[39] "Iko
there"--and he pointed to a stalwart Papuan who stood by the
funnel--"is the only one of us who has seen them and can speak their
tongue.
"It is dangerous for your wife to go among these people," he went on,
turning to Mr. Abel, "but she will help us more than anything else
possibly can to make friends." And Mr. Abel nodded, for he knew that
when the Papuans mean to fight they send their women and children
away; and that when they saw Mrs. Abel they would believe that the
white people came as friends and not enemies.
As the steamer carried this scouting party against the swift current
up the river toward Iala, Tamate wanted to find how far up the river
the village lay. So he beckoned Iko to him. Tamate did not know a word
of the dialect which Iko spoke, but he had with him an old wrinkled
Papuan, who knew Iko's language, and who looked out with worshipping
eyes at the great white man who was his friend. So Tamate, wishing
to ask Iko how far away the village of Iala was, spoke first to old
Vaaburi,[40] and then Vaaburi asked Iko.
Iko stretched out his dark forefinger, and made them understand that
that finger meant the length of their journey to Iala. Then with his
other hand he touched his forefinger under the second joint to show
how far they had travelled on their journey--not a third of the
distance.
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