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becke : a noble sea game,
1898
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" A Noble Sea Game."
Just as my wild-eyed, touzle-headed Gilbert Island cook brought me my early coffee and hard ship biscuit, Toria and Vailele- brown-skinned brother and sister- peeped in through the window, and in their curious bastard Samoan said 'twas a glorious morn to fahaheke.
Now I had
learned
to fahaheke (use a surf- board), having been
instructed therein
by the youths and maidens of the village individually and
collectively.
And when you
have once learned surf-swimming the game takes possession of
your innermost
soul like unto cycling and golf.
So I said I
would
come, and instantly my young friends handed me in a surfing
costume, a
highly indecorous looking girdle of thin strippings of the
leaf of the
pandanus palm.
Page 148
This I
blushingly
declined, preferring a garment of my own design- a pair of
dungaree pants
razeed from the knees down.
Then,
bidding
me hurry up and meet the swimming party on the beach, Toria
and his sister
ran back to the village to attend early morning service, to
which the wooden
cylinder that did duty for a church bell was already
summoning the people.
Now, in
some of
the Pacific Islands surf-swimming is one of the forbidden
things, for many
of the native teachers hold the sport to savour of the po
uli -
i.e., the heathen days- and the young folks can only indulge
in the innocent
diversion away from the watchful eye of the local Chadband
and his alert
myrmidons, the village police, among whom all fines are
divided.
But in this
particular
little island we had for our resident missionary a young
stalwart Samoan,
who did not forbid his flock to dance or sing, nor prohibit
the young girls
from wearing flowers in their dark locks.
And he
himself
was a mighty fisherman and a great diver and swimmer, and
smoked his pipe
and laughed and sang with the people out of the fulness of
his heart when
they were merry, and prayed for ...
Page 149
... and
consoled
them in their sorrow.
So we all
loved
Ioane, the teacher, and Eline, his pretty young wife, and
his two jolly
little muddy brown infants; for there was no other native
missionary like
him in all the wide Pacific.
The simple
service
was soon over, and then there was a great scurrying to and
fro among the
thatched houses, and presently in twos and threes the young
people appeared,
hurrying down to the beach and shouting loudly to the white
man to follow.
A strong
breeze
had sprung up during the night, and the long rolling
billows, which had
sped waveringly along for, perhaps, a thousand miles from
beyond the western
sea-rim, were sweeping now in quick succession over the wide
flat stretch
of reef that stood out from the northern end of the island
like a huge
table.
Two hundred
yards
in width from the steep-to face it presented to the sea, it
ceased, almost
as abruptly as it began, in a bed of pure white sand, six
feet below the
surface of the water; and this sandy bottom continued all
the way from
the inner edge of the reef to the line of coco-palms
fringing the island
beach.
At low tide,
when the ever-restless rollers dashed vainly against ...
Page 150
... the
sea-face
of the reef, whose surface was then bared and shining in the
sun, this
long strip of sheltered water would lay quiet and
undisturbed, as clear
as crystal and as smooth as a sheet of glass; but as the
tide rose the
waves came sweeping over the coral barrier and poured
noisily over its
inner ledge till the lagoon again became as surf-swept and
agitated as
the sea beyond.
This was the
favoured spot with the people for surf-swimming, for when
the tide was
full the surf broke heavily on the reef, and there was a
clear run of half-a-mile
from the starting-point on the inner face of the coral table
to the soft,
white beach.
Besides
that,
there was not a single rock or mound of coral between the
reef and the
shore upon which a swimmer might strike- with fatal effect
if the danger
were not perceived in time.
The north
point
was quite a mile from the village, and, the tide being very
high, we had
to follow a path through the coconut groves instead of
walking along the
beach, for the swirling waves, although well spent when they
reached the
shore, were washing the butts of the coco-palms, whose
matted roots protruded
from the sand at high-water mark.
In front of
us
...
Page 151
... raced
some
scores of young children ranging from six years of age to
ten, pushing
and jostling each other in their eagerness to be first on
the scene.
Although the
sun was hot already, the breeze was cool and blew strongly
in our faces
when we emerged from the narrow leafy track out upon the
open strand.
Then with
much
shouting and laughing, and playful thumping of brown backs
and shoulders,
Timi, the master of ceremonies for the occasion, marshalled
us all in line
and then gave the word to go, and with a merry shout,
mingled with quavering
feminine squeaks, away we sprang into the sea, each one
pushing his or
her surf- board in front, or shooting it out ahead, and
trying to reach
the reef before anyone else.
And now the
slight
regard for the conventionalities that had been maintained
during the walk
from the village vanished, and the fun began- ducking and
other aquatic
horseplay, hair-pulling, seizing of surf-boards and throwing
them back
shorewards, and wrestling matches between the foremost
swimmers.
The papalagi
(white man), swimming between the boy Toria and a short,
square-built native
named Temana, had succeeded in keeping well ...
Page 152
... in the
van,
when he was suddenly seized by the feet by two little imps,
just as a sweeping
roller lifted him high up.
And down the
white man went, and away went his surf-board shoreward amid
the shrieking
laughs of the girls.
"Never
mind,"
shouted Temana, shaking his black curly head like a
water-spaniel; and
seizing a board from a girl near him, and pushing her under
at the same
time, he shot it over towards me; and then Toria, with a
wrathful exclamation,
caught one of the imps who had caused my disaster and,
twining his left
hand in her long, floating hair, pitched her board away
behind him.
This little
incident,
however, lost us our places, and amid the merry gibes of
some naked infants
who were in the ruck, we swam on in face of the slapping
seas, and at last
gained the edge of the reef, which was now alive with nude,
brown-skinned
figures, trying to keep their position in the boiling surf
for the first
grand " shoot " shoreward.
Between the
lulls
of the freqnent seas the water was only about four feet
deep, and presently
some sort of order was formed, and we awaited the next big
roller.
Over the
outer
reef it reared its greeny crest, curled and broke with ...
Page 153
...
thundering
clamour, and roared its mile-line length towards us.
Struggling
hard
to keep our feet on the slippery coral against the swift
back-wash, we
waited till the white wall of hissing foam was five feet
away, and then
flung ourselves forward flat upon our boards. Oh, how can
one describe
the ecstatic feeling that follows as your feet go up and
your head and
shoulders down, and you seem to fly through the water with
the spume and
froth of the mighty roller pIa ying about your hair and
hissing and singing
in your ears?
Half a mile
away
lies the beach, but you cannot see it, only the plumed
crowns of the palms
swaying to and fro in the breeze; for your head is low down,
and there
is nothing visible but a wavering line of shaking green.
Perhaps, if
you
are adept enough to turn your head to right or left, you
will see silhouetted
against the snowy wall of foam scores and scores of black
heads, and then
before you can draw your breath from excitement the beach is
before you,
and you slip off your board as the wave that has carried you
so gloriously
in sweeps far up on the shore, amid the vines and creepers
which enwrap
the sea-laved roots of the coco-palms.
Page 154
Then back
again,
up and down over the seas, diving beneath any that are too
high and swift
to withstand, till you reach the ledge of the reef again and
wait another
chance.
Not all
together
do we go this time, for now the swimmers are widely
separated, and as we
swim out we meet others coming back, flying before the
rollers under which
we have to dive.
Here and
there
are those who from long practice and skill disdain to use a
board; for
springing in front of a curling sea, by a curious trick of
hollowing in
the back and depressing the head and neck, they fly in
before the rolling
surge at an amazing speed, beating the water with one hand
as they go,
and uttering wild cries of triumph as they pass us,
struggling seaward.
Others there
are who with both hands held together before them, keep
themselves well
in position amid the boiling rush of waters by a movement of
the legs and
feet alone.
But, that
day,
to my mind the girls looked prettiest ot all when, instead
of lying prone,
they sat upon their boards, and held themselves in position
by grasping
the sides.
Twice, as we
swam out, did we see some twenty or thirty of them mounted
slopingly on
the face ...
Page 155
... of a
curling
sea, and with their long, dark locks trailing behind them,
rush shoreward
enveloped in mist and spray like goddesses of the waves.
Their shrill
cries of encouragement to each other, the loud thunder of
the surf as it
broke upon its coral barrier, the seething hum and hiss of
the roller as
it impelled them to the beach, and the merry shrieks of
laughter that ensued
when some luckless girl over-balanced or misguided herself
in the midst
of the foam, lent a zest of enjoyment to the scene that made
one feel himself
a child again.
For two
hours
we swam out again and again to fly shoreward; and at last we
met together
on the beach, to rest under the shade of the palms, the
girls to smoke
their banana-leaf sului of strong negro-head
tobacco, and the men
their pipes, while the younger boys were sent to gather us
young drinking-coconuts.
And then we
heard
a sudden cry of mingled laughter and astonishment; for,
tottering along
the path, surf-board under arm, came an old man of seventy,
nude to his
loins.
" Hu!
hu!"
he
cried, and his wrinkled face twisted, and his toothless
mouth quivered,
"is old Pakia so blind and weak that he cannot ...
Page 156
fahaheke?
Ah, let but
some
of ye guide me out and set me before the surf-then will ye
will see."
Poor old
fellow!
Like an old
troop-horse
who dozes in a field, and whose blood tingles to some
distant bugle call,
the ancient, from his little hut near by, had heard our
cries, and his
brave old heart had awakened to the call of lusty youth.
And so,
earnestly
begging the loan of a board from one of the swimmers, he had
come to join
us. And then two merry- hearted girls, taking him to the
water's edge,
swam out with him to the reef amid our wild cheers and
laughter.
They soon
reached
the starting-point, and then a roar of delight went up from
us as we saw
them place the ancient on his board, his knees to his chin,
and his hands
grasping the sides.
Then, as a
bursting
roller thundered along and swept down upon them, they gave
him a shove
and sprang before it themselves-one on each side.
And, old and
half blind as he was, he came in like an arrow from the bow
of a mighty
archer, his scanty white locks trailing behind his poor old
head like the
frayed-out end of a manilla hawser, his face set, and his
feeble old throat
crowing ...
Page 157
a quavering, shaking note of triumph as he shot up to the very margin of the beach, amid a roar of applause from the naked and admiring spectators.
Poor old
Pakia!
Well indeed
art
thou entitled to this stick of tobacco from the white man to
console thy
cheery and venerable old pagan soul in the watches of the
night.
 |
New Amsterdam Book Company 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1898. Chapter : A Noble Sea Game, pages 147 to 157. |
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