BARGAIN
alty. My nund gropes desperate- ly for come way of refusing that might not smash his pride.
But all my clumsy talk of the difference between his people's customs and our seemed to leave him more and more crest-fallen.
I could not arrive at convinc- ing im hat my rejecllon of his most precious gitt was due to no fault in himself or her.
I don't know how I should ever have comforted him wita- aut enilating South-Wind'a help. She had sat silent throughout; her ehock still against my knee, her right arm crooked around my calves,
1 think the contact must have enabled the passage of an Inspiration from her 10 me, for 1 was romehow certain of he answer when I said: "Tell
013 the truth, South-Wind,
tell us nothing but the
did you in your own
really want this thing?"
truth,
cart
A word left
unspoken
SHE turned her
houd und
laughed up In iny face. "Not the replied, then look- ed across at Terara accuslugly and added, "That man knows I did pot want It. I said to him: If you must send me to An- other man, why must it be n white man?' I also uld: 'This white man is not like a frigate bind but .
Before she get the word out," Terara sprang forward with an Indignani bellow and clapped his hand over her mouth.
1
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1957.
27fathoms down
and ROLEX Oyster still
runs accurately as ever.
A sorceress uses magic
to open prison doors
to organise the sort of recon- clllation that his generous heart uched for.
I only began to lar the facts when Laughter-of-Waves had been released from prison for Fome months, and I heard that she and given birth to a
I never found oal what the was going to ray, but Teroro know, and bor rejection of me to my tuce, 26 much more out- spoken them mine
her. of zeemed to inspire him at once with renewed self-respect, fine son.
raised her to her fee. Question that
laughed down at me with the alr of a mai rià of a burden, picked
her up in his arms,
bun fiche, as the were a
bridle new-we: to be carried across his threshold, and ran at with kee Into the flomdog moonlight A mimic inter 1 hear: Rota hoo; 'with laughter from the lichen.
There were no mory pari- tonlel zulks from him the next morning.
a
puzzled me
This wis, however, moro nights running, to beg us not to than a vitious mother could sing like lunatics?" You see, take a rilence,
everyone hed to sing loud. Otherwise, they would have heard the words of my spell, and it wouldn't have warleed,”
She was good enough, after hearing
expressions negret, to let me have the words in question,
Laughter-of-Waves spent the next 10 minutes fereing me with floods of Indignant tours, la note the astounding resemblanets be,wean her Unby and
his father.
A that time Taratake at with an orni round her waisi, nodding his hend at every point
such eyes nt mu
THAT was pleasant news in it- she reprochain it with self, but a question of lime that I felt lower than a worm.
rather puzzled me.
The prison records said that she had bein discharged just five months and three weeks previously ufter serving her full sentence of six months.
It made strange biological
for was arithmetic.
the cloistered A very different case
seclusion of a female prison, un- He was that of Taralake. inuch, wronged husband.
less one believed in spontaneous
knew of his own Tarakice goodness that, only given time to cool down, he could condone practically any slip of Laugher- ol-Waves, his wire. So he brought her to my office one day, saying-
"Kurimbo, this woman has
nlready sinned. She has
de. erived me twice, before, and 1 her have forgiven her. I love great, us all men know.
“Quite reasonable,"
she said
bul
generation.
I naked chem to come anx have u private chat with me.
The baby cums with them, a very agrevable infant.
But I did want all the facts, only for the appraisal of iny own Kullbilly, and presently they came tumbling out.
I appeared, to begin with that Laugh fr-of-Waves was a most accomplished soretress
Her spells, she, claimed, had twice won Taratake's Instant pardon for her wilful ways; it was therefore only natural to for help turn to them again In prison.
She didn't want him durow ing eyeszyt piler women while che way coked-upjwen't she Our opening talk was about a right in that? She asked I had virgin known
Gilbertese to admit I thought she prob- mythology as Nel Malumona, ably was, and was glad to hear Jan-had from her then that the guol who-so the story one upon a time been visited wardress, Taratake's aunt, had
the absolutely
same by a sunbeam as site lay bask- beld ing in a colitary pool, and opinion. became the mother of nughly sun-hero, Bue.
that
But Turalake sala "No": as a Christian (though his wife was
a pagan) he couldn't approve, of N Matamona's methods and didn't, In Shay things happened flat- way nowadays.
A few strands
of hair
my
of
My own hair is Christian
is the lantly expur- Hgated English rend-ring of
1hcm:-
Mr Hair-of-his-head, Mr Hair-
of-hir-head,
Go you to him, to Taratake! Whisper my name when he
dreama, when he wakes, When he walks among the wo-
tilen.
Draw him by the hand, Draw him by the foot, Draw him by
gnk
the Heart entrults to ne. He thinks only of me; lie die
dies, for love of me; There is no woman for him but
me, no love but mine, no love making but mine.
He comes to me, he comes, he is
here with me,
With me. Laughter-of-Waves-
A-0-0!
The burning of a single hair L the end was enough to epted the indwelling spirit on Its way.
playing about with pagan spirits e that, you know."
The dignified re- proof in his unswer
left me sorry i had
spoken: "Siz, you have forgotten that It was my own hair, The spirit of it was
Christian
as I
09
am myself."
So, on the fourth
the
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AUSTRALIA'S
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Since 1956
all ROLEX and
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SONOTOA
NUKUNAU
3
ABORAC
night, the spiri, let Magic names for magic places
war- this is the Pacific Island kingdom which hiz dreas's quarters in Sir Arthur Grimble governed, travelling
the gaol yard.
It was easy going from island to island in a ten-ton cutter.
after that, because Brother
apell known held Laughter-of-Waves Dunt bound to her mat in miraculous sleep.
to
his
21
The again
was, reglously speaking, blameless,
She was a Chrision like hlm- self and had given the sorceress some of her own eyelashes for the sleep ritual, so as to make sure there was no hanky-panky with pagan spirits.
and
Comtarted beyond measure by this thought, he icck the key she had aзrelessly left by a lightca
hurricane lamp pressed serenely ou with his mission of forgiveness into female lock-up.
the
We call him
Kurimbo
EVERYTHING was ready for
I don't know how it strik:s others, but I thought it pretty natural, that, after three
per- formances of a ritul like that, Toralake should have started aunt who had dreaming of his wife-tspecially was this case, believe IT
obtained from him a few is he knew from his helpful alrands of his hair for the right aunt exactly when the core There was clearly nothing to kind of pellbinding and had monies began and ended.
aiy provided
for matches me do thin but apologise to him at burging them at the right ritual pleted, he said, he had allowed the this
Mr Hair-of-his-head one orice, on behalf of the Stere.ary of Siate for the Colonies, for moment, what had happened to Laughter.
I fear
I
❝ WISHI to pardon her again
in the chd: shall strangle her unless you lock her away from
onger for my
least months."
I
Let
#ix
arked Laughter-of-Waves
The third performance
him there. The e.her lady in- nates had plaited garlands of. com- perfumed flowie to ng about room. They lay now, nigat magicked asleep, on the concrate They had to be on the to come and draw him by the floor. hund, a second to do the son foc
their because
wooden by his foot, and a third to deal pallets were needed to make the ittle cubicle where his beloved
Jaughter-cf-Waves herself had of-Waves in the female luck-up organised the community sing
with his heart and entralis, if the proposal struck her us and congratulate him, In the ing.
"Do you remember," she re- er humanity,
'But, Taraile," I ventured generous readiness to father an pronched m, "you once sent to protest at this point, "you're
ecok
You can' Christien! She didn't interloper's child.
to us three
reasonable.
It did, she salt.
want to be strangled; beldes which, both she and her partner in crime were torry for what they had done and eager to afford Taratake the solice an ofleat expiation.
1 accordingly recommendex! the two offenders to the favour- able consideration of the Native Court, which obliged all of us by tending them to prison for six months each
'Tarntake's only real Inult afler that was too much forgive- ness. Yet can there ever be too much? And then, who but complete saint could have turnace a blind eye To the interior weakness of cur penal organization?
The colony was desperately poor. Big prison stats усто entirely out of the question.
Wo were happy indeed, in the circumstances, · it our criminal genilefalk were. tact- ful enough to keep their breaches of discipline decently hidden and beyond that, wii- ing, when they chose to sing at night, not to buwi themselves quito hoarse,
The song at midnight
TARATAKE bad once done a year in the central prison at Tarawa (I forget what fee), and he know much more than I did about its interior possibili- tier.
This valuable experience, plus his wife's clever use of the latitude allowed for midnight song, plus the happy accent that the women's wardress was bir tather a sister, enabled him
name
for his
your
over
"Ethel I'll cycle to work for the duration
the strike without
Fo
scented
dreamed so deep. maybe, of love fulfilled in the darkness?
how many
times d "And they have to be magleked alto- gether?" I asked Laughter-of- Waves when all was told..
"Only mix," she replied. "You 600, it was dificult. We started the night you left on a visit to Abaiang and finished the right before you came back. You wander round the station a loc at night, and we didn't want to hur: you."
I was grat:ful for their ten- der feelings. For the resi, what
One was to be done? can't wheedle confessions from one's parishioners only lo put the dogs of Justice on their tracks. So I asked them weak- ly what their idea of o fair. thing was.
They had it all ready: "We thought." id Taratake, "that it would be nice if we called our son Kurimbo, after you."
He
I looked at the brat. really was rather a nice baby. I was proud to be his sponsor.
NEXT WEEK
awaited his forgiveness. But The Mysterious Boat what could hard lying
matter
to them, who slept so fast and of the Widow Grant
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