Log of Sloop Redwolf
6/12/33/:

Sloop docked at wharf of  “Inter-Island Tours Co” on Casino Island while I skipper the Schooner “Liki-Tiki” on a charter to “Cannibal Isle” for a week.

The Liki-Tiki had no expense spared in being fitted out as a typical South Seas Island trader vessel of the 19th century, right down to the ‘native’ crew in traditional costume. Only the rats & cockroaches were missing! Capt. Andy, its regular skipper, was an old mate of mine, so when I was aked to take out a charter for him while he was in the hospital, I was happy to oblige. Odd to get a concussion from a coconut falling out of a date palm, though.

The tour group came aboard and we set sail out of Casino on a SE heading where 2 days of easy sailing at 7 knots brought us to landfall at what the charts name Albert Island but better known around the Spontoons as “Cannibal Isle”. On the way down I’d assured the tourists that, despite the name, there hadn’t been any cannibalism on the island for at least the last 25 years, and in any case it was well known that the natives felt the eating of any non-native to be a major Taboo!

Dropping our hook once inside the reef, we lowered the ship’s boats to go ashore. A flotilla of native canoes left the beach & came out to meet us with presents of flowers and fruit and songs of welcome. While most of the tribes in the Spontoon Islands are pretty well mixed as to species, I noticed that all of these natives were of some kind of spotted jungle cat, although the paint they wore on their faces & bodies made it hard to pick out individual features. All wore full festive costume, what there was of it, and as many female jaws dropped in our tour group as male.

Everyone was escorted to the Village, where the High Chief, an ancient leopard named N’Kualita, gave us a formal welcome and assigned guides to show us around to the waterfall and other scenic wonders of the Island. Later that evening we gathered in the big, open walled meetinghouse, where the Chief answered questions about his tribe and their life on the Island. Somehow the talk swung around to cannibalism and one of the tour leaders asked about the rumored taboo against eating non-natives.

“Oh, him plenty big Taboo!” laughed Ti N’Kualita, causing the assorted bones in his necklace to rattle loundly. “Once, long time ago when me very young warrior, we eat stranger-man, but that very bad! Him be sailor-man run way from trade boat. Hide in jungle till boat leave, then come our village. Treat as guest, but he be very bad man! No climb tree for coconut! No help pull fish net! No dig Taro! He just eat, drink he rum, smoke he pipe, make love-love plenty Wahini, and sleep all day! Warriors made talk about how no-use a man he be. Wahini make talk about how no-use a man he be. But Chief he say, “If sailor be no-use man, he still guest.” One day, sailor come to he hut plenty drunk and see favorite Wahini on mat with warrior. He get plenty mad! Grab Wahini & hit hard in face! Pull knife to kill warrior on mat! As he go do this bad thing, Wahini she grab warrior’s club where left by door. Hit sailor-man hard on head, which break open. Chief he plenty mad, but told Wahini she no blame as who know sailor-man have so weak a head! But, if sailor-man no-use while live, now he dead maybe be of use. Chief he have cooking pit made hot and called all village to come to feast on 'long pig' sailor. But sailor-man he be no-use as meat as was as man! Tough, stringy, with bad taste so none could swallow! We throw meat to pigs. Next day pigs be sick! Since that day it be Big Taboo we eat stranger! No one want get sick!”

That night there was a big luau at the village, with lots of food, music and wild dancing. The next morning we let our tourists sleep it off, and waited until the evening tide to cast off from Cannibal Isle.

A few days later, after the last of the group had departed and I’d gotten all snug & secure aboard the Liki-Tiki, I went to the office of Inter-Island Tours to get my pay. The company’s president himself thanked me for helping them out of a jam & said if I ever wanted a steady job he’d be happy to give me one. He said that one thing he’d learned at Harvard Business School was to hire the best people he could find. I took the cigar N’Kualita offered me, but I had to tell him I was happy the way I was, bumming around the Islands in my own little Redwolf. Still, if Capt. Andy were to take another nap under the wrong date palm, I’d be happy to help out again.

G.