DIVAGATIONS IN A GOAT SHED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 420, 1 February 1909, Page 8

DIVAGATIONS IN A GOAT SHED.

Telling of Arbitration' Courts' where the only award is death. Also showing' how. Nam Sbok, being Hospitable,' was Rewarded, and how the Hunter came'to he Hunted.

(By " Mebb Onlookeb.")

I was: walking along Lambton Quay the other morning when I met a man. The thing is not unusual, but this man ■ was. There was that in.his gait that betrayed some unfamiliarity with cities; there was that in his: eye , that betrayed some familiarity with the sun., I-had, met just such.men before,' and I remembered I where. ' : .. ■•■■,,' .Such of you as; go out of, New Zealand in that direction will remember'the esplanade along the beach at Suva" where the acacia trees ; glow., perfeof green. through all the glowing, days.; You .will remember the just visible veil of heat-haze that-lies upon the water.h . You will■■ remember many things; Among others,_ you will remember, men of the type. of > this man I. found strayed 'from his latitude on Lambton Quay. ■ Only, this man was still .unusual.: He had been an oy.er.seer, and escaped. : He had made money,..and acquired shares,, in plantations,' credits, in banks,', opportunities of travel, and I know not w'hat .besides.-., A w.ife. perhaps. Some men-acquire wives in.evitably, even in, Fiji. -.We. sympathised in voluble'..anathema: of the gr6y. day. We exchanged refreshments. , . And when, I -left my man, -I found: that'- he had set me'thinking. Memories art) stored, in a dull barn, and; only stir when someone hammers on the door. .' ~ -

:\ IremembereS the esplanade' at Suva, j was sitting' , there.with certain men of Fiji, overseers all, ..when ;a; fatally assaulted overseer was.'carfied past us on his.wiiy to.thVhospital. '■■ .-,:- '■> -■'.. ."■.;: -.■....'•. ■

>■'•„' said one of my men, "none of us fellows ever knows when'his time's coming. , ' ■It" may be that I am an inordinately curious NeWZe'alander, but when I hear things like that.sa'id.l always .want, to know-more. Who we're these coolies!that stalked their overseers and s!# thenv in the light of day? 'Why? '.. v : "See. ■here,"' said the Man who Knew. 111 geti'you- an interpreter.-. There's a bi« coolie camp about fifteen miles, out, across' W?.,. Rewa - ■ You'll, give the ..interpreter- a shilling., a'/day-, and you'll pay him every day;' because if you don't pay him daily, he may desert you,- arid if you pay him'more than i a, shilling at a' time he'll think you are■ a fool. ;.If you play your, cards well out at the camp, you may get a good deal out of the, rascals.; Lies, of lies; bnt you 11 "get atmosphere. . Yoifll'jear. 'em talk, and;mayhap .stumble on some of the secret springs of, their, iniquity. •'-, You'll, do'best to try the- Brahmin crowd.' The Mohamma dans are .more reserved. : Let- the Brahmin think, you "don't, like.' the '.other ' fellow. But make-no .'mistake. Don't mistake Brah-m'n'-.to-take your part'if you get into a row with Muslim., You're out:on'.your own." •.'. :':lt seemed to; be :a good, thing,'and I was eager The interpreter was -provided., ■- Ram Rakha.,;A great.rascal with a great\beard. He looked;unlikely; but I made no demur.' I was out: for adventure; aiiyhow •■- ■ ' ,'We. drove out to-the Rewa River ■ A e ™9 r . a ? le .:, % ; In. shape, the mountains, ot Itljiv. are /positive nightmares.■■ If Nature d , } n l s f^ & ">*' fitness;"..those niountaips, wouM,:berbairfted; by;;th e ;s6rtvof. 'goblins you-see in. old Japanese colour-prints: They are very .dark. m ,tone,; and the whole landscape.seems. to be. keyed-down, to their dark-' ness.' All kinds of-dark .blues-and purples dim'mmg into, a; steely; neutral.' ;. In certain Jightsy the^'shadows^re.aluminous': in all that'depth, of tone, cold under the tropic-sun, there is a something harsh arid forbidding,-:.*, a , something formidable and malign..,-lhere was no sun. the day wVdrove' out. One of those immensely hot days that seems/to melt each" minute into more thorough suffocation.- I learned what intolerable: heat is ..for thefirst time. , : \ ' .But.we reached the Rewa River. It is big voluminous,- .indomitable, steely blue,' to fit the landscape..'. There was a huge sugar ; factory on the oth.r side from where: we' stopped; but as the trap drove off I could not for the_ life., of, : me\ see ■■ how we-'were , to ■get-over;. But Ram Rakha knew. ;- ■ :.:•• ; - Ue dived: in among.the reeds.' - He:seemed' to know exactly where to go. He brought out two, .of the most villainbusJboking ferrymeu lever dreamt of on bad nights They ( \ U & OU *T^ OJ ' t of Vt and, put us over; .-.'■ T nen I found; that: we had to walk a-mile or ,tw0.... It.grew hotter every: minute. My bones were putty, and every joint seemed out of gear. Worse, Ram Rakha was as mute as ; a graven image';.he just stalked on. l> tried .tOjprovoke him to converse. I said,' Look, here, Ram'Rakha, I have been tryine to imagine what a football team would do if ypu put. .em; down to play in this 'paddock in *fi 8 . ■; t«mperature-rheat,. savvy.?". .1 stood'' i>5 0 . P° lnt -'.'*Ke .suggestion.. I.hev'er wanted to' move any more. .But Ram Rakha' B ;,f -fry, gom-d; •."'.Hβ didn't know;:. , He. didn t-;care." .He only Rooked 'at me, grimly , insisting that .it was time to move" on.- He had a .vilely jinsultirig: gift of 'silence.. ' 'We : wudged .on. : My bones- were tepid water bv this time. I panted to sleep or die, or som<£ did it matter? ' I said so.. But Kam- Rakha kept on. I felt as though I sprayed, with' very hot oil as I marched_unwillingly at my own funeral. ' , But all things have an end—yea, even the silences of Ham Rakha. ,We reached the camp about; sunset. Here were >not only contract coolies, but ; also time-expired men who had set up..-for..,themselves. -.: The huts of the camp are built, of wood and corrugated iron,' sides.of,tanks, odds.and.ends, anything they , can get hpld.of. ; There is no beauty, in'the camp;, .not evea- the modest beauty: of the; .nere]y.: ; useful.:,- -There, , is, instead, "a perrading:squalor, that offends .the eye. and makes;the.day..seem. i tawdry... There are ho two houses, alike, and every one is uglier than every other. I saw no one moving when we got-.there;;. save.;.where occasionally'< one or' two, would:-op seen marching forlornly-round' a sort'.of h^nd.mill,they : have,' grinding,dhan. Ididn.tcare much whathappened, so-long , as I cpuld...stpp walking. -My, noble Bam Rakha.; immediately, left mo. : I didn't care much.; I camped.down on some man's'rerandah and philosophically awaited .the:event.lhe ; folk: began to show themselves. : I had black clothes on; which was a thing'most unusual ah'd:idiotic. : I had a.notebooE, inwhieh ' I scribbled.from.time to time as the ; :fit tookme. . The .gathering folk were speedily in a ferment. -They -took me for a .man in 'the employ, of the Inspector of Police—a spy, in short. 'I suppose I was, but not of'that .kind.- The: folk .came closer and closer, murmuring, chattering behind their |; teeth, il.waa. half, asleep. '.On a- sudden, it da,wned on me that this might tea meeting, and'.lwae wide awake in an instant. You .see, I ;haH; heard about these ings. \'When l a .whito man is to.be removed from 5 .the:.plac6 that knows him, the coolies have a rmeeting"! and. decide: details. The thing is .done deliberately and without muddle. Therelwas a.man at Labasa. He had offended, his coolie's somehow.; He may have been rough or unjust; or it may have been something.else. . What<does it matter? He earnedout of his house one morning, and was just,turning.the corner of his door,'hands in pockets,-;whistling, careless,- when-^—. ..Have you ever seen' fourteen imperturbable men waiting for you with hoes arid knives—rhoes like poleaxes, sharpened to ■' razor-edges, worse, than'knives?.- He saw that;, and he. knew 'that- for. him 'all things. were : at an end.;.. And., the': law- : . at that ..time, ~it is curious,to note, did not allow overseers.to carry.firearms'., . : . . , ■ ■ :• You. will understand that overseers learn to'be careful,and to love open spaces., When they are going to their work they avoid the little tempting avehuos, through the canes; they, make wide circles at sharp ■ corners; they like to have much clear space about them all, the time. _. It is a. terrible life—on paper;'but familiarity breeds contempt, 'and the worst dangers lose some large part of their terror when they become the 'accustomed risks, of every day. ■ ... -■■.. ': I am told that in Trinidad and other parts of the West Indies these murderous attacks on overseers seldom or-never, occur. In Fiji they say that trouble arises because the officials don't know how to manage Indians. I.don't know. But I know.that.in.the average these coolies are only children, with the occasional .murderous; impulses of .children. The. overseers are lusty • young fellows; mostly, I think, unmarried.' -Many of "them come.ff on)- Australia,- where the oontempt for the "uiggor" has been bred in their bono;

But they soon learn to dread the meetings of the coolies.' .'

The idea, then, that this might be a meeting , aroused,; me effectively. I saw: R am Rakha, opportunely, and called him over.' "What did that old chap say about me, Ram Rakha?".

"Hβ say, Sahib, you one of , Francis's spies.".' :' .-' I;laughed.' "You tell him," said I, "that I don't care a straw for Francis.". ; '

: I: could see .that such amazing ■ : independence awed them. There was a long.pause, and then a man with the oiliest smile 1 have ever seen came over. : Hβ' let his smile trickle unctuously all over me. Then-he said, "Are you a,God-fearing man,' Sahib?" :i don't remember what I replied; but I-smiled,' arid I suppose that my smile was 'convincing whichever way:they wanted :it. The. upshot of it all was that Ram Eakha came to me announcing the decision of.the commune, :, "AH right,", he said/ "you sleep in Namsook's gdatshed." .... ;'..'-■ ■ ■:,■ : .',. . This hospitality, overwhelmed me in several ways.. .First of ,aU, I had a big .burden. of acquired ideas about goats. I remembered what dreadful things r .-Heine- Muriel Dowie was informed would befall her if she slept on a. goathair-mattress. I had seen and smelt goats in. the pastures of my boyKood. They had leered at.me linirivitingly from the shades of dim mythologies. I could'have chosen, a-fitter; sleeping place. ..As-.-it was, I gave thanks arid-made the best of it. . ; - : .

Dimly.. I realised- that I- was not in the land of Arbitration Court. '...I', was up against a new kind of organised labour; where,' when there-'is- disagreement,',-yqurrlife piust go. Butheafcnumbs.appfehehsibn.':-;., '. ■.. 'Ram' Rakha got a candle and' we went inside. The g'patshed was ieither' commodious nor inviting. It contained.two goats, which we evicted with some trouble. : Then I made Ram ■ Rakha poke- about in. all: directipns among the straw, because I did not wish any snakeβ.t6 -remain. It is true that Fijian snakes are not -venomous, but they can irif fiiet a.very nasty arid painful bite, and thej , are not nice things to sleep..with. ■ I ■ did net take.my clothes off. .1 suffered the;expleratiorisof the marauding ifleai. a thing I could have borne with- a- certain .was I. heard, the song :bf-|the :mpsquito for the first time. : .It. is. a-queer song,' beginning Jn a whining:. buzz and ending crescendo in a shriek of triumph. I crouched among-the straw. I-"milled':my. coat about my face arid hands as'best I could. snakes longer had-fanyV for me; What. I, wanted was. chloroform.... . ■ .'. '.' " But when you set out to do , a thing, do it. I- : stayed.with Nam-Sook eight days.■ Yoif shall hear, about -it later. :;?The.' memory, of those; mosquitpes is still bitter in- iriy-, blppd. : It-seeiris a good point for pause.', : : ..-. -•■■• ..(jo be continued.):': ■ ';'.'■,