White Shadows in the South Seas Part 40

The others were listening curiously. Ghost Girl crossed herself and muttered, "_Kaoha_, Maria Peato!"

"When she had fourteen years, then, Anna was different from all other girls on these beaches. All men sighed for her, but she was one who would not follow the custom of our girls since always. She was made different by her mother, by the prayers of Pere Simeon, and by something strange in her _kuhane_--what do you say? Soul. She cared nothing for drink or _pipi_, the trinkets girls adore. She spoke of herself always as the daughter of a Menike captain, a father who would come for her and take her away. Her mother had kept this always in her mind, and Anna never joined the dances.

"Her mother, who lived on the beach and waited for the sailors, saw her seldom, for Pere Simeon had taken Anna away, and kept her in the nuns' house, and they guarded her. He had put a _tapu_ upon her."

I sat up suddenly, struck by a memory. "It was she who rode the white horse, and bore the armor of Joan in the great parade?"

"It was she. The nuns would have had her live in the nun's house forever, and become one of them. But Anna told me on the beach when she came hiding to see her mother, that she would live in the nuns'

house only until her Menike father came to take her away. She kept the _tiki_ of Bernadette in its silver box upon her neck, and it was her G.o.d to whom she said her prayers."

"_Epo!_" I said, sitting up, dumfounded. "Go on, Tetuahunahuna. Tell me more."

"There came the great day of the blessed Joan," said Tetuahunahuna, after tasting a fresh cigarette. "There were drums and chants, and rum for all. Pere Simeon took away the rum, alas! and only the Menike sailors on the ships could have enough. Anna wore a garment that shone like the sun on the waves, and sat upon a white horse, riding from the mission to the House of Lepers on the beach. Pere Simeon walked before her carrying the tiki of the Sacrament, and there were banners white as the new web of the cocoanut. Anna did not look to right or to left as she sat upon the horse, but when she stood on the sand by the House of Lepers, she looked long at a new ship in the bay.

"Anna said that this ship might be that of her white father, but the name was different, and this ship was not from Newbeddifordima.s.s.

She said she would swim to this ship to see her father, but her mother said no. Her mother told her that the waters were full of sharks, and that not even a _tiki_ of Bernadette would save her.

Then came the nuns, and took Anna away. Anna wept as she went with them, for she desired to stay and look at the ship.

"That night the boats of the ship could not land on the beach of Tai-o-hae, for the sea was too great, so that they came and went from Peikua, the staircase in the rocks. The sailors had leave to do what they wished and they had plenty of rum given them by the captain who was born that day forty years before. I went then to the ship to drink the captain's rum and to buy tobacco. I am of Hiva-oa, and the ship was large, and new to me."

Tetuahunahuna's gesture brought quickly to him a fresh cigarette, and he savored its rank smoke with satisfaction. The slender canoe swung like a hammock in the long, sluggish rollers. The sun blazed pitilessly upon us, and no slightest ruffle of white broke the surface of the calm, unrelenting sea that held us prisoner.

"At night there was n.o.body on the ship not drunk. Some of the men had seized several women on the road that leads to Tai-o-hae, and had forced them to the boat and carried them aboard. Among these women was Anna, who had fled from the nuns to seek word of her father.

She fought like a wild woman of the hills when they held her in jest to make her swallow the rum, but the strong ship men conquered her, and the sound of their laughter and her cries was so great that the captain himself came forward. When he saw her he claimed her as the youngest, as is the custom.

"She went with him weeping. When they came to his cabin, we heard her crying aloud to Maria Peato. We heard the shouts of the captain, enraged, subduing her with blows. There was much rum, and the women were dancing. There was much noise, but I had drunk little, having just come to the ship, and I heard the crying and weeping of Anna."

"After a time came Anna, running across the deck. It was a large vessel, and it was a dark night. The captain pursued her. She climbed the rigging, and the captain ordered two men to go aloft and bring her to him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The gates of the Valley of Hanavave]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A fisherman's house of bamboo and cocoanut leaves]

"Every one came to look, with yells and with songs. The sailors climbed after her, and she went higher and higher, until near the top of that tall mast, taller than the greatest cocoanut-tree in Atuona. There she held to the wood, calling upon Maria Peato. The captain was like a man mad with _namu_. He called to the sailors to climb higher. But when one reached to take her by the foot, she threw herself into the air and fell a great distance into the water.

"The captain cried that he would give four litres of rum to the man that brought her back. Some ran to get the boat, others dived after her. I was one of these.

"I have said that it was a black night. When in the water we could get no sight of her. Then on the ship one turned a bright lantern on the sea, and all of us saw her arm as it was raised to swim. She was a hundred feet before us, and swimming with great swiftness. The sailors meantime had set out in the boat, but they had drunk much rum, and rowed around and around. We three men swimming in the beams of the lantern came closer to her at every stroke.

"Almost my hand was upon her, when the largest shark I have ever seen rose beside her. You know it is at night that these devils look for their prey. Anna saw the _mako_ at the same moment, and made a great splashing. I heard her call out the name of Bernadette the Blessed.

"The men with me turned about, but I kept on. I cried to the boat to hurry to us. I could see the _mako_ turn in the water, as he must do to take anything into his mouth. I kicked him and I struck him, and I cursed him by the name of _Manu-Aiata_, the shark G.o.d. If I had had a knife I could have killed him easily.

"But, Menike, I could do nothing. He did not want me. The boat came, but not in time. I saw the devil take her in his jaws as the wild boar takes a bird that is helpless, and I felt him descend into the depths of the sea. I could do nothing."

A cat's-paw stole across the sea from the southeast, the boat rolled hard, and Tetuahunahuna sprang erect.

"_A toi te ka!_ Make sail!" he said.

They raised the slender mast, a rose-wood tree, roughly shaped in the forest, and fastened it to either thwart with three ropes.

Through a ring at its head was pa.s.sed the lift, and the sail of mats, old and worn, was set, men and women all fastening the strings to the boom. Two sheets were used, one cleated about five feet from the rudder, the other at the disposition of the steersman, who let out the boom according to the wind.

The breeze sprang up and died, and sprang up again. At last the deathly calm, the sickening heat, were over, and we sped across the freshening waves.

Mast and sail out of the way, we stretched ourselves in the boat with more comfort, enjoying the cooling current of air. Tetuahunahuna, the sheet in his hand, squatted again on his narrow perch.

"You returned to that ship when the boat picked you up?" I asked.

"_Aue!_" he replied. "The captain was crazed with anger. He cursed me, and said that the girl has swum ash.o.r.e."

"'No, the shark has taken Anna,' I said. 'She will look for her white father no more.'

"The captain had a gla.s.s of rum at his mouth, but he put it down. He would have me tell him again her name. When I did so, he shook as if with cold, and he swallowed the rum quickly.

"'Where was she born?' he said next.

"'At Hapaa. Her mother is O Take Oho, whose father was eaten by the men of Tai-o-hae,' I said, and looking at his face I saw that his eyes were the color of the _mio_, the rosewood when freshly cut.

"The captain went to his cabin, and soon he leaped up the stairs, falling over the thing they look at to steer the ship, and there, lying on the deck, he cried again and again that I had done wrong not to tell him earlier.

"He held in his hand the _tiki_, the silver box that Anna had always worn about her neck, that her father had given her.

"He was like a wild bull in the hills, that ship's captain, when he arose, roaring and cursing me. I feared that he would shoot me, for he had a revolver in his hand and said that he would kill himself.

But he did not.

"A Marquesan who was as hateful to himself would have eaten the _eva_, but this man had not the courage, with all his cries. I swam ash.o.r.e when he became maddened as a _kava_ drinker who does not eat. The mother of Atuona, whom I told in Tai-o-hae, went to see him, but he did not know her, and she took the _tiki_ from his cabin when she found him praying to it. He was _paea_, his stomach empty of thought. When the ship left, he was tied with the irons they have for sailors, and the second chief sailed the vessel."

The Ghost Girl shook the _ena_-covered maiden.

"_Oi vii!_" she said petulantly. "Take in your feet. Do you want the _mako_ to eat them? Do you not remember your sister?"

The shark still moved a few fathoms away.

We were now in the open sea, with forty miles to go to the Bay of Traitors. The boat lay over at an angle, the boom hissed through the water when close-hauled, and when full-winged, its heel bounced and splashed on the surface, as we made our six knots. There was twice too much weight in the canoe, but these islanders think nothing of loads, and for hours the company sat to windward or on the thwart while we took advantage of every puff of wind that blew. The six oarsmen took turns in bailing, using a heavy carved wooden scoop, but in the frequent flurries the waves poured over the side.

The island of Fatu-hiva faded behind us, and raised Moho-Tani, the Isle of Barking Dogs, a small, but beautifully regular, islet, like a long emerald. No soul dwells there. The Moi-Atiu clan peopled it before a sorcerer dried up the water sources. A curse is upon it, and while the cocoanuts flourish and all is fair to the eye, it remains a shunned and haunted spot.

Tahuata, that lovely isle of the valley of Vait-hua, rose on our left, with the cape _Te hope e te keko_, a purple coast miles away, which as the dusk descended grew darker and was lost. The shadowy silhouettes of the mountains of Hiva-oa projected themselves on the horizon.

Night fell like a wall, and nothing was to be seen but the glow of the pipe that pa.s.sed as if by spirit hands around our huddled group.

The head of Ghost Girl was on my knees, and among the sons and daughters of cannibals peace enveloped me as at twilight in a grove.

More in tune with the moods of nature, the rhythm of sea and sky, the breath of the salt breeze, than we who have sold our birthright for arts, these savages sat silent for a little while as if the spirit of the hour possessed their souls.

Then the stars began to take their places in heaven to do their duty toward the poor of earth, and I saw the bright and inspiring faces of many I knew. The wind shifted and freshened, the sail was drawn nearer, and our speed became perilous. The waves grew, but Tetuahunahuna, seeing nothing, but feeling with sheet and helm the temper of changing air and water, kept the canoe's prow steady, and the men, in emergencies, threw themselves half over the starboard gunwale. I was on the edge of the steersman's perch, enjoying the mist of the flying spray and watching the stars appear one by one.

Tetuahunahuna pointed toward the northern sky.

"_Miope!_ I steer by the star the color of the rosewood tree," he said. There was our own Mars, redder than the sunsets over Mariveles.

Northwest he was, this G.o.d of war and fertility, and our bow beacon.