But to be able to speak to people is not all.And in the first stage of my relations with natives I was helped by two things.To begin with,I was the show-man of the CASCO.She,her fine lines,tall spars,and snowy decks,the crimson fittings of the saloon,and the white,the gilt,and the repeating mirrors of the tiny cabin,brought us a hundred visitors.The men fathomed out her dimensions with their arms,as their fathers fathomed out the ships of Cook;the women declared the cabins more lovely than a church;bouncing Junos were never weary of sitting in the chairs and contemplating in the glass their own bland images;and I have seen one lady strip up her dress,and,with cries of wonder and delight,rub herself bare-breeched upon the velvet cushions.Biscuit,jam,and syrup was the entertainment;and,as in European parlours,the photograph album went the round.This sober gallery,their everyday costumes and physiognomies,had become transformed,in three weeks'sailing,into things wonderful and rich and foreign;alien faces,barbaric dresses,they were now beheld and fingered,in the swerving cabin,with innocent excitement and surprise.Her Majesty was often recognised,and I have seen French subjects kiss her photograph;Captain Speedy -in an Abyssinian war-dress,supposed to be the uniform of the British army -met with much acceptance;and the effigies of Mr.Andrew Lang were admired in the Marquesas.There is the place for him to go when he shall be weary of Middlesex and Homer.
第4章 MAKING FRIENDS(1)（2 / 3）