Thus, If One Orders A Solomon Sailor To
Put A Tackle On A Boom, He Will Suggest, "That Fella Boom He Walk
About Too Much." And If The Said Sailor Asks For Shore Liberty, He
Will State That It Is His Desire To Walk About.
Or if said sailor
be seasick, he will explain his condition by stating, "Belly belong
me walk about too much."
Too much, by the way, does not indicate anything excessive. It is
merely the simple superlative. Thus, if a native is asked the
distance to a certain village, his answer will be one of these four:
"Close-up"; "long way little bit"; "long way big bit"; or "long way
too much." Long way too much does not mean that one cannot walk to
the village; it means that he will have to walk farther than if the
village were a long way big bit.
Gammon is to lie, to exaggerate, to joke. Mary is a woman. Any
woman is a Mary. All women are Marys. Doubtlessly the first dim
white adventurer whimsically called a native woman Mary, and of
similar birth must have been many other words in beche de mer. The
white men were all seamen, and so capsize and sing out were
introduced into the lingo. One would not tell a Melanesian cook to
empty the dish-water, but he would tell him to capsize it. To sing
out is to cry loudly, to call out, or merely to speak. Sing-sing is
a song.
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