156 THE SALT OF MY LIFE 



is no reclaiming him. Long talks I had with this 

 character. He had read a good deal of such 

 literature as appealed to him ; Stevenson, Louis 

 Becke and others I remember his referring to. 

 He made game of those writers who assure the 

 reading public that life in the South Sea Islands 

 is one long business of gallantries with native 

 princesses, who are invariably represented as 

 falling head over ears in love with the first coarse 

 Englishman (very few of the other kind ever go 

 there) who pays them attention. They are, he 

 told me, rather amorous young women, but it is 

 entirely for their own countrymen that they keep 

 their favours, save where these were a matter of 

 barter. From what he said, I suspect that Mr. 

 Kipling's advice 



" The things you will learn from the Yellow 



and brown, 

 They'll 'elp you a lot with the White, 



belongs to the realm of pure biological speculation. 

 At any rate, I know too little of his natural history 

 to say whether his advice is the result of personal 

 adventure. 



One more kind of fishing we tried on the way 

 home to Europe, and, since I have promised not 

 to gloze the failures, it shall here be set forth, 

 though it will be long again before I go to so much 

 trouble with so slight a chance of success. 



