Foretellers Of Ships
p. 42 · Read in the full issue
By “Tui Navosa”
rE Ellice Islands are a group of nine f)°Ws ly * ng the southward of the Gilberts, and between 325 and (jtSO miles north of Fiji. They cover a large sea area, but they are in tnemseives quite small—only a few square miles each on which it is possible to live.
Only two of them, Funafuti (the capi tal) and Nukufetau, have lagoons capaoie 01 being used by ships. Going ashore on the others means jumping tne reef by canoe or specially built flat-bottomed whaler, both of which require expert
handling.
On eight of these islands—the ninth being uinnnauiteu—live over 4,000 Ellice Islanders, They are Polynesian except for one island, i\ui, where the people are part Micronesian. in the ’twenties of this century they were indeed an isolated group; no wire less and little communication between them. The old days of ocean-going canoes, by which the great migrations took place, had passed, and the modern fishing canoes are quite unsuitable for ocean travel. ino two islands are in sight of one another.
No regular ships called, but a small steamer, a very small motor vessel and several auxiliary schooners traded in this part of the South Pacinc. The trade was copra, in exchange lor which goods and provisions were landed. On the average each island might get a visit from a trading vessel three or lour times in the year.
It can be realised what an important event it was for a ship to arrive off one of the islands. Not only for mails, but for general supplies and necessities. Such would include supplies for the local hos pital, kerosene, soap, fish hooks, material for canoe sails, cotton print for the women and a few other items.
The day w'as always made a feast-day, but as a vessel's stay was seldom more than 24 hours, a serious difficulty arose in the matter of preparations for it. A pig or two would be killed, extra fish caught and more vegetables dug. Also, the cooking would take at least a whole night, for the method used is always that of stone and earth pit-ovens. And yet, time after time, a vessel has arrived at dawn and found the feast prepared and the copra in bags ready for shipping.
This happened when I visited Nanumea for the first time. I was travelling in one of the trading schooners, and we closed the island in the early morning.
On landing I was met by the Magis trate and, as we walked into the village, I noticed that the women were opening up some of the ovens. Knowing that the food must have been put in on the previous evening, I asked him how he knew that I was arriving. He replied that he did not know that I was on board, but that he expected a ship that morning. vv xxad he heard this? The official “foreteller of ships,” an old man named Foilape, had told him on the previous afternoon.
An interview with Foilape later in the day produced no explanation. He simply said that he always knew when there was a ship near the island. His father had done so before him.
On several subsequent occasions the same thing happened; at Nanumanga and at Vaitupa, but still with no feasible ex planation. Then I was told of an in cident which had occurred at Niutau. - At a time when no vessel was ex pected, the local prophet announced that a ship would arrive on the following day. The Magistrate therefore gave the
usual orders for the preparation of food tor the feast and for the bagging up of copra.
On the morrow, however, no ship appeared; nor did one on the day after.
The prophet, meanwhile, persisted that a ship was not far off and he declared that he would touch no food until she did arrive. On the third day a small motor vessel limped up to the Island Her captain explained that his ship had broken down, and had been drifting at sea, out of sight of land, for the past three days.
Surely this was confirmation of the
inexplicable.
* * * THE Ellice people have a curious habit of keeping tame Frigate Birds, for what purpose I have never heard.
Outside a number of their houses is a perch on which one roosts every night.
They are quite tame and free, ana during the day roam far and wide/ When fish ing canoes are at sea they can be seen overhead waiting to be fed. This is done by throwing up pieces of fish which the birds swoop down and catch in the air.
Here is an example of the habits and tameness of these birds. I was at Nuku laelae, on an occasion when supplies were short at that island, and whilst fishing in the lagoon one afternoon a frigate bird appeared and started circling overhead.
It was fed by pieces of fish thrown up; but, when this stopped, it came down and perched on the outrigger. One of the crew of the canoe said: “I know that bird. It belongs to a relation of mine in Vaitupu.”
I was reasonably sure that one of Burns Philp’s schooners was at Vaitupu at this time, and an idea struck me. Tearing a leaf from my notebook I wrote a message to the captain of the schooner, saying that Nukulaelae had copra ready to ship and was short of supplies. The bird was then caught, which it did not resent, and the mes sage tied on to its leg. It was given some more fish, and thrown up into the air.
The time was about 4.0 p.m., and it was on its perch in Vaitupu before dark that afternoon—a , distance of 130 miles.
Its owner noticed the piece of paper on the leg of the bird and delivered it to the ship, which happened to be there, that same evening. * * * MAY it be that a number of frigate birds collect over a ship at sea, ex pecting to be fed as from canoes?
The foreteller of ships may be a keen observer of their movements, and knows where the canoes are. He is probably blessed with phenomenal eyesight, and has no difficulty in spotting the birds in the air over a ship below the horizon.
It would be a fair guess that the ship was approaching the island, for .there are no shipping routes through the group.
In any case, he keeps his art to him self, and whether this is the solution or not he fulfils a most useful role in the Ellice Islands.
Wing-Commander Walter Kerr, son of the late Mr. J. R. Kerr, of the New Hebrides, and Mrs. Kerr, of Mosman, Sydney, was married on January 21 to Miss Krijna Engels. His bride is a Dutch girl who, before the Pacific war, was attached to the Netherlands Indies Gov ernment Information Office in Batavia.
She arrived in Sydney recently, after being interned for three years.