The Coral Island - Robert Michael Ballantyne (little readers txt) 📗

houses. They were built chiefly

of bamboos, and were thatched with the large thick leaves of the

pandanus; but many of them had little more than a sloping roof and

three sides with an open front, being the most simple shelter from

the weather that could well be imagined. Within these, and around

them, were groups of natives - men, women, and children - who all

stood up to gaze at us as we marched along, followed by the party

of men whom the chief had sent to escort us. About half a mile

inland we arrived at the spot where the sandal-wood grew, and,

while the men set to work, I clambered up an adjoining hill to

observe the country.

 

About mid-day, the chief arrived with several followers, one of

whom carried a baked pig on a wooden platter, with yams and

potatoes on several plantain leaves, which he presented to the men,

who sat down under the shade of a tree to dine. The chief sat down

to dine also; but, to my surprise, instead of feeding himself, one

of his wives performed that office for him! I was seated beside

Bill, and asked him the reason of this.

 

“It is beneath his dignity, I believe, to feed himself,” answered

Bill; “but I daresay he’s not particular, except on great

occasions. They’ve a strange custom among them, Ralph, which is

called TABU, and they carry it to great lengths. If a man chooses

a particular tree for his god, the fruit o’ that tree is tabued to

him; and if he eats it, he is sure to be killed by his people, and

eaten, of course, for killing means eating hereaway. Then, you see

that great mop o’ hair on the chief’s head? Well, he has a lot o’

barbers to keep it in order; and it’s a law that whoever touches

the head of a living chief or the body of a dead one, his hands are

tabued; so, in that way, the barbers’ hands are always tabued, and

they daren’t use them for their lives, but have to be fed like big

babies, as they are, sure enough!”

 

“That’s odd, Bill. But look there,” said I, pointing to a man

whose skin was of a much lighter colour than the generality of the

natives. “I’ve seen a few of these light-skinned fellows among the

Fejeeans. They seem to me to be of quite a different race.”

 

“So they are,” answered Bill. “These fellows come from the Tongan

Islands, which lie a long way to the eastward. They come here to

build their big war-canoes; and as these take two, and sometimes

four years, to build, there’s always some o’ the brown-skins among

the black sarpents o’ these islands.”

 

“By the way, Bill,” said I, “your mentioning serpents, reminds me

that I have not seen a reptile of any kind since I came to this

part of the world.”

 

“No more there are any,” said Bill, “if ye except the niggers

themselves, there’s none on the islands, but a lizard or two and

some sich harmless things. But I never seed any myself. If

there’s none on the land, however, there’s more than enough in the

water, and that minds me of a wonderful brute they have here. But,

come, I’ll show it to you.” So saying, Bill arose, and, leaving

the men still busy with the baked pig, led me into the forest.

After proceeding a short distance we came upon a small pond of

stagnant water. A native lad had followed us, to whom we called

and beckoned him to come to us. On Bill saying a few words to him,

which I did not understand, the boy advanced to the edge of the

pond, and gave a low peculiar whistle. Immediately the water

became agitated and an enormous eel thrust its head above the

surface and allowed the youth to touch it. It was about twelve

feet long, and as thick round the body as a man’s thigh.

 

“There,” said Bill, his lip curling with contempt, “what do you

think of that for a god, Ralph? This is one o’ their gods, and it

has been fed with dozens o’ livin’ babies already. How many more

it’ll get afore it dies is hard to say.”

 

“Babies?” said I, with an incredulous look

 

“Ay, babies,” returned Bill. “Your soft-hearted folk at home would

say, ‘Oh, horrible! impossible!’ to that, and then go away as

comfortable and unconcerned as if their sayin’ ‘horrible!

impossible!’ had made it a lie. But I tell you, Ralph, it’s a

FACT. I’ve seed it with my own eyes the last time I was here, an’

mayhap if you stop a while at this accursed place, and keep a sharp

look out, you’ll see it too. They don’t feed it regularly with

livin’ babies, but they give it one now and then as a treat. Bah!

you brute!’ cried Bill, in disgust, giving the reptile a kick on

the snout with his heavy boot, that sent it sweltering back in

agony into its loathsome pool. I thought it lucky for Bill, indeed

for all of us, that the native youth’s back happened to be turned

at the time, for I am certain that if the poor savages had come to

know that we had so rudely handled their god, we should have had to

fight our way back to the ship. As we retraced our steps I

questioned my companion further on this subject.

 

“How comes it, Bill, that the mothers allow such a dreadful thing

to be done?”

 

“Allow it? the mothers DO it! It seems to me that there’s nothing

too fiendish or diabolical for these people to do. Why, in some of

the islands they have an institution called the AREOI, and the

persons connected with that body are ready for any wickedness that

mortal man can devise. In fact they stick at nothing; and one o’

their customs is to murder their infants the moment they are born.

The mothers agree to it, and the fathers do it. And the mildest

ways they have of murdering them is by sticking them through the

body with sharp splinters of bamboo, strangling them with their

thumbs, or burying them alive and stamping them to death while

under the sod.”

 

I felt sick at heart while my companion recited these horrors.

 

“But it’s a curious fact,” he continued, after a pause, during

which we walked in silence towards the spot where we had left our

comrades, - “it’s a curious fact, that wherever the missionaries

get a footin’ all these things come to an end at once, an’ the

savages take to doin’ each other good, and singin’ psalms, just

like Methodists.”

 

“God bless the missionaries!” said I, while a feeling of enthusiasm

filled my heart, so that I could speak with difficulty. “God bless

and prosper the missionaries till they get a footing in every

island of the sea!”

 

“I would say Amen to that prayer, Ralph, if I could,” said Bill, in

a deep, sad voice; “but it would be a mere mockery for a man to ask

a blessing for others who dare not ask one for himself. But,

Ralph,” he continued, “I’ve not told you half o’ the abominations I

have seen durin’ my life in these seas. If we pull long together,

lad, I’ll tell you more; and if times have not changed very much

since I was here last, it’s like that you’ll have a chance o’

seeing a little for yourself before long.”

 

CHAPTER XXV.

 

The Sandal-wood party - Native children’s games, somewhat

surprising - Desperate amusements suddenly and fatally brought to a

close - An old friend recognised - News - Romata’s mad conduct

 

NEXT day the wood-cutting party went ashore again, and I

accompanied them as before. During the dinner hour I wandered into

the woods alone, being disinclined for food that day. I had not

rambled far when I found myself unexpectedly on the sea-shore,

having crossed a narrow neck of land which separated the native

village from a large bay. Here I found a party of the islanders

busy with one of their war-canoes, which was almost ready for

launching. I stood for a long time watching this party with great

interest, and observed that they fastened the timbers and planks to

each other very much in the same way in which I had seen Jack

fasten those of our little boat. But what surprised me most was

its immense length, which I measured very carefully, and found to

be a hundred feet long; and it was so capacious that it could have

held three hundred men. It had the unwieldy out-rigger and

enormously high stern-posts which I had remarked on the canoe that

came to us while I was on the Coral Island. Observing some boys

playing at games a short way along the beach, I resolved to go and

watch them; but as I turned from the natives who were engaged so

busily and cheerfully at their work, I little thought of the

terrible event that hung on the completion of that war-canoe.

 

Advancing towards the children, who were so numerous that I began

to think this must be the general play-ground of the village, I sat

down on a grassy bank under the shade of a plantain-tree, to watch

them. And a happier or more noisy crew I have never seen. There

were at least two hundred of them, both boys and girls, all of whom

were clad in no other garments than their own glossy little black

skins, except the maro, or strip of cloth round the loins of the

boys, and a very short petticoat or kilt on the girls. They did

not all play at the same game, but amused themselves in different

groups.

 

One band was busily engaged in a game exactly similar to our blind-man’s-buff. Another set were walking on stilts, which raised the

children three feet from the ground. They were very expert at this

amusement and seldom tumbled. In another place I observed a group

of girls standing together, and apparently enjoying themselves very

much; so I went up to see what they were doing, and found that they

were opening their eye-lids with their fingers till their eyes

appeared of an enormous size, and then thrusting pieces of straw

between the upper and lower lids, across the eyeball, to keep them

in that position! This seemed to me, I must confess, a very

foolish as well as dangerous amusement. Nevertheless the children

seemed to be greatly delighted with the hideous faces they made. I

pondered this subject a good deal, and thought that if little

children knew how silly they seem to grown-up people when they make

faces, they would not be so fond of doing it. In another place

were a number of boys engaged in flying kites, and I could not help

wondering that some of the games of those little savages should be

so like to our own, although they had never seen us at play. But

the kites were different from ours in many respects, being of every

variety of shape. They were made of very thin cloth, and the boys

raised them to a wonderful height in the air by means of twine made

from the cocoa-nut husk. Other games there were, some of which

showed the natural depravity of the hearts of these poor savages,

and made me wish fervently that missionaries might be sent out to

them. But the amusement which the greatest number of the children

of both sexes seemed to take chief delight in, was swimming and

diving in the sea; and the expertness which they exhibited was

truly amazing. They seemed to have two principal games in the