CHAPTER XIV
TATTOOING
The spoils from this expedition now amounted to such a quantity that itwas desirable that the explorers should return to Moulmein, and shipthem off to England.
They had the skins of many deer, sambhurs, wild cats, and varioussmaller animals, as well as those of the leopard and tiger. There weremany orchids, some beautiful butterflies, and the skins of rare birds;curios had been picked up in the native villages, and specimens of theornamental woods which grew in the forests.
Ralph had a famous supply of gay feathers, and other articles, for hismother and sister; and sundry small things which he knew would givepleasure to them and the younger children, though he had no moneywherewith to purchase articles of much use or value.
Their load was more cumbersome than heavy, but it filled up thebullock-gharrie so completely that they determined to stop nowhere onthe road. They would return as fast as possible to Moulmein.
They jogged along therefore very cheerily, talking over theiradventures, and planning what they would do upon their longer journey.
"How odd it seems," said Ralph, "to think that this time last year I wasonly going about the town in Liverpool, backwards and forwards toschool, and never thinking about all the strange sights I was to see sosoon. And now, it seems as if I had always known these places. Things Inever knew of then, surprise me now no longer. This tattooing, forinstance. How queer I thought it at first, and now I never think aboutit."
He pointed, as he spoke, to a Burman who passed them, gorgeouslytattooed.
"Tattooing is not uncommon among seamen in England," said Mr. Gilchrist."Is it, Wills?"
"No, no, zur, it b'ain't. 'Tis a very useful thing too, to hev' a markset upon a chield so as he can be telled, dead or alive, at any time."
"Ah! it be so," said Osborn. "I mind when I wor a boy hearing tell abouta young gentleman as were a midshipman in the navy, Danby his name was.He was in a frigate, cruising about in the South Seas; and going incommand of a boat's crew one day to get water and fruit from one ofthose cannibal islands, the beggars set upon them, and murdered themall, as 'twas said. The frigate sailed away, after revenging the murdersby a broadside poured in on the island, and reported the whole boat'screw dead.
"Twenty year passed away, and the affair was nigh about forgotten, whenan English merchantman was sailing near the same island again, and a manleaped into the water, off a rock, and struck out, swimming for dearlife towards the ship.
"They lowered a boat, and took him on board.
"'Who be you?' asked the captain.
"'Charles Danby,' said he, speaking good English, for all that he wastattooed all over his face like a native.
"'How did 'ee get theer?' asked the skipper.
"'I wor a midshipman on board His Majesty's frigate _Achilles_,' saithhe. 'I wor sent in command of a boat's crew to get water, and they setupon us, and killed all but me. One of the women took a fancy to me, andhid me. She would have me marry her, but I didn't seem to care about it,and stuck out so long as I could.'"
"Poor soul," said Mr. Gilchrist.
Ralph laughed. "I'd like to see the dusky bride who would wed _me_against my will," cried he. "She'd soon find that she had caught atartar."
"It worn't no laughing matter for _he_," said Osborn. "They theresavages, they showed him his comrades, brought up one by one, and forcedhim to look on while they murdered them, roasted them, and _eat_ them.They'd ha' served him the same but for the woman protecting him, and shethreatened him that if he wouldn't have her she'd hand him over to thecannibals, who were always coming to look at him, and saying what a nicetender morsel he'd be, for he was so young and fair and rosy."
"I've heard of a _man_," said the incorrigible Ralph, still laughing,"who said, when he was first married, that he was so fond of his wifethat he could have eaten her; and, afterwards, that he often wished hehad."
"You go along, Maister Ralph," quoth old Wills. "What should a babe, thelikes of you, know about such things."
Ralph made a face at his old friend, and begged Osborn to tell him theend of the midshipman.
"Well, 'ee doan't deserve as I should," said Osborn; "but, howsomever,the boy gave in. He wor but a babe hisself,--only fourteen,--and lifewas sweet to him even at that cost; so he took the woman, and tried todo his best with her, though it was sorry work. They tattooed him allover, face and all, to make him look as like themselves as they could;and he wore no clothes, but lived just like them. He got to do soexactly like them that he could pick up a fishhook from the ground withhis toes, just like they could; and he had some children, and was lookedupon in time just like the rest.
"He lived twenty years like this, and never saw a British ship, nor awhite face, nor a sign of home all that time, for the island was anout-of-the-way one. Then, one day, all to once he saw that theremerchantman in the offing. He wor a-fishing by himself, and he watchedthe vessel sailing nearer and nearer, old half-forgotten thoughts ofhome, and friends, and old England, cropping up clearer and clearerevery minute; and with them a yearning for them, tearing at his heartlike, till he could bear it no longer. He just jumped into the sea, andswam off to the ship.
"The poor fellow was so afraid of being caught and claimed again by hisfamily in the island, that the skipper changed his tack, and sailed awayfrom it, so he was brought home in safety.
"Then came the difficulty of proving himself to be Charles Danby, fornobody could recognise him. He'd left home a rosy-faced, curly-hairedlad of thirteen; he came back looking like a South-Sea islander ofthirty-four.
"His father was dead, but his mother was still living, and she did notknow him all to once, nor none of his friends.
"But it wor no such tale as Tichborne's. He remembered all sorts ofthings that none but he could know,--people's names, old jokes, oldstories, people in the village dead and gone, things that had happenedat school.
"It was for ever, 'Where is the old cabinet that did stand here?' 'Whathas become of the gamekeeper's boy, Jack?' and so on.
"He soon satisfied his mother, his old nurse, and such like; but therewas some money to come to him, and it was necessary to prove to the lawthat he was the right man to have it, and that was a harder matter.
"'Had he no mark upon him?' asked the lawyer of his mother.
"'Ay,' said she, 'he had a small mole on his cheek.'
"But that was either gone, or covered up with the tattooing, and couldnot be seen, nor could they think of anything else.
"'I was tattooed C. D. on my right arm,' saith he, 'first time I went tosea. C. D. it were, and the Union Jack, but it wore out. The nativesdidn't tattoo my arm there, because it wor done already, but it has notlasted like their marks have done. See, here is the bare spot.'
"Sure enough, there was a bare round place among the marks on his arm,but no flag nor letters wor to be seen. He hunted up the very shipmateas had done it, and who swore to having done it, and showed thefellow-mark on his own arm, only with the letters different, for eachhad taken the initials of his own name, though the pattern they said wasthe same in both.
"'Ay!' saith Mr. Danby, 'I mind what an arm I gave you, and how youswore at me for going so deep. You mocked at me for holloing out whileyou did me, and I vowed I'd make you holloa too.'
"'So 'ee did,' said the other officer. 'What did 'ee do it with?'
"'With three big darning-needles out from a red-leather huswife that mypoor dear sister Mary gave me for a keep-sake when I went away. It had alooking-glass in it, and little blue flowers worked inside. She told meto mend my stockings when I was at sea, but it's not many stockings asI've worn.'
"'I have the huswife now,' said his mother; 'it came back among histhings. Many a time did poor Mary cry over it before she died. She usedto say, "He minded what I told him about his stockings, mother, for thedarning needles are gone."'
"'We lashed them together, threaded through the eyes with a bit ofwire,' said Mr. Danby.
"'So we did,' said his friend.
&
nbsp; "Well, this was all very good, but the marks wor gone, you see, so noproof in law. Just then the doctor came in, and 'What are you saying?'asked he. So they told him.
"'Show me your arm,' said he; and Danby put it out.
"The doctor took and rubbed it hard, till it wor red as a lobster.
"'Hold hard, doctor! you'll rub down to the bone.'
"But the doctor knew what he was doing, and when the place was wellscrubbed, 'What do 'ee call _that_?' saith he, pointing for the lawyerto see.
"There was, quite plain, the Jack and C. D., inside a circle of littledots, all in white marks upon the reddened skin. It was exactly like theblue marks upon the other man's arm, except for the initials beingdifferent, but hadn't been done so deep, so the gunpowder had worn outby degrees.
"They gave him his money, but he didn't live long to enjoy it. He wasquite unfitted to live like a Christian after so many years of savagelife, and civilisation killed him."
"Poor fellow," sighed Mr. Gilchrist; "it is a strange story."
Wills then began to relate some of his reminiscences. He never liked tobe out-done by Osborn.
"Two or three voyages ago," said he, "we had a black cook on board; andwhen we were at the office, being shipped, some talk went on abouttattooing. One of the young gentlemen was entering our names in theship's register, and a sailor was showing his arms and chest the while.He was beautifully tattooed with red and blue both. He had the royalarms on his chest, and a girl, skipping, with a wreath of flowers roundher; and his arms were all over letters and anchors and crosses, andwhat not.
"'Is any other of you so grand as this?' asked the young gentleman.
"Two or three had marks, but none so good, and he turned to the nigger.
"'You don't need mark of mouth, Sambo, I suppose?' said he.
"'Me marked though, massa,' said the darkie, grinning from ear toear,--'me marked. Me fall in fire when boy, and the mark of burn nevergone. Scored, massa, me was,--branded by hot bar. Golly! it were bad.'
"And he rolled up his sleeve, and showed the scars of a terrible burn.
"Well, we sailed in bad weather, and met with an awful storm two daysafter. The ship was pooped, the name-board washed away, and much damagedone. We managed to put it to rights though, and went on our way; butothers were less lucky. It was off the coast of Wicklow, and in thatsame storm, another ship went down with all hands; and some of thedrowned men were washed up among the wreckage, _and our name-board_,with '_Osprey_, Liverpool' painted on it quite plain.
"Of course the word reached 'Herfords' that it was we that was lost, butthe rig of some of the spars washed up, and the colour of the paint, didnot agree. One of the dead seamen was a negro, but another of them wasreported to have had two fingers of his left hand gone at some formertime; and though there was a negro among us, and both were reportedfine, tall, big fellows, we had none among our jack-tars maimed in thehand.
"So the young gentleman that shipped the crew was sent over, withLloyd's agent, to the Wicklow coast, to see if he could identify thecorpses. Some two or three days had passed, while letters had beenwritten backwards and forwards, and as the poor fellows had been sadlyknocked about among the wreckage, there was no chance of recognisingthem, and they'd all been buried before the young clerk came.
"'Tis a pity as it's so,' said he, talking to Lloyd's man. 'If he werenot underground, I'd have known the negro, because he had the big scarfrom an old burn on the inside of his left arm, reaching nearly from hiselbow to his wrist.'
"'Say you so,' said Lloyd's agent, 'then we'll have him dug up again.'
"The young gentleman did not half like that, but it was done, and he hadto be there, with result that the dead negro had no mark at all on hisarm, so could not be the same man.
"Captain Rogers was chief mate on that voyage; and your ma, zur, wasprettily relieved when she heard this, for it was a long time before wewas able to report ourselves. News did not fly so soon in thiccee timesas now."
"Well," said Ralph, "the outcome of all this is that I had better gettattooed as soon as I can. Will you do it for me, Wills?"
"Better wait till 'ee du get to Rangoon, maister, for 'twill make yourarm very sore for some days."
"No, no, Denham; don't be foolish," said Mr. Gilchrist.
Ralph laughed, and the party stopped for their mid-day meal, whichchanged the conversation.