Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.—Blank days.
On Monday there were great festivities here, and a dance till morning. I began to feel ill in the evening, and spent a most wretched night. On Tuesday I was unwell all day, and could do nothing. On Wednesday I was fearfully ill all day with a severe attack of fever and ague, and lay down under all the wraps I could secure, until the hot fit came on with a very severe headache. In the evening the boys surprised me by saying there was a white man outside, and I was glad to welcome Mr. Blackburne, Government agent of the Sybil, from Queensland. The vessel anchored at the watering place, and the boys told him “Missionary he plenty sick.” He therefore very kindly came up and spent the night with me. He has just left me now, and I have not strength to go with him to the ship. However, I am better to-day, and hope after a big dose of Quinine he has given me, that I shall be better.
Tuesday, August 31st.—I have wasted a whole week, and only to-day feel equal to doing anything or going anywhere. To-day for the first time for a week, I have moved out of the village boundaries, and have been to the river with the boys and bathed.
It has been a sickly time here all together, and many besides myself have been laid by. It is bearably pleasant to be pent up day by day within doors when feeling well, but almost unbearably so when one feels ill and out of sorts. However, I trust it is all over now, please God, and I must endeavour to make up for lost time. Several of the people, Arthur included, have been quite ill through eating a certain eel, caught somewhere in the sea and very poisonous. They all detected the burning, stinging sensation on their lips, tongue and palate as soon as they had eaten it, but fancied it was the taro. From that time till the end of the week, they have been all laid up, and one or two have been very bad indeed. They have experienced not only burning, sharp pains internally, and pricking, poignant stabbing pains in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, but have suffered a great deal also from strong and utter prostration with an abhorrent distaste for food. Several others were warned betimes from partaking, or the poisoning might have been more general. This particular eel was caught by a heathen on a Sunday, and therefore its peculiarly deleterious and poisonous qualities have been traced by the more virtuous to that fact, of which no cognizance was taken before it was cooked and eaten, nor would have been afterwards, but for its effects. The really admitted fact, however, I believe, is that certain fish caught at certain parts of the beach at particular seasons of the year, have all a more or less poisonous effect on those who eat them. The people themselves say it is the feed they find there which makes them poisonous, but it may be inherent in the nature of the particular fish. I remember on many occasions on board the Southern Cross, the natives looking askance at some very tempting looking fish which had been caught, and pronouncing them dangerous to eat. On one very memorable occasion, when dinner was over, one of the senior boys being cook, and one of the most poisonous of fish having been served and partaken of by all, this youth without a change of feature saying to some remark that was passed, “Oh! Yes, we die in our country if we eat that fish.” This was reassuring after what had passed, and we eyed one another with wistful and anxious faces, thinking whether or not perchance our end may have been hastened by our wilful inadvertence in thus partaking of deadly poison. But we neither swelled, nor fell down dead, and felt no ill effects. Many a time, too, since, I have eaten the same fish with the like happy and successful result. This particular kind of eel, however, has played the same post mortem tricks before, and taken his revenge for wrongs received before going into the oven. The people tell me that those who have eaten, have become like mummies, their hair and skin have changed to a ghastly leaden hue, and have fallen off like a snake’s skin. How far this is true or fable, I know not, but it may be partially credible. Nothing of the sort has happened fortunately, at this present crisis, and the sufferers are about again.
A dull, dark evening ushered in a blustery, rough night, and the coughs and sneezings and other demonstrative sounds peculiar to people who do not carry pocket handkerchiefs, bore testimony to the fact of an epidemic catarrh, contracted during a very inclement week. Like the Norfolk Islanders, they look for the source of such things in the world without, and accuse my friend Mr. Blackburne of having brought it here, all the way from Queensland. In what part of his luggage he secreted so desirable a communication I know not, but they are decidedly of opinion that he it was who ‘gave them’ the cold, and they were unwise enough to ‘catch it’ from him. He ‘had’ the cold, they said, when he came here, and certainly said I, I believe he took it away again. However, as colds are catching, I suppose they must be left content with their belief, and to ‘bless him,’ I hope, every time they sneeze.
Wednesday, September 1st.—Another full month past and gone, and leaving I fear, but a poor memory of much good done behind it. The days here certainly fly past one after another in rapid flight, and the very monotony of existence speeds their departure. One day is so like another that it passes unmarkedly by, and one finds oneself, all at once, at the end of the week, and is brought to final consciousness of the rapid rotation of time’s wheels at the end of the month. What has been done in the month? I fear there is but a poor record. God grant that I myself may have, by His Grace, made one step forward, and have been instrumental in leading others also onward to a higher and better life, and to that final epoch where the flight of time is unmarked by days and weeks and months and years, for time itself will be swallowed up in eternity.
Nothing much happened to-day. A bright morning seemed likely to usher in a fine and brilliant day, but in the forenoon the rain pelted down, and for some hours we had a glorious downpour. The “blue bottles” gave indication of this at Prayers and morning school, and I have never known them in such numbers or so troublesome. One perfectly loathed oneself, but escape from them was impossible, they crowded my house, which is generally free from their incursions, and the poor people seemed quite distracted. This is the great yam planting season, and everyone was away after school busy at his garden. The heavy rain, however, drove them home, and some took refuge here with me. Natives are not great hands for introducing originality into their conversation, nor do they go much beyond the sight of their eyes, or the hearing of their ears for their subject matter. Any prominent object which attracts their attention is made the subject of remark. This is a specimen of the sort of conversation which goes on. I was writing when my friends came in, “Oh! you are writing!” “Yes, what else did you suppose I should be doing with pen, ink and paper?” “Oh! this is a curious tin, what is in it? Meat?” “You are the 101st person who has asked that self-same question, I answered the 100 before you with the monosyllabic negative, No, and I give you the same answer.” “What then is in it? Fish?” “No.” “Fruit?” “Yes, I hope you are satisfied.” “Oh! I see you have a “kove” (native flute) up there in the thatch, who gave it you?” “You yourself have asked that same question ten times before, and I have always given the same answer, ‘Arthur,’ next time perhaps you will know without asking.” “You have a bow and arrow there, where did you get them?” “Considering that every person in the village knows from whence they came, and has made them the subject of general conversation for weeks, I wonder you should be the only person ignorant of their origin, especially as you were here when I brought them from Tasmouri.” This is the style of thing which goes on, and except that one is glad to accede to any means for introducing conversation, one would soon weary of it. They themselves do not seem to mind going over and over again the same conversation, and wading through the same minutiæ of detail, and they expect one to be equally patient. The rain gave me a good opportunity of planting my new fence, and I planted, as a start, a number of oranges around my house. The evening was fine, and the moon already quite sizeable. We had the usual singing school after Prayers, with very good success. When the practice was over, I asked the older men to sing some of their own songs, and they readily complied. Old blind Daniel is the great leader, and knows all the songs. There are three parts to the native song, (1) the person who starts and sings the air as in a Gregorian tone, and then follows (2) a chorus, then (3) a single voice takes up the air again, and this is followed by the chorus. The first singer is said to “tau” the song, the second to “sawu,” and the chorus to “lai.” The songs are very pretty, and they kept them up with spirit for quite an hour. Some of the singers beat a weird kind of accompaniment with bamboos, and kept most excellent time. When the performance was over, it was time to retire, and soon quietness warned me that it was time for me, too, to be going to rest.
Thursday, September 2nd.—How the days seem to chase one another in ever too hasty flight! It seems no sooner morning than the night is here again. We tried the experiment to-day of having prayers even earlier than usual, to be rid of the noxious blue bottles, but only partially succeeded in anything like freedom from them. At the school subsequently they were more troublesome, I think, than ever, and it was not an easy matter to keep one’s own or one’s pupils’ attention, with these hideous creatures buzzing about. After Prayers and school one is fairly ready for breakfast, and by the time that is over the day has already worn on towards Noon.
It is the commencement of planting time now, and the people are very busy day after day in their yam gardens preparing the soil. It is by no means easy work, and they certainly make a very good show by the end of the day.
I always like to get out somewhere if I can every day, for I find my health is better for the constant out-door exercise. This morning the people were all going shrimping, and I accepted an invitation to go with them to a place called ‘Niewotu.’ I had never been there before, and I was charmed with the picturesque beauty of it. A clear, flowing river is utilized for the purpose of irrigation, and there one saw again the quaint little taro beds so deftly laid out, and the showy crotons and dracænas ornamenting the immediate view, while all round the bush was thickly matted with innumerable, and almost impenetrable creepers with masses of white and pink flowers. In the direct foreground one got a peep of the bright blue sea sparkling in the midday heat. A bathe, and green cocoanuts were very agreeable and most refreshing. The boon of abundance of water in these hot countries is inestimable, and this island is rich in its water supply. Araga again on the other hand is very badly off, and Opa not much better.