CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
ANOTHER FISHING TRIP.
We had a long tramp after the birds of paradise that day, but did notget one. We shot some lovely sun-birds though, and a couple of thrushessuch as we had not seen before. Our walk took us well in sight of thesea once more, and we began to have a pretty good idea of the form ofthe island. But the more we went about the more my uncle was satisfiedthat it was only a matter of time to make here a glorious collection ofthe birds of the eastern islands. We saw four different kinds of birdsof paradise in our walk, though we did not get one on account of theirshyness, but we did not despair of getting over that; and at last, welltired out, we returned to Ebo, who had hung up the serpent's skin todry, and following his guidance till nightfall we got back to our hut bythe sea-shore, where the boat lay perfectly safe, and being too tired tomake a fire and cook, we lay down and fell asleep at once.
It was still dark when I was awakened by a hand shaking my arm, and,starting up, there was the black face of Ebo bent over me.
"Ikan-ikan," he kept on repeating.
"Ikan--fish," said my uncle, starting up. "Yes, we may as well get somefor a change, Nat;" and in a few minutes we were all down on the sandlaunching the boat, which rode out lightly over the rollers.
We had plenty of fishing-lines, so fine that Ebo shook his head at them,and proceeded to show us how easily they would break; but after tryingover and over again without success, and only cutting his hands, hegrinned and jumped up to dance, but evidently thinking there was no roomhe settled down again and began to examine some hooks and glittering tinbaits which we had in a box.
These he scanned most carefully as the boat skimmed along, my unclesteering, and after trying the sharpness of the hooks he performed whatalways seemed to me a conjuring trick, in bringing a couple ofmother-of-pearl baits out of his waist-cloth, with a roll of twine.
The savages of the East, in fact most of the eastern people, wear a cordround the waist made of a material in accordance with their station.The poorer people will have it of cotton or twisted grass, the wealthierand chiefs of silk, while some have it threaded with gold. This thincord is used as a support for their waist-cloth, and is rarely takenoff, but is fastened so tightly that I have seen it appear completelyburied in the flesh, just as if the wearers had an idea that they oughtto make themselves look as much like an insect as possible.
Ebo wore a very tight _lingouti_--as it is called--round and over whichhe tucked the coarse cotton cloth which formed his only article ofattire, and it was by means of this cotton cloth that he performed whatI have spoken of as being like conjuring tricks, for somehow or another,although he had the appearance of carrying nothing about with him, hehad always a collection of useful articles stored away in the folds ofthat waist-cloth.
Upon the present occasion he brought out two mother-of-pearl baits suchas would be used to attract the fish when no real bait could beobtained.
It was a sight to see Ebo comparing his pearl baits with our specimensof tin and tinned copper, and for a time he seemed as if he could hardlymake up his mind which was the better. Then he laid his coil of linemade of roughly twisted grass beside ours, and inspected the twocarefully, after which he uttered a sigh and put his own away, evidentlyquite satisfied that the civilised article was by far the better.
We sailed out about a mile and then anchored at the edge of a reef ofcoral, which acted as a shelter against the great rollers which brokefar away upon its edge, seeming to make a ridge of surf, while where welay all was undulating and calm, but with the tide running strongly overthe reef, where the water was not a fathom deep and growing shallowermoment by moment.
Ebo laid his short club ready to his hand, signing to me to draw my bighunting-knife and place it beside me.
"That looks as if we were to catch some large and dangerous fish, Nat,"said my uncle; and he drew his own knife before passing to each of us aline with the artificial baits affixed.
"Won't you fish, uncle?" I asked.
"No, my boy. You two can fish, and as soon as you catch one we will cuthim up for bait. I don't believe in artificial bait when you can getreal."
By this time Ebo had thrown out his line and I followed his example,seeing the swift current seize upon the bait and carry it rapidly outover the reef, twinkling and sparkling in the water as I jerked it bypaying out more line.
All at once, when it was some fifteen yards away. I felt a jerk and asnatch.
"I've got one," I said; but the tugging ceased directly, and I felt thatthe fish had gone.
Either the same, though, or another seized it directly, for there was afierce tug which cut my hand, and I had to give line for a few momentswhile the fish I had hooked darted here and there like lightning, but Ihad it up to the side soon after, and gazed at it with delight, for itwas, as it lay panting in the boat, like a magnificent goldfish, five orsix pounds weight, with bars across its side of the most dazzling blue.
"Poo--chah--chah!" Ebo cried with a face full of disgust as he twistedhis own line round a peg in the boat, and seizing his club battered thefish to death after unhooking it, and threw it over the side, where, asit was carried away, I could see that dozens of fish were darting at it,tearing it to pieces as fast as they could.
"What did you do that for?" I cried angrily, for it seemed wasting asplendid fish.
Ebo chatted away in reply, almost as angrily, after which, evidentlysatisfied that I did not understand, he behaved very nastily, though hisdumb-show was so comic that it made us roar with laughter.
For he pretended to eat, as we supposed, some of the fish. Then hejumped up, sat down, jumped up again, rubbed his front, kicked out hislegs and shouted, making hideous grimaces as if he were in pain, endingby leaning over the side of the boat, pretending to be horribly sick,and finishing his performance by lying down, turning up his eyes, andmoaning.
"We must take what he shows us for granted, Nat," said my uncle, as Ebojumped up smiling, as much as to say, "Wasn't I clever?" "These peopleknow which are the wholesome and which are the unwholesome fish; but Iwas going to use some of that fellow for bait."
Just then Ebo hooked and brought in a fine fish that was all blue, buteven this one would not do, for he killed it and tossed it overboard,chattering at it the while as if he were abusing it for being so bad.
We saw scores of fish dart at it as it was thrown in, and now they bitso freely at the artificial baits that there was no occasion to change.
I had hold of what seemed a nice fish directly, and after letting it runa little I began hauling in, watching its progress through the shallowclear water and thinking how bright and beautiful it looked against thebrilliant corals, the softly waving weeds of every shade of brown andscarlet, while now and then some other fish darted at it.
All at once I uttered a cry of astonishment, for a long line ofundulating creamy white seemed to dart at my fish, seize it with a jerk,and twist itself round it, till fish and the eel-like creature thatattacked it resembled a knot.
I kept on hauling in, but only slowly now, for fear the hook shouldbreak out, the weight being double what it was and the water lashed intoglittering foam.
"What is it, uncle?" I cried excitedly.
"Don't hurry, Nat," he replied; and just then Ebo, who had been too busypulling in a fish to notice my line, threw out again, and then fasteninghis cord came over to my side to see.
No sooner did he make out what I had at the end of the line than heseized his club, gesticulated furiously, and began beating the side ofthe boat, chattering aloud, and signing to me to give him the line.
"Let him have it, Nat," said my uncle. "He has had experience withthese things."
I gave up my hold of the fishing-line most unwillingly, for the littleadventure was intensely exciting, and every jerk and drag made by thecreature that had seized my fish sent a thrill through my arms to myvery heart.
"It is some kind of sea-snake that has taken your fish, Nat, and isregularly constricting i
t. As I told you before, there are some of themdangerously poisonous, and not like our great friend out in the swamp."
Meanwhile Ebo was jerking and shaking the line furiously, as ifendeavouring to get rid of the snake, but without avail, for it held ontightly, having evidently got one fold twisted round the line, and Imust confess, after hearing about the poisonous nature of thesecreatures, to feeling rather nervous as to its behaviour if it werebrought on board.
But Ebo did not mean to bring it on board. He wanted to shake it off,and what with the struggles of the fish and the writhing and twisting ofthe snake, it seemed every moment as if the line must break.
The black brought it close in, then let it go almost to the full lengthof the line, jerked it, made fierce snatches, but all in vain; and atlast getting the unwelcome visitor close in, he signed to my uncle totake his knife while he raised his club for a blow, when there was asudden cessation of the rush, and foam in the water, and fish and snakehad gone.
Ebo grinned with triumph, and after examining the bait threw it outagain, returning to the other side directly to draw in a satisfactoryfish for our breakfast, while my uncle chatted to me about my lastcaptive.
"This is new to me, Nat," he said. "I never could have thought thatthese snakes or eels, for they seem to partake of the character of thelatter, would have wound themselves round the prey they seized. Theelongated fish in our part of the world, congers, dog-fish, guard-fish,and similar creatures, fasten their teeth into their prey, then settingtheir bodies in rapid motion like a screw, they regularly cut greatpieces out of their victim. This was precisely the same as a serpentwith its prey, and it is a natural history fact worth recording. Butlook!"
I had already felt a fish snap at my bait, checked it, and knew that Iwas fast into a monster. For a few moments he let me feel somethingheavy and inert at the end of my line, then there was a plunge and arush, the line went hissing out, and try as I would to check it, thefish ran straight off till I dragged with all my might, and felt thateither the line must break or my hands would be terribly cut.
"Give and take, Nat," cried my uncle.
"It's all give, uncle, and I can't take a bit."
I had hardly said the words when I was at liberty to take in as much asI liked, for the fish was gone, and upon drawing in my line in aterribly disappointed way, it was to find that the fish had completelybitten through the very strong wire gimp, not broken it, but bitten itas cleanly as if it had been done with a knife.
"That must have been a monster," said Uncle Dick. "But never mind, myboy. Here, hold still and I'll loop on another bait."
He was in the act of doing this when Ebo began to dance about in theboat, striving hard to drag in the fish he had hooked. His plan was tohaul in as quickly as he could, never giving the fish a moment's rest,and any form of playing the swift, darting creature did not seem toenter his head.
He seemed to have found his match this time, for the fish refused to bedragged on board, but after a fierce struggle the black's arms were toomuch for it, and a dozen rapid hand-over-hand hauls resulted in itsbeing hauled over the side, a sharp-nosed glittering silver-fish aboutfour feet long, and I was about to fling myself upon it to hold it downand stop its frantic leaps amongst our tackle, when Ebo uttered a cry ofalarm, darted before me, and attacked the fish with his club, dealing itthe most furious blow upon the head, but apparently without any effect,for as one of the blows fell, the great fish seemed to make a side dartwith its head, and its jaws closed upon the club, holding on so fiercelyand with such power that it was not until Uncle Dick had cut off itshead that the club could be wrenched away, when Ebo showed me thecreature's jaws full of teeth like lancets and pretty well as sharp.
"No wonder your wire was bitten through," said my uncle. "Hallo! is henot good to eat?"
Ebo evidently seemed to consider that it was not, for the fish wasthrown over, and the fierce monster, that must have been a perfecttyrant of the waters, had not floated a dozen feet before it wasfuriously attacked and literally hacked to pieces.
There was no difficulty in getting fish that morning, the only thing wasto avoid hooking monsters that would break or bite through our tackle,and those which were not good for food.
The reef literally swarmed with fish, some large, some small, and everynow and then we could see the rapid dash of one of the snake-eels as Icalled them. I saw them regularly leap out of the water sometimes andcome down in a knot, twisting and twining about in the mostextraordinary way, and at last, so interesting was the clear, shallowwater, that we laid aside our lines and leaned over the side gazing downat the fish that flashed about, till the reef was dry, and leaving Eboin the boat we landed to walk about over the shining weeds and coral,picking our way amongst shell-fish of endless variety, some with greatheavy shells a couple of feet long, and some so small and delicate thatI had to handle them with the greatest delicacy to keep from crushingtheir tissue-papery shells.
I could have stayed there for hours and filled the boat with wonders.There was scarlet and orange coral, so beautiful that I was for bringingaway specimens; but Uncle Dick showed me that it was only the gelatinouscovering that was of so lovely a tint, and this, he told me, would soondecay.
Then there were the brilliantly tinted weeds. There were sea-slugs too,delicacies amongst the Chinese under the name of _trepang_, and so manyother wonders of the sea that I should have gone on searching amongstthe crevices of the sharp coral, if I had not had a sharp warning givento me to make for the boat by the parts that had only been an inch ortwo deep rapidly increasing to a foot, and my uncle shouting to me tocome aboard.
It was quite time, for I was some distance from the boat, with the tideflowing in so rapidly that in a few minutes I should have had to swim,and a swim in water swarming with such furious kinds of the finny tribewas anything but tempting.
As it was I had to swim a few strokes, and was of course soaked, but myuncle hauled me uninjured into the boat and I little minded the wetting,but laughed at my adventure as we sat over our breakfast and feastedupon frizzled fish to our hearts' content.