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- 6088
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
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- 6023
- text
- believe never before had occurred in the valley; but it was high time
the islanders should be taught a little gallantry, and I trust that the
example I set them may produce beneficial effects. Ridiculous, indeed,
that the lovely creatures should be obliged to paddle about in the
water, like so many ducks, while a parcel of great strapping fellows
skimmed over its surface in their canoes.
The first day after Fayaway’s emancipation, I had a delightful little
party on the lake--the damsels’ Kory-Kory, and myself. My zealous
body-servant brought from the house a calabash of poee-poee, half a
dozen young cocoanuts--stripped of their husks--three pipes, as many
yams, and me on his back a part of the way. Something of a load; but
Kory-Kory was a very strong man for his size, and by no means brittle in
the spine. We had a very pleasant day; my trusty valet plied the paddle
and swept us gently along the margin of the water, beneath the shades
of the overhanging thickets. Fayaway and I reclined in the stern of
the canoe, on the very best terms possible with one another; the gentle
nymph occasionally placing her pipe to her lip, and exhaling the mild
fumes of the tobacco, to which her rosy breath added a fresh perfume.
Strange as it may seem, there is nothing in which a young and beautiful
female appears to more advantage than in the act of smoking. How
captivating is a Peruvian lady, swinging in her gaily-woven hammock of
grass, extended between two orange-trees, and inhaling the fragrance of
a choice cigarro!
But Fayaway, holding in her delicately formed olive hand the long yellow
reed of her pipe, with its quaintly carved bowl, and every few moments
languishingly giving forth light wreaths of vapour from her mouth and
nostrils, looked still more engaging.
We floated about thus for several hours, when I looked up to the warm,
glowing, tropical sky, and then down into the transparent depths below;
and when my eye, wandering from the bewitching scenery around, fell upon
the grotesquely-tattooed form of Kory-Kory, and finally, encountered the
pensive gaze of Fayaway, I thought I had been transported to some fairy
region, so unreal did everything appear.
This lovely piece of water was the coolest spot in all the valley, and I
now made it a place of continual resort during the hottest period of
the day. One side of it lay near the termination of a long gradually
expanding gorge, which mounted to the heights that environed the vale.
The strong trade wind, met in its course by these elevations, circled
and eddied about their summits, and was sometimes driven down the
steep ravine and swept across the valley, ruffling in its passage the
otherwise tranquil surface of the lake.
One day, after we had been paddling about for some time, I disembarked
Kory-Kory, and paddled the canoe to the windward side of the lake. As
I turned the canoe, Fayaway, who was with me, seemed all at once to be
struck with some happy idea. With a wild exclamation of delight, she
disengaged from her person the ample robe of tappa which was knotted
over her shoulder (for the purpose of shielding her from the sun), and
spreading it out like a sail, stood erect with upraised arms in the head
of the canoe. We American sailors pride ourselves upon our straight,
clean spars, but a prettier little mast than Fayaway made was never
shipped aboard of any craft.
In a moment the tappa was distended by the breeze--the long brown
tresses of Fayaway streamed in the air--and the canoe glided rapidly
through the water, and shot towards the shore. Seated in the stern, I
directed its course with my paddle until it dashed up the soft sloping
bank, and Fayaway, with a light spring alighted on the ground; whilst
Kory-Kory, who had watched our manoeuvres with admiration, now
clapped his hands in transport, and shouted like a madman. Many a time
afterwards was this feat repeated.
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