to mark the place, pinning a dozen more to the neighbouring shrubs
and trees, where they fluttered in the boisterous trade. Some got
away altogether and went scudding along the beach or out to sea, and
one blew high in the air like a kite. Lum watched them for a while in
silence, and then, with a sigh, turned about to recross the island.
“A week ago she little thought this would be her end,” I said, half to
myself.
I shall never forget the look Lum gave me. The self-reproach and shame
of it was too poignant for words.
“I think you and me all same coward,” he said.
THE DEVIL’S WHITE MAN
THE DEVIL’S WHITE MAN
We were all lying on the floor of Letonu’s big house, Tautala and I
side by side, our heads both pillowed on the same bamboo. About us on
the mats the whole family lay outstretched in slumber, save little
Titi, who was droning on a jews’-harp, and my coxswain, George Leapai,
who was playing a game of draughts with the chief. The air was hot and
drowsy, and the lowered eaves let through streaks of burning sunshine,
outlining a sort of pattern on an old fellow who moaned occasionally in
his sleep.
“In the White Country,” said Tautala, “didst thou ever happen to meet a
chief named Patsy?--a beautiful young man with sea-blue eyes and golden
hair?”
“What was his other name?” I asked.
Tautala could not recall it, the foreign stutter being so
unrememberable. Indeed, she doubted almost if she had ever heard
it. “We called him Patsy,” she said, “and he used to tell us he was
descended from a line of kings.”
“Wasn’t it O’ something?” I inquired.
No, she couldn’t remember. It was long ago, when she was a little child
and knew nothing; but she had loved Patsy, and it was a sad day to her
when the devil took him.
“Tell me about it,” I said. “I have never heard that _tala_.”
“Oh, it is a true story,” she said; “for was not my own sister Java
married to Patsy, and did I not see it all with my own eyes, from the
beginning even to the end? But thou must strengthen thyself to hear it,
for it is a tale of sadness.”
“I will strive to bear it,” I replied.
“Well, it was this way,” she began. “Many years ago a steamer reached
our bay, and it was neither a man-of-war, nor a trading-vessel, nor
a ship of pleasuring; and the hold of it was filled with nothing but
rope, miles and miles of rope, all of a single piece like a ball of
great string; nor was the least piece of it for sale; no, not even
though a ton of coprah were offered for a single fathom. The officers
of the ship were most agreeable people, and so polite that, except
for the colour of their skins, you would never think them white men
at all; and the captain gave my father his photograph, and made for
us a feast on board his ship, of sardines and tea, so that we were
soon very friendly together and almost like members of one family.
Then the captain begged my father’s permission to build a little house
on the edge of the bay, which was no sooner asked than done; for
behold, it was in measured pieces for the building. Farther inland,
near the old _vi_-tree, another house was raised, this also of boards
previously cut and prepared. Then the end of the big rope was carried
to the beach-house in a boat, and made fast to all manner of strange
_tongafiti_ within, some that ticked like clocks, and others that went
‘whir, whir,’ like a bird with a broken wing. Here, in the middle of it
all, a shining chair was prepared for Patsy to sit in and a big desk
for Patsy to write at. But to the inland house was brought his bed,
and countless cases of sardines and pea-soup, and all the many things
needed for the comfort and well-being of a white man.
“When all was thus ready to the captain’s liking, he blew his whistle
and sailed out of the bay, leaving Patsy singly to take care of the end
of the big rope. This Patsy did with assiduity, so that there was never
a morning but found him sitting beside it, and seldom an afternoon or
evening he did not visit it at intervals. Sometimes the rope would
hold him there the whole night, saying without end, ‘click, click,
whir, whir,’ as its manner was, so that I would fall asleep with the
light of Patsy’s lamp in my eyes, and wake again at dawn to find it
still burning; and if we went down to the shore, as we often did at
first in our curiosity, we would see the white man lying asleep in his
chair, his cold pipe on the table beside him. People asked one another
the meaning of a rope so singular, and wondered ceaselessly as to the
nature of Patsy’s concern with it. From all the villages expeditions
came in crowded boats to behold the marvel with their own eyes, so that
they, too, might hear it say ‘click, click, whir, whir,’ as its manner
was, and stare the while at Patsy through the window. Songs were made
about the rope, some of them gay, others grave and beautiful, with
parables; it became a proverb hereabouts to say ‘as long as Patsy’s
rope,’ meaning a thing without end, as the perpetual crying of a
child, or the love of a maid for a man.
“Thou must not think, Siosi, that Patsy was not often asked the reason
of his strange employment, and a thousand questions besides about the
wonderful rope; but at first he knew nothing of our language, and
when people would point at it and say, ‘click, click, whir, whir,’ in
mockery of what it uttered continually, Patsy would only smile and
repeat back to them, ‘click, click, whir, whir,’ so that nothing was
accomplished. But he was so gentle and well-mannered, and so generous
with his property, that one could hardly count him a white man at all;
and those who had at first mistrusted his presence in our village began
soon to love him like a relation. No music-box was sweeter than his
voice, and often on a moonlight night the whole village would gather
round his house to hear him sing, or to see him dance hornpipes on his
verandah.
“One day, in a boat from Safotulafai, there arrived a native of this
island who had long been absent, sailing in the white men’s ships. This
man being, of course, familiar with the white stutter, it occurred to
Nehemiah the pastor (who had long been troubled by the matter of the
rope) that here, at last, was the means of learning the truth from
Patsy. Whereupon a meeting of the village chiefs was summoned in the
house of Nehemiah; and after a great deal of speech-making it was
determined to wait on Patsy in a body, Tomasi, the seaman, going with
them to interpret.
“Patsy was at his usual place beside the big rope, smoking his pipe
and hearkening to the voice as it said ‘click, click, whir, whir,’
as its manner was. My father, Letonu, was the first to speak; then
Nehemiah the pastor; Tomasi translating every word, as had been
previously agreed. They both asked for an explanation of the great
rope, and why it had been made fast to our island, and where it went to
underneath the sea, and the reason of its continually saying ‘click,
click, whir, whir.’
“Patsy took some thought to answer, and when at last he spoke, his
words overwhelmed every one with astonishment and fear. It seemed that
the devil was afraid that our village was becoming too good; for being
himself so busy in Tonga and Fiji and the White Country, he could not
give our place the proper oversight; and was mortified to see that
every Aunu’u dead person went straight to heaven. Thereupon he had run
this cable from hell, and had hired Patsy for a hundred dollars a month
to warn him when anything bad was happening. Patsy explained that the
great rope was like a dog: one pinched his tail here and he barked
there; thus signals were exchanged, as had been earlier agreed upon,
so that two barks meant A, and three meant B, and so on through the
_alafapeta_.
“Then Nehemiah asked him in a trembling voice (for horror of the devil
was upon them all) how dared he serve the Evil One for the sake of a
few dollars this month and that, thus imperilling his own immortal
soul for ever. But Patsy answered that the White Country was cold and
barren, and fuller of men than our beach of grains of sand. He said
that the lands, such as they were, belonged only to a few, and those
who possessed none must needs seek a living where they could, or die of
hunger in the road. All this was borne out by Tomasi, who himself had
seen old white chieftainesses begging for food in the White Country,
and little children perishing unrelieved. Patsy said that when a man
was wanted to do a thing for hire, a hundred offered themselves only
to be turned away, so great was the misery of the White Country, so
mean the hearts of those who were rich. Whereupon, said Patsy, he had
been glad to take the devil’s money and do the devil’s work, for other
choice there was none.
“Then said Letonu, my father, ‘Patsy, thou must leave the devil and
cease to do his bidding; and though we have no hundred dollars, we can
give thee, here in Aunu’u, everything else the heart of man desires:
_taro_, breadfruit, yams, pigs, _valo_, squid, and chickens, wild doves
in their season, and good fish for every day of the year; and I will
take thee to be my son, to live with me in my fine house and share with
me everything I possess.’
“But Patsy only shook his head, and the rope, seemingly terrified lest
it were about to lose him, began to click convulsively and without
ceasing. Patsy kept hearkening to it while he listened also to my
father, which he did with a divided face, like one hearing two voices
at once. He said he thanked my father very much for his kindness, but
the fact was, he liked the devil, who was now to him almost a member
of his own family, and unfailing with the money, one hundred dollars
this month and that. Then Nehemiah made another speech, full of piety
and warning, and thereupon finding that nothing could turn Patsy’s
rock-like heart, he rose slowly to his feet and led the party out of
doors. There a new discussion took place, the pastor proposing to kill
Patsy that night and burn down his house; my father resisting him and
saying that he would permit no harm to come to his friend the white
man, whether he belonged to the devil or not.
“I don’t know how it was, but from the day of that meeting Patsy began
greatly to love my father, and half his time he spent in our house and
near him, so that the neighbours marvelled about it and were crazed
with envy. He gave my father a black coat to wear on Sundays, and
cartridges for his gun, and nightly they took lessons together in our
language, Letonu teaching him to say our words, while Patsy wrote them
down on a sheet of paper. Nehemiah preached against us in the church,
and would have stopped my father’s communion ticket, but Letonu said he
would shoot him, if he did, with both barrels of his gun.
“One day my sister Java returned from Savalalo, where she had been
living in the family of my uncle. She was a girl beautiful to look at,
and so tall and graceful that there was not a young man in the village
but whose heart burned at the sight of her. Of them all Patsy alone
seemed not to care; and in the evenings, when his devil work was done
and he would romp with us on the mats or talk with my father about
foreign countries, he never had as much as a glance for my sister;
while she, on her side, treated him always with disdain, and often kept
away from the house when she knew him to be there. I think Patsy must
somehow have found this out, for one night he told us that he would
never come back again, as Java hated him; and he kissed us all, and
departed sorrowfully into the darkness. After that, when he was not
busy in the devil-house, he took long walks into the bush with his gun,
or sat solitary on his verandah, reading a book; at night he sang no
more, nor danced hornpipes, but read and read with a sad face, like a
person who mourned a relation.
“We were angry with Java for having driven Patsy away, and told her
to go back to Savalalo and let us have our darling; but she seemed
not to care for what we said, and only answered that she hoped never
to see the devil’s white man again. My father, who loved Patsy, was
greatly vexed with her, though he said little at first, thinking that
our friend would soon return and that Java would grow ashamed. But when
day after day passed and he stayed away continually, my father talked
to Java with severity, and bade her go down to the devil-house and ask
Patsy’s pardon for her wickedness. She was very loath to obey, and only
went at last when Letonu threatened to send her lashed like a pig to a
pole, and pretended to call his young men together for that purpose. I
was told to go with her, for thou knowest our custom forbidding a young
girl to go anywhere alone, lest people should talk and take away her
reputation. But I felt sorry for Patsy as I walked behind my sister
down the path to his house, for she carried herself defiantly, and
there were tears of anger in her beautiful eyes.
“We found Patsy sitting, as usual, in the devil-house, the great
rope tail clicking at his elbow with messages from hell; and though
he sprang up smiling when Java opened the door, I thought his face
looked sad and changed. She bade me stay outside, and as she seated
herself in Patsy’s chair and began to explain the errand on which she
had come, I could see that her lips were trembling. For a long time I
heard them talking in low voices, and then, growing weary of waiting, I
fell asleep on the warm door-step. I do not know how long I slept, but
when I at last awoke I could still hear the unceasing murmur of their
voices inside the room, sweet and soft, as of pigeons cooing in the
mountains. I turned the knob of the door and went in; and there, to my
astonishment, I beheld my sister in Patsy’s arms, her head buried in
his breast, her hands clasped thus about his neck, while he was talking
foolishly like a mother to her nursing child. At the sight of me they
sprang apart, laughing loudly like children at play; and when I asked
Java if she had given her message, they both laughed more than ever and
caught each other’s hands.
“On our return, Java asked me to say nothing of what I had seen; and
told me, in answer to my questions, that Patsy had been secretly
breaking his heart for her, though she had never known it; and that
she, no less, had been delirious for the love of him. She said, too,
that he was the most beautiful man in the world, and wise and good
above all others, and that her love for him was so great that it almost
choked her. When I spoke doubtfully of the devil, she said that was
all a _pepelo_, a joke of Patsy’s; that the rope was what she called
a _telenafo_, which ran under the sea from one country to another,
telling the news of each. She said that Patsy had explained everything
to her, and had even shown her the little pots of thunder and lightning
with which the _telenafo_ was controlled.
“It was not long after this that Patsy and Java were married by the
pastor Nehemiah, my father giving them a wedding feast the like of
which had never before been seen in Aunu’u, so innumerable were the
pigs, so gorgeous the fine mats and offerings. Java went to live in the
inland house, and wore a gold ring on her finger and new dresses every
day. Patsy gave her another sewing-machine in the place of the old one,
and a present of two chests for her clothes; and every day she ate
sardines and salt beef like a white person. At first she was pleased
with everything, and her face was always smiling with her happiness;
but as days grew on she began to tire of the white way,--which, as
thou knowest, Siosi, is relentless and unchanging,--and of the work,
which is continual. A daughter of a chief lives easily in Rakahanga,
and little is expected of her, for there are girls to wait on her and
men to do the heavy labour. Java grew sad in her elegant house, and
cared less and less to paint the stove with blacking and wash greasy
dishes all day, while the village maids were sporting in the lagoon or
fishing by torch-light on the reef. She opened her distressed heart to
Patsy, and old Ta’a was called in, at a monthly wage of three dollars,
to carry the burden of these unending tasks. But old Ta’a was a
busybody and a thief, and the lies she said with her tongue were worse
to be endured than even the loss of kerosene and rice which took place
continually. Every day something was taken, and when Patsy wondered and
complained, the old one said the fault was Java’s for giving to her
family like a delirious person. Were I to get a biscuit, the old one
changed it into six; and were Letonu to beg a little tea and sugar for
his cough, it became transformed in the telling into many basket-loads.
On the other side, Ta’a slowly embittered Java’s mind against her
husband, telling her that the marriage was no true marriage, and that
when Patsy saw a prettier face he would not scruple to cast her off. So
the old woman stayed on and thrived, like a fat maggot in a breadfruit,
while Java cried in secret and Patsy grew daily more downcast and
silent.
“At last the storm burst which had so long been gathering, and the
little house that had been so joyful now shook with the sound of
quarrelling voices. Java took her golden ring and threw it on the
floor, and with it her golden comb, her much-prized ear-rings, and the
brooch which in years gone by had belonged to Patsy’s mother in the
White Country; she stripped off her dress, her shoes and stockings,
even the ribbon from her long black hair; and then, half naked, she
returned to our father’s house.
“Letonu was, of course, much concerned, and went down immediately to
see Patsy in order to make things smooth again. But the white man was
sullen and proud, and would talk of nothing, except that Java could
do as she pleased, and that it was the same to him whether she stayed
or went. My father, who had been a handsome man in his youth and knew
the ways of women, urged Patsy a thousand times to make it up quickly
with his wife, telling him to put his arms round her and kiss her and
all would be well. ‘Thou mayest know much about the _telenafo_, and
how to keep thunder and lightning in pots,’ said my wise father, ‘but
assuredly, Patsy, thou art ignorant of the hearts of women.’ He told
him that Java was already repentant and ashamed, and, like a person on
the top of a high wall, a push would send her either way. But Patsy,
like a little sulky child, sat in his chair and refused to speak, while
Ta’a rattled the dishes and laughed sideways to herself. It was sad,
when my father returned, to see the look that Java gave him. Her hot
fit was already past, and her face was full of longing and sorrow;
and on his saying that nothing could be accomplished, she lay down on
a mat, and remained there all day like a sick person. She lay thus
for nearly a week; and if we asked her anything, she would only groan
and turn away her head. She was waiting for her man to come to her;
but to him there was no such intention; for he stayed shut up in the
devil-house, or wandered uselessly in the bush by himself.
“At last she got up, more dead than living, so thin she was and
changed; and calling for food, she ate with the voracity of a starving
person; and then she bathed, and did her hair with flowers, and put
on the poor clothes she had worn as a maid. ‘Behold,’ she said, ‘I am
now one of the _aualuma_ and no longer married.’ And from that day
she who had been the most circumspect girl in the village, and the
best behaved, became swiftly a run-wild-in-the-bush, going everywhere
unattended, and sitting up with the young men at night, so that people
called her a _paumotu_, and her communion ticket was withdrawn.
“Patsy never lacked for news of her down-going, for old Ta’a still
kept house for him; and no tale was ever told of Java but the old one
brought it to him, and more also, conceived by her lying heart. Patsy
never tried to see his wife or to do anything to bring about peace
between them; and if he passed her in the path he would turn away his
head, even if it were night, and she alone with another man. Once,
only, he showed that he still remembered her at all, at a time when she
was possessed of a devil and like to die; then he came to our house,
and felt her hands, and gave her medicines from a little box, and told
my father to do this and that. And when she grew better and able to sit
up, he sent us salt beef and sardines for her well-being.
“Now it happened there belonged to Ta’a’s family a girl named Sina, a
thin, hungry piece with a canoe-nose like a white man’s, and a face
so unsightly that it resembled a pig’s; and if she went anywhere the
children would cry after her, ‘Pig-face, Pig-face!’ like that, so
that her name of Sina was forgotten, and even members of her family
called her unmindfully by the other. Compared to Java, who was tall
and beautiful like a daughter of chiefs, this little Sina was no more
than a half-grown child; and when she was stripped for bathing, behold,
you could count the ribs of her body. But Ta’a brought her every day
to Patsy’s house, so that by degrees he became accustomed to the
sight of her; and all the time the old one kept telling him that the
little Pig-face loved him--which, perhaps, indeed was true, for none
of our young men ever looked twice her way, except to laugh, and she
might have stayed out all night and no one would have thought to speak
against her character. Patsy was kind and gentle to her, as he was to
every one save poor Java; and the little Pig-face followed him like a
dog, and lay at his feet at night, while he read and read on his front
verandah. So slavish was her soul that she would have kissed his feet
if he had kicked her, and nothing pleased her so much as to sit beside
him when he slept and keep the flies from off his face. In the end, of
course, there happened that which Ta’a had long been planning: Patsy
took the little Pig-face to live with him, and pacified her father with
two kegs of beef and fifteen silver dollars.
“When the news reached Java she was consumed with a frightful anger,
and spoke wildly and murderously, like a drunken white man, clinching
her fists and kicking with her legs. She set to sharpening a knife upon
a stone, and we saw that she meant to cut off the little Pig-face’s
nose; for, as thou knowest, Siosi, such is our custom here when one
woman wrongs another. She called together all the old ladies of the
family, and they took counsel with one another in a secret place,
arranging between them a scheme for Sina’s capture. But the little
Pig-face was cowardly beyond anything ever before known; she bathed
not, neither did she wash nor walk about, but lay all day, trembling
and noisome, at Patsy’s feet. Once, indeed, she was nearly caught,
when upward of a month had passed and she had grown careless in her
watching. In the middle of the night the house was set on fire, and as
the two rushed out in confusion, Sina was seized in the arms of a dozen
women. Had it not been for the darkness, which made seeing difficult,
her canoe-nose would have been swiftly lost to her; but for light they
had need to drag her to the burning house, she screaming the while like
a hundred pigs. Patsy knew instantly what was happening, and began to
fire his pistol in the air as he ran to his partner’s help, giving
no thought at all to his perishing house. It was well for the little
Pig-face that he did so, for the knife had already sunk below the skin,
and a twist would have left her noseless.
“As for the house, it burned and burned until nothing was left of it,
though the most of what it held was carried out in safety. The next
morning Patsy moved everything down to the devil-house, making of it a
fort, with a high fence of wire all round, full of barbs and points for
the lacerating of flesh. And the little Pig-face, with her nose tied up
in cloths, ran this way and that, helping him with nails, while Java
and I lay in a hiding-place and counted her ribs.
“Thou wouldst have thought that Java might now have rested in her
anger, for Patsy’s house was consumed and her rival had felt the sharp
edge of her knife. But there was no appeasing Java’s heart; and wicked
though she was herself, and misconducted, she still could not endure to
be supplanted by another. My father spoke to her with severity, saying
that she had done all that our custom demanded, and that there must
now be peace and forgetting. But the blood came hotly into her face,
and she answered not a word, nor made the least sign to obey Letonu’s
words. Then I saw with a certainty that the war with Sina, far from
being finished, was only just beginning; and my body quivered all over
with the fear of what was to come.