The Cruise of the Kawa: Wanderings in the South Seas

edding. An epithalmic verse. We remember the "Kawa." An interview w

oint in my narrative in which the status of our relations with the Filbertine women, as such, must either be discussed frankly a

This latter group is to me particularly trying. They revel in descriptions of desirous damsels with burning eyes who crave companionship, but when an artfully devised encounter throws one of these passionate persons across the

I think it's just a case of

aged in a brisk debate in which the question before the house was, stated boldly, Should we or should we not "go native?" In other words, should we hold ourselves aloof, live contrary to the cus

of arguments, the difference in our nationalities, our standing in our home communities (which I thought an especially weak point), our lack of a commo

ned that a Traprock had married a Filbert. Swank replied with some heat that he didn't believe that anything could be said in Derby that hadn't been s

n, are you read

aid Swank a

for the affirmative,-the black ones for

llot shell. Whinney was teller. It was an anxious moment unti

mously

uted Swank, but

t is in on this. We agreed

ces lengthened li

Whinney. "I hadn'

disgust when we inte

dy, one in Noo Bedford-she's my lawful,-and one-a sort of 'erdeependence

our brows but the

d if you ain't"-he looked at us severely,-"if you ain't, it's high time you was. And

proudly, "dooly signed and regis

more than we dared hope for,-m

chin' you boys; a-watchin' an' a-worryin'. What have you been a-doin'? You've been a-raisin' hell, you have. Son, you ain't a rote a word, h

r. Of course if Triplett put it that way, on moral

d. "It's time you got married an' sett

ing affairs I have ever seen. We left the selection of our brides to Baahaabaa and, believe me, he showed

he gorgeous tropical night. The Captain read a service of his own composition full of legal whereases and aforesaids and containing one reference to th

best South Sea specifications in every particular. Swank and Whinney were equally fortunate. We would not have traded wives for

ter which we were conducted to our individual trees with appropriate processional and epithalamic c

aio uku

naa aaa t

tapu, O

io ona h

anslation of the words, lacking entirely the onomatopo

, Moon in yo

l and Coral to t

Moon with li

nlight, guard them f

ed upon this our great adventure. As Triplett had predicted, ere a few days had passed we found awakening within us the fires of ambition which had sunk lower

he New York producers, Dillingham, I think, wrote me: "You have out-Hugo-ed Hugo; this is more miserable than Les Miserables itself!" I noticed also that Swank began to use his atelier jargon of "

onth had elapsed, we were mostly married and had never given him a thought. We were filled with compunction. On top of this Triplett came to us with the announcement th

the chief, "that we orter git the Tree-with-Wings

k brought us to the beach and there lay the Kawa as handy as you please. She had been considerably tidied up since our departure. Our blanket-sail had been stowed and between the dingey-oars, which were rigged fore-and-aft, str

d out his Colt and, be

the second button. This

ately appeared on deck

ere, qu

reply as this is a book for the ho

in our direction. I knew he couldn't swim a stroke and yet here he was, performing an apparent

rticularly plea

poba-Tilaana, Mis

: LUPOBA-TILAANA.

on of lovely Lupoba, who later became the wife of Herman Swank. The ooka-snake lives entirely upon cocoanut milk which gives him a gentle disposition admirably adapted for petting. Mr. Swank has confessed that his wife's fondness for the cr

e attributed to illness, we broke the news

nry Thomas, "so be I ..

!" blazed Whinney.

d," he

med the ceremon

wered Wil

ecessity of proper rites. His onl

maddest was the information t

gallivantin' round marrying an' what all, an' now you show up

see a seal-like form slip over the Kawa's counter and disappear. I watched in vain for her reappearance. Doubtless like all Filbertines she could stay und

quarter of a mile wide and free from trees. Instructed by Triplett, we paved the highway to the lagoon with cocoanuts. Our wives and friends thinking it was a g

the matted haro, we were free to watch a stupendous spectacle. Triplett alone went aboard and lashed himself to the improvised steering post. O

a wall of white water, sixty feet high! In a trice we were all in the treetops, my wife hauling me after her with praiseworthy devotion. All, did I say? All but Triplett. He was sublime.

nslaught. The last eighth-of-a-mile she ground her way through a torrent of sea and cocoanuts. The forest rang with the bellowing wind, the snapping coral branches and the screams of the whistling-trout figh

rushed across the atoll there lay our tight little darling, peacefully at anchor in the stil