Godfrey at once raised the poor fellow, who lay prostrate1 before him. He looked in his face.
He was a man of thirty-five or more, wearing only a rag round his loins. In his features, as in the shape of his head, there could be recognized the type of the African negro. It was not possible to confound him with the debased wretches2 of the Polynesian islands, who, with their depressed3 crania and elongated4 arms, approach so strangely to the monkey.
Now, as he was a negro from Soudan or Abyssinia who had fallen into the hands of the natives of an archipelago of the Pacific, it might be that he could speak English or one or two words of the European languages which Godfrey understood. But it was soon apparent that the unhappy man only used an idiom that was absolutely incomprehensible—probably the language of the aborigines among whom he had doubtless arrived when very young.[Pg 204] In fact, Godfrey had immediately interrogated6 him in English, and had obtained no reply. He then made him understand by signs, not without difficulty, that he would like to know his name.
After many fruitless essays, the negro, who had a very intelligent and even honest face, replied to the demand which was made of him in a single word,—
"Carefinotu."
"Carefinotu!" exclaimed Tartlet7. "Do you hear the name? I propose that we call him 'Wednesday,' for to-day is Wednesday, and that is what they always do in these Crusoe islands! Is he to be allowed to call himself Carefinotu?"
"If that is his name," said Godfrey; "why should he not keep it?"
And at the moment he felt a hand placed on his chest, while all the black's physiognomy seemed to ask him what his name was.
"Godfrey!" answered he.
The black endeavoured to say the word, but although Godfrey repeated it several times, he could not succeed in pronouncing it in an intelligible8 fashion. Then he turned towards the professor, as if to know his name.
"Tartlet," was the reply of that individual in a most amiable9 tone.
[Pg 205]
"Tartlet!" repeated Carefinotu.
And it seemed as though this assemblage of syllables10 was more agreeable to his vocal11 chords, for he pronounced it distinctly.
The professor appeared to be extremely flattered. In truth he had reason to be.
Then Godfrey, wishing to put the intelligence of the black to some profit, tried to make him understand that he wished to know the name of the island. He pointed12 with his hand to the woods and prairies and hills, and then the shore which bound them, and then the horizon of the sea, and he interrogated him with a look.
Carefinotu did not at first understand what was meant, and imitating the gesture of Godfrey he also turned and ran his eyes over the space.
"Arneka," said he at length.
"Arneka?" replied Godfrey, striking the soil with his foot so as to accentuate13 his demand.
"Arneka!" repeated the negro.
This told Godfrey nothing, neither the geographical14 name borne by the island, nor its position in the Pacific. He could not remember such a name; it was probably a native one, little known to geographers15.
However, Carefinotu did not cease from looking at the two white men, not without some stupor16, going from one[Pg 206] to the other as if he wished to fix in his mind the differences which characterized them. The smile on his mouth disclosed abundant teeth of magnificent whiteness which Tartlet did not examine without a certain reserve.
"If those teeth," he said, "have never eaten human flesh may my fiddle17 burst up in my hand."
"Anyhow, Tartlet," answered Godfrey; "our new companion no longer looks like the poor beggar they were going to cook and feed on! That is the main point!"
What particularly attracted the attention of Carefinotu were the weapons carried by Godfrey and Tartlet—as much the musket18 in the hand as the revolver in the belt.
Godfrey easily understood this sentiment of curiosity. It was evident that the savage19 had never seen a fire-arm. He said to himself that this was one of those iron tubes which had launched the thunder-bolt that had delivered him? There could be no doubt of it.
Godfrey, wishing to give him, not without reason, a high idea of the power of the whites, loaded his gun, and then, showing to Carefinotu a red-legged partridge that was flying across the prairie about a hundred yards away, he shouldered it quickly, and fired. The bird fell.
At the report the black gave a prodigious21 leap, which Tartlet could not but admire from a choregraphic point of view. Then repressing his fear, and seeing the bird[Pg 207] with broken wing running through the grass, he started off and swift as a greyhound ran towards it, and with many a caper22, half of joy, half of stupefaction, brought it back to his master.
Tartlet then thought of displaying to Carefinotu that the Great Spirit had also favoured him with the power of the lightning; and perceiving a kingfisher tranquilly23 seated on an old stump24 near the river was bringing the stock up to his cheek, when Godfrey stopped him with,—
"No! Don't fire, Tartlet!"
"Why not?"
"Suppose that by some mishap25 you were not to hit the bird, think how we would fall in the estimation of the nigger!"
"And why should I not hit him?" replied Tartlet with some acerbity26. "Did I not, during the battle, at more than a hundred paces, the very first time I handled a gun, hit one of the cannibals full in the chest?"
"You touched him evidently," said Godfrey; "for he fell. But take my advice, Tartlet, and in the common interest do not tempt27 fortune twice!"
The professor, slightly annoyed, allowed himself to be convinced; he threw the gun on to his shoulder with a swagger, and both our heroes, followed by Carefinotu, returned to Will Tree.
[Pg 208]
There the new guest of Phina Island met with quite a surprise in the habitation so happily contrived28 in the lower part of the sequoia29. First he had to be shown, by using them while he looked on, the use of the tools, instruments, and utensils30. It was obvious that Carefinotu belonged to, or had lived amongst savages31 in the lowest rank of the human scale, for fire itself seemed to be unknown to him. He could not understand why the pot did not take fire when they put it on the blazing wood; he would have hurried away from it, to the great displeasure of Tartlet, who was watching the different phases of the cooking of the soup. At a mirror, which was held out to him, he betrayed consummate32 astonishment33; he turned round, and turned it round to see if he himself were not behind it.
"The fellow is hardly a monkey!" exclaimed the professor with a disdainful grimace34.
"No, Tartlet," answered Godfrey; "he is more than a monkey, for his looks behind the mirror show good reasoning power."
"Well, I will admit that he is not a monkey," said Tartlet, shaking his head as if only half convinced; "but we shall see if such a being can be of any good to us."
"I am sure he will be!" replied Godfrey.
In any case Carefinotu showed himself quite at home with the food placed before him. He first tore it apart, and[Pg 209] then tasted it; and then I believe that the whole breakfast of which they partook the—agouti soup, the partridge killed by Godfrey, and the shoulder of mutton with camas and yamph roots—would hardly have sufficed to calm the hunger which
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