United States or Monaco ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
With a shriek of pain his jaws began to close and, on the instant, Kippy yanked the handle with all her might, opening the taa-taa to its full extent in the beast's very narrows. Choked though he was, unable for the moment to bite or expel the outer air and submerge, the brute was still dangerous.
She had propped over my head her verdant taa-taa without which the natives never swim for fear of the tropical sun, and I think I must have dozed off for I was suddenly roused by a hoarse Klaxon-bellow "Kaaraschaa-gha!" which told me all too plainly that I was in the most hideous peril. "Wak-wak!" I barked, and all my past life began to unfold before me. It was a horrid sight the wak-wak, I mean.
In this picture the joyous island queen Babai-Alova-Babai is seen carrying her taa-taa, the curious implement which serves so many purposes in the Filbert Group. It is in turn a protection against the sun, the rain and the constant showers of falling nuts, and also, when occasion demands, a most effective weapon of defensive warfare.
Fresh water they call hammoo,* salt water, mocull; their dogs the same species as the native dogs found near Sydney they call taa-taa. We had not as yet seen any of their women, as they were encamped at some distance from us.
I remonstrated, when I saw Tilaana advancing toward me, fluttering her taa-taa in the same menacing way in which Kippy had attacked the wak-wak. "I beg your pardon," I said. "I was wrong. I apologize." We stood in a circle and chinned each other until peace was restored. The view from the summit was, as authors say, indescribable.
"Hide them. Quickly, away!" I knew the danger, of which my temple still bore the scar. Concealing our find under our taa-taa we scraped and slid over the faulted and tilted strata to which Whinney had referred until we reached the beach. High above us I could hear the anguished cry of the mother fatu-liva vainly seeking her ravished home and potential family.
"Help! Help!" I screamed, reverting to English. Suddenly Kippy seized the taa-taa from my nerveless grasp. Half closing it, she swam directly toward the monster into whose widening throat she thrust the sharp-pointed instrument, in, in, until I thought she herself would follow it. And then, as she had intended, the point pierced the wak-wak's tonsil.
The taa-taa is made of closely laced panjandrus leaves on a frame of the tough eva-eva. When closed, which is seldom, it is known as a naa-naa. Soon the trail widened, and we were called upon to hurdle several low barriers of papoo-reeds, designed to confine the activities of the countless Alice-blue wart-hogs which whined plaintively about our feet.
Late afternoon of the same day was the hour agreed upon for the Judgment. Baahaabaa had sent invitations by express swimmers to all the near-by islands. He invited the entire archipelago. The picture of their approach was interesting. Kippy haled me to the top of a tall tree whence we watched the convergent argosies, hundreds of tiny specks each bearing an outspread taa-taa of gleaming leaves.
Word Of The Day