AT BAU

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18069, 17 March 1923, Page 6

AT BAU

TONGAN CHARMS MAJOR SA VILE’S VIEWS. Coining up from Tonga. Archipelago, where we liad spent delightful, but languid days (no one is strenuous in Tonga), the Captain had preached loudly and at length on Ban, and our duty to see it. The main headings of his discourse were:—lts Ancient Glories: Its Cannibal Temple: Its Royal Associations: Its .General Delightfulness.

There were stimulations to any intelligences —even those steeped in the lango-ur of the Southern Isles. We canvassed the ship’s company tor volunteers. Thirteen (onunous number) responded to the cad, seven being Americans, four British, and two Swedes. As we approached Suva, the capital of Fiji, too wireless operator got busy, and it was arranged that a launch should bo at our disposal two lioura after our arrival, which was timed for eignt o'clock. What actually happened was that the launch was alongside within five minutes of our mooring ropes reaching the wharf, and the launch's captain was bawling that'we must start at once, or miss the tide! There followed a scene of fuss and fluster. Strong men anatliematical the premature captain and all his works, while -beautiful women plucked madly at portmanteaux as they strove to extract at express speed all the little impedimenta which they find necessary to their happiness through a night in the wild. .But chaos gave way to order, and by a quarter to. nine we were passing alongside the great reef barrier which guards Suva from tho breakers, our faces set towards a cleft in the great promontory which-is the island’s eastern limit-. An hour and a half’s steady steaming found us entering tho mouth of a creek. From one creek we picked our way to another, and yet a second and a third. All were mangrove fringed and all agog with banana-ladon barges, manned by cheerful Fijians. From one of these, towed swiftly towards Suva by a launch,, a commanding figure smiled at our captain. The latter smiled back.

“That,” he informed us, “is tho Tuii of Ban.” “But,” ire chorused, “he is the man who is to receive us, find a house for us, and do everything. Who will look after us now?”

“God. alone 'knows.,"' said tile Citptaiu piously; and shniggcdvhis shoulders. Under the circumstances there seemed to bo nothing for us to do but add shrug to shrug and fatalistically commend' ourselves to the protections of Allah, So on wo went. Once we passed, a huge mission with double-steepled ehurc-h and school complete. Hero and, there the lines of a planter’s bungalow broke the endless sequence of mangrove and busli. But little, of outstanding interest took the eye till suddenly emerging into the open sea we found after coasting the island’s southern shores wo had, by way of this inland short out, reached its eastern coast. Heading out to sea we began to specif? late as to our destination. Many islands were in sight ahead. The Captain ins tervened. v

“There,” lie said tersely, waving his hand to port. We saw a tiny island, gay with red roofs, far on our beam.

“Then why are we out here and heading there?”! we demanded, pointing ahead. “Shallows,” said the. Captain, terse, as over, and betook himself to the wheel. We swung round, and at half speed began to nose- among great boiilclerk barely submerged by the crystal calm. Half an hour hi tor we drew up at the end of a tiny, ten foot, wooden jetty, infested by chocolate colouVed brats, who cheered tumultuously, and danced a welcome. But of any franoply of state set astir by the adult islanders in our honour, there was no- trace. For half an hour we pervaded Bau, and, principally by the use of signs, gleaned the following'information. First: No one had been advised' of our coming. > Second: The. chief (as we already knew) was absent. '■ Third: There was a resident lady missionary. . • To the latter we carried our burden of dismay. -She met it nobly. i Within half an hour, by dint of her suasions, a capital hut was vacated for our disposal. It was clean and floored - with thoroughly .-brushed mats. There was a raised dais upon which the ladies of the party could sleep. The men would not bo out of placo upon the matted earth. We bad brought provisions, and Jim, a, Fijian steward, lent us from tho ship. Within five minutes ho and half a dozen volunteer assistants, whose only wage was to be the satisfying of their curiosity, liacl lit fires, and were- far into the intricacies of preparing a meal. Satisfied as to our immediate future we set- ourselves to exploration. 'Taking walking time as a writ of computation, Bau is ten minutes round, four across and three high. We climbed up to tho central plateau on tho top of which many members of the Old Royal House of Fiji sleep their last .sleep. Some rest beneath mounds of grass. For some, of later date, the professional sculptor lias plied his memorial trade. But all were buried, as indeed the exigencies of space required, within,a, minute’s march of where they had fought and feasted, and tortured and loved, all with tlic-ir faces to the sun, and their feet- to the blue loveliness of lagoon and sea. A very fit resting place for those to whom sunshine and beauty had been through life, tho very essence of existence. Below, on tho narrow flat between the plateau and the shore, stood a grim reminder of the savage days that had boon.

The gaunt timbers of the old temple stood up on a mound, unroofed and bare since the day that the cult of cannibalism gave way before the victory of the Cross. But men and women still living can remember those days of blood, and it would be a- very unfertile imagination that could not picture Bau beneath the thrall of its red past-. We i-at down in the shade of a breadfruit tree to muse upon these matters. Buttin'. youths of the island appeared, armed with home-made bat and wickets to play - 1 'click'd .” With the Fijian, as with the Chines© and the African, tho letters 1 and r are. interchangeable. They were good those little blaek-nnd-tan cricketer#. They bowled and fielded with a precision which few of their British contemporaries could have cmula,ted. And tlmir batting was free and fruitful. W« forgot cannibalism in applause, and tho youngsters swelled With' pride and appreciation. Only Jim’s ueWs that supper was ready dragged us away. We had food in plenty, eating implements in moderation, and the floor to sit upon. All the proper concomitants of a. picnic as you perceive, and none of the drawbacks. Filled and satisfied wo sought entertainment-. One of our party, a distinguished American ethnologist, was untiring in his efforts to §oad the population to sing and dance-. ome shyness had to bo overcome, but at last half a dozen of us were gathered in another hut. aud the revel commenced. The singing was good. But tho dance? In enthusiasm it left much to bo desired. “Too respect able,” growled the ethnologist. “The missionaries have scared all the spimtanioty out of them.” With .vestures- he endeavoured lo “ginger them up.”

They they waggled, they sang, they postured, but lor that evening the sacred fire of art was dead upon the hearths of Ban. Those who have seen the Fijian temperament get free play, sav that its manifestations are absolutely compelling—that spectators as well as actors are completely carried away. Perhaps we were of sterner stuff. At any rate after an hour of entirely staid entertainment, we presented pieces of silver to our entertainers and retired bodwards. Unfortunately the story of our largesse got abroad. The result was, that ns wo settled down upon our - mats, on which the , elder members of the party were already dormant, a second batoli of dusky maidens, with an eye to the main chance, broke in upon us in triumphant . song. One gentleman of hitherto unblemished reputation awoke to find a langourous eye ogling him, while its owner bawled —so one conceived—a ditty of enthralling passion. For a moment or two, as ho himself confessed, “he did not know what to think.” The rest of us. after humed consultation, paid the volunteer musicians off. They retired, giggling, smiling, and still singing, and the hush of repose fell upon the hut. It fell, but it was not maintained. Throughout the night rats and cats f ambled through the building freely. losquitoes bit us persistently. _ Fowls greeted a sequence of dawns which only existed in their perverted imaginations. We were a jaded crew who rose at daybreak and set sail from the tiny jetty. But we were glad that we had come to Bau. We had stepped aside, if only for twenty-four hours, from the grooved path of the commonplace, and found a new experience. And that, I take it, is the ideal that every true traveller sets upon the pinnacle of his desire. —F.H.M.S.