CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
HOW TO PREPARE SKINS, AND GO FISHING.
The process was very simple, for he took the thrush and the lories,inserted a sharp-pointed penknife just through the skin, and then withclever fingers turned the delicate skin back, taking care not to injurethe feathers either by the moisture of the bird's flesh or by handlingand roughening the plumage, the result being that he skilfully turnedthe skin inside out after cutting through the legs and wings, cleaningthe bones of flesh, and leaving in the skull, after stripping the birdright to the beak.
It was surprising how beautifully clean everything came away, so thatwhen the fleshy side of the skin had been brushed over with moistenedarsenical soap, the wing-bones tied together, the hollow of the skulland orbits of the eyes filled up with cotton-wool, and a ball of thesame placed for the body, the skin being turned back over all andslightly shaken, a stranger would hardly have known that the flesh ofthe bird had been removed.
There was no odour except the aromatic scent of the preserving soap; andwhen a little sugar-paper had been twisted up into which to thrust thebird's head and shoulders to keep the neck short, and the bird had lainin the sun for a few hours, it became quite stiff and dry, exactly likethe skins with which I was familiar.
Uncle Dick insisted upon my doing the thrush and one of the lories,while he did the pigeons, whose skins were so tender, and so coveredwith oily fat, that they required a great deal of care to keep thefeathers unsullied.
I set to work then, skinning my birds pretty readily from oldpractice, and after a little bungling I managed to make of themrespectable-looking skins.
"You'll soon improve, Nat," said my uncle, as we laid our specimens alltogether in the sun, the black nodding his approval at all we did; butthe skins had not been lying there long, and our hands washed previousto putting on the kettle for tea, before our new friend jumped up in agreat state of excitement, pointing to a reddish-brown streak thatseemed to run from the wood nearly to where our specimens lay.
"Ants!" exclaimed my uncle, darting to the skins, and shaking off a fewof the enemies that had come to the attack; and it was not until we hadcontrived to make a little channel all round one of our boxes upon whichthe skins were laid, and connected it with the little spring of water,so that our treasure was surrounded by a tiny moat, that we could keepthe insects away.
Our black friend, who was evidently a great chief among his people, madeno scruple about stopping to have some tea with us, watching the boilingof the kettle and our preparations with the greatest of curiosity, butalways in a calm, composed way.
"It is rather a nuisance always having him here, Nat," said my uncle;"but we should be bothered with a good many more if he were to go, andreally he does not seem a bad sort of fellow."
He certainly was not, for though he ate heartily of anything we gavehim, he was as generous as could be, going off to return with men ladenwith fruit, fish, and a kind of sago, which was not at all bad boiled upand sweetened.
I missed a good many things such as I had been used to, but so far itall seemed to be glorious fun, and that night I lay down to rest lookingthrough the open doorway at the stars, breathing the soft warm air, anddropping off into a delicious sleep, to dream of home, and Uncle Joe inhis garden, smoking his long clay pipe.
I was awakened at daybreak by some one touching me, and on opening myeyes I started with dread as I saw a black face close to my own, and agrinning set of white teeth.
I knew directly who it was, though, and getting up I saw that my unclewas still peacefully sleeping off the previous day's fatigue.
I was going to rouse him, but Mr Ebony pulled me by the arm to comewithout waking him.
My next movement was to get my gun; but again our black friend objected,pulling at me half angrily, and I accompanied him outside into the coolgrey morning.
I hesitated to follow him for a minute, thinking that I ought not toleave my uncle; but I could not help thinking that we were quitehelpless amongst these savages if they chose to turn against us, andtherefore all we could do was to cultivate their good-will.
Mr Ebony, whose black mop of hair stood out more fiercely than ever,was watching me attentively, scowling fiercely, as I thought; but assoon as I prepared to follow him he began to grin and chatter away tome, keeping on repeating the word "_Ikan-Ikan_," till we were down inthe half darkness by where the waves lapped the sand; and now I saw agood-sized canoe with half a dozen men waiting, all looking, with theirpaddles in their hands, like so many fierce black executioners, preparedto make an end of me.
Mr Ebony signed to me to get into the boat, and feeling that perhapsthey might be going to make a prisoner of me and take me to anotherisland, I asked myself whether I ought not to resist; but seeing howuseless it would be, I resigned myself to my fate, jumped into thecanoe, Mr Ebony followed; and with no singing and splashing now, but inutter silence, we pushed off over the grey sea.
"Where are we going, I wonder?" I said to myself.
"Ikan, Ikan," said Mr Ebony, shaking something in the bottom of thecanoe.
"Ikan! where's that, I wonder?" I said to myself. "Why, these arefishing-lines. Ikan, fish," I exclaimed, pointing to the lines and thento the sea, making as if to throw in one of the lines.
"Ikan, Ikan," cried Mr Ebony, grinning with delight, and then hetouched my hands and the lines, and patted my back--dancing aboutafterwards till he nearly danced overboard, after which he became alittle more calm, but kept on smiling in the most satisfied way, andshouting "Ikan, Ikan;" all the others saying it after him, as if highlysatisfied, and when to please them I said "Ikan, Ikan," they uttered ashout, and I felt quite at home, and delighted at having come.
I don't know how it was, but as soon as I felt satisfied that they werenot going to do me any harm I began to learn how much they were all likea set of schoolboys of my own age, for big, strong, well-made men asthey were, they seemed to be full of fun, and as young as they could be.
They paddled swiftly out and away from the land, working hard to sendthe great canoe well along over the long rollers that we seemed toclimb, to glide down the other side; and, with the exception of theheaving, slow rolling motion of the sea, all being deliciously calm, Ithoroughly enjoyed my ride, especially as Mr Ebony, who was evidently avery big man amongst his people, had taken a great liking to me and kepton drawing my attention to every splash on the surface of the water, andthen to the busy way in which he was preparing his coarse fishing-lines.
I suppose there are some boys who never cared for fishing; but howevercruel it may be as a sport, I must confess that I was alwayspassionately fond of it, and now to be out on this tropic sea beforesunrise, with the stars seen faintly here and there, the blacks keepingup a rhythmical motion of the paddles, and the water lapping up againstthe bow of the canoe, I felt an indescribable kind of delight that nowords of mine will put on paper.
I should think we paddled about a couple of miles, and then at a wordfrom Mr Ebony the paddles were all laid in, and a line, with its greatcoarsely-made hooks formed out of well-sharpened pieces of brass wire,was handed to me, my guide showing me how to throw it over the side; notthat I needed showing, for it seemed to come quite natural; and I beganto think, as I passed the line over, of the sticklebacks on ClaphamCommon, and the occasional carp that we schoolboys used to catch.
Mr Ebony grinned with satisfaction, and threw his own line over theside just as a splash behind me made me turn in time to see a roperunning out rapidly, evidently attached to some kind of anchor.
This checked the canoe, which was floating along so fast that it hadbegun to ride over our lines, which now, however, floated away upon theswift current.
There was no noise or chattering now, but all the blacks sat or stoodvery quietly in the canoe, and I saw that three of them had long spears,barbed like hooks, and looking as if they were meant for catching fish.
There was a good length of line in my hands, which I kept on paying out,as the sailors call it, just as Mr Ebon
y was letting out his till itwas nearly all gone, and I saw that the end was tied to the edge of thecanoe. But still there was no sign of any fish, and I was beginning tostare about me, for just then a patch of golden light seemed to startout into view, and I could see that the tops of the mountains in theisland were just catching the first rays of the sun, while the starsthat had been looking so pale seemed to go out quickly one afteranother.
"I wonder whether Uncle Dick is awake yet," I thought to myself, "andwhat he will say to my being away, and--"
An exclamation from my black companion brought me back from my dreamythoughts; not that it was necessary, for something else had roused me,and that was a sharp jerk at the line, which snatched it quite out of myhands, and had it not been fastened to the side of the boat I shouldhave lost it.
Mr Ebony was coming to my help, but seeing me dart at it again and,catching hold, begin to haul in and struggle hard with my fish, herubbed himself and grinned, especially when he saw that I had to hang onwith all my might to keep from being dragged out of the canoe.
The next moment he had enough to do to manage a fish that had taken hisbait, and to keep it from crossing my line so as to get them into atangle.
It was quite startling for the moment to have hold of so strong a fish,one which darted here, there, and everywhere; now diving straight down,now running away out to sea, and then when I thought the line must snap,for it made tugs that cut my hands and jerked my shoulders, I uttered acry of disappointment, for the line came in slack, and the fish wasgone.
It puzzled me to see how coolly the others took it, but I supposed thatthey were used to losing fish from the badness of their tackle, andbesides, there was evidently a big one on Mr Ebony's line to take theirattention.
"I wonder whether he has taken the hook," I thought to myself as Icarefully drew in the line, coiling it neatly down between my legs, yardafter yard, till I had pulled in at least fifty yards of the coarsecord, when, to my utter astonishment, there was a sudden check or rush,and the line began to run rapidly out again, my fish being still there,and I saw now that it had made a rush in towards the canoe, and thenlain quite still close to the bottom till I had disturbed it by jerkingthe line as I hauled it in.
The rest that it had had seemed to have made it stronger than ever, forit darted about at a tremendous pace, and I was still playing it,letting it run when it made fierce dashes, and hauling in the linewhenever it grew a little slack, when there was a bit of a bustle by myside as Mr Ebony drew his fish close up to the side of the canoe, andone of the blacks darted a barbed spear into it and lifted it into thecanoe.
It was a beautifully-marked fish about three feet long, and as I glancedat it I wondered whether mine would be as big; and then I thought itmust be bigger, it pulled with such tremendous force; but at last itsstruggles grew less and less powerful, and twice over I was able to drawit nearly to the surface, but only for it to dart away again, and Ithought it was lost.
It seemed to excite a good deal of interest amongst the savages, two ofwhom stood, one on either side of me, ready with their spears to make athrust at the fish, and one of them stretched out his hand to take theline from me, but Mr Ebony uttered such a fierce exclamation, andcaught so angrily at a paddle, that the man drew back, and after a longand gallant fight I at last drew my fish so close in that, just as itwas in the act of dashing off again, a couple of spears transfixed it,and it was drawn over the side amidst a shout of triumph.
Mr Ebony, who was the most excited of all, patting me on the shouldersand shaking hands most eagerly with one of the savages, took out thehook, the line was thrown over again, and I had time to examine myprize, a splendid fish, flashing with glorious colours in the morninglight. It was over a yard long, and very thick and round, while itsglistening scales were as big as shillings at the very least; in fact Idon't think I should exaggerate if I said that some in the centre rowswere as large as two-shilling pieces, fluted and gilded, and some tingedwith orange and glistening scarlet and green.
So great was the delight of all on board that they began to dance andsing with such vigour that the canoe rocked about, and one man went headover heels out into the sea.
I was horrified as I saw him disappear, but he was up again, grinninghugely, and slipped in over the side of the canoe like a great blackeel, giving himself a shake to send the water out of his mop of hair,and then sitting down to watch us fish.
For quite half an hour now we caught nothing, but it did not seem tomatter, for there was so much to look at as the glorious sun rose overthe sea, turning it into orange and gold; while, when I was tired ofthat, the beauty of the trees and mountains on the island, with theendless changes of light and shade, made my heart beat with pleasure asI thought of what a lovely home these savages possessed, and it seemedto explain to me why it was that they were all so childlike and happy.
I caught another fish then of seven or eight pounds weight, different tothe others, and Mr Ebony caught seven or eight quickly one after theother, I suppose out of a shoal, and then, laughing and chattering onceagain, the anchor, which proved to be a curious elbow, evidently theroot of a tree, sharped at its points and weighted with a lump of coral,was hauled up, placed in the stern of the canoe, and we turned for theshore.
"What a morning for a bathe!" I thought, as we drew nearer; andstarting up in the canoe when we were about a quarter of a mile from theland, I began to take off my things, meaning to swim ashore, where wewere within a couple of hundred yards; but Mr Ebony stopped me, sayingsomething I could not understand of course.
"I'm going to swim ashore," I said, making believe to leap overboard,and then striking out with my arms; but my companions all chatteredangrily, and Mr Ebony, to my horror, came at me, snapping at my armsand legs with his great white teeth, and looking terribly fierce, while,as I shrunk away, one of the blacks touched me on the back, and as Iturned sharply, with Mr Ebony holding on to my trouser leg andapparently trying to tear out a piece, the black behind me pointed downinto the clear water, now brightly lit-up by the sun, and I saw two longgrey fish gliding slowly amongst the coral rocks, and I wanted notelling that they were sharks.
I pointed to the sharks in my turn, shuddering as I thought of what anescape I had had; and not being able to express myself in language, Idid what Mr Ebony had done to me, made a dash at his leg and pretendedto bite it, not doing so, however, for I did not care to touch his greatblack limb with my teeth.
He understood me, though, and chattered with delight, getting up andrelieving his feelings by a short dance before settling down again andshaking hands.
In another minute the canoe was run up on the beautiful soft sand, thesavages leaping out into the shallow water and carrying it beyond reachof the waves, when I stepped out with Mr Ebony, who made one of the menpick up my fish and carry it before us in triumph to our hut, the otherstaking the rest of the fish towards the village.