The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-18
CHAPTER xIv-continued

IN UT O'Keefe, as they supposed
IL him to be. or Constitutional
III Smith, as he really was, had
other fish to fry. For as he
neared the shore, portion of this thin
black cloud descended upon him and
upon his oarsman, and Immediately
both were enveloped in a thick black
covering of mosquitoes-plain, old
fashioned Jersey mosquitoes, nothing
else. Immediately they. too, set up a
yelling. They, too, commenced to beat
their hands and breasts and faces.
'Mosquitoes!" yelled Smith. Good
Lord, let's get out of this
But a half dozen men rushed into
the watel, and placing into the hands
of Smith and his man some fresh green
boughs, they dragged the boat up upon
the beach.
"Oh Keefe," they cried, patting him
upon the back. 'Oh Keefe.''
And then Smith observed a phenom-
enon. He noted that the instant the
green bough was placed in his hand
the mosquitoes deserted him. Not al
together, for now and then one drawer
than the rest would swoop down upon
him and Smith would find it necessary
to make a vicious dive with his hand
every other second. He noted that the
men all about him were engaged in
doing nothing more nor less than wav
ing green boughs and killing stray
mosquitoes.
Smith and his man were covered
with bites One of the natives, how
ever, crushed a few of the green, ten
der leaves in his hand and rubbed
them upon the affected spots. The re-
lief was immediate.
Smith, of course, did not understand
the language of these men, but he did
recognize two words, "O'Keefe' and
swat And he knew that for the
present time he was in good hands,
save when the mosquitoes became I'M
usually fierce. But gradually he learn
ed to do as the others did, and SO to
manipulate his green bough in such
manner as to keep the insects at bay.
He examined one or two of these mos
quitoes and found them in every way
of the same kind as the American va
riety. But there was one distinguish
ed feature-they We're much smaller,
and much more vicious, too.
The inhabitants were noisy. But even
when their mouths were still, Smiths
ears were assailed with the constant
swish and slap of hands against faces,
breasts and sides.
Swat, swat, swat" said Smith to
himself, that's all I seem to hear"
Suddenly he smote his thigh.
by George, I've got it!' he suddenly
exclaimed. "Swat, that's how they
named the place. Damned If it amt"
Smith was right. The derivation Of
names is usually an unknown quantity.
In this case it was very simple. The
island had ever been the home of the
mosquito. Its inhabitants naturally
were compelled constantly to slap and
slap and slap. The sound which they
made was swat, swat, swat Now some
sounds are difficult to express in spo-
ken language But Charles Reade in
bit of fiction called 1.-THE Box Tunnel"
has written into the English language
the sound that is made by a masculine
feminine kiss He says that that sound
in plain English is nothing else than
'Pweep.' Perhaps he Is right, though
the sound varies according to tempera-
ment and. ardor. But he, and he alone,
has turned 1t into a written word
But the sound made by the open
hand coming into contact with any
other portion Of the human body Eek
cept when administered in a certain
form by prudent mothers; in which
case it may be called "whack') Is al
ways the same 1t is plain swat" And
it sounds the same in English as 1t does
In Choctaw. The people of Swat, hav-
ing from time immemorial been both
cred by mosquitoes and having always
INDUCED in this slapping process, grad
ually came to be known as the peo-
pie of Swat. And Smith had discover
ed 1t, and he was everlastingly right.
Swat he said, us their name, and
Swat's their nature, too"
But there is ever a compensative ele.
ment in nature. Providence tempers
the wind to the shorn lamb In
marshes. reeking with malarial germ
and miasma, he has placed the plant
that yields the drug quinine-the thing
that cures malaria. In the island of
Swat, swept as it was by the larger
germs, mosquitoes, he had placed an
antidote. This antidote consisted in