rly on all our brains that it was very wrong to
harm a white man.

"By and by, the schooners full of copra and beche-de-mer and our trees
empty of cocoanuts, the three skippers and that mate called us all
together for a big talk. And they said they were very glad that we had
learned our lesson, and we said for the ten-thousandth time that we were
sorry and that we would not do it again. Also, we poured sand upon our
heads. Then the skippers said that it was all very well, but just to
show us that they did not forget us, they would send a devil-devil that
we would never forget and that we would always remember any time we
might feel like harming a white man. After that the mate mocked us
one more time and yelled, Yah! Yah! Yah!' Then six of our men, whom we
thought long dead, were put ashore from one of the schooners, and the
schooners hoisted their sails and ran out through the passage for the
Solomons.

"The six men who were put ashore were the first to catch the devil-devil
the skippers sent back after us."

"A great sickness came," I interrupted, for I recognized the trick.
The schooner had had measles on board, and the six prisoners had been
deliberately exposed to it.

"Yes, a great sickness," Oti went on. "It was a powerful devil-devil.
The oldest man had never heard of the like. Those of our priests that
yet lived we killed because they could not overcome the devil-devil.
The sickness spread. I have said that there were ten thousand of us
that stood hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder on the sandbank. When the
sickness left us, there were three thousand yet alive. Also, having made
all our cocoanuts into copra, there was a famine.

"That fella trader," Oti concluded, "he like 'm that much dirt. He like
'm clam he die KAI-KAI (meat) he stop, stink 'm any amount. He like 'm
one fella dog, one sick fella dog plenty fleas stop along him. We no
fright along that fella trader. We fright because he white man. We savve
plenty too much no good kill white man. That one fella sick dog trader
he plenty brother stop along him, white men like 'm you fight like hell.
We no fright that damn trader. Some time he made kanaka plenty cross
along him and kanaka want 'm kill m, kanaka he think devil-devil and
kanaka he hear that fella mate sing out, Yah! Yah! Yah!' and kanaka no
kill 'm."

Oti baited his hook with a piece of squid, which he tore with his teeth
from the live and squirming monster, and hook and bait sank in white