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"It's Fijian, isn't it? meaning the feathers of the sun?" "Just so. It means the feathers of the sun. Thus does this base interloper caption himself. He has come up from Fiji to turn Fitu-Iva upside down that is, commercially." "Some one of those smart Levuka boys, I suppose?" Ieremia shook his head sadly. "No, this low fellow is a white man and a scoundrel.
"That is purely a personal and private matter between you and Tui Tulifau," Grief answered. "It's beginning to split up the back," the supercargo lamented. "I noticed that much this morning when he hadn't had it on ten minutes. It cost me thirty shillings and I only wore it once." "Where shall I get a dead pig?" Ieremia asked. "Kill one, of course," said Grief. "Kill a small one."
He wore glasses, and was reading methodically in what Grief knew to be an English Bible. For this was Ieremia, his trader, so named from the prophet Jeremiah. Ieremia was lighter-skinned than the Fitu-Ivans, as was natural in a full-blooded Samoan. Educated by the missionaries, as lay teacher he had served their cause well over in the cannibal atolls to the westward.
"It is it is " the puzzled Ieremia began, then spluttered helplessly, the fallacy beyond his penetration. "Paper, mere paper," Cornelius concluded for him, imitating his halting utterance. Conviction sat on the faces of all. The king clapped his hands admiringly and murmured, "It is most clear, very clear." "You see, he himself acknowledges it." Assured triumph was in Deasy's voice and bearing.
As a reward, he had been sent to the paradise of Fitu-Iva, where all were or had been good converts, to gather in the backsliders. Unfortunately, Ieremia had become too well educated. A stray volume of Darwin, a nagging wife, and a pretty Fitu-Ivan widow had driven him into the ranks of the backsliders. It was not a case of apostasy. The effect of Darwin had been one of intellectual fatigue.
As soon as he can maneuver it he'll take the cash and skin out on your craft or mine." "He is a low fellow," Ieremia declared, pausing in the polishing of his spectacles. "He is a scoundrel and a blackguard. He should be struck by a dead pig, by a particularly dead pig." "The very thing," said Grief. "He shall be struck by a dead pig.
"Is it not so written on this paper as well?" Again Grief whispered. "That Fitu-Iva will pay coin money?" asked Ieremia "It is so written." A third time Grief prompted. "On demand?" asked Ieremia. "On demand," Cornelius assured him. "Then I demand coin money now," said Ieremia, drawing a small package of notes from the pouch at his girdle.
The robbing white traders could not flourish in the light. Therefore they fought the light. He would prove it to the good people of Fitu-Iva, and he would prove it out of the mouths of his enemies. It was a well-known fact that all highly civilized countries had paper-money systems. He would ask Ieremia if this was not so. Ieremia did not answer. "You see," Cornelius went on, "he makes no answer.
Only the lesser chiefs, village maids, village beaux, and talking men with their staffs of office were permitted inside. Cornelius Deasy, as befitted a high and favoured official, sat near to the right hand of the king. On the left of the queen, opposite Cornelius and surrounded by the white traders he was to represent, sat Ieremia.
Ieremia could not deny, and his fingers played nervously with the fastening of the basket on his knees. "You see, it is as I have said," Cornelius continued. "Ieremia agrees that it is so. Therefore, I ask you, all good people of Fitu-Iva, if a system is good for the Papalangi countries, why is it not good for Fitu-Iva?" "It is not the same!" Ieremia cried.
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