THE EBBING OF THE TIDE
By Louis Becke




THE EBBING OF THE TIDE

SOUTH SEA STORIES

1896

By Louis Becke




"LULIBAN OF THE POOL"

A boy and a girl sat by the rocky margin of a deep mountain pool in
Ponape in the North Pacific. The girl was weaving a basket from the
leaves of a cocoa-nut. As she wove she sang the "Song of Luliban," and
the boy listened intently.

"'Tis a fine song that thou singest, Niya," said the boy, who came from
Metalanien and was a stranger; "and who was Luliban, and Red-Hair the
White Man?"

"_O Guk!_" said Niya, wonderingly, "hast never heard in Metalanien of
Luliban, she who dived with one husband and came up with another--in
this very pool?"

"What new lie is this thou tellest to the boy because he is a stranger?"
said a White Man, who lay resting in the thick grass waiting for the
basket to be finished, for the three were going further up the mountain
stream to catch crayfish.

"Lie?" said the child; "nay, 'tis no lie. Is not this the Pool of
Luliban, and do not we sing the 'Song of Luliban,' and was not Red-Hair
the White Man--he that lived in Jakoits and built the big sailing boat
for Nanakin, the father of Nanakin, my father, the chief of Jakoits?"

"True, Niya, true," said the White Man, "I did but jest; but tell thou
the tale to Sru, so that he may carry it home with him to Metalanien."

*****

Then Niya, daughter of Nanakin, told Sru, the boy from Metalanien,
the tale of Luliban of the Pool, and her husband the White Man called
"Red-Hair," and her lover, the tattooed beachcomber, called "Harry from
Yap."

*****

"It was in the days before the fighting-ship went into Kiti Harbour and
burnt the seven whaleships as they lay at anchor{*} that Red-Hair the
White Man lived at Jakoits. He was a very strong man, and because that
he was cunning and clever at fishing and killing the wild boar and
carpentry, his house was full of riches, for Nanakin's heart was towards
him always."

     * The Shenandoah, in 1866.

"Was it he who killed the three white men at Roan Kiti?" asked the White
Man.

"Aye," answered Niya, "he it was. They came in a little ship, and
because of bitter words over the price of some tortoise-shell he and the
men of Nanakin slew them. And Red-Hair burnt the ship and sank her. And
for this was Nanakin's heart bigger than ever to Red-Hair, for out of
the ship, before he burnt her, he took many riches--knives, guns
and powder, and beads and pieces of silk; and half of all he gave to
Nanakin."

"_Huh!_" said Sru, the boy. "He was a fine man!"

"Now, Harry from Yap and Red-Hair hated one another because of Luliban,
whom Nanakin had given to Red-Hair for wife. This man, Harry, lived at
Ngatik, the island off the coast, where the turtles breed, and whenever
he came to Jakoits he would go to Red-Hair's house and drink grog with,
him so that they would both lie on the mats drunk together. Sometimes
the name of Luliban would come between them, and then they would fight
and try to kill each other, but Nanakin's men would always watch and
part them in time. And all this was because that Luliban had loved
Harry from Yap before she became wife to Red-Hair. The men favoured the
husband of Luliban because of Nanakin's friendship to him, and the women
liked best Harry from Yap because of his gay songs and his dances, which
he had learnt from the people of Yap and Ruk and Hogelu, in the far
west; but most of all for his handsome figure and his tattooed skin.

"One day it came about that his grog was all gone, and his spirit was
vexed, and Red-Hair beat Luliban, and she planned his death from that
day. But Nanakin dissuaded her and said, 'It cannot be done; he is too
great a man for me to kill. Be wise and forget his blows.'

"Then Luliban sent a messenger to Ngatik to Harry. He came and brought
with him many square bottles of grog, and went in to Red-Hair's house,
and they drank and quarrelled as they ever did; but because of what lay
in his mind Harry got not drunk, for his eyes were always fixed on the
face of Luliban.

"At last, when Red-Hair was fallen down on the mats, Luliban whispered
to Harry, and he rose and lay down on a couch that was placed against
the cane sides of the house. When all were asleep, Luliban stole outside
and placed her face against the side of the house and called to Harry,
who feigned to sleep. And then he and she talked for a long time. Then
the white man got up and went to Nanakin, the chief, and talked long
with him also.

"Said Nanakin the chief, 'O White Man, thou art full of cunning, and my
heart is with thee. Yet what will it profit me if Red-Hair dies?'

"'All that is now his shall be thine,' said Harry.

"'And what shall I give thee?' said Nanakin.

"'Only Luliban,'" said the White Man with the tattooed body.

*****

"On the morrow, as the day touched the night, the people of Jakoits
danced in front of Nanakin's house, and Harry, with flowers in his hair
and his body oiled and stained with turmeric, danced also. Now among
those who watched him was Luliban, and presently her husband sought her
and drove her away, saying; 'Get thee to my house, little beast. What
dost thou here watching this fool dance!'

"Harry but laughed and danced the more, and then Red-Hair gave him foul
words. When the dance was ended, Harry went up to Red-Hair and said,
'Get thee home also, thou cutter of sleeping men's throats. I am a
better man than thee. There is nothing that thou hast done that I cannot
do.'

"Then Nanakin, whose mouth was ready with words put therein by Luliban,
said, 'Nay, Harry, thou dost but boast. Thou canst not walk under the
water in the Deep Pool with a heavy stone on thy shoulder--as Red-Hair
has done.'

"'Bah!' said Harry. 'What he can do, that I can do.'

"Now, for a man to go in at one end of this pool here"--and Niya nodded
her head to the waters at her feet--"and walk along the bottom and come
out at the farther end is no great task, and as for carrying a heavy
stone, that doth but make the task easier; but in those days there were
devils who lived in a cave that is beneath where we now sit, and none of
our people ever bathed here, for fear they would be seized and dragged
down. But yet had Red-Hair one day put a stone upon his shoulder, and
carried it under the water from one end of the pool to another--this to
show the people that he feared no devils. But of the cave that can be
gained by diving under the wall of rock he knew nothing--only to a few
was it known.

"'Show this boaster his folly,' said Nanakin to Red-Hair, who was
chewing his beard with wrath. And so it was agreed upon the morrow that
the two white men should walk each with a stone upon his shoulder, in
at one end of the deep pool and come out of the other, and Harry should
prove his boast, that in all things he was equal to Red-Hair."

*****

"When Red-Hair went back to his house Luliban was gone, and some said
she had fled to the mountains, and he reproached Nanakin, saying: 'Thy
daughter hath fled to Ngatik to the house of Harry. I will have her life
and his for this.' But Nanakin smoothed his face and said: 'Nay, not so;
but first put this boaster to shame before the people, and he shall die,
and Luliban be found.'

"Now, Luliban was hid in another village, and when the time drew near
for the trial at the pool she went there before the people. In her hand
she carried a sharp _toki_ (tomahawk) and a long piece of strong cinnet
with a looped end. She dived in and clambered out again underneath and
waited. The cave is not dark, for there are many fissures in the top
through which light comes when the sun is high.

"The people gathered round, and laughed and talked as the two white men
stripped naked, save for narrow girdles of leaves round their loins. The
skin of Red-Hair was as white as sand that lies always in the sun that
of Harry was brown, and covered from his neck to his feet with strange
tattooing, more beautiful than that of the men of Ponape.

"They looked at each other with blood in their eyes, and the long,
yellow teeth of Red-Hair ground together, but no words passed between
them till Red-Hair, poising a great stone on his shoulder, called out
to Harry: 'Follow me, O boastful stealer of my wife, and drown thy blue
carcass.'

"Then he walked in, and Harry, also with a heavy stone, followed him.
Ere one could count a score those that watched could not see Harry,
because of the depth of the water and the darkness of his skin. But
the white skin of Red-Hair gleamed like the belly of a shark when it
turneth--then it disappeared.

"When they were half-way through a stone fell through a fissure of the
cave, and Luliban, who watched for the signal, dived outwards with the
line of cinnet, and came behind Red-Hair and put the noose over his left
foot, and Harry, who followed close, cast the stone he carried away and
raised his hand and stabbed him in the belly as he turned, and then,
with Luliban and he dragging tight the line of cinnet, they shot up from
beneath the water into the cave and pulled Red-Hair after them."

*****

"The people had gathered at the farther end of the pool to see the two
men come up; and when they came not they wondered, and some one said:
'The devils have seized them!'

"Then Nanakin, who alone remained on the top of the rocks, called out,
'Alas for the white men! I can see bubbles, and the water is bloody,'
and he beat his head on the rocks and made great grief and called out
to the devils in the cave, 'Spare me my white men, O devils of the cave,
spare me my good white men. But if one must die let it be him that hath
offended.'

"Ah! he was a cunning man, was Nanakin, the father of Nanakin my father.

"The men and the women and children ran up again from the end of the
pool; for, although they were greatly afraid, they durst not leave their
chief by himself to beat out his head upon the stones. So they clustered
round him and wailed also with him. And Nanakin raised his voice again
and again and called out to the devils of the pool to spare him one
white man; and the people called out with him. Yet none of them dared
look upon the water of the pool; only Nanakin turned his eyes that way.

"At last the chief said, 'Ho, what is that?' and he pointed to the
water, and they saw bubbles again rise up and break the surface of the
water. 'Now shall I know if my white men are dead.'

"And, as they looked, behold there shot up from the water a yellow
gourd, and the men shouted, some in wonder and more in fear. And Nanakin
leaned over the edge of the rock and stretched out his hand and drew the
gourd to him. Then he took it in his hand, and lo! there was tied to the
neck a piece of plaited cinnet, which ran deep down into the water under
the rock.

"Again Nanakin called out to his men who stood crouched up behind him.
'What shall I do with this? shall I pull it up?'

"And then--so the people said--there came a voice from the bowels of the
earth, which said, 'Pull!'

"So they drew in the line, and as they drew it became heavy, and then
something came up with a splash, and those that held the line looked
over, and lo! there was the head of Red-Hair, wet and bloody, tied to
the end of it by the ear.

"The head was laid upon the rock, and then the people would have turned
and fled, but that Nanakin and two of his priests said there was now no
fear as the cave devils were angry alone with Red-Hair, who had twice
braved them.

"Then the two priests and Nanakin leant over the wall of rocks and
called out again for the life of Harry to be spared, and as they called,
he shot out from underneath and held out his hands; and they pulled him
in.

"'Let us away from here quickly,' was all he said. 'I thank thee, O
chief, for thy prayers; else had the devils of the pool taken off my
head as they have taken off that of Red-Hair, and devoured my body as
they have devoured his.'

"Then the people picked him up, for he was weak, and every one that was
there left the pool in fear and trembling, except Nanakin and the two
priests, who laughed inwardly.

"When all was quiet, Luliban, too, came up from under the water and
dried her body, and oiled and scented her hair from a flask that she
had hidden in the bushes, and went back to Red-Hair's house, and, with
downcast face but a merry heart, asked her women to plead with her
husband not to beat her for running away. Then they told her of the
doings at the pool.

"When ten days were gone by for mourning, Luliban became wife to 'Harry
from Yap,' and he took her with him to Ngatik, and the favour of Nanakin
that was once Red-Hair's became his, and he prospered. And for long,
long years no one knew how it was that Red-Hair lost his head till
Luliban told it."

*****

"_Huh!_" said Sru, the boy, admiringly. "He was a Fine Man, that
Red-Hair; but the white man with the tattooed skin was a Better."




NINIA




I.

Away out upon the wide Northern Pacific there is a group of three little
islands. They are so very, very small that you need not seek to discover
them on the map of the Pacific Ocean; but if any of you have a chart of
the North or West Pacific, then you would easily be able to find them.
Run your eye up north, away past the Equator, in the direction of China,
and you will see, to the north of New Guinea, a large cluster of islands
named the "Caroline Islands," some of which are named, but most are
not--only tiny dots no bigger than a pin's head serve to mark their
position. Perhaps, however--if you get a German chart--you may see one
of the largest of the small dots marked "Pingelap," and Pingelap is the
name of the largest of the three little islands of my story; the others
are called Tugulu and Takai.

Now, although Pingelap and Tugulu and Takai are so close together that
at low tide one may walk across the coral reef that encircles the whole
group from one island to another, yet are they lonely spots, for there
is no other island nearer than Mokil, which is ninety miles away.

But yet, although the three islands are so small, a great number of
natives live upon them--between four and five hundred. There is only one
village, which is on Pingelap, and here all the people lived. The island
itself is not more than two miles in length, and in no place is it
more than a quarter of a mile in width; and Tugulu and Takai are still
smaller. And from one end to the other the islands are covered with a
dense verdure of cocoanut palms, with scarcely any other tree amongst
them, so that when seen from the ship two or three miles away, they
look exactly like a belt of emerald surrounding a lake of silver, for
in their centre is a beautiful lagoon surrounded on three sides by the
land, and on the west protected from the sweeping ocean rollers by a
double line of coral reef stretching from little Takai to the south end
of Pingelap.

There are hundreds of beautiful islands in the Pacific, but not any
one of them can excel in beauty lonely little Pingelap. There are two
reefs--an outer and an inner. Against the outer or ocean reef huge
seas for ever dash unceasingly on the windward side of the island, and
sometimes, in bad weather, will sweep right over the coral and pour
through the shallow channel between Tugulu and Pingelap; and then the
calm, placid waters of the lagoon will be fretted and disturbed until
fine weather comes again. But bad weather is a rare event in those seas,
and usually the lagoon of Pingelap is as smooth as a sheet of glass.
And all day long you may see children paddling about in canoes, crossing
from one shining beach to another, and singing as they paddle, for they
are a merry-hearted race, the people of these three islands, and love to
sing and dance, and sit out in front of their houses on moonlight nights
and listen to tales told by the old men of the days when their islands
were reddened with blood. For until fifteen years before, the people
of Pingelap and Tugulu were at bitter enmity, and fought with and
slaughtered each other to their heart's delight. And perhaps there would
have soon been none left to tell the tale, but that one day an American
whaleship, called the _Cohasset_ touched there to buy turtle from
Sralik, the chief of Pingelap, and Sralik besought the captain to give
him muskets and powder and ball to fight the Tugulans with.

So the captain gave him five muskets and plenty of powder and bullets,
and then said--

"See, Sralik; I will give you a white man too, to show you how to shoot
your enemies."

And then he laughed, and calling out to a man named Harry, he told him
to clear out of the ship and go and live ashore and be a king, as he was
not worth his salt as a boatsteerer.

And so this Harry Devine, who was a drunken, good-for-nothing,
quarrelsome young American, came ashore with Sralik, and next day he
loaded the five muskets and, with Sralik, led the Pingelap people over
to Tugulu. There was a great fight, and as fast as Sralik loaded a
musket, Harry fired it and killed a man. At last, when nearly thirty had
been shot, the Tugulu people called for quarter.

"Get thee together on Takai," called out Sralik, "and then will we talk
of peace."

Now Takai is such a tiny little spot, that Sralik knew he would have
them at his mercy, for not one of them had a musket.

As soon as the last of the Tugulu people had crossed the shallow channel
that divides Tugulu from Takai, the cunning Sralik with his warriors
lined the beach and then called to the Tugulans--

"This land is too small for so many."

And then Harry, once the boatsteerer and now the beachcomber, fired his
muskets into the thick, surging mass of humanity on the little 'islet,
and every shot told. Many of them, throwing aside their spears and
clubs, sprang into the water and tried to swim over to Pingelap across
the lagoon. But Sralik's men pursued them in canoes and clubbed and
speared them as they swam; and some that escaped death by club or spear,
were rent in pieces by the sharks which, as soon as they smelt the blood
of the dead and dying men that sank in the quiet waters of the lagoon,
swarmed in through a passage in the western reef. By and by the last of
those who took to the water were killed, and only some eighty or ninety
men and many more women and children were left on Takai, and the five
muskets became so hot and foul that Harry could murder no longer, and
his arm was tired out with slaughter.

All that night Sralik's warriors watched to see that none escaped, and
at dawn the hideous massacre began again, and club, spear, and musket
did their fell work till only the women and children were left. These
were spared. Among them was Ninia, the wife of Sikra, the chief of
Tugulu. And because she was young and fairer than any of the others, the
white man asked her of Sralik for his wife. Sralik laughed.

"Take her, O clever white marn--her and as many more as thou carest for
slaves. Only thou and I shall rule here now in this my island."

So Harry took her and married her according to native custom, and Ninia
was his one wife for nearly fifteen years, when one day he was quietly
murdered as he lay asleep in his house with his wife and two children;
and although Sralik wept loudly and cut his great chest with a shark's
teeth dagger, and offered sacrifices of turtle flesh to the white
man's _jelin_, Ninia his wife and many other people knew that it was by
Sralik's orders that Harry had been killed, for they had quarrelled
over the possession of a whaleboat which Harry had bought from a passing
ship, and which he refused to either sell or give to Sralik.

However, Sralik was not unkind to Ninia, and gave her much of her
dead husband's property, and told her that he would give her for an
inheritance for her two daughters the little islet--Takai.

And there in the year 1870 Ninia the widow, and Ninia her eldest
daughter (for on Pingelap names of the first-born are hereditary) and
Tarita, the youngest, went to live. With them went another girl, a
granddaughter of the savage old Sralik. Her name was Ruvani. She was
about eleven years of