The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1894-11-14
A MILD ORIENTAL.

If you consider the circumstances of
tho case, it was the only thing that he
could do But Pambe Serang had been
hanged by the neck till he was dead,
and nobody cared whether he was right
| 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 80 feet down in the hold, got
leave to go ashore. He departed q
"Seedee boy" as they call the stokers.
He returned the full blooded sultan Of
Zanzibar-his royal highness Sayyid
Burgash-with q 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 person of inn
portanoe, far above stoker, though the
stoker draws better pay. He sets the
chorus of "Hya, hullal Heeah, heb, "
when the captain S 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 Pulu Penang.
''Ho, you fat, black barrel, you re
eating my foodr" said Pambe in the
other lingua franca 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 Hakodate junks
"Son of Eblis, monkey face, dried
sharks liver pig man, l am the Sultan
Sayyid Burgash and the commander OF
all this shipl Take away your garbage, ;
and Nurkeed thrust the empty pewter
rice plate into Pambe's hand. Pambe
beat it into basin over Nurkeed'f
woolly head. Nurkeed drew his sheath
knife and stabbed Pambe in the leg.
Pambe drew his sheath knife, but Nur.
keed dropped down into the darkness o.
the hold and spat through the grating
at Pambe, who was staining the for'
deck with his hlaad-
Only the big white moon saw thes
things, for the officers were looking
after the coaling and the passenger
were tossing in their close cabins. "Al
right" said Pambe, and went forward
to tic up his leg, 1--WE will settle thu
account later. He was Malay, born
in India, married once in Burma
where his wife had cigar shop on thu
Shwe Dagon road; once In Singapore Il
Chinese girl and once in Madras to {
Mohammedan woman who sold fowls
The English sailor cannot, owing tt
postal and telegraph facilities, marry
SO profusely as he used to do, but ma
tive sailors can, being uninfiuenced by
the barbarous inventions of the western
savage. Pambe was good husband
when he happened to remember the ex'
istence of wife, but he was also very
| good Malay, and it is not wise to offend
Malay, because he does not forget any
! thing Moreover, in Pambe' s case blood
had been drawn and food spoiled. Next
morning Nurkeed rose with a blank
mind. He was no longer sultan Of Fan
zibar, but very hot stoker. So he went
on deck and opened his jacket to the
morning breeze till sheath knife came
like 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 ]
know that / behaved unseemly to SONS
one or another of you. Who was thai
man, that may meet him face to fac.
and say that was drunk.
| Pambo measured the distance to
Nurkeed's naked breast. II he sprang
at him, he might be tripped up, and a
blind blow at the chPt sometimes only
means a cash on the breast bone. Ribs
are difficult to thrust between unless
the subject is asleep. SO he said moth
ing, nor did the other lascars. Their
faces Immediately dropped all expires.
sion, az is the custom Of the orientals
when there is killing on the carpet OF
any chance of trouble. Nurleed looked
long at the white eyeballs. He WA
only an African and could not read
characters. A big sigh, almost groan,
broke from him, and he went back tt
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 during
the run to Bombay from lack Of fresh
air. He only came on deck to breathe
when all the world was about, and ever
then heavy block once dropped from {
derrick within foot of his head and an
apparently dashed grating on which hi
set his foot began to turn with the inten
ton of dropping him on the cased cargo
10 feet below, and one insupportablt
night the sheathknife dropped from thu
fo'c's'le, and this time it drew blood
So Nurkeed made complaint and wher
the Saarbruok reached Bombay fled and
buried himself among 800, 900 people
and did not sign articles till the ship
had been month gone from the port.
Pambe waited, too, but his Bombay
wife grew clamorous, and he was forced
to sign in the Spicheren to Hongkong,
because he realized that all play and nc
work gives Jack ragged shirt. In the
foggy China seas he thought great
deal of Nurkeed. and when Elsass-Lo
thringen steamers lay in port with the
Spicheren inquired after him and found
he had gone to England via the capt
on the Gravelotte. Pambe went to Eng
land ON the Worth. The Spicheren me
her by the Moro Light. Nurkeed wa!
going out with her to the Calicut coast