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As for fishing, it employed but a small part of their time. Upon the whole, they were a merry, indigent, godless race. Tonoi, the old sinner, leaning against the fallen trunk of a cocoa-nut tree, invariably squandered his mornings at pebbles; a gray-headed rook of a native regularly plucking him of every other stick of tobacco obtained from his friends, the planters.
Having thus arranged his domestic affairs to please himself, though little to Shorty's satisfaction, I thought, he slung his powder-horn over his shoulder, and we started. Tonoi was, at once, sent on in advance; and leaving the plantation, he struck into a path which led toward the mountains.
Planted with trees as the valley is almost throughout its entire length, I was astonished to observe so very few which were useful to the natives: not one in a hundred was a cocoa-nut or bread-fruit tree. But here Tonoi again enlightened me. For some time afterwards they stood stark and leafless in the sun; sad monuments of the fate which befell the inhabitants of the valley.
Midway up, we rested where the earth had gathered about the roots of three palms, and thus formed a pleasant lounge, from which we looked down upon the hollow, now one dark green tuft of woodland at our feet. Here we brought forth a small calabash of "poee" a parting present from Tonoi.
The old chief sprang into a tree; his companion, flying in an opposite direction, was pursued, and, in the very act of reaching up to a bough, trampled underfoot. The unhappy man was then gored tossed in the air and finally run away with on the bull's horns. More dead than alive, Tonoi waited till all was over, and then made the best of his way home.
Another security against roguery was the permanent residence upon the premises of their chief, Tonoi. On our return to Martair in the afternoon, we found the doctor and Zeke making themselves comfortable.
By this time, Tonoi, the illustrious descendant of the Bishops of Imeeo, was twenty feet from the ground. "Aramai! come down, you old fool!" cried the Yankee; "the pesky critter's on t'other side of the island afore this." "I rayther guess," he continued, as we began reloading, "that we've spoiled sport by firing at that 'ere tarnal hog.
Tonoi abounded in bullock stories; most of which, by the bye, had a spice of the marvellous. The following is one of these. Once upon a time, he was going over the hills with a brother now no more when a great bull came bellowing out of a wood, and both took to their heels.
As for the planters, more accustomed to "Nooning," they, at once, presented a nuptial back to each other; and were soon snoring away at a great rate. Tonoi snoozed on a mat, in one corner. At last, we were roused by Zeke's crying out, "Up b'ys; up! rise, and shine; time to get at it agin!" Looking at the doctor, I perceived, very plainly, that he had decided upon something.
He turned out to be Tonoi, the chief of the fishermen: who, one day, when exhilarated with brandy, tore his meagre tappa from his loins, and gave me to know that he was allied by blood with Pomaree herself; and that his mother came from the illustrious race of pontiffs, who, in old times, swayed their bamboo crosier over all the pagans of Imeeo. A regal, and right reverend lineage!
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