The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ebbing Of The Tide, by Louis Becke

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Ebbing Of The Tide
South Sea Stories - 1896

Author: Louis Becke

Release Date: March 22, 2008 [EBook #24896]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EBBING OF THE TIDE ***

Produced by David Widger

THE EBBING OF THE TIDE

SOUTH SEA STORIES

1896

By Louis Becke

"LULIBAN OF THE POOL"

A boy and a girl sat by the rocky margin of a deep mountain pool in
Ponape in the North Pacific. The girl was weaving a basket from the
leaves of a cocoa-nut. As she wove she sang the "Song of Luliban," and
the boy listened intently.

"'Tis a fine song that thou singest, Niya," said the boy, who came from
Metalanien and was a stranger; "and who was Luliban, and Red-Hair the
White Man?"

"_O Guk!_" said Niya, wonderingly, "hast never heard in Metalanien of
Luliban, she who dived with one husband and came up with another--in
this very pool?"

"What new lie is this thou tellest to the boy because he is a stranger?"
said a White Man, who lay resting in the thick grass waiting for the
basket to be finished, for the three were going further up the mountain
stream to catch crayfish.

"Lie?" said the child; "nay, 'tis no lie. Is not this the Pool of
Luliban, and do not we sing the 'Song of Luliban,' and was not Red-Hair
the White Man--he that lived in Jakoits and built the big sailing boat
for Nanakin, the father of Nanakin, my father, the chief of Jakoits?"

"True, Niya, true," said the White Man, "I did but jest; but tell thou
the tale to Sru, so that he may carry it home with him to Metalanien."

*****

Then Niya, daughter of Nanakin, told Sru, the boy from Metalanien,
the tale of Luliban of the Pool, and her husband the White Man called
"Red-Hair," and her lover, the tattooed beachcomber, called "Harry from
Yap."

*****

"It was in the days before the fighting-ship went into Kiti Harbour and
burnt the seven whaleships as they lay at anchor{*} that Red-Hair the
White Man lived at Jakoits. He was a very strong man, and because that
he was cunning and clever at fishing and killing the wild boar and
ca