July 25, 2025 • 38 mins
Immerse yourself in the captivating tales of Jack and Charmian Londons adventurous journey across the Pacific between 1907 and 1909, detailed in The Cruise of the Snark. This memoir not only introduces and popularizes the royal sport of surf-riding but also vividly depicts the thrill and beauty of the Pacific. Experience the exhilarating rush of riding the crest of a breaker, the sensation of being flung landward by the powerful sea, and the challenge of trying to match the skill of a Kanaka on a surf-board. This striking narrative captures the essence of living life to the fullest, promising a reading experience as invigorating as the pounding surf.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Chapter twelve of the Crews of the Snark. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Todd Lennon. The Crews of the Snark by
(00:23):
Jack London, Chapter twelve, The High Seat of Abundance. On
the arrival of strangers, every man endeavored to obtain one
as a friend and carry him off to his own habitation,
where he is treated with the greatest kindness by the
inhabitants of the district. They place him on a high
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seat and feed him with abundance of the finest food.
Polynesian researches. The Snark was lying at anchor at Ryetaea,
just off the village of Utuua. She had arrived the
night before after dark, and we were preparing to pay
our first visit ashore. Early in the morning I had
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noticed a tiny outrigger canoe with an impossible sprit sail
skimming the surface of the lagoon. The canoe itself was
coffin shaped, a mere dugout fourteen feet long, a scant
twelve inches wide and maybe twenty four inches deep. It
had no lines, except in so far that it was
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sharp at both ends. Its sides were perpendicular. Shorn of
the outrigger, it would have capsized itself inside a tenth
of a second. It was the outrigger that kept it
right side up. I have said that the sail was impossible.
It was. It was one of those things that you
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have to see to believe, but that you cannot believe
after you've seen it. The hoist of it, the length
of its boom, was sufficiently appalling, but not content with that.
Its artificer had given it a tremendous head. So large
was the head that no common sprit could carry the
strain of it in an ordinary breeze. So a spar
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had been lashed to the canoe, projecting aft over the water.
To this had been made fast a sprit guy. Thus
the foot of the sail was held by the main sheet,
and the peak by the guy to the sprit. It
was not a mere boat, not a mere canoe, but
a sailing machine, and the man in it sailed it
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by his weight and his nerve, principally by the latter.
I watched the canoe beat up from leeward and run
in towards the village, its sole occupant far out on
the outrigger and luffing up and spilling the wind and
the puffs. Well, I know one thing, I announced, I
don't leave Rayetaea until I've had a ride in that canoe.
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A few minutes later, Warren called down the companionway. Here's
that canoe you were talking about. Promptly, I dashed on
deck and gave greeting to its owner, a tall, slender Polynesian,
ingenious of face and with clear, sparkling, intelligent eyes. He
was clad in a scarlet loincloth and a straw hat.
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In his hands were presents a fish, a bunch of greens,
and several enormous yambs, all of which acknowledged by smiles
which are coinage still in isolated spots of Polynesia, and
by frequent repetitions of Maruru, which is the Tahitian thank you.
I proceeded to make signs that I desired to go
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for a sail in his canoe. His face lighted with pleasure,
and he uttered the single word tah turning at the
same time and pointing to the lofty, cloud draped peaks
of an island three miles away the island of Taha.
It was fair wind over, but a hard beat back.
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Now I did not want to go to j Ha.
I had letters to deliver in Ryoteia and officials to see,
and there was Charmien down below, getting ready to go ashore.
By insistent signs, I indicated that I desired no more
than a short sail on the lagoon. Quick was the
disappointment in his face, Yet smiling was his acquiescence. Come
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on for a sail, I called below to Charmian, But
put on your swimming suit. It's going to be wet.
It wasn't real. It was a dream. That canoe slid
over the water like a streak of silver. I climbed
out on the outrigger and supplied the weight to hold
her down, while to Hai supplied the nerve. He too,
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and the puffs climbed part way out on the outrigger
at the same time, steering with both hands on a
large paddle and holding the main sheet with his foot
ready about he called, I carefully shifted my weight inboard
in order to maintain the equilibrium as the sail in
hard a lee, he called, shooting her into the wind.
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I slid out on the opposite side over the water
on a spar lashed across the canoe, and we were
falling away on the other tack. All Right said to
he those three phrases ready about heart a lee, and
all Right comprised to Hayes's English vocabulary and led me
to suspect that at some time he had been one
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of a Kanaka crew under an American captain. Between the puffs,
I made signs to him and repeatedly interrogatively uttered the
word sailor. Then I tried it an atrocious French Marin
conveyed no meaning to him, nor did mate a low.
Either my French was bad, or else he was not
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up in it. I have since concluded that both conjectures
were correct. Finally I began naming over the adjacent islands.
He nodded that he had been to them. By the
time my quest reached Tahiti. He caught my drift. His
thought processes were almost visible, and it was a joy
to watch him think. He nodded his head vigorously, Yes,
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he'd been to Tahiti, and he added himself names of
islands such as Tikihou, Rangaroa and Fakarava. Thus proving that
he had sailed as far as the Puamotus, undoubtedly one
of the crew of a trading schooner. After our short sail,
when he had returned on board, he by signs inquired
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the destination of the snark, And when I had mentioned Samoa, Fiji,
New Guinea, France, England and California in their geographical sequence,
he said Samoa, and by the gestures intimated that he
wanted to go along. Whereupon I was hard put to
explain that there was no room for him, but tit,
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Butteau finally solved it, and again the disappointment in his
face was accompanied by miling acquiescence, and promptly came the
renewed invitation to accompany him to Taha. Charmis and I
looked at each other. The exhilaration of the ride we
had taken was still upon us. Forgotten were the letters
to Ryetea and officials we had to visit. Shoes, a shirt,
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a pair of trousers, cigarettes, matches, a book to read
were hastily crammed into a biscuit tin and wrapped in
a rubber blanket. And we were over the side into
the canoe. When shall we look for you, Warren called,
as the wind filled the sail and sent to Hay
and me scurrying out on the outrigger. I don't know,
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I answered, when we get back as near as I
can figure it, and away we went. The wind had increased,
and with slacked sheets we ran off before it. The
free board of the canoe was no more than two
and a half inches, and the little waves continually lapped
over the side. This required baling. Now, baling is one
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of the principal functions of the vehinae. Vohena is the
Tunisian Tahitian word for woman, and Charmian, being the only
Vehenae aboard, the baling fell appropriately to her. Tahai and
I could not very well do it, the both of
us being perched part way out on the out rigor
and busied with keeping the canoe bottom side down. So
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Charmian bailed with a wooden scoop of primitive design, and
so well she did do it that there were occasions
when she could rest off almost half the time. Ryataea
and Taha are unique in that they lie inside the
same encircling reef. Both are volcanic islands ragged of skyline
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with heaving, aspiring peaks and minarets. Since Ryataea is thirty
miles in circumference in Taha fifteen miles, some idea may
be gained of the magnitude of the reef that encloses them.
Between them and the reef stretches from war one to
two miles of water, forming a beautiful lagoon. The huge
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Pacific seas, extending in unbroken lines, sometimes a mile or
a half as much again in length, hurl themselves upon
the reef over, towering and falling upon it with tremendous crashes.
And yet the fragile coral structure withstands the shock and
protects the land outside lies destruction to the mightiest ship.
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Afloat inside rains the calm of untroubled water, whereupon a
canoe like ours can sail with no more than a
couple of inches of freeboard. We flew over the water,
and such water clear as the clearest spring water, and
crystalline in its clearness, all enter shot with the maddening
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pageant of colors and rainbow ribbons more magnificently gorgeous than
any rainbow. Jade green alternated with turquoise, peacock blue with emerald,
while now the canoe skimmed over reddish purple pools, and
again over pools of dazzling shimmering white, where pounded coral
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sand lay beneath, and upon which oozed monstrous sea slugs.
One moment we were above wonder gardens of coral, wherein
colored fishes disported, fluttering like marine butterflies. The next moment
we were dashing across the dark surface of deep channels,
out of which schools of flying fish lifted their silvery flight.
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And a third moment we were above other gardens of
living coral, each more wonderful than the last. And above
all was the tropic trade wind sky, with its fluffy
clouds racing across the zenith and heaping the horizon with
their soft masses. Before we were aware, we were close
in to Taha, and Tahi was grinning approval of the
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vehines proficiency. At Baling, the canoe grounded to a shallow
shore twenty feet from land. We waded out on a
soft bottom, where big slow bugs curled and writhed under
our feet, and where small octopuses advertised their existence by
their superlative softness when stepped upon close to the beach,
amid coconut palms and banana trees erected on stilts built
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of bamboo with grass thatched rows. Was to Hayes's house,
and out of the house came to Hayes Vehine, a
slender mighte of a woman, kindly eyed and Mongolian of
feature when she was not North American Indian. B Aura
to Haye caller, but he did not pronounce it. According
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to English notions of spelling, spelled b I h a
U r a. It sounded like b aurah, with every
syllable sharply emphasized. She took Charmian by the hand and
led her into the house, leaving to Haye and me
to follow. Here by sign language unmistakable, we were informed
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that all all they possessed was ours. No Hidalgo was
ever more generous in the expression of giving, while I'm
sure that few Hidalgos were ever as generous in the
actual practice. We quickly discovered that we dare not admire
their possessions, for whenever we did admire a particular object,
it was immediately presented to us. The two vehines, according
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to the way of vehines, got together in a discussion
and examination of feminine fripperies, while to he A and
I manlike went over fishing tackle and wild pig hunting,
to say nothing of the device whereby banitas are caught
on forty foot poles from double canoes. Charmian admired a
sewing basket, the best example she had seen of Polynesian basketry.
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It was hers. I admired a benita hook carved in
one piece from a pearl shell. It was mine. Charmian
was attracted by a fancy braid of straws, thirty feet
of it in a roll, sufficient to make a hat
of any design one wished. The role of senate was hers.
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My gaze lingered upon a Poi pounder that dated back
to the old Stone days. It was mine. Charmian dwelt
a moment too long on a wooden Poi bowl canoe
shaped with four legs, all curved in one piece of wood.
It was hers. I glanced a second time at a
gigantic coconut calabash. It was mine. Then Charmion and I
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held a conference in which we resolved to admire no more,
not because it did not pay well enough, but because
it paid too well also, we were already racking our
brains over the contents of the snark for suitable returned presents.
Christmas is an easy problem compared with a Polynesian giving feast.
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We sat on the cool porch on Bihaura's best mats
while dinner was preparing, and at the same time met
the villagers in twos and threes. In groups. They strayed along,
shaking hands and uttering the Tahitian word of greeting, yorana
pronounced yurana. The men, big strapping fellows, were in loincloths
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with here and there no shirt, while the women wore
the universal aho, a sort of adult pinafore that flows
in graceful lines from the shoulders to the ground. Sad
to see was the elephantiasis that afflicted some of them.
Here would be a comely woman of magnificent proportions, with
the port of a queen, yet marred by one arm
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four times or a dozen times the size of the other.
Beside her might stand a six foot man, erect, mighty muscled, bronzed,
and with the body of a god, yet with feet
in calves so swollen that they ran together forming legs shapeless,
monstrous that were for all the world like elephant legs.
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No one seems really to know the cause of the
south Sea elephantiasis. One theory is that it is caused
by the drinking of polluted water. Another theory attributed attributes
it to inoculation through mosquito bites. A third theory charges
it to predisposition plus the process of acclimatization. On the
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other hand, no one that stands in finicky dread of
it in similar disease can afford to travel in the
South seas. There will be occasions when such a one
must drink water. There may be also occasions when the
mosquitoes let up biting, But every precaution of the finicky
one will be useless. If he runs barefoot across the
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beach to have a swim, he will tread where an
Elephantiasa's case trod a few minutes before. If he closets
himself in his own house, yet every bit of fresh
food on his table will have been subjected to the contamination,
be it flesh, fish, fowl, or vegetable. In the public
market at Papiete, two known lepers run stalls, and heaven
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alone knows through what channels arrive at that market the
daily supplies of fish, fruit, meat and vegetables. The only
way to go through the South Seas is with a
careless poise, without apprehension, and with a Christian science like
faith in the resplendent fortune of your own particular star.
When you see a woman afflicted with elephantiasis wringing out
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cream from cocoanut meat with her naked hands, drink and
reflect how good is the cream forgetting the hands that
pressed it out. Also remember that diseases such as elephantiasis
and leprosy do not seem to be caught by contact.
We watched a Raritangan woman with swollen, distorted limbs our
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coconut cream, and then went out to the cook shed
where to Heye and Biaura were cooking dinner. And then
it was served to us on a dry goods box
in the house. Our hosts waited until we were done
and then spread their table on the floor. But our
table we were certainly in the high seat of abundance. First,
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there was glorious raw fish caught several hours before from
the sea and steeped in the intervening time, and lime
juice diluted with water. Then came roast chicken, two coconuts,
sharply sweet, served for drink. There were bananas that tasted
like strawberries and that melted in the mouth. And there
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was banana poi that made one regret his Yankee forebears
ever attempted puddings. Then there was boiled yam, boiled taro,
and roasted fays, which last are nothing more or less
than large, mealy, juice red colored cooking bananas. We marveled
at the abundance, And even as we marveled, a pig
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was brought on, a whole pig, a sucking pig, swathed
in green leaves, and roasted upon the hot stones of
a native oven, the most honorable and triumphant dish in
the Polynesian cuisine. After that came coffee, black coffee, delicious coffee,
native coffee grown on the hillsides of Taha. Tahie's fishing
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tackle fascinated me, and after we arranged to go fishing,
Charmian and I decided to remain all night. Again Tahie
broached samoa, and again my petite Buteau brought the disappointment
and the smile of acquiescence to his face. Bora Bora
was my next port. It was not so far away,
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but that cutters made the passage back and forth between
it and Riotea. So I invited to Haye to go
that far with us on the snow. Then I learned
that his wife had been born on Borabora and still
owned a house there. She likewise was invited, and immediately
came the counter invitation to stay with them in their
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house in Borobora. It was Monday. Tuesday, we would go
fishing and return to Rayetaea. Wednesday we would sail by
Taha and off a certain point a mile away, pick
up to Haye and Bourah, and go on to Borobora.
All this we arranged in detail, and talked over scores
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of other things as well. And yet to Haye knew
three phrases in English, Charmi and I knew possibly a
dozen Tahitian words, and among the four of us there
were a dozen or so French words that all understood.
Of course, such polyglot conversation was slow, but eked out
with a pad, a lead pencil, the face of a
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clock Charmian drew on the back of a pad, and
with ten thousand and one gestures managed to get on
very nicely. At the first moment we evidenced an inclination
for bed. The visiting natives with soft diirrhanas faded away
into haye in Biarura likewise faded away. The house consisted
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of one large room, and it was given over to us,
our host going elsewhere for sleep. In truth, their castle
was ours. And right here I want to say that
of all the entertainment I have received in this world,
at the hands of all sorts of races, in all
sorts of places, I have never received entertainment that equal
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to this at the hands of this brown skinned couple
of Taha. I do not refer to the presence, the
free handed generousness, the high abundance, but to the fineness
of courtesy and consideration intact, and to the sympathy that
was real sympathy in that it was understanding. They did
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nothing they thought ought to be done for us according
to their own standards, but they did what they divined
we wanted to be done for us. While their divination
was most successful, it would be impossible to enumerate the
hundreds of little acts of consideration they performed during the
few days of our intercourse. Let it suffice for me
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to say that of all hospitality and entertainment I have known,
in no case was theirs not only not excelled, but
in no case was it quite equaled. Perhaps the most
delightful features of it was that it was due to
no training, to no complex social ideals, but that it
was untutored and spontaneous, outpouring from their hearts. The next
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morning we went fishing, that is Taha'i Charmian and I
did in the coffin shaped canoe. But this time the
enormous sail was left behind. There was no room for
sailing and fishing at the same time. In that tiny craft,
several miles away inside the reef and a channel twenty
fathoms deep, Tahayei dropped his baited hooks in rock sinkers.
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The bait was chunks of octopus flesh, which he bit
out of live octopus that rifed in the bottom of
the canoe. Nine of these lines he set. Each line
attached to one end of a short length of bamboo
floating on the surface. When a fish was hooked, the
end of the bamboo was drawn under the water. Naturally,
the other end rose up in the air, bobbing and
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waving frantically for us to make haste. And make haste
we did, with whoops and yells, and driving paddles from
one signaling bamboo to another, hauling up from the depths
great glistening beauties from two to three feet in length,
steadily to the eastward. An ominous squall had been rising
and blotting out the bright trade wind sky. As we
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were three miles to the leeward of home. We started
as the first wind gus whitened the water. Then came
the rain. Such rain is only the tropics of Ford,
where every tap and main in the sky is open wide,
and when to top it all, the very reservoir itself
spills over in blinding deluge. Well, Charmian was in a
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swimming suit, I was in pajamas, and Tahayei wore only
a loincloth. Bi Ourah was on the beach waiting for us,
and she led Charmian into the house in much the
same fashion that a mother leads in a naughty little
girl who's been playing in mud puddles. It was a
change of clothes and a dry and quiet smoke. While
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Kai Kai was preparing Kai Kai, by the way, is
the Polynesian for food or to eat, or rather it
is one form of the original root, whatever it may
have been, that has been distributed far and wide over
the vast area of the Pacific. It is kai in
the marquesses Raritanga, manik Hiki, Nieyu, Faka, Foe, Tonga, New Zealand,
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and Vatae in Tahiti. To eat changes to amu in Hawaii,
in Samoa, to Ai in ban to Kana in Nina,
to Kana in Nagone, to kaka, and in New Caledonia
to qai. But by whatever sound or symbol, it was
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welcomed to our ears. After that long paddle in the rain,
once more we sat in the high seat of abundance,
until we regretted that we had been made unlike the
image of the giraffe and the camel. Again, when we
were preparing to return to the snark, the sky to
windward turned black, and another squall swooped down, but this
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time it was little rain and all wind. It blew
hour after hour, moaning and screeching through the palms, tearing
and wrenching and shaking the frail bamboo dwelling, while the
outer reef set on a mighty thundering as it broke
the force of the swinging seas. Inside the reef, the
lagoon sheltered, though it was was white with fury, and
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not even to Haye's seamanship could have enabled his slender
canoe to live in such a welter. By sunset, the
back of the squall had broken, though it was still
too rough for the canoe. So I had to Haye
find a native who was willing to venture his cutter
across to Rietaea for the outrageous sum of two dollars Chile,
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which is equivalent in our money to ninety cents. Half
the village was told off to carry presents with which
to Hay in Bioura speeded their parting guests, captive chickens, fishes,
dressed and swathed in wrappings of green leaves, great golden
bunches of bananas, leafy baskets spilling over with oranges and limes,
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alligator pears, the butter fruit also called the avoca, huge
baskets of yams, bunches of tarot and cocoa nuts, and
last of all, large branches and trunks of trees. Firewood
for the snark While on the way to the cutter,
we met the only white man unto high and of
all men, George Lufkin, a native of New England, eighty
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six years of age. He was sixty eight, of which
he said he had spent in the Society Islands, with
occasional absences, such as the gold rush to El Dorado
in forty nine, in a short period of ranching in
California near Tulare, given no more than three months by
the doctors to live, he had returned to a south
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seas and lived to eighty six, and to chuckle over
the doctors aforesaid, who were all in their graves. Faithae
he had, which is the native for elephantiasis, and which
is pronounced faithae, a quarter of a century before the
disease had fastened upon him, and it would remain with
him until he died. We asked him about Kith, and
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kin Beside him sat a sprightly damsel of sixty his daughter.
She's all I have, he murmured plaintively, and she has
no children living. The cutter was a small sloop rigged affair,
but large it seemed along to Haye's canoe. On the
other hand, when we got out on the lagoon, we
were struck by another heavy wind squall. The cutter became Lilipus,
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while the Snark, in our imagination, seemed to promise all
the stability and permanence of a continent. They were good
boatmen to Heye and Biherua had come along to see
us home, and the latter proved a good boat woman herself.
The cutter was well ballasted and we met the squall
under full sail. It was getting dark. The lagoon was
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full of coral patches, and we were carrying on in
the height of the squall. We had to go about
in order to make a short leg to windward to
pass around a patch of coral no more than a
foot under the surface. As the cutter filled on the
other tack, and while she was in that dead condition
that proceeds gathering way, she was knocked flat. Jib sheet
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and main sheet were let go, and she righted into
the wind. Three times she was knocked down, and three
times the sheets were flung loose before she could get
away on that tack. By the time we went about again,
darkness had fallen. We were now to windward of the snark,
and the squall was howling. In came the jib, and
down came the mainsail, all but a patch of it
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the size of a pillow slip. By an accident, we
missed the snark, which was riding it out on two anchors,
and drove a ground upon the inshore coral, running the
longest line on the snark by means of the launch,
and after an hour's hard work, we heaved the cutter
off and had her lying safely. Astern the day we
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sailed for Boro Bora. The wind was light and we
crossed the lagoon under power to the point point where
to Haii and be Arua were to meet us. As
we made into the land between the coral banks, we
vainly scanned the shore for our friends. There was no
sign of them. We can't wait, I said, This breeze
won't fetch us to Boro boro by dark, and I
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don't want to use any more gasoline than I have.
You see gasoline in the South seas as a problem.
One never knows when he'll be able to replenish his supply.
But just then Tahaie appeared through the trees. As he
came down to the water, he had peeled off his
shirt and was wildly waving it. B Arua apparently was
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not ready. Once aboard, Tahaii informed us by signs that
he must we must proceed along the land till we
got opposite to his house. He took the wheel and
conned the snark through the coral around point after point
till we cleared the last point of all. Cries of
welcome went up from the beach, and b Arua, assisted
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by several of the villagers, brought off two canoe loads
of abundance. There were yams, taro, fays, bread fruit, cocoanuts, oranges, limes, pineapples,
water melons, alligator pears, pomegranates, fish, chickens galore crowing and
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crackling and laying eggs on our decks, and a live
pig that squealed infernally and all the time, and apprehension
of eminent slaughter under the rising moon. We came in
through the perilous passage of the reef of Borabora and
dropped anchor off via type a village. Biarua, with housewifely anxiety,
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could not get Ashore too quickly to her house to
prepare more abundance for us. While the launch was taking
her into Hayey to the little jetty. The sound of
music and of singing drifted across the quiet lagoon. Throughout
the Society Islands. We had been continually informed that we
would find the boro Borans very jolly charmine. I went
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ashore to sea and on the village green by forgotten graves.
On the beach found the youths and maidens dancing flower
garland and flower bedecked with strange phosphorescent flowers in their
hair that pulsed and dimmed and glowed in the moonlight.
Farther along the beach we came upon a huge grass house,
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oval shaped seventy feet in length, where the elders of
the village were singing Hymeni's. They too were flower, garland
and jolly, and they welcomed us into the fold as
little lost sheep straying along from outer darkness. Early next
morning to hay was on board with a string of
fresh caught fish and an invitation to dinner for that evening.
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On the way to dinner, we dropped in at that
hemene house. The same elders were singing, and here or
there a youth or maiden that we had not seen
the previous night. From all the signs a feast was
in preparation. Towering up from the floor was a mountain
of fruits and vegetables, flanked on either side by numerous
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chickens tethered by cocoanut strips. After several humennaes had been sung,
one of the men arose and made oration. The oration
was made to us, and though it was Greek to us,
we knew that in some way it connected us with
that mountain of provender. Can it be that there presenting
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us with all that Charmian whispered impossible? I muttered back,
Why should they be giving it to us? Besides, there
is no room on the snark for it. We could
not eat a tithe of it. The rest would spoil
Maybe their inviting us to the feast at any rate,
that they should give all that to us is impossible. Nevertheless,
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we found ourselves once more in the high seat of abundance.
The orator, by gestures unmistakable in detail, presented every item
in the mountain to us, and next he presented it
to us in toto. It was an embarrassing moment. What
would you do if you lived in a hall bedroom
and a friend gave you a white elephant. Our snark
(33:14):
was no more than a hall bedroom, and already she
was loaded down with the abundance of taha. This new
supply was too much. We blushed and stammered and maru roud.
We maruroued with repeated nouise, which conveyed the largeness and
overwhelmingness of our thanks. At the same time, by signs,
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we committed the awful breach of etiquette of not accepting
the present. The hamenae singer's disappointment was plainly betrayed, and
that evening aided But to Hay. We compromised by accepting
one chicken, one bunch of bananas, one bunch of taro,
and so on down the list. But there was no
(33:58):
escaping the abundance. I bought a dozen chickens from a
native out in the country, and the following day he
delivered thirteen chickens, along with a canoe load of fruit.
The French storekeeper presented us with pomegranates and lent us
his finest horse. The gendarmes did likewise, lending us a
horse that was the very apple of his eye, and
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everybody sent us flowers. The snark was a fruit stand
and a greengrocer's shop masquerading under the guise of a conservatory.
We went around flower garlanded all the time. When the
Jmenae singers came on board to sing, the maidens kissed
us welcome, and the crew from captain the cabin boy
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lost its heart to the maidens of Boroboro. To Heyey
got up a big fishing expedition in our honor, to
which we went in a double canoe, paddled by a
dozen strapping amazons. We were relieved that no fish were caught,
else the snark would have sunk at our mon. The
days passed, but the abundance did not diminish. On the
(35:06):
day of departure, canoe after canoe put off to us
to Haye brought cucumbers and a young papietree burdened with
splendid fruit. Also for me, he brought a tiny double
canoe with fishing apparatus complete. Further, he brought fruits and
vegetables with the same lavishness as at Taha. Bi Aura
(35:28):
brought various special presents for Charmians, such as silk, cotton pillows,
fans and fancy mats. The whole population brought fruits flowers
and chickens, and bi Aura added a live sucking pig.
Natives whom I did not remember ever having seen before,
straight over the rail and presented me with such things
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as fish poles, fish lines, and fish hooks carved from
pearl shell. As the snark sailed out through the reef,
we had a cutter in tow This was the craft
that was to take Biaura back to Taha, but not
to Haye. I had yielded at last. He was one
of the crew of the snark. When the cutter cast
(36:13):
off and headed east, and the snark's bough turned towards
the west to Hayey knelt down by the cockpit and
breathed a silent prayer, the tears flowing down his cheeks.
A week later, when Martin got around to developing and printing,
he showed to Haye some of the photographs, and that
brown skinned son of Polynesia, gazing on the pictured lineaments
(36:37):
of his beloved Viarua, broke down in tears. But the
abundance there was so much of it. We could not
work the snark for the fruit that was in the way.
She was festooned with fruit. The life boat and launch
were packed with it. The awning guise groaned under their burdens.
But once we struck the full trade wind sea, the
(36:58):
disburdening began. At every roll the snark shook overboard a
bunch or so of bananas and cocoanuts, or a basket
of limes. A golden flood of limes washed about in
the least scuppers. The big baskets of yams burst, and
pineapples and pomegranates rolled back and forth. The chickens had
got loose and were everywhere roosting on the awnings, fluttering
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and squawking out on the jib boom, and essaying the
perilous feet of balancing on the spinnaker boom. They were
wild chickens, accustomed to flight. When attempts were made to
catch them, they flew out over the ocean, circled about,
and came back. Sometimes they did not come back, and
in the confusion, unobserved, the little sucking pig got loose
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and slipped overboard. On the arrival of strangers, every man
endeavored to obtain one as a friend and carry him
off to his own habitation, where he is treated with
the greatest kindness by the inhabitants of the district. They
place him on a high seat and feed him with
(38:05):
abundance of the finest foods. End of Chapter twelve, recorded
by Todd Lennon, Albuquerque, New Mexico, New Year's Eve, two
thousand and eight,
Chapter twelve of the Crews of the Snark. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Todd Lennon. The Crews of the Snark by
(00:23):
Jack London, Chapter twelve, The High Seat of Abundance. On
the arrival of strangers, every man endeavored to obtain one
as a friend and carry him off to his own habitation,
where he is treated with the greatest kindness by the
inhabitants of the district. They place him on a high
(00:43):
seat and feed him with abundance of the finest food.
Polynesian researches. The Snark was lying at anchor at Ryetaea,
just off the village of Utuua. She had arrived the
night before after dark, and we were preparing to pay
our first visit ashore. Early in the morning I had
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noticed a tiny outrigger canoe with an impossible sprit sail
skimming the surface of the lagoon. The canoe itself was
coffin shaped, a mere dugout fourteen feet long, a scant
twelve inches wide and maybe twenty four inches deep. It
had no lines, except in so far that it was
(01:28):
sharp at both ends. Its sides were perpendicular. Shorn of
the outrigger, it would have capsized itself inside a tenth
of a second. It was the outrigger that kept it
right side up. I have said that the sail was impossible.
It was. It was one of those things that you
(01:48):
have to see to believe, but that you cannot believe
after you've seen it. The hoist of it, the length
of its boom, was sufficiently appalling, but not content with that.
Its artificer had given it a tremendous head. So large
was the head that no common sprit could carry the
strain of it in an ordinary breeze. So a spar
(02:11):
had been lashed to the canoe, projecting aft over the water.
To this had been made fast a sprit guy. Thus
the foot of the sail was held by the main sheet,
and the peak by the guy to the sprit. It
was not a mere boat, not a mere canoe, but
a sailing machine, and the man in it sailed it
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by his weight and his nerve, principally by the latter.
I watched the canoe beat up from leeward and run
in towards the village, its sole occupant far out on
the outrigger and luffing up and spilling the wind and
the puffs. Well, I know one thing, I announced, I
don't leave Rayetaea until I've had a ride in that canoe.
(02:55):
A few minutes later, Warren called down the companionway. Here's
that canoe you were talking about. Promptly, I dashed on
deck and gave greeting to its owner, a tall, slender Polynesian,
ingenious of face and with clear, sparkling, intelligent eyes. He
was clad in a scarlet loincloth and a straw hat.
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In his hands were presents a fish, a bunch of greens,
and several enormous yambs, all of which acknowledged by smiles
which are coinage still in isolated spots of Polynesia, and
by frequent repetitions of Maruru, which is the Tahitian thank you.
I proceeded to make signs that I desired to go
(03:37):
for a sail in his canoe. His face lighted with pleasure,
and he uttered the single word tah turning at the
same time and pointing to the lofty, cloud draped peaks
of an island three miles away the island of Taha.
It was fair wind over, but a hard beat back.
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Now I did not want to go to j Ha.
I had letters to deliver in Ryoteia and officials to see,
and there was Charmien down below, getting ready to go ashore.
By insistent signs, I indicated that I desired no more
than a short sail on the lagoon. Quick was the
disappointment in his face, Yet smiling was his acquiescence. Come
(04:21):
on for a sail, I called below to Charmian, But
put on your swimming suit. It's going to be wet.
It wasn't real. It was a dream. That canoe slid
over the water like a streak of silver. I climbed
out on the outrigger and supplied the weight to hold
her down, while to Hai supplied the nerve. He too,
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and the puffs climbed part way out on the outrigger
at the same time, steering with both hands on a
large paddle and holding the main sheet with his foot
ready about he called, I carefully shifted my weight inboard
in order to maintain the equilibrium as the sail in
hard a lee, he called, shooting her into the wind.
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I slid out on the opposite side over the water
on a spar lashed across the canoe, and we were
falling away on the other tack. All Right said to
he those three phrases ready about heart a lee, and
all Right comprised to Hayes's English vocabulary and led me
to suspect that at some time he had been one
(05:27):
of a Kanaka crew under an American captain. Between the puffs,
I made signs to him and repeatedly interrogatively uttered the
word sailor. Then I tried it an atrocious French Marin
conveyed no meaning to him, nor did mate a low.
Either my French was bad, or else he was not
(05:48):
up in it. I have since concluded that both conjectures
were correct. Finally I began naming over the adjacent islands.
He nodded that he had been to them. By the
time my quest reached Tahiti. He caught my drift. His
thought processes were almost visible, and it was a joy
to watch him think. He nodded his head vigorously, Yes,
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he'd been to Tahiti, and he added himself names of
islands such as Tikihou, Rangaroa and Fakarava. Thus proving that
he had sailed as far as the Puamotus, undoubtedly one
of the crew of a trading schooner. After our short sail,
when he had returned on board, he by signs inquired
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the destination of the snark, And when I had mentioned Samoa, Fiji,
New Guinea, France, England and California in their geographical sequence,
he said Samoa, and by the gestures intimated that he
wanted to go along. Whereupon I was hard put to
explain that there was no room for him, but tit,
(06:54):
Butteau finally solved it, and again the disappointment in his
face was accompanied by miling acquiescence, and promptly came the
renewed invitation to accompany him to Taha. Charmis and I
looked at each other. The exhilaration of the ride we
had taken was still upon us. Forgotten were the letters
to Ryetea and officials we had to visit. Shoes, a shirt,
(07:19):
a pair of trousers, cigarettes, matches, a book to read
were hastily crammed into a biscuit tin and wrapped in
a rubber blanket. And we were over the side into
the canoe. When shall we look for you, Warren called,
as the wind filled the sail and sent to Hay
and me scurrying out on the outrigger. I don't know,
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I answered, when we get back as near as I
can figure it, and away we went. The wind had increased,
and with slacked sheets we ran off before it. The
free board of the canoe was no more than two
and a half inches, and the little waves continually lapped
over the side. This required baling. Now, baling is one
(08:01):
of the principal functions of the vehinae. Vohena is the
Tunisian Tahitian word for woman, and Charmian, being the only
Vehenae aboard, the baling fell appropriately to her. Tahai and
I could not very well do it, the both of
us being perched part way out on the out rigor
and busied with keeping the canoe bottom side down. So
(08:23):
Charmian bailed with a wooden scoop of primitive design, and
so well she did do it that there were occasions
when she could rest off almost half the time. Ryataea
and Taha are unique in that they lie inside the
same encircling reef. Both are volcanic islands ragged of skyline
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with heaving, aspiring peaks and minarets. Since Ryataea is thirty
miles in circumference in Taha fifteen miles, some idea may
be gained of the magnitude of the reef that encloses them.
Between them and the reef stretches from war one to
two miles of water, forming a beautiful lagoon. The huge
(09:04):
Pacific seas, extending in unbroken lines, sometimes a mile or
a half as much again in length, hurl themselves upon
the reef over, towering and falling upon it with tremendous crashes.
And yet the fragile coral structure withstands the shock and
protects the land outside lies destruction to the mightiest ship.
(09:25):
Afloat inside rains the calm of untroubled water, whereupon a
canoe like ours can sail with no more than a
couple of inches of freeboard. We flew over the water,
and such water clear as the clearest spring water, and
crystalline in its clearness, all enter shot with the maddening
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pageant of colors and rainbow ribbons more magnificently gorgeous than
any rainbow. Jade green alternated with turquoise, peacock blue with emerald,
while now the canoe skimmed over reddish purple pools, and
again over pools of dazzling shimmering white, where pounded coral
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sand lay beneath, and upon which oozed monstrous sea slugs.
One moment we were above wonder gardens of coral, wherein
colored fishes disported, fluttering like marine butterflies. The next moment
we were dashing across the dark surface of deep channels,
out of which schools of flying fish lifted their silvery flight.
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And a third moment we were above other gardens of
living coral, each more wonderful than the last. And above
all was the tropic trade wind sky, with its fluffy
clouds racing across the zenith and heaping the horizon with
their soft masses. Before we were aware, we were close
in to Taha, and Tahi was grinning approval of the
(10:49):
vehines proficiency. At Baling, the canoe grounded to a shallow
shore twenty feet from land. We waded out on a
soft bottom, where big slow bugs curled and writhed under
our feet, and where small octopuses advertised their existence by
their superlative softness when stepped upon close to the beach,
amid coconut palms and banana trees erected on stilts built
(11:14):
of bamboo with grass thatched rows. Was to Hayes's house,
and out of the house came to Hayes Vehine, a
slender mighte of a woman, kindly eyed and Mongolian of
feature when she was not North American Indian. B Aura
to Haye caller, but he did not pronounce it. According
(11:35):
to English notions of spelling, spelled b I h a
U r a. It sounded like b aurah, with every
syllable sharply emphasized. She took Charmian by the hand and
led her into the house, leaving to Haye and me
to follow. Here by sign language unmistakable, we were informed
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that all all they possessed was ours. No Hidalgo was
ever more generous in the expression of giving, while I'm
sure that few Hidalgos were ever as generous in the
actual practice. We quickly discovered that we dare not admire
their possessions, for whenever we did admire a particular object,
it was immediately presented to us. The two vehines, according
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to the way of vehines, got together in a discussion
and examination of feminine fripperies, while to he A and
I manlike went over fishing tackle and wild pig hunting,
to say nothing of the device whereby banitas are caught
on forty foot poles from double canoes. Charmian admired a
sewing basket, the best example she had seen of Polynesian basketry.
(12:48):
It was hers. I admired a benita hook carved in
one piece from a pearl shell. It was mine. Charmian
was attracted by a fancy braid of straws, thirty feet
of it in a roll, sufficient to make a hat
of any design one wished. The role of senate was hers.
(13:09):
My gaze lingered upon a Poi pounder that dated back
to the old Stone days. It was mine. Charmian dwelt
a moment too long on a wooden Poi bowl canoe
shaped with four legs, all curved in one piece of wood.
It was hers. I glanced a second time at a
gigantic coconut calabash. It was mine. Then Charmion and I
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held a conference in which we resolved to admire no more,
not because it did not pay well enough, but because
it paid too well also, we were already racking our
brains over the contents of the snark for suitable returned presents.
Christmas is an easy problem compared with a Polynesian giving feast.
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We sat on the cool porch on Bihaura's best mats
while dinner was preparing, and at the same time met
the villagers in twos and threes. In groups. They strayed along,
shaking hands and uttering the Tahitian word of greeting, yorana
pronounced yurana. The men, big strapping fellows, were in loincloths
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with here and there no shirt, while the women wore
the universal aho, a sort of adult pinafore that flows
in graceful lines from the shoulders to the ground. Sad
to see was the elephantiasis that afflicted some of them.
Here would be a comely woman of magnificent proportions, with
the port of a queen, yet marred by one arm
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four times or a dozen times the size of the other.
Beside her might stand a six foot man, erect, mighty muscled, bronzed,
and with the body of a god, yet with feet
in calves so swollen that they ran together forming legs shapeless,
monstrous that were for all the world like elephant legs.
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No one seems really to know the cause of the
south Sea elephantiasis. One theory is that it is caused
by the drinking of polluted water. Another theory attributed attributes
it to inoculation through mosquito bites. A third theory charges
it to predisposition plus the process of acclimatization. On the
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other hand, no one that stands in finicky dread of
it in similar disease can afford to travel in the
South seas. There will be occasions when such a one
must drink water. There may be also occasions when the
mosquitoes let up biting, But every precaution of the finicky
one will be useless. If he runs barefoot across the
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beach to have a swim, he will tread where an
Elephantiasa's case trod a few minutes before. If he closets
himself in his own house, yet every bit of fresh
food on his table will have been subjected to the contamination,
be it flesh, fish, fowl, or vegetable. In the public
market at Papiete, two known lepers run stalls, and heaven
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alone knows through what channels arrive at that market the
daily supplies of fish, fruit, meat and vegetables. The only
way to go through the South Seas is with a
careless poise, without apprehension, and with a Christian science like
faith in the resplendent fortune of your own particular star.
When you see a woman afflicted with elephantiasis wringing out
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cream from cocoanut meat with her naked hands, drink and
reflect how good is the cream forgetting the hands that
pressed it out. Also remember that diseases such as elephantiasis
and leprosy do not seem to be caught by contact.
We watched a Raritangan woman with swollen, distorted limbs our
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coconut cream, and then went out to the cook shed
where to Heye and Biaura were cooking dinner. And then
it was served to us on a dry goods box
in the house. Our hosts waited until we were done
and then spread their table on the floor. But our
table we were certainly in the high seat of abundance. First,
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there was glorious raw fish caught several hours before from
the sea and steeped in the intervening time, and lime
juice diluted with water. Then came roast chicken, two coconuts,
sharply sweet, served for drink. There were bananas that tasted
like strawberries and that melted in the mouth. And there
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was banana poi that made one regret his Yankee forebears
ever attempted puddings. Then there was boiled yam, boiled taro,
and roasted fays, which last are nothing more or less
than large, mealy, juice red colored cooking bananas. We marveled
at the abundance, And even as we marveled, a pig
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was brought on, a whole pig, a sucking pig, swathed
in green leaves, and roasted upon the hot stones of
a native oven, the most honorable and triumphant dish in
the Polynesian cuisine. After that came coffee, black coffee, delicious coffee,
native coffee grown on the hillsides of Taha. Tahie's fishing
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tackle fascinated me, and after we arranged to go fishing,
Charmian and I decided to remain all night. Again Tahie
broached samoa, and again my petite Buteau brought the disappointment
and the smile of acquiescence to his face. Bora Bora
was my next port. It was not so far away,
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but that cutters made the passage back and forth between
it and Riotea. So I invited to Haye to go
that far with us on the snow. Then I learned
that his wife had been born on Borabora and still
owned a house there. She likewise was invited, and immediately
came the counter invitation to stay with them in their
(19:12):
house in Borobora. It was Monday. Tuesday, we would go
fishing and return to Rayetaea. Wednesday we would sail by
Taha and off a certain point a mile away, pick
up to Haye and Bourah, and go on to Borobora.
All this we arranged in detail, and talked over scores
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of other things as well. And yet to Haye knew
three phrases in English, Charmi and I knew possibly a
dozen Tahitian words, and among the four of us there
were a dozen or so French words that all understood.
Of course, such polyglot conversation was slow, but eked out
with a pad, a lead pencil, the face of a
(19:54):
clock Charmian drew on the back of a pad, and
with ten thousand and one gestures managed to get on
very nicely. At the first moment we evidenced an inclination
for bed. The visiting natives with soft diirrhanas faded away
into haye in Biarura likewise faded away. The house consisted
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of one large room, and it was given over to us,
our host going elsewhere for sleep. In truth, their castle
was ours. And right here I want to say that
of all the entertainment I have received in this world,
at the hands of all sorts of races, in all
sorts of places, I have never received entertainment that equal
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to this at the hands of this brown skinned couple
of Taha. I do not refer to the presence, the
free handed generousness, the high abundance, but to the fineness
of courtesy and consideration intact, and to the sympathy that
was real sympathy in that it was understanding. They did
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nothing they thought ought to be done for us according
to their own standards, but they did what they divined
we wanted to be done for us. While their divination
was most successful, it would be impossible to enumerate the
hundreds of little acts of consideration they performed during the
few days of our intercourse. Let it suffice for me
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to say that of all hospitality and entertainment I have known,
in no case was theirs not only not excelled, but
in no case was it quite equaled. Perhaps the most
delightful features of it was that it was due to
no training, to no complex social ideals, but that it
was untutored and spontaneous, outpouring from their hearts. The next
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morning we went fishing, that is Taha'i Charmian and I
did in the coffin shaped canoe. But this time the
enormous sail was left behind. There was no room for
sailing and fishing at the same time. In that tiny craft,
several miles away inside the reef and a channel twenty
fathoms deep, Tahayei dropped his baited hooks in rock sinkers.
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The bait was chunks of octopus flesh, which he bit
out of live octopus that rifed in the bottom of
the canoe. Nine of these lines he set. Each line
attached to one end of a short length of bamboo
floating on the surface. When a fish was hooked, the
end of the bamboo was drawn under the water. Naturally,
the other end rose up in the air, bobbing and
(22:29):
waving frantically for us to make haste. And make haste
we did, with whoops and yells, and driving paddles from
one signaling bamboo to another, hauling up from the depths
great glistening beauties from two to three feet in length,
steadily to the eastward. An ominous squall had been rising
and blotting out the bright trade wind sky. As we
(22:52):
were three miles to the leeward of home. We started
as the first wind gus whitened the water. Then came
the rain. Such rain is only the tropics of Ford,
where every tap and main in the sky is open wide,
and when to top it all, the very reservoir itself
spills over in blinding deluge. Well, Charmian was in a
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swimming suit, I was in pajamas, and Tahayei wore only
a loincloth. Bi Ourah was on the beach waiting for us,
and she led Charmian into the house in much the
same fashion that a mother leads in a naughty little
girl who's been playing in mud puddles. It was a
change of clothes and a dry and quiet smoke. While
(23:35):
Kai Kai was preparing Kai Kai, by the way, is
the Polynesian for food or to eat, or rather it
is one form of the original root, whatever it may
have been, that has been distributed far and wide over
the vast area of the Pacific. It is kai in
the marquesses Raritanga, manik Hiki, Nieyu, Faka, Foe, Tonga, New Zealand,
(24:03):
and Vatae in Tahiti. To eat changes to amu in Hawaii,
in Samoa, to Ai in ban to Kana in Nina,
to Kana in Nagone, to kaka, and in New Caledonia
to qai. But by whatever sound or symbol, it was
(24:27):
welcomed to our ears. After that long paddle in the rain,
once more we sat in the high seat of abundance,
until we regretted that we had been made unlike the
image of the giraffe and the camel. Again, when we
were preparing to return to the snark, the sky to
windward turned black, and another squall swooped down, but this
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time it was little rain and all wind. It blew
hour after hour, moaning and screeching through the palms, tearing
and wrenching and shaking the frail bamboo dwelling, while the
outer reef set on a mighty thundering as it broke
the force of the swinging seas. Inside the reef, the
lagoon sheltered, though it was was white with fury, and
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not even to Haye's seamanship could have enabled his slender
canoe to live in such a welter. By sunset, the
back of the squall had broken, though it was still
too rough for the canoe. So I had to Haye
find a native who was willing to venture his cutter
across to Rietaea for the outrageous sum of two dollars Chile,
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which is equivalent in our money to ninety cents. Half
the village was told off to carry presents with which
to Hay in Bioura speeded their parting guests, captive chickens, fishes,
dressed and swathed in wrappings of green leaves, great golden
bunches of bananas, leafy baskets spilling over with oranges and limes,
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alligator pears, the butter fruit also called the avoca, huge
baskets of yams, bunches of tarot and cocoa nuts, and
last of all, large branches and trunks of trees. Firewood
for the snark While on the way to the cutter,
we met the only white man unto high and of
all men, George Lufkin, a native of New England, eighty
(26:20):
six years of age. He was sixty eight, of which
he said he had spent in the Society Islands, with
occasional absences, such as the gold rush to El Dorado
in forty nine, in a short period of ranching in
California near Tulare, given no more than three months by
the doctors to live, he had returned to a south
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seas and lived to eighty six, and to chuckle over
the doctors aforesaid, who were all in their graves. Faithae
he had, which is the native for elephantiasis, and which
is pronounced faithae, a quarter of a century before the
disease had fastened upon him, and it would remain with
him until he died. We asked him about Kith, and
(27:03):
kin Beside him sat a sprightly damsel of sixty his daughter.
She's all I have, he murmured plaintively, and she has
no children living. The cutter was a small sloop rigged affair,
but large it seemed along to Haye's canoe. On the
other hand, when we got out on the lagoon, we
were struck by another heavy wind squall. The cutter became Lilipus,
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while the Snark, in our imagination, seemed to promise all
the stability and permanence of a continent. They were good
boatmen to Heye and Biherua had come along to see
us home, and the latter proved a good boat woman herself.
The cutter was well ballasted and we met the squall
under full sail. It was getting dark. The lagoon was
(27:50):
full of coral patches, and we were carrying on in
the height of the squall. We had to go about
in order to make a short leg to windward to
pass around a patch of coral no more than a
foot under the surface. As the cutter filled on the
other tack, and while she was in that dead condition
that proceeds gathering way, she was knocked flat. Jib sheet
(28:12):
and main sheet were let go, and she righted into
the wind. Three times she was knocked down, and three
times the sheets were flung loose before she could get
away on that tack. By the time we went about again,
darkness had fallen. We were now to windward of the snark,
and the squall was howling. In came the jib, and
down came the mainsail, all but a patch of it
(28:34):
the size of a pillow slip. By an accident, we
missed the snark, which was riding it out on two anchors,
and drove a ground upon the inshore coral, running the
longest line on the snark by means of the launch,
and after an hour's hard work, we heaved the cutter
off and had her lying safely. Astern the day we
(28:55):
sailed for Boro Bora. The wind was light and we
crossed the lagoon under power to the point point where
to Haii and be Arua were to meet us. As
we made into the land between the coral banks, we
vainly scanned the shore for our friends. There was no
sign of them. We can't wait, I said, This breeze
won't fetch us to Boro boro by dark, and I
(29:15):
don't want to use any more gasoline than I have.
You see gasoline in the South seas as a problem.
One never knows when he'll be able to replenish his supply.
But just then Tahaie appeared through the trees. As he
came down to the water, he had peeled off his
shirt and was wildly waving it. B Arua apparently was
(29:37):
not ready. Once aboard, Tahaii informed us by signs that
he must we must proceed along the land till we
got opposite to his house. He took the wheel and
conned the snark through the coral around point after point
till we cleared the last point of all. Cries of
welcome went up from the beach, and b Arua, assisted
(29:58):
by several of the villagers, brought off two canoe loads
of abundance. There were yams, taro, fays, bread fruit, cocoanuts, oranges, limes, pineapples,
water melons, alligator pears, pomegranates, fish, chickens galore crowing and
(30:18):
crackling and laying eggs on our decks, and a live
pig that squealed infernally and all the time, and apprehension
of eminent slaughter under the rising moon. We came in
through the perilous passage of the reef of Borabora and
dropped anchor off via type a village. Biarua, with housewifely anxiety,
(30:40):
could not get Ashore too quickly to her house to
prepare more abundance for us. While the launch was taking
her into Hayey to the little jetty. The sound of
music and of singing drifted across the quiet lagoon. Throughout
the Society Islands. We had been continually informed that we
would find the boro Borans very jolly charmine. I went
(31:01):
ashore to sea and on the village green by forgotten graves.
On the beach found the youths and maidens dancing flower
garland and flower bedecked with strange phosphorescent flowers in their
hair that pulsed and dimmed and glowed in the moonlight.
Farther along the beach we came upon a huge grass house,
(31:21):
oval shaped seventy feet in length, where the elders of
the village were singing Hymeni's. They too were flower, garland
and jolly, and they welcomed us into the fold as
little lost sheep straying along from outer darkness. Early next
morning to hay was on board with a string of
fresh caught fish and an invitation to dinner for that evening.
(31:45):
On the way to dinner, we dropped in at that
hemene house. The same elders were singing, and here or
there a youth or maiden that we had not seen
the previous night. From all the signs a feast was
in preparation. Towering up from the floor was a mountain
of fruits and vegetables, flanked on either side by numerous
(32:06):
chickens tethered by cocoanut strips. After several humennaes had been sung,
one of the men arose and made oration. The oration
was made to us, and though it was Greek to us,
we knew that in some way it connected us with
that mountain of provender. Can it be that there presenting
(32:27):
us with all that Charmian whispered impossible? I muttered back,
Why should they be giving it to us? Besides, there
is no room on the snark for it. We could
not eat a tithe of it. The rest would spoil
Maybe their inviting us to the feast at any rate,
that they should give all that to us is impossible. Nevertheless,
(32:51):
we found ourselves once more in the high seat of abundance.
The orator, by gestures unmistakable in detail, presented every item
in the mountain to us, and next he presented it
to us in toto. It was an embarrassing moment. What
would you do if you lived in a hall bedroom
and a friend gave you a white elephant. Our snark
(33:14):
was no more than a hall bedroom, and already she
was loaded down with the abundance of taha. This new
supply was too much. We blushed and stammered and maru roud.
We maruroued with repeated nouise, which conveyed the largeness and
overwhelmingness of our thanks. At the same time, by signs,
(33:36):
we committed the awful breach of etiquette of not accepting
the present. The hamenae singer's disappointment was plainly betrayed, and
that evening aided But to Hay. We compromised by accepting
one chicken, one bunch of bananas, one bunch of taro,
and so on down the list. But there was no
(33:58):
escaping the abundance. I bought a dozen chickens from a
native out in the country, and the following day he
delivered thirteen chickens, along with a canoe load of fruit.
The French storekeeper presented us with pomegranates and lent us
his finest horse. The gendarmes did likewise, lending us a
horse that was the very apple of his eye, and
(34:21):
everybody sent us flowers. The snark was a fruit stand
and a greengrocer's shop masquerading under the guise of a conservatory.
We went around flower garlanded all the time. When the
Jmenae singers came on board to sing, the maidens kissed
us welcome, and the crew from captain the cabin boy
(34:42):
lost its heart to the maidens of Boroboro. To Heyey
got up a big fishing expedition in our honor, to
which we went in a double canoe, paddled by a
dozen strapping amazons. We were relieved that no fish were caught,
else the snark would have sunk at our mon. The
days passed, but the abundance did not diminish. On the
(35:06):
day of departure, canoe after canoe put off to us
to Haye brought cucumbers and a young papietree burdened with
splendid fruit. Also for me, he brought a tiny double
canoe with fishing apparatus complete. Further, he brought fruits and
vegetables with the same lavishness as at Taha. Bi Aura
(35:28):
brought various special presents for Charmians, such as silk, cotton pillows,
fans and fancy mats. The whole population brought fruits flowers
and chickens, and bi Aura added a live sucking pig.
Natives whom I did not remember ever having seen before,
straight over the rail and presented me with such things
(35:50):
as fish poles, fish lines, and fish hooks carved from
pearl shell. As the snark sailed out through the reef,
we had a cutter in tow This was the craft
that was to take Biaura back to Taha, but not
to Haye. I had yielded at last. He was one
of the crew of the snark. When the cutter cast
(36:13):
off and headed east, and the snark's bough turned towards
the west to Hayey knelt down by the cockpit and
breathed a silent prayer, the tears flowing down his cheeks.
A week later, when Martin got around to developing and printing,
he showed to Haye some of the photographs, and that
brown skinned son of Polynesia, gazing on the pictured lineaments
(36:37):
of his beloved Viarua, broke down in tears. But the
abundance there was so much of it. We could not
work the snark for the fruit that was in the way.
She was festooned with fruit. The life boat and launch
were packed with it. The awning guise groaned under their burdens.
But once we struck the full trade wind sea, the
(36:58):
disburdening began. At every roll the snark shook overboard a
bunch or so of bananas and cocoanuts, or a basket
of limes. A golden flood of limes washed about in
the least scuppers. The big baskets of yams burst, and
pineapples and pomegranates rolled back and forth. The chickens had
got loose and were everywhere roosting on the awnings, fluttering
(37:22):
and squawking out on the jib boom, and essaying the
perilous feet of balancing on the spinnaker boom. They were
wild chickens, accustomed to flight. When attempts were made to
catch them, they flew out over the ocean, circled about,
and came back. Sometimes they did not come back, and
in the confusion, unobserved, the little sucking pig got loose
(37:44):
and slipped overboard. On the arrival of strangers, every man
endeavored to obtain one as a friend and carry him
off to his own habitation, where he is treated with
the greatest kindness by the inhabitants of the district. They
place him on a high seat and feed him with
(38:05):
abundance of the finest foods. End of Chapter twelve, recorded
by Todd Lennon, Albuquerque, New Mexico, New Year's Eve, two
thousand and eight,
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