



Produced by David Widger








PAKIA

From "The Tapu Of Banderah and Other Stories"

By Louis Becke

C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.

1901

Late one evening, when the native village was wrapped in slumber, Temana
and I brought our sleeping-mats down to the boat-shed, and spread them
upon the white, clinking sand. For here, out upon the open beach, we
could feel a breath of the cooling sea-breeze, denied to the village
houses by reason of the thick belt of palms which encompassed them on
three sides. And then we were away from Malepa's baby, which was a good
thing in itself.

Temana, tall, smooth-limbed, and brown-skinned, was an excellent savage,
and mine own good friend. He and his wife Malepa lived with me as a sort
of foster-father and mother, though their united ages did not reach mine
by a year or two.

When Malepa's first baby was born, she and her youthful husband
apologised sincerely for the offence against my comfort, and with many
tears prepared to leave my service. But although