The Shipwreck Read online

  CHAPTER IV.

  With the Priest of the God of the Golden Fish.

  On the south side of the island of Hongkong are a number of smallvillages occupied by fishermen. Any one of these hidden away under theshade of the great bamboos may be taken as a type of all the others.The little houses have roofs made of reeds and bundles of twigs, butthese do not serve so well for protection from wind and weather as thethick foliage of the overhanging trees. On the beach fishing nets arespread to dry; and in the calm waters of the little bay a number ofpoor old junks ride lazily at anchor. One of these is drawn up on theshore and the men are examining the haul of fish just brought in.Women and children with baskets and buckets are hurrying down to thebeach to do their part in the work of sorting. The large shining bluefishes with bands of blue and rose-red and the yellow ones with spotsof red and green they pack in small baskets between rows of greenleaves. The lobsters, always plentiful, they place in baskets havingcompartments so that they cannot get at each other and mangle theirbodies fighting; the oysters they throw into a large common bucket,keeping out the small and inferior ones to carry to their huts to usefor food. Whenever wind and weather permit the men go off on fishingexpeditions, and this is the usual scene which attends their homecoming. Then, according to whether the haul has been a good or a poorone, Lihoa, the oldest man in the village, says: "We will take to theGod of the Sea who rides on the Golden Fish a thank offering," or "TheGod who rides on the Golden Fish is angry with us; we must pacify himwith strips of gold-paper." And, regularly on an appointed day, theold man goes up to the cell of the priest carrying the thank- or thesin-offering, as the case may be, to the God with the dreadful goggleeyes who rides a gilded sea-monster.

  On the day on which the crosses had been erected on the Cathedral ofthe Holy Saviour Lihoa and his people had had a miserably small catchof fish.

  "My children," cried Lihoa, "what crime against the God of the GoldenFish have you committed? So small a haul as this we have not had for ayear and a day. The New Year is at hand. How can we have our usualcelebration with only a sapeck or two in our pockets?"

  "How shall we celebrate the New Year?" cried one. "How shall weappease the God?" wailed others mournfully.

  An old Chinaman, whose wrinkled face looked like parchment cried out:

  "Why do you even ask the cause of our bad luck? Do you not know why ithas come upon us? Were not those white-faced women here againyesterday whose God is the enemy of our God? Again they have carriedoff bur babies to the great white house in Hongkong. Why do not thepeople kill the superfluous children according to the old custom of theland? Why let living children get into the hands of these foreignwomen to be murdered and to have their eyes and hearts stewed up intomagic drinks? The God of the Golden Fish is angry with us. Notanother good haul shall we have; and what is more we shall be swallowedup in the sea, if we allow any more children to be taken to the houseof the foreign God."

  "Be still, be still, old Loha," answered Lihoa. "You don't know whatyou are taking about. I myself have been to the great white house ofthe foreign women in Hongkong. There they do naught but good, andnobody ever hears of your doing anything good from morning till night.Our children are better taken care of there than here in our poor oldhuts. If our women only loved their babes as much as these white-facedwomen do! Be still. Your drivelling talk about stewing up their eyesand hearts to make drinks is all a foolish lie. Did we not open one ofthe graves of one of the children to see if the eyes and hearts werethere? And they were. A nephew of mine, the son of my sister Luli,who was exposed twelve years ago by his mother, because her husband wasdrowned and she had no means of bringing him up, was taken to the greathouse and now he is a splendid big boy. From there they sent him tothe school, and he can speak and write the Chinese language and alsothat of the West. Some day I shall go and get him and bring him backto live with our family.--Ah! here we stand and gossip like old women,while the sun is sinking. It is time to take the fish and the oystersto the market. Whose turn is it to go?"

  Four men stepped forward and raised the wooden yoke having attached toit buckets of oysters and baskets of fish. The sack containing thecrabs Lihoa himself swung over his shoulder, and they started at aquick pace up the hill over which the path to Victoria lay. The womenas they turned to go with the children to the huts to prepare theevening meal bade them farewell and called out, "A fortunate sale!"

  Night settled down quickly, for in a tropical climate the twilight doesnot last so long as with us. In Hongkong the sun hardly sets before itis dark, and this evening as the moon, almost at the full, stood highin the heavens, Lihoa had no occasion to light the little lantern whichhe carried with him. He found the footpath leading up the hill withoutdifficulty, and his people followed after him goose-fashion in singlefile. Almost at the top they came to the cell in the rock occupied bythe priest of the God of the Golden Fish, and in the moonlight to theirastonishment saw in the broad open space in front of it a group of menfrom the neighboring villages. At a signal from Lihoa the carriersplaced their burden upon the ground and all went forward to see whatthe gathering meant.

  "Have you heard nothing, Lihoa, of the great scheme which is on foot?"asked the leader of the most important of the villages on the northcoast of Hongkong. "Has not the recruiting officer of the rich Natsebeen to your village?--Oh, it is so small and hidden away that he doesnot deem it worth his while to go to you, and then, besides, the threehundred who are wanted have announced their intention to go, for whowould remain here and tiresomely drag out existence with the niggardlysums to be made from fishing when elsewhere the gold lies in such heapsthat one can pick up whole bags full in a few days?"

  "How? What? For heaven's sake!--sacks full of gold in a few days?"cried Lihoa, who, like all Chinamen, was covetous of great wealth."Speak, Lohe, tell us, can we get some of the gold,--at least a handfulor two? It is just as you say, our village is the last and the veryleast in the world, and not a soul has come to us with the good news.Tell us the road to fortune."

  The agent Lohe, who for each able-bodied Chinaman whom he secured,received a hundred sapecks, agreed to tell Lihoa the road for thereason that he was "his cousin and was glad to do him a littleservice". He pictured to him a land, bearing the barbaric nameAustralia, which the "devils from the West" had discovered many days'journey away beyond the islands to the south, where the gold lay in thefields like the stones on the island of Hongkong, and where greatnuggets, as large as a man's head, were to be had. This Goldland "thedevils from the West" wanted for themselves, but the priest of the God,in whose cell he had just been, said that this gold could be taken awayonly by the sons of the Celestial Kingdom, that the treasures of thisland belonged to the Chinese, and not to the barbarians of the West.The sly discoverers of the Goldland had come to get the Chinese tobring these lumps of gold to their ships, where the men from the Westand the sons of the Celestial Kingdom would divide the spoils. Therich Natse was out in search of three hundred men to bring this goldfrom the distant land to the south. Of course, each one of the threehundred fortunate enough to go would receive his own weight in gold,and for him and his entire family there would be a life of wealth andhonor on his return home.

  Thus Lohe explained the situation.

  "More than a hundred pounds of gold, and wealth and honor," repeatedLihoa, on whom the story of the gold which the God had said was to begiven to the Chinese and not to the hated barbarians from the West, hadmade a deep impression.

  "Have you heard it, my people? We can all become as rich as richNatse, and even richer, if we go on the ship to the southland."

  "Yes", said one of the oyster carriers, "if all that is true--"

  "And if we are not drowned on the long journey," put in another.

  "Or, if 'the devils from the West' do not kill us for our money afterwe have brought all the gold from the land to the ship for them," putin the third fish carrier.

  "Yes, but if I knew that I would surely come
back with some of thegold, I would go," added the fourth.

  "There, just see how sharp you all are!" said Lohe. "Just such doubtsas these troubled my friends and myself, so we are here to consult thepriest of the God of the Golden Fish, who surely knows. We havepromised to have a new fish made of solid gold to replace the gildedwooden one, if he counsels us well and has a care over us while on theway. The priest is now in his cell burning incense before the God, andwhen the moon reaches that constellation in the middle of the heavens,he will tell us the God's answer."

  The moon had almost reached the place designated. Lihoa and hisfollowers with the rest of the men seated themselves on the mossy rocksbefore the sanctuary, to await the answer of the spirit. The nearerthe time came the quieter they were; until at last they scarcely daredbreathe. The rim of the moon touched the constellation: no sound washeard in the cave. Softly the silver beams of light fell upon the barerocks and cast over the "waters of the sea a shimmering bridge thatstretched from the foot of the hill away into the darkness.

  "Will the spirit not answer?" whispered Lihoa impatiently.

  "Wait. The moon is not yet in the middle of the constellation,"answered Lohe. Hardly had he uttered these words when from the cellcame the sound of a gong, then a song in a high nasal tone, which wasplainly heard, but being in a strange language was not understood byany of the listeners.

  "The Spirit speaks to the priest," said the credulous men, tremblingwith superstitious fear. The secret song lasted for a minute perhaps,then from the depths of the cave came a flash of lightning and a loudpeal of thunder. Many of the Chinamen, half frightened out of theirwits, fled screaming at the top of their lungs. Again the gongsounded, and the priest came to the entrance of the cell with a smokingpan of incense in his hand. So suddenly did he appear, that it seemedas if he had sprung out of the very rock on which they stood. All gavea wild cry of terror, as with utter abhorrence they gazed, while alittle deformed old man described figures in the air with his smokingpan, and said, shaking his great bald head:

  "What do you fear, O children of the Middle Kingdom? Surely not mymaster, the terrible God that rides on the back of the Golden Fish, norme, poor old Lihong. For you and you alone I have just subjectedmyself to his terrible gaze. Had you seen his burning eyes, yourcourage would have failed you. He is angry because some of you do nothate enough those who serve the foreign God, his deadly enemy; yet heanswered your questions, because many of you have heretofore brought tohim your offerings. Listen to the words of the Spirit which rides uponthe back of the Golden Fish:

  Gold, gold, gold, In distant fields so far away! 'Tis his who comes to seek, I say; 'Tis his to take where'er he will, 'Tis his go where he will--his still.

  Gold, gold, gold, In getting it three things beware! In discord take no part or share; Beware the sea's engulfing waves, And thirst which drives men to their graves."

  With open mouths the Chinamen listened to the mysterious words of thepriest, and when he had finished his slyly contrived speech, they satfor a time in mute astonishment. Finally Lohe spoke up:

  "To me the answer seems favorable. The God confirms the idea of therebeing gold in a distant laud to the south, and says that we can get andkeep possession of it, if we only take heed of three things--discord,the sea, and thirst. As to discord--it lies within our power to avoidthat; as to the sea--we could be drowned quite as easily on our owncoast as on a long journey to the south, if that is to be our fate; andas to thirst, who would not endure thirst for the sake of becoming tentimes richer than the rich Natse?"

  All agreed that the answer was most favorable. The greedy priest didnot stop, but went on to tell that the God could not be relied upon totake them safely through all dangers, unless rich sacrificial offeringswere made. "Daily", said he, "I will burn incense and strips of goldpaper before his picture. The clouds of smoke will appease the spiritsof the storm and fall upon you as rain-drops which will quench yourburning thirst, and the gold paper will reconcile the spirits thatwatch over the gold in the distant Goldland, so that they willwillingly give to you their treasures."

  The Chinamen reached into their pockets and handed over their lastsapeck to the priest, then in silence left, firmly resolved to attemptthe journey to the Goldland.