Jack London's South Pacific Stories for ESL Students

THE WHALE TOOTH

by Jack London

1) It was in the early days in Fiji, when John Starhurst arose in the

mission house at Rewa Village and announced his intention of carrying

the gospel throughout all Viti Levu. Now Viti Levu means the "Great

Land," it being the largest island in a group composed of many large

islands, to say nothing of hundreds of small ones. Here and there on

the coasts, living by most precarious tenure, was a sprinkling of

missionaries, traders, bêche-de-mer fishers, and whaleship deserters.

The smoke of the hot ovens arose under their windows, and the bodies of

the slain were dragged by their doors on the way to the feasting.

2) The Lotu, or the Worship, was progressing slowly, and, often, in

crablike fashion. Chiefs, who announced themselves Christians and

were welcomed into the body of the chapel, had a distressing habit of

backsliding in order to partake of the flesh of some favorite enemy. Eat

or be eaten had been the law of the land; and eat or be eaten promised

to remain the law of the land for a long time to come. There were

chiefs, such as Tanoa, Tuiveikoso, and Tuikilakila, who had literally

eaten hundreds of their fellow men. But among these gluttons Ra

Undreundre ranked highest. Ra Undreundre lived at Takiraki. He kept a

register of his gustatory exploits. A row of stones outside his house

marked the bodies he had eaten. This row was two hundred and thirty

paces long, and the stones in it numbered eight hundred and seventy-two.

Each stone represented a body. The row of stones might have been longer,

had not Ra Undreundre unfortunately received a spear in the small of his

back in a bush skirmish on Somo Somo and been served up on the table of

Naungavuli, whose mediocre string of stones numbered only forty-eight.

3) The hard-worked, fever-stricken missionaries stuck doggedly to their

task, at times despairing, and looking forward for some special

manifestation, some outburst of Pentecostal fire that would bring a

glorious harvest of souls. But cannibal Fiji had remained obdurate. The

frizzle-headed man-eaters were loath to leave their fleshpots so long as

the harvest of human carcases was plentiful. Sometimes, when the harvest

was too plentiful, they imposed on the missionaries by letting the word

slip out that on such a day there would be a killing and a barbecue.

Promptly the missionaries would buy the lives of the victims with stick

tobacco, fathoms of calico, and quarts of trade beads. Natheless the

chiefs drove a handsome trade in thus disposing of their surplus live

meat. Also, they could always go out and catch more.

4) It was at this juncture that John Starhurst proclaimed that he would

carry the Gospel from coast to coast of the Great Land, and that he

would begin by penetrating the mountain fastnesses of the headwaters of

the Rewa River. His words were received with consternation.

5) The native teachers wept softly. His two fellow missionaries strove to

dissuade him. The King of Rewa warned him that the mountain dwellers

would surely kai-kai him--kai-kai meaning "to eat"--and that he, the

King of Rewa, having become Lotu, would be put to the necessity of going

to war with the mountain dwellers. That he could not conquer them he

was perfectly aware. That they might come down the river and sack Rewa

Village he was likewise perfectly aware. But what was he to do? If John

Starhurst persisted in going out and being eaten, there would be a war

that would cost hundreds of lives.

6) Later in the day a deputation of Rewa chiefs waited upon John Starhurst.

He heard them patiently, and argued patiently with them, though he

abated not a whit from his purpose. To his fellow missionaries he

explained that he was not bent upon martyrdom; that the call had come

for him to carry the Gospel into Viti Levu, and that he was merely

obeying the Lord's wish.

7) To the traders who came and objected most strenuously of all, he said:

"Your objections are valueless. They consist merely of the damage that

may be done your businesses. You are interested in making money, but

I am interested in saving souls. The heathen of this dark land must be

saved."

8) John Starhurst was not a fanatic. He would have been the first man to

deny the imputation. He was eminently sane and practical.

9) He was sure that his mission would result in good, and he had

private visions of igniting the Pentecostal spark in the souls of the

mountaineers and of inaugurating a revival that would sweep down out of

the mountains and across the length and breadth of the Great Land from

sea to sea and to the isles in the midst of the sea. There were no

wild lights in his mild gray eyes, but only calm resolution and an

unfaltering trust in the Higher Power that was guiding him.

10) One man only he found who approved of his project, and that was Ra Vatu,

who secretly encouraged him and offered to lend him guides to the first

foothills. John Starhurst, in turn, was greatly pleased by Ra Vatu's

conduct. From an incorrigible heathen, with a heart as black as his

practices, Ra Vatu was beginning to emanate light. He even spoke of

becoming Lotu. True, three years before he had expressed a similar

intention, and would have entered the church had not John Starhurst

entered objection to his bringing his four wives along with him. Ra

Vatu had had economic and ethical objections to monogamy. Besides, the

missionary's hair-splitting objection had offended him; and, to prove

that he was a free agent and a man of honor, he had swung his huge war

club over Starhurst's head. Starhurst had escaped by rushing in under

the club and holding on to him until help arrived. But all that was now

forgiven and forgotten. Ra Vatu was coming into the church, not merely

as a converted heathen, but as a converted polygamist as well. He was

only waiting, he assured Starhurst, until his oldest wife, who was very

sick, should die.

11) John Starhurst journeyed up the sluggish Rewa in one of Ra Vatu's

canoes. This canoe was to carry him for two days, when, the head of

navigation reached, it would return. Far in the distance, lifted

into the sky, could be seen the great smoky mountains that marked the

backbone of the Great Land. All day John Starhurst gazed at them with

eager yearning.

12) Sometimes he prayed silently. At other times he was joined in prayer by

Narau, a native teacher, who for seven years had been Lotu, ever since

the day he had been saved from the hot oven by Dr. James Ellery Brown

at the trifling expense of one hundred sticks of tobacco, two cotton

blankets, and a large bottle of painkiller. At the last moment, after

twenty hours of solitary supplication and prayer, Narau's ears had

heard the call to go forth with John Starhurst on the mission to the

mountains.

13) "Master, I will surely go with thee," he had announced.

14) John Starhurst had hailed him with sober delight. Truly, the Lord was

with him thus to spur on so broken-spirited a creature as Narau.

15) "I am indeed without spirit, the weakest of the Lord's vessels," Narau

explained, the first day in the canoe.

16) "You should have faith, stronger faith," the missionary chided him.

17) Another canoe journeyed up the Rewa that day. But it journeyed an

hour astern, and it took care not to be seen. This canoe was also the

property of Ra Vatu. In it was Erirola, Ra Vatu's first cousin and

trusted henchman; and in the small basket that never left his hand was

a whale tooth. It was a magnificent tooth, fully six inches long,

beautifully proportioned, the ivory turned yellow and purple with age.

This tooth was likewise the property of Ra Vatu; and in Fiji, when such

a tooth goes forth, things usually happen. For this is the virtue of

the whale tooth: Whoever accepts it cannot refuse the request that may

accompany it or follow it. The request may be anything from a human life

to a tribal alliance, and no Fijian is so dead to honor as to deny the

request when once the tooth has been accepted. Sometimes the request

hangs fire, or the fulfilment is delayed, with untoward consequences.

18) High up the Rewa, at the village of a chief, Mongondro by name, John

Starhurst rested at the end of the second day of the journey. In the

morning, attended by Narau, he expected to start on foot for the smoky

mountains that were now green and velvety with nearness. Mongondro was

a sweet-tempered, mild-mannered little old chief, short-sighted

and afflicted with elephantiasis, and no longer inclined toward the

turbulence of war. He received the missionary with warm hospitality,

gave him food from his own table, and even discussed religious matters

with him. Mongondro was of an inquiring bent of mind, and pleased

John Starhurst greatly by asking him to account for the existence and

beginning of things. When the missionary had finished his summary of

the Creation according to Genesis, he saw that Mongondro was deeply

affected. The little old chief smoked silently for some time. Then he

took the pipe from his mouth and shook his head sadly.

19) "It cannot be," he said. "I, Mongondro, in my youth, was a good workman

with the adze. Yet three months did it take me to make a canoe--a small

canoe, a very small canoe. And you say that all this land and water was

made by one man--"

20) "Nay, was made by one God, the only true God," the missionary

interrupted.

21) "It is the same thing," Mongondro went on, "that all the land and all

the water, the trees, the fish, and bush and mountains, the sun, the

moon, and the stars, were made in six days! No, no. I tell you that in

my youth I was an able man, yet did it require me three months for one

small canoe. It is a story to frighten children with; but no man can

believe it."

22) "I am a man," the missionary said.

23) "True, you are a man. But it is not given to my dark understanding to

know what you believe."

24) "I tell you, I do believe that everything was made in six days."

25) "So you say, so you say," the old cannibal murmured soothingly.

26) It was not until after John Starhurst and Narau had gone off to bed

that Erirola crept into the chief's house, and, after diplomatic speech,

handed the whale tooth to Mongondro.

27) The old chief held the tooth in his hands for a long time. It was a

beautiful tooth, and he yearned for it. Also, he divined the request

that must accompany it. "No, no; whale teeth were beautiful," and

his mouth watered for it, but he passed it back to Erirola with many

apologies.

28) In the early dawn John Starhurst was afoot, striding along the bush

trail in his big leather boots, at his heels the faithful Narau, himself

at the heels of a naked guide lent him by Mongondro to show the way to

the next village, which was reached by midday. Here a new guide showed

the way. A mile in the rear plodded Erirola, the whale tooth in the

basket slung on his shoulder. For two days more he brought up the

missionary's rear, offering the tooth to the village chiefs. But village

after village refused the tooth. It followed so quickly the missionary's

advent that they divined the request that would be made, and would have

none of it.

29) They were getting deep into the mountains, and Erirola took a secret

trail, cut in ahead of the missionary, and reached the stronghold of the

Buli of Gatoka. Now the Buli was unaware of John Starhurst's imminent

arrival. Also, the tooth was beautiful--an extraordinary specimen, while

the coloring of it was of the rarest order. The tooth was presented

publicly. The Buli of Gatoka, seated on his best mat, surrounded by his

chief men, three busy fly-brushers at his back, deigned to receive from

the hand of his herald the whale tooth presented by Ra Vatu and carried

into the mountains by his cousin, Erirola. A clapping of hands went up

at the acceptance of the present, the assembled headman, heralds, and

fly-brushers crying aloud in chorus:

30) "A! woi! woi! woi! A! woi! woi! woi! A tabua levu! woi! woi! A mudua,

mudua, mudua!'

31) "Soon will come a man, a white man," Erirola began, after the proper

pause. "He is a missionary man, and he will come today. Ra Vatu is

pleased to desire his boots. He wishes to present them to his good

friend, Mongondro, and it is in his mind to send them with the feet

along in them, for Mongondro is an old man and his teeth are not good.

Be sure, O Buli, that the feet go along in the boots. As for the rest of

him, it may stop here."

32) The delight in the whale tooth faded out of the Buli's eyes, and he

glanced about him dubiously. Yet had he already accepted the tooth.

33) "A little thing like a missionary does not matter," Erirola prompted.

34) "No, a little thing like a missionary does not matter," the Buli

answered, himself again. "Mongondro shall have the boots. Go, you young

men, some three or four of you, and meet the missionary on the trail. Be

sure you bring back the boots as well."

35) "It is too late," said Erirola. "Listen! He comes now."

36) Breaking through the thicket of brush, John Starhurst, with Narau close

on his heels, strode upon the scene. The famous boots, having filled in

wading the stream, squirted fine jets of water at every step. Starhurst

looked about him with flashing eyes. Upborne by an unwavering trust,

untouched by doubt or fear, he exulted in all he saw. He knew that

since the beginning of time he was the first white man ever to tread the

mountain stronghold of Gatoka.

37) The grass houses clung to the steep mountain side or overhung the

rushing Rewa. On either side towered a mighty precipice. At the best,

three hours of sunlight penetrated that narrow gorge. No cocoanuts

nor bananas were to be seen, though dense, tropic vegetation overran

everything, dripping in airy festoons from the sheer lips of the

precipices and running riot in all the crannied ledges. At the far end

of the gorge the Rewa leaped eight hundred feet in a single span, while

the atmosphere of the rock fortress pulsed to the rhythmic thunder of

the fall.

38) From the Buli's house, John Starhurst saw emerging the Buli and his

followers.

39) "I bring you good tidings," was the missionary's greeting.

40) "Who has sent you?" the Buli rejoined quietly.

41) "God."

42) "It is a new name in Viti Levu," the Buli grinned. "Of what islands,

villages, or passes may he be chief?"

43) "He is the chief over all islands, all villages, all passes," John

Starhurst answered solemnly. "He is the Lord over heaven and earth, and

I am come to bring His word to you."

44) "Has he sent whale teeth?" was the insolent query.

45) "No, but more precious than whale teeth is the--"

46) "It is the custom, between chiefs, to send whale teeth," the Buli

interrupted.

47) "Your chief is either a niggard, or you are a fool, to come empty-handed

into the mountains. Behold, a more generous than you is before you."

48) So saying, he showed the whale tooth he had received from Erirola.

49) Narau groaned.

50) "It is the whale tooth of Ra Vatu," he whispered to Starhurst. "I know

it well. Now are we undone."

51) "A gracious thing," the missionary answered, passing his hand through

his long beard and adjusting his glasses. "Ra Vatu has arranged that we

should be well received."

52) But Narau groaned again, and backed away from the heels he had dogged so

faithfully.

53) "Ra Vatu is soon to become Lotu," Starhurst explained, "and I have come

bringing the Lotu to you."

54) "I want none of your Lotu," said the Buli, proudly. "And it is in my

mind that you will be clubbed this day."

55) The Buli nodded to one of his big mountaineers, who stepped forward,

swinging a club. Narau bolted into the nearest house, seeking to hide

among the woman and mats; but John Starhurst sprang in under the club

and threw his arms around his executioner's neck. From this point of

vantage he proceeded to argue. He was arguing for his life, and he knew

it; but he was neither excited nor afraid.

56) "It would be an evil thing for you to kill me," he told the man. "I have

done you no wrong, nor have I done the Buli wrong."

57) So well did he cling to the neck of the one man that they dared not

strike with their clubs. And he continued to cling and to dispute for

his life with those who clamored for his death.

58) "I am John Starhurst," he went on calmly. "I have labored in Fiji for

three years, and I have done it for no profit. I am here among you for

good. Why should any man kill me? To kill me will not profit any man."

59) The Buli stole a look at the whale tooth. He was well paid for the deed.

60) The missionary was surrounded by a mass of naked savages, all struggling

to get at him. The death song, which is the song of the oven, was

raised, and his expostulations could no longer be heard. But so

cunningly did he twine and wreathe his body about his captor's that the

death blow could not be struck. Erirola smiled, and the Buli grew angry.

61) "Away with you!" he cried. "A nice story to go back to the coast--a

dozen of you and one missionary, without weapons, weak as a woman,

overcoming all of you."

62) "Wait, O Buli," John Starhurst called out from the thick of the scuffle,

"and I will overcome even you. For my weapons are Truth and Right, and

no man can withstand them."

63) "Come to me, then," the Buli answered, "for my weapon is only a poor

miserable club, and, as you say, it cannot withstand you."

64) The group separated from him, and John Starhurst stood alone, facing the

Buli, who was leaning on an enormous, knotted warclub.

65) "Come to me, missionary man, and overcome me," the Buli challenged.

66) "Even so will I come to you and overcome you," John Starhurst made

answer, first wiping his spectacles and settling them properly, then

beginning his advance.

67) The Buli raised the club and waited.

68) "In the first place, my death will profit you nothing," began the

argument.

69) "I leave the answer to my club," was the Buli's reply.

70) And to every point he made the same reply, at the same time watching the

missionary closely in order to forestall that cunning run-in under the

lifted club. Then, and for the first time, John Starhurst knew that his

death was at hand. He made no attempt to run in. Bareheaded, he stood in

the sun and prayed aloud--the mysterious figure of the inevitable white

man, who, with Bible, bullet, or rum bottle, has confronted the amazed

savage in his every stronghold. Even so stood John Starhurst in the rock

fortress of the Buli of Gatoka.

71) "Forgive them, for they know not what they do," he prayed. "O Lord! Have

mercy upon Fiji. Have compassion for Fiji. O Jehovah, hear us for His

sake, Thy Son, whom Thou didst give that through Him all men might also

become Thy children. From Thee we came, and our mind is that to Thee

we may return. The land is dark, O Lord, the land is dark. But Thou art

mighty to save. Reach out Thy hand, O Lord, and save Fiji, poor cannibal

Fiji."

72) The Buli grew impatient.

73) "Now will I answer thee," he muttered, at the same time swinging his

club with both hands.

74) Narau, hiding among the women and the mats, heard the impact of the

blow and shuddered. Then the death song arose, and he knew his beloved

missionary's body was being dragged to the oven as he heard the words:

75) "Drag me gently. Drag me gently."

76) "For I am the champion of my land."

77) "Give thanks! Give thanks! Give thanks!"

78) Next, a single voice arose out of the din, asking:

79) "Where is the brave man?"

80) A hundred voices bellowed the answer:

81) "Gone to be dragged into the oven and cooked."

82) "Where is the coward?" the single voice demanded.

83) "Gone to report!" the hundred voices bellowed back. "Gone to report!

Gone to report!"

84) Narau groaned in anguish of spirit. The words of the old song were true.

He was the coward, and nothing remained to him but to go and report.