Little Lucy's Wonderful GlobeYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
General
Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Geography -- Juvenile literature
"Ugly!" said the foremost; and though it must have been some strange
language, it sounded like English to Lucy. "Is that the way little
white girl speaks to boy and girl that have come all the way from
Isabel to see her?"
"Oh, indeed! little Isabel boy, I beg your pardon. I didn't know
you were real, nor that you could understand me! I am so glad to
see you. Hush, Don! don't bark so!"
"Pig, pig; I never heard a pig squeak like that," said the black
stranger.
"Pig! It is a little dog. Have you no dogs in your country?"
"Pigs go on four legs. That must be pig."
"What, you have nothing that goes on four legs but a pig! What do
you eat, then, besides pig?"
"Yams, cocoa-nut, fish--oh, so good, and put pig into hole among hot
stones, make a fire over, bake so nice!"
"You shall have some of my tea and see if that is as nice," said
Lucy. "What a funny dress you have; what is it made of?"
"Tapa cloth," said the little girl. "We get the bark off the tree,
and then we go hammer, hammer, thump, thump, till all the hard thick
stuff comes off;" and Lucy, looking near, saw that the substance was
really all a lacework of fibre, about as close as the net of Nurse's
caps.
"Is that all your clothes?" she asked.
"Yes, till I am a warrior," said the boy; "then they will tattoo my
forehead, and arms, and breast, and legs."
"Tattoo? what's that!"
"Make little holes, and lines all over the skin with a sharp shell,
and rub in juice that turns it all to blue and purple lines."
"But doesn't it hurt dreadfully?" asked Lucy.
"Hurt! to be sure it does, but that will show that I am brave. When
father comes home from the war he paints himself white."
"White?"
"With lime made by burning coral, and he jumps and dances and shouts.
I shall go to the war one of these days."
"Oh no, don't!" said Lucy, "it is horrid."
The boy laughed, but the little girl whispered, "Good white men say
so. Some day Lavo will go and learn, and leave off fighting."
Lavo shook his head. "No, not yet; I will be brave chief and warrior
first,--bring home many heads of enemies."
"I--I think it nice to be quiet," said Lucy; "and--and--won't you
have some dinner?"
"Have you baked a pig?" asked Lavo.
"I think this is mutton," said Lucy, when the dish came up,--"It is
sheep's flesh."
Lavo and his sister had no notion what sheep were. They wanted to
sit cross-legged on the floor, but Lucy made each of them sit in a
chair properly; but then they shocked her by picking up the mutton-chops
and stuffing them into their mouths with their fingers.
"Look here!" and she showed the knives and forks.
"Oh!" cried Lavo, "what good spikes to catch fish with! and
knife--knife--I'll kill foes! much better than shell knife."
"And I'll dig yams," said the sister.
"Oh, no!" entreated Lucy, "we have spades to dig with, soldiers have
swords to fight with; these are to eat with."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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