ured the chief that both Roosevelt and Goethals were well at
last account, and he veered to other topics.

"Before time, come prenty whaleship my place," he said. "I know
geograffy, mappee, grammal. I know Egyptee, Indee, all country; I
know Bufflobillee. Before time, whaleship come America for take
water and wood. Stay two, t'ree week. Every night sailor come ashore
catchee girls take ship. Prenty rum, biskit, molassi, good American
tobbacee. Now all finish. Whaleship no more. That is not good."

His name means The Seventh Man Who Is So Angry He Wallows In The Mire.
"Neo" means all but the number, and for so short a word to be
translated by so detailed a statement would indicate that there were
many Marquesans whose anger tripped them. Else such a word had
hardly been born.

I showed the chiefs the marvels of my typewriter, displayed to their
respectful gaze the Golden Bed, and otherwise did the honors. As
they departed, Neo said earnestly,

"You come see me you have my house. You like, you bring prenty rum,
keep warm if rain."

"A wicked man," said Exploding Eggs in Marquesan when the trail lay
empty before us. "One time he drink much rum, French gendarme go to
arrest him, he bite--" With an eloquent gesture my valet indicated
that Neo's teeth had removed in its entirety the nose of the valiant
defender of morals. "No good go see him," he added with finality.

However, the prospect intrigued my fancy, and finding a few days
later that Ika Vaikoki, whose discerning parents had named him Ugh!
Dried-up Stream! was voyaging toward Vait-hua in a whaleboat, I
offered him ten francs and two litres of rum to take me. Remembering
Neo's suggestion, I took also two other bottles of rum.

While our whaleboat shot across the Bordelaise Channel pursued by a
brisk breeze, Ugh! a wisp of a man of fifty, held the helm. He was
for all the world like a Malay pirate; I have seen his double
steering a proa off the Borneo coast, slim, high-cheeked, with a
sashful of saw-like knives. Ugh! had no weapon, but his eye was a
small flaming coal that made me thankful cannibalism is a thing of
the past. He had been carried through the surf to his perch upon the
stern because one of his legs was useless for walking, but once he
grasped the tiller, he was a seaman of skill.

The oarsmen wore turbans of pink, blue, and white muslin to protect
their heads from the straight rays of the white sun. Bright-colored
_pareus_ were about their loins