The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1894-12-21
A MILD ORIENTAL.

A ~
| the case, it was tho 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 Adon and the weather was very
hot indeed, Nurkeed, the big fat Zanzi-
bar stoker who fed the second right
furnace 30 feet down in the hold, got
leave to go ashore He departed q
"Seedeo boy" as they call the stolzers.
He returned the full blooded sultan Of
anzibar-his royal highness SayyiG
Burgash-with bottle in each hand.
Then he sat on the fore hatch grating
eating salt fish and onions and singing
the songs of a 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 i'm
portance, far above a stoker, though the
stoker draws better pay. He sets the
chorus of "Hya, hullal Heeah, heh,"
when the captains 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 foodw said Pambe in the
other lingua franco which begins where
the Lovant 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 ship! Take away your garbage"
and Nurkeed thrust the empty pewter
rice plate into Pambe's hand. Pambe
beat it into q basin over Nurkeed's
woolly head. Nurkeed drew his sheath
knife and stabbed P.,nbo in tho leg.
Pambe drew his sheath knife, but Nur-
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 were looking
after the coaling and the passengers
were tossing in their close cabins. "All
right" said Pambe, and went forward
to tie up his leg, 1--WE will settle the
account later. - He was Malay, born
in India, married once in Burma,
where his wife had cigar shop on tho
Shwe Dagon read; once in Singapore to
Chinese girl and once i'll 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 uninfluenced by
the barbarous inventions of tho western
savage. Pambe was good husband
when he happened 60 remember the OK
istence Of Il wife, but he was also very
good Malay, and it is not wise to offend
q Malay, because he does not forget any
thing. Moreover III Pambe's case blood
had been drawn and food spoiled. Next
morning Nurkeed rose with blank
mind. He was no longer sultan Of Fan
zibar, but very hot stoker. So he went
Oh deck and opened his jacket to the
morning breeze till q 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 lascals were feeding, Nur-
keed advanced into their midst, and be-
ing placid man with "a large regard
for his own skin he opened negotiations,
saying: "Men of the ship, last night l
know that behaved unseemly to some
one or another 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. If lie sprang
at him, he might be tripped up, and
blind blow ut the chest sometimes only
means 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 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
long at the white eyeballs. He was
only an African and could not read
characters. A big sigh, almost 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 during
the run to Bombay from lack of fresh
air. He only came Oh deck to breathe
when all the world was about, and even
then heavy block once dropped from q
derrick within foot of his head and an
dashed grating OH which he
set his foot began to turn with the inten-
ton of dropping him ON the cased cargo
10 feet belowA and one insupportable
night the sheathknifc dropped from the
fo'c's'le, and this time it drew blood.
So Nurkeed made complaint, and when 4
the Saarbruck reached Bombay fled and