One was
Carin-Jama, otherwise The Silent; and the other was Bellin-Jama, The
Boaster. Both had served on the Queensland plantations in the old days,
and they were known as evil characters wherever white men met and gammed.
"We fella boy we want 'm them dam two black fella Mary," said
Bellin-Jama.
"What you do along black fella Mary?" Sheldon asked.
"Kill 'm," said Bellin-Jama.
"What name you fella boy talk along me?" Sheldon demanded, with a show of
rising anger. "Big bell he ring. You no belong along here. You belong
along field. Bime by, big fella bell he ring, you stop along _kai-kai_,
you come talk along me about two fella Mary. Now all you boy get along
out of here."
The gang waited to see what Bellin-Jama would do, and Bellin-Jama stood
still.
"Me no go," he said.
"You watch out, Bellin-Jama," Sheldon said sharply, "or I send you along
Tulagi one big fella lashing. My word, you catch 'm strong fella."
Bellin-Jama glared up belligerently.
"You want 'm fight," he said, putting up his fists in approved, returned-
Queenslander style.
Now, in the Solomons, where whites are few and blacks are many, and where
the whites do the ruling, such an offer to fight is the deadliest insult.
Blacks are not supposed to dare so highly as to offer to fight a white
man.
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