No sooner said than done,
and this was the beginning of the end; for others following suit made
a rush for the mats that would be so useful in making their camps
and boats more rain-proof. There was a mighty uproar that brought
us headlong to the scene, only to see the big hall melt away like
a snowflake as hundreds of hands seized upon the mats and bore them
away in triumph. So the great peace conference was brought to an end
amid much laughter and fun.
It only remained for the chiefs to pay in the taxes for the year --
the two dollars per family which it is their business to collect from
their people, and which is the only tax or tribute claimed by the
Rajah. This business was got through on the following morning; and
then we said many kind farewells, as the various parties set out one
after another in the great war canoes on their long up-stream journey;
some of them to battle for many days against the swiftly flowing river,
and after that again for many days to pole their boats through the
flashing rapids and over the lovely quiet reaches, where the rare
gleams of sunlight break through the overarching forest; until,
coming to their own upland country, where anxious wives and children
are waiting, they will spread even in the remotest highlands the news
of the white man's big boat that goes of itself against the stream,
of the great boat-race, and of how they came wellnigh to a fearful
slaughtering, and how they swore peace and goodwill to all men, and
how there should be now peace and prosperity through all the land,
for the great white man who had come to rule them had said it should
be so, and the gods had approved his words.
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