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Hedged with Divinities

IV

page 28

IV.

Jack took up one of the short oars and pushed the boat out from the shade of the mangrove into a more open channel, and then, seating himself on the thwart with his face to the pretty steersman, pulled for a mile or two along the shore till they reached a wide shallow flat, half-covered by the tide and bare of the brine-loving trees. Here Jack took off his shoes and stockings and left the boat. He carried as a spear a long light pole about eight feet long with a slender iron point. With this spear he was about to try to spear the flat-fish which abounded in the locality, and came up with the rising water. Every now and then one could see the flash of the quick spear as it pierced the fish, the lace-like track of whose fringing side-fins in the ooze had guided its pursuer to his prey. Carefully Jack waded along a few yards from the shore; noiselessly behind him glided the skiff, impelled by the silent strokes of the girl seated in the stern. Suddenly Jack uttered a loud cry of pain and fright, echoed by a succession of shrieks from Nelly as the peaceful scene changed to a wild commotion. The water was thrown and tossed about the limbs of the man as he drove his spear again and page 29again into the muddy eddies whirling around him, striking at some unseen antagonist which splashed the shallow waves into foam. Nelly sat stricken stiff with fear for a moment, as she saw her lover's violent struggle with some unknown danger, but the tumult only lasted a few seconds, and as Jack waded towards the boat, the girl drove her paddle sharply into the water and struck out to meet him. He looked white as he came alongside, but endeavoured to calm his excited and overwrought sweetheart with soothing words. Her tears came fast, as leaning on the gunwale of the boat, he took her in his arms.

"Oh, darling, what is it?" she said.

"It was an immense stingaree," he answered, "it was lying on the sand, and I trod on it without seeing it in the muddy water. It has bored a hole through my leg."

So saying, he got into the boat, and sat down while Nelly fell on her knees and took out her poor little handkerchief to bind the place. In the white flesh just above the ankle appeared a badly lacerated wound, the raw flesh turned outward round the orifice, from which the blood poured fast. Both their handkerchiefs in unskilled hands were not sufficient to stanch the welling stream.

"Oh, Jack," said Nelly, "it is frightfully dangerous. Unless you can get help very soon you may die. What can we do?"

Her tears broke forth afresh as her lover tried to stanch the bleeding caused by the spike at the base of the rat-like tail of the sting-ray.

"It is almost as deadly as a cobra-bite if I can't get help soon, but it hurts a great deal more. Let's get ashore, Nelly, and you run for all you know to the page 30Maoris we saw fishing round the point, and ask them what to do. Bring them to help if you can."

They ran the boat up on the beach, and Nelly, sliding one arm round the sick man's neck, gave him one despairing kiss, and ran.

On past the rocky points and little bays, past the outlying clumps of mangroves, with flying footsteps pattering and crackling upon the broken shells of the beach, ran the frightened girl. She turned the corner of the last point and saw near her a young Maori woman wading and gathering cockles by groping with her hands and arms under water. As the native girl heard the shrill cry of the visitor she stood upright, and, shading her eyes with her wet hands, looked in the direction from winch the call proceeded. A fine contrast were the two girls. The English maiden, trembling, with clasped hands, her summer dress floating in misty folds, the red blood coursing through her cheeks with excitement and exertion. The native lassie, with her brown shoulders and arms dripping and flashing in the light, her splendid supple form only half concealed by the white chemise and the petticoat Kilted high. In response to the quickly-repeated cry of alarm the Maori girl waded ashore, and heard in a few words the story of the accident. Her face became very grave as she gathered the nature of the trouble, and she also sent her voice out seaward in a prolonged, high-pitched recitative, which went vibrating across the water. However incomprehensible the words of this call would have been to a European it was evidently understood in the far-off fishing canoes, as the men instantly began to return, and paddled hard towards the beach. They landed and began a rapid chatter of questions and answers to Mini (Minnie), the girl who had called them. Their eager questions died page 31into an anxious silence as they looked at one another and then at poor Nelly, evidently doubtful and divided as to the best course of action. They were all young men, muscular and well-shaped, but their youth was against them in this matter.

"I know nothing of such wounds," said one.

"Nor I," said another.

"Oh, come and see him; pray, come!" said the distracted girl. "Only get him to my mother's house; there is no doctor near."

"Let us go quickly, then," was the verdict of the Maori girl, who had in the meantime let down her petticoat and wrapped a shawl round her shoulders. Off they started, Nelly at a run, and the Maoris in a rapid "loping" walk. Back past the mangroves and the shelly beaches, back to the boat, now high and dry upon the shore, and lying upon its side. Nothing was to be seen of Jack until they came alongside, and then, to Nelly's horror, he was found lying along the side, white and unconscious.

"E!" said the men—"E!" said the native girl, with faint little clicks of sympathy and grief sounding from her tongue. She assisted Nelly to raise the helpless head and prevent the hair dabbling in the muddy leakage which had run from under the bilge-boards to the side. The men removed the sail and mast from the boat, and rapidly constructed a kind of litter or hammock, kept apart at head and feet by the boat's stretchers lashed firmly to the centre-pole. The Maoris of the present day are poor creatures compared with their very accomplished forefathers, but even now their deft and skilful fingers, quick to adopt any possible vantage, are invaluable in moments such as this. As they worked they argued.

page 32

"Let us take him to the village," said one.

"What for?" questioned another; "in the village is no one who is old or skilled in medicine or charms. All have gone to the wailing-feast."

"Is there no one of his own doctors near?"

"Nay; not for two days' journey."

"Then he will die; his face is turned towards the leaping-place of souls."

One stooped and felt inside the shirt of the sufferer, then raised his eyebrows in assent to the opinion of the last speaker. The native girl broke in:

"Do you remember who lives up there?" she said, pointing to the forest-covered hill. "Does not the old man abide still in the Humming-house? He is wise, and I have heard my father say that long ago, when they were in great trouble, they consulted him and received help."

"Yes," replied one of the men; "but who has seen him for years? And which of us dares go near the Humming-house? It is tapu. I am a Christian, but I fear the spells of the ancient gods. The old man is wise and doubtless knows the cure for the wound of the sting-ray's spear. He may cure the stranger, but who are we that we dare to visit the wizard and ask a favour, with no present in our hands? I have heard say that the friend of our ancestors has never seen a white man. He came in the days when the strangers were few indeed and scattered, and he has lived alone ever since."

All the time this discussion had been going on Nelly had been growing more and more agitated. One moment she would kneel and gaze into the deathly face of her lover as if she would keep the hovering soul by sheer force of passionate affection, then she would rise and page 33appeal, entreating that the natives would carry her precious one to the old man in whose skill lay a chance of life. The mention by the young Maori of "bearing no present in our hands" inspired her with a new train of thought, and she launched promises of money and gifts upon them if they would make the attempt. Mini also added her persuasions, and at last their laziness in disliking to carry a heavy burden up the steep hill, and their superstitious fear of the dreaded old man, both yielded to the fervid entreaties and rich promises of reward. Lifting the insensible body into the litter they commenced the toilsome ascent.