[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

LOLOWAY—MALO—THE BANKS ISLANDS 257

to them; he was a man whom one would not have
believed capable of any feeling, but he had tears in
his eyes ; words failed him, and he thanked the singers
by gestures. We all went down to the store, Where
they sang to the employés, and received presents;
after which they spent the rest of the night with the
hands, singing, eating and chatting. On Christmas
Day the natives roasted a fat pig, the employés
spent the day over their bottles, and I was nurse
once more, my patient being delirious and suffering
very much.

Before New Year’s Day the launch was sent to
all the different stations to fetch the employés, an
interesting crowd of more or less ruined individuals.
There was a former gendarme from New Caledonia,
a cavalry captain, an officer who had been in the
Boer war, an ex-priest, a clerk, a banker and a cow—
boy, all very pleasant people as long as they were
sober; but the arrival of each was celebrated with
several bottles, Which the director handed out without
any demur, although the amount was prodigious.
Quarrels ensued; but by New Year’s Eve peace was
restored, and we all decorated the director’s house
with wreaths for the banquet of the evening. The
feast began well, but towards midnight a general
fight was going on, which came to an end by the com-
batants falling asleep one by one. Thus the new
year was begun miserably, and the next few days were
just as bad. The natives looked on at the fights
with round-eyed astonishment; and the director was

in despair, for a second cyclone was threatening,
I7