by Louis Becke
THE RANGERS OF THE TIA KAU
Between Nanomea and Nanomaga--two of the Ellice Group--but within a fewmiles of the latter, is an extensive submerged shoal, on the chartscalled the Grand Cocal Reef, but by the people of the two islands knownas Tia Kau (The Reef). On the shallowest part there are from four toten fathoms of water, and here in heavy weather the sea breaks. TheBritish cruiser BASILISK, about 1870, sought for the reef, but reportedit as non-existent. Yet the Tia Kati is well known to many a Yankeewhaler and trading schooner, and is a favourite fishing-ground of thepeople of Nanomaga--when the sharks give them a chance.
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One night Atupa, Chief of Nanomaga, caused a huge fire to be lit on thebeach as a signal to the people of Nanomea that a MALAGA, or party ofvoyagers, was coming over. Both islands are low--not more than fifteenfeet above sea-level--and are distant from one another aboutthirty-eight miles. The following night the reflection of the answeringfire on Nanomea was seen, and Atupa prepared to send away his people inseven canoes. They would start at sundown, so as to avoid paddling inthe heat (the Nanomagans have no sailing canoes), and be guided toNanomea, which they expected to reach early in the morning, by the fardistant glare of the great fires of coconut and pandanus leaves kindledat intervals of a few hours. About seventy people were to go, and allthat day the little village busied itself in preparing for theNanomeans gifts of foods--cooked PURAKA, fowls, pigs, and flying-fish.
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Atupa, the heathen chief, was troubled in his mind in those days ofAugust 1872. The JOHN WILLIAMS had touched at the island and landed aSamoan missionary, who had pressed him to accept Christianity. Atupa,dreading a disturbing element in his little community, had, at first,declined; but the ship had come again, and the chief having consentedto try the new religion, a teacher landed. But since then he and hissub-chiefs had consulted the oracle, and had been told that the shadesof Maumau Tahori and Foilagi, their deified ancestors, had answeredthat the new religion was unacceptable to them, and that the Samoanteacher must be killed or sent away. And for this was Atupa sending offsome of his people to Nanomea with gifts of goodwill to the chiefs tobeseech them to consult their oracles also, so that the two islandsmight take concerted action against this new foreign god, whose priestssaid that all men were equal, that all were bad, and He and His Sonalone good.
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The night was calm when the seven canoes set out. Forty men and thirtywomen and children were in the party, and the craft were too deeplyladen for any but the smoothest sea. On the AMA (outrigger) of eachcanoe were the baskets of food and bundles of mats for their hosts, andseated on these were the children, while the women sat with the men andhelped them to paddle. Two hours' quick paddling brought them to theshoal-water of Tia Kau, and at the same moment they saw to the N.W. thesky-glare of the first guiding fire.
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It was then that the people in the first canoe, wherein was Palu, thedaughter of Atupa, called out to those behind to prepare their ASU(balers), as a heavy squall was coming down from the eastward. ThenLaheu, an old warrior in another canoe, cried out that they shouldreturn on their track a little and get into deep water; "for," said he,"if we swamp, away from Tia Kau, it is but a little thing, but here--"and he clasped his hands rapidly together and then tore them apart.They knew what he meant--the sharks that, at night-time forsaking thedeep waters, patrolled in droves of thousands the shallow waters of thereef to devour the turtle and the schools of TAFAU ULI and other fish.In quick, alarmed silence the people headed back, but even then thefirst fierce squall struck them, and some of the frail canoes began tofill at once. "I MATAGI! I MATAGI! (head to the wind)" a man calledout; "head to the wind, or we perish! 'Tis but a puff and it is gone."
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But it was more than a puff. The seven canoes, all abreast, were stillin shallow water, and the paddlers kept them dead in the teeth of thewhistling wind and stinging rain, and called out words of encouragementto one another and to the women and children, as another black squallburst upon them and the curling seas began to break. The canoe in whichwas Atupa's daughter was the largest and best of all the seven, but wasmuch overladen, and on the outrigger grating were four children. Thesethe chief's daughter was endeavouring to shield from the rain bycovering them with a mat, when one of them, a little girl, endeavouredto steady herself by holding to one of the thin pieces of grating; itbroke, and her arm fell through and struck the water, and in an instantshe gave a dull, smothered wail. Palu, the woman, seized her by herhair and pulled the child up to a sitting posture, and then shriekedwith terror--the girl's arm was gone.
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And then in the blackness of night, lightened now by the white,seething, boiling surge, the people saw in the phosphorescent watercountless hundreds of the savage terrors of the Tia Kau darting hitherand thither amongst the canoes--for the smell of blood had brought themtogether instantly. Presently a great grey monster tore the paddle fromout the hands of the steersman of the canoe wherein were the terrifiedPalu and the four children, and then, before the man for'ard couldbring her head to the wind, she broached to and filled. Like raveningwolves the sharks dashed upon their prey, and ere the people had timeto give more than a despairing cry, those hideous jaws and gleamingcruel teeth had sealed their fate. Maddened with fear, the rest of thepeople threw everything out of the six other canoes to lighten them,and as the bundles of mats and baskets of food touched the water thesharks seized and bit, tore and swallowed. Then, one by one, everypaddle was grabbed from the hands of the paddlers, and the canoesbroached to and filled in that sea of death--all save one, which wascarried by the force of the wind away from the rest. In this were theonly survivors--two men.
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The agony could not have lasted long. "Were I to live as long as hewhom the FAIFEAU (missionary) tells us lived to be nine hundred andsixty and nine, I shall hear the groans and cries and shrieks of thatPO MALAIA, that night of evil luck," said one of the two who lived, toDenison, the white trader at Nanomea. "Once did I have my paddle fastin the mouth of a little devil, and it drew me backwards, backwards,over the stern till my head touched the water. TAH! but I was strongwith fear, and held on, for to lose it meant death by the teeth. AndTulua--he who came out alive with me, seized my feet and held on, elsehad I gone. But look thou at this"--and he pointed to his scarred neckand back and shoulders "ere I could free my FOE (paddle) and raise myhead, I was bitten thus by others. Ah, PAPALAGI, some men are born towisdom, but most are fools. Had not Atupa been filled with vain fears,he had killed the man who caused him to lose so many of our people."
"So," said the white man, "and wouldst thou have killed the man whobrought thee the new faith? Fie!"
"Aye, that would I--in those days when I was PO ULI ULI [Heathen, lit. "Inthe blackest night"]. But not now, for I am Christian. Yet had Atupakilled and buried the stranger, we could have lied and said he died of asickness when they of his people came to seek him. And then had I now myson Tagipo with me, he who went into the bellies of the sharks atTia Kau."
