against the opium of the Chinese and the tobacco of the European.
As soon as we shook hands ceremoniously with the punghulo’s oldest wife, and
tabeked to the rest of his big family, the old man scrambled down the ladder, and
sent a boy up a cocoanut tree for some fresh nuts. In a moment half a dozen of
the great, oval, green nuts came pounding down into the sand. Another little
fellow snatched them up, and with a sharp parang, or hatchet-like knife, cut
away the soft shuck until the cocoanut took the form of a pyramid, at the apex of
which he bored a hole, and a stream of delicious, cool milk gurgled out. We
needed no second invitation to apply our lips to the hole. The meat inside was so
soft that we could eat it with a spoon. The cocoanut of commerce contains
hardly a suggestion of the tender, fleshy pulp of a freshly picked nut.
We left the punghulo’s house with the old chief in the bow of our boat—he
insisted upon seeing that we were properly announced to his subjects—and
proceeded along the coast for half a mile, and then up a swampy lagoon to its
head.
The tall tops of the palms wrapped everything in a cool, green twilight. The
waters of the lagoon were filled with little bronze forms, swimming and sporting
about in its tepid depths regardless of the cruel eyes that gleamed at them from
great log-like forms among the mangrove roots.
Dozens of naked children fled up the rickety ladders of their homes as we
approached. Ring-doves flew through the trees, and tame monkeys chattered at
us from every corner. The men came out to meet us, and did the hospitalities of
their village; and when we left, our boat was loaded down with presents of fish
and fruit.
Almost every day after that did we visit the kampong, and were always
welcomed in the same cordial manner.
Wahpering was tireless in his attentions. He kept his Sampan Besar, or big boat,
with its crew at our disposal day after day.
One day I showed him the American flag. He gazed at it thoughtfully and said,
“Biak!” (Good.) “How big your country?” I tried to explain. He listened for a
moment. “Big as Negri Blanda?” (Holland.) I laughed. “A thousand times