LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1619, 29 April 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

HANS AND THE DEVIL FPU.

A True Story of the Indian Ocean,

‘ Hans, did you ever see an octopus ?’ ‘Not that I know of. I never heard tell of them, as I can mind. Queer sort of name, isn’t it sir ?’

We were lying at anchor off Batavia, after a longer trip than usual, and I was reading some copies of the “Times ” which had been sent out from home during our absence, and had accumulated to a good heap while we were away. Of course the newest paners were looked at first, so it was only on this afternoon, when my work was done and the sun too hot for us to go ashore, that I had come upon tho discussion concerning the existence or non-existence of the “octopus” which had appeared in the colums of the Times ” some months since. Hans vas a weather-beaten old sailor, a Dutchman by birth, who had been in the ship much longer than I had, and was known for as steady a band as a man need wish to have under him. There was no shirking at the wheel when he was there —no need to bo watching him every minute to see that the vessel was not easing from her course, or luffing up tho wind and liable to be taken aback, as I found was necessary with some of tho men, who would have had her on a reef an 5 a hole through her bottom rather than take the trouble to keep her up and do their work as they ought. There was not an officer who did not think himself in luck when old Hans was at the wheel during his watch, n- r a man or board but liked and re peated the rough bat kind hearted and honest old tar.

‘Well, I replied, “that is the scientific name ; I dare say that wo should call them something else. But I’ll see if I can find any description of the creature.’ And I turned over some other numb ra of the newspaper, as I continued—‘The doubt seems to be about their size, not their existence.’ ‘ There’s bigger things in the sea than people thinks on as hasn’t seen them,’ replied Hans, seriously, as he shifted his pipe from i ne side of his mouth to the other, and leaned a little further over the bulwarks, watching the clear water which lay beneath us in the wonderful tracspa;ency which belongs to tho Indian Ocean. ‘ Ah, here’s the account of it, A sort of devil-fish, 1 f?mcy. But how about a devilfish beieg enough to kill a man first and eat him aftnward ?’

‘ls it devil-fish they mean by that queer name?’asked Hans, lifting himself up. ‘I think so. Listen to what they say.’

And I r ad out the description,

‘That’s him,’ said Hans, who had listened attentively—, there ain’t no doubt; but why does not they call things by their right names ? Pe plo would know what they was talking about then. 11( Id you I’d never seen one, didn’t I, sir ?’ * Yes,’ I replied, ‘ But I have—and may the Lord grant I may never see another!' And there was not the small°st doubt that Hans meant what he said from the bottom of his heart. It was impossible to mistake the earnestness of his words ; and, besides he was in general a very reverent, God-fearing man, never using words which he had better have left alone, nor making a joke of religion. I saw at once that there must be a yarn worth hearing ; but Hans was very unwilling to tell it.

‘ I go all of a crawl when I think of it, even now; and it’s eight years since it happened. ’ ‘Never mind that.’ I urged ‘lt can’t hurt you now, yon know; and when people in England are disputing about the size of the creature, it’s worth something to hear a story from a fellow who has seen one.’ ‘Seen it ? Ah, and felt it, too !’

And Haua diew himself together with a shudder.

‘ Felt it ? By Jove, you ought to know the rights of it, then !’ ‘ None better. Look here, sir,’ he con tinned, ‘ if you wants the yarn you shall have it; but I ain’t fond of telling it to anybody. There’s been some who have doubted whether it were all true; and when a chap has had as close a shave as I had, somehow it goes agen him to have folks disbelieve what pretty nigh cost him his life.’ ‘ I quite understand that, Hans; but you’ve never told me an untruth yet, and I don’t believe you’re going to begin now.” ‘ Thank you, sir, ’ said the old fellow, looking pleased. ‘ Well, if you’ll wait a minute, I’ll tell you all, just as it happened.’ He rolled away across the deck, and went below, but soon came up again, with a leather bag in hia hand. I had seen it before, and knew he kept his treasures in it ; so I put aside my newspapers and settled to a comfortable smoke while listening to the story which Hans told as follows ; ‘ Some few ago —it was about ’66, I reckon —there was a very bad time out in these parts, I don’t know it happened—though perhaps you do, sir—but trade seemed altogether at a standstill. Some firms scut their men adrift and laid up their ships, for it was no good fetching things when there was nobody to buy them when they was fetched ; others held on and did a little bit here and a little bit there, pottering in and out among the islands for a log or two of mahog»ny or sandal-wood, or a bird’s nest, or whatever came handy. But there was nothing d >ing to speak of, and the town was full as it could hold of men that had much better have been afloat.

‘ I was sent adrift early. I was not sailing for this firm then, and, as I was pretty well off when I got ashore, I didn’t trouble myself for a few weeks, for I’d chanced on a boarding-house where the grub was good and they made me comfortable ; but as time went on, and there came no chance of wcrk, I didn’t like it and what was more, the missus of the board ng-house didn’t like it either. She had need to bo sharp with such a set of beach combers as was about then, and I’m not blaming her; for when the money goes the welcome go s with it, all the world over—and mine had nearly come to an end, and my berth wasn’t what it used to be I stirred about to see what work 1 could find, but there was nothing in my Hue. Owners were afraid to risk their money, and a good many had hard work to keep on at all, and 1 could not hear of anything moving iu the way I was used to. But after a while I was told of a small craft that was going

out to pick up a ca'go for the china market —nests, shar‘d, dogfish, anything they could lay hands on ; and, though I didn’t half fancy the 1 >t on board, I got shipped and "ne t with her

■ I he skipper wa-* a aa'Ce. and we’d two chaps that it was all [ could do to put up with—Europeans they wore, too. but I’m blest if they hadn’t turned VTohammedans ; and to see th< m a-bowing and a -craping to the Pr ph"t, and carrying on their gam n s about Mecca and all that bosh it were enough to torn a fellow sick —and them bom Christians too! H -waver, T Wept a quiet tongue and said rothi g, thoutrh it would have done me good a score of times to tell them a bit of my mind. ‘At the fishing grounds we had very fair luck, and got a tidy lot of sharks besides. ’

* What did you get them for?’ I asked. ‘Bless you, sir, them Chinamen will eat anything ! The nastier it is, the better they like it Dried fhark and pickled fins fetches lots of money out there. Rut of course the nests was what we looked to make profit by ; and the skipper took a ran for the islands.

‘ But we hadn’t any lack to speak of till he got a|private word from a Singapore boat of a cave in one of the islands that ships did not often go near, not knowing there was anything to go for. We should never have heard of it, only the skipper, being a Singapore man himself, got the hint from his friends. ‘lt was a pretty place when we reached it, that island was, or more properly speaking, there were two; and we dropped anchor between them, in what looked like a bay, though there was a narrow passage right up at the far end. There were lots of swallows fiying about, hut where to find the cave end their ne-ts bothered us altogether. We looked far about from the oea and then went ashore and worked along the cliffs, and wherever there was a dark place one of the Cingalese went over to search ; hut not an opening could we find, and the skipper got wild to see the bi-ds, and know there was a prize close by and not be able to find it, and after a day or two he offered twenty dodars to any one who cou’d discover the entrance,

‘The ship was anchored, and there whs nothing doing, except that the divers were after pearl-oyster and coral, or whatever they could fin ! underneath ; so we men used to go prospecting, and one day I got leave, and took a little ham boo boat—we’d a lot of ’em aboard, packed one inside the other—and went off to see what I could no.

* I rowed right up the hay to the end, and found a narrow little bit of water took a turn round a steep ruck and then brought mo into wide water again. I hadn’t gone far into it when a chap hai'ed be from the shore ; so I ran in, and found he \gas one of those Germans who spend all their time in getting birds and beasts and flowers and insects. There’s lots of ’em about the island, sir ; and they go pretty nigh off their heads if you show them a beetle that is out of the common, no matter how uglv the brute may be. I never coaid see no reasons for such goings on ; but I had noticed before that they are a wonderful sort about te’ling things that other people would want to keep to themselves, same as thev are wild to get hold of what wo should be glad to let alone. So after we had had a little chat, I asked him if he’d dropped across any caves or openings about there. ‘ “Oh. yes,”hesays,quitewilling. “There’s a large one not far off, I passed it only last night, and should have gone in, only I hadn’t got any gun, and there was something queer looking out of it; but I shall be round there again soon.”

‘ “ you ?” thinks I. “ Then I’ll just go and look round first.” *He told me where it was, and away I went, thinking I was sure of the twenty dollars’ reward.

* The opening was not a large one, but as soon as I ran the boat inside I could see that it was a big place and no mistake about it being the one we wanted. There were nests stuck on the walls, and nests hanging from the roof; and before I began knocking these down I stopped to think whether it would be safe to keep it all dark aud make a venture myself when we got back again to Batavia—fof those nests fetch a lot of money, you know, sir. It was very tempting, but it was not very safe ; so I made up my mind to let it out, and began knocking down nests with my pushing pole It was not a very long one, though, and the cave was high ; so I did not trouble myself to get more than just enough to show the skipper that it was all right And then, feeling hot and dried, I sat down in the boat and looked about me.

(To ho continued.)