Whilst the man slept, Robinson went out to milk his goats, at which work the savage, having waked in about half an hour, found him, and running up, threw himself on the ground near Robinson’s feet, one of which he again raised as before, and placed on his head. At the same time he made every kind of sign of gratitude and submission.
In a little while Robinson began to speak to him, and to try to teach him things. First, he made him understand that his name was to be ‘Friday,’ (that being the day of the week when Robinson had saved him from a horrible death). Then he taught him the meaning of ‘Yes,’ and ‘No,’ and to call Robinson, ‘Master.’
Friday showed great quickness in learning. He seemed to be happy and contented, and free from trouble, except that the clothes which Robinson made him wear gave him at first great discomfort, for in those warm parts of the world the natives are not used to clothes, but always go about naked. And perhaps they are healthier so, for when rain comes, they can cover their skin with cocoa-nut oil, and the wet then runs off their bodies without chilling them, and they do not catch cold by wearing damp clothes. Sometimes they make drooping girdles of the broad leaves of the banana, which are two or three feet long, and wear these round their waists; and sometimes, for ornament, they stick crimson flowers behind their ears, or hang them round their necks. But other clothes they have none to wear.
And indeed such things would only be in the way, for the natives who live on the coasts often pass nearly whole days swimming in the warm sea. They are never afraid of sharks, for they swim so well and so fast that often they are able to kill the sharks, diving under them, and stabbing them in the belly with a knife.
Even the very little children swim almost before they can walk, and whole families go out for a day in the sea, as children and their parents in England might go for a picnic. One of their games, when a heavy swell is rolling in, toppling over in cataracts of foam as the waves reach the shallower water near the shore, is to swim out, diving through the broken water, and taking with them a light plank. On this, when they have got beyond where the seas break, they mount, and come rushing in on the crest of the great waves, shrieking with laughter when any one is upset. It is glorious fun, they think.
The day following that on which Robinson had saved Friday, they went out together to see if there were any signs of the cannibals still being on the island, but it was evident that they had gone away without troubling about the two men whom Robinson had killed. Round the place where their fire had been, were horrible remains of bodies, pieces of flesh half eaten, or charred by the fire, skulls, hands, and bones of legs and feet. Friday made Robinson understand that these were the remains of three prisoners who had been brought over along with him, to be feasted on.
Robinson’s blood ran cold as he looked, and the horror of the sight made him sick and faint. He ordered Friday to collect all the bodies and other remains, and to build a fire to burn them, which Friday very cheerfully did. To him it was no great matter, for, of course, all his life he himself had been a cannibal, and he was quite used to such scenes. Indeed, when they passed the spot where the two men had been buried in the sand, Friday pointed it out to Robinson, and gave him to understand that he meant to come back, and dig up and eat the bodies. This filled Robinson with disgust and rage, and he let Friday know that he would be severely punished, perhaps killed, if ever such a thing was done by him.
For some time Robinson did not trust Friday, and did not allow him to sleep in the same part of his castle with himself, but kept him at night in a little tent outside the fence. Every night he drew up the ladder, so that if Friday ever should attempt to get over, he would be sure to make noise enough to wake Robinson. Other precautions also he took, but soon he found that they were not needed. Friday was quite faithful. And he was never sulky nor lazy, but always merry, and ready to do anything that Robinson told him. And as time went on, Robinson did not doubt that if there should ever be need for it, Friday would risk his life to save his master.
At first when they went out in the woods together, Friday was terrified each time that Robinson’s gun was fired. He had never seen anything put into it, and it was more than he could understand how things could be killed merely by the noise and the flash of fire. It seemed to him that the gun was some sort of evil spirit that might do him harm, and it was long before he could be brought to touch one of them, though when he was alone Robinson often heard him talking to them. Afterwards, when he could speak English better, and knew more about guns, he told Robinson that he used to ask them not to kill him.
One thing that Robinson could never teach Friday was to eat salt with his food. Salt is a thing that the cannibals do not use, and some of them, to this day, go so far as to say that they do not care to eat a white man, because he is too salt. A native of their own race, they think, is much sweeter, though of course they eat only men of a different tribe whom they may capture during one of their wars. But the only form in which they take salt is as sea water, and that they use as medicine, drinking it in large quantities till it makes them sick.