250 MYSTIC ISLES 



dresses, and one heard their paddles chunking as they 

 beat the clothes. The French warship, the Zelee, was 

 moored close by, and often the linen of its crew hung 

 upon lines in the jyarc, and the French sailors came and 

 went upon their duties, or sat on the coral wall and 

 smoked and sang chansons. In the afternoon horses 

 were brought down to bathe, and guests of the Annexe 

 swam in the lagoon. People afoot, driving carts or 

 carriages, on bicycles and in automobiles, went by on the 

 thoroughfare about the island, the Frenchmen always 

 talking as if excited over cosmic affairs, and the natives 

 laughing or calling to one another. 



If there happened to be a shoal of fish near the quays, 

 I was sure to see Joseph, to whom the wise Dr. Funk 

 had confided his precious concoction. He would desert 

 the Cercle Bougainville, but still within hail of a sten- 

 torious skipper whose coppers were dry, and with a 

 dozen other native men and women, boys and girls, lure 

 the fish with hooks baited with bits of salted shrimp. 

 Joseph was as skilful with his rod as with a shaker, and 

 he would catch twenty ature, four or five inches long, in 

 half an hour. 



The water, about fifteen feet deep near the made 

 embankment, was alive with the tiny fish, squirming in 

 a mass as they were pursued by larger fish. The son 

 of Prince Hinoe, a round-shouldered lout, very tall, 

 awkward, and merry, held a bamboo pole. His white 

 suit was soiled and ragged, and he whistled "All Coons 

 Look alike to Mel" The peanut-vender had brought a 

 rod, and was fishing with difficulty and mostly by feel. 

 He could keep one eye open only, as one hand was oc- 

 cupied, but he pulled in many ature. 



