native
boatswain, who was watching for him, promptly drove a harpoon socket
deeply into him between the shoulders; then, after some difficulty, a
couple of running bowlines settled them both in a comfortable position
to be stunned with an axe.

The schooner was at this time within a few miles of a small village on
Alofa, named Mua, and presently a boat manned by natives boarded us to
sell yams, taro, pineapples, and bananas, all of which we bought from
them in exchange for the sharks' livers and some huge pieces of flesh
weighing two or three hundred pounds. These people (who resemble the
Samoans in appearance and language) were much impressed and terrified
when they saw the pilot fish which had been caught, and told our crew
that ours would be an unlucky ship--that we had done a dangerous and
foolish thing. Their feeling on the subject was strong; for when I asked
them if they would take two or three of the fish on shore to Father
Herve, one of the French priests living on Fotuna, who was an old
friend, they started back in mingled terror and indignation, and
absolutely declined to even touch them. Taking one of the pilot fish up
I held it by the head between my forefinger and thumb and asked the
natives if they did not consider it good to look at.

"True," replied a fine, stalwart young fellow, speaking in Samoan, "it
is good to look at," and then he added gravely, "_Talofa lava ia te
outou i le vaa nei, ua lata mai ne aso malaia ma le tiga|_" ("Alas for
all you people on this ship, there is a day of disaster and sorrow near
you").

I tried to ascertain the cause of their terror, but could only elicit
the statement that to kill a pilot fish meant direful misfortune. No
sensible man, they asserted, would do such a senseless and _saua_
(cruel) thing, and to eat one was an abomination unutterable.

As soon as our visitors had left I hurried to make a closer examination
of our prizes before the cook took possession of them. Of the eleven,
only one was over a foot in length, the rest ranged from five to ten
inches. The beautiful dark blue of the head and along the back, so
noticeable when first caught, had now lost its brilliancy, and the four
wide vertical black stripes on the sides had also become dulled,
although the silvery belly was still as bright as a new dollar. The eyes
were rather large for such a small fish, and all the fins were
blue-black, with a narrow white line running along the edges. Their
appearance