By Reef and Palm
Page 7
PALLOU'S TALOI
A Memory Of The Paumotus
I stayed once at Rotoava--in the Low Archipelago, EasternPolynesia--while suffering from injuries received in a boat accidentone wild night. My host, the Rotoava trader, was a sociable old pirate,whose convivial soul would never let him drink alone. He was by trade aboat-builder, having had, in his early days, a shed at Miller's Point,in Sydney, where he made money and married a wife. But this latterevent was poor Tom Oscott's undoing, and in the end he took his chestof tools on board the THYRA trading brig, and sailed away to Polynesia.Finally, after many years' wandering, he settled down at Rotoava as atrader and boat-builder, and became a noted drinker of bottled beer.
The only method by which I could avoid his incessant invitations to"have another" was to get his wife and children to carry me down to hiswork-shed, built in a lovely spot surrounded by giant PUKA trees. Here,under the shade, I had my mats spread, and with one of his childrensitting at my head to fan away the flies, I lay and watched, throughthe belt of coconuts that lined the beach, the blue rollers breaking onthe reef and the snow-white boatswain-birds floating high overhead.
* * * * *
Tom was in the bush one morning when his family carried me to theboat-shed. He had gone for a log of seasoned TOA wood [A hard wood muchused in boat building] to another village. At noon he returned, and Iheard him bawling for me. His little daughter, the fly-brusher, gave ananswering yell, and then Tom walked down the path, carrying two bottles ofbeer; behind him Lucia, his eldest daughter, a monstrous creature ofgiggles, adipose tissue, and warm heart, with glasses and a plate ofcrackers; lastly, old Marie, the wife, with a little table.
"By ----, you've a lot more sense'n me. It's better lyin' here in thecool, than foolin' around in the sun; so I've brought yer suthin' todrink."
"Oh, Tom," I groaned, "I'm sure that beer's bad for me."
The Maker of Boats sat on his bench, and said that he knew of abrewer's carter in Sydney who, at Merriman's "pub," on Miller's Point,had had a cask of beer roll over him. Smashed seven ribs, one arm, andone thigh. Doctors gave him up; undertaker's man called on his wife forcoffin order but a sailor chap said he'd pull him through. Got anindiarubber tube and made him suck up as much beer as he could hold;kept it up till all his bones "setted" again, and he recovered. Whyshouldn't I--if I only drank enough?
"Hurry up, old dark-skin!"--this to the faded Marie. Uttering merelythe word "Hog!" she drew the cork. I had to drink some, and every houror so Tom would say it was very hot, and open yet another bottle. Atlast I escaped the beer by nearly dying, and then the kind old fellowhurried away in his boat to Apatiki--another island of the group--andcame back with some bottles of claret, bought from the French traderthere. With him came two visitors--a big half-caste of middle age, andhis wife, a girl of twenty or there-about. This was Edward Pallou andhis wife Taloi.
* * * * *
I was in the house when Tom returned, enjoying a long-denied smoke.Pallou and his wife entered and greeted me. The man was a fine,well-set-up fellow, wiry and muscular, with deep-set eyes, and bearingacross his right cheek a heavy scar. His wife was a sweet, daintylittle creature with red lips, dazzling teeth, hazel eyes, and longwavy hair. The first thing I noticed about her was, that instead ofsquatting on a mat in native fashion, she sank into a wide chair, andlying back enquired, with a pleasant smile and in perfect English,whether I was feeling any better. She was very fair, even for aPaumotuan half-caste, as I thought she must be, and I said to Pallou,"Why, any one would take your wife to be an Englishwoman!"
"Not I," said Taloi, with a rippling laugh, as she commenced to make abanana-leaf cigarette; "I am a full-blooded South Sea Islander. Ibelong to Apatiki, and was born there. Perhaps I have white blood inme. Who knows?--only my wise mother. But when I was twelve years old Iwas adopted by a gentleman in Papeite, and he sent me to Sydney toschool. Do you know Sydney? Well, I was three years with the MissesF----, in ---- Street. My goodness! I WAS glad to leave--and so werethe Misses F---- to see me go. They said I was downright wicked,because one day I tore the dress off a girl who said my skin wastallowy, like my name. When I came back to Tahiti my guardian took meto Raiatea, where he had a business, and said I must marry him, thebeast!"
"Oh, shut up, Taoi!" growled the deep-voiced Pallou, who sat beside me."What the deuce does this man care about your doings?"
"Shut up yourself, you brute! Can't I talk to any one I like, youturtle-headed fool? Am I not a good wife to you, you great, over-grownsavage? Won't you let a poor devil of a woman talk a little? Look here,Tom, do you see that flash jacket he's wearing? Well, I sat up twonights making that--for him to come over here with, and show off beforethe Rotoava girls. Go and die, you ----!"
The big half-caste looked at Tom and then at me. His lips twitched withsuppressed passion, and a dangerous gleam shone a moment in his darkeyes.
"Here, I say, Taloi," broke in Tom, good-humouredly, "just go easy abit with Ted. As for him a-looking at any of the girls here, I knowsbetter--and so do you."
Taloi's laugh, clear as the note of a bird, answered him, and then shesaid she was sorry, and the lines around Pallou's rigid mouth softeneddown. It was easy to see that this grim half-white loved, for all herbitter tongue, the bright creature who sat in the big chair.
Presently Taloi and Lucia went out to bathe, and Pallou remained withme. Tom joined us, and for a while no one spoke. Then the trader,laying down his pipe on the table, drew his seat closer, and commenced,in low tones, a conversation in Tahitian with Pallou. From the earnestmanner of old Tom and the sullen gloom that overspread Pallou's face, Icould discern that some anxiety possessed them.
At last Tom addressed me. "Look here, ----, Ted here is in a mess, andwe've just been a-talkin' of it over, and he says perhaps you'll dowhat you can for him."
The half-caste turned his dark eyes on me and looked intently intomine.
"What is it, Tom?"
"Well, you see, it come about this way. You heard this chap'smissus--Taloi--a-talkin' about the Frenchman that wanted to marry her.He had chartered a little schooner in Papeite to go to Raiatea. Pallouhere was mate, and, o' course, he being from the same part of the groupas Taloi, she ups and tells him that the Frenchman wanted to marry herstraightaway; and then I s'pose, the two gets a bit chummy, and Palloutells her that if she didn't want the man he'd see as how she wasn'tforced agin' her will. So when the vessel gets to Raiatea it fell calm,just about sunset. The Frenchman was in a hurry to get ashore, andtells his skipper to put two men in the boat and some grub, as he meantto pull ashore to his station. So they put the boat over the side, andFrenchy and Taoi and Pallou and two native chaps gets in and pulls forthe land.
"They gets inside Uturoa about midnight. 'Jump out,' says the Frenchmanto Taloi as soon as the boat touches the beach; but the girl wouldn't,but ties herself up around Pallou and squeals. 'Sakker!' says theFrenchy, and he grabs her by the hair and tries to tear her away.''Ere, stop that,' says Pallou; 'the girl ain't willin',' an' he pushesFrenchy away. 'Sakker!' again, and Frenchy whips out his pistol andnearly blows Pallou's face off'n him; and then, afore he knows how itwas done, Ted sends his knife chunk home into the other fellow'sthroat. The two native sailors runned away ashore, and Pallou and Taloitakes the oars and pulls out again until they drops. Then a breezecomes along, and they up stick and sails away and gets clear o' thegroup, and brings up, after a lot of sufferin', at Rurutu. And eversince then there's been a French gunboat a-lookin' for Pallou, and he'sbeen hidin' at Apatiki for nigh on a twelvemonth, and has come overhere now to see if, when your ship comes back, you can't give him andhis missus a passage away somewhere to the westward, out o' the run ofthat there gunboat, the VAUDREUIL."
* * * * *
I promised I would "work it" with the captain, and Pallou put out hisbrawny hand--the hand that "drove it home into Frenchy's throat"--andgrasped mine in silence. Then he lifted his jacket and showed me hismoney-belt, filled.
"I don't want money," I said. "If
you have told me the whole story, Iwould help any man in such a fix as you." And then Taloi, fresh fromher bath, came in and sat down on the mat, whilst fat Lucia combed anddressed her glossy hair and placed therein scarlet hisbiscus flowers;and to show her returned good temper, she took from her lips thecigarette she was smoking, and offered it to the grim Pallou.
A month later we all three left Rotoava, and Pallou and Taloi wentashore at one of the Hervey Group, where I gave him charge of a stationwith a small stock of trade, and we sailed away east-ward to Pitcairnand Easter Islands.
* * * * *
Pallou did a good business, and was well liked; and some seven monthsafterwards, when we were at Maga Reva, in the Gambier Group, I got aletter from him. "Business goes well," he wrote, "but Taloi is ill; Ithink she will die. You will find everything square, though, when youcome."
But I was never to see that particular island again, as the firm sentanother vessel in place of ours to get Pallou's produce. When thecaptain and the supercargo went ashore, a white trader met them, with aroll of papers in his hand.
"Pallou's stock-list," he said.
"Why, where is he? gone away?"
"No, he's here still; planted alongside his missus."
"Dead!"
"Yes. A few months after he arrived here, that pretty little wife ofhis died. He came to me, and asked if I would come and take stock withhim. I said he seemed in a bit of a hurry to start stocktaking beforethe poor thing was buried; but anyhow, I went, and we took stock, andhe counted his cash, and asked me to lock the place up if anythinghappened to him. Then we had a drink, and he bade me good-day, and saidhe was going to sit with Taloi awhile, before they took her away. Hesent the native women out of the bedroom, and the next minute I heard ashot. He'd done it, right enough. Right through his brain, poor chap. Ican tell you he thought a lot of that girl of his. There's the twograves, over there by that FETAU tree. Here's his stock-list and bag ofcash and keys. Would you mind giving me that pair of rubber sea-bootshe left?"