has <a id="d0e2297"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2297">280</a>]</span>left Lanai, either for Hawaii or for the land of souls, I will bring you back to the sun. Come!” + +</p> +<p>Now, the water pushing through the entrance to this cavern becomes a whirlpool; then, as it belches forth in a refluent wave, +it is hurled into a white column. Watching until the water began to whirl and suck, Oponui sprang from the rocks, dragging +his daughter with him. She struggled for a moment, believing that his intention was to drown her. There was a rush and a roar; +then, buffeted, breathless, she arose on the tide, and in a few seconds felt a beach beneath her feet. Oponui dragged her +out of reach of the wave, and as soon as her eyes grew accustomed to the dimness she found herself to be in a large, chill +cavern. Crabs were clattering over the stones, and rays and eels could be seen writhing shadowy, in pools. The brawling of +the ocean came smothered, faint, but portentous, and in the green light that mounted through the submerged door the grotto +seemed a place of dreams,—a dank nightmare. + +</p> +<p>“Here you stay until I come,” commanded Oponui. “Make no attempt to escape, for so surely as you do, you will be cut to pieces +on the rocks, and the sharks await outside.” Then, diving into the receding water, he disappeared, and she was left alone. + +</p> +<p>Kaili awaited with impatience the return of his betrothed. He chided himself that he had allowed her father to persuade him +against following her to the cabin of her mother. Then doubt began to perplex <a id="d0e2305"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2305">281</a>]</span>him; then suspicion. A bird croaked significantly as it flew above his head. He could not longer endure inaction. Kaala’s +footprints were still traceable in the sand. He would go as far as they might lead. He set off at a round pace, stopping now +and then to assure himself, and presently stood perplexed near the Spouting Cave, for there they ceased. As he was looking +about for some clew that might set him right once more, a faint movement behind him caused him to turn, and he saw a figure +slinking along from rock to rock, bending low, as if seeking to be concealed: Oponui! Why should he be alone? Why should he +hide like that? Why was he trying to escape? The truth flashed upon him. He remembered the man’s face in battle, remembered +their vain though savage interchange of spears. Oponui had taken Kaala from him. Had he killed her? He sprang toward the creeping +figure with a shout, “Where is my wife?” + +</p> +<p>There was a short struggle; then Oponui, wriggling from his grasp, set off at a surprising pace toward a temple of refuge, +with Kaili close at his heels. The chase was vain. Oponui reached the gate, rushed through, and fell on the earth exhausted. +Two priests ran forward and offered their taboo staffs against the entrance of his pursuer. The gods could not be braved by +breaking the taboo. With a taunt and a curse at his enemy, the captain returned to the shore where the footprints had disappeared. +His heart-beats stifled him. His head was whirling. <a id="d0e2309"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2309">282</a>]</span>As he stood looking down into the boiling waters it seemed to his wandering fancy as if the girl had risen toward him in the +spout from the cave. Hardly knowing what he did, he spoke her name and leaped from the rock to clasp her pale form. He was +drawn under, and in a few seconds was flung violently upon the beach in the cave. + +</p> +<p>Kaili’s leap had been seen by his king, who, with a guide, had gone to seek him, and on learning of this grotto the king and +the guide plunged after. They found the lover seated on the pebbles in the green twilight, with Kaala’s head upon his lap, +his arms about her. She was dying, but a smile of content was on her face. He tried to restore her, to rouse her to an effort +to live. It was of no avail. With a whispered word of love she closed her eyes and ceased to breathe. + +</p> +<p>King Kamehameha advanced, his rude face softened with pity. “Come, Kaili,” he said. “The poor child was happy in her last +hour. This cave is her proper burial-place.” + +</p> +<p>“I cannot leave her, O king, for without her I cannot live.” Before his purpose could be divined, Kaili had seized a rock +and brought it down on his own head with crushing force. He swayed for a moment and fell dead beside the body of his bride. +The king had the corpses wrapped in cloth, but left them there, and the few who have ventured through the whirlpool have seen +in the cave the skeletons of the lovers. +<a id="d0e2317"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2317">283</a>]</span></p> +<p>The lament of Ua has been preserved. She was a girl whose secret love for the captain had impelled her to follow him, and +who had seen his plunge into the leaping water. It runs in this fashion: + +</p> +<div class="
 poem
 "> +<p class="line" style=""><span>“Dead is Kaili, the young chief of Hawaii, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The chief of few years and many battles. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>His limbs were strong and his heart was gentle. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>His face was like the sun. He was without fear. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Dead is the slayer of the Bone-Breaker; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Dead the chief who crushed the bones of Mailou; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Dead the lover of Kaala and the loved of Ua. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>For his love he plunged into the deep water. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>For his love he gave his life. Who is like Kaili? +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Kaala is hid and I am lonely. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Kaili is dead, and the black cloth is over my heart. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Now let the gods take the life of Ua!”</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e2345" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Grave of Pupehe</h2> +<p>Just off the southwest shore of Lanai is a block of lava eighty or ninety feet high, vertical or overhanging on every side, +absolutely without foothold. Yet at its top one may see from the neighboring shore a grave with a low wall built about it. +This is the resting-place of Pupehe, the wife of one to whom was given the name of Misty Eyes, because the woman’s eyes so +dazzled his own. These two loved so well that they were all in all to one another. They chose to live apart from their people, +roaming the woods, climbing the hills, surf-riding, fishing, berrying as the whim took them. +<a id="d0e2350"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2350">284</a>]</span></p> +<p>Lest some chief should look on her face and envy him, Misty Eyes hid his companion in a little hut among the trees, as secret +and secure as a bird’s nest, and sometimes they would go together to a cave, opening from the sea, opposite Pupehe’s Rock, +to catch and cook a sea-turtle. + +</p> +<p>The season of storms was at hand, but as the day had broken fair, Pupehe went to the cave to prepare a meal, while her husband +took the calabashes to fill at a spring up the valley. A mist had come up from nowhere when he turned to go back; the wind +was rising to a gale, the sea was whitening. His heart went into his throat, for he recalled how the breakers thundered in +at the cave and swept the strip of beach inside. Flinging down the calabashes, he ran with all his speed. Immense waves were +sweeping the cavern from end to end. Their thunder deafened him. Out of an acre of seething white a brown arm lifted. He leaped +in, seized Pupehe, and succeeded in gaining the shore, but to no avail. She was dead. After the storm had passed he paddled +to the lonely rock; was raised, with his burden, by a pitying god, and on the summit, where none might stand even beside the +grave of her whom in life he had guarded so jealously, he buried the cold form. When the last stone had been placed on the +wall, Misty Eyes sang a dirge for his wife and leaped into the sea. + + + +<a id="d0e2355"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2355">285</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2356" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Lady of the Twilight</h2> +<p>In Koolauloa, Oahu, is a natural well, of unknown depth and thirty yards in diameter, that is believed to be connected with +the ocean. Bodies drowned in this crater are said to have been found afterward floating in the sea. This pond, known as Waiapuka, +hides the entrance to a cave that can be reached only by diving, and in that cave was concealed during her infancy Laieikawai, +Lady of the Twilight. Her father, enraged that his wife always presented female children to him, swore he would kill all such +offspring until a male issue should appear, and Laieikawai was therefore kept out of his sight and in retirement until she +had grown to womanhood. Her beauty attracted even the gods, and chiefs from many islands travelled far to see her face when +she had been taken from the cavern by her grandmother and bestowed more fittingly in a house thatched with parrot feathers +and guarded by the lizard god. Her bed was bird-wings, the birds were her companions, she wore a robe tinted like a rainbow, +and wherever she went a fragment of rainbow hung over her and might be seen afar. + +</p> +<p>Laieikawai married a sun prince, and the same rainbow served as a ladder to take her to his new home in the moon, his place +in the sun being too hot and glaring for endurance. This was a fickle prince, for having seen another pretty face on earth, +he descended, and it was a year ere he appeared in <a id="d0e2363"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2363">286</a>]</span>the moon again. The young wife meanwhile had gone to the bowl of knowledge, a wooden vessel enclosed in wicker, decorated +with feathers and with birds carved in wood along the rim. Looking in and uttering the command, “Laukapalili!” a vision of +her recreant husband appeared. The father and mother of the prince were joint witnesses with the wife of his faithlessness. +As the picture vanished the air grew dark; faint, grisly shapes arose, and wailing voices sounded, “Heaven has fallen!” Standing +on the rainbow bridge, the father, mother, and wife cast off their love for the prince, and condemned him to be a wandering +ghost, living on butterflies. Then, having tired of heaven, the Lady of the Twilight returned to earth. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2365" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Ladrones</h2> +<p>The taking of Guam during the war with Spain was one of the comedies of that disagreement. When its rickety fort was fired +upon by one of our ships, the Spanish governor hastened down to the shore to greet the American officers, and apologized because +he was out of powder and could not reply to what he supposed was a salute. Off in that corner of the world he had not heard +of any war. + +</p> +<p>With the cession of this largest of the Ladrone islands we fall heir to some race problems as baffling as those presented +by our Indians. The natives of this group belong to the Tarapons, and the traditions <a id="d0e2372"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2372">287</a>]</span>of these people say that they came in part from the east and partly from the west. It has been thought that they have a slight +mixture of Mongolian blood, and this is not unlikely, for Chinese and Japanese junks have at various times been blown over +sea to farther shores than these. History for this group begins with Magellan, who named it for the ladrones or thieves, who +annexed his belongings when he arrived on the first voyage that had ever been made around the world. That they had crafts +and arts is proved by their weapons, canoes, cloth, and armor, and they have left here some remarkable stone columns, more +than twice the height of a man, with hemispheres of rock on their tops, flat sides uppermost, and six feet wide. In Tinian, +Kusaie, and also in Ponape, in the Carolines, there are ruins, including, in the latter island, a court three hundred feet +long with walls ten yards high, some of the monoliths being twenty-five feet long and eight feet thick. On Tongataboo are +larger rocks, forty feet high, which were quarried elsewhere and shipped to that coral island. On Easter Island are platforms +a hundred yards long, ten wide and ten high, with great statues all cut from stone. None of these remains, nor the picture-writing +found near the statues, throw light on the history, purpose, or personality of their builders. Every family has its little +circle of shells and stones which is a shrine where the gods are worshipped, and most of the gods are spirits of the great +and wise who died long ago. Offerings to these took <a id="d0e2374"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2374">288</a>]</span>the form of food and of anointing for their altars, but human sacrifices were no doubt demanded at times, when the priests +had been specially venturesome in asking favors. When a man died his soul sprang out, went below the earth, and found felicity +in the west. This belief resembles the Indian faith in the happy hunting-ground, and incidentally it points the course of +empire. The spirit could return once in a while, and ghostly visitations were sorely dreaded. The institution of the taboo +was and is connected with the native religions of the Pacific islands. We have adopted the word and use it in its true meaning +of forbidden. If an article were dedicated to a god, or used in his worship, or had been touched by him, or claimed by a chief +or a priest, no commoner dared lay finger on it, for it was as sacred as the ark of the covenant. Some canny planters kept +boys out of their orchards and palm groves by offering the fruit to certain gods until it was ripe, for a sign of taboo kept +out all marauders till the crop was ready for gathering, when the owner changed his mind and claimed it himself. To break +a taboo was not only to incur the wrath of the priests, but of the gods to whom the gift was offered, and who would surely +reward the blasphemer for his sin by illness, accident, loss, or death. + +</p> +<p>As soon as the Spaniards had occupied the Ladrones—afterward named the Marianas, in honor of Maria Anna, queen of Philip IV. +of Spain—they proceeded to slaughter the natives. In seventy years <a id="d0e2378"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2378">289</a>]</span>they had slain with sword, rack, toil, grief, and new diseases about fifty thousand people, reducing the populace to eighteen +hundred. Of this aboriginal race, the Chamorros, nearly all have perished. In their original estate these were the most advanced +of the Pacific islanders; they had more arts, more refinement, more kindliness, and more morality than the others. Under an +age of oppression and abuse they naturally deteriorated, and have cared little to advantage themselves by the few schools +and chapels that the Spaniards established in Guam and thereabout. It may be that the Chamorros shared with the people of +the Carolines in the suffering caused by the great irruption of savages from the south under Icho-Kalakal. These warriors, +in their wooden navies, destroyed the great tombs and temples because they had been raised to other gods than their own, slew +the defenders of the temples, and broke up the old civilization, passing from island to island, and continuing their waste +and murder. It was a raid of Goths and Vandals, and the effect of it was lasting. In Ponape it is said that the great structures +they overthrew are haunted, and people thereabout will not eat a certain fresh-water fish of a blue color, because the king, +Chauteleur, flying before Icho-Kalakal, fell into Chapalap River and was changed by the gods into one of these fish. + + + +<a id="d0e2380"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2380">290</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2381" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Old Beliefs of the Filipinos</h2> +<p>Respecting their myths the Filipinos differ in little from other human families whose civilization is incomplete. They had +in former times the same tendency to create gods and spirits for particular hills, woods, seas, and lakes, to endow the brutes +with human qualities, to symbolize in the deeds of men and animals the phenomena of the heavens. Even now the Monteses tell +of a tree that folds its limbs around the trunk of another and hugs it to death, the tree thus killed rotting and leaving +a tube of tightly laced branches in which are creatures that bleed through the bark at a sword-thrust or an ax-cut. These +creatures are mischievously alleged to be Spaniards. The Tagalogs believe in Tic-Balan, an evil spirit who inhabits fig-trees, +but is kept off by wearing a certain herb, and in a female spirit of the woods, Azuan, who is kept away from the house in +times of domestic anxiety by the husband, who mounts to the roof and keeps up a disturbance for some hours. + +</p> +<p>In their feasts and ceremonies the natives have hymns and prayers to the rain-spirit, the sea, the star-god, the good birds, +and the winds. Little has been done toward the preservation of their myths, for the Spaniards, during their centuries of control, +suppressed learning, except as it pertained to religious studies, and tolerated but scant liberty of opinion. The friars, +against whom the people nursed <a id="d0e2388"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2388">291</a>]</span>so strong a hate, stood for all that was harsh, narrow, tyrannical, and unprogressive. In order to gain money and maintain +their political ascendency they engaged in commerce, became owners of real estate and buildings, including saloons and dance-houses, +debased their churchly functions, discouraged attempts at progress, practically forbade the printing of secular books and +papers, making illiteracy, with its attendant vice, poverty, and superstition, universal; and when Dr. Jose Rizal urged his +reforms in the church and civil service, he was shot, though not as a blasphemer, but because his secret order, the Katipunan, +with its Masonic ritual and blood initiation, was thought to be dangerous to the public peace. + +</p> +<p>The change from this mediæval condition to that of the nineteenth century, with its impatience of title, caste, form, and +ceremony, its trust in equal right, its insistence on freedom of belief, came suddenly. In shaking off their ancient political +and religious bonds the Filipinos may lose some of the quaint and poetic records of their ancient faiths; for the first progress +of a nation after a long sleep is a material one, and art, literature, all the more delicate expressions of national taste, +history, and tendency, have to bide their day until the fortunes of the nation are assured. In this period of reconstruction +let us hope that those fables and dreams will not be forgotten which tell, more truly than dates and names and records, the +ancient state of the people, and afford <a id="d0e2392"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2392">292</a>]</span>us a means of estimating the impetus and direction of their advance. + +</p> +<p>The influence of Christian teaching is plain in some of the songs, plays, and stories of the natives, especially in the plays, +for in them the hero is often a Christian prince who defeats a strong and wicked Mohammedan ruler, and releases an injured +maiden. Change the names and the play becomes a modern English melodrama. In several of the islands, however, the impress +of Spanish occupancy is slight, and customs are still in force that have existed for hundreds of years. On Mindanao are still +to be found the politic devil-worshippers, who, instead of seeking to ingratiate themselves with benevolent deities, whose +favor is already assured, try to gain the goodwill of the fiends. Their rites are practised in caves in which will be found +ugly figures of wood and an altar on which animals are sacrificed. The flesh of these animals is eaten by the devils, according +to the priests, and by the priests, according to the white men. The evil spirits who appear in the half-darkness of these +caves, leaping and screaming, goading the company to frenzy, are priests in disguise and in demoniac possession. + +</p> +<p>Tagbanuas tear a house down when a death occurs in it, bury the corpse in the woods, and mark the grave by dishes and pots +used by the deceased in life. These implements are broken. Among our American Indians the outfits supplied to a dead man are +in sound condition, as it is supposed he will need them on his <a id="d0e2398"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2398">293</a>]</span>journey to the happy hunting-grounds, while the Chinese put rice and chicken in sound vessels on the graves of their brethren, +believing they will need refreshment when they start on the long journey to the land of the shades. Tramps know where the +Chinese are accustomed to bury their dead in American cities. When food is placed before an Otaheite corpse it is not for +the dead, but for the gods, and is intended to secure their good offices for the departed. While a Tagbanua corpse is above +ground it is liable to be eaten by a vampire called the balbal that lives on Mindanao, has the form of a man with wings and +great claws, tears open the thatch of houses and consumes bodies by means of a long tongue, which it thrusts through the opening +in the roof. These Tagbanuas do not believe in a heaven in the skies, because, they say, you could not get up there. When +a man dies he enters a cave that leads into the depths of the earth, and after travelling for a long time he arrives in the +chamber where Taliakood sits,—a giant who employs his leisure in stirring a fire that licks two tree trunks without destroying +them. The giant asks the new-comer if he has been good or bad in the world overhead, but the dead man makes no reply. He has +a witness who has lived with him and knows his actions, and it is the function and duty of this witness to state the case. +This little creature is a louse. On being asked what would happen if a native were to die without one of these attendants, +the people protest that no such thing ever happens. <a id="d0e2400"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2400">294</a>]</span>So the louse, having neither to gain nor lose, reports the conduct of his commissary and associate, and if the man has been +bad, Taliakood throws him into the fire, where he is burned to ashes, and so an end of him. If he has been good, the giant +speeds him on his way to a happy hunting-ground, where he can kill animals by thousands, and where the earth also yields fruits +and vegetables in plenty. Here he finds a house, without having the trouble to build one, and a wife is also provided for +him,—the deceased wife of some neighbor usually, although he can have his own wife if she is considerate enough to die when +he does. Down here everybody is well off, though the rich, having had much pleasure in the world, have less of it than the +poor. After a term of years the Tagbanua dies again and goes at once to a heaven in a deeper cave without danger from fire. +Seven times he dies, each time going deeper and becoming happier, and probably gains Nirvana in the end. Occasionally a good +spirit returns as a dove, and a bad one comes as a goat; indeed, a few of the bad ones are doomed to wander over the earth +forever. + +</p> +<p>A common belief is that the soul is absent from the body in sleep, and if death occurs then the soul is lost. “May you die +sleeping” is one of the most dreadful of curses. + +</p> +<p>Among the Mangyan mountaineers it is customary to desert a person who is about to die. They return after his death, carry +the corpse to the forest, build <a id="d0e2406"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2406">295</a>]</span>a fence about it, and roof it with a thatch. These people seem to have no word for god, spirit, or future life; they do not +worship either visible or unseen things, and are the most moral of the Filipinos. The lowlanders also desert their dying, +and after death close all paths to the house, leave the skeleton of the defunct to be picked clean by ants, and change their +names for luck. + +</p> +<p>When an islander in the Calamianes province dies his friends ask the corpse where it would like to be buried, naming several +places, and lifting the body after each question. When the body seems to rise lightly the dead man has said, “Yes.” It may +then be buried, or placed in a tree in the desired locality, with such of its belongings as the family can spare, and the +mourners watch around a fire that night until all the logs are consumed. The dead man walks about in the ashes, leaving his +footprints, and sometimes shows himself to his relatives. Singing and feasting follow for several nights, and the house of +the dead is then abandoned. + +</p> +<p>The holes in the marble cliffs of San Francisco Strait formerly contained the coffined dead of the tattooed Pintados, who +sacrificed slaves at the funeral that they might attend their relatives in the next world. Fear of the spirits of these rocks +was but partially overcome when a Spanish priest smashed the coffins and tumbled the bodies into the sea, for the strait is +still haunted and the burial rocks are good places to keep away from after dark. +<a id="d0e2412"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2412">296</a>]</span></p> +<p>Among the Moslem Moros it is a sure passport to heaven to kill a Christian, and when one remembers how the people have been +robbed, tortured, and oppressed by nominal Christians, this item of faith is not surprising. The more Christians he kills +the greater will be his reward. He bathes in a sacred spring, shaves his eye-brows, dresses in white, takes an oath before +a pandita or native priest to die killing infidels; then, with the ugly creese, or wave-edged knife, he runs madly through +the street, killing, right and left, until some considerate person shoots him. In the rage for blood he has been known to +push himself farther against a sword or bayonet that had already entered his vitals in order to stab the man who had stopped +him. When they hear of his death the relatives of the fanatic have a celebration, and declare that in the fall of the night +they see him ride by on a white horse, bound for the home of the good, where no Christians ever go to vex the angels. These +people are often fatalists. They will drink water known to be poisoned with typhoid germs, and when epidemics come they declare +them to be the will of God, and refuse to take the slightest measure against infection. They believe that when a strange black +dog runs by cholera follows on his heels. + +</p> +<p>Yet, like our Indians, the better Tagbanuas and Calamianes try to heal the sick through the aid of drugs and charms and incantations, +and they have their medicine man or papalyan. There is in the forest a strange little fellow, known as the man of the <a id="d0e2417"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2417">297</a>]</span>wood, who has the power of giving to these doctors the art of healing. He rushes out upon one who walks alone, seeking power, +and brandishes a spear, finally aiming it at the breast of the candidate, and advancing his foot as if to throw it. If the +candidate runs he is unworthy, but if he stands his ground the little man of the wood drops his spear and gives a pearl to +him. This pearl is never shown to anybody. It is looked at secretly at a patient’s bedside, and if clear the physician will +prescribe, but if it is dark, or has taken on a stony aspect, he resigns the case. The “drugs” are similar to those used by +the Chinese, consisting in part of powdered teeth and bones and other animal preparations. Charms are in common use as a protection +not only from disease but from murder and misfortune, and in the fighting between the Americans and the natives about Manila +many poor, half-naked creatures, armed with bows and arrows, had ventured fearlessly into the zone of fire, believing themselves +to be safe because they wore an anting-anting at the neck. This object, like an Indian’s “good medicine,” is anything,—a little +book, a bright pebble, a church relic, a medal, an old bullet, a coin, a piece of cloth, a pack of cards. It is the faith +that goes with it, not the object itself, that counts. Even Aguinaldo has been invested by his followers with superhuman power. +Just before he resorted to arms against the Americans the natives knew that the time for rebellion had come, for a woman in +Biacnabato gave birth to a child dressed <a id="d0e2419"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2419">298</a>]</span>in a general’s uniform, and above Tondo a woman’s figure crowned with snakes was painted in fire upon the night-sky. + +</p> +<p>In details of their faiths the tribes differ, but there is a prevalent belief in a principle of good that the Moros call Tuhan. +The sun, moon, and stars are the light that shines from him,—he is everywhere, all-seeing, all-powerful; he has given fleeting +souls to brutes and eternal souls to men. The soul enters a child’s body at birth, through the soft space in the top of the +head, and leaves through the skull at death. Their first men were giants, and Eve was fifty feet high, but as men’s minds +grew their bodies became of less account, and they will shrink and shrink until, at the world’s end, they will be only three +feet high, but will consist mostly of brains. Comparing a brawny savage with an anæmic scholar, one fancies there is reason +in this forecast. The Tagbanuas have no Adam and Eve. Those of them who live beside the ocean say they are the children of +Bulalacao, a falling star that descended to the shore and became a beautiful woman. The gods of these people are like men, +but are stronger, living in caves, eating an ambrosia-like boiled rice that has the power of moving. Their gods sometimes +steal their children. + +</p> +<p>Old Testament traditions are commonly accepted by the Moros, who believe in No (Noah), Adam, Mosa (Moses), Ibrahim (Abraham), +Sulaiman (Solomon), Daud (David), and Yakub (Jacob); but creation myths are locally modified, and some tales of <a id="d0e2425"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2425">299</a>]</span>recent emergence of islands out of the sea are probably true. In all volcanic districts mountains may be shaken down and hills +cast up in a day. Siquijor formerly bore the name of the Isle of Fire, for the natives say that in the days of their grandfathers +a cloud brooded on the sea for a week, uttering thunders and hisses and flashing forth bolts of fire. When the cloud lifted, +Siquijor stood there. The geology of the island supports the tradition. + +</p> +<p>The future is differently conceived by different sects and families, some panditas teaching that the soul, having come from +God, will return to him at death; others that it will sleep in the earth or the air until the world has ended, when all will +be swept on a wind to a mount of judgment, where saints and angels will weigh them, and souls heavy with sin will fall into +hell; others that there is no hell of fire, because there is not coal enough to keep it going, but that every man is punished +until his soul is purified, when it rises to heaven, glowing with light and color; others that men are punished according +to their sins; liars and gossips with sore mouths and tired jaws; gluttons with lame stomachs; jealous, cruel, tricky people +with aching hearts; abusive and thievish ones with pains in their hands; others that one finds hell enough on earth in fear, +illness, disappointment, misunderstanding and Spaniards, to atone for all the mischief he is liable to make. + + + +<a id="d0e2429"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2429">300</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2430" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Animal Myths</h2> +<p>In the fables of the Filipinos the animals often speak together in a common language. The dove, however, is the only one that +comprehends human speech, and it is a creature of uncommon shrewdness and intelligence, like the hare in the Indian myths +and Br’er Rabbit in the stories of our Southern negroes. Once the dove was a child. In shame and anger that its mother should +refuse to give it some rice she was pounding for panapig (a sort of cake), it ran out of the cabin, took two leaves of a nipa, +shaped wings from them, which it fastened to its shoulders, and fluttered into the boughs of a neighboring tree, changing, +in its flight, from a child to a dove. It still calls for panapig. + +</p> +<p>Darwin is read backward by the natives, for they say that the monkey was a man, long, long ago, and might have been one still +but for his mañana habit, so general in the Spanish colonies. He had a partner whom he greatly vexed by his idleness, and +once, when this partner was planting rice, he glanced up and saw the monkey squatted on the earth, with his face between his +hands, watching the labors of the industrious member of the firm,—for nothing makes loafing sweeter than to see somebody else +work. Enraged, the busy one caught up a cudgel and flung it at the monkey, who was thereupon seized with a sudden but futile +activity, and started to run away. The club struck him in the rear so mightily that it <a id="d0e2437"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2437">301</a>]</span>entered his spinal column and stayed there, becoming his tail. + +</p> +<p>In the Moro tradition of the flood—a tradition almost world-wide—Noah and his family got into a box when the forty days of +rain began, and one pair of each kind of bird and beast followed them. All of the human race except Noah, his wife and children, +were either drowned or changed. Those men who ran to the mountains when they saw the flood rising became monkeys; those who +flung themselves into the sea became fish; the Chinese turned into hornbills; a woman who was eating seaweed and kept on eating +after the waves broke over her became a dugong. + +</p> +<p>In Mindanao, Basilan, and Sulu the pig is held in suspicion and its flesh is not eaten. The reason for this aversion is that +the first pigs were grandchildren of the great Mahomet himself, and their conversion to these lowly quadrupeds fell out in +this way: When Jesus (Isa) called on Mahomet, the latter, jealous of his reputed power, bade him guess what was in the next +room. Christ said that he did not wish to do so. Mahomet then commanded him to prove his ability to see through walls, and +added that if he made a mistake he would kill him. Thereupon Christ answered, “There are two animals in that chamber that +are like no other in the world.” + +</p> +<p>“Wrong!” cried the Prophet, plucking out his sword. “They are my grandchildren. You have spoken false, and you must lose your +head.” + +</p> +<p>“Look and see,” insisted Christ, and Mahomet <a id="d0e2447"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2447">302</a>]</span>flung open the chamber door, whereupon two hogs rushed out. It should be added that while the divinity of Christ is denied +in some of the Oriental religions, he figures in many of them as a great and good man, gifted with supernatural power. Moros +charge as one reason for killing Christians that followers of Christ disgrace and belie mankind in teaching that men could +kill their own god. + +</p> +<p>On Mindoro the timarau, a small buffalo that lives in the jungle, has given rise to rumors of a fierce and destructive creature +that carries a single horn on his head. It is a wild and hard fighter, but it has two horns, and is not likely to injure any +save those who are seeking to injure it. A creature with an armed head has lingered down from the day of Marco Polo, because +in the stock of yarns assembled by that redoubtable tourist the unicorn figured. This was the rhinoceros, which is found so +near the Philippines as Sumatra. The gnu of Africa is another possible ancestor of this creature, a belief in which goes back +to the time of Aristotle; but the horse-like animal with a narwhal’s horn that frisks on the British arms never existed. + +</p> +<p>And, speaking of horses, it is strange that centaurs should figure in the mythology of a country like Luzon; but a mile from +the church at Mariveles is a hot spring beside which lived a creature that was half-horse and half-man. As in ancient Greece, +there is little doubt that a belief in this being came from the wonder excited by the first horsemen. +<a id="d0e2453"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2453">303</a>]</span></p> +<p>Sea-eagles in the East are large and powerful, and are believed to have long memories. According to report, a man living near +Jala Jala once stole a nest of their young and carried it to his house. It was a year from that time before any retaliation +was attempted. The birds then appeared above his premises, swooped down on his wife, clawed her face and beat her with their +wings until she was half-dead; then picked up her babe and carried it away before the eyes of the helpless parents. Next year +they came again, and another infant, a few months old, was stolen. The man tracked them to their nest, which had been built +high on a cliff that no one had ever scaled before. Nerved by grief and anger, he climbed it. In the nest were the skeletons +of his children. As he clung to the rock, hanging over a dizzy space and looking on these sad relics, the father bird came +swooping from the sky and began to strike at him with claws and wings. In the face of such an assault the man could not descend +in safety. Death was sure. He could only hope to kill his enemy, too. As the bird drew near he leaped from the rock, caught +the eagle about the neck, and the two plunged down to death together. + +</p> +<p>An animal god especially to be feared is Calapnitan, king of the bats. He is so powerful and capable of mischief that in exploring +a cave where bats are likely to have congregated the natives will speak in the most respectful terms of this deity, for he +would be sure to hear them if they spoke flippantly of him, <a id="d0e2458"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2458">304</a>]</span>and might swoop from the cave roof and whip their eyes out with his leathern wings or tear them with his claws. Hence they +bow their heads and speak with reverence of the Lord Calapnitan’s cave, the Lord Calapnitan’s stalactite, even recognizing +his temporary ownership of their clothing, arms, lights, and so on, and alluding to their own jackets as the Lord Calapnitan’s. +By carefully refraining in this manner from giving offence the Filipinos have succeeded in keeping their skins entire while +guiding white travellers through the caverns in their islands. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2460" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Later Religious Myths and Miracles</h2> +<p>Among stories that date no farther back than the Spanish conquest we find the usual tales of sacred springs, of visions, and +of blessed objects. The Church of the Holy Infant, in the city of Cebu, contains an image of the Christ child, about fifteen +inches in height, carved in ebony, preserved in much state and loaded with a profusion of ornament. The priests tell you that +it was made in heaven, thrown to the earth, and found in 1565 by a soldier who recovered from an illness when he touched it. +It was taken to the convent in Cebu, where the clergy emplaced it with great ceremony, and where on the 20th of January in +every year it is dressed in a field marshal’s regalia, receives a field marshal’s salute, and is worshipped by thousands of +<a id="d0e2465"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2465">305</a>]</span>pilgrims from all parts of the archipelago. So many women wrought themselves into an insane frenzy during these January feasts +that their sacred dances, which were once a part of the ceremonies, had to be stopped. When the town was burned this statue +saved itself from the flames, as did the bamboo cross near the church, which is said to be the same that was erected by the +monk, Martin de Rada, on the day when the Spanish landed, more than three centuries ago. Matter-of-fact historians allow that +the figure of the child may have been left there by Magellan. It worked miracles of a surprising character for years after +his death, and the first settlement in Cebu was called The City of the Most Holy Name of Jesus in its honor. The customary +discrepancies between the piety and the practice of the conquerors existed in the Philippines, as in the Antilles. They slew +the natives until the survivors threw up their hands and professed the right religion; then they shot twenty-four thousand +Chinese who had settled in and about Cebu, thus reducing themselves to a wretched state, for these Spaniards had depended +on the Chinese as their servants, cooks, farmers, laborers, shoemakers, and tailors. It is worthy of note that other missionaries +had shown activity, but with less result, for their methods had been more conciliatory. The Mahometanism that had been introduced +by Moslem preachers from Arabia got no farther than Sulu, and the Confucianism imported by Chinamen seems to have obtained +no permanent hold. Through <a id="d0e2467"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2467">306</a>]</span>all changes the Holy Child remained uninjured, and he continues his good work to this day. + +</p> +<p>When the Sulu pirates had fallen upon a year of such bad business that they reaped a profit of barely fifty per cent, on their +investment in ships and weapons, there was great discontent among them. Prizes were few and defeats occasional. Looking back +on their highest hill, as they sailed away, and fearing that when they returned it might be with but half a cargo of gold +and rum and Christians, so many of them wept for the misery of this thought that to this day the height is known as Buat Timantangis, +or Mount of Tears. In one dull season, when the pirates were almost mutinous because of their continued ill-fortune, it occurred +to one of the captains that an image to which the Christians prayed so earnestly and with such good effect might do as much +for him as for some other natives. In his barbarian mind there was no absurdity in trying to persuade a gentle Virgin or a +pure-minded Saint to deliver into his hands the goods and persons of those who knelt before their effigies. A sacred image +was “good medicine” for Spaniards and Tagalogs, and should, therefore, be good medicine for Mahometans. Thus, he bethought +him of the statue now known as the Virgin of Antipolo, that came from Spain by way of Mexico in charge of early missionaries. +To think was to act. He raided the village where it had been enshrined and attempted to carry it off; but the statue had warned +the faithful of its peril, and <a id="d0e2471"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2471">307</a>]</span>the marauders were met and driven off by a powerful force. The Virgin of Antipolo became one of the most influential of all +the guardians of the islands, and to this day is especially besought by mothers who ask for her intercession on behalf of +their sickly children. Holy water taken from her shrine will cure the sufferer, and the mother then performs a public penance +in thankfulness. Before the American arrival, with its sudden imposition of new ideas on an old society, it was no uncommon +thing to see on Good Friday a company of the richest women in Manila, poorly attired and with bare feet, dragging through +the streets a heavy cross thirty feet in length. This was in fulfilment of vows they had made at the shrine of Antipolo. + +</p> +<p>This Virgin of Antipolo is likewise known as Our Lady of Good Voyage and Peace. She arrived from Mexico in a state galleon +in 1626. On the voyage she calmed a storm so quickly that the priests proclaimed her special sanctity, and ordered her to +be received in Manila with salutes of bells and guns. While the Jesuits were building a church for her she would often descend +from her temporary altar and stand in an antipolo tree (Astocarpus incisa). People cut pieces from this tree for charms against +disease and misfortune, until Father Salazar ordered that the trunk should be its pedestal. In an early rebellion the Chinese +insurgents threw the statue into the fire. Flames were all about it, yet not a hair, not a thread of lace was singed, and +the body of brass was <a id="d0e2475"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2475">308</a>]</span>unmarked by smoke. Angered at this defiance of their power, a Chinaman stabbed it in the face, and, curiously, the wound remains +to this day in protest against the savagery that incited it. When for a second time the Virgin passed unscathed through a +conflagration the Spanish infantry bore her on their shoulders about the streets, shouting in the joy of her protection. A +galleon having been endangered by rocks and bars in Manila Bay, the captain borrowed this statue, prayed that it would secure +the safety of his ship, and, to the wonder of all, his vessel rode proudly up to the city gates, for the Virgin had ordered +that the rocks should sink deeper beneath the sea. Twice afterward she did a like service to captains who borrowed the figure +as a safeguard on the long voyage to Mexico and back, for each time she suppressed great storms. At the time of the assault +on Manila by the Dutch she assisted in the defeat of the strangers, though St. Mark was associated with her in the victory. +He had told the governor in a dream that success should attend the Spanish arms if his people would carry the Virgin into +the fight. This was done, and the Dutch lost three ships with their cargoes. She was finally domiciled in the town of Antipolo, +which, beside being famous as a shrine, has been one of the most noted resorts for brigands in the Philippines. The village +of four thousand people subsists largely on the money spent by pilgrims to her church. + +</p> +<p>Every family in the Christian communities has a <a id="d0e2479"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2479">309</a>]</span>little statue of the Virgin or of a patron saint, to which prayers are addressed. Occasionally as much as a thousand dollars +will be paid for one of these images, for some have more power than others. When Tondo caught fire and was reduced to ashes, +the houses of mat and bamboo burning like paper, one thing alone survived the flames: a wooden statue of Mary. This token +of a special watch upon the figure immediately raised its importance, and it was attired in the dress and ornaments of gold +in which it may now be seen. Not all the domestic saints are brilliantly dressed or originally expensive. One Filipino family +worshipped a portrait of Garibaldi that adorned the cover of a raisin box, while a native elsewhere was found on his knees +before a picture from an American comic paper that represented President Cleveland attired as a monk and wearing a tin halo. +Both of these pictures had been placed on altars, and candles were burned before them. + +</p> +<p>Another statue of great power is in the church at Majajay. It was sent there from Spain in charge of the friars, and is especially +besought by invalids, for it is a general belief that whosoever will reach the church with breath enough remaining in him +to recite certain prayers before this image shall have fresh lease of life; yea, though he were at his last gasp. + +</p> +<p>Some of the attacks made on the friars in the Philippines have been construed into attacks on the Church, but this is wrong. +For the good of the <a id="d0e2485"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2485">310</a>]</span>Church, no less than of the people, it is desired to purge the islands of these ancient offenders. They have used religion +as a cloak for evil, have encouraged, in private, vices they preached against in public, have availed themselves of famines +and other distresses to force money from the poor, and have fathered as many half-castes as the Spanish soldiers have. As +to their offspring, Filipino wives have quieted jealous husbands by assuring them that the appearance of a European complexion +in a hitherto brown family was a special favor from St. Peter,—a miracle ordered by the keeper of heaven as a reward for piety +and good works. Hence, one hears much of St. Peter’s children in the Philippines. Some of the white inhabitants have nevertheless +been conspicuous for virtue. Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, for example, the first ruler of the islands, was so good that for years +after his death his body, now in the St. Augustine Monastery, Manila, underwent no decay or change, but was like that of a +man in sleep. + +</p> +<p>Alitagtag, north of Bauan, became in 1595 a resort of ghosts and devils that congregated about a spring near the village, +so that the people were afraid to go there for water. A native headman took wood from a deserted house, made a cross of it, +and set it up near the spring to spell away the fiends. As the people still feared, a woman of courage ventured near the place +to find that a stream of cold, pure water was flowing from one of the arms of the cross. To further assure the people that +the evil <a id="d0e2489"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2489">311</a>]</span>spirits had been mastered the cross arose from the earth and stalked about the fields, surrounded by bright lights. Thereupon +the clergy ordered that it should be adored, and from that time it became an object of worship, healing diseases, dispelling +plagues, and killing locusts. When the priests at Bauan announced that they intended to move the cross to Lake Bombon, the +priest of Taal, being jealous of his brothers in the other town, hired some natives to steal it and take it to his house. +No sooner had the men assembled for this purpose than sheets of green fire fell about the cross, defending it from their approach, +and in a frenzy of contrition they ran back, solemnly vowing that they would never make a similar attempt again. The cross +was, therefore, taken to Bauan, where it did service for the people by terrorizing a band of pirates and by stopping an eruption +of the Taal volcano in 1611. This peak of Taal had been a resort of devils from time immemorial, and it had been a frequent +duty of the Church to pray them into silence. In the year just named Father Albuquerque headed a procession that ascended +the mountain for this purpose. Near the summit he paused and lifted the cup containing the blood of Christ. Dreadful noises +were heard, like the laughter of ten thousand fiends, in vaults below. Then, with a groan and crash, the earth split and two +craters appeared, one filled with boiling sulphur, the other with green water. The cross was sent for. It was brought by four +hundred natives. When it <a id="d0e2491"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2491">312</a>]</span>was put into the priest’s hands he lifted it toward the sky and all united in prayer. During this petition, while every head +was bent and all eyes were shut, the craters softly closed and Taal was as it had been before. Yet the demons still linger +about the mountain. Not many years ago an Englishman tunnelled the peak for sulphur. The fiends of the volcano shook the roof +down on his head and he perished. In May it has been a custom to hold a feast in honor of this cross, if the natives furnish +the necessary candles and raise ten dollars for the officiating priest. + +</p> +<p>Bangi, in Ilocos Norte, had a shrine in which was the image of a child with a lamb. Herbs pressed against it would cure all +diseases. For years a dispute was carried on between clerical factions as to whether it represented St. John the Baptist or +Christ. Bishop Miguel Garcia, having undressed it and examined it thoroughly, decided it to be a Chinese idol. Thereupon it +was broken and burned as a thing unholy. + +</p> +<p>Our Lady of Casaysay, in Batangas, is so esteemed that ships salute her in passing. She was found by a fisherman in his net. +He took her to a cave, not knowing what to make of his strange find, and intending to keep her there probably as a treasure +not to be shared by his neighbors. She astonished and disappointed him by proclaiming herself with flashing lights of beautiful +color and with loud music. As these demonstrations frightened the peaceable rustics, the Virgin left her cave, visited a native +<a id="d0e2497"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2497">313</a>]</span>woman, spoke kindly to her, and was thereupon provided with a shrine, where she might be adored with proper ceremony. + +</p> +<p>The statue of St. Joaquin at Gusi is remarkable because every year it runs away and spends two weeks with its wooden wife, +the figure of St. Ann, at Molo. + +</p> +<p>Manila once had a saint that wagged its head approvingly at certain points in the sermon. This conduct drove so many women +into hysterics, and crowded the church so dangerously with people who went to see the miracle, that the archbishop discountenanced +its action, and ordered that it should be quiet thereafter. Quiet was easily secured by cutting the string attached to the +saint’s neck. The padre was accustomed to pull this during his discourse whenever he wished his congregation to believe that +the saints approved his eloquence or endorsed his doctrine. + +</p> +<p>Holy water from the Conception district of Panay saves life, and San Pascual Bailon cures barrenness. A Manila milkman who +was punished for selling watered milk expressed surprise at the complaints of his customers, because no wrong had been committed, +inasmuch as he had used nothing but holy water, which was far superior to milk. Water from the prison well at Iloilo was held +at so high a value that the prison-keeper made a fortune from it, as it was given out that Christ and the Virgin had been +seen bathing in the well. Our Lady of the Holy <a id="d0e2505"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2505">314</a>]</span>Waters presides over the hot springs below Maquiling Mountain, an old crater. Another popular place of pilgrimage is the shrine +at Tagbauang, near Iloilo, where illnesses are cured at a high mass in January. + +</p> +<p>One of the last recorded appearances of the Virgin was in 1884, when a band of robbers in Tayabas killed a plantation manager, +wounded several laborers, and ransacked the house of the owner. While in one of the bedrooms tying clothes, jewelry, and other +loot into parcels for removal, the Virgin appeared, and standing in the door looked with severity and distress on the bandits. +They immediately left their plunder and ran pell-mell from the building. Some of these robbers were arrested, but the Virgin +had compassion on them for leaving the proceeds of their raid, so none was garroted or even sentenced. Some go so far as to +say that the Virgin had nothing to do with their escape from punishment, alleging that the officers of the law had conspired +with them, and that the Spanish courts were even worse than those of a land that shall be nameless in respect of their slowness +and the facilities they offered for adjournments, retrials, and appeals on grounds that if presented in any other cause than +that of a breaker of the law would be laughed to scorn. Filipino bandits often wear medals of the Virgin and saints to protect +them from harm, and some are made bold by confidence in their protection. It is a belief of theirs that they will never be +punished for any crime they may commit in Easter week, for the rather obscure <a id="d0e2509"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2509">315</a>]</span>reason that Christ pardoned the thief on the cross on Good Friday. + +</p> +<p>A curious chapel on a bluff near Pasig, overlooking the river of that name, has the form of a pagoda. It was built as a thank-offering +by a Chinaman who, having been endangered by a crocodile, and having called on men and joss without receiving an answer, prayed +volubly to the Christians’ God as he swam toward the shore, and promised to erect a chapel in return for his life. His prayer +was answered, for the crocodile was turned to stone, and may now be seen in the bed of the stream, while the grateful Mongol +kept his word, and also joined the church. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2513" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Bankiva, the Philippine Pied Piper</h2> +<p>Of nearly six hundred species of birds in the Philippines the jungle fowl, or bankiva, is best known, and is both killed and +domesticated. Unlike the dove, it does not understand human speech, but it has a power over our kind that is exercised by +no other animal. Once a year the spirits grant to it this power of charming, in order that both spirits and birds may be revenged +on men, their constant enemies. When that day comes the Luzon mother tremblingly gathers her little ones about her and warns +them not to leave their door, for young ears heed the strange, sweet music of the fowl’s voice, which grown people cannot +hear. On that day the <a id="d0e2518"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2518">316</a>]</span>bird sings with a new note, and the flock of bankivas choose the largest, handsomest of their number to lead the march of +children. On the edge of the village he gives his song, and every toddler runs delightedly to see what causes the music. Babes +respond with soft, cooing notes, and will go on hands and knees if they can. They find the bankivas gathered in a little ring, +spreading their tails and wings, dancing and singing in harmony, the head bird setting the air. When the children have gathered, +they, too, begin to dance and sing, following the birds as they go deeper and deeper into the wood. Night falls, and with +a harsh cry the bankivas fly away in all directions. The children are as if awakened from a sleep. They do not know where +they are, and cannot tell which way to turn. Jungles and swamps are about them, man-eating crocodiles are watching from the +water, poisonous and strangling snakes are gliding about the brush, the pythons that loop themselves from overhanging limbs +are sometimes thrice the length of a man. Dread and danger are on every hand. And at home the mothers sit crying. Sometimes, +though rarely, a man or woman totters back to a village bearing marks of great age, and is sure that he or she left there +only the night before. These wanderers do not know where they have been. They remember only that the bankiva sang sweetly, +and they followed it, as the children of Hamelin followed the pied piper. + + + +<a id="d0e2520"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2520">317</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2521" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Crab Tried to Eat the Moon</h2> +<p>Among the fantastic stories told of snakes, water-buffalo, birds, and sharks are several that have obvious meaning. The crab +figures in certain of these tales as the cause of the tides. He was an enormous creature and lived in a great hole in the +bottom of a distant sea, whence he crawled twice a day, the water pouring into the hollow then, and leaving low water on the +coast. When he settled back again the water was forced out and the tide was high. The relation of tides to the moon may have +introduced this creature in another aspect as the moon’s enemy and cause of her eclipse, for it is related that one evening +a Filipino princess walking on a beach saw with astonishment an island that had never been visible on the sea before. Her +emotion was that of alarm when she saw the island approach the shore, and she hid in the shrubbery to watch. Presently she +could make out, despite the failing light, that it was no island, but a crab larger than a hundred buffalo. Its goggling eyes +were dreadful to see, its mouth was opening fiercely, its claws working as if eager to clutch its prey. The moon arose at +the full, making a track of light across the heaving waters, and the crab, facing east, prepared to spring and drag it to +its den beneath the ocean. Half a mile away the people of the princess were holding a feast with songs and dances. Would they +hear a signal? She placed her conch-shell horn at <a id="d0e2526"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2526">318</a>]</span>her lips and blew with all her strength. The monster still gnashed and grasped in expectancy at the sea’s edge, and a breeze +brought through the wood a faint sound of drums. Her people had not heard. Again she blew. This time the woods were still. +Her people were listening. A third blast followed, and in a few minutes the warriors swarmed upon the beach with knives, swords, +and lances. While the princess was explaining to them the moon’s peril the crab made a leap into the air and darkened its +face, causing an eclipse, but failing to get a hold it dropped back to the beach again, where the people fell upon it, the +princess leading the attack with the war-call of her tribe. As the crab turned to see what had befallen, the princess slashed +off his great left claw. With the other it crushed a soldier, but again her cresse fell and the right claw fell likewise. +Then a hundred men rushed upon the creature, prodding their spears into joints of his legs and the dividing line between his +back plate and belly. Others fell under his great bulk or were gnashed by his iron teeth, but in the end his shell was broken +and the moon was safe. And often when the gentle pirate of the Sulus scoured the sea he uttered a prayer before an image of +the princess for a bright night and an easy victim, for had it not been for her the crab would have swallowed the moon, and +the sea would have been as dark as some kinds of a conscience. + + + +<a id="d0e2528"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2528">319</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2529" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Conversion of Amambar</h2> +<p>While roving over the waters that covered the earth the sun god saw the nymph Ursula sporting in the waves, and was smitten +with a quick and mighty fondness. He nearly consumed himself in the ardor of his affection. She, however, was as cold and +pure as the sea. As she swung drowsily on the billows she was like a picture painted in foam on their blue-green depth, and +in breathing her bosom rose and fell like the waves themselves. As she saw the god descending she was filled with alarm, but +as he took her into his strong embrace and placed his cheek to hers a new life and warmth came to her, and in their marriage +the spirits of the air and water rejoiced. A son was born to them,—so beautiful a boy that the sun god made a land for him, +stocked it with living creatures, adorned it with greenery and flowers, and gave it to the human race as an inheritance of +joy forever. This land he called Cebu, and no land was more lovely. Lupa was the child, and from him came all the kings of +Cebu, among them Amambar, the first chief of the island of whom we have definite record. In the day of his rule the group +had long been peopled, and the use of tools and weapons had become known. One occasionally finds to-day the stone arrows and +axes they called “lightning teeth,” and with which they worked such harm to one another in their many wars. + +</p> +<p>It was an evening of March, 1521, a calm and <a id="d0e2536"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2536">320</a>]</span>pleasant evening, with the perfume of flowers mixed with the tonic tang of the ocean, birds flying and monkeys chattering +in the wood, and a gentle surf whispering upon the beach. Amambar was walking on the shore alone. He had gone there to watch +the gambols of the mermaids, when a great light whitened against the sunset. It came from a cross that had been planted just +out of reach of the sea. He put his hands before his eyes that it might not dazzle him. Then, as the moon arose, he peered +beneath his hands, out over the restless water, and there, against the golden globe that was lifting over the edge of the +world, could be seen a flock of monster birds with gray wings, and dark men walking on their backs as they lightly rode the +billows, the men sparkling and glinting as they moved, for they were arrayed in metal and bore long knives and lances that +flashed like stars. Other of the company wore black robes and sang in unknown words, their voices mixing in a music never +heard by Amambar before. A sparkling white cloud drooped slowly from the sky. A diamond vapor played about the cross. Out +of the cloud came a melodious voice saying, “Look up, O chief!” And looking at the cross again, he saw, extended there, a +bleeding figure with a compassionate face that gazed down upon him and declared, “I am Jesus Christ, son of the only God. +Those whom you see in the ships are my people, who have come to these islands to rule you for your good.” Amambar fell prone +on the sand and prayed for a <a id="d0e2538"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2538">321</a>]</span>long time, not daring to open his eyes. When he regained courage and arose the cloud was gone; the ships had sailed away. +He was alone. + +</p> +<p>The commander of the ships was Magellan. It was one of his monks who had placed the cross on shore. Landing in Cebu later, +he converted two thousand of the natives in a day by destroying the statue of Vishnu and putting that of the child Jesus in +its place, though he still yielded to savage opinion in so far as he consented to confirm his friendship with the king by +a heathen ceremony, each opening a vein in his arm and drinking the blood of the other. As usual, the appearance and ways +of the Europeans smote the natives with wonder. They described the strangers as enormous men with long noses, who dressed +in fine robes, ate stones (ship-bread), drank fire from sticks (pipes), and breathed out the smoke, commanded thunder and +lightning from metal tubes, and were gods. Engaging in a wrangle between two tribes, Magellan was lured into a marsh at Mactan, +and there, while watching a battle to see how great the Filipinos could be in war, he was slain with bamboo lances sharpened +and hardened in fire. Amambar’s Christianity did not endure, for he so wearied of the oppression and rapacity of the strangers +that when a successor to Magellan appeared he invited him to a banquet and slew him at his meat. But the cross and the statue +of Christ worked miracles among the faithful for many generations. + + + + + + +<a id="d0e2542"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2542">322</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2543" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Bedevilled Galleon</h2> +<div class="
 poem
 "> +<p class="line" style=""><span>“Sing hey, sing ho! The wind doth blow,</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>And I’ll meet my love in the morning,”</span></p> +</div> +<p>Sang the lookout, as he paced the forecastle of the galleon Rose of May, and peered about for signs of land against the dawn. +Not that he expected to meet his love in the morning, nor for many mornings, but he had been up in his off-watch and was getting +drowsy, so that he sang to keep himself awake. His was one of the first among the English ships to follow in Magellan’s track. +The Philippines, or the Manillas, as they were called, had been almost reached, and it was expected that Mindanao would be +sighted at break of day off the starboard bow. + +</p> +<p>“Hello, forward!” bawled the man at the helm. + +</p> +<p>“Ay, ay!” sang the lookout. + +</p> +<p>“What d’ye make o’ yonder light?” + +</p> +<p>“Light? What d’ye mean, man?” And the lookout rubbed his eyes, scanned the water close and far, and wondered if his sight +was going out. + +</p> +<p>“In the sky, o’ course, ye bumble-brain.” + +</p> +<p>“Now, by the mass, you costard, you gave me a twist of the inwards with your lame joke.” + +</p> +<p>“’Tis no joke. Will you answer?” + +</p> +<p>“Why, then, ’tis the daylight, in course, and you aiming for it that steady as to drive the nose of us straight agin the sun, +give he comes up where he threats to. And he’ll be here straightway, for in <a id="d0e2569"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2569">323</a>]</span>these waters he comes up as he were popped outen a cohorn.” + +</p> +<p>“The day! Heaven forefend! I’m holding her to the north.” + +</p> +<p>“You’re holding due east. Aha! Look yonder, where the cloud is lifting. Land ho!” + +</p> +<p>“Where away?” cried a mate, roused out of a forbidden doze by this talk, and blundering up to the roof of the after-castle. + +</p> +<p>“Port bow, sir.” + +</p> +<p>“Port bow! The fiend take us! You block! You jolterhead! Where are you fetching us?” + +</p> +<p>“I’m holding her due to the north, sir, as you bade me,” faltered the steersman. “Look for yourself, if it please you, for +’tis light enough to read the card without the binnacle lamp. We’re sailing east by the sky and north by the needle. The ship’s +bedevilled!” + +</p> +<p>“Hold your peace, or you’ll have the crew in a fright. Head her around eight points to port, and keep her west by the card.” + +</p> +<p>“Lights in, sir? The sun is up,” called the lookout.<span id="d0e2587" class="corr" title="Source: ”"></span> + +</p> +<p>“Yes.” And the mate added in a lower tone, “’Tis the first time ever the sun came up in the north.” + +</p> +<p>“What’s all this gabble?” grumbled the captain, thrusting his red and whiskered face out of the cabin. “Can’t a man have his +rest when you keep the watch, Master Roaker?” +<a id="d0e2593"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2593">324</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Pray, captain, come and look at the compass. Do you see the lay o’ the needle? We’re sailing west to hold north, or else +the sun has missed stays over night and come up in the north himself.” + +</p> +<p>“Hi, hi! That’s parlous odd. Keep her as you have her, and have out Bill, the carpenter, to see if there’s any iron overside. +Nay, let her off a little more, for that’s a hard-looking piece of shore out yonder, for all of the palms and green stuff.” + +</p> +<p>The watch was changed presently, the captain preferring to take the biscuit and spirits that were his breakfast on the deck. +He went to the compass every minute or so, looked curiously at the draw of the sails and studied the water alongside. The +carpenter had reported all sound, with no iron out of place to deflect the needle. There was a grave look on the faces of +the officers, and the men talked low together as they watched them. + +</p> +<p>“Strange-looking hill out yonder,” remarked a mate. “Not a tree on it, nor any green thing. ’Tis black and shining enough +for the devil’s grave-stone.” + +</p> +<p>“Have done with your gossip of devils,” snorted the other mate. “You’re as evil a man for a ship’s company as a whistler. +You’ll be calling ill luck on us to name the fiend so often.” + +</p> +<p>“Looks like shoal water forward, sir,” called the new lookout. + +</p> +<p>“Right! Head her away to port yet farther. Look you, fellow, have you no inkling of your business? <a id="d0e2608"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2608">325</a>]</span>You’ll have us all ashore. Mary, mother! Give me the helm!” With sweat bursting from his brow the captain caught the tiller +and put it hard over. The ship shook a bit, swerved, yet made side-wise toward the green patch on the sea. The land was looming +large now. + +</p> +<p>“’Tis not in the rudder to keep her off, sir,” called a mate who had gone forward. “’Tis the leeway she is making.” + +</p> +<p>“There’s a scant breeze.” + +</p> +<p>“Ay, but there must be a fearsome current.” + +</p> +<p>“I see no sign of it. This water is smooth as any pond.” + +</p> +<p>“But you see for yourself, she’s gaining on the shore. Look, now, how we’re passing that patch o’ water-weed.” + +</p> +<p>“I think hell is under us. Have up the clerk and put him at prayers, and you fellows take in sail—each rag of it—that if we +strike we may go easy. Call all hands. See that the boats are clear. She minds her helm no more than a straw. God help us!” + +</p> +<p>The galleon was at the edge of the shoal spot now, and all held their breath, expecting to hear the grinding of the keel on +a bank; but, no, she floated in safety. + +</p> +<p>“Sound!” commanded the captain. “There may be anchorage.” + +</p> +<p>“Four fathom,” called the sailor at the lead after he had made his cast. + +</p> +<p>“Stand by to let go. We’ll tie up here till the <a id="d0e2630"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2630">326</a>]</span>tide turns or the spell’s worked out. Alive—alive, there! Get that anchor overboard.” + +</p> +<p>“It be wedged agin the bulwark, captain, and needs another pair o’ hands.” + +</p> +<p>“Forward all! Why, you lump, the flukes are clear. What ails you? Lift all. There!” + +</p> +<p>With an united heave the sailors raised the barbed iron and cast it over the side. The faces of all dripped and went white, +and their knees bent then, for the anchor flew from their hands and struck the sea quite twenty feet away,—in deep water, +for the shoal was passed,—and the chain paid out like rope as the iron sank, yet not straight down. It rattled off toward +the shore. + +</p> +<p>“We’ve had krakens and mermaids and all variety of horrid beasts,” said one old tar, with his jaw a-shaking, “and now the +foul fiend has that anchor, and is pulling us ashore with it.” + +</p> +<p>The chain had run out to its length, but the anchor had found no bottom. A cracking and grinding of the links could be heard, +as if a tug of war were going on between two giants that had this chain between them. Bits of rust powdered off, and the strain +was tearing splinters from the timbers. A loud snap,—the chain had parted. Down went the anchor, but again not straight,—off +toward the land, and one free link of the chain shot as if from a gun straight toward the shore, whizzing with ever-increasing +speed until it was out of sight. The men looked at one another in amaze. +<a id="d0e2642"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2642">327</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Get up the stores,” shouted the captain, “and be ready all to quit the ship.” He added to his mates, “A half hour’s the longest +we can hope for. The Rose of May will be on the black cliff by that. Is the clerk praying? Good! We may get away in the boats, +but we’ll end our days here in the Manillas. Alack, my Betsy! I’ll never look into her eyes again.” + +</p> +<p>“She’s down a little by the head, an’t please you,” cried a sailor, running aft. + +</p> +<p>“Ease her a little, then. Toss over some of the dunnage.” + +</p> +<p>“Lor’! Lor’! Spare us all this day!” yelled a sailor a minute later. + +</p> +<p>“What is it?” + +</p> +<p>“I tried to put my knife on the rail here, while I gripped the line I was to cut, when it tugged at my hand like a live thing. +In a fright I let go, and away it flew toward the shore. Oh, we’ve reached the Devil’s country. Why ever did I leave England?” + +</p> +<p>“How of the compass?” + +</p> +<p>“It points steady to that rock.” + +</p> +<p>“Master captain! Master captain!” shouted the steward, running upon deck. “The fiend is in the after-castle, for the pans +and the knives and a blunderbuss and two cutlasses that were loose have leaped against the forward panelling and stick there +as if rivets were through them. ’Tis wizard’s work. Let us pray, all.” +<a id="d0e2661"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2661">328</a>]</span></p> +<p>A sudden commotion was seen among the sailors at that moment. The cannon balls had rolled forward to the break of the forecastle, +and the two guns themselves—the ship’s armament against the pirates of China and Sulu—were straining at their stays. + +</p> +<p>“Heave over the shot. It’ll lighten her,” ordered the captain. + +</p> +<p>The crew obeyed, but after the first of the balls had been lifted over the bulwarks, they had scarce the strength to cast +out the rest, for amazement overcame them on seeing the shot plucked from the man’s hands and blown through the air as if +sent from its gun toward the rock. The ship was leaping through the water, though the breeze was from the land. One after +another the men fell on their knees and prayed loudly, the captain last of all. Suddenly he looked up, with a wondering flash +in his eyes. He sprang to his feet, plucked an iron belaying-pin from its ledge, held it up, felt it pull, let go, and saw +it whirl away like a leaf in a cyclone. He looked at the compass; the needle pointed straight toward the black and glistening +cliff now lowering not more than half a mile ahead. + +</p> +<p>“It’s the guns,” he shrieked. “Up with you. Cut away the lashings. Stave down the bulwarks. Let them go.” + +</p> +<p>In the panic there was no stopping to argue or to question. The guns were freed, and they, too, went hurtling through the +air, striking the rock with a clang. The captain leaped to the helm and put it <a id="d0e2672"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2672">329</a>]</span>hard a-starboard. The ship’s pace slackened, she curved gracefully around, and headed from the threatening coast. “Shake out +all sail, lads, for we’re free at last, by God’s good grace.” + +</p> +<p>Though trembling and confused, the sailors managed to hoist sail, and on a gentle wind from the east they left that coast +never more to venture near it. The captain’s face lost its knots and seams, by slow degrees the color of it returned,—a color +painted upon it, especially about the nose, by many winds, much sunshine, and uncounted bottles of strong waters. He wiped +his brow and drew a big breath. “It comes to me, now,” he said. “We’ve not been bewitched. That hill beyond, that’s robbed +us of our guns and anchor, is a magnet,—the biggest in the world.” + +</p> +<p>In an earthquake, several years later, the magnet-mountain disappeared. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2678" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Two Runaways from Manila</h2> +<p>The name Corregidor, which stands for mayor, albeit the translation is corrector, is applied to the gateway to Manila. Thus +named it was a place to inspire a wholesome fear in the breasts of dignitaries, for on at least two occasions proud and refractory +bishops were sent there in exile to endure a season of correction and repentance. It was thought to be a desert. In the seventeenth +century the treasure galleon arriving at Manila, after a <a id="d0e2683"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2683">330</a>]</span>voyage of months from Mexico, brought a family from that country. One of the daughters of this house of Velez was a girl with +a bit of human nature in her composition, for Maria was prone to flirting, and had no affection for sermons. In order to repress +her high spirits and love of mischief, she was sent by her father to the convent of Santa Clara, which had been founded in +1621 (a few years before this incident). The parent even hoped that she might qualify as a nun. + +</p> +<p>It was not the right convent, for Fray Sanchez, one of the fathers, who said the offices in the chapel, was a Franciscan friar, +young, handsome, and not an ascetic. The novice was always prompt when he said mass, and often when her pretty head should +have been bowed in prayer she was peeping over the edge of her breviary, following the graceful motions of the brother as +he shone in full canonicals in the candle-light, and thrilling at the sound of his rich, low voice. The priest several times +caught the glance of those eyes, so black, so liquid, saw the long fringe of lashes fall across them, saw the face bend behind +the prayer-book in a vain endeavor to hide a flush, realized what a pretty face it was, and went to his cell with a vague +aching at his heart. He sought Maria among the pupils to give spiritual advice, or she sought him to ask it,—it little matters,—and +so the first full moon looked into a corner of the convent garden and saw, despite the swaying shadow of vines and palms, +that the friar <a id="d0e2687"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2687">331</a>]</span>was making confession to the nun,—a confession of love. The face that had peered above the prayer-book was lifted to his, +a white arm stole about his neck: it was the answering confession. The priest strained her to his breast and half stifled +her with kisses. + +</p> +<p>These raptures were interrupted by the retiring bell, and they hastily returned to the convent by separate ways. It was the +last night they expected to spend beneath that roof, for a galleon was to sail for Mexico in a day or two, and they had agreed +to elope. Dressed in worldly garb, which she concealed under the robe and cowl of a monk, Maria slipped through the garden +gate next day, met her lover, ran to the shore, where a boat had been tied, crossed with him to Camaya, the ship being promised +there for a fag end of cargo, and prayed for a quick departure from the Philippines. In vain. They fell into the hands of +unfriendly natives, who, having learned to distrust the Spanish, were always ready to wreak small injuries on them when the +chance afforded. These natives attempted to separate the pair and drag the girl to their huts. The friar attacked them with +spirit, but the brown men were too many for him, and in the melee both he and Maria were wounded. + +</p> +<p>A boat was seen approaching. The assailants fled, leaving the friar, bleeding and weak, but kneeling beside his mistress, +whose white skin was splashed and striped with red, and whose liquid eyes stared vacantly at the sky. As the boat touched +the shore <a id="d0e2693"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2693">332</a>]</span>the corregidor leaped from it, and the friar now confronted a new peril. His flight had been discovered, the town-crier had +bawled it through the streets, commanding the people to refuse shelter to the guilty pair under heavy penalty, and, to enforce +their return, the mayor had brought with him twelve soldiers of the garrison. The loaded arquebuses of the men were not needed. +Feeble, sore in body and spirit, repentant, the monk surrendered, Maria was lifted into the boat, and the company returned +to Manila. + +</p> +<p>There it was decided that the monk should be sent to an inland mission, that in the lifting of souls to a finer faith the +stain of human love that had fallen upon his own soul might be wiped away. As to the girl, her good looks and gay disposition +had proved the undoing of one devotee. She was to have no chance to enslave another; so she was sent back to Mexico, forced +to enter a cloistered nunnery, and so ended her life in loneliness and sanctity. The incident has left its impress on the +names about the harbor, Corregidor being so called for the officer who pursued and arrested the runaways, Camaya being rechristened +Mariveles,—which, you see, is Maria Velez,—while two rocks beyond the Boca Grande are named for the friar and his would-be +bride,—Fraile and Monja: monk and nun. + + + + +<a id="d0e2697"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2697">333</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2698" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Christianizing of Wong</h2> +<p>In the city of Cebu the Chinese, who made an early settlement, accepted the prevalent religion in order to keep peace with +the authorities. In fact, it was a choice between going to church and going back to China. Incidentally to their evangelization +a number of them were cast into prison, their shops and houses were rifled, and laws were enacted denying rights and privileges +to all Mongols who refused Christian baptism. Among the refractory citizens was a Chinese trader named Wong. So far as anybody +could see, he led as moral a life as a Chinaman can endure comfortably; he was good to his family, good to himself, he was +sober, he would overreach a Spaniard when he could, but when he had given his word he kept it; he burned incense before joss, +he read the analects of Kung Foo Too and Mang Tse, and worshipped his ancestors; he never stole or used any kind of profanity +that moral Spaniards could understand. For all this he was nagged and worried constantly, and could hardly take a walk without +being pursued by friars who requested alms for their charities in so pointed a manner that he contributed with celerity, if +with an inward lack of willingness. If he had been an every-day Chinaman he would have been killed, or prisoned, or exiled, +or deported, but he had an excellent trade, and, in spite of his enforced outlays for masses and missionaries, was growing +richer all the time. The customs <a id="d0e2703"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2703">334</a>]</span>officers thrived on the duties that he paid, and waxed exceeding fat. + +</p> +<p>One elderly priest in Cebu had a genuine concern for the welfare of this prosperous but benighted soul. He called at his shop, +he barred his way in the street, he argued, he cited, he appealed, but to no effect. Wong answered that, although a heathen, +he was doing a better business than any one else; so what was the use of changing gods? And with a heart-deep sigh he requested +the clergyman to change the subject. Seeing, at last, that all customary methods of conversion were doomed to failure, the +friar betook himself to the shrine of St. Nicholas, and asked him to do something that should turn this poor soul to the faith. +St. Nicholas praised his petitioner’s zeal, and promised to work a miracle. The friar possessed his soul in patience, and +the conversion came that very week. Wong was assailed in his office by five robbers, armed with knives and daubed with blood, +to show that they intended neither to give nor ask for quarter. He had sold many goods that day, and they had come for his +money. Wong reached for the sword that always hung within his grasp, but to his dismay it was gone. St. Nicholas or the friar +had hidden it. He glanced rapidly about the room, but saw nothing that he could oppose to the knives of the desperadoes, and +even if he had, they were five to one, so his escape from a cruel death seemed impossible. Just then the robbers were struck +into a stupor, for on the wall behind <a id="d0e2707"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2707">335</a>]</span>the merchant a light was shining, and soft music floated through the room. The partition opened, and St. Nicholas stepped +within the apartment. Turning to the Chinaman the visitant said, “Believe in the true faith, Wong, and your life shall be +saved. Believe otherwise, and you shall die.” Wong changed his faith in one second, and said so. The saint waved his hand +toward the ruffians and they dropped to the floor in a faint, whereupon Wong, plucking the knife from the hand of the nearest, +carefully but expeditiously and joyfully cut the throats of all five, called in his neighbors and persuaded them to join the +church with him. They did this almost immediately, and the most popular saint among the Chinese of Cebu is still St. Nicholas. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2709" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Devil’s Bridge</h2> +<p>You may say what you please, but it is certain that the Evil One never appeared in the Philippines until after the Spanish +had taken possession of the islands. At least, this applies to Luzon. And, strange to tell, he has not been seen there since +the Spanish left. Some will have it that he was smitten into a despairing bashfulness during Weyler’s administration, and +that when the governor went home with a couple of million dollars in his valise—the savings from his salary—the Devil went +home likewise, awe-struck. His Satanic Majesty’s last recorded <a id="d0e2714"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2714">336</a>]</span>exploit occurred in the view of three men, of whom one may still be alive to vouch for it. They were farmers of Wild Laguna, +a few miles above Manila, and on one memorable day were cutting wood in the ravine near by,—a deep gulch through which babbles +a stone-choked stream. This glen has precipitous sides, but is so thickly overhung with green that it is almost like a verdant +cave. + +</p> +<p>While they were resting—and the Filipino’s ability to rest is one of his striking qualities—they were startled by the hurried +advance of something, or somebody, on the bank. There was a swish and crash of undergrowth, a hobbling stamp, and something +that sounded like the smiting of leaves with a club. At first the farmers thought that a water buffalo had run away from some +plantation and was angry because he could not descend the craggy sides and reach the water. Then came a volley of expletives +in an unknown tongue, and in a voice so deep and harsh that the hair of the three heads bristled, and three pairs of eyes +goggled with fright. The farmer who was good crossed himself; the one who was bad turned white and tried to remember how prayers +were said; the one who was betwixt-and-between clung to the stone on which he was seated and held his breath; for a tall, +lank personage, with overhanging brows, slanting eyes, long chin and nose, and wrathful aspect, was striding to and fro on +the edge of the ravine, looking at the opposite bank as if trying to decide whether or not he could leap that <a id="d0e2718"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2718">337</a>]</span>distance. He was scowling, gnashing his teeth, and brandishing his arms. Any Spaniard might have done as much, and brandished +a sword besides; but the terrible thing about this gentleman was the great length of tail, with a dart at its tip, that he +was flourishing among the bushes, for only one being, on the earth or under it, was known to have a toil like that. + +</p> +<p>As if to leave no doubt, the stranger, in stamping on the ground, lifted his leg so high that the watchers could see that +it ended, not in a foot, but a hoof. It was Satan himself! The farmers did not dare to tremble, but each shrank within himself +as far as he could and thought upon his sins, the worst of the trio with the least compunction, because he was not conscious +of any immorality in robbing Spaniards. As he tramped back and forth, the devil now and then looked up into the branches, +as if guessing the height of the trees. Presently he stopped before the tallest, levelled his finger at it, and cried with +a stentorian voice a command in words that belong to none of the forty or fifty languages and dialects of the islands. Then +the souls of the spectators fell, like chilling currents, and their hearts swelled like balloons and arose into their throats, +and there was no joy in them; for the great tree bent slowly down and swung itself entirely across the chasm. Its reach was +great, and Satan skipped along the trunk as spryly as a cat on a fence, his arms and tail held out for balance and twitching +nervously. Half-way over he spied the three spectators and stopped. <a id="d0e2722"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2722">338</a>]</span>Their circulation stopped also. He grinned from ear to ear, showing two rows of tusk-like teeth, shook his fist playfully, +and shouted a laugh so loud, so awful, that they believed their last moment had come. But it had not. Their hair turned white, +to be sure, and they took on fifty years’ growth of wrinkles; but the Devil was after bigger game. He scampered over the arching +trunk, disappeared on the farther side, and hurried off at a run toward Manila, where a certain rich lawyer was rumored to +be dying. From later whisperings it appears that His Majesty was not late. + +</p> +<p>The strange part of the incident is that, although the tree was thus ill-used to serve the Devil’s convenience, and is marked +along its bark by his cloven feet, it was not blasted, but to this hour is green and flourishing. The Devil’s Bridge, as everybody +calls it, is an arboreal wonder, curving lightly and gracefully over the chasm, its branches resting on the bank opposite +to its root, some of them growing upside down, but all as green and healthy as those of any tree that the Devil spared when +he was looking for a way to cross the ravine. Had he waded the stream he not only would have wet his feet, which would have +been unpleasant, but would have touched water that had once been blessed, and that would have been torture. The bad farmer +did not survive this spectacle by many years, though it is not related that he reformed. The fair-to-middling one lasted for +a while longer. The good one may yet be in the <a id="d0e2726"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2726">339</a>]</span>land of the living, unless he enlisted under Aguinaldo, which is not likely, because old men cannot run fast enough to be +effective members of the Filipino army. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2728" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Great Earthquake</h2> +<p>After months of fighting, Li Ma Hong, the Chinese pirate, and his six thousand followers had been beaten out of Philippine +waters. Manila was celebrating the victory on this last night of November, 1645. The church bells had been clanging and chiming, +the windows had been lighted, flags and pennants had streamed from the house-tops, sounds of music and cries of rejoicing +were heard, a thousand fairy lamps starred the darkness and quivered in the Pasig. The flag of Spain had been carried through +the streets in solemn procession, the cathedral altar had smoked with incense, the friars had chanted the “Te Deum,” but now +all was gayety and music and perfume. A ball was among the festivities, and military and civic officers, pranked in the lace +and bullion so dear to the Latins, were going through the narrow ways with their ladies on their arms. Taking no part in the +joyous hurly-burly, two men walked apart, near the cathedral, in talk. One was a father in the church; the other, secretary +and major-domo of the governor. The calling of the one, the age and dignity of the other, to say nothing of an old wound that +gave a hitch and <a id="d0e2733"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2733">340</a>]</span>drag to his step, forbade their mingling with the throng. + +</p> +<p>The secretary spoke: “No, father, I hardly agree with your view. That heaven has been on our side I admit, since we have conquered +the infidels, seized their treasure, and strewn their corpses on our shores. But that the blessed St. Francis interposes in +our behalf, I doubt.” + +</p> +<p>“This is dangerous doctrine,—a reflection on our order. We have prayed daily for the success of the Spanish arms, and although +we addressed the Virgin and all the saints, the statue of St. Francis is the only one that moved while we were at prayer——” + +</p> +<p>“With your eyes on the ground?” + +</p> +<p>“The sacristan saw it. Furthermore, let me tell you that the figure of the saint owned by the worthy Indian, Alonzo Cuyapit, +at his house in Dilao, was stirred to tears last night.” + +</p> +<p>“Tears! For victory?” + +</p> +<p>“I fear, for some reason worthy of tears.” + +</p> +<p>“And your imaginations have nothing to do with all this? Men who are wasted with vigils and fasting”—here the secretary chuckled +and made as if he would nudge the churchman in his ample paunch—“are prone to see what common men cannot. Though I protest +that when I eat much cheese before retiring I have visions, too. But not always holy ones.” + +</p> +<p>The priest answered with gravity, “A life of devotion does clear the vision. It opens the gates of <a id="d0e2751"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2751">341</a>]</span>heaven. I fear, señor, that too many in this doubting age are affected like you,—that a study of philosophy and ungodly sciences +has harmed your respect for the saints and the church.” + +</p> +<p>“By no means, father. All I maintain is that the figure of St. Francis was not seen in the thick of the battle, as some of +the friars allege. Good sooth! What do they know of battle? Our victories were won by stout Spanish arms and good Toledo steel. +All praise to Heaven that we had the power.” + +</p> +<p>The priest shook his head and sighed. Then he looked curiously into the sky. The stars were shining, save in the south, where +lightning flickered in a bank of cloud, and there was no threat of storm. Yet in the air was a curious stagnation that had +fallen within the hour and brooded over the city like a palpable thing. It was hot and close and lifeless; stale smells from +the streets reeked into the nostrils, and from the Pasig came a heavy, sickish odor of river vegetation. + +</p> +<p>“Sometimes it fills me with a fear that Heaven has a punishment in store for us,” said the priest, stopping in his walk and +looking meditatively into the distance, where the lightning now played more brightly. “We have grown worldly. We have thought +less of serving God by our wars than of increasing our power and importance in the eyes of the nations. We have grown proud. +We are in danger of losing our piety. Pray that the wrath do not fall.” +<a id="d0e2759"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2759">342</a>]</span></p> +<p>“With all my heart,—especially to-night. Your blessing, father. And sound sleep.” + +</p> +<p>It was the last time that these friends were to walk together. It was the last time in many a day when Manila would be in +gala. At midnight the greasy calm that lay on the sea was broken by a breeze which ruffled the water and made a pleasant stir +in the trees ashore. It eased the sultriness of the night and brought rest to many who had been tossing on their beds, excited +doubtless by the shows and dissipations of the last few hours. Presently the sleepers were roused again, for the wind was +rising steadily; the trees were writhing and wringing their branches in what was surely going to be a gale. The lightning +was near. A growl of thunder could be heard. The clock boomed the hour of two. Out of an intense dark leaped a bolt of green +fire, and the air was filled with baying and cannonade. Almost at the moment the earth began to rock. The city awoke. The +rocking increased. Roofs began to fall, walls to bulge, masonry to split and sway. + +</p> +<p>“The earthquake! The earthquake!” screamed a thousand voices, and with cries and lamenting the people hurried into the streets +and fell on their knees or their faces, unable to stand on the waving, trembling ground. It was an hour of terror. All lights +were blown out by the storm or extinguished in the fall of houses, save one or two of baleful meaning that flickered above +roofs which had caught fire. The sea could be heard advancing toward the land <a id="d0e2766"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2766">343</a>]</span>with tremendous roaring, driving up the channel of the Pasig and overspreading its banks on either side, while far below, +and most dreadful of all, the fall could be heard of pieces of the earth’s crust into pits of fire and the vast rumble and +groan of a world. Houses crumbled, people were pressed to death and maimed in the blackness, streets cracked asunder, trees +were uprooted, chaos was come again. + +</p> +<p>In the morning the survivors looked upon a scene of ruin worse than any wrought by the pirates. The sanctity of the cathedral +had not saved it. Of its imposing walls hardly anything remained. A heap of masonry marked its place. Every public building +was destroyed. Wretches hurt to the death were pinned under fallen stones and timbers, and many, willing enough to relieve +them, were too dazed and agonized by their own pains and misfortunes to pull their wits together. Spain had enjoyed her triumphs. +Now her calamities had begun. + +</p> +<p>On the night before the catastrophe, Alonzo Cuyapit, a rich Indian of Dilao, a suburb of the city, and his friend, the chaplain +of the San Francisco Convent, were at prayers together before a statue of St. Francis, that was the Indian’s dearest pride. +He had shrined it fittingly in his home, with flowers and candles about it, and adored it daily. The statue was of life-size, +the work of an adept carver; was brilliantly painted and gemmed, and had about the neck a rosary from which hung a cross of +polished gold. So many miracles of healing had been performed <a id="d0e2772"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2772">344</a>]</span>by this figure that its renown had gone through all Luzon. + +</p> +<p>While Cuyapit and the chaplain were on their knees a tremor shook the floor. Slight earthquakes of this kind were not unusual. +Though the walls of the house rattled, the statue remained fixed and still. Another jar was felt in the ground, and raising +their hands to the saint, the petitioners begged him fervently to intercede against a dangerous shock. Presently they lifted +their eyes, and were struck dumb with amazement, for the statue had unclasped its hands, the one pointing toward Manila, as +if in warning; the other holding the golden cross toward heaven, as if in an appeal for mercy. A halo, so bright as to dazzle +the beholders, played about the head, the lips moved, and from the upturned eyes tears trickled down the cheeks. Cuyapit and +the priest arose and tried to stanch these tears, but the cloth they used was soon as wet as if they had just taken it from +the river. Then the statue raised its arms high over its head, as in a last appeal for mercy to the world, while the tears +gushed in such a stream that they made a continuous fall to the floor. A look of horror wrung the face, as if the prayer had +been refused; and, extending its hands in benediction, the saint toppled from his pedestal and was broken into fragments. + +</p> +<p>When these occurrences had been told by Cuyapit in the Church of San Francisco, under an oath before the Virgin, the pieces +were carried in reverential <a id="d0e2778"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2778">345</a>]</span>procession to Manila, and the miracle of San Francisco of the Tears is accepted there as history. + + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2780" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Suppressing Magic in Manila</h2> +<p>Crowds of all kinds are easily swayed, but it is said that nowhere is it so easy to rouse a panic or a revolution as in Manila. +Several times during the earlier months of the American occupation vague fears spread through the city, people ran to their +homes or locked themselves in their shops in terror, lights were put out, armed guards were posted; then, after a few hours, +everybody asked everybody else what the matter had been, and nobody knew. + +</p> +<p>In 1820 a strange scene was enacted in the Philippine capital. People assembled in groups at evening and whispered mysteriously. +Gowned friars moved from group to group, but whether encouraging or expostulating it was impossible for one to say, unless +he understood Spanish or Tagalog. The captain of an American ship that was taking on its load of hemp reported to a neighbor +captain, who sailed under the cross of St. George, that there had been a violation of the government order against the importing +of Protestant Bibles and pocket-pistols,—two things taboo in the country at that time. This, however, may have been the Yankee +captain’s joke. As the night deepened torches were seen flitting <a id="d0e2787"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2787">346</a>]</span>hither and thither, the crowds thickened, the whispers and hushed talk increased by degrees to a widespread, menacing growl, +then arose to a roar. Now drums were heard in the barracks, and the light, quick tread of marching feet could be distinguished +through the babble of voices. The mob was slowly wedging itself into one of the streets before an inn, and just at the doors +of that hostelry the noise was loudest and most threatening. + +</p> +<p>Presently came a crash. The building had been entered. Instantly there were shouts and cries, and the throng seemed fairly +to boil with anger. In the light of candles that shone through windows the faces lifted toward the tavern were drawn and wolfish. +Shots were heard. The mob was shaken, as a wood is shaken by a gale, but there was no retreat. There could be none. The people +were packed too densely. Now a glint of bayonets was seen at one end of the street, and some sharp orders rang out. This was +more effective. The throng began to thin away at the farther end, and those nearest to the soldiers attempted to break through +the line, loudly declaring that they were merely spectators, and did not know what had happened. But in another moment everybody +knew. Two dark shapes were passed out at the inn door, and were, in some fashion, pushed along over the heads of the multitude +to its freer edge. These shapes had recently been men. With ropes about their necks they were dragged at a run through the +streets. More houses were attacked. Other <a id="d0e2791"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2791">347</a>]</span>forms were found lying on the earth, pulseless, bloody, after the mob had passed. The military was, seemingly, unable to head +it off or give effective chase. Flames now lighted various quarters of the city, and shots were frequently heard. It was a +night of terror. History speaks of it as a night of rioting. Many declare that it was a St. Bartholomew massacre, on a smaller +scale, and that the Protestants who were killed that night were put to death at the instigation of the friars. Tradition relates +that when the sun arose the people, numbering thousands, marched in triumph through the city, following a dozen of their number +who bore in their hands the phials in which two French naturalists, recently landed in Luzon, had preserved a number of snakes +and insects for their scientific collection. + +</p> +<p>There was the mischief,—in those jars and bottles. Nobody would put a serpent or a scorpion into alcohol except for some grim +purpose, and that purpose could be nothing other than black magic. Hence the raid on the inn; hence the killing of the naturalists +and of other people suspected of complicity or sympathy with forbidden arts; hence the state of education of Luzon. + + + + +<a id="d0e2795"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2795">348</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2796" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">Faith that Killed</h2> +<p>Back in the 30’s an emigrant of some account arrived in Manila. He was a young doctor of medicine who had just won his sheepskin +in Salamanca, and had been persuaded that there was small hope of a living for him in a province where the people were too +poor to be ill and too lazy to die. The Philippines had been suggested as a promising field for his practice, and realizing +that he needed practice he made the long journey around Good Hope and reached the Luzon capital nearly penniless, but full +of gratitude and expectancy. Having secured lodgings, to which he at once affixed his shingle, he sallied forth to see the +town and its people, and one of the first of its inhabitants to claim his attention, though she claimed it unwittingly, was +a girl of the lower class who was walking along the street with an easy, elastic step, and in seeming health, yet who was +evidently suffering from a hemorrhage, for at every few paces she paused and spat blood. Her bearing and expression were in +odd contrast with her peril, for she seemed indifferent to the danger. + +</p> +<p>Prompted by compassion as well as by a professional interest, the physician followed the invalid, expecting at every moment +to see her fall or hear her beg for help, his wonder at the stoicism and endurance of the Filipino growing constantly. When +she reached her home, an humble house in a poor <a id="d0e2803"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2803">349</a>]</span>quarter of the city, he begged immediate audience with her parents, who were, unfortunately, acquainted with the Spanish tongue, +and told them it was his duty to warn them that the girl had not twenty-four hours to live; that she was afflicted with a +mortal illness; that a priest should be called at once. The girl’s cheeks were ruddy, she was in good spirits, and the old +people were inclined to resent the warning as a joke, being an exceeding poor one. The visitor explained that he was a medical +man, that he was actuated by the most charitable of motives, that he would do everything in his power to delay the fatal ending +of the disease, but that restoration to health was impossible. + +</p> +<p>When this dreadful news was broken to the girl she had a violent fit of weeping, then hysterics, then a long fainting spell, +and sank into a decline so swift that the parents were in despair. Neighbors flocked in to offer condolences and comforts; +a priest received the young woman’s confession and performed the last rites; the doctor plied his patient with drugs, fomentations, +and stimulants; father, mother, and friends groaned, prayed, and tore their hair. All the time the poor creature sank steadily, +the color left her face, her breath grew labored, and as night fell the doctor’s warning was fulfilled,—she was dead. + +</p> +<p>In a single day the fame of this wonderful physician spread through all the city, and people flocked to his lodging with money +and diseases. He was <a id="d0e2809"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2809">350</a>]</span>dazzled at the prospect of riches. After three or four years of this kind of thing, if the tax man did not hear too much of +his success, he could return to Spain and live in comfortable retirement. Alas! for human hopes, he returned sooner than he +had intended. A few days after the death of his first patient somebody asked how he forecast her fate so exactly. + +</p> +<p>“It was easy enough,—she spat blood,” he answered. + +</p> +<p>“Are you sure it was blood?” + +</p> +<p>“Certainly. It was red.” + +</p> +<p>“Ah, señor, every one spits red in Manila.” + +</p> +<p>“Bah!” + +</p> +<p>“Oh, it is true! Everybody chews the buyo leaf, which is like the betel of India, that you have heard of, just as everybody +smokes in Luzon. The juice of the buyo is red.” + +</p> +<p>Then the doctor realized that he had killed his patient by making her believe she was doomed to die, and with the earnings +of his brief career in the Philippines he bought a passage back to Spain in the same ship that had carried him to the East. +So, if you hear that a person is ill, but if your informant winks and says that he is spitting red, you may believe that the +invalid will be out after a good sleep and a little bromide. + + + + +<a id="d0e2825"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2825">351</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2826" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Widow Velarde’s Husband</h2> +<p>Enchanted Lake, near Los <span id="d0e2831" class="corr" title="Source: Banos">Baños</span>, on the Pasig, fills an ancient crater and is an object of natural interest. Its enchantment, so far as is generally known, +consists in the visits of Widow Velarde’s husband to its shores, and his occasional moonlight excursions over its waters in +a boat that has the same pale green shine as himself. This Velarde was a fisherman and being somewhat of a gallant he had +roused the mortal jealousy of his wife. In revenge for his supposed slights she engaged two of his friends to confer on her +the joys of widowhood, which they agreed to do for a consideration. The amount promised was six dollars, but the preliminary +negotiations appear to have been hasty, for when these worthies had earned the money, having held the unfortunate Velarde +under the water until he ceased to bubble, the thrifty woman wanted them to accept three dollars apiece. They held stoutly +for six dollars apiece. The widow would not pay it. There was a long and undignified wrangle,—disputes over funeral bills +are often warranted, but are seldom seemly,—and it ended in the angry departure of the fishermen, without even their three +dollars, to lodge a complaint against the Widow Velarde for cheating. + +</p> +<p>Now, would you suppose that two men, having just murdered a fellow-creature, would go to a magistrate to complain about the +payment? These Filipinos did it. They went to a judge at Los <span id="d0e2836" class="corr" title="Source: Banos">Baños</span> <a id="d0e2839"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2839">352</a>]</span>and tried to get an order for the woman’s arrest. The judge, fancying this must be a kind of joke peculiar to Luzon, said +he would think over the matter, and he resumed his slumbers. In a day or two he learned that the men had really killed their +companion, and had fallen out with the widow on the matter of terms. They meanwhile had learned that their act was contrary +to white man’s law and had escaped, though it is said they were afterward caught and put to death. Perhaps it is the disquiet +caused by the reflection that he was worth no more than six dollars that leads the extinguished husband to vex the scene of +his demise. + + + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e2841" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">The Grateful Bandits</h2> +<p>Monsieur de la Gironiere, a French planter and trader, who visited the Philippines a lifetime ago, or more, told stories of +the islands and their people that are taken in these days with a lump of salt. Among these narrations is one pertaining to +the bandits who in the first years of the nineteenth century were numerous and troublesome on several of the islands, and +who were alternately harassed and befriended by the officials,—chased when they had money and well treated when they had parted +with most of it to cool the sweating palms of authority. Gironiere was visiting the cascades of Yang Yang when he found himself +surrounded by brigands who were chattering volubly and <a id="d0e2846"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2846">353</a>]</span>pointing to his horses. They did not at first offer violence, but presently he understood that soldiers were in chase of them, +and they were considering whether it would not be wise to kill the horses, lest the troop, on its arrival, should seize them +to aid in the pursuit. + +</p> +<p>Gironiere could not afford horses often. He eagerly assured the thieves that he would not give his nags to the military; that +he would, on the contrary, depart by the road over which he had come, in order to avoid meeting the soldiers, and this promise +he made on the honor of a gentleman. The leader of the brigands saluted, and the Frenchman drove away, as he had agreed, the +thieves watching him until he was out of sight. For months after this incident he had no trouble with the natives. His household +goods, his garden products, his poultry were spared. Some years later, when he had definitely cast his fortunes with the Spaniards, +he accepted a commission as captain of the horse guards at Laguna, and it then became his duty to trouble the very robbers +who once had spared him. Their fighting was usually open, and, as the marksmanship on both sides was the very worst, it was +seldom that anybody was hurt. Truces were made, as in honorable war, and the leaders corresponded with one another as to terms +of battle or surrender. One unofficial document received by Gironiere cautioned him to look out for himself, as there was +one in the bandit ranks who was ungrateful. “Beware <a id="d0e2850"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2850">354</a>]</span>of Pedro Tumbaga,” it said. “He has ordered us to take you by surprise in your house. This warning is in payment for your +kindness at the cascades. You kept your word. We are ready to fight you now, as you would fight us; but we don’t strike in +the back. Tumbaga will shoot you from hiding.” + +</p> +<p>Gironiere was a crafty person, likewise a cautious one. He knew where to send an answer to this epistle, and he sent it: “You +are brave men, and I thank you. I do not fear Tumbaga, for he is a coward. How can you keep among you a man who would shoot +another in the back?” Just look at that for slyness! And the message had the effect he desired and expected. Some brave bandit +got behind a tree a couple of weeks afterward and shot a bullet through Tumbaga. Thus was the power of the brigands weakened, +the safety of Gironiere assured, and good feeling re-established between the law and its habitual breakers. + + + + +</p> +<p class="trailer
 aligncenter">The End</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="back"><div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e150">Contents</a>] +</span><h2 class="normal">By Charles M. Skinner</h2> +<p><span class="smallcaps">Myths and Legends of Our Own Land</span> Illustrated. Two volumes in a box. 12mo. Buckram, $3.00; half calf or half morocco, $6.00 + +</p> +<p><span class="smallcaps">Myths and Legends Beyond Our Borders</span> Illustrated. 12mo. Buckram, $1.50; half calf or half morocco, $3.00 + +</p> +<p><span class="smallcaps">Myths and Legends of Our New Possessions and Protectorate.</span> Illustrated. 12mo. Buckram, $1.50; half calf or half morocco, $3.00 + +</p> +<p><i>Myths and Legends Beyond Our Borders and Myths and Legends of Our New Possessions and Protectorate.</i> Two volumes in a box. Buckram, $3.00; half calf or half morocco, $6.00 + + +</p> +<p><span class="smallcaps">With Feet to the Earth</span> + +</p> +<p><i>New Edition, Enlarged</i> + +</p> +<p>Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, ornamental, $1.50 + +</p> +<p><span class="smallcaps">Do-Nothing Days</span> + +</p> +<p>Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, ornamental, $1.50 + +</p> +<p><span class="smallcaps">Flowers in the Pave</span> + +</p> +<p>Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, ornamental, $1.50 + + + + +</p> +<div class="transcribernote"> +<h2>Colophon</h2> +<h3>Availability</h3> +<p>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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/">www.gutenberg.org</a>. + +</p> +<p>This eBook is produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at <a href="https://www.pgdp.net/">www.pgdp.net</a>. + +</p> +<p>This eBook was prepared from <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=VlY_AAAAIAAJ">page images</a> made available by Google. + +</p> +<p>Other copies are available from the <a href="http://name.umdl.umich.edu/AFM3459.0001.001">University of Michigan Library</a> in their <a href="http://www.hti.umich.edu/p/philamer/">United States and its Territories</a> collection, and from <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/mythslegendsofou00skinrich">The Internet Archive</a>. + +</p> +<h3>Encoding</h3> +<p></p> +<h3>Revision History</h3> +<ol class="lsoff"> +<li>2008-02-23 Started. + +</li> +</ol> +<h3>Corrections</h3> +<p>The following corrections have been applied to the text:</p> +<table width="75%"> +<tr> +<th>Location</th> +<th>Source</th> +<th>Correction</th> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e100">Page </a></td> +<td width="40%">Manilla</td> +<td width="40%">Manila</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e647">Page 19</a></td> +<td width="40%">Manilla</td> +<td width="40%">Manila</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e773">Page 41</a></td> +<td width="40%">pedler</td> +<td width="40%">peddler</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e912">Page 65</a></td> +<td width="40%">kindnesss</td> +<td width="40%">kindness</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e917">Page 66</a></td> +<td width="40%">earthern</td> +<td width="40%">earthen</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e1451">Page 146</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">the </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e1610">Page 168</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">?</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e2213">Page 265</a></td> +<td width="40%">voodo</td> +<td width="40%">voodoo</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e2587">Page 323</a></td> +<td width="40%">”</td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Deleted</i>] + +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e2831">Page 351</a></td> +<td width="40%">Banos</td> +<td width="40%">Baños</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e2836">Page 351</a></td> +<td width="40%">Banos</td> +<td width="40%">Baños</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths & Legends of our New Possessions +& Protectorate, by Charles M. Skinner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS & LEGENDS OF NEW POSSESSIONS *** + +***** This file should be named 24732-h.htm or 24732-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/7/3/24732/ + +Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/24732-h/images/p1.jpg b/24732-h/images/p1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a90f205 --- /dev/null +++ b/24732-h/images/p1.jpg diff --git a/24732-h/images/p2.jpg b/24732-h/images/p2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..709fbfa --- /dev/null +++ b/24732-h/images/p2.jpg diff --git a/24732-h/images/p3.jpg b/24732-h/images/p3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..823e98b --- /dev/null +++ b/24732-h/images/p3.jpg diff --git a/24732-h/images/p4.jpg b/24732-h/images/p4.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fdb205 --- /dev/null +++ b/24732-h/images/p4.jpg |
