BECHE-DE-MER. 275 



and goblins, impossible adventures and voyages to wonderful 

 islands very far away ; and perhaps the happy day will end 

 with a meke-meke a dance on the smooth white sand by the 

 light of the broad, bright moon. 



And this is how the people of the Chief Dogfish would work 

 out their six moons for the Captain Longbeard ; that is to say, 

 if the Chief Dogfish is loved and trusted by his people, and the 

 Captain Longbeard not one of those insufferable white scoun- 

 drels who have been the scourge of the Pacific. It is true 

 terrible tragedies have taken place among parties engaged in 

 this pursuit, but in the majority of cases throughout those 

 islands inhabited by the copper-coloured races of Polynesians, 

 the preponderance of the blame has been on the side of the 

 white man, and in most instances other men's wives have been 

 at the bottom of the mischief. Again, it has frequently hap- 

 pened that Europeans it is almost an insult to ourselves to 

 describe them as such destitute of the commonest principles 

 of honour or humanity, have hired these simple island folk, and 

 when the work was done have left them in strange places, or 

 sold them for slaves. 



The best way of collecting beche-de-mer from the coral reefs is 

 to make a little flat-bottomed punt of boards, or a small canoe 

 dug out of a hollow log. There is a species of banyan-tree 

 called buka, found on all the beche-de-mer islands, the wood of 

 which is soft and buoyant, and is very suitable for this purpose. 

 This makes an excellent mode of conveyance, as the fisher trails 

 it behind him with a rope, as he walks along the reef, and 

 throws the slugs into it as fast as he can pick them up, and 

 when the punt is loaded, tows it away to the edge of the 

 deeper water, where he discharges his cargo into the larger 

 boats which are used in the fishery. When the usual quantity 

 of slug has been collected, the large boat is steered for home, 



182 



