ii8 TROPIC DAYS 



were carried, for did not strange jungles teem with 

 spectral denizens whom imagination endowed with 

 appalling shape, with cunning, and with rending ferocity ? 

 Unmolested, the party arrived one evening, to gaze with 

 mute astonishment on the sea. It was almost as in- 

 comprehensible, and therefore almost as fearsome, as 

 the phantoms of the bush. Mysterious, vast beyond 

 the range of vision, here grumbling on the sand, there 

 mingling with the sky, the strangers peered at it through 

 the screen of whimpering casuarinas and trembled. The 

 rustle of the subsiding north-easter made for fear. 

 They told one another that the big salt water was alive. 

 It talked in austere tones, while their own sleepy lagoons 

 were silent and tame. Wonderingly, they retreated to 

 the jungle for the night, there to take counsel of the 

 long-shoremen. 



"That b-i-g fella salt water, him talk all asame ?" 



"Yowi ! Him sing out plenty. Mak'm b-i-g fella 

 row !" 

 . "That fella him walk about lika that ?" 



"Yowi 1 Him walk about. Quiet little bit. Some- 

 time run about splash 'm water; mak'm boat capsize. 

 Plenty men drown finis !" 



The strangers shivered and longed to return to their 

 cool hills; but the long-shoremen beguiled them with 

 descriptions of the fish and the crabs and oj-'sters the 

 generous sea gave, and told that in the morning it would 

 be "quiet fella" and that they need not be afraid. 



With taut-strung nerves, the highlanders approached 

 the sea, which shone in matutinal placidity. When the 

 ripples wavered on the smooth sand and ran in caressing 

 ripples towards their feet, the}^ started and shrunk. 

 The incomprehensible ocean was alive and much to be 

 feared, for was it not so big that no one could sec where 

 it ended ? They sat and watched its enticing gestures, 



