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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7177-8.txt b/7177-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c543820 --- /dev/null +++ b/7177-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8304 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Tropic Isle, by E J Banfield +#2 in our series by E J Banfield + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: My Tropic Isle + +Author: E J Banfield + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7177] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 22, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY TROPIC ISLE *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by Col Choat + + + + + +Notes: +Italics in the book have been capitalised in the eBook. +Illustrations in the book have not been included in the eBook. +This eBook uses 8-bit text. + + + + +MY TROPIC ISLE + +BY + +E. J. BANFIELD + +AUTHOR OF "THE CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER" + +T. FISHER UNWIN + +LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE +LEIPSIC: INSELSTRASSE 20 + +1911 + + +TO + +MY WIFE + + + + "What dost thou in this World? The Wilderness + For thee is fittest place." + + MILTON. + + + "Taught to live + The easiest way, nor with perplexing thoughts + To interrupt sweet life." + + MILTON. + + + + +PREFACE + +Much of the contents of this book was published in the NORTH QUEENSLAND +REGISTER, under the title of "Rural Homilies." Grateful acknowledgments +are due to the Editor for his frank goodwill in the abandonment of his +rights. + +Also am I indebted to the Curator and Officers of the Australian Museum, +Sydney, and specially to Mr. Charles Hedley, F.L.S., for assistance in +the identification of specimens. Similarly I am thankful to Mr. J. +Douglas Ogilby, of Brisbane, and to Mr. A. J. Jukes-Browne, F.R.S., +F.G.S., of Torquay (England). + +THE AUTHOR. + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER. + +I. IN THE BEGINNING +II. A PLAIN MAN'S PHILOSOPHY +III. MUCH RICHES IN A LITTLE ROOM +IV. SILENCES +V. FRUITS AND SCENTS +VI. HIS MAJESTY THE SUN +VII. A TROPIC NIGHT +VIII. READING TO MUSIC +IX. BIRTH AND BREAKING OF CHRISTMAS +X. THE SPORT OF FATE +XI. FIGHT TO A FINISH +XII. SEA WORMS AND SEA CUCUMBERS +XIII. SOME MARINE NOVELTIES +XIV. SOME CURIOUS BIVALVES +XV. BARRIER REEF CRABS +XVI. THE BLOCKADE OF THE MULLET +XVII. WET SEASON DAYS +XVIII. INSECT WAYS +XIX. INTELLIGENT BIRDS +XX SWIFTS AND EAGLES +XXI. SOCIALISTIC BIRDS +XXII. SHARKS AND RAYS +XXIII. THE RECLUSE OF RATTLESNAKE +XXIV. HAMED OF JEDDAH +XXV. YOUNG BARBARIANS AT PLAY +XXVI. TOM AND HIS CONCERNS +XXVII. DEBILS-DEBILS +XXVIII. TO PARADISE AND BACK +XXIX. THE DEATH BONE + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS +(Not included in this eBook) + +"AT ONE STRIDE COMES THE DARK" + Photo by Caroline Hordern +COCONUT AVENUE + Photo by Caroline Hordern +THE BUNGALOW +FERN OF GOD +PARASITIC FERN +THE COVE, PURTABOI +BRAMMO BAY, FROM GARDEN +PANDANUS PALM +PECTINARIAN TUBES +CLAM SHELL (Tridaena gigas) EMBEDDED IN CORAL +FIRE FISH (Pterois lunulata). +TRIGGER FISH (Balistapus aculeatus) +CORALS +EGG CAPSULES OF BAILER SHELL +DEVELOPMENT OF BAILER SHELL +EGG CAPSULES OF MOLLOSC, ATTACHED TO FAN CORAL +HARLEQUIN PIGFISH (Kiphocheilus fasciatus) +"FAERY LANDS FORLORN," TIMANA. +NEST OF GREEN TREE ANT +MATCH-BOX BEANS +PALL-KOO-LOO +WHERE SWIFTLETS BUILD +SWIFTLETS' NESTS + H. Barnes, Jun., Photo. Australian Museum +UMBRELLA TREE (Brassaia actinophylla) + Photo by Caroline Hordern +HAMED OF JEDDAH +BLACKS' TOYS--1. PIAR-PIAR; 2. BIRRA-BIRRA-GOO; 3. PAR-GIR-AH +TURTLE ROCK, PURTABOI +DISGUISES OF CRABS +WYLO DEFIANT +THE DEATH BONE +YANCOO'S LAST RITE + + + + + +MY TROPIC ISLE + + + +CHAPTER I + + +IN THE BEGINNING + + +Had I a plantation of this Isle, my lord-- + +* * * * * + +I' the Commonwealth I would by contraries +Execute all things; for no kind of traffic +Would I admit . . . riches, poverty +And use of service, none. + +SHAKESPEARE + + +How quaint seems the demand for details of life on this Isle of Scent and +Silence! Lolling in shade and quietude, was I guilty of indiscretion when +I babbled of my serene affairs, and is the penalty so soon enforced? Can +the record of such a narrow, compressed existence be anything but dull? +Can one who is indifferent to the decrees of constituted society; who is +aloof from popular prejudices; who cares not for the gaieties of the +crowd or the vagaries of fashion; who does not dance or sing, or drink to +toasts, or habitually make any loud noise, or play cards or billiards, or +attend garden parties; who has no political ambitions; who is not a +painter, or a musician, or a man of science; whose palate is as averse +from ardent spirits as from physic; who is denied the all-redeeming vice +of teetotalism; who cannot smoke even a pipe of peace; who is a casual, a +nonentity a scout on the van of civilisation dallying with the universal +enemy, time--can such a one, so forlorn of popular attributes, so weak +and watery in his tastes, have aught to recite harmonious to the, ear of +the world? + +Yet, since my life--and in the use, of the possessive pronoun here and +elsewhere, let it signify also the life of my life-partner--is beyond the +range of ordinary experience, since it is immune from the ferments which +seethe and muddle the lives of the many, I am assured that a familiar +record will not be deemed egotistical, I am scolded because I did not +confess with greater zeal, I am bidden to my pen again. + +An attempt to fulfil the wishes of critics is confronted with risk. Cosy +in my security, distance an adequate defence, why should I rush into the +glare of perilous publicity? Here is an unpolluted Isle, without history, +without any sort of fame. There come to it ordinary folk of sober +understanding and well-disciplined ideas and tastes, who pass their lives +without disturbing primeval silences or insulting the free air with the +flapping of any ostentatious flag. Their doings are not romantic, or +comic, or tragic, or heroic; they have no formula for the solution of +social problems, no sour vexations to be sweetened, no grievance against +society, no pet creed to dandle. What is to be said of the doings of such +prosaic folk--folk who have merely set themselves free from restraint +that they might follow their own fancies without hurry and without +hindrance? + +Moreover, if anything be more tedious than a twice-told tale, is it not +the repetition of one half told? Since a demand is made for more complete +details than were given in my "Confessions," either I must recapitulate, +or, smiling, put the question by. It is simplicity itself to smile, and +can there be anything more gracious or becoming? Who would not rather do +so than attempt with perplexed brow a delicate, if not difficult, duty? + +I propose, therefore, to hastily fill in a few blanks in my previous +sketch of our island career and to pass on to features of novelty and +interest--vignettes of certain natural and unobtrusive features of the +locality, first-hand and artless. + +This, then, is for candour. Studiously I had evaded whensoever possible +the intrusion of self, for do not I rank myself among the nonentities-- +men whose lives matter nothing, whose deaths none need deplore. How +great my bewilderment to find that my efforts at concealment--to make +myself even more remote than my Island--had had by impish perversity a +contrary effect! On no consideration shall I part with all my secrets. +Bereave me of my illusions and I am bereft, for they are "the stardust I +have clutched." + +One confessedly envious critic did chide because of the calculated +non-presentation of a picture of our humble bungalow. So small a pleasure +it would be sinful to deny. He shall have it, and also a picture of the +one-roomed cedar hut in which we lived prior to the building of the house +of comfort. + +Who could dignify with gilding our utterly respectable, our limp history? +There is no margin to it for erudite annotations. Unromantic, +unsensational, yet was the actual beginning emphasis by the thud of a +bullet. To that noisy start of our quiet life I meander to ensure +chronological exactitude. + +In September of the year 1896 with a small par of friends we camped on +the beach of this Island--the most fascinating, the most desirable on the +coast of North Queensland. + +Having for several years contemplated a life of seclusion in the bush, +and having sampled several attractive and more or less suitable scenes, +we were not long in concluding that here was the ideal spot. From that +moment it was ours. In comparison the sweetest of previous fancies became +vapid. Legal rights to a certain undefined area having been acquired in +the meantime, permanent settlement began on September 28, 1897. + +For a couple of weeks thereafter we lived in tents, while with clumsy +haste--for experience had to, be acquired--we set about the building of a +hut of cedar, the parts of which were brought from civilisation ready for +assembling. Houses, however, stately or humble, in North Queensland, are +sacrificial to what are known popularly as "white ants" unless special +means are taken for their exclusion. Wooden buildings rest on piles sunk +in the ground, on the top of which is an excluder of galvanised iron in +shape resembling a milk dish inverted. It is also wise to take the +additional precaution of saturating each pile with an arsenical solution. +Being quite unfamiliar with the art of hut-building, and in a frail +physical state, I found the work perplexing and most laborious, simple +and light as it all was. Trees had to be felled and sawn into proper +lengths for piles, and holes sunk, and the piles adjusted to a uniform +level. With blistered and bleeding hands, aching muscles, and stiff +joints I persevered. + +While we toiled our fare, simplicity itself, was eaten with becoming lack +of style in the shade of a bloodwood-tree, the tents being reserved for +sleeping. When the blacks could be spared, fish was easily obtainable, +and we also drew upon the scrub fowl and pigeon occasionally, for the +vaunting proclamation for the preservation of all birds had not been +made. Tinned meat and bread and jam formed the most frequent meals, for +there were hosts of simple, predestined things which had to be painfully +learned. But there was no repining. Two months' provisions had been +brought; the steamer called weekly, so that we did not contemplate +famine, though thriftiness was imperative. Nor did we anticipate making +any remarkable addition to our income, for the labour of my own hands, +however eager and elated my spirits, was, I am forced to deplore, of +little advantage. I could be very busy about nothing, and there were +blacks to feed, therefore did we hasten to prepare a small area of forest +land, and a still smaller patch of jungle for the cultivation of maize, +sweet potatoes, and vegetables. Fruit, being a passion and a hobby, was +given special encouragement and has been in the ascendant ever since, to +the detriment of other branches of cultural enterprise. + +I have said that our Island career began with an explosion. To that +starting-point must I return if the narration of the tribulations our +youthful inexperience suffered is to be orderly and exact. + +While we camped, holiday-making, the year prior to formal and rightful +occupancy, in a spasm of enthusiasm, which still endures, I selected the +actual site for a modest castle then and there built in the accommodating +air. It was something to have so palpable and rare a base for the +fanciful fabric. All in a moment, disdaining formality, and to the, +accompaniment of the polite jeers of two long-suffering friends, I +proclaimed "Here shall I live! On this spot shall stand the probationary +palace!" and so saying fired my rifle at a tree a few yard's off. But the +stolid tree--a bloodwood, all bone, toughened by death, a few ruby +crystals in sparse antra all that remained significant of past +life--afforded but meagre hospitality to the, soft lead. + +"Ah!" exclaimed one of my chums, "the old tree foreswears him! The Island +refuses him!" + +But the homely back gate swings over the charred stump of the boorish +tree burnt flush with the ground. Twelve months and a fortnight after the +firing of the shot which did not echo round the world, but was merely a +local defiant and emphatic promulgation of authority, a fire was set to +the base of the tree, for our tents had been pitched perilously close. +Space was wanted, and moreover its bony, imprecating arms, long since +bereft of beckoning fingers, menaced our safety. I said it must fall to +the north-east, for the ponderous inclination is in that direction, and +therein forestalled my experience and delivered the whole camp as +hostages into the hands of fortune. + +In apparent defiance of the laws of gravity the tree fell in the middle +of the night with an earth-shaking crash to the south-east. There was no +apparent reason why it did not fall on our sleeping-tent and in one act +put an inglorious end to long-cogitated plans. Because some gracious +impulse gave the listless old tree a certain benign tilt, and because +sundry other happenings consequent upon a misunderstanding of the laws of +nature took exceptional though quite wayward turnings, I am still able to +hold a pen in the attempt to accomplish the task imposed by imperious +strangers. + +And while on the subject of the clemency of trees, I am fain to dispose +of another adventure, since it, too, illustrates the brief interval +between the sunny this and the gloomy that. Fencing was in progress--a +fence designed to keep goats within bounds. Of course, the idea was +preposterous. One cannot by mere fencing exclude goats. The proof is +here. To provide posts for the vain project trees were felled, the butts +of which were reduced to due dimensions by splitting. A dead tree stood +on a slope, and with the little crosscut we attacked its base, cutting a +little more than half-way through. When a complementary cut had been made +on the other side, the tree, with a creak or two and a sign which ended +in "swoush," fell, and as it did so I stepped forward, remarking to the +taciturn black boy, "Clear cut, Paddy!" The words were on my lips when a +"waddy," torn from the vindictive tree and flung, high and straight into +the inoffensive sky, descended flat on the red stump with a gunlike +report. The swish of the waddy down-tilted the frayed brim of my +cherished hat! + +The primary bullet is not yet done with, for when the tree which had +reluctantly housed it for a year was submitted to the fires of +destruction among the charcoal a blob of bright lead confirmed my +scarcely credited story that the year before the datum for our castle, +then aerial and now substantial, had been established in ponderous metal. + +What justification existed for the defacement of the virginal scene by an +unlovely dwelling--the, imposition of a scar on the unspotted landscape? +None, save that the arrogant intruder needed shelter, and that he was +neither a Diogenes to be content in a tub nor a Thoreau to find in boards +an endurable temporary substitute for blankets. + +It was resolved that the shelter should by way of compensation be +unobtrusive, hidden in a wilderness of leaves. The sacrifice of those +trees unhaply in prior occupation of the site selected would be atoned +for by the creation of a modest garden of pleasant-hued shrubs and +fruit-trees and lines and groves of coconut-palms. My conscience at least +has been, or rather is being, appeased for the primary violation of the +scene, for trees perhaps, more beautiful, certainly more useful, stand +for those destroyed. The Isle suffers no gross disfigurement. Except for +a wayward garden and the most wilful plantation of tropical fruit-trees, +no change has been wrought for which the genius of the Isle need demand +satisfaction. + +Though of scented cedar the hut was ceilingless. Resonant corrugated iron +and boards an inch thick intervened between us and the noisy tramplings +of the rain and heat of the sun. The only room accommodated some +primitive furniture, a bed being the denominating as well as the +essential feature. A little shambling structure of rough slabs and iron +walls contrived a double debt to pay--kitchen and dining-room. + +From the doorsteps of the hut we landed on mother earth, for the verandas +were not floored. Everything was as homely and simple and inexpensive as +thought and thrift might contrive. Our desire to live in the open air +became almost compulsory, for though you fly from civilisation and its +thralls you cannot escape the social instincts of life. The hut became +the focus of life other than human. The scant hut-roof sheltered more +than ourselves. + +On the narrow table, under cover of stray articles and papers, grey +bead-eyed geckoes craftily stalked moths and beetles and other fanatic +worshippers of flame as they hastened to sacrifice themselves to the +lamp. In the walls wasps built terra-cotta warehouses in which to store +the semi-animate carcasses of spiders and grubs; a solitary bee +constructed nondescript comb among the books, transforming a favourite +copy of "Lorna Doone" into a solid block. Bats, sharp-toothed, and with +pin-point eyes, swooped in at one door, quartered the roof with brisk +eagerness, and departed by the other. + +Finding ample food and safe housing, bats soon became permanent lodgers. +For a time it was novel and not unpleasant to be conscious in the night +of their waftings, for they were actual checks upon the mosquitoes which +came to gorge themselves on our unsalted blood. But they increased so +rapidly that their presence became intolerable. The daring pioneer which +had happened during its nocturnal expeditions to discover the very +paradise for the species proclaimed the glad tidings, and relatives, +companions, and friends flocked hither, placing themselves under our +protection with contented cheepings. Though the room became mosquitoless, +serious objections to the scavengers developed. Before a writ of ejection +could be enforced, however, a sensational cause for summary proceedings +arose. + +In the dimness of early morning when errant bats flitted home to cling to +the ridge-pole, squeaking and fussy flutterings denoted unwonted +disturbance. Daylight revealed a half concealed, sleeping snake, which +seemed to be afflicted with twin tumours. A long stick dislodged the +intruder, which scarce had reached the floor ere it died violent death. +Even the snake spectre did no seriously affright the remaining bats, +though it confirmed the sentence of their immediate banishment. In the +eye of the bats the sanctuary of the roof with an odd snake or two was +preferable to inclement hollow branches open to the raids of +undisciplined snakes. Definite sanitary reasons, supplemented by the fact +that where bats are there will the snakes be gathered together, and a +pious repugnance to snakes as lodgers, made the casting out of the bats a +joyful duty. + +So we lived, more out of the hut than in it, from October, 1897, until +Christmas Day, 1903. We find the bungalow, though it, too, has no +ceiling, much more to our convenience, for the hut has become crowded. It +could no longer contain our content and the portable property which +became caught in its vortex. + +In the designing of the bungalow two essentials were supreme, cost and +comfort--minimum of cost, maximum of comfort. Aught else was as nothing. +There was no alignment to obey, no rigid rules and regulations as to +style and material. The surroundings being our own, we had compassion on +them, neither offering them insult with pretentious prettiness nor +domineering over them with vain assumption and display. Low walls, +unaspiring roof, and sheltering veranda, so contrived as to create, not +tickling, fidgety draughts but smooth currents, "so full as seem asleep," +to flush each room so sweetly and softly that no perceptible difference +between the air under the roof and of the forest is at any time +perceptible. + +Since the kitchen (as necessary here as elsewhere) is not only of my own +design but nearly every part of the construction absolutely the work of +my unaided, inexperienced hands, I shall describe it in detail--not +because it presents features provocative of pride, but because the ideas +it embodies may be worth the consideration of others similarly situated +who want a substantial, smokeless, dry, convenient appurtenance to their +dwelling. Two contrary conditions had to be considered--the hostility of +white ants to buildings of wood, and the necessity for raising the floor +but slightly above the level of the ground. + +A bloodwood-tree, tall, straight, and slim, was felled. It provided three +logs--two each 15 feet long and one 13 feet. From another tree another +13-foot log was sawn. All the sapwood was adzed off; the ends were +"checked" so that they would interlock. Far too weighty to lift, the logs +were toilfully transported inch by inch on rollers with a crowbar as a +lever. Duly packed up with stones and levelled, they formed the +foundations, but prior to setting them a bed of home-made asphalt +(boiling tar and seashore sand) was spread on the ground where they were +destined to lie. Having adjusted each in its due position, I adzed the +upper faces and cut a series of mortices for the studs, which were +obtained in the bush--mere thin, straight, dry trees which had succumbed +to bush fires. Each was roughly squared with the adze and planed and +tenoned. + +Good fortune presented, greatly to the easement of labour, two splendid +pieces of driftwood for posts for one of the doors. To the sea also I was +indebted for long pieces to serve as wall plates, one being the jibboom +of what must have been a sturdily-built boat, while the broken mast of a +cutter fitted in splendidly as a ridge-pole. For the walls I visited an +old bean-tree log in the jungle, cut off blocks in suitable lengths, and +split them with maul and wedges into rough slabs, roughly adzed away +superfluous thickness, and carried them one by one to the brink of the +canyon, down which I cast them. Then each had to be carried up the steep +side and on to the site, the distance from the log in the jungle being +about three hundred yards. + +Within the skeleton of the building I improvised a rough bench, upon +which the slabs were dressed with the plane and the edges bevelled so +that each would fit on the other to the exclusion of the rain. Upon the +uprights I nailed inch slats perpendicularly, against which the slabs +were placed, each being held in place temporarily until the panel was +complete, when other slats retained them. The rafters were manipulated of +odd sorts of timber and the roof of second-used corrugated iron, the +previous nail holes being stopped with solder. A roomy recess with a +beaten clay floor was provided for the cooking stove. Each of the two +doors was made in horizontal halves, with a hinged fanlight over the +lintel, and the window spaces filled with wooden shutters, hinged from +the top. The floor (an important feature) is of asphalt on a foundation +of earth and charcoal solidly compressed. But before carting in the +material boards were placed temporarily edgeways alongside the bedlogs +round the interior. Then when the earthen foundation was complete the +boards were removed, leaving a space of about an inch, which was filled +with asphalt, well rammed, consistently with the whole of the floor +space. + +All this laborious work--performed conscientiously to the best of my +ability--occupied a long time, and from it originated much backache and +general fatigue, and at the end I found that I had been so absorbed in +the permanence rather than the appearance of the dwelling that one of the +corner posts was out of the perpendicular and that consequently the +building stood awry. Grace of style it cannot claim; but neither "white +ants" nor weather trouble it. + +And to what sweet uses has adversity made us familiar! When I bought a +boat to bring hither I knew not the distinguishing term of a single +halyard, save the "topping lift," and even that scant knowledge was idle, +for I was blankly ignorant of the place and purpose of the oddly-named +rope. Necessity drove me to the acquirement of boat sense, and now I +manage my home-built "flattie"--mean substitute for the neat yacht which +necessity compelled me to part with--very courageously in ordinary +weather; and I am content to stay at home when Neptune is frothy at the +lips. + +A preponderant part of the furniture of our abode is the work of my own +unskilled hands--tables, chairs, bookshelves, cupboards, &c. There is +much pleasure and there are also, many aches and pains in the designing +and fashioning serviceable chairs from odd kinds of bush timber. + +In the making of a chair, as in the building of a boat by one who has had +no training in any branch of carpentry, there is scope for the personal +element. Though the parts have been cut and trimmed with minute care and +all possible precision, each, according to requirements, being the +duplicate of the other, when they come to be assembled obstructive +obstinacy prevails. One of the most fiendish things the art of man +contrives is a chair out of the routine design made by a rule-of-thumb +carpenter. Grotesque in its deformities, you must needs pity your own +mishandling of the obstinate wood. Have you courage to smile at the +misshapen handiwork, or do you cowardly, discard the deformity you have +created? How it grunts and groans as pressure is applied to its stubborn +bent limbs! Curvature of the spine is the least of its ills. It limps and +creaks when fixed tentatively for trial. Tender-footed, it stands awry, +heaving one leg aloft--as crooked and as perverse as Caliban. In good +time, botching here, violent constraint there, the chair finds itself or +is forced so to do, for he is a weak man who is not stronger than his own +chair. So, after many days' intense toil--toil which even troubled the +night watches, for have I not lain awake with thoughts automatically +concentrated on a seemingly impossible problem, plotting by what illicit +and awful torture it might be possible for the tough and stubborn parts +to be brought into juxtaposition--there is a chair--a solid, sitable +chair, which neither squeaks, nor shuffles, nor shivers. May be you are +ashamed at the quantity of mind the dull article of furniture has +absorbed; but there are other reflections--homely as well as philosophic. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + + +A PLAIN MAN'S PHILOSOPHY + + +"'Be advised by a plain man, (said the quaker to the soldier), 'Modes and +apparels are but trifles to the real man: therefore do not think such a +man as thyself terrible for thy garb nor such a one as me contemptible +for mine.'"--ADDISON. + +Small must be the Isle of Dreams, so small that possession is possible. A +choice passion is not to be squandered on that which, owing to +exasperating bigness, can never be fully possessed. An island of bold +dimensions may be free to all--wanton and vagrant, unlovable. Such is not +for the epicure--the lover of the subtle fascination, the dainty moods, +and pretty expressions of islands. The Isle must be small, too, because +since it is yours it becomes a duty to exhaustively comprehend it. +Familiarity with its lines of coast and sky, its declivities and hollows, +its sunny places, its deepest shades, the sources of its streams, the +meagre beginning of its gullies cannot suffice. Superficial intimacy with +features betrayable to the senses of any undiscriminating beholder is +naught. Casual knowledge of its botany and birds counts for little. +All--even the least significant, the least obvious of its charms are +there to, give conservative delight, and surly the soul that would +despise them. + +If you would read the months off-hand by the flowering of trees and +shrubs and the coming and going of birds; if the inhalation of scents is +to convey photographic details of scenes whence they originate; if you +would explore miles of sunless jungle by ways unstable as water; if you +would have the sites of camps of past generations of blacks reveal the +arts and occupations of the race, its dietary scale and the pastimes of +its children; if you desire to have exact first-hand knowledge, to revel +in the rich delights of new experiences, your scope must be limited. + +The sentiments of a true lover of an Isle cannot without sacrilege be +shared. The love is an exclusive passion, not of Herodian fierceness, +misgiving, and gloom, but of joyful jealousy, for it must be well-nigh +impossible to every one else. + +Such is this delicious Isle--this unkempt, unrestrained garden where the +centuries gaze upon perpetual summer. Small it is, and of varied +charms--set in the fountain of time-defying youth. Abundantly sprinkled +with tepid rains, vivified by the glorious sun, its verdure tolerates no +trace of age. No ill or sour vapours contaminate its breath. Bland and +ever fresh breezes preserve its excellencies untarnished. It typifies all +that is tranquil, quiet, easeful, dreamlike, for it is the, Isle of +Dreams. + +All is lovable--from crescentric sandpit--coaxing and consenting to the +virile moods of the sea, harmonious with wind-shaken casuarinas, tinkling +with the cries of excitable tern--to the stolid grey walls and blocks of +granite which have for unrecorded centuries shouldered off the white +surges of the Pacific. The flounces of mangroves, the sparse, grassy +epaulettes on the shoulders of the hills the fragrant forest, the dim +jungle, the piled up rocks, the caves where the rare swiftlet hatches out +her young in gloom and silence in nests of gluten and moss--all are mine +to gloat over. Among such scenes do I commune with the genius of the +Isle, and saturate myself with that restful yet exhilarating principle +which only the individual who has mastered the art of living the +unartificial life perceives. When strained of body and seared of mind, +did not the Isle, lovely in lonesomeness, perfumed, sweet in health, +irresistible in mood, console and soothe as naught else could? Shall I +not, therefore, do homage to its profuse and gracious charms and exercise +the rights and privileges of protector? + + + "When thus I hail the moment flying, + Ah! still delay, thou art so fair!" + + +Sea, coral reefs, forest, jungle afford never ending pleasure. Look, where +the dolorous sphinx sheds gritty tears because of the boldness of the sun +and the solvency of the disdainful sea. Look, where the jungle clothes +the steep Pacific slope with its palms and overskirt of vines and +creepers! Glossy, formal bird's-nest ferns and irregular mass of +polypodium edged with fawn-coloured, infertile fronds fringe the sea-ward +ending. Orchids, old gold and violet, cling to the rocks with the white +claws of the sea snatching at their toughened roots, and beyond the +extreme verge of ferns and orchids on abrupt sea-scarred boulders are the +stellate shadows of the whorled foliage of the umbrella tree, in varied +pattern, precise and clean cut and in delightful commingling and +confusion. Deep and definite the shadows, offspring of lordly light and +steadfast leaves--not mere insubstantialities, but stars deep sculptured +in the grey rock. + +And when an intemperate sprite romps and rollicks, and all the features +of prettiness and repose are distraught under the bluster and lateral +blur of a cyclone, still do I revel in the scene. Does a mother love her +child the less when, contorted with passion, it storms and rages? She +grieves that a little soul should be so greatly vexed. Her affection is +no jot depreciated. So, when my trees are tempest-tossed, and the grey +seas batter the sand-spit and bellow on the rocks, and neither bird nor +butterfly dare venture from leafy sanctuary, and the green flounces are +tattered and stained by the scald of brine spray, do I avow my serenity. +How staunch the heart of the little island to withstand so sturdy a +buffeting! + +In such a scene would it not have been wicked to have delivered ourselves +over to any cranky, miserly economy or to any distortion or affectation +of thrift? Had fortune smiled, her gifts would have been sanely +appreciated, for our ideas of comfort and the niceties of life are not +cramped, neither are they to be gauged by the narrow gape of our purse. +Our castles are built in the air, not because earth has no fit place for +their foundations, but for the sufficient reason that the wherewithal for +the foundations was lacking. When a sufficiency of the world's goods has +been obtained to satisfy animal wants for food and clothing and shelter, +happiness depends, not upon the pleasures but the pleasantnesses of life; +not upon the possession of a house full of superfluities but in the +attainment of restraining grace. + +It might be possible for us to live for the present in just a shade +"better style" than we do; but we have mean ambitions in other +directions than style. Style is not for those who are placidly +indifferent to display; and before whom on a comely, scornful Isle shall +we strut and parade? "You and I cannot be confined within the weak list +of a country's fashions," for do we not proclaim and justify our own? Are +we not leaders who have no subservient, no flattering imitators, no +sycophantic copyists? The etiquette of our Court finds easy expression, +and we smile decorously on the infringements of casual comers. + +Once a steamer anchored boldly in the bay--a pert steamer with a saucy, +off-duty air. Certain circumstances forewarned us of a "formal call." So +that the visit should not partake of an actual surprise a boat containing +ladies and gentlemen was rowed ostentatiously across to land awkwardly at +such a point as would herald the fact and afford a precious interim in +which we were plainly invited to embellish ourselves--to assume a +receptive style of countenance and clothes and company manners. Careless +of dignity, the charitable prelude was lost upon us. Our self-conscious +and considerate visitors dumbly expressed amazement at their informal +reception and our unfestive attire. Yet my garments were neat, +sufficient, and defiantly unsoiled. Had I donned a full, white suit, with +neat tie and Panama hat, and stood even barefooted on the beach, +conspicuous, revealed as a "gentleman" even from the decks of the defiant +steamer, the boat-load would have come straight to the landing smiling, +and chatting, to drop "their ceremonious manna in the way of starved +people." They would have been elated had I assumed robes of reverence--a +uniform indicative of obligation--a worthy response to their patronage. +With compliments expressed in terms of functionary clothes they had hoped +to soothe their vanity. White cotton and a tinted tie would have been +smilingly honoured; and the mere man was not flattered to perceive that +he was less in esteem than the drapery common to the species. I never will +be content to be a supernumerary to my clothes. + +Our visitors reflected not on their intrusion. My precious privacy was +gratuitously violated, and in such circumstances that my holiday humour +was put under restraint for the time being. Though I do profess love for +human nature, for some phases I have but scant respect. + +But our house was open. None of the observances of the rites of +hospitality was lacking. Gleams of good humour dispersed the gloom on the +faces of our guests. They had penetrated the thin disguise of clothes, +and it was then that I silently wished in Portia's words that "God might +grant them a fair departure." + +Another class of visitor came on a misty morning in a fussy little +launch. After preliminary greetings on the beach he remarked on my name, +presuming that I belonged to a Scotch family. + +"A good family, I do not question." + +"Oh, yes. A family of excellent and high repute." + +"Then, I cannot be any connection, for I am proud to confess that our +family is distinguished--greatly distinguished--by a very bad name. It +comes from Kent. I am a kinsman of a king--the King of the Beggars!" + +"Ah! Quite a coincidence. I remarked to my friend as we came up to your +Island: 'If the exile is a descendant of the King of the Beggars, this +is just the kind of life he would be likely to adopt.'" + +"Exactly. I am indeed complimented. Blood--the blood of the vagabond--will +tell!" + +And my friendly visitor--a man whom the King had delighted to +honour--with whimsical glances at my clothes, which tended to "sincerity +rather then ceremony," strolled along the beach. + +If we were disposed to vaunt ourselves, have we not, in this simplicity +and lack of style, the most persuasive of examples? + +Indifferent to style, we do indulge in longings--longings pitifully +weak--longings for the preservation of independence toilfully purchased +during the poisonous years of the past. Beside all wishes for books and +pictures and means for music and the thousands of small things which make +for divine discontent, stands a spectre--not grim and abhorrent and +forbidding, but unlovely and stern, indicating that the least excess of +exotic pleasures would so strain our resources that independence would be +threatened. If we were to buy anything beyond necessities, we might not +be certain of gratifying wants, frugal as they are, without once more +being compelled to fight with the beasts at some Australian Ephesus. +Rather than clog our minds with the thought of such conflict and of +fighting with flaccid muscles, dispirited and almost surely ingloriously, +we choose to laugh and be glad of our liberty, to put summary checks upon +arrogant desires for the possession of hosts of things which would +materially add to comforts without infringing upon pleasures, and find in +all serene satisfaction. + +We have not yet pawned our future. No sort of tyranny, save that which is +primal, physical, and of the common lot, puts his dirty foot on our +haughty, sun-favoured necks. + + + "It is still the use of fortune + To let the wretched man outlive his wealth, + To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow + An age of poverty." + + +May Heaven and our thrift avert the fate! + +The nervous intensity, the despotic self-sufficiency of this easy and +indifferent existence may expose us to taunts; but how sublimely +ineffective the taunts which are never heard and which, if heard through +echoing mischance, would provoke but serene smiles; for have we not +avoided the aches of uniformity, the seriousness of prosperity, most of +the trash of civilisation, and the scorn of Fortune when she sniggers? + +How magnificently slender, too, is our boasted independence! What superb +economists are we! Astonishment follows upon an audit of our slipshod +accounts at the amount spent unconsciously on small things which do not +directly affect the actual cost of living. Taking the mean of several +years' expenditure, the item "postage stamps" is a little larger than +the cost of my own clothing and boots. The average annual cost of +stamps has been £5 4s.; clothing and boots, £4 12s. Indeed, this +latter item is inflated, since, while I have stamps worth only a +few shillings on hand, clothes are in stock sufficient (in main +details) to last twelve months. The "youthful hose, well kept," with +other everlasting drapery brought from civilisation, is still wearable. +The original clothing, such as conformity with the rules of the streets +implies, remains serviceable, however obsolete in "style," which is +another word for fashion, "that pitiful, lackey-like creature which +struts through one country in the cast-off finery of another." For the +privilege of citizenship in what, at present, is the freest country in +the world my direct taxation amounts to £1 5s. per annum; and, since +"luxuries" are not in demand, indirect contributions to State and +Commonwealth are so trivial that they fail to excite the most sensitive +of the emotions. All our household is in harmony with this quiet tune, +and yet we have not conquered our passion for thrift but merely +disciplined it. + +A young missionary who became a great bishop, after some experience of +"the wilds," expressed the opinion that there were but six +necessaries--shelter, fuel, water, fire, something to eat, and blankets. +Our practical tests, extending over twelve years, would tend to the +reduction of the list. For the best part of the year one item--blankets--is +superfluous. Water and fuel are so abundant that they count almost as +cheaply as the air we breathe; but we do lust after a few clothes--a very +few--which the good missionary did not catalogue. Our essentials would +therefore be--shelter, something to eat, and a "little" to wear. Fire is +included under "something to eat," for it is absolutely unnecessary for +warmth. We do still appreciate a warm meal. Our house contains no means +for the production of heat, save the kitchen stove. + +Fruit, vegetables, milk, eggs, poultry, fish, and nearly all the meat +consumed--emergency stocks of tinned goods are in reserve--are as cheap as +water and fuel. Our unsullied appetites demand few condiments. Why +olives, when if need be--and the need has not yet manifested itself--as +shrewd a relish and as cleansing a flavour is to be obtained from the +pale yellow flowers of the male papaw, steeped in brine--a decoration and +a zest combined? Our mango chutney etherealises our occasional salted +goat-mutton--and we know that the chutney is what it professes to be. + +What more wholesome and pleasant a dish than papaw beaten to mush, +saturated with the juice of lime, sweetened with sugar, and made +fantastic with spices? What more enticing, than stewed mango--golden and +syrupy--with junket white as marble; or fruit salad compact of pineapple, +mango, papaw, granadilla, banana, with lime juice and powdered sugar? + +We lack not for spring chicken or roast duck whenever there is the wish; +for the best part of the year eggs are despicably common. Every low tide +advertises oysters gratis, and occasionally crabs and crayfish for the +picking up. Delicate as well as wholesome and nutritious food is ours at +so little cost that our debt to smiling Nature, if she kept records and +tendered her accounts, would be somewhat embarrassing. And if Nature +frowns with denial and there are but porridge and goat's milk and eggs +and home-made bread and jam, thank goodness she blesses such fare with +unjaded appreciation! + +Since deprived of the society of blacks, our domestic expenditure has +dwindled by nearly one-half. Indeed, it is almost as costly to feed and +clothe three blacks as to provide essentials for three whites of frugal +tastes. Here are a few items of annual domestic expenditure, proffered +not in the spirit of gloating over our simplicity or of delighting in +economy of luxuries, but to illustrate how few are the wants which Nature +(with a little assistance) leaves unsatisfied. The figures are presented +with the utmost diffidence, but with indifference alike to the censure of +those who may scent obsequiousness to the stern philosophy of Thoreau in +the matter of diet, or to the jeers of others who despise small things: + + +Flour £ 4 5 0 +Groceries, lighting, &c. 40 0 0 +Sundries 12 0 0 + -------- +Total £56 5 0 + + +And the irreducible minimum has yet to be reached. For many years my +exacting personal needs demanded the luxury of coffee. Pure and +unadulterated, I quaffed it freely, and (being no politician) neither +did it enhance my wisdom nor enable me to see through anything with +half-shut eyes. Yet did it make me too glad. Under such vibrant, emphatic +fingers my frail nerves twanged all too shrilly, and of necessity coffee +was abandoned--not without passing pangs--in favour of a beverage direct +from Nature and untinctured by any of the vital principles of vegetables. +Thus is economy evolved, not as a foppish fad but as due obedience to +the polite but imperious decrees of Nature. + +And having confessed--far too literally, I fear--to so much on the +expenditure side of the simple life in tropical Queensland, it might be +anticipated that the items of income would be stated to the completion of +the story. The affairs of the busy world were discarded, not upon the +strength of large accumulated savings or the possession of means by +inheritance or by the success of investments or by mere luck, but upon +merely imperative, theoretic anticipations upon the cost of living the +secluded life. We had little in reserve, how little it would be +unbecoming to say. Our theories proved delusive, though not bewildering. +Some of the things abandoned with unphilosophic ease at the outset proved +under the test of experience to be essential. Others deemed to be needful +to desperation were forsaken unconsciously. Under the light of experience +forecasts as to actual requirements were quite as vain as our +preconceptions contrariwise. No single item which was not subjected to +regulation. Without imposing any more impatient figures, be it said, +then, that, though all preliminary estimates of ways and means underwent +summary evolution, the financial end was close upon that on which we had +calculated. Compulsion had all to do with the result. During each of the +years of Island life our total income has never exceeded £100 and has +generally fallen considerably below that amount. From the beginning we +felt--and the foregoing lines have failed of their purpose if this +acknowledgment has not been forestalled + + + "To be thus is nothing, + But to be safely thus"; + + +and to draw again from the unplumbed depths of Shakespeare: + + "What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find." + + + + +CHAPTER III + + + +"MUCH RICHES IN A LITTLE ROOM" + + +"Go and argue with the flies of summer that there is a power divine yet +greater than the sun in the heavens, but never dare hope to convince the +people of the South that there is any other God than Gold."--KINGLAKE. + +No "saint-seducing gold" has been permitted to ruffle this placidity. +Gold! Our ears were tickled by the tale that good folks had actually +thrilled when we slunk away to our Island. Rumour wagged her tongue, +abusing God's great gift of speech, until scared Truth fled. She +said--how cheap is notoriety!--that secret knowledge of hidden wealth +which good luck had revealed during our holiday camp had induced us to +surreptitiously secure the land, that in our own good time we might +selfishly gloat over untold gold! Some came frankly to prospect our hills +and gullies, others shamefacedly, when our backs were turned; for had it +not been foretold that gold was certain to be found on the Island, and +were not the invincible truths of geology verified by our covert ways? +Had not one of the natives told of a lump so weighty that no man might +lift it and on which hungry generation after hungry generation had +pounded nuts? Had not another used a nugget as a plummet for his +fishing-line? It mattered not that the sordidly battered lump proved to +be an ingot of crude copper--probably portion of the ballast from some +ancient wrecks--and that Truth was sulking down some very remote well +when the fable of the golden sinker was invented. Ordinary men--men of +the type whom Kinglake designated "Poor Mr. Reasonable Man"--men with +common sense, in fact, the very commonest of sense--were not to be +beguiled by the plain statement that apparently sane individuals wilfully +ventured into solitude for the mere privilege of living. Gold must be the +real attraction--all else fictitious, said they. "They have" [Rumour is +speaking] "the option of an unwitnessed reef, sensationally, romantically +rich, or know of a piratically and solemnly secreted hoard." Indeed, we +did think to enjoy our option, but over something more precious than +gold. + +But one visitor was so confidentially certain about the gold that he +boldly made a proposition to share it. A fair exchange it was to be. He +would, then and there, lead to a shaft 60 feet deep, and deep in the +jungle, too, at a spot so artfully concealed that no mortal man could +ever unguided hope to find it, where was to be revealed a reef--a rich +reef blasted by the mere refractoriness of the ore, a disadvantage which +would vanish like smoke before a man of means. To this sure and certain +source of fortune he would provide safe and speedy conduct if on our part +we would with like frankness confide in him our secret. + +Our lack of secret, was it not boldly writ on our faces? But it was fair +to assume an air of mystery. "Our secret," said we, "is more desirable +than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Yours, at the best, is but dross!" + +The very worst that could happen would be the discovery on this spot of +anything more precious than an orchid. Gold, which would transform the +Isle into a desert, is therefore selfishly concealed, and the reason for +the concealment remains an incomprehensible enigma. Was it not the +pinnacle of folly to retire to an Island where gold was not to be gotten +either by the grace of God or by barter or strife with man? So bold a +foolishness was incredible. Yet we get more out of the life of incredible +folly than the wise who think of gold and little else but gold. + +The singular perfection of our undertaking--"the rarity to run mad +without a cause, without the least constraint or necessity," the exercise +of that "refined and exquisite passion"--stamped me a disciple of Don +Quixote, and such I remain. + +Some ancient said that the more folly a man puts into life the more he +lives--a precept in which I steadfastly believe, provided the folly is of +the wholesome kind and on a sufficient and calculated scale. + +For several years prior to our descent no blacks had been resident on the +Island. After the blotting out of the great multitude, the visits of its +descendants had been irregular and brief. Therefore--and the assurance is +almost superfluous--most of the evidences of the characteristics of the +race had, in the course of nature, been obliterated. A few frescoes +adorning remote rock shelters, a few pearl shell fish-hooks, stone axes +and, hammers, a rude mortar or two (merely granite rocks in which shallow +depressions had been worn by the pounding of nuts), shells on the sites +of camps, scars of stone axes on a few trees--these were the only relics +of the departed race. + +Has a decade of occupation by wilful white folks wrought any permanent +change in the stamp of Nature? None, save the exotic plants, that time, +fire, and "white ants" might not consume. My kitchen midden is less +conspicuous than those of the blacks, and, decently interred, glass and +china shards the only lasting evidence thereof, for the few fragments of +iron speedily corrode to nothingness in this damp and saline air. +Unwittingly the blacks handed down specimens of their handicraft--the +pearl shell fish-hooks, a thousand times more durable in this climate +than hooks of steel. Geologists tell us that shells with iridescent +colours are found in clays of such ancient date that if stated in +centuries an indefinite number of millions would have to be assigned to +them. It is not strange, then, that some of my pearl shell hooks are as +lustrous and sharp to-day as when the careless maker mislaid them in the +sand for me to find half a century later. We leave no records on the land +itself which would betray us after the lapse of half a dozen years. Is it +not humiliating to find that the white man as the black records his most +durable domestic history in rubbish, easily expungible by clean-fingered +time? + +Is humanity ever free from worries? What it has not it invents. Remote +though we are from the disturbance of other folk's troublous cries, the +ocean does not afford complete exemption from the sight of the shocking +insecurity of the street. + +One memorable day, casually glancing at the mainland, I saw on the beach +something moving at astonishing speed. Whereupon the telescope was +brought to bear, and to my dismay revealed, actually and without fiction, +a practical spring cart, drawn by a real horse at a trot, which horse was +driven (as far as the telescope was credible) by a man! Over four years +have elapsed since I saw any wheeled vehicle other than my own +barrow--the speed of which is sedate (for I am a sedate and determined +man, and refuse to be flurried by my own barrow). Nervousness and +excitement began to play. Thank the propitious stars, two miles and more +of mighty ocean separated me from the furious car. Otherwise, who may +say? I might in my confusion have been unable to avoid disaster. This +place is becoming thrilling. Let me move farther from the rush and +bewilderment of traffic. Let me flee to some more secluded scene, where +my sight, unsoiled hitherto by motor-car, may for ever preserve most +excellent virginity. I have since made inquiries, and have been assured +that the nerve-shocking juggernaut of the opposite beach is +palsied--liable, indeed, to dissolution at any moment. When the collapse +occurs I propose to venture across to inspect the remains and renew +youthful memories of the species of conveyance to which it belonged. + +How do we spend our day? How fill up the blank spaces? Goats are to be +milked', fowls to be fed, dough to be kneaded, breakfast to be prepared, +firewood to be cut, house to be looked after. Most of the substantial +improvements have long since been finished, but there is no place but has +to be kept in repair. One day, a week practically, is bestowed on the +steamer. All odd moments and every evening are devoted to books. + +During the cool season, when day tides range low, hours are passed on the +coral reef, as often as conscience permits, in contemplation of the life +of that crowded area. Seldom do we leave the Island, and rarely does any +but a casual visitor break in on our privacy. Satisfied of the +unpotentiality of wealth, here we materialise those dreams of happiness +which are the enchantment of youth, the resolve of maturity, the solace +of old age. Let other questants abandon hope, for I have found the +philosopher's stone. + +My concerns are far too engrossing to permit my mind to wander on the +trivial, unreal, incomprehensible affairs of the Commonwealth, for the +command of which practical politicians continuously grapple, though, I am +one of those who mourn for democracy, since democracy has chosen to +indulge in such hazardous experiments. The Government of a country which +gives equal voice in the election of its representatives to university +professor and unrepentant Magdalene is not altogether in a wholesome way, +even though over a dozen Houses of Parliament clamour to manufacture its +laws. + +It is enough for me to possess the Isle of Desire--the evergreen isle +that "sluttish time" has never besmeared with ruin--where one may wander +whithersoever the mood of the moment wills, or loll in the shade of +scented trees, or thread the sunless mazes of the jungle--that region of +shadow where all the leaves are dumb--listening for faint, ineffective +sounds, or bask on the sand--on clean, unviolated, mica-bespangled +sand--dreamily gazing over a sea of flashing reflections where fitful +zephyrs, soft as the shadows of clouds, alone make blueness visible. + +The individual whose wants are few--who is content, who has no treasure +to guard, whose rights there is none to dispute; who is his own +magistrate, postman, architect, carpenter, painter, boat-builder, boatman, +tinker, goatherd, gardener, woodcutter, water-carrier, and general +labourer; who has been compelled to chip the superfine edges of his +sentiments with the repugnant craft of the butcher; who, heedless of rule +and method, adjusts the balance between wholesome toil and whole-hearted +ease; who has a foolish love for the study of Nature; who has a sense of +fellowship with animate and inanimate things; who endeavours to learn the +character and the purpose of varied forms of life; whose jurisdiction +extends over fifteen sacrosanct isles; who is never happier than when +reading--need never bewail the absence of human schemes and sounds or +fret under the galling burden of idleness. Here is no bell to affright; +nor are we subject to the bidding or liable to the assault of any passer +by. Smooth-flowing time knows not mud or any foulness, while its +impassive surface, burnished by August sunshine, reflects fair scenes and +silent doings. + +The freedom from care, the vague sense of selfish property in the whole +scheme of Nature, the delicious discovery of the virtues of solitude, the +loveliness of this most gay and youthful earth, and the tones of the +pleasant-voiced and often surly sea fill me with joy and embellish +hope--vague and unsubstantial--for is not this Isle the "place where one +may have many thoughts and not decide anything"? + +For all my occupations, I am often driven to "dialogue with my shadow" +for lack of less subservient auditor, and though, as the years pass, I +find that I become more loose of soul and in broad daylight indulge the +liberty of muttering my affairs and addressing animals and plants and of +confiding secrets to the chaste moon--poets and dramatists term such +incontinence of speech soliloquy and employ it for the utterance of +edifying inspiration--it is because it is impossible to be ever quite +alone. Not so very long ago in Merrie England if a person muttered to +himself it was enough on which to establish a charge of wizardry; but it +is also said that real witches and wizards, though subject to the most +ticklish tests, never perspired--a default which hastened conviction. +Therein is my hope of salvation. If it be my fate some day to be found + + + "With age grown double, + Picking dry sticks and mumbling to myself." + + +I shall claim a profuse prerogative, and continue to saunter down into +the gloom at the foot of the hill of life unblinking in the sun. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + + +SILENCES + + +"Who has not hearkened to Her infinite din?"--THOREAU. + +Free alike from the clatter of pastimes and the creaks and groans of +labour, this region discovers acute sensibility to sound. Silence in its +rarest phases soothes the Isle, reproaching disturbances, though never so +temperate. All the endemic sounds are primitive and therefore seldom +harsh. Even the mysterious fall of a tree in the jungle--not an unusual +occurrence on still days during the wet season--is unaccompanied by thud +and shock. Encompassing vines and creepers, colossal in strength and +overwhelming in weight, which have strained the tree to breaking point, +ease their burden down, muffling its descent, though now and again the +primal rupture of trunk or branch rings out a sharp protest, and +following the fall is silence--that varying, elusive sensation not to he +expressed by the absence of actual noise. + +There are silences which tinkle or buzz in the ears, causing them to ache +with stress and strain; silences dull and sad as a wad of wool; silences +as searching as the odour of musk--as soothing as the perfume of violets. +The crisp silence of the seashore when absolute calm prevails is as +different from the strained, sodden, padded silence of the jungle as the +savour of olives from the raw insipidity of white of egg, for the +cumbersome mantle of leafage is the surest stifler of noise, the truest +cherisher of silence. + +The most imperious hour of this realm of silence is three o'clock in the +afternoon, when the sun has absorbed the energies of the most volatile of +birds and insects. An hour later all may begin to assert themselves after +a reviving, siesta; yet during the intensest hour of silence any abrupt +noise--a call, or whistle, or bark of a dog--finds an immediate response. +No sound has been heard for an hour. All the birds have been stricken +dumb or have been banished, yet as an echo to any violation of the +silence comes the sweet, mellow, inquisitive note of the "moor-goody" (to +use the black's name, for the shrike thrush). The bird seems fond of +sound and will answer in trills and chuckles attempts to imitate its +call. + +The condition of perfect silence is not for this noisy sphere. The artist +in so-called silences merely registers certain more or less delicate +sound-waves flowing in easy contours, which others have not the leisure +to distinguish. Often have I found myself as I strolled gloating over the +exquisite absence of sound--enjoying in full mental relish the quaint and +refined sensation. Yet when I have stopped and listened determinedly, +viciously analysing my sensations, have I become aware of a hubbub of +frail and interblended sounds. That which I had thought to be distilled +silence, was microphonic Babel--an intimate commingling of analogous +noises varying in quality and intensity. By wilful resistance to what +Falstaff called "the disease of not listening," I have been privileged to +become aware of the singing of a quiet tune, some of the phrases of which +were directly derivative from inarticulate vegetation--the thud of glossy +blue quandongs on the soft floor of the jungle, the clicking of a +discarded leaf as it fell from topmost twigs down through the strata of +foliage, the bursting of a seed-pod, the patter of rejects from the +million pink-fruited fig, overhanging the beach, the whisper of leaves, +the faint squeal where interlocked branches fret each other unceasingly, +the sigh of phantom zephyrs too elusive to be felt. + +Echoes from vistas of silence far in the jungle lost their individuality +in a sob. Grasshoppers clinked in the forest, the hum of bees and +beetles, the fluty plaint of a painted pigeon far in the gloom, the +furtive scamper of scrub fowl among leaves made tender by decay, the +splash of startled fish in the shadows, commingled and blended to the +accompaniment of that subdued aerial buzz by which Nature manifests the +more secret of her functions and art--that ineffable minstrelsy to which +her silent battalions keep step. Preoccupation, the whirl of my own +temperate thoughts, scared silence, while as soon as the mental machine +was stilled, the very trees became vocal. Thus have I caught fleet +silences as they passed in chase of fugitive sounds. + +Since the morning stars sang together, absolute silence has not visited +the uneasy earth. In this Silent Isle the ears-- + + + "Set to small measure, deaf to all the beats + Of the large music rolling o'er the world"-- + + +become almost supernaturally alert, catching the faintest sound. +Kinglake, who heard in the Syrian desert while dozing on his camel and +for ten minutes after awakening "the innocent bells of Marlen," +attributed the phenomenon to the heat of the sun, the perfect dryness, +the deep stillness, "having rendered the ears liable to tingle under the +passing touch of some mere memory that may have swept across my brain in +a moment of sleep." Homesick sailors, too, lost in the profound stillness +of mid-ocean, have listened with fearful wonder to the phantom chiming of +their village bells. + +Apart from the tricks which memory plays upon the solitary individual, +inviting him by scents and sounds to scenes of the past, I find that the +moist unadulterated atmosphere is a most compliant medium for the +transmission of certain sorts of sound waves. The actual surface of the +sea--differing from its resonant bulk--seems to sap up, rather than +convey sounds, though on given planes above its level sounds travel +unimpeded for remarkable distances. The resonance of the atmosphere +appears at times to be dependent on the tone and quality rather than on +the abruptness and loudness of the sound. I have listened with strange +delight to the rustle of the sea on the mainland beach--two and a half +miles distant--when the air has been so idle that the sensitive +casuarinas--ever haunted by some secret woe upon which to moan and +sob--have been mute and unable to find excuse for the faintest sigh. The +branches which thinly shaded me hung limp and still and yet the soft, +white-footed sea marking time on the harder sands of the mainland set +distance at naught in one continuous murmur. + +However listless the air, the coral-reef, though its crowded life is +inarticulate and mute is ever brisk with minor but strenuous noises. +Splashes and gurgles, sighs and gasps, coughs and sneezes, sharp clicks +and snaps and snarls--telling of alarms, tragic escapes, and violent +death-dealings--blend with the continuous murmur of the sea, and are +occasionally punctuated by sudden slaps and thuds as a blundering, +hammer-head shark pursues a high-leaping eagle-ray, or the red-backed sea +eagle dashes down upon a preoccupied bream, the impact of its firm breast +embossing a white rosette on the blue water. + +In the absence of vibratory media the noises of the reef are isolated. +furtive, echoless--staccato accidentals and dull dissonances out of tune +with the soothing theme of the sea. Hence, when, as I wandered absorbed +in an inspection of minor details, and a mellow whistle, constant but +varying in volume, broke in upon my musings, it was vain to repress the +thrill of excitement. A sound so foreign and incongruous also had a +certain element of mystery. In a flash unsensational ponderings were +displaced by a picture of a steamer in distress far away. Had I not on a +similar occasion of a secret-disclosing tide heard through seven miles of +insulted and sullen air the flop of an inch or so of dynamite exploded by +a heartless barbarian for the illicit destruction of vivacious fish? Had +I not listened with amazement to the buzz of a steamer's propeller and +the throb of her engines six miles away when unaccustomed "nigger-heads" +of coral showed yellow in the sun? The calm, shallow sea conveyed the +sounds with marvellous fidelity and surety. Yet this unaccountable call +came from a quarter whence steamers may not venture, and was I not the +only whistler within a range of many miles? No steamer ever gloated or +warned or appealed in so fluty a note--plaintive, slightly tremulous, +nervously imploring. + +Alert, I tracked the strange sound along an eccentric course to its +haunt, finding nothing more than the empty shell of a huge sea urchin, +which in accord with a whim of the sea had floated and was now held aloft +slantwise to the lips of the wind, firm in the branching tines of +stag's-horn coral. A rustic pipe--giving forth a sonorous moan, now +cooing and crooning, now bold and confident, and again irresolute and +unschooled. Not too sure of instrumentalism, oft the note was hesitating, +soliciting a compliant ear as became a modest wooer of the muses, +polishing his unceremonious serenade to some, shy mermaid, or hooting at +shyer silence. + +A new art, a rare accomplishment! So the musician was diffident, +half-ashamed, half-shocked at his audacity, wholly self-conscious; +earnest to please yet doubtful of the reception awaiting his untutored, +artless play. Gathering courage, the breeze moistened his lips and a +triumphant spasm of sound boomed out, and again the tremulous undertone +prevailed. It was more than a serenade--a primitive sensation from +primitive matter--a vital function, for as long, as the wind blew and +until the lapping sea gurgled in its throat and its note ceased with the +bursting of a bubble, there, held fixedly by living coral, the dead shell +could not choose but whistle. So I left it to its wayward pipings, happy +to have been the sole auditor to a purely natural, albeit mechanical, +monotone. Upon such an instrument did the heavenly maid beguile the time +when she was yet uncouthly young--at the hoydenish age when men also +cajoled her with clicking sticks and the beating of hollow logs, and +music was but a variety of noise. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + + +FRUITS AND SCENTS + + +"The pot herbs of the gods."--THOREAU. + +Those branches of the cultural enterprise which depend upon my own +unaided exertions fail, I am bound to confess, consistently. However +partial to the results of the gardener's art, I admit with lamentations +lack of the gardener's touch. Since bereft of black labour by the +seductions of rum and opium, the plantation of orange-trees has sadly +degenerated; the little grove of bananas has been choked with gross +over-bearing weeds, the sweet-potato patch has been absorbed, the +coffee-trees elbowed out of existence. But how may one man of many +avocations withstand acres of riotous and exulting weeds? Therefore do I +attempt atonement for obvious neglect by the scarcely less laborious +delight of acclimatising plants from distant tropical countries. + +A valued and disinterested friend sends seeds which I plant for the +benefit of posterity. Who will eat of the fruit of the one durian which I +have nurtured so carefully and fostered so fondly? Packed in granulated +charcoal as an anti-ferment, the seed with several others which failed +came from steamy Singapore, and over all the stages of germination I +brooded with wonder and astonishment. Since the durian is endemic in a +very restricted portion of the globe, and since those who have watched the +vital process may be comparatively few in number and therefore unlikely +to be jaded by the truisms of these pages, a few words in explanation may +not be resented. The seed of the durian is roughly cordate, about an inch +and a quarter long. In the form of a disproportionately stout and +blundering worm the sprout of my seed issued from the soil, peered vaguely +into daylight, groped hesitatingly and arched over to bury its apex in the +soil, and from this point the delicately white primal leaves sprang, and +the growth has been continuous though painfully slow ever since. + +Perhaps the deliberate development of the plant is gauged by eagerness +and anticipation. Do I not occasionally indulge the hope of living long +enough to sample the first fruits? When in such humour I long for the +years to come, and thus does my good friend stimulate expectations:-- + +"I have been spending a small fortune in durians, they are relatively +cheap and very good this season in Singapore. Like all the good things +in Nature--tempests, breakers, sunsets, &c. durian is indescribable. +It is meat and drink and an unrivalled delicacy besides, and you may gorge +to repletion and never have cause for penitence. It is the one case where +Nature has tried her hand at the culinary art and beaten all the CORDON +BLEUE out of heaven and earth. Would to Heaven she had been more lavish +of her essays! + +"Though all durians are, perhaps, much alike and not divided like apples +and mangoes into varieties, the flavour varies much according to size and +ripeness. In some the taste of the custard surrounding the heart-like +seeds rises almost to the height of passion, rapture, or mild delirium. +Yesterday (21st June, 1907) about 2 p.m. I devoured the contents of a +fruit weighing over 10 lb. At 6 p.m. I was too sleepy to eat anything, +and thence had twelve hours of almost unbroken slumber." + +Since my friend is not an enthusiast in regard to tropical fruits, his +reverie is all the more reasonable. + +The Dyaks, who are passionately fond of the durian, distinguished it by +the title of DIEN, which signifies the fruit PAR EXCELLENCE. Under such +circumstances my anticipations are justifiable. To my friend I am also +indebted for several young plants of the sapodilla plum (ACHRAS SAPOTA), +sold in some parts of India under the spurious title of MANGOSTEEN, and +considered to be one of the most luscious fruits of the tropics. Like the +durian, the sapodilla plum grows all too slowly for my precipitate +tastes, though I console myself plenteously with mangoes. + +Now, the mango in its infinite variety possesses charms as engaging as +those of Cleopatra. Rash and vain though it be, I am in such holiday +humour in respect of the sweet anticipation of the durian that I cannot +refrain from an attempt to chant the praises of the "little lower" +fruit. Yet it is + + + "Beyond the power of language to enfold + The form of beauty smiling at his heart" + + +whose palate is tickled with such dulcet, such fantastic flavours. + +How may one hope to externalise with astringent ink the aesthetic +sensation of the assimilation of gusts of perfume? + +A mango might be designated the unspeakable eatable, for who is qualified +to determine the evanescent savours and flavours which a prime specimen +of the superb fruit so generously yields? Take of a pear all that is +mellow, of a peach all that is luscious, of a strawberry all that is +fragrant, of a plum all that is kindly, of an apricot all its aroma, of +cream all its smoothness. Commingle with musk and honey, coriander and +aniseed, smother with the scent of musk roses, blend with cider, and the +mixture may convey a dim sense of some of the delectable qualities of one +kind of mango. To do justice to the produce of the very next tree another +list of triumphant excellences might be necessary. A first-class mango is +compact of so many sensations to the palate, its theme embraces such rare +and delicate surprises, that the true artist in fruit-flavours is fain to +indulge in paraphrase and paradox when he attempts to record its virtues +and--yes, its vanities. + +There are mangoes and mangoes. The very worst is not to be wholly +despised. For the best there are due moods and correct environments. For +some, the lofty banquet-hall, splendid with reflected lights and the +flash of crystal and silver and the triumphal strains of a full band +hidden by a screen of palms and tree-ferns. There are others best to be +eaten to slow, soft music in a flower-bedizened glade of fairy-land. + +September is the season of scents. Partly as a result of the dryness of +the month, the mango trees continue to bloom as though each had +determined (for the time being) to abandon all notion of utility and to +devote itself solely to the keeping up of appearances. Appearances +are well worth maintaining, for however trivial from a florist's point +of view the flower of the mango in detail, yet when for six weeks on end +the trees present uniform masses of buff and pink, varied with shades +of grey and pale green, and with the glister of wine-tinted, ribbon-like +leaves, and the air is alert with rich and spicy odour, there is ample +apology ever ready for the season and the direct results thereof. The +trees are manifestly over-exerting themselves, in a witless competition +with others which may never boast of painted, scented fruit. There is +not a sufficient audience of aesthetics to tolerate the change of which +the mango seems ambitious. + +In Japan, where the cultured crunch hard and gritty fruits, peach and +plum trees may be encouraged to expend all their force and prime in the +production of bloom. Vagrant Englishmen are still so benighted that the +desire for sweet and aromatic fruit vaunts over that which gives delight +merely to the eye. But to assume indifference to present conditions, to +decline to accept in full measure the redolence of the season which +stands for spring in tropical Australia, to refuse to be grateful for it +all, would be inhuman. + +The limes have flowered and scattered their petals; the pomeloes (the +forbidden fruit) display posies of the purest white and of the richest +odour, an odour which in its depth and drowsy essence epitomises the +luxurious indolence of the tropics; the lemons and oranges are adding to +the swectness and whiteness, and yet the sum of the scent of all these +trees of art and cultivation is poor and insipid compared with the results +of two or three indigenous plants that seem to shrink from flaunting their +graces while casting sweetness on the desolate air. + +Just now, in some situations, the old gold orchid rivals the mango in +showiness and fragrance; the pencil orchid dangles white aigrettes from +the trunks and branches of hundreds of trees, saturating the air with a +subtle essence as of almonds and honey; and the hoya hangs festoons from +rocks and trees in such lavish disregard of space and the breathings of +less virile vegetation, that the sensual scent borders on the excessive. +On the hill-tops, among rocks gigantic of mould and fantastic of shape, +a less known orchid with inconspicuous flowers yields a perfume +reminiscent of the violet; the shady places on the flats are showy with +giant crinum lilies. + +It is the season of scents, and the native, untended, unpampered plants +are easily and gracefully first in an uncatalogued competition. Haunting +conceit on the part of the mango will not permit acknowledgment of +defeat; but no impartial judge would hesitate in making his selection +from among plants which in maturing make no formal appeal whatever to +man, but in some cases keep aloof from notice and renown, while +dissipating scents which fertilise the brain, stimulating the flowers of +fancy. Not all the scents which sweeten the air are salubrious. Several +are distinctly injurious. Men do not actually "die of a rose in aromatic +pain," though many may become uncomfortable and fidgety by sniffing +delicious wattle-blossom; and one of the crinum lilies owes its specific +title, (PESTILENTIS) to the ill effects of its stainless flowers, those +who camp in places where the plant is plentiful being apt to be seized +with violent sickness. An attractive fruit with an exalted title +(DIOSPYROS HEBECAPRA) scalds the lips and tongue with caustic-like +severity, and a whiff from a certain species of putrescent fungus produces +almost instantaneous giddiness, mental anguish, and temporary paralysis. + +The most elemental of all incenses--that which arises from warm, dry soil +sprinkled by a sudden shower--is undoubtedly invigorating. The spirituous +scent of melaleuca-trees burdens the air, not as an exhalation but as an +arrogant physical part of the Isle, while a wattle (ACACIA CUNNINGHAMI) +shyly proclaims its flowering by a scent as intangible and fleeting as a +phantom. + +"The hand of little employment hath the daintier sense." Not so in +respect of the organ of smell. The more educated, the more practised nose +detects the subtler odour and is the more offended by grossness. And upon +what flower has been bestowed the most captivating of perfumes? Not the +rose, or the violet, or the hyacinth, or any of the lilies or stephanotis +or boronia. The land of forbidding smells produces it; it is known to +Europeans as the Chinese magnolia. Quaint and as if carved skilfully in +ivory, after the manner of, the inhabitants of its countrymen, the petals +tumble apart at the touch, while fragrance issues not in whiffs but in +sallies, saturating the atmosphere with the bouquet of rare old port +commingled with the aroma of ripe pears and the scent of musk roses. + +Some of the flowering plants of old England here dwell contentedly, +leafage being free, however few and dwarfed in some cases the bloom. +Roses, violets, honeysuckle, pansies, cosmos, phlox, balsams, sunflowers, +zinnias, blue Michaelmas daisies, dianthus, nasturtiums, &c., are on +common ground with purely tropical plants, while ageratum has become a +pestiferous weed. + +An early or late arrival among flowers and fruit cannot be hailed or +chidden where there is but trifling seasonable variation. Without +beginning and without end, the perpetual motion of tropical vegetation is +but slightly influenced by the weather. Who is to say that this plant is +early or that late, when early or late, like Kipling's east and west, +are one? It is not that all flowering trees and plants are of continuous +growth. Many do have their appointed seasons, producing flowers and fruit +according to date and in orderly progress, leaving to other species the +duty of maintaining a consecutive, unbroken series which defies the +mechanism of cold countries with their cast-iron calendars. + +Here but three or four trees deign to recognise the cool season by the +shedding of their leaves. FICUS CUNNINGHAMI discards--by no means +consistently--its foliage in obedience to some spasmodic impulse, when the +many thin branches, thick-strewn with pink fruit, stand out against the +sky as aerial coral, fantastically dyed. But in two or three days +burnished brown leaves burst from the embraces of elongated buds which, +rejected, fall--pink phylacteries--to decorate the sand, while in +a week the tree wears a new and glistening garment of green. The +flame-tree (ERYTHRINA INDICA) slowly abandons its foliage; but before the +last yellow-green leaf is cast aside the fringe of the blood-red robe soon +to overspread has appeared. The white cedar (MELIA CONFERTA) permits its +leaves to become yellow and to fall lingeringly, but its bareness is +merely for a week or so. So also does the foliage of the moo-jee +(TERMINALIA MELANOCARPA) turn to deepest red and is discarded, but so +orderly is the disrobing and the never varying fashion of foliage that +the tree averts the scorn of the most respectable of neighbours. + +Month after month of warm days and plenteous rain during the early part +of 1909 produced an effect in the acacias which cannot be too thankfully +recorded. The blooming season extended from March 29th to July 17th, +beginning with ACACIA CUNNINHHAMI and ending with the third flush of A. +AULACOCARPA. During a third of the year whiffs of the delicious perfume +of the wattle were never absent, for two flushes of A. FLAVESCENS filled +in the brief intervals between those of AULACOCARPA. This latter, the +commonest of the species on the island, produces its flowers in long +spikes in the axils of the leaves on the minor branches, weighting such +branches with semi-pendulous plumes laden with haunting perfume. The +fragrance of the bounteous, sacrificial blooms saturates miles of air, +while their refuse tricks out the webs of spiders great and small with +fictitious favours, and carpets the earth with inconstant gold. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + + +HIS MAJESTY THE SUN + + + "And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol, + In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd + Amidst the ether, whose medicinable eye + Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil." + + SHAKESPEARE. + +Twelve years of open-air life in tropical Queensland persuade me that I +am entitled to prerogative of speech, not as an oracle or a prophet on +the prodigious subject of the weather at large, but of the effect thereof +on my sensations and constitution, since the greater part of that period +has been spent under conditions calculated to put them to the test. +Especially has the sun given penetrating tastes of his quality and +bestowed enduring marks of his favour. During these twelve joyful years +the annual rainfall has averaged over 131 inches, the average number of +days on which rain has fallen being 134. Of the heat of the sun during the +hottest month of the year let two unstudied records speak. As January 29, +1907, gave early promise of exceptional heat, I watched the thermometer +closely, noting the consistency with which its ups and downs tallied with +my perceptions These are the readings: + + Deg. +6 a.m. 75 +10 a.m. 94 +Noon 96 +12.30 p.m. 97 +1 p.m. 98 +3 p.m. 97 +4 p.m. 88 +5 p.m. 85 +6 p.m. 82 + + +In the sun at 1 p.m. the glass registered 108°, at 2 p.m. 110°, and +at 3 p.m. 107°. A thunderstorm accounted for the rather early +culmination of the temperature and its rapid decline. + +The shade temperature of January, 1910, at 6.30 a.m. was 73°, at 3 +p.m. 88°. The sun registered 98° on the hottest day of that month +when my diary tells me I took part in the erection of rough fencing, +horse-driving, and lifting and carrying logs. + +This salubrious sun does not excuse man from day labour in unshaded +scenes. During January, I, who am blessed with but slight muscular +strength and no inherent powers of resistance to noontide flames, have +toiled laboriously without registering more than due fatigue. Those +accustomed to manual work experience but little inconvenience. It would +be palpably indiscreet and vain to say that outdoor work in excessive +heat involves no discomfort, but it may be truthfully asserted that +midday suspension therefrom, though pleasant, is not absolutely necessary, +at any rate where the environment is such as this. + +Bounteous rain and glorious sunshine in combination might seem to +constitute a climate unsuitable to persons of English birth, or at least +trying to their preconceptions of the ideal. My own experience is +entirely, enthusiastically favourable. I proffer myself as an example, +since there is none other upon whom publicity may be thrust, and really +in the spirit of performing an inevitable duty, such duty being +comprehended in the fervent desire to proclaim from the lowly height of +my housetop how health unbought and happiness unrealisable may be enjoyed +in this delicately equable clime. + +When I landed feebly on September 28, 1897, and crawled up on the beach +beyond the datum of the most recent high tide to throw myself prone on +the consoling sand I was worn, world-weary, and pale, and weighed 8 st. 4 +lb. Now my weight is 10 st. 2 lb., and my complexion uniformly sun-tinted. +Perhaps it would be more exact to say that my uniform has been bestowed +by the sun, because having early discovered the needlessness of +clothes--that "the body is more than raiment"--most of the apparel in +which civilisation flaunts was promptly discarded, and through the few +thin things retained the sun soon worked his will. Latterly while in the +open air I have abandoned the principal part of the superfluous remnant, +to the enjoyment of additional comfort and the increase of +self-complacency. As a final violation of my reserve be it proclaimed +that to the super-excellence of the air of the Island, to the tonic of the +sea, and to the graciousness of his Majesty the Sun--in whose radiance +have I gloried--do I owe, perhaps, salvation from that which tributary +friends in their meed of tenderness predicted--an untimely grave. + +It is natural that those who live in cold climates and who wear for their +comfort clothing designed to exclude the air from all parts of the body +save the face should be steeped in conservatism; but the farther one +ventures from the chaste opinion of the world the less subserviency he +shows to customs and habits authoritative and relevant among +century-settled folk, and the more readily he adapts himself to his +environment the sooner does he become a true citizen of the country which +he has chosen. Preconceptions he must discard as unfit, if not fatal. He +is an alien until he learns to house, feed, and dress himself in +accordance with the inviolable laws which Nature prescribes to each and +every portion of her spacious and discordant realm. + +Was I to remain fully clad and comfortless, or the reverse? The +indulgence of my sensations has brought about revolutionary changes of +costume and custom. Such changes were bound to react mentally, for are +they not merely the symbols of ideas? Once it was unseemly, if not +uncleanly, to perspire freely. Now the function is looked upon as +necessary, wholesome, and the sign of one's loyalty to the sun. The sun +compels thoughts. Daily, hourly does he exact homage and reign supreme +over mind, body, and estate. So commanding is his rule, so apparent his +goodwill, so speedy his punishment for sins of disobedience, so +influential his presence, that I have come to look up to him as the +transcendent manifestation of that power which ordains life and all +its privileges and abolishes all the noisesomeness of death. Alive, +he nourishes, comforts, consoles, corrects us. Dead, all that is mortal +he transforms into ethereal and vital gases. Obey him, and he blesses; +flout him, and you perish. + +An old historian of sport quaintly expressed a correct theory as to the +virtue of profuse perspiration: "And when the hunters do their office +on horseback and on foot, they sweat often; then if they have any evil in +them it must come away in the sweating; so that he keep from cold after +the heat." So does the wise man in the tropics regard perspiration--not as +an offensive, certainly not as a pleasant function, but as one that is +really inevitable and conducive to cleanliness and health. + +Can the man who swathes his body in ever so many separate, superimposed, +artificial skins, and who is careful to banish purifying air from contact +with him, save on the rare occasions of the bath, be as healthful as he +who furnishes himself with but a single superfluous skin, and that as +thin and penetrable as the laws which hold society together permit? + +The play of the sterilising sun on the brown, moist skin is not only +tolerable but delightful--refreshing and purifying the body, while even +light cotton clothing saturated to the dripping stage with perspiration +represents the acme of discomfort, and if unchanged a good deal of the +actually unwholesome. + +All the hotter hours of the day have I worked in the bush felling trees, +sawing and splitting logs, and adzing rough timber, the while November's +unclouded sun evaporated perspiration almost as speedily as it flowed +from high-pressure pores. There was no sensation of overheat, although +the arms might weary with the swinging of the heavy maul and the back +respond with aches to the stiffened attitude imposed by the adze. + +Then at sundown to plunge into the tepid sea, to frolic and splash +therein, while the red light in the west began to pale and the pink and +silver surface of the ocean faded to grey; then to a vigorous soaping and +scrubbing in the shady creek, where the orange-tinted drupes of +pandanus-palms give to the cool water a balsamic savour; then, clad in +clean cotton, to the evening meal with a prodigious appetite; and to bed +at nine o'clock to sleep murmurlessly for eight hours--tell me if thus +you are not fitted for another day's toil in the sublimating sunshine! + +A medical man on the staff of one of the earliest of European voyages in +the Pacific Ocean expressed the opinion that the "cutaneous disorders +which so generally affect the inhabitants in the neighbourhood of the +equator are caused by an acrimonious alteration of the humours brought on +by the great heat of these climates"; and he adds: "I have no doubt +that the constant action of the air and sun upon the skin of the people +who go continually naked contributes much to these maladies, and renders +them more obstinate." Though it would be presumptuous to pose as counsel +for the defence of his Majesty the Sun, one who is blessed with so many +of the privileges he bestows cannot ignore so scandalous albeit musty a +libel which time, the only dispassionate judge, has long since condemned +in respect of the generality of manhood. It is surprising, too, that +Byron, though he revelled in the sea, was also under a delusion as to the +more vitalising element, for he fancied the scorching rays to be +"impregnate with disease," whereas the sun, the sea, and, in lesser +degree, the torrid sand do actually represent "the spice and salt which +season a man," and are the elements whence are derived many of his +cleanest, superfine thoughts. + +Kinship with his Majesty the Sun of the tropics is not to be claimed +offhand. The imperious luminary does not grant his letters-patent to all. +Very few does he permit to wanton in his presence without exacting +probation. He is a rare respecter of persons. Though there are faces, +like King Henry V.'s, which the sun will not condescend to burn, +sometimes he smites savagely. He makes of the countenances of his foes a +fry and of their bodies a comprehensive granulation. But if you find +favour in his eyes--in those discriminating, ruthless, sight-absorbing +glances which none may reciprocate--accept your privileges with a thrill +of chastened pride that you may bask in his presence and be worthy his +livery and of gladsome mind. The harpings of the sweet singer of Israel +could not have been more effectual in the dispersal of depression than +the steadfast beams of the sun supreme in tropic sky. + +Let the sun scorch the skin and blister it until it peels, and scorches +and peels again, and scorches and peels alternately until, having no more +dominion over the flesh, it tinctures the very blood and transmutes mere +ruddiness to bronze. Thereafter you know not for ever the pallor of the +street for have you not the gold of the sun in your blood and his iron +in your bones? + +Of the graciousness of the sun a special instance has been preserved in +my erratic diary. Here it is: November 24, 1908: Spent from 10 a.m. to +1.15 p.m. on the beach and on the Isle of Purtaboi, bare-limbed, +bare-bodied, save for scant cotton pants. Above high-water mark the sand +was scorchingly hot to the feet. The heat of the glowing coral drift on +the Isle forced me promptly to amend my methodic gait to a quick step, +though my hardened soles soon became indifferent. Nutmeg pigeons were +nesting plentifully on trees and shrubs amongst masses of orchids, and on +ledges almost obscured by grass. Brown-winged terns occupied cool nooks +and crannies in the rocks, and other species of terns had egg +reserves--they cannot be called nests--on the unshaded coral bank. After +gazing intently on the white drift, eagerly making mental notes of any +remarkable mutations in the colouring of the thickly strewn eggs, and +admiring the fortitude or indifference with which the fledglings endured +the sizzling heat, I found myself subject to an optical illusion, for +when I looked up and abroad the brightly gleaming sea had been changed to +inky purple, the hills of the mainland to black. Though absolutely +cloudless, the sky seemed oppressed with slaty gloom, and the leaves of +the trees near at hand assumed a leaden green. For a few seconds I was +convinced that some almost unearthly meteorological phenomenon, before +which the most resolute of men might cower, had developed with +theatrical suddenness. Then I realised that the intense glare of the +coral, of which I had been unconscious, and the quivering heat rays had +temporarily deprived my vision of appreciation of ordinary tints. +Saturated by vivid white light, my bemused sight swayed under temporary +aberration. I was conscious of illusion creating symptoms, tipsy with +excess of sunshine. This condition passing, I found the atmosphere, +though hot, pleasant and refreshing, the labour of rowing across the +bay involving no unusual exertion or sense of discomfort. During my +brief absence the beach of the island seemed to have absorbed still +more effectively solar rays. "Scoot" (my terrier, exulting companion +on land and sea) skipped in sprightly fashion across the burning zone, +while I was fain to walk on the grass, the sandy track being impracticable +to bare feet. In the house protests against the intolerance of the sun +were rife. Crockery on the kitchen shelves seemed to have been +artificially heated, while the head of an axe exposed to the glare was +blisteringly hot. Yet to me in the open air, most scantily draped and +wearing a frayed, loopholed, and battered straw hat, the sunbath had +been a pleasant and exhilarating indulgence in no way remarkable on the +score of temperature. + +Dress, other than fulfils the dictates of decency, is not only +unimportant but incongruous and vexatious. During bright but cloudless +days the less worn the higher the degree of comfort, and upon comfort +happiness depends. Sick of a surfeit of pleasures, the whining monarch, +counselled by his soothsayers, ransacked his kingdom for the shirt +of a happy subject. He found the enviable man--a toil-worn hind who had +never fidgeted under the discomfort of the badge of respectability. + +In his native state the black fellow is nearer the ideal than the white +alien in his body clothes, starched shirt, high collar, cloth suit, and +felt hat. The needs and means of the black are non-existent. His dress +corresponds, whereas the white usurper of his territory--servile to the +malignant impositions of custom and fashion--suffers from general +superfluity and winces under his sufferings. Would he not be wiser owning +subservience to the sun, and adopting dress suitable to actual needs and +the dominant characteristics of the land of the sun? He would pant less, +drink less, perspire less, be more wholesome and sweeter in temper, and +more worthy of citizenship under the sun, against whose sway there can +be no revolt. Kings and queens are under his rule and governance. His +companionship disdains ceremonious livery, scorns ribbands, and scoffs at +gew-gaws. Bronze is his colour, native worth the only wear. + +Whosoever has seen (himself unseen) an unsophisticated North Queensland +black parading his native strand has seen a lord of creation--an inferior +species, but still a lord. His bold front, fluent carriage, springy step, +alert, confident, superior air proclaim him so, innocent though he be of +the frailest insignia of civilisation. The monarch arrayed in seven +colours ascends the steps of his throne with no prouder mien than that in +which the naked child of the sun lords it over the empty spaces. + +In civility to his Majesty the Sun do I also proudly testify to his +transcendent gifts as a painter in the facile media which here prevail. +Look upon his coming and his going--an international, universal property, +an ecstatic delight, an awesome marvel, upon which we gaze, of which we +cannot speak, lacking roseate phrases. A landscape painter also is he, +for have I not seen his boldest brush at work and stood amazed at the +magnificence of his art? + +Do those who live in temperate and cold climates realise the effect of +the sun's heat on the sea--how warm, how hot, blessed by his beams, the +water may become? The luxuriousness of bathing in an ocean having a +temperature of 108° is not for the multitude who crowd in reeking cities +which the sun touches tremulously and slantwise. + +On November 21, 1909 (far be it from me to bundle out into an apathetic +world whimpering facts lacking the legitimacy of dates), we bathed at +Moo-jee in shallow water on the edge of an area of denuded coral reef +fully two miles long by a mile broad. For three hours a considerable +portion of the reef had been exposed to the glare of the sun, and the +incoming tide filched heat, stored by solar rays, from coral and stones +and sand. The first wallow provoked an exclamation of amazement, for the +water was several degrees hotter than the air, and it was the hottest +hour (3 p.m.) of an extremely hot day. No thermometer was at hand to +register the actual temperature of the water, but subsequent tests at the +same spot under similar conditions proved that on the thermometerless +occasion the sea was about 108° F.--that is, the surface stratum of about +one foot, which averaged from 4° to 6° F. hotter than the air. Beneath, +the temperature seemed ordinary--corresponding with that of the water a +hundred yards out from the shore. This delectable experience revealed that +in bathing something more is comprehended than mere physical pleasure. It +touched and tingled a refined aesthetic emotion, an enlightened +consciousness of the surroundings, remote from gross bodily sensations. +For the time being one was immersed, not in heated salt water only but in +the purifying essence of the scene--the glowing sky, stainless, pallid, +and pure; the gleaming, scarcely visible, fictitious sea and the bold blue +isles beyond; the valley whence whiffs of cool, fern-filtered, odorous +air issued shyly from the shadowed land of the jungle through the +embowered lips of the creek. The blend of these elements reacted on the +perceptions, rendering the bathe in two temperatures that of a lifetime +and a means also whereby the clarified senses were first stimulated and +then soothed. With an occasional lounge on the soft sand, when the body +became clad in a costume of mica spangles and finely comminuted shell +grit, the bathe continued for two hours, with an after effect of sleek +and silky content. + +Another date (January 10, 1910) may verify details of such a sybaritic +soak in the sea as is to be indulged in only in the tropics and remote +from the turmoil of man. Between noon and 3 p.m. the thermometer hanging +on the wall of the house under the veranda, five feet from the corrugated +iron roof, wavered between 89° and 90°, while the unshaded sun registered +98°. My noontide bath failed to detect any difference in temperature +between air and water, and putting my perceptions to scientific test +found the sea to be heated to 90°. With the bulb buried in the sand six +feet from the edge of the water, the mercury rose to 112° in a few +seconds and remained stationary. + +It being far more blissful to lounge in the sea than on the veranda, I +sat down, steeped chin deep in crystal clearness, warmth, and silence, +passively surrendering myself to a cheap yet precious sensation. Around +me were revealed infinitely fragile manifestations of life, scarcely less +limpid than the sea, sparkling, darting, twisting--strong and vigorous of +purpose. Tremulous filaments of silver flashed and were gone. No space +but was thickly peopled with what ordinarily passes as the invisible, but +which now, plainly to behold, basked and revelled in the blaze--products +of the sun. Among the grains of sand and flakes of mica furtive +bubblings, burrowings, and upheavals betrayed a benighted folk to whom +the water was as a firmament into which they might not venture to ascend. + +Sought out by the sun, translucent fish revealed their presence by +spectral shadows on the sand, and, traced by the shadows, became +discernible, though but little the more substantial. + +This peace-lulled, beguiling, sea, teeming with myriad forms scintillating +on the verge of nothingness--obscure, elusive, yet mighty in their wayward +way--soothed with never so gentle, so dulcet a swaying. This +smooth-bosomed nurse was pleased to fondle to drowsiness a loving mortal +responsive to the blissfulness of enchantment. Warm, comforting, +stainless, she swathed me with rose-leaf softness while whispering +a lullaby of sighs. Her salty caresses lingered on my lips, as I +gazed dreamily intent upon determining the non-existing skyline. +Yet, with no demarcation of the allied elements this rimless, flickering +moon, to what narrow zone, I pondered, is man restricted! He swims +feebly; if he but immerse his lips below the shining surface for a space +to be measured by seconds, he becomes carrion. On the mountain-tops he is +deadly sick. Thus musing, the sorcery of the sea became invincible. My +thoughts drifted, until I dozed, and dozing dreamt--a vague, +incomprehensible dream of floating, in some purer ether, some diviner air +than ever belonged to wormy earth, and woke to realities and a skate--a +little friendly skate which had snoodled beside me, its transparent +shovel-snout half buried in the sand. Immune from the opiate of the sea, +though motionless, with wide, watery-yellow eyes, it gazed upon me as a +fascinated child might upon a strange shape monstrous though benign, and +as I raised my hand in salutation wriggled off, less afraid than curious. + +Beyond, a shadow--a disc-shaped shadow--drifted with a regular pulsating +motion. Shadowlike, my thoughts, too, drifted, but how remote from the +scene! They transported me to Thisbe--Thisbe who + + + "Saw the lion's shadow ere himself + And ran dismayed away." + + +How different the shadow of the moment from that of the king of beasts +which led to the tragedy under the walls of Babylon, where the blood of +the lovers dyed the mulberry red! It is the evidence of a bloodless thing, +a rotund and turreted medusa, the leader of a disorderly procession, +soundless and feeble as becomes beings almost as impalpable as the sea +itself. Shadows of fish exquisitely framed flit and dance. I see naught +but shadows, dim and thin, for I doze and dream again; and so fantastic +time, whose footfalls are beads and bubbles, passes, and grosser affairs +beckon me out of the sunlit sea. + +Oh, great and glorious and mighty sun! Oh, commanding, majestical sun! +Superfine invigorator; bold illuminator of the dim spaces of the brain; +originator of the glow! which distils its rarest attars! Am I not thy +true, thy joyful knight? Hast thou not touched my toughened, unflinching +shoulders with the flat of thy burnished sword? Do I not behold its +jewelled hilt flashing with pearls and precious stones as thou sheathest +it for the night among the purple Western hills? Do I not hail its golden +gleams among the fair-barked trees what time each scented morn I milk +my skittish goats? + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + + +A TROPIC NIGHT + + + "Come and compare + Columns and idol-dwellings, Goth or Greek, + With Nature's realms of worship, earth and air, + Nor fix on fond bodies to circumscribe thy prayer." + + BYRON. + +For a week the wet monsoon had frolicked insolently along the coast, the +intermittent north-east breeze, pert of promise but flabby of performance, +giving way to evening calms. Then came slashing south-easters which, +having discourteously bundled the cloud banks over the mountains, retired +with a spasm upon the reserves of the Pacific. + +All day long the sea had been pale blue with changeful silvery lights, +and now the moon, halfway down on her westward course, shines over a +scene solemn in its stillness--the peace and repose more impressive than +all the recent riot and haste. + +Here on the verge of the ocean, at the extreme limit of the spit of soft, +shell-enamelled sand, where the breakers had roared in angry monotone, +the ears thrilled with tender sounds. Though all the winds were dead the +undertones of the sea linger in lulling harmonies. The tepid tide on the +warm sand crisply rustles and hisses as when satin is crumpled and +smartly rent. Weird, resonant tappings, moans, and gurgles come from a +hollow log drifting, with infinite slowness. Broken sighs and gasps tell +where the ripples advancing in echelon wander and lose their way among +blocks of sandstone. As the tide rose it prattled and gurgled, toying +with tinkling shells and clinking coral, each tone separate and distinct, +however thin and faint. My solitary watch gives the rare delight of +analysing the night thoughts of the ocean, profound in its slumber though +dreamily conscious of recent conflict with the winds. All the frail +undertones suppressed, during the bullying day now have audience. Sounds +which crush and crowd have wearied and retired. The timid and shy +venture forth to join the quiet revelry of the night. + +On its northern aspect the sand spit is the steeper. There the folds of +the sea fall in velvety thuds ever so gentle, ever so regular. On the +southern slope, where the gradient is easy, the wavelets glide up with +heedless hiss and slide back with shuffling whisper, scarce moving the +garlands of brown seaweed which a few hours before had been torn from the +borders of the coral garden with mischievous recklessness. + +The sounds of this most stilly night are almost wholly of the faintly +pulsing sea--sibilant and soft. Twice have the big-eyed stone plovers +piped demoniacally. Once there were flutterings among the nutmeg pigeons +in the star-proof jungle of the crowded inlet to the south. A cockatoo has +shrieked out in dismay at some grim nightmare of a snake. Two swamp +pheasants have assured each other in bell-like cadences that the night is +far spent, and all is well. + +As the moon sinks a ghostly silence prevails. Even the subdued tones of +the sea are hushed. Though I listen with aching intentness no sense of +sound comes to my relief. Thus must it be to be bereft of hearing. This +death-like pause, this awful blank, this tense, anxious lapse, this +pulseless, stifling silence is brief. A frail moan, just audible, comes +from the direction of the vanishing moon. There is a scarcely perceptible +stir in the warm air--a sensation of coming coolness rather than of +motion, and a faint odour of brine. A mile out across the channel a black +band has settled on the shining water. + +How entrancing these night-tinted sights and soft sounds! While I loll +and peer and listen I am alert and still, for the primitive passions of +the universe are shyly exercised. To be sensitive to them all the +faculties must be acutely strained. With this lisping, coaxing, +companionable sea the serene and sparkling sky, the glow beyond the +worlds, the listening isles--demure and dim--the air moist, pacific and +fragrant--what concern of mine if the smoky messenger from the stuffy town +never comes? This is the quintessence of life. I am alive at last. Such +keen tingling, thrilling perceptions were never mine before. Now do I +realise the magnificent, the prodigious fact of being. Mine not only a +part in the homely world, but a fellowship with the glorious firmament. + +It is night--the thoughtful, watchful, wakeful, guardian night, with no +cloud to sully its tremulous radiance. How pretty a fable, I reflect, +would the ancients have associated with the Southern Cross, shimmering +there in the serene sky! Dare I, at this inspiring moment, attempt what +they missed, merely because they lacked direct inspiration? Those who +once lived in Egypt saw the sumptuous southern jewel, and it may again +glitter vainly for the bewilderment of the Sphinx if the lazy world +lurches through space long enough. Yes, let me invent a myth--and not tell +it, but rather think of the origin of the Milky Way and so convince +myself of the futility of modern inventions. + +Juno's favourite flowers were, it is written, the dittany (a milk-like +plant), the flaunting poppy, and the fragrant lily. Once, as she slept, +Jupiter placed the wonderfully begotten Hercules to her alien, repugnant +breasts. Some of the milk dripped and as it fell was dissipated in the +heavens--and there is the Milky Way. Other drops reached the earth and, +falling on the lily, which hitherto had been purple, purified it to +whiteness. In similar guise might the legend of the Southern Cross be +framed--but who has the audacity to reveal it! And have not the +unimaginative blacks anticipated the stellar romance? + +As I gaze into those serene and capricious spaces separating the friendly +stars I am relieved of all consciousness of sense of duration. Time was +not made for such ecstasies, which are of eternity. The warm sand nurses +my body. My other self seeks consolation among the planets. + + + "Thin huge stage presenteth naught but show + Whereon the stars in secret influence comment." + + +A grey mist masks the winding of a mainland river. Isolated blotches +indicate lonely lagoons and swamps where slim palms and lank tea-trees +stand in crowded, whispering ranks knee-deep in dull brown water. The +mist spreads. Black hilltops are as islands jutting out from a grey +supermundane sea. + +Come! Let me bid defiance to this clumsy dragon of vapour worming its +ever-lengthening, ever-widening tail out from the close precincts of a +mangrove creek. Shock-headed it rolls and squirms. Soft-headed, too, for +the weakest airs knead and mould it into ever-varying shapes. Now it has +a lolling, impudent tongue--a truly unruly member, wagging +disrespectfully at the decent night. Now a perky top-knot, and presently +no head at all. Lumbering, low-lying, cowardly--a plaything, a toy, a +mockery, a sport for the wilful zephyrs. Now it lifts a bully head as it +creeps unimpeded across the sea and spreads, infinitely soft, +all-encompassing. As if by magic the mainland is blotted out. The sea is +dark and death-like, the air clammy, turgid, and steamy. Heavy vapour +settles upon the hills of the Island, descending slowly and with the +passivity of fate, until there is but a thin stratum of clear air between +the gloomy levels and the portentous pall. + +Lesser islands to the south are merely cloud-capped. This lower level with +blurred and misty edges may not be further compressed, but the air is +warm, thick, sticky, and so saturated with vegetable odours that even the +salt of the sea has lost its savour. + +A low, quavering whistle heralds the approach of a nervous curlew, +running and pausing, and stamping, its script--an erratic scrawl of +fleurs-de-lis--on the easy sand. Halting on the verge of the water, it +furtively picks up crabs as if it were a trespasser, conscious of a +shameful or wicked deed and fearful of detection. It is not night nor yet +quite day, but this keen-eyed, suspicious bird knows all the permanent +features of the sand-spit. The crouching, unaccustomed shape bewilders +it; it pipes inquiringly, stops, starts with quick, agitated steps, +snatches a crab--a desperate deed--and flies off with a penetrating cry +of warning. + +A long-billed shore plover takes up the alarm, and blunderingly races +towards instead of from me, whimpering "plin, plin" as it passes and, +still curious though alert, steps and bobs and ducks--all its movements +and flight impulsive and staccato. + +The grey mist whitens. A luminous patch indicates the east. The light +increases. The cumbersome vapour is sopped up by the sun, and the +coo-hooing of many pigeons makes proclamation of the day. Detached and +erratic patches of ripples appear--tiptoe touches of sportful elves +tripping from the isles to the continent, whisking merrily, the faintest +flicks of dainty toes making the glad sea to smile. Parcelled into +shadows, bold, yet retreating, the dimness of the night, purple on the +glistening sea, stretches from the isles towards the long, orange-tinted +beach. + +Let there be no loitering of the shadows. The gloomy isles have changed +from black to purple and from purple to blue, and as the imperious sun +flashes on the mainland a smudge of brown, blurred and shifting, in the +far distance--the only evidence of the existence of human schemes and +agitations--the only stain on the celestial purity of the +morning--betokens the belated steamer for the coming of which the +joy-giving watches of the tropic night have been kept. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + + +READING TO MUSIC + + +"Silence was pleased." + +As I lounged at mine ease on the veranda, serenely content with the pages +of a favourite author, I became conscious of an unusual sound-vague, +continuous, rhythmic. Disinclined to permit my thoughts to wander from +the text, at the back of my mind a dim sensation of uneasiness, almost of +resentment, because of the slight audible intrusion betrayed itself. +Close, as firmly as I could, my mental ear the sound persisted +externally, softly but undeniably. Having overcome the first sensation of +uneasiness, I studied the perfect prose without pausing to reflect on +the origin of the petty disturbance. In a few minutes the annoyance--if +the trivial distraction deserved so harsh an epithet--changed, giving +place to a sense of refined pleasure almost as fatal to my complacency, +for it compelled me to think apart. What was this new pleasure? Ah! I was +reading to an accompaniment--a faint, far-off improvisation just on the +verge of silence, too scant and elusive for half-hearted critical +analysis. + +This reading of delightful prose, while the tenderest harmony hummed in +my cars, was too rare to be placidly enjoyed. Frail excitement foreign to +the tranquil pages could not be evaded. The most feeble and indeterminate +of sounds, those which merely give a voice to the air eventually, quicken +the pulse. + +An eloquent and learned man says that the mechanical operation of sounds +in quickening the circulation of the blood and the spirits has more +effect upon the human machine than all the eloquence of reason and +honour. So the printed periods became more sonorous, the magic of the +words more vivid. The purified meaning of the author, the exaltation he +himself must have felt, were realised with a clearer apprehension. But +the very novelty of the emotional undertaking drew me reluctantly from +that which was becoming a lulling musical reverie. + +Still, fain to read, but with the niceties of the art embarrassed, I +began to question myself. Whence this pleasant yet provoking refrain? Not +of the sea, for a glassy calm had prevailed all day; not of the rain +which pattered faintly on the roof. This sound phantom that determinedly +beckoned me from my book--whence, and what was it? + +Listening attentively and alert, the mystery of it vanished. It was the +commotion, subdued by the distance of three-quarters of a mile, of +thousands of nutmeg pigeons--a blending of thousands of simultaneous +"coo-hoos" with the rustling and beating of wings upon the thin, slack +strings of casuarinas. The swaying and switching of the slender-branched +and ever-sighing trees with the courageous notes of homing birds had +created the curious melody with which my reading had fallen into tune. + +And the sound was audible at one spot only. The acoustic properties of +the veranda condensed and concentrated it within a narrow area, beyond +which was silence. Chance had selected this aerial whirlpool for my +reading. + +Again taking my ease, the mellow "roaring" of the multitude of gentle +doves commingling with the aeolian blandness of trees swinging under the +weight of the restless birds, became once more an idealistic +accompaniment to the book. I read, or rather declaimed inarticulately, to +the singularly pleasing strain until light and sound failed--the one as +softly and insensibly as the other. I had enjoyed a new sensation. + +Relieved of the agreeable pressure of the text, my thoughts turned to the +consideration of bird voices--more to the notes of pigeons, their variety +and range. There are sounds, little in volume and rather flat than sharp, +rather moist than dry, which seem to carry farther under favouring +atmospheric conditions than louder and more acute noises. The easy +contours of soothing sounds created in the air seem to resemble the lazy +swell of the sea; while fleeter though less sustained noises may be +compared to jumpy waves caused by a smart breeze. Pitched in a minor key +sounds roll along with little friction and waste, whereas a louder, +shriller stinging note may find in the still air a less pliant medium. +The cooing of pigeons--a sound of low velocity--has a longer range than +the shrieking of parrots. My pet echo responds to an undertone. A loud +and prolonged yell jars on its sensitiveness--for it is a shy echo, +little used to abrupt and boisterous disturbances. A boy boo-hooting into +an empty barrel soon catches the key to which it responds. He adjusts his +rhythms to those of the barrel, which becomes for the time being his +butt. "Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps," he girds at its +acoustic soul until it finds responsive voice and grunts or babbles or +bellows in consonance with his. Only when the vibrations--subdued or +lusty--correspond with the vocal content of the barrel are the responses +sensitive and in accord. On this stilly, damp evening the air in the +corner of the veranda happened to be resilient to the mellow notes of +far-away pigeons. + +Thus reflecting, I was less astonished that the coo-hooing of the +congregation had reached me through three-quarters of a mile of vacant +air. There was no competing noise. It was just the fluid tone that filled +to the overflowing otherwise empty, shallow spaces. + +The nutmeg pigeon has the loudest, most assertive voice of the several +species which have their home in my domain, or which favour it with +visits. Though the "coo-hoo" is imperative and proud, to overcome the +space of a mile the unison of thousands is necessary. But when the whole +community takes flight simultaneously the whirr and slapping of wings +creates a sound resembling the racing of a steamer's propeller, but of +far greater volume. The nutmeg is one of the noisiest of pigeons +individually and collectively. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + + +THE BIRTH AND BREAKING OF CHRISTMAS + + + "He doubted least it were some magicall + Illusion that did beguile his sense; + Or wandering ghost that wanted funerall, + Or aery spirite under false pretence." + + SPENSER. + +He was a tremulous long-legged foal on the Christmas Day we became known +to each other. I accepted him as an appropriate gift, and he regarded me +with a blending of reserve, curiosity, and suspicion, as he snoodled +beside his demure old mother. The name at once suggested itself. It seems +the more appropriate now, for he is whitish, with flowing mane and +sweeping tail, of a fair breadth, and open countenance. + +Can the biography of a horse be anything but crude, lacking reference to +ancestry? On this point there is the silence of a pure ignorance, and the +record will be deficient in other essentials. Moreover, none of the +phrases of the cult are at command, nor can a purely domestic story be +decorated with clipped, straw-in-the-mouth, stable-smelling terms. + +Christmas's mother was a commonplace cart creature with a bad cough. It +was a chronic cough, and in course of time its tuggings took her on a +very long journey. She passed away, assisted towards the end with a +cruel yet compassionate bullet, for in my agitation I made a fluky shot. +She died on the beach, and as the tide rose we floated her carcass into +the bay to the outer edge of the coral reef. The following morning the +sea gave up the dead not its own. Once more we towed it away into the +current which races north. + +Some time before these reiterated ceremonies Christmas had been born, +and I was grateful to the old mare, whose chronic cough had become one of +the sounds of the Island, for he is an ornament, a chum, a companion, +and a real character. I find myself confronted by inherent disadvantage, +for I cannot even describe his points in popular language. He is a +"clean-skin." That is the only horsey (or should it be equine?) phrase in +my vocabulary. He is a "clean-skin," and in more than one sense. Clean +describes him--character and all--and I like the word. He is 5 ft. 4½ in. +at the shoulders, barefooted, for he has never known a shoe, and his toes +are long; his waist measurement is 6 ft. 8 in., his tail sweeps the +ground, his forehead is broad, his eyes clear, with just a gleam of +wickedness now and again; his ears neat, furry, and very mobile; his +colour a greyish roan, tending more to white in his maturity, which now +is. Lest the detail might prejudice him in his love affairs, of which he +is as yet entirely innocent, I am determined not to mention his age, even +in the strictest confidence, and though the anniversary of his birth is +at hand. + +Though he spends most of his time in the forest, he takes astounding +interest in maritime affairs, watching curiously passing sailing boats +and steamers. More than once he has been first to proclaim, "A sail!" +for when he flourishes his head and tosses his mane and gives a +semi-gambol with his hind quarters, we know that he sees something +strange, and look in the direction in which he gazes. + +But I am ahead of my story. When he was in his shy, frisky foalage--as +nervous and twitchy as might be--one lucky day I offered him from a +distance of thirty yards one of the luscious bananas I was enjoying as I +strolled down the path to the beach. The aroma was novel, and apparently +very pleasant, for to my astonishment he walked towards me gingerly, but +with a very decided interest in the banana. As he approached on the pins +and needles of alertness, I extolled the qualities of the banana. He +stopped, and started again, anxious to taste the hitherto unknown +delicacy, but not at all trustful. Soon he came boldly up, and taking the +banana from my hand, ate it with the joy of discovery in his features, +and calmly demanded another. Thus began the breaking of Christmas, and if +I had had sense enough to have followed up his education on similar +lines, a deal of hard work, risk to life and limb, and the loss of some +little personal property might have been saved. Ever after, Christmas +could not resist the decoy of a banana. + +When he was two and a half years old we decided to break him in. He was +big, and strong, and wilful, and how was a feeble man with no experience +and a black boy confessedly frightened of the big horse to accomplish +such purpose? Tom is at home on a boat, and enjoys outwitting fish and +turtle and dugong. However unstable his craft and surly the sea, he keeps +calm; but with a tempestuous horse, who was wont to play about on the +flat, pawing the air like a tragic actor, and kicking it with devastating +viciousness, well--"Look out!" As was the horse, so was the yard +designed--big and strong. Some of the posts are one foot in diameter, and +four and a half feet in the ground. As neither of us had built a yard +before, there may be original points about this one; but I would admonish +others not to imitate them unless they have time, heaps of time, and an +oppressive stock of enthusiasm, and I may add, fascinating experience, +upon which to draw. The last-mentioned quality is invaluable in all such +enterprises. If you have it, full play is permitted the speculative, if +not the imaginative, faculties. If you have it not, then the work is +merely a brutal exercise, in which a dolt might excel. + +During the building of the yard I frequently reflected whether, though +Christmas lived to enjoy a long and laborious age, would all the work he +performed compensate for the strains and aches and bruises suffered. +Circumstances prevented the completion of the yard in exact accordance +with plans, for experience, that harsh stepmother, proved that the +enclosure was unnecessary. The yard exists as a monument to profane +misunderstanding of Christmas's character. Had I realised his +high-mindedness, his amiability, his considerateness and shrewdness, the +yard would never have been built; a month of fearful over-exertion, and +many pains would have been obviated, and poor Christmas saved much +physical weariness and perplexity. At the cost of three ripe bananas all +the virtue of the yard might, had we but known, have been purchased. + +High and strong, and especially ponderous where it was weak, the yard +was at last ready. The next process was to induce Christmas to enter it. +We had another horse, Jonah, the nervous, stupid, vexatious skew-ball. In +the absence of saddle and bridle, Tom deemed it wise not to attempt to +round up Christmas. I admired his wisdom without exactly committing +myself, and we resorted to strategy. + +Naturally Christmas is inquisitive. He watched the building of the yard +so intently that we half expected his curiosity might prompt him to try +if it were adapted to his tastes and requirements. But when we chuckled +and coaxed he grew suspicious, behaved quite disdainfully with his heels, +and took a marine excursion to a neighbouring island. When he came back +after three days, a banana tempted him. He was a prisoner before he +realised. We giggled. The next thing was to rope him. Our perversity +converted a trustful, gentle creature temporarily into a ramping rogue. +Twice he snapped a new Manilla rope of like make and dimensions to that +which is used in the harpooning of whales. For two days the conflict +continued. Sullen and suspicious, Christmas ate scantily of the green +grass we cut for him and drank from a bucket when we were not looking. +At last a crisis came. Tom lassooed him once more. Nelly (Tom's spouse) +assisted me to take up the slack round a blockwood tree as Tom +cautiously, but with great demonstrations of evil intentions, hunted the +weary horse into the corner, where we designed to so jam him that a +halter might be put on with a minimum of risk to ourselves. Christmas +made a supreme effort. He roared and reared, and when the rope throttled +him, in rage and anger dashed his head against the foot-thick corner-post. +The shock loosened it, so that two rails sprang out (just missing my +scalp) and stunned Christmas. + +As he lay on the ground with twitching lips, with frantic haste we cut +the rope, and in a few seconds he rose to his feet, discovering that he +was in the land of the living with a joyful whinnying. If he had not been +endowed with the suavity of a gentleman and the long-suffering of a +saint, he would have walked off, for the yard was in a disreputable state +of repair, and we were all shaky from the effects of nerve-shock. But no, +in spite of abuse and misunderstanding, he was resolved at cost of +whatever discomfort to himself to give us further lessons in the science +of horse-breaking. He stood patiently while we patched up the fence. Then, +taking the halter, and my courage, in both hands, I walked to his head, +and with a few comforting words put it on. The good horse looked down at +me with wondrous eloquence. His sensitive upper lip spoke, and his +sneering nostrils; his twitchy ears told his thoughts as truly as +semaphores; his clear eyes under sagacious white lashes transmitted +emotions I could not fail to comprehend. "Is that what you wanted me to +do?" said he. "Why didn't you do it before? We have quite misunderstood +one another! And what an exciting time we have had! I thought you were +going to garrotte me. Yes, give me a banana. Follow you? Yes, of course, +with pleasure; but don't attempt to hang me again or else there'll be +trouble. Another banana if you please. Now, don't be frightened, I'm not +going to run over you. I'm not that sort of horse. If I were there might +have been a beastly mess in this yard any time the last two days. I was +beginning to feel quite peevish. I don't know what might happen if I +became really vexed. Another banana. Certainly you took great risks for +a little man. We are beginning to understand one another. Are there any +more ripe bananas handy?" He said all this and more, as he looked round, +cheerfully accepting peace-offerings and listening to many consolatory +words. The next morning he showed us how a young and not foolish horse +should accept bit and bridle. + +Several other episodes embellish the early career of Christmas as a +working horse, all of them, I conscientiously confess, arising from gross +misunderstanding. He knew in what manner a good-natured, competent, lusty +horse should be handled and trained. We didn't, and necessarily had to +learn. He trained himself while we took hearty lessons in holding him. +Once he decided to gallop with a sled. It was a mere whim--a gay little +prank--but Tom couldn't stop him. He ran too, holding on to the reins at +arm's length, contrary to my counsel, urged from discreet distance. +Christmas ran faster, and by and by Tom sat down on his chin, and +Christmas went on without him. He didn't quite remember the width +of the sled. Consequently when with a careless flourish he whisked +between two bloodwoods the sled struck one with a shock that for a +moment "dithered" the Island. It was just like that sucking earthquake +which went off bang under Kingsley's bed when he was in Italy. The +bruise is on the tree now, and the sled wasn't worth taking home for +firewood. Christmas went on but just as the passion of the moment calmed +down, the trailing reins--fit to hold a whale, be it repeated--caught +in a tough sapling, and it was Christmas that went down. It was only a +trip, but as he got up and faced about looking for the remains of the +sled, the harness, tugged by the reins, crowded on his neck--backband, +collar, hames, chains and all. Then began a merry-go-round, for +Christmas, properly bedevilled, lost his presence of mind, and in a fancy +costume of the Elizabethan age--a ruff of harness--waltzed most +fantastically. + +Again a few soothing words and two bananas calmed his affrighted and +angry soul. Great is the virtue of the banana! A goodly hour was spent +in untying the knots, and Tom made the one joke of his life. "My word, +that fella Christmas he no good for boat. He make'm knot--carn let go +quick!" Christmas is not petulant, though he is occasionally indignant +on a large and complicated scale. + +Early in his career Christmas showed and materialised the quality of +masterfulness, his chief trait. He bullied Jonah, now banished to "an +odd angle of the Isle," courted encounters with a huge nondescript dog +belonging to the blacks which once disrespectfully snapped at his heels +and for ever after took a distorted view of things on account of a +lop-sided jaw, and was wont to scatter the goats with a wild gallop +through the flock. How meek and gentle his demeanour when he whinnies +over the gate for bananas, or screws his head beneath the kitchen shutter +and shuts his eyes and opens his lips, tempting his mistress to treat him +to unknown dainties! And for all his masterful spirit did he not once +fly from Jonah? During one of Tom's many absences ex-trooper George was +chief assistant in the administration of the affairs of the Island, +between whom and Christmas cordial companionship was manifested; for +George, in his understanding of horses, knew how to flatter and gratify +Christmas with small attentions. + +More at home in the saddle than on foot, having improvised bit and +bridle, he rode off on Jonah into the bush, unobserved of Christmas, who +had never beheld one of his species so hampered by a human being. While +George was away it occurred to one of us to suggest that a high-mettled, +never-ridden steed might be flustered when confronted with novel and +incomprehensible circumstances. When George cantered home, Christmas +gazed, horror-struck, for a moment, bounded into the air, snorted, and +with flowing mane and flying tail fled to the most secluded corner of +the paddock with strides that seemed to gulp the ground. In a few +minutes he returned at the trot, inquisitive, high-stepping, tossing +his head, flinging little clods of earth far behind, snorting, and +tail trailing like a plume of steam from a locomotive. Again he looked, +baulked, and with a contemptuous fling of heels raced up the paddock. +Retreating to him was not running away, nor was staying wisdom when +danger overbalanced hope. Again he made a gallant effort to vanquish +his fear, but at the critical moment Jonah, under the stimulus of +George's heels, charged, and Christmas, with a squeal of terror, +thundered blindly among the trees. Now was he convinced of the +grisliness of the visitation. That downtrodden, servile Jonah, from whom +he exacted prompt obedience to every passing whim, should be thus +translated and so puffed up with audacity as to chase him was proof of +the presence of incredible mischief from which the most valorous might +with discretion retire; and without pause he galloped--free and wild as +the blast of a tempest--round the paddock time and again, keeping the +greatest possible space between himself and the pursuing apparition. + +George kept up the fun until Christmas, beginning to reflect, swerved +from fear to the attitude of anger, and to paw the ground and to sniff +defiantly the air. Trotting boldly up towards Jonah, he neighed +imperatively, but George waved off his assurance with his hat, and +Christmas collapsing with fright, made furious haste for non-existing +solitude. Once more he ventured, with bolder, more menacing front. He +reared, pranced, kicked, savaged the air--not an item of all his pentup +wickedness being undemonstrated. Then George dismounted suddenly, and +calling in soothing tones, Christmas realised that the appalling +creature was but a temporary compound of his playmate and the abject +Jonah. Cautiously advancing in a series of contours dislocated with +staccato stops and starts and frothy exclamations, he seemed to recognise +the whole episode as a practical joke, of which he had been the victim, +and to promise retaliation upon Jonah, for no sooner was that meek animal +at liberty than he became the sport and jeer. + +From the catalogue of the more theatrical doings of Christmas one more +may be cited. Within a week of his yarding he had taught us so much, +inspired us with such confidence in his resourcefulness and ability, that +we resolved to give him a treat in the plantation dragging round a +miniature disc-harrow, a particular brand of agricultural implement +known as the "pony dot." Being so, in fact and appearance, it was quite +a misfit for Christmas--a mere toy with which a gay young horse might +condescend to beguile a few loose hours. It was a charming morning. +Birds were vulgarly sportful. Honey-eaters whistled among the trees, +scrub-fowl chuckled in the jungle. Christmas, too, was bent on amusing +himself, and he was so lusty and jocund, and the toy jangled and +clattered so cheerfully that neither Tom nor myself could bestow +much attention to the birds. What was gentle exercise to Christmas +was quite sensational to us. He did not mind what stumps and logs +were in the way. We did. Our agility was distinctly forced. But it +was a charming morning, and Christmas was out for pleasure. In an +hour or so the monotony of the picnic began to pall on Christmas, +and as Tom began to chirp at him familiarly, if not quite authoritatively, +I sat down in the shade to reflect that while Christmas had been +violently exercising me, some of the charm of the day had filtered +through my aching fingers. How pleasant it was to think that the +discordant labour of the tropical agriculturist was past! This charming +morning had settled it all. Tom and Christmas and the "pony dot" would +keep the whole plantation as innocent of weeds as the Garden of Eden. +Thus to muse in the dim arcade of the jungle absorbing the sounds of the +birds, and of the murmuring sea, while a horse did all the work, in +holiday humour, was the very bliss of the tropical farmer. + +In the midst of a soothing, inarticulate soliloquy the "pony dot" +burst out into a furious jangle. Tom yelled. Quick hoofs thudded on the +soil, and Christmas swept through the banana-plants like a destroying +angel, in a glorious bolt for home. The picnic had palled; and Tom, +shouting rebukes, orders, and suggestions from behind a tree, showed by +his dun-coloured skin that he had been dragged ignominiously through the +freshly tilled soil. A remarkable feature of the plantation is a steep +bank, the original strand line of the Island. Christmas, with the reins +soaring like lassos, and harness welting his fat sides, stampeded to his +fate. In a flash I saw what a ludicrous misfit the "pony dot" was. The +impish invention--malignant purpose in its incompassionate metallic +heart--furiously pursued Christmas twenty feet at a bound, discs whirling, +every bearing squeaking with spite and fury. Struck with bewilderment, +the honey-eaters became dumb, the dismayed doves forgot to coo, the +scrub-fowl ceased their chuckling, and three cockatoos flew from the +blue-fruited quandong-tree shrieking abominable sarcasms. As Christmas +heaved over the banks the reins thrashed him. Resenting the insult, his +heels flew high. The "pony dot" flew higher and jangled and screeched with +accumulating vindictiveness. To what fearsome figure had this hasty +flight transformed the mean little emblem of rusticity? A tipsy goblin? +No--rather a limping aeroplane of the Stone Age; and it rattled like a +belfry under the shock of bombardment. Could there be any crueller device +to tie an unsophisticated horse to, and a horse whose single thought had +been a merry morning? It would, when the crisis came, leap frenziedly on +Christmas and slice him with keen, whizzing blades. + +Tom raced past--a five-act tragedy in pantomime! A terrible jangle and +catastrophic silence! No groan from misused Christmas. No remarks from +the dumbfounded birds! With the vicious aeroplane hopping after him, he +had galloped for the narrow aisle through the ribbon of jungle concealing +the beach. There he had met his fate! Yes, the "pony dot" anyhow and +everywhere, and Christmas all of a heap beyond. With imprecations on all +"pony dots" in my mind, I hastened to inspect the mangled remains. They +groaned, struggled to their feet, shook themselves and went placidly +home as soon as we had unhitched the chains. One scratch on the most +rotund part of the body was the only record of the "brief, eventful +history," and Christmas smiled in Tom's face as he munched a +soul-soothing banana. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + + +THE SPORT OF FATE + + + "A populous solitude of bees and birds + And fairy-formed and many-coloured things." + + BYRON. + +Was ever a more glorious season for butterflies, and, alas! be it said, +for sand and fruit and other flies of humble bearing but questionable +character? + +Light-hearted, purely ornamental insects, sober and industrious, ugly, +mischievous, destructive, all have revelled--and the butterfly brings the +art of inconsequent revelling to the acme of perfection--in the +comparatively dry air, in the glowing skies, and in the succession of +serene days. Moreover there has been no off-hand, untimely destruction +of the nectariferous blossoms of millions of trees and shrubs. Frail as +some flowers are, others linger long if unmolested by profane winds, +offering a protracted feast of honey, pure and full-flavoured. The light +sprinklings of rain have served to freshen the air and moisten the soil +without diluting the syrupy richness of floral distillations. All the +generous output has been over-proof. + +Gaudy insects, intoxicated and sensuous, have feasted and flirted +throughout the hours of daylight, and certain prim moths, sonorous of +flight, find subtly scented blossoms keeping open house for them the +livelong night. + +Let others vex their souls and mutter the oddest sorts of imprecations +because the fruit-fly cradles its pampered young in the juiciest of their +oranges. Me it shall content to watch butterflies sip the nerve-shaking +nectar of the paper-barks, and in their rowdy flight cut delirious scrolls +against the unsullied sky. + +Shall not I, too, glory in the superb season, and its scented +tranquillity? Even though but casual glances are bestowed on the dainty +settings of the pages on which Nature illustrates her brief but brilliant +histories, understanding little, if aught, of her deeper mysteries, but +thankful for the frankness and unaffectedness of their presentation--shall +not I find abundance of sumptuous colour and grace of form for my +enjoyment, and for my pondering texts without number? + +What more fantastic scene than the love-making of the great green and +gold and black Cassandra--that gem among Queensland butterflies-when four +saucy gallants dance attendance on one big, buxom, sober-hued damsel of +the species, and weave about her aerial true lovers' knots, living +chains, festoons, and intricate spirals, displaying each his bravest +feathers, and seeking to dazzle the idol of the moment with audacious +agility, and the beauty of complex curves and contours fluid as billows? + +The red rays of the Umbrella-tree afford a rich setting to the scene. The +rival lovers twirl and twist and reel as she--the prude--flits with +tremulous wings from red knob to red knob--daintily sampling the spangles +of nectar. + +Not of these living jewels in general, but of one in particular, were +these lines intended to refer--the great high-flying Ulysses, first +observed in Australia on this very island over half a century ago. It was +but a passing gleam, for the visiting scientist lamented that it flew so +high over the treetops that he failed to obtain the specimen. True to +name, the Ulysses still flies high, and wide--a lustrous royal blue with +black trimmings and dandified tails to his wings that answer the dual +purpose of use and ornament. + +When Ulysses stops in his wanderings for refreshment he hides his +gorgeous colouring, assuming similitude to a brown, weather-beaten leaf, +and then the tails complete the illusion by becoming an idealistic stalk. +He is one of the few, among gaily painted butterflies that certain birds +like and hawk for. When in full flight, by swift swerves and doubles, he +generally manages to evade his enemies, but during moments of +preoccupation is compelled to adopt a protective disguise. + +As the boat floated with the current among the bobbing, slender spindles +of the mangroves--youthful plants on a voyage of discovery for new +lands--there appeared a brown mottled leaf on the surface. A second +glance revealed a dead Ulysses--an adventurous creature which had +succumbed to temporary weakness during a more than usually ambitious +maritime excursion. Here was a flawless specimen, for the wings of +butterflies, in common with the fronds of some delicate ferns, have the +property of repelling water, and do not readily become sodden, But as I +essayed to take it up tenderly the wings boldly opened, displaying just +the tone of vivid blue for which the silvery sea was an ideal setting. + +It was sad to be weary and to fail; to experience gradual but inevitable +collapse; to flop helplessly to the water to drown; but the lightest +touch of the hand of man was a fate less endurable--too, frightful by far +to submit to without a struggle. So, with a grand effort the great insect +rose; and the sea, reluctant to part with such a rare jewel, retained in +brown, dust-like feathers the pattern of the mottling of the under +surface of the wings. What finicking dilettantism--was ever such "antic, +lisping, affecting fantastico?"--that rough Neptune, who in blind fury +bombards the stubborn beaches with blocks of coral, should be delicately +susceptible to the downy print of a butterfly's wings! + +Though languid and weary, the butterfly was resolute in the enjoyment of +the sweetness of life, Its flight, usually bold, free, and aspiring, was +now clumsy, wavering, erratic. Three-quarters of a mile away was an +islet. Some comely instinct guided it thitherwards, sometimes staggering +low over the water, sometimes flitting splendidly high until distance and +the glowing sky absorbed it. + +My, course lay past the islet, and I stood in the boat that I might see +the coral patches slipping past beneath, the shoals of tiny fish, and the +swift-flying terns, the broad shield of the sea, and the purple mountains. +Close to the islet what I took to be the tip of a shark's fin appeared. +It seemed to be cutting quick circles, rising and dipping as does the +dorsal fin when a shark is closely following, or actually bolting its +prey. As the boat approached, the insignia of a voracious shark changed +to the spent Ulysses, making forlorn and ineffectual efforts to rise. +Once again, however, the fearsome presence of man inspired a virile +impulse. Ulysses rose, flapping wildly and unsteadily but with gallant +purpose. The islet was barely twenty yards away. Would the brave and +lovely emblem of gaiety reach it and rest? It rose higher and higher in +lurching spirals, and having gained the necessary elevation, swooped +superbly for the sanctuary of the tree-lined beach. + +Rest and safety at last! But at that moment ironic Fate--having twice +averted drowning, twice waved off the hand of man--flashed out in the +guise of a twittering wood swallow. In the last stage of exhaustion no +evading swerve was possible. + +Two blue wings on the snow-white coral marked where the wanderings of +Ulysses had ended, while at the corner of the little cove a dozen +heedless Cassandras rioted amongst the rays of the umbrella-tree in curves +and swoops of giddy flight. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + + +FIGHT TO A FINISH + + +"Dire and parlous was the fight that was fought." + +With logic as absolute as that of the grape that can "the two-and-twenty +jarring sects confute," Nature sets at naught the most ancient of axioms. +How obvious is it that the lesser cannot contain the greater! Yet that +Nature under certain circumstances blandly puts her thumb unto her nose +and spreads her fingers out even at that irrefragable postulate, let this +plain statement of fact stand proof. + +Where the grass was comparatively sparse a little lizard, upon whose +bronze head the sunlight glistened, sighted on a chip a lumbering "March" +fly dreaming of blood, and with a dash that almost eluded observation +seized and shook it. With many sore gulps and excessive straining--for the +lizard was young and tender--the tough old fly was swallowed. While the +lizard licked its jaws and twirled its tail with an air of foppish +self-concern and haughty pride, a withered leaf not three inches away +stirred without apparent cause, and in a flash a tiny death adder +grappled the lizard by the waist. The grey leaf had screened its +approach. + +Both rolled over and over, struggling violently. For a minute or two +there was such an intertwining and confusion of sinuous bodies that it +was impossible to distinguish one from the other. The grip of the death +adder was not to be lightly shaken off. When "time" was called, the +truce lasted several minutes. Then the wrestling was continued in a +miniature cyclone of sand and grass-chips. All the energy was on the part +of the lizard. The death-adder kept on doing nothing in a dreadfully +determined way. In fighting weight the combatants seemed to be fairly +equally matched, but in length the lizard had the advantage by at least +two inches. The adder was slightly the bulkier. At times the lizard, full +of pluck, would scamper away a few inches, dragging the adder, or would +claw the sand into tiny, ineffectual furrows in vain efforts. The adder +was never able to shake the lizard; it merely maintained its grip. All +the wit and sprightliness of the fight was on the part of the lizard, +who lashed its foe with its pliant tail, and endeavoured so to swerve +as to bite. Both were light weights. One was all dash and sportive +agileness; the other played a dull waiting game with admirable finesse. + +In spite of the greater activity and muscular power of the lizard, the +combat seemed unfair, for in the cunning persistency of the frail but +determined little snake there was something uncanny and nerve-shaking. +For fully ten minutes the fight continued. The violent antics of the +lizard became less and less frequent. Obviously the tactics of the snake +were wearing it down. Though the lizard seemed to have lost none of its +spirit, the flesh was becoming weak. While it panted, its eyes twinkled +with inane ferocity, and the snake, with that peculiar fearsome, gliding +movement--neither wriggle nor squirm--typical of the species, slowly edged +its victim under the shadow of a tussock. There both reposed, the snake +calm in craft and design, the lizard waiting for the one chance of its +life. Swallowing the lizard under any circumstances seemed an impossible +feat. To begin the act in the middle of the body was absolutely beyond +accomplishment. There would come a time when the death-adder must release +its hold to re-seize its prey by the head or tail, and if the soul of the +lizard could possess itself in patience until that moment, and take +advantage of it, all might be well. + +Now, it seemed to me, the only witness to this fateful fray, that both +parties to it knew that the crisis had yet to come. The lizard reserved +all its energy for a supreme effort--for one leap to liberty and +life--while its impassive foe stolidly concentrated its powers in the +direction of an instantaneous release and a fresh grip at a convenient +part. Thus they lay. A thrill of excitement possessed me as I watched. +The flashing alertness of a fly-catching lizard, is it not proverbial? +Which was to be the master--the more muscular creature with four legs, the +whole previous existence of which had depended upon its agility, or the +subtle, slow, snake, which moves under ordinary circumstances not very +much faster than a clammy worm? As I watched with all possible keenness a +grey blur followed by bewildering wrigglings and contortions indicated a +new manoeuvre. Then instead of two reptiles at right angles, there +appeared to be but one, and with a tail at each end. The head of the +lizard was in the jaws of the death-adder. The fatal quickness of the +snake had decided the combat. + +But the lizard was not yet resigned to its fate. It rolled and reared and +wriggled, tossing and tumbling the adder; but all in vain. + +Alas! light-hearted lizard, servant and trustful companion of man, thou +art joined in woeful issue! There can be no deliverance for thy jewelled +head from that slow, all-absorbing chancery! No striving, no pushing with +frenzied fingers, no lashing with that whip-like tail may now avail. +Never more may you bask and blink in the glare, or doze in the +knife-edged shadows, or pounce upon gauze-winged flies. Thou hast learned +too late that snakes, like democracy, never restore anything. + +I waited for the finish, which came with painful slowness. The sides of +the victim heaved and quivered even as they slowly disappeared and the +end of that once foppish tail twitched sadly as it hung limply from the +jaws of the gorged snake. + +Although it had practically demonstrated that the lesser can contain the +greater, the snake was but triflingly increased in girth. It was just in +that phenomenal condition which entitled it to the honour of preservation +in a solution of formalin. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + + +SEA-WORMS AND SEA-CUCUMBERS + + +From the tinted tips of fragile corals to the ooze on the edge of the +beach sand there is seething life. Exposed by the ebb tide, the +sun-caressed slime glitters and shimmers, so that if the observer is +content to stand still for a few moments he shall see myriads of +obscure activities, graceful and uncouth, of the existence of which he +has not previously dreamt and among which his footsteps make a +desolating track. Perhaps in no other earthly scene do the gradations of +life blend so obviously in form and appearance. This mud is primal, +fertile with primitives, for similitude of environment checks variations. + +In such tepid slime primordial life began, and in it even in these latter +days the far beginning of superior things may be discovered actively +pursuing their craft and purpose in the order of the universe. Worms are +abundant, and among them certain genera which might be taken as apt +illustrations of the more significant facts of evolution. Studying them, +the parting of the ways between two distinct orders, each having a +conspicuous feature in common while differing in appearance and habits +generally, is made strangely plain, and I propose in my unversed way to +demonstrate the line of upward development in a few examples. + +Accepting as a primitive form that deplorably thin, phantasmal worm which +excavates in the ooze an appropriately narrow shaft indicated by a +dimple, or, in some cases, a swelling mound with a well-defined crater +and circular pipe, the ascent of the genealogical tree is not beset with +any great difficulty. These worms are grey in colour and shoddy in +texture, merely a tough description of slime with a crude head and long, +simple filaments. The sides of the shafts are smooth, and on the least +alarm the nervous inhabitant retracts with surprising alertness. Slightly +superior in grade, but in uninterrupted succession, is a similar worm +which solidifies its shaft with a kind of mortar and carries it up above +the level of the ooze about an inch or so--a crude effort in the +direction of the acquirement of some ease of circumstance. These flue-like +projections are more frequent on the verge of the sandy beach. + +The next in order--still slim, though of a slightly more robust habit of +body--has acquired the art of spinning (caterpillar-like) a cocoon, and +of causing to adhere to the exterior thereof grains of sand and minute +chips of shell. Though this vestlet is very frail and though the sandy +outer coat is liable to drop off (when it collapses altogether), it seems +to me to indicate distinct progress, a successful accomplishment in the +direction of isolation, independence, and security. Does it not signify +that the animal has a certain perception of the knowledge of good and +evil such as dawned upon Eve as she ate the diverting apple? Eve +forthwith took to fig-leaves; the slim worm knitted a shoddy wrapper and +reinforced it with grains of sand when it realised that there was +something better than slush for a dwelling. The sandy coverlet is +evidence of the gift of discrimination. + +A still more highly endowed relation spins a similar fabric, upon which +are loosely agglutinated numbers of small dead shells, grit, and even +opercula a quarter of an inch in diameter. In weight, size, and number of +its constituents this exterior armour is altogether disproportionate to +the extreme tenuity of its foundation. Too unsubstantial to sustain its +own weight, it sprawls, like the track of a tipsy snail, indeterminately, +slowly developing its sinuosities over the irregular surface of a rock, +and slightly adherent thereto, throughout its whole length. Of this there +seem to be several nicely shaded grades, some in the form of galleries +laboriously built of a mixture of mud and sand, and each indicating +superiority to the naked denizen of the clement mud. They seem to be +superior in appearances also, for some of the animals display brightly +coloured plume-like tentacles, long and capable of being ostentatiously +fluttered. + +The individual worm next to be described typifies such a wonderful +advance that it might almost be designated a subsequent and intrusive +sport, no marked are the distinctions it exhibits. It is one of the +shell-binders (PECTINARIA), but its mansion of mosaics is unique and +beautiful. In the universal struggle for place, self-preservation, and +food, the animal has acquired a higher order of intelligence and keener +perceptions of safety and of the niceties of life than its fellows. +Living in sand and mud, in obedience to some gracious instinct, it +gathers numbers of small shells, grit, and fragments of coral wherewith +to construct a tube, somewhat similar in shape to the horn of cornucopia, +and from three to six inches long. The materials are cemented together in +accordance with a symmetrical design, the interior being lined with a +transparent substance, which, when dry, is readily separable from the +casing! This creature accomplishes by calculation, choice, and dexterity +that which a subtle chemical process does unconsciously for the more +advanced mollusc, and that it practised the art of the interlocking of +atoms ages before the birth of Macadam can scarcely be doubted. + +My imagination loves to dwell on the perceptive faculties possessed by +this lowly creature, a creature soft and delicate, merely such and such a +length of gelatinous substance, slightly stiffened and toughened and +graced with a pair of tentacles glittering like tinsel extended from a +marvellously constructed tube. + +In certain structural details the animal (which in appearance has greater +resemblance to a caterpillar than a worm) is even more remarkable than +the ornate dwelling it constructs, for it is an actual though living +prototype of the fabled race (catalogued by Othello with the +anthropophagi)-- + + + "Whose heads + Do grow beneath their shoulders." + + +The paradox exists, not as a whim or grimace on the part of Nature but +for a definite and vital end. In default the animal would be unable to +obey the first law of Nature--self preservation--for it is soft-bodied and +its dwelling has the serious defect of being open at both ends. In such +plight lacking special organs it would be at cruel advantage in the +struggle for existence. The posterior segment of the body is therefore +developed into an operculum-like organ, smooth and of horny texture, +which closes the narrow end of the tube. The other extremity is more +elaborately guarded, the anterior segment being fringed with a frontal +membrane, while the second segment forms a disc, the minute mouth orifice +with the true tentacles and gills being debased to the third segment. + +Confronted by danger, the animal closes its front door by retracting +until the disc presses immovably against the circumference of the tube, +the retraction being so sudden that a frail spurt betrays the whereabouts +of an otherwise secret dwelling-place. In the centre of the disc is the +first segment, from which the frontal fringe is extended in the form of +an array of keen bristles as a defensive weapon. With the lid at one end +and the armed disc at the other the animal enjoys security and comfort, +and when unsuspicious the "shoulders" protrude, the head meekly +following. The tentacles are serrate and glitter like tinsel, possibly +for the fascination of the minute forms of life which the tube-dweller +consumes. To enable it to retract and emerge quickly the animal is +provided with a series of tufts of bristles on the back and on the +ventral surface of the body with a row of toothed "pads," which fulfil +the dual office of grapplers and feet. + +With what skill and patience does this pectinarian construct its ornate +habitation! How artfully does it pick and choose among the tiny shells +and grit! With what rare discretion rejects the unfit, and with what +satisfaction retains a neat and dainty item of building material! How +deftly does it arrange its courses and bonds, cementing each fragment in +its place until a perfect cylinder, proportionate in dimensions, +uniformly expanding in circumference, smooth within, rugged without, +scientifically correct in design, is the result! How apt, too, the +frictionless lining! And all this laborious neatness and precision +absorbed in the construction of a tenement which has no time! Does the +inmate possess any sense of duration? Addison (quoting a French +authority) says that it is possible some creatures may think half an hour +as long as we do a thousand years! The magnificent mind of the modern +biologist regards a million of years as a mere fag-end of time. The +industrious worm which has built so choice a home may have enjoyed the +sense of comfort and security for a period representing an honourable +age, while, according to the standards of man, the home was not worth the +building for so short a tenancy. + +Do we not see in this astonishing example a highly successful effort of a +marine worm to improve on the condition and habits of its barbarous +ancestors? Analyse a bulk sample of the building material, and you shall +find it not dissimilar from the shell of a mollusc, and the interior +film--no doubt a secretion of the animal--is to be safely accepted as +analogous to the silky smoothness which molluscs (often of rough and +rugged exterior) obtain by nacreous deposit and which finds its +culmination in the goldlip mother-of-pearl? + +Still higher in the series, so far as the construction of a tenement is +concerned, is that known as the SERPULA, a worm which constructs a +calcareous tube more or less loosely convoluted and adherent to a shell +or stone or coral, or sometimes entwined into a self-supporting colony. + +Another worm builds of sand or mud, with a rough casting of fine gravel +and shell-grit, a habitation similar in design to that of the serpula, +though on a less complete and authoritative model; indeed, it would +almost seem that the latter had designed its tenement after the fashion +of that of its poor relation--that the one made a study in mud which the +other reproduced in carbonate of lime. But the most curious fact is that +a true mollusc (VERMETUS) so far departs from the fashion prevalent in +the molluscan world of building a spiral shell, that after beginning one +in proper spiral mode it elongates itself in vermiform manner and forms +an irregular serpuloid tube on the surface of larger shells or stones +just as the SERPULA does; so that without examination of the animal one +may easily be mistaken for the other. + +What a contrast is here--on the one hand a lowly worm learning to build a +solid if rude shelly covering for its tender body, on the other a +relative of the elegant, many-whorled TURRITELLA forgetting its high +station and degenerating to the likeness of a worm. No doubt it is really +a case of degeneration from the acquirement of fixed habits, just as when +a lively young crustacean larva gives up its free independent life and +glues its head to a stone--what happens? Why, he becomes a mere barnacle +instead of a spritely shrimp as he might have been! Let mankind take +note and beware. + +Another group of worm-like or snaky creatures common on a coral-reef are +the sea-cucumbers or bêche-de-mer. In my experience the most singular +branch of the family is at once the longest and thinnest, for it +resembles a snake so closely that at first sight the observer +subconsciously assumes an attitude of hostility. There seem to be two +varieties of the species. One is much more ruddy in appearance than the +other, and its body is the smoother; but they are much alike in physique +and helplessness. The figure of a sausage-skin four or five and even six +feet long, and capable of elongation to almost double, containing muddy +water in circulation and one end exhibiting a set of ever-waving +tentacles, conveys a not unflattering notion of the animal as it lies +coiled among the coral, half hidden with algae. Far too feeble to be +offensive, it suffers collapse on alarm--that is to say, if such a violent +mental and physical ill can befall an animal of such crude organism. At +least, the tentacles are withdrawn, nor will they be protruded until +some sense--unlikely to be either sight, hearing, taste, or touch, but +probably nervous tension acutely susceptible to vibrations--tells that +danger is past. Then the tentacles are shyly exhibited and the agitations +of the animal are renewed. + +Throughout the length of the body of the more remarkable of the two +species of which I may speak on first-hand knowledge are four rows of +bosses, closely spaced, which when the animal has dragged its slow length +along to the utmost limit diminish into mere wrinkles, and disappear +altogether when it is slung across a stick, and the fluid contents, being +precipitated, congest and woefully weight each end, sometimes to the +bursting-point. The bosses of repose seem to indicate so much length in +reserve. A dozen simple tentacles, sword-shaped, with frayed edges, and +about an inch and a half long, indicate the head without decorating it, +for they are of an inconspicuous neutral tint, closely resembling the +alga among which the animal slowly winds its way. + +The progress of all species of bêche-de-mer is sedate and cautious, and +this, probably the longest and the weakest and limpest of all, surpasses +the race in deliberateness. It cannot move as a whole, so it progresses +in sections. When the head has been advanced to its utmost, about the +middle of the body an independent series of succeedant ripples or +wrinkles manifests itself and travels consistently ahead, while farther +towards the rear another series follows, and so on, until the lagging +tail is enabled to wrinkle itself along. But the animal is endowed with +the capacity of quite suddenly retracting its forepart like the bellows +of a concertina, and when so compressed to heave it backward or in any +direction, so that an immediate change of route is possible. The +retraction and uplifting of the foreshortened part is astonishingly rapid +in view of the methodic movements of the animal as a whole. It is also +notable that when the retraction takes place the tentacles are entirely +withdrawn, otherwise they are for ever anxiously exploring every inch of +the toilsome way. Scientific men have entitled one of the +species--possibly the very one blunderingly introduced--SYNAPTA BESELLII, +and brief reference is made to it elsewhere. + +One member of the great "sea-cucumber," or BÊCHE-DE-MER, family is +especially noticeable because it is decorated with colours of which a +gaily plumaged bird might be envious, though it has no other claim to +comeliness. Most primitive in form--merely a flattened sac, oval and four +inches long by three inches broad, with a purple and white mouth puckered +as if contracted by a drawn string. Its general tint is grey; +longitudinal bands of scarlet, green, violet, and purple radiate from the +posterior and converge at the mouth, the hues blending rainbow-like. The +brighter colours seem to have been carelessly and profusely applied, for +they run when touched and smear the fingers. Among a family generally +sad-hued and shrinking so conspicuous an example is quite prodigal and +invites one to ponder upon the sportfulness of Nature. What special +office in her processes does this fop of the species with prismatic +complexion perform? + +The functions of bêche-de-mer are not only interesting, but requisite in +the commonwealth of the coral reef, however purposeless to the observer +intent upon the obvious and external only; while the genera are so +numerous that doubtless to each species is consigned the performance of +a special office. Some seem to delight in a diet of slush of the +consistency of thin gruel; others prefer fine grit; others, again, coarse +particles of shell and coral grit and rough gravel. Peradventure the +actual food consists of the micro-organisms in the slush and on the +superficies of the unassimilatable solids. + +When submitted to the sun on the dry beach death is speedy, and +decomposition in the case of some species complete to obliteration in a +few hours. An apparently solid body, weighty in comparison with its size +and apparently of such nature that rapid desiccation would convert it +into a tough, leathery substance, it melts at the sight of the sun, +leaving as a relic of existence its last meal--a handful of grit-covered +with a transparent film of varnish, which the first wavelet of the +flowing tide dissolves. Yet on the reef in a pool such an individual +endures complacently water heated to a temperature of 108°. Though +feeble and of such readily dissolvable texture, bêche-de-mer may be +regarded as among the mightiest agents in the conversion of the waste of +the coral reef into mud--the sort of mud of which some of the toughest of +rocks are compounded. Graded by this and that species, the debris is +reduced to fine particles, which upon sedimentation help to raise the +level of the reef and thus prepare foundations for dry land. + +For richness of colour and diversity of design some of the lovely corals +and sponges, which seem to counterfeit the inventions and contrivances of +man, and the algae, and those anomalous "growths" which fixedly adhere +to the under surface of stones and blocks of coral debris, are not to be +surpassed. These dull stones, partly buried in sand, reveal in blotches, +daubs, and smears the crude extravagances of a painter's palette. Can it +be that such brilliant colours and tints, so profuse and delicate, are +necessary features of animals of such crude organisms that they appear to +be merely disembodied splashes and driblets from the brush of the Great +Artist? Look at this fantastic patchwork, brightening the obscurity of +an upturned stone with glowing orange. In perfectly regular minute dots a +pattern of quartered squares, raised slightly in the centre, is being +worked out. Many of the squares are finished, but the fabric is rugged at +the edges, where, with miraculous precision, the design is being +followed, each tiny stitch the counterpart of its fellow. Unless this +gross and formless blotch of sage green interferes or this disc of royal +blue expands, the whole under surface of the stone may be covered with an +orange coloured quilt as dainty as if wrought by fairy fingers. + +Why, again, is this particular miniature dome of coral so precisely +spirally fluted, like the dome of a Byzantine cathedral? Why of so pure a +mauve and bespangled with so many millions of snow-white crystals? +Why--where no eyes see them--should parti-coloured algae flaunt such +graceful, flawless plumes? What marvellous fertility of imagination in +form and design is exhibited in every quiet coral garden! Stolid +battlemented walls, massive shapeless blocks, rollicking mushrooms, tipsy +toadstools; narrow fjords, sparklingly clear, wind among and intersect +the stubborn masses. Fish, bright as butterflies and far more alert, +flash in and out of mazes more bewildering than that in which Rosamond's +bower was secluded. Starfish stud the sandy flats, a foot in diameter, +red with burnished black bosses, and in all shades of red to pink and +cream and thence to derogatory grey. Here is a jade-coloured +conglomeration of life resembling nothing in the world more than a loose +handful of worms without beginning and without end, interloped and +writhing and glowing as it writhes with opalescent fires; and here a +tiny leafless shrub, jointed with each alternate joint, ivory, white, and +ruby-red respectively; again this tracery of gold and green and salmon +pink decorating a shiny stone, in formal and consistent pattern. What is +it? why is it? and why are such luminous tints so sordidly concealed? + + + + +CHARTER XIII + + + +SOME MARINE NOVELTIES + + + "And call up unbound + In various shapes old Proteus from the sea." + + MILTON. + +During the cool season the tides on the coast of North Queensland offer +peculiar facilities to the observer of the thousand and one marvels of +the tropic sea. Spring tides throughout the warm months range low at +night and high during the day. In other words, the lowest day +spring-tide in winter exposes far more of the reefs than the lowest day +tide of summer, while the highest night tide of summer sweeps away the +data of the corresponding tide of winter. When, therefore, the far +receding water makes available patches of coral reef exposed at other +times of the year merely to the cool glimpses of the moon, I am driven to +explore them with an eagerness, if not of a treasure-seeker or in the +frenzies of naturalistic fervour, at least with the enthusiasm of an +ardent student. + +It may be that most of the sights which are revealed are of common +knowledge among scientific men, and if one is inclined to preach a +little sermon on the text of the living stones and polyps and animated +jelly, and if such text be trite, let it be granted that the sermon is at +least original. Necessarily the sermon will lack commentary and +application, and be very imperfect in many other details. If it possesses +any virtues, you must apply them personally, for the preacher is not +enlightened enough to expound them even to his own, much less to the +satisfaction of others. + +In many places on this reef little secrets, well kept throughout the rest +of the year, are boldly proclaimed when the sea retreats. A fairly common +one is a huge anemone of a rich cobalt blue which opens out like a +soup-plate with convoluted edges. Another has a form something resembling +a hyacinth-glass. The more public parts are not unlike a dwarf growth of +that old-fashioned flower the Prince of Wales's feather, save that the +colour is a rich brown. Being an animal, it possesses senses in which the +most highly specialised vegetable is deficient. It has the power of +waving its spikelets, and of the thousand of truncated tentacles which +cover the spikelets each seems to possess independent action. Though all, +no doubt, contribute to the sustenance of the animal, they, at will, rest +from their labours or assume great activity. + +It is natural to suppose that the diet of such an animal must be of +microscopic proportions. The other day I happened on one which had seized +a fish about four inches long, and seemed to be greedily sucking it to +death. The fish was still alive, and as it looked up at me with a +pathetic gleam in its watery eyes, I released it. It was very +languid--indeed, so feeble and faint that it could not swim away. Aid had +come too late. The fish was the legitimate prey of the anemone. My +interference had been at variance from the laws of property and right. As +the vestige of life which remained to the fish was all too fragile for +salvation, and as I saw the chance of ascertaining whether the anemone +had consciously seized it, or whether it had by mishap blundered against +the anemone and had been arrested for its intrusion, I placed the fish +close to the enemy. I am certain the anemone made an effort to reach it. +There was a decided swing of one of the spikes in the direction of the +fish, and decided agitation among the hundreds of minute tentacles. When +I, in the interests of remorseless truth, placed the fish in the anemone +it was immediately held fast, the activity on the part of the tubes +subsiding with an air of satisfaction at the same moment. + +It is well known that sea anemones do assimilate such robust and rich +diet as living fish. If one's finger is presented the spikelets adhere to +it. I cannot describe the sensation as seizure, for it is all too +delicate for that; but at least one is conscious of a faint sucking +pull. If the finger is rudely withdrawn, some of the tentacles which +have taken a firm hold are torn away. Again, the animal is often found +apparently asleep, for it is languid and listless, and will not respond +to the bait of a finger, however coaxingly presented. + +There is another giant anemone (DISCOMA HADDONI) known to the blacks as +"pootah-pootah," whose inner, reflexed, convoluted edges are covered with +tentacles of brown with yellow terminals. This is friendly to fish--at +any, rate to one species. It is the landlord or host of one of the +prettiest fish of all the wide, wide sea, and seems proud of the company +of its guest, and the fish is so dependent upon its host as to be quite +helpless apart from it. The fish (AMPHIPRION PERCULA) "intel-intel" of +the blacks, is said to be commensal (literally, dining at the same table +with its host), as distinguished from the parasite, which lives on its +host. + +The good-fellowship between the dainty fish--resplendent in carmine, +with a broad collar, and waist-band of silvery lavender (or rather silver +shot with lavender) and outlined with purple--and the great anemone is +apparent. If the finger is presented to any part of the latter, it +becomes adherent; or if the anemone is not in the mood for food, it +curls and shrinks away with a repulsive demeanour. But the beautiful +fish on the least alarm retires within the many folds of its host, +entirely disappearing, presently to peep out again shyly at the intruder. +It is almost as elusive as a sunbeam, and most difficult to catch, for if +the anemone is disturbed it contracts its folds, and shrinks away, +offering inviolable sanctuary. If the fish be disassociated from its +host, it soon dies. It cannot live apart, though the anemone, as far as +can be judged from outward appearances, endures the separation without a +pang. + +However, it is safe to assert that the association between the stolid +anemone and the painted fish--only an inch and a half long--is for their +mutual welfare, the fish attracting microscopic food to its host. And why +should one anemone greedily seize a fish, and another find pleasure in +the companionship of one of the most beautiful and delicate of the +tribe? + +This hospitable anemone occasionally takes another lodger--very frail and +beautiful. All that is visible on casual inspection is an irregular smear +of watery, translucent violet, flitting about in association with +disjointed threads--stiff, erratic, and delicately white. There is no +apparent connection between the spectral patch of colour and the animated +threads, though they are in company. If, determined to investigate the +mystery, the finger is presented, the colour evades it. It is conscious +and abhors the touch of man. Follow it up in the pellucid water, and make +of your hand a scoop, and you will find that you have captured, not a +phantom but a prawn, compact of one bewildering blotch--and that is a word +of doubtful propriety in connection with so elfin an organism--a mere +shadow tinted the palest violet, and transparencies, with legs and +antennae frail as silken threads. + + + "Substance might be called what shadow seemed, + For each seemed either." + + +So far I have never seen this lovely lodger in the same anemone with the +painted fish. The latter, perhaps, admires it too ardently and literally. + +Another marvel, the sea-hare (APLYSIA), is a crudely wedge-shaped body +but incomparable in its ruggedness to that or any other model, and the +colour of mud and sand and of coral, dead and sea-stained. It reposes, +with its back flush with the surface, beside a block of coral or stone +defiantly indistinguishable from the ocean floor--a stolid, solid, inert +creature, eight or ten inches long, the under part smooth, presenting the +appearance of wet chamois-leather, and irresponsive to touch--"the +mother tongue of all the senses." Ugly, loathsome, and tough of texture, +it is so helpless that if it is placed on the sand it is extremely +doubtful whether of its own volition it could regain its natural +position. The surge of the sea might roll it over, and it might then be +able to regain the grovelling attitude essential to life. Otherwise, I +am inclined to think fatal results would follow the mere placing of the +creature sideways on the sand. It seems to possess but the feeblest spark +of life, and yet it has its sentiments and love for its kind, for often +three or four are huddled together. And how, it may be asked, is this +creature, so apt at concealment and so completely disguised, made visible +to human eyes? + +The answer is that if by chance the animal is disturbed it makes a +supreme effort at further concealment, and that impulse--perfect as it may +be when set in opposition to the wit of the creature's nervous and +apprehensive enemies--reveals it most boldly to man. From a funnel-shaped +opening between two obscure flaps on the back--ordinarily invisible--there +is emitted a gush of liquid, royal purple in hue, which stains the sea +with an impenetrable dye for yards around. The colour, which is +delightfully gorgeous, mingles with the water in jets and curling +feathery sprays, enchanting the beholder with unique and ever-changing +shapes until a glorious cloud is created and he forgets the ugliness and +forgives the humility of the originator in the enjoyment of an artistic +treat. If the cloud which Jupiter assumed was of the imperial tone and of +the fascinating fashion which the groveller in the mud creates, Aegina +would have been superfeminine had she not joyously surrendered. Between +the neutral tints of the squalid sprawler and the fluid which it excretes +the contrast is so surprising that one involuntarily raises his hat by +way of apology for any slighting thoughts which may have arisen from +first and imperfect acquaintance. + +There are grounds for the entertainment of the belief that the ejected +fluid not only effectually conceals the scarcely discernible animal but +that it harshly affects the sensibilities of fish. + +In a partially submerged coral grotto were two small spotted sharks +(Wobbegong, CROSSORHINUS sp.) notoriously sluggish and averse from +eviction from their quarters during daylight. The larger callously +disregarded the tickling of a light fish spear, but lashed out vigorously +when a decisive prod was administered. In its flurry it must have +disturbed one of the dye-secreting molluscs, which had escaped my notice, +for in a few seconds the water was richly imbued. Thereupon both the +sharks began to manifest great uneasiness, and eventually with fluster +and splashing they worked among the fissures of the coral and shot out +into the unimpregnated sea. The sharks seemed to find the presence of the +forlorn groveller in the mud unendurable when it stained the water red, +though apparently indifferent to its presence as long, as it remained +quiescent, which facts lend confirmation to the popular opinion that the +fluid possesses a caustic-like principle violently irritative to the +skin. + +And why should this uncouth creature with scarcely more of life than a +lump of coral have within it a fountain filled with Tyrian dye? Why? +Because it has enemies; and though it seems to be SANS mouth, SANS eyes, +SANS ears, SANS everything it is instinct with the first law of +Nature--self-preservation. + +A fairly common inhabitant of the sandy shallows diversifying the coral +reef is a slim snake (? AIPYSINAS FUSCUS), sand-coloured, with a +conspicuous dark brown stock, defined with white edgings, a whitish nose +and pectoral fins so large as to remind one of those defiant collars +which Gladstone was wont to wear with such excellent effect. Blacks +invariably give the snake and its retreat a wide berth on the principle +enunciated by Josh Billings: "Wen I see a snaik's hed sticking out of a +hole I sez that hole belongs to that snaik." Among them this species has +the reputation of attacking off-hand whosoever disturbs it, and of being +provided with deadly venom. My experience, however, bids me say that the +pretty snake has the typical dread of the family of man, which dread +expresses itself in frenzied efforts to get out of the way when suddenly +molested. For the most part it lives in a neat hole, oubliette-shaped, and +in its eagerness to locate and reach its retreat it darts about with a +nimbleness which almost eludes perception. These frantic quarterings, I +believe, led to the opinion that the snake is specially savage, whereas +it is merely exceptionally nervous and eager for the security of its +home. Twice recently when I have startled one in an enclosed pool it has +darted hither and thither in extreme excitement, even passing between my +legs without offering any violence or venom, and has eventually +disappeared in a miniature maelstrom of mud, as the reptile often does. +Like that lively fellow of whom Chaucer tells: + + + "He is heer and there, + He is so variant, he bideth nowhere." + + +Dickens had in his mind a similarly elusive character when he wrote: "You +look at him and there he is. You look again--and there he isn't." + +This habit of furiously seeking a lair might pass casually but for an +astonishing detail, of which I was not well assured until it was +confirmed by repeated observations and by knowledge current among the +blacks. When the scared snake descends into its own well-defined well, +very little disturbance and no discoloration of the water takes place. +But when in desperation it disappears down a haphazard hole, a dense +little cloud of sediment is created. By careful watching I discovered +that the snake entered its home head first, but in any other hole the +tail had precedence, and that the frantic wriggling as it bored its way +down caused the obscuration. Moreover the snake--as subtle as any beast of +the field--first detects a befitting temporary retreat from apparent or +fancied danger, and then deliberately turns and enters tail first. Does +the fact justify the conclusion that the creature, in the moment +intervening between the detection of a present refuge in time of trouble +and its dignified retreat thereinto, calculates the possibility that the +unfamiliar habitation may be so narrow as to prevent the act of turning +round? Does this sea-snake match its wonderful nimbleness of body with an +equally wonderful nimbleness of brain? I do not presume to theorise on +such a conundrum of Nature, but mention an undoubted fact for others to +ponder. + +One of the salt sea snakes is distinguished by its odd, deceptive +shape--a broad, flattened tail whence the body consistently diminishes +to the head, which is the thinnest part. Other aquatic snakes have +paddle-shaped tails. + +Another singular denizen of the reef is a species of Acrozoanthus (?)--a +compound animal having a single body and several heads. The body is +contained in a perpendicular, parchment-like, splay-footed tube a foot +and a half or two feet long, whence the heads obtrude alternately as +buds along a growing branch. Many of the tubes are vacant--the skeletons +of the departed. From those which are occupied the heads appear as +bosses of polished malachite veined and fringed with dusky purple, and +yellow-centred. + + +SPAWN OF THE SEA + + +"The dewdrop slips into the shining sea." + +So Edwin Arnold. Here is an observation illustrating the manner in which +certain pellucid sea-drops materialise and ultimately shed themselves as +living organisms "into the shining sea." + +On November 6, 1908, the sea tossed up on the beach an exceptionally +large and absolutely perfect specimen of the egg-cluster of that spacious +and useful mollusc known as the Bailer Shell (MELO DIADEMA or CYMBIUM +FLAMMEUM). Its measurements were: length, 16¼ in.; circumference at +base, 12¾ in.; at middle, 11¼ in.; at apex 7 1/8 in. It weighed 1¾ lb. and +comprised 126 distinct capsules. The photograph presents a candid +likeness. + +During the same month and the first two weeks of December portions of +several other egg-clusters came ashore, and as they were in nicely +graduated stages of development I was enabled to indulge in an +exceptionally entertaining study--no less than the observation of the +transformation of glistening fluid into solid matter and life. In passing +it may be mentioned that the first and the last two months of the year +appear to constitute the period when the offspring of the species see the +light of day, proving that the natural impulses of some molluscs are +subject to rule and regulation similarly to those of birds and other +terrestrial forms. + +Each of the capsules composing the cluster is a cone with the apex free +and interior, while the base is external and adherent to its immediate +neighbours, but not completely so throughout its circumference. It +follows, therefore, that the cluster of capsules is hollow and that water +flushes it throughout. In appearance it resembles a combination of the +pineapple and the corncob, and to the base a portion of the coral-stem to +which it had been anchored by its considerate parent was firmly attached. + +When the cluster of capsules (the substance of which is tough, +semi-transparent, gelatine, opal-tinted, soon to be sea-stained a +yellowish green) is slowly expelled from the parent's body--I have been +witness to the birth--each contains about one-sixth ounce of vital +element, fluid and glistening. Physical changes in this protoplasm +manifest themselves in the course of a few days. The central portion +becomes a little less fluid, and from an inchoate blur a resemblance to a +diaphanous shell develops and floats, cloud-like, in a perfectly limpid +atmosphere. Gradually it becomes denser though still translucent, as it +seemingly absorbs some of the fluid by which it is surrounded. The model +of the future animal, exact even to the dainty contours and furrows around +that which represents the spire of the ultimate shell, is still without +trace of visible organs. That, however, its substance is highly complex is +obvious, for as imperceptible development progresses the exterior is +transformed into a substance resembling rice tissue-paper--an infinitely +fragile covering--which from day to day insensibly toughens in texture and +becomes separate from the animal. Faint opaque, transverse ribs are at +this stage apparent, though disappearing later on. Opacity is primarily +manifested at the aperture of the infant mollusc where a seeming +resemblance to an operculum forms, possibly for the protection of vital +organs during nascency. This plaque of frail armour is, however, soon +dismantled, and of course much more happens in the never-ceasing process +than is revealed to the uninitiated. + +As the calcareous envelope becomes opaque and solid, the animal within +loses its transparent delicacy, and coincidentally the apex of the +capsule opens slightly. In the meantime the fluid contents have +disappeared, as if the animal had resulted from its solidification. The +animal, too, is a very easy fit in its compartment, and incapable, in its +extreme fragility of withstanding the pressure of a finger. Now it begins +to increase rapidly in bulk and sturdiness; the shell becomes hard, and +as the exit widens it screws its way out of a very ragged cradle, +emerging sound and whole as a bee from its cell, all its organs equipped +to ply their respective offices. + +With pardonable affectation of vanity it has finally fitted itself for +appearance in public by the assumption of three or four buff and brown +decorations upon its milk-white shell, which quickly blend into a pattern +varying in individuals, of blotches and clouds in brown, yellow, and +white. In maturity the mollusc weighs several pounds, its shell has a +capacity for as much as two gallons of water, and is coloured uniformly +buff, while in old age infantile milk-white reasserts itself. + +It is not for such as I am in respect of the teachings of science to say +whether the development of the perfect animal from a few drops of +translucent jelly--as free from earthly leaven as a dewdrop--is to be more +distinctly traced, in the case of this huge mollusc than in other +elementary forms. All that it becomes an unversed student of life's +mysteries to suggest is that this example gives bold advertisement to the +marvellous process. + +Many of the secrets of life are written in script so cryptic and obscure +that none but the wise and greatly skilled may decipher it, and they +only, when aided by the special equipment which science supplies. In this +case the firm but facile miracle is recorded in words that he that runs +may read. Independent of microscope the unskilled observer may trace +continuity in the transformation of jelly to life. + +The sea-drop, lovely in its purity, knowing neither blemish nor flaw, +becomes an animal with form and features distinctive from all others, +with all essential organs, means of locomotion, its appetite, its +dislikes, its care of itself, its love for its kind, its inherent malice +towards its enemies--all evolved in a brief period from the concentrated +essence of life. + +"If, as is believed, the development of the perfect animal from +protoplasm epitomises the series of changes which represent the +successive forms through which its ancestors passed in the process of +evolution" (these are the words of Professor Francis Darwin) what a +graphic, what a luminous demonstration of evolution is here presented! + +In a brief previous reference to this mollusc it was stated that the +infants in their separate capsules were in a state of progressive +development from the base to the apex of the cluster, those in the base +being the farther advanced. Investigations lead to a revision of such +statement. No favour seems to be enjoyed by first-born capsules. +Development is equable and orderly, but as in other forms of life the +contents of certain capsules seem to start into being with a more +vigorous initial impulse than others, and these mature the more speedily. +A sturdy infant may be screwing its way out of its cradle, while in a +weakly and degenerate brother alongside the thrills of life may be far +less imperative. + +The pictures illustrate isolated scenes in the life-history of the +mollusc, which in a certain sense offers a solution to, the conundrum +stated by job "Who, hath begotten the drops of dew?" + + +PROTECTIVE COLORATION + + +July 17, 1909. + +Found a small cowry shell of remarkable beauty on dead coral in the Bay. +At first sight it appeared as a brilliant scarlet boss on the brown +coral, and upon touching it the mantle slowly parted and was withdrawn, +revealing a shell of lavender in two shades in irregular bands and +irregularly dotted with reddish brown spots; the apertures were richly +stained with orange, and the whole enamel exceedingly lustrous. Most of +the molluscs of the species conceal themselves under mantles so closely +resembling their environments as to often render them invisible. In this +case the disguise assumed similitude to a most conspicuous but common +object of anomalous growth, seeming to be a combination of slime and +sponge. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + + +SOME CURIOUS BIVALVES + + +Though certain species of molluscs have their respective habitats, and +that which is considered rare in one part may be common in another, there +are few which have not a general interest for the scientific +conchologist. Collectors prize shells on account of their rarity and +beauty; the man of science because of the assistance they afford in the +working out of the universal problems of nature. Neither a collector nor +a scientific student, my attitude towards marine objects is that of a +mere observer--an interested and often wonder-struck observer--so that +when I classify one species of mollusc as common and another as rare I am +judging them in accordance with my own environment and information, not +from a general knowledge of one of the most entertaining branches of +natural history. From this standpoint I may refer to four or five species +which stand out from the rest in interest and comparative rarity. + +An oyster (OSTREA DENDOSTREA FOLIUM), too mean of proportions, too dull +and commonplace of colour to be termed pretty, worth nothing, and +justifying, in appearances its worthlessness, is remarkable for the +exercise of a certain sort of deliberate wit in accordance with special +conditions. Nature provides various species of the great oyster family +with respective methods of holding their own in the sea, and in the case +under review she permits the individual to exercise a choice of two +different methods of fixture as chance and the drift of circumstances +decide its location. From the bases of the valves spring three or more +pairs of hook-like processes which, if Fate decides upon a certain coral +host, encircle a slim "twig," creating for the mollusc a curious +resemblance to a short-limbed sloth hugging tightly the branch of a tree. +When the spat happens to settle in places where coral is not available +the hooks or arms are but crudely developed. It becomes a club-footed +cripple, its feet adherent by agglutination or fusion to a rock or other +and larger mollusc, dead or alive. In fact, the shrewd little oyster +responds to its environment, clasping a twig with claws or cementing +itself to an unembraceable host in accordance as contingencies insist. + +Another mollusc (AVICULA LATA), sometimes found in company with the +clinging oyster, resembles, when the fragile valves are expanded, a +decapitated butterfly, brick-red in colour, with an overshirt of fine and +elaborate network, orange tinted. The interior is scarcely less +attractive, the nacre having a pink and bluish lustre, while the "lip" is +dark red. This is found (in my experience) only in association with a +certain species of coral (GORGONIA), which flourishes in strong currents +on a stony bottom three or four fathoms deep. Apart from the unusual +shape and pleasing colours of the shell, it is remarkable because +it seems to be actually incorporated with its host. The foot of the +mollusc is extended into a peduncle, consisting of fibres and tendons, by +which the animal is a fixture to a spur of coral. At the point of union +(to facilitate which there is a hiatus in the margins of the peduncle) +the sarcode or "flesh" of the coral is denuded, its place being +occupied by ligaments, which by minute ramifications adhere so intimately +to the coral stock or stem that severance therefrom cannot be effected +without loss of life to the mollusc. + +On a single spray of ruddy Gorgonia several of these commensal molluscs +may occur in various stages of development--the smaller no bigger than the +wing of a fly and almost as frail, the larger three and four inches long, +and each whatsoever its proportions securely budded on and growing from a +spur, while frequently the valves of the large are bossed with limpets +and other encumbrances. In appearance the shell represents a deformity in +usurpation of a thin pencilate "growth" of coral a foot long, for the +exterior colouration is that of the coral. Quite independent of their +host for existence, these molluscs are not to be stigmatised as +parasites, though the individual spur to which each is attached is +invariably destroyed by the union, merely sufficient remaining for the +support of the intruder. Natural science provides many illustrations of +symbiosis, or the intimate association of two distinct organisms. This +example may be out of the common, and therefore worthy of inclusion in a +general reference to the life of the coral reef. + +A third species, rare in a certain sense only, is of a most retiring, not +to say secretive, disposition. For several years I sought in vain a +living specimen of a flattened elongated bivalve (VALSELLA), +buff-coloured externally, very lustrous within, with a hinge the centre +of which resembles a split pearl. The blacks could offer no information +beyond that which was delightfully indefinite. "That fella plenty alonga +reef. You look out. B'mbi might you catch 'em!" "Tom," who never +wilfully parades his ignorance, boldly asserted that they favoured rocks, +but he had no name for them, and no living specimen was ever forthcoming +to substantiate confident opinions. + +An exceptionally low tide revealed several hitherto cautiously preserved +secrets of the reef, among them the location of a species of sponge, dark +brown, some semi-spherical, some turreted in fantastic fashion. Embedded +upright in the sponges, like almonds in plum-puddings, so that merely the +extremities of the valves were visible as narrow slits, were the +long-sought-for molluscs. Judging by the extreme care of the species for +its own protection--for it is ill-fitted in model and texture for a +rough-and-tumble struggle for existence--one is inclined to the opinion +that it must have many enemies. The valves are frail and brittle, and +only when they gape are they revealed, and the gape is self consciously +polite. The sponge embraces the slender mollusc so maternally that rude +yawning is forbidden. It may lisp only and in smooth phrases, such as +"prunes" and "prisms"; and, moreover, the host further insures it +against molestation by the diffusion of an exceptionally powerful odour, +which, though to my sense of smell resembles phosphorus, is, I am +informed on indubitable authority, derivable from the active form of +oxygen known as ozone. Experimentally I have placed these molluscs in +fresh water, to find it quickly dyed to a rich amber colour while +acquiring quite remarkable pungency. Even after the third change the +water was impregnated. + +Interest in the mollusc became secondary upon the discovery of the host +and in consideration of the part it plays in the production of one of the +special effects of coral reefs; but the mollusc serves another and +timely purpose--purely personal and yet not to be disregarded. It +indicates a dilemma with which the wilful amateur in the first-hand study +of conchology is confronted. Although, as I have said, no local knowledge +of identity was available, reference to a well-disposed expert secured +the information that its title in science is VULSELLA LINGULATA; that +some twenty species are known; that they all associate with sponges, and +that possibly different species inhabit different kinds of sponges. It +may seem unpardonably gratuitous on the part of one professedly ignorant +to offer general observations upon natural phenomena; but as I find +myself among the great majority who do not know and who may be more or +less interested and anxious to learn, I claim justification in describing +that which to me is novel and rare. In this splendid isolation I cannot +hope to illuminate primary investigations with the searching light in +which science basks unblinkingly, for the nearest library of text-books +is close on a thousand miles away. Nor can I keep all my observations to +myself. There are some which, like murder, "will out," conscious though I +am of meriting the censure of the learned. + +With this off my mind, let me return to the tenement sponges, which may +be likened to so many independent and flourishing manufactories of ozone. +Apart from the odour of brine common to every ocean and the scents of the +algae and some of the flowering plants of the sea, which are similar all +over the world, a coral reef has a strong and specific effluence. The +skeletonless coral (ALCYONARIA) has a sulphurous savour of its own, and +the echini and bêche-de-mer are also to be separately distinguished by +their fumes. Anemones, great and small, seem to disperse a recognisable +scent as from a mild and watery solution of fish and phosphorus. But of +all the occupants of the reef none are so powerful or so characteristic +in this respect as sponges. Puissant and aggressive, these exhalations +are at times so strong as to almost make the eyes water, while exciting +vivid reminiscences of old-fashioned matches and chemical experiments. +Substantial, wholesome, and clean--though generated by a wet, helpless +creature having no personal charms, and which, having passed the phase of +life in which it enjoyed the gift of locomotion, has become a plant-like +fixture to one spot--the gas mingles with other diffusions of the reef, +recalling villanous salt-petre and sheepdips and brimstone and treacle to +the stimulation of the mental faculties generally. + +Invariably an afternoon's exploration of the coral reef is followed by a +drowsy evening and a night of exceptionally sweet repose. No ill dreams +molest the soothing hours during which the nervous system is burnished +and lubricated, and you wake refreshed and invigorated beyond measure. I +have endeavoured to account for the undoubted physical replenishment and +mental exhilaration largely from the breathing of air saturated with +emanations from the coral and sea things generally. + +In the course of three hours' parade and splashing in the tepid water, +ever so many varieties of gas more or less pungent and vitalising--gas +which seems to search and strengthen the mechanism of the lungs with +chemically enriched air, to tonic the whole system, and to brighten the +perceptive faculties, have been imbibed. Exercise and the eagerness with +which wonders are sought out and admired may account in part for present +elation and balmy succeeding sleep, but the vital functions seem, if my +own sensations are typical, to receive also a general toning up. Twice a +month at least a man should spend an afternoon on a coral reef for the +betterment of body and brain. On the face of it this is counsel of +perfection. Only to the happy few is such agreeable and blest physic +proffered gratis. Yet the whole world might be brighter and better if +coral reefs were more generously distributed. Breathing such subtle and +sturdy air, men would live longer; while the extravagant life of the +reef, appealing to him in fine colours and strange shapes, would avert +his thoughts from paltry and mean amusements and over-exciting pleasures. +The pomp of the world he would find personated by coral polyps; its +vanities by coy and painted fish; its artfulness represented by crabs +that think and plan; its scavenging performed by aureoled worms. + +Although students of conchology are familiar with several species of +LIMA, I am eager to include it in these haphazard references, because my +first acquaintance with a living specimen afforded yet another experience +of the versatility of the designs of Nature. It is truly one of the +"strange fellows" which Nature in her time has framed. Living obscurely +in cavities, under stones, inoffensive and humble, the Lima enjoys the +distinction of being, the permanent exemplification of the misfit, its +body being several sizes too large as well as too robust for its fragile, +shelly covering. The valves are obtusely oblong, while the animal is +almost a flattened oval, the mantle being fringed with numerous bright +pink tentacles, almost electrical in their sensitiveness. + +Though anything but rotund, so full in habit (comparatively speaking) is +the body of the lima that the valves cannot compress it. Except at the +hinges they are for ever divorced, an unfair proportion of the bulging +body being exposed naked to the inclemency and hostility of the world. +"All too full in the bud" for those frail unpuritanical stays, the animal +seems to be at a palpable disadvantage in the battle of life, yet the +lima is equipped with special apparatus for the maintenance of its right +to live. By the expansion and partial closing of the valves it swims or +is propelled with a curiously energetic, fussy, mechanical action, while +the ever-active pink rays--a living, nimbus--beat rhythmically, +imperiously waving intruders off the track. + +The appearance and activities of the creature are such as to establish +the delusion that it is not altogether amicable in its attitude towards +even such a bumptious and authoritative product of Nature as man. Its +agitated demonstrations--whatever their vital purpose may be--to the +superficial observer are danger signals, a means of self-preservation, as +a substitute for the hard calcareous armour bestowed upon other molluscs. +The fussy red rays may impose upon enemies a sense of discretion which +constrains them to avoid the lima, which, though hostile in appearance, +is one of the mildest of creatures. The tentacles, too, have a certain +sort of independence, for they occasionally separate themselves from the +animal upon the touch of man, adhering to the fingers, while maintaining +harmonic action, just as the tip of a lizard's tail wriggles and squirms +after severance. + +Most of the blocks of submerged, denuded coral are the homes of certain +species of burrowing molluscs, the most notable of which are the "date +mussels" (LITHOPHAGA). The adult of that designated L. TERES is over two +inches long and half an inch in diameter; glossy black, with the surface +delicately sculptured in wavy lines; the interior nacreous, with a bluish +tinge. This excavates a perfectly cylindrical tunnel, upon the sides of +which are exposed the stellar structure of the coral. A closely related +species (STRAMINEA), slightly longer, and generally of smooth exterior, +partially coated with plaster, muddy grey in colour, adds to the comfort +and security of existence by lining its tunnel with a smooth material, a +distinction which cannot fail to impress the observer. In each case the +mollusc is a loose fit in its burrow, having ample room for rotation, but +the aperture of the latter is what is known as a cassinian oval, and +generally projects slightly above the surface of the coral. + +The animal is a voluntary life prisoner, for the aperture has the least +dimension of the tunnel. The genus is known to be self luminous--a decided +advantage in so dark and narrow an habitation. It seems to me to be +worthy of special note that an animal enclosed by Nature in tightly +fitting valves should also be endowed with the power of mixing plaster or +secreting the enamel with which its tunnel is lined and of depositing it +with like regularity and, smoothness to that exhibited in its more +personal covering which grows with its growth. The mollusc in its +burrow in the depths of a block of coral, white as marble, with its own +light and its self-constructed independent wall, appeals to my mind as +evidence of the care of Nature for the preservation of types, while from +such retiring yet virile creatures man learns earth-shifting lessons. A +quotation from Lyell's "Principles of Geology" says that the +perforations of Lithophagi in limestone cliffs and in the three upright +columns of the Temple of Jupiter Serapis at Puzzuoli afford conclusive +evidence of changes in the level of sea-coasts in modern times--the +borings of the mollusc prove that the pillars of the temple must have been +depressed to a corresponding depth in the sea, and to have been raised +up again without losing their perpendicularity. + +The date-mussels play an important part in the conversion of +sea-contained minerals into dry land. Massive blocks of lime secreted by +coral polyps being weakened by the tunnels of the mussels are the more +easily broken by wave force; and being reduced finally to mud, the lime, +in association with sand and other constituents, forms solid rock. + +A feature of another of the coral rock disintegrating agents is its +extreme weakness. It is a rotund mollusc with frail white valves, closely +fitting the cavity in which it lives. As it cannot revolve, the +excavation of the cavity is, possibly, effected by persistent but +necessarily extremely slight "play" of the valves; but the animal +appears to be quite content in its cramped cell with a tiny circular +aperture (generally so obscured as to be invisible), through which it +accepts the doles of the teeming, incessant sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + + +BARRIER REEF CRABS + + + "Reasoning, oft admire + How Nature, wise and frugal, could commit + Such dispositions with superfluous hand." + + MILTON. + +So much of the time of the Beachcomber is spent sweeping with hopeful +eyes the breadths of the empty sea, policing the uproarious beaches, +overhauling the hordes of roguish reefs, and the medley concealed in cosy +caves by waves that storm at the bare mention of the rights of private +property, that he cannot avoid casual acquaintance with the scores of +animated things which ceaselessly woo him from the pursuit of his +calling. Should he be inclined to ignore the boldly obvious distractions +from serious affairs, there are others, not readily discernible, which +have singularly direct and successful methods of fixing attention upon +themselves. + +Roseate or sombre your humour as you patrol the reefs, it is liable to be +changed in a flash into clashing tints by inadvertent contact with a +warty ghoul of a sea-urchin, a single one of whose agonising spines never +fails to bring you face to face with one of the vividest realities of +life. A slim but shapely mollusc known as Terebellum or augur, to mention +another conceited little disturber of your meditations, stands on its +spire in the sand, and screws as you tread, cutting, a delightfully +symmetrical hole in the sole of your foot, and retaining the +core--perfect as that of a diamond drill. + +Many and varied are the inconspicuous creatures with office to remind the +barefooted trespasser that no charter of the isles and their wrecks is +flawless, and that they are prepared to inflict curious pains and limping +penalties for every incautious intrusion on their domicile. Few of the +denizens of the unkempt coral gardens are more remarkable than the crabs. +By reef and shore I have come literally into contact with so many quaint +specimens, and they have so often afforded exhilarating diversion and +sent brand-new startling sensations scurrying along such curious and +complicated byways, that courtesy bids me tender a portrait of one of the +family which (in appearance only) may be described as a dandy, and to +tell of two or three others whose intimacy is invariably enlivening. + +Shall I dispose of the dandy first? Perhaps it were better so, for I +confess to a very slight acquaintanceship with him, and as I am ignorant, +too, of its ceremonious as well as familiar title, the pleasure of a +formal introduction is denied. In the portrait the ruling +passions--modesty and meekness--are graphically displayed. When it lies +close--and it moves rarely, and then with a gentle lateral swaying--the +fancy dress of seaweed is a garment of invisibility. It is far more true +to character alive than as a museum specimen, for its natural complexion +is a yellowish grey, the neutral tint of the blending of sand and coral +mud upon which it resides. The preserving fluid added a pinkish tinge to +the body and limbs. Blame, therefore, the embalmer for the +over-conspicuous form which is not in the habit of the creature as it +lived. Neither are the plumes those of pomp and ceremony, but merely the +insignia of self-conscious meekness--the masquerade under which the +shrinking crab moves about, creating as little din and stir as possible, +in an ever-hungry world. With such unfaltering art does it act its part +that it is difficult to realise the crab's real self unless aided by +mischance. Conscious of the terrors of discovery, it rocks to and fro, +that its plumes may sway, as it were, in rhythm with the surge of the +sea. Can there be such a thing as an unconscious mimic? If not, then the +portrait is that of an ideal artist. + +Those who know only the great flat, ruddy crabs with ponderous pincers +and pugnacious mien, which frequent fish shop windows, can form but a very +unflattering opinion of the fancy varieties which people every mile of +the Barrier Reef. + +The struggle for existence in this vast, crowded, and most cruel of +arenas is so appalling that the great crab family has been battered by +circumstances into weird and fantastic forms. Only a few come up to the +human conception of the beautiful either in figure or colouring. While +some shrink from observation, others, though themselves obscure to the +vanishing-point, seem to be endowed with a vicious yearning for +notoriety. + +A certain cute little pursuer of fame is absolutely invisible until you +find it stuck fast to one of your toes with a serrated dorsal spur a +quarter of an inch long. It is invisible, because Nature sends it into +this breathing world masquerading, as she did Richard III, deformed, +unfashioned, scarce half made-up. In general appearance it closely +resembles a crazy root-stalk of alga--green and not quite opaque, and +clinging to such alga it lives, and lives so placidly that it cannot be +distinguished from its prototype except by the sense of touch. When you +pick it gingerly from between your toes there is a malicious gleam in the +pin-point black eyes, and then you understand that it is one of the many +inventions designed for the torment of trespassers. + +I have often sought specimens of this poor relation of the fish-shop +window aristocrat, but invariably in vain, until I have found myself +suddenly shouting "Eureka!" while balancing myself on one foot eager +for the easement of the other, and the giggling demeanour of the imp as +it parts company with his spur gives a sort of comic relief to the +thrilling sensations of the moment. Upon examination this imp seems to be +an example of arrested development. Whimsical fate has played upon it a +grim practical joke, flattering it primarily by resemblance to a +grotesquely valorous unicorn, and then, having changed her mood to mere +pettishness, finished it offhand by adding a section of semi-animate +seaweed. + +Although among the commonest of the species, the grey sand crab, which +burrows bolt-holes in the beaches, is by no means an uninteresting +character. Surrounded by enemies, and yet living on the bare, coverless +beach, its faculties for self-preservation are exceptionally refined. +The eyes are elongated ovals, based on singularly mobile pivots, while +the pupils resemble the bubble of a spirit-level. Not only is the range +of vision a complete circle, but the crab seems able to concentrate its +gaze upon any two given points instantly and automatically. To spite all +its skill as a digger, to set at naught its superb visual alertness, the +sand crab has a special enemy in the bird policeman which patrols the +beach. Vigilant and obnoxiously interfering, the policeman has a long and +curiously curved beak, designed for probing into the affairs of crabs, +and unless the "hatter" has hastily stopped the mouth of its shaft with +a bundle of loose sand--which to the prying bird signifies "Out! Please +return after lunch!"--will be disposed of with scant ceremony and no +grace, for the manners of the policeman are shocking. + +This quick-footed sand-digger enhances its reputation by the performance +of feats of subtlety and skill. Its bolt-hole is sometimes three feet +deep, generally on an incline. Piled in a mound the spoil would +inevitably betray the site of the operations to the policeman, thus +seriously facilitating the duties of that official towards the +suppression of the species. From remote depths the crab carries a bundle +of sand. You remember the trenchant way in which Pip's sister cut the +bread and butter, her left hand jamming the loaf hard and fast against +her bib? Just so the crab with its bundle of loose sand, though it has +the advantage in the number of limbs which may be pressed into service. +The feat of carrying an armful of sliding sand in proportion to bulk +about one-third of the body, is far away and beyond the capacities of +human beings, but to the crab, which has acquired the trick of temporary +consolidation by pressure, it is merely child's play. Arrived at the +mouth of the shaft, it elevates its eyes (which in the dark have rested +in neatly fitting recesses) for the purpose of a cautious yet sweeping +survey. Seeing nothing alarming, it emerges with the alertness of a +jack-in-the-box, races several inches, and scatters the load broadcast as +the sower of seed who went forth to sow. Then, as suddenly, the crab +pauses and flattens itself--its body merging with its surroundings almost +to invisibility--preparatory for a spurt for home. During these +exertions the intellect of the crab has been concentrated for outwitting +the vigilance of enemies, for the plodding policeman is not singular in +appreciation. The lordly red-backed sea-eagle occasionally condescends to +such humble fare, and the crab must needs be alert to evade the scrutiny +with which the eagle searches the sand. + +This passing reference to the wit and deftness of the crab would be quite +uncomplimentary in default of special notice of the plug of sand with +which it stops its burrow. As a rule it is about an inch thick, and in +content far more than a crab could carry in a single load. How does the +creature, working from below and with such refractory material, so +arrange that the plug shall be flush with the surface and sufficiently +consolidated to retain its own weight? Of what art in loose masonry has +the crab the unique secret? Shakespeare speaks of stairs of sand, and Poe +laments the "how few" grains of golden sand which crept through his +fingers to the deep; but who but a crab possesses the secret for the +building of a roof of the material which is the popular emblem of +instability and shiftiness? + +The impartial student must not restrict his notions as to the +possibilities of sand to the admirable accomplishments of crabs. He may +also inspect with profit the handicraft of a lowly mollusc which +agglutinates sand-grains into a kind of plaque, in the substance of +which numerous eggs are deposited. + +To attribute manual dexterity and a calculating mind to a mere crab, is, +no doubt, an insult to the intelligence of those who "view all culogium +on the brute creation with a very considerable degree of suspicion and +who look upon every compliment which is paid to the ape as high treason +to the dignity of man." But the truthful historian of the capabilities +of crabs, the duty of one who stands sponsor to some of the species and +who has the hardihood to indite some of the manifestations of their +intelligence, wit, and craft, must discard the prejudices of his race, +abandon all flattering sense of superiority, forbear the smiles of +patronage, and contemplate them from the standpoint of fellowship and +sympathy. + +In this spirit he watches another expert digger which has a sharp-edged +shovel affixed to the end of each of its eight legs, and is so deft in +their use that it disappears in the sand on the instant of detection, +without visible effort, and almost as quickly as a stone sinks in water. + +Unless a crab is a giant in armour, or is endowed with almost +supernatural alertness, or is an artist in the art of mimicry, or unless +it cultivates some method of rapid disappearance, it has little chance of +holding its own in the battle raging unceasingly over the vast areas of +the Great Barrier Reef. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + + +THE BLOCKADE OF THE MULLET + + + "Up with a sally and a flash of speed + As if they scorned." + +The rains which came at the New Year flooded all the creeks of the +Island. Accumulations of sand usually form beds through which the sweet +water slowly mingles with the salt, but with the violence and impetus of +a downpour of ten inches during the night, each torrent had cut a +channel, through which it raced from the seclusion of the jungle to the +free, open sea. Twice in the twenty-four hours the impassive flowing tide +subdued the impertinence of each of the brawlers, smothered its gurgling, +and forced it back among the ferns and jungle and banana-plants which +crowded its banks. + +The largest stream at high water was four feet deep. As I prepared to +wade across George, the black boy, shouted over his shoulder towards a +slowly swaying cloud in the deep pool overhung with foremost flounces of +the jungle. The cloud was a shoal of sea mullet. Save for a clear margin +of about three feet, the fish filled the pond--an alert, greyish-blue mass +edged with cream-coloured sand. There were several hundred fish, all +bearing a family resemblance as to size as well as to feature. + +It was slack water. The fish were, no doubt, about to move down-stream to +the sea, for all headed that way when the disturbing presence of man +blocked the passage. A thrill went through the phalanx, and it swayed to +the left and then to the right. The movement--spontaneous and +mechanical--slightly elongated the formation, and three scouts in single +file slid down to reconnoitre, and with a nervous splash as they scented +danger, dashed back and blended imperceptibly with the mass. + +"We catch plenty big fella mullet!" George exclaimed, as he gleefully +splashed the water, and the cloud contracted and shrank back. The stream +was about ten feet wide. Our equipment for sport consisted of a tomahawk +and a grass-tree spear so frail that any of the mullet could have swum +off with it without inconvenience. + +Straddling the stream side by side we splashed and "shooed" when the +slightest symptom of a sally on the part of the fish was betrayed. A few +brave leaders darted down, generally in pairs, and flashed back in fright +at our noisy demonstrations, and so the blockade of the mullet began. + +While I stood guard shouting and "shooing" and making such commotion as I +trusted would convince the fish that the blockading force was ever so +much stronger and more truculent than it really was, George began to +construct a pre-eminently practical wall. Its design was evolved ages +upon ages ago by black students of hydrostatics and fish. George had +imbibed the principles of its construction with his mother's milk. He cut +down several saplings, and, screwing the butt ends into the soft sand +about a foot apart, interlaced them with branches of mangrove and +beach-trailers and swathes of grass. But the tide began to ebb. The +pent-up current, strong and rapid, frequently carried portions of the +structure away. George had to duck and dive to tie the vines and creepers +to the stakes close down to the sandy bottom. Though armfuls of leafage +floated to the surface and rolled out to sea, George worked with joyful +desperation. Presently the fish began to make determined rushes. Shouting +and splashing, tearing down branches, capturing driftwood, diving and +gasping, his efforts were unceasing. Understanding the guile of the fish, +he sought to make the deeper part of the weir secure, and for an hour or +so he laboured in the water with head, hands, and feet. While with deft +fingers he weaved creepers and branches to the stakes, his feet beat the +surface into surf and surge to the scaring of the fish to the remote +limits of their retreat. But the tighter the weir became, the more the +pressure was on it. Fast as repairs were made at one spot gaps appeared +in another which demanded immediate attention. The quantity of material +that our works absorbed was scarcely to be realised. But a double-ended, +amphibious black boy can work every-day wonders. Not a single fish had +escaped. We had the whole shoal at our mercy, for George had confidently +provided against all contingencies. + +Buoyant on the bosom of the stream came a good-sized log with raking, +shortened limbs. Under its cover the fish sallied forth a hundred strong, +strenuous in bravery and resolution. The log swept past me, making a +terrible breach in our weir, through which many fish shot. Some leaped +high overhead. Two landed on the sand, helplessly flapping and gasping. +George occupied the breach, and as he waved his arms and shouted, a +four-pounder, leaping high, struck him on the forehead. He sat down +emphatically, and another gap was made. As he struggled to his feet the +vanquished members of the assaulting party fled to the main host. Honours +were with the besieged. Blood oozed from a lump on George's forehead, +there were cruel breaches in the weir, the fish had gained confidence +and knowledge of our works, and only two were prisoners. + +Now the sallies became frequent. Sometimes the fish came as scouts, more +often in battalions, and in the dashes for liberty many were successful. +George toiled like a fiend. His repairs looked all right on the surface, +but ever and anon considerable flotsam indicated vital gaps. In spite of +splashing and "shooing" and the complications of the weir, we had had +the mortification of seeing hosts escape. + +Then George changed his tactics. Abandoning his faith in the weir, he +converted it into what he called, in his enthusiastic excitement, "a +bed." He laid branches of the weir so that the leaves and twigs +interlaced and crossed, buttressing the structure with another row of +palisades. His theory was that the fish, as the water became shallower, +would cease their efforts to wriggle through, and, leaping high, would +land on the bed and be easily captured. No preliminary shouting and +splashing affected the solidity of that determined array. Mullet knew all +about blackfellows' weirs and their beds. Some slid through. Many leaped, +and, curving gracefully in the air, struck the "bed" at such an angle +that it offered no more resistance to them than a sheet of damp +tissue-paper. They sniggered as they went through it, and splashed wildly +to the sea. They were grand fish--undaunted, afraid of no man or his +paltry obstacles to liberty, up to every cunning manoeuvre. + +Were we to be beaten by a lot of silly, slippery fish in a shallow +stream? Never! January's unsheltered sun played upon my tanned, wet, and +shameless back; the salt sweat coursed down my shoulders and dripped from +my face. The scrub fowl babbled and chuckled, cockatoos jeered from the +topmost branches of giant milkwood trees and nodded with yellow crests +grave approval of the deeds of the besieged; fleet white pigeons flew +from a banquet of blue fruits to a diet of crude seeds, and not a single +one of the canons of the gentle art of fishing but was scandalously +violated. It was a coarse and unmanly encounter--the wit, strategy, +finesse, and boldness of fish pitted against the empty noise and bluster +of inferior man and the flimsiness of his despicable barriers. + +In silence and magnificent resolve they came at us. We fought with +sticks and all the power of our lungs. Rest was out of the question. The +leafy dyke and "bed" stood ever in need of repair; the sallies were +continuous and determined. The "bed" was not made for those knightly +fish to lie ignobly upon. A single fish would slip down-stream, and, +gathering speed and effort, leap with the glitter of heroism in its eyes. +One such George caught in his arms. Another slipped through my fingers +and struck me on the shoulders, and I bore the mark of the assault for a +week. George's brow was bleeding. Indeed, all his blood was up. His +"heroic rage" was at bursting point. We had toiled for two hours and +counted but three fish, while as many hundred had battled past our siege +works. Quite as many remained, and time, as it generally does, seemed to +be in favour of the attacking party. + +Was Charles Lamb right when he spoke of "the uncommunicating muteness of +fishes"? These beleaguered mullet surely exchanged ideas and acted with +deliberation and in concert. All swayed this way or that in accordance, +so it seemed, with the will of the front rank. A tremor there was +repeated instantly at the rear. When a detachment made a bid for liberty +it was in response to a common impulse. When a single individual started +on a forlorn hope the others seemed to watch our hostile demonstrations +as it leaped--flashing silvery lights from its scales--to prove the +unworthiness of weirs and beds, and we, of the ranks of Tuscany, cheered +if its deed of derring do was neatly and successfully achieved. + +Fish to the number of five having fallen into our clutches, we stood by +and watched the rest. Most of them leaped gloriously to liberty. Some +ignominiously wriggled. Others remained in the pool, their nerves so +shattered by bluster and assault that they had not the melancholy courage +to slip away. In his wrath--for blood still oozed from his forehead-- +George would have exterminated the skulkers, and, checked in his +bloodthirstiness, he showered upon them contemptible titles while he +cooked two of those we had captured. Wrapped in several folds of banana +and "ginger" leaves, and steamed in hot sand, the full flavour of the +fish was retained and something of the aroma of the leaves imparted. I +was not, therefore, astonished when George, having eaten a three-pounder, +finished off my leavings--nothing to boast of, by the way--and proceeded +to cook another (for the dog); and Barry, I am bound to say, got fairly +liberal pickings. The weather was close, and being satisfied, and, for +once, frugal, George cooked the two remaining fish, and swathing them +neatly in fresh green leaves, sauntered away, cooing a corroboree of +content. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + + +WET SEASON DAYS + + + "The north-east spends his rage; he now shut up + Within his iron cave, the effusive south + Warms the wide air and o'er the vault of heaven + Breathes the big clouds with vernal showers distent." + + THOMSON. + +Just as in the spring a young man's fancies lightly turn to thoughts of +love, so at the beginning of each new year in tropical Queensland the +minds of the weather sages become sensitive and impressionable. All the +tarnish is rubbed off the recollection of former ill manners on the part +of the weather, when about the middle of January the wind begins to +bluster and to abuse good-natured trees, shaking off twigs and whirling +branches like a tipsy bully striving to dislocate a weak man's arm at the +shoulder. We remember dubious events all too vividly when the recitation +of them does not make for mutual consolation. + +In January, 1909, for two days the sea burst on the black rocks of the +islet in the bay in clouds of foam. It was all bombast, froth and +bubble, or rather a gentle back-hander, for the cyclone was playing all +sorts of naughty pranks elsewhere. But why were we apprehensive? In +disobedience to the scriptural injunction, we had observed the clouds and +the birds. Twice a flock of lesser frigate-birds, those dark, fish-tailed +high-fliers which are for ever cutting animated "W's" in the air with +long lithe wings--had appeared. Seldom do they come unless as harbingers +of boisterous weather. On each recent occasion they had been absolutely +trustworthy messengers. Watching them soaring and swooping, we said one +to another: "Behold the cyclone cometh!" But it did not. With a +passing flick of its tail it passed elsewhere. + +Altogether, however, we had very queer weather and two or three "rum" +sorts of nights. On the 19th the morning was calm, the sky brilliantly +clear. A north-east breeze sprang up at noon. Deep violet thunder-clouds +gathered in the west, and, muttering and grumbling, rolled across the +narrow strait slowly and sullenly. Australia scowled at our penitent +Island, threatening direful inflictions--lightning, thunder, and an +overwhelming cataclysm. Behind that frowning Providence there was a +smiling face. The good storm, albeit black and angry, behaved benignly. +Gentle rain came, and a picturesque little electrical display to a +humming accompaniment of far distant thunder, followed by a soothingly +cool south-westerly breeze. Just at sundown the weather-god, repenting of +his frown, bestowed a glorious benediction. + +All afternoon a damp pall had overhung the Island, mopping up feeble +sounds and strangely muffling the stronger. Now it was translated. +Lifting so that the summits only of the hills were capped, the haze (for +it became nothing more) assumed a luminous yellow saffron suffused with +sage green. Against this singularly lovely, ample "cloth" branches and +leaves of steadfast trees stood out in high relief. All the lower levels +became transparently clear, the definition of distant objects magically +sharpened, spaces translucent. In a sea which shone like polished silver +the islet was a gem--green enamel, amethyst rocks, golden sand. The bold +white trunks of giant tea-trees glowed; the creamy blooms of bloodwoods +were as flecks of snow; the tips of the fronds of coco-nut palms +flickered vividly as burnished steel; the white-painted house assumed +speckless purity. All light colours were heightened; ruddy browns and +sombre greens seemed to have been smartened up by touches of fresh paint +and varnish. An idealistic artist had revealed for once living tints and +uncomprehended hues. + +Was it not a landscape fresh from Nature's brush divinely transmogrified +by one bold smudge of yellow-green haze? Or was the effect partly due to +the dust raised by the golden fringe of the blue mantle which the sun +trailed over the glowing hills? I know naught of the chemistry of colours, +nor why this yellow-green medium should so clarify and etherealise the +atmosphere. But was ever clear sunset half so affecting? This tinted, +luminous cloud had bewitched the commonplace, converting familiar +surroundings into fairyland itself. If all the world's a stage, this truly +was one of the rarest transformation scenes. + +What was about to happen? Surely this mysterious colouring portended some +astounding phenomena? Again, nothing did happen, save a stilly night and +grey. + + +VEGETATION AND MOISTURE + + +It seems fitting and quite safe to point a moral, by allusion to certain +conditions prevalent during 1907. Between January 1st and June 30th +80.80 inches of rain were registered. July, August, September, and October +provided only 1.74 inches, which quantity bespeaks quite a phenomenal +draught. The catchment area of the creek which discharges into Brammo Bay +is less than forty acres, and for the most part consists of exceedingly +steep declivities. The head of the creek is seven hundred feet above +sea level, and its total length less than three-quarters of a mile. Yet, +notwithstanding the circumscribed extent of the catchment, the steep, +in places almost precipitous, descents, and that for months the rain was +insufficient to cause a surface flow, the creek which had cut a gully or +canyon forty feet deep across the plateau, never ceased running, the +turbulence of the wet season having merely subsided into a tinkling +trickle. During the dry period the atmosphere was the reverse of humid; +but the almost impenetrable shield of vegetation--the beauty and glory of +the Island--discounted loss by evaporation. One can well imagine that in +the absence of this gracious protection the creek would cease to flow a +week or so after the cessation of rain. + +The marked but consistent decrease of water in the creek by day and its +rise during the night having excited interest, a series of measurements +was taken, the result being somewhat astonishing. One day's readings +will suffice, for scarcely any variation from them was recorded for +weeks, concurrent meteorological conditions undergoing no sudden or +decided change while the experiment was in progress: + +Sunday, November 10, 1907. + + Inches. +6.30 a.m. 10 1/4 +9 " 10 +Noon (high tide) 6 5/8 +3 p.m. 3 +5.30 p.m. 1 1/2 +6.10 " (sundown) 1 1/2 +7.10 " 3 7/8 +9 " 10 1/8 + + +At 7 a.m. on the 11th and 12th the water stood at 10 1/4 inches and I +assume that to have been the constant level throughout the night. + +The conclusion I draw (rightly or wrongly) from the fact emphasised by +these figures is that the mass of vegetation exercises a direct and +immediate effect upon the flow of water by gravitation from the +catchment. A continual and increasing demand for refreshment existing +during the day, the root spongioles are in active operation intercepting +the moisture in its descent and absorbing it, while with the lessening of +the temperature on the going down of the sun reaction begins, the stomata +of the leaves exercise their functions, and by the absorption of gas +react on the root films, which for the time relax their duty of arresting +the passage of minute particles of water, with a very definite result on +the nocturnal flow. + + +THE ODOUR OF THE DEATH ADDER + + +February 2, 1909. + +Whenever I take my walks abroad I have the companionship of a couple of +Irish terriers, enthusiastic hunters of all sorts of "vermin," from the +jeering scrub fowl, which they never catch, to the slothful, spiny +ant-eater, which they are counselled not to molest. Lizards and +occasionally snakes are disposed of without ceremony, though in the case +of the snakes the tactics of the dogs are quite discreet. Several years +ago the dogs (not those which now faithfully attend my walks, for more +than one generation has passed away) attracted attention by yapping +enthusiastically. I flatter myself that I understand the language of my +own dogs sufficiently to enable me to judge when they have detected +something demanding my co-operation in the killing. When assistance is +needed, there are notes of urgent appeal in their exclamations. As a +rule my opinion is not asked in respect of lizards, or rats, or the like; +but snakes are invariably held up until an armed force arrives. + +On the occasion referred to I found them in a frenzy of excitement, +feinting and snapping at something sheltering at the base of a tussock of +grass. Peering closely, I saw, half concealed beneath grass, sand, and +leaves, what I took to be a death adder, which I summarily shot. Then it +became apparent that the dogs had blundered, for the reptile was a +lizard. The mistake in identity, was, however, excusable, for in size, +shape, colouring, and marking it so closely resembled an adder that I was +not readily convinced to the contrary. Placing the two pieces into which +the shot had divided the creature in juxtaposition, I sympathised with +the dogs more strongly, feeling certain that no one would have hesitated +to give the harmless lizard a very bad character. Before firing the fatal +shot the distention of the body had confirmed my opinion as to identity, +and the method of partial concealment and of lying inert were significant +of the dangerous little snake. I had no doubt at the time, too, that it +emitted a deceptive odour, which, being similar to that of the adder, had +been chiefly instrumental in exciting extraordinary suspicion on the part +of the terriers. + +Dogs of another generation were concerned in a repetition of this +experience in its significant details more recently. Having crossed a +creek ahead, frantic appeals were made, but before I could reach the spot +the excitement got beyond bounds, and I saw one of them snap up +something, shake it viciously, and toss it away with every manifestation +of repugnance and caution. Again I presumed the squirming reptile to be +an adder, for the dogs, with bristling backs and uplifted lips, walked +round it gingerly, sniffing and starting as if it were most fearsome and +detestable. The bulk of the reptile gradually subsided, confirming the +opinion that the dog had actually killed an adder, a feat I had never +known it perform. Investigation again proved that an innocent lizard +parading as an offensive snake had lost its life. Does not this evidence +suggest that the lizard assumes the similitude and the odour of the +adder, its tactics of concealment, and its characteristic habit of +puffing itself out in order to warn off its foes? The spontaneous, +unsuborned, and independent evidence of two sets of dogs cannot be wholly +disregarded. + +Testimony confirmatory of the contention that adders do diffuse a +specific odour, too subtle for man's perception though readily detectable +by the sensitive faculties of lower animals, and that such odour +affrights and therefore protects them from the reptiles, is contained in +Captain Parker Gillmore's work, "The Great Thirst Land." Having killed a +small specimen of the horned adder--the "poor venomous fowl" with which +Cleopatra ended her gaudy days--and having handled it to examine the +poison glands and returned to his pony, he writes: "As soon as I +advanced my hand to his head-stall to reverse the reins over his head, he +shied back as if in great alarm, and it required some minutes before he +would permit me to closely approach. The reason of this conduct in so +staid and proper-minded an animal is obvious. In handling the adder some +of the smell attached to its body must have adhered to my hands." + +When four dogs and one horse, all apparently honourable and well brought +up, agree on such a point, to theorise to the contrary would be +ungracious. + + +NEPTUNE'S HANDICRAFT + + +February 16, 1909. + +An easterly breeze coincident with a flowing tide occasionally (though +not invariably) creates a gentle swirl in Brammo Bay, a swirl so placid +as to be imperceptible in default of such indices as driftwood. Under +such a condition Neptune makes playthings which possibly in some future +age may puzzle men who happen to ponder seriously on first causes. I +recall an afternoon when such playthings were being manufactured +abundantly. Globular, oval, and sausage-shaped dollops of dark-grey mud +were twirling and rolling on the fringe of listless wavelets. The +uniformity of the several models and their apparent solidity excited +curiosity. Upon investigation all the large examples were more or less +coated with sand. Some were so completely and smoothly enveloped that +they appeared to be actual balls of sand and shell grit. The mass, +however, was found to be mud mixed with fine sand, with generally a +shell or portion thereof, or a fragment of coral as a kernel or core. In +fact, each of the dollops was a fair sample of the material of the ocean +floor extending from the inner edge of the coral to the beach. + +With so many samples in view one could observe the whole process of +formation. The crescentic sweep of the wavelets rolled fragments of shell +or coral in the mud, successive revolutions adding to the respective +bulks by accretion. As the tide rose each piece was trundled on to the +sloping beach, to be rolled and compressed until coated with a mosaic of +white shell chips, angularities of silica and micaceous spangles, the +finished article being cast aside as the tide receded. + +Sometimes the wavelets did the kneading and rolling so clumsily that the +nodule was malformed, but the majority were singularly symmetrical, +evidencing nice adjustment between the degree of adhesiveness of the +"pug" and the applied force of the wave. Several weighed nearly a quarter +of a pound, while the majority were not much bigger than marbles, and the +oval was the most frequent form. + +Is it reasonable to conjecture that some of these singular formations +which Neptune turned out by the score during an idle afternoon may be +preserved--kernels of sedimentary rock each in a case of sandstone-- +throughout the wreck of matter to form the texts of scientific +homilies in ages to come? + + +THE ATROCITY OF THE SNAKE + + +September 28, 1909. + +A red snake discovered in a coop with a hen and clutch of chicks. The +coop had been deemed snake-proof, but the slim snake had easily passed in +at the half-inch mesh wire-netting in front. Upon investigation it was +found that the snake had swallowed one chick (and had thereby become a +prisoner), had killed three others and maimed a fifth so that it died, +and that the hen had killed the snake by pecking its head. The snake (a +non-venomous species) was about a yard long and had killed the chicks by +constriction. If snakes are in the habit of killing more than they can +eat of the broods of wild birds, how enormous the toll they take! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + + +INSECT WAYS + + + "Some day ere I grow too old to think I trust to be + able to throw away all pursuits, save natural history, + and to die with my mind full of God's facts instead + of men's lies."--CHARLES KINGSLEY. + +August 2, 1909. + +A lanky grasshopper with keeled back and pointed prow flew before me, +settling on a leaf of blady grass, at once became fidgety and restless; +flew to another blade and was similarly uneasy. It was bluff in colour +with a narrow longitudinal streak of fawn, while the blades of grass +whereon it rested momentarily were green. Each time it settled it +adjusted itself to the blade of grass, became conscious of discomfort or +apprehensive of danger, and sought another. Presently it settled on a +yellowing leaf, the tints of which exactly corresponded with its own. The +longitudinal streak became absorbed in the midrib of the blade, and the +insect rested secure in its invisibility. The event demonstrated the +purpose of its previous restlessness. + + +CARNIVOROUS WASPS + + +October 6, 1909. + +This morning the soda siphon (which had not been used for a couple of +days) refused duty, owing to a plug of terra-cotta-coloured clay. +Upon the spout being probed the gush of gas expelled a quantity of +clay and thirty-five small spiders, representative of about six +different species. The spout had been converted into a nursery and +larder by a carnivorous wasp, for in addition to the moribund spiders +stored for the sustenance of future grubs were several unhatched +eggs. Such wasps are exceedingly common, some building "nests" as +large as a tea-cup, the last compartment being fitted with an +elegantly fashioned funnel, the purpose of which is not obvious. +If these nests are broken up, after the hatching out, the grubs are +found-several in each compartment--feasting on the comatose spiders +or caterpillars stored for their refreshment. Others of the species build +a series of nests, detached or semi-detached, and shaped in resemblance +to Greek amphora. Another species selects hollows in wood in which the +eggs and insects are scaled. The larger wasps are not fearful of +attacking so-called tarantulas, one sting rendering them paralytic. + + +November 10 1909. + +Blue has a decided fascination for the bloodsucking "March" flies. In +the "blue" tub of the laundry hundreds are lured to suicide, while the +other tubs alongside count no voluntary victims. Blue clothing attracts +scores, whereas the effect of any other colour is normal upon the +appreciative sense of the flies. I am not well assured whether an attack +of the "humph"--"the humph which is black and blue"--is not also +diagnosed by the contemplative insects and forthwith attended to. +Certainly if one has the misfortune to have become associated for the +time being with devils of cerulean hue, the company of the flies seems +all the more persistent and provocative of vexation. Imagination reels +before the consequences of a blue costume, "all's blue," and the thrice +intensified attacks of the indolent but persevering blood-suckers. + + +November 16, 1909. + +Found a flat hairy spider, about 1 in. in diameter of body, mottled pale +brown and grey, brooding over a flat egg capsule almost of the same tints +as itself. It was on the trunk of the jack fruit tree, and so closely +resembles the egg-capsule produced by contiguous fungi as to be +absolutely invisible unless the gaze happened to be concentrated on the +spot. No doubt in my mind that the similitude of the spider, together +with its egg-capsule, to the adjacent discs of fungi enabled it to escape +detection. When disturbed the spider whisked into absolute invisibility. +I inspected the trunk of the tree for several minutes before I found it, +within six inches of its original resting-place, perfectly still, acting +the part of an obscure vegetable. + + +TARANTULAS AND TARANTISMUS + + +A few months ago I read in a text-book a dogmatic assertion to the effect +that the so-called tarantulas were perfectly innocent of venom, and +formidable only to the insects on which they prey. The great, +good-tempered fellow, as uncouth in its hairiness as Nebuchadnezzar +during his lamentable but salutary attack of boanthropy, is regarded with +a good deal of suspicion, if not dread, though it pays for its lodging by +reason of its large appetite, which latter statement seems +self-contradictory. To satisfy its pangs of hunger it captures numbers of +small insects which, willy nilly, tenant our homes. + +In well-ordered establishments the aid of a tarantula or two in the +suppression of insignificant undesirable creatures should, it might be +argued, be unnecessary. Indeed, does not the presence of a fat, flat +fellow lurking behind a rafter or in some gloomy corner, ever ready to +seize cockroach or beetle, imply lack of order? Yet I have known homes +where the tarantula was an honoured, if not a petted, lodger. When it had +cleared one room it was coaxed on to a card and thereon transported to +the next, and so it went the rounds. The children were wont to say that +it knew its carriage, and would sidle on it whenever it was presented. To +those of us who live in the bush, and who suffer fresh incursions almost +every hour of the day, the help of a long-limbed, obese-bodied spider +whose docility is beyond question, whose non-poisonous character is +vouched for by high authorities, is by no means unwelcome. + +But in spite of negative knowledge I have had my suspicions that the +tarantula was not altogether wholesome in his anger, and now I have proof +in support of my doubts. In a cool, dark cavity under a log in the bush +were two huge representatives of the race. Each had its own compartment, +a smooth, worn gallery, and they appear to have been on good terms until +the moment of disturbance, for which each seemed to blame the other. They +fought. It was a very brief, casual, and unentertaining encounter; but +in less than half a minute one was dead, shrivelled and shrunk as though +fire had passed over it. As no dismemberment or wound was apparent, I +was fairly well satisfied that poison, very rapid in its effect, was at +the service of the tarantula when its anger was aroused. + +The next fact settled the point. Tom, the black boy, felt a nip on the +arm as he put on a clean shirt an evening or two ago, and, reversing the +sleeve, found a tarantula. Blood was oozing from two tiny incisions, the +space between which was slightly raised. For two days Tom suffered pain +in the arm, which became slightly swollen, headache, and great +uneasiness. + +Reading my text-book, I found that the original tarantula spider (from +which the Australian species are misnamed) is so called from the town of +Tarentum, in Italy. Among the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood +it was a deeply-rooted belief that if any one was bitten by a tarantula +he would be instantly inflicted with a singular disease known as +tarantismus, which exhibited itself in two extremes, the one being a +profound and silent melancholy and the other a continual convulsive +movement of the whole body. It was thought that this disease could only +be cured by music, and that a certain tune was needful in each particular +case. This was the legend. + +It will be remembered that among the tales told by "a great traveller" to +Pepys was one on the subject of the tarantula. He says that all the +harvest long (about which time they are most busy) there are fiddlers go +up and down the fields everywhere in expectation of being hired by +those who are stung. + +Of the disease there is no doubt, and that it could be cured by dancing +stimulated by music is a natural conclusion. Each patient indulged in +long and violent exercise, which produced profuse perspiration; he then +fell exhausted, slept calmly, and awoke cured. + +For the best part of a day Tom lay stretched on his face in the sun. Like +David the psalmist, he refused to be comforted. A profound and silent +melancholy subdued the wandering spirit which invariably manifests +itself on Sunday. He just "sweated out" the day he usually devotes to +hunting, and on Monday was himself again, save for a greyish blue tinge +encircling each of the little wounds on his arm. + +Though it is certain that the tarantula of Italy and the spider which +robbed Tom of his Sunday are of different species, yet one is struck by +the similarity of the toxic effects of the bite with that of the +manifestations of the disease of tarantismus. The fact that after a good +sweating--hot sand and unshaded sun are fairly active sudorifics--all +untoward effects (physical and mental) passed away seems to suggest close +intimacy between the symptoms of the poison of tarantula and the disease. + +I do not apologise for thus gravely recording an incident of the bush +which has neither humour nor romance to recommend it, because I think, +friendly as I am to the "tarantula," the truth--the whole truth and +nothing but the whole truth--should be told about him. Like the pet +pussy-cat, "if you don't hurt him he'll do you no harm"; but put him +in a tight corner and offer him violence and he will heroically defend +himself and be very nasty about it. Having studied Tom's demeanour while +under the effects of the poison, I am satisfied that if one desires a +visit from "divinest melancholy" without any of the thrills of poetry, +let him provoke an angry tarantula to assault him. All "vain, deluding +joys" will pass away, and for twenty-four hours he will be as dull as a +log, and as sweatful as a fat Southerner in a canefield. + +The local name of the house-haunting "tarantula," though befitting and +unique, imposes a singularly slight strain upon the resources of the +alphabet. What combination of eight letters could be softer and more +coaxing? And yet the startled Eves of Dunk Island were wont not only to +specialise the spider but to shriek out affright at its unexpected +presence by the exclamation "Oo-boo-boo!" + +To prove that the "Oo-boo-boo" is not always victorious in the fights +which take place in the dark, let me tell of a combat between a giant +and a slim-waisted orange and black wasp. The latter buzzed about +angrily, and, following up a feint, stung the "Oo-boo-boo," which became +nerveless on the instant and fell. As it was all too heavy to fly away +with, the wasp dragged it along the ground with much labour and incessant +fuss. The terra-cotta larder was in a hollow log, and only after immense +exertions and many failures was the limp carcass tugged to the spot. Then +there was more buzzing than ever, for the wasp discovered that its prey +was many sizes too large for the clay compartment prepared for it. No +amount of trampling and shoving of the limp tarantula was of any avail. +Several minutes elapsed before the obvious fact dawned upon the baffled +insect. Then it abandoned its efforts at compression, and with many loads +of moist clay moulded a special compartment in which the tarantula, still +in a state of suspended animation, was snugly stowed. + +Just one more. A wasp dropped on the bench a few inches from my nose--a +tiny wasp with a rollicking gait. Closer inspection showed half a wasp +only. It had been neatly severed at the delicate waist and on the thatch +above was an Oo-boo-boo--a big Oo-boo-boo--and it seemed to me to be +beaming with that broad, self-satisfied expression that the cat wears +when it has eaten the canary. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + + +INTELLIGENT BIRDS + + +I. A BIRD SCOUT + +Among those birds of North Queensland jungles which have marked +individualistic characters is that known as the koel cuckoo, which the +blacks of some localities have named "calloo-calloo"--a mimetic term +imitative of the most frequent notes of the bird. The male is lustrous +black, the female mottled brown, and during most parts of the year both +are extremely shy, though noisy enough in accustomed and quiet haunts. +The principal note of the male is loud, ringing, and most pleasant, but +its vocabulary is fairly extensive. Sometimes it yelps loud and long like +a puppy complaining of a smart whipping, sometimes in the gloom of the +evening it moans and wails pitifully like an evil thing tortured mentally +and physically, sometimes it announces the detection of unwelcome +intruders upon its haunts with a blending of purr and hiss. + +When "calloo-calloo" comes to the islands, resident blacks look to the +flowering of the bean-tree, for the events are coincident; while as they +understand all its vocal inflections an important secret is often +revealed to them by noisy exclamations. Living in flowerland among the +tops of the trees, the bird is favourably located for the discovery of +snakes, but being strong and lusty there is reason to believe that the +presence of slim green and grey arboreal species is ignored. The +important office that it holds in the domestic economy of the blacks is +in the detection of carpet snakes, which to them form an ever welcome +article of diet. Thus when "calloo-calloo" shouts "snake" in excited, +chattering phrases they run off in the hope of being able to find the +game, and generally one suffices to rid the bird of a deceitful and +implacable enemy and to provide the camp with a substantial meal. + +A few months ago a friend who owns a fruitful estate fronting one of the +rivers of the mainland, who was not aware of the aptitude of the bird, +was working with his blacks when "calloo-calloo" gave voice. "That's one!" +exclaimed Dilly Boy, as he rushed into a thick patch of jungle; "he +bin lookout snake!" The boss, concluding that Dilly Boy had merely +invented a plausible excuse for a spell, smiled to himself when he came +back in half an hour wearing an air of philosophic disappointment. "That +fella snake along a tree; bin lookout; too much leep [leaf]. That +calloo-calloo, him sing out proper. Him no more humbug!" + +Huge carpet snakes frequently coil themselves so carefully among +parasitic ferns and orchids in the trees that it is impossible to detect +them from below. A couple of days after work was proceeding in the same +locality when a snake, 12 feet long, was found and killed, but the fact +was then not accepted as proof of the theory of the blacks. In the course +of a few days the bird again proclaimed "snake," and all the blacks +hastened to the spot to set about a systematic search. Applying the +detective principle of isolation to various parts of the tree in which by +general consent (corroborating the evidence of the bird) the snake was +concluded to be, the blacks at last decided that the only possible place +of concealment was a mass of elk's-horn fern encircling the trunk about +40 feet from the ground. One of them thereupon climbed the tree, and soon +a carpet snake, 14 feet 6 inches long and 12 inches in girth, was +writhing on the ground. It is well known that these snakes are frequently +found in pairs, and no doubt the "calloo-calloo" had signified the +presence of the mate on the occasion of the first alarm. + +Other instances of the shrewdness of the bird and its care for the +wellbeing of the order generally by detecting and proclaiming the +presence of the universal enemy might be cited. One authority asserts +that the bird and the snake are nearly always found together, and seems +to imply that a friendship exists between them, for the bird is referred +to as a "messmate" of the snake. "The bird," he writes, "flies over +the snake with a 'clucky' chirp, and whenever the natives hear it in +the dense scrubs they sneak in to discover the reptile, which is caught +by being grabbed at the back of the head." + +In heralding the flower of the bean-tree, and thus awakening thoughts of +the beans, and in indicating snakes (both desirable and indeed essential +articles of food), the "calloo-calloo" performs such valuable service +that it is highly commended. Those who are familiar with the unreflective +omnivority of the blacks and their indelicate appetites generally, may +with difficulty credit the fact that in those districts in which the bird +is recognised as a trustworthy guide it is honoured, and under no +circumstances will they kill it. Of course, the blacks of North +Queensland in native worth have not much art in the killing of birds, but +in every case "calloo-calloo" is tabu. + +One instance may be quoted. A great outcry was heard on the edge of the +jungle, and upon investigation a grey falcon and a "calloo-calloo" were +found in such preoccupied "holts" that both were captured. Here was an +opportunity for a meal. The birds were parted, and the falcon given over +to the custody of a gin for execution, while the "calloo-calloo," which +was dazed, was petted and revived until it at last flew away with a glad +call, the blacks assuring a witness, "B'mbi that fella look out snake +belong me fella!" + + +II. DO BIRDS PLAY? + + +A somewhat too rigorous critic of the antics of birds has expressed the +opinion that playfulness is unknown among them, that their occasional +friskiness is not an exhibition of lightness of heart, but merely a +martial exercise. The corroboree of native companions (ANTIGONE +AUSTRALASIANA) may certainly be the practice of a defensive manoeuvre, +though it has the appearance of a graceful dance. A partially disabled +bird will pirouette on tiptoes and flap its wings wildly in the face of +its foe, and it is reasonable to imagine that the great birds in +community would keep themselves well trained in their particular methods +of self-defence. + +A flock of dotterels bobbing, bowing, skipping, and shouldering one +another may be merely practising some evolution with serious intent, +though it is far more natural to conclude that the frail little birds +are in holiday humour. For all their exercises, they have but one resort +in the presence of a superior foe or an alert single enemy, and that is +in hasty and inconsiderate flight. + +From my own experience may be drawn proof of the contention that birds do +practise defensive and offensive tactics, and also that they have their +moments of unreflecting play. + +The cassowary (CASUARIUS AUSTRALIS) is a skilful fighter. It hits out +with such force and precision that a weaponless man who stands before the +bird when it is angry and vicious is ridiculously overmatched. The great +bird is so quick that you do not realise that it has got its blow in +first until you see the blood flow. It strikes with its middle toe, and +that toe is a lance, keen if not bright. How does the regal bird of the +jungles of North Queensland acquire this lightning-like stroke? The +answer is, by constant and intelligent practice while young. A year or +two ago I had frequent opportunities for observing a pair of young +cassowaries patiently, yet playfully, performing martial exercises. They +were about the size of a full grown bustard (say, 28 lb. weight); but if +their bulk had been in ratio to their lightheartedness and playfulness, +they would have loomed large as bullocks. + +Their favourite spot was round and about a stout post about three feet +high, the ground encircling which had been beaten down by constant use to +polished smoothness. That the ruling passion of the young birds during +their idle hours was determination to acquire skill and alertness there +can be no doubt. Invariably the game began in a particular way. One of +the pair striding round the post--apparently oblivious of its +existence--would lurch against it as a man inspired with rum might treat a +lamp-post intent on getting in his way. Leering at the post for a second, +the bird would march round again to shoulder it roughly a second time. +Then a queer look of simulated petulance and indignation would spread +over its features, and, taking in its measure, the bird would lash out at +the post with grim earnestness. A cyclonic attack ensued. With many +feints and huddling up of its neck, and dodges, and ducks, and lateral +movements of the head quick as thought, the post was chastised for its +insolence and stolid stupidity. It seemed to be hit in several places at +one and the same moment. Its features bore ever increasing scores and +furrows, for it was used for hours every day as a punching-ball. + +When one bird grew tired the other imitated most laughably the antics of +its brother, first ignoring the presence of the post, and then, having +lurched dreamily against it, assaulting it with unrestrained fury. Play +and significant offensive tactics were undoubtedly blended in the +pastimes of the cassowary. + +Before the boldest of these birds grew to maturity it became such an +expert boxer and so pugnacious and truculent that it was declared unfit +to be at large, and as the State offered no secure asylum the death +penalty was pronounced and duly carried into effect. By good luck I +happened along before all the roast leg had been disposed of, and in +spite of testimony to the contrary have pleasure in declaring that, +notwithstanding the heroic training to which the youthful bird had +subjected itself, the flesh was as tender and as gamey as that of a young +plain turkey. + +The other case in point may be briefly cited. While yet young there came +into our possession a magpie (GYMNORHINA TIBICEN), to which as soon as it +was fit for responsibilities full liberty was cheerfully granted. +Breakfast, several tiffens, lunches, and afternoon snacks, and a full +evening's dinner was provided. The dish of scraps was always available. +At will the pet flew in and out of the kitchen, and if by chance food was +not spread out at the accustomed place it protested loudly, and always +effectively. Although a large quantity of food was self-earned, there was +always a substantial meal in reserve. + +The bird spent many wayward hours endeavouring to sing. No cultured +relative was present to teach the notes of its kind, so that in default +it learned the complete vocabulary of the domestic poultry, besides the +more familiar calls and exclamations of its mistress, the varied barks of +two dogs, the shrieks of many cockatoos, the gabble of scrub fowls. + +The bird also began to play in semi-human style, performing marvellous +acrobatic feats on the clothes-line, and lying on its back juggling with +a twig as some "artists" do with a barrel in the circus. A white-eared +flycatcher took up its abode near the house, and the magpie, after a +decent lapse of time, admitted the stranger to its companionship. The +wild, larderless bird, however, had little time to play. All its wit and +energies were devoted to the serious business of life. It knew none of +the games that the magpie invented save one, and that was a kind of +aerial "peep-bo" to which the brainier bird lured it by means of a +prize. + +The magpie found a moth, big of abdomen, fat, and brown, a tempting +morsel to any insectivorous bird. Envious of the dainty, the wagtail +fluttered and skipped about the magpie with cheerful chatter; but the +fluttering moth, daintily held by the extremity of its body, was +alternately presented and denied. They danced about a bush, the magpie +tantalisingly holding the moth for acceptance and hopping off as the +wagtail was about to snatch it. To the tame bird, fortified by knowledge +that its meals were provided, it was all fun. To the hungry wild one the +moth dangled temptingly before it and whipped disappointingly away was a +meal almost to be fought for. It was a game equally sincere but of varied +interest. The one assumed a whimsical air, chuckling in encouraging +tones; the other took it all in earnest. + +At last, unable to restrain an exclamation of delight, the magpie +unwarily slackened its hold, and the moth fluttered off to be snapped up +on the instant by the wild bird and gulped without ceremony. After this +the game was frequently played, but the magpie had invariably to make it +worth the while of the wagtail by offering a prize in the shape of some +tit-bit. + +Do not these cases support the theories that birds sharpen their +faculties by the exercise of defensive and offensive tactics, and also +that they do indulge in irresponsible play? + + +III. BIRDS WHICH HAVE REASONED + + +If one begins to reflect upon the mental attributes of inferior animals, +how aptly is evidence in support of a favourite theory presented? Are +the actions of birds due to automatic impulses or hereditary traits? Is +instinct merely "lapsed intelligence," or do birds actually reflect? Are +they capable of applying the results of habit and observations in respect +of one set of circumstances to other and different conditions? John +Burroughs expresses the opinion that birds have perceptions, but not +conceptions; that they recognise a certain fact, but are incapable of +applying the fact to another case. I am almost convinced that some birds +are capable of logical actions under circumstances absolutely new to +them, and as a bright and shining affirmation quote "Baal Burra." + +Beautiful in appearance, for it was what is generally known as a blue +mountain parrot (red-collared lorikeet), its cleverness and affectionate +nature were far more engaging than all the gay feathers. It came as the +gift of a human derelict, who knew how to gain the confidence of dumb +creatures, though society made of him an Ishmaelite. Vivacious, noisy, +loving the nectar of flowers and the juices of fruits, Baal Burra was +phenomenal in many winsome ways, but in a spirit of rare self denial +I refrain from the pleasure of chronicling some of them in order to +give place to instance and proof of the reasoning powers of an +astonishingly high order. + +Are apologies to be offered, too, for the homeliness of the example--its +unrelieved domesticity? I must begin at the very beginning lest some +necessary point be lost, and the beginning is porridge! A small portion +was invariably left for Baal Burra. On the morning of this strange +history a miniature lagoon, irregular in shape, of porridge and milk had +settled in the very centre of the dry desert of plate. In response to +customary summons to breakfast, Baal Burra skipped along the veranda. It +was a daily incident, and no one took particular notice until unusual +exclamations on the part of the bird denoted something extraordinary. By +circumnavigating the plate and at the same time stretching its neck to +the utmost it had contrived to convert the shapeless lagoon into a +perfectly symmetrical pond just out of the reach of the stubby tongue. +Hence the scolding. Three witnesses--each ardently on the side of the +bird--watched intently. Decently mannered, it refused to clamber on to the +edge of the plate, for it was ever averse from defilement of food. The +tit-bit was just beyond avaricious exertions--just at that tantalising +distance and just so irresistibly desirable as might be directly +stimulative of original enterprise towards acquirement. + +The chatter and abuse continued for a couple of minutes. Then the bird +stood still while seeming to reflect, with wise head askew after the +manner of other thinkers. Hurrying, to its playthings--which happened to +be at the far end of the veranda--it selected a matchbox, dragged it +clatteringly along, ranged it precisely close to the plate, mounted it, +and from the extra elevation sipped the last drop with a chuckle of +content. That the bird on deliberation conceived the scheme for +over-reaching the coveted food I have not the slightest doubt. + +Baal Burra bestowed frank friendship on a fat, good-humoured, yellow cat, +fond of luxury and ease during the day, a "rake-helly" prowler at +night. Into Sultan's fur Baal Burra would burrow, not without occasional +result, if the upbraiding tongue was to be believed. Baal Burra would +fill its lower mandible with water from a drinking dish and tip it neatly +into the cat's ear, and scream with delight as Sultan shook his sleepy +head. To dip the tip of the cat's tail into the water and mimic the +scrubbing of the floor was an everyday pastime. In addition to being an +engineer and a comedian the bird was also a high tragedian. In the cool +of the evening upon the going down of the sun the cat and the bird would +set out together to the accustomed stage. Baal Burra burrowing through +the long grass, painfully slow and cheeping plaintively, while Sultan +stalked ahead mewing encouragingly. The tragedy, which was in one act, +was repeated so often that each became confidently proficient, while the +setting--free from the constraints of space--helped towards that degree of +deception which is the highest form of art. Often we feared lest Sultan, +carried away by enrapt enthusiasm, would unwittingly sustain his part +even to the lamentable though natural DÉNOUEMENT. Baal Burra was, of' +course, the engaging and guileless victim, while Sultan, with triumphant +realism, rehearsed a scene ruthlessly materialised elsewhere. + +Climbing into a low-growing bush, Baal Burra would become preoccupied, +innocently absorbed in an inspection of the young shoots and tender +leaves which it seemed to caress. Assuming a ferocious mien, Sultan +approached soliloquising, no doubt, "Ah, here is another silly wild-fowl! +Come, let me indulge my bloodthirstiness!" His eyes glittered as he +crouched, his tail thickened and swayed, his ears were depressed, his +whiskers and nose twitched, his jaws worked, his claws were unsheathed +and sheathed spasmodically as he crept stealthily towards the apparently +unconscious bird. After two or three preliminary feints for the perfect +adjustment of his faculties and pose, he bounded into the air with +distended talons well over his screeching playmate. The scene would be +rehearsed several times before Sultan, tired of mummery and eager for +actualities, slunk yawling into the bush, while Baal Burra, whimpering in +the dusk, waddled home to be caged. + +Towards the further justification of the argument two cases in which +scrub fowl (MEGAPODIUS DUPERREYI TUMULUS) are concerned may be cited. +Being a previously recorded fact, the first is excusable only on the +grounds of its applicability to a debatable point. + +1. On a remote spot in a very rough and rugged locality, hemmed in by +immense blocks of granite, is a large incubating mound. Save at one point +it is encompassed by rocks, but the opening does not grant facilities +for the accumulation of vegetable debris, yet the mound continually +increases in dimensions. At first glance there seems no means by which +such a large heap could have been accumulated for the birds do not carry +their materials, but kick and scratch them to the site. A hasty survey +shows that the birds have taken advantage of the junction of two +impending rocks which form a fortuitous shoot down which to send the +rubbish with the least possible exertion on their part. The shoot is +always in use, for the efficacy of the mound depends upon the heat +generated by actually decaying vegetation. Did the birds think out this +simple labour-saving method before deciding on the site for the mound, or +was it a gracious afterthought--one of those automatic impulses by which +Nature confronts difficulties? + +2. As I wandered on the hilltops far from home I was astonished when Tom, +the cutest of black boys, dropped on his knees to investigate a crevice +between two horizontal slabs of granite filled with dead leaves and loam. +The spot, bare of grass, was about twenty yards from the edge of a fairly +thick, low-growing scrub where scrub fowls are plentiful. I was inclined +to smile when he said, "Might be hegg belonga scrub hen sit down!" He +scooped out some of the rubbish--the crevice was so narrow that it barely +admitted his arm--and finally dug a hole with his fingers fully fourteen +inches deep, revealing an egg, pink with freshness. + +A more unlikely spot for a scrub fowl to lay, could hardly be imagined. +There was no mound, the crevice being merely filled flush, and the +vegetable rubbish packed between the flat rocks did not appear to be +sufficient in quantity to generate in its decay the temperature necessary +to bring about incubation. Yet the egg was warm, and upon reflecting that +the sun's rays keep the granite slabs in the locality hot during the day, +so hot, indeed, that there is no sitting down on them with comfort, I +perceived that here was evidence on which to maintain an argument of rare +sagacity on the part of the bird, and that the hypothesis might be thus +stated: This cool-footed cultivator of the jungle floor had during the +casual rambling on sunlit spaces become conscious of the heat of the +rocks. Being impressed, she surveyed the locality, and of her deliberate +purpose selected a spot for the completion of her next ensuing maternal +duties which, while it scandalised the traditions of her tribe, presented +unrealised facilities. + +This was a natural incubator, certainly, but superior to those in common +use in that the solar heat stored by the stone during the day rendered +superfluous any large accumulation of vegetable matter. Surely it is but +a short and easy step from the perception of solar heat to the conception +that such heat would assist in the incubation of eggs. None but a +mound-builder who, of course, must have general knowledge on the subject +of temperatures and the maintenance thereof, could conceive that these +heated rocks would obviate the labour of raking together a mass of +rubbish. Further, her inherent perception that moist heat due to the +fermentation was vital towards the fulfilment of her hopes of posterity +would avert the blunder of trusting to the dry rocks alone. The hot rocks +and a small quantity of decaying leaves stood in her case for a huge +mound, innocent of extraneous heat. Having, therefore more time to +scratch for her living, she would naturally become a more robust bird, +more attractive to the males, and the better qualified to transmit her +exceptional mental qualities to her more numerous offspring. + +These are the bare facts. Let those who believe that birds are capable of +taking the step from the fact to the principle continue the trains of +thought into which they inevitably lead. Will this particular scrub fowl +by force of her accidental discovery start a revolutionary change in the +life-history of mound-builders generally? Or will the bird----? But there +are the facts to conjure or to play with. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + + +SWIFTS AND EAGLES + + +I. A RARE NEST + +Among the resident birds one of the most interesting from an +ornithological standpoint is that known as the grey-rumped swiftlet +(COLLOCALIA FRANCICA), referred to by Macgillivray as "a swallow which +Mr. Gould informs me is also an Indian species." That ardent naturalist +is, therefore, entitled to the credit of discovery. Sixty-one years had +passed since Macgillivray's visit, during which no knowledge of the +life-history of the bird which spends most of its time hawking for +insects in sunshine and shower had been revealed, when a fragment of a +nest adhering to the roof of a cave on one of the highest points of the +Island attracted attention. Submitted to an expert (Mr. A. J. Campbell, +of Melbourne, Victoria), the identity of the builder was guessed. +Subsequently I had the satisfaction of finding a colony close to the +water's edge, on the weather side, where the birds had frequently been +seen darting among blocks of granite almost obscured by jungle. + +No nests were found in crevices deemed to be favourable spots, though +the predilection of the genus for gloom was appreciated, but upon the +exploration of a confined cave the excited flutterings of invisible birds +betrayed a hitherto well-kept secret. When my eyes became accustomed to +the dimness I saw that the roof of the cave (which is fairly smooth and +regular with an inclination of about thirty degrees) was studded with +nests. Fifty-three were placed irregularly about the middle of the roof, +some in pairs, none on the walls. Some were not quite finished; twenty +contained a single white egg each; none contained young. All were +adherent to the stone by a semi-transparent white substance resembling +isinglass, with which also the fine grass, moss, and fibre composing the +nests were consolidated. The vegetable material of the first fragmentary +nest (found September 17, 1908) was quite green and the gluten moist and +sticky. Those now described (two months later) were dry and tough, the +dimensions being 2 to 2½ inches across and about ¾ inch deep. The cave is +only about 30 feet above high-water mark and the entrance the birds +favour is, strange to say, averse from the sea and much obscured by +leafage. + +After the first fright the birds became quiet and confident. A young one +flew into my half-closed hand, and I detained it for a while and it +never struggled. Another tried to snoodle into the shirt-pocket of the +black boy who accompanied me. Several brushed against our faces. Clouds +partially obscured the sun and what with the screen of foliage and the +prevailing gloom of the cave we could not always distinguish the nests. +When the sun shone brightly all were plainly discernible, those with the +single pearly egg being quaintly pretty. As they flitted in and out of +the cave, the birds were as noiseless as butterflies save when they +wheeled to avoid each other. Those which were brooding, as they flitted +over the nests or clung to the edges, uttering a peculiar note hard to +vocalise. To my cars it sounded as a blending of cheeping, clinking, and +chattering, yet metallic, and not very unlike the hasty winding up of a +clock. + +One bird flew to her nest a foot or so from my face and clung to it. To +test its timidity or otherwise I approached my face to within two inches, +but she continued to scrutinise me even at such close quarters with +charming assurance. Then I gently placed my hand over her. She struggled. +but not wildly, for a few seconds and then remained passive with bright +eyes glinting in the gloom. She was a dusky little creature, the +primaries, the back of the head, neck, the shoulders, and tail being +black, but when the wings were extended the grey fluff of the base of the +tail was conspicuous. After a few minutes I put her back on the nest, +and she clung, to it having no shyness or fear. I noticed that the beak +was very short, the gape very large, the legs dwarfed, and the toes +slender. + +We remained in the cave for about half an hour, during which time the +birds came and went indifferent to our presence. As far as I am aware +members of the species never rest save in their headquarters, clinging to +the roof or the nests and never utter a sound except the reassuring, +prattle upon alighting on the edge of the nest. It was interesting to +note that while many young birds were fluttering about in the cave none +occupied a nest, and eggs were in successive stages of incubation, as +proved by appearance and test. + +The fact that the nests of these swifts are cemented with coagulated +saliva establishes analogy with that other member of the family which +builds in the caves of frowning precipices near the sea, making edible +nests greatly appreciated by Chinese gourmands, some of whom maintain the +fantastic theory that the swift catches quantities of a small, delicately +flavoured fish which it exposes on rocks until desiccated, to be +afterwards compounded into nests. The ancients were wont to believe in +the existence of hostile mutuality between the swifts and the +bêche-de-mer, though they have little in common in respect of appearance, +attributes, and habits. If memory serves, one of the genera had the +specific title of HIRUNDO, founded on the faith that the swift, by flying +over the sea-slug exposed by receding tide, and vexing it by jeers, +caused it to exude glutinous threads which the swift seized and bore away +to its cave to be consolidated and moulded into a nest. To the fable was +appended a retributive moral, viz., that the bêche-de-mer occasionally +revenged itself by expelling such a complicated mass of gluten that it +became a net for the capture of the swift, which was slowly assimilated +by its enemy. The Chinese, it may be said, with but slight perversion of +fact, show equal partiality for the respective emblems of speed and +sloth. + +Since the dates mentioned it has been ascertained by personal observation +that the breeding season of the swiftlet extends over four months, +during which probably four young are reared, each clutch being single. +The nests do not provide accommodation for more than one chick, which +before flight is obviously top large for its birthplace. Looking down +into the cave, the eggs well advanced towards incubation seem to have a +slight phosphorescent glow. The earliest date so far recorded of the +discovery of a newly laid egg is October 14th, but there is reason to +believe that the breeding season begins at least a month earlier. On +January 10th this year (1910) half the nests in the cave originally +described contained eggs, in most of which (judging by opacity) +incubation was far advanced, while in several were young birds, some +newly hatched, others apparently ready to depart from their gloomy, +foul-smelling quarters. These latter clung so determinedly to their nests +with needle-like toes that the force necessary to remove them would +certainly have caused injury. + +It may be remarked that the breeding season of the nutmeg pigeon is also +protracted over a third of the year--from September to the end of +January, two or three single successive clutches being reared. The pigeon +is a visitor, the swift a resident. + + +II. THREE FISHERS + + +At the outset it is almost incumbent to announce that this is not a fish +story. It is not even a story, though fish play a secondary part in it. +Therefore it should not make shipwreck of the faith of those who smile +and sniff whensoever a fish or a snake is informally introduced in print. +The imagination of some observers of the wonders of natural history +paints incidents so extravagantly that their illustrative value is +depreciated if not entirely distorted. + +As I would wish to establish a sort of general confidence with any chance +reader of these lines who, like myself, finds no need for exaggeration +in the chronicling of observations, being well aware that Nature with the +ease of consummate art outwits the wisest and laughs at the blotches of +the boldest impressionist, it seems but common politeness to explain that +though the Island may be romantic, the art of romancing is alien from its +shores, albeit (as some one has hinted) that in imagination reverently +applied lies the higher truth. + +The distance from the mainland is not so great as to deprive the Island +of generally distinctly Australian characteristics. It was, no doubt, in +the remote past, merely a steep and high range of hills separated from +other hills and mountains by plains and lagoons. Delicate land shells, +salt-hating frogs, and subtle snakes are among the living testifiers to +past connection with Australia, but while all the animals and nearly all +the birds native to the island are common on the mainland, several +mainland types are conspicuously absent. + +If, therefore, the birds and mammals seem in these literal chronicles to +have little ways of their own, may they not owe obedience to true and +abiding circumstances--a kind of unavoidable fate--due to isolation? It +would indeed be singular if an island so long separated from Australia as +to possess no marsupial did not impress certain idiosyncrasies upon its +fauna and flora. It would be absurd to contend that as a rule, the +untamed creatures carry any marks of distinction, but I have had the +opportunity of studying facts of which I have never been fortunate to +have confirmation either by reading or by "swapping lies" with other +students of Nature. + +Occasionally when bewilderment has come I call to mind what Mrs. Jarley +said of her waxwork, and let the case pass: "I won't go so far as to +say that, as it is, I've seen waxwork quite like life but I've certainly +seen some life that was exactly like waxwork." When I see a crab not +easily distinguishable from a piece of sponge and a piece of sponge far +more like a crab generally than the crab, that unconsciously mimics it, +and possessing just as much apparent animation, I am content to be +tricked in many other ways by the good mother of us all. + +Having ventured so far by way of preface, it is quite possible that the +reader may have concluded that something exceptionally marvellous is to +follow. Disappointment was inevitable from the first. The relation of +some of the quaint distinguishing traits of the Island fauna must be left +until the historian imagines that he has established a reputation for +subduing, rather than heightening, the tone of his facts. This +introduction has not a particular but a wide bearing. + +Chief among the birds of prey are the osprey, the white-headed sea-eagle, +and the white-bellied sea-eagle. The great wedge-tailed eagle (eagle-hawk) +is a rare visitor, and is not a fisher. The others are resident and are +industrious practisers of the art which, according to their +interpretation, is anything but gentle. As they indulge in it, the sport +is so rough and boisterous and clumsy that one wonders that so many fish +should be caught. Each soars over the sea in circles at a height of +about 60 feet or 80 feet, and when fish are seen flies down and, plunging +into the water, seizes its prey with its talons. Unless the bird is +watched closely its attitudes while preparing for the downward cast and +during the descent are misunderstood. "And like a thunderbolt he falls" +is quite, according to local observations, an erroneous description of +the feat performed by the fishing eagle. Take as an example of the others +the actions of the noble bird the white-headed sea-eagle. As it circles +over the blue water its gaze is fixed and intent. Flight seems +automatic--steady, fairly swift, rippleless. Immediately a fish is +sighted, attitudes and poses become comparatively strained and awkward. +Flight is checked by the enormous brake-power of outspread tail, and +backward beating wing. The eagle poises over the spot, stretches out its +legs, and extends its talons to the utmost; flies down in a series of +zig-zags, and with the facial expression of the dirty boy undergoing the +torture of face-washing, plunges breast first with outstretched wings +with a mighty splash into the water. Disappearing for four or five +seconds, it finds it no easy task to rise with a two-pound mullet. + +Splendid as the feat undoubtedly is, it does not coincide with the +description usually given. Have we not often been told of the headlong, +lightning like drop that almost baffles eyesight? The circumstance that +baffles is that fish are so unobservant or so slow that they do not +always, in place of sometimes, escape. For the excuse of the fish it must +be acknowledged that very few members of the tribe are fitted with eyes +for star-gazing. The eagle captures a dinner, not by the exercise of any +very remarkable fleetness or adaptiveness or passion for fishing, but +because of certain physical limitations on the part of the fish. + + + "As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it + By sovereignty of nature." + + +The subserviency of fish to the osprey was noted by the ancients, who +attributed a fabulous power of fascination to the bird so that as it flew +over the ponds the fish "turned their glistering bellies up" that it +might take liberal choice. Certainly some limitation on the part of the +fish seems to operate in favour of the osprey, otherwise the clumsy +fisher would oft go hungry. + +It goes against the grain to speak slightingly of the knightly, +white-headed sea-eagle--a friend and almost a companion; but as any one +may see that it fishes not for the sport but for the pot, and that the +plunge into the water is a shock that is dreaded, no injustice is done. +Some birds--and they the most graceful--seem to fish for sport alone. These +three fishers fish because, like Kipling's kangaroo, they have to--only +the kangaroo hopped. + +Now, the white-headed sea-eagle, which seems, and with good reason, to be +proud of its ruddy back, appears to have no enemy of its kind. While the +osprey and the white-bellied sea-eagle fall out and chide and fight, it +looks down from some superior height and placidly watches the fish +trap, for though knightly it is not above accepting tribute, for it likes +fish though it hates fishing. + +The great osprey seldom crosses the bay without a challenge from its +stealthy foe, the white-belly. The voices of both are alike in their +dissonance though different in quality and tone, and the smaller bird is +invariably the aggressor. This is how they fight, or rather engage in a +vulgar brawl which has in it a smack of tragedy. The osprey, with steady +beat of outstretched wing, flies "squaking" from its agile enemy, who +endeavours to alight on the osprey's back. Just as white-belly stretches +its talons for a grip among the osprey's feathers, the osprey turns--and +turns without a tremor in its long, sweeping wings--to shake hands with +white-belly. For a moment the huge bird rests on its back, silhouetted +against the luminous sky, to interlock talons with its nimble foe. But +white-belly is fully alive to the risk of getting "into hoults" with so +heavy a weight, for on the instant it swoops up with a harsh cry of rage +or disappointment. With but a single flap and no quiver of wing the +osprey rights itself and sails away (a methodic, unflurried flight) with +fleeter white-belly in pursuit, which when within striking distance +swoops again, to be faced by the grim, outstretched talons of the osprey, +who has turned in flight with machine-like precision. So swift and sudden +is the discreet upward swoop of the white-belly that it almost appears to +be a rebound after contact with the bigger bird. So the scrimmage, or, to +be exact, screamage, proceeds, for each party to it tells the whole +Island of its valour, and business stands still as the series of most +graceful, yet savage, aerial evolutions is repeated until the rivals are +blotted out by distance. + +Once I saw a bunch of feathers fly from the osprey's back. The aerial +capsize had not been timed with accustomed accuracy. Weight told, and it +speedily shook itself free; but I am waiting for the day when, in +mid-air, the osprey and the white-bellied sea-eagle shall clasp hands. It +will be an exciting moment for the sea-eagle. The osprey is a cuter as +well as a heavier bird, and, in the phrase of the blacks, "That fella +carn let go!" + +When the osprey comes skirting the hollows of the hills for cockatoos, +its hunger will be unsatisfied until, by elaborate and disdainful +manoeuvres, the cockatoos are induced to take flight. Perched on the top +of a tree, they may jeer in safety as long as they like; but let the +flock fly into the open and the osprey will be surprised if it does not +get one, and that which is singled out it follows "like a grim murderer +still steady to his purpose." Now is the time for this, greatest of the +three fishers, to, wax fat and become pompous, for its diet is to be +varied with nutmeg pigeons, and the pigeons have come in their thousands +and tens of thousands, and if the eaglets do lack and suffer hunger, it +will be on account of the laziness of their parents. + +For all its laborious fishing, the red-backed sea-eagle is sometimes +deprived of its spoil by a bird much inferior in size and weight and +which has not the slightest pretensions to the art. An eagle had captured +a "mainsail" fish (banded dory) which loomed black against its snowy +breast as in strenuous spirals it sought to gain sufficient height whence +to soar over the spur of the hill to its eyrie. The fish, though not +weighty, was awkward to carry, and the presence of the boat rather +baffled the bird, which was shadowed in envious though discreet flight by +a white-bellied eagle. Low over the water, close to the fringe of jungle +the eagle flew, when a grey falcon dashed out, snatched from its talons +the wriggling fish, and with one swoop disappeared under a +yellow-flowered hibiscus bush overhanging the tideway. The falcon is no +match for the eagle; but, most subtle of birds of prey, it had watched +the perplexity of its lord and master, and with audacious courage taken +advantage of a moment's embarrassment. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + + +SOCIALISTIC BIRDS + + +Repeated observations and diary records have established August 12th as +the beginning of the local "bird season." About that date two of the most +notable birds arrive from the North--the nutmeg pigeon (MYRISTICIVORA +SPILORRHOA) and the metallic starling (CALORNIS METALLICA). Having spent +five months in Papua, Java, Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula, the former +revisit the islands for incubating purposes. + +Where the metallic starlings spend their retreat I know not; but they +return with impetuous haste, as if absence had been disciplinary and not +for pleasure. They assemble in glittering throngs, shrilly discussing +their plans for the season, without reserve debating important concerns +of house and home. Shall the tall Moreton Bay ash in the forest be again +occupied and the shabby remnants of old nests designedly destroyed before +departure last season be renovated, or shall a new settlement be +established and the massive milkwood-tree overtopping the jungle be +selected as a capital site? Discussion is acidulous and constant. For +days the majority of the burnished citizens do little else but talk, +while the industrious few begin, some to build nests on the sites of the +old, others to lay hasty foundations among the leaves of the milkwood. +Each faction wishes to carry its point, for ever and anon both rejoin the +main body and proclaim and testify. Then all adjourn to the disputed +sites successively and join in frantic commotion until some sage makes an +entirely original proposition, and off they all go on a flight of +inspection and abruptly end all differences of opinion by favouring a +tree which appears to have no distinctive merits. + +These delightfully engaging birds have been known to nest in a particular +tree for a quarter of a century, and again they may select a different +site every year. Though I have no evidence in confirmation of the theory, +I am inclined to think that arboreal snakes are influential in causing +changes. Although the domed nests must be difficult for even a snake to +enter so large a congregation of noisy birds would inevitably attract +these slim nocturnal marauders. + +Moreover, a case may be cited in support of the theory. In a Moreton Bay +ash (EUCALYPTUS TESSELARIS), not far from this spot, there nested a pair +of white-headed sea eagles, a pair of cockatoos, and a colony of metallic +starlings, four or five hundred strong. The memory of man knows not the +first settlement of this amicable community, which remained until during +temporary absence the blacks were suborned to climb the tree to secure +the eggs of the eagle. They also helped themselves to a few of the callow +starlings. The sea eagles and cockatoos discarded the tree forthwith, and +the starlings in a couple of years. And why? Because, in my opinion at +least, the eagles had policed the tree, killing offhand any green or grey +snake which had the stupidity to sneak among the nests. When the +policemen went to another beat the snakes took to frightening the +unprotected birds and to the burgling of their nest. This incident caused +a revision of the protective laws. They are much more explicit, and the +pains and penalties for the violation of them are now absolutely unholy +in their truculence. + +During the 1909 season a serious diminution was noted in the number of +metallic starlings and nutmeg pigeons. In the case of the former I am at +a loss to account for the cause of the comparatively few visitors--always +highly esteemed and admired and preserved from interference--except on +the theory of the outbreak of an epidemic or in the possible fact that +they are falling victims to the feminine passion for fine feathers. + +The Grouse Disease Commission has found a recognised period in the +fluctuations of the number of those game birds. During a cycle of sixty +years there recur the good year, the very good year, the record year, the +bad disease year, the recovery, the average, and the good average. The +round is said to be almost invariable. So may it be with the metallic +starling. + +With the nutmeg pigeons the case is different. Here we have direct +evidence of the desolating effects of the interference of man. +Congregating in large numbers on the islands to nest, and only to nest, +these birds offer quite charming sport to men with guns. They are the +easiest of all shooting. Big and white, and given to grouping themselves +in cloudy patches on favourable trees, I have heard of a black boy, with +a rusty gun, powder, and small stones for shot, filling a flour-sack full +during an afternoon. It is, therefore, not strange that men shoot 250 in +an hour or so. The strange thing is that "men" boast of such butchery. On +the very island where this bag Of 250 was obtained a little black boy, +twelve years old, killed four pigeons with a single sweep of a long +stick. He did not boast--to his father and mother and himself the four +birds represented supper; but in the case of the sportsman it might be +asked, how many of the butchered doves went into the all-redeeming pot? + +These pigeons are one of the natural features of the coast of North +Queensland, in the conservation of which the State and the Commonwealth +are concerned. It may be contended that the extermination of a species +represented by such multitudes is impossible. But while the history of +the passenger pigeon of North America is extant such argument carries no +weight. + +When the birds are, so to speak, shot on their nests or sitting in their +crowded dormitories a whole season's natural increase may be discounted +by an afternoon's wretched "sport." If nutmeg pigeons are to be preserved +as one of the attractions and natural features of the coast of North +Queensland, extensive sanctuaries must be established. Strict prohibition +might be enforced for a period of, say, five years to enable the colonies +to regain their population, and thenceforward they might--if the shooting +of sitting birds is still deemed to be "sport"--be allowed a "jubilee" +every second year. + +If the unrestricted molestation is permitted, the day is not far distant +when indignation will arise and lovers of Nature will ask passionately +why a unique feature of the coast was allowed to be obliterated in blood. +True sportsmen would unanimously rejoice in the permanent preservation of +birds elegant and swift of flight, not very good to eat, and which visit +us at a time when inhospitality is a wanton crime. + +For this indulgence of my feelings I have, I am aware, laid myself open +to censure. It is foreign to, indeed, quite out of place in, a book which +professes neither message nor mission. Yet, mayhap, some kindred spirit +having influence and judicious eloquence at command may read these lines. +Then the birds need not much longer fear the naughty local man. Long may +the dulcet islands within the Barrier Reef burst morn and eve into snowy +bloom as the pigeons go and come! + +So having soothed my fretfulness by irresponsible scolding, consigned +countless white pigeons to inviolable sanctuary and thereby confirmed to +perpetuity the charter under which a bustling interchange of seeds and +the kernels of fruit-trees between isle and mainland is maintained, I am +at liberty to chronicle certain every-day incidents in the establishment +of a colony by those other companionable birds, metallic starlings, also +under engagement to Nature as distributing agents. + +Whereas the bulk of the traffic of the pigeons is with the mainland, that +of the metallic starlings is purely local, though, perhaps, just as +important. The insular communities do not venture for their merchandise +across the water, and those of the mainland have no dealings with the +isles. + +Reference has been made to the disappointment occasioned by the violation +of a colony at the instance of a semi-professional egg-snatcher, and of +the subsequent abandonment of the tree which had been used as a building +site by the birds as far back as the memory of the blacks went. + +The tree was in the midst of the forest, and season after season upon the +return of the members of the colony they assembled in the vicinity, but +never again built in the neighbourhood. Last season, however, the pent-up +exasperation of years found a certain sort of relief, for a new colony +was started in a Moreton Bay ash-tree not a hundred yards away and in +full view from my veranda. There are five other colonies of these +socialistic, disputative birds on this Island; but they happen to be in +out-of-the-way spots, where continuous detailed observation of their +habits and customs would be impossible. Hence, when I saw the noisy +throng gather together discussing the imperious business of nesting, I +watched with eager and hopeful anticipation. About the third day from the +first demonstration in favour of the particular tree building operations +began, and thenceforward daily notes were taken of the doings of the +colony. Great pleasure was found in being the spectator of the +establishment of a new colony. + +In 1908 the earliest arrivals appeared, on August 2nd--eight days before +the herald of the nutmeg pigeons. The colony the history of which it is +proposed to relate was no doubt an offshoot of the first brood of those +which had arrived on that date. Circumstances exist which persuade me +that the shining Calornis rear two broods during the season. Nutmeg +pigeons rear as many as three young successively. + +Just about the time the site of the new colony was selected young birds +were fairly numerous, so that it seems safe to assume that, expelled from +parental nests, they determined to set up an establishment on their own +account forthwith. In their industry they seemed to display the defects +and advantages of the quality of youth--enthusiasm, impulsiveness and +vigour, inexperience, haste, and irrelevance. + +Let the diary notes tell of the enterprise as scrutinised through the +telescope: + + +Nov. 15. Shining Calornis (all young birds, mottled grey and black with +green sheen on back) busy surveying tree (Moreton Bay ash) on plateau to +the north. + +16. Birds seem inclined to build. + +17. Notice that the birds are in pairs; no old, full-plumaged among them. + +18. First beginning of nests. About thirty birds. All seem very excited +and full of business. + +20. Several nests well forward. Other parts of the tree now being +occupied. + +22. Seventeen nests; some nearly complete + +23. Eighteen nests; several apparently complete, save for the overhanging +entrance. Many quarrels and squabbles in the family, for the nests are in +groups and in close quarters. + +27. Three new nests, or rather foundations thereof. + +Dec. 1. Now 25 nests. Those which appeared to be near completion are +still being added to. Many have entrances, so that one of the pair works +from inside, placing and threading the materials. Sometimes one sits for +a long time with the head protruding, as if testing the comfort of the +nest. Squabbles are frequent. The backs of some betray a lovely green +sheen in the sunshine, with rich purple at the base of the neck. + +4. After two days' heavy rain the birds are as busy as ever. Many +flirtations. The great want of the colony seems to be insect powder. + +5. The tree now is in full flower. I watch the birds making feints at +bees and butterflies visiting the blooms but they do not seem to catch +insects. Fruit, seeds, and nuts form their diet. The nests, which are +composed of tendrils and pliant twigs elaborately intertwined, are domed, +and in size somewhat less than a football. + +6. Birds very busy. Most of the nests appear to be fit for habitation. +Work is suspended at sundown. They do not roost in the tree. Have not +detected their resting-place; but it seems to be some distance in the +jungle. + +7. Sunset (6.45). The birds disappeared from vicinity of the tree almost +immediately, though twilight lasted half an hour. + +8. Three minutes before sunrise (5.48) birds' voices heard as they +approached trees. They were in three or four companies in a +bloodwood-tree, where they flirted and fussed and made violent love; then +in a trailing mob flew noisily and began work in haste and excitement, +one eager bird manipulating a long, slender, partly dry leaf, +industriously trying to fit it in various spots. Finding its due place, +the limp leaf was thrust in among the compact twigs and tendrils. The +leaf was seized close to the stalk, which was deftly inserted, then it +was gripped a trifle farther back and pushed and re-gripped, the process +being repeated rapidly until nothing but the tip remained visible. + +9. Most of the exterior of the nests is now finished. Work continues +briskly on the lining, though the material used therefor does not seem to +be different from the bulk. When one of a pair has disappeared inside of +the tunnel-like entrance, if the other arrives it clings to the threshold +until its mate emerges, and then briskly enters. This evening work was +suspended at 6.40--cloudy. A few butterflies still flitting about the +flowers. + +10. Another new nest. As with the others, a few tendrils are laid across +dependent sprays of leaves, engaging and intertwining them. These +represent the foundations upon which the superstructure is partly built, +but both sides and dome are made to entangle other frail branches and +leaves, so that the nest is supported throughout its various parts. A +considerable quantity of material is lost from each nest, owing to the +difficulty of contriving to make initial tendrils engage the leaves and +pedicels. The space for the circular entrance is sketched out at quite an +early stage. In this colony with few exceptions it faces the south, and +is so overhung by a veranda as to be undiscernible except from +immediately below. + +The situation of the nests on the extremities of the outermost branches, +parts of some being lower than the leaves to which they are attached, is +no doubt an illustration of acquired sagacity. Such impetuous birds +living in large communities, and thus compounding a savour calculated to +attract arboreal snakes, would in the course of nature take precautions. +The nests in position and design represent the crystallisation of the wit +of the bird in antagonism to the wile of the snake. + +In the morning, fuss, fierce purpose, and hurry are shown. As the +afternoon wears on, less and less industry prevails. Work is suspended at +6.45 p.m. when the last of the crowd hastily departed. Before sundown all +are spent and weary. Some of the birds begin to darken on the sides of +the upper part of the breasts. The purple sheen on the back of the neck +is more brilliant. There is a glowing patch, too, at the base of the +tail, though the other parts of the back are dingy with a green tinge in +reflected light. The nuptial costume is fast becoming, more attractive. + +14. Nests were not deserted until 7.30 p.m. The last half-dozen birds, +alert and anxious, dashed off upon a common impulse noisily. They roost +in the jungle adjoining. + +15. A more sedate condition prevails in the demeanour of the birds, due +peradventure to domestic responsibilities. Fewer are about, and they +spend leisure moments on the top of or near the nests, while others pop +in and out. Are these signs of the beginning of egg-laying? + +17. Egg-laying undoubtedly begins, though improvements to nests, which +seemed to be finished over a week ago, occupy odd moments. + +20. Two past days have been dull and showery. Quietude reigns; a tendril +or twig is occasionally threaded or poked into the nests. The male muses +on the top of the nest, or closely adjacent thereto. The female pops in +and out of apparently cosy quarters. Circumstances point to the +conclusion that most of the nests contain eggs. + +21. Good deal of rain, which bothers the birds. They play about excitedly +in one company. Towards evening very few are about. The nests are +deserted, though five or six birds in one mob are in a neighbouring tree. + +22. Heavy rain and never-ceasing squalls. No sign of the birds, though a +few notes of passers-by were heard. Finer evening. + +23. Fine and calm. Nests deserted all morning. Late afternoon many +returned, though not, I think, the full company. They seem to be +inspecting and repairing the nests. + +24. Did not see any of the birds. + +25. At 3 p.m. several appeared--some entering the nests two at a time, +though without customary fuss and excitement. + +26. Full company in possession throughout the day. Several (which are +assumed to be males) are better plumaged, the breasts being streaked with +black, and the backs much more lustrous. + +27. Serious business of incubation deprives the colony of customary +gaiety and impulsiveness. While the female sits close, the male perches +on top of the nest, occasionally beguiling the time by inconsequent +repairs and petty squabbles with next door neighbours. How brilliant are +their eyes, especially when they sparkle with spite--flame red and +flashing. + +28. I am astonished at the sobering effect of pending domestic troubles. +Is it that the sitting hen is responsible for the great part of the +gaiety and impulsiveness, as well as for the quibbles and brawls that +often disturb the happy family? Whatever the cause, whoever responsible, +order and tranquillity reign, each expectant father spending hours +demurely on his respective nest, a model of staid deportment, though ever +ready to resent intrusion on the part of a friend. Portending cares sit +heavily on the young and inexperienced colonists. + +29. All quiet and industrious. Fancy that the chicks are well +forward--rather to my surprise. + +Jan. 2. Very rainy all morning. Did not see any of the birds until the +weather cleared. Though the nests looked sodden, the owners were cheerful +and noisy--a tone of pleasure because of the return of the sunshine +being, as I fancied, noticeable. + +3. Busy all day. At 6.45 a.m. all gathered in a company on the topmost +branches, and after two or three preliminary flights to the accompaniment +of much commotion and chattering, dashed into the jungle with a unanimous +and most acidulous shriek. One of the nests is hanging in shreds. + +4. This morning the birds were engaged for some little time pulling their +nests to pieces, strands of tendrils being jerked out and cast away with +a contemptuous fling. Most are still fairly rotund and compact, and +appear to be weather-proof, while others are already loopholed and +ragged. The duty was performed in a most haphazard, halfhearted way. +Beneath the tree are many varieties of seeds and nuts, and portions of +fruits, but no egg-shells. After the members of the colony had swooped +and swept about as if practising military manoeuvres, sometimes silently +but generally to the accompaniment of much shrieking in unison, the tree +was entirely deserted for the rest of the afternoon. + +5. Before 7 a.m. dismantlement of nests was resumed with enthusiasm and +deliberate purpose, shreds being twitched out and cast down. A good deal +of chatter. There are a few completely feathered youngsters, the breasts +being almost pure white, but not more than one to each nest. Most of the +nests have no output, in which case the responsible birds have no +assistance in the work of destruction. Late in the afternoon all were +very busy again, repairs to nests engaging attention. The birds are so +unsettled that I am puzzled. Occasionally one would sit in a +semi-dismantled nest snoodling down cosily and peering out with shining +eyes, the glow and glitter of which from the darksome entrance have a +jewel-like effect. While the one sat close and still the mate would +repair the exterior, and in a flash of electric suddenness all would dart +out of the tree to swoop about as if to perfect themselves in an exercise +designed towards the evasion of the dash of a hawk. + +6. Early again the wrecking of the nests began; but was soon abandoned, +the colony being deserted for the last part of the day. + +7. Demolition very casual. The birds are averse from working in the rain, +and, to-day several showers have occurred. + +8. Notwithstanding light rain the duty of demolition began at 6.30 a.m. +As much energy and purpose are expended withdrawing the strands by a +series of tugs as were displayed in the building. Occasionally the whole +branch from which the nest is pendant sways with the work of a single +bird, the eyes of which glitter the more fiercely as it pulls and jerks +at an obstinate strand. Twenty-five birds are counted, so it would seem +that the enterprise has failed in respect of increase. No doubt some are +absent. Both young and old birds take part in the work of destruction. +One, I notice, has a black blotch on his otherwise mottled breast, while +his back shines with the polished radiance of a soap-bubble. + +9. Tree visited at odd intervals--not at all during early morning. +Dismantlement proceeds half-heartedly. + +10. Very early, the morning being fine and clear, the birds resumed in a +playful, lackadaisical way the demolition of the nests; without apparent +cause, save the shriek of a passing cockatoo, they fled into the jungle. +Did not see them again until late in the afternoon. + +11. Again the birds visited the reserve early. Shortly before sundown I +counted sixteen. They were resting silently on the sodden remains of the +nests, for there have been heavy showers; some were picking idly at +loosened strands as if merely to beguile time. Now and again they fly +briskly and noisily in close company--always "diagonalising." Failure to +add largely to the population of birds does not seem to have damped the +gaiety and impulsiveness of the erratic flights. They are as sprightly in +their confabulations and as spiteful in their squabbles. The founders of +the colony were, I am convinced, this season's birds. If so they could +not have been more than two months old when they began to build. The +young brood from old-established colonies hatched out just about two +months before these appeared. + +12. Yesterday's occupations and recreations repeated. The inheritance of +parasitic intruders, to cut off which the nests are torn to pieces, now +depends on unsubstantialities. + +13. This morning, the flock assembled at break of day, and began, some to +extricate tendrils from, others to repair woebegone nests. When the sun +shone on the tree the plumage of the birds gleamed with almost dazzling +iridescence, the shoulders green, the back of the neck purple and lake of +the richest hue. + +14. One casual visit to the tree was observed. + +15. No visit. + +16. No appearance until late in the afternoon, when four, wildly flying, +settled for a few minutes and departed shrieking. The tree is not now a +home, merely a rendezvous. + + +And so the history ends. Next August, no doubt, the surviving members of +the colony will return, all fully feathered in glossy black, and with +eyes aflame, to complete the destruction of the nests--according to +habit--and build afresh. + + +Dec. 10 (1910). True to attributes, the bird's returned yesterday. To-day +the one nest which had withstood a year's buffeting was demolished +offhand, and twenty-two are now being built with frantic haste. + +Dec. 12. To the solidification of the joy of the Isle no less than four +new colonies are being established close at hand, the very tree which was +raided years ago being again occupied by a jubilant and clamorous crowd. +One of the new colonies is over one hundred nests strong. Does this +regeneration signify the beginning of a favourable phase analogous to +that discovered by the commission previously referred to in respect of +grouse? + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + + +SHARKS AND RAYS + + +Among the commonest of fish in the shallow waters of the coast are the +rays, of which there are many species--eighteen, according to the list +prepared by Mr. J. Douglas Ogilby. Some attain enormous size, some +display remarkable variations from the accepted type, and at least two +are edible though not generally appreciated, for the hunger of the +littoral Australian is not as a rule sufficiently speculative to prompt +to gastronomic experiment, else food that other nations cherish would not +be deemed unclean. Between sharks and rays relationship exists, for a +certain ray has been sneered at as only a flattened-out shark. There are +five species of shark-like rays, which have all the outward form and +appearance and vagrant mode of life of their prototype, and four species +of sharks that might pass as rays. One of them, with a big head, +tadpole-like tail and generally frayed and sea-tattered appearance, is, +in fact, accepted in some quarters as a ray, while the shovel-like skate +is commonly regarded as a shark. + +The most delicately flavoured of the rays is known as the "blue-spotted" +(DASYBATUS KUHLI). It does not appear to attain a large size, but it is +fairly common, and is one of the most comely of the creatures of the +coral reefs, the bright blue decorative blotches on a ground of old gold +being most effective. It is often found in a few inches of water +perfectly motionless, and on being disturbed flutters and glides away +swiftly and with little apparent effort. Roasted on an open fire, when a +large proportion of the pungent oil escapes, the flesh is pleasant, +though possessing the distinctive flavour of the order, which is, +however, acceptable at all times to the palate of the black. + +One of the formidable sting rays--dark brown in colour (probably +DASYBATUS THETIDES, Ogilby), which revels on oysters--has the habit of +burying itself in the mud, leaving an angular depression, corresponding +to the size of the body, from which the pedestal eyes alone obtrude. In +such position it is difficult for the inexperienced to detect the fish +until by misadventure it is trodden on, in which circumstance one of two +manoeuvres is adopted. Either it flaps and flounders in the slush so that +the intruder is startled and jumps clear, or else it lashes out with its +whip-like tail in the endeavour to bring into play its serrated weapon, +charged with pain, and fearsome on account of the blood-poisoning effect +of the mucus with which it is coated. + +Ox-rays (UROGYMNUS ASPERRIMUS) grow to a great size, their backs being so +armoured with thick-set stellate bucklers on a horn-like skin, that to +secure them a heavy-hefted weapon and a strong right arm are necessary. +But among the largest of the family is that known as the devil fish +(MOBULA sp.), which, upon being harpooned, sinks placidly to the bottom, +and adhering thereto by suction, defies all ordinary attempts to raise +it. This often basks in calm water or swims slowly close to the surface, +when the pliant tips of its "wings," appearing at regular intervals +above the surface, create the illusion of a couple of large sharks moving +along in rhythmic regularity as to speed and muscular movement. Rarely, +and apparently only by mischance, does a ray take bait; but when hooked +it affords good sport, for its impassive resistance is incomprehensibly +great in comparison with its size, and comparable to the pull of a green +turtle which in its wanderings has become foul-hooked. + +An exciting coursing match entertained me not long since, not only as an +exhibition of wonderful speed and agility, but because of the wit with +which the weaker creature eluded pursuit. Three hundred yards from the +beach the dorsal fin of a huge hammer-head shark obtruded about two feet +as it leisurely quartered a favourite hunting-ground. A sudden swirl and +splash indicated that game had been sighted, and the next instant an +eagle or flying ray (STOASODON NARINARI) leaped out of the sea with +prodigious eagerness to reach the beach. In a series of abrupt curves the +shark endeavoured to head off the ray, which, as its pursuer gained on +it, shot out of the water over the shoulders of the shark, each leap +being at least ten feet high. In rising it seemed to switch the shark +with its thong-like tail, although apparently in almost despairing fright. +After at least a dozen agile and desperate efforts, each timed to just +elude the rush of the shark, both came into shallow water in which the +quick and regular contours of the shark stirred the mud in a wavy +pattern; it became baffled, and in a few seconds the ray slowly, and with +infinite caution, "flew" (and that is the correct term to apply to a fish +the movements of which in the water are analogous to the flight of a +bird) into such meagre depths that the shark would have been stranded had +it followed. No ripple indicated its discreet course within a few feet of +the water line and it maintained its way for about two hundred yards +parallel with the beach, while the shark furiously quartered the sea off +shore. + +On the occasion of a similar hunt a ray blundered fatally because of the +steeper incline of the beach. When about ten feet off the shore instead of +a lateral it took a directly forward "flight," landing six feet up on +the dry sand, where it fell an easy victim to a black boy, perhaps not as +hungry or as ferocious as the shark, but equally partial to rays as food +and incapable of any self-denying act. + +Though the relationship is well defined, the shark makes no distinction +in favour of the ray when in pursuit of food. Indeed, certain members of +the predatory family seem to delight chiefly in a diet of rays, and +perhaps as a result of this persistent pursuit has the shape of the +latter been evolved, since it enables them to take refuge in water so +shallow that even a small shark would inevitably be stranded. Timorous by +nature, the smaller rays parade the beach-line, while the larger are +better able to hold their own in deep water. Although as a rule solitary +of habit, there seem to be occasions on which rays become gregarious, +when a considerable extent of sandy shallow has been observed to be +actually paved with motionless but vigilant individuals, the edge of the +"wing" of one overlapping that of the next with almost perfect +regularity. + +The monstrous grey-striped tiger shark (GALEOCERDO TIGRINUS) in my +experience generally keeps to deep water and hunts singly; but a recent +event sets at naught other local observations and at the same time +provides graphic proof of the rapacity and hardihood of the species. +About a hundred yards out from the beach, as we started on a strictly +sordid beachcombing expedition to the scene of the squashed wreck of a +Chinese sampan, a shark betrayed itself by the dorsal fin quartering the +glassy surface of the sea. Equipment for sport consisted of an axe, a +crowbar, a trivial fish spear, and a high-velocity rifle. Pulling out +noiselessly, a trail of oily blood was intersected and the next moment a +huge shark appeared, carrying in its jaws a black ray, which it mouthed +unceasingly. + +Intent upon its meal, the shark ranged parallel to the boat so that its +length could be accurately gauged. It was nearly sixteen feet long, while +the ray was almost as large in proportion. The relative sizes may be +estimated by the standard of a man bearing between his teeth a tea-tray, +Not the least anxiety or apprehension was manifested by the shark at the +presence of the boat. It rose frequently to the surface, and all its +movements being discernible as it swam close to the bottom in a +preoccupied manner, the boat was easily manoeuvred to be within almost +touching distance whensoever the head emerged. In quick succession three +out of the four bullets the magazine contained penetrated its body just +abaft the pectoral fins. A brief flurry followed each shot, and then the +shark, with passive fixity of purpose, resumed the mangling of the ray, +which with extended, backward strained eyes, seemed to implore rescue +from its fate. Were any other means of response to so tragic an appeal +available? The crowbar! Hastily made fast to the stern line, it was +hurled harpoon-like with energy sufficient to batter in the forehead of a +bullock. But the listless implement bounced off the head of the shark as +a stick from a drum, provoking merely a contemptuous wave of the tail +which seemed to signify a sneer. The axe was also employed with negative +results, for the difficulty of delivering an effective blow from the boat +could not be overcome. + +All the sea about became ruddy, and the lust for still more of the +shark's blood being imperative, we returned to the beach, obtained a +fresh supply of ammunition, and a whale harpoon. In the meantime the +blood previously shed had spread far and wide, and instead of a solitary +gormandising shark a full half-dozen rollicked and revelled in the +stained area, all alike in size and alike, too, in absolute indifference +to the boat. Owing to the featherweight heft the harpoon failed in +penetrative force, and with the first tug invariably withdrew. + +Frequently the sharks came within arm's length of the boat, and though +neither ammunition nor the bumps of the homely crowbar nor the pin-pricks +of the harpoon were spared, nor shouts of exultation when an individual +lashed out under the sting of a bullet, not a shark was in the least +perturbed. They romped about the boat, if not defiant at least heedless +of all the clamour and puny assaults, appearing to challenge to combat in +their natural element. The temper of the school was such that, no doubt, +all the occupants of the boat would have been accounted for had they by +some foolish miracle squandered themselves in the blood-stained sea. By +this time the shark which had first attracted attention had disappeared +with its prey, distressed and unseaworthy on account of several leaks; +and the others followed one by one, and not altogether in the best +condition imaginable, judging by the oily bubbles and tinges beyond the +limits of the bay. + +On a quieter day I swam off to the anchored boat for some forgotten +purpose, which accomplished I prepared to slip off the stern when a +dark-coloured shark intervened, moving steadily along parallel to the +beach. Giving it precedence, I swam ashore without resting and watched +the big fish slide like a shadow up into the corner of the bay, where it +rested. Tom, the sport-loving black boy, being on the scene, his flattie +was soon afloat, and with a disdainful thrust of the harpoon he impaled +the creature, which did not exhibit the least sign of life. Hauled to the +surface, Tom declared it to be dead--that it had died from natural causes +ere the harpoon had touched it. Had ever shark taken quieter exit from +this hustling world! It was about six feet long and fairly robust, and +while being towed ashore wallowed helplessly, floating belly up and +submitting without a spasm of protest to nudges and slaps of the oars and +prods with the heft of the harpoon, but no sooner did it touch the +sand and its snout shoot into the foreign element than a furious fight +for life began. Did ever shark display such agility! Wriggling and +lashing with its tail, almost had it swept me off my feet and dragged me +into the sea; but Tom came to my aid, with a sudden and judiciously timed +tug as it swerved, the game was landed, to continue extraordinary +antics on the sand, though Tom was armed with a tomahawk. + +When the struggles had ceased post-mortem examination was made. The +stomach was empty, but the liver promised so much oil that Tom +extirpated it and all other internal organs, and not until mutilation +was complete was any peculiarity about the jaws and teeth noticed. These +subsequently, proved that we had captured, not a shark but a +ray--Forskal's shovel-nosed ray (RHYNCHOBATUS DJIDDENSIS), which Tom, for +all his knowledge of sea things, had never before seen. Curiously +examining the jaws, he laid a rude forefinger on the tesselated plate +which stands in the species for teeth, and the disorganised remains, true +to the ruling passion, crunched, and Tom ruefully consoled the finger for +a fortnight. Hitherto his opinion, founded on contemporary experience and +the traditions of his race, had been that a shark would never fight a +live man. Was it not the refinement of irony that he should well nigh be +deprived of the best part of a finger by a dead ray masquerading as a +shark! + +Many blacks refuse to eat shark because of totemic restrictions; but +where no tribal contrary law prevails, several of the species are cooked +and eaten without ceremony, but with most objectionable after effects to +those who are not partial to such fare. The specific odour of the shark +seems to be intensified and to be made almost as clinging as that of +musk, being far more expressive than the exhalation of a camp gorged with +green turtle. Discreet persons encounter such a scene as the do the jade +Care--by passing on the windy side. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + + +THE RECLUSE OF RATTLESNAKE + + +"Live forgotten and die forlorn." + + TENNYSON. + + +Am I, living in or rather off the land of magnificent distances, entitled +to claim as a neighbour a friend one hundred miles away? Sentiments +obliterate space. With the lonesome individual who dwelt in an oven-like +hut of corrugated iron on rocky, sunburnt Rattlesnake Island, and who +lost the habit of living a few years ago, I was on social terms--terms of +vague but cosy intimacy. On occasions of our rare meetings we found ideas +in common. Peradventure similarities of environment focussed similar +thoughts. Perhaps abnormal temperaments gave rise to becoming tenderness +and sympathy. Whatsoever and howsoever the mutual sentiment, it is of the +past. + +The history of the Recluse of that undesirable island, a mass of granite +and thin, unkindly soil is far removed from the prosaic. His was the +third life sacrificed because of the lust of man to own the unromantic +spot. He came to be known as "The Recluse of Rattlesnake," but the pain +of his life lies in the fact that his seclusion was not voluntary. + +The earlier history of the "Recluse" embodies nothing very extraordinary. +Men have fallen in love as impetuously as he. The prologue of the little +drama in which he played the leading part was neither new nor strange. +The originality came after, and then only was it understood how +completely the divine passion had shattered his soul. + +This, then, is the record of a part of his life--its dominating +theme--its dramatic and pathetic ending. + +A fine young fellow they were wont to call him--blue-eyed, fair-haired, +sharp and shrewd and up to all the moves as becomes a man alert and +successful in business. Truly a universal favourite, for he was +good-humoured and amiable, full of wit and smart sayings. They say, too, +that she who had pledged her troth to him was just as fine a girl as he +was man. There came news to him of the death of a relative in Old England, +with a summons thither to take his share of a fortune. He tarried no long +time, for had he not left his heart behind him? But--and so the story +goes, whether true to the letter I do not vouch--when he landed in +Australia once again it was to learn that he had been slighted. His love +affair hopelessly damned, he at once began to drift. The drift ended +pitiably after half a lifetime--to him a lifetime and a half. + + +"God! we living ones--what of our tears +When a single day seems as a thousand years?" + + +For a decade or more he lived on the Island, his resources slender and +uncertain. Often he was on the verge of starvation. Once he told me that, +driven by the pangs of hunger, he had trapped quail, which he had trained +to come to his whistle to eat the crumbs which fell from his table during +those rare times when he fared sumptuously. Then his tender-heartedness +forbade him to kill them. But hunger is crueller than either jealousy or +the grave, and one by one his plump pets were sacrificed. He had two +faithful companions--mongrel dogs, "Billy" and "Clara"--and the +wistful, beseeching inquiry in the gaze of those two dogs when he talked +at them before strangers significantly showed how frequently and +earnestly he talked to them when there was none else to share his +confidences. + +Now Rattlesnake Island, though close to a populous port, is one of the +more remote parts of the State of Queensland. News travels to and from it +at uncertain, fitful, and infrequent intervals. The Boer War had +progressed beyond the relief of Ladysmith stage ere the Recluse of +Rattlesnake knew that the Old England he loved so well and proudly was up +and asserting herself. At odd times a sailing boat would call, but the +Recluse was beginning to be what the polite folks benevolently term +"strange," and he would not always appear unless he knew his visitors. +Then he was among the most agreeable and entertaining of men, full of +anecdote and episode and quiet but true humour. A shrewd observer of +natural science, he availed himself of unique opportunities for +practical study. He conned first-hand the book of Nature, written large +and fair, and illuminated with living designs. My one memento of him is +the stiletto of a prodigious sting-ray. He had never seen a larger, nor +have I nor any one to whom I have shown it. The weapon measures 9½ +inches by an average width of half an inch. The birds that came to his +island, the reptiles, the frogs, and the fish of the sea--he knew them +all--and could tell quaint, fairy-like stories of his association with the +creatures that had become too familiar to be the least afraid of him. + +One day a boat anchored off his bay, but the Recluse was not to be seen, +nor was the punt that he used found, nor were there any recent signs of +occupation about the exterior of the hut. In due course official search +was instituted. We may neglect or be indifferent to a man while he is +known to be in the land of the living; when he is not and until the +mystery of his fate is cleared up he becomes the object of earnest +solicitude. + +In the comfortless dwelling was found a diary which told its own tale of +lonesomeness and starvation. Is there real pathos in the last writings of +this once vigorous and independent man? + + +May 19. Waded with spear all over flats for rays. Did not get a shot at +any. Very short commons. + +May 23. I miss the tea and tobacco. Dug last row of sweet spuds. Very +patchy in size, but a perfect God-send just now. + +May 26. Last kerosene. No reading at nights now. + + +He records catching a sting-ray and getting oysters. + + +June 2. Not a sign of a ray. Have to live off potatoes a bit. They, too, +will soon be done. + +June 4. Added a P.S. to letters. A month gone and no chance to send them. +Hard cheese! + +June 6. Another week will see me in extremis. Wish I had a fishing-line. + +June 7. Got some oysters. Oh for a good beefsteak or a chop! No sign of +any boat. Lord help me! + +June 9. Nearly skinned the oysters. What will I do when they are finished? + +June 10. Dull; cold. Thank God for the sweet potatoes! They are my only +food now. No rays about; no fish in the trap, and the whole coast of the +island almost stripped of oysters. Only one candle left to cheer the +night. + +June 11. Miserable and hungry. + +June 17. Cold and clear. Did not sleep well. The hunger woke me often. +This is fearful work. + + +On the 19th he got some coco-nuts, which were first-rate. With coco-nuts +and an occasional ray, he ekes out an existence, hungry, cheerless, +without light, without tobacco. A copy of "Barnaby Rudge" and a few old +papers represent his reading matter. He is glad when daylight comes. + + +July 3. Craft lay-to off Lorne Reef. Signalled by flag and fire from +hill. They took no notice. Strange! Government cutter, I think. + + +So his life drags on. He tries to re-read by firelight "Barnaby Rudge," +which he must almost know by heart, but it is of no use. In the +taming of a monitor lizard he finds much amusement, recording his +satisfaction--"Goanna quite friendly." + + +July 6. Caught a small rock-cod; roasted it for supper. + + +His satisfaction after a good meal is evident from the entry-- + +"Quite happy and contented." + +His hopes rise and fall on a diet of oysters and coco-nuts. + +On July 22nd he hails with delight "a tin box of pears and condensed +milk" which drift on to the reef. These have been in the water for weeks +"but some are good." He writes thankfully "the milk is grand." + +The diary described his life during the next few months "in a sort of +way." He builds a punt which he christens the GREAT EASTERN, the +launching of which is briefly chronicled: "Launched the GREAT EASTERN. +Sank below Plimsoll mark--like a sieve." He returns disheartened from one +or two trial trips, having to "man the pump." 'He complains of having +to dig up and eat little miniature sweet potatoes and asks piteously: +"What am I to do? I'm hungry and have nothing else!" His feet become cut +and sore, and in every day's entry is a plaintive wail at the pain. + + +Sept. 9. Treasure--a stranded coco-nut, quite good. A rare treat. My +teeth are sore through not being used. + +Sept. 26. This continuous hunger begins to tell. My blood's poor and +sores won't heal. Can't help it! I can't better my lot in any way so +must just endure it. + +Octr. 31. Surely to goodness something will happen to put an end to my +long drawn out misery. No sleep last night. + + +A "Goanna" that he killed and ate was a God-send. + + +Now. 6. Disappointed! Made sure of truffles after rain. None. No grub. +I get weaker and weaker. Can hardly crawl. + +Now. 11. Done up! Lay down and went to sleep. No sign from shore. The +good Lord pity me in my weakness! + +Novr. 12. Never thought I could get so weak and live. No sign anywhere. +Must try to catch some big green frogs--good food. + +Novr. 13. So awfully weak. + +Novr. 14. Too weak to look out for . . . (the writing becomes +unintelligible). Wrote my old friend . . . making over all property here +to him absolutely. Blowing too hard for punt. I dare not try to walk I'd +never get back. + + +The final entry is dated Nov. 15th: + + +"Caught three big frogs, cleaned and stewed them--delicious--like +chicken! What fools we are with our likes and dislikes!" + + +They searched the adjacent island and the coastline, and finally +concluded that the Recluse, having made a desperate attempt to reach the +mainland in his wretched punt, had become overcome with exhaustion, and +had drifted away to drown when the boat swamped in the breakers. + +Six weeks or so after the date of the final entry in the diary a Chinese +fisherman found a punt near the mouth of a mangrove creek on the +mainland. In it was a skeleton, a fish spear, some empty oyster shells. A +few fair hairs adhered to patches of dried skin on the skull. + +So the tale is told--a brief, passionate love idyll a strange, tedious, +and tragic epilogue. + +Were ever the days and dreams of a strong man more completely dismantled +and dismembered by a passing flick of Cupid's wing! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + + +HAMED OF JEDDAH + + +"Caravans that from Bassora's gate +With Westward steps depart; +Or Mecca's pilgrims, confident of fate +And resolute of heart." + +More of a Dutchman in build than Arab--broad-based, bandy-legged, stubby, +stolid, and slow; spare of his speech, but nimble with his fingers in all +that appertains to the rigging and working of small boats, as much at +ease in the water as a rollicking porpoise--such is Hamed of Jeddah. + +His favourite garment is a light green woollen sweater. He wears other, +but less obvious things. His green sweater sets all else at naught. If it +be a fact that one of the pleasures to which the true Mohammedan looks +forward in the region of the blest is to recline in company with the +Houris on green sofas while contemplating the torments of the damned, +Hamed was merely foretasting that which is to come. The everlasting green +sweater became a torture--at least to me. Perhaps he was aware of the +fact, and because he knew that my damnation is inevitable his unsoothing +preliminary was merely human. For Hamed is amicable in all respects. + +Though his sentiments may be truly Arabian, his figure, as I have +remarked, is a travesty on that of the typical Arabian--the Arab of the +boundless and comfortless desert. I have tried to picture him as a lean +and haughty mameluke in loose, white robes, mounted on a dust-distributing +camel, and, lance in hand, peering ferociously across the desert + + +"The desert with its shifting sand +And unimpeded sky." + + +But the tubby form in the green sweater and those bleached dungarees +shortened in defiance of all the prescriptions of fashion, positively +refuses to be glorified. Except for his swarthiness Hamed is +unreconcilable to the ideals of an Arab, and he has a most heretical +dislike to the desert. All his best qualities are under suppression on +dry land. He is the Arab of the dhow. His eyes are muddy. The pupils +begin to show opacity. He follows slowly and with stumbling steps through +the bush and often misses his way, for he cannot see far ahead and you +cannot always be looking backward and hailing him. Still, he is never +lost. When he fails to recognise landmarks and his guide is out of sight, +his cup-shaped ears detect the faintest call of the sea. Then he works in +a direct course to the beach, where everything is writ large and plain to +his understanding. Of his own motive he never ventures inland without a +compass, and with that in his hand he is safe, even in a strange place +and out of sound of the sea. + +Hamed tells a wonderful story of a ride that befell him in his early +youth. By the way, there is something to be said of his age which, +according to his own account, varies. Sometimes he is 72, then 48, and +again 64 and 35. Like the present-day almanacs of his race, his age is +shifty and uncertain. Hamed's ride occurred "a long time ago"--that +hazy, half-obliterated mark on life's calendar. Pious Mohammedan that he +is, he undertook a pilgrimage to Medina. To that holy orgy he rode on a +donkey. So miraculous was the chief event of the journey that it is due +to Hamed that his own uncoloured version should be given. + +"So hot the sun of my country you carn ride about alonga a day. Every +time you trabel alonga night--sit down daytime. We start. We ride all +night. I ride alonga dunkee. Sit down one day, ride night time. Dunkee he +no go quick--very slow. I am tired. That dunkee tired. B'mbi that dunkee +he talk. He say--'Hamed, you good man, you kind man. Subpose you no +hammer me too much I take you up, alonga Medina one time quick.' I say, +'I no want hammer you.' My word, that dunkee change!--dunkee before, +horse now--Arab horse. Puff! We along Medina! Wind bin take 'em!" +With the wind in his favour Hamed does wonders even now--at sea. It was +not seemly to suggest to him that cynical memory dulled the polish of his +story; but if there really are chinks in the world above at which they +listen to words from below, did the Prophet smile to hear the parable by +which his devout and faithful follower brought his own ride on the flying +mare up to date? + +Having the unwonted privilege of cross-examining a man who had ridden or +rather been wafted to Medina specially that he might do homage at the +Tomb of the Prophet, I asked a few questions respecting the famous +coffin. Was it a fact that the coffin hung in the air on a wire so fine +that no one could see it? Was it, in fact, without lawful visible means +of support? + +Hamed would neither deny nor confirm the legend. "I dunno what people +you! I bin tell-straight my yarn go one time like wind to Medina. What +more you want? I dunno what kind people you!" One mystery at a time is +enough for Hamed. + +Hamed now deals in oysters. In the trade he had a partner--a fair lad of +Scandinavian origin named Adolphus. All these orientals have +extraordinary faith in the medicinal properties of the gall of +out-of-the-way creatures. That of a wallaby is prized; of a "goanna" +absolutely precious; while in respect of a crocodile, only a man who has +leisure to be ill and is determined to doctor himself on the reckless +principle of "blow the expense," could afford any such luxurious physic. +It is reckoned next in virtue to a text from the Koran written on board: +"Wash off the ink, drink the decoction, and lo! the cure is complete." +So, too, if the Lama doctor has no herbal medicines he prescribes +something symbolic. He writes the names of the remedies on scraps of +paper, moistens the paper with saliva, and rolls them into pills, which +the patient tosses down with the same perfect confidence as though they +were genuine medicaments, his faith leading him to believe that +swallowing a remedy or its name is equally efficacious. + +A "goanna" scrambled for safety up a small tree. Adolphus undertook to +kill it. Hamed insisted on preemption of the gall, while yet the quaking +reptile certainly had the best title to it; but Hamed stood below and +some distance off, for he was nervous. Adolphus climbed the tree, killed +the "goanna" offhand, and threw it so that it fell close to Hamed, and +Hamed fell in a spasm of fright, upon recovering from which he chased +fair, fleet-footed, laughing Adolphus for half an hour--murder in his +pearly eyes, a mangrove waddy in his hand, frothy denunciations on his +lips, and nothing on his body but the green sweater. Peace was restored +on the presentation to him of the all-healing gall; and then Hamed +apologised, almost tearfully, explaining, "That goanna, when you chuck +heem, close broke heart of me!" + +A dissolution of partnership was then and there decided on, and Hamed +thus detailed his sentiments to me:-- + +"That boy, I like heem too much. Good-for-working boy. Me and heem make +'em three-four beg oyster every day. He bin say: 'You carn be mate for +me!' He go along two Mulai boy. Dorphy [Adolphus] carn mek too much +now--one sheer belonga him, Mulai boy two sheers. Carn beat me--one sheer +one man." Hamed has clean-cut notions on the disadvantages of multiplicity +of partners. + +Hamed has been to Europe, and there--he does not mention the country--he +was initiated into the mysteries of making Irish stew. In an outburst of +thankful confidence for some little entertainment at the table he let out +the secret in these terms: "Eerish sdoo you make 'em. Four potats, two +ungin, hav-dozen garleek, one hav-bucket water." At first it appeared +that he had obtained his knowledge from a passionate vegetarian, but upon +reflection we concluded that in his opinion meat was so essential an item +that it was to be taken for granted. Any one wishing to try the recipe +would be safe in adding "meat to taste." + +Hamed revels in chillies, fiery, red, vitriolitic little things that +would bring tears to the eyes of a molten image. Even his recipe for +porridge (likewise obtained during his ever-memorable European travels) +is not complete without them: "Alonga one hand oot-meal, pannikan water, +one hav-handful chillies. My word, good fellow; eatem up quick; want 'em +more." + +Possibly Hamed might be considered by some folks a "common" man. He is +far from that, and the very opposite from commonplace, for some of the +magic of the coral seas has tinctured his blood. His career as a +pearl-shell diver has been illuminated by the discovery of pearls--big +and precious. In his youth and buoyancy he gambled them away. Now that +his heart is subdued and slow he still looks for pearls, and tempts coy +Fortune with dramatic sincerity and most untempting things. He wants one +pearl more, that he may acquire the means of travelling to his native +land. Hamed of Jeddah would die there. + +So strenuous is his desire for one smile on the part of Fortune that +Hamed's favourite topic is pearls, and of the good old days when, if a +man found a patch where the grass was not too thick, he might pick up as +many as a hundred shells in a day. Under conditions and circumstances all +in favour, the diver relies upon an inevitable infirmity on the part of +the oyster for the revelation of its whereabouts. + +"When man he dibe," says Hamed, "that go'lip quick he shut 'em mout. Carn +see 'em. Subpose open mout, man quick he see 'em--shove-em alonga beg." + +At the peril of its life the oyster gapes. + +Hamed cherishes thoroughly Oriental theories, too, for the wooing of +Chance, who (for Chance is very real and personal to him), he declares, +presides over the fortune and the fate of divers. + +"Last night I bin drim. My word--good drim. Subpose you gibe one fowl he +make lucky--we get good pearl. Must be white fowl. Black fow!"--(and here +he lowered his voice to a mysteriously confidential whisper) "no good; +spoil 'em lucky!" + +Months have elapsed since the sacrifice of the white fowl and the pouring +of its blood to the accompaniment of droning supplications on the face of +the contemptuous sea, and albeit the divination was cheerfully +suspicious, the sulky jade still look askance, and Hamed is still far +from Jeddah. + + +HAMED PREACHES + + +When Hamed of Jeddah left just before Christmas with four "begs" of +over-mature oysters, intended for the tickling of European palates, he was +not elated by the nearness of the hallowed time. Indeed, his state of +mind was quite contrary. He had none of that peace and goodwill towards +men with which those of us who are not Mohammedans adulate the approach +of the season. + +His one-time partner, the fair and fleet-footed "Dorphy," had deserted him +for good and sufficient cause, and his hard old heart rebelled against +priggish Christians and their superior ways. Some of the tardiness of age +has come upon him. Though he had "worked" the oysters with all the +resourcefulness of the lone hand, the marketable results were less in +bulk than formerly. "Dorphy" had been wont to re-sort and classify +Hamed's gleanings, for Hamed's eyes are misty; also his desire to emulate +"Dorphy's" quickness was so ingenuous that in lieu of oysters he would +frequently stow away flat stones and pieces of coral. Such things may be +abomination in the eyes of the conscientious oyster-getter, but with +Hamed they helped to fill the "beg." Vain old Arab! He deceived no +one--in the end not even himself, for none of his fakes passed the final +inspection of clear-sighted "Dorphy," with whom the moralities of the +firm rested, but who in Hamed's eyes was a finicking precisian. + +For weeks after his partner's withdrawal from the business Hamed was +perplexed. The swing of the seasons set the tides adversely. Hence his +complaint--"Water no much dry. Carn dry long. No good one man work +himself. Subpose have mate he give hand along nother man. One man messin' +abeaut. One small beg oyster one day. My word, 'Dorphy' smart +boy--good-for-working boy!" + +As a lone hand--his honour thrown upon himself--Hamed was so precise and +methodic that by the time the second "beg," had been painfully +chipped off semi-submerged rocks, the first was past its prime. When the +third was full, the first was good merely in parts. On the completion of +the fourth "beg" one passed the neighbourhood of the first on the other +side with a precautionary sniff. It contained self-assertive relics. + +But Hamed took all four "begs" with him in his little cutter, and "Billy," +the toothless black boy, who lisped not in affectation but in +broad and conscious profusion, for a blow from a nulla-nulla years ago +deprived him for ever of the grace of distinct articulation, sailed with +him. No sensation of sorrow fretted me when on that lovely Monday morn I +saw the sail of the odoriferous cutter a mere fleck of saintly white on +the sky-line among the islands to the north. Can so lovely a thing be +burdened with so ponderous a smell? Will it not--if two more days of +windless weather prevail--ascend to the seventh heaven and tarnish the +glitter of the Pleiades? I mused as I strolled on the tide-smoothed +beach of my own scented isle. + +Before his departure, Hamed had realised that his oysters had passed the +phase which Christians in their absurd queasiness prefer. Perhaps he +designed to trade them off on coloured folks with less sensitive organs +and no dainty prejudices. But his temper was consonant with, at least, my +perception of the condition of his oysters. It was bad; and he spoke +harsh things of white men, and of Christmas and of the doings of +Christians during the celebration of the birthday of the Founder of their +faith. Perhaps he was paying off in advance for the scorn with which his +fragrant oysters were sure to be received. + +When a man who is with us, but not of us, deliberately expresses his +opinions about our faulty ways and contradictory customs, and when the +critic is disinterested, in matters of religion at any rate, however +humble he may, be, it is instructive to treat him as a philosopher. The +art of learning is to accept the teachings of everything, from a blade +of grass to an epic poem. Hamed moralised in angry mood. All the better. +Neither flattery nor fear was in his words. + +The impatient oysters fuming in the tiny hold of his cutter merely gave +to his tongue a defiant stimulus. To me they were pathetically pleading +for a belated watery grave. A quaint sort of eloquence took command of +Hamed's tongue, and I suffered the oysters gladly as I listened. + +"Ramadan! Ah! One month!" There were worlds of meaning and longing in +those few words. The pious Mohammedan, the exile, the patriot spoke, +uttering a prayer, a sigh, and a glorious hope in one breath. "Ramadan! +In my country one month holiday--quiet, clean, no row. First time burn old +clothes." + + +"Come fill the cup, and in the fire of spring, +The winter garment of repentance fling." + + +"Wash everything. Clean out house. Put clothes clean--white like anything. +Sit down. One day eat nothing. Then feast plenty. Good goat of my +country--more fatter." (It was a graceless cut, for the previous day I +had given him a well-grown kid). "No messin' abeaut. Plenty talk with +friend. Walk about bazaar. Full up people--clean, nice. No row--nothing. +Subpose I make lucky. I find one pearl, I go along my own country for +Ramadan!" + +With half-shut eyes Hamed dwelt silently on the bliss of his faraway +home, and woke snappily to the crude realities of his Christian +environment. + +"Chrissmiss!" he sneered--" nothing. Messin' abeaut! You want to see +drunk man--Chrissmiss, plenty! You want to see row, plenty--Chrissmiss! +You want lissen bad language, plenty Chrissmiss! Subpose I am at that +place Cairnsee, Chrissmiss, I take my flattie anchor out along +inlet--keep quiet. My heart broke altogether from that drink. +Chrissmiss--mix 'em up plenty with drink and messin abeaut! Good job you +keep out of the way when Chrissmiss he come!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + + +YOUNG BARBARIANS AT PLAY + + +"Behold the child by Nature's kindly law, +Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw." + + POPE. + +Not all the energies of the blacks of North Queensland in their natural +state are absorbed in the search for and pursuit and capture of food; nor +are all their toys imitative of weapons of offence or the chase. They +have their idle and softer hours when the instincts of the young men +and maidens turn towards recreations and pastimes, in some of which +considerable ingenuity and skill are exhibited, whilst their elders amuse +themselves by the practise of more or less useful domestic arts. Children +in their play are just as enthusiastic, preoccupied, and noisy as white +children, and the popularity of a game is subject, likewise, to spasmodic +exclusiveness. While the particular inclination lasts no other game is +held to be worth a rap for rational black boys to play, but the relish +the more speedily degenerates. In the ordinary concerns of life a black +boy is incapable of self-denial. His intensity for the time is almost +pathetic; his revulsion comic. Hence the cycle of the games is brief. +There are wide and dreary intervals. + +Dr. Walter E. Roth, ex-Chief Protector of Aboriginals, and now Government +Resident at Pomeroon River, British Guiana, devotes a pamphlet to +descriptions of the "Games, Sports, and Pastimes" of Queensland +blacks, but since the work has not yet been published unofficially, and +since my own limited observations are confirmed generally by him, there +seems justification for offering references to a few of the means by +which the primitive people wile away time in good-humoured, gleeful +pastime. One feature of the sports of the blacks is that they play their +game for the sake of the game, not to gain the plaudits of an idle crowd +or in expectation of reward. Rivalry there undoubtedly is among them, but +the rivalry is disinterested. No chaplet of olive-leaves or parsley +decorates the brow of him who so throws the boomerang that it +accomplishes the farthest and most complicated flight. As the archers of +old England practised their sport, so do the blacks exhibit their +strength and skill, not as the modern lover of football, who pays others +to play for his amusement, and who, possibly, knows not the game save as +a spectator. + +Some of the pastimes of the blacks are, of course, derivative from the +most engrossing passion of the race, the pursuit of game--animals, birds, +and fish--for food. Dr. Roth describes a pantomime in which three young +girls take part, and which is imitative of the felling of a tree for the +purpose of securing honey stored by bees in a hollow limb. Every detail +of the process is illustrated by expressive gestures, even to the +indication of the respective locations in the limb of the good comb +(which is tabu to women), and the inferior stuff (old brood and +drippings) to which the inferior sex is welcome. The whole episode is +graphically mimicked, down to the mixing of the honey with water as a +beverage. + +But such games have not come under my personal knowledge, and as I wish +to confine myself to those which I have witnessed, my catalogue must +needs be trivial, and far from exhaustive even in respect of the district +in which they are, alas! becoming obsolete. In these days of opium and +rum, leisure moments are not generally devoted to "becoming mirth." + +The very first toy of the blacks in this neighbourhood is the most +cosmopolitan of all. No race of infant exercises over it a monopoly. It +belongs as well to the palace as the hovel, for it is none other than the +rattle. If proof were wanting that infants the world over have perceptive +qualities in common, and that the universal mother employs like means for +the development of them, the rattle would supply it. Here the toy which +each of us has gripped with gladness and slobbered over is found not +altogether in its most primitive form. It might, indeed, be classed as an +emblem of arrested development in art, for better things might reasonably +be expected of grown-up folks who in their infancy were wont to use such +a neat means of charming away fretfulness. The toy is a tiny spherical +basket of neatly interwoven thin strips of cane from one of the creeping +palms, in which is enclosed one of the smooth, hard, lead-coloured seeds +of the CAESALPINIA BONDUCELLA. The rattle, which is known by the name of +"Djawn," seems to be quite as effective as the more elaborate but less +neat varieties employed to amaze and pacify the infants of civilisation. +Similar seeds are used by Arabian children for necklaces, hence the +specific botanical name of the plant. + +Measured ethnologically, perhaps the most primitive pastime is also one +of the most interesting, for it seems to indicate the evolution of the +spear. It may readily be believed that a black boy playing with a grass +dart exhibits one of the early stages which the spear passed ere it +reached its present form in the hands of his father with a wommera. As +the boy grows up, so does his spear grow with his growth, and lengthen +with his length. The grass dart is merely a stem of blady grass (IMPERATA +ARUNDINACEA), which the blacks know as "Jin-dagi," shortened to about +fifteen inches by the severance of the leaves, which is usually +accomplished by a quick nip with the teeth. The dart is taken between the +thumb and the second finger, the truncated ends of the leaves being +pressed against the tip of the first finger, by which and the +simultaneous impulse of the arm the dart is propelled. Accurate shots may +be made with the missile, which has a range up to about thirty yards, +with a penetrative force sufficient to pierce the skin. Occasionally the +boys of the camp in opposing sides indulge in mimic fights, when the air +rustles with the darts, and the yelling combatants exhibit expertness as +marksmen as well as extraordinary shrewdness in the special protection of +the face and other exposed and tender spots, and skill in dodging and +parrying. + +The "Wee-bah," another toy weapon (also obtained from blady grass), +might be designated an arrow, the flight, though not the impulse, being +similar. A single stem of grass is shortened to about fifteen inches. By +being drawn between the nails of the thumb and the first finger, the web +is separated from the midrib for about three inches. The sportsman +pinches the web end loosely between the lips. The split ends, held in the +left hand, are bent over a thin stick in the right hand. Upon the stick +being moved smartly forward, the web peels from each side to the midrib, +which shoots ahead with an arrow-like flight in the direction the +marksman designs. + +Velocity, accuracy, and range are remarkable. The arrow will penetrate +the skin (the stem having an awl-like point) at a distance of ten or +fifteen yards, and twenty yards is not an uncommon limit to its range. +This is used for killing small birds, as well as in idle sport. A few +handfuls of blady grass supply a sheaf of missiles, and with such cheap +ammunition the sportsman is justified in providing himself profusely when +intent upon the destruction of shy birds. Noiseless and rapid, if the +shot misses there is no disturbing effect on the nerves of the bird. A +dry twig falling or a leaf rustling has no more elemental shock than the +flight of the dart. The unconscious bird hops about its business +unconcerned until a dart does its work. Birds which fall to this most +inartificial weapon are very small, but a black boy does not despise the +most minute morsels of food. He wastes nothing, and in such respects is +superior to many a white sportsman, who often shoots that for which he +has no appetite, and glories in a big bag irrespective of the capacity of +his stomach. No doubt the black boy, too, experiences the same exultant +passion when his grass dart impales a pert wren, as does his prototype +when the thud of a turkey on the plains is as an echo to the report of +his gun. The black boy singes off the feathers, slightly scorches the +flesh of his game and munches it whole, secures another sheaf of darts, +and goes a-shooting again. + +Darts are also improvised from blady grass by two other methods, each a +prototype of the spear and wommera. The midrib is severed and the web +peeled therefrom for a few inches as in the "Weebah." The loose ends of +the web being retained between the thumb and the second finger, the +midrib peels off completely when the hand is propelled, the impulse being +transmitted to the dart. This, perhaps, is the earliest and most +primitive application of the principle embodied in the wommera. In the +third method the midrib is similarly severed and the web peeled for about +two inches; but the stalk is held in the hand, and, being jerked +forward, the midrib being torn from the web flies off, though not under +accurate control as to direction. + +Quite as early a toy as the grass dart is the boomerang made by a boy's +father, or a companion older than himself, and which the youngest soon +learns to throw with skill. He graduates in the use of weapons nicely +graded to suit his growing strength, spending hours day after day in +earnest, honest exercise, until some other game happens to become +irresistibly fashionable. + +A weapon intermediate between the "Jin-dagi" and the full-length spear +of manhood is the scape of the grass-tree (XANTHORRHEA ARBOREA), with +which youths fight furious battles, gradually perfecting themselves in +elusive tactics and in the training of hand and eye. A favourite set +target is the bulbous formicary of the white ant which disfigures so many +of the trees of the forest. Along tracks where the spears are readily +available there are few white-ant nests untormented by two or three. A +strong reed which flourishes on the margins of watercourses is played +with similarly, and by the time the youth has put aside youthful things +and has learnt to fashion a spear of tough wood he is an expert. + +In order to acquire dexterity, the fish spear in the first instance is a +mere toy, and is used in play with as much vivacity and preoccupation as +marbles and tops and kites are by boys of Australian birth. A coloured +boy, in all the joyous abandon of the unclad, sports with a spear +suitable to his height and strength for a month together, floating chips +and scraps of bark in the water as targets, until hands and eyes are +brought into such subjection that the art is, as it were, burnt into his +blood, and a miss becomes rare. In the meantime he has also practised on +small fish, and soon he is a regular contributor to the larder. + +What is known as the "Piar-piar" accomplishes the flight of the +boomerang, and is therefore termed familiarly the "little fella +boomerang." Before attempting to describe the toy, it is interesting to +note that the word "boomerang" is alien to these parts (Dunk Island), +though in almost universal use among the blacks. "Wungle" is the local +title. The "Piar-piar" is made from a strip from the side of the leaf of +one of the pandanus palms (PANDANUS PEDUNCULATUS). The prickles having +been sliced off with a knife or the finger nails, two distinct +half-hitches are made in reverse order. Each end is shortened and roughly +trimmed, the knots creased and squeezed to flatness between the teeth and +lips, and the toy is complete, the making having occupied less than a +minute. Before throwing the ends are slightly deflexed. + +The toy is held in the right hand lightly between the thumb and the first +and second fingers, concave surface down, and is thrown to the left with +a quick upward turn of the wrist. After a short, rapid flight almost on +the plane of the hand of the thrower, the toy soars abruptly upwards, +and taking a sinistral course, returns, twirling rapidly, to the thrower, +occasionally making two complete revolutions. The ends are deflexed prior +to each throw. Boys and youths are fond of the "Piar-piar," and men of +sober year's do not disdain it, being frankly pleased when they succeed +in causing it to execute a more prolonged and graceful flight than +ordinary. + +Another toy which has the soaring flight of the boomerang is made out of +two portions of the leaf of the pandanus palm stitched together in the +form of a St. Andrew's Cross. It is thrown like a boomerang, the flight +being circular, and when it is made to complete two revolutions round the +thrower that individual is manifestly pleased with himself. This is known +as "Birra-birra-goo." + +Another form of aeroplane, "Par-gir-ah," comes from the pandanus +palm--its parts being plaited together. This is thrown high and descends +spirally, twisting so rapidly throughout its course that it appears to be +a solid disc. This is also used as a windmill, being affixed to a +spindle. Children run with the toy against the wind and find similar +ecstasy to those of whites of their age and kidney. + +The sea-beach supplies in plenty a missile which, from the hands of a +black boy, has a fantastic flight. This is the bone of the cuttle-fish +("Krooghar"), which, when thrown concave surface down against the wind and +after the style of the boomerang, whirls rapidly and makes a decided +effort to return. It is also thrown along the surface of the sea as white +boys do "skipping stones," often reaching astonishing distances in a +wonderful series of skips. + +"Cat's cradle" is popular in some camps, the ingenious and complicated +designs into which the string is woven far outstripping the art of the +white man, and leaving his wondering comprehension far behind. Toy boats +and canoes are favourite means of passing away time by those who live on +the beach; and while little girls dandle dolls of wood and bark, their +brothers and cousins laboriously chip stones in the shape of axes, and +used formerly to make fish-hooks of pearl shell, in imitation of the +handiwork of their elders. Boys are also given to trundling a disc of +bark, centrally perforated for a short cord, the art of the game being to +give the disc, while it revolves, an outward inclination. In these +degenerate days the top of a meat-tin is substituted for the decent bark +disc, in the making of which nice art was exhibited. + +Several of the games of the youngsters are bad imitations of the sports +of the white. Just as their fathers find joy in a greasy, blackened, +imperfect pack of cards, throwing them down with significant gestures, +but in absolutely perfect ignorance of the rules of any game or capacity +to appreciate any number greater than three--so do the children make +believe to play cricket with a ball worlds away from a sphere (for it is +none other than a pandanus drupe), and a bat of any waddy. + +But it is due to the crude folks who owned Australia not so very long +ago, to say that they had invented the top before the usurpers came +along. Tops are made from the fruit of one of the gourds which ripens +about the size of a small orange, the spindle being a smooth and slender +piece of wood secured with gum. The spinning is accomplished by revolving +the spindle between the palms of the hands, some being so expert in +administering momentum that the top "goes to sleep," before the eyes of +the smiling and exultant player. Dr. Roth chronicles the fact that the +piercing of the gourd to produce the hum has been introduced during +recent years. The blacks of the past certainly had no ear for music, but +now no top which cannot "cry" is worth spinning. + +A more primitive top is the seed-vessel of the "Gulgong" (EUCALYPTUS +ROBUSTA), the pedicel of which is twirled between the thumb and second +finger. Such tops, of course, are the common property of bush boys, white +and black, but the latter seem to be more casual in the spinning, though +deriving quite as much glee therefrom. + +A similar top but of larger size is the unripe fruit of the "Kirra-kul" +(EUPOMATIA LAURINA), which resembles an obtuse peg-top, and is spun from +the peg. + +The "Kirra-kul" tree provides also the means of obtaining that joy in +loud explosions which is instinctive in the boy, whatsoever his race or +colour. Young, lusty shoots several feet long, and full of sap, are +placed in the fire for a few minutes, and upon being "bashed" on a log +or other hard substance the heated gas contained in the pithy core bursts +out with a pistol-like report. + + +"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods-- +They kill us for their sport." + + +The cruelty of the average boy, his insensibility to, or carelessness of, +the pain of others and of inferior creatures is exemplified by the +treatment which the "Pun-nul" (March fly) receives. That an insect +which occasions so much exasperation and pain should receive small mercy +at the hands of a vexed and sportful boy is not extraordinary, and so he +provides himself with entertainment and takes vengeance simultaneously. +The hapless fly is impaled with an inch or two of the flowering spike of +blady grass to which a portion of the white inflorescence adheres, and is +released. Under such handicap flight is slow and eccentric, often, +indeed, concentric, and the boy watches with unfeigned delight while his +ears are soothed by the laboured hum. + +"Blue-bottle" and "March" flies provide another sort of cheerful +sport in which no little malice is blended. Some boys make tiny spears +from the midrib of the frond of the creeping palm (CALAMUS OBSTRUENS), +which, balanced on the palm palm of the left hand, are flicked with +deadly effect, continual practice reducing misses to the minimum. Where +the grass-tree grows plentifully the long, slender leaves are snapped off +into about six-inch lengths and are used similarly to the creeping palm +darts and with like accuracy. Hours are spent killing the big, lumbering, +tormenting flies which infest the camp, and towards which no pity is +shown, for do they not bite and bloodsuck night and day? + +These incomplete and casual references to a very interesting and +engrossing topic may be concluded by a reference to a particular spear. +Since it consoles and comforts the solitary walks of an aged man, steeped +to the lips in the superstitions of his race, and haply ignorant of, or +indifferent to, the polyglot pastimes of the younger generation soiled +by contact with the whites, the spear, though not a weapon of offence or +of sport, is serious and indeed vital to the peace of mind of its owner. +He is one of the few who were young men when the white folks intruded +upon the race, with their wretched practical ways and insolent disregard +of the powers of the unseen spirits, against whom "Old Billy," as his +ancestors were wont, still acts on the defensive. "Old Billy" never +ventures into the jungle without his spear, though throughout his long +and expectant life he has never had occasion to use it. He fears what he +knows as "Bidgero," a phantom not quite as truculent as the debil-debil, +but evil enough to strike terror into the soul of an unarmed black boy, +old or young. + +The spear is slender and jointed, the grip being 4 feet 9 inches and the +shaft 8 feet. Its distinguishing merit consists of an array of barbs (the +serrated spurs of sting-rays) fifteen in number, and ranging in length +from 1½ inches to 4½ inches. In the first eight inches from the +point are five barbs, the second being double, and the rest are spaced +irregularly in accordance with the respective lengths of the barbs, which +are in line. "Old Billy" does not allow any one to handle the spear and +will not part with it, no matter how sumptuous the price, for would he +not, in default, be at the mercy of any prowling, "Bidgero?" + +He describes its use with paucity of speech, effective passes, horrible +grimaces, and smiles of satisfaction and victory, which make mere words +tame. Suppose you ask, "When that fella Bidgero come up, you catch 'em?" +"Old Billy" throws himself into an hostile attitude, in which +alertness, determination, and fearsomeness are vividly displayed. "0-o-m!" +(The thrust of the spear.) "Ha-a-a-ha!" (The spear is given an +excruciating and entangling half-turn.) And "Old Billy" exclaims, +still holding the imaginary "Bidgero" at the spear's length: "That fella +Bidgero can clear out! Finish 'em!" The spear has penetrated the +unlucky and daring phantom, several of the barbs have become entangled in +its vitals, the enemy is at "Old Billy's" mercy, and since "Old +Billy" has no such element in his mental constitution, there would be +one "Bidgero" less in the land if there were any reality in the +business. "Old Billy's" manoeuvres and tactics are so grim, skilful, +and terrible that one may well hope that he may never be mistaken for a +ghost, while within thrusting distance of his twelve foot "Bidgero" +exterminator. Yet the young boys smile, when they do not openly scoff, +because of his faith in the existence of a personal "Bidgero," and in +the efficacy of his bristling spear, which many of them regard as an old +man's toy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + + +TOM AND HIS CONCERNS + + +DOMESTIC AND OTHER BRAWLS + +Tom, who holds himself well in reserve, stood once before an armed and +angry white man, defiant, unflinching, bold. + +As I have had the privilege of listening in confidence to both sides of +the story, and as the main facts are minutely corroborative, I judge +Tom's recitation of them to be quite reliable. + +He was "mate" at the time of a small cutter, the master of which could +teach him very little in practical seamanship. The captain was rather +hasty and excitable. Tom never hurries, fusses, or falters, be the +weather never so boisterous afloat or the domestic tribulations never so +wild ashore. When Nelly, his third wife, tore her hair out by the roots +in double handfuls and danced upon it, Tom calmly observed, "That fella +make fool belonga himself!" But when she rushed at him, clawing +blindly, he promptly and without the least consideration for her sex, +silenced her for the time being with a stone. The sudden peace after +Nelly's squeals and yells of temper was quite a shock; and when she woke +her loving-kindnesses to Tom were quite engaging. Tom will ever be +master in his own humpy. + +To tell of that other incident that caused Tom to look wicked and so +bellicose. The captain of the cutter lost half a crown. His excitement +began to simmer at once. A hasty general search was made without result, +every nook and corner of the boat and all the captain's garments and the +belongings of Tom and the other blacks being ransacked. The money +declined to be found, and the captain, like David of old, refused to be +comforted, and further following the fashion of the psalmist, said in +his haste all blacks are thieves. Tom put on the stern, sulky, sullen +aspect that so becomes him, and when he was individually challenged with +the theft, disdainfully told his master, "Me no take your money! You +lost em yourself!" + +This calm, plain statement of fact so angered the boss that, calling Tom +a cowardly thief, he yelled, "You take my money! I shoot you!" + +It is placing rather a paltry valuation even on the life of a black +fellow to threaten to shoot him for the sake of half a crown; but the +death penalty has been exacted for far less, according to the boastful +statements of self-glorifying white men. The boss was raging. He groped +in the locker for his revolver, while Tom took a side glance at a +tomahawk lying on the thwart. + +Presenting the revolver, the boss yelled, "You rogue, Tom! You steal my +money! I shoot you!" Tom changed his sulky demeanour for the pose and +look that a camera has preserved, saying, "My word! you shoot one time, +straight. Subpose you no shoot one time straight, look out." + +The shot was never fired. + +I asked Tom what he would have done suppose the revolver had been fired +and he not killed. + +"My word! Subpose that fella he no kill me one time, I finish him one +time quick alonga tomahawk!" + +In the course of the day the half-crown was found under the stern +sheets, where the boss had been sitting. + +To coolly face death under such circumstances is surely evidence of rare +mental repose. + +Once Tom had a jovial misunderstanding with his half-brother Willie, who +cut a neat wedge out of the rim of Tom's ear with a razor. He had +intended, of course, to gash Tom's throat, but Tom was on the alert. In +revenge and defence Tom merely sat upon Willie, who is a frail, thin +fellow, but the sitting down was literal and so deliberate and +long-continued that Willie was all crumpled up and out of shape for a +week after. Indeed, the "crick" in his back was chronic for a much +longer period. Tom was half ashamed of this encounter, and while +glorying in the scar with which Willie had decorated him, excused his own +conduct in these terms: + +"Willie fight alonga razor. He bin make mark alonga my ear. My word! Me +savage then. B'mbi sit down alonga Willie. Willie close up finish. Me bin +forget about that fella altogether. When Willie wake up he walk about all +asame old man l-o-n-g time!" + +With whatsoever missile or weapon is at hand Tom is marvellously expert. +As we rested in the dim jungle after a long and much entangled walk, a +shake--a poor, thin thing, about four feet long, wriggled up a bank ten +or twelve yards off, just ahead of a pursuing dog. On the instant Tom +picked up a flake of slate and threw it with such precision and force +that the snake became two--the tail end squirmed back, to be seized and +shaken by the dog, and the other disappeared with gory flourish under a +root. + +Most of Tom's feats of marksmanship, though performed with what white men +would despise as arms of precision, end seriously. Yet on one occasion +the result was broadly farcical. He has a son, known to our little world +as Jimmy, who, like his father, is given to occasional sulks, a luxury +that even a black boy may become bloated on. Tom does not tolerate that +frame of mind in others. The attentions of "divinest melancholy" he +likes to monopolise for himself, and when Jimmy becomes pensive without +just cause, Tom's mood swerves to paternal and active indignation--which +is very painful to Jimmy. + +Jimmy, in the very rapture of sulkiness, refused to express pleasure or +gratitude upon the presentation of a "hand" of ripe bananas. Tom's +wrath at his son's mute obstinacy reached the explosive climax just as he +had peeled a luscious banana. He sacrificed it, and Jimmy appeared the +next instant with a moustache and dripping beard of squashed fruit as an +adornment to his astonished face. Then he opened his mouth to pour forth +his soul in an agonising bleat. Tom got in a second shot with the banana +skin. With a report like unto that which one makes by bursting an +air-distended paper bag, the missile plastered Jimmy's cavernous mouth, +smothered his squeal, and sat him down so suddenly that Tom thought his +"wind" had stopped for ever. Kneeling beside the boy, he set about +kneading his stomach, while Jimmy gasped and glared, making horrible +grimaces, as he struggled for breath. Nelly, nervous Nelly, concluding +that Tom was determined to thump the life out of Jimmy, assailed him +with her bananas and vocal efforts of exquisite shrillness. Just as +matters were becoming seriously complicated, Jimmy rolled away, scrambled +to his feet, and fled, yelling, to the camp, firm in the belief that his +doting father had made an attempt on his young life. + + +THE LOGIC OF THE CAMP + + +Poor half-caste Jimmy Yaeki Muggie, a pleasant-voiced lad, who always wore +in his face the slur of conscious shame of birth, died apparently from +heart failure, an after-effect of rheumatic fever. Tom and Nelly mourned +deeply and wrathfully. Smarting under the rod of fate, they sought with +indignant mien counsel upon the cause of death. + +Jimmy was a young fellow. Why should a young man, who had been lusty +until a couple of months ago, die? Somebody must have killed him by +covert means. In the first outburst of grief they blamed me. Tom +declared, with passion in his eyes, that I had killed Jimmy by making him +drunk. The charge was not absolutely groundless, for when the +yellow-faced fellow was chilly with a collapse, I had administered +reviving sips of whisky-and-water. + +Yes, Tom declared in an angry mood, and with the air of one who washed +his hands of the whole sad business, the doses of whisky had killed +Jimmy. As Tom indulged to the fulness of his heart in the luxury of his +woe, he began to reflect further, and to change his opinion. + +He mentioned incidentally that whisky was "good." "Before you gib em that +boy whisky, he close up dead-finish. B'mby he more better." + +Then he began vehemently to protest against the malign influence of some +"no good" boy on the mainland, and Nelly, eager to satisfy her own +cravings for some definite cause for the ending of the life of a strong +boy, supported Tom's vague theories quite enthusiastically. To each +distinct natural phenomenon blacks assign a real presence. Even +toothache, to which he is subject, Tom ascribes to a malignant fiend, so +he asks for a pin which, without a wince, he forces into the decaying +bicuspid. His theory is that the little "debil-debil" molesting it will +abandon the tooth to attack furiously the obtrusive pin. The affliction +upon the camp had certainly been wrought by some boy who had been angry +with Jimmy. The how and the why and wherefore of such malignant influence +mattered not. + +There was the dead boy rolled in his blanket, with a petrified smile on +his thin lips. Obviously death was due to some illicit control of the +laws of Nature. No one but a black boy could so grossly intercept the +course of ordinary events as to produce death. Such, at least, was +the logic of the camp. + +Reflecting still deeper, and always with Nelly's unswerving +corroboration, Tom began to urge that Jimmy had been poisoned. + +"Yes," said Nelly, quite cheerfully, "some boy bin poison em. What's the +matter that boy want poison Jimmy? Jimmy good fella!" + +"Who poison that boy?" I asked. + +"Some fella alonga mainland. .He no good that fella!" + +"He bin sick long time. Poison kill em one time quick!" + +Tom dissented. "Some boy make em poison slow. I know that kind." + +Then he explained. "Some time 'nother fella tchausey belonga Jimmy. He +wan make Jimmy shout. Jimmy no wan shout for that boy. They have little +bit row." + +"That boy wouldn't poison Jimmy because he no shout," I reasoned. +Everybody liked Jimmy." + +"Yes," said Tom. "Sometime he might have row." + +With an air of mystery, Tom continued: "When that boy have row, he get +bone belonga dead man, scrape that bone alonga old bottle. When get +little heap all asame sugar, put into tea. Jimmy drink tea. B'mby get +sick--die long time. Bad poison that." + +Nelly's grief, which had been shrilly expressed at intervals, became +subdued as she listened to Tom's theories. To her mind the whole mystery +had been settled. There need be no further anxiety, and only formal +expressions of grief. + +During the rest of the evening the wailing was purely official. Tom's wit +had so circumstantially accounted for the event, that it ceased to be +solemn. + +The next day they dug a hole five feet deep in the clean sand at the back +of the humpy, and there Jimmy was laid to rest with the whole of his +personal property, the most substantial of which consisted of an enamel +billy, plate, and mug. The Chinese matting on which he had slept was used +to envelop the body, and the sand was compressed in the grave. + +But Tom and his family had gone. He said--and the deep furrows of grief +were in his face: "Carn help it. Must go away one month. I bin think +about that boy too much." + + +TOM'S PHILOSOPHY + + +Tom had been so long intimately associated with cynical white people +that several of the more fantastic customs of his race are by him +contemned. Accordingly I was somewhat surprised to discover, after a few +weeks of rainless weather, during which the shady pool at the mouth of +the creek whence the supplies for his camp are drawn had decreased in +depth, that he had been slyly practising the arts of the rain-maker. + +As a matter of fact Tom was not in need of water, but, calculating fellow +that he is, he foresaw the probability of having to carry it in buckets +from the creek for the house, and to obviate such drudgery he shrewdly +exercised his wit. A thoughtful, designing person is Tom--ever ready to +accept the inevitable, with unruffled aboriginal calm, and just as +willing--and as competent, too--to assist weary Nature by any of the +little arts which he, by close observation of her moods, has acquired, or +the knowledge which has been handed down from generation to generation. As +it was the season of thunderstorms, he craftily so timed his designs that +their consummation was not in direct opposition to meteorological +conditions, but rather in consistency with them. Captain Cook found the +ENDEAVOUR in a very tight corner on one occasion, out of which he +wriggled, and in recording the circumstance wrote: "We owed our safety to +the interposition of Providence, a good look-out, and the very brisk +manner in which the ship was manned." In a similar spirit Tom's art was +exemplified. He watched the weather, while he coaxed the rain. + +Some rain-makers tie a few leaves of the "wee-ree" (CALOPHYLLUM +INOPHYLUM) into a loose bundle, which is gently lowered into the +diminishing pool, in which he then bathes; but all are presupposed to +observe the clouds, so that the chances of the non-professional being +able to blaspheme because of non-success are remote. Tom slightly varied +the customary process, though he accepted no risk of failure. Cutting out +a piece of fresh bark from a "wee-ree"-tree, he shaped it roughly to a +point at each end, and having anchored it by a short length of home-made +string to a root on the bank, allowed it to sink in the water. + +A few yards away, towards the centre of the pool, he made a graceful arch +of one of the canes of the jungle (FLAGELLARIA INDICA) by forcing each +end firmly into the mud, and from the middle hung an empty bottle. The +paraphernalia was completed on the Saturday, when the weather was +obviously working up to a climax, but I was not made aware of Tom's +plans, and as one of the tanks was empty, on the following Monday, with +his assistance, I cleaned it out, remarking to him with cheerful irony: + +"Now we get plenty rain. Every time we clean out this little fella tank +rain comes. You look out! Cloud come up now! We no want carry water +from creek." + +That night a thunderstorm occurred, during which half an inch of rain +fell, to the overflowing of the tank. + +In the morning Tom smilingly told of his skill as a rain-maker, while +admitting that the cleaning out of the little tank had also a certain +influence in the right direction. It was, a pleasant, gentle rain, too, +nothing of the violent and hasty character such as Tom had designed, but +again he had a plausible explanation. + +"Subpose I bin put that mil-gar in water deep, too much rain altogether. +We no want too much rain now. After Christmas plenty." Tom asserts that +the deeper the pool in which the "mil-gar" is submerged the heavier and +more continuous the downpour; but as heavy rain is not liked, only +vindictive boys who have some spite to work off indulge in such wanton +interference with the ordinary course of the wet season. + +The submerged bark which attracts the rain Tom calls "mil-gar," and the +suspended bottle (a saucer-shaped piece of bark is generally used) serves +to catch PAL-BI (hailstones), which, being, uncommon, are considered +weird and are eaten in a dare-devil sort of spirit. In this case PAL-BI +had but the remotest chance of getting into the bottle, and for that +reason (according: to Tom) none tried. "Subpose I bin put bark all asame +plate--look out plenty!" + +Many natural phenomena are associated in the folklore of the blacks with +untoward events. The rainbow (AM-AN-EE) is not regarded by them as a +covenant that the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all +flesh, but as an evil omen, a cause of sorrow, for to whomsoever shall +bathe in the sea when the bow is seen in the cloud evil is certain to +befall. + +Unprotesting Nelly is assured of this by her own sad experience. In tones +of deep conviction, which permit of no manner of doubt, she tells me +that AM-AN-EE caused the death of her infant--"brother belonga Jimmy." +She had bogied at Toorgey-Toorgey, when to her dismay the harbinger of +disaster appeared to spring out from the sea. In a week the child was +born-dead. + +Both father and mother have the tenderest thoughts of that breathless +image in bronze. I saw it. Its features were refined, the nose sharp and +symmetrical, and the mouth a perfect Cupid's bow. Its expectant repose +thrilled me, for it was the realisation of that which Dickens said of +little Nell--"a creature waiting for the breath of life." + +No marvel they mourned, that Nelly cut her arms with splinters of glass, +that she still regards the lovely rainbow with resentment tempered by +fear. + +Tom does not respond to cross-examination. He thinks his own thoughts and +says but little. When he is communicative his veracity is the less to be +trusted. Many a time have I sought his opinions on the serious import of +life--to find that he has none. His thoughts are concentrated on things +which affect the immediate moment. Since he is mentally incapable of +denying himself the most trivial recreations upon which his wishes have +dwelt, restraint is succeeded by despairing, uncontrollable moroseness +pathetic in its genuineness. How could such a temperament reflect upon +the future? He is no doctrinaire; he does not credit existence after +death--"When you dead, you finish!" + +"But," I suggested, "plenty of your country men think about another place +when you die--finish." + +"Yes, some boy he say when you dead you go long another place. L-o-n-g +way. More better place, plenty tucker, no work, sit-down, play about all +day. When you come alonga that place father, mother, brother, +sit-down--no more can die!" + +Then I put a customary question: "Yes, what all go alonga that place like +when you die? You father old man when he die. He old man now alonga that +good place? Little Jinny young when she die. That fella young along that +place? That piccaninny belonga Nelly--piccaninny alonga that place?" + +"Yes, all asame when you die you along that place." + +"Good boy and bad boy-rogue, all go one place? + +"Yes. Rogue he got one heaby spear right through. Go in here (indicating +the middle of his chest), come out alonga back. Sore fella. That spear +fight em inside. My word! Carn pull em out. He no die. Too much sore +fella!" + + +DEAD--FINISH + + +Since the foregoing was penned Tom has realised the supreme fact of +existence. He is dead, and is buried in dry, hot ground away from the +moist green country which he knew so well, and was wont to love so +ardently. + +Although he was "only a black fellow," yet was he an Australian by the +purest lineage and birth--one whose physique was example of the class that +tropical Queensland is capable of producing, a man of brains, a student +of Nature who had stored his mind with first-hand knowledge unprinted and +now unprintable, a hunter of renown, and in certain respects "a citizen +impossible to replace." + +Given protection from the disastrous contact with the raw, unclean edge +of civilisation, he and others, his fellows, might have lived for a score +of years longer, and in the meantime possibly the public conscience of +Australia might have been aroused, and his and their last days made +wholesome, peaceable, and pleasant. + +There is something more to be said about Tom in order that the attempt to +show what manner of man he was may be as complete as the inexorable +regulation of death permits. + +Strong and substantially built, so framed that he looked taller than the +limit of his inches, broad-chested, big-limbed, coarse-handed, Tom's +figure differed essentially from that of the ordinary type, and as his +figure so his style and mental capacity. Serene in the face of perils of +the sea, with all of which he is familiar, he was afraid of no man in +daylight, though a child might scare him after dark. + +Tom was not as other blacks, for he loved sport. It was not all a +question of pot-hunting with him. Apart from the all-compelling force of +hunger, he was influenced by the passion of the chase. Therefore was he +patient, resourceful, determined, shrewd, observant, and alert. His +knowledge of the ways of fish and of the most successful methods of +alluring them to his hook often astonished me. He saw turtle in the sea +when quite beyond visual range of the white man. Many a time and oft has +he hurled his harpoon at what to me was nothingness, and the rush of +the line has indicated that the aim was true. He would say when fifty +yards of line were out the particular part of the body in which the +barbed point was sticking. If it had pierced the shell, then he must play +with the game cautiously until it was exhausted and he could get in +another point in better holding locality. If the point had entered the +shoulder, or below the carapace to the rear, or one of the flippers, he +would haul away, knowing that the barb would hold until cut out. When +restrained from the sea for a few days he became petulant and as sulky as +a spoilt child, for, in common with others of the race, he was morally +incapable of self-denial. Big and strong and manly as he was, he became +as an infant when circumstances compelled him to forego an anticipated +excursion by water, and rather than stay in comfort and safety on dry +land would--if he had so set his mind--venture over six miles of stormy +sea in a flattie little more commodious than a coffin. He was, on such an +occasion, wont to say, "No matter. Subpose boat drowned, I swim along +shore, tie em Nelly along a string," meaning that in case of a capsize +he would swim to dry land, towing his dutiful, trustful spouse. + +Although by nature a true lover of the sea, his knowledge of the plant +life of the coast was remarkable. Among his mental accomplishments was a +specific title for each plant and tree. His almanac was floral. By the +flowering of trees and shrubs so he noted the time of the year, and he +knew many stars by name and could tell when such and such a one would be +visible. Yet, though I tried to teach him the alphabet, he never got +beyond "F," which he always pronounced "if." Perhaps his collapse in +literature may have been due to persistent efforts to teach him the +difference between "F" and "if" vocalised. He may have reasoned that +so finicking an accomplishment was not worth acquiring. In his own tongue +he counted thus:-- + + +Yungl One +Bli Two +Yacka Any number in excess of two--a great many. + + +But in English he did not lose himself until he had passed sixty--at +least, he was wont to boast of being able to comprehend that number. + +Tom was a bit of a dandy in his way, fond of loud colours and proud of +his manly figure. When the flour-bag began to sprinkle his moustache he +plucked out one by one the tell-tale hairs until his upper lip became +almost barren, but remorseless Time was never made to pause. Though many +a white hair was extirpated, Tom was as much at fault as most of us who +seek for the secret of perpetual youth, or to evade the buffets of old +Father Time. + +Opium and rum lured Tom away during the last four years of his life. He +was sadly degenerated when I saw him for the last time, and several +months after, in a mainland camp, he quarrelled with his half-brother +Willie--the same Willie who many years ago in honourable encounter cut a +liberal nick out of one of Tom's ears with a razor. Willie probed Tom +between the ribs with a spear. While he lay helpless and suffering +representatives of the police force visited the spot and the sick man was +taken by steamer to a hospital, where he passed away--peradventure, in +antagonism to his own personal belief, to that "good place" fancied by +some of his countrymen, where tucker is plentiful and opium and rum +unprocurable. And unless in that "good place" there are fish to be +caught and turtle and dugong, and sting-rays to be harpooned, and other +sport of the salt sea available, and dim jungles through which a man may +wander at will, and all unclad, to chop squirming grubs out of decayed +wood and rob the rubbish mounds of scrub fowls of huge white eggs, and +forest country where he may rifle "bees' nests," Tom will not be quite +happy there. He was ever a free man, given to the habit of roaming. If +there are bounds to that "good place," he will discover them, and will +peer over the barricades longingly and very often. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + + +"DEBILS-DEBILS" + + +"As, however, there is no necessity whatever why we should posit the +existence of devils, why, then, should they be posited?" + +Some of the blacks of my acquaintance are ardent believers in ghosts and +do posit the existence of personal "debils-debils." Seldom is a good +word to be said of the phantoms, which depend almost entirely for "local +habitation and a name" upon the chronicles of old men steeped to the +lips in the accumulated lore of the camps. Many an old man who talks +shudderingly of the "debil-debil" has lived in daily expectation of +meeting some hostile and vindictive personage endowed with fearsome +malice, and a body which may be killed and destroyed. Therefore, when the +old man ventures into the dim spaces of the jungle he is invariably +specially armed and his perceptive faculties strained to concert pitch, +while the unseen glides always at his elbow providing unutterable +thrills, lacking which life would be far less real and earnest. + +Only one record has come to my knowledge of the presence of a benign +"debil-debil." All the other stories have been saturated with +awesomeness and fear. A very intelligent but excessively superstitious +boy now living on the Palm Islands was wont to entertain me with graphic +descriptions of the one species of "debil-debil" which he feared, and +of the most effective plan for its capture. He was under the belief that +a live "debil-debil" would be worth more as a curio than "two fella +white cockatoo." He imagined that if a "young fella debil-debil" could +be caught--caught in the harmless stage of existence--I would give him a +superabundance of tobacco as a reward, and that I would keep it chained +up "all asame dog" and give it nothing but water. I was frequently +warned "Subpose me catch em young fella 'debil-debil' when he come from +mother belonga him, no good you give him much tucker. Gib him plenty +water. He got fire inside. Smoke come out alonga nose." Given the +possibility of its capture, there was no reason why I should not indulge +the frugal joy of having a small and comparatively innocent "debil-debil" +on the chain. Did not the legendary Maori chiefs keep such pets for the +torment of their enemies? Mine would have to console itself with the +astonishment and admiration of friends, for, alas! I have not, to my +knowledge, an enemy worthy the least of the infernal pangs. Moreover, out +of our abundance of rain we could well spare an occasional meat-tinful of +water for the cooling of its internal fires. + +Now, the method of capture of a piccaninny "debil-debil" was this: +Certain manifestations, not explainable and not visible to white men, +had revealed to the blacks that a favourite resort of the species was the +sand spit of the Island. Two boys who were wont to discuss their plans, +and even to practise them, decided that they must first observe the +habits of the "debil-debil," and so arrange to catch the young one when +the backs of the parents were turned, for, of course, designs against a +full-grown specimen were not only futile, but attended with infinitely +greater risks of personal injury than George would accept for love or +money. They procured about fifteen yards of cane from one of the creeping +palms, from which they removed all the old leaf sheafs and adventitious +rootlets, making it perfectly smooth. Crouching low, each holding an end +of the cane, which was strained almost to rigidity, the boys, in their +demonstration of the feat, were wont to sweep continuously over a +considerable area with the idea of getting the cane on the nape of the +neck of the assumed "debil-debil," and then to suddenly change places, +so that it became ensnared in a simple loop by which the baneful beast +was to be choked to submission. + +Upon my suggestion a thin line used in the harpooning of turtles was +substituted for the cane, with which, however, some most realistic and +serious preliminary work towards perfection in the stratagem of +"debil-debil" capture had been accomplished in valorous daylight. But +though the boys gave many exhibitions of their skill and of the proper +attitude and degree of caution, the correct gestures and facial +expression for so momentous a manoeuvre, they could never be persuaded to +put their skill to the test at the spot where "debils-debils" most do +congregate after dark, the consequences inevitable on failure being too +diabolical to contemplate. + +The conditions never seemed to be absolutely favourable for the deed, for +the boys anxiously persuaded me of the craft and alertness of the evil +one. Either the night was too bright or too gloomy, or it was so calm +that the "debil-debil" would be sure to hear their approach, or so +windy that they themselves might possibly be taken unawares. They +insisted that "debils-debils" suffered from certain physical +limitations; they could not cross the sea--hence the variety native to +the Island might be different from the mainland species, and would +therefore demand local study before being approached with hostile +intentions. I was wont to point out that since the sea presented an +impassable barrier, the sand spit, drawn out to a fine point, was just +the spot where a piccaninny might be easily rounded up, if it were +detected in a preoccupied mood. I suggested that I might be at hand to +encounter any untoward results in case of a bungle, but was met with the +positive assertion that no "debil-debil," however young and +unsophisticated, would "come out" if it smelt a white man. + +One of the boys went so far as to select the chain with which the captive +was to be secured, and the empty meat-tin whence it was to be schooled to +take the only form of nourishment judicious to offer. That he did most +truly and sincerely believe the existence of "debils-debils" we had +proof every evening, for he would sit at the door of his grass hut, +maintain a big, dancing fire, and sing lustily under the supposition that +a good discordant corroboree was the most effective scare. Though alleged +to be obnoxiously plentiful, the boys could never screw up their courage +to the point of a real attempt to apprehend the dreaded enemy to their +peace of mind. + +Two blacks in the employ of a neighbour went to sleep under an +orange-tree early one afternoon, and slumbered industriously while the +others worked. The quiet of the drowsy time was, however, suddenly +shocked by a great outcry, when the two lazy ones raced towards the +workers with every manifestation of fear in their countenances. They +declared that while they had slept a piccaninny "debil-debil" had "sat +down" on the orange-tree which had afforded them shade, and that when +they woke up it was there--"all a same flying fox." All moved cautiously +up, and sure enough, hanging head down, was what my friend took to be a +veritable flying fox; but he was in a hopeless minority. All scornfully +out-voted him, and to this day the blacks assert that "a piccaninny +debil-debil" so closely resembles a flying-fox that none but a black boy +can tell the difference. + +Again, a black boy and his gin slept in an outhouse across the +door-space of which they, as usual, made a fire. In the morning', Billy +found himself, not in the corner where he had gone to sleep, but close to +the fire, and moreover his left arm was "sore fella." With a dreadfully +serious face he related his experiences. In the middle of the night a +"debil-debil" had entered the hut and, seizing him by the arm, had +dragged him towards the door, but being unable to cross the fire, had +been compelled to abandon otherwise easy prey. The aching arm proved that +he had been dragged by a superior force, and the absence of tracks was +assurance that none other than a "debil-debil" could have clutched him. +The episode was accepted as one more proof of the horror of +"debils-debils" of fire, and of the necessity of such a precautionary +measure. + +The scene of the only occasion on which a visitant from the land of +spirits assumed benign shape is not far from this spot. It is historic, +too, from the standpoint of the white man, for it occurred during a +"dispersal" by black troopers under the command of mounted police. An old +black boy tells the story. Before sunrise the whole camp was +panic-struck, for it was surrounded by men with rifles. As the +defenceless men and helpless women and children woke up, dismayed, to +seek safety in flight, they were shot. One man tumbled down here, +another there. The awful noise of the firing, and the bleeding results +thereof, the screams of fear and shrieks of pain, caused paralysing +confusion. When it seemed impossible for any one to escape, a big man +jumped up, and, standing still, called out to the bloodthirsty troopers, +"Kill me fella! Kill me fella!" indicating, with his hand his naked +chest. Such audacity had its effect. All the troopers began firing at +the noble, self-sacrificing hero; but marvellous to say, he did not +tumble down, for though the bullets went through him, no blood gushed +out. While he was the only target, the other blacks, including the +veracious chronicler, ran away, leaving many dead. He afterwards declared +that the "big, good fella boy," who had drawn the fire of the troopers, +and whom the troopers could not kill, was a stranger to the camp. No one +had ever seen him before or since; but that he appeared at a terrible +crisis specially to save the whole camp from butchery was, and is, the +emphatic belief of the survivors. This incident was related, or rather +dramatically acted, in the presence of an aged native of the Malay +Peninsula, whose knowledge of the mysterious was (in his own estimation) +far more exact than that of the unenlightened blacks. With eyes sparkling +and all his senses quivering under the stress of impatience, he listened +to the end, and then burst out, "You fool! That good, big fellow boy, he +no boy. That fellow, white man call em ghost! Plenty in my country!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + + +TO PARADISE AND BACK + + +"He on honey-dew hath fed +And drunk the milk of Paradise." + + COLERIDGE. + +A gaunt old man with grizzled head, shrunk shanks, and a crooked arm was +the most timid of the strange mob of blacks who, under the guidance of +some semi-civilised friends, visited the clearing of a settler on one of +the rivers flowing into Rockingham, Bay. Shy and suspicious, his +friends had difficulty in reassuring him of the peace-loving character +of the settler, whose hut stood in the midst of an orange-grove. In a few +days, for no disturbing element existed, the nervousness of the old +man in the presence of his host ceased, and it was then noticed that +those who had accompanied him from the jungle-covered mountains, as well +as the friends he had picked up near the home of the white man, paid him +the rare compliment of deference. Well they might, for he was a man of +importance, though he lacked clothing, and the elements of decency. The +old man's friends--perhaps because of his semi-helplessness, due to the +twisted limb--performed various friendly offices for him, and never +thought of the spice of any dread avowal, for he was far superior to +them all, and righteously was he honoured. The lean Old Man had visited +that "undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns." +There was no doubt of his actual presence in this. There were his young +wife and several companions, male and female, ready to corroborate his +story; and was not his crippled arm painful but unimpeachable testimony +to the reality of his experiences? + +In the telling of the history of a too brief sojourn in the paradise of +the blacks the old man took but little part, for his English was NIL. +The members of the party knew it by rote, and some of them could make +themselves understood. Pieced together--for the story came out bit by +bit--it ran thus: + +A very long time ago, when the Old Man was young and lusty and the +"King" of the tribe, an evil-minded "boy" made great rains. All the +rivers overflowed their banks, the palm and tea tree swamps became +impassable, the hollows between the hills were filled with water. Week +after week it rained continuously, the floods gradually hemming in the +camp and restricting the wanderings of the men to one long ridge of +forest country. Soon all the food obtainable within such narrow limits +was eaten. Every one became hungry, for the camp was large and its daily +necessities considerable. Patiently they waited for the subsidence of the +waters, but more rain came and the camp grew hungrier than ever. Many sat +in their shelters and drank water copiously, thereby creating a temporary +sensation of satisfaction. + +In the midst of the adversity the Old Man remembered having seen a "bees' +nest" up a gigantic tree some distance away. He had not climbed the tree +offhand because the feat seemed to be impossible. What might have been +just possible on a well-filled stomach was worth hazarding now that he +was famishing. So, wading and swimming, he gained the little dry knoll +in the centre of which stood an enormous bean-tree, and there, a long way +up, was the "bees' nest." With a piece of cane from a creeping palm and +a stone tomahawk he slowly ascended the tree, for he was weak and his +nerves unstrung. But he joyed when he reached the "bees' nest," for it +was large and full of honey and brood comb--a feast in prospect for the +whole camp. Then, as he set to work to chop out the comb, he heard, to +his astonishment, voices below, and peering down, saw not only a wife who +had departed to the land of spirits a year or so before, but his own +mother, who had died when he was a youth. Greeting him in glad tones, +they told him to come down, and that they would show him a big camp in +good dry country where there was abundance of food. + +Descending the tree with the cane loop, he saw that his previous wife was +well favoured and fat, that his mother, too, was portly, that they had +dilly-bags crammed with tokens of material wealth. They were overjoyed +to see him, but expressed wonder that he was so weak when so much good +food was available. Saying but little, they struck out for the big +camp. The Old Man noticed, as they walked, that a track through the +thickest part of the jungle opened up--a beaten, straight track, which +he, for all his wanderings, had never before seen. The country was dry, +too. Scrub hens and scrub turkeys, cassowaries, wallabies, huge carpet +snakes, pigeons, fruits and nuts, bees' nests, and decayed trees full of +great white grubs were there in plenty. + +Silently and swiftly the three passed along the track through a country +which, at every step, became more desirable, and at last emerged on an +immense pocket where there was a concourse of gunyahs from which the +smoke curled up, and in every gunyah was abundance. Some of the young men +were throwing sportful boomerangs and spears; large parties were so +absorbed in the pleasure of corroboreeing that no notice was taken of the +new-comer. The advent of strangers was too common an occurrence to +distract them from unconfined joys. Such a scene, so different from +the forlorn, starving, water-beleaguered camp over which the sullen +despair brooded, mystified and gladdened. + +The cup of happiness overflowed when, conducted through merry throngs to +a particular spot, the Old Man was greeted by relations and friends for +whom he had once duly mourned, plastering his face with ceremonious +charcoal and clay, and denying himself needed food. Yet were they not +here, alive, and in the enjoyment of every good thing? It was almost +beyond comprehension. Was he not to credit the evidences of his own +senses? Was not the food they pressed on him most pleasant to the taste? +All the privations due to the flood were talked of familiarly. The scene +of plenty was so close to the famine-stricken camp that the Old Man found +himself wondering why it had not been found before. Now he knew the +spot, and would in due time guide his starving friends hither and make +one great camp, where all would live in undreamt-of ease, unrealisable +superfluity of food. + +For three days he dwelt in the good land with content, lionised by his +relatives, taking part in the hunts, the feasts, the corroborees, and +being urged never to return to the camp of floods and hunger. Here was +bliss. Every wish amply gratified, who would willingly depart from so +entrancing a place? And with fervent promises on his lips never to go +away he was conscious of a sharp pain in his wrist and found himself +crumpled up, stiff, sore, hungry, and helpless, at the foot of the big +tree. + +Reluctantly back in the land of stress and distress, so woefully weak +that he could not stand without swaying, while his right hand dangled +helplessly, confused sounds of Paradise still rang in his ears, +verifying all that had recently befallen. + +He gazed around, dismayed to see no trace of his wife or mother; no +clean-cut, straight path leading to the land of pure delight. Far up the +tree hung the cane loop; beside him lay the stone tomahawk. All present +realities were of pain and hunger. Bewildered, slowly and with much +difficulty, he made his way to the flooded camp, noticing as he went that +water-courses he had been compelled to swim were now fordable--proof of +the lapse of time. + +Eyes starved to impassiveness stared at the gaunt, crippled creature, +complaining mutely, for no food had been brought. Some muttered that he +had eaten it all during his unaccounted absence. + +Silently the old man bound up his wrist excruciatingly tight with strips +of bark, and then in detail told of his glad sojourn in Paradise. + +Then the faces of the famishing lit up with joyous expectancy +and--impatient, reckless, heedless of floods, forgetful of weakness born +of hunger--one and all hastened to the scene whence began the straight +path to the enchanting land. But keen as the best trackers might be, not +the least sign in proof of the Old Man's experiences could be found. + +The impassive wall of jungle which had opened so agreeably to the Old Man +offered no obstacles to the enthusiastic searchers for Paradise. Far and +wide, among slim palms standing waist deep in sullen brown water; across +flooded creeks and rivers; over hills and mountains; up gloomy gorges +into which none had ever before dared to venture, elated, they hastened +day after day, glorious enterprise investing them with hardihood and +courage. Ardently, hopefully, each vying with the other--for had not the +Old Man proved beyond inglorious doubt the nearness and perfection of +Paradise?--they pushed the quest far and beyond the limits of their own +small province, and in vain, for they were not of the elect, however +loyal and eager. + +Years have elapsed, but the Old Man and his friends have not lost faith +in the existence locally of the Happy Land. Had he not been hither, led +by wife and mother, and did he not remain there three days--the only days +of unimpeded joy in his long life? No such rich privilege had ever +befallen any one else; but without questioning or envy all verify his +words and delight to do him honour. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + + +THE DEATH BONE + + +(FACT CEMENTED WITH FICTION) + +"In accordance with Nature's designs as he was a good artist +he was also good. He possessed nothing but his individuality." + + ANON. + +Wylo was an artist, and, like all true artists, an artist by grace of +God. + +His family was not in any sense artistic. Of his lineage all had been +forgotten, save a few of the many failings of his grandsire. So none +could tell whence the talent that burst into blossom with him had sprung. +It had not been transmitted. It was spontaneous; it was a gift; and all +such gifts--are they not supernatural? + +Gaunt old father and withered old mother would tell that Wylo from +earliest boyhood could always "make em good fella along tree"; and +now that he was a man and there were the emblems of manhood on his broad +chest--deep, cut lines and swelling ridges--and he oft wore his hair long +and fuzzy, his hand was very free. + +Every morning he traced upon the convenient sand studies vigorous though +entirely free from the canons of the schools. No authority existed that +could tongue-tie his art. Each steamer, each boat which passed was +sketched off-hand, and by some little trick, due to his inspiration, +character faithful to the original was imparted. Banana-plants in full +fruit and slim palms in cluster were ofttimes his models; but +portraiture was not Wylo's forte. On the bark of trees, on flat rocks as +well as on the shifting sand he expressed himself plentifully and +graphically. He could no more exercise restraint when he found a +convenient surface and a piece of charcoal or a lump of soft red stone +than he could have recited the Book of Job. + +His genius was imperative, almost overbearing. He had been commissioned +by an imperious authority to sketch--a fever almost amounting to insanity +fired his soul. His work was everywhere, for he had miles of forest and +jungle country for his studio, and no hampering, sordid cares to +distract him. The light of genius in such an obscure world was +unrecognised. Being beyond comprehension, it existed as the coldest +commonplace. Not one of his fellows was equipped mentally to register +the deviation from the frowsy norm of the camp exemplified in him; and +if the camp never produced another artist the default would occasion +exactly similar unconcern. + +Wylo's masterpiece in portraiture--the one revelation of the human form +divine which he permitted himself to accomplish in other than transient +sand, was a fancy picture of one of his many sweethearts--a lady in a +very old hat and nothing more, with a few boomerangs thrown in to fill +otherwise waste space on the inner surface of his shield. Wylo, though +strenuous in his love of art is ever economic of the materials by which +that love finds such apt expression. His scenes are crowded. + +As a warrior, and as a strategist, not altogether as an artist--though +sympathy must ever be with him in that o'ermastering talent of his--Wylo +also displayed those gifts which proclaim the gifted, though he was true +to his race in many of its phases of simplicity. His skill, or rather his +supreme striving to appease aesthetic thrills, made Wylo superb in the +fight. He developed a meek, affected voice, somewhat mincing ways, and a +faraway look in his eyes. These distinctive traits, worn with careless +hair, were so original, so intensely entertaining and notoriety-provoking +in a camp which had never possessed the copyright of more than +one shabby corroboree, that Wylo made many conquests. For each conquest +of the heart he had fought, and the more frequent his fights the more +expert and daring he became. Thus did love indirectly raise him +eventually to the dignified position of king. + +Never before had any man of the camp so many fights on his hands. The +artistic instinct caused him to fashion weapons true and perfectly +balanced, made his hand the steadier and his aim very sure, while his +intense earnestness in love imparted terrific speed to his blows when he +beat down his rival's shield with his great short-handled wooden sword. +He was enthusiastic as a duellist as he was absorbed in art. It came to +pass that when Wylo was not tracing his favourite seascape he was either +flirting or engaged in the squally pastime of fighting an aggrieved +husband or scandalised lover. + +Wylo had so many of the fair sex to do his bidding, that he was relieved +of the necessity of troubling himself about food. Frequently, as all +manly men do (civilised as well as savage), he longed for the passion of +the chase; and then he fished or harpooned turtle or hunted wallabies +with spear and nulla-nulla, or cut "bees' nests" from hollow trees, +when his face would become distorted by stings and his "bingey" +distended with choice honey, and he would without patronage bestow upon +gratified female friends, old or brood comb. + +Wylo was a man and a king among his fellows, tall, white-toothed, +generally decorated with a section of slender yellow reed through the +septum of his broad-base nose, and with a broad necklace of yellow grass +beads round his neck. He wore clothes sometimes, as a concession to the +indecent perceptions of the whites (whom for the most part he despised); +though he preferred to be otherwise, for he was a fine figure--not a +plaster saint by any means, but a hero in his way and well set up, and an +artist by Divine Right. + +Handsome, then, of build and limb, if not of feature, the ideal of every +female of the camp, a successful warrior, a true sportsman, was it any +marvel that Wylo suffered gladly that pardonable transgression of +genius--vanity? He oft wore nothing but a couple of white cockatoo +feathers stuck in his hair. Thus arrayed he was audaciously irresistible, +and provoked the enmity of the crowd. As an artist Wylo was an all-round +favourite; but as a dandy all but the women--and he was disdainful of the +goodwill of the men--despised while they panted with envy and made +grossly impolite references to him. + +Now, the sarcastic jibes of a black fellow are not translatable, or +rather not to be printed beyond the margin of strictly scientific works. +Courageously free and personal, they would be beyond comprehension in +these chaste pages. Why, therefore, attempt to repeat them? A genius has +been described as a deviation from the average of humanity. This +definition exactly suited Wylo, for it was discovered when jibes were +flashing about that he was positively inspired. They were as sharp as his +spears, as stunning as his sword'. + +Yan-coo, the wit of the tribe, a stubby, grim old man, who spent most of +his time making dilly-bags and modelling grotesque debils-debils in a +pliant blending of bees' wax and loam, to the horror of every +piccaninny, soon found that Wylo could talk back with such withering +effect, such shatteringly gross personalities that he, who with the +spiteful ironies of his venomous tongue had kept the camp in awe, was +dazed to gloomy silence by Wylo's vivid flashes of wit. His weird models +showed a mind corroding with vicious intent. He dared not open his lips +while Wylo was about. The quaking piccaninnies cringed with fear as they +watched him working up his malignant feelings into the most awful +imps--imps which threatened violence to their souls. + +Wylo was supreme. He gloried in his dandyism and in his skill as a +fighter. His genius basked in the sunshine as he made high reliefs in the +sand or charcoaled pictures on the cool, grey rocks hidden in the +sound-sopping jungle. The one weak spot in his character was his faith in +a sort of wizardry. Contemptuous alike of the open violence or stratagems +of his fellows, he had the utmost horror of an implement which Yan-coo, +who was medicine-man as well as chartered wit, reserved for use against +mortal enemies. + +This terrible tool he had never seen. Very few had, or even wanted to, +for its effects were as incomprehensible as they were tragic. Never +employed in the exercise of private or individual malice, the death +bone was an unfathomable and awful mystery. So dire was its influence +that if a woman touched it or even looked at it she sickened. + +What was this instrument of death? + +A human bone scraped and rubbed to a gradually tapering point, to the +thick, knobby end of which a string of human hair, plaited, was +cemented, the other end of a length of several yards being similarly +cemented to the interior of a hollow bone, also human. When the +stiletto-shaped bone is directed towards an individual who has incurred +the enmity of the medicine-man, his best heart's blood is attracted. +Drawn from the throbbing organ, it travels along the string and into the +hollow receptacle. The pointer is then sheathed and sealed with gum +blended with human blood, the string being wound about it. Simultaneously +with the extraction of the victim's most precious blood by this subtle +and secret process, a pebble or chip of shell is lodged in his body with +the result of ensuing agony. + +Unaware of these very dreadful happenings, the individual so operated +upon may not suffer immediately any ill effect. The wizard watches, and +if no untoward symptoms are exhibited he takes into his confidence a +friend, and this candid friend tells the inflicted one that he must be +ill and dying, for the death-bone has been pointed at him and has done +its worst. Fear begets immediate sickness, and if the blood of the +patient be not restored and the foreign substance extracted from his +spasmodic side with elaborate ritual, death is inevitable. + +Ridicule is but a slight shaft to employ against any one who may +retaliate with so potent a weapon as the death-bone. In the fulness of +his vanity and wit, Wylo began to make gratuitous fun of Yan-coo, who +fretted and fumed and terrified the piccaninnies with still more hideous +debils-debils. I saw one of them. It resembled a span-long plesiosaurus, +afflicted with elephantiasis, and a forked, lolling, tongue extruded +from a head that swayed ominously right and left. A tipsy, disorderly, +vindictive debil-debil it was, that made the boldest piccaninny shriek +with dismay. Wylo with a tiny spear of grass knocked the head of the +atrocious debil-debil off, and the piccaninnies changed shrieks for +smiles. + +That charitable feat sealed his fate. It was the beginning of a duel +between wizardry and art. + +At night Yan-coo, mute with vengeance, left the camp for the secret +hollow, in a mass of granite which held the implements and elements of +his craft. While Wylo slumbered and slept the malicious sorcerer directed +with every atom of fervour he possessed the grisly death-bone towards him +from the distance of half a mile. The influence of the death-bone is so +completely under the control of the operator that it usually goes +straight to the person against whom he in the dead waste of the night +breathes his moody and angry soul away. Should the medicine-man, however, +be conscious that the potency is inclined to swerve, if he but put his +hand to the right or left it must fly in accordance with his will. + +Perfectly unconscious of the dastard trick played upon him, Wylo +continued for several days to flirt and fight. He had a glorious time, +and so, too, had the piccaninnies, for Yan-coo, for reputation's sake, +dared not model debils-debils merely to have their horrible heads knocked +off with irreverent grass darts. Rather have no debil-debil than one +subject to Wylo's profane but splendid marksmanship. So the naked black +kiddies danced about Wylo, while Yan-coo fortified himself with the grim +knowledge that he had Wylo's heart's blood securely sealed up, and that +Wylo had a pebble in his body which would make him squirm sooner or +later. + +But, strange though it was, nothing happened to the arrogant Wylo. His +physical condition was perfect, his spirits boisterous. The skill of the +medicine-man, the whole dread influence of the death-bone were at issue, +and to give effect to both Yan-coo whispered that he had employed the +death bone against Wylo, because Wylo had become too "flash." + +The recital of the deed struck horror and dismay into Yan-coo's +confidant. He was shocked at the sacrilege, astounded that Wylo had not +yet "tumbled down." It was his duty to tell poor Wylo of his awful fate. + +Individuals of other nationalities in all ages have been proof, as Wylo +was, against unimagined evils. + + "There may be in the cup + A spider steep'd, and one may drink, depart, + And yet partake no venom; for his knowledge + Is not infected; but if one present + The abhor'd ingredient, make known + How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides + With violent hefts." + +"His knowledge infected," Wylo collapsed forthwith in a spasm of fright. +All the prognostics of the medicine-man were verified. Wylo's hair became +lank, his eyes dull, his teeth yellow, his face pinched, his limbs weak. +He spat frequently and groaned. He pined daily, for he slept little and +his appetite was gone. Knowing that the fatal death-bone had been pointed +at him, what was the use of attempting to resist inevitable fate? Rather +would he resistlessly meet it. How was it possible to live without his +precious blood, now sealed up in the death-bone? And he had a horrible +pain in his side where the stone was--just as Yan-coo had said. + +All the camp knew what had happened. Yancoo's reputation had been grimly +asserted. Every one now dreaded him anew. Again he was king. Though it +was contrary to all precedent to point the death-bone at a member of the +tribe, yet had Yan-coo made a law unto himself and his own justification, +and the proudest testimonial to his skill was Wylo's deplorable +condition. + +Wylo became thinner and weaker every day, for Yan-coo, seething, with +malignity, stood aloof, declining to interfere. To him Wylo's gibes had +been more cruel than the grave, for they had had the grace of +originality, and once and for ever he purposed to shake his authority and +dreaded power over the heads of the affrighted camp. + +The death-bone was slowly but implacably doing its office. + +Among Wylo's many sweethearts was one who, in early youth, had been +kidnapped from a distant camp. She it was who took the news of Wylo's +direful sickness there, and implored the aid of a rival medicine-man. +Glad of the chance of exhibiting his knowledge and skill in a case which +was notorious and to outsiders absolutely hopeless, he followed the +girl. + +After making no doubt whatever that Wylo's blood had been abstracted, +that an angry stone was lodged in his side, and that death was imminent +unless prompt measures were taken, the strange medicine-man chanted long +and weirdly. He squeezed and Pommelled Wylo, and made tragic passes with +his hands over his body and limbs. Then suddenly he applied his lips to +Wylo's sore side, and, after loudly sucking, exhibited between them an +angular piece of quartz which he triumphantly declared he had drawn from +his patient's body. Everybody, including Wylo, believed him. + +Wylo brightened up at once. The two medical men, whose interests were +common--for the profession is very close and regardful of its rights and +privileges--consulted, communicating by signs and gibberish not +understanded of the people. Accompanied by a few of the elders of the +camp, they went to Yan-coo's surgery, took out the death-bone, and with +much ceremony unsealed it. + +Blood stained the interior! All could see that it was Wylo's blood. It +could be none other, for none but Wylo had been deprived of any. +Ostentatiously the medicine-men washed the death-bone clean, restored it +to its unholy nook, and returned solemnly to the camp. + +After deliberate and impressive silence it was announced by moody Yan-coo +that Wylo's heart's blood had been restored, whereupon that hero rose to +his feet sound and well though lean. + +No word of anger or complaint passed Wylo's lips the while he regained +normal strength and gaiety. With frank ardour he resumed his sketchings +and flirting with old-time success. He actually modelled the grossest of +debils-debils for the piccaninnies and impaled all the vital parts with +grass darts, while the piccaninnies broke into open jeers at Yan-coo, for +the spell of the debil-debil had been destroyed. + +Such outrages upon the craft of the sorcerer could not be tolerated. But +Wylo watched Yan-coo, and one night as he strolled out of the camp Wylo +followed with that light-footed caution and alertness significant of his +artistic perceptions. Wylo carried a great black-palm spear fitted into +a wommera with milk-white ovals of shell at the grip. + +Yan-coo went straight to his surgery. Once more he prepared the +death-bone. Every detail of the unholy rite was performed with +determination, for he had abandoned all remorse. + +As he pointed the death-bone towards the camp where, as he supposed, Wylo +rested, that hero cast his spear. He was strong. He had the sure eye of +the artist, the vigorous hate of a black. + +When they found Yan-coo next morning he was still kneeling on one knee, +for the polished spear had impaled him, and, sticking six inches into the +ground before him, kept him from falling. With his chin on his left +shoulder and his right hand still retaining the string of the death-bone, +he had died as unconscious of the hand of the artist as the artist had +been primarily of his wizardry. + +White folks heard of the, "murder." Wylo was apprehended and put on +trial. The solemn and upright judge could not learn the true facts of +the case, since the witnesses were incapable of intelligently stating +them. Wylo, who had promptly confessed to the crime in the terms, "Me +bin kill 'em that fella one time--finish," but who was denied the right +of explaining that Yan-coo had been prosecuting designs against his life +quite as effectual as a spear, and that Yan-coo had been "justifiably +killed," was sent to gaol for several years. + +Constraint was dreadful to him, and the sorest trial which he endured was +the suppression of artistic longings; but he made pictures, he tells me, +everywhere--"alonga wind, alonga cloud altogether, alonga water, alonga +dirt, alonga stone." They were mostly imaginative, but to his mind, in +fine frenzy rolling, they were soothing and real. He made pictures out +of airy nothing, and gloated over them with his mind's eye. No power +other than that which had bestowed the breath of life could subdue the +beneficient mania that exalted his soul. + +Wylo, is at the camp, sketching, flirting, and modelling fearsome +debils-debils for a new generation of hilarious piccaninnies. + + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My Tropic Isle, by E J Banfield + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY TROPIC ISLE *** + +This file should be named 7177-8.txt or 7177-8.zip + +This eBook was produced by Col Choat + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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