Island Nights' Entertainments

er ran down, and beyond was the green of the village, dotted with cocoa-palms and breadfruits and houses. The shutters were some of them down and some open; I saw the mosquito bars still stretc

lly, and the light of the dawn on the

e far, and one on a boulder in the midst; and they all sat silent, wrapped in their sheets, and stared at me and my house as straight as pointer dogs. I thought it strange as I went out. When I

seen a house in a South Sea village thus surrounded, but then a trader was thrashing his wife inside, and she singing out. Here was nothing: the stove was alight, the smoke going up in a Christian manner; all was shipshape and Bristol fashion. To be sure, there was a stranger come, but they had a chance to see that stranger yesterday, and took it quiet enough. What ailed them now? I leaned my arms on the rai

e same time she said something in the native with a gasping voice. Three little boys sat beside my path, where, I must pass within three feet of them. Wrapped in their sheets, with their shaved heads and bits of top-knots, and queer faces, they looked like figures on a chimney-piece. Awhile they sat their ground, solemn as judges. I came up hand over fist, doing my five knots, like a man that meant business; and I thought I saw a sort of

they're driving at. When that laugh stopped, I stopped too. The boys had not yet made their offing, they were still on the full stretch going the one way, when I had already gone about ship and was sheering off the other. Like a fool I had come out, doing

our people here," I said once to Uma, g

, with a kind of disguste

for I was put out, and Uma took the thing so muc

islanders, they had wearied of the business, and got away, and had a dance instead in the big house of the village, where I heard them singing and clapping hands till, maybe, ten at night, and the next day it seemed they had forgotten I existed. If fire h

n had taken stock the trip before-I knew I could trust Ben-but it was plain somebody had been making free in the meantime. I found I was out by what might easily cover six months' salar

ned and looked far up the mountain and saw the cocoanuts waving and posted up the tons of copra, and over the village green and saw the island dandies and reckoned up the yards of print they wanted for their kilts and dresses, I felt as if I was in the right place to make a fortune, and go home again and start a public-house. There was I, sitting in that verandah, in as handsome a piece of scen

the copra in the district wouldn't pay for it (I had heard them say) in fifty years, which I supposed was an exaggeration. But when the day went, and no business came at all, I began to get downhearted; and, about three in the afternoon, I went out for a stroll

y, sir,"

me eagerly

peak any Eng

h," sa

m sorry, but I can'

sing the time of day with me, but had something to communicate, and I listened the harder. I heard the names of Adams and Case and of Randall-R

I asked of Uma, for that was

ead," s

"Did ever you hear that Cas

. "Give him white sand-bad sand. He got the bottle

always to the front, which made me think the less of it. For all that, I went over to Ra

oting her

birds. I wish copra was as plenty," says he-I th

Jack in the store,

ke business, t

ale we've made in t

?" says I. "Three

le hot, "you can go and look at the copra-h

you see," says I. "For all I can tell, i

ays he, with a

rt of a party is that priest?

t's been at you."-Father Galoshes was the name he went by most, but Case always gave

. "I made out he didn't think

out poor Adams. The last day, when he lay dying, t

ld h

is elbow. 'Get the priest,' says he, 'get the priest; don't let me die here like a dog!' He spoke kind of fierce and eager, but sensible enough. There was nothing to say against that, so we sent and asked Galuchet if he would come. You bet he would. He jumped in his dirty linen at the thought of it. But we had reckoned without Papa. He's a hard-shell Baptist, is Papa; no Papists need apply. And he took and locked the door. Buncombe told him he was bigoted, and I thought he would have had

ame of the pr

club, and lit out straight for the place, and there was Galoshes on his knees, and a lot of natives looking on. You wouldn't think Papa cared-that much about anything, unless it was liquor; but he and the priest stuck to it two hours, slanging each other in native, and every time Galoshes tried to kneel down Papa went for him with the club. There never were such larks in Falesá. The end of it was that Captain Randall knocked over with some kind of a fit

o think of it after so long, it seems rather a sickening yarn. However, Case never set up to be soft

ere a Popey, which I had made out

n she meant "no" more than usually strong, and, ind

own way. So that I was left not much farther on, but inclined, upon the whole, to think

. If you hear folk singing, it seems to draw you; and pretty soon I found myself alongside the church. It was a little long low place, coral built, rounded off at both ends like a whale-boat, a big native roof on the top of it, windows without sashes and doorways without doors. I stuck my head into one of the windows, and the sight was so new to me-for things went quite different in the islands I was acquainted with-that I stayed and looked on. The congregation sat on the floor on mats, the women on one side, the men on the other, all rigged out to

eling as if the bottom had dropped out of the world. I went right home, and stayed there, and said nothing. You might think I would tell Uma, but that was against my system. You might have thought I would have gone over and con

oed. A new store to stand open two days in a village and n

I, "I think

k so,"

t natives up with any notion of consulting them, so I went to Case. It wa

here's a queer th

"'tain't the practi

tice where I was before. You can bet I know what it

e, "what have

I want to fin

ell you what I'll do. Just to put your mind at rest, I'll go ro

r stay right out here on the ve

pa out here,

ish you wouldn't. The fact is,

ut into the village. He was gone perhaps a quarter of

don't know where the impudence of these Kanakas 'll go next; they seem to have lost all idea of res

oed, then?

e it out with the chiefs. They're afraid of me, or they used to be; but their heads are so big by now, I don't know what to think. Understand me, Wiltshire; I don't count this your quarrel

out what's the r

e. "But we'll fix t

about the pair of us as we went in, with a sudden angry animation. Five chiefs were there; four mighty stately men, the fifth old and puckered. They sat on mats in their white kilts and jackets; they had fans in their hands, like fine ladies; and two of the younger ones wore Catholic medals, which gave me matter of reflection. Our place was set, and the mats laid for us over against these grandees, on the near side of the house; the midst was empty; the crowd, close at our backs, murmured a

aying?" I asked,

tand by me you wish to make some kind of complaint, an

us long time to s

bonjour and that," said Case

y trade sorted out than they go and taboo me, and no one dare come near my place! Tell them I don't mean to fly in the face of anything legal; and if what they want's a present, I'll do what's fair. I don't blame any man looking out for himself,

nd I rapped my speech out pretty big. Then Case translated it-or made believe to, rather-and the first chief replied, and then a second, and a third, all in the same style, easy and genteel, but solemn underneath. Once a question was put to Case, and he answered it, and all hands (both chiefs and commons) laughed out aloud, and looked at me. Last of all, the puckered old fellow and the big young chief that spoke first started in to put Case through a kind of catech

ll?" I asked, wh

, mopping his face; "

won't take the t

aid he. "I'll tell you ou

"I ain't that kind of a man. You don't fi

etter,"

folks that watched my house, and how the pastor had jumped in his pulpit at the bare sight of me; and the whole business seemed so out of the way that I rose and followed Case. Th

d I, "what is

y make it out myself. They h

ave a down on him!" I cried

't tabooed-I told you that couldn't be. The people w

do you mean by that? Why wo

they're frightened," sa

" I repeated. "Are you gone crazy,

pears like one of their tomfool superstitions. That's what I do

mean by that, and I'll trou

said he. "It was some superstition business-I never got

t," said I, "and I had better tell you

was the gladdest kind of man to see him clear away. It ain't my notion to turn my back on a mate when he's in a tight place, but there was that much trouble in the village that I couldn't see where it might likely end. I wa

n't tell me what's wrong; it don't tell me

" said Case. "I can't

ve asked, I t

dare for another white man; but when I find I'm in the scrape myself, I think first of my own bacon. The loss of me is I'm too good-natured

bout with Vigours. One comfort, you haven't been much about with me. I notic

an oversight, and I am sorry for it, Wiltshir

you won't?

an, but that's the si

you're afra

I'm afrai

o be tabooed for

heir laws, and take up their taboos, and that, whenever it happens to suit us. But you don't mean to say you expect a law obliging people to deal in your store whether they want to or not? Y

and they're all to trade with you. You're to have the copra, and I'm to go to the devil and shake myself. And I don't know any native, and you're the only ma

o tell you," said he. "I

and leave me to myself! Is

t it so. I say merely, 'I'm going to keep clear of

you're a nice kin

led," said he. "I would be

make excuses somewhere else.

home, in a hot temper, and found Uma tr

etty mess to have made, as if I wasn't bothered eno

e deserved. She stood up at once, like a sentry to his officer; for I mus

to understand this. What am I tabooed for, anyway? Or,

oked at me with

vy?" she ga

pect me to? We don't have any s

l you?" she

or extraordinary; or it might mean a mummy apple; but most like

uch,"

e!" she

beyond anger, and meant the word simple and serious. She stood there straight as she said it. I cannot justly say that I ever saw a woman look l

aboo belong me," she said, touching herself on the bosom, as she had done upon our wedding-night. "Now I go 'way, taboo he g

ied. "Don't be

You see, you get copra," she said, the sa

o have played it pretty mean upon the pair of us. But I do know now, and I don'

me bad words!" And she threw herself in

like a little child, so that her feet jumped with it. It's strange how it hits a man when he's in love; for there's no use mincing things-Kanaka and all, I was in love with her, or just

e true," s

t to smooth her hair with my hand. At first she wriggled away when I touched her; then she seemed to notice me no mo

e? You like me s

copra in the South Seas," which was a very big expr

y only friend in that queer place; I was ashamed that I had spoken rough to her: and she was a woman, and my wife, and a kind of a baby besides that I was sorry for; and the salt of her tears was in my mouth. And I forgot Case and the natives; and I forgot that I knew nothing of the story, or only remembered it to banish the remembrance; and I forgot that I

like children. I was so greedy of her nearness that I sat down to dinner with my lass upon my knee, made sure of her with one hand, and ate with the other. Ay, and more than that. She was the worst cook

sure that we were friends. A lot she told me, sitting in my lap and eating my dish, as I ate hers, from foolery-a lot about herself and her mother and Case, all which would be very tedious, a

ear of them starving, and rarely see them sober; and as for steady sport, cock-fighting isn't in the same county with it. Anyway, this beachcomber carried the woman and her daughter all over the shop, but mostly to out-of-the-way islands, where there were no police, and he thought, perhaps, the soft job hung out. I've my own view of this old party; but I was just as glad he had kept Uma clear of Apia and Papeete and these flash towns. At last he struck Fale-alii on this island, got some trade-the Lord knows how!-muddled it all away in the usual style, and died worth next to nothing, bar a bit of land at

this I got downrigh

y you would have ma

aid she. "I l

And suppose I had

ut, suppose I marry Ioane, I one good wife

trouble at first than might have been looked for. And then, all of a sudden, about six months before my coming, Ioane backed out and left that part of the island, and from that day to this Uma and her mother had found themselves alone. None called at their house, none spoke to them on the roads. If they went to church, the other women drew their mats away and left them in a clear place by themselves. It was a regular excomm

mself, and turned up mostly by night; and pretty soon he began to table his cards and make up to Uma. I

I suppose you thought Case 'ver

ll-e-same white woman. Suppose he no marry, he go 'way, woman he stop. All-e-same thief, empty hand, Tonga-heart-no ca

w to have any use for either, and I went and walked up and down in the house, and Uma followed me with her eyes, for she was troubled, an

up suddenly clear and near, as the boat turned the headland, and Uma

uld be glad to have a missionary; but,

n this room, and don't budge a