Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1895-03-09
A MILD ORIENTAL.

If you consider the circumstances of
the 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 60 ashore. He departed
'Seedee boy" as they call the stokers.
He returned the full blooded sultan Of
Zanzibar-his royal highness Sayyid
Burgash-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 Nur-
keed's dirty fingers were spading into
the rice. A serang is a person Of i'm
portance, far above stoker, though the
stoker draws better pay. He sets the
chorus of "Hya, hulla Heeah, heh,"
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
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 foodn' 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 brigs of the Kurile islands
gossip with Hakodate 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 Pambes hand. Pambe
beat it into basin over Nurkeod's
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 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, I'VE will settle the
account later" He was a Malay, born
i'll 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 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 ma
tive sailors can, being uninfluenced by
the barbarous inventions of the western
savage Pambe was good husband
when he happened to remember the ex-
lstence 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 Zan-
zibar, but very hot stoker. So he went
Oh deck and opened his jacket to the
morning breeze till 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-
ber what he could have said to the
owner of the weapon. At noon, when
all the ships lascars were feeding, Nur.
kced 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 I
know that l 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 he sprang
at him, he might be tripped up, and a
blind blow at the chest sometimes crly
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 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 on deck to breathe
when all the world was about, and even
then heavy block once dropped from a
derrick within foot of his head and an