A little way out from shore, amid loud screams and yells, the natives came up with it in their laden3 war-canoes. Shouting and gesticulating and brandishing4 their spears with the shark’s tooth tips, they endeavored to stop its progress landward by pure noise and bravado5.
“We must be careful what we do, boys,” the captain observed, in a quiet voice of seamanlike6 resolution to his armed companions. “We mustn’t frighten the savages7 too much, or show too hostile a front, for fear they should retaliate8 on our friends on the island.” He held up his hand, with the gold braid on the wrist, to command silence; and the natives, gazing open-mouthed, looked and wondered at the gesture. These sailing gods were certainly arrayed in most gorgeous vestments, and their canoe, though devoid9 of a grinning figure-head, was provided with a most admirable and well-uniformed equipment.
A coral rock jutted10 high out of the sea to the left hard by. Its summit was crowded with a basking11 population of sea-gulls and pelicans12. The captain gave the word to “easy all.” In a second the gig stopped short, as those stout13 arms held her. He rose in his place and lifted the six-shooter. Then he pointed14 it ostentatiously at the rock, away from the native canoes, and held up his hand yet again for silence. “We’ll give 'em a taste of what we can do, boys,” he said, “just to show ’em, not to hurt ’em.” At that he drew the trigger twice. His first two chambers15 were loaded on purpose with duck-shot cartridges17. Twice the big gun roared; twice the fire flashed red from its smoking mouth. As the smoke cleared away, the natives, dumb with surprise, and perfectly18 cowed with terror, saw ten or a dozen torn and bleeding birds float mangled19 upon the water.
“Now for the dynamite20!” the captain said, cheerily, proceeding21 to lower a small object overboard by a single wire, while he held up his hand a third time to bespeak22 silence and attention.
The natives looked again, with eyes starting from their heads. The captain gave a little click, and pointed with his finger to a spot on the water’s top, a little way in front of him. Instantly, a loud report, and a column of water spurted23 up into the air, some ten or twelve feet, in a boisterous24 fountain. As it subsided25 again, a hundred or so of the bright-colored fish that browse26 among the submerged, coral-groves of these still lagoons27, rose dead or dying to the seething28, boiling surface.
The captain smiled. Instantly the natives set up a terrified shout. “It is even as he said,” they cried. “These gods are his ministers! The white-faced Korong is a very great deity29! He is indeed the true Tu-Kila-Kila. These gods have come for him. They are very mighty30. Thunder and lightning and waterspouts are theirs. The waves do as they bid. The sea obeys them. They are here to take away our Tu-Kila-Kila from our midst. And what will then become of the island of Boupari? Will it not sink in the waves of the sea and disappear? Will not the sun in heaven grow dark, and the moon cease to shed its benign31 light on the earth, when Tu-Kila-Kila the Great returns at last to his own far country?”
“That lot’ll do for ’em, I expect,” the captain said cheerily, with a confident smile. “Now forward all, boys. I fancy we’ve astonished the natives a trifle.”
They rowed on steadily, but cautiously, toward the white bank of sand which formed the usual landing-place, the captain holding the six-shooter in readiness all the time, and keeping an eye firmly fixed32 on every movement of the savages. But the warriors33 in the canoes, thoroughly34 cowed and overawed by this singular exhibition of the strangers’ prowess, paddled on in whispering silence, nearly abreast37 of the gig, but at a safe distance, as they thought, and eyed the advancing Europeans with quiet looks of unmixed suspicion.
At last, the adventurous38 young chief, who had advised killing39 Felix off-hand on the island, mustered40 up courage to paddle his own canoe a little nearer, and flung his spear madly in the direction of the gig. It fell short by ten yards. He stood eying it angrily. But the captain, grimly quiet, raising his Winchester to his shoulder without one second’s delay, and marking his man, fired at the young chief as he stood, still half in the attitude of throwing, on the prow36 of his canoe, an easy aim for fire-arms. The ball went clean through the savage’s breast, and then ricochetted three times on the water afar off. The young chief fell stone dead into the sea like a log, and sank instantly to the bottom.
It was a critical moment. The captain felt uncertain whether the natives would close round them in force or not. It is always dangerous to fire a shot at savages. But the Boupari men were too utterly41 awed35 to venture on defence. “He was Tu-Kila-Kila’s enemy,” they cried, in astonished tones. “He raised his voice against the very high god. Therefore, the very high god’s friends have smitten42 him with their lightning. Their thunderbolt went through him, and hit the water beyond. How strong is their hand! They can kill from afar. They are mighty gods. Let no man strive to fight against the friends of Tu-Kila-Kila.”
The sailors rowed on and reached the landing-place. There, half of them, headed by the captain, disembarked in good order, with drawn43 cutlasses, while the other half remained behind to guard the gig, under the third officer. The natives also disembarked, a little way off, and, making humble44 signs of submission45 with knee and arm, endeavored, by pantomime, to express the idea of their willingness to guide the strangers to their friends’ quarters.
The captain waved them on with his hand. The natives, reassured46, led the way, at some distance ahead, along the paths through the jungle. The captain had his finger on his six-shooter the while; every sailor grasped his cutlass and kept his revolver ready for action. “I don’t half like the look of it,” the captain observed, partly to himself. “They seem to be leading us into an ambuscade or something. Keep a sharp lookout47 against surprise from the jungle, boys; and if any native shows fight shoot him down instantly.”
At last they emerged upon a clear space in the front, where a great group of savages stood in a circle, with serried48 spears, round a large wattled hut that occupied the elevated centre of the clearing.
For a minute or two the action of the savages was uncertain. Half of the defenders49 turned round to face the invaders50 angrily; the other half stood irresolute51, with their spears still held inward, guarding a white line of sand with inflexible52 devotion.
The warriors who had preceded them from the shore called aloud to their friends by the temple in startled tones. The captain and sailors had no idea what their words meant. But just then, from the midst of the circle, an English voice cried out in haste, “Don’t fire! Do nothing rash! We’re safe. Don’t be frightened. The natives are disposed to parley53 and palaver54. Take care how you act. They’re terribly afraid of you.”
Just outside the taboo55-line the captain halted. The gray-headed old chief, who had accompanied his fellows to the shore, spoke56 out in Polynesian. “Do not resist them,” he said, “my people. If you do, you will be blasted by their lightning like a bare bamboo in a mighty cyclone57. They carry thunder in their hands. They are mighty, mighty gods. The white-faced Korong spoke no more than the truth. Let them do as they will with us. We are but their meat. We are as dust beneath their sole, and as driven mulberry-leaves before the breath of the tempest.”
The defenders hesitated still a little. Then, suddenly losing heart, they broke rank at last at a point close by where the captain of the Australasian stood, one man after another falling aside slowly and shamefacedly a pace or two. The captain, unhesitatingly, overstepped the white taboo-line. Next instant, Felix and Muriel were grasping his hand hard, and M. Peyron was bowing a polite Parisian reception.
Forthwith, the sailors crowded round them in a hollow square. Muriel and Felix, half faint with relief from their long and anxious suspense58, staggered slowly down the seaward path between them. But there was no need now for further show of defence. The islanders, pressing near and flinging away their weapons, followed the procession close, with tears and lamentations. As they went on, the women, rushing out of their huts while the fugitives59 passed, tore their hair on their heads, and beat their breasts in terror. The warriors who had come from the shore recounted, with their own exaggerative additions, the miracle of the six-shooter and the dynamite cartridge16. Gradually they approached the landing-place on the beach. There the third officer sat waiting in the gig to receive them. The lamentations of the islanders now became positively60 poignant61. “Oh, my father,” they cried aloud, “my brother, my revered62 one, you are indeed the true Tu-Kila-Kila. Do not go away like this and desert us! Oh, our mother, great queen, mighty goddess, stop with us! Take not away your sun from the heavens, nor your rain from the crops. We acknowledge we have sinned; we have done very wrong; but the chief sinner is dead; the wrong-doer has paid; spare us who remain; spare us, great deity; do not make the bright lights of heaven become dark over us. Stay with your worshippers, and we will give you choice young girls to eat every day, we will sacrifice the tenderest of our children to feed you.”
It is an awful thing for any race or nation when its taboos63 fail all at once, and die out entirely64. To the men of Boupari, the Tu-Kila-Kila of the moment represented both the Moral Order and the regular sequence of the physical universe. Anarchy65 and chaos66 might rule when he was gone. The sun might be quenched67, and the people run riot. No wonder they shrank from the fearful consequence that might next ensue. King and priest, god and religion, all at one fell blow were to be taken away from them!
Felix turned round on the shore and spoke to them again. “My people,” he said, in a kindly68 tone—for, after all, he pitied them—“you need have no fear. When I am gone, the sun will still shine and the trees will still bear fruit every year as formerly69. I will send the messengers I promised from my own land to teach you. Until they come, I leave you this as a great Taboo. Tu-Kila-Kila enjoins70 it. Shed no human blood; eat no human flesh. Those who do will be punished when another fire-canoe comes from the far land to bring my messengers.”
The King of Fire bent71 low at the words. “Oh, Tu-Kila-Kila,” he said, “it shall be done as you say. Till your messengers come, every man shall live at peace with all his neighbors.”
They stepped into the gig. Mali and Toko followed before M. Peyron as naturally as they had always followed their masters on the island before.
“Who are these?” the captain asked, smiling.
“Our Shadows,” Felix answered. “Let them come. I will pay their passage when I reach San Francisco. They have been very faithful to us, and they are afraid to remain, lest the islanders should kill them for letting us go or for not accompanying us.”
“Very well,” the captain answered. “Forward all, there, boys! Now, ahead for the ship. And thank God, we’re well out of it!”
But the islanders still stood on the shore and wept, stretching their hands in vain after the departing boat, and crying aloud in piteous tones, “Oh, my father, return! Oh, my mother, come back! Oh, very great gods, do not fly and desert us!”
Seven weeks later Mr. and Mrs. Felix Thurstan, who had been married in the cathedral at Honolulu the very morning the Australasian arrived there, sat in an eminently72 respectable drawing-room in a London square, where Mrs. Ellis, Muriel’s aunt by marriage, was acting73 as their hostess.
“But how dreadful it is to think, dear,” Mrs. Ellis remarked for the twentieth time since their arrival, with a deep-drawn sigh, “how dreadful to think that you and Felix should have been all those months alone on the island together without being married!”
Muriel looked up with a quiet smile toward Felix. “I think, Aunt Mary,” she said, dreamily, “if you’d been there yourself, and suffered all those fears, and passed through all those horrors that we did together, you’d have troubled your head very little indeed about such conventionalities, as whether or not you happened to be married.... Besides,” she added, after a pause, with a fine perception of the inexorable stringency74 of Mrs. Grundy’s law, “we weren’t quite without chaperons, either, don’t you know; for our Shadows, of course, were always with us.”
Whereat Felix smiled an equally quiet smile. “And terrible as it all was,” he put in, “I shall never regret it, because it made Muriel know how profoundly I loved her, and it made me know how brave and trustful and pure a woman could be under such awful conditions.”
But Mrs. Ellis sat still in her chair and smiled uncomfortably. It affected75 her spirits. Taboos, after all, are much the same in England as in Boupari.
The End
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1
lagoon
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| n.泻湖，咸水湖 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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brandishing
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| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
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bravado
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| n.虚张声势，故作勇敢，逞能 | |
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seamanlike
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| 海员般的，熟练水手似的 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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retaliate
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| v.报复，反击 | |
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devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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jutted
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| v.（使）突出( jut的过去式和过去分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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basking
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| v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的现在分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽 | |
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pelicans
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| n.鹈鹕( pelican的名词复数 ) | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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cartridge
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| n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
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cartridges
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| 子弹( cartridge的名词复数 )； （打印机的）墨盒； 录音带盒； （唱机的）唱头 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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dynamite
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| n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破) | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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bespeak
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| v.预定；预先请求 | |
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spurted
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| （液体，火焰等）喷出，（使）涌出( spurt的过去式和过去分词 )； （短暂地）加速前进，冲刺 | |
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boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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browse
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| vi.随意翻阅，浏览；(牛、羊等)吃草 | |
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lagoons
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| n.污水池( lagoon的名词复数 )；潟湖；（大湖或江河附近的）小而浅的淡水湖；温泉形成的池塘 | |
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seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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benign
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| adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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prow
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| n.(飞机)机头，船头 | |
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abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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mustered
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| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的过去式和过去分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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47
lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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serried
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| adj.拥挤的；密集的 | |
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defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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invaders
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| 入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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51
irresolute
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| adj.无决断的，优柔寡断的，踌躇不定的 | |
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inflexible
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| adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的 | |
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parley
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| n.谈判 | |
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palaver
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| adj.壮丽堂皇的；n.废话，空话 | |
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taboo
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| n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止 | |
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56
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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cyclone
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| n.旋风，龙卷风 | |
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suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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fugitives
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| n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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poignant
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| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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revered
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| v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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taboos
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| 禁忌( taboo的名词复数 )； 忌讳； 戒律； 禁忌的事物（或行为） | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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anarchy
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| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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quenched
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| 解（渴）( quench的过去式和过去分词 )； 终止（某事物）； （用水）扑灭（火焰等）； 将（热物体）放入水中急速冷却 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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enjoins
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| v.命令( enjoin的第三人称单数 ) | |
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71
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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stringency
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| n.严格，紧迫，说服力；严格性；强度 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
参考例句： |
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