Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year Part 21

One of the most exciting was this encounter with a swordfish, which he relates in a delightful manner.

Red Chicken became my special friend and guide, and on one occasion it was our being together, perhaps, saved his life, and afforded me one of the most thrilling moments of my own.

He and I had gone in a canoe after nightfall to spear fish 5 outside the Bay of Virgins. Night fis.h.i.+ng has its attractions in these tropics, if only for the freedom from severe heat, the glory of the moonlight or starlight, and the waking dreams that come to one upon the sea, when the canoe rests tranquil, the torch blazes, and the fish swim to meet the 10 harpoon. The night was moonless, but the sea was covered with phosph.o.r.escence, sometimes a glittering expanse of light, and again black as velvet except where our canoe moved gently through a soft and glamorous surface of sparkling jewels. A night for a lover, a lady, and a lute.

Our torch of coconut husks and reeds, seven feet high, 5 was fixed at the prow, so that it could be lifted up when needed to attract the fish or better to light the canoe.

Red Chicken, in a scarlet pareu fastened tightly about his loins, stood at the prow when we had reached his favorite spot off a point of land, while I, with a paddle, 10 noiselessly kept the canoe as stationary as possible.

Light is a lure for many creatures of land and sea and sky. The moth and the bat whirl about a flame; the sea bird dashes its body against the bright gla.s.s of the lonely tower; wild deer come to see what has disturbed the dark 15 of the forest; and fish of different kinds leap at a torch.

Red Chicken put a match to ours when we were all in readiness.

The brilliant gleam cleft the darkness and sent across the blackness of the water a beam that was a challenge to the curiosity of the dozing fish. They hastened 20 towards us, and Red Chicken made meat of those that came within the radius of his harpoon, so that within an hour or two our canoe was heaped with half a dozen kinds.

Far off in the path of the flambeau rays I saw the swordfish leaping as they pursued small fish or gamboled for 25 sheer joy in the luminous air. They seemed to be in pairs.

I watched them lazily, with academic interest in their movements, until suddenly one rose a hundred feet away, and in his idle caper in the air I saw a bulk so immense, and a sword of such amazing size, that the thought of danger 30 struck me dumb.

He was twenty-five feet in length, and had a dorsal fin that stood up like the sail of a small boat. But even these dimensions cannot convey the feeling of alarm his presence gave me. His next leap brought him within forty feet of us. I recalled a score of accidents I had seen, read, and heard of; fishermen stabbed, boats rent, steel-clad s.h.i.+ps 5 pierced through and through.

Red Chicken held the torch to observe him better, and shouted: "_Apau!_ Look out! Paddle fast away!"

I needed no urging. I dug into the glowing water madly, and the sound of my paddle on the side of the canoe 10 might have been heard half a mile away. It served no purpose. Suddenly half a dozen of the swordfish began jumping about us, as if stirred to anger by our torch. I called to Red Chicken to extinguish it.

He had seized it to obey when I heard a splash and the 15 canoe received a terrific shock. A tremendous bulk fell upon it. With a sudden swing I was hurled into the air and fell twenty feet away. In the water I heard a swish, and glimpsed the giant espadon as he leaped again.

I was unhurt, but feared for Red Chicken. He had 20 cried out as the canoe went under, but I found him by the outrigger, trying to right the craft. Together we succeeded, and when I had ousted some of the water, Red Chicken crawled in.

"_Papaoufaa!_ I am wounded slightly," he said, as I 25 a.s.sisted him. "The Spear of the Sea has thrust me through."

The torch was lost, but I felt a big hole in the calf of his right leg. Blood was pouring from the wound. I made a tourniquet of a strip of my pareu and, with a small harpoon, 30 twisted it until the flow of blood was stopped. Then, guided by him, I paddled as fast as I could to the beach, on which there was little trouble in landing as the bay was smooth.

Red Chicken did not utter a complaint from the moment of his first outcry, and when I roused others and he was carried to his house, he took the pipe handed him and 5 smoked quietly.

"The Aavehie was against him," said an old man.

Aavehie is the G.o.d of fishermen, who was always propitiated by intending anglers in the polytheistic days and who still has power. 10

There was no white doctor on the island, nor had there been one for many years. There was nothing to do but call the _tatihi_, or native doctor, an aged and shriveled man whose whole body was an intricate pattern of tattooing and wrinkles. He came at once, and with his clawlike 15 hands cleverly drew together the edges of Red Chicken's wound and gummed them in place with the juice of the _ape_, a bulbous plant like the edible taro. Red Chicken must have suffered keenly, for the _ape_ juice is exceedingly caustic, but he made no protest, continuing to puff the pipe. Over 20 the wound the _tatihi_ applied a leaf, and bound the whole very carefully with a bandage of tapa cloth, folded in surgical fas.h.i.+on.

--_White Shadows in the South Seas._

1. What were the author and Red Chicken doing at the outset? Read the lines where the adventure begins.

2. Like most real adventures this one was all over in a moment. What happened? Why did it occur?

3. Spell, p.r.o.nounce, and explain: phosph.o.r.escence, lure, stationary, propitiated, polytheistic, tattooing, caustic.

(Taken from O'Brien's _White Shadows in the South Seas_ by permission of the publishers, The Century Co.)

A BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST

BY RUDYARD KIPLING

No man has written more stirring tales, in prose or verse, in recent times than Rudyard Kipling. Born (1865) in Bombay, India, the son of an Englishman in the civil service, he became steeped in the ways of the men of the East. Consequently his first writings were sketches of Anglo-Indian life, written for Indian newspapers with which he was connected. Then followed a series of books on Eastern themes, some in prose and others in verse.

Among these was _Departmental Ditties_ from which the following narrative poem is taken. Read it through first to get the story and the atmosphere in mind.

Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border side, And he has lifted the Colonel's mare that is the Colonel's pride: He has lifted her out of the stable door between the dawn and the day, 5 And turned the calkins upon her feet, and ridden her far away.

Then up and spoke the Colonel's son that led a troop of the Guides: "Is there never a man of all my men can say where Kamal 10 hides?"

Then up and spoke Mahommed Khan, the son of the Ressaldar, "If ye know the track of the morning mist, ye know where his pickets are. 15

"At dusk he harries the Abazai--at dawn he is in Bonair; But he must go by Fort Bukloh to his own place to fare So if ye gallop to Fort Bukloh as fast as a bird can fly, By the favor of G.o.d ye may cut him off ere he win to the Tongue of Jagai. 5 But if he be pa.s.sed the Tongue of Jagai, right swiftly turn ye then, For the length and the breadth of that grisly plain is sown with Kamal's men.

There is rock to the left, and rock to the right, and low 10 lean thorn between, And ye may hear a breech bolt snick where never a man is seen."

The Colonel's son has taken a horse, and a raw, rough dun was he, 15 With the mouth of a bell, and the heart of h.e.l.l, and the head of the gallows tree.

The Colonel's son to the fort has won, they bid him stay to eat-- Who rides at the tail of a Border thief, he sits not long at 20 his meat.

He's up and away from Fort Bukloh as fast as he can fly, Till he was aware of his father's mare in the gut of the Tongue of Jagai; Till he was aware of his father's mare with Kamal upon her 25 back, And when he could spy the white of her eye, he made the pistol crack.

He has fired once, he has fired twice, but the whistling ball went wide. 30 "Ye shoot like a soldier," Kamal said. "Show now if ye can ride."

It's up and over the Tongue of Jagai, as blown dust-devils go, The dun he fled like a stag of ten, but the mare like a barren 5 doe.

The dun he leaned against the bit and slugged his head above, But the red mare played with the snaffle bars, as a maiden plays with a glove. 10 There was rock to the left and rock to the right, and low, lean thorn between, And thrice he heard a breech bolt snick tho' never a man was seen.

They have ridden the low moon out of the sky, their hoofs 15 drum up the dawn, The dun he went like a wounded bull, but the mare like a new-roused fawn.

The dun he fell at a watercourse--in a woeful heap fell he, And Kamal has turned the red mare back, and pulled the 20 rider free.

He has knocked the pistol out of his hand--small room was there to strive, "'Twas only by favor of mine," quoth he, "ye rode so long alive: 25 There was not a rock for twenty mile, there was not a clump of tree, But covered a man of my own men with his rifle c.o.c.ked on his knee.

"If I had raised my bridle hand, as I have held it low, The little jackals that flee so fast were feasting all in a row: If I had bowed my head on my breast, as I have held it high, The kite that whistles above us now were gorged till she could not fly." 5

Lightly answered the Colonel's son: "Do good to bird and beast, But count who come for the broken meats before thou makest a feast.

If there should follow a thousand swords to carry my 10 bones away, Belike the price of a jackal's meal were more than a thief could pay.

"They will feed their horse on the standing crop, their men on the garnered grain, 15 The thatch of the byres will serve their fires when all the cattle are slain.

But if thou thinkest the price be fair,--thy brethren wait to sup.

The hound is kin to the jackal sp.a.w.n,--howl, dog, and 20 call them up!

And if thou thinkest the price be high, in steer and gear and stack, Give me my father's mare again, and I'll fight my own way back!" 25

Kamal has gripped him by the hand and set him upon his feet.

"No talk shall be of dogs," said he, "when wolf and gray wolf meet.

May I eat dirt if thou hast hurt of me in deed or breath; What dam of lances brought thee forth to jest at the dawn with Death?"

Lightly answered the Colonel's son: "I hold by the blood of my clan: 5 Take up the mare of my father's gift--by G.o.d, she has carried a man!"

The red mare ran to the Colonel's son and nuzzled against his breast, "We be two strong men," said Kamal then, "but she loveth 10 the younger best.

So she shall go with the lifter's dower, my turquoise-studded rein, My broidered saddle and saddlecloth, and silver stirrups twain." 15