Island Nights' EntertainmentsStevenson, Robert Louis
General
Island Nights' Entertainments
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Islands of the Pacific -- Fiction; Short stories
palsy, all of him dead but one eye, which he continually winked. Word
was started that the helpless old man was now a devil, and this vile
fellow Case worked upon the natives’ fears, which he professed to
share, and pretended he durst not go into the house alone. At last a
grave was dug, and the living body buried at the far end of the
village. Namu, my pastor, whom I had helped to educate, offered up a
prayer at the hateful scene.
“I felt myself in a very difficult position. Perhaps it was my duty to
have denounced Namu and had him deposed. Perhaps I think so now, but at
the time it seemed less clear. He had a great influence, it might prove
greater than mine. The natives are prone to superstition; perhaps by
stirring them up I might but ingrain and spread these dangerous
fancies. And Namu besides, apart from this novel and accursed
influence, was a good pastor, an able man, and spiritually minded.
Where should I look for a better? How was I to find as good? At that
moment, with Namu’s failure fresh in my view, the work of my life
appeared a mockery; hope was dead in me. I would rather repair such
tools as I had than go abroad in quest of others that must certainly
prove worse; and a scandal is, at the best, a thing to be avoided when
humanly possible. Right or wrong, then, I determined on a quiet course.
All that night I denounced and reasoned with the erring pastor, twitted
him with his ignorance and want of faith, twitted him with his wretched
attitude, making clean the outside of the cup and platter, callously
helping at a murder, childishly flying in excitement about a few
childish, unnecessary, and inconvenient gestures; and long before day I
had him on his knees and bathed in the tears of what seemed a genuine
repentance. On Sunday I took the pulpit in the morning, and preached
from First Kings, nineteenth, on the fire, the earthquake, and the
voice, distinguishing the true spiritual power, and referring with such
plainness as I dared to recent events in Falesá. The effect produced
was great, and it was much increased when Namu rose in his turn and
confessed that he had been wanting in faith and conduct, and was
convinced of sin. So far, then, all was well; but there was one
unfortunate circumstance. It was nearing the time of our ‘May’ in the
island, when the native contributions to the missions are received; it
fell in my duty to make a notification on the subject, and this gave my
enemy his chance, by which he was not slow to profit.
“News of the whole proceedings must have been carried to Case as soon
as church was over, and the same afternoon he made an occasion to meet
me in the midst of the village. He came up with so much intentness and
animosity that I felt it would be damaging to avoid him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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