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diff --git a/464-0.txt b/464-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5b3e07 --- /dev/null +++ b/464-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9378 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, In the South Seas, by Robert Louis Stevenson + + +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: In the South Seas + + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + + + +Release Date: November 16, 2012 [eBook #464] +[This file was first posted on January 23, 1996] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE SOUTH SEAS*** + + +Transcribed from the 1908 Chatto & Windus edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + + IN THE SOUTH SEAS + + + BEING AN ACCOUNT OF EXPERIENCES AND + OBSERVATIONS IN THE MARQUESAS, PAUMOTUS + AND GILBERT ISLANDS IN THE COURSE OF + TWO CRUSES, ON THE YACHT ‘CASCO’ (1888) + AND THE SCHOONER ‘EQUATOR’ (1889) + + BY + ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON + + [Picture: Decorative graphic] + + FINE-PAPER EDITION + + * * * * * + + LONDON + CHATTO & WINDUS + 1908 + + * * * * * + + _All rights resverved_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + PART 1: THE MARQUESAS +CHAPTER + I. AN ISLAND LANDFALL + II. MAKING FRIENDS + III. THE MAROON + IV. DEATH + V. DEPOPULATION + VI. CHIEFS AND TAPUS + VII. HATIHEU + VIII. THE PORT OF ENTRY + IX. THE HOUSE OF TEMOANA + X. A PORTRAIT AND A STORY + XI. LONG-PIG—A CANNIBAL HIGH PLACE + XII. THE STORY OF A PLANTATION + XIII. CHARACTERS + XIV. IN A CANNIBAL VALLEY + XV. THE TWO CHIEFS OF ATUONA + PART II: THE PAUMOTUS + I. THE DANGEROUS ARCHIPELAGO—ATOLLS AT A DISTANCE + II. FAKARAVA: AN ATOLL AT HAND + III. A HOUSE TO LET IN A LOW ISLAND + IV. TRAITS AND SECTS IN THE PAUMOTUS + V. A PAUMOTUAN FUNERAL + VI. GRAVEYARD STORIES + PART III: THE GILBERTS + I. BUTARITARI + II. THE FOUR BROTHERS + III. AROUND OUR HOUSE + IV. A TALE OF A TAPU + V. A TALE OF A TAPU—_continued_ + VI. THE FIVE DAYS’ FESTIVAL + VII. HUSBAND AND WIFE + PART IV: THE GILBERTS—APEMAMA + I. THE KING OF APEMAMA: THE ROYAL TRADER + II. THE KING OF APEMAMA: FOUNDATION OF EQUATOR TOWN + III. THE KING OF APEMAMA: THE PALACE OF MANY WOMEN + IV. THE KING OF APEMAMA: EQUATOR TOWN AND THE PALACE + V. KING AND COMMONS + VI. THE KING OF APEMAMA: DEVIL-WORK + VII. THE KING OF APEMAMA + +PART 1: THE MARQUESAS + + +CHAPTER I—AN ISLAND LANDFALL + + +For nearly ten years my health had been declining; and for some while +before I set forth upon my voyage, I believed I was come to the +afterpiece of life, and had only the nurse and undertaker to expect. It +was suggested that I should try the South Seas; and I was not unwilling +to visit like a ghost, and be carried like a bale, among scenes that had +attracted me in youth and health. I chartered accordingly Dr. Merrit’s +schooner yacht, the _Casco_, seventy-four tons register; sailed from San +Francisco towards the end of June 1888, visited the eastern islands, and +was left early the next year at Honolulu. Hence, lacking courage to +return to my old life of the house and sick-room, I set forth to leeward +in a trading schooner, the _Equator_, of a little over seventy tons, +spent four months among the atolls (low coral islands) of the Gilbert +group, and reached Samoa towards the close of ’89. By that time +gratitude and habit were beginning to attach me to the islands; I had +gained a competency of strength; I had made friends; I had learned new +interests; the time of my voyages had passed like days in fairyland; and +I decided to remain. I began to prepare these pages at sea, on a third +cruise, in the trading steamer _Janet Nicoll_. If more days are granted +me, they shall be passed where I have found life most pleasant and man +most interesting; the axes of my black boys are already clearing the +foundations of my future house; and I must learn to address readers from +the uttermost parts of the sea. + +That I should thus have reversed the verdict of Lord Tennyson’s hero is +less eccentric than appears. Few men who come to the islands leave them; +they grow grey where they alighted; the palm shades and the trade-wind +fans them till they die, perhaps cherishing to the last the fancy of a +visit home, which is rarely made, more rarely enjoyed, and yet more +rarely repeated. No part of the world exerts the same attractive power +upon the visitor, and the task before me is to communicate to fireside +travellers some sense of its seduction, and to describe the life, at sea +and ashore, of many hundred thousand persons, some of our own blood and +language, all our contemporaries, and yet as remote in thought and habit +as Rob Roy or Barbarossa, the Apostles or the Cæsars. + +The first experience can never be repeated. The first love, the first +sunrise, the first South Sea island, are memories apart and touched a +virginity of sense. On the 28th of July 1888 the moon was an hour down +by four in the morning. In the east a radiating centre of brightness +told of the day; and beneath, on the skyline, the morning bank was +already building, black as ink. We have all read of the swiftness of the +day’s coming and departure in low latitudes; it is a point on which the +scientific and sentimental tourist are at one, and has inspired some +tasteful poetry. The period certainly varies with the season; but here +is one case exactly noted. Although the dawn was thus preparing by four, +the sun was not up till six; and it was half-past five before we could +distinguish our expected islands from the clouds on the horizon. Eight +degrees south, and the day two hours a-coming. The interval was passed +on deck in the silence of expectation, the customary thrill of landfall +heightened by the strangeness of the shores that we were then +approaching. Slowly they took shape in the attenuating darkness. +Ua-huna, piling up to a truncated summit, appeared the first upon the +starboard bow; almost abeam arose our destination, Nuka-hiva, whelmed in +cloud; and betwixt and to the southward, the first rays of the sun +displayed the needles of Ua-pu. These pricked about the line of the +horizon; like the pinnacles of some ornate and monstrous church, they +stood there, in the sparkling brightness of the morning, the fit +signboard of a world of wonders. + +Not one soul aboard the _Casco_ had set foot upon the islands, or knew, +except by accident, one word of any of the island tongues; and it was +with something perhaps of the same anxious pleasure as thrilled the bosom +of discoverers that we drew near these problematic shores. The land +heaved up in peaks and rising vales; it fell in cliffs and buttresses; +its colour ran through fifty modulations in a scale of pearl and rose and +olive; and it was crowned above by opalescent clouds. The suffusion of +vague hues deceived the eye; the shadows of clouds were confounded with +the articulations of the mountains; and the isle and its unsubstantial +canopy rose and shimmered before us like a single mass. There was no +beacon, no smoke of towns to be expected, no plying pilot. Somewhere, in +that pale phantasmagoria of cliff and cloud, our haven lay concealed; and +somewhere to the east of it—the only sea-mark given—a certain headland, +known indifferently as Cape Adam and Eve, or Cape Jack and Jane, and +distinguished by two colossal figures, the gross statuary of nature. +These we were to find; for these we craned and stared, focused glasses, +and wrangled over charts; and the sun was overhead and the land close +ahead before we found them. To a ship approaching, like the _Casco_, +from the north, they proved indeed the least conspicuous features of a +striking coast; the surf flying high above its base; strange, austere, +and feathered mountains rising behind; and Jack and Jane, or Adam and +Eve, impending like a pair of warts above the breakers. + +Thence we bore away along shore. On our port beam we might hear the +explosions of the surf; a few birds flew fishing under the prow; there +was no other sound or mark of life, whether of man or beast, in all that +quarter of the island. Winged by her own impetus and the dying breeze, +the _Casco_ skimmed under cliffs, opened out a cove, showed us a beach +and some green trees, and flitted by again, bowing to the swell. The +trees, from our distance, might have been hazel; the beach might have +been in Europe; the mountain forms behind modelled in little from the +Alps, and the forest which clustered on their ramparts a growth no more +considerable than our Scottish heath. Again the cliff yawned, but now +with a deeper entry; and the _Casco_, hauling her wind, began to slide +into the bay of Anaho. The cocoa-palm, that giraffe of vegetables, so +graceful, so ungainly, to the European eye so foreign, was to be seen +crowding on the beach, and climbing and fringing the steep sides of +mountains. Rude and bare hills embraced the inlet upon either hand; it +was enclosed to the landward by a bulk of shattered mountains. In every +crevice of that barrier the forest harboured, roosting and nestling there +like birds about a ruin; and far above, it greened and roughened the +razor edges of the summit. + +Under the eastern shore, our schooner, now bereft of any breeze, +continued to creep in: the smart creature, when once under way, appearing +motive in herself. From close aboard arose the bleating of young lambs; +a bird sang in the hillside; the scent of the land and of a hundred +fruits or flowers flowed forth to meet us; and, presently, a house or two +appeared, standing high upon the ankles of the hills, and one of these +surrounded with what seemed a garden. These conspicuous habitations, +that patch of culture, had we but known it, were a mark of the passage of +whites; and we might have approached a hundred islands and not found +their parallel. It was longer ere we spied the native village, standing +(in the universal fashion) close upon a curve of beach, close under a +grove of palms; the sea in front growling and whitening on a concave arc +of reef. For the cocoa-tree and the island man are both lovers and +neighbours of the surf. ‘The coral waxes, the palm grows, but man +departs,’ says the sad Tahitian proverb; but they are all three, so long +as they endure, co-haunters of the beach. The mark of anchorage was a +blow-hole in the rocks, near the south-easterly corner of the bay. +Punctually to our use, the blow-hole spouted; the schooner turned upon +her heel; the anchor plunged. It was a small sound, a great event; my +soul went down with these moorings whence no windlass may extract nor any +diver fish it up; and I, and some part of my ship’s company, were from +that hour the bondslaves of the isles of Vivien. + +Before yet the anchor plunged a canoe was already paddling from the +hamlet. It contained two men: one white, one brown and tattooed across +the face with bands of blue, both in immaculate white European clothes: +the resident trader, Mr. Regler, and the native chief, Taipi-Kikino. +‘Captain, is it permitted to come on board?’ were the first words we +heard among the islands. Canoe followed canoe till the ship swarmed with +stalwart, six-foot men in every stage of undress; some in a shirt, some +in a loin-cloth, one in a handkerchief imperfectly adjusted; some, and +these the more considerable, tattooed from head to foot in awful +patterns; some barbarous and knived; one, who sticks in my memory as +something bestial, squatting on his hams in a canoe, sucking an orange +and spitting it out again to alternate sides with ape-like vivacity—all +talking, and we could not understand one word; all trying to trade with +us who had no thought of trading, or offering us island curios at prices +palpably absurd. There was no word of welcome; no show of civility; no +hand extended save that of the chief and Mr. Regler. As we still +continued to refuse the proffered articles, complaint ran high and rude; +and one, the jester of the party, railed upon our meanness amid jeering +laughter. Amongst other angry pleasantries—‘Here is a mighty fine ship,’ +said he, ‘to have no money on board!’ I own I was inspired with sensible +repugnance; even with alarm. The ship was manifestly in their power; we +had women on board; I knew nothing of my guests beyond the fact that they +were cannibals; the Directory (my only guide) was full of timid cautions; +and as for the trader, whose presence might else have reassured me, were +not whites in the Pacific the usual instigators and accomplices of native +outrage? When he reads this confession, our kind friend, Mr. Regler, can +afford to smile. + +Later in the day, as I sat writing up my journal, the cabin was filled +from end to end with Marquesans: three brown-skinned generations, +squatted cross-legged upon the floor, and regarding me in silence with +embarrassing eyes. The eyes of all Polynesians are large, luminous, and +melting; they are like the eyes of animals and some Italians. A kind of +despair came over me, to sit there helpless under all these staring orbs, +and be thus blocked in a corner of my cabin by this speechless crowd: and +a kind of rage to think they were beyond the reach of articulate +communication, like furred animals, or folk born deaf, or the dwellers of +some alien planet. + +To cross the Channel is, for a boy of twelve, to change heavens; to cross +the Atlantic, for a man of twenty-four, is hardly to modify his diet. +But I was now escaped out of the shadow of the Roman empire, under whose +toppling monuments we were all cradled, whose laws and letters are on +every hand of us, constraining and preventing. I was now to see what men +might be whose fathers had never studied Virgil, had never been conquered +by Cæsar, and never been ruled by the wisdom of Gaius or Papinian. By +the same step I had journeyed forth out of that comfortable zone of +kindred languages, where the curse of Babel is so easy to be remedied; +and my new fellow-creatures sat before me dumb like images. Methought, +in my travels, all human relation was to be excluded; and when I returned +home (for in those days I still projected my return) I should have but +dipped into a picture-book without a text. Nay, and I even questioned if +my travels should be much prolonged; perhaps they were destined to a +speedy end; perhaps my subsequent friend, Kauanui, whom I remarked there, +sitting silent with the rest, for a man of some authority, might leap +from his hams with an ear-splitting signal, the ship be carried at a +rush, and the ship’s company butchered for the table. + +There could be nothing more natural than these apprehensions, nor +anything more groundless. In my experience of the islands, I had never +again so menacing a reception; were I to meet with such to-day, I should +be more alarmed and tenfold more surprised. The majority of Polynesians +are easy folk to get in touch with, frank, fond of notice, greedy of the +least affection, like amiable, fawning dogs; and even with the +Marquesans, so recently and so imperfectly redeemed from a blood-boltered +barbarism, all were to become our intimates, and one, at least, was to +mourn sincerely our departure. + + + +CHAPTER II—MAKING FRIENDS + + +The impediment of tongues was one that I particularly over-estimated. +The languages of Polynesia are easy to smatter, though hard to speak with +elegance. And they are extremely similar, so that a person who has a +tincture of one or two may risk, not without hope, an attempt upon the +others. + +And again, not only is Polynesian easy to smatter, but interpreters +abound. Missionaries, traders, and broken white folk living on the +bounty of the natives, are to be found in almost every isle and hamlet; +and even where these are unserviceable, the natives themselves have often +scraped up a little English, and in the French zone (though far less +commonly) a little French-English, or an efficient pidgin, what is called +to the westward ‘Beach-la-Mar,’ comes easy to the Polynesian; it is now +taught, besides, in the schools of Hawaii; and from the multiplicity of +British ships, and the nearness of the States on the one hand and the +colonies on the other, it may be called, and will almost certainly +become, the tongue of the Pacific. I will instance a few examples. I +met in Majuro a Marshall Island boy who spoke excellent English; this he +had learned in the German firm in Jaluit, yet did not speak one word of +German. I heard from a gendarme who had taught school in Rapa-iti that +while the children had the utmost difficulty or reluctance to learn +French, they picked up English on the wayside, and as if by accident. On +one of the most out-of-the-way atolls in the Carolines, my friend Mr. +Benjamin Hird was amazed to find the lads playing cricket on the beach +and talking English; and it was in English that the crew of the _Janet +Nicoll_, a set of black boys from different Melanesian islands, +communicated with other natives throughout the cruise, transmitted +orders, and sometimes jested together on the fore-hatch. But what struck +me perhaps most of all was a word I heard on the verandah of the Tribunal +at Noumea. A case had just been heard—a trial for infanticide against an +ape-like native woman; and the audience were smoking cigarettes as they +awaited the verdict. An anxious, amiable French lady, not far from +tears, was eager for acquittal, and declared she would engage the +prisoner to be her children’s nurse. The bystanders exclaimed at the +proposal; the woman was a savage, said they, and spoke no language. +‘_Mais_, _vous savez_,’ objected the fair sentimentalist; ‘_ils +apprennent si vite l’anglais_!’ + +But to be able to speak to people is not all. And in the first stage of +my relations with natives I was helped by two things. To begin with, I +was the show-man of the _Casco_. She, her fine lines, tall spars, and +snowy decks, the crimson fittings of the saloon, and the white, the gilt, +and the repeating mirrors of the tiny cabin, brought us a hundred +visitors. The men fathomed out her dimensions with their arms, as their +fathers fathomed out the ships of Cook; the women declared the cabins +more lovely than a church; bouncing Junos were never weary of sitting in +the chairs and contemplating in the glass their own bland images; and I +have seen one lady strip up her dress, and, with cries of wonder and +delight, rub herself bare-breeched upon the velvet cushions. Biscuit, +jam, and syrup was the entertainment; and, as in European parlours, the +photograph album went the round. This sober gallery, their everyday +costumes and physiognomies, had become transformed, in three weeks’ +sailing, into things wonderful and rich and foreign; alien faces, +barbaric dresses, they were now beheld and fingered, in the swerving +cabin, with innocent excitement and surprise. Her Majesty was often +recognised, and I have seen French subjects kiss her photograph; Captain +Speedy—in an Abyssinian war-dress, supposed to be the uniform of the +British army—met with much acceptance; and the effigies of Mr. Andrew +Lang were admired in the Marquesas. There is the place for him to go +when he shall be weary of Middlesex and Homer. + +It was perhaps yet more important that I had enjoyed in my youth some +knowledge of our Scots folk of the Highlands and the Islands. Not much +beyond a century has passed since these were in the same convulsive and +transitionary state as the Marquesans of to-day. In both cases an alien +authority enforced, the clans disarmed, the chiefs deposed, new customs +introduced, and chiefly that fashion of regarding money as the means and +object of existence. The commercial age, in each, succeeding at a bound +to an age of war abroad and patriarchal communism at home. In one the +cherished practice of tattooing, in the other a cherished costume, +proscribed. In each a main luxury cut off: beef, driven under cloud of +night from Lowland pastures, denied to the meat-loving Highlander; +long-pig, pirated from the next village, to the man-eating Kanaka. The +grumbling, the secret ferment, the fears and resentments, the alarms and +sudden councils of Marquesan chiefs, reminded me continually of the days +of Lovat and Struan. Hospitality, tact, natural fine manners, and a +touchy punctilio, are common to both races: common to both tongues the +trick of dropping medial consonants. Here is a table of two widespread +Polynesian words:— + + _House_. _Love_. + {12} +Tahitian FARE AROHA +New Zealand WHARE +Samoan FALE TALOFA +Manihiki FALE ALOHA +Hawaiian HALE ALOHA +Marquesan HA’E KAOHA + +The elision of medial consonants, so marked in these Marquesan instances, +is no less common both in Gaelic and the Lowland Scots. Stranger still, +that prevalent Polynesian sound, the so-called catch, written with an +apostrophe, and often or always the gravestone of a perished consonant, +is to be heard in Scotland to this day. When a Scot pronounces water, +better, or bottle—_wa’er_, _be’er_, or _bo’le_—the sound is precisely +that of the catch; and I think we may go beyond, and say, that if such a +population could be isolated, and this mispronunciation should become the +rule, it might prove the first stage of transition from _t_ to _k_, which +is the disease of Polynesian languages. The tendency of the Marquesans, +however, is to urge against consonants, or at least on the very common +letter _l_, a war of mere extermination. A hiatus is agreeable to any +Polynesian ear; the ear even of the stranger soon grows used to these +barbaric voids; but only in the Marquesan will you find such names as +_Haaii_ and _Paaaeua_, when each individual vowel must be separately +uttered. + +These points of similarity between a South Sea people and some of my own +folk at home ran much in my head in the islands; and not only inclined me +to view my fresh acquaintances with favour, but continually modified my +judgment. A polite Englishman comes to-day to the Marquesans and is +amazed to find the men tattooed; polite Italians came not long ago to +England and found our fathers stained with woad; and when I paid the +return visit as a little boy, I was highly diverted with the backwardness +of Italy: so insecure, so much a matter of the day and hour, is the +pre-eminence of race. It was so that I hit upon a means of communication +which I recommend to travellers. When I desired any detail of savage +custom, or of superstitious belief, I cast back in the story of my +fathers, and fished for what I wanted with some trait of equal barbarism: +Michael Scott, Lord Derwentwater’s head, the second-sight, the Water +Kelpie,—each of these I have found to be a killing bait; the black bull’s +head of Stirling procured me the legend of _Rahero_; and what I knew of +the Cluny Macphersons, or the Appin Stewarts, enabled me to learn, and +helped me to understand, about the _Tevas_ of Tahiti. The native was no +longer ashamed, his sense of kinship grew warmer, and his lips were +opened. It is this sense of kinship that the traveller must rouse and +share; or he had better content himself with travels from the blue bed to +the brown. And the presence of one Cockney titterer will cause a whole +party to walk in clouds of darkness. + +The hamlet of Anaho stands on a margin of flat land between the west of +the beach and the spring of the impending mountains. A grove of palms, +perpetually ruffling its green fans, carpets it (as for a triumph) with +fallen branches, and shades it like an arbour. A road runs from end to +end of the covert among beds of flowers, the milliner’s shop of the +community; and here and there, in the grateful twilight, in an air filled +with a diversity of scents, and still within hearing of the surf upon the +reef, the native houses stand in scattered neighbourhood. The same word, +as we have seen, represents in many tongues of Polynesia, with scarce a +shade of difference, the abode of man. But although the word be the +same, the structure itself continually varies; and the Marquesan, among +the most backward and barbarous of islanders, is yet the most +commodiously lodged. The grass huts of Hawaii, the birdcage houses of +Tahiti, or the open shed, with the crazy Venetian blinds, of the polite +Samoan—none of these can be compared with the Marquesan _paepae-hae_, or +dwelling platform. The paepae is an oblong terrace built without cement +or black volcanic stone, from twenty to fifty feet in length, raised from +four to eight feet from the earth, and accessible by a broad stair. +Along the back of this, and coming to about half its width, runs the open +front of the house, like a covered gallery: the interior sometimes neat +and almost elegant in its bareness, the sleeping space divided off by an +endlong coaming, some bright raiment perhaps hanging from a nail, and a +lamp and one of White’s sewing-machines the only marks of civilization. +On the outside, at one end of the terrace, burns the cooking-fire under a +shed; at the other there is perhaps a pen for pigs; the remainder is the +evening lounge and _al fresco_ banquet-hall of the inhabitants. To some +houses water is brought down the mountains in bamboo pipes, perforated +for the sake of sweetness. With the Highland comparison in my mind, I +was struck to remember the sluttish mounds of turf and stone in which I +have sat and been entertained in the Hebrides and the North Islands. Two +things, I suppose, explain the contrast. In Scotland wood is rare, and +with materials so rude as turf and stone the very hope of neatness is +excluded. And in Scotland it is cold. Shelter and a hearth are needs so +pressing that a man looks not beyond; he is out all day after a bare +bellyful, and at night when he saith, ‘Aha, it is warm!’ he has not +appetite for more. Or if for something else, then something higher; a +fine school of poetry and song arose in these rough shelters, and an air +like ‘_Lochaber no more_’ is an evidence of refinement more convincing, +as well as more imperishable, than a palace. + +To one such dwelling platform a considerable troop of relatives and +dependants resort. In the hour of the dusk, when the fire blazes, and +the scent of the cooked breadfruit fills the air, and perhaps the lamp +glints already between the pillars and the house, you shall behold them +silently assemble to this meal, men, women, and children; and the dogs +and pigs frisk together up the terrace stairway, switching rival tails. +The strangers from the ship were soon equally welcome: welcome to dip +their fingers in the wooden dish, to drink cocoanuts, to share the +circulating pipe, and to hear and hold high debate about the misdeeds of +the French, the Panama Canal, or the geographical position of San +Francisco and New Yo’ko. In a Highland hamlet, quite out of reach of any +tourist, I have met the same plain and dignified hospitality. + +I have mentioned two facts—the distasteful behaviour of our earliest +visitors, and the case of the lady who rubbed herself upon the +cushions—which would give a very false opinion of Marquesan manners. The +great majority of Polynesians are excellently mannered; but the Marquesan +stands apart, annoying and attractive, wild, shy, and refined. If you +make him a present he affects to forget it, and it must be offered him +again at his going: a pretty formality I have found nowhere else. A hint +will get rid of any one or any number; they are so fiercely proud and +modest; while many of the more lovable but blunter islanders crowd upon a +stranger, and can be no more driven off than flies. A slight or an +insult the Marquesan seems never to forget. I was one day talking by the +wayside with my friend Hoka, when I perceived his eyes suddenly to flash +and his stature to swell. A white horseman was coming down the mountain, +and as he passed, and while he paused to exchange salutations with +myself, Hoka was still staring and ruffling like a gamecock. It was a +Corsican who had years before called him _cochon sauvage—coçon chauvage_, +as Hoka mispronounced it. With people so nice and so touchy, it was +scarce to be supposed that our company of greenhorns should not blunder +into offences. Hoka, on one of his visits, fell suddenly in a brooding +silence, and presently after left the ship with cold formality. When he +took me back into favour, he adroitly and pointedly explained the nature +of my offence: I had asked him to sell cocoa-nuts; and in Hoka’s view +articles of food were things that a gentleman should give, not sell; or +at least that he should not sell to any friend. On another occasion I +gave my boat’s crew a luncheon of chocolate and biscuits. I had sinned, +I could never learn how, against some point of observance; and though I +was drily thanked, my offerings were left upon the beach. But our worst +mistake was a slight we put on Toma, Hoka’s adoptive father, and in his +own eyes the rightful chief of Anaho. In the first place, we did not +call upon him, as perhaps we should, in his fine new European house, the +only one in the hamlet. In the second, when we came ashore upon a visit +to his rival, Taipi-Kikino, it was Toma whom we saw standing at the head +of the beach, a magnificent figure of a man, magnificently tattooed; and +it was of Toma that we asked our question: ‘Where is the chief?’ ‘What +chief?’ cried Toma, and turned his back on the blasphemers. Nor did he +forgive us. Hoka came and went with us daily; but, alone I believe of +all the countryside, neither Toma nor his wife set foot on board the +_Casco_. The temptation resisted it is hard for a European to compute. +The flying city of Laputa moored for a fortnight in St. James’s Park +affords but a pale figure of the _Casco_ anchored before Anaho; for the +Londoner has still his change of pleasures, but the Marquesan passes to +his grave through an unbroken uniformity of days. + +On the afternoon before it was intended we should sail, a valedictory +party came on board: nine of our particular friends equipped with gifts +and dressed as for a festival. Hoka, the chief dancer and singer, the +greatest dandy of Anaho, and one of the handsomest young fellows in the +world-sullen, showy, dramatic, light as a feather and strong as an ox—it +would have been hard, on that occasion, to recognise, as he sat there +stooped and silent, his face heavy and grey. It was strange to see the +lad so much affected; stranger still to recognise in his last gift one of +the curios we had refused on the first day, and to know our friend, so +gaily dressed, so plainly moved at our departure, for one of the +half-naked crew that had besieged and insulted us on our arrival: +strangest of all, perhaps, to find, in that carved handle of a fan, the +last of those curiosities of the first day which had now all been given +to us by their possessors—their chief merchandise, for which they had +sought to ransom us as long as we were strangers, which they pressed on +us for nothing as soon as we were friends. The last visit was not long +protracted. One after another they shook hands and got down into their +canoe; when Hoka turned his back immediately upon the ship, so that we +saw his face no more. Taipi, on the other hand, remained standing and +facing us with gracious valedictory gestures; and when Captain Otis +dipped the ensign, the whole party saluted with their hats. This was the +farewell; the episode of our visit to Anaho was held concluded; and +though the _Casco_ remained nearly forty hours at her moorings, not one +returned on board, and I am inclined to think they avoided appearing on +the beach. This reserve and dignity is the finest trait of the +Marquesan. + + + +CHAPTER III—THE MAROON + + +Of the beauties of Anaho books might be written. I remember waking about +three, to find the air temperate and scented. The long swell brimmed +into the bay, and seemed to fill it full and then subside. Gently, +deeply, and silently the _Casco_ rolled; only at times a block piped like +a bird. Oceanward, the heaven was bright with stars and the sea with +their reflections. If I looked to that side, I might have sung with the +Hawaiian poet: + + _Ua maomao ka lani_, _ua kahaea luna_, + _Ua pipi ka maka o ka hoku_. + (The heavens were fair, they stretched above, + Many were the eyes of the stars.) + +And then I turned shoreward, and high squalls were overhead; the +mountains loomed up black; and I could have fancied I had slipped ten +thousand miles away and was anchored in a Highland loch; that when the +day came, it would show pine, and heather, and green fern, and roofs of +turf sending up the smoke of peats; and the alien speech that should next +greet my ears must be Gaelic, not Kanaka. + +And day, when it came, brought other sights and thoughts. I have watched +the morning break in many quarters of the world; it has been certainly +one of the chief joys of my existence, and the dawn that I saw with most +emotion shone upon the bay of Anaho. The mountains abruptly overhang the +port with every variety of surface and of inclination, lawn, and cliff, +and forest. Not one of these but wore its proper tint of saffron, of +sulphur, of the clove, and of the rose. The lustre was like that of +satin; on the lighter hues there seemed to float an efflorescence; a +solemn bloom appeared on the more dark. The light itself was the +ordinary light of morning, colourless and clean; and on this ground of +jewels, pencilled out the least detail of drawing. Meanwhile, around the +hamlet, under the palms, where the blue shadow lingered, the red coals of +cocoa husk and the light trails of smoke betrayed the awakening business +of the day; along the beach men and women, lads and lasses, were +returning from the bath in bright raiment, red and blue and green, such +as we delighted to see in the coloured little pictures of our childhood; +and presently the sun had cleared the eastern hill, and the glow of the +day was over all. + +The glow continued and increased, the business, from the main part, +ceased before it had begun. Twice in the day there was a certain stir of +shepherding along the seaward hills. At times a canoe went out to fish. +At times a woman or two languidly filled a basket in the cotton patch. +At times a pipe would sound out of the shadow of a house, ringing the +changes on its three notes, with an effect like _Que le jour me dure_, +repeated endlessly. Or at times, across a corner of the bay, two natives +might communicate in the Marquesan manner with conventional whistlings. +All else was sleep and silence. The surf broke and shone around the +shores; a species of black crane fished in the broken water; the black +pigs were continually galloping by on some affair; but the people might +never have awaked, or they might all be dead. + +My favourite haunt was opposite the hamlet, where was a landing in a cove +under a lianaed cliff. The beach was lined with palms and a tree called +the purao, something between the fig and mulberry in growth, and bearing +a flower like a great yellow poppy with a maroon heart. In places rocks +encroached upon the sand; the beach would be all submerged; and the surf +would bubble warmly as high as to my knees, and play with cocoa-nut husks +as our more homely ocean plays with wreck and wrack and bottles. As the +reflux drew down, marvels of colour and design streamed between my feet; +which I would grasp at, miss, or seize: now to find them what they +promised, shells to grace a cabinet or be set in gold upon a lady’s +finger; now to catch only _maya_ of coloured sand, pounded fragments and +pebbles, that, as soon as they were dry, became as dull and homely as the +flints upon a garden path. I have toiled at this childish pleasure for +hours in the strong sun, conscious of my incurable ignorance; but too +keenly pleased to be ashamed. Meanwhile, the blackbird (or his tropical +understudy) would be fluting in the thickets overhead. + +A little further, in the turn of the bay, a streamlet trickled in the +bottom of a den, thence spilling down a stair of rock into the sea. The +draught of air drew down under the foliage in the very bottom of the den, +which was a perfect arbour for coolness. In front it stood open on the +blue bay and the _Casco_ lying there under her awning and her cheerful +colours. Overhead was a thatch of puraos, and over these again palms +brandished their bright fans, as I have seen a conjurer make himself a +halo out of naked swords. For in this spot, over a neck of low land at +the foot of the mountains, the trade-wind streams into Anaho Bay in a +flood of almost constant volume and velocity, and of a heavenly coolness. + +It chanced one day that I was ashore in the cove, with Mrs. Stevenson and +the ship’s cook. Except for the _Casco_ lying outside, and a crane or +two, and the ever-busy wind and sea, the face of the world was of a +prehistoric emptiness; life appeared to stand stock-still, and the sense +of isolation was profound and refreshing. On a sudden, the trade-wind, +coming in a gust over the isthmus, struck and scattered the fans of the +palms above the den; and, behold! in two of the tops there sat a native, +motionless as an idol and watching us, you would have said, without a +wink. The next moment the tree closed, and the glimpse was gone. This +discovery of human presences latent overhead in a place where we had +supposed ourselves alone, the immobility of our tree-top spies, and the +thought that perhaps at all hours we were similarly supervised, struck us +with a chill. Talk languished on the beach. As for the cook (whose +conscience was not clear), he never afterwards set foot on shore, and +twice, when the _Casco_ appeared to be driving on the rocks, it was +amusing to observe that man’s alacrity; death, he was persuaded, awaiting +him upon the beach. It was more than a year later, in the Gilberts, that +the explanation dawned upon myself. The natives were drawing palm-tree +wine, a thing forbidden by law; and when the wind thus suddenly revealed +them, they were doubtless more troubled than ourselves. + +At the top of the den there dwelt an old, melancholy, grizzled man of the +name of Tari (Charlie) Coffin. He was a native of Oahu, in the Sandwich +Islands; and had gone to sea in his youth in the American whalers; a +circumstance to which he owed his name, his English, his down-east twang, +and the misfortune of his innocent life. For one captain, sailing out of +New Bedford, carried him to Nuka-hiva and marooned him there among the +cannibals. The motive for this act was inconceivably small; poor Tari’s +wages, which were thus economised, would scarce have shook the credit of +the New Bedford owners. And the act itself was simply murder. Tari’s +life must have hung in the beginning by a hair. In the grief and terror +of that time, it is not unlikely he went mad, an infirmity to which he +was still liable; or perhaps a child may have taken a fancy to him and +ordained him to be spared. He escaped at least alive, married in the +island, and when I knew him was a widower with a married son and a +granddaughter. But the thought of Oahu haunted him; its praise was for +ever on his lips; he beheld it, looking back, as a place of ceaseless +feasting, song, and dance; and in his dreams I daresay he revisits it +with joy. I wonder what he would think if he could be carried there +indeed, and see the modern town of Honolulu brisk with traffic, and the +palace with its guards, and the great hotel, and Mr. Berger’s band with +their uniforms and outlandish instruments; or what he would think to see +the brown faces grown so few and the white so many; and his father’s land +sold, for planting sugar, and his father’s house quite perished, or +perhaps the last of them struck leprous and immured between the surf and +the cliffs on Molokai? So simply, even in South Sea Islands, and so +sadly, the changes come. + +Tari was poor, and poorly lodged. His house was a wooden frame, run up +by Europeans; it was indeed his official residence, for Tari was the +shepherd of the promontory sheep. I can give a perfect inventory of its +contents: three kegs, a tin biscuit-box, an iron saucepan, several +cocoa-shell cups, a lantern, and three bottles, probably containing oil; +while the clothes of the family and a few mats were thrown across the +open rafters. Upon my first meeting with this exile he had conceived for +me one of the baseless island friendships, had given me nuts to drink, +and carried me up the den ‘to see my house’—the only entertainment that +he had to offer. He liked the ‘Amelican,’ he said, and the ‘Inglisman,’ +but the ‘Flessman’ was his abhorrence; and he was careful to explain that +if he had thought us ‘Fless,’ we should have had none of his nuts, and +never a sight of his house. His distaste for the French I can partly +understand, but not at all his toleration of the Anglo-Saxon. The next +day he brought me a pig, and some days later one of our party going +ashore found him in act to bring a second. We were still strange to the +islands; we were pained by the poor man’s generosity, which he could ill +afford, and, by a natural enough but quite unpardonable blunder, we +refused the pig. Had Tari been a Marquesan we should have seen him no +more; being what he was, the most mild, long-suffering, melancholy man, +he took a revenge a hundred times more painful. Scarce had the canoe +with the nine villagers put off from their farewell before the _Casco_ +was boarded from the other side. It was Tari; coming thus late because +he had no canoe of his own, and had found it hard to borrow one; coming +thus solitary (as indeed we always saw him), because he was a stranger in +the land, and the dreariest of company. The rest of my family basely +fled from the encounter. I must receive our injured friend alone; and +the interview must have lasted hard upon an hour, for he was loath to +tear himself away. ‘You go ’way. I see you no more—no, sir!’ he +lamented; and then looking about him with rueful admiration, ‘This goodee +ship—no, sir!—goodee ship!’ he would exclaim: the ‘no, sir,’ thrown out +sharply through the nose upon a rising inflection, an echo from New +Bedford and the fallacious whaler. From these expressions of grief and +praise, he would return continually to the case of the rejected pig. ‘I +like give present all ’e same you,’ he complained; ‘only got pig: you no +take him!’ He was a poor man; he had no choice of gifts; he had only a +pig, he repeated; and I had refused it. I have rarely been more wretched +than to see him sitting there, so old, so grey, so poor, so hardly +fortuned, of so rueful a countenance, and to appreciate, with growing +keenness, the affront which I had so innocently dealt him; but it was one +of those cases in which speech is vain. + +Tari’s son was smiling and inert; his daughter-in-law, a girl of sixteen, +pretty, gentle, and grave, more intelligent than most Anaho women, and +with a fair share of French; his grandchild, a mite of a creature at the +breast. I went up the den one day when Tari was from home, and found the +son making a cotton sack, and madame suckling mademoiselle. When I had +sat down with them on the floor, the girl began to question me about +England; which I tried to describe, piling the pan and the cocoa shells +one upon another to represent the houses, and explaining, as best I was +able, and by word and gesture, the over-population, the hunger, and the +perpetual toil. ‘_Pas de cocotiers_? _pas do popoi_?’ she asked. I told +her it was too cold, and went through an elaborate performance, shutting +out draughts, and crouching over an imaginary fire, to make sure she +understood. But she understood right well; remarked it must be bad for +the health, and sat a while gravely reflecting on that picture of +unwonted sorrows. I am sure it roused her pity, for it struck in her +another thought always uppermost in the Marquesan bosom; and she began +with a smiling sadness, and looking on me out of melancholy eyes, to +lament the decease of her own people. ‘_Ici pas de Kanaques_,’ said she; +and taking the baby from her breast, she held it out to me with both her +hands. ‘_Tenez_—a little baby like this; then dead. All the Kanaques +die. Then no more.’ The smile, and this instancing by the girl-mother +of her own tiny flesh and blood, affected me strangely; they spoke of so +tranquil a despair. Meanwhile the husband smilingly made his sack; and +the unconscious babe struggled to reach a pot of raspberry jam, +friendship’s offering, which I had just brought up the den; and in a +perspective of centuries I saw their case as ours, death coming in like a +tide, and the day already numbered when there should be no more Beretani, +and no more of any race whatever, and (what oddly touched me) no more +literary works and no more readers. + + + +CHAPTER IV—DEATH + + +The thought of death, I have said, is uppermost in the mind of the +Marquesan. It would be strange if it were otherwise. The race is +perhaps the handsomest extant. Six feet is about the middle height of +males; they are strongly muscled, free from fat, swift in action, +graceful in repose; and the women, though fatter and duller, are still +comely animals. To judge by the eye, there is no race more viable; and +yet death reaps them with both hands. When Bishop Dordillon first came +to Tai-o-hae, he reckoned the inhabitants at many thousands; he was but +newly dead, and in the same bay Stanislao Moanatini counted on his +fingers eight residual natives. Or take the valley of Hapaa, known to +readers of Herman Melville under the grotesque misspelling of Hapar. +There are but two writers who have touched the South Seas with any +genius, both Americans: Melville and Charles Warren Stoddard; and at the +christening of the first and greatest, some influential fairy must have +been neglected: ‘He shall be able to see,’ ‘He shall be able to tell,’ +‘He shall be able to charm,’ said the friendly godmothers; ‘But he shall +not be able to hear,’ exclaimed the last. The tribe of Hapaa is said to +have numbered some four hundred, when the small-pox came and reduced them +by one-fourth. Six months later a woman developed tubercular +consumption; the disease spread like a fire about the valley, and in less +than a year two survivors, a man and a woman, fled from that new-created +solitude. A similar Adam and Eve may some day wither among new races, +the tragic residue of Britain. When I first heard this story the date +staggered me; but I am now inclined to think it possible. Early in the +year of my visit, for example, or late the year before, a first case of +phthisis appeared in a household of seventeen persons, and by the month +of August, when the tale was told me, one soul survived, and that was a +boy who had been absent at his schooling. And depopulation works both +ways, the doors of death being set wide open, and the door of birth +almost closed. Thus, in the half-year ending July 1888 there were twelve +deaths and but one birth in the district of the Hatiheu. Seven or eight +more deaths were to be looked for in the ordinary course; and M. Aussel, +the observant gendarme, knew of but one likely birth. At this rate it is +no matter of surprise if the population in that part should have declined +in forty years from six thousand to less than four hundred; which are, +once more on the authority of M. Aussel, the estimated figures. And the +rate of decline must have even accelerated towards the end. + +A good way to appreciate the depopulation is to go by land from Anaho to +Hatiheu on the adjacent bay. The road is good travelling, but cruelly +steep. We seemed scarce to have passed the deserted house which stands +highest in Anaho before we were looking dizzily down upon its roof; the +_Casco_ well out in the bay, and rolling for a wager, shrank visibly; and +presently through the gap of Tari’s isthmus, Ua-huna was seen to hang +cloudlike on the horizon. Over the summit, where the wind blew really +chill, and whistled in the reed-like grass, and tossed the grassy fell of +the pandanus, we stepped suddenly, as through a door, into the next vale +and bay of Hatiheu. A bowl of mountains encloses it upon three sides. +On the fourth this rampart has been bombarded into ruins, runs down to +seaward in imminent and shattered crags, and presents the one practicable +breach of the blue bay. The interior of this vessel is crowded with +lovely and valuable trees,—orange, breadfruit, mummy-apple, cocoa, the +island chestnut, and for weeds, the pine and the banana. Four perennial +streams water and keep it green; and along the dell, first of one, then +of another, of these, the road, for a considerable distance, descends +into this fortunate valley. The song of the waters and the familiar +disarray of boulders gave us a strong sense of home, which the exotic +foliage, the daft-like growth of the pandanus, the buttressed trunk of +the banyan, the black pigs galloping in the bush, and the architecture of +the native houses dissipated ere it could be enjoyed. + +The houses on the Hatiheu side begin high up; higher yet, the more +melancholy spectacle of empty paepaes. When a native habitation is +deserted, the superstructure—pandanus thatch, wattle, unstable tropical +timber—speedily rots, and is speedily scattered by the wind. Only the +stones of the terrace endure; nor can any ruin, cairn, or standing stone, +or vitrified fort present a more stern appearance of antiquity. We must +have passed from six to eight of these now houseless platforms. On the +main road of the island, where it crosses the valley of Taipi, Mr. +Osbourne tells me they are to be reckoned by the dozen; and as the roads +have been made long posterior to their erection, perhaps to their +desertion, and must simply be regarded as lines drawn at random through +the bush, the forest on either hand must be equally filled with these +survivals: the gravestones of whole families. Such ruins are tapu {29} +in the strictest sense; no native must approach them; they have become +outposts of the kingdom of the grave. It might appear a natural and +pious custom in the hundreds who are left, the rearguard of perished +thousands, that their feet should leave untrod these hearthstones of +their fathers. I believe, in fact, the custom rests on different and +more grim conceptions. But the house, the grave, and even the body of +the dead, have been always particularly honoured by Marquesans. Until +recently the corpse was sometimes kept in the family and daily oiled and +sunned, until, by gradual and revolting stages, it dried into a kind of +mummy. Offerings are still laid upon the grave. In Traitor’s Bay, Mr. +Osbourne saw a man buy a looking-glass to lay upon his son’s. And the +sentiment against the desecration of tombs, thoughtlessly ruffled in the +laying down of the new roads, is a chief ingredient in the native hatred +for the French. + +The Marquesan beholds with dismay the approaching extinction of his race. +The thought of death sits down with him to meat, and rises with him from +his bed; he lives and breathes under a shadow of mortality awful to +support; and he is so inured to the apprehension that he greets the +reality with relief. He does not even seek to support a disappointment; +at an affront, at a breach of one of his fleeting and communistic +love-affairs, he seeks an instant refuge in the grave. Hanging is now +the fashion. I heard of three who had hanged themselves in the west end +of Hiva-oa during the first half of 1888; but though this be a common +form of suicide in other parts of the South Seas, I cannot think it will +continue popular in the Marquesas. Far more suitable to Marquesan +sentiment is the old form of poisoning with the fruit of the eva, which +offers to the native suicide a cruel but deliberate death, and gives time +for those decencies of the last hour, to which he attaches such +remarkable importance. The coffin can thus be at hand, the pigs killed, +the cry of the mourners sounding already through the house; and then it +is, and not before, that the Marquesan is conscious of achievement, his +life all rounded in, his robes (like Cæsar’s) adjusted for the final act. +Praise not any man till he is dead, said the ancients; envy not any man +till you hear the mourners, might be the Marquesan parody. The coffin, +though of late introduction, strangely engages their attention. It is to +the mature Marquesan what a watch is to the European schoolboy. For ten +years Queen Vaekehu had dunned the fathers; at last, but the other day, +they let her have her will, gave her her coffin, and the woman’s soul is +at rest. I was told a droll instance of the force of this preoccupation. +The Polynesians are subject to a disease seemingly rather of the will +than of the body. I was told the Tahitians have a word for it, +_erimatua_, but cannot find it in my dictionary. A gendarme, M. Nouveau, +has seen men beginning to succumb to this insubstantial malady, has +routed them from their houses, turned them on to do their trick upon the +roads, and in two days has seen them cured. But this other remedy is +more original: a Marquesan, dying of this discouragement—perhaps I should +rather say this acquiescence—has been known, at the fulfilment of his +crowning wish, on the mere sight of that desired hermitage, his coffin—to +revive, recover, shake off the hand of death, and be restored for years +to his occupations—carving tikis (idols), let us say, or braiding old +men’s beards. From all this it may be conceived how easily they meet +death when it approaches naturally. I heard one example, grim and +picturesque. In the time of the small-pox in Hapaa, an old man was +seized with the disease; he had no thought of recovery; had his grave dug +by a wayside, and lived in it for near a fortnight, eating, drinking, and +smoking with the passers-by, talking mostly of his end, and equally +unconcerned for himself and careless of the friends whom he infected. + +This proneness to suicide, and loose seat in life, is not peculiar to the +Marquesan. What is peculiar is the widespread depression and acceptance +of the national end. Pleasures are neglected, the dance languishes, the +songs are forgotten. It is true that some, and perhaps too many, of them +are proscribed; but many remain, if there were spirit to support or to +revive them. At the last feast of the Bastille, Stanislao Moanatini shed +tears when he beheld the inanimate performance of the dancers. When the +people sang for us in Anaho, they must apologise for the smallness of +their repertory. They were only young folk present, they said, and it +was only the old that knew the songs. The whole body of Marquesan poetry +and music was being suffered to die out with a single dispirited +generation. The full import is apparent only to one acquainted with +other Polynesian races; who knows how the Samoan coins a fresh song for +every trifling incident, or who has heard (on Penrhyn, for instance) a +band of little stripling maids from eight to twelve keep up their +minstrelsy for hours upon a stretch, one song following another without +pause. In like manner, the Marquesan, never industrious, begins now to +cease altogether from production. The exports of the group decline out +of all proportion even with the death-rate of the islanders. ‘The coral +waxes, the palm grows, and man departs,’ says the Marquesan; and he folds +his hands. And surely this is nature. Fond as it may appear, we labour +and refrain, not for the rewards of any single life, but with a timid eye +upon the lives and memories of our successors; and where no one is to +succeed, of his own family, or his own tongue, I doubt whether +Rothschilds would make money or Cato practise virtue. It is natural, +also, that a temporary stimulus should sometimes rouse the Marquesan from +his lethargy. Over all the landward shore of Anaho cotton runs like a +wild weed; man or woman, whoever comes to pick it, may earn a dollar in +the day; yet when we arrived, the trader’s store-house was entirely +empty; and before we left it was near full. So long as the circus was +there, so long as the _Casco_ was yet anchored in the bay, it behoved +every one to make his visit; and to this end every woman must have a new +dress, and every man a shirt and trousers. Never before, in Mr. Regler’s +experience, had they displayed so much activity. + +In their despondency there is an element of dread. The fear of ghosts +and of the dark is very deeply written in the mind of the Polynesian; not +least of the Marquesan. Poor Taipi, the chief of Anaho, was condemned to +ride to Hatiheu on a moonless night. He borrowed a lantern, sat a long +while nerving himself for the adventure, and when he at last departed, +wrung the _Cascos_ by the hand as for a final separation. Certain +presences, called Vehinehae, frequent and make terrible the nocturnal +roadside; I was told by one they were like so much mist, and as the +traveller walked into them dispersed and dissipated; another described +them as being shaped like men and having eyes like cats; from none could +I obtain the smallest clearness as to what they did, or wherefore they +were dreaded. We may be sure at least they represent the dead; for the +dead, in the minds of the islanders, are all-pervasive. ‘When a native +says that he is a man,’ writes Dr. Codrington, ‘he means that he is a man +and not a ghost; not that he is a man and not a beast. The intelligent +agents of this world are to his mind the men who are alive, and the +ghosts the men who are dead.’ Dr. Codrington speaks of Melanesia; from +what I have learned his words are equally true of the Polynesian. And +yet more. Among cannibal Polynesians a dreadful suspicion rests +generally on the dead; and the Marquesans, the greatest cannibals of all, +are scarce likely to be free from similar beliefs. I hazard the guess +that the Vehinehae are the hungry spirits of the dead, continuing their +life’s business of the cannibal ambuscade, and lying everywhere unseen, +and eager to devour the living. Another superstition I picked up through +the troubled medium of Tari Coffin’s English. The dead, he told me, came +and danced by night around the paepae of their former family; the family +were thereupon overcome by some emotion (but whether of pious sorrow or +of fear I could not gather), and must ‘make a feast,’ of which fish, pig, +and popoi were indispensable ingredients. So far this is clear enough. +But here Tari went on to instance the new house of Toma and the +house-warming feast which was just then in preparation as instances in +point. Dare we indeed string them together, and add the case of the +deserted ruin, as though the dead continually besieged the paepaes of the +living: were kept at arm’s-length, even from the first foundation, only +by propitiatory feasts, and, so soon as the fire of life went out upon +the hearth, swarmed back into possession of their ancient seat? + +I speak by guess of these Marquesan superstitions. On the cannibal ghost +I shall return elsewhere with certainty. And it is enough, for the +present purpose, to remark that the men of the Marquesas, from whatever +reason, fear and shrink from the presence of ghosts. Conceive how this +must tell upon the nerves in islands where the number of the dead already +so far exceeds that of the living, and the dead multiply and the living +dwindle at so swift a rate. Conceive how the remnant huddles about the +embers of the fire of life; even as old Red Indians, deserted on the +march and in the snow, the kindly tribe all gone, the last flame +expiring, and the night around populous with wolves. + + + +CHAPTER V—DEPOPULATION + + +Over the whole extent of the South Seas, from one tropic to another, we +find traces of a bygone state of over-population, when the resources of +even a tropical soil were taxed, and even the improvident Polynesian +trembled for the future. We may accept some of the ideas of Mr. Darwin’s +theory of coral islands, and suppose a rise of the sea, or the subsidence +of some former continental area, to have driven into the tops of the +mountains multitudes of refugees. Or we may suppose, more soberly, a +people of sea-rovers, emigrants from a crowded country, to strike upon +and settle island after island, and as time went on to multiply +exceedingly in their new seats. In either case the end must be the same; +soon or late it must grow apparent that the crew are too numerous, and +that famine is at hand. The Polynesians met this emergent danger with +various expedients of activity and prevention. A way was found to +preserve breadfruit by packing it in artificial pits; pits forty feet in +depth and of proportionate bore are still to be seen, I am told, in the +Marquesas; and yet even these were insufficient for the teeming people, +and the annals of the past are gloomy with famine and cannibalism. Among +the Hawaiians—a hardier people, in a more exacting climate—agriculture +was carried far; the land was irrigated with canals; and the fish-ponds +of Molokai prove the number and diligence of the old inhabitants. +Meanwhile, over all the island world, abortion and infanticide prevailed. +On coral atolls, where the danger was most plainly obvious, these were +enforced by law and sanctioned by punishment. On Vaitupu, in the +Ellices, only two children were allowed to a couple; on Nukufetau, but +one. On the latter the punishment was by fine; and it is related that +the fine was sometimes paid, and the child spared. + +This is characteristic. For no people in the world are so fond or so +long-suffering with children—children make the mirth and the adornment of +their homes, serving them for playthings and for picture-galleries. +‘Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them.’ The stray bastard +is contended for by rival families; and the natural and the adopted +children play and grow up together undistinguished. The spoiling, and I +may almost say the deification, of the child, is nowhere carried so far +as in the eastern islands; and furthest, according to my opportunities of +observation, in the Paumotu group, the so-called Low or Dangerous +Archipelago. I have seen a Paumotuan native turn from me with +embarrassment and disaffection because I suggested that a brat would be +the better for a beating. It is a daily matter in some eastern islands +to see a child strike or even stone its mother, and the mother, so far +from punishing, scarce ventures to resist. In some, when his child was +born, a chief was superseded and resigned his name; as though, like a +drone, he had then fulfilled the occasion of his being. And in some the +lightest words of children had the weight of oracles. Only the other +day, in the Marquesas, if a child conceived a distaste to any stranger, I +am assured the stranger would be slain. And I shall have to tell in +another place an instance of the opposite: how a child in Manihiki having +taken a fancy to myself, her adoptive parents at once accepted the +situation and loaded me with gifts. + +With such sentiments the necessity for child-destruction would not fail +to clash, and I believe we find the trace of divided feeling in the +Tahitian brotherhood of Oro. At a certain date a new god was added to +the Society-Island Olympus, or an old one refurbished and made popular. +Oro was his name, and he may be compared with the Bacchus of the +ancients. His zealots sailed from bay to bay, and from island to island; +they were everywhere received with feasting; wore fine clothes; sang, +danced, acted; gave exhibitions of dexterity and strength; and were the +artists, the acrobats, the bards, and the harlots of the group. Their +life was public and epicurean; their initiation a mystery; and the +highest in the land aspired to join the brotherhood. If a couple stood +next in line to a high-chieftaincy, they were suffered, on grounds of +policy, to spare one child; all other children, who had a father or a +mother in the company of Oro, stood condemned from the moment of +conception. A freemasonry, an agnostic sect, a company of artists, its +members all under oath to spread unchastity, and all forbidden to leave +offspring—I do not know how it may appear to others, but to me the design +seems obvious. Famine menacing the islands, and the needful remedy +repulsive, it was recommended to the native mind by these trappings of +mystery, pleasure, and parade. This is the more probable, and the +secret, serious purpose of the institution appears the more plainly, if +it be true that, after a certain period of life, the obligation of the +votary was changed; at first, bound to be profligate: afterwards, +expected to be chaste. + +Here, then, we have one side of the case. Man-eating among kindly men, +child-murder among child-lovers, industry in a race the most idle, +invention in a race the least progressive, this grim, pagan +salvation-army of the brotherhood of Oro, the report of early voyagers, +the widespread vestiges of former habitation, and the universal tradition +of the islands, all point to the same fact of former crowding and alarm. +And to-day we are face to face with the reverse. To-day in the +Marquesas, in the Eight Islands of Hawaii, in Mangareva, in Easter +Island, we find the same race perishing like flies. Why this change? +Or, grant that the coming of the whites, the change of habits, and the +introduction of new maladies and vices, fully explain the depopulation, +why is that depopulation not universal? The population of Tahiti, after +a period of alarming decrease, has again become stationary. I hear of a +similar result among some Maori tribes; in many of the Paumotus a slight +increase is to be observed; and the Samoans are to-day as healthy and at +least as fruitful as before the change. Grant that the Tahitians, the +Maoris, and the Paumotuans have become inured to the new conditions; and +what are we to make of the Samoans, who have never suffered? + +Those who are acquainted only with a single group are apt to be ready +with solutions. Thus I have heard the mortality of the Maoris attributed +to their change of residence—from fortified hill-tops to the low, marshy +vicinity of their plantations. How plausible! And yet the Marquesans +are dying out in the same houses where their fathers multiplied. Or take +opium. The Marquesas and Hawaii are the two groups the most infected +with this vice; the population of the one is the most civilised, that of +the other by far the most barbarous, of Polynesians; and they are two of +those that perish the most rapidly. Here is a strong case against opium. +But let us take unchastity, and we shall find the Marquesas and Hawaii +figuring again upon another count. Thus, Samoans are the most chaste of +Polynesians, and they are to this day entirely fertile; Marquesans are +the most debauched: we have seen how they are perishing; Hawaiians are +notoriously lax, and they begin to be dotted among deserts. So here is a +case stronger still against unchastity; and here also we have a +correction to apply. Whatever the virtues of the Tahitian, neither +friend nor enemy dares call him chaste; and yet he seems to have outlived +the time of danger. One last example: syphilis has been plausibly +credited with much of the sterility. But the Samoans are, by all +accounts, as fruitful as at first; by some accounts more so; and it is +not seriously to be argued that the Samoans have escaped syphilis. + +These examples show how dangerous it is to reason from any particular +cause, or even from many in a single group. I have in my eye an able and +amiable pamphlet by the Rev. S. E. Bishop: ‘Why are the Hawaiians Dying +Out?’ Any one interested in the subject ought to read this tract, which +contains real information; and yet Mr. Bishop’s views would have been +changed by an acquaintance with other groups. Samoa is, for the moment, +the main and the most instructive exception to the rule. The people are +the most chaste and one of the most temperate of island peoples. They +have never been tried and depressed with any grave pestilence. Their +clothing has scarce been tampered with; at the simple and becoming tabard +of the girls, Tartuffe, in many another island, would have cried out; for +the cool, healthy, and modest lava-lava or kilt, Tartuffe has managed in +many another island to substitute stifling and inconvenient trousers. +Lastly, and perhaps chiefly, so far from their amusements having been +curtailed, I think they have been, upon the whole, extended. The +Polynesian falls easily into despondency: bereavement, disappointment, +the fear of novel visitations, the decay or proscription of ancient +pleasures, easily incline him to be sad; and sadness detaches him from +life. The melancholy of the Hawaiian and the emptiness of his new life +are striking; and the remark is yet more apposite to the Marquesas. In +Samoa, on the other hand, perpetual song and dance, perpetual games, +journeys, and pleasures, make an animated and a smiling picture of the +island life. And the Samoans are to-day the gayest and the best +entertained inhabitants of our planet. The importance of this can +scarcely be exaggerated. In a climate and upon a soil where a livelihood +can be had for the stooping, entertainment is a prime necessity. It is +otherwise with us, where life presents us with a daily problem, and there +is a serious interest, and some of the heat of conflict, in the mere +continuing to be. So, in certain atolls, where there is no great gaiety, +but man must bestir himself with some vigour for his daily bread, public +health and the population are maintained; but in the lotos islands, with +the decay of pleasures, life itself decays. It is from this point of +view that we may instance, among other causes of depression, the decay of +war. We have been so long used in Europe to that dreary business of war +on the great scale, trailing epidemics and leaving pestilential corpses +in its train, that we have almost forgotten its original, the most +healthful, if not the most humane, of all field sports—hedge-warfare. +From this, as well as from the rest of his amusements and interests, the +islander, upon a hundred islands, has been recently cut off. And to +this, as well as to so many others, the Samoan still makes good a special +title. + +Upon the whole, the problem seems to me to stand thus:—Where there have +been fewest changes, important or unimportant, salutary or hurtful, there +the race survives. Where there have been most, important or unimportant, +salutary or hurtful, there it perishes. Each change, however small, +augments the sum of new conditions to which the race has to become +inured. There may seem, _a priori_, no comparison between the change +from ‘sour toddy’ to bad gin, and that from the island kilt to a pair of +European trousers. Yet I am far from persuaded that the one is any more +hurtful than the other; and the unaccustomed race will sometimes die of +pin-pricks. We are here face to face with one of the difficulties of the +missionary. In Polynesian islands he easily obtains pre-eminent +authority; the king becomes his _mairedupalais_; he can proscribe, he can +command; and the temptation is ever towards too much. Thus (by all +accounts) the Catholics in Mangareva, and thus (to my own knowledge) the +Protestants in Hawaii, have rendered life in a more or less degree +unliveable to their converts. And the mild, uncomplaining creatures +(like children in a prison) yawn and await death. It is easy to blame +the missionary. But it is his business to make changes. It is surely +his business, for example, to prevent war; and yet I have instanced war +itself as one of the elements of health. On the other hand, it were, +perhaps, easy for the missionary to proceed more gently, and to regard +every change as an affair of weight. I take the average missionary; I am +sure I do him no more than justice when I suppose that he would hesitate +to bombard a village, even in order to convert an archipelago. +Experience begins to show us (at least in Polynesian islands) that change +of habit is bloodier than a bombardment. + +There is one point, ere I have done, where I may go to meet criticism. I +have said nothing of faulty hygiene, bathing during fevers, mistaken +treatment of children, native doctoring, or abortion—all causes +frequently adduced. And I have said nothing of them because they are +conditions common to both epochs, and even more efficient in the past +than in the present. Was it not the same with unchastity, it may be +asked? Was not the Polynesian always unchaste? Doubtless he was so +always: doubtless he is more so since the coming of his remarkably chaste +visitors from Europe. Take the Hawaiian account of Cook: I have no doubt +it is entirely fair. Take Krusenstern’s candid, almost innocent, +description of a Russian man-of-war at the Marquesas; consider the +disgraceful history of missions in Hawaii itself, where (in the war of +lust) the American missionaries were once shelled by an English +adventurer, and once raided and mishandled by the crew of an American +warship; add the practice of whaling fleets to call at the Marquesas, and +carry off a complement of women for the cruise; consider, besides, how +the whites were at first regarded in the light of demi-gods, as appears +plainly in the reception of Cook upon Hawaii; and again, in the story of +the discovery of Tutuila, when the really decent women of Samoa +prostituted themselves in public to the French; and bear in mind how it +was the custom of the adventurers, and we may almost say the business of +the missionaries, to deride and infract even the most salutary tapus. +Here we see every engine of dissolution directed at once against a virtue +never and nowhere very strong or popular; and the result, even in the +most degraded islands, has been further degradation. Mr. Lawes, the +missionary of Savage Island, told me the standard of female chastity had +declined there since the coming of the whites. In heathen time, if a +girl gave birth to a bastard, her father or brother would dash the infant +down the cliffs; and to-day the scandal would be small. Or take the +Marquesas. Stanislao Moanatini told me that in his own recollection, the +young were strictly guarded; they were not suffered so much as to look +upon one another in the street, but passed (so my informant put it) like +dogs; and the other day the whole school-children of Nuka-hiva and Ua-pu +escaped in a body to the woods, and lived there for a fortnight in +promiscuous liberty. Readers of travels may perhaps exclaim at my +authority, and declare themselves better informed. I should prefer the +statement of an intelligent native like Stanislao (even if it stood +alone, which it is far from doing) to the report of the most honest +traveller. A ship of war comes to a haven, anchors, lands a party, +receives and returns a visit, and the captain writes a chapter on the +manners of the island. It is not considered what class is mostly seen. +Yet we should not be pleased if a Lascar foremast hand were to judge +England by the ladies who parade Ratcliffe Highway, and the gentlemen who +share with them their hire. Stanislao’s opinion of a decay of virtue +even in these unvirtuous islands has been supported to me by others; his +very example, the progress of dissolution amongst the young, is adduced +by Mr. Bishop in Hawaii. And so far as Marquesans are concerned, we +might have hazarded a guess of some decline in manners. I do not think +that any race could ever have prospered or multiplied with such as now +obtain; I am sure they would have been never at the pains to count +paternal kinship. It is not possible to give details; suffice it that +their manners appear to be imitated from the dreams of ignorant and +vicious children, and their debauches persevered in until energy, reason, +and almost life itself are in abeyance. + + + +CHAPTER VI—CHIEFS AND TAPUS + + +We used to admire exceedingly the bland and gallant manners of the chief +called Taipi-Kikino. An elegant guest at table, skilled in the use of +knife and fork, a brave figure when he shouldered a gun and started for +the woods after wild chickens, always serviceable, always ingratiating +and gay, I would sometimes wonder where he found his cheerfulness. He +had enough to sober him, I thought, in his official budget. His +expenses—for he was always seen attired in virgin white—must have by far +exceeded his income of six dollars in the year, or say two shillings a +month. And he was himself a man of no substance; his house the poorest +in the village. It was currently supposed that his elder brother, +Kauanui, must have helped him out. But how comes it that the elder +brother should succeed to the family estate, and be a wealthy commoner, +and the younger be a poor man, and yet rule as chief in Anaho? That the +one should be wealthy, and the other almost indigent is probably to be +explained by some adoption; for comparatively few children are brought up +in the house or succeed to the estates of their natural begetters. That +the one should be chief instead of the other must be explained (in a very +Irish fashion) on the ground that neither of them is a chief at all. + +Since the return and the wars of the French, many chiefs have been +deposed, and many so-called chiefs appointed. We have seen, in the same +house, one such upstart drinking in the company of two such extruded +island Bourbons, men, whose word a few years ago was life and death, now +sunk to be peasants like their neighbours. So when the French overthrew +hereditary tyrants, dubbed the commons of the Marquesas freeborn citizens +of the republic, and endowed them with a vote for a _conseiller-général_ +at Tahiti, they probably conceived themselves upon the path to +popularity; and so far from that, they were revolting public sentiment. +The deposition of the chiefs was perhaps sometimes needful; the +appointment of others may have been needful also; it was at least a +delicate business. The Government of George II. exiled many Highland +magnates. It never occurred to them to manufacture substitutes; and if +the French have been more bold, we have yet to see with what success. + +Our chief at Anaho was always called, he always called himself, +Taipi-Kikino; and yet that was not his name, but only the wand of his +false position. As soon as he was appointed chief, his name—which +signified, if I remember exactly, _Prince born among flowers_—fell in +abeyance, and he was dubbed instead by the expressive byword, +Taipi-Kikino—_Highwater man-of-no-account_—or, Englishing more boldly, +_Beggar on horseback_—a witty and a wicked cut. A nickname in Polynesia +destroys almost the memory of the original name. To-day, if we were +Polynesians, Gladstone would be no more heard of. We should speak of and +address our Nestor as the Grand Old Man, and it is so that himself would +sign his correspondence. Not the prevalence, then, but the significancy +of the nickname is to be noted here. The new authority began with small +prestige. Taipi has now been some time in office; from all I saw he +seemed a person very fit. He is not the least unpopular, and yet his +power is nothing. He is a chief to the French, and goes to breakfast +with the Resident; but for any practical end of chieftaincy a rag doll +were equally efficient. + +We had been but three days in Anaho when we received the visit of the +chief of Hatiheu, a man of weight and fame, late leader of a war upon the +French, late prisoner in Tahiti, and the last eater of long-pig in +Nuka-hiva. Not many years have elapsed since he was seen striding on the +beach of Anaho, a dead man’s arm across his shoulder. ‘So does Kooamua +to his enemies!’ he roared to the passers-by, and took a bite from the +raw flesh. And now behold this gentleman, very wisely replaced in office +by the French, paying us a morning visit in European clothes. He was the +man of the most character we had yet seen: his manners genial and +decisive, his person tall, his face rugged, astute, formidable, and with +a certain similarity to Mr. Gladstone’s—only for the brownness of the +skin, and the high-chief’s tattooing, all one side and much of the other +being of an even blue. Further acquaintance increased our opinion of his +sense. He viewed the _Casco_ in a manner then quite new to us, examining +her lines and the running of the gear; to a piece of knitting on which +one of the party was engaged, he must have devoted ten minutes’ patient +study; nor did he desist before he had divined the principles; and he was +interested even to excitement by a type-writer, which he learned to work. +When he departed he carried away with him a list of his family, with his +own name printed by his own hand at the bottom. I should add that he was +plainly much of a humorist, and not a little of a humbug. He told us, +for instance, that he was a person of exact sobriety; such being the +obligation of his high estate: the commons might be sots, but the chief +could not stoop so low. And not many days after he was to be observed in +a state of smiling and lop-sided imbecility, the _Casco_ ribbon upside +down on his dishonoured hat. + +But his business that morning in Anaho is what concerns us here. The +devil-fish, it seems, were growing scarce upon the reef; it was judged +fit to interpose what we should call a close season; for that end, in +Polynesia, a tapu (vulgarly spelt ‘taboo’) has to be declared, and who +was to declare it? Taipi might; he ought; it was a chief part of his +duty; but would any one regard the inhibition of a Beggar on Horse-back? +He might plant palm branches: it did not in the least follow that the +spot was sacred. He might recite the spell: it was shrewdly supposed the +spirits would not hearken. And so the old, legitimate cannibal must ride +over the mountains to do it for him; and the respectable official in +white clothes could but look on and envy. At about the same time, though +in a different manner, Kooamua established a forest law. It was observed +the cocoa-palms were suffering, for the plucking of green nuts +impoverishes and at last endangers the tree. Now Kooamua could tapu the +reef, which was public property, but he could not tapu other people’s +palms; and the expedient adopted was interesting. He tapu’d his own +trees, and his example was imitated over all Hatiheu and Anaho. I fear +Taipi might have tapu’d all that he possessed and found none to follow +him. So much for the esteem in which the dignity of an appointed chief +is held by others; a single circumstance will show what he thinks of it +himself. I never met one, but he took an early opportunity to explain +his situation. True, he was only an appointed chief when I beheld him; +but somewhere else, perhaps upon some other isle, he was a chieftain by +descent: upon which ground, he asked me (so to say it) to excuse his +mushroom honours. + +It will be observed with surprise that both these tapus are for +thoroughly sensible ends. With surprise, I say, because the nature of +that institution is much misunderstood in Europe. It is taken usually in +the sense of a meaningless or wanton prohibition, such as that which +to-day prevents women in some countries from smoking, or yesterday +prevented any one in Scotland from taking a walk on Sunday. The error is +no less natural than it is unjust. The Polynesians have not been trained +in the bracing, practical thought of ancient Rome; with them the idea of +law has not been disengaged from that of morals or propriety; so that +tapu has to cover the whole field, and implies indifferently that an act +is criminal, immoral, against sound public policy, unbecoming or (as we +say) ‘not in good form.’ Many tapus were in consequence absurd enough, +such as those which deleted words out of the language, and particularly +those which related to women. Tapu encircled women upon all hands. Many +things were forbidden to men; to women we may say that few were +permitted. They must not sit on the paepae; they must not go up to it by +the stair; they must not eat pork; they must not approach a boat; they +must not cook at a fire which any male had kindled. The other day, after +the roads were made, it was observed the women plunged along margin +through the bush, and when they came to a bridge waded through the water: +roads and bridges were the work of men’s hands, and tapu for the foot of +women. Even a man’s saddle, if the man be native, is a thing no +self-respecting lady dares to use. Thus on the Anaho side of the island, +only two white men, Mr. Regler and the gendarme, M. Aussel, possess +saddles; and when a woman has a journey to make she must borrow from one +or other. It will be noticed that these prohibitions tend, most of them, +to an increased reserve between the sexes. Regard for female chastity is +the usual excuse for these disabilities that men delight to lay upon +their wives and mothers. Here the regard is absent; and behold the women +still bound hand and foot with meaningless proprieties! The women +themselves, who are survivors of the old regimen, admit that in those +days life was not worth living. And yet even then there were exceptions. +There were female chiefs and (I am assured) priestesses besides; nice +customs curtseyed to great dames, and in the most sacred enclosure of a +High Place, Father Siméon Delmar was shown a stone, and told it was the +throne of some well-descended lady. How exactly parallel is this with +European practice, when princesses were suffered to penetrate the +strictest cloister, and women could rule over a land in which they were +denied the control of their own children. + +But the tapu is more often the instrument of wise and needful +restrictions. We have seen it as the organ of paternal government. It +serves besides to enforce, in the rare case of some one wishing to +enforce them, rights of private property. Thus a man, weary of the +coming and going of Marquesan visitors, tapus his door; and to this day +you may see the palm-branch signal, even as our great-grandfathers saw +the peeled wand before a Highland inn. Or take another case. Anaho is +known as ‘the country without popoi.’ The word popoi serves in different +islands to indicate the main food of the people: thus, in Hawaii, it +implies a preparation of taro; in the Marquesas, of breadfruit. And a +Marquesan does not readily conceive life possible without his favourite +diet. A few years ago a drought killed the breadfruit trees and the +bananas in the district of Anaho; and from this calamity, and the +open-handed customs of the island, a singular state of things arose. +Well-watered Hatiheu had escaped the drought; every householder of Anaho +accordingly crossed the pass, chose some one in Hatiheu, ‘gave him his +name’—an onerous gift, but one not to be rejected—and from this +improvised relative proceeded to draw his supplies, for all the world as +though he had paid for them. Hence a continued traffic on the road. +Some stalwart fellow, in a loin-cloth, and glistening with sweat, may be +seen at all hours of the day, a stick across his bare shoulders, tripping +nervously under a double burthen of green fruits. And on the far side of +the gap a dozen stone posts on the wayside in the shadow of a grove mark +the breathing-space of the popoi-carriers. A little back from the beach, +and not half a mile from Anaho, I was the more amazed to find a cluster +of well-doing breadfruits heavy with their harvest. ‘Why do you not take +these?’ I asked. ‘Tapu,’ said Hoka; and I thought to myself (after the +manner of dull travellers) what children and fools these people were to +toil over the mountain and despoil innocent neighbours when the staff of +life was thus growing at their door. I was the more in error. In the +general destruction these surviving trees were enough only for the family +of the proprietor, and by the simple expedient of declaring a tapu he +enforced his right. + +The sanction of the tapu is superstitious; and the punishment of +infraction either a wasting or a deadly sickness. A slow disease follows +on the eating of tapu fish, and can only be cured with the bones of the +same fish burned with the due mysteries. The cocoa-nut and breadfruit +tapu works more swiftly. Suppose you have eaten tapu fruit at the +evening meal, at night your sleep will be uneasy; in the morning, +swelling and a dark discoloration will have attacked your neck, whence +they spread upward to the face; and in two days, unless the cure be +interjected, you must die. This cure is prepared from the rubbed leaves +of the tree from which the patient stole; so that he cannot be saved +without confessing to the Tahuku the person whom he wronged. In the +experience of my informant, almost no tapu had been put in use, except +the two described: he had thus no opportunity to learn the nature and +operation of the others; and, as the art of making them was jealously +guarded amongst the old men, he believed the mystery would soon die out. +I should add that he was no Marquesan, but a Chinaman, a resident in the +group from boyhood, and a reverent believer in the spells which he +described. White men, amongst whom Ah Fu included himself, were exempt; +but he had a tale of a Tahitian woman, who had come to the Marquesas, +eaten tapu fish, and, although uninformed of her offence and danger, had +been afflicted and cured exactly like a native. + +Doubtless the belief is strong; doubtless, with this weakly and fanciful +race, it is in many cases strong enough to kill; it should be strong +indeed in those who tapu their trees secretly, so that they may detect a +depredator by his sickness. Or, perhaps, we should understand the idea +of the hidden tapu otherwise, as a politic device to spread uneasiness +and extort confessions: so that, when a man is ailing, he shall ransack +his brain for any possible offence, and send at once for any proprietor +whose rights he has invaded. ‘Had you hidden a tapu?’ we may conceive +him asking; and I cannot imagine the proprietor gainsaying it; and this +is perhaps the strangest feature of the system—that it should be regarded +from without with such a mental and implicit awe, and, when examined from +within, should present so many apparent evidences of design. + +We read in Dr. Campbell’s _Poenamo_ of a New Zealand girl, who was +foolishly told that she had eaten a tapu yam, and who instantly sickened, +and died in the two days of simple terror. The period is the same as in +the Marquesas; doubtless the symptoms were so too. How singular to +consider that a superstition of such sway is possibly a manufactured +article; and that, even if it were not originally invented, its details +have plainly been arranged by the authorities of some Polynesian Scotland +Yard. Fitly enough, the belief is to-day—and was probably always—far +from universal. Hell at home is a strong deterrent with some; a passing +thought with others; with others, again, a theme of public mockery, not +always well assured; and so in the Marquesas with the tapu. Mr. Regler +has seen the two extremes of scepticism and implicit fear. In the tapu +grove he found one fellow stealing breadfruit, cheerful and impudent as a +street arab; and it was only on a menace of exposure that he showed +himself the least discountenanced. The other case was opposed in every +point. Mr. Regler asked a native to accompany him upon a voyage; the man +went gladly enough, but suddenly perceiving a dead tapu fish in the +bottom of the boat, leaped back with a scream; nor could the promise of a +dollar prevail upon him to advance. + +The Marquesan, it will be observed, adheres to the old idea of the local +circumscription of beliefs and duties. Not only are the whites exempt +from consequences; but their transgressions seem to be viewed without +horror. It was Mr. Regler who had killed the fish; yet the devout native +was not shocked at Mr. Regler—only refused to join him in his boat. A +white is a white: the servant (so to speak) of other and more liberal +gods; and not to be blamed if he profit by his liberty. The Jews were +perhaps the first to interrupt this ancient comity of faiths; and the +Jewish virus is still strong in Christianity. All the world must respect +our tapus, or we gnash our teeth. + + + +CHAPTER VII—HATIHEU + + +The bays of Anaho and Hatiheu are divided at their roots by the +knife-edge of a single hill—the pass so often mentioned; but this isthmus +expands to the seaward in a considerable peninsula: very bare and grassy; +haunted by sheep and, at night and morning, by the piercing cries of the +shepherds; wandered over by a few wild goats; and on its sea-front +indented with long, clamorous caves, and faced with cliffs of the colour +and ruinous outline of an old peat-stack. In one of these echoing and +sunless gullies we saw, clustered like sea-birds on a splashing ledge, +shrill as sea-birds in their salutation to the passing boat, a group of +fisherwomen, stripped to their gaudy under-clothes. (The clash of the +surf and the thin female voices echo in my memory.) We had that day a +native crew and steersman, Kauanui; it was our first experience of +Polynesian seamanship, which consists in hugging every point of land. +There is no thought in this of saving time, for they will pull a long way +in to skirt a point that is embayed. It seems that, as they can never +get their houses near enough the surf upon the one side, so they can +never get their boats near enough upon the other. The practice in bold +water is not so dangerous as it looks—the reflex from the rocks sending +the boat off. Near beaches with a heavy run of sea, I continue to think +it very hazardous, and find the composure of the natives annoying to +behold. We took unmingled pleasure, on the way out, to see so near at +hand the beach and the wonderful colours of the surf. On the way back, +when the sea had risen and was running strong against us, the fineness of +the steersman’s aim grew more embarrassing. As we came abreast of the +sea-front, where the surf broke highest, Kauanui embraced the occasion to +light his pipe, which then made the circuit of the boat—each man taking a +whiff or two, and, ere he passed it on, filling his lungs and cheeks with +smoke. Their faces were all puffed out like apples as we came abreast of +the cliff foot, and the bursting surge fell back into the boat in +showers. At the next point ‘cocanetti’ was the word, and the stroke +borrowed my knife, and desisted from his labours to open nuts. These +untimely indulgences may be compared to the tot of grog served out before +a ship goes into action. + +My purpose in this visit led me first to the boys’ school, for Hatiheu is +the university of the north islands. The hum of the lesson came out to +meet us. Close by the door, where the draught blew coolest, sat the lay +brother; around him, in a packed half-circle, some sixty high-coloured +faces set with staring eyes; and in the background of the barn-like room +benches were to be seen, and blackboards with sums on them in chalk. The +brother rose to greet us, sensibly humble. Thirty years he had been +there, he said, and fingered his white locks as a bashful child pulls out +his pinafore. ‘_Et point de résultats_, _monsieur_, _presque pas de +résultats_.’ He pointed to the scholars: ‘You see, sir, all the youth of +Nuka-hiva and Ua-pu. Between the ages of six and fifteen this is all +that remains; and it is but a few years since we had a hundred and twenty +from Nuka-hiva alone. _Oui_, _monsieur_, _cela se dépérit_.’ Prayers, +and reading and writing, prayers again and arithmetic, and more prayers +to conclude: such appeared to be the dreary nature of the course. For +arithmetic all island people have a natural taste. In Hawaii they make +good progress in mathematics. In one of the villages on Majuro, and +generally in the Marshall group, the whole population sit about the +trader when he is weighing copra, and each on his own slate takes down +the figures and computes the total. The trader, finding them so apt, +introduced fractions, for which they had been taught no rule. At first +they were quite gravelled but ultimately, by sheer hard thinking, +reasoned out the result, and came one after another to assure the trader +he was right. Not many people in Europe could have done the like. The +course at Hatiheu is therefore less dispiriting to Polynesians than a +stranger might have guessed; and yet how bald it is at best! I asked the +brother if he did not tell them stories, and he stared at me; if he did +not teach them history, and he said, ‘O yes, they had a little Scripture +history—from the New Testament’; and repeated his lamentations over the +lack of results. I had not the heart to put more questions; I could but +say it must be very discouraging, and resist the impulse to add that it +seemed also very natural. He looked up—‘My days are far spent,’ he said; +‘heaven awaits me.’ May that heaven forgive me, but I was angry with the +old man and his simple consolation. For think of his opportunity! The +youth, from six to fifteen, are taken from their homes by Government, +centralised at Hatiheu, where they are supported by a weekly tax of food; +and, with the exception of one month in every year, surrendered wholly to +the direction of the priests. Since the escapade already mentioned the +holiday occurs at a different period for the girls and for the boys; so +that a Marquesan brother and sister meet again, after their education is +complete, a pair of strangers. It is a harsh law, and highly unpopular; +but what a power it places in the hands of the instructors, and how +languidly and dully is that power employed by the mission! Too much +concern to make the natives pious, a design in which they all confess +defeat, is, I suppose, the explanation of their miserable system. But +they might see in the girls’ school at Tai-o-hae, under the brisk, +housewifely sisters, a different picture of efficiency, and a scene of +neatness, airiness, and spirited and mirthful occupation that should +shame them into cheerier methods. The sisters themselves lament their +failure. They complain the annual holiday undoes the whole year’s work; +they complain particularly of the heartless indifference of the girls. +Out of so many pretty and apparently affectionate pupils whom they have +taught and reared, only two have ever returned to pay a visit of +remembrance to their teachers. These, indeed, come regularly, but the +rest, so soon as their school-days are over, disappear into the woods +like captive insects. It is hard to imagine anything more discouraging; +and yet I do not believe these ladies need despair. For a certain +interval they keep the girls alive and innocently busy; and if it be at +all possible to save the race, this would be the means. No such praise +can be given to the boys’ school at Hatiheu. The day is numbered already +for them all; alike for the teacher and the scholars death is girt; he is +afoot upon the march; and in the frequent interval they sit and yawn. +But in life there seems a thread of purpose through the least +significant; the drowsiest endeavour is not lost, and even the school at +Hatiheu may be more useful than it seems. + +Hatiheu is a place of some pretensions. The end of the bay towards Anaho +may be called the civil compound, for it boasts the house of Kooamua, and +close on the beach, under a great tree, that of the gendarme, M. Armand +Aussel, with his garden, his pictures, his books, and his excellent +table, to which strangers are made welcome. No more singular contrast is +possible than between the gendarmerie and the priesthood, who are besides +in smouldering opposition and full of mutual complaints. A priest’s +kitchen in the eastern islands is a depressing spot to see; and many, or +most of them, make no attempt to keep a garden, sparsely subsisting on +their rations. But you will never dine with a gendarme without smacking +your lips; and M. Aussel’s home-made sausage and the salad from his +garden are unforgotten delicacies. Pierre Loti may like to know that he +is M. Aussel’s favourite author, and that his books are read in the fit +scenery of Hatiheu bay. + +The other end is all religious. It is here that an overhanging and +tip-tilted horn, a good sea-mark for Hatiheu, bursts naked from the +verdure of the climbing forest, and breaks down shoreward in steep +taluses and cliffs. From the edge of one of the highest, perhaps seven +hundred or a thousand feet above the beach, a Virgin looks +insignificantly down, like a poor lost doll, forgotten there by a giant +child. This laborious symbol of the Catholics is always strange to +Protestants; we conceive with wonder that men should think it worth while +to toil so many days, and clamber so much about the face of precipices, +for an end that makes us smile; and yet I believe it was the wise Bishop +Dordillon who chose the place, and I know that those who had a hand in +the enterprise look back with pride upon its vanquished dangers. The +boys’ school is a recent importation; it was at first in Tai-o-hae, +beside the girls’; and it was only of late, after their joint escapade, +that the width of the island was interposed between the sexes. But +Hatiheu must have been a place of missionary importance from before. +About midway of the beach no less than three churches stand grouped in a +patch of bananas, intermingled with some pine-apples. Two are of wood: +the original church, now in disuse; and a second that, for some +mysterious reason, has never been used. The new church is of stone, with +twin towers, walls flangeing into buttresses, and sculptured front. The +design itself is good, simple, and shapely; but the character is all in +the detail, where the architect has bloomed into the sculptor. It is +impossible to tell in words of the angels (although they are more like +winged archbishops) that stand guard upon the door, of the cherubs in the +corners, of the scapegoat gargoyles, or the quaint and spirited relief, +where St. Michael (the artist’s patron) makes short work of a protesting +Lucifer. We were never weary of viewing the imagery, so innocent, +sometimes so funny, and yet in the best sense—in the sense of inventive +gusto and expression—so artistic. I know not whether it was more strange +to find a building of such merit in a corner of a barbarous isle, or to +see a building so antique still bright with novelty. The architect, a +French lay brother, still alive and well, and meditating fresh +foundations, must have surely drawn his descent from a master-builder in +the age of the cathedrals; and it was in looking on the church of Hatiheu +that I seemed to perceive the secret charm of mediæval sculpture; that +combination of the childish courage of the amateur, attempting all +things, like the schoolboy on his slate, with the manly perseverance of +the artist who does not know when he is conquered. + +I had always afterwards a strong wish to meet the architect, Brother +Michel; and one day, when I was talking with the Resident in Tai-o-hae +(the chief port of the island), there were shown in to us an old, worn, +purblind, ascetic-looking priest, and a lay brother, a type of all that +is most sound in France, with a broad, clever, honest, humorous +countenance, an eye very large and bright, and a strong and healthy body +inclining to obesity. But that his blouse was black and his face shaven +clean, you might pick such a man to-day, toiling cheerfully in his own +patch of vines, from half a dozen provinces of France; and yet he had +always for me a haunting resemblance to an old kind friend of my boyhood, +whom I name in case any of my readers should share with me that +memory—Dr. Paul, of the West Kirk. Almost at the first word I was sure +it was my architect, and in a moment we were deep in a discussion of +Hatiheu church. Brother Michel spoke always of his labours with a +twinkle of humour, underlying which it was possible to spy a serious +pride, and the change from one to another was often very human and +diverting. ‘_Et vos gargouilles moyen-âge_,’ cried I; ‘_comme elles sont +originates_!’ ‘_N’est-ce pas_? _Elles sont bien drôles_!’ he said, +smiling broadly; and the next moment, with a sudden gravity: ‘_Cependant +il y en a une qui a une patte de cassé_; _il faut que je voie cela_.’ I +asked if he had any model—a point we much discussed. ‘_Non_,’ said he +simply; ‘_c’est une église idéale_.’ The relievo was his favourite +performance, and very justly so. The angels at the door, he owned, he +would like to destroy and replace. ‘_Ils n’ont pas de vie_, _ils +manquent de vie_. _Vous devriez voir mon église à la Dominique_; _j’ai +là une Vierge qui est vraiment gentille_.’ ‘Ah,’ I cried, ‘they told me +you had said you would never build another church, and I wrote in my +journal I could not believe it.’ ‘_Oui_, _j’aimerais bien en fairs une +autre_,’ he confessed, and smiled at the confession. An artist will +understand how much I was attracted by this conversation. There is no +bond so near as a community in that unaffected interest and slightly +shame-faced pride which mark the intelligent man enamoured of an art. He +sees the limitations of his aim, the defects of his practice; he smiles +to be so employed upon the shores of death, yet sees in his own devotion +something worthy. Artists, if they had the same sense of humour with the +Augurs, would smile like them on meeting, but the smile would not be +scornful. + +I had occasion to see much of this excellent man. He sailed with us from +Tai-o-hae to Hiva-oa, a dead beat of ninety miles against a heavy sea. +It was what is called a good passage, and a feather in the _Casco’s_ cap; +but among the most miserable forty hours that any one of us had ever +passed. We were swung and tossed together all that time like shot in a +stage thunder-box. The mate was thrown down and had his head cut open; +the captain was sick on deck; the cook sick in the galley. Of all our +party only two sat down to dinner. I was one. I own that I felt +wretchedly; and I can only say of the other, who professed to feel quite +well, that she fled at an early moment from the table. It was in these +circumstances that we skirted the windward shore of that indescribable +island of Ua-pu; viewing with dizzy eyes the coves, the capes, the +breakers, the climbing forests, and the inaccessible stone needles that +surmount the mountains. The place persists, in a dark corner of our +memories, like a piece of the scenery of nightmares. The end of this +distressful passage, where we were to land our passengers, was in a +similar vein of roughness. The surf ran high on the beach at Taahauku; +the boat broached-to and capsized; and all hands were submerged. Only +the brother himself, who was well used to the experience, skipped ashore, +by some miracle of agility, with scarce a sprinkling. Thenceforward, +during our stay at Hiva-oa, he was our cicerone and patron; introducing +us, taking us excursions, serving us in every way, and making himself +daily more beloved. + +Michel Blanc had been a carpenter by trade; had made money and retired, +supposing his active days quite over; and it was only when he found +idleness dangerous that he placed his capital and acquirements at the +service of the mission. He became their carpenter, mason, architect, and +engineer; added sculpture to his accomplishments, and was famous for his +skill in gardening. He wore an enviable air of having found a port from +life’s contentions and lying there strongly anchored; went about his +business with a jolly simplicity; complained of no lack of +results—perhaps shyly thinking his own statuary result enough; and was +altogether a pattern of the missionary layman. + + + +CHAPTER VIII—THE PORT OF ENTRY + + +The port—the mart, the civil and religious capital of these rude +islands—is called Tai-o-hae, and lies strung along the beach of a +precipitous green bay in Nuka-hiva. It was midwinter when we came +thither, and the weather was sultry, boisterous, and inconstant. Now the +wind blew squally from the land down gaps of splintered precipice; now, +between the sentinel islets of the entry, it came in gusts from seaward. +Heavy and dark clouds impended on the summits; the rain roared and +ceased; the scuppers of the mountain gushed; and the next day we would +see the sides of the amphitheatre bearded with white falls. Along the +beach the town shows a thin file of houses, mostly white, and all +ensconced in the foliage of an avenue of green puraos; a pier gives +access from the sea across the belt of breakers; to the eastward there +stands, on a projecting bushy hill, the old fort which is now the +calaboose, or prison; eastward still, alone in a garden, the Residency +flies the colours of France. Just off Calaboose Hill, the tiny +Government schooner rides almost permanently at anchor, marks eight bells +in the morning (there or thereabout) with the unfurling of her flag, and +salutes the setting sun with the report of a musket. + +Here dwell together, and share the comforts of a club (which may be +enumerated as a billiard-board, absinthe, a map of the world on +Mercator’s projection, and one of the most agreeable verandahs in the +tropics), a handful of whites of varying nationality, mostly French +officials, German and Scottish merchant clerks, and the agents of the +opium monopoly. There are besides three tavern-keepers, the shrewd Scot +who runs the cotton gin-mill, two white ladies, and a sprinkling of +people ‘on the beach’—a South Sea expression for which there is no exact +equivalent. It is a pleasant society, and a hospitable. But one man, +who was often to be seen seated on the logs at the pier-head, merits a +word for the singularity of his history and appearance. Long ago, it +seems, he fell in love with a native lady, a High Chiefess in Ua-pu. +She, on being approached, declared she could never marry a man who was +untattooed; it looked so naked; whereupon, with some greatness of soul, +our hero put himself in the hands of the Tahukus, and, with still +greater, persevered until the process was complete. He had certainly to +bear a great expense, for the Tahuku will not work without reward; and +certainly exquisite pain. Kooamua, high chief as he was, and one of the +old school, was only part tattooed; he could not, he told us with lively +pantomime, endure the torture to an end. Our enamoured countryman was +more resolved; he was tattooed from head to foot in the most approved +methods of the art; and at last presented himself before his mistress a +new man. The fickle fair one could never behold him from that day except +with laughter. For my part, I could never see the man without a kind of +admiration; of him it might be said, if ever of any, that he had loved +not wisely, but too well. + +The Residency stands by itself, Calaboose Hill screening it from the +fringe of town along the further bay. The house is commodious, with wide +verandahs; all day it stands open, back and front, and the trade blows +copiously over its bare floors. On a week-day the garden offers a scene +of most untropical animation, half a dozen convicts toiling there +cheerfully with spade and barrow, and touching hats and smiling to the +visitor like old attached family servants. On Sunday these are gone, and +nothing to be seen but dogs of all ranks and sizes peacefully slumbering +in the shady grounds; for the dogs of Tai-o-hae are very courtly-minded, +and make the seat of Government their promenade and place of siesta. In +front and beyond, a strip of green down loses itself in a low wood of +many species of acacia; and deep in the wood a ruinous wall encloses the +cemetery of the Europeans. English and Scottish sleep there, and +Scandinavians, and French _maîtres de manœuvres_ and _maîtres ouvriers_: +mingling alien dust. Back in the woods, perhaps, the blackbird, or (as +they call him there) the island nightingale, will be singing home +strains; and the ceaseless requiem of the surf hangs on the ear. I have +never seen a resting-place more quiet; but it was a long thought how far +these sleepers had all travelled, and from what diverse homes they had +set forth, to lie here in the end together. + +On the summit of its promontory hill, the calaboose stands all day with +doors and window-shutters open to the trade. On my first visit a dog was +the only guardian visible. He, indeed, rose with an attitude so menacing +that I was glad to lay hands on an old barrel-hoop; and I think the +weapon must have been familiar, for the champion instantly retreated, and +as I wandered round the court and through the building, I could see him, +with a couple of companions, humbly dodging me about the corners. The +prisoners’ dormitory was a spacious, airy room, devoid of any furniture; +its whitewashed walls covered with inscriptions in Marquesan and rude +drawings: one of the pier, not badly done; one of a murder; several of +French soldiers in uniform. There was one legend in French: ‘_Je n’est_’ +(sic) ‘_pas le sou_.’ From this noontide quietude it must not be +supposed the prison was untenanted; the calaboose at Tai-o-hae does a +good business. But some of its occupants were gardening at the +Residency, and the rest were probably at work upon the streets, as free +as our scavengers at home, although not so industrious. On the approach +of evening they would be called in like children from play; and the +harbour-master (who is also the jailer) would go through the form of +locking them up until six the next morning. Should a prisoner have any +call in town, whether of pleasure or affairs, he has but to unhook the +window-shutters; and if he is back again, and the shutter decently +replaced, by the hour of call on the morrow, he may have met the +harbour-master in the avenue, and there will be no complaint, far less +any punishment. But this is not all. The charming French Resident, M. +Delaruelle, carried me one day to the calaboose on an official visit. In +the green court, a very ragged gentleman, his legs deformed with the +island elephantiasis, saluted us smiling. ‘One of our political +prisoners—an insurgent from Raiatea,’ said the Resident; and then to the +jailer: ‘I thought I had ordered him a new pair of trousers.’ Meanwhile +no other convict was to be seen—‘_Eh bien_,’ said the Resident, ‘_où sont +vos prisonniers_?’ ‘_Monsieur le Résident_,’ replied the jailer, +saluting with soldierly formality, ‘_comme c’est jour de fête_, _je les +ai laissé aller à la chasse_.’ They were all upon the mountains hunting +goats! Presently we came to the quarters of the women, likewise +deserted—‘_Où sont vos bonnes femmes_?’ asked the Resident; and the +jailer cheerfully responded: ‘_Je crois_, _Monsieur le Résident_, +_qu’elles sont allées quelquepart faire une visite_.’ It had been the +design of M. Delaruelle, who was much in love with the whimsicalities of +his small realm, to elicit something comical; but not even he expected +anything so perfect as the last. To complete the picture of convict life +in Tai-o-hae, it remains to be added that these criminals draw a salary +as regularly as the President of the Republic. Ten sous a day is their +hire. Thus they have money, food, shelter, clothing, and, I was about to +write, their liberty. The French are certainly a good-natured people, +and make easy masters. They are besides inclined to view the Marquesans +with an eye of humorous indulgence. ‘They are dying, poor devils!’ said +M. Delaruelle: ‘the main thing is to let them die in peace.’ And it was +not only well said, but I believe expressed the general thought. Yet +there is another element to be considered; for these convicts are not +merely useful, they are almost essential to the French existence. With a +people incurably idle, dispirited by what can only be called endemic +pestilence, and inflamed with ill-feeling against their new masters, +crime and convict labour are a godsend to the Government. + +Theft is practically the sole crime. Originally petty pilferers, the men +of Tai-o-hae now begin to force locks and attack strong-boxes. Hundreds +of dollars have been taken at a time; though, with that redeeming +moderation so common in Polynesian theft, the Marquesan burglar will +always take a part and leave a part, sharing (so to speak) with the +proprietor. If it be Chilian coin—the island currency—he will escape; if +the sum is in gold, French silver, or bank-notes, the police wait until +the money begins to come in circulation, and then easily pick out their +man. And now comes the shameful part. In plain English, the prisoner is +tortured until he confesses and (if that be possible) restores the money. +To keep him alone, day and night, in the black hole, is to inflict on the +Marquesan torture inexpressible. Even his robberies are carried on in +the plain daylight, under the open sky, with the stimulus of enterprise, +and the countenance of an accomplice; his terror of the dark is still +insurmountable; conceive, then, what he endures in his solitary dungeon; +conceive how he longs to confess, become a full-fledged convict, and be +allowed to sleep beside his comrades. While we were in Tai-o-hae a thief +was under prevention. He had entered a house about eight in the morning, +forced a trunk, and stolen eleven hundred francs; and now, under the +horrors of darkness, solitude, and a bedevilled cannibal imagination, he +was reluctantly confessing and giving up his spoil. From one cache, +which he had already pointed out, three hundred francs had been +recovered, and it was expected that he would presently disgorge the rest. +This would be ugly enough if it were all; but I am bound to say, because +it is a matter the French should set at rest, that worse is continually +hinted. I heard that one man was kept six days with his arms bound +backward round a barrel; and it is the universal report that every +gendarme in the South Seas is equipped with something in the nature of a +thumbscrew. I do not know this. I never had the face to ask any of the +gendarmes—pleasant, intelligent, and kindly fellows—with whom I have been +intimate, and whose hospitality I have enjoyed; and perhaps the tale +reposes (as I hope it does) on a misconstruction of that ingenious +cat’s-cradle with which the French agent of police so readily secures a +prisoner. But whether physical or moral, torture is certainly employed; +and by a barbarous injustice, the state of accusation (in which a man may +very well be innocently placed) is positively painful; the state of +conviction (in which all are supposed guilty) is comparatively free, and +positively pleasant. Perhaps worse still,—not only the accused, but +sometimes his wife, his mistress, or his friend, is subjected to the same +hardships. I was admiring, in the tapu system, the ingenuity of native +methods of detection; there is not much to admire in those of the French, +and to lock up a timid child in a dark room, and, if he proved obstinate, +lock up his sister in the next, is neither novel nor humane. + +The main occasion of these thefts is the new vice of opium-eating. ‘Here +nobody ever works, and all eat opium,’ said a gendarme; and Ah Fu knew a +woman who ate a dollar’s worth in a day. The successful thief will give +a handful of money to each of his friends, a dress to a woman, pass an +evening in one of the taverns of Tai-o-hae, during which he treats all +comers, produce a big lump of opium, and retire to the bush to eat and +sleep it off. A trader, who did not sell opium, confessed to me that he +was at his wit’s end. ‘I do not sell it, but others do,’ said he. ‘The +natives only work to buy it; if they walk over to me to sell their +cotton, they have just to walk over to some one else to buy their opium +with my money. And why should they be at the bother of two walks? There +is no use talking,’ he added—‘opium is the currency of this country.’ + +The man under prevention during my stay at Tai-o-hae lost patience while +the Chinese opium-seller was being examined in his presence. ‘Of course +he sold me opium!’ he broke out; ‘all the Chinese here sell opium. It +was only to buy opium that I stole; it is only to buy opium that anybody +steals. And what you ought to do is to let no opium come here, and no +Chinamen.’ This is precisely what is done in Samoa by a native +Government; but the French have bound their own hands, and for forty +thousand francs sold native subjects to crime and death. This horrid +traffic may be said to have sprung up by accident. It was Captain Hart +who had the misfortune to be the means of beginning it, at a time when +his plantations flourished in the Marquesas, and he found a difficulty in +keeping Chinese coolies. To-day the plantations are practically deserted +and the Chinese gone; but in the meanwhile the natives have learned the +vice, the patent brings in a round sum, and the needy Government at +Papeete shut their eyes and open their pockets. Of course, the patentee +is supposed to sell to Chinamen alone; equally of course, no one could +afford to pay forty thousand francs for the privilege of supplying a +scattered handful of Chinese; and every one knows the truth, and all are +ashamed of it. French officials shake their heads when opium is +mentioned; and the agents of the farmer blush for their employment. +Those that live in glass houses should not throw stones; as a subject of +the British crown, I am an unwilling shareholder in the largest opium +business under heaven. But the British case is highly complicated; it +implies the livelihood of millions; and must be reformed, when it can be +reformed at all, with prudence. This French business, on the other hand, +is a nostrum and a mere excrescence. No native industry was to be +encouraged: the poison is solemnly imported. No native habit was to be +considered: the vice has been gratuitously introduced. And no creature +profits, save the Government at Papeete—the not very enviable gentlemen +who pay them, and the Chinese underlings who do the dirty work. + + + +CHAPTER IX—THE HOUSE OF TEMOANA + + +The history of the Marquesas is, of late years, much confused by the +coming and going of the French. At least twice they have seized the +archipelago, at least once deserted it; and in the meanwhile the natives +pursued almost without interruption their desultory cannibal wars. +Through these events and changing dynasties, a single considerable figure +may be seen to move: that of the high chief, a king, Temoana. Odds and +ends of his history came to my ears: how he was at first a convert to the +Protestant mission; how he was kidnapped or exiled from his native land, +served as cook aboard a whaler, and was shown, for small charge, in +English seaports; how he returned at last to the Marquesas, fell under +the strong and benign influence of the late bishop, extended his +influence in the group, was for a while joint ruler with the prelate, and +died at last the chief supporter of Catholicism and the French. His +widow remains in receipt of two pounds a month from the French +Government. Queen she is usually called, but in the official almanac she +figures as ‘_Madame Vaekehu_, _Grande Chefesse_.’ His son (natural or +adoptive, I know not which), Stanislao Moanatini, chief of Akaui, serves +in Tai-o-hae as a kind of Minister of Public Works; and the daughter of +Stanislao is High Chiefess of the southern island of Tauata. These, +then, are the greatest folk of the archipelago; we thought them also the +most estimable. This is the rule in Polynesia, with few exceptions; the +higher the family, the better the man—better in sense, better in manners, +and usually taller and stronger in body. A stranger advances blindfold. +He scrapes acquaintance as he can. Save the tattoo in the Marquesas, +nothing indicates the difference of rank; and yet almost invariably we +found, after we had made them, that our friends were persons of station. +I have said ‘usually taller and stronger.’ I might have been more +absolute,—over all Polynesia, and a part of Micronesia, the rule holds +good; the great ones of the isle, and even of the village, are greater of +bone and muscle, and often heavier of flesh, than any commoner. The +usual explanation—that the high-born child is more industriously +shampooed, is probably the true one. In New Caledonia, at least, where +the difference does not exist, has never been remarked, the practice of +shampooing seems to be itself unknown. Doctors would be well employed in +a study of the point. + +Vaekehu lives at the other end of the town from the Residency, beyond the +buildings of the mission. Her house is on the European plan: a table in +the midst of the chief room; photographs and religious pictures on the +wall. It commands to either hand a charming vista: through the front +door, a peep of green lawn, scurrying pigs, the pendent fans of the +coco-palm and splendour of the bursting surf: through the back, mounting +forest glades and coronals of precipice. Here, in the strong +thorough-draught, Her Majesty received us in a simple gown of print, and +with no mark of royalty but the exquisite finish of her tattooed mittens, +the elaboration of her manners, and the gentle falsetto in which all the +highly refined among Marquesan ladies (and Vaekehu above all others) +delight to sing their language. An adopted daughter interpreted, while +we gave the news, and rehearsed by name our friends of Anaho. As we +talked, we could see, through the landward door, another lady of the +household at her toilet under the green trees; who presently, when her +hair was arranged, and her hat wreathed with flowers, appeared upon the +back verandah with gracious salutations. + +Vaekehu is very deaf; ‘_merci_’ is her only word of French; and I do not +know that she seemed clever. An exquisite, kind refinement, with a shade +of quietism, gathered perhaps from the nuns, was what chiefly struck us. +Or rather, upon that first occasion, we were conscious of a sense as of +district-visiting on our part, and reduced evangelical gentility on the +part of our hostess. The other impression followed after she was more at +ease, and came with Stanislao and his little girl to dine on board the +_Casco_. She had dressed for the occasion: wore white, which very well +became her strong brown face; and sat among us, eating or smoking her +cigarette, quite cut off from all society, or only now and then included +through the intermediary of her son. It was a position that might have +been ridiculous, and she made it ornamental; making believe to hear and +to be entertained; her face, whenever she met our eyes, lighting with the +smile of good society; her contributions to the talk, when she made any, +and that was seldom, always complimentary and pleasing. No attention was +paid to the child, for instance, but what she remarked and thanked us +for. Her parting with each, when she came to leave, was gracious and +pretty, as had been every step of her behaviour. When Mrs. Stevenson +held out her hand to say good-bye, Vaekehu took it, held it, and a moment +smiled upon her; dropped it, and then, as upon a kindly after-thought, +and with a sort of warmth of condescension, held out both hands and +kissed my wife upon both cheeks. Given the same relation of years and of +rank, the thing would have been so done on the boards of the _Comédie +Française_; just so might Madame Brohan have warmed and condescended to +Madame Broisat in the _Marquis de Villemer_. It was my part to accompany +our guests ashore: when I kissed the little girl good-bye at the pier +steps, Vaekehu gave a cry of gratification, reached down her hand into +the boat, took mine, and pressed it with that flattering softness which +seems the coquetry of the old lady in every quarter of the earth. The +next moment she had taken Stanislao’s arm, and they moved off along the +pier in the moonlight, leaving me bewildered. This was a queen of +cannibals; she was tattooed from hand to foot, and perhaps the greatest +masterpiece of that art now extant, so that a while ago, before she was +grown prim, her leg was one of the sights of Tai-o-hae; she had been +passed from chief to chief; she had been fought for and taken in war; +perhaps, being so great a lady, she had sat on the high place, and +throned it there, alone of her sex, while the drums were going twenty +strong and the priests carried up the blood-stained baskets of long-pig. +And now behold her, out of that past of violence and sickening feasts, +step forth, in her age, a quiet, smooth, elaborate old lady, such as you +might find at home (mittened also, but not often so well-mannered) in a +score of country houses. Only Vaekehu’s mittens were of dye, not of +silk; and they had been paid for, not in money, but the cooked flesh of +men. It came in my mind with a clap, what she could think of it herself, +and whether at heart, perhaps, she might not regret and aspire after the +barbarous and stirring past. But when I asked Stanislao—‘Ah!’ said he, +‘she is content; she is religious, she passes all her days with the +sisters.’ + +Stanislao (Stanislaos, with the final consonant evaded after the +Polynesian habit) was sent by Bishop Dordillon to South America, and +there educated by the fathers. His French is fluent, his talk sensible +and spirited, and in his capacity of ganger-in-chief, he is of excellent +service to the French. With the prestige of his name and family, and +with the stick when needful, he keeps the natives working and the roads +passable. Without Stanislao and the convicts, I am in doubt what would +become of the present regimen in Nuka-hiva; whether the highways might +not be suffered to close up, the pier to wash away, and the Residency to +fall piecemeal about the ears of impotent officials. And yet though the +hereditary favourer, and one of the chief props of French authority, he +has always an eye upon the past. He showed me where the old public place +had stood, still to be traced by random piles of stone; told me how great +and fine it was, and surrounded on all sides by populous houses, whence, +at the beating of the drums, the folk crowded to make holiday. The +drum-beat of the Polynesian has a strange and gloomy stimulation for the +nerves of all. White persons feel it—at these precipitate sounds their +hearts beat faster; and, according to old residents, its effect on the +natives was extreme. Bishop Dordillon might entreat; Temoana himself +command and threaten; at the note of the drum wild instincts triumphed. +And now it might beat upon these ruins, and who should assemble? The +houses are down, the people dead, their lineage extinct; and the +sweepings and fugitives of distant bays and islands encamp upon their +graves. The decline of the dance Stanislao especially laments. ‘_Chaque +pays a ses coutumes_,’ said he; but in the report of any gendarme, +perhaps corruptly eager to increase the number of _délits_ and the +instruments of his own power, custom after custom is placed on the +expurgatorial index. ‘_Tenez_, _une danse qui n’est pas permise_,’ said +Stanislao: ‘_je ne sais pas pourquoi_, _elle est très jolie_, _elle va +comme ça_,’ and sticking his umbrella upright in the road, he sketched +the steps and gestures. All his criticisms of the present, all his +regrets for the past, struck me as temperate and sensible. The short +term of office of the Resident he thought the chief defect of the +administration; that officer having scarce begun to be efficient ere he +was recalled. I thought I gathered, too, that he regarded with some fear +the coming change from a naval to a civil governor. I am sure at least +that I regard it so myself; for the civil servants of France have never +appeared to any foreigner as at all the flower of their country, while +her naval officers may challenge competition with the world. In all his +talk, Stanislao was particular to speak of his own country as a land of +savages; and when he stated an opinion of his own, it was with some +apologetic preface, alleging that he was ‘a savage who had travelled.’ +There was a deal, in this elaborate modesty, of honest pride. Yet there +was something in the precaution that saddened me; and I could not but +fear he was only forestalling a taunt that he had heard too often. + +I recall with interest two interviews with Stanislao. The first was a +certain afternoon of tropic rain, which we passed together in the +verandah of the club; talking at times with heightened voices as the +showers redoubled overhead, passing at times into the billiard-room, to +consult, in the dim, cloudy daylight, that map of the world which forms +its chief adornment. He was naturally ignorant of English history, so +that I had much of news to communicate. The story of Gordon I told him +in full, and many episodes of the Indian Mutiny, Lucknow, the second +battle of Cawn-pore, the relief of Arrah, the death of poor +Spottis-woode, and Sir Hugh Rose’s hotspur, midland campaign. He was +intent to hear; his brown face, strongly marked with small-pox, kindled +and changed with each vicissitude. His eyes glowed with the reflected +light of battle; his questions were many and intelligent, and it was +chiefly these that sent us so often to the map. But it is of our parting +that I keep the strongest sense. We were to sail on the morrow, and the +night had fallen, dark, gusty, and rainy, when we stumbled up the hill to +bid farewell to Stanislao. He had already loaded us with gifts; but more +were waiting. We sat about the table over cigars and green cocoa-nuts; +claps of wind blew through the house and extinguished the lamp, which was +always instantly relighted with a single match; and these recurrent +intervals of darkness were felt as a relief. For there was something +painful and embarrassing in the kindness of that separation. ‘_Ah_, +_vous devriez rester ici_, _mon cher ami_!’ cried Stanislao. ‘_Vous êtes +les gens qu’il faut pour les Kanaques_; _vous êtes doux_, _vous et votre +famille_; _vous seriez obéis dans toutes les îles_.’ We had been civil; +not always that, my conscience told me, and never anything beyond; and +all this to-do is a measure, not of our considerateness, but of the want +of it in others. The rest of the evening, on to Vaekehu’s and back as +far as to the pier, Stanislao walked with my arm and sheltered me with +his umbrella; and after the boat had put off, we could still distinguish, +in the murky darkness, his gestures of farewell. His words, if there +were any, were drowned by the rain and the loud surf. + +I have mentioned presents, a vexed question in the South Seas; and one +which well illustrates the common, ignorant habit of regarding races in a +lump. In many quarters the Polynesian gives only to receive. I have +visited islands where the population mobbed me for all the world like +dogs after the waggon of cat’s-meat; and where the frequent proposition, +‘You my pleni (friend),’ or (with more of pathos) ‘You all ’e same my +father,’ must be received with hearty laughter and a shout. And perhaps +everywhere, among the greedy and rapacious, a gift is regarded as a sprat +to catch a whale. It is the habit to give gifts and to receive returns, +and such characters, complying with the custom, will look to it nearly +that they do not lose. But for persons of a different stamp the +statement must be reversed. The shabby Polynesian is anxious till he has +received the return gift; the generous is uneasy until he has made it. +The first is disappointed if you have not given more than he; the second +is miserable if he thinks he has given less than you. This is my +experience; if it clash with that of others, I pity their fortune, and +praise mine: the circumstances cannot change what I have seen, nor lessen +what I have received. And indeed I find that those who oppose me often +argue from a ground of singular presumptions; comparing Polynesians with +an ideal person, compact of generosity and gratitude, whom I never had +the pleasure of encountering; and forgetting that what is almost poverty +to us is wealth almost unthinkable to them. I will give one instance: I +chanced to speak with consideration of these gifts of Stanislao’s with a +certain clever man, a great hater and contemner of Kanakas. ‘Well! what +were they?’ he cried. ‘A pack of old men’s beards. Trash!’ And the +same gentleman, some half an hour later, being upon a different train of +thought, dwelt at length on the esteem in which the Marquesans held that +sort of property, how they preferred it to all others except land, and +what fancy prices it would fetch. Using his own figures, I computed +that, in this commodity alone, the gifts of Vaekehu and Stanislao +represented between two and three hundred dollars; and the queen’s +official salary is of two hundred and forty in the year. + +But generosity on the one hand, and conspicuous meanness on the other, +are in the South Seas, as at home, the exception. It is neither with any +hope of gain, nor with any lively wish to please, that the ordinary +Polynesian chooses and presents his gifts. A plain social duty lies +before him, which he performs correctly, but without the least +enthusiasm. And we shall best understand his attitude of mind, if we +examine our own to the cognate absurdity of marriage presents. There we +give without any special thought of a return; yet if the circumstance +arise, and the return be withheld, we shall judge ourselves insulted. We +give them usually without affection, and almost never with a genuine +desire to please; and our gift is rather a mark of our own status than a +measure of our love to the recipients. So in a great measure and with +the common run of the Polynesians; their gifts are formal; they imply no +more than social recognition; and they are made and reciprocated, as we +pay and return our morning visits. And the practice of marking and +measuring events and sentiments by presents is universal in the island +world. A gift plays with them the part of stamp and seal; and has +entered profoundly into the mind of islanders. Peace and war, marriage, +adoption and naturalisation, are celebrated or declared by the acceptance +or the refusal of gifts; and it is as natural for the islander to bring a +gift as for us to carry a card-case. + + + +CHAPTER X—A PORTRAIT AND A STORY + + +I have had occasion several times to name the late bishop, Father +Dordillon, ‘Monseigneur,’ as he is still almost universally called, +Vicar-Apostolic of the Marquesas and Bishop of Cambysopolis _in +partibus_. Everywhere in the islands, among all classes and races, this +fine, old, kindly, cheerful fellow is remembered with affection and +respect. His influence with the natives was paramount. They reckoned +him the highest of men—higher than an admiral; brought him their money to +keep; took his advice upon their purchases; nor would they plant trees +upon their own land till they had the approval of the father of the +islands. During the time of the French exodus he singly represented +Europe, living in the Residency, and ruling by the hand of Temoana. The +first roads were made under his auspices and by his persuasion. The old +road between Hatiheu and Anaho was got under way from either side on the +ground that it would be pleasant for an evening promenade, and brought to +completion by working on the rivalry of the two villages. The priest +would boast in Hatiheu of the progress made in Anaho, and he would tell +the folk of Anaho, ‘If you don’t take care, your neighbours will be over +the hill before you are at the top.’ It could not be so done to-day; it +could then; death, opium, and depopulation had not gone so far; and the +people of Hatiheu, I was told, still vied with each other in fine attire, +and used to go out by families, in the cool of the evening, boat-sailing +and racing in the bay. There seems some truth at least in the common +view, that this joint reign of Temoana and the bishop was the last and +brief golden age of the Marquesas. But the civil power returned, the +mission was packed out of the Residency at twenty-four hours’ notice, new +methods supervened, and the golden age (whatever it quite was) came to an +end. It is the strongest proof of Father Dordillon’s prestige that it +survived, seemingly without loss, this hasty deposition. + +His method with the natives was extremely mild. Among these barbarous +children he still played the part of the smiling father; and he was +careful to observe, in all indifferent matters, the Marquesan etiquette. +Thus, in the singular system of artificial kinship, the bishop had been +adopted by Vaekehu as a grandson; Miss Fisher, of Hatiheu, as a daughter. +From that day, Monseigneur never addressed the young lady except as his +mother, and closed his letters with the formalities of a dutiful son. +With Europeans he could be strict, even to the extent of harshness. He +made no distinction against heretics, with whom he was on friendly terms; +but the rules of his own Church he would see observed; and once at least +he had a white man clapped in jail for the desecration of a saint’s day. +But even this rigour, so intolerable to laymen, so irritating to +Protestants, could not shake his popularity. We shall best conceive him +by examples nearer home; we may all have known some divine of the old +school in Scotland, a literal Sabbatarian, a stickler for the letter of +the law, who was yet in private modest, innocent, genial and mirthful. +Much such a man, it seems, was Father Dordillon. And his popularity bore +a test yet stronger. He had the name, and probably deserved it, of a +shrewd man in business and one that made the mission pay. Nothing so +much stirs up resentment as the inmixture in commerce of religious +bodies; but even rival traders spoke well of Monseigneur. + +His character is best portrayed in the story of the days of his decline. +A time came when, from the failure of sight, he must desist from his +literary labours: his Marquesan hymns, grammars, and dictionaries; his +scientific papers, lives of saints, and devotional poetry. He cast about +for a new interest: pitched on gardening, and was to be seen all day, +with spade and water-pot, in his childlike eagerness, actually running +between the borders. Another step of decay, and he must leave his garden +also. Instantly a new occupation was devised, and he sat in the mission +cutting paper flowers and wreaths. His diocese was not great enough for +his activity; the churches of the Marquesas were papered with his +handiwork, and still he must be making more. ‘Ah,’ said he, smiling, +‘when I am dead what a fine time you will have clearing out my trash!’ +He had been dead about six months; but I was pleased to see some of his +trophies still exposed, and looked upon them with a smile: the tribute +(if I have read his cheerful character aright) which he would have +preferred to any useless tears. Disease continued progressively to +disable him; he who had clambered so stalwartly over the rude rocks of +the Marquesas, bringing peace to warfaring clans, was for some time +carried in a chair between the mission and the church, and at last +confined to bed, impotent with dropsy, and tormented with bed-sores and +sciatica. Here he lay two months without complaint; and on the 11th +January 1888, in the seventy-ninth year of his life, and the +thirty-fourth of his labours in the Marquesas, passed away. + +Those who have a taste for hearing missions, Protestant or Catholic, +decried, must seek their pleasure elsewhere than in my pages. Whether +Catholic or Protestant, with all their gross blots, with all their +deficiency of candour, of humour, and of common sense, the missionaries +are the best and the most useful whites in the Pacific. This is a +subject which will follow us throughout; but there is one part of it that +may conveniently be treated here. The married and the celibate +missionary, each has his particular advantage and defect. The married +missionary, taking him at the best, may offer to the native what he is +much in want of—a higher picture of domestic life; but the woman at his +elbow tends to keep him in touch with Europe and out of touch with +Polynesia, and to perpetuate, and even to ingrain, parochial decencies +far best forgotten. The mind of the female missionary tends, for +instance, to be continually busied about dress. She can be taught with +extreme difficulty to think any costume decent but that to which she grew +accustomed on Clapham Common; and to gratify this prejudice, the native +is put to useless expense, his mind is tainted with the morbidities of +Europe, and his health is set in danger. The celibate missionary, on the +other hand, and whether at best or worst, falls readily into native ways +of life; to which he adds too commonly what is either a mark of celibate +man at large, or an inheritance from mediæval saints—I mean slovenly +habits and an unclean person. There are, of course, degrees in this; and +the sister (of course, and all honour to her) is as fresh as a lady at a +ball. For the diet there is nothing to be said—it must amaze and shock +the Polynesian—but for the adoption of native habits there is much. +‘_Chaque pays a ses coutumes_,’ said Stanislao; these it is the +missionary’s delicate task to modify; and the more he can do so from +within, and from a native standpoint, the better he will do his work; and +here I think the Catholics have sometimes the advantage; in the Vicariate +of Dordillon, I am sure they had it. I have heard the bishop blamed for +his indulgence to the natives, and above all because he did not rage with +sufficient energy against cannibalism. It was a part of his policy to +live among the natives like an elder brother; to follow where he could; +to lead where it was necessary; never to drive; and to encourage the +growth of new habits, instead of violently rooting up the old. And it +might be better, in the long-run, if this policy were always followed. + +It might be supposed that native missionaries would prove more indulgent, +but the reverse is found to be the case. The new broom sweeps clean; and +the white missionary of to-day is often embarrassed by the bigotry of his +native coadjutor. What else should we expect? On some islands, sorcery, +polygamy, human sacrifice, and tobacco-smoking have been prohibited, the +dress of the native has been modified, and himself warned in strong terms +against rival sects of Christianity; all by the same man, at the same +period of time, and with the like authority. By what criterion is the +convert to distinguish the essential from the unessential? He swallows +the nostrum whole; there has been no play of mind, no instruction, and, +except for some brute utility in the prohibitions, no advance. To call +things by their proper names, this is teaching superstition. It is +unfortunate to use the word; so few people have read history, and so many +have dipped into little atheistic manuals, that the majority will rush to +a conclusion, and suppose the labour lost. And far from that: These +semi-spontaneous superstitions, varying with the sect of the original +evangelist and the customs of the island, are found in practice to be +highly fructifying; and in particular those who have learned and who go +forth again to teach them offer an example to the world. The best +specimen of the Christian hero that I ever met was one of these native +missionaries. He had saved two lives at the risk of his own; like +Nathan, he had bearded a tyrant in his hour of blood; when a whole white +population fled, he alone stood to his duty; and his behaviour under +domestic sorrow with which the public has no concern filled the beholder +with sympathy and admiration. A poor little smiling laborious man he +looked; and you would have thought he had nothing in him but that of +which indeed he had too much—facile good-nature. {86} + +It chances that the only rivals of Monseigneur and his mission in the +Marquesas were certain of these brown-skinned evangelists, natives from +Hawaii. I know not what they thought of Father Dordillon: they are the +only class I did not question; but I suspect the prelate to have regarded +them askance, for he was eminently human. During my stay at Tai-o-hae, +the time of the yearly holiday came round at the girls’ school; and a +whole fleet of whale-boats came from Ua-pu to take the daughters of that +island home. On board of these was Kauwealoha, one of the pastors, a +fine, rugged old gentleman, of that leonine type so common in Hawaii. He +paid me a visit in the _Casco_, and there entertained me with a tale of +one of his colleagues, Kekela, a missionary in the great cannibal isle of +Hiva-oa. It appears that shortly after a kidnapping visit from a +Peruvian slaver, the boats of an American whaler put into a bay upon that +island, were attacked, and made their escape with difficulty, leaving +their mate, a Mr. Whalon, in the hands of the natives. The captive, with +his arms bound behind his back, was cast into a house; and the chief +announced the capture to Kekela. And here I begin to follow the version +of Kauwealoha; it is a good specimen of Kanaka English; and the reader is +to conceive it delivered with violent emphasis and speaking pantomime. + +‘“I got ’Melican mate,” the chief he say. “What you go do ’Melican +mate?” Kekela he say. “I go make fire, I go kill, I go eat him,” he say; +“you come to-mollow eat piece.” “I no _want_ eat ’Melican mate!” Kekela +he say; “why you want?” “This bad shippee, this slave shippee,” the +chief he say. “One time a shippee he come from Pelu, he take away plenty +Kanaka, he take away my son. ’Melican mate he bad man. I go eat him; +you eat piece.” “I no _want_ eat ’Melican mate!” Kekela he say; and he +_cly_—all night he cly! To-mollow Kekela he get up, he put on blackee +coat, he go see chief; he see Missa Whela, him hand tie’ like this. +(_Pantomime_.) Kekela he cly. He say chief:—“Chief, you like things of +mine? you like whale-boat?” “Yes,” he say. “You like file-a’m?” +(fire-arms). “Yes,” he say. “You like blackee coat?” “Yes,” he say. +Kekela he take Missa Whela by he shoul’a’ (shoulder), he take him light +out house; he give chief he whale-boat, he file-a’m, he blackee coat. He +take Missa Whela he house, make him sit down with he wife and chil’en. +Missa Whela all-the-same pelison (prison); he wife, he chil’en in +Amelica; he cly—O, he cly. Kekela he solly. One day Kekela he see ship. +(_Pantomime_.) He say Missa Whela, “Ma’ Whala?” Missa Whela he say, +“Yes.” Kanaka they begin go down beach. Kekela he get eleven Kanaka, +get oa’ (oars), get evely thing. He say Missa Whela, “Now you go quick.” +They jump in whale-boat. “Now you low!” Kekela he say: “you low quick, +quick!” (_Violent pantomime_, _and a change indicating that the narrator +has left the boat and returned to the beach_.) All the Kanaka they say, +“How! ’Melican mate he go away?”—jump in boat; low afta. (_Violent +pantomime_, _and change again to boat_.) Kekela he say, “Low quick!”’ + +Here I think Kauwealoha’s pantomime had confused me; I have no more of +his _ipsissima verba_; and can but add, in my own less spirited manner, +that the ship was reached, Mr. Whalon taken aboard, and Kekela returned +to his charge among the cannibals. But how unjust it is to repeat the +stumblings of a foreigner in a language only partly acquired! A +thoughtless reader might conceive Kauwealoha and his colleague to be a +species of amicable baboon; but I have here the anti-dote. In return for +his act of gallant charity, Kekela was presented by the American +Government with a sum of money, and by President Lincoln personally with +a gold watch. From his letter of thanks, written in his own tongue, I +give the following extract. I do not envy the man who can read it +without emotion. + + ‘When I saw one of your countrymen, a citizen of your great nation, + ill-treated, and about to be baked and eaten, as a pig is eaten, I + ran to save him, full of pity and grief at the evil deed of these + benighted people. I gave my boat for the stranger’s life. This boat + came from James Hunnewell, a gift of friendship. It became the + ransom of this countryman of yours, that he might not be eaten by the + savages who knew not Jehovah. This was Mr. Whalon, and the date, + Jan. 14, 1864. + + ‘As to this friendly deed of mine in saving Mr. Whalon, its seed came + from your great land, and was brought by certain of your countrymen, + who had received the love of God. It was planted in Hawaii, and I + brought it to plant in this land and in these dark regions, that they + might receive the root of all that is good and true, which is _love_. + + ‘1. Love to Jehovah. + + ‘2. Love to self. + + ‘3. Love to our neighbour. + + ‘If a man have a sufficiency of these three, he is good and holy, + like his God, Jehovah, in his triune character (Father, Son, and Holy + Ghost), one-three, three-one. If he have two and wants one, it is + not well; and if he have one and wants two, indeed, is not well; but + if he cherishes all three, then is he holy, indeed, after the manner + of the Bible. + + ‘This is a great thing for your great nation to boast of, before all + the nations of the earth. From your great land a most precious seed + was brought to the land of darkness. It was planted here, not by + means of guns and men-of-war and threatening. It was planted by + means of the ignorant, the neglected, the despised. Such was the + introduction of the word of the Almighty God into this group of + Nuuhiwa. Great is my debt to Americans, who have taught me all + things pertaining to this life and to that which is to come. + + ‘How shall I repay your great kindness to me? Thus David asked of + Jehovah, and thus I ask of you, the President of the United States. + This is my only payment—that which I have received of the Lord, + love—(aloha).’ + + + +CHAPTER XI—LONG-PIG—A CANNIBAL HIGH PLACE + + +Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, nothing so +surely unmortars a society; nothing, we might plausibly argue, will so +harden and degrade the minds of those that practise it. And yet we +ourselves make much the same appearance in the eyes of the Buddhist and +the vegetarian. We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, +passions, and organs with ourselves; we feed on babes, though not our +own; and the slaughter-house resounds daily with screams of pain and +fear. We distinguish, indeed; but the unwillingness of many nations to +eat the dog, an animal with whom we live on terms of the next intimacy, +shows how precariously the distinction is grounded. The pig is the main +element of animal food among the islands; and I had many occasions, my +mind being quickened by my cannibal surroundings, to observe his +character and the manner of his death. Many islanders live with their +pigs as we do with our dogs; both crowd around the hearth with equal +freedom; and the island pig is a fellow of activity, enterprise, and +sense. He husks his own cocoa-nuts, and (I am told) rolls them into the +sun to burst; he is the terror of the shepherd. Mrs. Stevenson, senior, +has seen one fleeing to the woods with a lamb in his mouth; and I saw +another come rapidly (and erroneously) to the conclusion that the _Casco_ +was going down, and swim through the flush water to the rail in search of +an escape. It was told us in childhood that pigs cannot swim; I have +known one to leap overboard, swim five hundred yards to shore, and return +to the house of his original owner. I was once, at Tautira, a pig-master +on a considerable scale; at first, in my pen, the utmost good feeling +prevailed; a little sow with a belly-ache came and appealed to us for +help in the manner of a child; and there was one shapely black boar, whom +we called Catholicus, for he was a particular present from the Catholics +of the village, and who early displayed the marks of courage and +friendliness; no other animal, whether dog or pig, was suffered to +approach him at his food, and for human beings he showed a full measure +of that toadying fondness so common in the lower animals, and possibly +their chief title to the name. One day, on visiting my piggery, I was +amazed to see Catholicus draw back from my approach with cries of terror; +and if I was amazed at the change, I was truly embarrassed when I learnt +its reason. One of the pigs had been that morning killed; Catholicus had +seen the murder, he had discovered he was dwelling in the shambles, and +from that time his confidence and his delight in life were ended. We +still reserved him a long while, but he could not endure the sight of any +two-legged creature, nor could we, under the circumstances, encounter his +eye without confusion. I have assisted besides, by the ear, at the act +of butchery itself; the victim’s cries of pain I think I could have +borne, but the execution was mismanaged, and his expression of terror was +contagious: that small heart moved to the same tune with ours. Upon such +‘dread foundations’ the life of the European reposes, and yet the +European is among the less cruel of races. The paraphernalia of murder, +the preparatory brutalities of his existence, are all hid away; an +extreme sensibility reigns upon the surface; and ladies will faint at the +recital of one tithe of what they daily expect of their butchers. Some +will be even crying out upon me in their hearts for the coarseness of +this paragraph. And so with the island cannibals. They were not cruel; +apart from this custom, they are a race of the most kindly; rightly +speaking, to cut a man’s flesh after he is dead is far less hateful than +to oppress him whilst he lives; and even the victims of their appetite +were gently used in life and suddenly and painlessly despatched at last. +In island circles of refinement it was doubtless thought bad taste to +expatiate on what was ugly in the practice. + +Cannibalism is traced from end to end of the Pacific, from the Marquesas +to New Guinea, from New Zealand to Hawaii, here in the lively haunt of +its exercise, there by scanty but significant survivals. Hawaii is the +most doubtful. We find cannibalism chronicled in Hawaii, only in the +history of a single war, where it seems to have been thought exception, +as in the case of mountain outlaws, such as fell by the hand of Theseus. +In Tahiti, a single circumstance survived, but that appears conclusive. +In historic times, when human oblation was made in the marae, the eyes of +the victim were formally offered to the chief: a delicacy to the leading +guest. All Melanesia appears tainted. In Micronesia, in the Marshalls, +with which my acquaintance is no more than that of a tourist, I could +find no trace at all; and even in the Gilbert zone I long looked and +asked in vain. I was told tales indeed of men who had been eaten in a +famine; but these were nothing to my purpose, for the same thing is done +under the same stress by all kindreds and generations of men. At last, +in some manuscript notes of Dr. Turner’s, which I was allowed to consult +at Malua, I came on one damning evidence: on the island of Onoatoa the +punishment for theft was to be killed and eaten. How shall we account +for the universality of the practice over so vast an area, among people +of such varying civilisation, and, with whatever intermixture, of such +different blood? What circumstance is common to them all, but that they +lived on islands destitute, or very nearly so, of animal food? I can +never find it in my appetite that man was meant to live on vegetables +only. When our stores ran low among the islands, I grew to weary for the +recurrent day when economy allowed us to open another tin of miserable +mutton. And in at least one ocean language, a particular word denotes +that a man is ‘hungry for fish,’ having reached that stage when +vegetables can no longer satisfy, and his soul, like those of the Hebrews +in the desert, begins to lust after flesh-pots. Add to this the +evidences of over-population and imminent famine already adduced, and I +think we see some ground of indulgence for the island cannibal. + +It is right to look at both sides of any question; but I am far from +making the apology of this worse than bestial vice. The higher +Polynesian races, such as the Tahitians, Hawaiians, and Samoans, had one +and all outgrown, and some of them had in part forgot, the practice, +before Cook or Bougainville had shown a top-sail in their waters. It +lingered only in some low islands where life was difficult to maintain, +and among inveterate savages like the New-Zealanders or the Marquesans. +The Marquesans intertwined man-eating with the whole texture of their +lives; long-pig was in a sense their currency and sacrament; it formed +the hire of the artist, illustrated public events, and was the occasion +and attraction of a feast. To-day they are paying the penalty of this +bloody commixture. The civil power, in its crusade against man-eating, +has had to examine one after another all Marquesan arts and pleasures, +has found them one after another tainted with a cannibal element, and one +after another has placed them on the proscript list. Their art of +tattooing stood by itself, the execution exquisite, the designs most +beautiful and intricate; nothing more handsomely sets off a handsome man; +it may cost some pain in the beginning, but I doubt if it be near so +painful in the long-run, and I am sure it is far more becoming than the +ignoble European practice of tight-lacing among women. And now it has +been found needful to forbid the art. Their songs and dances were +numerous (and the law has had to abolish them by the dozen). They now +face empty-handed the tedium of their uneventful days; and who shall pity +them? The least rigorous will say that they were justly served. + +Death alone could not satisfy Marquesan vengeance: the flesh must be +eaten. The chief who seized Mr. Whalon preferred to eat him; and he +thought he had justified the wish when he explained it was a vengeance. +Two or three years ago, the people of a valley seized and slew a wretch +who had offended them. His offence, it is to be supposed, was dire; they +could not bear to leave their vengeance incomplete, and, under the eyes +of the French, they did not dare to hold a public festival. The body was +accordingly divided; and every man retired to his own house to consummate +the rite in secret, carrying his proportion of the dreadful meat in a +Swedish match-box. The barbarous substance of the drama and the European +properties employed offer a seizing contrast to the imagination. Yet +more striking is another incident of the very year when I was there +myself, 1888. In the spring, a man and woman skulked about the +school-house in Hiva-oa till they found a particular child alone. Him +they approached with honeyed words and carneying manners—‘You are +So-and-so, son of So-and-so?’ they asked; and caressed and beguiled him +deeper in the woods. Some instinct woke in the child’s bosom, or some +look betrayed the horrid purpose of his deceivers. He sought to break +from them; he screamed; and they, casting off the mask, seized him the +more strongly and began to run. His cries were heard; his schoolmates, +playing not far off, came running to the rescue; and the sinister couple +fled and vanished in the woods. They were never identified; no +prosecution followed; but it was currently supposed they had some grudge +against the boy’s father, and designed to eat him in revenge. All over +the islands, as at home among our own ancestors, it will be observed that +the avenger takes no particular heed to strike an individual. A family, +a class, a village, a whole valley or island, a whole race of mankind, +share equally the guilt of any member. So, in the above story, the son +was to pay the penalty for his father; so Mr. Whalon, the mate of an +American whaler, was to bleed and be eaten for the misdeeds of a Peruvian +slaver. I am reminded of an incident in Jaluit in the Marshall group, +which was told me by an eye-witness, and which I tell here again for the +strangeness of the scene. Two men had awakened the animosity of the +Jaluit chiefs; and it was their wives who were selected to be punished. +A single native served as executioner. Early in the morning, in the face +of a large concourse of spectators, he waded out upon the reef between +his victims. These neither complained nor resisted; accompanied their +destroyer patiently; stooped down, when they had waded deep enough, at +his command; and he (laying one hand upon the shoulders of each) held +them under water till they drowned. Doubtless, although my informant did +not tell me so, their families would be lamenting aloud upon the beach. + +It was from Hatiheu that I paid my first visit to a cannibal high place. + +The day was sultry and clouded. Drenching tropical showers succeeded +bursts of sweltering sunshine. The green pathway of the road wound +steeply upward. As we went, our little schoolboy guide a little ahead of +us, Father Simeon had his portfolio in his hand, and named the trees for +me, and read aloud from his notes the abstract of their virtues. +Presently the road, mounting, showed us the vale of Hatiheu, on a larger +scale; and the priest, with occasional reference to our guide, pointed +out the boundaries and told me the names of the larger tribes that lived +at perpetual war in the old days: one on the north-east, one along the +beach, one behind upon the mountain. With a survivor of this latter clan +Father Simeon had spoken; until the pacification he had never been to the +sea’s edge, nor, if I remember exactly, eaten of sea-fish. Each in its +own district, the septs lived cantoned and beleaguered. One step without +the boundaries was to affront death. If famine came, the men must out to +the woods to gather chestnuts and small fruits; even as to this day, if +the parents are backward in their weekly doles, school must be broken up +and the scholars sent foraging. But in the old days, when there was +trouble in one clan, there would be activity in all its neighbours; the +woods would be laid full of ambushes; and he who went after vegetables +for himself might remain to be a joint for his hereditary foes. Nor was +the pointed occasion needful. A dozen different natural signs and social +junctures called this people to the war-path and the cannibal hunt. Let +one of chiefly rank have finished his tattooing, the wife of one be near +upon her time, two of the debauching streams have deviated nearer on the +beach of Hatiheu, a certain bird have been heard to sing, a certain +ominous formation of cloud observed above the northern sea; and instantly +the arms were oiled, and the man-hunters swarmed into the wood to lay +their fratricidal ambuscades. It appears besides that occasionally, +perhaps in famine, the priest would shut himself in his house, where he +lay for a stated period like a person dead. When he came forth it was to +run for three days through the territory of the clan, naked and starving, +and to sleep at night alone in the high place. It was now the turn of +the others to keep the house, for to encounter the priest upon his rounds +was death. On the eve of the fourth day the time of the running was +over; the priest returned to his roof, the laymen came forth, and in the +morning the number of the victims was announced. I have this tale of the +priest on one authority—I think a good one,—but I set it down with +diffidence. The particulars are so striking that, had they been true, I +almost think I must have heard them oftener referred to. Upon one point +there seems to be no question: that the feast was sometimes furnished +from within the clan. In times of scarcity, all who were not protected +by their family connections—in the Highland expression, all the commons +of the clan—had cause to tremble. It was vain to resist, it was useless +to flee. They were begirt upon all hands by cannibals; and the oven was +ready to smoke for them abroad in the country of their foes, or at home +in the valley of their fathers. + +At a certain corner of the road our scholar-guide struck off to his left +into the twilight of the forest. We were now on one of the ancient +native roads, plunged in a high vault of wood, and clambering, it seemed, +at random over boulders and dead trees; but the lad wound in and out and +up and down without a check, for these paths are to the natives as marked +as the king’s highway is to us; insomuch that, in the days of the +man-hunt, it was their labour rather to block and deface than to improve +them. In the crypt of the wood the air was clammy and hot and cold; +overhead, upon the leaves, the tropical rain uproariously poured, but +only here and there, as through holes in a leaky roof, a single drop +would fall, and make a spot upon my mackintosh. Presently the huge trunk +of a banyan hove in sight, standing upon what seemed the ruins of an +ancient fort; and our guide, halting and holding forth his arm, announced +that we had reached the _paepae tapu_. + +_Paepae_ signifies a floor or platform such as a native house is built +on; and even such a paepae—a paepae hae—may be called a paepae tapu in a +lesser sense when it is deserted and becomes the haunt of spirits; but +the public high place, such as I was now treading, was a thing on a great +scale. As far as my eyes could pierce through the dark undergrowth, the +floor of the forest was all paved. Three tiers of terrace ran on the +slope of the hill; in front, a crumbling parapet contained the main +arena; and the pavement of that was pierced and parcelled out with +several wells and small enclosures. No trace remained of any +superstructure, and the scheme of the amphitheatre was difficult to +seize. I visited another in Hiva-oa, smaller but more perfect, where it +was easy to follow rows of benches, and to distinguish isolated seats of +honour for eminent persons; and where, on the upper platform, a single +joist of the temple or dead-house still remained, its uprights richly +carved. In the old days the high place was sedulously tended. No tree +except the sacred banyan was suffered to encroach upon its grades, no +dead leaf to rot upon the pavement. The stones were smoothly set, and I +am told they were kept bright with oil. On all sides the guardians lay +encamped in their subsidiary huts to watch and cleanse it. No other foot +of man was suffered to draw near; only the priest, in the days of his +running, came there to sleep—perhaps to dream of his ungodly errand; but, +in the time of the feast, the clan trooped to the high place in a body, +and each had his appointed seat. There were places for the chiefs, the +drummers, the dancers, the women, and the priests. The drums—perhaps +twenty strong, and some of them twelve feet high—continuously throbbed in +time. In time the singers kept up their long-drawn, lugubrious, +ululating song; in time, too, the dancers, tricked out in singular +finery, stepped, leaped, swayed, and gesticulated—their plumed fingers +fluttering in the air like butterflies. The sense of time, in all these +ocean races, is extremely perfect; and I conceive in such a festival that +almost every sound and movement fell in one. So much the more +unanimously must have grown the agitation of the feasters; so much the +more wild must have been the scene to any European who could have beheld +them there, in the strong sun and the strong shadow of the banyan, rubbed +with saffron to throw in a more high relief the arabesque of the tattoo; +the women bleached by days of confinement to a complexion almost +European; the chiefs crowned with silver plumes of old men’s beards and +girt with kirtles of the hair of dead women. All manner of island food +was meanwhile spread for the women and the commons; and, for those who +were privileged to eat of it, there were carried up to the dead-house the +baskets of long-pig. It is told that the feasts were long kept up; the +people came from them brutishly exhausted with debauchery, and the chiefs +heavy with their beastly food. There are certain sentiments which we +call emphatically human—denying the honour of that name to those who lack +them. In such feasts—particularly where the victim has been slain at +home, and men banqueted on the poor clay of a comrade with whom they had +played in infancy, or a woman whose favours they had shared—the whole +body of these sentiments is outraged. To consider it too closely is to +understand, if not to excuse, the fervours of self-righteous old +ship-captains, who would man their guns, and open fire in passing, on a +cannibal island. + +And yet it was strange. There, upon the spot, as I stood under the high, +dripping vault of the forest, with the young priest on the one hand, in +his kilted gown, and the bright-eyed Marquesan schoolboy on the other, +the whole business appeared infinitely distant, and fallen in the cold +perspective and dry light of history. The bearing of the priest, +perhaps, affected me. He smiled; he jested with the boy, the heir both of +these feasters and their meat; he clapped his hands, and gave me a stave +of one of the old, ill-omened choruses. Centuries might have come and +gone since this slimy theatre was last in operation; and I beheld the +place with no more emotion than I might have felt in visiting Stonehenge. +In Hiva-oa, as I began to appreciate that the thing was still living and +latent about my footsteps, and that it was still within the bounds of +possibility that I might hear the cry of the trapped victim, my historic +attitude entirely failed, and I was sensible of some repugnance for the +natives. But here, too, the priests maintained their jocular attitude: +rallying the cannibals as upon an eccentricity rather absurd than +horrible; seeking, I should say, to shame them from the practice by +good-natured ridicule, as we shame a child from stealing sugar. We may +here recognise the temperate and sagacious mind of Bishop Dordillon. + + + +CHAPTER XII—THE STORY OF A PLANTATION + + +Taahauku, on the south-westerly coast of the island of Hiva-oa—Tahuku, +say the slovenly whites—may be called the port of Atuona. It is a narrow +and small anchorage, set between low cliffy points, and opening above +upon a woody valley: a little French fort, now disused and deserted, +overhangs the valley and the inlet. Atuona itself, at the head of the +next bay, is framed in a theatre of mountains, which dominate the more +immediate settling of Taahauku and give the salient character of the +scene. They are reckoned at no higher than four thousand feet; but +Tahiti with eight thousand, and Hawaii with fifteen, can offer no such +picture of abrupt, melancholy alps. In the morning, when the sun falls +directly on their front, they stand like a vast wall: green to the +summit, if by any chance the summit should be clear—water-courses here +and there delineated on their face, as narrow as cracks. Towards +afternoon, the light falls more obliquely, and the sculpture of the range +comes in relief, huge gorges sinking into shadow, huge, tortuous +buttresses standing edged with sun. At all hours of the day they strike +the eye with some new beauty, and the mind with the same menacing gloom. + +The mountains, dividing and deflecting the endless airy deluge of the +Trade, are doubtless answerable for the climate. A strong draught of +wind blew day and night over the anchorage. Day and night the same +fantastic and attenuated clouds fled across the heavens, the same dusky +cap of rain and vapour fell and rose on the mountain. The land-breezes +came very strong and chill, and the sea, like the air, was in perpetual +bustle. The swell crowded into the narrow anchorage like sheep into a +fold; broke all along both sides, high on the one, low on the other; kept +a certain blowhole sounding and smoking like a cannon; and spent itself +at last upon the beach. + +On the side away from Atuona, the sheltering promontory was a nursery of +coco-trees. Some were mere infants, none had attained to any size, none +had yet begun to shoot skyward with that whip-like shaft of the mature +palm. In the young trees the colour alters with the age and growth. Now +all is of a grass-like hue, infinitely dainty; next the rib grows golden, +the fronds remaining green as ferns; and then, as the trunk continues to +mount and to assume its final hue of grey, the fans put on manlier and +more decided depths of verdure, stand out dark upon the distance, glisten +against the sun, and flash like silver fountains in the assault of the +wind. In this young wood of Taahauku, all these hues and combinations +were exampled and repeated by the score. The trees grew pleasantly +spaced upon a hilly sward, here and there interspersed with a rack for +drying copra, or a tumble-down hut for storing it. Every here and there +the stroller had a glimpse of the _Casco_ tossing in the narrow anchorage +below; and beyond he had ever before him the dark amphitheatre of the +Atuona mountains and the cliffy bluff that closes it to seaward. The +trade-wind moving in the fans made a ceaseless noise of summer rain; and +from time to time, with the sound of a sudden and distant drum-beat, the +surf would burst in a sea-cave. + +At the upper end of the inlet, its low, cliffy lining sinks, at both +sides, into a beach. A copra warehouse stands in the shadow of the +shoreside trees, flitted about for ever by a clan of dwarfish swallows; +and a line of rails on a high wooden staging bends back into the mouth of +the valley. Walking on this, the new-landed traveller becomes aware of a +broad fresh-water lagoon (one arm of which he crosses), and beyond, of a +grove of noble palms, sheltering the house of the trader, Mr. Keane. +Overhead, the cocos join in a continuous and lofty roof; blackbirds are +heard lustily singing; the island cock springs his jubilant rattle and +airs his golden plumage; cow-bells sound far and near in the grove; and +when you sit in the broad verandah, lulled by this symphony, you may say +to yourself, if you are able: ‘Better fifty years of Europe . . .’ +Farther on, the floor of the valley is flat and green, and dotted here +and there with stripling coco-palms. Through the midst, with many +changes of music, the river trots and brawls; and along its course, where +we should look for willows, puraos grow in clusters, and make shadowy +pools after an angler’s heart. A vale more rich and peaceful, sweeter +air, a sweeter voice of rural sounds, I have found nowhere. One +circumstance alone might strike the experienced: here is a convenient +beach, deep soil, good water, and yet nowhere any paepaes, nowhere any +trace of island habitation. + +It is but a few years since this valley was a place choked with jungle, +the debatable land and battle-ground of cannibals. Two clans laid claim +to it—neither could substantiate the claim, and the roads lay desert, or +were only visited by men in arms. It is for this very reason that it +wears now so smiling an appearance: cleared, planted, built upon, +supplied with railways, boat-houses, and bath-houses. For, being no +man’s land, it was the more readily ceded to a stranger. The stranger +was Captain John Hart: Ima Hati, ‘Broken-arm,’ the natives call him, +because when he first visited the islands his arm was in a sling. +Captain Hart, a man of English birth, but an American subject, had +conceived the idea of cotton culture in the Marquesas during the American +War, and was at first rewarded with success. His plantation at Anaho was +highly productive; island cotton fetched a high price, and the natives +used to debate which was the stronger power, Ima Hati or the French: +deciding in favour of the captain, because, though the French had the +most ships, he had the more money. + +He marked Taahauku for a suitable site, acquired it, and offered the +superintendence to Mr. Robert Stewart, a Fifeshire man, already some time +in the islands, who had just been ruined by a war on Tauata. Mr. Stewart +was somewhat averse to the adventure, having some acquaintance with +Atuona and its notorious chieftain, Moipu. He had once landed there, he +told me, about dusk, and found the remains of a man and woman partly +eaten. On his starting and sickening at the sight, one of Moipu’s young +men picked up a human foot, and provocatively staring at the stranger, +grinned and nibbled at the heel. None need be surprised if Mr. Stewart +fled incontinently to the bush, lay there all night in a great horror of +mind, and got off to sea again by daylight on the morrow. ‘It was always +a bad place, Atuona,’ commented Mr. Stewart, in his homely Fifeshire +voice. In spite of this dire introduction, he accepted the captain’s +offer, was landed at Taahauku with three Chinamen, and proceeded to clear +the jungle. + +War was pursued at that time, almost without interval, between the men of +Atuona and the men of Haamau; and one day, from the opposite sides of the +valley, battle—or I should rather say the noise of battle—raged all the +afternoon: the shots and insults of the opposing clans passing from hill +to hill over the heads of Mr. Stewart and his Chinamen. There was no +genuine fighting; it was like a bicker of schoolboys, only some fool had +given the children guns. One man died of his exertions in running, the +only casualty. With night the shots and insults ceased; the men of +Haamau withdrew; and victory, on some occult principle, was scored to +Moipu. Perhaps, in consequence, there came a day when Moipu made a +feast, and a party from Haamau came under safe-conduct to eat of it. +These passed early by Taahauku, and some of Moipu’s young men were there +to be a guard of honour. They were not long gone before there came down +from Haamau, a man, his wife, and a girl of twelve, their daughter, +bringing fungus. Several Atuona lads were hanging round the store; but +the day being one of truce none apprehended danger. The fungus was +weighed and paid for; the man of Haamau proposed he should have his axe +ground in the bargain; and Mr. Stewart demurring at the trouble, some of +the Atuona lads offered to grind it for him, and set it on the wheel. +While the axe was grinding, a friendly native whispered Mr. Stewart to +have a care of himself, for there was trouble in hand; and, all at once, +the man of Haamau was seized, and his head and arm stricken from his +body, the head at one sweep of his own newly sharpened axe. In the first +alert, the girl escaped among the cotton; and Mr. Stewart, having thrust +the wife into the house and locked her in from the outside, supposed the +affair was over. But the business had not passed without noise, and it +reached the ears of an older girl who had loitered by the way, and who +now came hastily down the valley, crying as she came for her father. +Her, too, they seized and beheaded; I know not what they had done with +the axe, it was a blunt knife that served their butcherly turn upon the +girl; and the blood spurted in fountains and painted them from head to +foot. Thus horrible from crime, the party returned to Atuona, carrying +the heads to Moipu. It may be fancied how the feast broke up; but it is +notable that the guests were honourably suffered to retire. These passed +back through Taahauku in extreme disorder; a little after the valley +began to be overrun with shouting and triumphing braves; and a letter of +warning coming at the same time to Mr. Stewart, he and his Chinamen took +refuge with the Protestant missionary in Atuona. That night the store +was gutted, and the bodies cast in a pit and covered with leaves. Three +days later the schooner had come in; and things appearing quieter, Mr. +Stewart and the captain landed in Taahauku to compute the damage and to +view the grave, which was already indicated by the stench. While they +were so employed, a party of Moipu’s young men, decked with red flannel +to indicate martial sentiments, came over the hills from Atuona, dug up +the bodies, washed them in the river, and carried them away on sticks. +That night the feast began. + +Those who knew Mr. Stewart before this experience declare the man to be +quite altered. He stuck, however, to his post; and somewhat later, when +the plantation was already well established, and gave employment to sixty +Chinamen and seventy natives, he found himself once more in dangerous +times. The men of Haamau, it was reported, had sworn to plunder and +erase the settlement; letters came continually from the Hawaiian +missionary, who acted as intelligence department; and for six weeks Mr. +Stewart and three other whites slept in the cotton-house at night in a +rampart of bales, and (what was their best defence) ostentatiously +practised rifle-shooting by day upon the beach. Natives were often there +to watch them; the practice was excellent; and the assault was never +delivered—if it ever was intended, which I doubt, for the natives are +more famous for false rumours than for deeds of energy. I was told the +late French war was a case in point; the tribes on the beach accusing +those in the mountains of designs which they had never the hardihood to +entertain. And the same testimony to their backwardness in open battle +reached me from all sides. Captain Hart once landed after an engagement +in a certain bay; one man had his hand hurt, an old woman and two +children had been slain; and the captain improved the occasion by +poulticing the hand, and taunting both sides upon so wretched an affair. +It is true these wars were often merely formal—comparable with duels to +the first blood. Captain Hart visited a bay where such a war was being +carried on between two brothers, one of whom had been thought wanting in +civility to the guests of the other. About one-half of the population +served day about on alternate sides, so as to be well with each when the +inevitable peace should follow. The forts of the belligerents were over +against each other, and close by. Pigs were cooking. Well-oiled braves, +with well-oiled muskets, strutted on the paepae or sat down to feast. No +business, however needful, could be done, and all thoughts were supposed +to be centred in this mockery of war. A few days later, by a regrettable +accident, a man was killed; it was felt at once the thing had gone too +far, and the quarrel was instantly patched up. But the more serious wars +were prosecuted in a similar spirit; a gift of pigs and a feast made +their inevitable end; the killing of a single man was a great victory, +and the murder of defenceless solitaries counted a heroic deed. + +The foot of the cliffs, about all these islands, is the place of fishing. +Between Taahauku and Atuona we saw men, but chiefly women, some nearly +naked, some in thin white or crimson dresses, perched in little surf-beat +promontories—the brown precipice overhanging them, and the convolvulus +overhanging that, as if to cut them off the more completely from +assistance. There they would angle much of the morning; and as fast as +they caught any fish, eat them, raw and living, where they stood. It was +such helpless ones that the warriors from the opposite island of Tauata +slew, and carried home and ate, and were thereupon accounted mighty men +of valour. Of one such exploit I can give the account of an eye-witness. +‘Portuguese Joe,’ Mr. Keane’s cook, was once pulling an oar in an Atuona +boat, when they spied a stranger in a canoe with some fish and a piece of +tapu. The Atuona men cried upon him to draw near and have a smoke. He +complied, because, I suppose, he had no choice; but he knew, poor devil, +what he was coming to, and (as Joe said) ‘he didn’t seem to care about +the smoke.’ A few questions followed, as to where he came from, and what +was his business. These he must needs answer, as he must needs draw at +the unwelcome pipe, his heart the while drying in his bosom. And then, +of a sudden, a big fellow in Joe’s boat leaned over, plucked the stranger +from his canoe, struck him with a knife in the neck—inward and downward, +as Joe showed in pantomime more expressive than his words—and held him +under water, like a fowl, until his struggles ceased. Whereupon the +long-pig was hauled on board, the boat’s head turned about for Atuona, +and these Marquesan braves pulled home rejoicing. Moipu was on the beach +and rejoiced with them on their arrival. Poor Joe toiled at his oar that +day with a white face, yet he had no fear for himself. ‘They were very +good to me—gave me plenty grub: never wished to eat white man,’ said he. + +If the most horrible experience was Mr. Stewart’s, it was Captain Hart +himself who ran the nearest danger. He had bought a piece of land from +Timau, chief of a neighbouring bay, and put some Chinese there to work. +Visiting the station with one of the Godeffroys, he found his Chinamen +trooping to the beach in terror: Timau had driven them out, seized their +effects, and was in war attire with his young men. A boat was despatched +to Taahauku for reinforcement; as they awaited her return, they could +see, from the deck of the schooner, Timau and his young men dancing the +war-dance on the hill-top till past twelve at night; and so soon as the +boat came (bringing three gendarmes, armed with chassepots, two white men +from Taahauku station, and some native warriors) the party set out to +seize the chief before he should awake. Day was not come, and it was a +very bright moonlight morning, when they reached the hill-top where (in a +house of palm-leaves) Timau was sleeping off his debauch. The assailants +were fully exposed, the interior of the hut quite dark; the position far +from sound. The gendarmes knelt with their pieces ready, and Captain +Hart advanced alone. As he drew near the door he heard the snap of a gun +cocking from within, and in sheer self-defence—there being no other +escape—sprang into the house and grappled Timau. ‘Timau, come with me!’ +he cried. But Timau—a great fellow, his eyes blood-red with the abuse of +kava, six foot three in stature—cast him on one side; and the captain, +instantly expecting to be either shot or brained, discharged his pistol +in the dark. When they carried Timau out at the door into the moonlight, +he was already dead, and, upon this unlooked-for termination of their +sally, the whites appeared to have lost all conduct, and retreated to the +boats, fired upon by the natives as they went. Captain Hart, who almost +rivals Bishop Dordillon in popularity, shared with him the policy of +extreme indulgence to the natives, regarding them as children, making +light of their defects, and constantly in favour of mild measures. The +death of Timau has thus somewhat weighed upon his mind; the more so, as +the chieftain’s musket was found in the house unloaded. To a less +delicate conscience the matter will seem light. If a drunken savage +elects to cock a fire-arm, a gentleman advancing towards him in the open +cannot wait to make sure if it be charged. + +I have touched on the captain’s popularity. It is one of the things that +most strikes a stranger in the Marquesas. He comes instantly on two +names, both new to him, both locally famous, both mentioned by all with +affection and respect—the bishop’s and the captain’s. It gave me a +strong desire to meet with the survivor, which was subsequently +gratified—to the enrichment of these pages. Long after that again, in +the Place Dolorous—Molokai—I came once more on the traces of that +affectionate popularity. There was a blind white leper there, an old +sailor—‘an old tough,’ he called himself—who had long sailed among the +eastern islands. Him I used to visit, and, being fresh from the scenes +of his activity, gave him the news. This (in the true island style) was +largely a chronicle of wrecks; and it chanced I mentioned the case of one +not very successful captain, and how he had lost a vessel for Mr. Hart; +thereupon the blind leper broke forth in lamentation. ‘Did he lose a +ship of John Hart’s?’ he cried; ‘poor John Hart! Well, I’m sorry it was +Hart’s,’ with needless force of epithet, which I neglect to reproduce. + +Perhaps, if Captain Hart’s affairs had continued to prosper, his +popularity might have been different. Success wins glory, but it kills +affection, which misfortune fosters. And the misfortune which overtook +the captain’s enterprise was truly singular. He was at the top of his +career. Ile Masse belonged to him, given by the French as an indemnity +for the robberies at Taahauku. But the Ile Masse was only suitable for +cattle; and his two chief stations were Anaho, in Nuka-hiva, facing the +north-east, and Taahauku in Hiva-oa, some hundred miles to the southward, +and facing the south-west. Both these were on the same day swept by a +tidal wave, which was not felt in any other bay or island of the group. +The south coast of Hiva-oa was bestrewn with building timber and +camphor-wood chests, containing goods; which, on the promise of a +reasonable salvage, the natives very honestly brought back, the chests +apparently not opened, and some of the wood after it had been built into +their houses. But the recovery of such jetsam could not affect the +result. It was impossible the captain should withstand this partiality +of fortune; and with his fall the prosperity of the Marquesas ended. +Anaho is truly extinct, Taahauku but a shadow of itself; nor has any new +plantation arisen in their stead. + + + +CHAPTER XIII—CHARACTERS + + +There was a certain traffic in our anchorage at Atuona; different indeed +from the dead inertia and quiescence of the sister island, Nuka-hiva. +Sails were seen steering from its mouth; now it would be a whale-boat +manned with native rowdies, and heavy with copra for sale; now perhaps a +single canoe come after commodities to buy. The anchorage was besides +frequented by fishers; not only the lone females perched in niches of the +cliff, but whole parties, who would sometimes camp and build a fire upon +the beach, and sometimes lie in their canoes in the midst of the haven +and jump by turns in the water; which they would cast eight or nine feet +high, to drive, as we supposed, the fish into their nets. The goods the +purchasers came to buy were sometimes quaint. I remarked one outrigger +returning with a single ham swung from a pole in the stern. And one day +there came into Mr. Keane’s store a charming lad, excellently mannered, +speaking French correctly though with a babyish accent; very handsome +too, and much of a dandy, as was shown not only in his shining raiment, +but by the nature of his purchases. These were five ship-biscuits, a +bottle of scent, and two balls of washing blue. He was from Tauata, +whither he returned the same night in an outrigger, daring the deep with +these young-ladyish treasures. The gross of the native passengers were +more ill-favoured: tall, powerful fellows, well tattooed, and with +disquieting manners. Something coarse and jeering distinguished them, +and I was often reminded of the slums of some great city. One night, as +dusk was falling, a whale-boat put in on that part of the beach where I +chanced to be alone. Six or seven ruffianly fellows scrambled out; all +had enough English to give me ‘good-bye,’ which was the ordinary +salutation; or ‘good-morning,’ which they seemed to regard as an +intensitive; jests followed, they surrounded me with harsh laughter and +rude looks, and I was glad to move away. I had not yet encountered Mr. +Stewart, or I should have been reminded of his first landing at Atuona +and the humorist who nibbled at the heel. But their neighbourhood +depressed me; and I felt, if I had been there a castaway and out of reach +of help, my heart would have been sick. + +Nor was the traffic altogether native. While we lay in the anchorage +there befell a strange coincidence. A schooner was observed at sea and +aiming to enter. We knew all the schooners in the group, but this +appeared larger than any; she was rigged, besides, after the English +manner; and, coming to an anchor some way outside the _Casco_, showed at +last the blue ensign. There were at that time, according to rumour, no +fewer than four yachts in the Pacific; but it was strange that any two of +them should thus lie side by side in that outlandish inlet: stranger +still that in the owner of the _Nyanza_, Captain Dewar, I should find a +man of the same country and the same county with myself, and one whom I +had seen walking as a boy on the shores of the Alpes Maritimes. + +We had besides a white visitor from shore, who came and departed in a +crowded whale-boat manned by natives; having read of yachts in the Sunday +papers, and being fired with the desire to see one. Captain Chase, they +called him, an old whaler-man, thickset and white-bearded, with a strong +Indiana drawl; years old in the country, a good backer in battle, and one +of those dead shots whose practice at the target struck terror in the +braves of Haamau. Captain Chase dwelt farther east in a bay called +Hanamate, with a Mr. M’Callum; or rather they had dwelt together once, +and were now amicably separated. The captain is to be found near one end +of the bay, in a wreck of a house, and waited on by a Chinese. At the +point of the opposing corner another habitation stands on a tall paepae. +The surf runs there exceeding heavy, seas of seven and eight feet high +bursting under the walls of the house, which is thus continually filled +with their clamour, and rendered fit only for solitary, or at least for +silent, inmates. Here it is that Mr. M’Callum, with a Shakespeare and a +Burns, enjoys the society of the breakers. His name and his Burns +testify to Scottish blood; but he is an American born, somewhere far +east; followed the trade of a ship-carpenter; and was long employed, the +captain of a hundred Indians, breaking up wrecks about Cape Flattery. +Many of the whites who are to be found scattered in the South Seas +represent the more artistic portion of their class; and not only enjoy +the poetry of that new life, but came there on purpose to enjoy it. I +have been shipmates with a man, no longer young, who sailed upon that +voyage, his first time to sea, for the mere love of Samoa; and it was a +few letters in a newspaper that sent him on that pilgrimage. Mr. +M’Callum was another instance of the same. He had read of the South +Seas; loved to read of them; and let their image fasten in his heart: +till at length he could refrain no longer—must set forth, a new Rudel, +for that unseen homeland—and has now dwelt for years in Hiva-oa, and will +lay his bones there in the end with full content; having no desire to +behold again the places of his boyhood, only, perhaps—once, before he +dies—the rude and wintry landscape of Cape Flattery. Yet he is an active +man, full of schemes; has bought land of the natives; has planted five +thousand coco-palms; has a desert island in his eye, which he desires to +lease, and a schooner in the stocks, which he has laid and built himself, +and even hopes to finish. Mr. M’Callum and I did not meet, but, like +gallant troubadours, corresponded in verse. I hope he will not consider +it a breach of copyright if I give here a specimen of his muse. He and +Bishop Dordillon are the two European bards of the Marquesas. + + ‘Sail, ho! Ahoy! _Casco_, + First among the pleasure fleet + That came around to greet + These isles from San Francisco, + + And first, too; only one + Among the literary men + That this way has ever been— + Welcome, then, to Stevenson. + + Please not offended be + At this little notice + Of the _Casco_, Captain Otis, + With the novelist’s family. + + _Avoir une voyage magnifical_ + Is our wish sincere, + That you’ll have from here + _Allant sur la Grande Pacifical_.’ + +But our chief visitor was one Mapiao, a great Tahuku—which seems to mean +priest, wizard, tattooer, practiser of any art, or, in a word, esoteric +person—and a man famed for his eloquence on public occasions and witty +talk in private. His first appearance was typical of the man. He came +down clamorous to the eastern landing, where the surf was running very +high; scorned all our signals to go round the bay; carried his point, was +brought aboard at some hazard to our skiff, and set down in one corner of +the cockpit to his appointed task. He had been hired, as one cunning in +the art, to make my old men’s beards into a wreath: what a wreath for +Celia’s arbour! His own beard (which he carried, for greater safety, in +a sailor’s knot) was not merely the adornment of his age, but a +substantial piece of property. One hundred dollars was the estimated +value; and as Brother Michel never knew a native to deposit a greater sum +with Bishop Dordillon, our friend was a rich man in virtue of his chin. +He had something of an East Indian cast, but taller and stronger: his +nose hooked, his face narrow, his forehead very high, the whole +elaborately tattooed. I may say I have never entertained a guest so +trying. In the least particular he must be waited on; he would not go to +the scuttle-butt for water; he would not even reach to get the glass, it +must be given him in his hand; if aid were denied him, he would fold his +arms, bow his head, and go without: only the work would suffer. Early +the first forenoon he called aloud for biscuit and salmon; biscuit and +ham were brought; he looked on them inscrutably, and signed they should +be set aside. A number of considerations crowded on my mind; how the +sort of work on which he was engaged was probably tapu in a high degree; +should by rights, perhaps, be transacted on a tapu platform which no +female might approach; and it was possible that fish might be the +essential diet. Some salted fish I therefore brought him, and along with +that a glass of rum: at sight of which Mapiao displayed extraordinary +animation, pointed to the zenith, made a long speech in which I picked up +_umati_—the word for the sun—and signed to me once more to place these +dainties out of reach. At last I had understood, and every day the +programme was the same. At an early period of the morning his dinner +must be set forth on the roof of the house and at a proper distance, full +in view but just out of reach; and not until the fit hour, which was the +point of noon, would the artificer partake. This solemnity was the cause +of an absurd misadventure. He was seated plaiting, as usual, at the +beards, his dinner arrayed on the roof, and not far off a glass of water +standing. It appears he desired to drink; was of course far too great a +gentleman to rise and get the water for himself; and spying Mrs. +Stevenson, imperiously signed to her to hand it. The signal was +misunderstood; Mrs. Stevenson was, by this time, prepared for any +eccentricity on the part of our guest; and instead of passing him the +water, flung his dinner overboard. I must do Mapiao justice: all +laughed, but his laughter rang the loudest. + +These troubles of service were at worst occasional; the embarrassment of +the man’s talk incessant. He was plainly a practised conversationalist; +the nicety of his inflections, the elegance of his gestures, and the fine +play of his expression, told us that. We, meanwhile, sat like aliens in +a playhouse; we could see the actors were upon some material business and +performing well, but the plot of the drama remained undiscoverable. +Names of places, the name of Captain Hart, occasional disconnected words, +tantalised without enlightening us; and the less we understood, the more +gallantly, the more copiously, and with still the more explanatory +gestures, Mapiao returned to the assault. We could see his vanity was on +the rack; being come to a place where that fine jewel of his +conversational talent could earn him no respect; and he had times of +despair when he desisted from the endeavour, and instants of irritation +when he regarded us with unconcealed contempt. Yet for me, as the +practitioner of some kindred mystery to his own, he manifested to the +last a measure of respect. As we sat under the awning in opposite +corners of the cockpit, he braiding hairs from dead men’s chins, I +forming runes upon a sheet of folio paper, he would nod across to me as +one Tahuku to another, or, crossing the cockpit, study for a while my +shapeless scrawl and encourage me with a heartfelt ‘_mitai_!—good!’ So +might a deaf painter sympathise far off with a musician, as the slave and +master of some uncomprehended and yet kindred art. A silly trade, he +doubtless considered it; but a man must make allowance for +barbarians—_chaque pays a ses coutumes_—and he felt the principle was +there. + +The time came at last when his labours, which resembled those rather of +Penelope than Hercules, could be no more spun out, and nothing remained +but to pay him and say farewell. After a long, learned argument in +Marquesan, I gathered that his mind was set on fish-hooks; with three of +which, and a brace of dollars, I thought he was not ill rewarded for +passing his forenoons in our cockpit, eating, drinking, delivering his +opinions, and pressing the ship’s company into his menial service. For +all that, he was a man of so high a bearing, and so like an uncle of my +own who should have gone mad and got tattooed, that I applied to him, +when we were both on shore, to know if he were satisfied. ‘_Mitai +ehipe_?’ I asked. And he, with rich unction, offering at the same time +his hand—‘_Mitai ehipe_, _mitai kaehae_; _kaoha nui_!’—or, to translate +freely: ‘The ship is good, the victuals are up to the mark, and we part +in friendship.’ Which testimonial uttered, he set off along the beach +with his head bowed and the air of one deeply injured. + +I saw him go, on my side, with relief. It would be more interesting to +learn how our relation seemed to Mapiao. His exigence, we may suppose, +was merely loyal. He had been hired by the ignorant to do a piece of +work; and he was bound that he would do it the right way. Countless +obstacles, continual ignorant ridicule, availed not to dissuade him. He +had his dinner laid out; watched it, as was fit, the while he worked; ate +it at the fit hour; was in all things served and waited on; and could +take his hire in the end with a clear conscience, telling himself the +mystery was performed duly, the beards rightfully braided, and we (in +spite of ourselves) correctly served. His view of our stupidity, even +he, the mighty talker, must have lacked language to express. He never +interfered with my Tahuku work; civilly praised it, idle as it seemed; +civilly supposed that I was competent in my own mystery: such being the +attitude of the intelligent and the polite. And we, on the other +hand—who had yet the most to gain or lose, since the product was to be +ours—who had professed our disability by the very act of hiring him to do +it—were never weary of impeding his own more important labours, and +sometimes lacked the sense and the civility to refrain from laughter. + + + +CHAPTER XIV—IN A CANNIBAL VALLEY + + +The road from Taahauku to Atuona skirted the north-westerly side of the +anchorage, somewhat high up, edged, and sometimes shaded, by the splendid +flowers of the _flamboyant_—its English name I do not know. At the turn +of the hand, Atuona came in view: a long beach, a heavy and loud breach +of surf, a shore-side village scattered among trees, and the guttered +mountains drawing near on both sides above a narrow and rich ravine. Its +infamous repute perhaps affected me; but I thought it the loveliest, and +by far the most ominous and gloomy, spot on earth. Beautiful it surely +was; and even more salubrious. The healthfulness of the whole group is +amazing; that of Atuona almost in the nature of a miracle. In Atuona, a +village planted in a shore-side marsh, the houses standing everywhere +intermingled with the pools of a taro-garden, we find every condition of +tropical danger and discomfort; and yet there are not even mosquitoes—not +even the hateful day-fly of Nuka-hiva—and fever, and its concomitant, the +island fe’efe’e, {122} are unknown. + +This is the chief station of the French on the man-eating isle of +Hiva-oa. The sergeant of gendarmerie enjoys the style of the +vice-resident, and hoists the French colours over a quite extensive +compound. A Chinaman, a waif from the plantation, keeps a restaurant in +the rear quarters of the village; and the mission is well represented by +the sister’s school and Brother Michel’s church. Father Orens, a +wonderful octogenarian, his frame scarce bowed, the fire of his eye +undimmed, has lived, and trembled, and suffered in this place since 1843. +Again and again, when Moipu had made coco-brandy, he has been driven from +his house into the woods. ‘A mouse that dwelt in a cat’s ear’ had a more +easy resting-place; and yet I have never seen a man that bore less mark +of years. He must show us the church, still decorated with the bishop’s +artless ornaments of paper—the last work of industrious old hands, and +the last earthly amusement of a man that was much of a hero. In the +sacristy we must see his sacred vessels, and, in particular, a vestment +which was a ‘_vraie curiosité_,’ because it had been given by a gendarme. +To the Protestant there is always something embarrassing in the eagerness +with which grown and holy men regard these trifles; but it was touching +and pretty to see Orens, his aged eyes shining in his head, display his +sacred treasures. + +_August_ 26.—The vale behind the village, narrowing swiftly to a mere +ravine, was choked with profitable trees. A river gushed in the midst. +Overhead, the tall coco-palms made a primary covering; above that, from +one wall of the mountain to another, the ravine was roofed with cloud; so +that we moved below, amid teeming vegetation, in a covered house of heat. +On either hand, at every hundred yards, instead of the houseless, +disembowelling paepaes of Nuka-hiva, populous houses turned out their +inhabitants to cry ‘Kaoha!’ to the passers-by. The road, too, was busy: +strings of girls, fair and foul, as in less favoured countries; men +bearing breadfruit; the sisters, with a little guard of pupils; a fellow +bestriding a horse—passed and greeted us continually; and now it was a +Chinaman who came to the gate of his flower-yard, and gave us ‘Good-day’ +in excellent English; and a little farther on it would be some natives +who set us down by the wayside, made us a feast of mummy-apple, and +entertained us as we ate with drumming on a tin case. With all this fine +plenty of men and fruit, death is at work here also. The population, +according to the highest estimate, does not exceed six hundred in the +whole vale of Atuona; and yet, when I once chanced to put the question, +Brother Michel counted up ten whom he knew to be sick beyond recovery. +It was here, too, that I could at last gratify my curiosity with the +sight of a native house in the very article of dissolution. It had +fallen flat along the paepae, its poles sprawling ungainly; the rains and +the mites contended against it; what remained seemed sound enough, but +much was gone already; and it was easy to see how the insects consumed +the walls as if they had been bread, and the air and the rain ate into +them like vitriol. + +A little ahead of us, a young gentleman, very well tattooed, and dressed +in a pair of white trousers and a flannel shirt, had been marching +unconcernedly. Of a sudden, without apparent cause, he turned back, took +us in possession, and led us undissuadably along a by-path to the river’s +edge. There, in a nook of the most attractive amenity, he bade us to sit +down: the stream splashing at our elbow, a shock of nondescript greenery +enshrining us from above; and thither, after a brief absence, he brought +us a cocoa-nut, a lump of sandal-wood, and a stick he had begun to carve: +the nut for present refreshment, the sandal-wood for a precious gift, and +the stick—in the simplicity of his vanity—to harvest premature praise. +Only one section was yet carved, although the whole was pencil-marked in +lengths; and when I proposed to buy it, Poni (for that was the artist’s +name) recoiled in horror. But I was not to be moved, and simply refused +restitution, for I had long wondered why a people who displayed, in their +tattooing, so great a gift of arabesque invention, should display it +nowhere else. Here, at last, I had found something of the same talent in +another medium; and I held the incompleteness, in these days of +world-wide brummagem, for a happy mark of authenticity. Neither my +reasons nor my purpose had I the means of making clear to Poni; I could +only hold on to the stick, and bid the artist follow me to the +gendarmerie, where I should find interpreters and money; but we gave him, +in the meanwhile, a boat-call in return for his sandal-wood. As he came +behind us down the vale he sounded upon this continually. And +continually, from the wayside houses, there poured forth little groups of +girls in crimson, or of men in white. And to these must Poni pass the +news of who the strangers were, of what they had been doing, of why it +was that Poni had a boat-whistle; and of why he was now being haled to +the vice-residency, uncertain whether to be punished or rewarded, +uncertain whether he had lost a stick or made a bargain, but hopeful on +the whole, and in the meanwhile highly consoled by the boat-whistle. +Whereupon he would tear himself away from this particular group of +inquirers, and once more we would hear the shrill call in our wake. + +_August_ 27.—I made a more extended circuit in the vale with Brother +Michel. We were mounted on a pair of sober nags, suitable to these rude +paths; the weather was exquisite, and the company in which I found myself +no less agreeable than the scenes through which I passed. We mounted at +first by a steep grade along the summit of one of those twisted spurs +that, from a distance, mark out provinces of sun and shade upon the +mountain-side. The ground fell away on either hand with an extreme +declivity. From either hand, out of profound ravines, mounted the song +of falling water and the smoke of household fires. Here and there the +hills of foliage would divide, and our eye would plunge down upon one of +these deep-nested habitations. And still, high in front, arose the +precipitous barrier of the mountain, greened over where it seemed that +scarce a harebell could find root, barred with the zigzags of a human +road where it seemed that not a goat could scramble. And in truth, for +all the labour that it cost, the road is regarded even by the Marquesans +as impassable; they will not risk a horse on that ascent; and those who +lie to the westward come and go in their canoes. I never knew a hill to +lose so little on a near approach: a consequence, I must suppose, of its +surprising steepness. When we turned about, I was amazed to behold so +deep a view behind, and so high a shoulder of blue sea, crowned by the +whale-like island of Motane. And yet the wall of mountain had not +visibly dwindled, and I could even have fancied, as I raised my eyes to +measure it, that it loomed higher than before. + +We struck now into covert paths, crossed and heard more near at hand the +bickering of the streams, and tasted the coolness of those recesses where +the houses stood. The birds sang about us as we descended. All along +our path my guide was being hailed by voices: ‘Mikaël—Kaoha, Mikaël!’ +From the doorstep, from the cotton-patch, or out of the deep grove of +island-chestnuts, these friendly cries arose, and were cheerily answered +as we passed. In a sharp angle of a glen, on a rushing brook and under +fathoms of cool foliage, we struck a house upon a well-built paepae, the +fire brightly burning under the popoi-shed against the evening meal; and +here the cries became a chorus, and the house folk, running out, obliged +us to dismount and breathe. It seemed a numerous family: we saw eight at +least; and one of these honoured me with a particular attention. This +was the mother, a woman naked to the waist, of an aged countenance, but +with hair still copious and black, and breasts still erect and youthful. +On our arrival I could see she remarked me, but instead of offering any +greeting, disappeared at once into the bush. Thence she returned with +two crimson flowers. ‘Good-bye!’ was her salutation, uttered not without +coquetry; and as she said it she pressed the flowers into my +hand—‘Good-bye! I speak Inglis.’ It was from a whaler-man, who (she +informed me) was ‘a plenty good chap,’ that she had learned my language; +and I could not but think how handsome she must have been in these times +of her youth, and could not but guess that some memories of the dandy +whaler-man prompted her attentions to myself. Nor could I refrain from +wondering what had befallen her lover; in the rain and mire of what +sea-ports he had tramped since then; in what close and garish +drinking-dens had found his pleasure; and in the ward of what infirmary +dreamed his last of the Marquesas. But she, the more fortunate, lived on +in her green island. The talk, in this lost house upon the mountains, +ran chiefly upon Mapiao and his visits to the _Casco_: the news of which +had probably gone abroad by then to all the island, so that there was no +paepae in Hiva-oa where they did not make the subject of excited comment. + +Not much beyond we came upon a high place in the foot of the ravine. Two +roads divided it, and met in the midst. Save for this intersection the +amphitheatre was strangely perfect, and had a certain ruder air of things +Roman. Depths of foliage and the bulk of the mountain kept it in a +grateful shadow. On the benches several young folk sat clustered or +apart. One of these, a girl perhaps fourteen years of age, buxom and +comely, caught the eye of Brother Michel. Why was she not at school?—she +was done with school now. What was she doing here?—she lived here now. +Why so?—no answer but a deepening blush. There was no severity in +Brother Michel’s manner; the girl’s own confusion told her story. ‘_Elle +a honte_,’ was the missionary’s comment, as we rode away. Near by in the +stream, a grown girl was bathing naked in a goyle between two +stepping-stones; and it amused me to see with what alacrity and real +alarm she bounded on her many-coloured under-clothes. Even in these +daughters of cannibals shame was eloquent. + +It is in Hiva-oa, owing to the inveterate cannibalism of the natives, +that local beliefs have been most rudely trodden underfoot. It was here +that three religious chiefs were set under a bridge, and the women of the +valley made to defile over their heads upon the road-way: the poor, +dishonoured fellows sitting there (all observers agree) with streaming +tears. Not only was one road driven across the high place, but two roads +intersected in its midst. There is no reason to suppose that the last +was done of purpose, and perhaps it was impossible entirely to avoid the +numerous sacred places of the islands. But these things are not done +without result. I have spoken already of the regard of Marquesans for +the dead, making (as it does) so strange a contrast with their unconcern +for death. Early on this day’s ride, for instance, we encountered a +petty chief, who inquired (of course) where we were going, and suggested +by way of amendment. ‘Why do you not rather show him the cemetery?’ I +saw it; it was but newly opened, the third within eight years. They are +great builders here in Hiva-oa; I saw in my ride paepaes that no European +dry-stone mason could have equalled, the black volcanic stones were laid +so justly, the corners were so precise, the levels so true; but the +retaining-wall of the new graveyard stood apart, and seemed to be a work +of love. The sentiment of honour for the dead is therefore not extinct. +And yet observe the consequence of violently countering men’s opinions. +Of the four prisoners in Atuona gaol, three were of course thieves; the +fourth was there for sacrilege. He had levelled up a piece of the +graveyard—to give a feast upon, as he informed the court—and declared he +had no thought of doing wrong. Why should he? He had been forced at the +point of the bayonet to destroy the sacred places of his own piety; when +he had recoiled from the task, he had been jeered at for a superstitious +fool. And now it is supposed he will respect our European superstitions +as by second nature. + + + +CHAPTER XV—THE TWO CHIEFS OF ATUONA + + +It had chanced (as the _Casco_ beat through the Bordelais Straits for +Taahauku) she approached on one board very near the land in the opposite +isle of Tauata, where houses were to be seen in a grove of tall +coco-palms. Brother Michel pointed out the spot. ‘I am at home now,’ +said he. ‘I believe I have a large share in these cocoa-nuts; and in +that house madame my mother lives with her two husbands!’ ‘With two +husbands?’ somebody inquired. ‘_C’est ma honte_,’ replied the brother +drily. + +A word in passing on the two husbands. I conceive the brother to have +expressed himself loosely. It seems common enough to find a native lady +with two consorts; but these are not two husbands. The first is still +the husband; the wife continues to be referred to by his name; and the +position of the coadjutor, or _pikio_, although quite regular, appears +undoubtedly subordinate. We had opportunities to observe one household +of the sort. The _pikio_ was recognised; appeared openly along with the +husband when the lady was thought to be insulted, and the pair made +common cause like brothers. At home the inequality was more apparent. +The husband sat to receive and entertain visitors; the _pikio_ was +running the while to fetch cocoa-nuts like a hired servant, and I +remarked he was sent on these errands in preference even to the son. +Plainly we have here no second husband; plainly we have the tolerated +lover. Only, in the Marquesas, instead of carrying his lady’s fan and +mantle, he must turn his hand to do the husband’s housework. + +The sight of Brother Michel’s family estate led the conversation for some +while upon the method and consequence of artificial kinship. Our +curiosity became extremely whetted; the brother offered to have the whole +of us adopted, and some two days later we became accordingly the children +of Paaaeua, appointed chief of Atuona. I was unable to be present at the +ceremony, which was primitively simple. The two Mrs. Stevensons and Mr. +Osbourne, along with Paaaeua, his wife, and an adopted child of theirs, +son of a shipwrecked Austrian, sat down to an excellent island meal, of +which the principal and the only necessary dish was pig. A concourse +watched them through the apertures of the house; but none, not even +Brother Michel, might partake; for the meal was sacramental, and either +creative or declaratory of the new relationship. In Tahiti things are +not so strictly ordered; when Ori and I ‘made brothers,’ both our +families sat with us at table, yet only he and I, who had eaten with +intention were supposed to be affected by the ceremony. For the adoption +of an infant I believe no formality to be required; the child is handed +over by the natural parents, and grows up to inherit the estates of the +adoptive. Presents are doubtless exchanged, as at all junctures of +island life, social or international; but I never heard of any +banquet—the child’s presence at the daily board perhaps sufficing. We +may find the rationale in the ancient Arabian idea that a common diet +makes a common blood, with its derivative axiom that ‘he is the father +who gives the child its morning draught.’ In the Marquesan practice, the +sense would thus be evanescent; from the Tahitian, a mere survival, it +will have entirely fled. An interesting parallel will probably occur to +many of my readers. + +What is the nature of the obligation assumed at such a festival? It will +vary with the characters of those engaged, and with the circumstances of +the case. Thus it would be absurd to take too seriously our adoption at +Atuona. On the part of Paaaeua it was an affair of social ambition; when +he agreed to receive us in his family the man had not so much as seen us, +and knew only that we were inestimably rich and travelled in a floating +palace. We, upon our side, ate of his baked meats with no true _animus +affiliandi_, but moved by the single sentiment of curiosity. The affair +was formal, and a matter of parade, as when in Europe sovereigns call +each other cousin. Yet, had we stayed at Atuona, Paaaeua would have held +himself bound to establish us upon his land, and to set apart young men +for our service, and trees for our support. I have mentioned the +Austrian. He sailed in one of two sister ships, which left the Clyde in +coal; both rounded the Horn, and both, at several hundred miles of +distance, though close on the same point of time, took fire at sea on the +Pacific. One was destroyed; the derelict iron frame of the second, after +long, aimless cruising, was at length recovered, refitted, and hails +to-day from San Francisco. A boat’s crew from one of these disasters +reached, after great hardships, the isle of Hiva-oa. Some of these men +vowed they would never again confront the chances of the sea; but alone +of them all the Austrian has been exactly true to his engagement, remains +where he landed, and designs to die where he has lived. Now, with such a +man, falling and taking root among islanders, the processes described may +be compared to a gardener’s graft. He passes bodily into the native +stock; ceases wholly to be alien; has entered the commune of the blood, +shares the prosperity and consideration of his new family, and is +expected to impart with the same generosity the fruits of his European +skill and knowledge. It is this implied engagement that so frequently +offends the ingrafted white. To snatch an immediate advantage—to get +(let us say) a station for his store—he will play upon the native custom +and become a son or a brother for the day, promising himself to cast down +the ladder by which he shall have ascended, and repudiate the kinship so +soon as it shall grow burdensome. And he finds there are two parties to +the bargain. Perhaps his Polynesian relative is simple, and conceived +the blood-bond literally; perhaps he is shrewd, and himself entered the +covenant with a view to gain. And either way the store is ravaged, the +house littered with lazy natives; and the richer the man grows, the more +numerous, the more idle, and the more affectionate he finds his native +relatives. Most men thus circumstanced contrive to buy or brutally +manage to enforce their independence; but many vegetate without hope, +strangled by parasites. + +We had no cause to blush with Brother Michel. Our new parents were kind, +gentle, well-mannered, and generous in gifts; the wife was a most +motherly woman, the husband a man who stood justly high with his +employers. Enough has been said to show why Moipu should be deposed; and +in Paaaeua the French had found a reputable substitute. He went always +scrupulously dressed, and looked the picture of propriety, like a dark, +handsome, stupid, and probably religious young man hot from a European +funeral. In character he seemed the ideal of what is known as the good +citizen. He wore gravity like an ornament. None could more nicely +represent the desired character as an appointed chief, the outpost of +civilisation and reform. And yet, were the French to go and native +manners to revive, fancy beholds him crowned with old men’s beards and +crowding with the first to a man-eating festival. But I must not seem to +be unjust to Paaaeua. His respectability went deeper than the skin; his +sense of the becoming sometimes nerved him for unexpected rigours. + +One evening Captain Otis and Mr. Osbourne were on shore in the village. +All was agog; dancing had begun; it was plain it was to be a night of +festival, and our adventurers were overjoyed at their good fortune. A +strong fall of rain drove them for shelter to the house of Paaaeua, where +they were made welcome, wiled into a chamber, and shut in. Presently the +rain took off, the fun was to begin in earnest, and the young bloods of +Atuona came round the house and called to my fellow-travellers through +the interstices of the wall. Late into the night the calls were +continued and resumed, and sometimes mingled with taunts; late into the +night the prisoners, tantalised by the noises of the festival, renewed +their efforts to escape. But all was vain; right across the door lay +that god-fearing householder, Paaaeua, feigning sleep; and my friends had +to forego their junketing. In this incident, so delightfully European, +we thought we could detect three strands of sentiment. In the first +place, Paaaeua had a charge of souls: these were young men, and he judged +it right to withhold them from the primrose path. Secondly, he was a +public character, and it was not fitting that his guests should +countenance a festival of which he disapproved. So might some strict +clergyman at home address a worldly visitor: ‘Go to the theatre if you +like, but, by your leave, not from my house!’ Thirdly, Paaaeua was a man +jealous, and with some cause (as shall be shown) for jealousy; and the +feasters were the satellites of his immediate rival, Moipu. + +For the adoption had caused much excitement in the village; it made the +strangers popular. Paaaeua, in his difficult posture of appointed chief, +drew strength and dignity from their alliance, and only Moipu and his +followers were malcontent. For some reason nobody (except myself) +appears to dislike Moipu. Captain Hart, who has been robbed and +threatened by him; Father Orens, whom he has fired at, and repeatedly +driven to the woods; my own family, and even the French officials—all +seemed smitten with an irrepressible affection for the man. His fall had +been made soft; his son, upon his death, was to succeed Paaaeua in the +chieftaincy; and he lived, at the time of our visit, in the shoreward +part of the village in a good house, and with a strong following of young +men, his late braves and pot-hunters. In this society, the coming of the +_Casco_, the adoption, the return feast on board, and the presents +exchanged between the whites and their new parents, were doubtless +eagerly and bitterly canvassed. It was felt that a few years ago the +honours would have gone elsewhere. In this unwonted business, in this +reception of some hitherto undreamed-of and outlandish potentate—some +Prester John or old Assaracus—a few years back it would have been the +part of Moipu to play the hero and the host, and his young men would have +accompanied and adorned the various celebrations as the acknowledged +leaders of society. And now, by a malign vicissitude of fortune, Moipu +must sit in his house quite unobserved; and his young men could but look +in at the door while their rivals feasted. Perhaps M. Grévy felt a touch +of bitterness towards his successor when he beheld him figure on the +broad stage of the centenary of eighty-nine; the visit of the _Casco_ +which Moipu had missed by so few years was a more unusual occasion in +Atuona than a centenary in France; and the dethroned chief determined to +reassert himself in the public eye. + +Mr. Osbourne had gone into Atuona photographing; the population of the +village had gathered together for the occasion on the place before the +church, and Paaaeua, highly delighted with this new appearance of his +family, played the master of ceremonies. The church had been taken, with +its jolly architect before the door; the nuns with their pupils; sundry +damsels in the ancient and singularly unbecoming robes of tapa; and +Father Orens in the midst of a group of his parishioners. I know not +what else was in hand, when the photographer became aware of a sensation +in the crowd, and, looking around, beheld a very noble figure of a man +appear upon the margin of a thicket and stroll nonchalantly near. The +nonchalance was visibly affected; it was plain he came there to arouse +attention, and his success was instant. He was introduced; he was civil, +he was obliging, he was always ineffably superior and certain of himself; +a well-graced actor. It was presently suggested that he should appear in +his war costume; he gracefully consented; and returned in that strange, +inappropriate and ill-omened array (which very well became his handsome +person) to strut in a circle of admirers, and be thenceforth the centre +of photography. Thus had Moipu effected his introduction, as by +accident, to the white strangers, made it a favour to display his finery, +and reduced his rival to a secondary _rôle_ on the theatre of the +disputed village. Paaaeua felt the blow; and, with a spirit which we +never dreamed he could possess, asserted his priority. It was found +impossible that day to get a photograph of Moipu alone; for whenever he +stood up before the camera his successor placed himself unbidden by his +side, and gently but firmly held to his position. The portraits of the +pair, Jacob and Esau, standing shoulder to shoulder, one in his careful +European dress, one in his barbaric trappings, figure the past and +present of their island. A graveyard with its humble crosses would be +the aptest symbol of the future. + +We are all impressed with the belief that Moipu had planned his campaign +from the beginning to the end. It is certain that he lost no time in +pushing his advantage. Mr. Osbourne was inveigled to his house; various +gifts were fished out of an old sea-chest; Father Orens was called into +service as interpreter, and Moipu formally proposed to ‘make brothers’ +with Mata-Galahi—Glass-Eyes,—the not very euphonious name under which Mr. +Osbourne passed in the Marquesas. The feast of brotherhood took place on +board the _Casco_. Paaaeua had arrived with his family, like a plain +man; and his presents, which had been numerous, had followed one another, +at intervals through several days. Moipu, as if to mark at every point +the opposition, came with a certain feudal pomp, attended by retainers +bearing gifts of all descriptions, from plumes of old men’s beard to +little, pious, Catholic engravings. + +I had met the man before this in the village, and detested him on sight; +there was something indescribably raffish in his looks and ways that +raised my gorge; and when man-eating was referred to, and he laughed a +low, cruel laugh, part boastful, part bashful, like one reminded of some +dashing peccadillo, my repugnance was mingled with nausea. This is no +very human attitude, nor one at all becoming in a traveller. And, seen +more privately, the man improved. Something negroid in character and +face was still displeasing; but his ugly mouth became attractive when he +smiled, his figure and bearing were certainly noble, and his eyes superb. +In his appreciation of jams and pickles, in is delight in the +reverberating mirrors of the dining cabin, and consequent endless +repetition of Moipus and Mata-Galahis, he showed himself engagingly a +child. And yet I am not sure; and what seemed childishness may have been +rather courtly art. His manners struck me as beyond the mark; they were +refined and caressing to the point of grossness, and when I think of the +serene absent-mindedness with which he first strolled in upon our party, +and then recall him running on hands and knees along the cabin sofas, +pawing the velvet, dipping into the beds, and bleating commendatory +‘_mitais_’ with exaggerated emphasis, like some enormous over-mannered +ape, I feel the more sure that both must have been calculated. And I +sometimes wonder next, if Moipu were quite alone in this polite +duplicity, and ask myself whether the _Casco_ were quite so much admired +in the Marquesas as our visitors desired us to suppose. + +I will complete this sketch of an incurable cannibal grandee with two +incongruous traits. His favourite morsel was the human hand, of which he +speaks to-day with an ill-favoured lustfulness. And when he said +good-bye to Mrs. Stevenson, holding her hand, viewing her with tearful +eyes, and chanting his farewell improvisation in the falsetto of +Marquesan high society, he wrote upon her mind a sentimental impression +which I try in vain to share. + + + + +PART II: THE PAUMOTUS + + +CHAPTER I—THE DANGEROUS ARCHIPELAGO—ATOLLS AT A DISTANCE + + +In the early morning of 4th September a whale-boat manned by natives +dragged us down the green lane of the anchorage and round the spouting +promontory. On the shore level it was a hot, breathless, and yet crystal +morning; but high overhead the hills of Atuona were all cowled in cloud, +and the ocean-river of the trades streamed without pause. As we crawled +from under the immediate shelter of the land, we reached at last the +limit of their influence. The wind fell upon our sails in puffs, which +strengthened and grew more continuous; presently the _Casco_ heeled down +to her day’s work; the whale-boat, quite outstripped, clung for a noisy +moment to her quarter; the stipulated bread, rum, and tobacco were passed +in; a moment more and the boat was in our wake, and our late pilots were +cheering our departure. + +This was the more inspiriting as we were bound for scenes so different, +and though on a brief voyage, yet for a new province of creation. That +wide field of ocean, called loosely the South Seas, extends from tropic +to tropic, and from perhaps 123 degrees W. to 150 degrees E., a +parallelogram of one hundred degrees by forty-seven, where degrees are +the most spacious. Much of it lies vacant, much is closely sown with +isles, and the isles are of two sorts. No distinction is so continually +dwelt upon in South Sea talk as that between the ‘low’ and the ‘high’ +island, and there is none more broadly marked in nature. The Himalayas +are not more different from the Sahara. On the one hand, and chiefly in +groups of from eight to a dozen, volcanic islands rise above the sea; few +reach an altitude of less than 4000 feet; one exceeds 13,000; their tops +are often obscured in cloud, they are all clothed with various forests, +all abound in food, and are all remarkable for picturesque and solemn +scenery. On the other hand, we have the atoll; a thing of problematic +origin and history, the reputed creature of an insect apparently +unidentified; rudely annular in shape; enclosing a lagoon; rarely +extending beyond a quarter of a mile at its chief width; often rising at +its highest point to less than the stature of a man—man himself, the rat +and the land crab, its chief inhabitants; not more variously supplied +with plants; and offering to the eye, even when perfect, only a ring of +glittering beach and verdant foliage, enclosing and enclosed by the blue +sea. + +In no quarter are the atolls so thickly congregated, in none are they so +varied in size from the greatest to the least, and in none is navigation +so beset with perils, as in that archipelago that we were now to thread. +The huge system of the trades is, for some reason, quite confounded by +this multiplicity of reefs, the wind intermits, squalls are frequent from +the west and south-west, hurricanes are known. The currents are, +besides, inextricably intermixed; dead reckoning becomes a farce; the +charts are not to be trusted; and such is the number and similarity of +these islands that, even when you have picked one up, you may be none the +wiser. The reputation of the place is consequently infamous; insurance +offices exclude it from their field, and it was not without misgiving +that my captain risked the _Casco_ in such waters. I believe, indeed, it +is almost understood that yachts are to avoid this baffling archipelago; +and it required all my instances—and all Mr. Otis’s private taste for +adventure—to deflect our course across its midst. + +For a few days we sailed with a steady trade, and a steady westerly +current setting us to leeward; and toward sundown of the seventh it was +supposed we should have sighted Takaroa, one of Cook’s so-called King +George Islands. The sun set; yet a while longer the old +moon—semi-brilliant herself, and with a silver belly, which was her +successor—sailed among gathering clouds; she, too, deserted us; stars of +every degree of sheen, and clouds of every variety of form disputed the +sub-lustrous night; and still we gazed in vain for Takaroa. The mate +stood on the bowsprit, his tall grey figure slashing up and down against +the stars, and still + + ‘nihil astra praeter + Vidit et undas. + +The rest of us were grouped at the port anchor davit, staring with no +less assiduity, but with far less hope on the obscure horizon. Islands +we beheld in plenty, but they were of ‘such stuff as dreams are made on,’ +and vanished at a wink, only to appear in other places; and by and by not +only islands, but refulgent and revolving lights began to stud the +darkness; lighthouses of the mind or of the wearied optic nerve, solemnly +shining and winking as we passed. At length the mate himself despaired, +scrambled on board again from his unrestful perch, and announced that we +had missed our destination. He was the only man of practice in these +waters, our sole pilot, shipped for that end at Tai-o-hae. If he +declared we had missed Takaroa, it was not for us to quarrel with the +fact, but, if we could, to explain it. We had certainly run down our +southing. Our canted wake upon the sea and our somewhat drunken-looking +course upon the chart both testified with no less certainty to an +impetuous westward current. We had no choice but to conclude we were +again set down to leeward; and the best we could do was to bring the +_Casco_ to the wind, keep a good watch, and expect morning. + +I slept that night, as was then my somewhat dangerous practice, on deck +upon the cockpit bench. A stir at last awoke me, to see all the eastern +heaven dyed with faint orange, the binnacle lamp already dulled against +the brightness of the day, and the steersman leaning eagerly across the +wheel. ‘There it is, sir!’ he cried, and pointed in the very eyeball of +the dawn. For awhile I could see nothing but the bluish ruins of the +morning bank, which lay far along the horizon, like melting icebergs. +Then the sun rose, pierced a gap in these _débris_ of vapours, and +displayed an inconsiderable islet, flat as a plate upon the sea, and +spiked with palms of disproportioned altitude. + +So far, so good. Here was certainly an atoll; and we were certainly got +among the archipelago. But which? And where? The isle was too small +for either Takaroa: in all our neighbourhood, indeed, there was none so +inconsiderable, save only Tikei; and Tikei, one of Roggewein’s so-called +Pernicious Islands, seemed beside the question. At that rate, instead of +drifting to the west, we must have fetched up thirty miles to windward. +And how about the current? It had been setting us down, by observation, +all these days: by the deflection of our wake, it should be setting us +down that moment. When had it stopped? When had it begun again? and +what kind of torrent was that which had swept us eastward in the +interval? To these questions, so typical of navigation in that range of +isles, I have no answer. Such were at least the facts; Tikei our island +turned out to be; and it was our first experience of the dangerous +archipelago, to make our landfall thirty miles out. + +The sight of Tikei, thrown direct against the splendour of the morning, +robbed of all its colour, and deformed with disproportioned trees like +bristles on a broom, had scarce prepared us to be much in love with +atolls. Later the same day we saw under more fit conditions the island +of Taiaro. _Lost in the Sea_ is possibly the meaning of the name. And +it was so we saw it; lost in blue sea and sky: a ring of white beach, +green underwood, and tossing palms, gem-like in colour; of a fairy, of a +heavenly prettiness. The surf ran all around it, white as snow, and +broke at one point, far to seaward, on what seems an uncharted reef. +There was no smoke, no sign of man; indeed, the isle is not inhabited, +only visited at intervals. And yet a trader (Mr. Narii Salmon) was +watching from the shore and wondering at the unexpected ship. I have +spent since then long months upon low islands; I know the tedium of their +undistinguished days; I know the burden of their diet. With whatever +envy we may have looked from the deck on these green coverts, it was with +a tenfold greater that Mr. Salmon and his comrades saw us steer, in our +trim ship, to seaward. + +The night fell lovely in the extreme. After the moon went down, the +heaven was a thing to wonder at for stars. And as I lay in the cockpit +and looked upon the steersman I was haunted by Emerson’s verses: + + ‘And the lone seaman all the night + Sails astonished among stars.’ + +By this glittering and imperfect brightness, about four bells in the +first watch we made our third atoll, Raraka. The low line of the isle +lay straight along the sky; so that I was at first reminded of a towpath, +and we seemed to be mounting some engineered and navigable stream. +Presently a red star appeared, about the height and brightness of a +danger signal, and with that my simile was changed; we seemed rather to +skirt the embankment of a railway, and the eye began to look +instinctively for the telegraph-posts, and the ear to expect the coming +of a train. Here and there, but rarely, faint tree-tops broke the level. +And the sound of the surf accompanied us, now in a drowsy monotone, now +with a menacing swing. + +The isle lay nearly east and west, barring our advance on Fakarava. We +must, therefore, hug the coast until we gained the western end, where, +through a passage eight miles wide, we might sail southward between +Raraka and the next isle, Kauehi. We had the wind free, a lightish air; +but clouds of an inky blackness were beginning to arise, and at times it +lightened—without thunder. Something, I know not what, continually set +us up upon the island. We lay more and more to the nor’ard; and you +would have thought the shore copied our manœuvre and outsailed us. Once +and twice Raraka headed us again—again, in the sea fashion, the quite +innocent steersman was abused—and again the _Casco_ kept away. Had I +been called on, with no more light than that of our experience, to draw +the configuration of that island, I should have shown a series of +bow-window promontories, each overlapping the other to the nor’ard, and +the trend of the land from the south-east to the north-west, and behold, +on the chart it lay near east and west in a straight line. + +We had but just repeated our manœuvre and kept away—for not more than +five minutes the railway embankment had been lost to view and the surf to +hearing—when I was aware of land again, not only on the weather bow, but +dead ahead. I played the part of the judicious landsman, holding my +peace till the last moment; and presently my mariners perceived it for +themselves. + +‘Land ahead!’ said the steersman. + +‘By God, it’s Kauehi!’ cried the mate. + +And so it was. And with that I began to be sorry for cartographers. We +were scarce doing three and a half; and they asked me to believe that (in +five minutes) we had dropped an island, passed eight miles of open water, +and run almost high and dry upon the next. But my captain was more sorry +for himself to be afloat in such a labyrinth; laid the _Casco_ to, with +the log line up and down, and sat on the stern rail and watched it till +the morning. He had enough of night in the Paumotus. + +By daylight on the 9th we began to skirt Kauehi, and had now an +opportunity to see near at hand the geography of atolls. Here and there, +where it was high, the farther side loomed up; here and there the near +side dipped entirely and showed a broad path of water into the lagoon; +here and there both sides were equally abased, and we could look right +through the discontinuous ring to the sea horizon on the south. +Conceive, on a vast scale, the submerged hoop of the duck-hunter, trimmed +with green rushes to conceal his head—water within, water without—you +have the image of the perfect atoll. Conceive one that has been partly +plucked of its rush fringe; you have the atoll of Kauehi. And for either +shore of it at closer quarters, conceive the line of some old Roman +highway traversing a wet morass, and here sunk out of view and there +re-arising, crowned with a green tuft of thicket; only instead of the +stagnant waters of a marsh, the live ocean now boiled against, now buried +the frail barrier. Last night’s impression in the dark was thus +confirmed by day, and not corrected. We sailed indeed by a mere causeway +in the sea, of nature’s handiwork, yet of no greater magnitude than many +of the works of man. + +The isle was uninhabited; it was all green brush and white sand, set in +transcendently blue water; even the coco-palms were rare, though some of +these completed the bright harmony of colour by hanging out a fan of +golden yellow. For long there was no sign of life beyond the vegetable, +and no sound but the continuous grumble of the surf. In silence and +desertion these fair shores slipped past, and were submerged and rose +again with clumps of thicket from the sea. And then a bird or two +appeared, hovering and crying; swiftly these became more numerous, and +presently, looking ahead, we were aware of a vast effervescence of winged +life. In this place the annular isle was mostly under water, carrying +here and there on its submerged line a wooded islet. Over one of these +the birds hung and flew with an incredible density like that of gnats or +hiving bees; the mass flashed white and black, and heaved and quivered, +and the screaming of the creatures rose over the voice of the surf in a +shrill clattering whirr. As you descend some inland valley a not +dissimilar sound announces the nearness of a mill and pouring river. +Some stragglers, as I said, came to meet our approach; a few still hung +about the ship as we departed. The crying died away, the last pair of +wings was left behind, and once more the low shores of Kauehi streamed +past our eyes in silence like a picture. I supposed at the time that the +birds lived, like ants or citizens, concentred where we saw them. I have +been told since (I know not if correctly) that the whole isle, or much of +it, is similarly peopled; and that the effervescence at a single spot +would be the mark of a boat’s crew of egg-hunters from one of the +neighbouring inhabited atolls. So that here at Kauehi, as the day before +at Taiaro, the _Casco_ sailed by under the fire of unsuspected eyes. And +one thing is surely true, that even on these ribbons of land an army +might lie hid and no passing mariner divine its presence. + + + +CHAPTER II—FAKARAVA: AN ATOLL AT HAND + + +By a little before noon we were running down the coast of our +destination, Fakarava: the air very light, the sea near smooth; though +still we were accompanied by a continuous murmur from the beach, like the +sound of a distant train. The isle is of a huge longitude, the enclosed +lagoon thirty miles by ten or twelve, and the coral tow-path, which they +call the land, some eighty or ninety miles by (possibly) one furlong. +That part by which we sailed was all raised; the underwood excellently +green, the topping wood of coco-palms continuous—a mark, if I had known +it, of man’s intervention. For once more, and once more unconsciously, +we were within hail of fellow-creatures, and that vacant beach was but a +pistol-shot from the capital city of the archipelago. But the life of an +atoll, unless it be enclosed, passes wholly on the shores of the lagoon; +it is there the villages are seated, there the canoes ply and are drawn +up; and the beach of the ocean is a place accursed and deserted, the fit +scene only for wizardry and shipwreck, and in the native belief a +haunting ground of murderous spectres. + +By and by we might perceive a breach in the low barrier; the woods +ceased; a glittering point ran into the sea, tipped with an emerald shoal +the mark of entrance. As we drew near we met a little run of sea—the +private sea of the lagoon having there its origin and end, and here, in +the jaws of the gateway, trying vain conclusions with the more majestic +heave of the Pacific. The _Casco_ scarce avowed a shock; but there are +times and circumstances when these harbour mouths of inland basins vomit +floods, deflecting, burying, and dismasting ships. For, conceive a +lagoon perfectly sealed but in the one point, and that of merely +navigable width; conceive the tide and wind to have heaped for hours +together in that coral fold a superfluity of waters, and the tide to +change and the wind fall—the open sluice of some great reservoirs at home +will give an image of the unstemmable effluxion. + +We were scarce well headed for the pass before all heads were craned over +the rail. For the water, shoaling under our board, became changed in a +moment to surprising hues of blue and grey; and in its transparency the +coral branched and blossomed, and the fish of the inland sea cruised +visibly below us, stained and striped, and even beaked like parrots. I +have paid in my time to view many curiosities; never one so curious as +that first sight over the ship’s rail in the lagoon of Fakarava. But let +not the reader be deceived with hope. I have since entered, I suppose, +some dozen atolls in different parts of the Pacific, and the experience +has never been repeated. That exquisite hue and transparency of +submarine day, and these shoals of rainbow fish, have not enraptured me +again. + +Before we could raise our eyes from that engaging spectacle the schooner +had slipped betwixt the pierheads of the reef, and was already quite +committed to the sea within. The containing shores are so little +erected, and the lagoon itself is so great, that, for the more part, it +seemed to extend without a check to the horizon. Here and there, indeed, +where the reef carried an inlet, like a signet-ring upon a finger, there +would be a pencilling of palms; here and there, the green wall of wood +ran solid for a length of miles; and on the port hand, under the highest +grove of trees, a few houses sparkled white—Rotoava, the metropolitan +settlement of the Paumotus. Hither we beat in three tacks, and came to +an anchor close in shore, in the first smooth water since we had left San +Francisco, five fathoms deep, where a man might look overboard all day at +the vanishing cable, the coral patches, and the many-coloured fish. + +Fakarava was chosen to be the seat of Government from nautical +considerations only. It is eccentrically situate; the productions, even +for a low island, poor; the population neither many nor—for Low +Islanders—industrious. But the lagoon has two good passages, one to +leeward, one to windward, so that in all states of the wind it can be +left and entered, and this advantage, for a government of scattered +islands, was decisive. A pier of coral, landing-stairs, a harbour light +upon a staff and pillar, and two spacious Government bungalows in a +handsome fence, give to the northern end of Rotoava a great air of +consequence. This is confirmed on the one hand by an empty prison, on +the other by a gendarmerie pasted over with hand-bills in Tahitian, +land-law notices from Papeete, and republican sentiments from Paris, +signed (a little after date) ‘Jules Grévy, _Perihidente_.’ Quite at the +far end a belfried Catholic chapel concludes the town; and between, on a +smooth floor of white coral sand and under the breezy canopy of +coco-palms, the houses of the natives stand irregularly scattered, now +close on the lagoon for the sake of the breeze, now back under the palms +for love of shadow. + +Not a soul was to be seen. But for the thunder of the surf on the far +side, it seemed you might have heard a pin drop anywhere about that +capital city. There was something thrilling in the unexpected silence, +something yet more so in the unexpected sound. Here before us a sea +reached to the horizon, rippling like an inland mere; and behold! close +at our back another sea assaulted with assiduous fury the reverse of the +position. At night the lantern was run up and lit a vacant pier. In one +house lights were seen and voices heard, where the population (I was +told) sat playing cards. A little beyond, from deep in the darkness of +the palm-grove, we saw the glow and smelt the aromatic odour of a coal of +cocoa-nut husk, a relic of the evening kitchen. Crickets sang; some +shrill thing whistled in a tuft of weeds; and the mosquito hummed and +stung. There was no other trace that night of man, bird, or insect in +the isle. The moon, now three days old, and as yet but a silver crescent +on a still visible sphere, shone through the palm canopy with vigorous +and scattered lights. The alleys where we walked were smoothed and +weeded like a boulevard; here and there were plants set out; here and +there dusky cottages clustered in the shadow, some with verandahs. A +public garden by night, a rich and fashionable watering-place in a +by-season, offer sights and vistas not dissimilar. And still, on the one +side, stretched the lapping mere, and from the other the deep sea still +growled in the night. But it was most of all on board, in the dead +hours, when I had been better sleeping, that the spell of Fakarava seized +and held me. The moon was down. The harbour lantern and two of the +greater planets drew vari-coloured wakes on the lagoon. From shore the +cheerful watch-cry of cocks rang out at intervals above the organ-point +of surf. And the thought of this depopulated capital, this protracted +thread of annular island with its crest of coco-palms and fringe of +breakers, and that tranquil inland sea that stretched before me till it +touched the stars, ran in my head for hours with delight. + +So long as I stayed upon that isle these thoughts were constant. I lay +down to sleep, and woke again with an unblunted sense of my surroundings. +I was never weary of calling up the image of that narrow causeway, on +which I had my dwelling, lying coiled like a serpent, tail to mouth, in +the outrageous ocean, and I was never weary of passing—a mere +quarter-deck parade—from the one side to the other, from the shady, +habitable shores of the lagoon to the blinding desert and uproarious +breakers of the opposite beach. The sense of insecurity in such a thread +of residence is more than fanciful. Hurricanes and tidal waves over-leap +these humble obstacles; Oceanus remembers his strength, and, where houses +stood and palms flourished, shakes his white beard again over the barren +coral. Fakarava itself has suffered; the trees immediately beyond my +house were all of recent replantation; and Anaa is only now recovered +from a heavier stroke. I knew one who was then dwelling in the isle. He +told me that he and two ship captains walked to the sea beach. There for +a while they viewed the oncoming breakers, till one of the captains +clapped suddenly his hand before his eyes and cried aloud that he could +endure no longer to behold them. This was in the afternoon; in the dark +hours of the night the sea burst upon the island like a flood; the +settlement was razed all but the church and presbytery; and, when day +returned, the survivors saw themselves clinging in an abattis of uprooted +coco-palms and ruined houses. + +Danger is but a small consideration. But men are more nicely sensible of +a discomfort; and the atoll is a discomfortable home. There are some, +and these probably ancient, where a deep soil has formed and the most +valuable fruit-trees prosper. I have walked in one, with equal +admiration and surprise, through a forest of huge breadfruits, eating +bananas and stumbling among taro as I went. This was in the atoll of +Namorik in the Marshall group, and stands alone in my experience. To +give the opposite extreme, which is yet far more near the average, I will +describe the soil and productions of Fakarava. The surface of that +narrow strip is for the more part of broken coral lime-stone, like +volcanic clinkers, and excruciating to the naked foot; in some atolls, I +believe, not in Fakarava, it gives a fine metallic ring when struck. +Here and there you come upon a bank of sand, exceeding fine and white, +and these parts are the least productive. The plants (such as they are) +spring from and love the broken coral, whence they grow with that +wonderful verdancy that makes the beauty of the atoll from the sea. The +coco-palm in particular luxuriates in that stern _solum_, striking down +his roots to the brackish, percolated water, and bearing his green head +in the wind with every evidence of health and pleasure. And yet even the +coco-palm must be helped in infancy with some extraneous nutriment, and +through much of the low archipelago there is planted with each nut a +piece of ship’s biscuit and a rusty nail. The pandanus comes next in +importance, being also a food tree; and he, too, does bravely. A green +bush called _miki_ runs everywhere; occasionally a purao is seen; and +there are several useless weeds. According to M. Cuzent, the whole +number of plants on an atoll such as Fakarava will scarce exceed, even if +it reaches to, one score. Not a blade of grass appears; not a grain of +humus, save when a sack or two has been imported to make the semblance of +a garden; such gardens as bloom in cities on the window-sill. Insect +life is sometimes dense; a cloud o’ mosquitoes, and, what is far worse, a +plague of flies blackening our food, has sometimes driven us from a meal +on Apemama; and even in Fakarava the mosquitoes were a pest. The land +crab may be seen scuttling to his hole, and at night the rats besiege the +houses and the artificial gardens. The crab is good eating; possibly so +is the rat; I have not tried. Pandanus fruit is made, in the Gilberts, +into an agreeable sweetmeat, such as a man may trifle with at the end of +a long dinner; for a substantial meal I have no use for it. The rest of +the food-supply, in a destitute atoll such as Fakarava, can be summed up +in the favourite jest of the archipelago—cocoa-nut beefsteak. Cocoa-nut +green, cocoa-nut ripe, cocoa-nut germinated; cocoa-nut to eat and +cocoa-nut to drink; cocoa-nut raw and cooked, cocoa-nut hot and cold—such +is the bill of fare. And some of the entrées are no doubt delicious. +The germinated nut, cooked in the shell and eaten with a spoon, forms a +good pudding; cocoa-nut milk—the expressed juice of a ripe nut, not the +water of a green one—goes well in coffee, and is a valuable adjunct in +cookery through the South Seas; and cocoa-nut salad, if you be a +millionaire, and can afford to eat the value of a field of corn for your +dessert, is a dish to be remembered with affection. But when all is done +there is a sameness, and the Israelites of the low islands murmur at +their manna. + +The reader may think I have forgot the sea. The two beaches do certainly +abound in life, and they are strangely different. In the lagoon the +water shallows slowly on a bottom of the fine slimy sand, dotted with +clumps of growing coral. Then comes a strip of tidal beach on which the +ripples lap. In the coral clumps the great holy-water clam (_Tridacna_) +grows plentifully; a little deeper lie the beds of the pearl-oyster and +sail the resplendent fish that charmed us at our entrance; and these are +all more or less vigorously coloured. But the other shells are white +like lime, or faintly tinted with a little pink, the palest possible +display; many of them dead besides, and badly rolled. On the ocean side, +on the mounds of the steep beach, over all the width of the reef right +out to where the surf is bursting, in every cranny, under every scattered +fragment of the coral, an incredible plenty of marine life displays the +most wonderful variety and brilliancy of hues. The reef itself has no +passage of colour but is imitated by some shell. Purple and red and +white, and green and yellow, pied and striped and clouded, the living +shells wear in every combination the livery of the dead reef—if the reef +be dead—so that the eye is continually baffled and the collector +continually deceived. I have taken shells for stones and stones for +shells, the one as often as the other. A prevailing character of the +coral is to be dotted with small spots of red, and it is wonderful how +many varieties of shell have adopted the same fashion and donned the +disguise of the red spot. A shell I had found in plenty in the Marquesas +I found here also unchanged in all things else, but there were the red +spots. A lively little crab wore the same markings. The case of the +hermit or soldier crab was more conclusive, being the result of conscious +choice. This nasty little wrecker, scavenger, and squatter has learned +the value of a spotted house; so it be of the right colour he will choose +the smallest shard, tuck himself in a mere corner of a broken whorl, and +go about the world half naked; but I never found him in this imperfect +armour unless it was marked with the red spot. + +Some two hundred yards distant is the beach of the lagoon. Collect the +shells from each, set them side by side, and you would suppose they came +from different hemispheres; the one so pale, the other so brilliant; the +one prevalently white, the other of a score of hues, and infected with +the scarlet spot like a disease. This seems the more strange, since the +hermit crabs pass and repass the island, and I have met them by the +Residency well, which is about central, journeying either way. Without +doubt many of the shells in the lagoon are dead. But why are they dead? +Without doubt the living shells have a very different background set for +imitation. But why are these so different? We are only on the threshold +of the mysteries. + +Either beach, I have said, abounds with life. On the sea-side and in +certain atolls this profusion of vitality is even shocking: the rock +under foot is mined with it. I have broken off—notably in Funafuti and +Arorai {156}—great lumps of ancient weathered rock that rang under my +blows like iron, and the fracture has been full of pendent worms as long +as my hand, as thick as a child’s finger, of a slightly pinkish white, +and set as close as three or even four to the square inch. Even in the +lagoon, where certain shell-fish seem to sicken, others (it is notorious) +prosper exceedingly and make the riches of these islands. Fish, too, +abound; the lagoon is a closed fish-pond, such as might rejoice the fancy +of an abbot; sharks swarm there, and chiefly round the passages, to feast +upon this plenty, and you would suppose that man had only to prepare his +angle. Alas! it is not so. Of these painted fish that came in hordes +about the entering _Casco_, some bore poisonous spines, and others were +poisonous if eaten. The stranger must refrain, or take his chance of +painful and dangerous sickness. The native, on his own isle, is a safe +guide; transplant him to the next, and he is helpless as yourself. For +it is a question both of time and place. A fish caught in a lagoon may +be deadly; the same fish caught the same day at sea, and only a few +hundred yards without the passage, will be wholesome eating: in a +neighbouring isle perhaps the case will be reversed; and perhaps a +fortnight later you shall be able to eat of them indifferently from +within and from without. According to the natives, these bewildering +vicissitudes are ruled by the movement of the heavenly bodies. The +beautiful planet Venus plays a great part in all island tales and +customs; and among other functions, some of them more awful, she +regulates the season of good fish. With Venus in one phase, as we had +her, certain fish were poisonous in the lagoon: with Venus in another, +the same fish was harmless and a valued article of diet. White men +explain these changes by the phases of the coral. + +It adds a last touch of horror to the thought of this precarious annular +gangway in the sea, that even what there is of it is not of honest rock, +but organic, part alive, part putrescent; even the clean sea and the +bright fish about it poisoned, the most stubborn boulder burrowed in by +worms, the lightest dust venomous as an apothecary’s drugs. + + + +CHAPTER III—A HOUSE TO LET IN A LOW ISLAND + + +Never populous, it was yet by a chapter of accidents that I found the +island so deserted that no sound of human life diversified the hours; +that we walked in that trim public garden of a town, among closed houses, +without even a lodging-bill in a window to prove some tenancy in the back +quarters; and, when we visited the Government bungalow, that Mr. Donat, +acting Vice-Resident, greeted us alone, and entertained us with cocoa-nut +punches in the Sessions Hall and seat of judgment of that widespread +archipelago, our glasses standing arrayed with summonses and census +returns. The unpopularity of a late Vice-Resident had begun the movement +of exodus, his native employés resigning court appointments and retiring +each to his own coco-patch in the remoter districts of the isle. Upon +the back of that, the Governor in Papeete issued a decree: All land in +the Paumotus must be defined and registered by a certain date. Now, the +folk of the archipelago are half nomadic; a man can scarce be said to +belong to a particular atoll; he belongs to several, perhaps holds a +stake and counts cousinship in half a score; and the inhabitants of +Rotoava in particular, man, woman, and child, and from the gendarme to +the Mormon prophet and the schoolmaster, owned—I was going to say +land—owned at least coral blocks and growing coco-palms in some adjacent +isle. Thither—from the gendarme to the babe in arms, the pastor followed +by his flock, the schoolmaster carrying along with him his scholars, and +the scholars with their books and slates—they had taken ship some two +days previous to our arrival, and were all now engaged disputing +boundaries. Fancy overhears the shrillness of their disputation mingle +with the surf and scatter sea-fowl. It was admirable to observe the +completeness of their flight, like that of hibernating birds; nothing +left but empty houses, like old nests to be reoccupied in spring; and +even the harmless necessary dominie borne with them in their +transmigration. Fifty odd set out, and only seven, I was informed, +remained. But when I made a feast on board the _Casco_, more than seven, +and nearer seven times seven, appeared to be my guests. Whence they +appeared, how they were summoned, whither they vanished when the feast +was eaten, I have no guess. In view of Low Island tales, and that awful +frequentation which makes men avoid the seaward beaches of an atoll, some +two score of those that ate with us may have returned, for the occasion, +from the kingdom of the dead. + +It was this solitude that put it in our minds to hire a house, and +become, for the time being, indwellers of the isle—a practice I have ever +since, when it was possible, adhered to. Mr. Donat placed us, with that +intent, under the convoy of one Taniera Mahinui, who combined the +incongruous characters of catechist and convict. The reader may smile, +but I affirm he was well qualified for either part. For that of convict, +first of all, by a good substantial felony, such as in all lands casts +the perpetrator in chains and dungeons. Taniera was a man of birth—the +chief a while ago, as he loved to tell, of a district in Anaa of 800 +souls. In an evil hour it occurred to the authorities in Papeete to +charge the chiefs with the collection of the taxes. It is a question if +much were collected; it is certain that nothing was handed on; and +Taniera, who had distinguished himself by a visit to Papeete and some +high living in restaurants, was chosen for the scapegoat. The reader +must understand that not Taniera but the authorities in Papeete were +first in fault. The charge imposed was disproportioned. I have not yet +heard of any Polynesian capable of such a burden; honest and upright +Hawaiians—one in particular, who was admired even by the whites as an +inflexible magistrate—have stumbled in the narrow path of the trustee. +And Taniera, when the pinch came, scorned to denounce accomplices; others +had shared the spoil, he bore the penalty alone. He was condemned in +five years. The period, when I had the pleasure of his friendship, was +not yet expired; he still drew prison rations, the sole and not unwelcome +reminder of his chains, and, I believe, looked forward to the date of his +enfranchisement with mere alarm. For he had no sense of shame in the +position; complained of nothing but the defective table of his place of +exile; regretted nothing but the fowls and eggs and fish of his own more +favoured island. And as for his parishioners, they did not think one +hair the less of him. A schoolboy, mulcted in ten thousand lines of +Greek and dwelling sequestered in the dormitories, enjoys unabated +consideration from his fellows. So with Taniera: a marked man, not a +dishonoured; having fallen under the lash of the unthinkable gods; a Job, +perhaps, or say a Taniera in the den of lions. Songs are likely made and +sung about this saintly Robin Hood. On the other hand, he was even +highly qualified for his office in the Church; being by nature a grave, +considerate, and kindly man; his face rugged and serious, his smile +bright; the master of several trades, a builder both of boats and houses; +endowed with a fine pulpit voice; endowed besides with such a gift of +eloquence that at the grave of the late chief of Fakarava he set all the +assistants weeping. I never met a man of a mind more ecclesiastical; he +loved to dispute and to inform himself of doctrine and the history of +sects; and when I showed him the cuts in a volume of Chambers’s +_Encyclopædia_—except for one of an ape—reserved his whole enthusiasm for +cardinals’ hats, censers, candlesticks, and cathedrals. Methought when +he looked upon the cardinal’s hat a voice said low in his ear: ‘Your foot +is on the ladder.’ + +Under the guidance of Taniera we were soon installed in what I believe to +have been the best-appointed private house in Fakarava. It stood just +beyond the church in an oblong patch of cultivation. More than three +hundred sacks of soil were imported from Tahiti for the Residency garden; +and this must shortly be renewed, for the earth blows away, sinks in +crevices of the coral, and is sought for at last in vain. I know not how +much earth had gone to the garden of my villa; some at least, for an +alley of prosperous bananas ran to the gate, and over the rest of the +enclosure, which was covered with the usual clinker-like fragments of +smashed coral, not only coco-palms and mikis but also fig-trees +flourished, all of a delicious greenness. Of course there was no blade +of grass. In front a picket fence divided us from the white road, the +palm-fringed margin of the lagoon, and the lagoon itself, reflecting +clouds by day and stars by night. At the back, a bulwark of uncemented +coral enclosed us from the narrow belt of bush and the nigh ocean beach +where the seas thundered, the roar and wash of them still humming in the +chambers of the house. + +This itself was of one story, verandahed front and back. It contained +three rooms, three sewing-machines, three sea-chests, chairs, tables, a +pair of beds, a cradle, a double-barrelled gun, a pair of enlarged +coloured photographs, a pair of coloured prints after Wilkie and +Mulready, and a French lithograph with the legend: ‘_Le brigade du +Général Lepasset brûlant son drapeau devant Metz_.’ Under the stilts of +the house a stove was rusting, till we drew it forth and put it in +commission. Not far off was the burrow in the coral whence we supplied +ourselves with brackish water. There was live stock, besides, on the +estate—cocks and hens and a brace of ill-regulated cats, whom Taniera +came every morning with the sun to feed on grated cocoa-nut. His voice +was our regular réveille, ringing pleasantly about the garden: +‘Pooty—pooty—poo—poo—poo!’ + +Far as we were from the public offices, the nearness of the chapel made +our situation what is called eligible in advertisements, and gave us a +side look on some native life. Every morning, as soon as he had fed the +fowls, Taniera set the bell agoing in the small belfry; and the faithful, +who were not very numerous, gathered to prayers. I was once present: it +was the Lord’s day, and seven females and eight males composed the +congregation. A woman played precentor, starting with a longish note; +the catechist joined in upon the second bar; and then the faithful in a +body. Some had printed hymn-books which they followed; some of the rest +filled up with ‘eh—eh—eh,’ the Paumotuan tol-de-rol. After the hymn, we +had an antiphonal prayer or two; and then Taniera rose from the front +bench, where he had been sitting in his catechist’s robes, passed within +the altar-rails, opened his Tahitian Bible, and began to preach from +notes. I understood one word—the name of God; but the preacher managed +his voice with taste, used rare and expressive gestures, and made a +strong impression of sincerity. The plain service, the vernacular Bible, +the hymn-tunes mostly on an English pattern—‘God save the Queen,’ I was +informed, a special favourite,—all, save some paper flowers upon the +altar, seemed not merely but austerely Protestant. It is thus the +Catholics have met their low island proselytes half-way. + +Taniera had the keys of our house; it was with him I made my bargain, if +that could be called a bargain in which all was remitted to my +generosity; it was he who fed the cats and poultry, he who came to call +and pick a meal with us like an acknowledged friend; and we long fondly +supposed he was our landlord. This belief was not to bear the test of +experience; and, as my chapter has to relate, no certainty succeeded it. + +We passed some days of airless quiet and great heat; shell-gatherers were +warned from the ocean beach, where sunstroke waited them from ten till +four; the highest palm hung motionless, there was no voice audible but +that of the sea on the far side. At last, about four of a certain +afternoon, long cat’s-paws flawed the face of the lagoon; and presently +in the tree-tops there awoke the grateful bustle of the trades, and all +the houses and alleys of the island were fanned out. To more than one +enchanted ship, that had lain long becalmed in view of the green shore, +the wind brought deliverance; and by daylight on the morrow a schooner +and two cutters lay moored in the port of Rotoava. Not only in the outer +sea, but in the lagoon itself, a certain traffic woke with the reviving +breeze; and among the rest one François, a half-blood, set sail with the +first light in his own half-decked cutter. He had held before a court +appointment; being, I believe, the Residency sweeper-out. Trouble +arising with the unpopular Vice-Resident, he had thrown his honours down, +and fled to the far parts of the atoll to plant cabbages—or at least +coco-palms. Thence he was now driven by such need as even a Cincinnatus +must acknowledge, and fared for the capital city, the seat of his late +functions, to exchange half a ton of copra for necessary flour. And +here, for a while, the story leaves to tell of his voyaging. + +It must tell, instead, of our house, where, toward seven at night, the +catechist came suddenly in with his pleased air of being welcome; armed +besides with a considerable bunch of keys. These he proceeded to try on +the sea-chests, drawing each in turn from its place against the wall. +Heads of strangers appeared in the doorway and volunteered suggestions. +All in vain. Either they were the wrong keys or the wrong boxes, or the +wrong man was trying them. For a little Taniera fumed and fretted; then +had recourse to the more summary method of the hatchet; one of the chests +was broken open, and an armful of clothing, male and female, baled out +and handed to the strangers on the verandah. + +These were François, his wife, and their child. About eight a.m., in the +midst of the lagoon, their cutter had capsized in jibbing. They got her +righted, and though she was still full of water put the child on board. +The mainsail had been carried away, but the jib still drew her sluggishly +along, and François and the woman swam astern and worked the rudder with +their hands. The cold was cruel; the fatigue, as time went on, became +excessive; and in that preserve of sharks, fear hunted them. Again and +again, François, the half-breed, would have desisted and gone down; but +the woman, whole blood of an amphibious race, still supported him with +cheerful words. I am reminded of a woman of Hawaii who swam with her +husband, I dare not say how many miles, in a high sea, and came ashore at +last with his dead body in her arms. It was about five in the evening, +after nine hours’ swimming, that François and his wife reached land at +Rotoava. The gallant fight was won, and instantly the more childish side +of native character appears. They had supped, and told and retold their +story, dripping as they came; the flesh of the woman, whom Mrs. Stevenson +helped to shift, was cold as stone; and François, having changed to a dry +cotton shirt and trousers, passed the remainder of the evening on my +floor and between open doorways, in a thorough draught. Yet François, +the son of a French father, speaks excellent French himself and seems +intelligent. + +It was our first idea that the catechist, true to his evangelical +vocation, was clothing the naked from his superfluity. Then it came out +that François was but dealing with his own. The clothes were his, so was +the chest, so was the house. François was in fact the landlord. Yet you +observe he had hung back on the verandah while Taniera tried his +’prentice hand upon the locks: and even now, when his true character +appeared, the only use he made of the estate was to leave the clothes of +his family drying on the fence. Taniera was still the friend of the +house, still fed the poultry, still came about us on his daily visits, +François, during the remainder of his stay, holding bashfully aloof. And +there was stranger matter. Since François had lost the whole load of his +cutter, the half ton of copra, an axe, bowls, knives, and clothes—since +he had in a manner to begin the world again, and his necessary flour was +not yet bought or paid for—I proposed to advance him what he needed on +the rent. To my enduring amazement he refused, and the reason he gave—if +that can be called a reason which but darkens counsel—was that Taniera +was his friend. His friend, you observe; not his creditor. I inquired +into that, and was assured that Taniera, an exile in a strange isle, +might possibly be in debt himself, but certainly was no man’s creditor. + +Very early one morning we were awakened by a bustling presence in the +yard, and found our camp had been surprised by a tall, lean old native +lady, dressed in what were obviously widow’s weeds. You could see at a +glance she was a notable woman, a housewife, sternly practical, alive +with energy, and with fine possibilities of temper. Indeed, there was +nothing native about her but the skin; and the type abounds, and is +everywhere respected, nearer home. It did us good to see her scour the +grounds, examining the plants and chickens; watering, feeding, trimming +them; taking angry, purpose-like possession. When she neared the house +our sympathy abated; when she came to the broken chest I wished I were +elsewhere. We had scarce a word in common; but her whole lean body spoke +for her with indignant eloquence. ‘My chest!’ it cried, with a stress on +the possessive. ‘My chest—broken open! This is a fine state of things!’ +I hastened to lay the blame where it belonged—on François and his +wife—and found I had made things worse instead of better. She repeated +the names at first with incredulity, then with despair. A while she +seemed stunned, next fell to disembowelling the box, piling the goods on +the floor, and visibly computing the extent of François’s ravages; and +presently after she was observed in high speech with Taniera, who seemed +to hang an ear like one reproved. + +Here, then, by all known marks, should be my land-lady at last; here was +every character of the proprietor fully developed. Should I not approach +her on the still depending question of my rent? I carried the point to +an adviser. ‘Nonsense!’ he cried. ‘That’s the old woman, the mother. +It doesn’t belong to her. I believe that’s the man the house belongs +to,’ and he pointed to one of the coloured photographs on the wall. On +this I gave up all desire of understanding; and when the time came for me +to leave, in the judgment-hall of the archipelago, and with the awful +countenance of the acting Governor, I duly paid my rent to Taniera. He +was satisfied, and so was I. But what had he to do with it? Mr. Donat, +acting magistrate and a man of kindred blood, could throw no light upon +the mystery; a plain private person, with a taste for letters, cannot be +expected to do more. + + + +CHAPTER IV—TRAITS AND SECTS IN THE PAUMOTUS + + +The most careless reader must have remarked a change of air since the +Marquesas. The house, crowded with effects, the bustling housewife +counting her possessions, the serious, indoctrinated island pastor, the +long fight for life in the lagoon: here are traits of a new world. I +read in a pamphlet (I will not give the author’s name) that the Marquesan +especially resembles the Paumotuan. I should take the two races, though +so near in neighbourhood, to be extremes of Polynesian diversity. The +Marquesan is certainly the most beautiful of human races, and one of the +tallest—the Paumotuan averaging a good inch shorter, and not even +handsome; the Marquesan open-handed, inert, insensible to religion, +childishly self-indulgent—the Paumotuan greedy, hardy, enterprising, a +religious disputant, and with a trace of the ascetic character. + +Yet a few years ago, and the people of the archipelago were crafty +savages. Their isles might be called sirens’ isles, not merely from the +attraction they exerted on the passing mariner, but from the perils that +awaited him on shore. Even to this day, in certain outlying islands, +danger lingers; and the civilized Paumotuan dreads to land and hesitates +to accost his backward brother. But, except in these, to-day the peril +is a memory. When our generation were yet in the cradle and playroom it +was still a living fact. Between 1830 and 1840, Hao, for instance, was a +place of the most dangerous approach, where ships were seized and crews +kidnapped. As late as 1856, the schooner _Sarah Ann_ sailed from Papeete +and was seen no more. She had women on board, and children, the +captain’s wife, a nursemaid, a baby, and the two young sons of a Captain +Steven on their way to the mainland for schooling. All were supposed to +have perished in a squall. A year later, the captain of the _Julia_, +coasting along the island variously called Bligh, Lagoon, and Tematangi +saw armed natives follow the course of his schooner, clad in +many-coloured stuffs. Suspicion was at once aroused; the mother of the +lost children was profuse of money; and one expedition having found the +place deserted, and returned content with firing a few shots, she raised +and herself accompanied another. None appeared to greet or to oppose +them; they roamed a while among abandoned huts and empty thickets; then +formed two parties and set forth to beat, from end to end, the pandanus +jungle of the island. One man remained alone by the landing-place—Teina, +a chief of Anaa, leader of the armed natives who made the strength of the +expedition. Now that his comrades were departed this way and that, on +their laborious exploration, the silence fell profound; and this silence +was the ruin of the islanders. A sound of stones rattling caught the ear +of Teina. He looked, thinking to perceive a crab, and saw instead the +brown hand of a human being issue from a fissure in the ground. A shout +recalled the search parties and announced their doom to the buried +caitiffs. In the cave below, sixteen were found crouching among human +bones and singular and horrid curiosities. One was a head of golden +hair, supposed to be a relic of the captain’s wife; another was half of +the body of a European child, sun-dried and stuck upon a stick, doubtless +with some design of wizardry. + +The Paumotuan is eager to be rich. He saves, grudges, buries money, +fears not work. For a dollar each, two natives passed the hours of +daylight cleaning our ship’s copper. It was strange to see them so +indefatigable and so much at ease in the water—working at times with +their pipes lighted, the smoker at times submerged and only the glowing +bowl above the surface; it was stranger still to think they were next +congeners to the incapable Marquesan. But the Paumotuan not only saves, +grudges, and works, he steals besides; or, to be more precise, he +swindles. He will never deny a debt, he only flees his creditor. He is +always keen for an advance; so soon as he has fingered it he disappears. +He knows your ship; so soon as it nears one island, he is off to another. +You may think you know his name; he has already changed it. Pursuit in +that infinity of isles were fruitless. The result can be given in a +nutshell. It has been actually proposed in a Government report to secure +debts by taking a photograph of the debtor; and the other day in Papeete +credits on the Paumotus to the amount of sixteen thousand pounds were +sold for less than forty—_quatre cent mille francs pour moins de mille +francs_. Even so, the purchase was thought hazardous; and only the man +who made it and who had special opportunities could have dared to give so +much. + +The Paumotuan is sincerely attached to those of his own blood and +household. A touching affection sometimes unites wife and husband. +Their children, while they are alive, completely rule them; after they +are dead, their bones or their mummies are often jealously preserved and +carried from atoll to atoll in the wanderings of the family. I was told +there were many houses in Fakarava with the mummy of a child locked in a +sea-chest; after I heard it, I would glance a little jealously at those +by my own bed; in that cupboard, also, it was possible there was a tiny +skeleton. + +The race seems in a fair way to survive. From fifteen islands, whose +rolls I had occasion to consult, I found a proportion of 59 births to 47 +deaths for 1887. Dropping three out of the fifteen, there remained for +the other twelve the comfortable ratio of 50 births to 32 deaths. Long +habits of hardship and activity doubtless explain the contrast with +Marquesan figures. But the Paumotuan displays, besides, a certain +concern for health and the rudiments of a sanitary discipline. Public +talk with these free-spoken people plays the part of the Contagious +Diseases Act; in-comers to fresh islands anxiously inquire if all be +well; and syphilis, when contracted, is successfully treated with +indigenous herbs. Like their neighbours of Tahiti, from whom they have +perhaps imbibed the error, they regard leprosy with comparative +indifference, elephantiasis with disproportionate fear. But, unlike +indeed to the Tahitian, their alarm puts on the guise of self-defence. +Any one stricken with this painful and ugly malady is confined to the +ends of villages, denied the use of paths and highways, and condemned to +transport himself between his house and coco-patch by water only, his +very footprint being held infectious. Fe’efe’e, being a creature of +marshes and the sequel of malarial fever, is not original in atolls. On +the single isle of Makatea, where the lagoon is now a marsh, the disease +has made a home. Many suffer; they are excluded (if Mr. Wilmot be right) +from much of the comfort of society; and it is believed they take a +secret vengeance. The defections of the sick are considered highly +poisonous. Early in the morning, it is narrated, aged and malicious +persons creep into the sleeping village, and stealthily make water at the +doors of the houses of young men. Thus they propagate disease; thus they +breathe on and obliterate comeliness and health, the objects of their +envy. Whether horrid fact or more abominable legend, it equally depicts +that something bitter and energetic which distinguishes Paumotuan man. + +The archipelago is divided between two main religions, Catholic and +Mormon. They front each other proudly with a false air of permanence; +yet are but shapes, their membership in a perpetual flux. The Mormon +attends mass with devotion: the Catholic sits attentive at a Mormon +sermon, and to-morrow each may have transferred allegiance. One man had +been a pillar of the Church of Rome for fifteen years; his wife dying, he +decided that must be a poor religion that could not save a man his wife, +and turned Mormon. According to one informant, Catholicism was the more +fashionable in health, but on the approach of sickness it was judged +prudent to secede. As a Mormon, there were five chances out of six you +might recover; as a Catholic, your hopes were small; and this opinion is +perhaps founded on the comfortable rite of unction. + +We all know what Catholics are, whether in the Paumotus or at home. But +the Paumotuan Mormon seemed a phenomenon apart. He marries but the one +wife, uses the Protestant Bible, observes Protestant forms of worship, +forbids the use of liquor and tobacco, practises adult baptism by +immersion, and after every public sin, rechristens the backslider. I +advised with Mahinui, whom I found well informed in the history of the +American Mormons, and he declared against the least connection. ‘_Pour +moi_,’ said he, with a fine charity, ‘_les Mormons ici un petit +Catholiques_.’ Some months later I had an opportunity to consult an +orthodox fellow-countryman, an old dissenting Highlander, long settled in +Tahiti, but still breathing of the heather of Tiree. ‘Why do they call +themselves Mormons?’ I asked. ‘My dear, and that is my question!’ he +exclaimed. ‘For by all that I can hear of their doctrine, I have nothing +to say against it, and their life, it is above reproach.’ And for all +that, Mormons they are, but of the earlier sowing: the so-called +Josephites, the followers of Joseph Smith, the opponents of Brigham +Young. + +Grant, then, the Mormons to be Mormons. Fresh points at once arise: What +are the Israelites? and what the Kanitus? For a long while back the sect +had been divided into Mormons proper and so-called Israelites, I never +could hear why. A few years since there came a visiting missionary of +the name of Williams, who made an excellent collection, and retired, +leaving fresh disruption imminent. Something irregular (as I was told) +in his way of ‘opening the service’ had raised partisans and enemies; the +church was once more rent asunder; and a new sect, the Kanitu, issued +from the division. Since then Kanitus and Israelites, like the +Cameronians and the United Presbyterians, have made common cause; and the +ecclesiastical history of the Paumotus is, for the moment, uneventful. +There will be more doing before long, and these isles bid fair to be the +Scotland of the South. Two things I could never learn. The nature of +the innovations of the Rev. Mr. Williams none would tell me, and of the +meaning of the name Kanitu none had a guess. It was not Tahitian, it was +not Marquesan; it formed no part of that ancient speech of the Paumotus, +now passing swiftly into obsolescence. One man, a priest, God bless him! +said it was the Latin for a little dog. I have found it since as the +name of a god in New Guinea; it must be a bolder man than I who should +hint at a connection. Here, then, is a singular thing: a brand-new sect, +arising by popular acclamation, and a nonsense word invented for its +name. + +The design of mystery seems obvious, and according to a very intelligent +observer, Mr. Magee of Mangareva, this element of the mysterious is a +chief attraction of the Mormon Church. It enjoys some of the status of +Freemasonry at home, and there is for the convert some of the +exhilaration of adventure. Other attractions are certainly conjoined. +Perpetual rebaptism, leading to a succession of baptismal feasts, is +found, both from the social and the spiritual side, a pleasing feature. +More important is the fact that all the faithful enjoy office; perhaps +more important still, the strictness of the discipline. ‘The veto on +liquor,’ said Mr. Magee, ‘brings them plenty members.’ There is no doubt +these islanders are fond of drink, and no doubt they refrain from the +indulgence; a bout on a feast-day, for instance, may be followed by a +week or a month of rigorous sobriety. Mr. Wilmot attributes this to +Paumotuan frugality and the love of hoarding; it goes far deeper. I have +mentioned that I made a feast on board the _Casco_. To wash down ship’s +bread and jam, each guest was given the choice of rum or syrup, and out +of the whole number only one man voted—in a defiant tone, and amid shouts +of mirth—for ‘Trum’! This was in public. I had the meanness to repeat +the experiment, whenever I had a chance, within the four walls of my +house; and three at least, who had refused at the festival, greedily +drank rum behind a door. But there were others thoroughly consistent. I +said the virtues of the race were bourgeois and puritan; and how +bourgeois is this! how puritanic! how Scottish! and how Yankee!—the +temptation, the resistance, the public hypocritical conformity, the +Pharisees, the Holy Willies, and the true disciples. With such a people +the popularity of an ascetic Church appears legitimate; in these strict +rules, in this perpetual supervision, the weak find their advantage, the +strong a certain pleasure; and the doctrine of rebaptism, a clean bill +and a fresh start, will comfort many staggering professors. + +There is yet another sect, or what is called a sect—no doubt +improperly—that of the Whistlers. Duncan Cameron, so clear in favour of +the Mormons, was no less loud in condemnation of the Whistlers. Yet I do +not know; I still fancy there is some connection, perhaps fortuitous, +probably disavowed. Here at least are some doings in the house of an +Israelite clergyman (or prophet) in the island of Anaa, of which I am +equally sure that Duncan would disclaim and the Whistlers hail them for +an imitation of their own. My informant, a Tahitian and a Catholic, +occupied one part of the house; the prophet and his family lived in the +other. Night after night the Mormons, in the one end, held their evening +sacrifice of song; night after night, in the other, the wife of the +Tahitian lay awake and listened to their singing with amazement. At +length she could contain herself no longer, woke her husband, and asked +him what he heard. ‘I hear several persons singing hymns,’ said he. +‘Yes,’ she returned, ‘but listen again! Do you not hear something +supernatural?’ His attention thus directed, he was aware of a strange +buzzing voice—and yet he declared it was beautiful—which justly +accompanied the singers. The next day he made inquiries. ‘It is a +spirit,’ said the prophet, with entire simplicity, ‘which has lately made +a practice of joining us at family worship.’ It did not appear the thing +was visible, and like other spirits raised nearer home in these +degenerate days, it was rudely ignorant, at first could only buzz, and +had only learned of late to bear a part correctly in the music. + +The performances of the Whistlers are more business-like. Their meetings +are held publicly with open doors, all being ‘cordially invited to +attend.’ The faithful sit about the room—according to one informant, +singing hymns; according to another, now singing and now whistling; the +leader, the wizard—let me rather say, the medium—sits in the midst, +enveloped in a sheet and silent; and presently, from just above his head, +or sometimes from the midst of the roof, an aerial whistling proceeds, +appalling to the inexperienced. This, it appears, is the language of the +dead; its purport is taken down progressively by one of the experts, +writing, I was told, ‘as fast as a telegraph operator’; and the +communications are at last made public. They are of the baldest +triviality; a schooner is, perhaps, announced, some idle gossip reported +of a neighbour, or if the spirit shall have been called to consultation +on a case of sickness, a remedy may be suggested. One of these, +immersion in scalding water, not long ago proved fatal to the patient. +The whole business is very dreary, very silly, and very European; it has +none of the picturesque qualities of similar conjurations in New Zealand; +it seems to possess no kernel of possible sense, like some that I shall +describe among the Gilbert islanders. Yet I was told that many hardy, +intelligent natives were inveterate Whistlers. ‘Like Mahinui?’ I asked, +willing to have a standard; and I was told ‘Yes.’ Why should I wonder? +Men more enlightened than my convict-catechist sit down at home to +follies equally sterile and dull. + +The medium is sometimes female. It was a woman, for instance, who +introduced these practices on the north coast of Taiarapu, to the scandal +of her own connections, her brother-in-law in particular declaring she +was drunk. But what shocked Tahiti might seem fit enough in the +Paumotus, the more so as certain women there possess, by the gift of +nature, singular and useful powers. They say they are honest, +well-intentioned ladies, some of them embarrassed by their weird +inheritance. And indeed the trouble caused by this endowment is so +great, and the protection afforded so infinitesimally small, that I +hesitate whether to call it a gift or a hereditary curse. You may rob +this lady’s coco-patch, steal her canoes, burn down her house, and slay +her family scatheless; but one thing you must not do: you must not lay a +hand upon her sleeping-mat, or your belly will swell, and you can only be +cured by the lady or her husband. Here is the report of an eye-witness, +Tasmanian born, educated, a man who has made money—certainly no fool. In +1886 he was present in a house on Makatea, where two lads began to +skylark on the mats, and were (I think) ejected. Instantly after, their +bellies began to swell; pains took hold on them; all manner of island +remedies were exhibited in vain, and rubbing only magnified their +sufferings. The man of the house was called, explained the nature of the +visitation, and prepared the cure. A cocoa-nut was husked, filled with +herbs, and with all the ceremonies of a launch, and the utterance of +spells in the Paumotuan language, committed to the sea. From that moment +the pains began to grow more easy and the swelling to subside. The +reader may stare. I can assure him, if he moved much among old residents +of the archipelago, he would be driven to admit one thing of two—either +that there is something in the swollen bellies or nothing in the evidence +of man. + +I have not met these gifted ladies; but I had an experience of my own, +for I have played, for one night only, the part of the whistling spirit. +It had been blowing wearily all day, but with the fall of night the wind +abated, and the moon, which was then full, rolled in a clear sky. We +went southward down the island on the side of the lagoon, walking through +long-drawn forest aisles of palm, and on a floor of snowy sand. No life +was abroad, nor sound of life; till in a clear part of the isle we spied +the embers of a fire, and not far off, in a dark house, heard natives +talking softly. To sit without a light, even in company, and under +cover, is for a Paumotuan a somewhat hazardous extreme. The whole +scene—the strong moonlight and crude shadows on the sand, the scattered +coals, the sound of the low voices from the house, and the lap of the +lagoon along the beach—put me (I know not how) on thoughts of +superstition. I was barefoot, I observed my steps were noiseless, and +drawing near to the dark house, but keeping well in shadow, began to +whistle. ‘The Heaving of the Lead’ was my air—no very tragic piece. +With the first note the conversation and all movement ceased; silence +accompanied me while I continued; and when I passed that way on my return +I found the lamp was lighted in the house, but the tongues were still +mute. All night, as I now think, the wretches shivered and were silent. +For indeed, I had no guess at the time at the nature and magnitude of the +terrors I inflicted, or with what grisly images the notes of that old +song had peopled the dark house. + + + +CHAPTER V—A PAUMOTUAN FUNERAL + + +No, I had no guess of these men’s terrors. Yet I had received ere that a +hint, if I had understood; and the occasion was a funeral. + +A little apart in the main avenue of Rotoava, in a low hut of leaves that +opened on a small enclosure, like a pigsty on a pen, an old man dwelt +solitary with his aged wife. Perhaps they were too old to migrate with +the others; perhaps they were too poor, and had no possessions to +dispute. At least they had remained behind; and it thus befell that they +were invited to my feast. I dare say it was quite a piece of politics in +the pigsty whether to come or not to come, and the husband long swithered +between curiosity and age, till curiosity conquered, and they came, and +in the midst of that last merrymaking death tapped him on the shoulder. +For some days, when the sky was bright and the wind cool, his mat would +be spread in the main highway of the village, and he was to be seen lying +there inert, a mere handful of a man, his wife inertly seated by his +head. They seemed to have outgrown alike our needs and faculties; they +neither spoke nor listened; they suffered us to pass without a glance; +the wife did not fan, she seemed not to attend upon her husband, and the +two poor antiques sat juxtaposed under the high canopy of palms, the +human tragedy reduced to its bare elements, a sight beyond pathos, +stirring a thrill of curiosity. And yet there was one touch of the +pathetic haunted me: that so much youth and expectation should have run +in these starved veins, and the man should have squandered all his lees +of life on a pleasure party. + +On the morning of 17th September the sufferer died, and, time pressing, +he was buried the same day at four. The cemetery lies to seaward behind +Government House; broken coral, like so much road-metal, forms the +surface; a few wooden crosses, a few inconsiderable upright stones, +designate graves; a mortared wall, high enough to lean on, rings it +about; a clustering shrub surrounds it with pale leaves. Here was the +grave dug that morning, doubtless by uneasy diggers, to the sound of the +nigh sea and the cries of sea-birds; meanwhile the dead man waited in his +house, and the widow and another aged woman leaned on the fence before +the door, no speech upon their lips, no speculation in their eyes. + +Sharp at the hour the procession was in march, the coffin wrapped in +white and carried by four bearers; mourners behind—not many, for not many +remained in Rotoava, and not many in black, for these were poor; the men +in straw hats, white coats, and blue trousers or the gorgeous +parti-coloured pariu, the Tahitian kilt; the women, with a few +exceptions, brightly habited. Far in the rear came the widow, painfully +carrying the dead man’s mat; a creature aged beyond humanity, to the +likeness of some missing link. + +The dead man had been a Mormon; but the Mormon clergyman was gone with +the rest to wrangle over boundaries in the adjacent isle, and a layman +took his office. Standing at the head of the open grave, in a white coat +and blue pariu, his Tahitian Bible in his hand and one eye bound with a +red handkerchief, he read solemnly that chapter in Job which has been +read and heard over the bones of so many of our fathers, and with a good +voice offered up two prayers. The wind and the surf bore a burthen. By +the cemetery gate a mother in crimson suckled an infant rolled in blue. +In the midst the widow sat upon the ground and polished one of the +coffin-stretchers with a piece of coral; a little later she had turned +her back to the grave and was playing with a leaf. Did she understand? +God knows. The officiant paused a moment, stooped, and gathered and +threw reverently on the coffin a handful of rattling coral. Dust to +dust: but the grains of this dust were gross like cherries, and the true +dust that was to follow sat near by, still cohering (as by a miracle) in +the tragic semblance of a female ape. + +So far, Mormon or not, it was a Christian funeral. The well-known +passage had been read from Job, the prayers had been rehearsed, the grave +was filled, the mourners straggled homeward. With a little coarser grain +of covering earth, a little nearer outcry of the sea, a stronger glare of +sunlight on the rude enclosure, and some incongruous colours of attire, +the well-remembered form had been observed. + +By rights it should have been otherwise. The mat should have been buried +with its owner; but, the family being poor, it was thriftily reserved for +a fresh service. The widow should have flung herself upon the grave and +raised the voice of official grief, the neighbours have chimed in, and +the narrow isle rung for a space with lamentation. But the widow was +old; perhaps she had forgotten, perhaps never understood, and she played +like a child with leaves and coffin-stretchers. In all ways my guest was +buried with maimed rites. Strange to think that his last conscious +pleasure was the _Casco_ and my feast; strange to think that he had +limped there, an old child, looking for some new good. And the good +thing, rest, had been allotted him. + +But though the widow had neglected much, there was one part she must not +utterly neglect. She came away with the dispersing funeral; but the dead +man’s mat was left behind upon the grave, and I learned that by set of +sun she must return to sleep there. This vigil is imperative. From +sundown till the rising of the morning star the Paumotuan must hold his +watch above the ashes of his kindred. Many friends, if the dead have +been a man of mark, will keep the watchers company; they will be well +supplied with coverings against the weather; I believe they bring food, +and the rite is persevered in for two weeks. Our poor survivor, if, +indeed, she properly survived, had little to cover, and few to sit with +her; on the night of the funeral a strong squall chased her from her +place of watch; for days the weather held uncertain and outrageous; and +ere seven nights were up she had desisted, and returned to sleep in her +low roof. That she should be at the pains of returning for so short a +visit to a solitary house, that this borderer of the grave should fear a +little wind and a wet blanket, filled me at the time with musings. I +could not say she was indifferent; she was so far beyond me in experience +that the court of my criticism waived jurisdiction; but I forged excuses, +telling myself she had perhaps little to lament, perhaps suffered much, +perhaps understood nothing. And lo! in the whole affair there was no +question whether of tenderness or piety, and the sturdy return of this +old remnant was a mark either of uncommon sense or of uncommon fortitude. + +Yet one thing had occurred that partly set me on the trail. I have said +the funeral passed much as at home. But when all was over, when we were +trooping in decent silence from the graveyard gate and down the path to +the settlement, a sudden inbreak of a different spirit startled and +perhaps dismayed us. Two people walked not far apart in our procession: +my friend Mr. Donat—Donat-Rimarau: ‘Donat the much-handed’—acting +Vice-Resident, present ruler of the archipelago, by far the man of chief +importance on the scene, but known besides for one of an unshakable good +temper; and a certain comely, strapping young Paumotuan woman, the +comeliest on the isle, not (let us hope) the bravest or the most polite. +Of a sudden, ere yet the grave silence of the funeral was broken, she +made a leap at the Resident, with pointed finger, shrieked a few words, +and fell back again with a laughter, not a natural mirth. ‘What did she +say to you?’ I asked. ‘She did not speak to _me_,’ said Donat, a shade +perturbed; ‘she spoke to the ghost of the dead man.’ And the purport of +her speech was this: ‘See there! Donat will be a fine feast for you +to-night.’ + +‘M. Donat called it a jest,’ I wrote at the time in my diary. ‘It seemed +to me more in the nature of a terrified conjuration, as though she would +divert the ghost’s attention from herself. A cannibal race may well have +cannibal phantoms.’ The guesses of the traveller appear foredoomed to be +erroneous; yet in these I was precisely right. The woman had stood by in +terror at the funeral, being then in a dread spot, the graveyard. She +looked on in terror to the coming night, with that ogre, a new spirit, +loosed upon the isle. And the words she had cried in Donat’s face were +indeed a terrified conjuration, basely to shield herself, basely to +dedicate another in her stead. One thing is to be said in her excuse. +Doubtless she partly chose Donat because he was a man of great +good-nature, but partly, too, because he was a man of the half-caste. +For I believe all natives regard white blood as a kind of talisman +against the powers of hell. In no other way can they explain the +unpunished recklessness of Europeans. + + + +CHAPTER VI—GRAVEYARD STORIES + + +With my superstitious friend, the islander, I fear I am not wholly frank, +often leading the way with stories of my own, and being always a grave +and sometimes an excited hearer. But the deceit is scarce mortal, since +I am as pleased to hear as he to tell, as pleased with the story as he +with the belief; and, besides, it is entirely needful. For it is scarce +possible to exaggerate the extent and empire of his superstitions; they +mould his life, they colour his thinking; and when he does not speak to +me of ghosts, and gods, and devils, he is playing the dissembler and +talking only with his lips. With thoughts so different, one must indulge +the other; and I would rather that I should indulge his superstition than +he my incredulity. Of one thing, besides, I may be sure: Let me indulge +it as I please, I shall not hear the whole; for he is already on his +guard with me, and the amount of the lore is boundless. + +I will give but a few instances at random, chiefly from my own doorstep +in Upolu, during the past month (October 1890). One of my workmen was +sent the other day to the banana patch, there to dig; this is a hollow of +the mountain, buried in woods, out of all sight and cry of mankind; and +long before dusk Lafaele was back again beside the cook-house with +embarrassed looks; he dared not longer stay alone, he was afraid of +‘spirits in the bush.’ It seems these are the souls of the unburied +dead, haunting where they fell, and wearing woodland shapes of pig, or +bird, or insect; the bush is full of them, they seem to eat nothing, slay +solitary wanderers apparently in spite, and at times, in human form, go +down to villages and consort with the inhabitants undetected. So much I +learned a day or so after, walking in the bush with a very intelligent +youth, a native. It was a little before noon; a grey day and squally; +and perhaps I had spoken lightly. A dark squall burst on the side of the +mountain; the woods shook and cried; the dead leaves rose from the ground +in clouds, like butterflies; and my companion came suddenly to a full +stop. He was afraid, he said, of the trees falling; but as soon as I had +changed the subject of our talk he proceeded with alacrity. A day or two +before a messenger came up the mountain from Apia with a letter; I was in +the bush, he must await my return, then wait till I had answered: and +before I was done his voice sounded shrill with terror of the coming +night and the long forest road. These are the commons. Take the chiefs. +There has been a great coming and going of signs and omens in our group. +One river ran down blood; red eels were captured in another; an unknown +fish was thrown upon the coast, an ominous word found written on its +scales. So far we might be reading in a monkish chronicle; now we come +on a fresh note, at once modern and Polynesian. The gods of Upolu and +Savaii, our two chief islands, contended recently at cricket. Since then +they are at war. Sounds of battle are heard to roll along the coast. A +woman saw a man swim from the high seas and plunge direct into the bush; +he was no man of that neighbourhood; and it was known he was one of the +gods, speeding to a council. Most perspicuous of all, a missionary on +Savaii, who is also a medical man, was disturbed late in the night by +knocking; it was no hour for the dispensary, but at length he woke his +servant and sent him to inquire; the servant, looking from a window, +beheld crowds of persons, all with grievous wounds, lopped limbs, broken +heads, and bleeding bullet-holes; but when the door was opened all had +disappeared. They were gods from the field of battle. Now these reports +have certainly significance; it is not hard to trace them to political +grumblers or to read in them a threat of coming trouble; from that merely +human side I found them ominous myself. But it was the spiritual side of +their significance that was discussed in secret council by my rulers. I +shall best depict this mingled habit of the Polynesian mind by two +connected instances. I once lived in a village, the name of which I do +not mean to tell. The chief and his sister were persons perfectly +intelligent: gentlefolk, apt of speech. The sister was very religious, a +great church-goer, one that used to reprove me if I stayed away; I found +afterwards that she privately worshipped a shark. The chief himself was +somewhat of a freethinker; at the least, a latitudinarian: he was a man, +besides, filled with European knowledge and accomplishments; of an +impassive, ironical habit; and I should as soon have expected +superstition in Mr. Herbert Spencer. Hear the sequel. I had discovered +by unmistakable signs that they buried too shallow in the village +graveyard, and I took my friend, as the responsible authority, to task. +‘There is something wrong about your graveyard,’ said I, ‘which you must +attend to, or it may have very bad results.’ ‘Something wrong? What is +it?’ he asked, with an emotion that surprised me. ‘If you care to go +along there any evening about nine o’clock you can see for yourself,’ +said I. He stepped backward. ‘A ghost!’ he cried. + +In short, in the whole field of the South Seas, there is not one to blame +another. Half blood and whole, pious and debauched, intelligent and +dull, all men believe in ghosts, all men combine with their recent +Christianity fear of and a lingering faith in the old island deities. +So, in Europe, the gods of Olympus slowly dwindled into village bogies; +so to-day, the theological Highlander sneaks from under the eye of the +Free Church divine to lay an offering by a sacred well. + +I try to deal with the whole matter here because of a particular quality +in Paumotuan superstitions. It is true I heard them told by a man with a +genius for such narrations. Close about our evening lamp, within sound +of the island surf, we hung on his words, thrilling. The reader, in far +other scenes, must listen close for the faint echo. + +This bundle of weird stories sprang from the burial and the woman’s +selfish conjuration. I was dissatisfied with what I heard, harped upon +questions, and struck at last this vein of metal. It is from sundown to +about four in the morning that the kinsfolk camp upon the grave; and +these are the hours of the spirits’ wanderings. At any time of the +night—it may be earlier, it may be later—a sound is to be heard below, +which is the noise of his liberation; at four sharp, another and a louder +marks the instant of the re-imprisonment; between-whiles, he goes his +malignant rounds. ‘Did you ever see an evil spirit?’ was once asked of a +Paumotuan. ‘Once.’ ‘Under what form?’ ‘It was in the form of a crane.’ +‘And how did you know that crane to be a spirit?’ was asked. ‘I will +tell you,’ he answered; and this was the purport of his inconclusive +narrative. His father had been dead nearly a fortnight; others had +wearied of the watch; and as the sun was setting, he found himself by the +grave alone. It was not yet dark, rather the hour of the afterglow, when +he was aware of a snow-white crane upon the coral mound; presently more +cranes came, some white, some black; then the cranes vanished, and he saw +in their place a white cat, to which there was silently joined a great +company of cats of every hue conceivable; then these also disappeared, +and he was left astonished. + +This was an anodyne appearance. Take instead the experience of +Rua-a-mariterangi on the isle of Katiu. He had a need for some pandanus, +and crossed the isle to the sea-beach, where it chiefly flourishes. The +day was still, and Rua was surprised to hear a crashing sound among the +thickets, and then the fall of a considerable tree. Here must be some +one building a canoe; and he entered the margin of the wood to find and +pass the time of day with this chance neighbour. The crashing sounded +more at hand; and then he was aware of something drawing swiftly near +among the tree-tops. It swung by its heels downward, like an ape, so +that its hands were free for murder; it depended safely by the slightest +twigs; the speed of its coming was incredible; and soon Rua recognised it +for a corpse, horrible with age, its bowels hanging as it came. Prayer +was the weapon of Christian in the Valley of the Shadow, and it is to +prayer that Rua-a-mariterangi attributes his escape. No merely human +expedition had availed. + +This demon was plainly from the grave; yet you will observe he was abroad +by day. And inconsistent as it may seem with the hours of the night +watch and the many references to the rising of the morning star, it is no +singular exception. I could never find a case of another who had seen +this ghost, diurnal and arboreal in its habits; but others have heard the +fall of the tree, which seems the signal of its coming. Mr. Donat was +once pearling on the uninhabited isle of Haraiki. It was a day without a +breath of wind, such as alternate in the archipelago with days of +contumelious breezes. The divers were in the midst of the lagoon upon +their employment; the cook, a boy of ten, was over his pots in the camp. +Thus were all souls accounted for except a single native who accompanied +Donat into the wood in quest of sea-fowls’ eggs. In a moment, out of the +stillness, came the sound of the fall of a great tree. Donat would have +passed on to find the cause. ‘No,’ cried his companion, ‘that was no +tree. It was something _not right_. Let us go back to camp.’ Next +Sunday the divers were turned on, all that part of the isle was +thoroughly examined, and sure enough no tree had fallen. A little later +Mr. Donat saw one of his divers flee from a similar sound, in similar +unaffected panic, on the same isle. But neither would explain, and it +was not till afterwards, when he met with Rua, that he learned the +occasion of their terrors. + +But whether by day or night, the purpose of the dead in these abhorred +activities is still the same. In Samoa, my informant had no idea of the +food of the bush spirits; no such ambiguity would exist in the mind of a +Paumotuan. In that hungry archipelago, living and dead must alike toil +for nutriment; and the race having been cannibal in the past, the spirits +are so still. When the living ate the dead, horrified nocturnal +imagination drew the shocking inference that the dead might eat the +living. Doubtless they slay men, doubtless even mutilate them, in mere +malice. Marquesan spirits sometimes tear out the eyes of travellers; but +even that may be more practical than appears, for the eye is a cannibal +dainty. And certainly the root-idea of the dead, at least in the far +eastern islands, is to prowl for food. It was as a dainty morsel for a +meal that the woman denounced Donat at the funeral. There are spirits +besides who prey in particular not on the bodies but on the souls of the +dead. The point is clearly made in a Tahitian story. A child fell sick, +grew swiftly worse, and at last showed signs of death. The mother +hastened to the house of a sorcerer, who lived hard by. ‘You are yet in +time,’ said he; ‘a spirit has just run past my door carrying the soul of +your child wrapped in the leaf of a purao; but I have a spirit stronger +and swifter who will run him down ere he has time to eat it.’ Wrapped in +a leaf: like other things edible and corruptible. + +Or take an experience of Mr. Donat’s on the island of Anaa. It was a +night of a high wind, with violent squalls; his child was very sick, and +the father, though he had gone to bed, lay wakeful, hearkening to the +gale. All at once a fowl was violently dashed on the house wall. +Supposing he had forgot to put it in shelter with the rest, Donat arose, +found the bird (a cock) lying on the verandah, and put it in the +hen-house, the door of which he securely fastened. Fifteen minutes later +the business was repeated, only this time, as it was being dashed against +the wall, the bird crew. Again Donat replaced it, examining the +hen-house thoroughly and finding it quite perfect; as he was so engaged +the wind puffed out his light, and he must grope back to the door a good +deal shaken. Yet a third time the bird was dashed upon the wall; a third +time Donat set it, now near dead, beside its mates; and he was scarce +returned before there came a rush, like that of a furious strong man, +against the door, and a whistle as loud as that of a railway engine rang +about the house. The sceptical reader may here detect the finger of the +tempest; but the women gave up all for lost and clustered on the beds +lamenting. Nothing followed, and I must suppose the gale somewhat +abated, for presently after a chief came visiting. He was a bold man to +be abroad so late, but doubtless carried a bright lantern. And he was +certainly a man of counsel, for as soon as he heard the details of these +disturbances he was in a position to explain their nature. ‘Your child,’ +said he, ‘must certainly die. This is the evil spirit of our island who +lies in wait to eat the spirits of the newly dead.’ And then he went on +to expatiate on the strangeness of the spirit’s conduct. He was not +usually, he explained, so open of assault, but sat silent on the +house-top waiting, in the guise of a bird, while within the people tended +the dying and bewailed the dead, and had no thought of peril. But when +the day came and the doors were opened, and men began to go abroad, +blood-stains on the wall betrayed the tragedy. + +This is the quality I admire in Paumotuan legend. In Tahiti the +spirit-eater is said to assume a vesture which has much more of pomp, but +how much less of horror. It has been seen by all sorts and conditions, +native and foreign; only the last insist it is a meteor. My authority +was not so sure. He was riding with his wife about two in the morning; +both were near asleep, and the horses not much better. It was a +brilliant and still night, and the road wound over a mountain, near by a +deserted marae (old Tahitian temple). All at once the appearance passed +above them: a form of light; the head round and greenish; the body long, +red, and with a focus of yet redder brilliancy about the midst. A +buzzing hoot accompanied its passage; it flew direct out of one marae, +and direct for another down the mountain side. And this, as my informant +argued, is suggestive. For why should a mere meteor frequent the altars +of abominable gods? The horses, I should say, were equally dismayed with +their riders. Now I am not dismayed at all—not even agreeably. Give me +rather the bird upon the house-top and the morning blood-gouts on the +wall. + +But the dead are not exclusive in their diet. They carry with them to +the grave, in particular, the Polynesian taste for fish, and enter at +times with the living into a partnership in fishery. Rua-a-mariterangi +is again my authority; I feel it diminishes the credit of the fact, but +how it builds up the image of this inveterate ghost-seer! He belongs to +the miserably poor island of Taenga, yet his father’s house was always +well supplied. As Rua grew up he was called at last to go a-fishing with +this fortunate parent. They rowed the lagoon at dusk, to an unlikely +place, and the lay down in the stern, and the father began vainly to cast +his line over the bows. It is to be supposed that Rua slept; and when he +awoke there was the figure of another beside his father, and his father +was pulling in the fish hand over hand. ‘Who is that man, father?’ Rua +asked. ‘It is none of your business,’ said the father; and Rua supposed +the stranger had swum off to them from shore. Night after night they +fared into the lagoon, often to the most unlikely places; night after +night the stranger would suddenly be seen on board, and as suddenly be +missed; and morning after morning the canoe returned laden with fish. +‘My father is a very lucky man,’ thought Rua. At last, one fine day, +there came first one boat party and then another, who must be +entertained; father and son put off later than usual into the lagoon; and +before the canoe was landed it was four o’clock, and the morning star was +close on the horizon. Then the stranger appeared seized with some +distress; turned about, showing for the first time his face, which was +that of one long dead, with shining eyes; stared into the east, set the +tips of his fingers to his mouth like one a-cold, uttered a strange, +shuddering sound between a whistle and a moan—a thing to freeze the +blood; and, the day-star just rising from the sea, he suddenly was not. +Then Rua understood why his father prospered, why his fishes rotted early +in the day, and why some were always carried to the cemetery and laid +upon the graves. My informant is a man not certainly averse to +superstition, but he keeps his head, and takes a certain superior +interest, which I may be allowed to call scientific. The last point +reminding him of some parallel practice in Tahiti, he asked Rua if the +fish were left, or carried home again after a formal dedication. It +appears old Mariterangi practised both methods; sometimes treating his +shadowy partner to a mere oblation, sometimes honestly leaving his fish +to rot upon the grave. + +It is plain we have in Europe stories of a similar complexion; and the +Polynesian _varua ino_ or _aitu o le vao_ is clearly the near kinsman of +the Transylvanian vampire. Here is a tale in which the kinship appears +broadly marked. On the atoll of Penrhyn, then still partly savage, a +certain chief was long the salutary terror of the natives. He died, he +was buried; and his late neighbours had scarce tasted the delights of +licence ere his ghost appeared about the village. Fear seized upon all; +a council was held of the chief men and sorcerers; and with the approval +of the Rarotongan missionary, who was as frightened as the rest, and in +the presence of several whites—my friend Mr. Ben Hird being one—the grave +was opened, deepened until water came, and the body re-interred face +down. The still recent staking of suicides in England and the +decapitation of vampires in the east of Europe form close parallels. + +So in Samoa only the spirits of the unburied awake fear. During the late +war many fell in the bush; their bodies, sometimes headless, were brought +back by native pastors and interred; but this (I know not why) was +insufficient, and the spirit still lingered on the theatre of death. +When peace returned a singular scene was enacted in many places, and +chiefly round the high gorges of Lotoanuu, where the struggle was long +centred and the loss had been severe. Kinswomen of the dead came +carrying a mat or sheet and guided by survivors of the fight. The place +of death was earnestly sought out; the sheet was spread upon the ground; +and the women, moved with pious anxiety, sat about and watched it. If +any living thing alighted it was twice brushed away; upon the third +coming it was known to be the spirit of the dead, was folded in, carried +home and buried beside the body; and the aitu rested. The rite was +practised beyond doubt in simple piety; the repose of the soul was its +object: its motive, reverent affection. The present king disowns indeed +all knowledge of a dangerous aitu; he declares the souls of the unburied +were only wanderers in limbo, lacking an entrance to the proper country +of the dead, unhappy, nowise hurtful. And this severely classic opinion +doubtless represents the views of the enlightened. But the flight of my +Lafaele marks the grosser terrors of the ignorant. + +This belief in the exorcising efficacy of funeral rites perhaps explains +a fact, otherwise amazing, that no Polynesian seems at all to share our +European horror of human bones and mummies. Of the first they made their +cherished ornaments; they preserved them in houses or in mortuary caves; +and the watchers of royal sepulchres dwelt with their children among the +bones of generations. The mummy, even in the making, was as little +feared. In the Marquesas, on the extreme coast, it was made by the +household with continual unction and exposure to the sun; in the +Carolines, upon the farthest west, it is still cured in the smoke of the +family hearth. Head-hunting, besides, still lives around my doorstep in +Samoa. And not ten years ago, in the Gilberts, the widow must disinter, +cleanse, polish, and thenceforth carry about her, by day and night, the +head of her dead husband. In all these cases we may suppose the process, +whether of cleansing or drying, to have fully exorcised the aitu. + +But the Paumotuan belief is more obscure. Here the man is duly buried, +and he has to be watched. He is duly watched, and the spirit goes abroad +in spite of watches. Indeed, it is not the purpose of the vigils to +prevent these wanderings; only to mollify by polite attention the +inveterate malignity of the dead. Neglect (it is supposed) may irritate +and thus invite his visits, and the aged and weakly sometimes balance +risks and stay at home. Observe, it is the dead man’s kindred and next +friends who thus deprecate his fury with nocturnal watchings. Even the +placatory vigil is held perilous, except in company, and a boy was +pointed out to me in Rotoava, because he had watched alone by his own +father. Not the ties of the dead, nor yet their proved character, affect +the issue. A late Resident, who died in Fakarava of sunstroke, was +beloved in life and is still remembered with affection; none the less his +spirit went about the island clothed with terrors, and the neighbourhood +of Government House was still avoided after dark. We may sum up the +cheerful doctrine thus: All men become vampires, and the vampire spares +none. And here we come face to face with a tempting inconsistency. For +the whistling spirits are notoriously clannish; I understood them to wait +upon and to enlighten kinsfolk only, and that the medium was always of +the race of the communicating spirit. Here, then, we have the bonds of +the family, on the one hand, severed at the hour of death; on the other, +helpfully persisting. + +The child’s soul in the Tahitian tale was wrapped in leaves. It is the +spirits of the newly dead that are the dainty. When they are slain, the +house is stained with blood. Rua’s dead fisherman was decomposed; so—and +horribly—was his arboreal demon. The spirit, then, is a thing material; +and it is by the material ensigns of corruption that he is distinguished +from the living man. This opinion is widespread, adds a gross terror to +the more ugly Polynesian tales, and sometimes defaces the more engaging +with a painful and incongruous touch. I will give two examples +sufficiently wide apart, one from Tahiti, one from Samoa. + +And first from Tahiti. A man went to visit the husband of his sister, +then some time dead. In her life the sister had been dainty in the +island fashion, and went always adorned with a coronet of flowers. In +the midst of the night the brother awoke and was aware of a heavenly +fragrance going to and fro in the dark house. The lamp I must suppose to +have burned out; no Tahitian would have lain down without one lighted. A +while he lay wondering and delighted; then called upon the rest. ‘Do +none of you smell flowers?’ he asked. ‘O,’ said his brother-in-law, ‘we +are used to that here.’ The next morning these two men went walking, and +the widower confessed that his dead wife came about the house +continually, and that he had even seen her. She was shaped and dressed +and crowned with flowers as in her lifetime; only she moved a few inches +above the earth with a very easy progress, and flitted dryshod above the +surface of the river. And now comes my point: It was always in a back +view that she appeared; and these brothers-in-law, debating the affair, +agreed that this was to conceal the inroads of corruption. + +Now for the Samoan story. I owe it to the kindness of Dr. F. Otto +Sierich, whose collection of folk-tales I expect with a high degree of +interest. A man in Manu’a was married to two wives and had no issue. He +went to Savaii, married there a third, and was more fortunate. When his +wife was near her time he remembered he was in a strange island, like a +poor man; and when his child was born he must be shamed for lack of +gifts. It was in vain his wife dissuaded him. He returned to his father +in Manu’a seeking help; and with what he could get he set off in the +night to re-embark. Now his wives heard of his coming; they were +incensed that he did not stay to visit them; and on the beach, by his +canoe, intercepted and slew him. Now the third wife lay asleep in +Savaii;—her babe was born and slept by her side; and she was awakened by +the spirit of her husband. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘my father is sick in +Manu’a and we must go to visit him.’ ‘It is well,’ said she; ‘take you +the child, while I carry its mats.’ ‘I cannot carry the child,’ said the +spirit; ‘I am too cold from the sea.’ When they were got on board the +canoe the wife smelt carrion. ‘How is this?’ she said. ‘What have you +in the canoe that I should smell carrion?’ ‘It is nothing in the canoe,’ +said the spirit. ‘It is the land-wind blowing down the mountains, where +some beast lies dead.’ It appears it was still night when they reached +Manu’a—the swiftest passage on record—and as they entered the reef the +bale-fires burned in the village. Again she asked him to carry the +child; but now he need no more dissemble. ‘I cannot carry your child,’ +said he, ‘for I am dead, and the fires you see are burning for my +funeral.’ + +The curious may learn in Dr. Sierich’s book the unexpected sequel of the +tale. Here is enough for my purpose. Though the man was but new dead, +the ghost was already putrefied, as though putrefaction were the mark and +of the essence of a spirit. The vigil on the Paumotuan grave does not +extend beyond two weeks, and they told me this period was thought to +coincide with that of the resolution of the body. The ghost always +marked with decay—the danger seemingly ending with the process of +dissolution—here is tempting matter for the theorist. But it will not +do. The lady of the flowers had been long dead, and her spirit was still +supposed to bear the brand of perishability. The Resident had been more +than a fortnight buried, and his vampire was still supposed to go the +rounds. + +Of the lost state of the dead, from the lurid Mangaian legend, in which +infernal deities hocus and destroy the souls of all, to the various +submarine and aerial limbos where the dead feast, float idle, or resume +the occupations of their life on earth, it would be wearisome to tell. +One story I give, for it is singular in itself, is well-known in Tahiti, +and has this of interest, that it is post-Christian, dating indeed from +but a few years back. A princess of the reigning house died; was +transported to the neighbouring isle of Raiatea; fell there under the +empire of a spirit who condemned her to climb coco-palms all day and +bring him the nuts; was found after some time in this miserable servitude +by a second spirit, one of her own house; and by him, upon her +lamentations, reconveyed to Tahiti, where she found her body still waked, +but already swollen with the approaches of corruption. It is a lively +point in the tale that, on the sight of this dishonoured tabernacle, the +princess prayed she might continue to be numbered with the dead. But it +seems it was too late, her spirit was replaced by the least dignified of +entrances, and her startled family beheld the body move. The seemingly +purgatorial labours, the helpful kindred spirit, and the horror of the +princess at the sight of her tainted body, are all points to be remarked. + +The truth is, the tales are not necessarily consistent in themselves; and +they are further darkened for the stranger by an ambiguity of language. +Ghosts, vampires, spirits, and gods are all confounded. And yet I seem +to perceive that (with exceptions) those whom we would count gods were +less maleficent. Permanent spirits haunt and do murder in corners of +Samoa; but those legitimate gods of Upolu and Savaii, whose wars and +cricketings of late convulsed society, I did not gather to be dreaded, or +not with a like fear. The spirit of Aana that ate souls is certainly a +fearsome inmate; but the high gods, even of the archipelago, seem +helpful. Mahinui—from whom our convict-catechist had been named—the +spirit of the sea, like a Proteus endowed with endless avatars, came to +the assistance of the shipwrecked and carried them ashore in the guise of +a ray fish. The same divinity bore priests from isle to isle about the +archipelago, and by his aid, within the century, persons have been seen +to fly. The tutelar deity of each isle is likewise helpful, and by a +particular form of wedge-shaped cloud on the horizon announces the coming +of a ship. + +To one who conceives of these atolls, so narrow, so barren, so beset with +sea, here would seem a superfluity of ghostly denizens. And yet there +are more. In the various brackish pools and ponds, beautiful women with +long red hair are seen to rise and bathe; only (timid as mice) on the +first sound of feet upon the coral they dive again for ever. They are +known to be healthy and harmless living people, dwellers of an +underworld; and the same fancy is current in Tahiti, where also they have +the hair red. _Tetea_ is the Tahitian name; the Paumotuan, _Mokurea_. + + + + +PART III: THE GILBERTS + + +CHAPTER I—BUTARITARI + + +At Honolulu we had said farewell to the _Casco_ and to Captain Otis, and +our next adventure was made in changed conditions. Passage was taken for +myself, my wife, Mr. Osbourne, and my China boy, Ah Fu, on a pigmy +trading schooner, the _Equator_, Captain Dennis Reid; and on a certain +bright June day in 1889, adorned in the Hawaiian fashion with the +garlands of departure, we drew out of port and bore with a fair wind for +Micronesia. + +The whole extent of the South Seas is a desert of ships; more especially +that part where we were now to sail. No post runs in these islands; +communication is by accident; where you may have designed to go is one +thing, where you shall be able to arrive another. It was my hope, for +instance, to have reached the Carolines, and returned to the light of day +by way of Manila and the China ports; and it was in Samoa that we were +destined to re-appear and be once more refreshed with the sight of +mountains. Since the sunset faded from the peaks of Oahu six months had +intervened, and we had seen no spot of earth so high as an ordinary +cottage. Our path had been still on the flat sea, our dwellings upon +unerected coral, our diet from the pickle-tub or out of tins; I had +learned to welcome shark’s flesh for a variety; and a mountain, an onion, +an Irish potato or a beef-steak, had been long lost to sense and dear to +aspiration. + +The two chief places of our stay, Butaritari and Apemama, lie near the +line; the latter within thirty miles. Both enjoy a superb ocean climate, +days of blinding sun and bracing wind, nights of a heavenly brightness. +Both are somewhat wider than Fakarava, measuring perhaps (at the widest) +a quarter of a mile from beach to beach. In both, a coarse kind of +_taro_ thrives; its culture is a chief business of the natives, and the +consequent mounds and ditches make miniature scenery and amuse the eye. +In all else they show the customary features of an atoll: the low +horizon, the expanse of the lagoon, the sedge-like rim of palm-tops, the +sameness and smallness of the land, the hugely superior size and interest +of sea and sky. Life on such islands is in many points like life on +shipboard. The atoll, like the ship, is soon taken for granted; and the +islanders, like the ship’s crew, become soon the centre of attention. +The isles are populous, independent, seats of kinglets, recently +civilised, little visited. In the last decade many changes have crept +in; women no longer go unclothed till marriage; the widow no longer +sleeps at night and goes abroad by day with the skull of her dead +husband; and, fire-arms being introduced, the spear and the shark-tooth +sword are sold for curiosities. Ten years ago all these things and +practices were to be seen in use; yet ten years more, and the old society +will have entirely vanished. We came in a happy moment to see its +institutions still erect and (in Apemama) scarce decayed. + +Populous and independent—warrens of men, ruled over with some rustic +pomp—such was the first and still the recurring impression of these tiny +lands. As we stood across the lagoon for the town of Butaritari, a +stretch of the low shore was seen to be crowded with the brown roofs of +houses; those of the palace and king’s summer parlour (which are of +corrugated iron) glittered near one end conspicuously bright; the royal +colours flew hard by on a tall flagstaff; in front, on an artificial +islet, the gaol played the part of a martello. Even upon this first and +distant view, the place had scarce the air of what it truly was, a +village; rather of that which it was also, a petty metropolis, a city +rustic and yet royal. + +The lagoon is shoal. The tide being out, we waded for some quarter of a +mile in tepid shallows, and stepped ashore at last into a flagrant +stagnancy of sun and heat. The lee side of a line island after noon is +indeed a breathless place; on the ocean beach the trade will be still +blowing, boisterous and cool; out in the lagoon it will be blowing also, +speeding the canoes; but the screen of bush completely intercepts it from +the shore, and sleep and silence and companies of mosquitoes brood upon +the towns. + +We may thus be said to have taken Butaritari by surprise. A few +inhabitants were still abroad in the north end, at which we landed. As +we advanced, we were soon done with encounter, and seemed to explore a +city of the dead. Only, between the posts of open houses, we could see +the townsfolk stretched in the siesta, sometimes a family together veiled +in a mosquito-net, sometimes a single sleeper on a platform like a corpse +on a bier. + +The houses were of all dimensions, from those of toys to those of +churches. Some might hold a battalion, some were so minute they could +scarce receive a pair of lovers; only in the playroom, when the toys are +mingled, do we meet such incongruities of scale. Many were open sheds; +some took the form of roofed stages; others were walled and the walls +pierced with little windows. A few were perched on piles in the lagoon; +the rest stood at random on a green, through which the roadway made a +ribbon of sand, or along the embankments of a sheet of water like a +shallow dock. One and all were the creatures of a single tree; palm-tree +wood and palm-tree leaf their materials; no nail had been driven, no +hammer sounded, in their building, and they were held together by +lashings of palm-tree sinnet. + +In the midst of the thoroughfare, the church stands like an island, a +lofty and dim house with rows of windows; a rich tracery of framing +sustains the roof; and through the door at either end the street shows in +a vista. The proportions of the place, in such surroundings, and built +of such materials, appeared august; and we threaded the nave with a +sentiment befitting visitors in a cathedral. Benches run along either +side. In the midst, on a crazy dais, two chairs stand ready for the king +and queen when they shall choose to worship; over their heads a hoop, +apparently from a hogshead, depends by a strip of red cotton; and the +hoop (which hangs askew) is dressed with streamers of the same material, +red and white. + +This was our first advertisement of the royal dignity, and presently we +stood before its seat and centre. The palace is built of imported wood +upon a European plan; the roof of corrugated iron, the yard enclosed with +walls, the gate surmounted by a sort of lych-house. It cannot be called +spacious; a labourer in the States is sometimes more commodiously lodged; +but when we had the chance to see it within, we found it was enriched +(beyond all island expectation) with coloured advertisements and cuts +from the illustrated papers. Even before the gate some of the treasures +of the crown stand public: a bell of a good magnitude, two pieces of +cannon, and a single shell. The bell cannot be rung nor the guns fired; +they are curiosities, proofs of wealth, a part of the parade of the +royalty, and stand to be admired like statues in a square. A straight +gut of water like a canal runs almost to the palace door; the containing +quay-walls excellently built of coral; over against the mouth, by what +seems an effect of landscape art, the martello-like islet of the gaol +breaks the lagoon. Vassal chiefs with tribute, neighbour monarchs come +a-roving, might here sail in, view with surprise these extensive public +works, and be awed by these mouths of silent cannon. It was impossible +to see the place and not to fancy it designed for pageantry. But the +elaborate theatre then stood empty; the royal house deserted, its doors +and windows gaping; the whole quarter of the town immersed in silence. +On the opposite bank of the canal, on a roofed stage, an ancient +gentleman slept publicly, sole visible inhabitant; and beyond on the +lagoon a canoe spread a striped lateen, the sole thing moving. + +The canal is formed on the south by a pier or causeway with a parapet. +At the far end the parapet stops, and the quay expands into an oblong +peninsula in the lagoon, the breathing-place and summer parlour of the +king. The midst is occupied by an open house or permanent marquee—called +here a maniapa, or, as the word is now pronounced, a maniap’—at the +lowest estimation forty feet by sixty. The iron roof, lofty but +exceedingly low-browed, so that a woman must stoop to enter, is supported +externally on pillars of coral, within by a frame of wood. The floor is +of broken coral, divided in aisles by the uprights of the frame; the +house far enough from shore to catch the breeze, which enters freely and +disperses the mosquitoes; and under the low eaves the sun is seen to +glitter and the waves to dance on the lagoon. + +It was now some while since we had met any but slumberers; and when we +had wandered down the pier and stumbled at last into this bright shed, we +were surprised to find it occupied by a society of wakeful people, some +twenty souls in all, the court and guardsmen of Butaritari. The court +ladies were busy making mats; the guardsmen yawned and sprawled. Half a +dozen rifles lay on a rock and a cutlass was leaned against a pillar: the +armoury of these drowsy musketeers. At the far end, a little closed +house of wood displayed some tinsel curtains, and proved, upon +examination, to be a privy on the European model. In front of this, upon +some mats, lolled Tebureimoa, the king; behind him, on the panels of the +house, two crossed rifles represented fasces. He wore pyjamas which +sorrowfully misbecame his bulk; his nose was hooked and cruel, his body +overcome with sodden corpulence, his eye timorous and dull: he seemed at +once oppressed with drowsiness and held awake by apprehension: a pepper +rajah muddled with opium, and listening for the march of a Dutch army, +looks perhaps not otherwise. We were to grow better acquainted, and +first and last I had the same impression; he seemed always drowsy, yet +always to hearken and start; and, whether from remorse or fear, there is +no doubt he seeks a refuge in the abuse of drugs. + +The rajah displayed no sign of interest in our coming. But the queen, +who sat beside him in a purple sacque, was more accessible; and there was +present an interpreter so willing that his volubility became at last the +cause of our departure. He had greeted us upon our entrance:—‘That is +the honourable King, and I am his interpreter,’ he had said, with more +stateliness than truth. For he held no appointment in the court, seemed +extremely ill-acquainted with the island language, and was present, like +ourselves, upon a visit of civility. Mr. Williams was his name: an +American darkey, runaway ship’s cook, and bar-keeper at _The Land we Live +in_ tavern, Butaritari. I never knew a man who had more words in his +command or less truth to communicate; neither the gloom of the monarch, +nor my own efforts to be distant, could in the least abash him; and when +the scene closed, the darkey was left talking. + +The town still slumbered, or had but just begun to turn and stretch +itself; it was still plunged in heat and silence. So much the more vivid +was the impression that we carried away of the house upon the islet, the +Micronesian Saul wakeful amid his guards, and his unmelodious David, Mr. +Williams, chattering through the drowsy hours. + + + +CHAPTER II—THE FOUR BROTHERS + + +The kingdom of Tebureimoa includes two islands, Great and Little Makin; +some two thousand subjects pay him tribute, and two semi-independent +chieftains do him qualified homage. The importance of the office is +measured by the man; he may be a nobody, he may be absolute; and both +extremes have been exemplified within the memory of residents. + +On the death of king Tetimararoa, Tebureimoa’s father, Nakaeia, the +eldest son, succeeded. He was a fellow of huge physical strength, +masterful, violent, with a certain barbaric thrift and some intelligence +of men and business. Alone in his islands, it was he who dealt and +profited; he was the planter and the merchant; and his subjects toiled +for his behoof in servitude. When they wrought long and well their +taskmaster declared a holiday, and supplied and shared a general debauch. +The scale of his providing was at times magnificent; six hundred dollars’ +worth of gin and brandy was set forth at once; the narrow land resounded +with the noise of revelry: and it was a common thing to see the subjects +(staggering themselves) parade their drunken sovereign on the fore-hatch +of a wrecked vessel, king and commons howling and singing as they went. +At a word from Nakaeia’s mouth the revel ended; Makin became once more an +isle of slaves and of teetotalers; and on the morrow all the population +must be on the roads or in the taro-patches toiling under his bloodshot +eye. + +The fear of Nakaeia filled the land. No regularity of justice was +affected; there was no trial, there were no officers of the law; it seems +there was but one penalty, the capital; and daylight assault and midnight +murder were the forms of process. The king himself would play the +executioner: and his blows were dealt by stealth, and with the help and +countenance of none but his own wives. These were his oarswomen; one +that caught a crab, he slew incontinently with the tiller; thus +disciplined, they pulled him by night to the scene of his vengeance, +which he would then execute alone and return well-pleased with his +connubial crew. The inmates of the harem held a station hard for us to +conceive. Beasts of draught, and driven by the fear of death, they were +yet implicitly trusted with their sovereign’s life; they were still wives +and queens, and it was supposed that no man should behold their faces. +They killed by the sight like basilisks; a chance view of one of those +boatwomen was a crime to be wiped out with blood. In the days of Nakaeia +the palace was beset with some tall coco-palms which commanded the +enclosure. It chanced one evening, while Nakaeia sat below at supper +with his wives, that the owner of the grove was in a tree-top drawing +palm-tree wine; it chanced that he looked down, and the king at the same +moment looking up, their eyes encountered. Instant flight preserved the +involuntary criminal. But during the remainder of that reign he must +lurk and be hid by friends in remote parts of the isle; Nakaeia hunted +him without remission, although still in vain; and the palms, accessories +to the fact, were ruthlessly cut down. Such was the ideal of wifely +purity in an isle where nubile virgins went naked as in paradise. And +yet scandal found its way into Nakaeia’s well-guarded harem. He was at +that time the owner of a schooner, which he used for a pleasure-house, +lodging on board as she lay anchored; and thither one day he summoned a +new wife. She was one that had been sealed to him; that is to say (I +presume), that he was married to her sister, for the husband of an elder +sister has the call of the cadets. She would be arrayed for the +occasion; she would come scented, garlanded, decked with fine mats and +family jewels, for marriage, as her friends supposed; for death, as she +well knew. ‘Tell me the man’s name, and I will spare you,’ said Nakaeia. +But the girl was staunch; she held her peace, saved her lover and the +queens strangled her between the mats. + +Nakaeia was feared; it does not appear that he was hated. Deeds that +smell to us of murder wore to his subjects the reverend face of justice; +his orgies made him popular; natives to this day recall with respect the +firmness of his government; and even the whites, whom he long opposed and +kept at arm’s-length, give him the name (in the canonical South Sea +phrase) of ‘a perfect gentleman when sober.’ + +When he came to lie, without issue, on the bed of death, he summoned his +next brother, Nanteitei, made him a discourse on royal policy, and warned +him he was too weak to reign. The warning was taken to heart, and for +some while the government moved on the model of Nakaeia’s. Nanteitei +dispensed with guards, and walked abroad alone with a revolver in a +leather mail-bag. To conceal his weakness he affected a rude silence; +you might talk to him all day; advice, reproof, appeal, and menace alike +remained unanswered. + +The number of his wives was seventeen, many of them heiresses; for the +royal house is poor, and marriage was in these days a chief means of +buttressing the throne. Nakaeia kept his harem busy for himself; +Nanteitei hired it out to others. In his days, for instance, Messrs. +Wightman built a pier with a verandah at the north end of the town. The +masonry was the work of the seventeen queens, who toiled and waded there +like fisher lasses; but the man who was to do the roofing durst not begin +till they had finished, lest by chance he should look down and see them. + +It was perhaps the last appearance of the harem gang. For some time +already Hawaiian missionaries had been seated at Butaritari—Maka and +Kanoa, two brave childlike men. Nakaeia would none of their doctrine; he +was perhaps jealous of their presence; being human, he had some affection +for their persons. In the house, before the eyes of Kanoa, he slew with +his own hand three sailors of Oahu, crouching on their backs to knife +them, and menacing the missionary if he interfered; yet he not only +spared him at the moment, but recalled him afterwards (when he had fled) +with some expressions of respect. Nanteitei, the weaker man, fell more +completely under the spell. Maka, a light-hearted, lovable, yet in his +own trade very rigorous man, gained and improved an influence on the king +which soon grew paramount. Nanteitei, with the royal house, was publicly +converted; and, with a severity which liberal missionaries disavow, the +harem was at once reduced. It was a compendious act. The throne was +thus impoverished, its influence shaken, the queen’s relatives mortified, +and sixteen chief women (some of great possessions) cast in a body on the +market. I have been shipmates with a Hawaiian sailor who was +successively married to two of these _impromptu_ widows, and successively +divorced by both for misconduct. That two great and rich ladies (for +both of these were rich) should have married ‘a man from another island’ +marks the dissolution of society. The laws besides were wholly +remodelled, not always for the better. I love Maka as a man; as a +legislator he has two defects: weak in the punishment of crime, stern to +repress innocent pleasures. + +War and revolution are the common successors of reform; yet Nanteitei +died (of an overdose of chloroform), in quiet possession of the throne, +and it was in the reign of the third brother, Nabakatokia, a man brave in +body and feeble of character, that the storm burst. The rule of the high +chiefs and notables seems to have always underlain and perhaps alternated +with monarchy. The Old Men (as they were called) have a right to sit +with the king in the Speak House and debate: and the king’s chief +superiority is a form of closure—‘The Speaking is over.’ After the long +monocracy of Nakaeia and the changes of Nanteitei, the Old Men were +doubtless grown impatient of obscurity, and they were beyond question +jealous of the influence of Maka. Calumny, or rather caricature, was +called in use; a spoken cartoon ran round society; Maka was reported to +have said in church that the king was the first man in the island and +himself the second; and, stung by the supposed affront, the chiefs broke +into rebellion and armed gatherings. In the space of one forenoon the +throne of Nakaeia was humbled in the dust. The king sat in the maniap’ +before the palace gate expecting his recruits; Maka by his side, both +anxious men; and meanwhile, in the door of a house at the north entry of +the town, a chief had taken post and diverted the succours as they came. +They came singly or in groups, each with his gun or pistol slung about +his neck. ‘Where are you going?’ asked the chief. ‘The king called us,’ +they would reply. ‘Here is your place. Sit down,’ returned the chief. +With incredible disloyalty, all obeyed; and sufficient force being thus +got together from both sides, Nabakatokia was summoned and surrendered. +About this period, in almost every part of the group, the kings were +murdered; and on Tapituea, the skeleton of the last hangs to this day in +the chief Speak House of the isle, a menace to ambition. Nabakatokia was +more fortunate; his life and the royal style were spared to him, but he +was stripped of power. The Old Men enjoyed a festival of public +speaking; the laws were continually changed, never enforced; the commons +had an opportunity to regret the merits of Nakaeia; and the king, denied +the resource of rich marriages and the service of a troop of wives, fell +not only in disconsideration but in debt. + +He died some months before my arrival on the islands, and no one +regretted him; rather all looked hopefully to his successor. This was by +repute the hero of the family. Alone of the four brothers, he had issue, +a grown son, Natiata, and a daughter three years old; it was to him, in +the hour of the revolution, that Nabakatokia turned too late for help; +and in earlier days he had been the right hand of the vigorous Nakaeia. +Nontemat’, _Mr. Corpse_, was his appalling nickname, and he had earned it +well. Again and again, at the command of Nakaeia, he had surrounded +houses in the dead of night, cut down the mosquito bars and butchered +families. Here was the hand of iron; here was Nakaeia _redux_. He came, +summoned from the tributary rule of Little Makin: he was installed, he +proved a puppet and a trembler, the unwieldy shuttlecock of orators; and +the reader has seen the remains of him in his summer parlour under the +name of Tebureimoa. + +The change in the man’s character was much commented on in the island, +and variously explained by opium and Christianity. To my eyes, there +seemed no change at all, rather an extreme consistency. Mr. Corpse was +afraid of his brother: King Tebureimoa is afraid of the Old Men. Terror +of the first nerved him for deeds of desperation; fear of the second +disables him for the least act of government. He played his part of +bravo in the past, following the line of least resistance, butchering +others in his own defence: to-day, grown elderly and heavy, a convert, a +reader of the Bible, perhaps a penitent, conscious at least of +accumulated hatreds, and his memory charged with images of violence and +blood, he capitulates to the Old Men, fuddles himself with opium, and +sits among his guards in dreadful expectation. The same cowardice that +put into his hand the knife of the assassin deprives him of the sceptre +of a king. + +A tale that I was told, a trifling incident that fell in my observation, +depicts him in his two capacities. A chief in Little Makin asked, in an +hour of lightness, ‘Who is Kaeia?’ A bird carried the saying; and +Nakaeia placed the matter in the hands of a committee of three. Mr. +Corpse was chairman; the second commissioner died before my arrival; the +third was yet alive and green, and presented so venerable an appearance +that we gave him the name of Abou ben Adhem. Mr. Corpse was troubled +with a scruple; the man from Little Makin was his adopted brother; in +such a case it was not very delicate to appear at all, to strike the blow +(which it seems was otherwise expected of him) would be worse than +awkward. ‘I will strike the blow,’ said the venerable Abou; and Mr. +Corpse (surely with a sigh) accepted the compromise. The quarry was +decoyed into the bush; he was set to carrying a log; and while his arms +were raised Abou ripped up his belly at a blow. Justice being thus done, +the commission, in a childish horror, turned to flee. But their victim +recalled them to his side. ‘You need not run away now,’ he said. ‘You +have done this thing to me. Stay.’ He was some twenty minutes dying, +and his murderers sat with him the while: a scene for Shakespeare. All +the stages of a violent death, the blood, the failing voice, the +decomposing features, the changed hue, are thus present in the memory of +Mr. Corpse; and since he studied them in the brother he betrayed, he has +some reason to reflect on the possibilities of treachery. I was never +more sure of anything than the tragic quality of the king’s thoughts; and +yet I had but the one sight of him at unawares. I had once an errand for +his ear. It was once more the hour of the siesta; but there were +loiterers abroad, and these directed us to a closed house on the bank of +the canal where Tebureimoa lay unguarded. We entered without ceremony, +being in some haste. He lay on the floor upon a bed of mats, reading in +his Gilbert Island Bible with compunction. On our sudden entrance the +unwieldy man reared himself half-sitting so that the Bible rolled on the +floor, stared on us a moment with blank eyes, and, having recognised his +visitors, sank again upon the mats. So Eglon looked on Ehud. + +The justice of facts is strange, and strangely just; Nakaeia, the author +of these deeds, died at peace discoursing on the craft of kings; his tool +suffers daily death for his enforced complicity. Not the nature, but the +congruity of men’s deeds and circumstances damn and save them; and +Tebureimoa from the first has been incongruously placed. At home, in a +quiet bystreet of a village, the man had been a worthy carpenter, and, +even bedevilled as he is, he shows some private virtues. He has no +lands, only the use of such as are impignorate for fines; he cannot +enrich himself in the old way by marriages; thrift is the chief pillar of +his future, and he knows and uses it. Eleven foreign traders pay him a +patent of a hundred dollars, some two thousand subjects pay capitation at +the rate of a dollar for a man, half a dollar for a woman, and a shilling +for a child: allowing for the exchange, perhaps a total of three hundred +pounds a year. He had been some nine months on the throne: had bought +his wife a silk dress and hat, figure unknown, and himself a uniform at +three hundred dollars; had sent his brother’s photograph to be enlarged +in San Francisco at two hundred and fifty dollars; had greatly reduced +that brother’s legacy of debt and had still sovereigns in his pocket. An +affectionate brother, a good economist; he was besides a handy carpenter, +and cobbled occasionally on the woodwork of the palace. It is not +wonderful that Mr. Corpse has virtues; that Tebureimoa should have a +diversion filled me with surprise. + + + +CHAPTER III—AROUND OUR HOUSE + + +When we left the palace we were still but seafarers ashore; and within +the hour we had installed our goods in one of the six foreign houses of +Butaritari, namely, that usually occupied by Maka, the Hawaiian +missionary. Two San Francisco firms are here established, Messrs. +Crawford and Messrs. Wightman Brothers; the first hard by the palace of +the mid town, the second at the north entry; each with a store and +bar-room. Our house was in the Wightman compound, betwixt the store and +bar, within a fenced enclosure. Across the road a few native houses +nestled in the margin of the bush, and the green wall of palms rose +solid, shutting out the breeze. A little sandy cove of the lagoon ran in +behind, sheltered by a verandah pier, the labour of queens’ hands. Here, +when the tide was high, sailed boats lay to be loaded; when the tide was +low, the boats took ground some half a mile away, and an endless series +of natives descended the pier stair, tailed across the sand in strings +and clusters, waded to the waist with the bags of copra, and loitered +backward to renew their charge. The mystery of the copra trade tormented +me, as I sat and watched the profits drip on the stair and the sands. + +In front, from shortly after four in the morning until nine at night, the +folk of the town streamed by us intermittingly along the road: families +going up the island to make copra on their lands; women bound for the +bush to gather flowers against the evening toilet; and, twice a day, the +toddy-cutters, each with his knife and shell. In the first grey of the +morning, and again late in the afternoon, these would straggle past about +their tree-top business, strike off here and there into the bush, and +vanish from the face of the earth. At about the same hour, if the tide +be low in the lagoon, you are likely to be bound yourself across the +island for a bath, and may enter close at their heels alleys of the palm +wood. Right in front, although the sun is not yet risen, the east is +already lighted with preparatory fires, and the huge accumulations of the +trade-wind cloud glow with and heliograph the coming day. The breeze is +in your face; overhead in the tops of the palms, its playthings, it +maintains a lively bustle; look where you will, above or below, there is +no human presence, only the earth and shaken forest. And right overhead +the song of an invisible singer breaks from the thick leaves; from +farther on a second tree-top answers; and beyond again, in the bosom of +the woods, a still more distant minstrel perches and sways and sings. +So, all round the isle, the toddy-cutters sit on high, and are rocked by +the trade, and have a view far to seaward, where they keep watch for +sails, and like huge birds utter their songs in the morning. They sing +with a certain lustiness and Bacchic glee; the volume of sound and the +articulate melody fall unexpected from the tree-top, whence we anticipate +the chattering of fowls. And yet in a sense these songs also are but +chatter; the words are ancient, obsolete, and sacred; few comprehend +them, perhaps no one perfectly; but it was understood the cutters ‘prayed +to have good toddy, and sang of their old wars.’ The prayer is at least +answered; and when the foaming shell is brought to your door, you have a +beverage well ‘worthy of a grace.’ All forenoon you may return and +taste; it only sparkles, and sharpens, and grows to be a new drink, not +less delicious; but with the progress of the day the fermentation +quickens and grows acid; in twelve hours it will be yeast for bread, in +two days more a devilish intoxicant, the counsellor of crime. + +The men are of a marked Arabian cast of features, often bearded and +mustached, often gaily dressed, some with bracelets and anklets, all +stalking hidalgo-like, and accepting salutations with a haughty lip. The +hair (with the dandies of either sex) is worn turban-wise in a frizzled +bush; and like the daggers of the Japanese a pointed stick (used for a +comb) is thrust gallantly among the curls. The women from this bush of +hair look forth enticingly: the race cannot be compared with the Tahitian +for female beauty; I doubt even if the average be high; but some of the +prettiest girls, and one of the handsomest women I ever saw, were +Gilbertines. Butaritari, being the commercial centre of the group, is +Europeanised; the coloured sacque or the white shift are common wear, the +latter for the evening; the trade hat, loaded with flowers, fruit, and +ribbons, is unfortunately not unknown; and the characteristic female +dress of the Gilberts no longer universal. The _ridi_ is its name: a +cutty petticoat or fringe of the smoked fibre of cocoa-nut leaf, not +unlike tarry string: the lower edge not reaching the mid-thigh, the upper +adjusted so low upon the haunches that it seems to cling by accident. A +sneeze, you think, and the lady must surely be left destitute. ‘The +perilous, hairbreadth ridi’ was our word for it; and in the conflict that +rages over women’s dress it has the misfortune to please neither side, +the prudish condemning it as insufficient, the more frivolous finding it +unlovely in itself. Yet if a pretty Gilbertine would look her best, that +must be her costume. In that and naked otherwise, she moves with an +incomparable liberty and grace and life, that marks the poetry of +Micronesia. Bundle her in a gown, the charm is fled, and she wriggles +like an Englishwoman. + +Towards dusk the passers-by became more gorgeous. The men broke out in +all the colours of the rainbow—or at least of the trade-room,—and both +men and women began to be adorned and scented with new flowers. A small +white blossom is the favourite, sometimes sown singly in a woman’s hair +like little stars, now composed in a thick wreath. With the night, the +crowd sometimes thickened in the road, and the padding and brushing of +bare feet became continuous; the promenades mostly grave, the silence +only interrupted by some giggling and scampering of girls; even the +children quiet. At nine, bed-time struck on a bell from the cathedral, +and the life of the town ceased. At four the next morning the signal is +repeated in the darkness, and the innocent prisoners set free; but for +seven hours all must lie—I was about to say within doors, of a place +where doors, and even walls, are an exception—housed, at least, under +their airy roofs and clustered in the tents of the mosquito-nets. +Suppose a necessary errand to occur, suppose it imperative to send +abroad, the messenger must then go openly, advertising himself to the +police with a huge brand of cocoa-nut, which flares from house to house +like a moving bonfire. Only the police themselves go darkling, and grope +in the night for misdemeanants. I used to hate their treacherous +presence; their captain in particular, a crafty old man in white, lurked +nightly about my premises till I could have found it in my heart to beat +him. But the rogue was privileged. + +Not one of the eleven resident traders came to town, no captain cast +anchor in the lagoon, but we saw him ere the hour was out. This was +owing to our position between the store and the bar—the _Sans Souci_, as +the last was called. Mr. Rick was not only Messrs. Wightman’s manager, +but consular agent for the States; Mrs. Rick was the only white woman on +the island, and one of the only two in the archipelago; their house +besides, with its cool verandahs, its bookshelves, its comfortable +furniture, could not be rivalled nearer than Jaluit or Honolulu. Every +one called in consequence, save such as might be prosecuting a South Sea +quarrel, hingeing on the price of copra and the odd cent, or perhaps a +difference about poultry. Even these, if they did not appear upon the +north, would be presently visible to the southward, the _Sans Souci_ +drawing them as with cords. In an island with a total population of +twelve white persons, one of the two drinking-shops might seem +superfluous: but every bullet has its billet, and the double +accommodation of Butaritari is found in practice highly convenient by the +captains and the crews of ships: _The Land we Live in_ being tacitly +resigned to the forecastle, the _Sans Souci_ tacitly reserved for the +afterguard. So aristocratic were my habits, so commanding was my fear of +Mr. Williams, that I have never visited the first; but in the other, +which was the club or rather the casino of the island, I regularly passed +my evenings. It was small, but neatly fitted, and at night (when the +lamp was lit) sparkled with glass and glowed with coloured pictures like +a theatre at Christmas. The pictures were advertisements, the glass +coarse enough, the carpentry amateur; but the effect, in that incongruous +isle, was of unbridled luxury and inestimable expense. Here songs were +sung, tales told, tricks performed, games played. The Ricks, ourselves, +Norwegian Tom the bar-keeper, a captain or two from the ships, and +perhaps three or four traders come down the island in their boats or by +the road on foot, made up the usual company. The traders, all bred to +the sea, take a humorous pride in their new business; ‘South Sea +Merchants’ is the title they prefer. ‘We are all sailors +here’—‘Merchants, if you please’—‘_South Sea_ Merchants,’—was a piece of +conversation endlessly repeated, that never seemed to lose in savour. We +found them at all times simple, genial, gay, gallant, and obliging; and, +across some interval of time, recall with pleasure the traders of +Butaritari. There was one black sheep indeed. I tell of him here where +he lived, against my rule; for in this case I have no measure to +preserve, and the man is typical of a class of ruffians that once +disgraced the whole field of the South Seas, and still linger in the +rarely visited isles of Micronesia. He had the name on the beach of ‘a +perfect gentleman when sober,’ but I never saw him otherwise than drunk. +The few shocking and savage traits of the Micronesian he has singled out +with the skill of a collector, and planted in the soil of his original +baseness. He has been accused and acquitted of a treacherous murder; and +has since boastfully owned it, which inclines me to suppose him innocent. +His daughter is defaced by his erroneous cruelty, for it was his wife he +had intended to disfigure, and in the darkness of the night and the +frenzy of coco-brandy, fastened on the wrong victim. The wife has since +fled and harbours in the bush with natives; and the husband still demands +from deaf ears her forcible restoration. The best of his business is to +make natives drink, and then advance the money for the fine upon a +lucrative mortgage. ‘Respect for whites’ is the man’s word: ‘What is the +matter with this island is the want of respect for whites.’ On his way +to Butaritari, while I was there, he spied his wife in the bush with +certain natives and made a dash to capture her; whereupon one of her +companions drew a knife and the husband retreated: ‘Do you call that +proper respect for whites?’ he cried. At an early stage of the +acquaintance we proved our respect for his kind of white by forbidding +him our enclosure under pain of death. Thenceforth he lingered often in +the neighbourhood with I knew not what sense of envy or design of +mischief; his white, handsome face (which I beheld with loathing) looked +in upon us at all hours across the fence; and once, from a safe distance, +he avenged himself by shouting a recondite island insult, to us quite +inoffensive, on his English lips incredibly incongruous. + +Our enclosure, round which this composite of degradations wandered, was +of some extent. In one corner was a trellis with a long table of rough +boards. Here the Fourth of July feast had been held not long before with +memorable consequences, yet to be set forth; here we took our meals; here +entertained to a dinner the king and notables of Makin. In the midst was +the house, with a verandah front and back, and three is rooms within. In +the verandah we slung our man-of-war hammocks, worked there by day, and +slept at night. Within were beds, chairs, a round table, a fine hanging +lamp, and portraits of the royal family of Hawaii. Queen Victoria proves +nothing; Kalakaua and Mrs. Bishop are diagnostic; and the truth is we +were the stealthy tenants of the parsonage. On the day of our arrival +Maka was away; faithless trustees unlocked his doors; and the dear +rigorous man, the sworn foe of liquor and tobacco, returned to find his +verandah littered with cigarettes and his parlour horrible with bottles. +He made but one condition—on the round table, which he used in the +celebration of the sacraments, he begged us to refrain from setting +liquor; in all else he bowed to the accomplished fact, refused rent, +retired across the way into a native house, and, plying in his boat, beat +the remotest quarters of the isle for provender. He found us pigs—I +could not fancy where—no other pigs were visible; he brought us fowls and +taro; when we gave our feast to the monarch and gentry, it was he who +supplied the wherewithal, he who superintended the cooking, he who asked +grace at table, and when the king’s health was proposed, he also started +the cheering with an English hip-hip-hip. There was never a more +fortunate conception; the heart of the fatted king exulted in his bosom +at the sound. + +Take him for all in all, I have never known a more engaging creature than +this parson of Butaritari: his mirth, his kindness, his noble, friendly +feelings, brimmed from the man in speech and gesture. He loved to +exaggerate, to act and overact the momentary part, to exercise his lungs +and muscles, and to speak and laugh with his whole body. He had the +morning cheerfulness of birds and healthy children; and his humour was +infectious. We were next neighbours and met daily, yet our salutations +lasted minutes at a stretch—shaking hands, slapping shoulders, capering +like a pair of Merry-Andrews, laughing to split our sides upon some +pleasantry that would scarce raise a titter in an infant-school. It +might be five in the morning, the toddy-cutters just gone by, the road +empty, the shade of the island lying far on the lagoon: and the +ebullition cheered me for the day. + +Yet I always suspected Maka of a secret melancholy—these jubilant +extremes could scarce be constantly maintained. He was besides long, and +lean, and lined, and corded, and a trifle grizzled; and his Sabbath +countenance was even saturnine. On that day we made a procession to the +church, or (as I must always call it) the cathedral: Maka (a blot on the +hot landscape) in tall hat, black frock-coat, black trousers; under his +arm the hymn-book and the Bible; in his face, a reverent gravity:—beside +him Mary his wife, a quiet, wise, and handsome elderly lady, seriously +attired:—myself following with singular and moving thoughts. Long +before, to the sound of bells and streams and birds, through a green +Lothian glen, I had accompanied Sunday by Sunday a minister in whose +house I lodged; and the likeness, and the difference, and the series of +years and deaths, profoundly touched me. In the great, dusky, palm-tree +cathedral the congregation rarely numbered thirty: the men on one side, +the women on the other, myself posted (for a privilege) amongst the +women, and the small missionary contingent gathered close around the +platform, we were lost in that round vault. The lessons were read +antiphonally, the flock was catechised, a blind youth repeated weekly a +long string of psalms, hymns were sung—I never heard worse singing,—and +the sermon followed. To say I understood nothing were untrue; there were +points that I learned to expect with certainty; the name of Honolulu, +that of Kalakaua, the word Cap’n-man-o’-wa’, the word ship, and a +description of a storm at sea, infallibly occurred; and I was not seldom +rewarded with the name of my own Sovereign in the bargain. The rest was +but sound to the ears, silence for the mind: a plain expanse of tedium, +rendered unbearable by heat, a hard chair, and the sight through the wide +doors of the more happy heathen on the green. Sleep breathed on my +joints and eyelids, sleep hummed in my ears; it reigned in the dim +cathedral. The congregation stirred and stretched; they moaned, they +groaned aloud; they yawned upon a singing note, as you may sometimes hear +a dog when he has reached the tragic bitterest of boredom. In vain the +preacher thumped the table; in vain he singled and addressed by name +particular hearers. I was myself perhaps a more effective excitant; and +at least to one old gentleman the spectacle of my successful struggles +against sleep—and I hope they were successful—cheered the flight of time. +He, when he was not catching flies or playing tricks upon his neighbours, +gloated with a fixed, truculent eye upon the stages of my agony; and +once, when the service was drawing towards a close, he winked at me +across the church. + +I write of the service with a smile; yet I was always there—always with +respect for Maka, always with admiration for his deep seriousness, his +burning energy, the fire of his roused eye, the sincere and various +accents of his voice. To see him weekly flogging a dead horse and +blowing a cold fire was a lesson in fortitude and constancy. It may be a +question whether if the mission were fully supported, and he was set free +from business avocations, more might not result; I think otherwise +myself; I think not neglect but rigour has reduced his flock, that rigour +which has once provoked a revolution, and which to-day, in a man so +lively and engaging, amazes the beholder. No song, no dance, no tobacco, +no liquor, no alleviative of life—only toil and church-going; so says a +voice from his face; and the face is the face of the Polynesian Esau, but +the voice is the voice of a Jacob from a different world. And a +Polynesian at the best makes a singular missionary in the Gilberts, +coming from a country recklessly unchaste to one conspicuously strict; +from a race hag-ridden with bogies to one comparatively bold against the +terrors of the dark. The thought was stamped one morning in my mind, +when I chanced to be abroad by moonlight, and saw all the town lightless, +but the lamp faithfully burning by the missionary’s bed. It requires no +law, no fire, and no scouting police, to withhold Maka and his countrymen +from wandering in the night unlighted. + + + +CHAPTER IV—A TALE OF A TAPU + + +On the morrow of our arrival (Sunday, 14th July 1889) our photographers +were early stirring. Once more we traversed a silent town; many were yet +abed and asleep; some sat drowsily in their open houses; there was no +sound of intercourse or business. In that hour before the shadows, the +quarter of the palace and canal seemed like a landing-place in the +_Arabian Nights_ or from the classic poets; here were the fit destination +of some ‘faery frigot,’ here some adventurous prince might step ashore +among new characters and incidents; and the island prison, where it +floated on the luminous face of the lagoon, might have passed for the +repository of the Grail. In such a scene, and at such an hour, the +impression received was not so much of foreign travel—rather of past +ages; it seemed not so much degrees of latitude that we had crossed, as +centuries of time that we had re-ascended; leaving, by the same steps, +home and to-day. A few children followed us, mostly nude, all silent; in +the clear, weedy waters of the canal some silent damsels waded, baring +their brown thighs; and to one of the maniap’s before the palace gate we +were attracted by a low but stirring hum of speech. + +The oval shed was full of men sitting cross-legged. The king was there +in striped pyjamas, his rear protected by four guards with Winchesters, +his air and bearing marked by unwonted spirit and decision; tumblers and +black bottles went the round; and the talk, throughout loud, was general +and animated. I was inclined at first to view this scene with suspicion. +But the hour appeared unsuitable for a carouse; drink was besides +forbidden equally by the law of the land and the canons of the church; +and while I was yet hesitating, the king’s rigorous attitude disposed of +my last doubt. We had come, thinking to photograph him surrounded by his +guards, and at the first word of the design his piety revolted. We were +reminded of the day—the Sabbath, in which thou shalt take no +photographs—and returned with a flea in our ear, bearing the rejected +camera. + +At church, a little later, I was struck to find the throne unoccupied. +So nice a Sabbatarian might have found the means to be present; perhaps +my doubts revived; and before I got home they were transformed to +certainties. Tom, the bar-keeper of the _Sans Souci_, was in +conversation with two emissaries from the court. The ‘keen,’ they said, +wanted ‘din,’ failing which ‘perandi.’ {231} No din, was Tom’s reply, +and no perandi; but ‘pira’ if they pleased. It seems they had no use for +beer, and departed sorrowing. + +‘Why, what is the meaning of all this?’ I asked. ‘Is the island on the +spree?’ + +Such was the fact. On the 4th of July a feast had been made, and the +king, at the suggestion of the whites, had raised the tapu against +liquor. There is a proverb about horses; it scarce applies to the +superior animal, of whom it may be rather said, that any one can start +him drinking, not any twenty can prevail on him to stop. The tapu, +raised ten days before, was not yet re-imposed; for ten days the town had +been passing the bottle or lying (as we had seen it the afternoon before) +in hoggish sleep; and the king, moved by the Old Men and his own +appetites, continued to maintain the liberty, to squander his savings on +liquor, and to join in and lead the debauch. The whites were the authors +of this crisis; it was upon their own proposal that the freedom had been +granted at the first; and for a while, in the interests of trade, they +were doubtless pleased it should continue. That pleasure had now +sometime ceased; the bout had been prolonged (it was conceded) unduly; +and it now began to be a question how it might conclude. Hence Tom’s +refusal. Yet that refusal was avowedly only for the moment, and it was +avowedly unavailing; the king’s foragers, denied by Tom at the _Sans +Souci_, would be supplied at _The Land we Live in_ by the gobbling Mr. +Williams. + +The degree of the peril was not easy to measure at the time, and I am +inclined to think now it was easy to exaggerate. Yet the conduct of +drunkards even at home is always matter for anxiety; and at home our +populations are not armed from the highest to the lowest with revolvers +and repeating rifles, neither do we go on a debauch by the whole +townful—and I might rather say, by the whole polity—king, magistrates, +police, and army joining in one common scene of drunkenness. It must be +thought besides that we were here in barbarous islands, rarely visited, +lately and partly civilised. First and last, a really considerable +number of whites have perished in the Gilberts, chiefly through their own +misconduct; and the natives have displayed in at least one instance a +disposition to conceal an accident under a butchery, and leave nothing +but dumb bones. This last was the chief consideration against a sudden +closing of the bars; the bar-keepers stood in the immediate breach and +dealt direct with madmen; too surly a refusal might at any moment +precipitate a blow, and the blow might prove the signal for a massacre. + +_Monday_, 15th.—At the same hour we returned to the same muniap’. Kümmel +(of all drinks) was served in tumblers; in the midst sat the crown +prince, a fatted youth, surrounded by fresh bottles and busily plying the +corkscrew; and king, chief, and commons showed the loose mouth, the +uncertain joints, and the blurred and animated eye of the early drinker. +It was plain we were impatiently expected; the king retired with alacrity +to dress, the guards were despatched after their uniforms; and we were +left to await the issue of these preparations with a shedful of tipsy +natives. The orgie had proceeded further than on Sunday. The day +promised to be of great heat; it was already sultry, the courtiers were +already fuddled; and still the kümmel continued to go round, and the +crown prince to play butler. Flemish freedom followed upon Flemish +excess; and a funny dog, a handsome fellow, gaily dressed, and with a +full turban of frizzed hair, delighted the company with a humorous +courtship of a lady in a manner not to be described. It was our +diversion, in this time of waiting, to observe the gathering of the +guards. They have European arms, European uniforms, and (to their +sorrow) European shoes. We saw one warrior (like Mars) in the article of +being armed; two men and a stalwart woman were scarce strong enough to +boot him; and after a single appearance on parade the army is crippled +for a week. + +At last, the gates under the king’s house opened; the army issued, one +behind another, with guns and epaulettes; the colours stooped under the +gateway; majesty followed in his uniform bedizened with gold lace; +majesty’s wife came next in a hat and feathers, and an ample trained silk +gown; the royal imps succeeded; there stood the pageantry of Makin +marshalled on its chosen theatre. Dickens might have told how serious +they were; how tipsy; how the king melted and streamed under his cocked +hat; how he took station by the larger of his two cannons—austere, +majestic, but not truly vertical; how the troops huddled, and were +straightened out, and clubbed again; how they and their firelocks raked +at various inclinations like the masts of ships; and how an amateur +photographer reviewed, arrayed, and adjusted them, to see his +dispositions change before he reached the camera. + +The business was funny to see; I do not know that it is graceful to laugh +at; and our report of these transactions was received on our return with +the shaking of grave heads. + +The day had begun ill; eleven hours divided us from sunset; and at any +moment, on the most trifling chance, the trouble might begin. The +Wightman compound was in a military sense untenable, commanded on three +sides by houses and thick bush; the town was computed to contain over a +thousand stand of excellent new arms; and retreat to the ships, in the +case of an alert, was a recourse not to be thought of. Our talk that +morning must have closely reproduced the talk in English garrisons before +the Sepoy mutiny; the sturdy doubt that any mischief was in prospect, the +sure belief that (should any come) there was nothing left but to go down +fighting, the half-amused, half-anxious attitude of mind in which we were +awaiting fresh developments. + +The kümmel soon ran out; we were scarce returned before the king had +followed us in quest of more. Mr. Corpse was now divested of his more +awful attitude, the lawless bulk of him again encased in striped pyjamas; +a guardsman brought up the rear with his rifle at the trail: and his +majesty was further accompanied by a Rarotongan whalerman and the playful +courtier with the turban of frizzed hair. There was never a more lively +deputation. The whalerman was gapingly, tearfully tipsy: the courtier +walked on air; the king himself was even sportive. Seated in a chair in +the Ricks’ sitting-room, he bore the brunt of our prayers and menaces +unmoved. He was even rated, plied with historic instances, threatened +with the men-of-war, ordered to restore the tapu on the spot—and nothing +in the least affected him. It should be done to-morrow, he said; to-day +it was beyond his power, to-day he durst not. ‘Is that royal?’ cried +indignant Mr. Rick. No, it was not royal; had the king been of a royal +character we should ourselves have held a different language; and royal +or not, he had the best of the dispute. The terms indeed were hardly +equal; for the king was the only man who could restore the tapu, but the +Ricks were not the only people who sold drink. He had but to hold his +ground on the first question, and they were sure to weaken on the second. +A little struggle they still made for the fashion’s sake; and then one +exceedingly tipsy deputation departed, greatly rejoicing, a case of +brandy wheeling beside them in a barrow. The Rarotongan (whom I had +never seen before) wrung me by the hand like a man bound on a far voyage. +‘My dear frien’!’ he cried, ‘good-bye, my dear frien’!’—tears of kümmel +standing in his eyes; the king lurched as he went, the courtier ambled,—a +strange party of intoxicated children to be entrusted with that barrowful +of madness. + +You could never say the town was quiet; all morning there was a ferment +in the air, an aimless movement and congregation of natives in the +street. But it was not before half-past one that a sudden hubbub of +voices called us from the house, to find the whole white colony already +gathered on the spot as by concerted signal. The _Sans Souci_ was +overrun with rabble, the stair and verandah thronged. From all these +throats an inarticulate babbling cry went up incessantly; it sounded like +the bleating of young lambs, but angrier. In the road his royal highness +(whom I had seen so lately in the part of butler) stood crying upon Tom; +on the top step, tossed in the hurly-burly, Tom was shouting to the +prince. Yet a while the pack swayed about the bar, vociferous. Then +came a brutal impulse; the mob reeled, and returned, and was rejected; +the stair showed a stream of heads; and there shot into view, through the +disbanding ranks, three men violently dragging in their midst a fourth. +By his hair and his hands, his head forced as low as his knees, his face +concealed, he was wrenched from the verandah and whisked along the road +into the village, howling as he disappeared. Had his face been raised, +we should have seen it bloodied, and the blood was not his own. The +courtier with the turban of frizzed hair had paid the costs of this +disturbance with the lower part of one ear. + +So the brawl passed with no other casualty than might seem comic to the +inhumane. Yet we looked round on serious faces and—a fact that spoke +volumes—Tom was putting up the shutters on the bar. Custom might go +elsewhere, Mr. Williams might profit as he pleased, but Tom had had +enough of bar-keeping for that day. Indeed the event had hung on a hair. +A man had sought to draw a revolver—on what quarrel I could never learn, +and perhaps he himself could not have told; one shot, when the room was +so crowded, could scarce have failed to take effect; where many were +armed and all tipsy, it could scarce have failed to draw others; and the +woman who spied the weapon and the man who seized it may very well have +saved the white community. + +The mob insensibly melted from the scene; and for the rest of the day our +neighbourhood was left in peace and a good deal in solitude. But the +tranquillity was only local; _din_ and_ perandi_ still flowed in other +quarters: and we had one more sight of Gilbert Island violence. In the +church, where we had wandered photographing, we were startled by a sudden +piercing outcry. The scene, looking forth from the doors of that great +hall of shadow, was unforgettable. The palms, the quaint and scattered +houses, the flag of the island streaming from its tall staff, glowed with +intolerable sunshine. In the midst two women rolled fighting on the +grass. The combatants were the more easy to be distinguished, because +the one was stripped to the _ridi_ and the other wore a holoku (sacque) +of some lively colour. The first was uppermost, her teeth locked in her +adversary’s face, shaking her like a dog; the other impotently fought and +scratched. So for a moment we saw them wallow and grapple there like +vermin; then the mob closed and shut them in. + +It was a serious question that night if we should sleep ashore. But we +were travellers, folk that had come far in quest of the adventurous; on +the first sign of an adventure it would have been a singular +inconsistency to have withdrawn; and we sent on board instead for our +revolvers. Mindful of Taahauku, Mr. Rick, Mr. Osbourne, and Mrs. +Stevenson held an assault of arms on the public highway, and fired at +bottles to the admiration of the natives. Captain Reid of the _Equator_ +stayed on shore with us to be at hand in case of trouble, and we retired +to bed at the accustomed hour, agreeably excited by the day’s events. +The night was exquisite, the silence enchanting; yet as I lay in my +hammock looking on the strong moonshine and the quiescent palms, one ugly +picture haunted me of the two women, the naked and the clad, locked in +that hostile embrace. The harm done was probably not much, yet I could +have looked on death and massacre with less revolt. The return to these +primeval weapons, the vision of man’s beastliness, of his ferality, +shocked in me a deeper sense than that with which we count the cost of +battles. There are elements in our state and history which it is a +pleasure to forget, which it is perhaps the better wisdom not to dwell +on. Crime, pestilence, and death are in the day’s work; the imagination +readily accepts them. It instinctively rejects, on the contrary, +whatever shall call up the image of our race upon its lowest terms, as +the partner of beasts, beastly itself, dwelling pell-mell and +hugger-mugger, hairy man with hairy woman, in the caves of old. And yet +to be just to barbarous islanders we must not forget the slums and dens +of our cities; I must not forget that I have passed dinnerward through +Soho, and seen that which cured me of my dinner. + + + +CHAPTER V—A TALE OF A TAPU—_continued_ + + +_Tuesday_, _July_ 16.—It rained in the night, sudden and loud, in Gilbert +Island fashion. Before the day, the crowing of a cock aroused me and I +wandered in the compound and along the street. The squall was blown by, +the moon shone with incomparable lustre, the air lay dead as in a room, +and yet all the isle sounded as under a strong shower, the eaves thickly +pattering, the lofty palms dripping at larger intervals and with a louder +note. In this bold nocturnal light the interior of the houses lay +inscrutable, one lump of blackness, save when the moon glinted under the +roof, and made a belt of silver, and drew the slanting shadows of the +pillars on the floor. Nowhere in all the town was any lamp or ember; not +a creature stirred; I thought I was alone to be awake; but the police +were faithful to their duty; secretly vigilant, keeping account of time; +and a little later, the watchman struck slowly and repeatedly on the +cathedral bell; four o’clock, the warning signal. It seemed strange +that, in a town resigned to drunkenness and tumult, curfew and réveille +should still be sounded and still obeyed. + +The day came, and brought little change. The place still lay silent; the +people slept, the town slept. Even the few who were awake, mostly women +and children, held their peace and kept within under the strong shadow of +the thatch, where you must stop and peer to see them. Through the +deserted streets, and past the sleeping houses, a deputation took its way +at an early hour to the palace; the king was suddenly awakened, and must +listen (probably with a headache) to unpalatable truths. Mrs. Rick, +being a sufficient mistress of that difficult tongue, was spokeswoman; +she explained to the sick monarch that I was an intimate personal friend +of Queen Victoria’s; that immediately on my return I should make her a +report upon Butaritari; and that if my house should have been again +invaded by natives, a man-of-war would be despatched to make reprisals. +It was scarce the fact—rather a just and necessary parable of the fact, +corrected for latitude; and it certainly told upon the king. He was much +affected; he had conceived the notion (he said) that I was a man of some +importance, but not dreamed it was as bad as this; and the missionary +house was tapu’d under a fine of fifty dollars. + +So much was announced on the return of the deputation; not any more; and +I gathered subsequently that much more had passed. The protection gained +was welcome. It had been the most annoying and not the least alarming +feature of the day before, that our house was periodically filled with +tipsy natives, twenty or thirty at a time, begging drink, fingering our +goods, hard to be dislodged, awkward to quarrel with. Queen Victoria’s +friend (who was soon promoted to be her son) was free from these +intrusions. Not only my house, but my neighbourhood as well, was left in +peace; even on our walks abroad we were guarded and prepared for; and, +like great persons visiting a hospital, saw only the fair side. For the +matter of a week we were thus suffered to go out and in and live in a +fool’s paradise, supposing the king to have kept his word, the tapu to be +revived and the island once more sober. + +_Tuesday_, _July_ 23.—We dined under a bare trellis erected for the +Fourth of July; and here we used to linger by lamplight over coffee and +tobacco. In that climate evening approaches without sensible chill; the +wind dies out before sunset; heaven glows a while and fades, and darkens +into the blueness of the tropical night; swiftly and insensibly the +shadows thicken, the stars multiply their number; you look around you and +the day is gone. It was then that we would see our Chinaman draw near +across the compound in a lurching sphere of light, divided by his +shadows; and with the coming of the lamp the night closed about the +table. The faces of the company, the spars of the trellis, stood out +suddenly bright on a ground of blue and silver, faintly designed with +palm-tops and the peaked roofs of houses. Here and there the gloss upon +a leaf, or the fracture of a stone, returned an isolated sparkle. All +else had vanished. We hung there, illuminated like a galaxy of stars _in +vacuo_; we sat, manifest and blind, amid the general ambush of the +darkness; and the islanders, passing with light footfalls and low voices +in the sand of the road, lingered to observe us, unseen. + +On Tuesday the dusk had fallen, the lamp had just been brought, when a +missile struck the table with a rattling smack and rebounded past my ear. +Three inches to one side and this page had never been written; for the +thing travelled like a cannon ball. It was supposed at the time to be a +nut, though even at the time I thought it seemed a small one and fell +strangely. + +_Wednesday_, _July_ 24.—The dusk had fallen once more, and the lamp been +just brought out, when the same business was repeated. And again the +missile whistled past my ear. One nut I had been willing to accept; a +second, I rejected utterly. A cocoa-nut does not come slinging along on +a windless evening, making an angle of about fifteen degrees with the +horizon; cocoa-nuts do not fall on successive nights at the same hour and +spot; in both cases, besides, a specific moment seemed to have been +chosen, that when the lamp was just carried out, a specific person +threatened, and that the head of the family. I may have been right or +wrong, but I believed I was the mark of some intimidation; believed the +missile was a stone, aimed not to hit, but to frighten. + +No idea makes a man more angry. I ran into the road, where the natives +were as usual promenading in the dark; Maka joined me with a lantern; and +I ran from one to another, glared in quite innocent faces, put useless +questions, and proffered idle threats. Thence I carried my wrath (which +was worthy the son of any queen in history) to the Ricks. They heard me +with depression, assured me this trick of throwing a stone into a family +dinner was not new; that it meant mischief, and was of a piece with the +alarming disposition of the natives. And then the truth, so long +concealed from us, came out. The king had broken his promise, he had +defied the deputation; the tapu was still dormant, _The Land we Live in_ +still selling drink, and that quarter of the town disturbed and menaced +by perpetual broils. But there was worse ahead: a feast was now +preparing for the birthday of the little princess; and the tributary +chiefs of Kuma and Little Makin were expected daily. Strong in a +following of numerous and somewhat savage clansmen, each of these was +believed, like a Douglas of old, to be of doubtful loyalty. Kuma (a +little pot-bellied fellow) never visited the palace, never entered the +town, but sat on the beach on a mat, his gun across his knees, parading +his mistrust and scorn; Karaiti of Makin, although he was more bold, was +not supposed to be more friendly; and not only were these vassals jealous +of the throne, but the followers on either side shared in the animosity. +Brawls had already taken place; blows had passed which might at any +moment be repaid in blood. Some of the strangers were already here and +already drinking; if the debauch continued after the bulk of them had +come, a collision, perhaps a revolution, was to be expected. + +The sale of drink is in this group a measure of the jealousy of traders; +one begins, the others are constrained to follow; and to him who has the +most gin, and sells it the most recklessly, the lion’s share of copra is +assured. It is felt by all to be an extreme expedient, neither safe, +decent, nor dignified. A trader on Tarawa, heated by an eager rivalry, +brought many cases of gin. He told me he sat afterwards day and night in +his house till it was finished, not daring to arrest the sale, not +venturing to go forth, the bush all round him filled with howling +drunkards. At night, above all, when he was afraid to sleep, and heard +shots and voices about him in the darkness, his remorse was black. + +‘My God!’ he reflected, ‘if I was to lose my life on such a wretched +business!’ Often and often, in the story of the Gilberts, this scene has +been repeated; and the remorseful trader sat beside his lamp, longing for +the day, listening with agony for the sound of murder, registering +resolutions for the future. For the business is easy to begin, but +hazardous to stop. The natives are in their way a just and law-abiding +people, mindful of their debts, docile to the voice of their own +institutions; when the tapu is re-enforced they will cease drinking; but +the white who seeks to antedate the movement by refusing liquor does so +at his peril. + +Hence, in some degree, the anxiety and helplessness of Mr. Rick. He and +Tom, alarmed by the rabblement of the _Sans Souci_, had stopped the sale; +they had done so without danger, because _The Land we Live in_ still +continued selling; it was claimed, besides, that they had been the first +to begin. What step could be taken? Could Mr. Rick visit Mr. Muller +(with whom he was not on terms) and address him thus: ‘I was getting +ahead of you, now you are getting ahead of me, and I ask you to forego +your profit. I got my place closed in safety, thanks to your continuing; +but now I think you have continued long enough. I begin to be alarmed; +and because I am afraid I ask you to confront a certain danger’? It was +not to be thought of. Something else had to be found; and there was one +person at one end of the town who was at least not interested in copra. +There was little else to be said in favour of myself as an ambassador. I +had arrived in the Wightman schooner, I was living in the Wightman +compound, I was the daily associate of the Wightman coterie. It was +egregious enough that I should now intrude unasked in the private affairs +of Crawford’s agent, and press upon him the sacrifice of his interests +and the venture of his life. But bad as I might be, there was none +better; since the affair of the stone I was, besides, sharp-set to be +doing, the idea of a delicate interview attracted me, and I thought it +policy to show myself abroad. + +The night was very dark. There was service in the church, and the +building glimmered through all its crevices like a dim Kirk Allowa’. I +saw few other lights, but was indistinctly aware of many people stirring +in the darkness, and a hum and sputter of low talk that sounded stealthy. +I believe (in the old phrase) my beard was sometimes on my shoulder as I +went. Muller’s was but partly lighted, and quite silent, and the gate +was fastened. I could by no means manage to undo the latch. No wonder, +since I found it afterwards to be four or five feet long—a fortification +in itself. As I still fumbled, a dog came on the inside and sniffed +suspiciously at my hands, so that I was reduced to calling ‘House ahoy!’ +Mr. Muller came down and put his chin across the paling in the dark. +‘Who is that?’ said he, like one who has no mind to welcome strangers. + +‘My name is Stevenson,’ said I. + +‘O, Mr. Stevens! I didn’t know you. Come inside.’ We stepped into the +dark store, when I leaned upon the counter and he against the wall. All +the light came from the sleeping-room, where I saw his family being put +to bed; it struck full in my face, but Mr. Muller stood in shadow. No +doubt he expected what was Coming, and sought the advantage of position; +but for a man who wished to persuade and had nothing to conceal, mine was +the preferable. + +‘Look here,’ I began, ‘I hear you are selling to the natives.’ + +‘Others have done that before me,’ he returned pointedly. + +‘No doubt,’ said I, ‘and I have nothing to do with the past, but the +future. I want you to promise you will handle these spirits carefully.’ + +‘Now what is your motive in this?’ he asked, and then, with a sneer, ‘Are +you afraid of your life?’ + +‘That is nothing to the purpose,’ I replied. ‘I know, and you know, +these spirits ought not to be used at all.’ + +‘Tom and Mr. Rick have sold them before.’ + +‘I have nothing to do with Tom and Mr. Rick. All I know is I have heard +them both refuse.’ + +‘No, I suppose you have nothing to do with them. Then you are just +afraid of your life.’ + +‘Come now,’ I cried, being perhaps a little stung, ‘you know in your +heart I am asking a reasonable thing. I don’t ask you to lose your +profit—though I would prefer to see no spirits brought here, as you +would—’ + +‘I don’t say I wouldn’t. I didn’t begin this,’ he interjected. + +‘No, I don’t suppose you did,’ said I. ‘And I don’t ask you to lose; I +ask you to give me your word, man to man, that you will make no native +drunk.’ + +Up to now Mr. Muller had maintained an attitude very trying to my temper; +but he had maintained it with difficulty, his sentiment being all upon my +side; and here he changed ground for the worse. ‘It isn’t me that +sells,’ said he. + +‘No, it’s that nigger,’ I agreed. ‘But he’s yours to buy and sell; you +have your hand on the nape of his neck; and I ask you—I have my wife +here—to use the authority you have.’ + +He hastily returned to his old ward. ‘I don’t deny I could if I wanted,’ +said he. ‘But there’s no danger, the natives are all quiet. You’re just +afraid of your life.’ + +I do not like to be called a coward, even by implication; and here I lost +my temper and propounded an untimely ultimatum. ‘You had better put it +plain,’ I cried. ‘Do you mean to refuse me what I ask?’ + +‘I don’t want either to refuse it or grant it,’ he replied. + +‘You’ll find you have to do the one thing or the other, and right now!’ I +cried, and then, striking into a happier vein, ‘Come,’ said I, ‘you’re a +better sort than that. I see what’s wrong with you—you think I came from +the opposite camp. I see the sort of man you are, and you know that what +I ask is right.’ + +Again he changed ground. ‘If the natives get any drink, it isn’t safe to +stop them,’ he objected. + +‘I’ll be answerable for the bar,’ I said. ‘We are three men and four +revolvers; we’ll come at a word, and hold the place against the village.’ + +‘You don’t know what you’re talking about; it’s too dangerous!’ he cried. + +‘Look here,’ said I, ‘I don’t mind much about losing that life you talk +so much of; but I mean to lose it the way I want to, and that is, putting +a stop to all this beastliness.’ + +He talked a while about his duty to the firm; I minded not at all, I was +secure of victory. He was but waiting to capitulate, and looked about +for any potent to relieve the strain. In the gush of light from the +bedroom door I spied a cigar-holder on the desk. ‘That is well +coloured,’ said I. + +‘Will you take a cigar?’ said he. + +I took it and held it up unlighted. ‘Now,’ said I, ‘you promise me.’ + +‘I promise you you won’t have any trouble from natives that have drunk at +my place,’ he replied. + +‘That is all I ask,’ said I, and showed it was not by immediately +offering to try his stock. + +So far as it was anyway critical our interview here ended. Mr. Muller +had thenceforth ceased to regard me as an emissary from his rivals, +dropped his defensive attitude, and spoke as he believed. I could make +out that he would already, had he dared, have stopped the sale himself. +Not quite daring, it may be imagined how he resented the idea of +interference from those who had (by his own statement) first led him on, +then deserted him in the breach, and now (sitting themselves in safety) +egged him on to a new peril, which was all gain to them, all loss to him! +I asked him what he thought of the danger from the feast. + +‘I think worse of it than any of you,’ he answered. ‘They were shooting +around here last night, and I heard the balls too. I said to myself, +“That’s bad.” What gets me is why you should be making this row up at +your end. I should be the first to go.’ + +It was a thoughtless wonder. The consolation of being second is not +great; the fact, not the order of going—there was our concern. + +Scott talks moderately of looking forward to a time of fighting ‘with a +feeling that resembled pleasure.’ The resemblance seems rather an +identity. In modern life, contact is ended; man grows impatient of +endless manœuvres; and to approach the fact, to find ourselves where we +can push an advantage home, and stand a fair risk, and see at last what +we are made of, stirs the blood. It was so at least with all my family, +who bubbled with delight at the approach of trouble; and we sat deep into +the night like a pack of schoolboys, preparing the revolvers and +arranging plans against the morrow. It promised certainly to be a busy +and eventful day. The Old Men were to be summoned to confront me on the +question of the tapu; Muller might call us at any moment to garrison his +bar; and suppose Muller to fail, we decided in a family council to take +that matter into our own hands, _The Land we Live in_ at the pistol’s +mouth, and with the polysyllabic Williams, dance to a new tune. As I +recall our humour I think it would have gone hard with the mulatto. + +_Wednesday_, _July_ 24.—It was as well, and yet it was disappointing that +these thunder-clouds rolled off in silence. Whether the Old Men recoiled +from an interview with Queen Victoria’s son, whether Muller had secretly +intervened, or whether the step flowed naturally from the fears of the +king and the nearness of the feast, the tapu was early that morning +re-enforced; not a day too soon, from the manner the boats began to +arrive thickly, and the town was filled with the big rowdy vassals of +Karaiti. + +The effect lingered for some time on the minds of the traders; it was +with the approval of all present that I helped to draw up a petition to +the United States, praying for a law against the liquor trade in the +Gilberts; and it was at this request that I added, under my own name, a +brief testimony of what had passed;—useless pains; since the whole +reposes, probably unread and possibly unopened, in a pigeon-hole at +Washington. + +_Sunday_, _July_ 28.—This day we had the afterpiece of the debauch. The +king and queen, in European clothes, and followed by armed guards, +attended church for the first time, and sat perched aloft in a precarious +dignity under the barrel-hoops. Before sermon his majesty clambered from +the dais, stood lopsidedly upon the gravel floor, and in a few words +abjured drinking. The queen followed suit with a yet briefer allocution. +All the men in church were next addressed in turn; each held up his right +hand, and the affair was over—throne and church were reconciled. + + + +CHAPTER VI—THE FIVE DAYS’ FESTIVAL + + +_Thursday_, _July_ 25.—The street was this day much enlivened by the +presence of the men from Little Makin; they average taller than +Butaritarians, and being on a holiday, went wreathed with yellow leaves +and gorgeous in vivid colours. They are said to be more savage, and to +be proud of the distinction. Indeed, it seemed to us they swaggered in +the town, like plaided Highlanders upon the streets of Inverness, +conscious of barbaric virtues. + +In the afternoon the summer parlour was observed to be packed with +people; others standing outside and stooping to peer under the eaves, +like children at home about a circus. It was the Makin company, +rehearsing for the day of competition. Karaiti sat in the front row +close to the singers, where we were summoned (I suppose in honour of +Queen Victoria) to join him. A strong breathless heat reigned under the +iron roof, and the air was heavy with the scent of wreaths. The singers, +with fine mats about their loins, cocoa-nut feathers set in rings upon +their fingers, and their heads crowned with yellow leaves, sat on the +floor by companies. A varying number of soloists stood up for different +songs; and these bore the chief part in the music. But the full force of +the companies, even when not singing, contributed continuously to the +effect, and marked the ictus of the measure, mimicking, grimacing, +casting up their heads and eyes, fluttering the feathers on their +fingers, clapping hands, or beating (loud as a kettledrum) on the left +breast; the time was exquisite, the music barbarous, but full of +conscious art. I noted some devices constantly employed. A sudden +change would be introduced (I think of key) with no break of the measure, +but emphasised by a sudden dramatic heightening of the voice and a +swinging, general gesticulation. The voices of the soloists would begin +far apart in a rude discord, and gradually draw together to a unison; +which, when, they had reached, they were joined and drowned by the full +chorus. The ordinary, hurried, barking unmelodious movement of the +voices would at times be broken and glorified by a psalm-like strain of +melody, often well constructed, or seeming so by contrast. There was +much variety of measure, and towards the end of each piece, when the fun +became fast and furious, a recourse to this figure— + + [Picture: Music. It means two/four time with quaver, quaver, crotchet + repeated for three bars] + +It is difficult to conceive what fire and devilry they get into these +hammering finales; all go together, voices, hands, eyes, leaves, and +fluttering finger-rings; the chorus swings to the eye, the song throbs on +the ear; the faces are convulsed with enthusiasm and effort. + +Presently the troop stood up in a body, the drums forming a half-circle +for the soloists, who were sometimes five or even more in number. The +songs that followed were highly dramatic; though I had none to give me +any explanation, I would at times make out some shadowy but decisive +outline of a plot; and I was continually reminded of certain quarrelsome +concerted scenes in grand operas at home; just so the single voices issue +from and fall again into the general volume; just so do the performers +separate and crowd together, brandish the raised hand, and roll the eye +to heaven—or the gallery. Already this is beyond the Thespian model; the +art of this people is already past the embryo: song, dance, drums, +quartette and solo—it is the drama full developed although still in +miniature. Of all so-called dancing in the South Seas, that which I saw +in Butaritari stands easily the first. The _hula_, as it may be viewed +by the speedy globe-trotter in Honolulu, is surely the most dull of man’s +inventions, and the spectator yawns under its length as at a college +lecture or a parliamentary debate. But the Gilbert Island dance leads on +the mind; it thrills, rouses, subjugates; it has the essence of all art, +an unexplored imminent significance. Where so many are engaged, and +where all must make (at a given moment) the same swift, elaborate, and +often arbitrary movement, the toil of rehearsal is of course extreme. +But they begin as children. A child and a man may often be seen together +in a maniap’: the man sings and gesticulates, the child stands before him +with streaming tears and tremulously copies him in act and sound; it is +the Gilbert Island artist learning (as all artists must) his art in +sorrow. + +I may seem to praise too much; here is a passage from my wife’s diary, +which proves that I was not alone in being moved, and completes the +picture:—‘The conductor gave the cue, and all the dancers, waving their +arms, swaying their bodies, and clapping their breasts in perfect time, +opened with an introductory. The performers remained seated, except two, +and once three, and twice a single soloist. These stood in the group, +making a slight movement with the feet and rhythmical quiver of the body +as they sang. There was a pause after the introductory, and then the +real business of the opera—for it was no less—began; an opera where every +singer was an accomplished actor. The leading man, in an impassioned +ecstasy which possessed him from head to foot, seemed transfigured; once +it was as though a strong wind had swept over the stage—their arms, their +feathered fingers thrilling with an emotion that shook my nerves as well: +heads and bodies followed like a field of grain before a gust. My blood +came hot and cold, tears pricked my eyes, my head whirled, I felt an +almost irresistible impulse to join the dancers. One drama, I think, I +very nearly understood. A fierce and savage old man took the solo part. +He sang of the birth of a prince, and how he was tenderly rocked in his +mother’s arms; of his boyhood, when he excelled his fellows in swimming, +climbing, and all athletic sports; of his youth, when he went out to sea +with his boat and fished; of his manhood, when he married a wife who +cradled a son of his own in her arms. Then came the alarm of war, and a +great battle, of which for a time the issue was doubtful; but the hero +conquered, as he always does, and with a tremendous burst of the victors +the piece closed. There were also comic pieces, which caused great +amusement. During one, an old man behind me clutched me by the arm, +shook his finger in my face with a roguish smile, and said something with +a chuckle, which I took to be the equivalent of “O, you women, you women; +it is true of you all!” I fear it was not complimentary. At no time was +there the least sign of the ugly indecency of the eastern islands. All +was poetry pure and simple. The music itself was as complex as our own, +though constructed on an entirely different basis; once or twice I was +startled by a bit of something very like the best English sacred music, +but it was only for an instant. At last there was a longer pause, and +this time the dancers were all on their feet. As the drama went on, the +interest grew. The performers appealed to each other, to the audience, +to the heaven above; they took counsel with each other, the conspirators +drew together in a knot; it was just an opera, the drums coming in at +proper intervals, the tenor, baritone, and bass all where they should +be—except that the voices were all of the same calibre. A woman once +sang from the back row with a very fine contralto voice spoilt by being +made artificially nasal; I notice all the women affect that +unpleasantness. At one time a boy of angelic beauty was the soloist; and +at another, a child of six or eight, doubtless an infant phenomenon being +trained, was placed in the centre. The little fellow was desperately +frightened and embarrassed at first, but towards the close warmed up to +his work and showed much dramatic talent. The changing expressions on +the faces of the dancers were so speaking, that it seemed a great +stupidity not to understand them.’ + +Our neighbour at this performance, Karaiti, somewhat favours his +Butaritarian majesty in shape and feature, being, like him, portly, +bearded, and Oriental. In character he seems the reverse: alert, +smiling, jovial, jocular, industrious. At home in his own island, he +labours himself like a slave, and makes his people labour like a +slave-driver. He takes an interest in ideas. George the trader told him +about flying-machines. ‘Is that true, George?’ he asked. ‘It is in the +papers,’ replied George. ‘Well,’ said Karaiti, ‘if that man can do it +with machinery, I can do it without’; and he designed and made a pair of +wings, strapped them on his shoulders, went to the end of a pier, +launched himself into space, and fell bulkily into the sea. His wives +fished him out, for his wings hindered him in swimming. ‘George,’ said +he, pausing as he went up to change, ‘George, you lie.’ He had eight +wives, for his small realm still follows ancient customs; but he showed +embarrassment when this was mentioned to my wife. ‘Tell her I have only +brought one here,’ he said anxiously. Altogether the Black Douglas +pleased us much; and as we heard fresh details of the king’s uneasiness, +and saw for ourselves that all the weapons in the summer parlour had been +hid, we watched with the more admiration the cause of all this anxiety +rolling on his big legs, with his big smiling face, apparently unarmed, +and certainly unattended, through the hostile town. The Red Douglas, +pot-bellied Kuma, having perhaps heard word of the debauch, remained upon +his fief; his vassals thus came uncommanded to the feast, and swelled the +following of Karaiti. + +_Friday_, _July_ 26.—At night in the dark, the singers of Makin paraded +in the road before our house and sang the song of the princess. ‘This is +the day; she was born to-day; Nei Kamaunave was born to-day—a beautiful +princess, Queen of Butaritari.’ So I was told it went in endless +iteration. The song was of course out of season, and the performance +only a rehearsal. But it was a serenade besides; a delicate attention to +ourselves from our new friend, Karaiti. + +_Saturday_, _July_ 27.—We had announced a performance of the magic +lantern to-night in church; and this brought the king to visit us. In +honour of the Black Douglas (I suppose) his usual two guardsmen were now +increased to four; and the squad made an outlandish figure as they +straggled after him, in straw hats, kilts and jackets. Three carried +their arms reversed, the butts over their shoulders, the muzzles menacing +the king’s plump back; the fourth had passed his weapon behind his neck, +and held it there with arms extended like a backboard. The visit was +extraordinarily long. The king, no longer galvanised with gin, said and +did nothing. He sat collapsed in a chair and let a cigar go out. It was +hot, it was sleepy, it was cruel dull; there was no resource but to spy +in the countenance of Tebureimoa for some remaining trait of _Mr. Corpse_ +the butcher. His hawk nose, crudely depressed and flattened at the +point, did truly seem to us to smell of midnight murder. When he took +his leave, Maka bade me observe him going down the stair (or rather +ladder) from the verandah. ‘Old man,’ said Maka. ‘Yes,’ said I, ‘and +yet I suppose not old man.’ ‘Young man,’ returned Maka, ‘perhaps fo’ty.’ +And I have heard since he is most likely younger. + +While the magic lantern was showing, I skulked without in the dark. The +voice of Maka, excitedly explaining the Scripture slides, seemed to fill +not the church only, but the neighbourhood. All else was silent. +Presently a distant sound of singing arose and approached; and a +procession drew near along the road, the hot clean smell of the men and +women striking in my face delightfully. At the corner, arrested by the +voice of Maka and the lightening and darkening of the church, they +paused. They had no mind to go nearer, that was plain. They were Makin +people, I believe, probably staunch heathens, contemners of the +missionary and his works. Of a sudden, however, a man broke from their +company, took to his heels, and fled into the church; next moment three +had followed him; the next it was a covey of near upon a score, all +pelting for their lives. So the little band of the heathen paused +irresolute at the corner, and melted before the attractions of a magic +lantern, like a glacier in spring. The more staunch vainly taunted the +deserters; three fled in a guilty silence, but still fled; and when at +length the leader found the wit or the authority to get his troop in +motion and revive the singing, it was with much diminished forces that +they passed musically on up the dark road. + +Meanwhile inside the luminous pictures brightened and faded. I stood for +some while unobserved in the rear of the spectators, when I could hear +just in front of me a pair of lovers following the show with interest, +the male playing the part of interpreter and (like Adam) mingling +caresses with his lecture. The wild animals, a tiger in particular, and +that old school-treat favourite, the sleeper and the mouse, were hailed +with joy; but the chief marvel and delight was in the gospel series. +Maka, in the opinion of his aggrieved wife, did not properly rise to the +occasion. ‘What is the matter with the man? Why can’t he talk?’ she +cried. The matter with the man, I think, was the greatness of the +opportunity; he reeled under his good fortune; and whether he did ill or +well, the exposure of these pious ‘phantoms’ did as a matter of fact +silence in all that part of the island the voice of the scoffer. ‘Why +then,’ the word went round, ‘why then, the Bible is true!’ And on our +return afterwards we were told the impression was yet lively, and those +who had seen might be heard telling those who had not, ‘O yes, it is all +true; these things all happened, we have seen the pictures.’ The +argument is not so childish as it seems; for I doubt if these islanders +are acquainted with any other mode of representation but photography; so +that the picture of an event (on the old melodrama principle that ‘the +camera cannot lie, Joseph,’) would appear strong proof of its occurrence. +The fact amused us the more because our slides were some of them +ludicrously silly, and one (Christ before Pilate) was received with +shouts of merriment, in which even Maka was constrained to join. + +_Sunday_, _July_ 28.—Karaiti came to ask for a repetition of the +‘phantoms’—this was the accepted word—and, having received a promise, +turned and left my humble roof without the shadow of a salutation. I +felt it impolite to have the least appearance of pocketing a slight; the +times had been too difficult, and were still too doubtful; and Queen +Victoria’s son was bound to maintain the honour of his house. Karaiti +was accordingly summoned that evening to the Ricks, where Mrs. Rick fell +foul of him in words, and Queen Victoria’s son assailed him with +indignant looks. I was the ass with the lion’s skin; I could not roar in +the language of the Gilbert Islands; but I could stare. Karaiti declared +he had meant no offence; apologised in a sound, hearty, gentlemanly +manner; and became at once at his ease. He had in a dagger to examine, +and announced he would come to price it on the morrow, to-day being +Sunday; this nicety in a heathen with eight wives surprised me. The +dagger was ‘good for killing fish,’ he said roguishly; and was supposed +to have his eye upon fish upon two legs. It is at least odd that in +Eastern Polynesia fish was the accepted euphemism for the human +sacrifice. Asked as to the population of his island, Karaiti called out +to his vassals who sat waiting him outside the door, and they put it at +four hundred and fifty; but (added Karaiti jovially) there will soon be +plenty more, for all the women are in the family way. Long before we +separated I had quite forgotten his offence. He, however, still bore it +in mind; and with a very courteous inspiration returned early on the next +day, paid us a long visit, and punctiliously said farewell when he +departed. + +_Monday_, _July_ 29.—The great day came round at last. In the first +hours the night was startled by the sound of clapping hands and the chant +of Nei Kamaunava; its melancholy, slow, and somewhat menacing measures +broken at intervals by a formidable shout. The little morsel of humanity +thus celebrated in the dark hours was observed at midday playing on the +green entirely naked, and equally unobserved and unconcerned. + +The summer parlour on its artificial islet, relieved against the +shimmering lagoon, and shimmering itself with sun and tinned iron, was +all day crowded about by eager men and women. Within, it was boxed full +of islanders, of any age and size, and in every degree of nudity and +finery. So close we squatted, that at one time I had a mighty handsome +woman on my knees, two little naked urchins having their feet against my +back. There might be a dame in full attire of _holoku_ and hat and +flowers; and her next neighbour might the next moment strip some little +rag of a shift from her fat shoulders and come out a monument of flesh, +painted rather than covered by the hairbreadth _ridi_. Little ladies who +thought themselves too great to appear undraped upon so high a festival +were seen to pause outside in the bright sunshine, their miniature ridis +in their hand; a moment more and they were full-dressed and entered the +concert-room. + +At either end stood up to sing, or sat down to rest, the alternate +companies of singers; Kuma and Little Makin on the north, Butaritari and +its conjunct hamlets on the south; both groups conspicuous in barbaric +bravery. In the midst, between these rival camps of troubadours, a bench +was placed; and here the king and queen throned it, some two or three +feet above the crowded audience on the floor—Tebureimoa as usual in his +striped pyjamas with a satchel strapped across one shoulder, doubtless +(in the island fashion) to contain his pistols; the queen in a purple +_holoku_, her abundant hair let down, a fan in her hand. The bench was +turned facing to the strangers, a piece of well-considered civility; and +when it was the turn of Butaritari to sing, the pair must twist round on +the bench, lean their elbows on the rail, and turn to us the spectacle of +their broad backs. The royal couple occasionally solaced themselves with +a clay pipe; and the pomp of state was further heightened by the rifles +of a picket of the guard. + +With this kingly countenance, and ourselves squatted on the ground, we +heard several songs from one side or the other. Then royalty and its +guards withdrew, and Queen Victoria’s son and daughter-in-law were +summoned by acclamation to the vacant throne. Our pride was perhaps a +little modified when we were joined on our high places by a certain +thriftless loafer of a white; and yet I was glad too, for the man had a +smattering of native, and could give me some idea of the subject of the +songs. One was patriotic, and dared Tembinok’ of Apemama, the terror of +the group, to an invasion. One mixed the planting of taro and the +harvest-home. Some were historical, and commemorated kings and the +illustrious chances of their time, such as a bout of drinking or a war. +One, at least, was a drama of domestic interest, excellently played by +the troop from Makin. It told the story of a man who has lost his wife, +at first bewails her loss, then seeks another: the earlier strains (or +acts) are played exclusively by men; but towards the end a woman appears, +who has just lost her husband; and I suppose the pair console each other, +for the finale seemed of happy omen. Of some of the songs my informant +told me briefly they were ‘like about the _weemen_’; this I could have +guessed myself. Each side (I should have said) was strengthened by one +or two women. They were all soloists, did not very often join in the +performance, but stood disengaged at the back part of the stage, and +looked (in _ridi_, necklace, and dressed hair) for all the world like +European ballet-dancers. When the song was anyway broad these ladies +came particularly to the front; and it was singular to see that, after +each entry, the _première danseuse_ pretended to be overcome by shame, as +though led on beyond what she had meant, and her male assistants made a +feint of driving her away like one who had disgraced herself. Similar +affectations accompany certain truly obscene dances of Samoa, where they +are very well in place. Here it was different. The words, perhaps, in +this free-spoken world, were gross enough to make a carter blush; and the +most suggestive feature was this feint of shame. For such parts the +women showed some disposition; they were pert, they were neat, they were +acrobatic, they were at times really amusing, and some of them were +pretty. But this is not the artist’s field; there is the whole width of +heaven between such capering and ogling, and the strange rhythmic +gestures, and strange, rapturous, frenzied faces with which the best of +the male dancers held us spellbound through a Gilbert Island ballet. + +Almost from the first it was apparent that the people of the city were +defeated. I might have thought them even good, only I had the other +troop before my eyes to correct my standard, and remind me continually of +‘the little more, and how much it is.’ Perceiving themselves worsted, +the choir of Butaritari grew confused, blundered, and broke down; amid +this hubbub of unfamiliar intervals I should not myself have recognised +the slip, but the audience were quick to catch it, and to jeer. To crown +all, the Makin company began a dance of truly superlative merit. I know +not what it was about, I was too much absorbed to ask. In one act a part +of the chorus, squealing in some strange falsetto, produced very much the +effect of our orchestra; in another, the dancers, leaping like +jumping-jacks, with arms extended, passed through and through each +other’s ranks with extraordinary speed, neatness, and humour. A more +laughable effect I never saw; in any European theatre it would have +brought the house down, and the island audience roared with laughter and +applause. This filled up the measure for the rival company, and they +forgot themselves and decency. After each act or figure of the ballet, +the performers pause a moment standing, and the next is introduced by the +clapping of hands in triplets. Not until the end of the whole ballet do +they sit down, which is the signal for the rivals to stand up. But now +all rules were to be broken. During the interval following on this great +applause, the company of Butaritari leaped suddenly to their feet and +most unhandsomely began a performance of their own. It was strange to +see the men of Makin staring; I have seen a tenor in Europe stare with +the same blank dignity into a hissing theatre; but presently, to my +surprise, they sobered down, gave up the unsung remainder of their +ballet, resumed their seats, and suffered their ungallant adversaries to +go on and finish. Nothing would suffice. Again, at the first interval, +Butaritari unhandsomely cut in; Makin, irritated in turn, followed the +example; and the two companies of dancers remained permanently standing, +continuously clapping hands, and regularly cutting across each other at +each pause. I expected blows to begin with any moment; and our position +in the midst was highly unstrategical. But the Makin people had a better +thought; and upon a fresh interruption turned and trooped out of the +house. We followed them, first because these were the artists, second +because they were guests and had been scurvily ill-used. A large +population of our neighbours did the same, so that the causeway was +filled from end to end by the procession of deserters; and the Butaritari +choir was left to sing for its own pleasure in an empty house, having +gained the point and lost the audience. It was surely fortunate that +there was no one drunk; but, drunk or sober, where else would a scene so +irritating have concluded without blows? + +The last stage and glory of this auspicious day was of our own +providing—the second and positively the last appearance of the phantoms. +All round the church, groups sat outside, in the night, where they could +see nothing; perhaps ashamed to enter, certainly finding some shadowy +pleasure in the mere proximity. Within, about one-half of the great shed +was densely packed with people. In the midst, on the royal dais, the +lantern luminously smoked; chance rays of light struck out the earnest +countenance of our Chinaman grinding the hand-organ; a fainter glimmer +showed off the rafters and their shadows in the hollow of the roof; the +pictures shone and vanished on the screen; and as each appeared, there +would run a hush, a whisper, a strong shuddering rustle, and a chorus of +small cries among the crowd. There sat by me the mate of a wrecked +schooner. ‘They would think this a strange sight in Europe or the +States,’ said he, ‘going on in a building like this, all tied with bits +of string.’ + + + +CHAPTER VII—HUSBAND AND WIFE + + +The trader accustomed to the manners of Eastern Polynesia has a lesson to +learn among the Gilberts. The _ridi_ is but a spare attire; as late as +thirty years back the women went naked until marriage; within ten years +the custom lingered; and these facts, above all when heard in +description, conveyed a very false idea of the manners of the group. A +very intelligent missionary described it (in its former state) as a +‘Paradise of naked women’ for the resident whites. It was at least a +platonic Paradise, where Lothario ventured at his peril. Since 1860, +fourteen whites have perished on a single island, all for the same cause, +all found where they had no business, and speared by some indignant +father of a family; the figure was given me by one of their +contemporaries who had been more prudent and survived. The strange +persistence of these fourteen martyrs might seem to point to monomania or +a series of romantic passions; gin is the more likely key. The poor +buzzards sat alone in their houses by an open case; they drank; their +brain was fired; they stumbled towards the nearest houses on chance; and +the dart went through their liver. In place of a Paradise the trader +found an archipelago of fierce husbands and of virtuous women. ‘Of +course if you wish to make love to them, it’s the same as anywhere else,’ +observed a trader innocently; but he and his companions rarely so choose. + +The trader must be credited with a virtue: he often makes a kind and +loyal husband. Some of the worst beachcombers in the Pacific, some of +the last of the old school, have fallen in my path, and some of them were +admirable to their native wives, and one made a despairing widower. The +position of a trader’s wife in the Gilberts is, besides, unusually +enviable. She shares the immunities of her husband. Curfew in +Butaritari sounds for her in vain. Long after the bell is rung and the +great island ladies are confined for the night to their own roof, this +chartered libertine may scamper and giggle through the deserted streets +or go down to bathe in the dark. The resources of the store are at her +hand; she goes arrayed like a queen, and feasts delicately everyday upon +tinned meats. And she who was perhaps of no regard or station among +natives sits with captains, and is entertained on board of schooners. +Five of these privileged dames were some time our neighbours. Four were +handsome skittish lasses, gamesome like children, and like children +liable to fits of pouting. They wore dresses by day, but there was a +tendency after dark to strip these lendings and to career and squall +about the compound in the aboriginal _ridi_. Games of cards were +continually played, with shells for counters; their course was much +marred by cheating; and the end of a round (above all if a man was of the +party) resolved itself into a scrimmage for the counters. The fifth was +a matron. It was a picture to see her sail to church on a Sunday, a +parasol in hand, a nursemaid following, and the baby buried in a trade +hat and armed with a patent feeding-bottle. The service was enlivened by +her continual supervision and correction of the maid. It was impossible +not to fancy the baby was a doll, and the church some European playroom. +All these women were legitimately married. It is true that the +certificate of one, when she proudly showed it, proved to run thus, that +she was ‘married for one night,’ and her gracious partner was at liberty +to ‘send her to hell’ the next morning; but she was none the wiser or the +worse for the dastardly trick. Another, I heard, was married on a work +of mine in a pirated edition; it answered the purpose as well as a Hall +Bible. Notwithstanding all these allurements of social distinction, rare +food and raiment, a comparative vacation from toil, and legitimate +marriage contracted on a pirated edition, the trader must sometimes seek +long before he can be mated. While I was in the group one had been eight +months on the quest, and he was still a bachelor. + +Within strictly native society the old laws and practices were harsh, but +not without a certain stamp of high-mindedness. Stealthy adultery was +punished with death; open elopement was properly considered virtue in +comparison, and compounded for a fine in land. The male adulterer alone +seems to have been punished. It is correct manners for a jealous man to +hang himself; a jealous woman has a different remedy—she bites her rival. +Ten or twenty years ago it was a capital offence to raise a woman’s +_ridi_; to this day it is still punished with a heavy fine; and the +garment itself is still symbolically sacred. Suppose a piece of land to +be disputed in Butaritari, the claimant who shall first hang a _ridi_ on +the tapu-post has gained his cause, since no one can remove or touch it +but himself. + +The _ridi_ was the badge not of the woman but the wife, the mark not of +her sex but of her station. It was the collar on the slave’s neck, the +brand on merchandise. The adulterous woman seems to have been spared; +were the husband offended, it would be a poor consolation to send his +draught cattle to the shambles. Karaiti, to this day, calls his eight +wives ‘his horses,’ some trader having explained to him the employment of +these animals on farms; and Nanteitei hired out his wives to do +mason-work. Husbands, at least when of high rank, had the power of life +and death; even whites seem to have possessed it; and their wives, when +they had transgressed beyond forgiveness, made haste to pronounce the +formula of deprecation—_I Kana Kim_. This form of words had so much +virtue that a condemned criminal repeating it on a particular day to the +king who had condemned him, must be instantly released. It is an offer +of abasement, and, strangely enough, the reverse—the imitation—is a +common vulgar insult in Great Britain to this day. I give a scene +between a trader and his Gilbert Island wife, as it was told me by the +husband, now one of the oldest residents, but then a freshman in the +group. + +‘Go and light a fire,’ said the trader, ‘and when I have brought this oil +I will cook some fish.’ The woman grunted at him, island fashion. ‘I am +not a pig that you should grunt at me,’ said he. + +‘I know you are not a pig,’ said the woman, ‘neither am I your slave.’ + +‘To be sure you are not my slave, and if you do not care to stop with me, +you had better go home to your people,’ said he. ‘But in the mean time +go and light the fire; and when I have brought this oil I will cook some +fish.’ + +She went as if to obey; and presently when the trader looked she had +built a fire so big that the cook-house was catching in flames. + +‘_I Kana Kim_!’ she cried, as she saw him coming; but he recked not, and +hit her with a cooking-pot. The leg pierced her skull, blood spouted, it +was thought she was a dead woman, and the natives surrounded the house in +a menacing expectation. Another white was present, a man of older +experience. ‘You will have us both killed if you go on like this,’ he +cried. ‘She had said _I Kana Kim_!’ If she had not said _I Kana Kim_ he +might have struck her with a caldron. It was not the blow that made the +crime, but the disregard of an accepted formula. + +Polygamy, the particular sacredness of wives, their semi-servile state, +their seclusion in kings’ harems, even their privilege of biting, all +would seem to indicate a Mohammedan society and the opinion of the +soullessness of woman. And not so in the least. It is a mere +appearance. After you have studied these extremes in one house, you may +go to the next and find all reversed, the woman the mistress, the man +only the first of her thralls. The authority is not with the husband as +such, nor the wife as such. It resides in the chief or the chief-woman; +in him or her who has inherited the lands of the clan, and stands to the +clansman in the place of parent, exacting their service, answerable for +their fines. There is but the one source of power and the one ground of +dignity—rank. The king married a chief-woman; she became his menial, and +must work with her hands on Messrs. Wightman’s pier. The king divorced +her; she regained at once her former state and power. She married the +Hawaiian sailor, and behold the man is her flunkey and can be shown the +door at pleasure. Nay, and such low-born lords are even corrected +physically, and, like grown but dutiful children, must endure the +discipline. + +We were intimate in one such household, that of Nei Takauti and Nan Tok’; +I put the lady first of necessity. During one week of fool’s paradise, +Mrs. Stevenson had gone alone to the sea-side of the island after shells. +I am very sure the proceeding was unsafe; and she soon perceived a man +and woman watching her. Do what she would, her guardians held her +steadily in view; and when the afternoon began to fall, and they thought +she had stayed long enough, took her in charge, and by signs and broken +English ordered her home. On the way the lady drew from her earring-hole +a clay pipe, the husband lighted it, and it was handed to my unfortunate +wife, who knew not how to refuse the incommodious favour; and when they +were all come to our house, the pair sat down beside her on the floor, +and improved the occasion with prayer. From that day they were our +family friends; bringing thrice a day the beautiful island garlands of +white flowers, visiting us any evening, and frequently carrying us down +to their own maniap’ in return, the woman leading Mrs. Stevenson by the +hand like one child with another. + +Nan Tok’, the husband, was young, extremely handsome, of the most +approved good humour, and suffering in his precarious station from +suppressed high spirits. Nei Takauti, the wife, was getting old; her +grown son by a former marriage had just hanged himself before his +mother’s eyes in despair at a well-merited rebuke. Perhaps she had never +been beautiful, but her face was full of character, her eye of sombre +fire. She was a high chief-woman, but by a strange exception for a +person of her rank, was small, spare, and sinewy, with lean small hands +and corded neck. Her full dress of an evening was invariably a white +chemise—and for adornment, green leaves (or sometimes white blossoms) +stuck in her hair and thrust through her huge earring-holes. The husband +on the contrary changed to view like a kaleidoscope. Whatever pretty +thing my wife might have given to Nei Takauti—a string of beads, a +ribbon, a piece of bright fabric—appeared the next evening on the person +of Nan Tok’. It was plain he was a clothes-horse; that he wore livery; +that, in a word, he was his wife’s wife. They reversed the parts indeed, +down to the least particular; it was the husband who showed himself the +ministering angel in the hour of pain, while the wife displayed the +apathy and heartlessness of the proverbial man. + +When Nei Takauti had a headache Nan Tok’ was full of attention and +concern. When the husband had a cold and a racking toothache the wife +heeded not, except to jeer. It is always the woman’s part to fill and +light the pipe; Nei Takauti handed hers in silence to the wedded page; +but she carried it herself, as though the page were not entirely trusted. +Thus she kept the money, but it was he who ran the errands, anxiously +sedulous. A cloud on her face dimmed instantly his beaming looks; on an +early visit to their maniap’ my wife saw he had cause to be wary. Nan +Tok’ had a friend with him, a giddy young thing, of his own age and sex; +and they had worked themselves into that stage of jocularity when +consequences are too often disregarded. Nei Takauti mentioned her own +name. Instantly Nan Tok’ held up two fingers, his friend did likewise, +both in an ecstasy of slyness. It was plain the lady had two names; and +from the nature of their merriment, and the wrath that gathered on her +brow, there must be something ticklish in the second. The husband +pronounced it; a well-directed cocoa-nut from the hand of his wife caught +him on the side of the head, and the voices and the mirth of these +indiscreet young gentlemen ceased for the day. + +The people of Eastern Polynesia are never at a loss; their etiquette is +absolute and plenary; in every circumstance it tells them what to do and +how to do it. The Gilbertines are seemingly more free, and pay for their +freedom (like ourselves) in frequent perplexity. This was often the case +with the topsy-turvy couple. We had once supplied them during a visit +with a pipe and tobacco; and when they had smoked and were about to +leave, they found themselves confronted with a problem: should they take +or leave what remained of the tobacco? The piece of plug was taken up, +it was laid down again, it was handed back and forth, and argued over, +till the wife began to look haggard and the husband elderly. They ended +by taking it, and I wager were not yet clear of the compound before they +were sure they had decided wrong. Another time they had been given each +a liberal cup of coffee, and Nan Tok’ with difficulty and disaffection +made an end of his. Nei Takauti had taken some, she had no mind for +more, plainly conceived it would be a breach of manners to set down the +cup unfinished, and ordered her wedded retainer to dispose of what was +left. ‘I have swallowed all I can, I cannot swallow more, it is a +physical impossibility,’ he seemed to say; and his stern officer +reiterated her commands with secret imperative signals. Luckless dog! +but in mere humanity we came to the rescue and removed the cup. + +I cannot but smile over this funny household; yet I remember the good +souls with affection and respect. Their attention to ourselves was +surprising. The garlands are much esteemed, the blossoms must be sought +far and wide; and though they had many retainers to call to their aid, we +often saw themselves passing afield after the blossoms, and the wife +engaged with her own in putting them together. It was no want of only +that disregard so incident to husbands, that made Nei Takauti despise the +sufferings of Nan Tok’. When my wife was unwell she proved a diligent +and kindly nurse; and the pair, to the extreme embarrassment of the +sufferer, became fixtures in the sick-room. This rugged, capable, +imperious old dame, with the wild eyes, had deep and tender qualities: +her pride in her young husband it seemed that she dissembled, fearing +possibly to spoil him; and when she spoke of her dead son there came +something tragic in her face. But I seemed to trace in the Gilbertines a +virility of sense and sentiment which distinguishes them (like their +harsh and uncouth language) from their brother islanders in the east. + + + + +PART IV: THE GILBERTS—APEMAMA + + +CHAPTER I—THE KING OF APEMAMA: THE ROYAL TRADER + + +There is one great personage in the Gilberts: Tembinok’ of Apemama: +solely conspicuous, the hero of song, the butt of gossip. Through the +rest of the group the kings are slain or fallen in tutelage: Tembinok’ +alone remains, the last tyrant, the last erect vestige of a dead society. +The white man is everywhere else, building his houses, drinking his gin, +getting in and out of trouble with the weak native governments. There is +only one white on Apemama, and he on sufferance, living far from court, +and hearkening and watching his conduct like a mouse in a cat’s ear. +Through all the other islands a stream of native visitors comes and goes, +travelling by families, spending years on the grand tour. Apemama alone +is left upon one side, the tourist dreading to risk himself within the +clutch of Tembinok’. And fear of the same Gorgon follows and troubles +them at home. Maiana once paid him tribute; he once fell upon and seized +Nonuti: first steps to the empire of the archipelago. A British warship +coming on the scene, the conqueror was driven to disgorge, his career +checked in the outset, his dear-bought armoury sunk in his own lagoon. +But the impression had been made; periodical fear of him still shakes the +islands; rumour depicts him mustering his canoes for a fresh onfall; +rumour can name his destination; and Tembinok’ figures in the patriotic +war-songs of the Gilberts like Napoleon in those of our grandfathers. + +We were at sea, bound from Mariki to Nonuti and Tapituea, when the wind +came suddenly fair for Apemama. The course was at once changed; all +hands were turned-to to clean ship, the decks holy-stoned, all the cabin +washed, the trade-room overhauled. In all our cruising we never saw the +_Equator_ so smart as she was made for Tembinok’. Nor was Captain Reid +alone in these coquetries; for, another schooner chancing to arrive +during my stay in Apemama, I found that she also was dandified for the +occasion. And the two cases stand alone in my experience of South Sea +traders. + +We had on board a family of native tourists, from the grandsire to the +babe in arms, trying (against an extraordinary series of ill-luck) to +regain their native island of Peru. {275} Five times already they had +paid their fare and taken ship; five times they had been disappointed, +dropped penniless upon strange islands, or carried back to Butaritari, +whence they sailed. This last attempt had been no better-starred; their +provisions were exhausted. Peru was beyond hope, and they had cheerfully +made up their minds to a fresh stage of exile in Tapituea or Nonuti. +With this slant of wind their random destination became once more +changed; and like the Calendar’s pilot, when the ‘black mountains’ hove +in view, they changed colour and beat upon their breasts. Their camp, +which was on deck in the ship’s waist, resounded with complaint. They +would be set to work, they must become slaves, escape was hopeless, they +must live and toil and die in Apemama, in the tyrant’s den. With this +sort of talk they so greatly terrified their children, that one (a big +hulking boy) must at last be torn screaming from the schooner’s side. +And their fears were wholly groundless. I have little doubt they were +not suffered to be idle; but I can vouch for it that they were kindly and +generously used. For, the matter of a year later, I was once more +shipmate with these inconsistent wanderers on board the _Janet Nicoll_. +Their fare was paid by Tembinok’; they who had gone ashore from the +_Equator_ destitute, reappeared upon the _Janet_ with new clothes, laden +with mats and presents, and bringing with them a magazine of food, on +which they lived like fighting-cocks throughout the voyage; I saw them at +length repatriated, and I must say they showed more concern on quitting +Apemama than delight at reaching home. + +We entered by the north passage (Sunday, September 1st), dodging among +shoals. It was a day of fierce equatorial sunshine; but the breeze was +strong and chill; and the mate, who conned the schooner from the +cross-trees, returned shivering to the deck. The lagoon was thick with +many-tinted wavelets; a continuous roaring of the outer sea overhung the +anchorage; and the long, hollow crescent of palm ruffled and sparkled in +the wind. Opposite our berth the beach was seen to be surmounted for +some distance by a terrace of white coral seven or eight feet high and +crowned in turn by the scattered and incongruous buildings of the palace. +The village adjoins on the south, a cluster of high-roofed maniap’s. And +village and palace seemed deserted. + +We were scarce yet moored, however, before distant and busy figures +appeared upon the beach, a boat was launched, and a crew pulled out to us +bringing the king’s ladder. Tembinok’ had once an accident; has feared +ever since to entrust his person to the rotten chandlery of South Sea +traders; and devised in consequence a frame of wood, which is brought on +board a ship as soon as she appears, and remains lashed to her side until +she leave. The boat’s crew, having applied this engine, returned at once +to shore. They might not come on board; neither might we land, or not +without danger of offence; the king giving pratique in person. An +interval followed, during which dinner was delayed for the great man—the +prelude of the ladder, giving us some notion of his weighty body and +sensible, ingenious character, had highly whetted our curiosity; and it +was with something like excitement that we saw the beach and terrace +suddenly blacken with attendant vassals, the king and party embark, the +boat (a man-of-war gig) come flying towards us dead before the wind, and +the royal coxswain lay us cleverly aboard, mount the ladder with a +jealous diffidence, and descend heavily on deck. + +Not long ago he was overgrown with fat, obscured to view, and a burthen +to himself. Captains visiting the island advised him to walk; and though +it broke the habits of a life and the traditions of his rank, he +practised the remedy with benefit. His corpulence is now portable; you +would call him lusty rather than fat; but his gait is still dull, +stumbling, and elephantine. He neither stops nor hastens, but goes about +his business with an implacable deliberation. We could never see him and +not be struck with his extraordinary natural means for the theatre: a +beaked profile like Dante’s in the mask, a mane of long black hair, the +eye brilliant, imperious, and inquiring: for certain parts, and to one +who could have used it, the face was a fortune. His voice matched it +well, being shrill, powerful, and uncanny, with a note like a sea-bird’s. +Where there are no fashions, none to set them, few to follow them if they +were set, and none to criticise, he dresses—as Sir Charles Grandison +lived—‘to his own heart.’ Now he wears a woman’s frock, now a naval +uniform; now (and more usually) figures in a masquerade costume of his +own design: trousers and a singular jacket with shirt tails, the cut and +fit wonderful for island workmanship, the material always handsome, +sometimes green velvet, sometimes cardinal red silk. This masquerade +becomes him admirably. In the woman’s frock he looks ominous and weird +beyond belief. I see him now come pacing towards me in the cruel sun, +solitary, a figure out of Hoffmann. + +A visit on board ship, such as that at which we now assisted, makes a +chief part and by far the chief diversion of the life of Tembinok’. He +is not only the sole ruler, he is the sole merchant of his triple +kingdom, Apemama, Aranuka, and Kuria, well-planted islands. The taro +goes to the chiefs, who divide as they please among their immediate +adherents; but certain fish, turtles—which abound in Kuria,—and the whole +produce of the coco-palm, belong exclusively to Tembinok’. ‘A’ cobra +{279a} berong me,’ observed his majesty with a wave of his hand; and he +counts and sells it by the houseful. ‘You got copra, king?’ I have heard +a trader ask. ‘I got two, three outches,’ {279b} his majesty replied: ‘I +think three.’ Hence the commercial importance of Apemama, the trade of +three islands being centred there in a single hand; hence it is that so +many whites have tried in vain to gain or to preserve a footing; hence +ships are adorned, cooks have special orders, and captains array +themselves in smiles, to greet the king. If he be pleased with his +welcome and the fare he may pass days on board, and, every day, and +sometimes every hour, will be of profit to the ship. He oscillates +between the cabin, where he is entertained with strange meats, and the +trade-room, where he enjoys the pleasures of shopping on a scale to match +his person. A few obsequious attendants squat by the house door, +awaiting his least signal. In the boat, which has been suffered to drop +astern, one or two of his wives lie covered from the sun under mats, +tossed by the short sea of the lagoon, and enduring agonies of heat and +tedium. This severity is now and then relaxed and the wives allowed on +board. Three or four were thus favoured on the day of our arrival: +substantial ladies airily attired in _ridis_. Each had a share of copra, +her _peculium_, to dispose of for herself. The display in the +trade-room—hats, ribbbons, dresses, scents, tins of salmon—the pride of +the eye and the lust of the flesh—tempted them in vain. They had but the +one idea—tobacco, the island currency, tantamount to minted gold; +returned to shore with it, burthened but rejoicing; and late into the +night, on the royal terrace, were to be seen counting the sticks by +lamplight in the open air. + +The king is no such economist. He is greedy of things new and foreign. +House after house, chest after chest, in the palace precinct, is already +crammed with clocks, musical boxes, blue spectacles, umbrellas, knitted +waistcoats, bolts of stuff, tools, rifles, fowling-pieces, medicines, +European foods, sewing-machines, and, what is more extraordinary, stoves: +all that ever caught his eye, tickled his appetite, pleased him for its +use, or puzzled him with its apparent inutility. And still his lust is +unabated. He is possessed by the seven devils of the collector. He +hears a thing spoken of, and a shadow comes on his face. ‘I think I no +got him,’ he will say; and the treasures he has seem worthless in +comparison. If a ship be bound for Apemama, the merchant racks his brain +to hit upon some novelty. This he leaves carelessly in the main cabin or +partly conceals in his own berth, so that the king shall spy it for +himself. ‘How much you want?’ inquires Tembinok’, passing and pointing. +‘No, king; that too dear,’ returns the trader. ‘I think I like him,’ +says the king. This was a bowl of gold-fish. On another occasion it was +scented soap. ‘No, king; that cost too much,’ said the trader; ‘too good +for a Kanaka.’ ‘How much you got? I take him all,’ replied his majesty, +and became the lord of seventeen boxes at two dollars a cake. Or again, +the merchant feigns the article is not for sale, is private property, an +heirloom or a gift; and the trick infallibly succeeds. Thwart the king +and you hold him. His autocratic nature rears at the affront of +opposition. He accepts it for a challenge; sets his teeth like a hunter +going at a fence; and with no mark of emotion, scarce even of interest, +stolidly piles up the price. Thus, for our sins, he took a fancy to my +wife’s dressing-bag, a thing entirely useless to the man, and sadly +battered by years of service. Early one forenoon he came to our house, +sat down, and abruptly offered to purchase it. I told him I sold +nothing, and the bag at any rate was a present from a friend; but he was +acquainted with these pretexts from of old, and knew what they were worth +and how to meet them. Adopting what I believe is called ‘the object +method,’ he drew out a bag of English gold, sovereigns and +half-sovereigns, and began to lay them one by one in silence on the +table; at each fresh piece reading our faces with a look. In vain I +continued to protest I was no trader; he deigned not to reply. There +must have been twenty pounds on the table, he was still going on, and +irritation had begun to mingle with our embarrassment, when a happy idea +came to our delivery. Since his majesty thought so much of the bag, we +said, we must beg him to accept it as a present. It was the most +surprising turn in Tembinok’s experience. He perceived too late that his +persistence was unmannerly; hung his head a while in silence; then, +lifting up a sheepish countenance, ‘I ‘shamed,’ said the tyrant. It was +the first and the last time we heard him own to a flaw in his behaviour. +Half an hour after he sent us a camphor-wood chest worth only a few +dollars—but then heaven knows what Tembinok’ had paid for it. + +Cunning by nature, and versed for forty years in the government of men, +it must not be supposed that he is cheated blindly, or has resigned +himself without resistance to be the milch-cow of the passing trader. +His efforts have been even heroic. Like Nakaeia of Makin, he has owned +schooners. More fortunate than Nakaeia, he has found captains. Ships of +his have sailed as far as to the colonies. He has trafficked direct, in +his own bottoms, with New Zealand. And even so, even there, the +world-enveloping dishonesty of the white man prevented him; his profit +melted, his ship returned in debt, the money for the insurance was +embezzled, and when the _Coronet_ came to be lost, he was astonished to +find he had lost all. At this he dropped his weapons; owned he might as +hopefully wrestle with the winds of heaven; and like an experienced +sheep, submitted his fleece thenceforward to the shearers. He is the +last man in the world to waste anger on the incurable; accepts it with +cynical composure; asks no more in those he deals with than a certain +decency of moderation; drives as good a bargain as he can; and when he +considers he is more than usually swindled, writes it in his memory +against the merchant’s name. He once ran over to me a list of captains +and supercargoes with whom he had done business, classing them under +three heads: ‘He cheat a litty’—‘He cheat plenty’—and ‘I think he cheat +too much.’ For the first two classes he expressed perfect toleration; +sometimes, but not always, for the third. I was present when a certain +merchant was turned about his business, and was the means (having a +considerable influence ever since the bag) of patching up the dispute. +Even on the day of our arrival there was like to have been a hitch with +Captain Reid: the ground of which is perhaps worth recital. Among goods +exported specially for Tembinok’ there is a beverage known (and labelled) +as Hennessy’s brandy. It is neither Hennessy, nor even brandy; is about +the colour of sherry, but is not sherry; tastes of kirsch, and yet +neither is it kirsch. The king, at least, has grown used to this amazing +brand, and rather prides himself upon the taste; and any substitution is +a double offence, being at once to cheat him and to cast a doubt upon his +palate. A similar weakness is to be observed in all connoisseurs. Now +the last case sold by the _Equator_ was found to contain a different and +I would fondly fancy a superior distillation; and the conversation opened +very black for Captain Reid. But Tembinok’ is a moderate man. He was +reminded and admitted that all men were liable to error, even himself; +accepted the principle that a fault handsomely acknowledged should be +condoned; and wound the matter up with this proposal: ‘Tuppoti {283} I +mi’take, you ’peakee me. Tuppoti you mi’take, I ’peakee you. Mo’ +betta.’ + +After dinner and supper in the cabin, a glass or two of ‘Hennetti’—the +genuine article this time, with the kirsch bouquet,—and five hours’ +lounging on the trade-room counter, royalty embarked for home. Three +tacks grounded the boat before the palace; the wives were carried ashore +on the backs of vassals; Tembinok’ stepped on a railed platform like a +steamer’s gangway, and was borne shoulder high through the shallows, up +the beach, and by an inclined plane, paved with pebbles, to the glaring +terrace where he dwells. + + + +CHAPTER II—THE KING OF APEMAMA: FOUNDATION OF EQUATOR TOWN + + +Our first sight of Tembinok’ was a matter of concern, almost alarm, to my +whole party. We had a favour to seek; we must approach in the proper +courtly attitude of a suitor; and must either please him or fail in the +main purpose of our voyage. It was our wish to land and live in Apemama, +and see more near at hand the odd character of the man and the odd (or +rather ancient) condition of his island. In all other isles of the South +Seas a white man may land with his chest, and set up house for a +lifetime, if he choose, and if he have the money or the trade; no +hindrance is conceivable. But Apemama is a close island, lying there in +the sea with closed doors; the king himself, like a vigilant officer, +ready at the wicket to scrutinise and reject intrenching visitors. Hence +the attraction of our enterprise; not merely because it was a little +difficult, but because this social quarantine, a curiosity in itself, has +been the preservative of others. + +Tembinok’, like most tyrants, is a conservative; like many conservatives, +he eagerly welcomes new ideas, and, except in the field of politics, +leans to practical reform. When the missionaries came, professing a +knowledge of the truth, he readily received them; attended their worship, +acquired the accomplishment of public prayer, and made himself a student +at their feet. It is thus—it is by the cultivation of similar passing +chances—that he has learned to read, to write, to cipher, and to speak +his queer, personal English, so different from ordinary ‘Beach de Mar,’ +so much more obscure, expressive, and condensed. His education attended +to, he found time to become critical of the new inmates. Like Nakaeia of +Makin, he is an admirer of silence in the island; broods over it like a +great ear; has spies who report daily; and had rather his subjects sang +than talked. The service, and in particular the sermon, were thus sure +to become offences: ‘Here, in my island, _I_ ’peak,’ he once observed to +me. ‘My chieps no ’peak—do what I talk.’ He looked at the missionary, +and what did he see? ‘See Kanaka ’peak in a big outch!’ he cried, with a +strong ring of sarcasm. Yet he endured the subversive spectacle, and +might even have continued to endure it, had not a fresh point arisen. He +looked again, to employ his own figure; and the Kanaka was no longer +speaking, he was doing worse—he was building a copra-house. The king was +touched in his chief interests; revenue and prerogative were threatened. +He considered besides (and some think with him) that trade is +incompatible with the missionary claims. ‘Tuppoti mitonary think “good +man”: very good. Tuppoti he think “cobra”: no good. I send him away +ship.’ Such was his abrupt history of the evangelist in Apemama. + +Similar deportations are common: ‘I send him away ship’ is the epitaph of +not a few, his majesty paying the exile’s fare to the next place of call. +For instance, being passionately fond of European food, he has several +times added to his household a white cook, and one after another these +have been deported. They, on their side, swear they were not paid their +wages; he, on his, that they robbed and swindled him beyond endurance: +both perhaps justly. A more important case was that of an agent, +despatched (as I heard the story) by a firm of merchants to worm his way +into the king’s good graces, become, if possible, premier, and handle the +copra in the interest of his employers. He obtained authority to land, +practised his fascinations, was patiently listened to by Tembinok’, +supposed himself on the highway to success; and behold! when the next +ship touched at Apemama, the would-be premier was flung into a boat—had +on board—his fare paid, and so good-bye. But it is needless to multiply +examples; the proof of the pudding is in the eating. When we came to +Apemama, of so many white men who have scrambled for a place in that rich +market, one remained—a silent, sober, solitary, niggardly recluse, of +whom the king remarks, ‘I think he good; he no ’peak.’ + +I was warned at the outset we might very well fail in our design: yet +never dreamed of what proved to be the fact, that we should be left +four-and-twenty hours in suspense and come within an ace of ultimate +rejection. Captain Reid had primed himself; no sooner was the king on +board, and the Hennetti question amicably settled, than he proceeded to +express my request and give an abstract of my claims and virtues. The +gammon about Queen Victoria’s son might do for Butaritari; it was out of +the question here; and I now figured as ‘one of the Old Men of England,’ +a person of deep knowledge, come expressly to visit Tembinok’s dominion, +and eager to report upon it to the no less eager Queen Victoria. The +king made no shadow of an answer, and presently began upon a different +subject. We might have thought that he had not heard, or not understood; +only that we found ourselves the subject of a constant study. As we sat +at meals, he took us in series and fixed upon each, for near a minute at +a time, the same hard and thoughtful stare. As he thus looked he seemed +to forget himself, the subject and the company, and to become absorbed in +the process of his thought; the look was wholly impersonal; I have seen +the same in the eyes of portrait-painters. The counts upon which whites +have been deported are mainly four: cheating Tembinok’, meddling overmuch +with copra, which is the source of his wealth, and one of the sinews of +his power, _’peaking_, and political intrigue. I felt guiltless upon +all; but how to show it? I would not have taken copra in a gift: how to +express that quality by my dinner-table bearing? The rest of the party +shared my innocence and my embarrassment. They shared also in my +mortification when after two whole meal-times and the odd moments of an +afternoon devoted to this reconnoitring, Tembinok’ took his leave in +silence. Next morning, the same undisguised study, the same silence, was +resumed; and the second day had come to its maturity before I was +informed abruptly that I had stood the ordeal. ‘I look your eye. You +good man. You no lie,’ said the king: a doubtful compliment to a writer +of romance. Later he explained he did not quite judge by the eye only, +but the mouth as well. ‘Tuppoti I see man,’ he explained. ‘I no tavvy +good man, bad man. I look eye, look mouth. Then I tavvy. Look _eye_, +look mouth,’ he repeated. And indeed in our case the mouth had the most +to do with it, and it was by our talk that we gained admission to the +island; the king promising himself (and I believe really amassing) a vast +amount of useful knowledge ere we left. + +The terms of our admission were as follows: We were to choose a site, and +the king should there build us a town. His people should work for us, +but the king only was to give them orders. One of his cooks should come +daily to help mine, and to learn of him. In case our stores ran out, he +would supply us, and be repaid on the return of the _Equator_. On the +other hand, he was to come to meals with us when so inclined; when he +stayed at home, a dish was to be sent him from our table; and I solemnly +engaged to give his subjects no liquor or money (both of which they are +forbidden to possess) and no tobacco, which they were to receive only +from the royal hand. I think I remember to have protested against the +stringency of this last article; at least, it was relaxed, and when a man +worked for me I was allowed to give him a pipe of tobacco on the +premises, but none to take away. + +The site of Equator City—we named our city for the schooner—was soon +chosen. The immediate shores of the lagoon are windy and blinding; +Tembinok’ himself is glad to grope blue-spectacled on his terrace; and we +fled the neighbourhood of the red _conjunctiva_, the suppurating eyeball, +and the beggar who pursues and beseeches the passing foreigner for eye +wash. Behind the town the country is diversified; here open, sandy, +uneven, and dotted with dwarfish palms; here cut up with taro trenches, +deep and shallow, and, according to the growth of the plants, presenting +now the appearance of a sandy tannery, now of an alleyed and green +garden. A path leads towards the sea, mounting abruptly to the main +level of the island—twenty or even thirty feet, although Findlay gives +five; and just hard by the top of the rise, where the coco-palms begin to +be well grown, we found a grove of pandanus, and a piece of soil +pleasantly covered with green underbush. A well was not far off under a +rustic well-house; nearer still, in a sandy cup of the land, a pond where +we might wash our clothes. The place was out of the wind, out of the +sun, and out of sight of the village. It was shown to the king, and the +town promised for the morrow. + +The morrow came, Mr. Osbourne landed, found nothing done, and carried his +complaint to Tembinok’. He heard it, rose, called for a Winchester, +stepped without the royal palisade, and fired two shots in the air. A +shot in the air is the first Apemama warning; it has the force of a +proclamation in more loquacious countries; and his majesty remarked +agreeably that it would make his labourers ‘mo’ bright.’ In less than +thirty minutes, accordingly, the men had mustered, the work was begun, +and we were told that we might bring our baggage when we pleased. + +It was two in the afternoon ere the first boat was beached, and the long +procession of chests and crates and sacks began to straggle through the +sandy desert towards Equator Town. The grove of pandanus was practically +a thing of the past. Fire surrounded and smoke rose in the green +underbush. In a wide circuit the axes were still crashing. Those very +advantages for which the place was chosen, it had been the king’s first +idea to abolish; and in the midst of this devastation there stood already +a good-sized maniap’ and a small closed house. A mat was spread near by +for Tembinok’; here he sat superintending, in cardinal red, a pith helmet +on his head, a meerschaum pipe in his mouth, a wife stretched at his back +with custody of the matches and tobacco. Twenty or thirty feet in front +of him the bulk of the workers squatted on the ground; some of the bush +here survived and in this the commons sat nearly to their shoulders, and +presented only an arc of brown faces, black heads, and attentive eyes +fixed on his majesty. Long pauses reigned, during which the subjects +stared and the king smoked. Then Tembinok’ would raise his voice and +speak shrilly and briefly. There was never a response in words; but if +the speech were jesting, there came by way of answer discreet, obsequious +laughter—such laughter as we hear in schoolrooms; and if it were +practical, the sudden uprising and departure of the squad. Twice they so +disappeared, and returned with further elements of the city: a second +house and a second maniap’. It was singular to spy, far off through the +coco stems, the silent oncoming of the maniap’, at first (it seemed) +swimming spontaneously in the air—but on a nearer view betraying under +the eaves many score of moving naked legs. In all the affair servile +obedience was no less remarkable than servile deliberation. The gang had +here mustered by the note of a deadly weapon; the man who looked on was +the unquestioned master of their lives; and except for civility, they +bestirred themselves like so many American hotel clerks. The spectator +was aware of an unobtrusive yet invincible inertia, at which the skipper +of a trading dandy might have torn his hair. + +Yet the work was accomplished. By dusk, when his majesty withdrew, the +town was founded and complete, a new and ruder Amphion having called it +from nothing with three cracks of a rifle. And the next morning the same +conjurer obliged us with a further miracle: a mystic rampart fencing us, +so that the path which ran by our doors became suddenly impassable, the +inhabitants who had business across the isle must fetch a wide circuit, +and we sat in the midst in a transparent privacy, seeing, seen, but +unapproachable, like bees in a glass hive. The outward and visible sign +of this glamour was no more than a few ragged coco-leaf garlands round +the stems of the outlying palms; but its significance reposed on the +tremendous sanction of the tapu and the guns of Tembinok’. + +We made our first meal that night in the improvised city, where we were +to stay two months, and which—so soon as we had done with it—was to +vanish in a day as it appeared, its elements returning whence they came, +the tapu raised, the traffic on the path resumed, the sun and the moon +peering in vain between the palm-trees for the bygone work, the wind +blowing over an empty site. Yet the place, which is now only an episode +in some memories, seemed to have been built, and to be destined to +endure, for years. It was a busy hamlet. One of the maniap’s we made +our dining-room, one the kitchen. The houses we reserved for sleeping. +They were on the admirable Apemama plan: out and away the best house in +the South Seas; standing some three feet above the ground on posts; the +sides of woven flaps, which can be raised to admit light and air, or +lowered to shut out the wind and the rain: airy, healthy, clean, and +watertight. We had a hen of a remarkable kind: almost unique in my +experience, being a hen that occasionally laid eggs. Not far off, Mrs. +Stevenson tended a garden of salad and shalots. The salad was devoured +by the hen—which was her bane. The shalots were served out a leaf at a +time, and welcomed and relished like peaches. Toddy and green cocoa-nuts +were brought us daily. We once had a present of fish from the king, and +once of a turtle. Sometimes we shot so-called plover along on the shore, +sometimes wild chicken in the bush. The rest of our diet was from tins. + +Our occupations were very various. While some of the party would be away +sketching, Mr. Osbourne and I hammered away at a novel. We read Gibbon +and Carlyle aloud; we blew on flageolets, we strummed on guitars; we took +photographs by the light of the sun, the moon, and flash-powder; +sometimes we played cards. Pot-hunting engaged a part of our leisure. I +have myself passed afternoons in the exciting but innocuous pursuit of +winged animals with a revolver; and it was fortunate there were better +shots of the party, and fortunate the king could lend us a more suitable +weapon, in the form of an excellent fowling-piece, or our spare diet had +been sparer still. + +Night was the time to see our city, after the moon was up, after the +lamps were lighted, and so long as the fire sparkled in the cook-house. +We suffered from a plague of flies and mosquitoes, comparable to that of +Egypt; our dinner-table (lent, like all our furniture, by the king) must +be enclosed in a tent of netting, our citadel and refuge; and this became +all luminous, and bulged and beaconed under the eaves, like the globe of +some monstrous lamp under the margin of its shade. Our cabins, the sides +being propped at a variety of inclinations, spelled out strange, angular +patterns of brightness. In his roofed and open kitchen, Ah Fu was to be +seen by lamp and firelight, dabbling among pots. Over all, there fell in +the season an extraordinary splendour of mellow moonshine. The sand +sparkled as with the dust of diamonds; the stars had vanished. At +intervals, a dusky night-bird, slow and low flying, passed in the +colonnade of the tree stems and uttered a hoarse croaking cry. + + + +CHAPTER III—THE KING OF APEMAMA: THE PALACE OF MANY WOMEN + + +The palace, or rather the ground which it includes, is several acres in +extent. A terrace encloses it toward the lagoon; on the side of the +land, a palisade with several gates. These are scarce intended for +defence; a man, if he were strong, might easily pluck down the palisade; +he need not be specially active to leap from the beach upon the terrace. +There is no parade of guards, soldiers, or weapons; the armoury is under +lock and key; and the only sentinels are certain inconspicuous old women +lurking day and night before the gates. By day, these crones were often +engaged in boiling syrup or the like household occupation; by night, they +lay ambushed in the shadow or crouched along the palisade, filling the +office of eunuchs to this harem, sole guards upon a tyrant life. + +Female wardens made a fit outpost for this palace of many women. Of the +number of the king’s wives I have no guess; and but a loose idea of their +function. He himself displayed embarrassment when they were referred to +as his wives, called them himself ‘my pamily,’ and explained they were +his ‘cutcheons’—cousins. We distinguished four of the crowd: the king’s +mother; his sister, a grave, trenchant woman, with much of her brother’s +intelligence; the queen proper, to whom (and to whom alone) my wife was +formally presented; and the favourite of the hour, a pretty, graceful +girl, who sat with the king daily, and once (when he shed tears) consoled +him with caresses. I am assured that even with her his relations are +platonic. In the background figured a multitude of ladies, the lean, the +plump, and the elephantine, some in sacque frocks, some in the +hairbreadth _ridi_; high-born and low, slave and mistress; from the queen +to the scullion, from the favourite to the scraggy sentries at the +palisade. Not all of these of course are of ‘my pamily,’—many are mere +attendants; yet a surprising number shared the responsibility of the +king’s trust. These were key-bearers, treasurers, wardens of the +armoury, the napery, and the stores. Each knew and did her part to +admiration. Should anything be required—a particular gun, perhaps, or a +particular bolt of stuff,—the right queen was summoned; she came bringing +the right chest, opened it in the king’s presence, and displayed her +charge in perfect preservation—the gun cleaned and oiled, the goods duly +folded. Without delay or haste, and with the minimum of speech, the +whole great establishment turned on wheels like a machine. Nowhere have +I seen order more complete and pervasive. And yet I was always reminded +of Norse tales of trolls and ogres who kept their hearts buried in the +ground for the mere safety, and must confide the secret to their wives. +For these weapons are the life of Tembinok’. He does not aim at +popularity; but drives and braves his subjects, with a simplicity of +domination which it is impossible not to admire, hard not to sympathise +with. Should one out of so many prove faithless, should the armoury be +secretly unlocked, should the crones have dozed by the palisade and the +weapons find their way unseen into the village, revolution would be +nearly certain, death the most probable result, and the spirit of the +tyrant of Apemama flit to rejoin his predecessors of Mariki and Tapituea. +Yet those whom he so trusts are all women, and all rivals. + +There is indeed a ministry and staff of males: cook, steward, carpenter, +and supercargoes: the hierarchy of a schooner. The spies, ‘his majesty’s +daily papers,’ as we called them, come every morning to report, and go +again. The cook and steward are concerned with the table only. The +supercargoes, whose business it is to keep tally of the copra at three +pounds a month and a percentage, are rarely in the palace; and two at +least are in the other islands. The carpenter, indeed, shrewd and jolly +old Rubam—query, Reuben?—promoted on my last visit to the greater dignity +of governor, is daily present, altering, extending, embellishing, +pursuing the endless series of the king’s inventions; and his majesty +will sometimes pass an afternoon watching and talking with Rubam at his +work. But the males are still outsiders; none seems to be armed, none is +entrusted with a key; by dusk they are all usually departed from the +palace; and the weight of the monarchy and of the monarch’s life reposes +unshared on the women. + +Here is a household unlike, indeed, to one of ours; more unlike still to +the Oriental harem: that of an elderly childless man, his days menaced, +dwelling alone amid a bevy of women of all ages, ranks, and +relationships,—the mother, the sister, the cousin, the legitimate wife, +the concubine, the favourite, the eldest born, and she of yesterday; he, +in their midst, the only master, the only male, the sole dispenser of +honours, clothes, and luxuries, the sole mark of multitudinous ambitions +and desires. I doubt if you could find a man in Europe so bold as to +attempt this piece of tact and government. And seemingly Tembinok’ +himself had trouble in the beginning. I hear of him shooting at a wife +for some levity on board a schooner. Another, on some more serious +offence, he slew outright; he exposed her body in an open box, and (to +make the warning more memorable) suffered it to putrefy before the palace +gate. Doubtless his growing years have come to his assistance; for upon +so large a scale it is more easy to play the father than the husband. +And to-day, at least to the eye of a stranger, all seems to go smoothly, +and the wives to be proud of their trust, proud of their rank, and proud +of their cunning lord. + +I conceived they made rather a hero of the man. A popular master in a +girls’ school might, perhaps, offer a figure of his preponderating +station. But then the master does not eat, sleep, live, and wash his +dirty linen in the midst of his admirers; he escapes, he has a room of +his own, he leads a private life; if he had nothing else, he has the +holidays, and the more unhappy Tembinok’ is always on the stage and on +the stretch. + +In all my coming and going, I never heard him speak harshly or express +the least displeasure. An extreme, rather heavy, benignity—the benignity +of one sure to be obeyed—marked his demeanour; so that I was at times +reminded of Samual Richardson in his circle of admiring women. The wives +spoke up and seemed to volunteer opinions, like our wives at home—or, +say, like doting but respectable aunts. Altogether, I conclude that he +rules his seraglio much more by art than terror; and those who give a +different account (and who have none of them enjoyed my opportunities of +observation) perhaps failed to distinguish between degrees of rank, +between ‘my pamily’ and the hangers-on, laundresses, and prostitutes. + +A notable feature is the evening game of cards when lamps are set forth +upon the terrace, and ‘I and my pamily’ play for tobacco by the hour. It +is highly characteristic of Tembinok’ that he must invent a game for +himself; highly characteristic of his worshipping household that they +should swear by the absurd invention. It is founded on poker, played +with the honours out of many packs, and inconceivably dreary. But I have +a passion for all games, studied it, and am supposed to be the only white +who ever fairly grasped its principle: a fact for which the wives (with +whom I was not otherwise popular) admired me with acclamation. It was +impossible to be deceived; this was a genuine feeling: they were proud of +their private game, had been cut to the quick by the want of interest +shown in it by others, and expanded under the flattery of my attention. +Tembinok’ puts up a double stake, and receives in return two hands to +choose from: a shallow artifice which the wives (in all these years) have +not yet fathomed. He himself, when talking with me privately, made not +the least secret that he was secure of winning; and it was thus he +explained his recent liberality on board the _Equator_. He let the wives +buy their own tobacco, which pleased them at the moment. He won it back +at cards, which made him once more, and without fresh expense, that which +he ought to be,—the sole fount of all indulgences. And he summed the +matter up in that phrase with which he almost always concludes any +account of his policy: ‘Mo’ betta.’ + +The palace compound is laid with broken coral, excruciating to the eyes +and the bare feet, but exquisitely raked and weeded. A score or more of +buildings lie in a sort of street along the palisade and scattered on the +margin of the terrace; dwelling-houses for the wives and the attendants, +storehouses for the king’s curios and treasures, spacious maniap’s for +feast or council, some on pillars of wood, some on piers of masonry. One +was still in hand, a new invention, the king’s latest born: a European +frame-house built for coolness inside a lofty maniap’: its roof planked +like a ship’s deck to be a raised, shady, and yet private promenade. It +was here the king spent hours with Rubam; here I would sometimes join +them; the place had a most singular appearance; and I must say I was +greatly taken with the fancy, and joined with relish in the counsels of +the architects. + +Suppose we had business with his majesty by day: we strolled over the +sand and by the dwarfish palms, exchanged a ‘_Kõnamaori_’ with the crone +on duty, and entered the compound. The wide sheet of coral glared before +us deserted; all having stowed themselves in dark canvas from the excess +of room. I have gone to and fro in that labyrinth of a place, seeking +the king; and the only breathing creature I could find was when I peered +under the eaves of a maniap’, and saw the brawny body of one of the wives +stretched on the floor, a naked Amazon plunged in noiseless slumber. If +it were still the hour of the ‘morning papers’ the quest would be more +easy, the half-dozen obsequious, sly dogs squatting on the ground outside +a house, crammed as far as possible in its narrow shadow, and turning to +the king a row of leering faces. Tembinok’ would be within, the flaps of +the cabin raised, the trade blowing through, hearing their report. Like +journalists nearer home, when the day’s news were scanty, these would +make the more of it in words; and I have known one to fill up a barren +morning with an imaginary conversation of two dogs. Sometimes the king +deigns to laugh, sometimes to question or jest with them, his voice +sounding shrilly from the cabin. By his side he may have the +heir-apparent, Paul, his nephew and adopted son, six years old, stark +naked, and a model of young human beauty. And there will always be the +favourite and perhaps two other wives awake; four more lying supine under +mats and whelmed in slumber. Or perhaps we came later, fell on a more +private hour, and found Tembinok’ retired in the house with the +favourite, an earthenware spittoon, a leaden inkpot, and a commercial +ledger. In the last, lying on his belly, he writes from day to day the +uneventful history of his reign; and when thus employed he betrayed a +touch of fretfulness on interruption with which I was well able to +sympathise. The royal annalist once read me a page or so, translating as +he went; but the passage being genealogical, and the author boggling +extremely in his version, I own I have been sometimes better entertained. +Nor does he confine himself to prose, but touches the lyre, too, in his +leisure moments, and passes for the chief bard of his kingdom, as he is +its sole public character, leading architect, and only merchant. + +His competence, however, does not reach to music; and his verses, when +they are ready, are taught to a professional musician, who sets them and +instructs the chorus. Asked what his songs were about, Tembinok’ +replied, ‘Sweethearts and trees and the sea. Not all the same true, all +the same lie.’ For a condensed view of lyrical poetry (except that he +seems to have forgot the stars and flowers) this would be hard to mend. +These multifarious occupations bespeak (in a native and an absolute +prince) unusual activity of mind. + +The palace court at noon is a spot to be remembered with awe, the visitor +scrambling there, on the loose stones, through a splendid nightmare of +light and heat; but the sweep of the wind delivers it from flies and +mosquitoes; and with the set of sun it became heavenly. I remember it +best on moonless nights. The air was like a bath of milk. Countless +shining stars were overhead, the lagoon paved with them. Herds of wives +squatted by companies on the gravel, softly chatting. Tembinok’ would +doff his jacket, and sit bare and silent, perhaps meditating songs; the +favourite usually by him, silent also. Meanwhile in the midst of the +court, the palace lanterns were being lit and marshalled in rank upon the +ground—six or eight square yards of them; a sight that gave one strange +ideas of the number of ‘my pamily’: such a sight as may be seen about +dusk in a corner of some great terminus at home. Presently these fared +off into all corners of the precinct, lighting the last labours of the +day, lighting one after another to their rest that prodigious company of +women. A few lingered in the middle of the court for the card-party, and +saw the honours shuffled and dealt, and Tembinok’ deliberating between +his two; hands, and the queens losing their tobacco. Then these also +were scattered and extinguished; and their place was taken by a great +bonfire, the night-light of the palace. When this was no more, smaller +fires burned likewise at the gates. These were tended by the crones, +unseen, unsleeping—not always unheard. Should any approach in the dark +hours, a guarded alert made the circuit of the palisade; each sentry +signalled her neighbour with a stone; the rattle of falling pebbles +passed and died away; and the wardens of Tembinok’ crouched in their +places silent as before. + + + +CHAPTER IV—THE KING OF APEMAMA: EQUATOR TOWN AND THE PALACE + + +Five persons were detailed to wait upon us. Uncle Parker, who brought us +toddy and green nuts, was an elderly, almost an old man, with the +spirits, the industry, and the morals of a boy of ten. His face was +ancient, droll, and diabolical, the skin stretched over taut sinews, like +a sail on the guide-rope; and he smiled with every muscle of his head. +His nuts must be counted every day, or he would deceive us in the tale; +they must be daily examined, or some would prove to be unhusked; nothing +but the king’s name, and scarcely that, would hold him to his duty. +After his toils were over he was given a pipe, matches, and tobacco, and +sat on the floor in the maniap’ to smoke. He would not seem to move from +his position, and yet every day, when the things fell to be returned the +plug had disappeared; he had found the means to conceal it in the roof, +whence he could radiantly produce it on the morrow. Although this piece +of legerdemain was performed regularly before three or four pairs of +eyes, we could never catch him in the fact; although we searched after he +was gone, we could never find the tobacco. Such were the diversions of +Uncle Parker, a man nearing sixty. But he was punished according unto +his deeds: Mrs. Stevenson took a fancy to paint him, and the sufferings +of the sitter were beyond description. + +Three lasses came from the palace to do our washing and racket with Ah +Fu. They were of the lowest class, hangers-on kept for the convenience +of merchant skippers, probably low-born, perhaps out-islanders, with +little refinement whether of manner or appearance, but likely and jolly +enough wenches in their way. We called one _Guttersnipe_, for you may +find her image in the slums of any city; the same lean, dark-eyed, eager, +vulgar face, the same sudden, hoarse guffaws, the same forward and yet +anxious manner, as with a tail of an eye on the policeman: only the +policeman here was a live king, and his truncheon a rifle. I doubt if +you could find anywhere out of the islands, or often there, the parallel +of _Fatty_, a mountain of a girl, who must have weighed near as many +stones as she counted summers, could have given a good account of a +life-guardsman, had the face of a baby, and applied her vast mechanical +forces almost exclusively to play. But they were all three of the same +merry spirit. Our washing was conducted in a game of romps; and they +fled and pursued, and splashed, and pelted, and rolled each other in the +sand, and kept up a continuous noise of cries and laughter like holiday +children. Indeed, and however strange their own function in that austere +establishment, were they not escaped for the day from the largest and +strictest Ladies’ School in the South Seas? + +Our fifth attendant was no less a person than the royal cook. He was +strikingly handsome both in face and body, lazy as a slave, and insolent +as a butcher’s boy. He slept and smoked on our premises in various +graceful attitudes; but so far from helping Ah Fu, he was not at the +pains to watch him. It may be said of him that he came to learn, and +remained to teach; and his lessons were at times difficult to stomach. +For example, he was sent to fill a bucket from the well. About half-way +he found my wife watering her onions, changed buckets with her, and +leaving her the empty, returned to the kitchen with the full. On another +occasion he was given a dish of dumplings for the king, was told they +must be eaten hot, and that he should carry them as fast as possible. +The wretch set off at the rate of about a mile in the hour, head in air, +toes turned out. My patience, after a month of trial, failed me at the +sight. I pursued, caught him by his two big shoulders, and thrusting him +before me, ran with him down the hill, over the sands, and through the +applauding village, to the Speak House, where the king was then holding a +pow-wow. He had the impudence to pretend he was internally injured by my +violence, and to profess serious apprehensions for his life. + +All this we endured; for the ways of Tembinok’ are summary, and I was not +yet ripe to take a hand in the man’s death. But in the meanwhile, here +was my unfortunate China boy slaving for the pair, and presently he fell +sick. I was now in the position of Cimondain Lantenac, and indeed all +the characters in _Quatre-Vingt-Treize_: to continue to spare the guilty, +I must sacrifice the innocent. I took the usual course and tried to save +both, with the usual consequence of failure. Well rehearsed, I went down +to the palace, found the king alone, and obliged him with a vast amount +of rigmarole. The cook was too old to learn: I feared he was not making +progress; how if we had a boy instead?—boys were more teachable. It was +all in vain; the king pierced through my disguises to the root of the +fact; saw that the cook had desperately misbehaved; and sat a while +glooming. ‘I think he tavvy too much,’ he said at last, with grim +concision; and immediately turned the talk to other subjects. The same +day another high officer, the steward, appeared in the cook’s place, and, +I am bound to say, proved civil and industrious. + +As soon as I left, it seems the king called for a Winchester and strolled +outside the palisade, awaiting the defaulter. That day Tembinok’ wore +the woman’s frock; as like as not, his make-up was completed by a pith +helmet and blue spectacles. Conceive the glaring stretch of sandhills, +the dwarf palms with their noon-day shadows, the line of the palisade, +the crone sentries (each by a small clear fire) cooking syrup on their +posts—and this chimæra waiting with his deadly engine. To him, enter at +last the cook, strolling down the sandhill from Equator Town, listless, +vain and graceful; with no thought of alarm. As soon as he was well +within range, the travestied monarch fired the six shots over his head, +at his feet, and on either hand of him: the second Apemama warning, +startling in itself, fatal in significance, for the next time his majesty +will aim to hit. I am told the king is a crack shot; that when he aims +to kill, the grave may be got ready; and when he aims to miss, misses by +so near a margin that the culprit tastes six times the bitterness of +death. The effect upon the cook I had an opportunity of seeing for +myself. My wife and I were returning from the sea-side of the island, +when we spied one coming to meet us at a very quick, disordered pace, +between a walk and a run. As we drew nearer we saw it was the cook, +beside himself with some emotion, his usual warm, mulatto colour declined +into a bluish pallor. He passed us without word or gesture, staring on +us with the face of a Satan, and plunged on across the wood for the +unpeopled quarter of the island and the long, desert beach, where he +might rage to and fro unseen, and froth out the vials of his wrath, fear, +and humiliation. Doubtless in the curses that he there uttered to the +bursting surf and the tropic birds, the name of the Kaupoi—the rich +man—was frequently repeated. I had made him the laughing-stock of the +village in the affair of the king’s dumplings; I had brought him by my +machinations into disgrace and the immediate jeopardy of his days; last, +and perhaps bitterest, he had found me there by the way to spy upon him +in the hour of his disorder. + +Time passed, and we saw no more of him. The season of the full moon came +round, when a man thinks shame to lie sleeping; and I continued until +late—perhaps till twelve or one in the morning—to walk on the bright sand +and in the tossing shadow of the palms. I played, as I wandered, on a +flageolet, which occupied much of my attention; the fans overhead rattled +in the wind with a metallic chatter; and a bare foot falls at any rate +almost noiseless on that shifting soil. Yet when I got back to Equator +Town, where all the lights were out, and my wife (who was still awake, +and had been looking forth) asked me who it was that followed me, I +thought she spoke in jest. ‘Not at all,’ she said. ‘I saw him twice as +you passed, walking close at your heels. He only left you at the corner +of the maniap’; he must be still behind the cook-house.’ Thither I +ran—like a fool, without any weapon—and came face to face with the cook. +He was within my tapu-line, which was death in itself; he could have no +business there at such an hour but either to steal or to kill; guilt made +him timorous; and he turned and fled before me in the night in silence. +As he went I kicked him in that place where honour lies, and he gave +tongue faintly like an injured mouse. At the moment I daresay he +supposed it was a deadly instrument that touched him. + +What had the man been after? I have found my music better qualified to +scatter than to collect an audience. Amateur as I was, I could not +suppose him interested in my reading of the _Carnival of Venice_, or that +he would deny himself his natural rest to follow my variations on _The +Ploughboy_. And whatever his design, it was impossible I should suffer +him to prowl by night among the houses. A word to the king, and the man +were not, his case being far beyond pardon. But it is one thing to kill +a man yourself; quite another to bear tales behind his back and have him +shot by a third party; and I determined to deal with the fellow in some +method of my own. I told Ah Fu the story, and bade him fetch me the cook +whenever he should find him. I had supposed this would be a matter of +difficulty; and far from that, he came of his own accord: an act really +of desperation, since his life hung by my silence, and the best he could +hope was to be forgotten. Yet he came with an assured countenance, +volunteered no apology or explanation, complained of injuries received, +and pretended he was unable to sit down. I suppose I am the weakest man +God made; I had kicked him in the least vulnerable part of his big +carcase; my foot was bare, and I had not even hurt my foot. Ah Fu could +not control his merriment. On my side, knowing what must be the nature +of his apprehensions, I found in so much impudence a kind of gallantry, +and secretly admired the man. I told him I should say nothing of his +night’s adventure to the king; that I should still allow him, when he had +an errand, to come within my tapu-line by day; but if ever I found him +there after the set of the sun I would shoot him on the spot; and to the +proof showed him a revolver. He must have been incredibly relieved; but +he showed no sign of it, took himself off with his usual dandy +nonchalance, and was scarce seen by us again. + +These five, then, with the substitution of the steward for the cook, came +and went, and were our only visitors. The circle of the tapu held at +arm’s-length the inhabitants of the village. As for ‘my pamily,’ they +dwelt like nuns in their enclosure; only once have I met one of them +abroad, and she was the king’s sister, and the place in which I found her +(the island infirmary) was very likely privileged. There remains only +the king to be accounted for. He would come strolling over, always +alone, a little before a meal-time, take a chair, and talk and eat with +us like an old family friend. Gilbertine etiquette appears defective on +the point of leave-taking. It may be remembered we had trouble in the +matter with Karaiti; and there was something childish and disconcerting +in Tembinok’s abrupt ‘I want go home now,’ accompanied by a kind of +ducking rise, and followed by an unadorned retreat. It was the only blot +upon his manners, which were otherwise plain, decent, sensible, and +dignified. He never stayed long nor drank much, and copied our behaviour +where he perceived it to differ from his own. Very early in the day, for +instance, he ceased eating with his knife. It was plain he was +determined in all things to wring profit from our visit, and chiefly upon +etiquette. The quality of his white visitors puzzled and concerned him; +he would bring up name after name, and ask if its bearer were a ‘big +chiep,’ or even a ‘chiep’ at all—which, as some were my excellent good +friends, and none were actually born in the purple, became at times +embarrassing. He was struck to learn that our classes were +distinguishable by their speech, and that certain words (for instance) +were tapu on the quarter-deck of a man-of-war; and he begged in +consequence that we should watch and correct him on the point. We were +able to assure him that he was beyond correction. His vocabulary is apt +and ample to an extraordinary degree. God knows where he collected it, +but by some instinct or some accident he has avoided all profane or gross +expressions. ‘Obliged,’ ‘stabbed,’ ‘gnaw,’ ‘lodge,’ ‘power,’ ‘company,’ +‘slender,’ ‘smooth,’ and ‘wonderful,’ are a few of the unexpected words +that enrich his dialect. Perhaps what pleased him most was to hear about +saluting the quarter-deck of a man-of-war. In his gratitude for this +hint he became fulsome. ‘Schooner cap’n no tell me,’ he cried; ‘I think +no tavvy! You tavvy too much; tavvy ’teama’, tavvy man-a-wa’. I think +you tavvy everything.’ Yet he gravelled me often enough with his +perpetual questions; and the false Mr. Barlow stood frequently exposed +before the royal Sandford. I remember once in particular. We were +showing the magic-lantern; a slide of Windsor Castle was put in, and I +told him there was the ‘outch’ of Victoreea. ‘How many pathom he high?’ +he asked, and I was dumb before him. It was the builder, the +indefatigable architect of palaces, that spoke; collector though he was, +he did not collect useless information; and all his questions had a +purpose. After etiquette, government, law, the police, money, and +medicine were his chief interests—things vitally important to himself as +a king and the father of his people. It was my part not only to supply +new information, but to correct the old. ‘My patha he tell me,’ or +‘White man he tell me,’ would be his constant beginning; ‘You think he +lie?’ Sometimes I thought he did. Tembinok’ once brought me a +difficulty of this kind, which I was long of comprehending. A schooner +captain had told him of Captain Cook; the king was much interested in the +story; and turned for more information—not to Mr. Stephen’s Dictionary, +not to the _Britannica_, but to the Bible in the Gilbert Island version +(which consists chiefly of the New Testament and the Psalms). Here he +sought long and earnestly; Paul he found, and Festus and Alexander the +coppersmith: no word of Cook. The inference was obvious: the explorer +was a myth. So hard it is, even for a man of great natural parts like +Tembinok’, to grasp the ideas of a new society and culture. + + + +CHAPTER V—KING AND COMMONS + + +We saw but little of the commons of the isle. At first we met them at +the well, where they washed their linen and we drew water for the table. +The combination was distasteful; and, having a tyrant at command, we +applied to the king and had the place enclosed in our tapu. It was one +of the few favours which Tembinok’ visibly boggled about granting, and it +may be conceived how little popular it made the strangers. Many +villagers passed us daily going afield; but they fetched a wide circuit +round our tapu, and seemed to avert their looks. At times we went +ourselves into the village—a strange place. Dutch by its canals, +Oriental by the height and steepness of the roofs, which looked at dusk +like temples; but we were rarely called into a house: no welcome, no +friendship, was offered us; and of home life we had but the one view: the +waking of a corpse, a frigid, painful scene: the widow holding on her lap +the cold, bluish body of her husband, and now partaking of the +refreshments which made the round of the company, now weeping and kissing +the pale mouth. (‘I fear you feel this affliction deeply,’ said the +Scottish minister. ‘Eh, sir, and that I do!’ replied the widow. ‘I’ve +been greetin’ a’ nicht; an’ noo I’m just gaun to sup this bit parritch, +and then I’ll begin an’ greet again.’) In our walks abroad I have always +supposed the islanders avoided us, perhaps from distaste, perhaps by +order; and those whom we met we took generally by surprise. The surface +of the isle is diversified with palm groves, thickets, and romantic +dingles four feet deep, relics of old taro plantation; and it is thus +possible to stumble unawares on folk resting or hiding from their work. +About pistol-shot from our township there lay a pond in the bottom of a +jungle; here the maids of the isle came to bathe, and were several times +alarmed by our intrusion. Not for them are the bright cold rivers of +Tahiti or Upolu, not for them to splash and laugh in the hour of the dusk +with a villageful of gay companions; but to steal here solitary, to +crouch in a place like a cow-wallow, and wash (if that can be called +washing) in lukewarm mud, brown as their own skins. Other, but still +rare, encounters occur to my memory. I was several times arrested by a +tender sound in the bush of voices talking, soft as flutes and with quiet +intonations. Hope told a flattering tale; I put aside the leaves; and +behold! in place of the expected dryads, a pair of all too solid ladies +squatting over a clay pipe in the ungraceful _ridi_. The beauty of the +voice and the eye was all that remained to those vast dames; but that of +the voice was indeed exquisite. It is strange I should have never heard +a more winning sound of speech, yet the dialect should be one remarkable +for violent, ugly, and outlandish vocables; so that Tembinok’ himself +declared it made him weary, and professed to find repose in talking +English. + +The state of this folk, of whom I saw so little, I can merely guess at. +The king himself explains the situation with some art. ‘No; I no pay +them,’ he once said. ‘I give them tobacco. They work for me _all the +same brothers_.’ It is true there was a brother once in Arden! But we +prefer the shorter word. They bear every servile mark,—levity like a +child’s, incurable idleness, incurious content. The insolence of the +cook was a trait of his own; not so his levity, which he shared with the +innocent Uncle Parker. With equal unconcern both gambolled under the +shadow of the gallows, and took liberties with death that might have +surprised a careless student of man’s nature. I wrote of Parker that he +behaved like a boy of ten: what was he else, being a slave of sixty? He +had passed all his years in school, fed, clad, thought for, commanded; +and had grown familiar and coquetted with the fear of punishment. By +terror you may drive men long, but not far. Here, in Apemama, they work +at the constant and the instant peril of their lives; and are plunged in +a kind of lethargy of laziness. It is common to see one go afield in his +stiff mat ungirt, so that he walks elbows-in like a trussed fowl; and +whatsoever his right hand findeth to do, the other must be off duty +holding on his clothes. It is common to see two men carrying between +them on a pole a single bucket of water. To make two bites of a cherry +is good enough: to make two burthens of a soldier’s kit, for a distance +of perhaps half a furlong, passes measure. Woman, being the less +childish animal, is less relaxed by servile conditions. Even in the +king’s absence, even when they were alone, I have seen Apemama women work +with constancy. But the outside to be hoped for in a man is that he may +attack his task in little languid fits, and lounge between-whiles. So I +have seen a painter, with his pipe going, and a friend by the studio +fireside. You might suppose the race to lack civility, even vitality, +until you saw them in the dance. Night after night, and sometimes day +after day, they rolled out their choruses in the great Speak House—solemn +andantes and adagios, led by the clapped hand, and delivered with an +energy that shook the roof. The time was not so slow, though it was slow +for the islands; but I have chosen rather to indicate the effect upon the +hearer. Their music had a church-like character from near at hand, and +seemed to European ears more regular than the run of island music. Twice +I have heard a discord regularly solved. From farther off, heard at +Equator Town for instance, the measures rose and fell and crepitated like +the barking of hounds in a distant kennel. + +The slaves are certainly not overworked—children of ten do more without +fatigue—and the Apemama labourers have holidays, when the singing begins +early in the afternoon. The diet is hard; copra and a sweetmeat of +pounded pandanus are the only dishes I observed outside the palace; but +there seems no defect in quantity, and the king shares with them his +turtles. Three came in a boat from Kuria during our stay; one was kept +for the palace, one sent to us, one presented to the village. It is the +habit of the islanders to cook the turtle in its carapace; we had been +promised the shells, and we asked a tapu on this foolish practice. The +face of Tembinok’ darkened and he answered nothing. Hesitation in the +question of the well I could understand, for water is scarce on a low +island; that he should refuse to interfere upon a point of cookery was +more than I had dreamed of; and I gathered (rightly or wrongly) that he +was scrupulous of touching in the least degree the private life and +habits of his slaves. So that even here, in full despotism, public +opinion has weight; even here, in the midst of slavery, freedom has a +corner. + +Orderly, sober, and innocent, life flows in the isle from day to day as +in a model plantation under a model planter. It is impossible to doubt +the beneficence of that stern rule. A curious politeness, a soft and +gracious manner, something effeminate and courtly, distinguishes the +islanders of Apemama; it is talked of by all the traders, it was felt +even by residents so little beloved as ourselves, and noticeable even in +the cook, and even in that scoundrel’s hours of insolence. The king, +with his manly and plain bearing, stood out alone; you might say he was +the only Gilbert Islander in Apemama. Violence, so common in Butaritari, +seems unknown. So are theft and drunkenness. I am assured the +experiment has been made of leaving sovereigns on the beach before the +village; they lay there untouched. In all our time on the island I was +but once asked for drink. This was by a mighty plausible fellow, wearing +European clothes and speaking excellent English—Tamaiti his name, or, as +the whites have now corrupted it, ‘Tom White’: one of the king’s +supercargoes at three pounds a month and a percentage, a medical man +besides, and in his private hours a wizard. He found me one day in the +outskirts of the village, in a secluded place, hot and private, where the +taro-pits are deep and the plants high. Here he buttonholed me, and, +looking about him like a conspirator, inquired if I had gin. + +I told him I had. He remarked that gin was forbidden, lauded the +prohibition a while, and then went on to explain that he was a doctor, or +‘dogstar’ as he pronounced the word, that gin was necessary to him for +his medical infusions, that he was quite out of it, and that he would be +obliged to me for some in a bottle. I told him I had passed the king my +word on landing; but since his case was so exceptional, I would go down +to the palace at once, and had no doubt that Tembinok’ would set me free. +Tom White was immediately overwhelmed with embarrassment and terror, +besought me in the most moving terms not to betray him, and fled my +neighbourhood. He had none of the cook’s valour; it was weeks before he +dared to meet my eye; and then only by the order of the king and on +particular business. + +The more I viewed and admired this triumph of firm rule, the more I was +haunted and troubled by a problem, the problem (perhaps) of to-morrow for +ourselves. Here was a people protected from all serious misfortune, +relieved of all serious anxieties, and deprived of what we call our +liberty. Did they like it? and what was their sentiment toward the +ruler? The first question I could not of course ask, nor perhaps the +natives answer. Even the second was delicate; yet at last, and under +charming and strange circumstances, I found my opportunity to put it and +a man to reply. It was near the full of the moon, with a delicious +breeze; the isle was bright as day—to sleep would have been sacrilege; +and I walked in the bush, playing my pipe. It must have been the sound +of what I am pleased to call my music that attracted in my direction +another wanderer of the night. This was a young man attired in a fine +mat, and with a garland on his hair, for he was new come from dancing and +singing in the public hall; and his body, his face, and his eyes were all +of an enchanting beauty. Every here and there in the Gilberts youths are +to be found of this absurd perfection; I have seen five of us pass half +an hour in admiration of a boy at Mariki; and Te Kop (my friend in the +fine mat and garland) I had already several times remarked, and long ago +set down as the loveliest animal in Apemama. The philtre of admiration +must be very strong, or these natives specially susceptible to its +effects, for I have scarce ever admired a person in the islands but what +he has sought my particular acquaintance. So it was with Te Kop. He led +me to the ocean side; and for an hour or two we sat smoking and talking +on the resplendent sand and under the ineffable brightness of the moon. +My friend showed himself very sensible of the beauty and amenity of the +hour. ‘Good night! Good wind!’ he kept exclaiming, and as he said the +words he seemed to hug myself. I had long before invented such +reiterated expressions of delight for a character (Felipe, in the story +of _Olalla_) intended to be partly bestial. But there was nothing +bestial in Te Kop; only a childish pleasure in the moment. He was no +less pleased with his companion, or was good enough to say so; honoured +me, before he left, by calling me Te Kop; apostrophised me as ‘My name!’ +with an intonation exquisitely tender, laying his hand at the same time +swiftly on my knee; and after we had risen, and our paths began to +separate in the bush, twice cried to me with a sort of gentle ecstasy, ‘I +like you too much!’ From the beginning he had made no secret of his +terror of the king; would not sit down nor speak above a whisper till he +had put the whole breadth of the isle between himself and his monarch, +then harmlessly asleep; and even there, even within a stone-cast of the +outer sea, our talk covered by the sound of the surf and the rattle of +the wind among the palms, continued to speak guardedly, softening his +silver voice (which rang loud enough in the chorus) and looking about him +like a man in fear of spies. The strange thing is that I should have +beheld him no more. In any other island in the whole South Seas, if I +had advanced half as far with any native, he would have been at my door +next morning, bringing and expecting gifts. But Te Kop vanished in the +bush for ever. My house, of course, was unapproachable; but he knew +where to find me on the ocean beach, where I went daily. I was the +_Kaupoi_, the rich man; my tobacco and trade were known to be endless: he +was sure of a present. I am at a loss how to explain his behaviour, +unless it be supposed that he recalled with terror and regret a passage +in our interview. Here it is: + +‘The king, he good man?’ I asked. + +‘Suppose he like you, he good man,’ replied Te Kop: ‘no like, no good.’ + +That is one way of putting it, of course. Te Kop himself was probably no +favourite, for he scarce appealed to my judgment as a type of industry. +And there must be many others whom the king (to adhere to the formula) +does not like. Do these unfortunates like the king? Or is not rather +the repulsion mutual? and the conscientious Tembinok’, like the +conscientious Braxfield before him, and many other conscientious rulers +and judges before either, surrounded by a considerable body of +‘grumbletonians’? Take the cook, for instance, when he passed us by, +blue with rage and terror. He was very wroth with me; I think by all the +old principles of human nature he was not very well pleased with his +sovereign. It was the rich man he sought to waylay: I think it must have +been by the turn of a hair that it was not the king he waylaid instead. +And the king gives, or seems to give, plenty of opportunities; day and +night he goes abroad alone, whether armed or not I can but guess; and the +taro-patches, where his business must so often carry him, seem designed +for assassination. The case of the cook was heavy indeed to my +conscience. I did not like to kill my enemy at second-hand; but had I a +right to conceal from the king, who had trusted me, the dangerous secret +character of his attendant? And suppose the king should fall, what would +be the fate of the king’s friends? It was our opinion at the time that +we should pay dear for the closing of the well; that our breath was in +the king’s nostrils; that if the king should by any chance be bludgeoned +in a taro-patch, the philosophical and musical inhabitants of Equator +Town might lay aside their pleasant instruments, and betake themselves to +what defence they had, with a very dim prospect of success. These +speculations were forced upon us by an incident which I am ashamed to +betray. The schooner _H. L. Haseltine_ (since capsized at sea, with the +loss of eleven lives) put into Apemama in a good hour for us, who had +near exhausted our supplies. The king, after his habit, spent day after +day on board; the gin proved unhappily to his taste; he brought a store +of it ashore with him; and for some time the sole tyrant of the isle was +half-seas-over. He was not drunk—the man is not a drunkard, he has +always stores of liquor at hand, which he uses with moderation,—but he +was muzzy, dull, and confused. He came one day to lunch with us, and +while the cloth was being laid fell asleep in his chair. His confusion, +when he awoke and found he had been detected, was equalled by our +uneasiness. When he was gone we sat and spoke of his peril, which we +thought to be in some degree our own; of how easily the man might be +surprised in such a state by _grumbletonians_; of the strange scenes that +would follow—the royal treasures and stores at the mercy of the rabble, +the palace overrun, the garrison of women turned adrift. And as we +talked we were startled by a gun-shot and a sudden, barbaric outcry. I +believe we all changed colour; but it was only the king firing at a dog +and the chorus striking up in the Speak House. A day or two later I +learned the king was very sick; went down, diagnosed the case; and took +at once the highest medical degree by the exhibition of bicarbonate of +soda. Within the hour Richard was himself again; and I found him at the +unfinished house, enjoying the double pleasure of directing Rubam and +making a dinner of cocoa-nut dumplings, and all eagerness to have the +formula of this new sort of _pain-killer_—for _pain-killer_ in the +islands is the generic name of medicine. So ended the king’s modest +spree and our anxiety. + +On the face of things, I ought to say, loyalty appeared unshaken. When +the schooner at last returned for us, after much experience of baffling +winds, she brought a rumour that Tebureimoa had declared war on Apemama. +Tembinok’ became a new man; his face radiant; his attitude, as I saw him +preside over a council of chiefs in one of the palace maniap’s, eager as +a boy’s; his voice sounding abroad, shrill and jubilant, over half the +compound. War is what he wants, and here was his chance. The English +captain, when he flung his arms in the lagoon, had forbidden him (except +in one case) all military adventures in the future: here was the case +arrived. All morning the council sat; men were drilled, arms were +bought, the sound of firing disturbed the afternoon; the king devised and +communicated to me his plan of campaign, which was highly elaborate and +ingenious, but perhaps a trifle fine-spun for the rough and random +vicissitudes of war. And in all this bustle the temper of the people +appeared excellent, an unwonted animation in every face, and even Uncle +Parker burning with military zeal. + +Of course it was a false alarm. Tebureimoa had other fish to fry. The +ambassador who accompanied us on our return to Butaritari found him +retired to a small island on the reef, in a huff with the Old Men, a tiff +with the traders, and more fear of insurrection at home than appetite for +wars abroad. The plenipotentiary had been placed under my protection; +and we solemnly saluted when we met. He proved an excellent fisherman, +and caught bonito over the ship’s side. He pulled a good oar, and made +himself useful for a whole fiery afternoon, towing the becalmed _Equator_ +off Mariki. He went to his post and did no good. He returned home +again, having done no harm. _O si sic omnes_! + + + +CHAPTER VI—THE KING OF APEMAMA: DEVIL-WORK + + +The ocean beach of Apemama was our daily resort. The coast is broken by +shallow bays. The reef is detached, elevated, and includes a lagoon +about knee-deep, the unrestful spending-basin of the surf. The beach is +now of fine sand, now of broken coral. The trend of the coast being +convex, scarce a quarter of a mile of it is to be seen at once; the land +being so low, the horizon appears within a stone-cast; and the narrow +prospect enhances the sense of privacy. Man avoids the place—even his +footprints are uncommon; but a great number of birds hover and pipe there +fishing, and leave crooked tracks upon the sand. Apart from these, the +only sound (and I was going to say the only society), is that of the +breakers on the reef. + +On each projection of the coast, the bank of coral clinkers immediately +above the beach has been levelled, and a pillar built, perhaps +breast-high. These are not sepulchral; all the dead being buried on the +inhabited side of the island, close to men’s houses, and (what is worse) +to their wells. I was told they were to protect the isle against inroads +from the sea—divine or diabolical martellos, probably sacred to Taburik, +God of Thunder. + +The bay immediately opposite Equator Town, which we called Fu Bay, in +honour of our cook, was thus fortified on either horn. It was well +sheltered by the reef, the enclosed water clear and tranquil, the +enclosing beach curved like a horseshoe, and both steep and broad. The +path debouched about the midst of the re-entrant angle, the woods +stopping some distance inland. In front, between the fringe of the wood +and the crown of the beach, there had been designed a regular figure, +like the court for some new variety of tennis, with borders of round +stones imbedded, and pointed at the angles with low posts, likewise of +stone. This was the king’s Pray Place. When he prayed, what he prayed +for, and to whom he addressed his supplications I could never learn. The +ground was tapu. + +In the angle, by the mouth of the path, stood a deserted maniap’. Near +by there had been a house before our coming, which was now transported +and figured for the moment in Equator Town. It had been, and it would be +again when we departed, the residence of the guardian and wizard of the +spot—Tamaiti. Here, in this lone place, within sound of the sea, he had +his dwelling and uncanny duties. I cannot call to mind another case of a +man living on the ocean side of any open atoll; and Tamaiti must have had +strong nerves, the greater confidence in his own spells, or, what I +believe to be the truth, an enviable scepticism. Whether Tamaiti had any +guardianship of the Pray Place I never heard. But his own particular +chapel stood farther back in the fringe of the wood. It was a tree of +respectable growth. Around it there was drawn a circle of stones like +those that enclosed the Pray Place; in front, facing towards the sea, a +stone of a much greater size, and somewhat hollowed, like a piscina, +stood close against the trunk; in front of that again a conical pile of +gravel. In the hollow of what I have called the piscina (though it +proved to be a magic seat) lay an offering of green cocoa-nuts; and when +you looked up you found the boughs of the tree to be laden with strange +fruit: palm-branches elaborately plaited, and beautiful models of canoes, +finished and rigged to the least detail. The whole had the appearance of +a mid-summer and sylvan Christmas-tree _al fresco_. Yet we were already +well enough acquainted in the Gilberts to recognise it, at the first +sight, for a piece of wizardry, or, as they say in the group, of +Devil-work. + +The plaited palms were what we recognised. We had seen them before on +Apaiang, the most christianised of all these islands; where excellent Mr. +Bingham lived and laboured and has left golden memories; whence all the +education in the northern Gilberts traces its descent; and where we were +boarded by little native Sunday-school misses in clean frocks, with +demure faces, and singing hymns as to the manner born. + +Our experience of Devil-work at Apaiang had been as follows:—It chanced +we were benighted at the house of Captain Tierney. My wife and I lodged +with a Chinaman some half a mile away; and thither Captain Reid and a +native boy escorted us by torch-light. On the way the torch went out, +and we took shelter in a small and lonely Christian chapel to rekindle +it. Stuck in the rafters of the chapel was a branch of knotted palm. +‘What is that?’ I asked. ‘O, that’s Devil-work,’ said the Captain. ‘And +what is Devil-work?’ I inquired. ‘If you like, I’ll show you some when +we get to Johnnie’s,’ he replied. ‘Johnnie’s’ was a quaint little house +upon the crest of the beach, raised some three feet on posts, approached +by stairs; part walled, part trellised. Trophies of +advertisement-photographs were hung up within for decoration. There was +a table and a recess-bed, in which Mrs. Stevenson slept; while I camped +on the matted floor with Johnnie, Mrs. Johnnie, her sister, and the +devil’s own regiment of cockroaches. Hither was summoned an old witch, +who looked the part to horror. The lamp was set on the floor; the crone +squatted on the threshold, a green palm-branch in her hand, the light +striking full on her aged features and picking out behind her, from the +black night, timorous faces of spectators. Our sorceress began with a +chanted incantation; it was in the old tongue, for which I had no +interpreter; but ever and again there ran among the crowd outside that +laugh which every traveller in the islands learns so soon to +recognise,—the laugh of terror. Doubtless these half-Christian folk were +shocked, these half-heathen folk alarmed. Chench or Taburik thus +invoked, we put our questions; the witch knotted the leaves, here a leaf +and there a leaf, plainly on some arithmetical system; studied the result +with great apparent contention of mind; and gave the answers. Sidney +Colvin was in robust health and gone a journey; and we should have a fair +wind upon the morrow: that was the result of our consultation, for which +we paid a dollar. The next day dawned cloudless and breathless; but I +think Captain Reid placed a secret reliance on the sibyl, for the +schooner was got ready for sea. By eight the lagoon was flawed with long +cat’s-paws, and the palms tossed and rustled; before ten we were clear of +the passage and skimming under all plain sail, with bubbling scuppers. +So we had the breeze, which was well worth a dollar in itself; but the +bulletin about my friend in England proved, some six months later, when I +got my mail, to have been groundless. Perhaps London lies beyond the +horizon of the island gods. + +Tembinok’, in his first dealings, showed himself sternly averse from +superstition: and had not the _Equator_ delayed, we might have left the +island and still supposed him an agnostic. It chanced one day, however, +that he came to our maniap’, and found Mrs. Stevenson in the midst of a +game of patience. She explained the game as well as she was able, and +wound up jocularly by telling him this was her devil-work, and if she +won, the _Equator_ would arrive next day. Tembinok’ must have drawn a +long breath; we were not so high-and-dry after all; he need no longer +dissemble, and he plunged at once into confessions. He made devil-work +every day, he told us, to know if ships were coming in; and thereafter +brought us regular reports of the results. It was surprising how +regularly he was wrong; but he always had an explanation ready. There +had been some schooner in the offing out of view; but either she was not +bound for Apemama, or had changed her course, or lay becalmed. I used to +regard the king with veneration as he thus publicly deceived himself. I +saw behind him all the fathers of the Church, all the philosophers and +men of science of the past; before him, all those that are to come; +himself in the midst; the whole visionary series bowed over the same task +of welding incongruities. To the end Tembinok’ spoke reluctantly of the +island gods and their worship, and I learned but little. Taburik is the +god of thunder, and deals in wind and weather. A while since there were +wizards who could call him down in the form of lightning. ‘My patha he +tell me he see: you think he lie?’ Tienti—pronounced something like +‘Chench,’ and identified by his majesty with the devil—sends and removes +bodily sickness. He is whistled for in the Paumotuan manner, and is said +to appear; but the king has never seen him. The doctors treat disease by +the aid of Chench: eclectic Tembinok’ at the same time administering +‘pain-killer’ from his medicine-chest, so as to give the sufferer both +chances. ‘I think mo’ betta,’ observed his majesty, with more than his +usual self-approval. Apparently the gods are not jealous, and placidly +enjoy both shrine and priest in common. On Tamaiti’s medicine-tree, for +instance, the model canoes are hung up _ex voto_ for a prosperous voyage, +and must therefore be dedicated to Taburik, god of the weather; but the +stone in front is the place of sick folk come to pacify Chench. + +It chanced, by great good luck, that even as we spoke of these affairs, I +found myself threatened with a cold. I do not suppose I was ever glad of +a cold before, or shall ever be again; but the opportunity to see the +sorcerers at work was priceless, and I called in the faculty of Apemama. +They came in a body, all in their Sunday’s best and hung with wreaths and +shells, the insignia of the devil-worker. Tamaiti I knew already: +Terutak’ I saw for the first time—a tall, lank, raw-boned, serious +North-Sea fisherman turned brown; and there was a third in their company +whose name I never heard, and who played to Tamaiti the part of +_famulus_. Tamaiti took me in hand first, and led me, conversing +agreeably, to the shores of Fu Bay. The _famulus_ climbed a tree for +some green cocoa-nuts. Tamaiti himself disappeared a while in the bush +and returned with coco tinder, dry leaves, and a spray of waxberry. I +was placed on the stone, with my back to the tree and my face to +windward; between me and the gravel-heap one of the green nuts was set; +and then Tamaiti (having previously bared his feet, for he had come in +canvas shoes, which tortured him) joined me within the magic circle, +hollowed out the top of the gravel-heap, built his fire in the bottom, +and applied a match: it was one of Bryant and May’s. The flame was slow +to catch, and the irreverent sorcerer filled in the time with talk of +foreign places—of London, and ‘companies,’ and how much money they had; +of San Francisco, and the nefarious fogs, ‘all the same smoke,’ which had +been so nearly the occasion of his death. I tried vainly to lead him to +the matter in hand. ‘Everybody make medicine,’ he said lightly. And +when I asked him if he were himself a good practitioner—‘No savvy,’ he +replied, more lightly still. At length the leaves burst in a flame, +which he continued to feed; a thick, light smoke blew in my face, and the +flames streamed against and scorched my clothes. He in the meanwhile +addressed, or affected to address, the evil spirit, his lips moving fast, +but without sound; at the same time he waved in the air and twice struck +me on the breast with his green spray. So soon as the leaves were +consumed the ashes were buried, the green spray was imbedded in the +gravel, and the ceremony was at an end. + +A reader of the _Arabian Nights_ felt quite at home. Here was the +suffumigation; here was the muttering wizard; here was the desert place +to which Aladdin was decoyed by the false uncle. But they manage these +things better in fiction. The effect was marred by the levity of the +magician, entertaining his patient with small talk like an affable +dentist, and by the incongruous presence of Mr. Osbourne with a camera. +As for my cold, it was neither better nor worse. + +I was now handed over to Terutak’, the leading practitioner or medical +baronet of Apemama. His place is on the lagoon side of the island, hard +by the palace. A rail of light wood, some two feet high, encloses an +oblong piece of gravel like the king’s Pray Place; in the midst is a +green tree; below, a stone table bears a pair of boxes covered with a +fine mat; and in front of these an offering of food, a cocoa-nut, a piece +of taro or a fish, is placed daily. On two sides the enclosure is lined +with maniap’s; and one of our party, who had been there to sketch, had +remarked a daily concourse of people and an extraordinary number of sick +children; for this is in fact the infirmary of Apemama. The doctor and +myself entered the sacred place alone; the boxes and the mat were +displaced; and I was enthroned in their stead upon the stone, facing once +more to the east. For a while the sorcerer remained unseen behind me, +making passes in the air with a branch of palm. Then he struck lightly +on the brim of my straw hat; and this blow he continued to repeat at +intervals, sometimes brushing instead my arm and shoulder. I have had +people try to mesmerise me a dozen times, and never with the least +result. But at the first tap—on a quarter no more vital than my +hat-brim, and from nothing more virtuous than a switch of palm wielded by +a man I could not even see—sleep rushed upon me like an armed man. My +sinews fainted, my eyes closed, my brain hummed, with drowsiness. I +resisted, at first instinctively, then with a certain flurry of despair, +in the end successfully; if that were indeed success which enabled me to +scramble to my feet, to stumble home somnambulous, to cast myself at once +upon my bed, and sink at once into a dreamless stupor. When I awoke my +cold was gone. So I leave a matter that I do not understand. + +Meanwhile my appetite for curiosities (not usually very keen) had been +strangely whetted by the sacred boxes. They were of pandanus wood, +oblong in shape, with an effect of pillaring along the sides like straw +work, lightly fringed with hair or fibre and standing on four legs. The +outside was neat as a toy; the inside a mystery I was resolved to +penetrate. But there was a lion in the path. I might not approach +Terutak’, since I had promised to buy nothing in the island; I dared not +have recourse to the king, for I had already received from him more gifts +than I knew how to repay. In this dilemma (the schooner being at last +returned) we hit on a device. Captain Reid came forward in my stead, +professed an unbridled passion for the boxes, and asked and obtained +leave to bargain for them with the wizard. That same afternoon the +captain and I made haste to the infirmary, entered the enclosure, raised +the mat, and had begun to examine the boxes at our leisure, when +Terutak’s wife bounced out of one of the nigh houses, fell upon us, swept +up the treasures, and was gone. There was never a more absolute +surprise. She came, she took, she vanished, we had not a guess whither; +and we remained, with foolish looks and laughter on the empty field. +Such was the fit prologue of our memorable bargaining. + +Presently Terutak’ came, bringing Tamaiti along with him, both smiling; +and we four squatted without the rail. In the three maniap’s of the +infirmary a certain audience was gathered: the family of a sick child +under treatment, the king’s sister playing cards, a pretty girl, who +swore I was the image of her father; in all perhaps a score. Terutak’s +wife had returned (even as she had vanished) unseen, and now sat, +breathless and watchful, by her husband’s side. Perhaps some rumour of +our quest had gone abroad, or perhaps we had given the alert by our +unseemly freedom: certain, at least, that in the faces of all present, +expectation and alarm were mingled. + +Captain Reid announced, without preface or disguise, that I was come to +purchase; Terutak’, with sudden gravity, refused to sell. He was +pressed; he persisted. It was explained we only wanted one: no matter, +two were necessary for the healing of the sick. He was rallied, he was +reasoned with: in vain. He sat there, serious and still, and refused. +All this was only a preliminary skirmish; hitherto no sum of money had +been mentioned; but now the captain brought his great guns to bear. He +named a pound, then two, then three. Out of the maniap’s one person +after another came to join the group, some with mere excitement, others +with consternation in their faces. The pretty girl crept to my side; it +was then that—surely with the most artless flattery—she informed me of my +likeness to her father. Tamaiti the infidel sat with hanging head and +every mark of dejection. Terutak’ streamed with sweat, his eye was +glazed, his face wore a painful rictus, his chest heaved like that of one +spent with running. The man must have been by nature covetous; and I +doubt if ever I saw moral agony more tragically displayed. His wife by +his side passionately encouraged his resistance. + +And now came the charge of the old guard. The captain, making a skip, +named the surprising figure of five pounds. At the word the maniap’s +were emptied. The king’s sister flung down her cards and came to the +front to listen, a cloud on her brow. The pretty girl beat her breast +and cried with wearisome iteration that if the box were hers I should +have it. Terutak’s wife was beside herself with pious fear, her face +discomposed, her voice (which scarce ceased from warning and +encouragement) shrill as a whistle. Even Terutak’ lost that image-like +immobility which he had hitherto maintained. He rocked on his mat, threw +up his closed knees alternately, and struck himself on the breast after +the manner of dancers. But he came gold out of the furnace; and with +what voice was left him continued to reject the bribe. + +And now came a timely interjection. ‘Money will not heal the sick,’ +observed the king’s sister sententiously; and as soon as I heard the +remark translated my eyes were unsealed, and I began to blush for my +employment. Here was a sick child, and I sought, in the view of its +parents, to remove the medicine-box. Here was the priest of a religion, +and I (a heathen millionaire) was corrupting him to sacrilege. Here was +a greedy man, torn in twain betwixt greed and conscience; and I sat by +and relished, and lustfully renewed his torments. _Ave_, _Cæsar_! +Smothered in a corner, dormant but not dead, we have all the one touch of +nature: an infant passion for the sand and blood of the arena. So I +brought to an end my first and last experience of the joys of the +millionaire, and departed amid silent awe. Nowhere else can I expect to +stir the depths of human nature by an offer of five pounds; nowhere else, +even at the expense of millions, could I hope to see the evil of riches +stand so legibly exposed. Of all the bystanders, none but the king’s +sister retained any memory of the gravity and danger of the thing in +hand. Their eyes glowed, the girl beat her breast, in senseless animal +excitement. Nothing was offered them; they stood neither to gain nor to +lose; at the mere name and wind of these great sums Satan possessed them. + +From this singular interview I went straight to the palace; found the +king; confessed what I had been doing; begged him, in my name, to +compliment Terutak’ on his virtue, and to have a similar box made for me +against the return of the schooner. Tembinok’, Rubam, and one of the +Daily Papers—him we used to call ‘the Facetiæ Column’—laboured for a +while of some idea, which was at last intelligibly delivered. They +feared I thought the box would cure me; whereas, without the wizard, it +was useless; and when I was threatened with another cold I should do +better to rely on pain-killer. I explained I merely wished to keep it in +my ‘outch’ as a thing made in Apemama and these honest men were much +relieved. + +Late the same evening, my wife, crossing the isle to windward, was aware +of singing in the bush. Nothing is more common in that hour and place +than the jubilant carol of the toddy-cutter, swinging high overhead, +beholding below him the narrow ribbon of the isle, the surrounding field +of ocean, and the fires of the sunset. But this was of a graver +character, and seemed to proceed from the ground-level. Advancing a +little in the thicket, Mrs. Stevenson saw a clear space, a fine mat +spread in the midst, and on the mat a wreath of white flowers and one of +the devil-work boxes. A woman—whom we guess to have been Mrs. +Terutak’—sat in front, now drooping over the box like a mother over a +cradle, now lifting her face and directing her song to heaven. A passing +toddy-cutter told my wife that she was praying. Probably she did not so +much pray as deprecate; and perhaps even the ceremony was one of +disenchantment. For the box was already doomed; it was to pass from its +green medicine-tree, reverend precinct, and devout attendants; to be +handled by the profane; to cross three seas; to come to land under the +foolscap of St. Paul’s; to be domesticated within the hail of Lillie +Bridge; there to be dusted by the British housemaid, and to take perhaps +the roar of London for the voice of the outer sea along the reef. Before +even we had finished dinner Chench had begun his journey, and one of the +newspapers had already placed the box upon my table as the gift of +Tembinok’. + +I made haste to the palace, thanked the king, but offered to restore the +box, for I could not bear that the sick of the island should be made to +suffer. I was amazed by his reply. Terutak’, it appeared, had still +three or four in reserve against an accident; and his reluctance, and the +dread painted at first on every face, was not in the least occasioned by +the prospect of medical destitution, but by the immediate divinity of +Chench. How much more did I respect the king’s command, which had been +able to extort in a moment and for nothing a sacrilegious favour that I +had in vain solicited with millions! But now I had a difficult task in +front of me; it was not in my view that Terutak’ should suffer by his +virtue; and I must persuade the king to share my opinion, to let me +enrich one of his subjects, and (what was yet more delicate) to pay for +my present. Nothing shows the king in a more becoming light than the +fact that I succeeded. He demurred at the principle; he exclaimed, when +he heard it, at the sum. ‘Plenty money!’ cried he, with contemptuous +displeasure. But his resistance was never serious; and when he had blown +off his ill-humour—‘A’ right,’ said he. ‘You give him. Mo’ betta.’ + +Armed with this permission, I made straight for the infirmary. The night +was now come, cool, dark, and starry. On a mat hard by a clear fire of +wood and coco shell, Terutak’ lay beside his wife. Both were smiling; +the agony was over, the king’s command had reconciled (I must suppose) +their agitating scruples; and I was bidden to sit by them and share the +circulating pipe. I was a little moved myself when I placed five gold +sovereigns in the wizard’s hand; but there was no sign of emotion in +Terutak’ as he returned them, pointed to the palace, and named Tembinok’. +It was a changed scene when I had managed to explain. Terutak’, long, +dour Scots fisherman as he was, expressed his satisfaction within bounds; +but the wife beamed; and there was an old gentleman present—her father, I +suppose—who seemed nigh translated. His eyes stood out of his head; +‘_Kaupoi_, _Kaupoi_—rich, rich!’ ran on his lips like a refrain; and he +could not meet my eye but what he gurgled into foolish laughter. + +I might now go home, leaving that fire-lit family party gloating over +their new millions, and consider my strange day. I had tried and +rewarded the virtue of Terutak’. I had played the millionaire, had +behaved abominably, and then in some degree repaired my thoughtlessness. +And now I had my box, and could open it and look within. It contained a +miniature sleeping-mat and a white shell. Tamaiti, interrogated next day +as to the shell, explained it was not exactly Chench, but a cell, or +body, which he would at times inhabit. Asked why there was a +sleeping-mat, he retorted indignantly, ‘Why have you mats?’ And this was +the sceptical Tamaiti! But island scepticism is never deeper than the +lips. + + + +CHAPTER VII—THE KING OF APEMAMA + + +Thus all things on the island, even the priests of the gods, obey the +word of Tembinok’. He can give and take, and slay, and allay the +scruples of the conscientious, and do all things (apparently) but +interfere in the cookery of a turtle. ‘I got power’ is his favourite +word; it interlards his conversation; the thought haunts him and is ever +fresh; and when be has asked and meditates of foreign countries, he looks +up with a smile and reminds you, ‘_I_ got _Power_.’ Nor is his delight +only in the possession, but in the exercise. He rejoices in the crooked +and violent paths of kingship like a strong man to run a race, or like an +artist in his art. To feel, to use his power, to embellish his island +and the picture of the island life after a private ideal, to milk the +island vigorously, to extend his singular museum—these employ +delightfully the sum of his abilities. I never saw a man more patently +in the right trade. + +It would be natural to suppose this monarchy inherited intact through +generations. And so far from that, it is a thing of yesterday. I was +already a boy at school while Apemama was yet republican, ruled by a +noisy council of Old Men, and torn with incurable feuds. And Tembinok’ +is no Bourbon; rather the son of a Napoleon. Of course he is well-born. +No man need aspire high in the isles of the Pacific unless his pedigree +be long and in the upper regions mythical. And our king counts +cousinship with most of the high families in the archipelago, and traces +his descent to a shark and a heroic woman. Directed by an oracle, she +swam beyond sight of land to meet her revolting paramour, and received at +sea the seed of a predestined family. ‘I think lie,’ is the king’s +emphatic commentary; yet he is proud of the legend. From this +illustrious beginning the fortunes of the race must have declined; and +Teñkoruti, the grandfather of Tembinok’, was the chief of a village at +the north end of the island. Kuria and Aranuka were yet independent; +Apemama itself the arena of devastating feuds. Through this perturbed +period of history the figure of Teñkoruti stalks memorable. In war he +was swift and bloody; several towns fell to his spear, and the +inhabitants were butchered to a man. In civil life this arrogance was +unheard of. When the council of Old Men was summoned, he went to the +Speak House, delivered his mind, and left without waiting to be answered. +Wisdom had spoken: let others opine according to their folly. He was +feared and hated, and this was his pleasure. He was no poet; he cared +not for arts or knowledge. ‘My gran’patha one thing savvy, savvy pight,’ +observed the king. In some lull of their own disputes the Old Men of +Apemama adventured on the conquest of Apemama; and this unlicked Caius +Marcius was elected general of the united troops. Success attended him; +the islands were reduced, and Teñkoruti returned to his own government, +glorious and detested. He died about 1860, in the seventieth year of his +age and the full odour of unpopularity. He was tall and lean, says his +grandson, looked extremely old, and ‘walked all the same young man.’ The +same observer gave me a significant detail. The survivors of that rough +epoch were all defaced with spearmarks; there was none on the body of +this skilful fighter. ‘I see old man, no got a spear,’ said the king. + +Teñkoruti left two sons, Tembaitake and Tembinatake. Tembaitake, our +king’s father, was short, middling stout, a poet, a good genealogist, and +something of a fighter; it seems he took himself seriously, and was +perhaps scarce conscious that he was in all things the creature and +nursling of his brother. There was no shadow of dispute between the +pair: the greater man filled with alacrity and content the second place; +held the breach in war, and all the portfolios in the time of peace; and, +when his brother rated him, listened in silence, looking on the ground. +Like Teñkoruti, he was tall and lean and a swift talker—a rare trait in +the islands. He possessed every accomplishment. He knew sorcery, he was +the best genealogist of his day, he was a poet, he could dance and make +canoes and armour; and the famous mast of Apemama, which ran one joint +higher than the mainmast of a full-rigged ship, was of his conception and +design. But these were avocations, and the man’s trade was war. ‘When +my uncle go make wa’, he laugh,’ said Tembinok’. He forbade the use of +field fortification, that protractor of native hostilities; his men must +fight in the open, and win or be beaten out of hand; his own activity +inspired his followers; and the swiftness of his blows beat down, in one +lifetime, the resistance of three islands. He made his brother +sovereign, he left his nephew absolute. ‘My uncle make all smooth,’ said +Tembinok’. ‘I mo’ king than my patha: I got power,’ he said, with +formidable relish. + +Such is the portrait of the uncle drawn by the nephew. I can set beside +it another by a different artist, who has often—I may say +always—delighted me with his romantic taste in narrative, but not +always—and I may say not often—persuaded me of his exactitude. I have +already denied myself the use of so much excellent matter from the same +source, that I begin to think it time to reward good resolution; and his +account of Tembinatake agrees so well with the king’s, that it may very +well be (what I hope it is) the record of a fact, and not (what I +suspect) the pleasing exercise of an imagination more than sailorly. A., +for so I had perhaps better call him, was walking up the island after +dusk, when he came on a lighted village of some size, was directed to the +chief’s house, and asked leave to rest and smoke a pipe. ‘You will sit +down, and smoke a pipe, and wash, and eat, and sleep,’ replied the chief, +‘and to-morrow you will go again.’ Food was brought, prayers were held +(for this was in the brief day of Christianity), and the chief himself +prayed with eloquence and seeming sincerity. All evening A. sat and +admired the man by the firelight. He was six feet high, lean, with the +appearance of many years, and an extraordinary air of breeding and +command. ‘He looked like a man who would kill you laughing,’ said A., in +singular echo of one of the king’s expressions. And again: ‘I had been +reading the Musketeer books, and he reminded me of Aramis.’ Such is the +portrait of Tembinatake, drawn by an expert romancer. + +We had heard many tales of ‘my patha’; never a word of my uncle till two +days before we left. As the time approached for our departure Tembinok’ +became greatly changed; a softer, a more melancholy, and, in particular, +a more confidential man appeared in his stead. To my wife he contrived +laboriously to explain that though he knew he must lose his father in the +course of nature, he had not minded nor realised it till the moment came; +and that now he was to lose us he repeated the experience. We showed +fireworks one evening on the terrace. It was a heavy business; the sense +of separation was in all our minds, and the talk languished. The king +was specially affected, sat disconsolate on his mat, and often sighed. +Of a sudden one of the wives stepped forth from a cluster, came and +kissed him in silence, and silently went again. It was just such a +caress as we might give to a disconsolate child, and the king received it +with a child’s simplicity. Presently after we said good-night and +withdrew; but Tembinok’ detained Mr. Osbourne, patting the mat by his +side and saying: ‘Sit down. I feel bad, I like talk.’ Osbourne sat down +by him. ‘You like some beer?’ said he; and one of the wives produced a +bottle. The king did not partake, but sat sighing and smoking a +meerschaum pipe. ‘I very sorry you go,’ he said at last. ‘Miss Stlevens +he good man, woman he good man, boy he good man; all good man. Woman he +smart all the same man. My woman’ (glancing towards his wives) ‘he good +woman, no very smart. I think Miss Stlevens he is chiep all the same +cap’n man-o-wa’. I think Miss Stlevens he rich man all the same me. All +go schoona. I very sorry. My patha he go, my uncle he go, my cutcheons +he go, Miss Stlevens he go: all go. You no see king cry before. King +all the same man: feel bad, he cry. I very sorry.’ + +In the morning it was the common topic in the village that the king had +wept. To me he said: ‘Last night I no can ’peak: too much here,’ laying +his hand upon his bosom. ‘Now you go away all the same my pamily. My +brothers, my uncle go away. All the same.’ This was said with a +dejection almost passionate. And it was the first time I had heard him +name his uncle, or indeed employ the word. The same day he sent me a +present of two corselets, made in the island fashion of plaited fibre, +heavy and strong. One had been worn by Teñkoruti, one by Tembaitake; and +the gift being gratefully received, he sent me, on the return of his +messengers, a third—that of Tembinatake. My curiosity was roused; I +begged for information as to the three wearers; and the king entered with +gusto into the details already given. Here was a strange thing, that he +should have talked so much of his family, and not once mentioned that +relative of whom he was plainly the most proud. Nay, more: he had +hitherto boasted of his father; thenceforth he had little to say of him; +and the qualities for which he had praised him in the past were now +attributed where they were due,—to the uncle. A confusion might be +natural enough among islanders, who call all the sons of their +grandfather by the common name of father. But this was not the case with +Tembinok’. Now the ice was broken the word uncle was perpetually in his +mouth; he who had been so ready to confound was now careful to +distinguish; and the father sank gradually into a self-complacent +ordinary man, while the uncle rose to his true stature as the hero and +founder of the race. + +The more I heard and the more I considered, the more this mystery of +Tembinok’s behaviour puzzled and attracted me. And the explanation, when +it came, was one to strike the imagination of a dramatist. Tembinok’ had +two brothers. One, detected in private trading, was banished, then +forgiven, lives to this day in the island, and is the father of the +heir-apparent, Paul. The other fell beyond forgiveness. I have heard it +was a love-affair with one of the king’s wives, and the thing is highly +possible in that romantic archipelago. War was attempted to be levied; +but Tembinok’ was too swift for the rebels, and the guilty brother +escaped in a canoe. He did not go alone. Tembinatake had a hand in the +rebellion, and the man who had gained a kingdom for a weakling brother +was banished by that brother’s son. The fugitives came to shore in other +islands, but Tembinok’ remains to this day ignorant of their fate. + +So far history. And now a moment for conjecture. Tembinok’ confused +habitually, not only the attributes and merits of his father and his +uncle, but their diverse personal appearance. Before he had even spoken, +or thought to speak, of Tembinatake, he had told me often of a tall, lean +father, skilled in war, and his own schoolmaster in genealogy and island +arts. How if both were fathers, one natural, one adoptive? How if the +heir of Tembaitake, like the heir of Tembinok’ himself, were not a son, +but an adopted nephew? How if the founder of the monarchy, while he +worked for his brother, worked at the same time for the child of his +loins? How if on the death of Tembaitake, the two stronger +natures, father and son, king and kingmaker, clashed, and Tembinok’, when +he drove out his uncle, drove out the author of his days? Here is at +least a tragedy four-square. + +The king took us on board in his own gig, dressed for the occasion in the +naval uniform. He had little to say, he refused refreshments, shook us +briefly by the hand, and went ashore again. That night the palm-tops of +Apemama had dipped behind the sea, and the schooner sailed solitary under +the stars. + + * * * * * + + THE END. + + * * * * * + + BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD + + * * * * * + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +{12} Where that word is used as a salutation I give that form. + +{29} In English usually written ‘taboo’: ‘tapu’ is the correct Tahitian +form.—[ED.] + +{86} The reference is to Maka, the Gawaiian missionary, at Butaritari in +the Gilberts. + +{122} Elephantiasis. + +{156} Arorai is in the Gilberts, Funafuti in the Ellice Islands.—ED. + +{231} Gin and brandy. + +{275} In the Gilbert group. + +{279a} Copra: the dried kernel of the cocoa-nut, the chief article of +commerce throughout the Pacific Islands. + +{279b} Houses. + +{283} Suppose. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE SOUTH SEAS*** + + +******* This file should be named 464-0.txt or 464-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/6/464 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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