The process was very simple, for he took the thrush and the lories,
inserted a sharp-pointed penknife just through the skin, and then with
clever fingers turned the delicate skin back, taking care not to injure
the feathers either by the moisture of the bird's flesh or by handling
and roughening the plumage, the result being that he skilfully turned
the skin inside out after cutting through the legs and wings, cleaning
the bones of flesh, and leaving in the skull, after stripping the bird
right to the beak.
It was surprising how beautifully clean everything came away, so that
when the fleshy side of the skin had been brushed over with moistened
arsenical soap, the wing-bones tied together, the hollow of the skull
and orbits of the eyes filled up with cotton-wool, and a ball of the
same placed for the body, the skin being turned back over all and
slightly shaken, a stranger would hardly have known that the flesh of
the bird had been removed.
There was no odour except the aromatic scent of the preserving soap; and
when a little sugar-paper had been twisted up into which to thrust the
bird's head and shoulders to keep the neck short, and the bird had lain
in the sun for a few hours, it became quite stiff and dry, exactly like
the skins with which I was familiar.
Uncle Dick insisted upon my doing the thrush and one of the lories,
while he did the pigeons, whose skins were so tender, and so covered
with oily fat, that they required a great deal of care to keep the
feathers unsullied.
I set to work then, skinning my birds pretty readily from old
practice, and after a little bungling I managed to make of them
respectable-looking skins.
"You'll soon improve, Nat," said my uncle, as we laid our specimens all
together in the sun, the black nodding his approval at all we did; but
the skins had not been lying there long, and our hands washed previous
to putting on the kettle for tea, before our new friend jumped up in a
great state of excitement, pointing to a reddish-brown streak that
seemed to run from the wood nearly to where our specimens lay.
"Ants!" exclaimed my uncle, darting to the skins, and shaking off a few
of the enemies that had come to the attack; and it was not until we had
contrived to make a little channel all round one of our boxes upon which
the skins were laid, and connected it with the little spring of water,
so that our treasure was surrounded by a tiny moat, that we could keep
the insects away.
Our black friend, who was evidently a great chief among his people, made
no scruple about stopping to have some tea with us, watching the boiling
of the kettle and our preparations with the greatest of curiosity, but
always in a calm, composed way.
"It is rather a nuisance always having him here, Nat," said my uncle;
"but we should be bothered with a good many more if he were to go, and
really he does not seem a bad sort of fellow."
He certainly was not, for though he ate heartily of anything we gave
him, he was as generous as could be, going off to return with men laden
with fruit, fish, and a kind of sago, which was not at all bad boiled up
and sweetened.
I missed a good many things such as I had been used to, but so far it
all seemed to be glorious fun, and that night I lay down to rest looking
through the open doorway at the stars, breathing the soft warm air, and
dropping off into a delicious sleep, to dream of home, and Uncle Joe in
his garden, smoking his long clay pipe.
I was awakened at daybreak by some one touching me, and on opening my
eyes I started with dread as I saw a black face close to my own, and a
grinning set of white teeth.
I knew directly who it was, though, and getting up I saw that my uncle
was still peacefully sleeping off the previous day's fatigue.
I was going to rouse him, but Mr Ebony pulled me by the arm to come
without waking him.
My next movement was to get my gun; but again our black friend objected,
pulling at me half angrily, and I accompanied him outside into the cool
grey morning.
I hesitated to follow him for a minute, thinking that I ought not to
leave my uncle; but I could not help thinking that we were quite
helpless amongst these savages if they chose to turn against us, and
therefore all we could do was to cultivate their good-will.
Mr Ebony, whose black mop of hair stood out more fiercely than ever,
was watching me attentively, scowling fiercely, as I thought; but as
soon as I prepared to follow him he began to grin and chatter away to
me, keeping on repeating the word "_Ikan-Ikan_," till we were down in
the half darkness by where the waves lapped the sand; and now I saw a
good-sized canoe with half a dozen men waiting, all looking, with their
paddles in their hands, like so many fierce black executioners, prepared
to make an end of me.
Mr Ebony signed to me to get into the boat, and feeling that perhaps
they might be going to make a prisoner of me and take me to another
island, I asked myself whether I ought not to resist; but seeing how
useless it would be, I resigned myself to my fate, jumped into the
canoe, Mr Ebony followed; and with no singing and splashing now, but in
utter silence, we pushed off over the grey sea.
"Where are we going, I wonder?" I said to myself.
"Ikan, Ikan," said Mr Ebony, shaking something in the bottom of the
canoe.
"Ikan! where's that, I wonder?" I said to myself. "Why, these are
fishing-lines. Ikan, fish," I exclaimed, pointing to the lines and then
to the sea, making as if to throw in one of the lines.
"Ikan, Ikan," cried Mr Ebony, grinning with delight, and then he
touched my hands and the lines, and patted my back--dancing about
afterwards till he nearly danced overboard, after which he became a
little more calm, but kept on smiling in the most satisfied way, and
shouting "Ikan, Ikan;" all the others saying it after him, as if highly
satisfied, and when to please them I said "Ikan, Ikan," they uttered a
shout, and I felt quite at home, and delighted at having come.
I don't know how it was, but as soon as I felt satisfied that they were
not going to do me any harm I began to learn how much they were all like
a set of schoolboys of my own age, for big, strong, well-made men as
they were, they seemed to be full of fun, and as young as they could be.
They paddled swiftly out and away from the land, working hard to send
the great canoe well along over the long rollers that we seemed to
climb, to glide down the other side; and, with the exception of the
heaving, slow rolling motion of the sea, all being deliciously calm, I
thoroughly enjoyed my ride, especially as Mr Ebony, who was evidently a
very big man amongst his people, had taken a great liking to me and kept
on drawing my attention to every splash on the surface of the water, and
then to the busy way in which he was preparing his coarse fishing-lines.
I suppose there are some boys who never cared for fishing; but however
cruel it may be as a sport, I must confess that I was always
passionately fond of it, and now to be out on this tropic sea before
sunrise, with the stars seen faintly here and there, the blacks keeping
up a rhythmical motion of the paddles, and the water lapping up against
the bow of the canoe, I felt an indescribable kind of delight that no
words of mine will put on paper.
I should think we paddled about a couple of miles, and then at a word
from Mr Ebony the paddles were all laid in, and a line, with its great
coarsely-made hooks formed out of well-sharpened pieces of brass wire,
was handed to me, my guide showing me how to throw it over the side; not
that I needed showing, for it seemed to come quite natural; and I began
to think, as I passed the line over, of the sticklebacks on Clapham
Common, and the occasional carp that we schoolboys used to catch.
Mr Ebony grinned with satisfaction, and threw his own line over the
side just as a splash behind me made me turn in time to see a rope
running out rapidly, evidently attached to some kind of anchor.
This checked the canoe, which was floating along so fast that it had
begun to ride over our lines, which now, however, floated away upon the
swift current.
There was no noise or chattering now, but all the blacks sat or stood
very quietly in the canoe, and I saw that three of them had long spears,
barbed like hooks, and looking as if they were meant for catching fish.
There was a good length of line in my hands, which I kept on paying out,
as the sailors call it, just as Mr Ebony was letting out his till it
was nearly all gone, and I saw that the end was tied to the edge of the
canoe. But still there was no sign of any fish, and I was beginning to
stare about me, for just then a patch of golden light seemed to start
out into view, and I could see that the tops of the mountains in the
island were just catching the first rays of the sun, while the stars
that had been looking so pale seemed to go out quickly one after
another.
"I wonder whether Uncle Dick is awake yet," I thought to myself, "and
what he will say to my being away, and--"
An exclamation from my black companion brought me back from my dreamy
thoughts; not that it was necessary, for something else had roused me,
and that was a sharp jerk at the line, which snatched it quite out of my
hands, and had it not been fastened to the side of the boat I should
have lost it.
Mr Ebony was coming to my help, but seeing me dart at it again and,
catching hold, begin to haul in and struggle hard with my fish, he
rubbed himself and grinned, especially when he saw that I had to hang on
with all my might to keep from being dragged out of the canoe.
The next moment he had enough to do to manage a fish that had taken his
bait, and to keep it from crossing my line so as to get them into a
tangle.
It was quite startling for the moment to have hold of so strong a fish,
one which darted here, there, and everywhere; now diving straight down,
now running away out to sea, and then when I thought the line must snap,
for it made tugs that cut my hands and jerked my shoulders, I uttered a
cry of disappointment, for the line came in slack, and the fish was
gone.
It puzzled me to see how coolly the others took it, but I supposed that
they were used to losing fish from the badness of their tackle, and
besides, there was evidently a big one on Mr Ebony's line to take their
attention.
"I wonder whether he has taken the hook," I thought to myself as I
carefully drew in the line, coiling it neatly down between my legs, yard
after yard, till I had pulled in at least fifty yards of the coarse
cord, when, to my utter astonishment, there was a sudden check or rush,
and the line began to run rapidly out again, my fish being still there,
and I saw now that it had made a rush in towards the canoe, and then
lain quite still close to the bottom till I had disturbed it by jerking
the line as I hauled it in.
The rest that it had had seemed to have made it stronger than ever, for
it darted about at a tremendous pace, and I was still playing it,
letting it run when it made fierce dashes, and hauling in the line
whenever it grew a little slack, when there was a bit of a bustle by my
side as Mr Ebony drew his fish close up to the side of the canoe, and
one of the blacks darted a barbed spear into it and lifted it into the
canoe.
It was a beautifully-marked fish about three feet long, and as I glanced
at it I wondered whether mine would be as big; and then I thought it
must be bigger, it pulled with such tremendous force; but at last its
struggles grew less and less powerful, and twice over I was able to draw
it nearly to the surface, but only for it to dart away again, and I
thought it was lost.
It seemed to excite a good deal of interest amongst the savages, two of
whom stood, one on either side of me, ready with their spears to make a
thrust at the fish, and one of them stretched out his hand to take the
line from me, but Mr Ebony uttered such a fierce exclamation, and
caught so angrily at a paddle, that the man drew back, and after a long
and gallant fight I at last drew my fish so close in that, just as it
was in the act of dashing off again, a couple of spears transfixed it,
and it was drawn over the side amidst a shout of triumph.
Mr Ebony, who was the most excited of all, patting me on the shoulders
and shaking hands most eagerly with one of the savages, took out the
hook, the line was thrown over again, and I had time to examine my
prize, a splendid fish, flashing with glorious colours in the morning
light. It was over a yard long, and very thick and round, while its
glistening scales were as big as shillings at the very least; in fact I
don't think I should exaggerate if I said that some in the centre rows
were as large as two-shilling pieces, fluted and gilded, and some tinged
with orange and glistening scarlet and green.
So great was the delight of all on board that they began to dance and
sing with such vigour that the canoe rocked about, and one man went head
over heels out into the sea.
I was horrified as I saw him disappear, but he was up again, grinning
hugely, and slipped in over the side of the canoe like a great black
eel, giving himself a shake to send the water out of his mop of hair,
and then sitting down to watch us fish.
For quite half an hour now we caught nothing, but it did not seem to
matter, for there was so much to look at as the glorious sun rose over
the sea, turning it into orange and gold; while, when I was tired of
that, the beauty of the trees and mountains on the island, with the
endless changes of light and shade, made my heart beat with pleasure as
I thought of what a lovely home these savages possessed, and it seemed
to explain to me why it was that they were all so childlike and happy.
I caught another fish then of seven or eight pounds weight, different to
the others, and Mr Ebony caught seven or eight quickly one after the
other, I suppose out of a shoal, and then, laughing and chattering once
again, the anchor, which proved to be a curious elbow, evidently the
root of a tree, sharped at its points and weighted with a lump of coral,
was hauled up, placed in the stern of the canoe, and we turned for the
shore.
"What a morning for a bathe!" I thought, as we drew nearer; and
starting up in the canoe when we were about a quarter of a mile from the
land, I began to take off my things, meaning to swim ashore, where we
were within a couple of hundred yards; but Mr Ebony stopped me, saying
something I could not understand of course.
"I'm going to swim ashore," I said, making believe to leap overboard,
and then striking out with my arms; but my companions all chattered
angrily, and Mr Ebony, to my horror, came at me, snapping at my arms
and legs with his great white teeth, and looking terribly fierce, while,
as I shrunk away, one of the blacks touched me on the back, and as I
turned sharply, with Mr Ebony holding on to my trouser leg and
apparently trying to tear out a piece, the black behind me pointed down
into the clear water, now brightly lit-up by the sun, and I saw two long
grey fish gliding slowly amongst the coral rocks, and I wanted no
telling that they were sharks.
I pointed to the sharks in my turn, shuddering as I thought of what an
escape I had had; and not being able to express myself in language, I
did what Mr Ebony had done to me, made a dash at his leg and pretended
to bite it, not doing so, however, for I did not care to touch his great
black limb with my teeth.
He understood me, though, and chattered with delight, getting up and
relieving his feelings by a short dance before settling down again and
shaking hands.
In another minute the canoe was run up on the beautiful soft sand, the
savages leaping out into the shallow water and carrying it beyond reach
of the waves, when I stepped out with Mr Ebony, who made one of the men
pick up my fish and carry it before us in triumph to our hut, the others
taking the rest of the fish towards the village.