The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-01-17

from WHICH point l. was TO snip over &c
the mainland, and luckily there were a
young English prospector named Cane
and a French under official named Las
! sale in the town, with whom I could
make common lot and keep from dying
of ennui.
| "The people in that town of huts had
lots of spare time on their hands-they
were lazy, shiftless lot, anyhow-and
we three white men used to fill in our
days hunting in the thick swamps and
! impenetrable forests and boating and
| fishing in the Bay of Bambataska
Gone morning the village was thrown
into a state of great excitement; several
natives came to the Government house
| where Cane and I sat on the broad gal.
lery with iLassalle and began to jabber
away at terrible rate in their queer
lingo. Lassalle understood the language
as well as he did his native tongue or
English, and we saw at once that he
was very much interested.
"The native who acted as spokesman
had a fund of very eloquent and ex-
pressive gestures He repeatedly mo-
toned toward the sea, and, with his
arms extended, worked his hands up
and down, and then curved and twisted
his body with the skill and ease of a
contortionist The whole village gath.
cred around to hear the statement,
whatever it was that was being made,
and as the spokesman crossed his arms
over his chest, violently shook his head,
making a hideous face at the same
time and emitting from between his
elenched teeth a sort of below, sew
eral women in the front row of the
crowd howled dismally, fell to the
ground, rolled over and over, beat their
breasts and tore out their hair.
"With an imperious sweep of his
hand and few gutteral words LassalIe
dismissed the villagers and then, turn.
ing to us, said in French, Serpent de
Merf He saw that we were still in
the dark, having small knowledge Of
the Johnny Crapaud talk, and resort
ing to his excellent command of Eng,
lish gave US an astounding bit of in,
formation.
The natives have seen great ser
pent down in the bay, he said, 'and the
monster overturned boat and gobbled
up one of the fishermen From the
statement made by the villagers it
seems that four of them were out in
the bay fishing in one of their long
bark canoes. They were quarter of
a mile or so from shore, and were just
to head in toward the beach when the
water at the stern was violently agitat-
ed, and above the surface was thrust
an awful serpentine head about the
size of a hogshead. The head had
rounded sides, but was inclined to fiat
ness at the top, and there was a bony
ridge, like crest, extending from a
point between the eyes to the neck.
About five feet of the neck and body
of the serpent protruded from the
water, and the horror-stricken natives
were close enough to see that the mon
ster was of dark greenish Shade, and
was covered over with scales the size
of silver dollar. The eyes of the
snake were set far apart and were
glazed over like the eyes of fish, and
on whole he was most fearsome
sight
"The fishermen with one accord
plunged their paddles into the water
and sped their light craft toward the
shore, but as they did so the serpent
lowered its head, plunged beneath the
sea and came up in an instant in hot
pursuit of the boat. The waters of
the bay were violently agitated as the
huge coils of an undulating movement
appeared and disappeared above the
surface, and to the frightened eyes of