Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-12-03
A MILD ORIENTAL.

If you consider the circumstances O.
tlse case, it was the only thing that ht
could do But Pambe Serang had beer
hanged by the neck till he was dead
and nobody cared whether he was RICH
or wrong.
Three years ago, when the Elsass
Lothringen steamer Saarbuck was coal
ing at Alden and the weather was very
hot indeed, Nurkeed, the big fat Zanzi
bar stoker who fed the second right
furnace so feet down in the hold, got
leave to go ashore. He departed 6
''Seedee boy as they call the stolzers.
He returned the full blooded sultan OF
Zanzibar-his royal highness Sayyid
Bu1gash-with 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 be-
longed to Pambe, the serang, or head
man Of the lascar sailors. He had just
cooked it for himself, turned to borrow
some salt, and when he came back Muir
keed's dirty fingers were spading into
the rice. A serang is a person Of i'm
portance, far above a stoker, though the
chorus Of ''Hya, hula! Heeah, heb, y
when the captain gig is pulled up to
the davits. He heaves the lead, too, and
sometimes, when all the ship is lazy,
he puts on his Whitest muslin and a
big red sash and plays with the passen-
gers children on the quarter deck.
Then the passengers give him money,
and he saves it for an orgie at Bombay,
Calcutta or PJllu Penang.
''Ho, you fat, black barrel, you're
eating my food'' said Pambe in the
other ingua franco which begins where
the Levant tongue stops and runs from
Port Said eastward till east is west and
the sealing briggs Of the Kurile islands
gossip with Ha4odate junks.
''Son Of Eblis, monkey face, dried
sharks liver, pig man, am the Sultan
Sayyid Burgash and the commander Of
all this ship! Take away your garbage, :"
and Nurkeed thrust the empty pewter
rice plate into Pambe's hand. Pambe
beat it into basin over Nurkeed's
woolly head. Nurkeed drew his sheath
knife and stabbed Pambe in the leg
Pambe drew his sheath knife, but Muir
keed dropped down into the darkness of
the hold and spat through the grating
at Pambe, who was staining the fore
deck with his blood.
Only the big white moon saw these
things, for the officers We're looking
after the coaling and the passengers
were tossing in their close cabins ''All
right" said Pambe, and went forward
to tic up his leg, 1--WE will settle the
account later" He was a Malay, born
in India, married once in Burma,
where his wife had cigar shop on the
ShWe Dagon road; once in Singapore to
a Chinese girl and once in Madras to
Mohammedan woman who sold fowls.
The English sailor cannot, owing to
postal and telegraph facilities, marry
SO profusely as he used to do, but ma
tive sailors can, being U-nlafuenced by
the barbarous inventions III Ia western
savage. Pambe was a g>s'a '.::Sband
when he happened to rememL>.' go *
istence of a wife, but he was also :. y
good Malay, and it is not wise to otend
a Malay, because he does not forget any
thing Moreover, in Pambe's case blood
had been drawn and food spoiled. Next
Nurkeed rose with blank
mind. He was no longer sultan of Fan
ri bar, but a very hot stoker. So he went
on deck and opened his jacket to the
breeze till a sheath knife came
like a flying fish and stuck into the
woodwork of the cooks galley, half an
inch from his right armpit. He ran down
elbow before his time, trying to remem-
Der what he could have said to the
owner Of the weapon. At noon, when
all the ships lascars were feeding, Muir
keed advanced into their midst, and be-
ing placid man with large regard
for his own skin he opened negotiations,
saying: "Men of the ship, last night 1
know that I behaved unseemly to some
one or another of you. Who was that
man, that I may meet him face to face
and say that I was drunk. -
Pambe measured the distance to
Nurkeed's naked breast. IF he sprang
at him, he might be tripped up, and
blind blow at the chest sometimes only
means a cash on the breast bone. Ribs
ire difficult to thrust between unless
he subject is asleep. So he said moth
ng, nor did the other lnscars. Their
faces Immediately dropped all express
sion, as is the custom of the orientals
when there is killing on the carpet Or
any chance of trouble. Nurkeed looked
Iong at the white eyeballs. He was
only an African and could not read
characters. A big sigh, almost a-afpan,
broke from him, and he went Hack to |
5he furnaces. The lascars <6oek up the
where he had interrupted
It. They talkEDf the best methods of
cooking rice -
N.urkeed Suffered Considerably during
he4run to Bombay from lack of fresh /
Iir. He only came on deck to breathe
When all the world was about, and even
hen heavy block once dropped from a