A Golden Flood Of Limes Washed About In The Lee-Scuppers.
The Big Baskets Of Yams Burst, And Pineapples And Pomegranates
Rolled Back And Forth.
The chickens had got loose and were
everywhere, roosting on the awnings, fluttering and squawking out on
the jib-boom, and essaying the perilous feat of balancing on the
spinnaker-boom.
They were wild chickens, accustomed to flight.
When attempts were made to catch them, they flew out over the ocean,
circled about, and came lack. Sometimes they did not come back.
And in the confusion, unobserved, the little sucking pig got loose
and slipped overboard.
"On the arrival of strangers, every man endeavoured to obtain one as
a friend and carry him off to his own habitation, where he is
treated with the greatest kindness by the inhabitants of the
district: they place him on a high seat and feed him with abundance
of the finest foods."
CHAPTER XIII - THE STONE-FISHING OF BORA BORA
At five in the morning the conches began to blow. From all along
the beach the eerie sounds arose, like the ancient voice of War,
calling to the fishermen to arise and prepare to go forth. We on
the Snark likewise arose, for there could be no sleep in that mad
din of conches. Also, we were going stone-fishing, though our
preparations were few.
Tautai-taora is the name for stone-fishing, tautai meaning a
"fishing instrument." And taora meaning "thrown." But tautai-
taora, in combination, means "stone-fishing," for a stone is the
instrument that is thrown. Stone-fishing is in reality a fish-
drive, similar in principle to a rabbit-drive or a cattle-drive,
though in the latter affairs drivers and driven operate in the same
medium, while in the fish-drive the men must be in the air to
breathe and the fish are driven through the water. It does not
matter if the water is a hundred feet deep, the men, working on the
surface, drive the fish just the same.
This is the way it is done. The canoes form in line, one hundred to
two hundred feet apart. In the bow of each canoe a man wields a
stone, several pounds in weight, which is attached to a short rope.
He merely smites the water with the stone, pulls up the stone, and
smites again. He goes on smiting. In the stern of each canoe
another man paddles, driving the canoe ahead and at the same time
keeping it in the formation. The line of canoes advances to meet a
second line a mile or two away, the ends of the lines hurrying
together to form a circle, the far edge of which is the shore. The
circle begins to contract upon the shore, where the women, standing
in a long row out into the sea, form a fence of legs, which serves
to break any rushes of the frantic fish. At the right moment when
the circle is sufficiently small, a canoe dashes out from shore,
dropping overboard a long screen of cocoanut leaves and encircling
the circle, thus reinforcing the palisade of legs. Of course, the
fishing is always done inside the reef in the lagoon.
"Tres jolie," the gendarme said, after explaining by signs and
gestures that thousands of fish would be caught of all sizes from
minnows to sharks, and that the captured fish would boil up and upon
the very sand of the beach.
It is a most successful method of fishing, while its nature is more
that of an outing festival, rather than of a prosaic, food-getting
task. Such fishing parties take place about once a month at Bora
Bora, and it is a custom that has descended from old time. The man
who originated it is not remembered. They always did this thing.
But one cannot help wondering about that forgotten savage of the
long ago, into whose mind first flashed this scheme of easy fishing,
of catching huge quantities of fish without hook, or net, or spear.
One thing about him we can know: he was a radical. And we can be
sure that he was considered feather-brained and anarchistic by his
conservative tribesmen. His difficulty was much greater than that
of the modern inventor, who has to convince in advance only one or
two capitalists. That early inventor had to convince his whole
tribe in advance, for without the co-operation of the whole tribe
the device could not be tested. One can well imagine the nightly
pow-wow-ings in that primitive island world, when he called his
comrades antiquated moss-backs, and they called him a fool, a freak,
and a crank, and charged him with having come from Kansas. Heaven
alone knows at what cost of grey hairs and expletives he must
finally have succeeded in winning over a sufficient number to give
his idea a trial. At any rate, the experiment succeeded. It stood
the test of truth - it worked! And thereafter, we can be confident,
there was no man to be found who did not know all along that it was
going to work.
Our good friends, Tehei and Bihaura, who were giving the fishing in
our honour, had promised to come for us. We were down below when
the call came from on deck that they were coming. We dashed up the
companionway, to be overwhelmed by the sight of the Polynesian barge
in which we were to ride. It was a long double canoe, the canoes
lashed together by timbers with an interval of water between, and
the whole decorated with flowers and golden grasses. A dozen
flower-crowned Amazons were at the paddles, while at the stern of
each canoe was a strapping steersman. All were garlanded with gold
and crimson and orange flowers, while each wore about the hips a
scarlet pareu. There were flowers everywhere, flowers, flowers,
flowers, without out end. The whole thing was an orgy of colour.
On the platform forward resting on the bows of the canoes, Tehei and
Bihaura were dancing.
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