“Rien! It is nothing!” replied the shaggy man. “I like to kill.”
We put ropes over the horns of the victims, and forced our horses to drag them to a certain spot at the edge of the cliff. Below was a wide shelf of rocks at water-level. We pushed the stiffening bodies over the edge and let them fall. Then we rode back to Atuona, and in a big canoe with three Marquesans, Great Fern, Mouth of God, and Exploding Eggs, went for the carcasses. To retrieve them into the craft was a difficult task.
Malicious Gossip, Le Brunnec, and his wife, at peace
Photo by Dr. Malcolm Douglas
Exploding Eggs and his chums packing copra
Frederick O’Brien and Dr. Malcolm Douglas at home in Tahiti
The sea surged against the rocks so that we could not tie up close to them, but several of us jumped on them while others remained in the canoe, with a line ashore and a kedge-anchor aft. The Marquesans cut up the bulls into quarters, and each we tied to a rope and dragged through the water into the canoe. Over our heads a cloud of heron and sea-gulls shrieked for their share, and when we had left the rocks these birds screamed and fought for the entrails. They had been attracted when the bulls were killed, and for hours had peeked vainly at the carcasses. The dragging them over the land and hurling them to the ledge, and their hours of lying there, had drawn an immense concourse of the sea-birds. There were many thousands before we got away, and so rapacious were they that they circled over our heads and snatched at the bloody meat in the canoe. We had to wave our shirts at them to frighten them away. Sharks smelling the blood swam about the canoe, and we were not a little afraid. We had brought no guns in the canoe, and we were forced to strike at them with paddles, and shout imprecations at them. They did not enter the breakers, which we ran to the sand. At the beach near Commissaire Bauda’s residence and offices, we turned over to Peyral his third, and, taking the remainder into the village, Great Fern with saw and knife provided every household, including the Catholic and Protestant clergy and the nuns, with ample for a meal or two. Peyral threw his part over his horse’s back and left us, muttering that he would salt it down for the uncertain future.
Peyral became increasingly friendly, and a number of times stopped me on my way to and from the shore to invite me to drink with him. Le Brunnec said that this was something new for Peyral, and that he must be “going crazy.” But, like Ah Suey, Le Brunnec hid his real thought from me when I defended Peyral and said that he was sinned against overmuch. Peyral’s daughter—I hardly ever caught sight of the younger two—would desert the veranda if I came upon it, but once he called her, and when she did not respond immediately added a “sacré” to his order for her to come and be presented to me.