Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/207

Rh that brought some little sympathy from the natives. He was working as usual in the taro patch, but in an old pit. He was half knee deep in the mud, and with his hands as a spade was seizing the mud and casting it behind him. It was about ten in the morning, the sun now shining well down over the tops of the cocoanut trees. Suddenly he went out of life, dropping as if dead, and all consciousness snuffed out, quickly as a candle might be extingushed. Upon coming to again, which was a gradual return, he found himself lying on the bank next the pit, and the sun was not over an hour high. He had been unconscious about seven hours. He heard voices near; it was the natives talking about him, repeating "Samoriat Temit" Temit is dead, perhaps as a sort of rite. They were greatly astonished and showed considerable pleasure when he began to stir. "Temit"; was the name given him, the significance of which, however, Mr. Holden does not know. When he rose they brought him what they thought he needed to eat and drink.

This was procured from the cocoanut palm near by. A boy was sent up the tree, and a large cocoanut was selected and thrown to the ground. This was properly ripe, not bursting as those but two thirds ripe are wont to do. The husk was quickly removed and the one free eye—two of the three eyes are "blind," and it is from the free or open eye that the milk is drawn and the shoot springs—was opened and he was told to drink. He took a portion and returned it to his master, who, however, gave it back, and he then drank all. The shell was then broken and the soft, delicious meat—such as is never seen in the shriveled meats that we see—was given him, and he ate the whole of it. He was, in fact, dying of hunger, having been allowed nothing the morning he went to work or the night before.

He had now became the property of a leading man of