- end_line
- 6619
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 6568
- text
- in every direction, and during this dangerous state of affairs I was
half afraid that, like the man and his brazen bull, I should fall
a victim to my own ingenuity. Like everything else, however, the
excitement gradually wore away, though ever after occasionally pop-guns
might be heard at all hours of the day.
It was towards the close of the pop-gun war, that I was infinitely
diverted with a strange freak of Marheyo’s.
I had worn, when I quitted the ship, a pair of thick pumps, which, from
the rough usage they had received in scaling precipices and sliding down
gorges, were so dilapidated as to be altogether unfit for use--so, at
least, would have thought the generality of people, and so they most
certainly were, when considered in the light of shoes. But things
unservicable in one way, may with advantage be applied in another,
that is, if one have genius enough for the purpose. This genius Marheyo
possessed in a superlative degree, as he abundantly evinced by the use
to which he put those sorely bruised and battered old shoes.
Every article, however trivial, which belonged to me, the natives
appeared to regard as sacred; and I observed that for several days
after becoming an inmate of the house, my pumps were suffered to remain,
untouched, where I had first happened to throw them. I remembered,
however, that after awhile I had missed them from their accustomed
place; but the matter gave me no concern, supposing that Tinor--like any
other tidy housewife, having come across them in some of her domestic
occupations--had pitched the useless things out of the house. But I was
soon undeceived.
One day I observed old Marheyo bustling about me with unusual activity,
and to such a degree as almost to supersede Kory-Kory in the functions
of his office. One moment he volunteered to trot off with me on his back
to the stream; and when I refused, noways daunted by the repulse, he
continued to frisk about me like a superannuated house-dog. I could not
for the life of me conjecture what possessed the old gentleman, until
all at once, availing himself of the temporary absence of the household,
he went through a variety of of uncouth gestures, pointing eagerly down
to my feet, then up to a little bundle, which swung from the ridge pole
overhead. At last I caught a faint idea of his meaning, and motioned him
to lower the package. He executed the order in the twinkling of an eye,
and unrolling a piece of tappa, displayed to my astonished gaze the
identical pumps which I thought had been destroyed long before.
I immediately comprehended his desire, and very generously gave him the
shoes, which had become quite mouldy, wondering for what earthly purpose
he could want them. The same afternoon I descried the venerable warrior
approaching the house, with a slow, stately gait, ear-rings in ears, and
spear in hand, with this highly ornamental pair of shoes suspended from
his neck by a strip of bark, and swinging backwards and forwards on
his capacious chest. In the gala costume of the tasteful Marheyo, these
calf-skin pendants ever after formed the most striking feature.
- title
- Chunk 3