The morning call., 1891-02-22
4 European Residence.

it may be called, and will almost certainly
berome the tongue of the Pacific.
/ will instance few examples. met in
Majuro Marshall Island boy who spoke
most excellent English. This ne had learned
in the German firm at Jaluit, yet did not
speak one word of German. heard from a
gendarnle. who had taught school in Rapa-
iii, that While the children had the utmost
difficulty or reluctance TO learn French they
picked up English on the wayside, and as If
by accident. On one of the most eut-of- the
way atolls in the CarOlines my friend, Mr..
Benjamin Herd, was amazed to fiud the lads
playing cricket OH The beach and talking
English; and it vas in English that the
crew of the Janet Nlc0ll. a set of black boys
from different Melanesian islands, commu-
nIcated with other natives throughout the
cruise, transmitted orders aud sometimes
jested on the fore hatch.
But what struck me perhaps most of all
was word heard GU the verandah of the
Tribunal at Noumea. A case had just been
heard-a trial for iDfanticide against an
APPEL like native woman, and the audience
were smoking cigarettes as they awaited the
verdict. An anxious, amiable French lady,
not far from tears, was eager for acquittal,
and declared she would engage the prisoner
to be her children's nurse. The bystanders
exclaimed at the proposal: the woman was
Il savage, said they, and spoke no language.
MATS vous savez," objected the fair senti-
nentallSt; Ills apprPnnent 81 vite Angias !"
But to be able TO speak to people is not
NIL And in the first stage of my relations
with natives was helped by two things.
10 begin with, was the Snowman of tue
Casco. She. her fine lines, tall spars and
snowy decks, the crimson fittings of the
saloon, and the White, the gilt and the re-
peating mirrors of the tiny cabin, brought
US hundred visitors. The men fathomed
out her dimensions with their arms, as their
fathers fathomed out the slips of Cook: the
women declared the cabins more lovely
than church, and bouncing Juuos were
never weary of sitting in the chairs aud
contemplating IN the glass their own bland
images.
Biscuit, jam and syrup was the entertain
ment, and, as in European parlors, the pho
tugraph album went the rounds. This sober
gallery, their everyday costumes aud physi-
economies. had become Transformed in thres
weeks sailing into things wonderful and
rich aud foreign; alien faces, barblric
dresses, they We're now beheld and fingered
IN the swerying cabin, with innocent excite
Eient and surprise. Her Majesty was often
recognized ana have seen French subjects
kiss her photograph; Captain Speedy, i'll an
Abyssinian war dress. supposed to be the
uniform of the British army, met with much
acceptance, and the effigies OF Mr.. Andrew
Lang were admired In the Aarquesas.
There is the place for him to 20 when he
shall be weary of Middlesex and Homer.
l9ese points OF similarity between n South
Sea people and some of my own folk at
home ran much in my head Ia the islands !;
and not only inclined me to view my fresh
acquaintance with favor, but continually
modified my Judgment. polite English
man comes to-day to the Marquesans and is
amazed to find the men tattooed; polite
Italians came not long ago to England and
found our fathers stained with woad; and
when paid the return visit as little boy,
| was highly diverted with the backward
ness Of Italy; so Insecure. so much matter
nj dsrT hon
race.
1t was so that hit upon a means of COM
munjealiOn which L recommend TO Travellers
When | desired any detail of savage Gus
tom, or of superstitious belief, l cast back
in the story of my fathers, and fished for
barism; Michael Scott, Lord Derwentwater'
head, the second sight, the Water kelpie,
each of these | have found to be a killing
bait; the black buirS head of Stirling pro-
cured Inc the legend of Rahero; and what
knew of the Cluuy Maephersons, or the
Appin Stewards, enabled NE TO learn, and
helped me 20 understand, about the Teyas
of Tahiti. The native was no longer
ashamed, his sense Of kinship grew
warmer, and his lips were opened. 1t is this
rouse and share, or he had better content
himself With travels from the blue bed to
the brown. And the presence of one cock
ney titterer will cause whole party to walk
in clouds of darkness.
The hamlet OF AnahO stands on a margin
of fiat land between the west of the beach
and the spring OF the impending mountains.
a grove of palms, perpetually ruffling its
green palms, carpets il (aS for triumph
with fallen branches, and shades it like an
arbOr. a road runs from end to end of the
covert among beds Of flowers, the milliner's
shop of the community; and here and there
in the grateful twilight, in an air filled with
a diversity OF scents, aud still within hear
ing OF the surf upon the reef, the native
houses stand in scattered neghborhood.
The same word, as we have seen, represents
in many tongues of Polynesia, with scarce a
share If difference, the abode of man. But,
although the word be the same, the struct-
ure itself continually varies; and the Mar
quesan, among the most backward and bar
baTOus of islanders, was yet the most COM
mOdlously lodged. The grass huts of Hawaii,
the bird-cage houses of Tahiti, or the open
shed, with the c1azy Venetian blinds, of the
polite SamOan-noue of these can be COM
AIRED with tile Marquesan paepae-hae, or
dwelling Plat form.
The pae-pae is an oblong terrace, built
without cement, of black volcanic stone,
from twenty to fifty feet in length, raised
from four to eight feet from the earth, and
accessible by broad stair. Along the back
OF this, and coming TO about half its width
runs the open front OF the house, like COW
cred gallery; the interior, sometimes neat
and almost elegant in its baroness, the Sleep
ing space divided off by an end-long coanl-
ing, some bright Taiment perhaps hangia q
from nail. and lamp and one of Whites
sewing machines the only marks of cVillZa-
ton. On the outside, at one end of the ter
race, burns the cooking fire under a shed;
ar Tie other there is perhaps pen for pigs:
the remainder Is the evening lounge and al
freseO banquet hall of the inhabitants. To
some houses water is brought down the
mountain in bamboo pipes. perforated Tor
the sake of sweetness.
With the Highland comparison in my
mind, was struck TO remember the sluttish
mounds of turf and stone IN which | have
sat and been entertained in the Hebrides
and North Islands. Two things, suppose,
explain The contrast. In Scotland wood is
rare, aud with materials so rude as turf and
stone, the very hope of neatness is excluded
Aad in Scotland it is cold. Shelter and 4
hearth are needs so pressing that a man
looks not beyond; he is out all day after a
bare bellyfull, and at night when he sayeth,
AHA, it is warm - he has not appetite for
more. Or if for something else, then some
thing higher; tine school of poetry and
song arose IN these rough shelters, and an
air Ike "Lochaber no more" Is an evidence
al refinement more convincing, as well as
more imperishable, than a palace
To one such dwelling platform consider.
able troop of relatives and de endents re-
sort. In the hour of the dusk, when the fire
blazes and the scent of the cooked bread
fruit fills the air, and perhaps the lamp
gllutS already between the pillars OF the
house, you shall behold them silently assem-
bic to this meal, men, women and children:
and the dogs and pigs frisk together up the
terrace stairway, switching rival tails. The
strangers from the ship were soon equally
welcome; welcome TO dip their fingers in
the wooden dish, TO drink cocoanuts-milk to
share the circulating pipe and to hear and
have high debate about the misdeeds of the
French, the Panama Canal or the geograph-
zeal position of San Francisco and New
Yoke (New York;. In highland hamlet,
quite out OF reach of any tourist, L have met
the same plain and dignified hospitality.
have mentioned the distastefu behavior
OF our earliest visitors. but the great majority
OF Polynesians are exceptionally hammered.
However, the Marquesan stands apart, an
noying and attractive. wild. shy and refined.
III you make him present lie affects to for
get it.. and 1t must be offered him again at
ms golng-a pretty formallty l have found
nowhere else. A hint will get rid of apy one