It isnt a fine thing to say for yourself, but I ran away; and if the same kind of a shock was given me, I should run away again to-morrow. To see that palavering Kanaka struck all of a heap at the mere sight of me gave me a feeling as if the bottom had dropped out of the world. I went right home, and stayed there, and said nothing. You might think I would tell Uma, but that was against my system. You might have thought I would have gone over and consulted Case; but the truth was I was ashamed to speak of such a thing, I thought everyone would blurt out laughing in my face. So I held my tongue, and thought all the more; and the more I thought, the less I liked the business.
By Monday night I got it clearly in my head I must be tabooed. A new store to stand open two days in a village and not a man or woman come to see the trade was past believing.
Uma, said I, I think Im tabooed.
I think so, said she.
I thought awhile whether I should ask her more, but its a bad idea to set natives up with any notion of consulting them, so I went to Case. It was dark, and he was sitting alone, as he did mostly, smoking on the stairs.
Case, said I, heres a queer thing. Im tabooed.
O, fudge! says he; taint the practice in these islands.
That may be, or it maynt, said I. Its the practice where I was before. You can bet I know what its like; and I tell it you for a fact, Im tabooed.
Well, said he, what have you been doing?
Thats what I want to find out, said I.
O, you cant be, said he; it aint possible. However, Ill tell you what Ill do. Just to put your mind at rest, Ill go round and find out for sure. Just you waltz in and talk to Papa.
Thank you, I said, Id rather stay right out here on the verandah. Your house is so close.
Ill call Papa out here, then, says he.
My dear fellow, I says, I wish you wouldnt. The fact is, I dont take to Mr. Randall.
Case laughed, took a lantern from the store, and set out into the village. He was gone perhaps a quarter of an hour, and he looked mighty serious when he came back.
Well, said he, clapping down the lantern on the verandah steps, I would never have believed it. I dont know where the impudence of these Kanakas ll go next; they seem to have lost all idea of respect for whites. What we want is a man-of-war a German, if we could they know how to manage Kanakas.
I am tabooed, then? I cried.
Something of the sort, said he. Its the worst thing of the kind Ive heard of yet. But Ill stand by you, Wiltshire, man to man. You come round here to-morrow about nine, and well have it out with the chiefs. Theyre afraid of me, or they used to be; but their heads are so big by now, I dont know what to think. Understand me, Wiltshire; I dont count this your quarrel, he went on, with a great deal of resolution, I count it all of our quarrel, I count it the White Mans Quarrel, and Ill stand to it through thick and thin, and theres my hand on it.
Have you found out whats the reason? I asked.
Not yet, said Case. But well fix them down to-morrow.
Altogether I was pretty well pleased with his attitude, and almost more the next day, when we met to go before the chiefs, to see him so stern and resolved. The chiefs awaited us in one of their big oval houses, which was marked out to us from a long way off by the crowd about the eaves, a hundred strong if there was one men, women, and children. Many of the men were on their way to work and wore green wreaths, and it put me in thoughts of the 1st of May at home. This crowd opened and buzzed about the pair of us as we went in, with a sudden angry animation. Five chiefs were there; four mighty stately men, the fifth old and puckered. They sat on mats in their white kilts and jackets; they had fans in their hands, like fine ladies; and two of the younger ones wore Catholic medals, which gave me matter of reflection. Our place was set, and the mats laid for us over against these grandees, on the near side of the house; the midst was empty; the crowd, close at our backs, murmured and craned and jostled to look on, and the shadows of them tossed in front of us on the clean pebbles of the floor. I was just a hair put out by the excitement of the commons, but the quiet civil appearance of the chiefs reassured me, all the more when their spokesman began and made a long speech in a low tone of voice, sometimes waving his hand towards Case, sometimes toward me, and sometimes knocking with his knuckles on the mat. One thing was clear: there was no sign of anger in the chiefs.
Whats he been saying? I asked, when he had done.
O, just that theyre glad to see you, and they understand by me you wish to make some kind of complaint, and youre to fire away, and theyll do the square thing.
It took a precious long time to say that, said I.
O, the rest was sawder and bonjour and that, said Case. You know what Kanakas are.
Well, they dont get much bonjour out of me, said I. You tell them who I am. Im a white man, and a British subject, and no end of a big chief at home; and Ive come here to do them good, and bring them civilisation; and no sooner have I got my trade sorted out than they go and taboo me, and no one dare come near my place! Tell them I dont mean to fly in the face of anything legal; and if what they wants a present, Ill do whats fair. I dont blame any man looking out for himself, tell them, for thats human nature; but if they think theyre going to come any of their native ideas over me, theyll find themselves mistaken. And tell them plain that I demand the reason of this treatment as a white man and a British subject.
That was my speech. I know how to deal with Kanakas: give them plain sense and fair dealing, and Ill do them that much justice they knuckle under every time. They havent any real government or any real law, thats what youve got to knock into their heads; and even if they had, it would be a good joke if it was to apply to a white man. It would be a strange thing if we came all this way and couldnt do what we pleased. The mere idea has always put my monkey up, and I rapped my speech out pretty big. Then Case translated it or made believe to, rather and the first chief replied, and then a second, and a third, all in the same style, easy and genteel, but solemn underneath. Once a question was put to Case, and he answered it, and all hands (both chiefs and commons) laughed out aloud, and looked at me. Last of all, the puckered old fellow and the big young chief that spoke first started in to put Case through a kind of catechism. Sometimes I made out that Case was trying to fence, and they stuck to him like hounds, and the sweat ran down his face, which was no very pleasant sight to me, and at some of his answers the crowd moaned and murmured, which was a worse hearing. Its a cruel shame I knew no native, for (as I now believe) they were asking Case about my marriage, and he must have had a tough job of it to clear his feet. But leave Case alone; he had the brains to run a parliament.
Well, is that all? I asked, when a pause came.
Come along, says he, mopping his face; Ill tell you outside.
Do you mean they wont take the taboo off? I cried.
Its something queer, said he. Ill tell you outside. Better come away.
I wont take it at their hands, cried I. I aint that kind of a man. You dont find me turn my back on a parcel of Kanakas.