ISLAND FOOTPRINTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16205, 15 April 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

ISLAND FOOTPRINTS.

WAYFARERS IN FIJI.

BY BRANSON BOYNE.

Hotter and hotter grew the sunshine, higher and higher mounted the sun. The delicate bloom was gone from the morning, the sea revealed the fulness of its blue. The shade stole back from the ground which dropped away to the water in front of the artist, where he sat by the roadside, beneath the soapstone cliff.

On tho falling slopes bovond and below the road was the Chinaman's garden, young with the freshness of its green crops. On either side rose picturesque high ground where grass an* tree and red roof hung above an encroachment of the pea. And then the sea itself, so blue that a, man could but wonder at such eolouring, and none but the unduly optimistic might essay to translate the hue into solid paint, as the artist had discovered to his sorrow. In the distance the island's coast line rose in peaked and jagged mountains, all of them soft, except at their sharpened summits, with an unlimited wealth of tree.

And the artist gave it up in despair. He looked fr' n nature to his effort and back to v) ,*nre .-.gain. The contrast struck his •' pa : t.ul. He felt, needlessly, annoyed an *uv.i!iat*d. There is no denying tiie i'*c>. u at old Mother Nature paints better th ie best of them, but after all ft man .:w only a lifetime in which to lean a,.0 endeavour while the lady has been , lg some time.

The sun wcuL foon be over the cliff to find him out, • .fc the artist dawdled. It was •pleasant to watch the varied passers-by, so long as ho remained in the shade. Bound the corner they came, by ones, by twos, by three. The coral-paved road was never empty. There was a light dust, for Prints, footprints, footprints. Old and ; .yim? and middle-aged, the impressing soles passed on.

PijLi and Hindoo. A fine youth strode forward, the sunshine glinted warmly on his round, brown limbs, which were well set off by the white sulu, a short garment girt about his loins on his thick, upstanding mass of hair he wore a wreath of green leaves, with here and there a scarlet blossom to add to its gay effect. A young Fijian, on the Hires'" .Id of his manhood. The artist smiled and returned his soft-tongued island salutation. Here came one who needed scant room for his going. His narrow feet pointed forward, and were set ono ahead of the other as he moved; it was scarce more than one lengthened impression that he made in tie road 1 dust. The artist glanced upward, the hawk-eyed Indian saluted with a stately "salaam." His nose was acquiline, his face fine. There was yet something of the hill warrior in the lithe forward spring of his body on the placid, tropical road. He had known and trodden the narrow tracks of mountains as ancestors had done before him. Did he miss the clear atmosphere and the snow peak on high ?

At his side stepped one of shorter stature, a Hindoo, whose legs, marvellously skinny, were supported by feet more squat than those of his companion. His quick steps occupied wider roadway; they had been accustomed to the open going of tho plains; the imprints were firm, and, like the hillman's, pointed forward. Men of agility of movement generally look ahead with their toes.

From tho small-boned hand hung the half of a kerosene tin, rendered a useful carrier by its impromptu handle of wire. It was filled with eggs. Half bad ? Why, certainly! What would you have? A vondor of spirit knows how to look after his own interests. How can he help it if a memsahib docs not take care of hers ?

Behind the pair appeared beauty. A small and pliable foot, a slender ankle encircled by its silver anklet; the step so light that the dust took its imprint as a gay caress that passes in a breath and is gone. The artist caught her eye, dark, and full of mischievous laughter under the graceful line of the magenta hued sari. A glimpse ? a smooth young cheek, the discordant jewellery of the nose ring, the flash of gold and silver about the brown little neck, the lilt, of the black i.nd yellow petticoat, and she was up tho road and away, to all appearance an alien child of fair Fiji, but very probably born in this land of her parents' adoption and knowing no other but by hearsay.

A Daughter of the Isle. She was followed by an undoubted daughter of the isle. Here were slowor footsteps, firmly and deeply planted In their pleasant amble. The, pinafore dress of pink and white cotton hung straight from the plump shoulders. These were again the sun-kissed eyes of mischief, set this time beneath a mop of uncovered, frizzly hair. "Good night," smiled the Fijian girl, soft-voiced, very pleased with her English, which disdained the trivial seasons of a day. A horse cantered past, a white man in the saddle White suit, white helmet, 'and sunburnt face. " Hello, fine morning. 'Trifle warm.'" and he also was gone, a vivid flash for the moment above the flowering lantana as the road wound upward before dipping out of sight. He left no footprints in the dust; the step of the white man must bo less ephereral. The road filled; there came three native lords of the soil, upright men, with great chests and shoulders, and the somewhat slow step of an inborn pride. Large footprints these, out turned. But the sinews of the massive bodies were not altogether those of an athlete? the calves were mighty on the strong-looking legs, and walk for ever the legs could, at their own nace, but the nutriment of huge meals of native roots had to do with the exuberance of smooth, brown flesh, which received further encouragement from being rubbed with unlimited quantities of cocoanut oil. Behind them, but passing them as he came, trotted the Chinaman, with hi? vegetables for market in his pannier baskets. His shoulders bent beneath the yoke from which they swung. Quaint footprints these, and numerous in their haste. The small eye, the eye that is peeled for commerce, slanted in its socket under the umbrageous mushroom hat, taking quick stock of the equally observant stranger. The sunshine found the artist, it flooded joyously from above the soapstono cliff, and gave hi in the sensation of being smacked upon the back with a jolly, " Well, hero I am, old fellow-" But he shrugged his shoulders at an undesired familiarity, and did not relish his walk back to Suva in the mighty one's company. He had let himself in for it, but what is more annoying than having only self to blame? Help was at hand; a pretty little car shot round the road's corner ; in it, cool and fresh, sat a fair-haired maiden at the wheel. He knew her well; she smiled, she blushed, the car glided to a standstill and the artist thought no more of footprints in the dust; his companion, as the car flew onward, compensated fully for those he missed. He. enjoyed himself, the dust from tho flving wheels filled tho air with a sunlit mist behind them; it would have been a trying, hot, and probably tempersome progress had ho toiled along the same road on foot with Wend Sun for sole companion.