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By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories

Chapter 21: FOOTNOTES:
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About This Book

A collection of short tales anchored on Pacific and Australasian shores that portrays the routines and dangers of coastal life, from fishing expeditions and surf navigation to shipwrecks and funerals. Episodes depict encounters between island communities and visiting traders or sailors, often turning on skill, honor, or survival. Vivid seascapes and reef geography set the scene for personal conflicts and communal responses, while several pieces adopt a practical, travelogue tone offering advice for voyagers. Across varied vignettes the work balances atmospheric description with concise incidents that illuminate local customs, seamanship, and the precarious relationship between land and sea.

FOOTNOTES:

1 : Literally, "clear crony."

2 : Port.

3 : Happiness.

4 : A libertine, profligate.

5 : My love to you, Pâkía; are you well?

6 : White foreigners.

7 : Frank.

8 : Small-pox.

9 : An accordion.

10 : Idler, gad about—a Samoan expression.

11 : German.

12 : The Tokelau and Ellice Islanders are much amused at the white man's method of hauling in a heavy fish hand over hand. This to them is " faka fafine "—i.e., like a woman.

13 : Cayse.

14 : NOTE BY THE PUBLISHER.—This incident is related by the author in "By Reef and Palm" under the title of "The Rangers of the Tia Kau."

15 : PUBLISHER'S NOTE.—This Alan Strickland is the "Allan" who has so frequently figured in the author's other tales of South Sea life, notably in the works entitled "By Reef and Palm" and "The Ebbing of the Tide."

16 : Councillors.

17 : Apo! lima ! "Be quick with your hand!" The passage is narrow and dangerous, even for canoes, and the steersman, as he watches the rolling surf, calls out Apo, lau lima ! to his crew—an expression synonymous to our nautical, "Pull like the devil!"