Chapter VII. The Orofenans
To our shame we had a very pleasant supper that night off the grilledfish, which was excellent, and some tinned meat. I say to our shame, ina sense, for on our companions the sharks were supping and by rights weshould have been sunk in woe. I suppose that the sense of our own escapeintoxicated us. Also, notwithstanding his joviality, none of us hadcared much for the captain, and his policy had been to keep us somewhatapart from the crew, of whom therefore we knew but little. It is truethat Bastin held services on Sundays, for such as would attend, andBickley had doctored a few of them for minor ailments, but there, exceptfor a little casual conversation, our intercourse began and ended.
Now the sad fact is that it is hard to be overwhelmed with grief forthose with whom we are not intimate. We were very sorry and that is allthat can be said, except that Bastin, being High Church, announced ina matter-of-fact way that he meant to put up some petitions for thewelfare of their souls. To this Bickley retorted that from what he hadseen of their bodies he was sure they needed them.
Yes, it was a pleasant supper, not made less so by a bottle of champagnewhich Bickley and I shared. Bastin stuck to his tea, not because he didnot like champagne, but because, as he explained, having now comein contact with the heathen it would never do for him to set them anexample in the use of spirituous liquors.
"However much we may differ, Bastin, I respect you for that sentiment,"commented Bickley.
"I don't know why you should," answered Bastin; "but if so, you mightfollow my example."
That night we slept like logs, trusting to our teak door which webarricaded, and to Tommy, who was a most excellent watch-dog, to guardus against surprise. At any rate we took the risk. As a matter of fact,nothing happened, though before dawn Tommy did growl a good deal, forI heard him, but as he sank into slumber again on my bed, I did not getup. In the morning I found from fresh footprints that two or three menhad been prowling about the ship, though at a little distance.
We rose early, and taking the necessary precautions, bathed in the pool.Then we breakfasted, and having filled every available receptacle withwater, which took us a long time as these included a large tank thatsupplied the bath, so that we might have at least a week's supply incase of siege, we went on deck and debated what we should do. In theend we determined to stop where we were and await events, because, asI pointed out, it was necessary that we should discover whether thesenatives were hostile or friendly. In the former event we could hold ourown on the ship, whereas away from it we must be overwhelmed; in thelatter there was always time to move inland.
About ten o'clock when we were seated on stools smoking, with our gunsby our side--for here, owing to the overhanging cliff in which it willbe remembered the prow of the ship was buried, we could not be reachedby missiles thrown from above--we saw numbers of the islanders advancingupon us along the beach on either side. They were preceded as beforeby women who bore food on platters and in baskets. These people,all talking excitedly and laughing after their fashion, stopped at adistance, so we took no notice of them. Presently Marama, clad inhis feather cloak, and again accompanied by priests or medicine-men,appeared walking down the path on the cliff face, and, standing below,made salutations and entered into a conversation with us of which I givethe substance--that is, so far as we could understand it.
He reproached us for not having come to him as he expected we would do.We replied that we preferred to remain where we were until we were sureof our greeting and asked him what was the position. He explained thatonly once before, in the time of his grandfather, had any people reachedtheir shores, also during a great storm as we had done. They weredark-skinned men like themselves, three of them, but whence they camewas never known, since they were at once seized and sacrificed to thegod Oro, which was the right thing to do in such a case.
We asked whether he would consider it right to sacrifice us. He replied:
Certainly, unless we were too strong, being gods ourselves, or unless anarrangement could be concluded. We asked--what arrangement? He repliedthat we must make them gifts; also that we must do what we had promisedand cure him--the chief--of the disease which had tormented him foryears. In that event everything would be at our disposal and we, withall our belongings, should become taboo, holy, not to be touched. Nonewould attempt to harm us, nothing should be stolen under penalty ofdeath.
We asked him to come up on the deck with only one companion that hissickness might be ascertained, and after much hesitation he consented todo so. Bickley made an examination of the growth and announced that hebelieved it could be removed with perfect safety as the attachment tothe neck was very slight, but of course there was always a risk. Thiswas explained to him with difficulty, and much talk followed betweenhim and his followers who gathered on the beach beneath the ship. Theyseemed adverse to the experiment, till Marama grew furious with themand at last burst into tears saying that he could no longer drag thisterrible burden about with him, and he touched the growth. He wouldrather die. Then they gave way.
I will tell the rest as shortly as I can.
A hideous wooden idol was brought on board, wrapped in leaves andfeathers, and upon it the chief and his head people swore safety tous whether he lived or died, making us the guests of their land. Therewere, however, two provisos made, or as such we understood them. Theseseemed to be that we should offer no insult or injury to their god, andsecondly, that we should not set foot on the island in the lake. It wasnot till afterwards that it occurred to me that this must refer tothe mountain top which appeared in the inland sheet of water. To thosestipulations we made no answer. Indeed, the Orofenans did all thetalking. Finally, they ratified their oaths by a man who, I suppose, wasa head priest, cutting his arm and rubbing the blood from it on the lipsof the idol; also upon those of the chief. I should add that Bastin hadretired as soon as he saw that false god appear, of which I was glad,since I felt sure that he would make a scene.
The operation took place that afternoon and on the ship, for when onceMarama had made up his mind to trust us he did so very thoroughly. Itwas performed on deck in the presence of an awed multitude who watchedfrom the shore, and when they saw Bickley appear in a clean nightshirtand wash his hands, uttered a groan of wonder. Evidently they consideredit a magical and religious ceremony; indeed ever afterwards they calledBickley the Great Priest, or sometimes the Great Healer in later days.This was a grievance to Bastin who considered that he had been robbedof his proper title, especially when he learned that among themselves hewas only known as "the Bellower," because of the loud voice in which headdressed them. Nor did Bickley particularly appreciate the compliment.
With my help he administered the chloroform, which was done undershelter of a sail for fear lest the people should think that we weresmothering their chief. Then the operation went on to a satisfactoryconclusion. I omit the details, but an electric battery and a red-hotwire came into play.
"There," said Bickley triumphantly when he had finished tying thevessels and made everything neat and tidy with bandages, "I was afraidhe might bleed to death, but I don't think there is any fear of thatnow, for I have made a real job of it." Then advancing with the horridtumour in his hands he showed it in triumph to the crowd beneath, whogroaned again and threw themselves on to their faces. Doubtless now itis the most sacred relic of Orofena.
When Marama came out of the anesthetic, Bickley gave him something whichsent him to sleep for twelve hours, during all which time his peoplewaited beneath. This was our dangerous period, for our difficulty wasto persuade them that he was not dead, although Bickley had assured themthat he would sleep for a time while the magic worked. Still, I was veryglad when he woke up on the following morning, and two or three ofhis leading men could see that he was alive. The rest was lengthy butsimple, consisting merely in keeping him quiet and on a suitable dietuntil there was no fear of the wound opening. We achieved it somehowwith the help of an intelligent native woman who, I suppose, was oneof his wives, and five days late
r were enabled to present him healed,though rather tottery, to his affectionate subjects.
It was a great scene, which may be imagined. They bore him away in alitter with the native woman to watch him and another to carry the relicpreserved in a basket, and us they acclaimed as gods. Thenceforward wehad nothing to fear in Orofena--except Bastin, though this we did notknow at the time.
All this while we had been living on our ship and growing very boredthere, although we employed the empty hours in conversation withselected natives, thereby improving our knowledge of the language.Bickley had the best of it, since already patients began to arrive whichoccupied him. One of the first was that man whom Tommy had bitten. Hewas carried to us in an almost comatose state, suffering apparently fromthe symptoms of snake poisoning.
Afterward it turned out that he conceived Tommy to be a divine but mostvenomous lizard that could make a very horrible noise, and began tosuffer as one might do from the bite of such a creature. Nothing thatBickley could do was enough to save him and ultimately he died inconvulsions, a circumstance that enormously enhanced Tommy's reputation.To tell the truth, we took advantage of it to explain that Tommy wasin fact a supernatural animal, a sort of tame demon which only harmedpeople who had malevolent intentions towards those he served or whotried to steal any of their possessions or to intrude upon them atinconvenient hours, especially in the dark. So terrible was he, indeed,that even the skill of the Great Priest, i.e., Bickley, could not availto save any whom once he had bitten in his rage. Even to be barked at byhim was dangerous and conveyed a curse that might last for generations.
All this we set out when Bastin was not there. He had wandered off,as he said, to look for shells, but as we knew, to practise religiousorations in the Polynesian tongue with the waves for audience, asDemosthenes is said to have done to perfect himself as a politicalorator. Personally I admit that I relied more on the terrors of Tommy tosafeguard us from theft and other troubles than I did upon those of thenative taboo and the priestly oaths.
The end of it all was that we left our ship, having padlocked up thedoor (the padlock, we explained, was a magical instrument that bit worsethan Tommy), and moved inland in a kind of triumphal procession,priests and singers going before (the Orofenans sang extremely well) andminstrels following after playing upon instruments like flutes, whilebehind came the bearers carrying such goods as we needed. They tookus to a beautiful place in a grove of palms on a ridge where grew manybreadfruit trees, that commanded a view of the ocean upon one side andof the lake with the strange brown mountain top on the other. Here inthe midst of the native gardens we found that a fine house had beenbuilt for us of a kind of mud brick and thatched with palm leaves,surrounded by a fenced courtyard of beaten earth and having wideoverhanging verandahs; a very comfortable place indeed in that deliciousclimate. In it we took up our abode, visiting the ship occasionally tosee that all was well there, and awaiting events.
For Bickley these soon began to happen in the shape of anever-increasing stream of patients. The population of the island wasconsiderable, anything between five and ten thousand, so far as wecould judge, and among these of course there were a number of sick.Ophthalmia, for instance, was a prevalent disease, as were the growthssuch as Marama had suffered from, to say nothing of surgical cases andthose resulting from accident or from nervous ailments. With all ofthese Bickley was called upon to deal, which he did with remarkablesuccess by help of his books on Tropical Diseases and his ample suppliesof medical necessaries.
At first he enjoyed it very much, but when we had been established inthe house for about three weeks he remarked, after putting in a solidten hours of work, that for all the holiday he was getting he might aswell be back at his old practice, with the difference that there he wasearning several thousands a year. Just then a poor woman arrived with ababy in convulsions to whose necessities he was obliged to sacrificehis supper, after which came a man who had fallen from a palm tree andbroken his leg.
Nor did I escape, since having somehow or other established a reputationfor wisdom, as soon as I had mastered sufficient of the language, everykind of knotty case was laid before me for decision. In short, Ibecame a sort of Chief Justice--not an easy office as it involvedthe acquirement of the native law which was intricate and peculiar,especially in matrimonial cases.
At these oppressive activities Bastin looked on with a gloomy eye.
"You fellows seem very busy," he said one evening; "but I can findnothing to do. They don't seem to want me, and merely to set a goodexample by drinking water or tea while you swallow whisky and their palmwine, or whatever it is, is very negative kind of work, especially as Iam getting tired of planting things in the garden and playing policemanround the wreck which nobody goes near. Even Tommy is better off, for atleast he can bark and hunt rats."
"You see," said Bickley, "we are following our trades. Arbuthnot is alawyer and acts as a judge. I am a surgeon and I may add a general--avery general--practitioner and work at medicine in an enormous andmuch-neglected practice. Therefore, you, being a clergyman, should goand do likewise. There are some ten thousand people here, but I do notobserve that as yet you have converted a single one."
Thus spoke Bickley in a light and unguarded moment with his usual objectof what is known as "getting a rise" out of Bastin. Little did he guesswhat he was doing.
Bastin thought a while ponderously, then said:
"It is very strange from what peculiar sources Providence sometimessends inspirations. If wisdom flows from babes and sucklings, why shouldit not do so from the well of agnostics and mockers?"
"There is no reason which I can see," scoffed Bickley, "except that as arule wells do not flow."
"Your jest is ill-timed and I may add foolish," continued Bastin. "WhatI was about to add was that you have given me an idea, as it was nodoubt intended that you should do. I will, metaphorically speaking, girdup my loins and try to bear the light into all this heathen blackness."
"Then it is one of the first you ever had, old fellow. But what's theneed of girding up your loins in this hot climate?" inquired Bickleywith innocence. "Pyjamas and that white and green umbrella of yourswould do just as well."
Bastin vouchsafed no reply and sat for the rest of that evening plungedin deep thought.
On the following morning he approached Marama and asked his leaveto teach the people about the gods. The chief readily granted this,thinking, I believe, that he alluded to ourselves, and orders wereissued accordingly. They were to the effect that Bastin was to beallowed to go everywhere unmolested and to talk to whom he would aboutwhat he would, to which all must listen with respect.
Thus he began his missionary career in Orofena, working at it, good andearnest man that he was, in a way that excited even the admiration ofBickley. He started a school for children, which was held under a fine,spreading tree. These listened well, and being of exceedingly quickintellect soon began to pick up the elements of knowledge. But when hetried to persuade them to clothe their little naked bodies his failurewas complete, although after much supplication some of the bigger girlsdid arrive with a chaplet of flowers--round their necks!
Also he preached to the adults, and here again was very successful ina way, especially after he became more familiar with the language. Theylistened; to a certain extent they understood; they argued and put topoor Bastin the most awful questions such as the whole Bench of Bishopscould not have answered. Still he did answer them somehow, and theypolitely accepted his interpretation of their theological riddles. Iobserved that he got on best when he was telling them stories out of theOld Testament, such as the account of the creation of the world andof human beings, also of the Deluge, etc. Indeed one of their elderssaid--Yes, this was quite true. They had heard it all before fromtheir fathers, and that once the Deluge had taken place round Orofena,swallowing up great countries, but sparing them because they were sogood.
Bastin, surprised, asked them who had caused the deluge. They replied,Oro which was the name of their god, Oro w
ho dwelt yonder on themountain in the lake, and whose representation they worshipped inidols. He said that God dwelt in Heaven, to which they replied with calmcertainty:
"No, no, he dwells on the mountain in the lake," which was why theynever dared to approach that mountain.
Indeed it was only by giving the name Oro to the Divinity and admittingthat He might dwell in the mountain as well as everywhere else, thatBastin was able to make progress. Having conceded this, not withoutscruples, however, he did make considerable progress, so much, in fact,that I perceived that the priests of Oro were beginning to grow veryjealous of him and of his increasing authority with the people. Bastinwas naturally triumphant, and even exclaimed exultingly that within ayear he would have half of the population baptised.
"Within a year, my dear fellow," said Bickley, "you will have yourthroat cut as a sacrifice, and probably ours also. It is a pity, too,as within that time I should have stamped out ophthalmia and some otherdiseases in the island."
Here, leaving Bastin and his good work aside for a while, I will saya little about the country. From information which I gathered on somejourneys that I made and by inquiries from the chief Marama, who hadbecome devoted to us, I found that Orofena was quite a large place. Inshape the island was circular, a broad band of territory surrounding thegreat lake of which I have spoken, that in its turn surrounded a smallerisland from which rose the mountain top. No other land was known tobe near the shores of Orofena, which had never been visited by anyoneexcept the strangers a hundred years ago or so, who were sacrificed andeaten. Most of the island was covered with forest which the inhabitantslacked the energy, and indeed had no tools, to fell. They were anextremely lazy people and would only cultivate enough bananas and otherfood to satisfy their immediate needs. In truth they lived mostly uponbreadfruit and other products of the wild trees.
Thus it came about that in years of scarcity through drought or climaticcauses, which prevented the forest trees from bearing, they sufferedvery much from hunger. In such years hundreds of them would perishand the remainder resorted to the dreadful expedient of cannibalism.Sometimes, too, the shoals of fish avoided their shores, reducing themto great misery. Their only domestic animal was the pig which roamedabout half wild and in no great numbers, for they had never taken thetrouble to breed it in captivity. Their resources, therefore,were limited, which accounted for the comparative smallness of thepopulation, further reduced as it was by a wicked habit of infanticidepractised in order to lighten the burden of bringing up children.
They had no traditions as to how they reached this land, their beliefbeing that they had always been there but that their forefathers weremuch greater than they. They were poetical, and sang songs in a languagewhich themselves they could not understand; they said that it was thetongue their forefathers had spoken. Also they had several strangecustoms of which they did not know the origin. My own opinion, whichBickley shared, was that they were in fact a shrunken and deterioratedremnant of some high race now coming to its end through age andinter-breeding. About them indeed, notwithstanding their primitivesavagery which in its qualities much resembled that of otherPolynesians, there was a very curious air of antiquity. One felt thatthey had known the older world and its mysteries, though now bothwere forgotten. Also their language, which in time we came to speakperfectly, was copious, musical, and expressive in its idioms.
One circumstance I must mention. In walking about the country I observedall over it enormous holes, some of them measuring as much as a hundredyards across, with a depth of fifty feet or more, and this not onalluvial lands although there traces of them existed also, but in solidrock. What this rock was I do not know as none of us were geologists,but it seemed to me to partake of the nature of granite. Certainlyit was not coral like that on and about the coast, but of a primevalformation.
When I asked Marama what caused these holes, he only shrugged hisshoulders and said he did not know, but their fathers had declared thatthey were made by stones falling from heaven. This, of course, suggestedmeteorites to my mind. I submitted the idea to Bickley, who, in one ofhis rare intervals of leisure, came with me to make an examination.
"If they were meteorites," he said, "of which a shower struck the earthin some past geological age, all life must have been destroyed by themand their remains ought to exist at the bottom of the holes. To me theylook more like the effect of high explosives, but that, of course,is impossible, though I don't know what else could have caused suchcraters."
Then he went back to his work, for nothing that had to do with antiquityinterested Bickley very much. The present and its problems were enoughfor him, he would say, who neither had lived in the past nor expected tohave any share in the future.
As I remained curious I made an opportunity to scramble to the bottomof one of these craters, taking with me some of the natives with theirwooden tools. Here I found a good deal of soil either washed down fromthe surface or resulting from the decomposition of the rock, thoughoddly enough in it nothing grew. I directed them to dig. After a whileto my astonishment there appeared a corner of a great worked stonequite unlike that of the crater, indeed it seemed to me to be a marble.Further examination showed that this block was most beautifully carvedin bas-relief, apparently with a design of leaves and flowers. In thedisturbed soil also I picked up a life-sized marble hand of a womanexquisitely finished and apparently broken from a statue that mighthave been the work of one of the great Greek sculptors. Moreover, onthe third finger of this hand was a representation of a ring whereof,unfortunately, the bezel had been destroyed.
I put the hand in my pocket, but as darkness was coming on, I could notpursue the research and disinter the block. When I wished to return thenext day, I was informed politely by Marama that it would not be safefor me to do so as the priests of Oro declared that if I sought tomeddle with the "buried things the god would grow angry and bringdisaster on me."
When I persisted he said that at least I must go alone since no nativewould accompany me, and added earnestly that he prayed me not to go. Soto my great regret and disappointment I was obliged to give up the idea.
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