 Preface and introduction of OMU. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. OMU, a narrative of adventures in the South Seas, by Herman Melville. Preface. Nowhere perhaps are the proverbial characteristics of sailors shown under wilder aspects than in the South Seas. For the most part, the vessels navigating those remote waters are engaged in the sperm whale fishery, a business which is not only peculiarly fitted to attract the most reckless sea men of all nations, but in various ways is calculated to foster in them a spirit of the utmost license. These voyages also are unusually long and perilous. The only harbors accessible are among the barbarous or semi-civilized islands of Polynesia, or along the lawless western coast of South America. Hence, scenes the most novel and not directly connected with the business of whaling frequently occur among the crews of ships in the Pacific. Without pretending to give any account of the whale fishery for the scope of the narrative does not embrace the subject, it is partly the object of this work to convey some idea of the kind of life to which illusion is made by means of a circumstantial history of adventures befalling the author. Another object proposed is to give a familiar account of the present condition of the converted Polynesians as affected by their promiscuous intercourse with foreigners and the teachings of the missionaries combined. As a roving sailor, the author spent about three months in various parts of the islands of Tahiti and Aimeo and under circumstances most favorable for correct observations on the social condition of the natives. In every statement connected with missionary operations, a strict adherence to facts has, of course, been scrupulously observed, and in some instances it has even been deemed advisable to quote previous voyagers in corroboration of what is offered as the fruit of the author's own observations. Nothing but an earnest desire for truth and good has led him to touch upon this subject at all, and if he refrains from offering hints as to the best mode of remedying the evils which are pointed out, it is only because he thinks that after being made acquainted with the facts others are more qualified to do so. Should a little jocosnes be shown upon some curious traits of the Tahitians, it proceeds from no intention to ridicule. Things are merely described as, from their entire novelty, they first struck an unbiased observer. The present narrative necessarily begins where Taipi concludes, but has no further connection with the latter work. All therefore necessary for the reader to understand, who has not read Taipi, is given in a brief introduction. No journal was kept by the author during his wanderings in the South Seas, so that, in preparing the ensuing chapters for the press, precision with respect to dates would have been impossible, and every occurrence has been put down from simple recollection. The frequency, however, with which these incidents have been verbally related, has tended to stamp them upon the memory. Though it is believed that one or two imperfect Polynesian vocabularies have been published, none of the Tahitian dialect has as yet appeared. At any rate, the author has had access to none whatever. In the use of the native words, therefore, he has been mostly governed by the bare recollection of sounds. Upon several points connected with the history and ancient customs of Tahiti, collateral information has been obtained from the oldest books of South Sea voyages, and also from the Polynesian researches of Alice. The title of the work Oumu is borrowed from the dialect of the Marquesas Islands, where, among other uses, the word signifies a rover, or rather, a person wandering from one island to another, like some of the natives known among their countrymen as taboo canickers. In no respect does the author make pretensions to philosophic research. In a familiar way, he has merely described what he has seen, and if reflections are occasionally indulged in, they are spontaneous, and such as would very probably suggest themselves to the most casual observer. New York, January 28, 1847 Adventures in the South Sea's Introduction In the summer of 1842, the author of this narrative, as a sailor before the mast, visited the Marquesas Islands in an American South Seaman. At the island of Nukuheva, he left his vessel, which afterwards sailed without him. Wandering in the interior, he came upon the Valley of Taipe, inhabited by a primitive tribe of savages, from which Valley, a fellow sailor who accompanied him, soon afterward effected his escape. The author, however, was detained in an indulgent captivity for about the space of four months, at the end of which period he escaped in a boat which visited the bay. This boat belonged to a vessel in need of men, which had recently touched at a neighboring harbor of the same island, where the captain had been informed of the author's detention in Taipe. Desirous of adding to his crew, he sailed round thither, and hove two off the mouth of the bay. As the Taipees were considered hostile, the boat, manned by taboo natives from the other harbor, was then sent in, with an interpreter at their head, to procure the author's release. This was finally accomplished, though not without peril to all concerned. At the time of his escape, the author was suffering severely from lameness. The boat having gained the open sea, the ship appeared in the distance. Here the present narrative opens. End of Preface and Introduction. Recording by Tricia G. Chapters 1 and 2 of Oumu. This Librebox recording is in the public domain. Oumu, a narrative of adventures in the South Seas, by Herman Melville. Chapter 1. My Reception Abored It was the middle of a bright tropical afternoon that we made good our escape from the bay. The vessel we sought lay with her main top sail aback about a leak from the land, and was the only object that broke the broad expanse of the ocean. In approaching, she turned out to be a small, slatternly-looking craft. Her hull and spars a dingy black, rigging all slack and bleached nearly white, and everything denoting an ill state of affairs aboard. The four boats hanging from her sides proclaimed her a whaler. Leaning carelessly over the bulwarks were the sailors, wild, haggard-looking fellows in scotch caps and faded blue frocks. Some of them with cheeks of a mottled bronze, to which sickness soon changes the rich berry-brown of a seamen's complexion in the tropics. On the quarter-deck was one whom I took for the chief mate. He wore a broad-brimmed Panama hat, and his spy-glass was leveled as we advanced. When we came alongside, a low cry ran for and aft the deck, and everybody gazed at us with inquiring eyes. And well they might. To say nothing of the savage boat's crew, panting with excitement, all gesture and vociferation, my own appearance was calculated to excite curiosity. A robe of the native cloth was thrown over my shoulders, my hair and beard were uncut, and I betrayed other evidences of my recent adventure. Immediately on gaining the deck, they beset me on all sides with questions, the half of which I could not answer, so incessantly were they put. As an instance of the curious coincidences which often befall the sailor, I must hear mention that two countenances before me were familiar. One was that of an old man of war's man, whose acquaintance I had made in Rio de Janeiro, at which place touched the ship in which I sailed from home. The other was a young man whom, four years previous, I had frequently met in a sailor boarding-house in Liverpool. I remembered parting with him at Prince's Dock Gates, in the midst of a swarm of police officers, trackmen, stevedores, beggars and the like. And here we were again, years had rolled by, many a league of ocean had been traversed, and we were thrown together under circumstances which almost made me doubt my own existence. But a few moments passed ere I was sent for into the cabin by the captain. He was quite a young man, pale and slender, more like a sickly counting-house clerk than a bluff sea-captain. Fitting me be seated, he ordered the steward to hand me a glass of pisco. In the state I was, this stimulus almost made me delirious, so that of all I then went on to relate concerning my residence on the island I can scarcely remember a word. After this I was asked whether I desired to ship. Of course I said yes, that is, if he would allow me to enter for one cruise, engaging to discharge me if I so desired at the next port. In this way men are frequently shipped on board whalemen in the South Seas. My stipulation was exceeded to, and the ship's articles handed me to sign. The mate was now called below, and charged to make a well man of me. Not, let it be borne in mind, that the captain felt any great compassion for me. He only desired to have the benefit of my services as soon as possible. Helping me on deck, the mate stretched me out on the windless and commenced examining my limb, and then doctoring it after a fashion was something from the medicine chest. Rolled it up in a piece of an old sail, making so big a bundle that, with my feet resting on the windless, I might have been taken for a sailor with the gout. While this was going on, someone removing my tappa cloak slipped on a blue frock in its place, and another, actuated by the same desire to make a civilized mortal of me, flourished about my head a great pair of sheep shears to the eminent jeopardy of both ears and the certain destruction of hair and beard. The day was now drying to a close, and as the land faded from my sight I was all alive to the change in my condition, but how far short of our expectations is oftentimes the fulfillment of the most ardent hopes. Safe aboard of a ship, so long my earnest prayer, with home and friends once more in prospect, I nevertheless felt weighted down by a melancholy that could not be shaken off. It was the thought of nevermore seeing those who, notwithstanding their desire to retain me a captive, had upon the whole treated me so kindly. I was leaving them for ever. So unforeseen and sudden had been my escape, so excited had I been through it all, and so great the contrast between the luxurious repose of the valley and the wild noise and motion of a ship at sea, that at times my recent adventures had all the strangeness of a dream, and I could scarcely believe that the same sun now setting over a waste of waters had that very morning risen above the mountains and peered in upon me as I lay on my mat in Taipe. Going below into the folksal just after dark I was inducted into a wretched bunk or sleeping-box built over another. The rickety bottoms of both were spread with several pieces of a blanket. A battered tin can was then handed me, containing about half a pint of tea, so called by courtesy, though whether the juice of such stocks as one finds floating therein deserves that title, is a matter all shipowners must settle with their consciences. A cube of salt-beef on a hard-round biscuit by way of platter was also handed up, and without more ado I made a meal, the salt-flavor of which, after the Nebuchadnezzar fare of the valley, was positively delicious. While thus engaged, an old sailor on a chest just under me was puffing out volumes of tobacco smoke. My supper finished, he brushed the stem of his sooty pipe against the sleeve of his frock, and politely waved it toward me. The attention was sailor-like, as for the nicety of the thing no man who has lived in folksals is at all fastidious. And so, after a few vigorous whiffs to induce repose, I turned over and tried my best to forget myself. But in vain, my crib, instead of extending fore and aft as it should have done, was placed a thwart ships, that is, at right angles to the keel, and the vessel, being before the wind, rolled to such a degree that every time my heels went up and my head went down, I thought I was on the point of turning a summer set. Beside this, there were also more annoying causes of inquiitude, and, every once in a while, a splash of water came down the open scuttle and flung the spray in my face. At last, after a sleepless night, broken twice by the merciless call of the watch, a peep of daylight struggled into view from above, and someone came below. It was my old friend with the pipe. Here, shipmate, said I, help me out of this place, and let me go on deck. Halawao, who's that croaking, was the rejoinder, as he peered into the obscurity where I lay. A-t-i-p, my king of the cannibals, is that you? But I say, my lad, how's that spar of yarn? The mate says it's in a devil of a way, and last night set the steward to sharpening the hand saw. Hope he won't have the carving of ye. Long before daylight, we arrived off the bay of Nukuhiba, and making short tax till morning, we then ran in and sent to Bodashore with the natives who had brought me to the ship. Upon its return, we made sail again, and stood off from the land. There was a fine breeze, and notwithstanding my bad night's rest, the cool fresh air of a morning at sea was so bracing that, as soon as I breathed it, my spirits rose at once. Seated upon the windless the greater portion of the day, and chatting freely with the men, I learned the history of the voyage thus far, and everything respecting the ship and its present condition. These matters I will now throw together in the next chapter. Chapter 2 Some Account of the Ship First and foremost I must give some account of the Julia herself, or little jewel, as the sailors familiarly styled her. She was a smallbark of a beautiful model, something more than two hundred tons, Yankee-built and very old. Fitted for a privateer out of a New England port during the War of 1812, she had been captured at sea by a British cruiser, and, after seeing all sorts of service, was at last employed as a government packet in the Australian seas. Being condemned, however, about two years previous, she was purchased at auction by a house in Sydney, who, after some slight repairs, dispatched her on the present voyage. Notwithstanding the repairs, she was still in a miserable plight. The lower masts were said to be unsound. The standing rigging was much worn, and in some places even the bulwarks were quite rotten. Still, she was tolerably tight, and but little more than the ordinary pumping of a morning served to keep her free. But all this had nothing to do with her sailing. At that, brave little jewel, plump little jewel, was a witch. Blow high or blow low, she was always ready for the breeze, and when she dashed the waves from her prow and pranced and pod the sea, you never thought of her patched sails in blistered hull. How the fleet creature would fly before the wind, rolling now and then to be sure, but in very playfulness. Sailing to windward, no gale could bow her over. With sparsy wrecked, she looked right up into the wind's eye, and so she went. But after all, little jewel was not to be confided in. Lively enough and playful she was, but on that very account the more to be distrusted. Who knew but that like some vivacious old mortal all at once sinking into a decline, she might some dark night spring a leak and carry us all to the bottom. However, she played us no such ugly trick, and therefore I wrung little jewel in supposing it. She had a free roving commission. According to her papers, she might go with or she pleased, whaling, sealing, or anything else. Sperm whaling, however, was what she relied upon, though as yet only two fish had been brought alongside. The day they sailed out of Sydney heads, the ship's company, all told, numbered some thirty-two souls. Now they mustered about twenty, the rest had deserted. Even the three junior mates who had headed the whale boats were gone. And of the four harpooners, only one was left, a wild New Zealander or Maori, as his countrymen were more commonly called in the Pacific. But this was not all. More than half the seamen remaining were more or less unwell from a long sojourn in a dissipated port. Some of them wholly unfit for duty, one or two dangerously ill, and the rest managing to stand their watch, though they could do but little. The captain was a young cockney, who a few years before had emigrated to Australia, and by some favoritism or other had procured the command of the vessel, though in no wise competent. He was essentially a landsman, and though a man of education, no more meant for the sea than a hairdresser. Hence everybody made fun of him. They called him the cabin boy, or paper jack, and half a dozen other undignified names. In truth the men made no secret of the derision in which they held him, and as for the slender gentleman himself, he knew it all very well, and bore himself with becoming meekness. Holding as little intercourse with them as possible, he left everything to the chief mate, who, as the story went, had been given his captain in charge. Yet despite his apparent unobtrusiveness, the silent captain had more to do with the men than they thought. In short, although one of your sheepish-looking fellows, he had a sort of still, timid cunning, which no one would have suspected, and which, for that very reason, was all the more active. So the bluff mate, who always thought he did what he pleased, was occasionally made a tool of, and some obnoxious measures which he carried out, in spite of all growlings, were little thought to originate with the dapper little fellow in Nanking Jacket and white canvas pumps. But, to all appearance at least, the mate had everything his own way. Indeed, in most things this was actually the case, and it was quite plain that the captain stood in awe of him. So far as courage, seamanship, and a natural aptitude for keeping riotous spirits in subjection were concerned, no man was better qualified for his vocation than John German. He was the very beau ideal of the efficient race of short, thick-set men. His hair curled in little rings of iron grey all over his round bullet head. As for his countenance, it was strongly marked deeply pitted with the smallpox. For the rest there was a fierce little squint out of one eye. The nose had a rakish twist to one side, while his large mouth and great white teeth looked absolutely sharkish when he laughed. In a word no one, after getting a fair look at him, would ever think of improving the shape of his nose, wanting in symmetry if it was. Notwithstanding his pugnacious looks, however, German had a heart as big as a bullocks, that you saw at a glance. Such was our mate, but he had one failing. He abhorred all weak infusions, and cleaved manfully to strong drink. At all times he was more or less under the influence of it. Taken in moderate quantities, I believe in my soul, it did a man like him good. Brightened his eyes, swept the cobwebs out of his brain and regulated his pulse. But the worst of it was that sometimes he drank too much, and a more obstreperous fellow than German in his cups you seldom came across. He was always for having a fight, but the very men he flogged loved him as a brother, for he had such an irresistibly good-natured way of knocking them down that no one could find it in his heart to bear malice against him. So much for stout little German. All English whalemen are bound by law to carry a physician, who, of course, is rated a gentleman and lives in the cabin with nothing but his professional duties to attend to. But incidentally he drinks flip and plays cards with the captain. There was such a worthy aboard of the Julia, but curious to tell, he lived in the foxel with the men, and this was the way it happened. In the early part of the voyage the doctor and the captain lived together as pleasantly as could be. To say nothing of many a can they drank over the cabin transom, both of them had read books, and one of them had traveled, so their stories never flagged. But once on a time they got into a dispute about politics, and the doctor, moreover, getting into a rage, drove home an argument with his fist, and left the captain on the floor, literally silenced. This was carrying it with a high hand, so he was shut up in his state room for ten days, and left to meditate on bread and water, and the impropriety of flying into a passion. Smarting under his disgrace, he undertook a short time after his liberation to leave the vessel clandestinely at one of the islands, but was brought back ignominiously and again shut up. Being set at large for the second time, he vowed he would not live any longer with the captain, and went forward with his chests among the sailors, where he was received with open arms as a good fellow and an injured man. I must give some further account of him, for he figures largely in this narrative. His early history, like that of many other heroes, was enveloped in the profoundest obscurity, though he threw out hints of a patrimonial estate, a Nabob uncle, and an unfortunate affair which sent him a roving. All that was known, however, was this. He had gone out to Sydney as assistant surgeon of an emigrant ship. On his arrival there, he went back into the country, and after a few months' wanderings, returned to Sydney penniless, and entered as doctor aboard of the Julia. His personal appearance was remarkable. He was over six feet high, a tower of bones, with a complexion absolutely colourless, fair hair, and a light unscrupulous grey eye, twinkling occasionally with the very devil of mischief. Among the crew, he went by the name of the long doctor, or more frequently still, Dr. Long Ghost. And from whatever high estate Dr. Long Ghost might have fallen, he had certainly at some time or other spent money, drunk burgundy, and associated with gentlemen. As for his learning, he quoted Virgil and talked of Hobbes of Malmesbury, besides repeating poetry by the canto, especially Huda Briss. He was, moreover, a man who had seen the world. In the easiest way imaginable, he would refer to an amour he had in Palermo, his lion hunting before breakfast among the calf-raise, and the quality of coffee to be drunk in Muscat. And about these places and a hundred others, he had more anecdotes than I can tell of. Then such mellow old songs as he sang in a voice so round and racy, the real juice of sound. How such notes came forth from his lank body was a constant marvel. Upon the whole, Long Ghost was as entertaining a companion as one could wish, and to me in the Julia an absolute godsend. End of chapters one and two. Recording by Tricia G. Chapters three and four of Omu. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Omu, a narrative of adventures in the South Seas, by Herman Malville. Chapter three. Further account of the Julia. Owing to the absence of anything like regular discipline, the vessel was in a state of the greatest uproar. The captain, having for some time passed been more or less confined to the cabin from sickness, was seldom seen. The mate, however, was as hardy as a young lion, and ran about the decks making himself heard at all hours. Bembo, the New Zealand harponeer, held little intercourse with anybody but the mate, who could talk to him freely in his own lingo. Part of his time he spent out on the bow sprit, fishing for albacores with a bone hook, and occasionally he waked all hands up of a dark knight, dancing some cannibal fandango all by himself on the folk soul. But upon the whole he was remarkably quiet, though something in his eye showed he was far from being harmless. Dr. Longost, having sent in a written resignation as the ship's doctor, gave himself out as a passenger for Sydney, and took the world quite easy. As for the crew, those who were sick seemed marvelously contented for men in their condition, and the rest, not displeased with the general license, gave themselves little thought of the morrow. The Julius provisions were very poor. When opened the barrels of pork looked as if preserved in iron rust, and diffused in odor like a stale ragu. The beef was worse yet, a mahogany-colored fibrous substance so tough and tasteless that I almost believed the cook's story of a horse's hoof with the shoe on, having been fished up out of the pickle of one of the casks. Nor was the biscuit much better. Nearly all of it was broken into hard little gun flints, honeycombed through and through, as if the worms usually infesting this article in long tropical voyages had, in boring after-nutriment, come out at the antipodes without finding anything. Of what sailors call small stores we had but little, tea, however, we had in abundance, though I dare say the Hong merchants never had the shipping of it. Besides this every other day we had what English seamen call shot soup, great round peas polishing themselves like pebbles by rolling about in tepid water. It was afterwards told me that all our provisions had been purchased by the owners at an auction sale of condemned navy stores in Sydney. But notwithstanding the wateriness of the first course of soup and the saline flavor of the beef and pork, a sailor might have made a satisfactory meal aboard of the Julia had there been any side dishes, a potato or two, a yam or a plantain. But there was nothing of the kind. Still there was something else which in the estimation of the men made up for all the deficiencies, and that was the regular allowance of peace go. It may seem strange that in such a state of affairs the captain should be willing to keep the sea with his ship. But the truth was that by lying in harbor he ran the risk of losing the remainder of his men by desertion. And as it was he still feared that in some outlandish bay or other he might one day find his anchor down and no crew to weigh it. With judicious officers the most unruly sea men can at sea be kept in some sort of subjection, but once get them within a cable's length of the land and it is hard restraining them. It is for this reason that many self-sea whale men do not come to an anchor for eighteen or twenty months at a stretch. When fresh provisions are needed they run for the nearest land, heave to eight or ten miles off and send a boat ashore to trade. The crew's manning vessels like these are for the most part villains of all nations and dies, picked up in the lawless ports of the Spanish main and among the savages of the islands. Like galley slaves they are only to be governed by scourges and chains. Their officers go among them with dirken pistol, concealed, but ready at a grasp. Not a few of our own crew were men of the stamp, but riotous at times as they were, the bluff-drunken energies of German were just the thing to hold them in some sort of noisy subjection. Upon an emergency he flew in among them, showering his kicks and cuffs right and left and creating a sensation in every direction. And as hinted before, they bore this knockdown authority with great good humor. A sober, discreet, dignified officer could have done nothing with them. Such a set would have thrown him in his dignity overboard. Matters being thus, there was nothing for the ship but to keep the sea. Nor was the captain without hope that the invalid portion of his crew as well as himself would soon recover. And then there was no telling what luck in the fishery might yet be in store for us. At any rate, at the time of my coming aboard, the report was that Captain Guy was resolved upon retrieving the past and filling the vessel with oil in the shortest space possible. With this intention we were now shaping our course for Heidi Hu, a village on the island of St. Christina, one of the Marquesas, and so named by Mendana, for the purpose of obtaining eight seamen, who, some weeks before, had stepped ashore there from the Julia. It was supposed that by this time they must have recreated themselves sufficiently and would be glad to return to their duty. So to Heidi Hu, with all our canvass spread and coquettting with the warm breezy trades, we bowled along, gliding up and down the long, slow swells, the bonettas and albacores frolicking around us. Chapter 4 A Scene in the Folk Soul I had hardly been aboard the ship twenty-four hours when a circumstance occurred which, although no way's picturesque, is so significant of the state of affairs that I cannot forbear relating it. In the first place, however, it must be known that among the crew was a man so excessively ugly that he went by the ironical appellation of beauty. He was the ship's carpenter, and for that reason was sometimes known by his nautical cognamen of chips. There was no absolute deformity about the man. He was symmetrically ugly. But ill-favored as he was in person, beauty was nonetheless ugly and temper. But no one could blame him. His countenance had soured his heart. Now German and beauty were always at swords' points. The truth was, the latter was the only man in the ship whom the mate had never decidedly got the better of, and hence the grudge he bore him. As for beauty, he prided himself upon talking up to the mate, as we shall soon see. Toward evening there was something to be done on deck, and the carpenter who belonged to the watch was missing. Where's that skulk chips? shouted German down the Folk Soul scuttle. Taking his ease, do you see, down here on a chest if you want to know? replied that worthy himself, quietly withdrawing his pipe from his mouth. This insolence flung the fiery little mate into a mighty rage, but beauty said nothing, puffing away with all the tranquility imaginable. Here it must be remembered that, never mind what may be the provocation, no prudent officer ever dreams of entering a ship's Folk Soul on a hostile visit. If he wants to see anybody who happens to be there, and refuses to come up, why he must wait patiently until the sailor is willing? The reason is this. The place is very dark, and nothing is easier than to knock one descending on the head before he knows where he is, and a very long while before he ever finds out who did it. Nobody knew this better than German, and so he contented himself with looking down the scuttle and storming. At last beauty made some cool observation which set him half-wild. Tumble on deck, he then bellowed, come up with you, or I'll jump down and make you. The carpenter begged him to go about it at once. No sooner said than done. Prudence forgotten, German was there, and by a sort of instinct had this man by the throat before he could well see him. One of the men now made a rush at him, but the rest dragged him off, protesting that they should have fair play. Now come on, deck, shouted the mate, struggling like a good fellow to hold the carpenter fast. Take me there, was the dogged answer, and beauty wriggled about in the nervous grasp of the other like a couple of yards of boa constrictor. His assailant now undertook to make him up into a compact bundle, the more easily to transport him. While thus occupied, beauty got his arms loose and threw him over backward. But German quickly recovered himself when for a time they had it every way, dragging each other about, bumping their heads against the projecting beams, and returning each other's blows the first favorable opportunity that offered. Unfortunately, German at last slipped and fell, his foe seating himself on his chest and keeping him down. Now this was one of those situations in which the voice of counsel or reproof comes with peculiar unction. Nor did beauty let the opportunity slip, but the mate said nothing in reply, only foaming at the mouth and struggling to rise. Just then a thin tremor of a voice was heard from above. It was the captain, who, happening to ascend to the quarter-deck at the commencement of the scuffle, would gladly have returned to the cabin, but was prevented by the fear of ridicule. As the din increased and it became evident that his officer was in serious trouble, he thought it would never do to stand leaning over the bulwarks, so he made his appearance on the folksal, resolved as his best policy to treat the matter lightly. Why, why, he began speaking pettishly and very fast? What's all this about? Mr. German, Mr. German, carpenter, carpenter, what are you doing down there? Come on deck, come on deck. Whereupon Dr. Longost cries out in a squeak, ah, Miss Guy, is that you? Now, my dear, go right home or you'll get hurt. Poo-poo, you, sir, whoever you are, I was not speaking to you, none of your nonsense. Mr. German, I was talking to you. Have the kindness to come on deck, sir, I want to see you. And how, in the devil's name, am I to get there? cried the mate furiously. Hey, jump down here, Captain Guy, and show yourself a man. Let me up, you chips. Unhand me, I say. Oh, I'll pay you for this some day. Come on, Captain Guy. At this appeal, the poor man was seized with a perfect spasm of fidgets. Poo-poo, carpenter, have done with your nonsense. Let him up, sir. Let him up. Do you hear? Let Mr. German come on deck. Go along with you, Pepper Jack, replied Beauty. This quarrels between the mate and me, so go aft where you belong. As the Captain once more dipped his head down the scuttle to make answer, from an unseen hand he received full in the face the contents of a tin can of soaked biscuit and tea leaves. The doctor was not far off just then. Without waiting for anything more, the discomforted gentleman with both hands to his streaming face retreated to the quarter deck. A few moments more, and German, forced to a compromise, followed after in his torn frock and scarred face, looking for all the world as if he had just disentangled himself from some intricate piece of machinery. For about half an hour both remained in the cabin, where the mate's rough tones were heard high above the low, smooth voice of the Captain. Of all his conflicts with the men, this was the first in which German had been worsted, and he was proportionably enraged. Upon going below, as the steward afterward told us, he bluntly informed Guy that, for the future, he might look out for the ship himself. For his part, he was done with her, if that was the way he allowed his officers to be treated. After many high words, the Captain finally assured him that the first fitting opportunity the carpenter would be cordially flogged. Though as matters stood, the experiment would be a hazardous one. Upon this, German reluctantly consented to drop the matter for the present. And he soon drowned all thoughts of it in a can of flip which Guy had previously instructed the steward to prepare as a sap to allay his wrath. Nothing more ever came of this. CHAPTER V What Happened At Heidi Who Less than forty-eight hours after leaving Nukuheva, the blue looming island of St. Christina greeted us from afar. Drawing near the shore, the grim black spars and waspish hull of a small man of warcraft crept into view, the masts and yards lined distinctly against the sky. She was writing to her anchor in the bay and proved to be a French corvette. This pleased our Captain exceedingly, and coming on deck, he examined her from the mizzen rigging with his glass. His original intention was not to let go an anchor. But counting upon the assistance of the corvette in case of any difficulty, he now changed his mind and anchored alongside of her. As soon as a boat could be lowered, he then went off to pay his respects to the commander, and moreover, as we supposed, to concert measures for the apprehension of the runaways. Returning in the course of twenty minutes, he brought along with him two officers in undress and whiskers, and three or four drunken of stepperous old chiefs. One with his legs thrust into the armholes of a scarlet vest, another with a pair of spurs on his heels, and a third in a cocked hat and feather. In addition to these articles, they merely wore the ordinary costume of their race, a slip of native cloth about the loins. In decorous as their behavior was, these worthy turned out to be a deputation from the reverend the clergy of the island, and the subject of their visit was to put our ship under a rigorous taboo to prevent the disorderly scenes and facilities for desertion, which would ensue where the natives, men and women, allowed to come off to us freely. There was little ceremony about the matter. The chiefs went aside for a moment, laid their shaven old crowns together, and went over a little mummery. Whereupon their leader tore a long strip from his girdle of white tappa, and handed it to one of the French officers, who, after explaining what was to be done, gave it to German. The maid at once went out to the end of the flying jib-boom, and fastened there the mystic symbol of the ban. This put to flight a party of girls who had been observed swimming towards us, tossing their arms about and splashing the water-like porpoises with loud cries of, They turned about and made for the shore. The night of our arrival, the mate and the maury were to stand watch and watch, relieving each other every four hours. The crew, as is sometimes customary when lying at an anchor, being allowed to remain all night below. A distrust of the men, however, was, in the present instance, the principal reason for this proceeding. Indeed, it was all but certain that some kind of attempt would be made at desertion. And therefore, when German's first watch came on at eight bells, midnight, by which time all was quiet, he mounted to the deck with a flask of spirits in one hand, and the other in readiness to assail the first countenance that showed itself above the folksal scuttle. Thus prepared he doubtless meant to stay awake, but for all that, before long he fell asleep, and slept with such hardy goodwill, too, that the men who left us that night might have been waked up by his snoring. Certain it was, the mate snored most strangely, and no wonder with that crooked bugle of his. When he came to himself it was just dawn, but quite light enough to show two boats gone from the side. In an instant he knew what had happened. Dragging the maury out of an old sail where he was napping, he ordered him to clear away another boat, and then darted into the cabin to tell the captain the news. Springing on deck again, he dived down into the folksal for a couple of oarsmen, but hardly got there before there was a cry, and a loud splash heard over the side. It was the maury and the boat into which he had just leaped to get ready for lowering, rolling over and over in the water. The boat having at nightfall been hoisted up to its place over the starboard quarter, someone had so cut the tackles, which held it there, that a moderate strain would at once part them. Bembo's weight had answered the purpose, showing that the deserters must have ascertained his specific gravity to a fiber of hemp. There was another boat remaining, but it was as well to examine it before attempting to lower, and it was well they did, for there was a hole in the bottom large enough to drop a barrel through. She had been scuttled most ruthlessly. German was frantic, dashing his hat upon deck, he was about to plunge overboard and swim to the corvette for a cutter, when captain Guy made his appearance and begged him to stay where he was. By this time the officer of the deck aboard the Frenchman had noticed our movements and hailed to know what had happened. Guy informed him through his trumpet, and men to go in pursuit were instantly promised. There was a whistling of a boson's pipe, an order or two, and then a large cutter pulled out from the man of war's stern, and in half a dozen strokes was alongside. The mate leaped into her and they pulled rapidly ashore. Another cutter, carrying an armed crew, soon followed. In an hour's time the first returned towing the two whale boats which had been found turned up like tortoises on the beach. Noon came and nothing more was heard from the deserters. Meanwhile Dr. Longhost and myself lounged about, cultivating in acquaintance and gazing upon the shore scenery. The bay was as calm as death, the sun high and hot, and occasionally a still-gliding canoe stole out from behind the headlands and shot across the water. And all the morning long our sick men limped about the deck, casting wistful glances inland where the palm trees waved and beckoned them into their reviving shades. Poor invalid rascals, how conducive to the restoration of their shattered health would have been those delicious groves. But hard-hearted German assured them with an oath that foot of theirs should never touch the beach. Towards sunset a crowd was seen coming down to the water. In advance of all were the fugitives, bare-headed, their frogs and trousers hanging in tatters, every face covered with blood and dust, and their arms pinioned behind them with green thongs. Following them up was a shouting rabble of islanders, pricking them with the points of their long spears, the party from the corvette menacing them in flank with their naked cutlasses. The bonus of a musket to the king of the bay and the promise of a tumbler full of powder for every man caught had set the whole population on their track, and so successful was the hunt that not only were that morning's deserters brought back, but five of those left behind on a former visit. The natives, however, were the mere hounds of the chase, raising the game in their coverts, but leaving the securing of it to the Frenchmen. Here, as elsewhere, the islanders have no idea of taking part in such a scuffle as ensues upon the capture of a party of desperate sea men. The runaways were once brought aboard, and, though they looked rather salky, soon came round and treated the whole affair as a frolicsome adventure. Chapter 6 We Touch at La Dominica Fearful of spending another night in Heidi Who, Captain Guy caused the ship to be got under way shortly after dark. The next morning, when all supposed that we were fairly embarked for a long cruise, our course was suddenly altered for La Dominica, or Hivarhu, an island just north of the one we had quitted. The object of this, as we learned, was to procure, if possible, several English sailors, who, according to the commander of the Corvette, had recently gone ashore there from an American whaler, and were desirous of shipping aboard of one of their own country vessels. We made the land in the afternoon, coming abreast of a shady glen opening from a deep bay, and winding by green defiles far out of sight. Hands by the weather main brace, roared the mate, jumping up on the bulwarks, and in a moment the prancing Julia, suddenly arrested in her course, bridled her head like a steed rained in, while the foam flaked under her boughs. This was the place where we expected to obtain the men, so a boat was at once got in readiness to go ashore. Now it was necessary to provide a picked crew, men the least likely to abscond. After considerable deliberation on the part of the captain and mate, four of the seamen were pitched upon as the most trustworthy, or rather they were selected from a choice assortment of suspicious characters, as being of an inferior order of rascality. Armed with cutlasses all round, the natives were said to be an ugly set, they were followed over the side by the invalid captain, who on this occasion it seems was determined to signalize himself. Accordingly, in addition to his cutlass, he wore an old boarding belt in which was thrust a brace of pistols. They at once shoved off. My friend Longost had, among other things which looked somewhat strange in a ship's folksal, a capital spyglass, and on the present occasion we had it in use. When the boat neared the head of the inlet, though invisible to the naked eye, it was plainly revealed by the glass, looking no bigger than an eggshell, and the men diminished to pygmies. At last, born on what seemed a long flake of foam, the tiny craft shot up the beach amid a shower of sparkles. Not a soul was there. Leaving one of their number by the water, the rest of the pygmies stepped ashore, looking about them very circumspectly, pausing now and then hand to ear, and peering under a dense grove, which swept down within a few paces of the sea. No one came, and to all appearances everything was as still as the grave. Presently he with the pistols, followed by the rest flourishing their bodkins, entered the wood, and were soon lost to view. They did not stay long, probably anticipating some inhospitable ambush where they to stray any distance up the glen. In a few moments they embarked again, and were soon riding pertly over the waves of the bay. All of a sudden the captain started to his feet, the boat spun round, and again made for the shore. Some twenty or thirty natives armed with spears, which through the glass looked like reeds, had just come out of the grove, and were apparently shouting to the strangers, not to be in such a hurry, but return and be sociable. But they were somewhat distrusted, for the boat paused about its length from the beach when the captain standing up in its head delivered an address in pantomime, the object of which seemed to be that the islanders should draw near. One of them stepped forward and made answer, seemingly again urging the strangers not to be diffident, but beach their boat. The captain declined, tossing his arms about in another pantomime. In the end he said something which made them shake their spears, whereupon he fired a pistol among them which set the whole party running, while one poor little fellow dropping his spear and clasping his hand behind him, limped away in a manner which almost made me itch to get a shot at his assailant. Wanton acts of cruelty like this are not unusual on the part of sea captains landing at islands comparatively unknown. Even at the Pomoto group but a day's sail from Tahiti, the islanders coming down to the shore have several times been fired at by trading schooners passing through their narrow channels, and this too as a mere amusement on the part of the Ruffians. Indeed it is almost incredible the light in which many sailors regard these naked heathens. They hardly consider them human, but it is a curious fact that the more ignorant and degraded men are the more contemptuously they look upon those whom they deem their inferiors. All powers of persuasion being thus lost upon these foolish savages and no hope left of holding further intercourse, the boat returned to the ship. End of chapters 5 and 6. Recording by Tricia G. Chapters 7 and 8 of Omu. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Omu, a narrative of adventures in the South Seas by Herman Melville. Chapter 7. What Happened at Hanamanu. On the other side of the island was the large and populous bay of Hanamanu where the mensat might yet be found. But as the sun was setting by the time the boat came alongside we got our offshore tax aboard and stood away for an offing. About daybreak we wore and ran in and by the time the sun was well up entered the long Nero Channel dividing the islands of La Dominica and St. Christina. On one hand was a range of steep green bluffs hundreds of feet high the white huts of the natives here and there nestling like bird's nests in deep clefs gushing with verdure. Across the water the land rolled away in bright hillsides so warm and undulating that they seemed almost to palpitate in the sun. On we swept past bluff and grove wooded Glen and Valley and dark ravines lighted up far inland with wild falls of water. A fresh land breeze filled our sails the embayed waters were gentle as a lake and every blue wave broke with a tinkle against our coppered prow. On gaining the end of the channel we rounded a point and came full upon the bay of Hanamanu. This is the only harbor of any note about the island though as far as a safe anchorage is concerned it hardly deserves the title. Before we could hold any communication with the shore an incident occurred which may convey some further idea of the character of our crew. Having approached as near the land as we could prudently our headway was stopped and we awaited the arrival of a canoe which was coming out of the bay. All at once we got into a strong current which swept us rapidly toward a rocky promontory forming one side of the harbor. The wind had died away so two boats were at once lowered for the purpose of pulling the ship's head round. Before this could be done the eddies were whirling upon all sides and the rocks so near that it seemed as if one might leap upon it from the mast head. Notwithstanding the speechless fright of the captain and the horse shouts of the unappalled German the men handled the ropes as deliberately as possible some of them chuckling at the prospect of going ashore and others so eager for the vessel to strike that they could hardly contain themselves. Unexpectedly a counter current befriended us and assisted by the boats we were soon out of danger. What a disappointment for our crew all their little plans for swimming ashore from the wreck and having a fine time of it for the rest of their days thus cruelly nipped in the bud. Soon after the canoe came alongside. In it were eight or ten natives calmly vivacious looking youths all gesture and exclamation. The red feathers in their headbands perpetually nodding. With them also came a stranger a renegado from Christendom and humanity a white man in the South Sea girdle with a tattooed in the face. A broad blue band stretched across his face from ear to ear and on his forehead was the taper figure of a blue shark nothing but fins from head to tail. Some of us gazed upon this man with a feeling akin to horror no ways abated when informed that he had voluntarily submitted to this embellishment of his countenance. What an impress. Far worse than Keynes his was perhaps a wrinkle or a freckle which some of our modern cosmetics might have effaced but the blue shark was a mark indelible which all the waters of Abana and Farpar rivers of Damascus could never wash out. He was an Englishman Lem Hardy he called himself who had deserted from a trading brig touching at the island for wooden water some ten years previous. He had gone ashore as a sovereign power and returned with a musket and a bag of ammunition and ready if need were to prosecute war on his own account. The country was divided by the hostile kings of several large valleys with one of them from whom he first received overtures he formed an alliance and became what he now was the military leader of the tribe and war god of the entire island. His campaigns beat Napoleon's in one night attack his invincible musket backed by the light infantry of spears and javelins vanquished two clans and the next morning brought all the others at the feet of his royal ally nor was the rise of his domestic fortunes at all behind the Corsicans. Three days after landing the exquisitely tattooed hand of a princess was his receiving along with the damsel as her portion one thousand fathoms of fine tappa fifty double braided mats of split grass four hundred hogs ten houses in different parts of her native valley and the sacred protection of an express edict of the taboo declaring his person inviolable forever. Now this man was settled for life perfectly satisfied with his circumstances and feeling no desire to return to his friends. Friends indeed he had none he told me his story thrown upon the world of fountaling his paternal origin was as much a mystery to him as the genealogy of Odin and scorned by everybody he fled the parish workhouse when a boy and launched upon the sea he had followed it for several years a dog before the mast and now he had thrown it up forever and for the most part he was a sort of man so many of whom are found among sailors uncared for by a single soul without ties, reckless and impatient of the restraints of civilization were occasionally found quite at home upon the savage islands of the pacific and glancing at their hard lot in their own country what marvel at their choice according to the renegado there was no other white man on the island and as the captain could have no reason to suppose he intended to deceive us he concluded that the French men were in some way or other mistaken in what they had told us however when our errant was made known to the rest of our visitors one of them a fine stalwart fellow his face all eyes and expression volunteered for a cruise all the wages he asked was a red shirt, a pair of trousers and a hat which were to be put on there and then besides a plug of tobacco and a pipe the bargain was struck directly but why Montu afterwards came in with a codacil to the effect that a friend of his who had come along with him should be given ten whole sea biscuits without crack or flaw twenty perfectly new and symmetrically straight nails and one jackknife this being agreed to the articles were at once handed over the native receiving them with great avidity and in the absence of clothing using his mouth as a pocket he put the nails in two of them however were first made to take the place of a pair of ear ornaments curiously fashioned out of bits of whitened wood it now began breezing strongly from seaward and no time was to be lost in getting away from the land so after an affecting rubbing of noses between our new shipmate and his countrymen we sailed away with him to our surprise the farewell shouts from the canoe as we dashed along under bellied royals were heard unmoved by our islander but it was not long thus that very evening when the dark blue of his native hills sunk in the horizon the poor savage leaned over the bulwarks dropped his head upon his chest and gave way to irrepressible emotions the ship was plunging hard and why Montu said to tell in addition to his other pangs was terribly seasick Chapter 8 the Tatuers of La Dominica for a while leaving little jewel to sail by herself I will here put down some curious information obtained from Hardy the Renegado had lived so long on the island that its customs were quite familiar and I much lamented that from the shortness of our stay he could not tell us more than he did from the little intelligence gathered however I learned to my surprise that in some things the people of Hivarhu though of the same group of islands differed considerably from my tropical friends in the valley of Taipea as his tattooing attracted so much remark Hardy had a good deal to say concerning the manner in which that art was practiced upon the island throughout the entire cluster the Tatuers of Hivarhu enjoyed no small reputation they had carried their art to the highest perfection and the profession was esteemed most honorable no wonder then that like gentile tailors they rated their services very high so much so that none but those belonging to the higher classes could afford to employ them so true was this that the elegance of one's tattooing was in most cases a sure indication of birth and riches Professors in large practice lived in spacious houses divided by screens of Tapa into numerous little apartments where subjects were weighted upon in private the arrangement chiefly grew out of a singular ordinance of the taboo which enjoined the strictest privacy upon all men high and low while under the hands of the Tatuers for the time the slightest intercourse with others is prohibited and the small portion of food allowed is pushed under the curtain by an unseen hand the restriction with regard to food is intended to reduce the blood so as to diminish the inflammation consequent upon puncturing the skin as it is this comes on very soon and takes some time to heal so that the period of seclusion generally embraces many days sometimes several weeks all traces of soreness vanished the subject goes abroad but only again to return for on account of the pain only a small surface can be operated upon at once and as the whole body is to be more or less embellished by a process so slow the studios alluded to are constantly filled indeed with a vanity elsewhere unheard of many spend no small portion of their days thus sitting to an artist to begin the work the period of adolescence is esteemed to the most suitable for casting about for some imminent tattooer the friends of the youth take him to his house to have the outlines of the general plan laid out it behooves the professor to have a nice eye for a suit to be worn for life should be well cut some tattooers yearning after perfection employ at large wages one or two men of the commonest order vile fellows utterly regardless of appearances upon whom they first try their patterns generally their backs remorselessly scrawled over and no more canvas remaining they are dismissed and ever after go about the scorn of their countrymen hapless whites thus martyred in the cause of the fine arts besides the regular practitioners there are a parcel of shabby itinerant tattooers who by virtue of their calling stroll unmolested from one hostile bait to another doing their work dog cheap for the multitude they always repair to the various religious festivals which gather great crowds when these are concluded and the places where they are held vacated even by the tattooers scores of little tents of course tappa are left standing each with a solitary inmate who forbidden to talk to his unseen neighbors is obliged to stay there till completely healed the itinerants are reproached to their profession mere cobblers dealing in nothing but jagged lines and clumsy patches and utterly incapable of soaring to those heights of fancy attained by gentlemen of the faculty all professors of the arts love to fraternize and so in hanamanu the tattooers come together in the chapters of their worshipful order in this society duly organized and conferring degrees hardy from his influence was a sort of honorary grand master the blue shark and a sort of rim and engraven upon his chest were the seal of his initiation all over hivar who are established these orders of tattooers the way in which the renegados came to be founded is this a year or two after his landing there happened to be a season of scarcity owing to the partial failure of the breadfruit harvest for several consecutive seasons this brought about such a falling off in the number of subjects for tattooing that the profession became quite needy the royal ally of hardy however hit upon a benevolent expedient to provide for their wants at the same time conferring a boon upon many of his subjects by sound of conch shell it was proclaimed before the palace on the beach and at the head of the valley that new my king of hanamanu and friend of hardy hardy opened heart and table for all tattooers whatsoever but to entitle themselves to his hospitality they were commanded to practice without fee upon the meanest native soliciting their services numbers at once flocked to the royal abode both artists and sitters it was a famous time and the buildings of the palace being taboo to all but the tattooers and chiefs the sitters be uvakt on the common the lora tattoo or the time of tattooing will be long remembered an enthusiastic sitter celebrated the event in verse several lines were repeated to us by hardy some of which in a sort of colloquial chant he translated nearly thus where is that sound in hanamanu and where for that sound the sound of a hundred hammers tapping tapping tapping footnote the coloring matter is inserted by means of a shark's tooth attached to the end of a short stick which is struck upon the other end with a small mallet of wood and footnote where is that light round about the king's house and the small laughter the small merry laughter it is of the sons and daughters of the tattoo end of chapters seven and eight chapters nine and ten of omu this LibriVox recording is in the public domain omu a narrative of adventures in the south seas by Herman Melville chapter nine we steer to the westward state of affairs the night we left hanamanu was bright and starry and so warm that when the watches were relieved most of the men instead of going below towards morning finding the heat of the folks all unpleasant I ascended to the deck where everything was noiseless the trades were blowing with a mild steady strain upon the canvas and the ship heading right out into the immense blank of the western pacific the watch were asleep with one foot resting on the rudder even the man at the helm nodded and the mate himself with arms folded was leaning against the capstan and such a night and all alone reverie was inevitable I leaned over the side and could not help thinking of the strange objects we might be sailing over but my meditations were soon interrupted by a gray spectral shadow cast over the heaving billows it was the dawn soon followed by the first rays of the morning they flashed into view at one end of the arched night like to compare great things with small the gleamings of guy fox's lantern in the vaults of the parliament house before long what seemed alive ember rested for a moment on the rim of the ocean and at last the blood red sun stood full and round in the level east and the long sea day began breakfast over the first thing attended to was the formal baptism of Waimantu who after thinking over his affairs during the night looked dismal enough for various opinions as to a suitable appellation some maintained that we ought to call him Sunday that being the day we caught him others 1842 the then year of our lord while Dr. Longost remarked that he ought by all means to retain his original name Waimantu he meaning as he maintained in the figurative language of the island something analogous to one who had got himself into a scrape and entered the discussion by sowsing the poor fellow with a bucket of salt water and bestowing upon him the nautical appellation of luff though a certain mirthfulness succeeded his first pangs at leaving home Waimantu we will call him thus gradually relapsed into his former mood and became very melancholy often I noticed him crouching apart in the folksle his strange eyes gleaming restlessly and watching the slightest movement of the men many a time he must have been thinking of his bamboo hut when they were talking of Sydney and its dance houses we were now fairly at sea though to what particular cruising ground we were going no one knew and to all appearances few cared the men after a fashion of their own began to settle down into the routine of sea life as if everything was going on prosperously blown along over a smooth sea there was nothing to do but steer the ship and relieve the lookouts at the mast heads as for the sick they had two or three more added to their number the air of the island having disagreed with the constitutions of several of the runaways to crown all the captain again relapsed and became quite ill the men fit for duty were divided into two small watches headed respectively by the mate and the Maori the latter by virtue of his being a harpooner succeeding to the place of the second mate who had absconded in this state of things whaling was out of the question but in the face of everything German maintained that the invalids would soon be well however that might be with the same pale blue sky overhead we kept running steadily to the westward for ever advancing we seemed always in the same place and every day was the former lived over again we saw no ships expected to see none no sign of life was perceptible but the porpoises and other fish sporting under the boughs like pups ashore but at intervals the grey albatross peculiar to these seas came flapping his immense wings over us and then skimmed away silently as if from a plague ship or flights of the tropic bird known among seamen as the boson wheeled round and round us whistling shrilly as they flew the uncertainty hanging over our destination at this time and the fact that we were abroad upon waters comparatively little traversed lent an interest to this portion of the cruise which I shall never forget from obvious prudential considerations the pacific has been principally sailed over in known tracks and this is the reason why new islands are still occasionally discovered by exploring ships and adventurous whalers notwithstanding the great numbers of vessels of all kinds of late navigating this fast ocean indeed considerable portions still remain wholly unexplored and there is no doubt as to the actual existence of certain shoals and reefs and small clusters of islands vaguely laid down in the charts the mere circumstance therefore of a ship like ours penetrating into these regions was sufficient to cause any reflecting mind to feel at least a little uneasy for my own part the many stories I had heard of ships striking at midnight upon unknown rocks with all sails set and a slumbering crew often recurred to me especially as from the absence of discipline and are being so shorthanded the watches at night were careless in the extreme but no thoughts like these were entertained by my reckless shipmates and along we went the sun every evening setting straight ahead of our jib boom for what reason the mate was so reserved with regard to our precise destination was never made known the stories he told us I for one did not believe deeming them all a mere device to lull the crew he said we were bound to a fine cruising ground scarcely known to other whale men which he had himself discovered when commanding a small brig here the sea was alive with large whales so tame that all you had to do was to go up and kill them they were too frightened to resist a little to leeward of this was a small cluster of islands where we were going to refit abounding with delicious fruits and peopled by a race almost wholly unsophisticated by intercourse with strangers in order perhaps to guard against the possibility of anyone finding out the precise latitude of the spot we were going to German never revealed to us the ship's place at noon though such is the custom aboard of most vessels meanwhile he was very assiduous in his attention to the invalids Dr. Longost having given up the keys of the medicine chest they were handed over to him and as physician he discharged his duties to the satisfaction of all pills and powders in most cases were thrown to the fish and the contents of a mysterious little quarter cask were produced diluted with water from the butt his drafts were mixed on the capstan in coconut shells marked with the patient's names like shore doctors he did not eschew his own medicines for his professional cause in the folksal were sometimes made when he was comfortably tipsy nor did he omit keeping his invalids in good humor spinning his yarns to them whenever he went to see them owing to my lameness from which I soon began to recover I did no active duty except standing in occasional trick at the helm it was in the folksal chiefly that I spent my time in company with the long doctor who was at great pains to make himself agreeable his books though sadly torn and battered were an invaluable resource I read them through again and again including a learned treatise in addition to these he had an old file of Sydney papers and I soon became intimately acquainted with the localities of all the advertising tradesmen there in particular the rhetorical flourishes of stubs the real estate auctioneer diverted me exceedingly and I set him down as no other than a pupil of robins the Londoner aside from the pleasure of his society my intimacy with long ghost was of great service to me in other respects his disgrace in the cabin only confirmed the goodwill of the democracy in the folksal and they not only treated him in the most friendly manner but looked up to him with the utmost deference besides laughing heartily at all his jokes as his chosen associate this feeling for him extended to me and gradually we came to be regarded in the light of distinguished guests at mealtimes we were always with much respect among other devices to kill time during the frequent columns long ghost hit upon the game of chess with a jackknife we carved the pieces quite tastefully out of bits of wood and our board was the middle of a chest lid chocked into squares which in playing we straddled at either end having no other suitable way of distinguishing the sets I marked mine by tying round them torn from an old neck handkerchief putting them in mourning this way the doctor said was quite appropriate seeing that they had reason to feel sad three games out of four of chess the men never could make head nor tail indeed their wonder rose to such a pitch that they at last regarded the mysterious movements of the game was something more than perplexity and after puzzling over them through several long engagements they came to the conclusion of a couple of necromancers Chapter 10 a sea parlor described with some of its tenets I may as well give some idea of the place in which the doctor and I live together so sociably most persons know that a ship's folk soul embraces the forward part of the deck about the bow sprit the same term however is generally bestowed upon the sailors sleeping quarters which occupy a place immediately beneath and are partitioned off by a bulkhead planted right in the bows or as sailors say in the very eyes of the ship this delightful apartment is of a triangular shape and is generally fitted with two tiers of rude bunks those of the Julia were in a most deplorable condition mere wrecks some having been torn down altogether to patch up others and on one side there were but two standing but with most of the men it made little difference whether they had a bunk or not since having no bedding they had nothing to put in it but themselves upon the boards of my own crib I spread all the old canvas and old clothes I could pick up for a pillow I wrapped an old jacket round a log this helped a little the wear and tear of one's bones when the ship rolled rude hammocks made out of old sails were in many cases they had no substitutes for the demolished bunks but the space they swung in was so confined that they were far from being agreeable the general aspect of the folk soul was dungeon like and dingy in the extreme in the first place it was not five feet from deck to deck and even this space was encroached upon by two outlandish cross timbers bracing the vessel and by the sailors chests over which you must needs crawl in getting about and indulged in after dinner chat we sat about the chests like a parcel of tailors in the middle of it all were two square wooden columns denominated in marine architecture both sprit bits they were about a foot apart and between them by a rusty chain swung the folk soul lamp burning day and night and forever casting two long black shadows lower down between the bits was a locker or sailors pantry and sometimes requiring a vigorous cleaning and fumigation all over the ship was in a most dilapidated condition but in the folk soul it looked like the hollow of an old tree going to decay in every direction the wood was damp and discolored and here and there soft and porous moreover it was hacked and hewed without mercy the cook frequently helping himself to splinters for kindling wood from the bits and beams the waterline was sooty and here and there deep holes were burned in them a freak of some drunken sailors on a voyage long previous from above you entered by a plank with two cleats slanting down from the scuttle which was a mere hole in the deck there being no slide to draw over in case of emergency the tarpaulin temporarily placed there was little protection from the spray heaved over the boughs so that in anything of a breeze in a squall the water fairly poured down in sheets like a cascade swashing about and afterwards spurting up between the chests like the jets of a fountain such were our accommodations aboard of the Julia but bad as they were we had not the undisputed possession of them myriads of cockroaches and regiments of rats disputed the place with us a greater calamity than this can scarcely befall a vessel so warm is the climate that it is almost impossible to get rid of them you may seal up every hatchway and fumigate the hull till the smoke forces itself out at the seams and enough will survive to repel the ship in an incredibly short period in some vessels the crews of which after a hard fight have given themselves up as it were for lost the vermin seem to take actual possession the sailors being mere tenants the sperm whale men hanging about the line as many of them do for a couple of years on a stretch it is infinitely worse than with other vessels as for the Julia these creatures never had such free and easy times as they did in her crazy old hull every chink and cranny swarmed with them they did not live among you but you among them so true was this that the business of eating and drinking was better done in the dark concerning the cockroaches there was an extraordinary phenomenon for which none of us could ever account every night they had a jubilee the first symptom was an unusual clustering and humming among the swarms lining the beams overhead and the inside of the sleeping places this was succeeded by a prodigious coming and going on the part of those living out of sight presently they all came forth the larger sort racing over the chests and planks winged monsters darting to and fro in the air and the small fry buzzing in heaps almost in the state of fusion on the first alarm all who were able darted on deck while some of the sick who were too feeble lay perfectly quiet the distracted vermin running over them at pleasure the performance lasted some ten minutes during which no hive ever hummed louder often it was lamented by us that the time of the visitation could never be predicted it was liable to come upon us at any hour of the night and what a relief it was when it happened to fall in the early part of the evening nor must I forget the rats they did not forget me tame as trunks mouse they stood in their holes peering at you like old grandfathers in a doorway often they darted in upon us at mealtimes and nibbled our food he was actually frightened but becoming accustomed to it he soon got along with them much better than the rest with curious dexterity he seized the animals by their legs and flung them up the scuttle to find a watery grave but I have a story of my own to tell about these rats one day the cabin steward made me a present of some molasses which I was so choice of that I kept it hid away in a tin can in the farthest corner of my bunk and I said this molasses dropped upon a biscuit was a positive luxury which I shared with none but the doctor and then only in private and sweet as the treacle was how could bread thus prepared and eaten in secret be otherwise than pleasant one night our precious can ran low and in canting it over in the dark something besides the molasses slipped out how long it had been there kind providence never revealed to know for we hushed up the bear thought as quickly as possible the creature certainly died a luscious death quite equal to clearances in the butt of Malmsey end of chapters 9 and 10 recording by Trisha G chapters 11 and 12 of Oumu this slipper box recording is in the public domain Oumu a narrative of adventures in the south seas by Herman Melville Dr. Longost a wag one of his capers grave though he was at times Dr. Longost was a decided wag everyone knows what lovers of fun sailors are ashore a float they are absolutely mad after it so his pranks were duly appreciated the poor old black cook unlashing his hammock for the night and finding a wet lug fast asleep in it and then waking in the morning head tart opening his coppers and finding an old boot boiling away as saucy as could be and sometimes cakes of pitch candying in his oven Baltimore's tribulations were indeed sore footnote he was so called from the place of his birth being a runaway Maryland slave and footnote there was no peace for him day nor night poor fellow people it is far better on some accounts to have the temper of a wolf whoever thought of taking liberties with gruff black Dan the most curious of the doctor's jokes was hoisting the men aloft by the foot or shoulder when they fell asleep on deck during the night watches ascending from the folxel on one occasion he found every soul napping and forthwith went about his capers in a number of blocks and conducted them all to the wind list then by heaving round cheerily in spite of cries and struggles he soon had them dangling aloft in all directions by arms and legs waked by the uproar we rushed up from below and found the poor fellows swinging in the moonlight from the tops and lower yard arms like a parcel of pirates jibbited at sea by a cruiser connected with this sort of during the night some of those on deck would come below to light a pipe or take a mouthful of beef and biscuit sometimes they fell asleep and being misdirectly that anything was to be done their shipmates often amused themselves by running them aloft with a pulley dropped down the scuttle from the fore top one night when all was perfectly still I lay awake in the folxel the lamp was burning low and thick and swinging from its blackened beam in the direction of the ship the men in the bunks rolled slowly from side to side the hammocks swaying in unison presently I heard a foot upon the ladder and looking up saw a wide trousers leg immediately navy bob a stout old triton stealthily descended and at once went to groping in the locker after something to eat supper ended he proceeded to load his pipe now for a good comfortable smoke at sea a place than the Julius folxel at midnight to enjoy the luxury one wants to fall into a kind of dreamy reverie only known to the children of the weed and the very atmosphere of the place laden as it was with the snores of the sleepers was inductive of this no wonder then that after a while bob's head sunk upon his breast presently his hat fell off the extinguished pipe dropping from his mouth and the next moment he lay out on the chest as tranquil as an infant suddenly an order was heard on deck followed by the trampling of feet and the hauling of rigging the yards were being braced and soon after the sleeper was missed for there was a whispered conference over the scuttle directly a shadow glided across the folxel and noiselessly approached the unsuspecting bob it was one of the watch with the end of a rope leading out of sight up the scuttle the sailor pressed softly the chest of his victim sounding his slumbers and then hitching the cord to his ankle returned to the deck hardly was his back turned when a long limb was thrust from a hammock opposite and Dr. Longost leaping forth warily whipped the rope from bob's ankle and fastened it like lightning to a great lumbering chest the property of the man who had just disappeared scarcely was the thing done when low with a thundering bound the clumsy box was torn from its fastenings and banging from side to side flew towards the scuttle here it jammed and thinking that bob who was as strong as a windlass was grappling a beam and trying to cut the line the jokers on deck streamed away furiously on a sudden the chest went aloft and striking against the mast flew open raining down on the heads of the party a merciless shower of things too numerous to mention of course the uproar roused all hands and when we hurried on deck there was the owner of the box looking aghast at its scattered contents and with one wandering hand taking the altitude of a bump on his head chapter 12 death and burial of two of the crew the mirthfulness which at times rained among us was in strange and shocking contrast with the situation of some of the invalids thus at least did it seem to me though not to others but an event occurred about this period which in removing by far the most pitiable cases of suffering tended to make less grating to my feelings the subsequent conduct of the crew we had been at sea about 20 days when two of the sick who had rapidly grown worse died one night within an hour of each other one occupied a bunk right next to mine and for several days had not risen from it during this period he was often delirious starting up and glaring around him and sometimes wildly tossing his arms on the night of his decease I retired shortly after the middle watch began and waking from a vague dream of horrors felt something clammy resting on me it was the sick man's hand two or three times during the evening previous he had thrust it into my bunk and I had quietly removed it but now I started and flung it from me the arm felt stark and stiff and I knew that he was dead waking the men the corpse was immediately rolled up in the strips of blanketing upon which it lay and carried on deck the mate was then called and preparations made for an instantaneous burial laying the body out on the forehatch it was stitched up in one of the hammocks some kentledge being placed at the feet instead of shot this done it was born to the gangway and placed on a plank laid across the bulwarks two men supported the inside end by way of solemnity the ship's headway was then stopped by hauling a back the main top sail the mate who was far from being sober then staggered up and holding on to a shroud gave the word as the plank tipped the body slid off slowly and fell with a splash into the sea a bubble or two and nothing more was seen braced forward the main yard swung round to its place and the ship glided on while the corpse perhaps was still sinking we had tossed a shipmate to the sharks but no one would have thought it to have gone among the crew immediately after the dead man had been a churlish unsocial fellow while alive and no favorite and now that he was no more little thought was bestowed upon him all that was said was concerning the disposal of his chest which having been always kept locked was supposed to contain money someone volunteered to break it open and distribute its contents clothing and all before the captain should demand it while myself and others were endeavoring to dissuade them from this all started at a cry from the folks all there could be no one there but a sick unable to crawl on deck we went below and found one of them dying on a chest he had fallen out of his hammock in a fit and was insensible the eyes were open and fixed and his breath coming and going convulsively the men shrunk from him but the doctor taking his hand held it a few moments in his and suddenly letting it fall exclaimed he's gone the body was instantly born up the ladder another hammock was soon prepared and the dead sailor stitched up as before some additional ceremony however was now insisted on and a bible was called for but none was to be had not even a prayer book when this was made known Anton, a Portuguese from the Cape de Verde Islands stepped up muttered something over the corpse of his country man and with his finger on it received the dead launch these two men both perished from the proverbial indiscretions of seamen heightened by circumstances apparent but had either of them been assured under proper treatment he would in all human probability have recovered behold here the fate of a sailor they give him the last toss and no one asks whose child he was for the rest of that night there was no more sleep in the morning relating to each other those marvelous tales of the sea which the occasion was calculated to call forth little as I believed in such things I could not listen to some of these stories unaffected above all was I struck by one of the carpenters on a voyage to India they had a fever aboard which carried off nearly half the crew in the space of a few days after this the men never went aloft in the night time except in couples when top sails were to be reefed phantoms were seen at the yard arm ends and in tacking ship voices called aloud from the tops the carpenter himself going with another man to furl the main top gallant sail in a squall was nearly pushed from the rigging by an unseen hand and his shipmates swore that a wet hammock was flirted in his face stories like these were related as gospel truths by those who declared themselves it is a circumstance not generally known perhaps that among ignorant semen finlanders or fins as they are more commonly called are regarded with peculiar superstition for some reason or other which I never could get at they were supposed to possess the gift of second sight and the power to wreak supernatural vengeance upon those who offend them on this account they have great influence among sailors who might have sailed at different times were persons well calculated to produce this sort of impression at least upon minds disposed to believe in such things now we had one of these sea prophets aboard an old yellow haired fellow who always wore a rude seal skin cap of his own make and carried his tobacco in a large pouch made of the same stuff van as we called him was a quiet inoffensive man to look at the similarities had hitherto passed for nothing at this time however he came out with a prediction which was nonetheless remarkable from its absolute fulfillment though not exactly in the spirit in which it was given out the night of the burial he laid his hand on the old horseshoe nailed as a charm to the four mast and solemnly told us that in less than three weeks not one quarter of our number would remain aboard the ship some laughed flashjack called him an old fool but among the men generally it produced a marked effect for several days a degree of quiet reigned among us and delusions of such a kind were made to recent events as could be attributed to no other cause than the fins oh men for my own part what had lately come to pass was not without its influence it forcibly brought to mind Dr. Longost too frequently revealed his apprehensions and once assured me that he would give much to be safely landed upon any island around us where we were exactly no one but the mate seemed to know nor whither we were going the captain Amir Seifer was an invalid in his cabin to say nothing more of so many of his men languishing in the folks all are keeping the sea under these circumstances a matter strange enough at first now seemed wholly unwarranted and added to all was the thought that our fate was absolutely in the hand of the reckless German were anything to happen to him we would be left without a navigator for according to German himself he had from the commencement of the voyage always kept the ships reckoning the captain's nautical knowledge being insufficient but considerations like these seemed seldom or never occurred to the crew they were alive only to superstitious fears and when in apparent contradiction to the Finns prophecy the sick men rallied a little they began to recover their former spirits and the recollection of what had occurred insensibly faded from their minds in a week's time the unworthiness of little jewel as a sea vessel always a subject of jest now became more so than ever this knife often dug into the dank rotten planks ribbed between us and death and flung away the splinters with some sea joke as to the remaining invalids they were hardly ill enough to occasion any serious apprehension at least for the present in the breasts of such thoughtless beings as themselves and even those who suffered the most studiously refrained from any expression of pain the truth is that among the six the sea is so hardly detested and the six so little cared for that the greatest invalid generally strives to mask his sufferings he has given no sympathy to others and he expects none in return their conduct in this respect so opposed to their generous hearted behavior ashore painfully affects the landsmen on his first intercourse with them as a sailor sometimes but seldom are invalids invade against being kept at sea where they could be of no service when they ought to be ashore and in the way of recovery but oh cheer up, cheer up my hearties the mate would say and after this fashion he put a stop to their murmurings but there was one circumstance to which heretofore I have but barely eluded that tended more than anything else to reconcile many to their situation this was the receiving regularly twice every day but in the south seas where it is so seldom to be had a thoroughbred sailor deemed scarcely any price too dear which will purchase his darling tot now a days American whelemen in the Pacific never think of carrying spirits as a ration and a board of most of them it is never served out but in the south seas where it is so seldom to be had a thoroughbred sailor deemed scarcely any price too dear even in times of the greatest hardships all Sidney whelemen however still cling to the old custom and carry it as a part of the regular supplies for the voyage in port the allowance of Pisco was suspended with a view undoubtedly of heightening the attractions of being out of sight of land now owing to the absence of proper discipline are sick in addition to what they took medicinally often came in for their respective tot convivially and added to all this the evening of the last day of the week was always celebrated by what is styled on board of English vessels the Saturday night bottles two of these were sent down into the Vauxhall just after dark one for the starboard watch and the other for the larboard by prescription the oldest seaman in each claims the treat as his and accordingly pours out the good cheer and passes it round to the owners of his table but the Saturday night bottles were not all the carpenter and cooper in sea parlance chips and bungs who were the Cods or leaders of the Vauxhall in some way or other managed to obtain an extra supply which perpetually kept them in fine after dinner spirits and moreover disposed them to look favorably upon a state of affairs it made little matter where they were since we were in no condition to capture them about this time indeed the men came down from the mastheads where until now they had kept up the form of relieving each other every two hours they swore they would go there no more upon this the mate carelessly observed that they would soon be where lookouts were entirely unnecessary the whales he had in his eye though flash jack said that they made a practice of coming round ships and scratching their backs against them thus went the world of waters with us some four weeks or more after leaving Hanamanu end of chapters 11 and 12 recording by Tricia G chapters 13 and 14 of Oumu this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Oumu a narrative of adventures in the South Seas in Calville chapter 13 our destination changed it was not long after the death of the two men the captain guy was reported as fast declining and in a day or two more as dying the doctor who previously had refused to enter the cabin upon any consideration now relented and paid his old enemy a professional visit he prescribed a warm bath in the boat a cask was lowered down into the cabin and then filled with buckets of water from the ship's coppers the cries of the patient when dipped into this rude bath were most painful to hear they at last laid him on the transom more dead than alive that evening the mate was perfectly sober and coming forward to the windless where we were lounging summoned aft the doctor myself and two or three others both a Maori he spoke to us thus I have something to say to ye men there's none but Bembo here as belongs aft so I picked ye out as the best men forward to take counsel with DEC concerning the ship the captain's anchor is pretty nigh a trip I shouldn't wonder if he croaked a four morning so what's to be done if we have to sew him up some of those pirates there forward may take it into their heads because there's no one at the tiller now I've determined what's best to be done but I don't want to do it unless I've good men to back me and make things all fair and square if ever we get home again we all asked what his plan was I'll tell ye what it is men if the skipper dies I'll agree to obey my orders and in less than three weeks I'll engage to have five hundred barrels of sperm oil under hatches enough to give every mother son of ye a handful of dollars when ye get to Sydney if ye don't agree to this ye won't have a farthing coming to ye footnote the men were shipped by the lay in other words they received no wages but by the articles were intended to a certain portion of the profits of the voyage and footnote doctor long ghost at once broke in he said that such a thing was not to be dreamt of to navigate the ship to the nearest civilized port and deliver her up to an English council's hands when in all probability after a run ashore the crew would be sent home everything forbade the mate's plan still said he assuming an era of indifference if the men say stick it out stick it out say aye but in that case the sooner we get to those islands of yours the better something more he went on to say which the rest regarded him it was plain that our fate was in his hands it was finally resolved upon that if captain guy was no better in 24 hours the ship's head should be pointed for the island of Tahiti this announcement produced a strong sensation the sick rallied and the rest speculated as to what was next to befall us while the doctor without alluding to guy congratulated me upon the prospect of getting a place so famous as the island in question the night after the holding of the council I happened to go on deck in the middle watch and found the yards braced sharp up on the larbored tack with the southeast trades strung on our bow the captain was no better and we were off for Tahiti chapter 14 rope yarn while gliding along on our way I cannot well omit some account of the poor devil we had among us who went by the name of rope yarn or ropey he was a nondescript who had joined the ship as a landsman being so excessively timid and awkward it was thought useless to try and make a sailor of him so he was translated into the cabin as steward the man previously filling that post a good seamen going among the crew and taking his place but poor ropey proved quite as clumsy among the crockery and one day when the ship was pitching having stumbled into the cabin with a wooden terrine of soup he scalded the officers so that they didn't get over it in a week upon which he was dismissed and returned to the folk soul now nobody is so heartily despised as a pusillanimous lazy good for nothing land lover a sailor has no bowels of compassion for him yet useless as such a character may be in many respects a ship's company is by no means disposed to let him reap any benefit from his deficiencies regarded in the light of a mechanical power whenever there is any plain hard work to be done he is put to it like a lever everyone giving him a pry then again he is set about all the vilest work is there a heavy job at tarring to be done he is pitched neck and shoulders into a tar barrel and set to work at it moreover he is made to fetch and carry like a dog like as not if the mate sends him after his quadrant on the way he is met by the captain who orders him to pick some oakum and while he is hunting up a bit of rope a sailor comes along and wants to know what the doosies after then bids him be off to the folk soul obey the last order is a precept inviolable at sea so the land lover afraid to refuse to do anything rushes about distracted in the end receiving a shower of kicks and cuffs from all quarters added to his other hardships he is seldom permitted to open his mouth unless spoken to and then he might better keep silent alas for him if he should happen to be anything of a drawl for in an evil hour should he perpetrate a joke he would never know the last of it the witticisms of others however upon himself must be received in the greatest woe be unto him if at mealtimes he so much as looks sideways at the beef kid before the rest are helped then he is obliged to plead guilty to every piece of mischief which the real perpetrator refuses to acknowledge thus taking the place of that sneaking rascal nobody ashore in short there is no end to his tribulations the land lover's spirits often sink and the first result of his being moody and miserable is naturally enough an utter neglect of his toilet the sailors perhaps ought to make allowances but heartless as they are they do not no sooner is his cleanliness questioned than they rise upon him like a mob of the middle ages upon a Jew drag him to the leaf scuppers and strip him to the buff in vain he bauls for mercy in vain calls upon the captain to save him alas I say again he is at sea he is the various wretch the watery world over and such was rope yarn of all land lovers the most loverly and the most miserable a forlorn, stunted, hook visaged mortal he was too one of those whom you know at a glance to have been tried hard and long in the furnace of affliction his face was an absolute puzzle though sharp and shallow it had neither the wrinkles of age nor the smoothness of youth so that for the soul of me I could hardly tell whether he was 25 or 50 but to his story in his better days it seems he had been a journeyman baker in London somewhere about Holburn and on Sundays wore a blue coat and metal buttons and spent his afternoons in a tavern smoking his pipe and drinking his ale like a free and easy journeyman baker that he was but this did not last long and the only thing old fool was the ruin of him he was told that London might do very well for elderly gentlemen and invalids but for a lad of spirit Australia was the land of promise in a dark day Gropy wound up his affairs and embarked arriving in Sydney with a small capital and after a while waxing snug and comfortable by dint of hard needing he took unto himself a wife and so far as she was concerned she went to the country and retired for she effectually did his business in short the lady worked him woe in hardened pocket and in the end ran off with his till and his foreman Gropy went to the sign of the pipe and tankered got fuddled and over his fifth pot meditated suicide and intention carried out for the next day he shipped as landsmen aboard the Julia South Seaman better had it not been for his heart which was soft and under done a kind word made a fool of him and hence most of the scrapes he got into two or three wags aware of his infirmity used to draw him out in conversation whenever the most crapped and choleric old semen were present to give an instance the watch below just waked from their sleep are all at breakfast and Gropy in one corner with his delicacies now sailors newly waked are no cherubs and therefore not a word is spoken everybody munching his biscuit grim and unshaven at this juncture an affable looking scamp flash jack crosses the folk soul tin can in hand and seats himself beside the landlubber hard fare this Gropy he begins hard enough too for them that's known better and lived in London you were back to Holburn this morning what would you have for breakfast a have for breakfast cried Ropey in a rapture don't speak of it what else that fellow here growled an old seabare turning round savagely oh nothing nothing said Jack and then leaning over to Ropey he made him go on but speak lower well then said he in a smugged tone lighting up like two lanterns well then I'd go to mother malls that makes the great muffins I'd go there you know and cock my foot in the ob and call for a noggin of something to begin with and what then Ropey why then flashy continued the poor victim unconsciously warming with his theme why then I'd draw my chair up and call for Betty the gal what tends to customers to be charming this morning give me a nice rasher of bacon and eggs Betty my love and I want a pint of hail and three nice hot muffins and butter and a slice of Cheshire and Betty I want a shark steak and be hanged to you roared black dan with an oath where upon dragged over the chests the ill start fellow was pummeled on deck I always made a point of befriending poor Ropey his End of chapters 13 and 14 Recording by Tricia G