AT RABAUL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 661, 13 May 1929, Page 9

AT RABAUL

HOUSEBOYS WHO ENTERTAIN INTERESTING SERVANTS Liven beauty palls, and Uabaul in its picturesque setting would be wearisome if it were not for its houseboy> You come to love these dark-skinned servants as you love interesting children, says a writer in an Australian paper. And they become so attached to a kind master that they will weep bitterly at his departure and keep him in their hearts for many months. The service may be slipshod and intermittent, but there is that between master and servant that excuses slight faults and glosses shortcomings with good humour. Because of racial and meuta) differences there cannot be perfect understanding, but there is on one side a paternal feeling and on the other a readiness to please and to propitiate a superior being. Of course, there are sulky natives w'ho make bad servants, ana there are white men who are either weak or harsh masters, and so come to be despised or feared. The prestige of the white man is lowered by those who either spoil or ill-treat their houseboys. Few Australians, indeed. recognise in the native psychology an urge to worship that if carefully developed sets the proper relation between the white master and the coloured servant.

When I was at Rabaul I had two most interesting boys. One was a cook and house steward. I called him Tommy, but it w'as not a descriptive name, for there appeared nothing soft or amiable about, this lad of the village, who formerly had served on board a German ship. His appearance was that of one who had a perpetual grievance. He did his work well, and I rewarded him frequently by giving him trade cigars, costing me about onepenny each. He would take the gift in silence, place it behind his right ear, and go on working as if nothing remarkable had happened. I was secretly annoyed that there was no smiling response to my favours, until I got to know that in the evenings Tommy strutted about the native village smoking my cheroots in a calm majesty which evoked the admiration of the onlookers. Giggling girls would beg of Tommy the privilege of sharing in his luxurious smoking, but he usually preferred to go on to what was literally the bitter end. Ina, week or two I became to understand that Tommy was not ungrateful, but simply inarticulate. Native Appreciation One evening when I lifted the mosquito net from the bed, I noticed on the leather pillow a lovely jungle flower. It was Tommy’s way of saying “Thank you!” I came to look eagerly for these material evidences of the good feeling between us. Tommy never disappointed me, and I got many flowers and fruits from the hands and the heart of the apparently sullen boy who went about his w r ork as silently as a deaf mute. Quite another sort of chap was the “monkey,” a Buka boy as black as the ace of spades. It was delightful to have this little chap seated beside me in the “carriage,” as the old ramshackle gig loaned to me was ironically called in the district. Going down from Namamula to Rabaul. Johnny—wearing flowers in his bushy hair, a necklace of shells, and a gaudy waist-cloth—would hum little tunes, chatter gaily, flashing his white teeth, and wave grandly to the natives on the hillside. Love a Lazy M istress Johnny was mercurial, and I loved him increasingly; but he was an arrant loafer and willing to cheat me on occasion. I think he loved cats more than anything else, except, of course, tasty kai kai (food), such as tinned meats and fruits. Whenever he saw a kitten he would desert the horse and carriage of which he was temporarily in charge. Perhaps he would not return until the limit of my patience had been reached, and I was eager to go up the hill to Namamula and to my bungalow cooled by the sea breezes. Johnny would come at last with a disarming smile and with the explanation that he had been “kissing kai-kai alonga pussy.” He could not say catching or getting. so his next best was kissing. Johnny would sometimes absent himself from the bungalow for a day or two, and then return with the for him sufficient explanation that he had been to see his pais in the village. He had been taken from the Solomon Islands at an early age, but I do not think he felt homesick. The houseboys love a lazy mistress, for in the afternoons they may sleep loDg hours under the house. To see the houseboys coming to work at dawn in Rabaul is to see a pretty sight. Though some of these handsome lads are yawning at the day, j most of them are coming gaily along 1 the footways, thrusting brilliant flow j ers in their moppy hair, admiring I themselves in hand-mirrors, and exchanging the gossip of the native village musically. talk is mainly of the food they have eaten, the girls they have known, and the adventures of which they have been the heroes. They almost dance along the lovely paths perfumed by the frangipanni j blossoms, and shaded by flame trees and coconut palms. At night, when : they are returning to their village, the ; fireflies will sparkle among the leaf- ; age and there will be strange cries j and the noise of drums from the I jungle. But in the dawn there is peace and an absence of sparkle until the first rays of the sun ripple over land and sea. As they near the bungalow' the boys become silent, for they must not awaken the white mas- ; ters who may be erulky fellows if disI turbed before the serving of morning i tea.