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diff --git a/24952-0.txt b/24952-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a6f036 --- /dev/null +++ b/24952-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1266 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Âmona; The Child; And The Beast; And Others, by Louis Becke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: Âmona; The Child; And The Beast; And Others +From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other Stories" - 1902 + +Author: Louis Becke + +Release Date: March 29, 2008 [eBook #24952] +[Most recently updated: February 6, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: David Widger + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ÂMONA *** + + + + +Âmona; The Child; And The Beast + +From “The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other +Stories” + +By Louis Becke + +T. FISHER UNWIN, 1902 + LONDON + + ÂMONA; THE CHILD; AND THE BEAST + THE SNAKE AND THE BELL + SOUTH SEA NOTES + I + II + + + + +ÂMONA; THE CHILD; AND THE BEAST + + +Âmona was, as his master so frequently told him—accentuating the remark +with a blow or a kick—only “a miserable kanaka.” Of his miserableness +there was no doubt, for Denison, who lived in the same house as he did, +was a daily witness of it—and his happiness. Also, he was a kanaka—a +native of Niué, in the South Pacific; Savage Island it is called by the +traders and is named on the charts, though its five thousand sturdy, +brown-skinned inhabitants have been civilised, Christianised, and have +lived fairly cleanly for the past thirty years. + +Âmona and Denison had the distinction of being employed by Armitage, +one of the most unmitigated blackguards in the Pacific. He was a +shipowner, planter, merchant, and speculator; was looked upon by a good +many people as “not a bad sort of a fellow, you know—and the soul of +hospitality.” In addition, he was an incorrigible drunken bully, and +broke his wife’s heart within four years after she married him. Âmona +was his cook. Denison was one of his supercargoes, and (when a long +boat of drunkenness made him see weird visions of impossible creatures) +manager of the business on shore, overseer, accountant, and +Jack-of-all-trades. How he managed to stay on with such a brute I don’t +know. He certainly paid him well enough, but he (Denison) could have +got another berth from other people in Samoa, Fiji, or Tonga had he +wanted it. And, although Armitage was always painfully civil to +Denison—who tried to keep his business from going to the dogs—the man +hated him as much as he despised Âmona, and would have liked to have +kicked him, as he would have liked to have kicked or strangled any one +who knew the secret of his wife’s death and his child’s lameness. And +three people in Samoa did know it—Âmona, the Niué cook, Dr. Eckhardt, +and Denison. Armitage has been dead now these five-and-twenty +years—died, as he deserved to die, alone and friendless in an +Australian bush hospital out in the God-forsaken Never-Never country, +and when Denison heard of his death, he looked at the gentle wife’s +dim, faded photograph, and wondered if the Beast saw her sweet, sad +face in his dying moments. He trusted not; for in her eyes would have +shown only the holy light of love and forgiveness—things which a man +like Armitage could not have understood—even then. + +She had been married three years when she came with him to Samoa to +live on Solo-Solo Plantation, in a great white-painted bungalow, +standing amid a grove of breadfruit and coco-palms, and overlooking the +sea to the north, east, and west; to the south was the dark green of +the mountain-forest. + +“Oh! I think it is the fairest, sweetest picture in the world,” she +said to Denison the first time he met her. She was sitting on the +verandah with her son in her lap, and as she spoke she pressed her lips +to his soft little cheek and caressed the tiny hands. “So different +from where I was born and lived all my life—on the doll, sun-baked +plains of the Riverina—isn’t it, my pet?” + +“I am glad that you like the place, Mrs. Armitage,” the supercargo said +as he looked at the young, girlish face and thought that she, too, with +her baby, made a fair, sweet picture. How she loved the child! And how +the soft, grey-blue eyes would lose their sadness when the little one +turned its face up to hers and smiled! How came it, he wondered, that +such a tender, flower-like woman was mated to such a man as Armitage! + +Long after she was dead, Denison heard the story—one common enough. Her +father, whose station adjoined that of Armitage, got into financial +difficulties, went to Armitage for help, and practically sold his +daughter to the Beast for a couple of thousand pounds. Very likely such +a man would have sold his daughter’s mother as well if he wanted money. + + +As they sat talking, Armitage rode up, half-drunk as usual. He was a +big man, good-looking. + +“Hallo, Nell! Pawing the damned kid as usual! Why the hell don’t you +let one of the girls take the little animal and let him tumble about on +the grass? You’re spoiling the child—by God, you are.” + +“Ah, he’s so happy, Fred, here with me, and——” + +“Happy be damned—you’re always letting him maul you about. I want a +whisky-and-soda, and so does Denison—don’t you?” And then the Beast, as +soon as his wife with the child in her arms had left the room, began to +tell his subordinate of a “new” girl he had met that morning in Joe +D’Acosta’s saloon. + +“Oh, shut up, man. Your wife is in the next room.” + +“Let her hear—and be damned to her! She knows what I do. I don’t +disguise anything from her. I’m not a sneak in that way. By God, I’m +not the man to lose any fun from sentimental reasons. Have you seen +this new girl at Joe’s? She’s a Manhiki half-caste. God, man! She’s +glorious, simply glorious!” + +“You mean Laea, I suppose. She’s a common beacher—sailor man’s trull. +Surely you wouldn’t be seen ever speaking to _her?_” + +“Wouldn’t I! You don’t know me yet! I like the girl, and I’ve fixed +things up with her. She’s coming here as my nursemaid—twenty dollars a +month! What do you think of that?” + +“You would not insult your wife so horribly!” + +He looked at Denison sullenly, but made no answer, as the supercargo +went on: + +“You’ll get the dead cut from every white man in Samoa. Not a soul will +put foot inside your store door, and Joe D’Acosta himself would refuse +to sell you a drink! Might as well shoot yourself at once.” + +“Oh, well, damn it all, don’t keep on preaching. I—I was more in fun +than anything else. Ha! Here’s Âmona with the drinks. Why don’t you be +a bit smarter, you damned frizzy-haired man-eater?” + +Amona’s sallow face flushed deeply, but he made no reply to the insult +as he handed a glass to his master. + +“Put the tray down there, confound you! Don’t stand there like a +blarsted mummy; clear out till we want you again.” + +The native made no answer, bent his head in silence, and stepped +quietly away. Then Armitage began to grumble at him as a “useless +swine.” + +“Why,” said Denison, “Mrs. Armitage was only just telling me that he’s +worth all the rest of the servants put together. And, by Jove, he _is_ +fond of your youngster—simply worships the little chap.” + +Armitage snorted, and turned his lips down. Ten minutes later, he was +asleep in his chair. + + +Nearly six months had passed—six months of wretchedness to the young +wife, whose heart was slowly breaking under the strain of living with +the Beast. Such happiness as was hers lay in the companionship of her +little son, and every evening Tom Denison would see her watching the +child and the patient, faithful Âmona, as the two played together on +the smooth lawn in front of the sitting-room, or ran races in and out +among the mango-trees. She was becoming paler and thinner every day—the +Beast was getting fatter and coarser, and more brutalised. Sometimes he +would remain in Apia for a week, returning home either boisterously +drunk or sullen and scowling-faced. In the latter case, he would come +into the office where Denison worked (he had left the schooner of which +he was supercargo, and was now “overseering” Solo-Solo) and try to +grasp the muddled condition of his financial affairs. Then, with much +variegated language, he would stride away, cursing the servants and the +place and everything in general, mount his horse, and ride off again to +the society of the loafers, gamblers, and flaunting unfortunates who +haunted the drinking saloons of Apia and Matafele. + +One day came a crisis. Denison was rigging a tackle to haul a +tree-trunk into position in the plantation saw-pit, when Armitage rode +up to the house. He dismounted and went inside. Five minutes later +Amona came staggering down the path to him. His left cheek was cut to +the bone by a blow from Armitage’s fist. Denison brought him into his +own room, stitched up the wound, and gave him a glass of grog, and told +him to light his pipe and rest. + +“Àmona, you’re a _valea_ (fool). Why don’t you leave this place? This +man will kill you some day. How many beatings has he given you?” He +spoke in English. + +“I know not how many. But it is God’s will. And if the master some day +killeth me, it is well. And yet, but for some things, I would use my +knife on him.” + +“What things?” + +He came over to the supercargo, and, seating himself cross-legged on +the floor, placed his firm, brown, right hand on the white man’s knee. + +“For two things, good friend. The little fingers of the child are +clasped tightly around my heart, and when his father striketh me and +calls me a filthy man-eater, a dog, and a pig, I know no pain. That is +one thing. And the other thing is this—the child’s mother hath come to +me when my body hath ached from the father’s blows, and the blood hath +covered my face; and she hath bound up my wounds and wept silent tears, +and together have we knelt and called upon God to turn his heart from +the grog and the foul women, and to take away from her and the child +the bitterness of these things.” + +“You’re a good fellow, Âmona,” said Denison, as he saw that the man’s +cheeks were wet with tears. + +“Nay, for sometimes my heart is bitter with anger. But God is good to +me. For the child loveth me. And the mother is of God... aye, and she +will be with Him soon.” Then he rose to his knees suddenly, and looked +wistfully at the supercargo, as he put his hand on his. “She will be +dead before the next moon is _ai aiga_ (in the first quarter), for at +night I lie outside her door, and but three nights ago she cried out to +me: ‘Come, Amona, Come!’ And I went in, and she was sitting up on her +bed and blood was running from her mouth. But she bade me tell no +one—not even thee. And it was then she told me that death was near to +her, for she hath a disease whose roots lie in her chest, and which +eateth away her strength. Dear friend, let me tell thee of some +things... This man is a devil.... I know he but desires to see her die. +He hath cursed her before me, and twice have I seen him take the child +from her arms, and, setting him on the floor to weep in terror, take +his wife by the hand——” + +“Stop, man; stop! That’ll do. Say no more! The beast!” + +“_E tonu, e tonu_ (true, true),” said the man, quietly, and still +speaking in Samoan. “He is as a beast of the mountains, as a tiger of +the country India, which devoureth the lamb and the kid.... And so now +I have opened my heart to thee of these things——” + +A native woman rushed into the room: “Come, Âmona, come. _Misi Fafine_ +(the mistress) bleeds from her mouth again.” + +The white man and the brown ran into the front sitting-room together, +just as they heard a piercing shriek of terror from the child; then +came the sound of a heavy fall. + +As they entered, Armitage strode out, jolting against them as he +passed. His face was swollen and ugly with passion—bad to look at. + +“Go and pick up the child, you frizzy-haired pig!” he muttered hoarsely +to Amona as he passed. “He fell off his mother’s lap.” + +Mrs. Armitage was leaning back in her chair, as white as death, and +trying to speak, as with one hand she tried to stanch the rush of blood +from her mouth, and with the other pointed to her child, who was lying +on his face under a table, motionless and unconscious. + +In less than ten minutes, a native was galloping through the bush to +Apia for Dr. Eckhardt. Denison had picked up the child, who, as he came +to, began to cry. Assuring his mother that he was not much hurt, he +brought him to her, and sat beside the lounge on which she lay, holding +him in his arms. He was a good little man, and did not try to talk to +her when the supercargo whispered to him to keep silent, but lay +stroking the poor mother’s thin white hand. Yet every now and then, as +he moved or Denison changed his position, he would utter a cry of pain +and say his leg pained him. + +Four hours later the German doctor arrived. Mrs. Armitage was asleep; +so Eckhardt would not awaken her at the time. The boy, however, had +slept but fitfully, and every now and then awakened with a sob of pain. +The nurse stripped him, and Eckhardt soon found out what was wrong—a +serious injury to the left hip. + +Late in the evening, as the big yellow-bearded German doctor and +Denison sat in the dining room smoking and talking, Taloi, the child’s +nurse entered, and was followed by Amona, and the woman told them the +whole story. + +“_Misi Fafine_ was sitting in a chair with the boy on her lap when the +master came in. His eyes were black and fierce with anger, and, +stepping up, he seized the child by the arm, and bade him get down. +Then the little one screamed in terror, and _Misi Fafine_ screamed too, +and the master became as mad, for he tore the boy from his mother’s +arms, and tossed him across the room against the wall. That is all I +know of this thing.” + +Denison saw nothing of Armitage till six o’clock on the following +morning, just as Eckhardt was going away. He put out his hand, Eckhardt +put his own behind his back, and, in a few blunt words, told the Beast +what he thought of him. + +“And if this was a civilised country,” he added crisply, “you would be +now in gaol. Yes, in prison. You have as good as killed your wife by +your brutality—she will not live another two months. You have so +injured your child’s hip that he may be a cripple for life. You are a +damned scoundrel, no better than the lowest ruffian of a city slum, and +if you show yourself in Joe D’Acosta’s smoking-room again, you’ll find +more than half a dozen men—Englishmen, Americans and Germans—ready to +kick you out into the _au ala_” (road). + +Armitage was no coward. He sprang forward with an oath, but Denison, +who was a third less of his employer’s weight, deftly put out his right +foot and the master of Solo Solo plantation went down. Then the +supercargo sat on him and, having a fine command of seafaring +expletives, threatened to gouge his eyes out if he did not keep quiet. + +“You go on, doctor,” he said cheerfully. “I’ll let you know in the +course of an hour or two how Mrs. Armitage and the boy are progressing. +The seat which I am now occupying, though not a very honourable one, +considering the material of which it is composed, is very comfortable +for the time being; and”—he turned and glared savagely at Armitage’s +purpled face—“You sweep! I have a great inclination to let Eckhardt +come and boot the life out of you whilst I hold you down, you brute!” + +“I’ll kill you for this,” said Armitage hoarsely. + +“Won’t give you the chance, my boy. And if you don’t promise to go to +your room quietly, I’ll call in the native servants, sling you up like +the pig you are to a pole, and have you carried into Apia, where you +stand a good show of being lynched. I’ve had enough of you. Every +one—except your blackguardly acquaintances in Matafele—would be glad to +hear that you were dead, and your wife and child freed from you.” + +Eckhardt stepped forward. “Let him up, Mr. Denison.” + +The supercargo obeyed the request. + +“Just as you please, doctor. But I think that he ought to be put in +irons, or a strait-jacket, or knocked on the head as a useless beast. +If it were not for Mrs. Armitage and her little son, I would like to +kill the sweep. His treatment of that poor fellow Amona, who is so +devoted to the child, has been most atrocious.” + +Eckhardt grasped the supercargo’s hand as Armitage shambled off “He’s a +brute, as you say, Mr. Denison. But she has some affection for him. For +myself, I would like to put a bullet through him.” + +Within three months Mrs. Armitage was dead, and a fresh martrydom began +for poor Amona. But he and the child had plenty of good friends; and +then, one day, when Armitage awakened to sanity after a long drinking +bout, he found that both Amona and the child had gone. + +Nearly a score of years later Denison met them in an Australian city. +The “baby” had grown to be a well-set-up young fellow, and Amona the +faithful was still with him—Amona with a smiling, happy face. They came +down on board Denison’s vessel with him, and “the baby” gave him, ere +they parted, that faded photograph of his dead mother. + + + + +THE SNAKE AND THE BELL + + +When I was a child of eight years of age, a curious incident occurred +in the house in which our family lived. The locality was Mosman’s Bay, +one of the many picturesque indentations of the beautiful harbour of +Sydney. In those days the houses were few and far apart, and our own +dwelling was surrounded on all sides by the usual monotonous-hued +Australian forest of iron barks and spotted gums, traversed here and +there by tracks seldom used, as the house was far back from the main +road, leading from the suburb of St. Leonards to Middle Harbour. The +building itself was in the form of a quadrangle enclosing a courtyard, +on to which nearly all the rooms opened; each room having a bell over +the door, the wires running all round the square, while the front-door +bell, which was an extra large affair, hung in the hall, the “pull” +being one of the old-fashioned kind, an iron sliding-rod suspended from +the outer wall plate, where it connected with the wire. + +One cold and windy evening about eight o’clock, my mother, my sisters, +and myself were sitting in the dining-room awaiting the arrival of my +brothers from Sydney—they attended school there, and rowed or sailed +the six miles to and fro every day, generally returning home by dusk. +On this particular evening, however, they were late, on account of the +wind blowing rather freshly from the north-east; but presently we heard +the front-door bell ring gently. + +“Here they are at last,” said my mother; “but how silly of them to go +to the front door on such a windy night, tormenting boys!” + +Julia, the servant, candle in hand, went along the lengthy passage, and +opened the door. No one was there! She came back to the dining-room +smiling—“Masther Edward is afther playin’ wan av his thricks, ma’am——” +she began, when the bell again rang—this time vigorously. My eldest +sister threw down the book she was reading, and with an impatient +exclamation herself went to the door, opened it quickly, and said +sharply as she pulled it inwards— + +“Come in at once, you stupid things!” There was no answer, and she +stepped outside on the verandah. No one was visible, and again the big +bell in the hall rang! + +She shut the door angrily and returned to her seat, just as the bell +gave a curious, faint tinkle as if the tongue had been moved ever so +gently. + +“Don’t take any notice of them,” said my mother, “they will soon get +tired of playing such silly pranks, and be eager for their supper.” + +Presently the bell gave out three clear strokes. We looked at each +other and smiled. Five minutes passed, and then came eight or ten +gentle strokes in quick succession. + +“Let us catch them,” said my mother, rising, and holding her finger up +to us to preserve silence, as she stepped softly along the hall, we +following on tiptoe. + +Softly turning the handle, she suddenly threw the door wide open, just +as the bell gave another jangle. Not a soul was visible! + +My mother—one of the most placid-tempered women who ever breathed, now +became annoyed, and stepping out on the verandah, addressed herself to +the darkness— + +“Come inside at once, boys, or I shall be very angry. I know perfectly +well what you have done; you have tied a string to the bell wires, and +are pulling it. If you don’t desist you shall have no supper.” + +No answer—except from the hall bell, which gave another half-hearted +tinkle. + +“Bring a candle and the step-ladder, Julia,” said our now thoroughly +exasperated parent, “and we shall see what these foolish boys have done +to the bell-wire.” + +Julia brought the ladder; my eldest sister mounted it, and began to +examine the bell. She could see nothing unusual, no string or wire, and +as she descended, the bell swayed and gave one faint stroke! + +We all returned to the sitting room, and had scarcely been there five +minutes when we heard my three brothers coming in, in their usual way, +by the back door. They tramped into the sitting room, noisy, dirty, wet +with spray, and hungry, and demanded supper in a loud and collected +voice. My mother looked at them with a severe aspect, and said they +deserved none. + +“Why, mum, what’s the matter?” said Ted; “what _have_ we been doing +now, or what have we not done, that we don’t deserve any supper, after +pulling for two hours from Circular Quay, against a howling, black +north-easter?” + +“You know perfectly well what I mean. It is most inconsiderate of you +to play such silly tricks upon us.” + +Ted gazed at her in genuine astonishment. “Silly tricks, mother! What +silly tricks?” (Julia crossed herself, and trembled visibly as the bell +again rang.) + +My mother, at once satisfied that Ted and my other brothers really knew +nothing of the mysterious bell-ringing, quickly explained the cause of +her anger. + +“Let us go and see if we can find out,” said Ted. “You two boys, and +you, Julia, get all the stable lanterns, light them, and we’ll start +out together—two on one side of the house and two on the other. Some +one must be up to a trick!” + +Julia, who was a huge, raw-boned Irish girl, as strong as a working +bullock, but not so graceful, again crossed herself, and began to weep. + +“What’s the matter with you?” said Ted angrily. + +“Shure, an’ there was tirrible murders committed here in the ould +convict days,” she whimpered. “The polace sargint’s wife at Sint +Leonards tould me all about it. There was three souldiers murdered down +beyant on the beach, by some convicts, whin they was atin’ their +supper, an’ there’s people near about now that saw all the blood and——” + +“Stop it, you great lumbering idiot!” shouted Ted, as my eldest sister +began to laugh hysterically, and the youngest, made a terrified dart to +mother’s skirts. + +Ted’s angry voice and threatening visage silenced Julia for the moment, +and she tremblingly went towards the door to obey his orders when the +bell gave out such a vigorous and sustained peal that she sank down in +a colossal heap on the floor, and then went into violent hysterics. (I +assure my readers that I am not exaggerating matters in the slightest.) + +My mother, who was a thoroughly sensible woman, pushed the whole brood +of us out of the room, came after us, shut the door and locked it. +_She_ knew the proper treatment for hysterics. + +“Let her stay there, boys,” she said quietly, “she will hurt the +furniture more than herself, the ridiculous creature. Now, Ted, you and +your brothers get the lanterns, and the little ones and myself will go +into the kitchen.” + +We ran out into the stables, lit three lanterns, and my next eldest +brother and myself, feeling horribly frightened, but impelled to show +some courage by Ted’s awful threats of what he would do to us if we +“funked,” told us to go round the house, beginning from the left, and +meet him at the hall door, he going round from the right. + +With shaking limbs and gasping breath we made our portion of the +circuit, sticking close to each other, and carefully avoiding looking +at anything as we hurried over the lawn, our only anxiety being to meet +Ted as quickly as possible and then get inside again. We arrived on the +verandah, and in front of the hall-door, quite five minutes before Ted +appeared. + +“Well, did you see anything?” he asked, as he walked up the steps, +lantern in hand. + +“Nothing,” we answered, edging up towards the door. + +Ted looked at us contemptuously. “You miserable little curs! What are +you so frightened of? You’re no better than a pack of women and kids. +It’s the wind that has made the bell ring, or, if it’s not the wind, it +is something else which I don’t know anything about; but I want my +supper. Pull the bell, one of you.” + +Elated at so soon escaping from the horrors of the night, we seized the +handle of the bell-pull, and gave it a vigorous tug. + +“It’s stuck, Ted. It won’t pull down,” we said. + +“Granny!” said the big brother, “you’re too funky to give it a proper +pull,” and pushing us aside, he grasped the pendant handle and gave a +sharp pull. There was no answering sound. + +“It certainly is stuck,” admitted Ted, raising his lantern so as to get +a look upwards, then he gave a yell. + +“Oh! look there!” + +We looked up, and saw the writhing twisting, coils of a huge carpet +snake, which had wound its body round and round the bell-wire on top of +the wall plate. Its head was downwards, and it did not seem at all +alarmed at our presence, but went on wriggling and twisting and +squirming with much apparent cheerfulness. + +Ted ran back to the stables, and returned in a few seconds with a +clothes-prop, with which he dealt the disturber of our peace a few +rapid, but vigorous, blows, breaking its spine in several places. Then +the step-ladder was brought out, and Ted, seizing the reptile by the +tail, uncoiled it with some difficulty from the wire, and threw it down +upon the verandah. + +It was over nine feet in length, and very fat, and had caused all the +disturbance by endeavouring to denude itself of its old skin by +dragging its body between the bell-wire and the top of the wall. When +Ted killed it the poor harmless creature had almost accomplished its +object. + + + + +SOUTH SEA NOTES + + + + +I + + +That many animals, particularly cattle and deer, are very fond of salt +we all know, but it is not often that birds show any taste for it, or, +if so, the circumstance has not generally been noted. In 1881, however, +the present writer was residing on Gazelle Peninsula, the northern +portion of the magnificent island of New Britain in the South Pacific, +and had many opportunities of witnessing both cockatoos and wild +pigeons drinking salt water. I was stationed at a place called Kabaira, +the then “furthest-out” trading station on the whole island, and as I +had but little to do in the way of work, I found plenty of time to +study the bird-life in the vicinity. Parrots of several varieties, and +all of beautiful plumage, were very plentiful, and immense flocks of +white cockatoos frequented the rolling, grassy downs which lay between +my home and the German head-station in Blanche Bay, twenty miles +distant, while the heavy forest of the littoral was the haunt of +thousands of pigeons. These latter, though not so large as the Samoan, +or Eastern Polynesian bird, formed a very agreeable change of diet for +us white traders, and by walking about fifty yards from one’s door, +half a dozen or more could be shot in as many minutes. + +My nearest neighbour was a German, and one day when we were walking +along the beach towards his station, we noticed some hundreds of +pigeons fly down from the forest, settle on the margin of the water, +and drink with apparent enjoyment. The harbour at this spot was almost +land-locked, the water as smooth as glass without the faintest ripple, +and the birds were consequently enabled to drink without wetting their +plumage. My companion, who had lived many years in New Britain, told me +that this drinking of sea-water was common alike to both cockatoos and +pigeons, and that on some occasions the beaches would be lined with +them, the former birds not only drinking, but bathing as well, and +apparently enjoying themselves greatly. + +During the following six months, especially when the weather was calm +and rainy, I frequently noticed pigeons and cockatoos come to the salt +water to drink. At first I thought that as fresh water in many places +bubbled up through the sand at low tide, the birds were really not +drinking the sea-water, but by watching closely, I frequently saw them +walk across these tiny runnels, and make no attempt to drink. Then +again, the whole of the Gazette Peninsula is out up by countless +streams of water; rain falls throughout the year as a rule, and as I +have said, there is always water percolating or bubbling up through the +sand on the beaches at low tide. What causes this unusual habit of +drinking sea-water? + +Another peculiarity of the New Britain and New Ireland pigeon is its +fondness for the Chili pepper-berry. During three months of the year, +when these berries are ripe, the birds’ crops are full of them, and +very often their flesh is so pungent, and smells so strongly of the +Chili, as to be quite uneatable. + + +On all of the low-lying islands of the Ellice, Kings-mill and Gilbert +Groups, a species of snipe are very plentiful. On the islands which +enclose the noble lagoon of Funafuti in the Ellice Group, they are to +be met with in great numbers, and in dull, rainy weather, an ordinarily +good shot may get thirty or forty in a few hours. One day, accompanied +by a native lad, I set out to collect hermit crabs, to be used as fish +bait. These curious creatures are to be found almost anywhere in the +equatorial islands of the Pacific; their shell houses ranging in size +from a pea to an orange, and if a piece of coco-nut or fish or any +other edible matter is left out overnight, hundreds of hermits will be +found gathered around it in the morning. To extract the crabs from +their shells, which are of all shapes and kinds, is a very simple +matter—the hard casing is broken by placing them upon a large stone and +striking them a sharp blow with one of lesser size. My companion and +myself soon collected a heap of “hermits,” when presently he took one +up in his hand, and holding it close to his mouth, whistled softly. In +a few moments the crab protruded one nipper, then another, then its red +antennae, and allowed the boy to take its head between his finger and +thumb and draw its entire body from its shell casing. + +“That is the way the _kili_ (snipe) gets the _uga_ (crab) from its +shell,” he said. “The _kili_ stands over the _uga_ and whistles softly, +and the _uga_ puts out his head to listen. Then the bird seizes it in +his bill, gives it a backward jerk and off flies the shell.” + +Now I had often noticed that wherever hermit crabs were plentiful along +the outer beaches of the lagoon, I was sure to find snipe, and +sometimes wondered on what the birds fed. Taking up two or three +“hermits” one by one, I whistled gently, and in each case the creature +protruded the nippers, head and shoulders, and moved its antennæ to and +fro as if pleasurably excited. + +On the following day I shot three snipe, and in the stomachs of each I +found some quite fresh and some partly digested hermit crabs. The +thick, hard nippers are broken off by the bird before he swallows the +soft, tender body. + + +In a recent number of _Chambers’s Journal_ the present writer was much +interested in a short paragraph dealing with the commercial value of +the skin of the shark, and, having had many years’ experience as a +trader and supercargo in the South Seas, desires to add some further +information on a somewhat interesting subject. + +In all the equatorial islands of the North and South Pacific, shark +fishing is a very profitable industry to the natives, and every trading +steamer or sailing vessel coming into the ports of Sydney or Auckland +from the islands of the mid-Pacific, always brings some tons of shark +fins and tails and shark skins. The principal market for the former is +Hong Kong, but the Chinese merchants of the Australasian Colonies will +always buy sharks’ fins and tails at from 6d. to 11d. per lb., the fins +bringing the best price on account of the extra amount of glutinous +matter they contain, and the which are highly relished by the richer +classes of Chinese as a delicacy. The tails are also valued as an +article of food in China; and, apart from their edible qualities, have +a further value as a base for clear varnishes, &c.; and I was informed +by a Chinese tea-merchant that the glaze upon the paper coverings of +tea-chests was due to a preparation composed principally of the refuse +of sharks’ fins, tails, and skins. + +All the natives of the Gilbert, Kingsmill, and other Pacific equatorial +islands are expert shark fishermen; but the wild people of Ocean Island +(Paanopa) and Pleasant Island (Naura), two isolated spots just under +the equator, surpass them all in the art of catching jackshark. It was +the fortunate experience of the writer to live among these people for +many years, and to be inducted into the native method of +shark-catching. In frail canoes, made of short pieces of wood, sewn +together with coco-nut fibre, the Ocean Islanders will venture out with +rude but ingeniously contrived _wooden_ hooks, and capture sharks of a +girth (_not_ length) that no untrained European would dare to attempt +to kill from a well-appointed boat, with a good crew. + +Shark-catching is one of _the_ industries of the Pacific, and a very +paying industry too. Five-and-twenty years ago there were quite a dozen +or more schooners sailing out of Honolulu, in the Hawaiian Islands, to +the isolated atolls of the North Pacific—notably Palmyra and Christmas +Islands—where sharks could be caught by the thousand, and the crews, +who were engaged on a “lay,” like whalemen, made “big money”; many of +them after a six months’ cruise drawing 500 dollars—a large sum for a +native sailor. + +The work is certainly hard, but it is exciting, and the writer will +always remember with pleasure a seven months’ shark-fishing cruise he +once had in the North Pacific, the genial comrades—white men and +brown—and the bag of dollars handed over to him by the owners when the +ship was paid off in Honolulu. + + + + +II + + +It is not generally known, except to scientists and those who are +acquainted with the subject, that a large percentage of the various +species and varieties of sea snakes are highly venomous. These snakes +must not be confounded with the very numerous species of sea eels, +which, though exceedingly savage and armed with strong needle-pointed +teeth, are all non-venomous, though their bite produces high +inflammation if not at once properly attended to and cleansed by an +antiseptic. The sea snake is a true snake in many respects, having +either laminated scales or a thick corduroyed skin resembling +rudimentary scales. The head is flat, and the general structure of the +body similar to that of the land snake. Whether any of them possess the +true poison glands and fangs I do not know, for although I have killed +many hundreds of them I never took sufficient interest to make a +careful examination; and I was told by a Dutch medical gentleman, long +resident on the coast of Dutch New Guinea, and who had made some +investigation on the subject, that he had failed to discover any poison +sacs or glands in any one of the several snakes he had captured. Yet in +some instances he found what at first appeared to be the two long front +teeth common to venomous land snakes, but on detailed examination these +always proved to be perfectly solid; nevertheless a bite from one of +these sea serpents was generally regarded by the natives as fatal; in +my own experience I know of two such cases, one at the island of Fotuna +in the South Pacific, and the other in Torres Straits. + +In Sigavi Harbour, on Fotuna, there is a rock to which vessels +occasionally make fast their stern moorings. In the boat which I sent +away with a line to this rock were several boys, natives of the island, +who went with the crew for amusement. One of them, aged about ten, +jumped out of the boat, and in his hurry fell on his hands and knees, +right on top of a large black and white banded sea snake, which at once +bit him savagely on the wrist, causing the blood to flow from a score +of tiny punctures. The boy at once swam on shore to be treated by a +native; in the evening I heard he was suffering great agony, in the +morning the poor little fellow was dead. + +The second instance was near Raine Island, in Torres Straits. A +stalwart young Kanaka, one of the crew of a pearling lugger, was diving +for clam shells on the reef, when a snake about three feet in length +suddenly shot up from below within a foot of his face. In his anger and +disgust he unthinkingly struck it with his hand, and was quickly bitten +on the forefinger. A few hours later he was in a high fever, +accompanied with twitchings of the extremities; then tetanus ensued, +followed by death in forty-eight hours. + +Although these sea snakes are common to all tropical seas, they are +most frequent about the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. On any smooth +day they may be seen disporting themselves on the surface, or rising +suddenly from the depths, erect their heads and some inches of their +bodies clear from the water, gaze at the passing vessel, and then +swiftly disappear. In nearly all the Pacific Islands the natives hold +them in detestation and horror, and when one is seen lying coiled up on +a rock sunning itself or crawling over the surface of the reef in +search of food, a stone, accompanied by a curse, is always hurled at +it. In the Ellice Oroup, when catching flying-fish at night, one (or +more) of these horrid serpents is sometimes swept up in the scoop-net +before it can be avoided. They range from six inches to nearly four +feet in length, and all have one feature—a blunted tail-end. + +Quite recently much further light has been thrown on the subject by Sir +James Hector, of the Philosophical Society of Wellington, New Zealand. +At one of the Society’s meetings, held in April last, Sir James showed +several specimens of _hydrida_, some from Australasian Seas, others +from the Atlantic. The usual habitat of sea snakes, he said, were the +tropical seas generally, but some had been captured in the +comparatively cold waters of the New Zealand coast, at the Catlins +River. These latter were all yellow-banded; those from the islands of +the Fijian Oroup were black-banded, and those taken from the Australian +coast grey-banded. There were, he said, no fewer than seventy species, +which, without exception, were fanged and provided with glands +secreting a virulent poison. In some of the mountainous islands of the +South Pacific, such as Samoa, Fiji, &c, there were several species of +land snakes, all of which were perfectly harmless, and were familiar to +many people in Australia and New Zealand, through being brought there +in bunches of island bananas—it was singular, he thought, that the sea +snakes alone should be so highly venomous. “They were all characterised +by the flattened or blunted tail, which they used as a steer oar, and +were often found asleep on the surface of the water, lying on their +backs. In this state they were easily and safely captured, being +powerless to strike.” The present writer, who has seen hundreds of +these marine snakes daily for many years, during a long residence in +the Pacific Islands, cannot remember a single instance where he has +seen one of these dangerous creatures asleep _on the water_, though +they may frequently be found lying asleep on the coral reefs, exposing +themselves to the rays of a torrid sun. They usually select some knob +or rounded boulder, from the top of which, when awake, they can survey +the small pools beneath and discern any fish which may be imprisoned +therein. In such case they will glide down into the water with +astonishing rapidity, seize their prey, and after swallowing it, return +to their sun bath. The natives of the Paumotu Archipelago informed me, +however, that they are most active in seeking their prey at night-time, +and are especially fond of flying-fish, which, as is well known, is one +of the swiftest of all ocean fishes. The sea snakes, however, seize +them with the greatest ease, by rising cautiously beneath and fastening +their keen teeth in the fish’s throat or belly. A snake, not two feet +six inches in length, I was assured, can easily swallow a flying-fish +eight inches or ten inches long. + +With regard to their habit of lying asleep on their backs on the +surface of the water, it may be that Sir James Hector is alluding to +some particular species, but whether that is so or not Sir James’s +statement must of course be considered authoritative, for there is, I +believe, no higher authority on the subject in the world. Apropos of +these venomous marine serpents I may mention that the Rev. W. W. Gill +in one of his works states that he was informed by the natives of the +Cook’s Group that during the prevalence of very bad weather, when fish +were scarce, the large sea eels would actually crawl ashore, and ascend +the _fala_ (pandanus or screw-pine) trees in search of the small green +lizards which live among the upper part of the foliage. At first I +regarded this merely as a bit of native extravagance of statement, but +in 1882, when I was shipwrecked on Peru (or Francis Island), one of the +Gilbert Group, the local trader, one Frank Voliero, and myself saw one +of these eels engaged in an equally extraordinary pursuit. We were one +evening, after a heavy gale from the westward had been blowing for +three days, examining a rookery of whale birds in search of eggs; the +rookery was situated in a dense thicket scrub on the north end of the +island, and was quite two hundred yards from the sea-shore, though not +more than half that distance from the inside lagoon beach. The storm +had destroyed quite a number of young, half-fledged birds, whose bodies +were lying on the ground, and busily engaged in devouring one of them +was a very large sea eel, as thick as the calf of a man’s leg. Before I +could manage to secure a stick with which to kill the repulsive-looking +creature, it made off through the undergrowth at a rapid pace in the +direction of the lagoon, and when we emerged out into the open in +pursuit, ten minutes later, we were just in time to see it wriggling +down the hard, sloping beach into the water. Instinct evidently made it +seek the nearest water, for none of these large sea eels are ever found +in Peru Lagoon. + +Many of the rivers and lakes of the islands of the Western Pacific are +tenanted by eels of great size, which are never, or very seldom, as far +as I could learn, interfered with by the natives, and I have never seen +the people of either the Admiralty Islands, New Ireland, or New Britain +touch an eel as food. The Maories, however, as is well known, are +inordinately fond of eels, which, with putrid shark, constitute one of +their staple articles of diet. + +In the few mountainous islands of the vast Caroline Archipelago, in the +North-western Pacific, eels are very plentiful, not only in the +numberless small streams which debouch into the shallow waters enclosed +by the barrier reefs, but also far up on the mountainsides, occupying +little rocky pools of perhaps no larger dimensions than an +ordinary-sized toilet basin, or swimming up and down rivulets hardly +more than two feet across. The natives of Ponapé, the largest island of +the Caroline Group, and of Kusaie (Strong’s Island), its eastern +outlier, regard the fresh-water eel with shuddering aversion, and +should a man accidentally touch one with his foot when crossing a +stream he will utter an exclamation of horror and fear. In the heathen +days—down to 1845-50—the eel (tôan) was an object of worship, and +constantly propitiated by sacrifices of food, on account of its +malevolent powers; personal contact was rigidly avoided; to touch one, +even by the merest accident, was to bring down the most dreadful +calamities on the offender and his family—bodily deformities, +starvation and poverty, and death; and although the natives of Strong’s +Island are now both civilised and Christianised, and a training college +of the Boston Board of Missions has long been established at Port Lelé, +they still manifest the same superstitious dread of the eel as in their +days of heathendom. I well remember witnessing an instance of this +terror during my sojourn on the island when I was shipwrecked there in +1874. I had taken up my residence in the picturesque little village of +Leassé, on the western or “lee” side, when I was one evening visited by +several of the ship’s company—a Fijian half-caste, a white man, and two +natives of Pleasant Island. At the moment they arrived I was in the +house of the native pastor—a man who had received an excellent +education in a missionary college at Honolulu, in the Hawaiian +Islands—instructing him and his family in the art of making _taka_, or +cinnet sandals, as practised by the natives of the Tokelau Group. Just +then the four seamen entered, each man triumphantly holding up a large +eel: in an instant there was a united howl of horror from the parson +and his family, as they made a rash for the door, overturning the lamp +and nearly setting the house on fire. In vain I followed and urged them +to return, and told them that the men had gone away and taken the +_tôan_ with them—nothing would induce them to enter the house that +night, and the whole family slept elsewhere. + +One singular thing about the eels on Strong’s Island is that they +hibernate, in a fashion, on the sides or even summits of the high +mountains, at an altitude of nearly two thousand feet. Selecting, or +perhaps making, a depression in the soft, moss-covered soil, the ugly +creatures fit themselves into it compactly and remain there for weeks +or even months at a time. I have counted as many as thirty of these +holes, all tenanted, within a few square yards. Some were quite +concealed by vegetable _débris_ or moss, others were exposed to view, +with the broad, flat head of the slippery occupant resting on the +margin or doubled back upon its body. They showed no alarm, but if +poked with a stick would extricate themselves and crawl slowly away. + +In the streams they were very voracious, and I had a special antipathy +to them, on account of their preying so on the crayfish—a crustacean of +which I was particularly fond, and which the natives also liked very +much, but were afraid to capture for fear their hands might come in +contact with the dreaded _tôan_. + +One afternoon I was plucking a pigeon I had just shot by the margin of +a mountain stream. After removing the viscera, I put the bird in the +water to clean it properly, and was shaking it gently to and fro, when +it was suddenly torn out of my hand by a disgustingly bloated, +reddish-coloured eel about four feet in length, and quickly swallowed. +That one pigeon had cost me two hours’ tramping through the +rain-soddened mountain forest, so loading my gun I followed the thief +down stream to where the water was but a few inches deep, and then blew +his head off. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ÂMONA *** + +***** This file should be named 24952-0.txt or 24952-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/9/5/24952/ + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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