letter x.] NOCTURNAL DIVERSIONS. 



93 



loud shrill voices till Kaluna uttered the word auwe with a long 

 groaning intonation, apparently signifying weariness, divested 

 himself of his clothes, and laid down on a mat alongside our 

 shake-down, upon which we let down the dividing curtain and 

 wrapped ourselves up as warmly as possible. 



I was uneasy about Deborah who has had a cough for some 

 time, and consequently took the outside place under the window 

 which was broken, and presently a large cat jumped through the 

 hole and down upon me, followed by another and another, till 

 five wild cats had effected an entrance, making me a stepping- 

 stone to ulterior proceedings. Had there been a sixth I think I 

 could not have borne the infliction quietly. Strips of jerked 

 beef were hanging from the rafters, and by the light which was 

 still burning I watched the cats climb up stealthily, seize on 

 some of these, descend, and disappear through the window, 

 making me a stepping-stone as before, but with all their craft 

 they let some of the strips fall, which awoke Deborah, and next 

 I saw Kaluna's magnificent eyes peering at us under the 

 curtain. Then the natives got up, and smoked and eat more 

 poi at intervals, and talked, and Kaluna and Deborah quar- 

 relled, jokingly, about the time of night she told me, and the 

 moon through the rain-clouds occasionally gave us delusive 

 hopes of dawn, and I kept moving my place to get out of the 

 drip from the roof, and so the night passed. I was amused 

 all the time, though I should have preferred sleep to such 

 nocturnal diversions. It was so new, and so odd, to be the 

 only white person among eleven natives in a lonely house, and 

 yet to be as secure from danger and annoyance as in our own 

 home. 



At last a pale dawn did appear, but the rain was still coming 

 down heavily, and our poor animals were standing dismally 

 with their heads down and their tails turned towards the wind. 

 Yesterday evening I took a change of clothes out of the damp 

 saddle-bags, and put them into what I hoped was a dry place, 

 but they were soaked, wetter even than those in which I had 

 been sleeping, and my boots and Deborah's were so stiff, that 

 we gladly availed ourselves of Kaluna's most willing services. 

 The mode of washing was peculiar : he held a calabash with 

 about half-a-pint of water in it, while we bathed our faces and 

 hands, and all the natives looked on and tittered. This was 

 apparently his idea of politeness, for no persuasion would in- 

 duce him to put the bowl down on the mat, and Deborah 

 evidently thought it was proper respect. We had a repetition 



