THE CHRISTENING.
ALILA was christened soon after he was born. Dear me, what a time that
was! The festival lasted several days. There was a host of friends and
acquaintances around the little home, making merry and admiring the
baby.
Alila himself was as clean and sweet as any child in the world could
be. His mother had bathed him in the water of the river which flowed
down the mountainside near them, while the leaves of the papaw-tree
took the place of soap.
The young mother herself was only fifteen years old. She was dressed
in her brightest skirt and fairly shone with the abundance of cheap
jewelry she wore. Her hair was combed straight back from her forehead.
She wore nothing on her feet excepting her queer slippers, of which she
seemed very proud. She had herself embroidered them to look like a pair
worn by the rich lady whose husband owned the plantation. They were
perfectly flat and had only uppers enough to encase two or three toes.
What queer, uncomfortable things to wear on one's feet! Alila will
never own such things because he is a boy, and he should be glad of it.
His grandmother and aunt had a fine feast prepared for the visitors.
There was a good supply of roasted buffalo and wild boar's meat. There
was a salad made from the young green tops of the bamboo; steamed rice
and stewed iguana; papaws, which tasted like melons; tamarind sauce and
guavas and bananas. And, of course, there was an abundance of betel,
cocoa wine and tuba.
But strangest of all the dishes at the Tagal's feast was one prepared
from a kind of beetle. The guests relished it greatly and Alila's
father was praised very much for surprising them with this dainty.
But the feast was only a small part of the entertainment. A band came
from the village to furnish music. Every instrument on which they
played was made of bamboo. Then there was dancing and singing under the
palm-trees by old and young, and when evening came there were displays
of fireworks.
As Alila's father was quite poor, how could he afford such splendour?
The fact is, it cost him nothing! It was a free show given by Mother
Nature. Her little children, the fireflies, gathered in great numbers
and danced in circles around the trees. Any one ought to be satisfied
with fireworks like those.
Alila's eyes watched the people eat with their fingers and looked at
the lights dancing about; he listened to the odd, sweet music for
a little while; and then those black eyes closed tightly and he lay
fast asleep in his young mother's arms. Of course, he doesn't remember
anything about it now, but his grandmother has told him the story so
many times it almost seems as though his own mind had kept the pictures
for him.