practice of cannibalism, though only within recent years....
"Louis has learned a good many words of the language, and with the help
of signs can contrive to carry on a conversation, but I have stuck fast
with two words: '_ka-oha_' which means 'How do you do?' 'thank you,' and
'good bye,' and I am not quite sure how much else, and '_Mitai_,'
meaning good, nice, pretty, kind. I don't expect to get beyond these,
but it is wonderful how much one can express with them....
"The natives have got names for us all. Louis was at first 'the old
man,' much to his distress; but now they call him '_Ona_' meaning owner
of the yacht, a name he greatly prefers to the first. Fanny is _Vahine_,
or wife; I am the _old woman_, and Lloyd rejoices in the name of _Mate
Karahi_, the young man with glass eyes (spectacles). Perhaps it is a
compliment here to be called old, as it is in China, at any rate, one
native told Louis that he himself was old, but his mother was not!...
Page annotations:
Add a page annotation: