Article #343-2 | Gutenberg Articles

Excerpt

Excerpt from Fables, by Robert Louis Stevenson

The natives told him many tales. In particular, they warned him of the
house of yellow reeds tied with black sinnet, how any one who touched it
became instantly the prey of Akaanga, and was handed on to him by Miru
the ruddy, and hocussed with the kava of the dead, and baked in the ovens
and eaten by the eaters of the dead.

"There is nothing in it," said the missionary.

There was a bay upon that island, a very fair bay to look upon; but, by
the native saying, it was death to bathe there. "There is nothing in
that," said the missionary; and he came to the bay, and went swimming.
Presently an eddy took him and bore him towards the reef. "Oho!" thought
the missionary, "it seems there is something in it after all." And he
swam the harder, but the eddy carried him away. "I do not care about
this eddy," said the missionary; and even as he said it, he was aware of
a house raised on piles above the sea; it was built of yellow reeds, one
reed joined with another, and the whole bound with black sinnet; a ladder
led to the door, and all about the house hung calabashes. He had never
seen such a house, nor yet such calabashes; and the eddy set for the
ladder. "This is singular," said the missionary, "but there can be
nothing in it." And he laid hold of the ladder and went up. It was a
fine house; but there was no man there; and when the missionary looked
back he saw no island, only the heaving of the sea. "It is strange about
the island," said the missionary, "but who's afraid? my stories are the
true ones." And he laid hold of a calabash, for he was one that loved
curiosities. Now he had no sooner laid hand upon the calabash than that
which he handled, and that which he saw and stood on, burst like a bubble
and was gone; and night closed upon him, and the waters, and the meshes
of the net; and he wallowed there like a fish.

Explanation

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Fables (1896) is a collection of short, allegorical tales that blend moral lessons with eerie, folkloric elements. The excerpt you’ve provided—often titled "The House of the Yellow Reeds"—is a darkly ironic fable about hubris, cultural arrogance, and the dangers of dismissing indigenous knowledge. Stevenson, who spent time in the Pacific Islands (including Samoa, where he died), was deeply influenced by Polynesian oral traditions, and this story reflects his engagement with colonial encounters, superstition, and the limits of rationalism.

Textual Analysis: Themes, Structure, and Literary Devices

1. The Conflict: Rationalism vs. Indigenous Knowledge

The fable centers on a missionary—a symbol of Western rationality, religious dogma, and colonial authority—who scoffs at the warnings of the island’s natives. His repeated dismissal ("There is nothing in it") establishes his hubris and blind faith in his own worldview. The natives, meanwhile, represent indigenous wisdom, their warnings framed as both literal and metaphorical truths.

First Warning (The House of Yellow Reeds): The natives describe a cursed house where those who touch it are sacrificed to Akaanga (a god or demon), passed to Miru the ruddy (likely a reference to a fiery underworld figure), drugged with "kava of the dead" (a ritual drink associated with the afterlife), and ultimately eaten by cannibals. The missionary’s response—"There is nothing in it"—is both a rejection of their beliefs and a foreshadowing of his downfall.
Second Warning (The Forbidden Bay): The bay is "death to bathe there," yet the missionary ignores this too, embodying the colonial assumption of superiority over "primitive" fears. His initial confidence ("I do not care about this eddy") crumbles as the natural world (the eddy) defies his control, pulling him toward the very house he dismissed.

2. The Supernatural Trap: Symbolism and Irony

The missionary’s journey into the bay and toward the house is a gradual unraveling of his certainty. Stevenson uses sensory and spatial disorientation to mirror the missionary’s psychological collapse:

The House’s Uncanny Details:
- Yellow reeds bound with black sinnet: The colors (yellow often symbolizing decay or warning, black representing death) hint at the house’s unnatural nature.
- Built on piles above the sea: A liminal space, neither land nor water, suggesting a threshold between life and death.
- Calabashes (gourds) hanging around it: In Polynesian culture, calabashes can hold food, water, or even sacred substances—here, they may symbolize false abundance or traps for the unwary.
The Disappearing Island: When the missionary looks back, "he saw no island, only the heaving of the sea." This moment is surreal and existential—his reality is dissolving, yet he clings to denial ("who's afraid? my stories are the true ones"). His "stories" (Christian doctrine, Western logic) are contrasted with the living truth of the natives’ warnings.
The Calabash as the Trigger: The missionary’s fatal curiosity (he "loved curiosities") leads him to touch the calabash, which causes the house—and his perceived reality—to "burst like a bubble." This suggests that the house was an illusion sustained by his disbelief; once he engages with it, the trap is sprung.

3. The Final Fate: Imagery of Entrapment

The last lines are visceral and nightmarish:

"night closed upon him, and the waters, and the meshes of the net; and he wallowed there like a fish."

"Meshes of the net": Implies he is caught, perhaps by the god Akaanga or by the consequences of his arrogance. Nets in Pacific cultures can symbolize fate, hunting, or ritual capture.
"Wallowed there like a fish": A brutal irony—the missionary, who saw himself as a higher being (a man of God, a civilizer), is reduced to the level of prey, flailing helplessly in the very element (water) he thought he could master.

4. Literary Devices

Dramatic Irony: The reader (and the natives) know the truth, but the missionary remains blind until it’s too late.
Foreshadowing: The natives’ warnings are specific and ritualistic, hinting at the missionary’s fate (being "eaten" could be literal or metaphorical—consumed by his own ignorance).
Symbolism:
- The house = a test of faith vs. superstition, or the lure of colonial curiosity.
- The eddies = forces beyond human control (nature, fate, or the spirits the natives revere).
- The calabash = the point of no return, a forbidden knowledge (like Pandora’s box or the Bible’s forbidden fruit).
Minimalist Horror: Stevenson’s prose is restrained yet chilling, letting the reader’s imagination fill in the grotesque details (e.g., being "baked in the ovens").

Significance and Interpretation

Critique of Colonial Arrogance: The missionary represents European colonialism’s dismissal of indigenous knowledge. His fate is a warning about the dangers of cultural imperialism—assuming that one’s own beliefs are universally "true" while ignoring local wisdom.
Faith vs. Reality: The missionary’s dogmatic certainty ("my stories are the true ones") is his undoing. The fable suggests that truth is not always what we believe it to be, and that some knowledge is earned through humility, not assertion.
The Limits of Rationalism: Stevenson, who was fascinated by the duality of human nature (see Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), explores how reason fails in the face of the supernatural or the unknown. The missionary’s science and faith cannot save him from forces he refuses to acknowledge.
Pacific Cultural Context: The fable draws on Polynesian mythology, where taboos (tapu) and spirits (atua or akaanga) govern natural and moral order. The missionary’s violation of these taboos leads to his spiritual and physical consumption—a common theme in Pacific cautionary tales.
Existential Horror: The story’s power lies in its ambiguity. Is the house real? Is it a metaphor for cultural erasure (the missionary being "digested" by the island’s beliefs)? Or is it a psychological unraveling (his mind breaking under the weight of his contradictions)? Stevenson leaves it open, making the horror more potent.

Conclusion: The Moral of the Fable

The fable’s lesson is twofold:

Hubris is fatal. The missionary’s refusal to listen—to hear, respect, or adapt—leads to his destruction.
Some truths are beyond logic. The natives’ warnings are not "superstition" but embodied knowledge, and dismissing them as "nothing" is the height of folly.

Stevenson, writing at the height of European colonialism, crafts a haunting parable about the clash of worldviews and the perils of absolute certainty. The missionary’s end—trapped, disoriented, and reduced to prey—is a grim reminder that ignorance is not bliss; it is a death sentence.

Would you like a deeper dive into any specific aspect, such as the Polynesian influences or comparisons to Stevenson’s other works?

Questions

Question 1

The missionary’s repeated assertion that “there is nothing in it” serves primarily to:

A. establish his intellectual superiority over the natives’ “primitive” beliefs, reinforcing the colonial trope of civilizational hierarchy.
B. create dramatic tension by delaying the inevitable confrontation with the supernatural, a technique common in Gothic literature.
C. expose the fragility of rationalism when confronted with forces that defy empirical explanation, underscoring the fable’s critique of dogmatic certainty.
D. highlight the missionary’s psychological instability, suggesting his dismissals are a defense mechanism against latent fear.
E. parody religious zealotry by framing his skepticism as a form of inverse faith, where disbelief itself becomes an article of doctrine.

Question 2

The calabashes in the house most plausibly function as a symbolic representation of:

A. the missionary’s subconscious desire for material acquisition, mirroring colonial exploitation of indigenous artifacts.
B. the hollow promises of Western materialism, their emptiness foreshadowing the missionary’s spiritual void.
C. sacred vessels of indigenous ritual, their presence marking the house as a liminal space between the profane and the divine.
D. a test of the missionary’s resolve, their allure designed to exploit his intellectual curiosity as a fatal flaw.
E. the cyclical nature of oral tradition, each calabash containing a story that the missionary, in his arrogance, refuses to hear.

Question 3

The eddy that carries the missionary toward the reef and the house is best understood as:

A. a natural phenomenon misinterpreted as supernatural, illustrating the natives’ tendency to anthropomorphize the environment.
B. a metaphor for the inexorable pull of fate, suggesting that the missionary’s downfall is predestined regardless of his choices.
C. an embodiment of the island’s agency, the eddy acting as a deliberate force to enforce the taboo he has violated.
D. a psychological projection of the missionary’s guilt, his subconscious driving him toward the consequences of his hubris.
E. a narrative device to accelerate the plot, its role purely functional rather than thematically significant.

Question 4

The missionary’s observation that “he saw no island, only the heaving of the sea” implies that:

A. his perceptual framework has collapsed, revealing that his “reality” was contingent on his refusal to acknowledge the natives’ warnings.
B. the island was an illusion all along, exposing the story as an allegory for the unreliability of human perception.
C. he has crossed into a literal afterlife, the disappearance of the island marking his transition from the living world.
D. the natives’ warnings were a collective hallucination, and the missionary’s skepticism is vindicated in his final moments.
E. the house exists in a parallel dimension, its appearance dependent on the observer’s cultural lens.

Question 5

The fable’s conclusion—“night closed upon him, and the waters, and the meshes of the net”—is most thematically resonant with which of the following ideas?

A. The inevitability of death as a universal equalizer, stripping away the missionary’s identity and reducing him to mere biology.
B. The triumph of indigenous justice, the net symbolizing the collective retribution of the oppressed against the colonizer.
C. The missionary’s spiritual rebirth, the net representing the constraints of dogma he must now transcend.
D. The absorption of the individual into a cosmic order that operates beyond human moral or rational frameworks.
E. The cyclical nature of violence, the net evoking the tools of both fishing (sustenance) and warfare (destruction).

Solutions and Explanations

1) Correct answer: C

Why C is most correct: The missionary’s insistence that “there is nothing in it” is not merely a plot device or a character quirk but a structural critique of rationalist dogmatism. Stevenson uses the repetition to highlight how the missionary’s faith in empiricism (or his Christian doctrine) becomes its own kind of blindness. The fable’s power lies in showing that some truths—particularly those rooted in cultural or spiritual traditions—cannot be dismissed by rationalist skepticism alone. His downfall is precisely because he treats the warnings as literal falsehoods rather than as metaphors for deeper, non-empirical realities. This aligns with Stevenson’s broader interest in the limits of human knowledge (e.g., Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde).