“‘Ay, ay sir,’ says my messmate, ‘it’s the corporal—there’s no mistaking his cutwater; but he must have fallen away mightily during the night, to be so scantily provided with flesh this morning; howsomever, mayhap the climate has melted him down.’
“‘He no melt ’em,’ cried the nigger, ‘he eat ’em for true.’
“‘What! eat his own head,’ says I, ‘he must be in dreadful want of a meal. Come, come, ould chap, that’s too heavy to be hoisted in.’
“Well, all this while the skeleton was walking off with his head in his arms, just as a nurse would carry a baby; but the officer raises his rifle to his shoulder, and it made me laugh to think he was going to shoot a skeleton without a head, and that was as dead as Adam’s grandmother.
“‘For God’s sake, sir,’ says my messmate, ‘don’t go for to fire, for it would be downright blasphemy to kill a dead body; and what makes the fellow turn out of his hammock after being lashed up for a full due, I can’t tell.’
“Bang went the rifle, and down dropped the corporal’s atomy; but up it got again almost directly and made sail for the bush, leaving his head behind to lighten ship. Off starts the black fellow after him, and away went the officer close to his heels. ‘My eyes, shipmate,’ says I, ‘there must be some sport in chasing a skeleton; so e’en let’s keep in their wakes and see it out.’ So off we set, and presently bang went the rifle again, and away flew the corporal’s splinters; so the skeleton gathers himself up, and then laid down on the ground, kicking and sprawling like a bull-whale in his flurry. Well, we ran up and there we found—now what do you think, messmates? Why, it was nothing more nor less than a large land-crab, that was walking away with the corporal’s head as easy as I’d carry a cocoa-nut.”
The old tar ceased, and I naturally expected that some part of his story would be contradicted; but no one seemed to raise a doubt as to the veracity of his statement, and of course politeness would not allow me to differ from the rest.
“Them land-crabs have a power of strength,” said old Darby. “I recollects one night being beached high and dry in the small cutter, and I boat-keeper; so I catches one of these beasts, and claps him under the bows of the boat, whilst I made fast the painter to his hind leg, and then away he stretched out for the water, dragging the cutter with him as if it had been no more than a mouldy biscuit, and if I hadn’t cut the painter pretty smartly, he’d have towed us out to sea in no time.”
“The legs of these crabs must be very long,” said I; “are their bodies in proportion?”
“Why no, your honour,” replied the boatswain’s-mate; “their bodies are but small, seeing that they are all ribs and trucks; but their claws are tremendous. What d’ye think of their reaching up to the top of a gibbet, and having unhooked a pirate that was hung in chains, walked off with him, hoops and all, so that he never was found again!”