AOBA
Next day I landed in Aoba, at "Albert's." He was an American negro,
who, after having been a stoker and sailor, had settled here as a
coprah trader. His language was of the strangest, a mixture of biche la
mar, negro French and English, and was very hard to understand. With
the help of two native women he kept his house in good order, and
he was decidedly one of the most decent colonists of the group,
and tried to behave like a gentleman, which is more than can be said
of some whites. He seemed to confirm the theory that the African is
superior to the Melanesian. Albert sheltered me to the best of his
ability, although I had to sleep in the open, under a straw roof,
and his bill of fare included items which neither my teeth nor my
stomach could manage, such as an octopus. There were several other
negroes in Aoba; one was Marmaduke, an enormous Senegalese, who had
grown somewhat simple, and lived like the natives, joining the Suque
and dancing at their festivals. He occasionally came to dinner at
Albert's; this was always amusing, as Albert thought himself far
superior to Marmaduke, and corrected his mistakes with still more
comical impossibilities. Both were most polite and perfectly sober. The
talk, as a rule, turned on stories of ghosts, in which both of them
firmly believed, and by which both were much troubled. Marmaduke was
strangled every few nights by old women, while a goblin had sat on
Albert's chest every night until he had cleared the bush round his
house and emptied his Winchester three times into the darkness. This
had driven the ghosts away,--a pretty case of auto-suggestion. I
was interested in hearing these stories, though I should hardly have
thought a sensible man like Albert could have believed such things.
The people of Aoba are quite different from those of the other
islands,--light-coloured, often straight-haired, with Mongolian
features; they are quite good-looking, intelligent, and their habits
show many Polynesian traits. The Suque is not all-important here:
it scarcely has the character of a secret society, and the separation
of the sexes is not insisted on. Men and women live together, and the
fires do not appear to be separated. As a result, there is real family
life, owing in part to the fact that meals are eaten in common. The
gamal is replaced by a cooking-house, which is open to the women;
generally it is nothing but a great gabled roof, reaching to the
ground on one side and open on the others. Here the families live
during the day, and the young men and guests sleep at night, while
the married couples sleep in their huts, which are grouped around
the cooking-house.
The position of the women, so much better here than elsewhere, is
not without effect on their behaviour. They are independent and
self-possessed, and do not run away from a stranger nor hide in
dark corners when a white man wants to speak to them. Because of
their intelligence they are liked on plantations as house-servants,
and so many of them have gone away for this purpose that Aoba has
been considerably depopulated in consequence; few of these women ever
return, and those who do are usually sick. Some Aoba women have made
very good wives for white men.
The people of Aoba are remarkable for their cleanliness, the dwellers
on the coast spending half the day in the water, while those from the
mountains never miss their weekly bath, after which they generally
carry a few cocoa-nuts full of salt water up to their homes. The
women are very pretty, slim and strong; their faces often have quite a
refined outline, a pointed chin, a small mouth and full but well-cut
lips; their eyes are beautiful, with a soft and sensual expression;
and the rhythm of their movements, their light and supple walk,
give them a charm hardly ever to be found in Europe. The men, too,
are good to look at. Considering the intelligence and thriftiness of
the race, it is doubly regrettable that alcoholism, recruiting and
consumption have had such evil effects of recent years.
I roamed about in the neighbourhood of Nabutriki and attended several
festivals; they are much the same as elsewhere, except that the
pigs are not killed by braining, but by trampling on their stomachs,
which apparently causes rupture of the heart and speedy death.
As I mentioned elsewhere, a man's rise in caste is marked on every
occasion by the receipt of new fire, rubbed on a special stick
ornamented with flowers. Fire is lighted here, as in all Melanesia,
by "ploughing," a small stick being rubbed lengthwise in a larger
one. If the wood is not damp, it will burn in less than two minutes:
it is not necessary, as is often stated, to use two different kinds
of wood. To-day matches are used nearly everywhere, and the natives
hardly ever "plough" their fire, except for ceremonial purposes;
but they are still very clever about keeping the fire burning, and
often take along a smouldering log on their walks.
Wood-carving and sculpture are wanting, except in the shape of drums,
which are placed in a horizontal position, and often reach considerable
dimensions.
Not far from Albert's lived a man of the highest caste, my friend
Agelan. He was planning to kill one hundred tusked pigs in the near
future, which would raise him to the highest caste far and wide,
but would also impoverish him for the rest of his life. He lived
quietly and comfortably, like a country squire, surrounded by his
relatives and descendants. He seemed fond of good living, and his wife
was an excellent housekeeper. In the midst of a somewhat colourless
Christian population, wearing trousers and slovenly dresses, using
enamel pots and petrol-lamps, Agelan and his household were a genuine
relic of the good old times, and no one could have pretended that
his home was less pleasant than those around him. These things are
largely a matter of taste; and those who prefer grotesque attire to
beautiful nakedness will be happy to know that their wishes will soon
be fulfilled. I liked the old heathen, and spent a good deal of time
with him. A sketch of his home life may not come amiss, just because
these primitive ways are dying out so fast.
As I near the house, some dogs rush out at me, and a woman's voice
calls them back; Agelan roars a welcome--he always shouts, and likes to
put on masterful airs; for in years gone by he was a very unpleasant
customer, until the man-of-war--but that is all ancient history, and
now his bark is much worse than his bite. I have the honour of being
in his good books, thanks to certain medical services I was able to
render him; he has an ugly cough, for which we have tried in turn:
iodine, Peruvian balsam, eucalyptus oil, quinine, and other medicines;
nothing helps, but he seems to enjoy swallowing the drugs.
The floor of the house is hard clay; there are two fireplaces at one
end, and at the other some large drums serve as seats. Everywhere
in the roofing hang bows, arrows, bones, plummets, ropes, and
clubs. Agelan has been toasting himself at a little fire of his
own; now he rises, coughing, and shakes hands. He is a very tall,
strongly-made man of about sixty, with a high forehead, long,
hooked nose, wide mouth, thin lips and white beard. His dress is the
old-fashioned loin-mat, and around his wrists he wears heavy strands
of shell money. His wife, too, is very tall and strong, with quiet,
dignified movements; she may be forty years old. Everything about
her is calm and determined; while not handsome, she has such a kind
expression as to look very pleasant. She wears a small loin-cloth, and
her light coffee-coloured skin is scrupulously clean. Around her neck
and over her left shoulder she wears a string of shells, and around
her ankles, small red beads. Near her squats her little daughter,
a pretty child of six; an adopted daughter plays near the fire with
a small, thick-bellied orphan boy, who is always crying. The girls,
too, wear little ornaments; and their dainty movements, curly heads,
round faces and great dark eyes are very attractive.
The midday meal is steaming under a heap of leaves and dust, and a man
is busily scraping cocoa-nuts for the delicious cocoa-nut milk. Agelan
sends one of the girls for an unripe nut, which is opened in three
deft cuts, and I am offered the refreshing drink as a welcome. Now
Agelan, who has been brooding for days over these matters, questions
me as to my origin and plans, and he roars himself nearly hoarse,
for we cannot understand each other. The other man, a fugitive from
the east coast, is asked to interpret, but he is sulky and awkward;
not that he is a bad sort, but he is sick, and spends most of his time
asleep in a shed he has built for himself in a corner of the house,
and only appears at meals.
The youngest son comes in, the last left to Agelan, for the older
ones have all joined the mission,--it is the fashion. This boy is a
quiet, cheerful lad of twelve, already a high caste, for his father
has killed many pigs for him. He has shot a miserable pigeon, and
his mother and the girls laugh at the poor booty, much to his chagrin.
Agelan now takes me to "view" a particularly fine tusked pig, tied
under a roof, on a clean couch of straw; the boy shows it bits of
cocoa-nut to make it open its mouth, so that I can see and admire its
tusks. Agelan would like nothing better than to show off all his pigs,
and if I were a native I would pass them in review as we Europeans
visit picture-galleries; but I refuse as politely as I can. We
return to the cook-house, where the cocoa-nut rasping is finished;
the man washes his hands in the water of a nut, splitting it open and
squeezing the water in a little spray on to his hands. Mrs. Agelan
knows a simpler way; she fills her mouth with water and squirts it on
her hands. The cocoa-nut gratings are kneaded with a little water,
while the girls sweep the earth off the cooking-place and uncover
the stones; an appetizing smell spreads, and the master of the house
watches the preparations with a sharp eye and a silent tongue. One
feels that the least carelessness will provoke an outburst, and,
indeed, a solemn silence has fallen on the company, only the wife
smiles quietly.
"Lap-lap banana good!" Agelan roars in my ear, and I nod assent. Now
the hot stones are removed with bamboo tongs, and the great flat
object, wrapped in banana leaves, is taken out. Mrs. Agelan throws back
the leaves and uncovers the beautifully cooked golden lap-lap. Her
lord looks at it critically, and returns to his corner silent, but
evidently satisfied. His wife cannot quite hide a smile of pride.
The stranger now squeezes the cocoa-nut gratings over a wooden bowl,
and a creamy juice runs through his fingers. The bowl is brought to
Agelan, who looks at it as if reading an oracle; then he selects a
hot stone from his own fire, and sends the bowl back to be embedded
in the gratings. He approaches with his stone in a wooden fork,
and squats down near the bowl lost in thought, as if anxious not to
miss the right moment; then he drops the stone into the milk, which
hisses, bubbles and steams. A fine smell of burnt fat is noticeable;
and while the liquid thickens, Agelan behaves as if he could perform
miracles and was in league with supernatural powers. After a while
his wife hands him the bowl, and he holds it over the pudding,
undecided how and where to pour the milk; one would think the fate
and welfare of creation depended on his action. Being a man of energy,
he makes up his mind, and pours one stream right across the pudding,
then empties his bowl and retires with a sigh to his seat. About ten
more bowlfuls are needed, but these are poured by Mrs. Agelan without
further ceremony. The solemn hush is over. With a long bush-knife,
Mama cuts the pudding into strips and squares and distributes it,
and the meal proceeds amid general satisfaction. I am given a large
slab; fortunately it tastes very good and is easily digestible,
for politeness ordains that one must eat enormous quantities. At
one stage of the proceedings the girls are sent to take some food to
the neighbours as a present. When everyone has finished, Agelan lies
down for a siesta, while his wife lights a pipe and squats in silent
happiness near the fire. The girls play with the dirty little boy,
and the son plucks his tiny pigeon and a flying-fox; singeing the
creature's fur off occasions such an evil smell that I prefer to take
my leave. Mrs. Agelan smiles her farewell, the girls giggle, and when
I have gone some distance I hear Agelan, awakened from his siesta,
roar a sleepy good-bye after me.