398 FUNAFUTI: THE STORY OF A CORAL ATOLL. 



to drink, a civility which as inevitably attends a call in Funafuti as 

 the afternoon cup of tea at home. We told our errand, and received 

 permission to choose a site for boring operations. We then requested 

 that a house should be built for us, and were promised that this should 

 be done for the modest sum of £6. The reception ended, we proceeded 

 to choose a site for the boring and for landing gear, and marked out 

 the plan of our house; it was to measure 15 by 20 feet. We were 

 anxious to have the building of this put in hand at once, and were 

 assured that it should be ready for us by the afternoon of the next day. 

 The east is supposed to be more fertile in promise than performance, 

 and our expectation was that we should see this house when we did see 

 it. Judge, therefore, of our surprise when on passing the same spot 

 the day after we found a substantial structure already standing there. 

 It had grown up like Aladdin's palace in a single night. The whole 

 population had been employed on the work; the men had cut down 

 trees and shaped them into poles, sunk these in the ground, and bound 

 them together into a solid framework; the children had been set to 

 gather palm leaves from the forest, and the women had woven these 

 into mats, which were used to form both the walls and thatch of our 

 dwelling. The result was an excellent house which served all our 

 needs, protecting us from sun and storm during our residence of nearly 

 three months. Not a nail was driven in its construction, all the joints 

 being firmly made with cocoanut cord. 



After contemplating the work with great satisfaction I left for a 

 stroll, and returning an hour after was aghast to And our new house 

 surrounded with smoke and flames. To my great relief it turned out 

 that the conflagration proceeded from the surrounding bush, which 

 the thoughtful natives had purposely set alight to prevent its taking 

 fire by accident. 



The work of landing gear and erecting machinery was set about 

 vigorously. The crew of the Penguin toiled all day heroically in the 

 burning sun, refreshing themselves at sunset in swimming matches 

 with the natives. Progress was so rapid that by June 3, not quite 

 a fortnight after landing, the boring party were already at work. 

 So far all our plans had been carried out with expedition and success, 

 and, since "things done well and with a care" are said to "exempt 

 themselves from fear," we may now safely leave our miners industri- 

 ously boring while we take a walk across the island. Standing on the 

 shore of the lagoon near the site of our boring, it is just possible to 

 catch a glirupse of the palms on the opposite side, some ten miles 

 away. The beach slopes so gently, that although the tide falls only 

 about 5 feet, it leaves a wide expanse of sand uncovered. This is a per- 

 fect warren of shore crabs (Calappa), which scurry along like blown 

 thistle down and vanish into holes with mysterious suddenness. It is 

 at night that these are most active, when they dig deep burrows in the 

 sand, casting up conical hillocks at the entrance nearly a foot high, 



