The next day the Eugenie
sailed in and dropped anchor. Three days and two nights the Minota
pounded on the reef; but she held together, and the shell of her was
pulled off at last and anchored in smooth water. There we said
good-bye to her and all on board, and sailed away on the Eugenie,
bound for Florida Island. {1}
CHAPTER XVI - BECHE DE MER ENGLISH
Given a number of white traders, a wide area of land, and scores of
savage languages and dialects, the result will be that the traders
will manufacture a totally new, unscientific, but perfectly
adequate, language. This the traders did when they invented the
Chinook lingo for use over British Columbia, Alaska, and the
Northwest Territory. So with the lingo of the Kroo-boys of Africa,
the pigeon English of the Far East, and the beche de mer of the
westerly portion of the South Seas. This latter is often called
pigeon English, but pigeon English it certainly is not. To show how
totally different it is, mention need be made only of the fact that
the classic piecee of China has no place in it.
There was once a sea captain who needed a dusky potentate down in
his cabin. The potentate was on deck. The captain's command to the
Chinese steward was "Hey, boy, you go top-side catchee one piecee
king." Had the steward been a New Hibridean or a Solomon islander,
the command would have been: "Hey, you fella boy, go look 'm eye
belong you along deck, bring 'm me fella one big fella marster
belong black man."
It was the first white men who ventured through Melanesia after the
early explorers, who developed beche de mer English - men such as the
beche de mer fishermen, the sandalwood traders, the pearl hunters,
and the labour recruiters. In the Solomons, for instance, scores of
languages and dialects are spoken. Unhappy the trader who tried to
learn them all; for in the next group to which he might wander he
would find scores of additional tongues. A common language was
necessary - a language so simple that a child could learn it, with a
vocabulary as limited as the intelligence of the savages upon whom
it was to be used. The traders did not reason this out. Beche do
mer English was the product of conditions and circumstances.
Function precedes organ; and the need for a universal Melanesian
lingo preceded beche de mer English. Beche de mer was purely
fortuitous, but it was fortuitous in the deterministic way. Also,
from the fact that out of the need the lingo arose, beche de mer
English is a splendid argument for the Esperanto enthusiasts.
A limited vocabulary means that each word shall be overworked.
Thus, fella, in beche de mer, means all that piecee does and quite a
bit more, and is used continually in every possible connection.
Another overworked word is belong. Nothing stands alone.
Everything is related. The thing desired is indicated by its
relationship with other things. A primitive vocabulary means
primitive expression, thus, the continuance of rain is expressed as
rain he stop. SUN HE COME UP cannot possibly be misunderstood,
while the phrase-structure itself can be used without mental
exertion in ten thousand different ways, as, for instance, a native
who desires to tell you that there are fish in the water and who
says FISH HE STOP. It was while trading on Ysabel island that I
learned the excellence of this usage. I wanted two or three pairs
of the large clam-shells (measuring three feet across), but I did
not want the meat inside. Also, I wanted the meat of some of the
smaller clams to make a chowder. My instruction to the natives
finally ripened into the following "You fella bring me fella big
fella clam - kai-kai he no stop, he walk about. You fella bring me
fella small fella clam - kai-kai he stop."
Kai-kai is the Polynesian for food, meat, eating, and to eat: but
it would be hard to say whether it was introduced into Melanesia by
the sandalwood traders or by the Polynesian westward drift. Walk
about is a quaint phrase. 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. The native Christian does not think of God calling for Adam
in the Garden of Eden; in the native's mind, God sings out for Adam.
