Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-12-11
A MILD ORIENTAL.

o0ai1ng at Alden, and the weather was
very hot indeed, Nurkeed. the big fat
Zanzibar stoler who fed the second
right furnace thirty feet down In the
hold. got leave TO go ashore. He do
parted ''Seedee boy. Vas they call the
stokers; he returned the full-blood
Sultan of Zanzibar-his Highness
Sayyid BurgaSh-wlth a bottle in each
hand Then he sat on the fore-hatch
grating eating salt fish and onions and
singing the songs of far country.
The food belonged TO Pambe the
Sirang. or head man Of tho Lascar
sailora He had just cooked it for
himself. turned to borrow some salt,
and when he came back Nurkeed's
dirty black fingers were spading into
the rice. A serang is person OF i'm
portance. far above a stoker. though
the stoker draws better pay. He sets
the chorus OF ',Hyal HULA! Hee-ahl
Hei" when the captains gig is pulled
up the davits; he heaves the lead too
and sometimes, when all the ship is
lazy, he puts on his whitest muslin and
q big red sash and plays with the pas
sengers' children on the quarterback.
Then the passengers give him money
and he saves it for an orgy at Bombay.
Calcutta or Pulu Penang.
'.Hol you fat, black barrel, you're
eating my food!" said Pambe in the
other Lingua Franco, which begins
whore the Levant tongue stops, and
runs from Port Said eastward till east
is west and the sealing briggs of the
Kuri1e islands gossip with the Hako-
date junks
Son of Eblis monkey-faced, dried
sharks liver, pigman, i am the Sultan
Sayyid Burgash. and the commander
OF all this ship. Take away your gar
bage," and Nurkeed thrust the empty
pewter rice plate into Pambe's hand.
Pambe beat it into a basin over MUIR
keed's woolly head. Nurkeed drew
his sheath-knife and stabbed Pambe
in the leg. Pambe drew his sheath
knife, but Nurkeed dropped down into
the darkness of the hold and spat
through the grating at Pambe, who
was staining the foredeck with his
blood.
Only the big white moon saw these
things; for the officers were looking
after the coaling and the passengers
were tossing in their close cabins.
IAN right" said Pambe. and went
forward to tie up his leg 1--WE will
settle the account later" He was a
Malay. born in India, married once In
Burmah where his wife had a cigar
shop on the Shwe-Dagon road; once in
Singapore to q Chinese girl, and once
in Madras, to a Mohammedan woman
who sold fowls. The English sailor
cannot owing TO postal and telegraph
facilities marry so profusely as he
used to do but native sailors can, be-
ing uninf1uenced by the barbarous in
ventions Of the western savage. Pambe
was a good husband when he hap
pened to remember the existence of a
wife; but he was also a very good
Malay. and il was not wise to offend a
Malay, because he does not forget any
thing. Moreover, in Pambe's case. blood
had been drawn aud food spoiled. Next
morning Nurkeed rose with blank
mind. He was no longer Sultan OF
Zanzibar. but a very hot stoker. So
he went on deck and opened his jacket
to the morning breeze till q sheath
knife came like a flying fish and stuck
into the wood work of the cook gal
ley half an inch from his right arm
pit He ran down below before his
time trying TO remember what he
could have said to the owner OF the
weapon At noon when all the ships
Lascars were feeding. Nurkeed ad-
vanced into their midst and. being a
placid man. with a large regard for
his own skin. he opened negotiations.
saying; Men OF this ship last night /
was drunk. and this morning / know
that / behaved unseemingly TO some
one or ano her of you. Who was that
man, that l may meet him face to face
and say that was drunk?"
Pambe measured the distance TO
Nurkeed's naked breast III he sprang
at him he might be tripped up and a
blind blow at the chest sometimes only
means cash on the breast bones.
Ribs are difficult TO thrust between.
unless the subject is asleep. So he
said nothing. nor did the other Las
oars. Their faces Immediately drop
pod all expression, as Is the custom of
the oriental when there Is killing on
the carpet or any chance of trouble.
Nurkecd looked long at the white eye
balls. He was only an African and
could not read characters. A big sigh
almost a groan-broke from him
and he went back to the furnaces.
The Lascars took up the conversation
where he had interrupted it. They
talked OF the best methods of cooking
rice.
Nurkeed suffered considerably our
ing the run TO Bombay from lack of
fresh air. He only came on deck TO
breathe when all the world was about;
and even then heavy block once
dropped from D derrick within foot
OF his head. and an apparently dashed
grating on which he set his foot began
20 turn over with tho intention OF
dropping him on the cased cargo fifteen
fess below and one insupportable