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diff --git a/old/14384.txt b/old/14384.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9a6cba --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14384.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14093 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, White Shadows in the South Seas, by Frederick +O'Brien + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: White Shadows in the South Seas + +Author: Frederick O'Brien + +Release Date: December 20, 2004 [eBook #14384] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS*** + + +E-text prepared by Brendan Lane, Robert Prince, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 14384-h.htm or 14384-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/8/14384/14384-h/14384-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/8/14384/14384-h.zip) + + + + + +WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS + +by + +FREDERICK O'BRIEN + +With Many Illustrations from Photographs + +T. Werner Laurie, Ltd. + +1919 + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Village of Atuona, showing peak of Temetiu +The author's house is the small white speck in the center] + + + + +FOREWORD + +There is in the nature of every man, I firmly believe, a longing to +see and know the strange places of the world. Life imprisons us all +in its coil of circumstance, and the dreams of romance that color +boyhood are forgotten, but they do not die. They stir at the sight +of a white-sailed ship beating out to the wide sea; the smell of +tarred rope on a blackened wharf, or the touch of the cool little +breeze that rises when the stars come out will waken them again. +Somewhere over the rim of the world lies romance, and every heart +yearns to go and find it. + +It is not given to every man to start on the quest of the rainbow's +end. Such fantastic pursuit is not for him who is bound by ties of +home and duty and fortune-to-make. He has other adventure at his own +door, sterner fights to wage, and, perhaps, higher rewards to gain. +Still, the ledgers close sometimes on a sigh, and by the cosiest +fireside one will see in the coals pictures that have nothing to do +with wedding rings or balances at the bank. + +It is for those who stay at home yet dream of foreign places that I +have written this book, a record of one happy year spent among the +simple, friendly cannibals of Atuona valley, on the island of +Hiva-oa in the Marquesas. In its pages there is little of profound +research, nothing, I fear, to startle the anthropologist or to +revise encyclopedias; such expectation was far from my thoughts when +I sailed from Papeite on the _Morning Star_. I went to see what I +should see, and to learn whatever should be taught me by the days as +they came. What I saw and what I learned the reader will see and +learn, and no more. + +Days, like people, give more when they are approached in not too +stern a spirit. So I traveled lightly, without the heavy baggage of +the ponderous-minded scholar, and the reader who embarks with me on +the "long cruise" need bring with him only an open mind and a love +for the strange and picturesque. He will come back, I hope, as I did, +with some glimpses into the primitive customs of the long-forgotten +ancestors of the white race, a deeper wonder at the mysteries of the +world, and a memory of sun-steeped days on white beaches, of palms +and orchids and the childlike savage peoples who live in the +bread-fruit groves of "Bloody Hiva-oa." + +The author desires to express here his thanks to Rose Wilder Lane, +to whose editorial assistance the publication of this book is very +largely due. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I + +Farewell to Papeite beach; at sea in the _Morning Star_; Darwin's +theory of the continent that sank beneath the waters of the South +Seas + +CHAPTER II + +The trade-room of the _Morning Star_; Lying Bill Pincher; +M. L'Hermier des Plantes, future governor of the Marquesas; +story of McHenry and the little native boy, His Dog + +CHAPTER III + +Thirty-seven days at sea; life of the sea-birds; strange +phosphorescence; first sight of Fatu-hiva; history of the islands; +chant of the Raiateans + +CHAPTER IV + +Anchorage of Taha-Uka; Exploding Eggs, and his engagement as valet; +inauguration of the new governor; dance on the palace lawn + +CHAPTER V + +First night in Atuona valley; sensational arrival of the Golden Bed; +Titihuti's tattooed legs + +CHAPTER VI + +Visit of Chief Seventh Man Who is So Angry He Wallows in the Mire; +journey to Vait-hua on Tahuata island; fight with the devil-fish; +story of a cannibal feast and the two who escaped + +CHAPTER VII + +Idyllic valley of Vait-hua; the beauty of Vanquished Often; bathing +on the beach; an unexpected proposal of marriage + +CHAPTER VIII + +Communal life; sport in the waves; fight of the sharks and the +mother whale; a day in the mountains; death of Le Capitaine Halley; +return to Atuona + +CHAPTER IX + +The Marquesans at ten o'clock mass; a remarkable conversation about +religions and Joan of Arc in which Great Fern gives his idea of the +devil + +CHAPTER X + +The marriage of Malicious Gossip; matrimonial customs of the simple +natives; the domestic difficulties of Haabuani + +CHAPTER XI + +Filling the _popoi_ pits in the season of the breadfruit; legend of +the _mei_; the secret festival in a hidden valley + +CHAPTER XII + +A walk in the jungle; the old woman in the breadfruit tree; a night +in a native hut on the mountain + +CHAPTER XIII + +The household of Lam Kai Oo; copra making; marvels of the +cocoanut-groves; the sagacity of pigs; and a crab that knows the +laws of gravitation + +CHAPTER XIV + +Visit of Le Moine; the story of Paul Gauguin; his house, and a +search for his grave beneath the white cross of Calvary + +CHAPTER XV + +Death of Aumia; funeral chant and burial customs; causes for the +death of a race + +CHAPTER XVI + +A savage dance, a drama of the sea, of danger and feasting; the rape +of the lettuce + +CHAPTER XVII + +A walk to the Forbidden Place; Hot Tears, the hunchback; the story +of Behold the Servant of the Priest, told by Malicious Gossip in the +cave of Enamoa + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A search for rubber-trees on the plateau of Ahoa; a fight with the +wild white dogs; story of an ancient migration, told by the wild +cattle hunters in the Cave of the Spine of the Chinaman + +CHAPTER XIX + +A feast to the men of Motopu; the making of _kava_, and its drinking; +the story of the Girl Who Lost Her Strength + +CHAPTER XX + +A journey to Taaoa; Kahuiti, the cannibal chief, and his story of an +old war caused by an unfaithful woman + +CHAPTER XXI + +The crime of Huahine for love of Weaver of Mats; story of Tahia's +white man who was eaten; the disaster that befell Honi, the white +man who used his harpoon against his friends + +CHAPTER XXII + +The memorable game for the matches in the cocoanut-grove of Lam Kai +Oo + +CHAPTER XXIII + +Mademoiselle N---- + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A journey to Nuka-hiva; story of the celebration of the fete of Joan +of Arc, and the miracles of the white horse and the girl + +CHAPTER XXV + +America's claim to the Marquesas; adventures of Captain Porter in +1812; war between Haapa and Tai-o-hae, and the conquest of Typee +valley + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A visit to Typee; story of the old man who returned too late + +CHAPTER XXVII + +Journey on the _Roberta_; the winged cockroaches; arrival at a Swiss +paradise in the valley of Oomoa + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +Labor in the South Seas; some random thoughts on the "survival of +the fittest" + +CHAPTER XXIX + +The white man who danced in Oomoa valley; a wild-boar hunt in the +hills; the feast of the triumphant hunters and a dance in honor of +Grelet + +CHAPTER XXX + +A visit to Hanavave; Pere Olivier at home; the story of the last +battle between Hanahouua and Oi, told by the sole survivor; the +making of _tapa_ cloth, and the ancient garments of the Marquesans + +CHAPTER XXXI + +Fishing in Hanavave; a deep-sea battle with a shark; Red Chicken +shows how to tie ropes to sharks' tails; night-fishing for dolphins, +and the monster sword-fish that overturned the canoe; the native +doctor dresses Red Chicken's wounds and discourses on medicine + +CHAPTER XXXII + +A journey over the roof of the world to Oomoa; an encounter with a +wild woman of the hills + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +Return in a canoe to Atuona; Tetuahunahuna relates the story of the +girl who rode the white horse in the celebration of the fete of Joan +of Arc in Tai-o-hae; Proof that sharks hate women; steering by the +stars to Atuona beach + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +Sea sports; curious sea-foods found at low tide; the peculiarities +of sea-centipedes and how to cook and eat them + +CHAPTER XXXV + +Court day in Atuona; the case of Daughter of the Pigeon and the +sewing-machine; the story of the perfidy of Drink of Beer and the +death of Earth Worm who tried to kill the governor + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +The madman Great Moth of the Night; story of the famine and the one +family that ate pig + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +A visit to the hermit of Taha-Uka valley; the vengeance that made +the Scallamera lepers; and the hatred of Mohuto + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +Last days in Atuona; My Darling Hope's letter from her son + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +The chants of departure; night falls on the Land of the War Fleet + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +Village of Atuona, showing peak of Temetiu + +Beach at Viataphiha-Tahiti + +Where the belles of Tahiti lived in the shade to whiten their +complexions + +Lieutenant L'Hermier des Plantes, Governor of the Marquesas Islands + +Entrance to a Marquesan Bay + +The ironbound coast of the Marquesas + +A road in Nuka-Hiva + +Harbor of Tai-o-hae + +Schooner _Fetia Taiao_ in the Bay of Traitors + +Andre Bauda, Commissaire + +The public dance in the garden + +Antoinette, a Marquesan dancing girl + +Marquesans in Sunday clothes + +Vai Etienne + +The pool by the Queen's house + +Idling away the sunny hours + +Nothing to do but rest all day + +Catholic Church at Atuona + +A native spearing fish from a rock + +A volunteer cocoanut grove, with trees of all ages + +Climbing for cocoanuts + +Splitting cocoanut husks in copra making process + +Cutting the meat from cocoanuts to make copra + +A Marquesan home on a _paepae_ + +Isle of Barking Dogs + +The _haka_, the Marquesan national dance + +Hot Tears with Vai Etienne + +The old cannibal of Taipi Valley + +Enacting a human sacrifice of the Marquesans + +Interior of Island of Fatu-hiva, where the author walked over the +mountains + +The plateau of Ahoa + +Kivi, the _kava_ drinker with the _hetairae_ of the valley + +A pool in the jungle + +The Pekia, or Place of Sacrifice, at Atuona + +Marquesan cannibals, wearing dress of human hair + +Tepu, a Marquesan girl of the hills, and her sister + +A tattooed Marquesan with carved canoe paddle + +A chieftess in _tapa_ garments with _tapa_ parasol + +Launching the whale-boat + +Pere Simeon Delmas' church at Tai-o-hae + +Gathering the _feis_ in the mountains + +Near the Mission at Hanavave + +Starting from Hanavave for Oomoa + +Feis, or mountain bananas + +Where river and bay meet at Oomoa, Island of Fatu-hiva + +Sacred banyan tree at Oomoa + +Elephantiasis of the legs + +Removing the pig cooked in the _umu_, or native oven + +The _Koina Kai_, or feast in Oomoa + +Beach at Oomoa + +Putting the canoe in the water + +Pascual, the giant Paumotan pilot and his friends + +A pearl diver's sweetheart + +Spearing fish in Marquesas Islands + +Pearl shell divers at work + +Catholic Church at Hanavave + +A canoe in the surf at Oomoa + +The gates of the Valley of Hanavave + +A fisherman's house of bamboo and cocoanut leaves + +Double canoes + +Harbor sports + +Tahaiupehe, Daughter of the Pigeon, of Taaoa + +Nataro Puelleray and wife + + + +Author's Note. Foreign words in a book are like rocks in a path. There +are two ways of meeting the difficulty; the reader may leap over them, +or use them as stepping stones. I have written this book so that they +may easily be leaped over by the hasty, but he will lose much enjoyment +by doing so; I would urge him to pronounce them as he goes. Marquesan +words have a flavor all their own; much of the simple poetry of the +islands is in them. The rules for pronouncing them are simple; +consonants have the sounds usual in English, vowels have the Latin +value, that is, a is ah, e is ay, i is ee, o is oh, and u is oo. +Every letter is pronounced, and there are no accents. The Marquesans +had no written language, and their spoken tongue was reproduced as +simply as possible by the missionaries. + + + + +WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS + + + +CHAPTER I + +Farewell to Papeite beach; at sea in the _Morning Star_; Darwin's +theory of the continent that sank beneath the waters of the South +Seas. + + +By the white coral wall of Papeite beach the schooner _Fetia +Taiao_ (_Morning Star_) lay ready to put to sea. Beneath the +skyward-sweeping green heights of Tahiti the narrow shore was a mass +of colored gowns, dark faces, slender waving arms. All Papeite, +flower-crowned and weeping, was gathered beside the blue lagoon. + +Lamentation and wailing followed the brown sailors as they came over +the side and slowly began to cast the moorings that held the _Morning +Star_. Few are the ships that sail many seasons among the Dangerous +Islands. They lay their bones on rock or reef or sink in the deep, +and the lovers, sons and husbands of the women who weep on the beach +return no more to the huts in the cocoanut groves. So, at each sailing +on the "long course" the anguish is keen. + +"_Ia ora na i te Atua!_ Farewell and God keep you!" the women cried +as they stood beside the half-buried cannon that serve to make fast +the ships by the coral bank. From the deck of the nearby _Hinano_ +came the music of an accordeon and a chorus of familiar words: + + "I teie nie mahana + Ne tere no oe e Hati + Na te Moana!" + + "Let us sing and make merry, + For we journey over the sea!" + +It was the _Himene Tatou Arearea_. Kelly, the wandering I.W.W., +self-acclaimed delegate of the mythical Union of Beach-combers and +Stowaways, was at the valves of the accordeon, and about him +squatted a ring of joyous natives. "_Wela ka hao!_ Hot stuff!" they +shouted. + +Suddenly Caroline of the Marquesas and Mamoe of Moorea, most +beautiful dancers of the quays, flung themselves into the _upaupahura_, +the singing dance of love. Kelly began "Tome! Tome!" a Hawaiian hula. +Men unloading cargo on the many schooners dropped their burdens and +began to dance. Rude squareheads of the fo'c'sles beat time with +pannikins. Clerks in the traders' stores and even Marechel, the +barber, were swept from counters and chairs by the sensuous melody, +and bareheaded in the white sun they danced beneath the crowded +balconies of the Cercle Bougainville, the club by the lagoon. The +harbor of Papeite knew ten minutes of unrestrained merriment, tears +forgotten, while from the warehouse of the navy to the Poodle Stew +cafe the hula reigned. + +[Illustration: Beach at Viataphiha-Tahiti] + +[Illustration: Where the belles of Tahiti lived in the shade to +whiten their complexions.] + +Under the gorgeous flamboyant trees that paved their shade with +red-gold blossoms a group of white men sang: + + "Well, ah fare you well, we can stay no more with you, my love, + Down, set down your liquor and the girl from off your knee, + For the wind has come to say + 'You must take me while you may, + If you'd go to Mother Carey!' + (Walk her down to Mother Carey!) + Oh, we're bound for Mother Carey where she feeds her chicks at sea!" + +The anchor was up, the lines let go, and suddenly from the sea came +a wind with rain. + +The girls from the Cocoanut House, a flutter of brilliant scarlet +and pink gowns, fled for shelter, tossing blossoms of the sweet +tiati Tahiti toward their sailor lovers as they ran. Marao, the +haughty queen, drove rapidly away in her old chaise, the Princess +Boots leaning out to wave a slender hand. Prince Hinoi, the fat +spendthrift who might have been a king, leaned from the balcony of +the club, glass in hand, and shouted, "_Aroha i te revaraa!_" across +the deserted beach. + +So we left Papeite, the gay Tahitian capital, while a slashing +downpour drowned the gay flamboyant blossoms, our masts and rigging +creaking in the gale, and sea breaking white on the coral reef. + +Like the weeping women, who doubtless had already dried their tears, +the sky began to smile before we reached the treacherous pass in the +outer reef. Beyond Moto Utu, the tiny islet in the harbor that had +been harem and fort in kingly days, we saw the surf foaming on the +coral, and soon were through the narrow channel. + +We had lifted no canvas in the lagoon, using only our engine to +escape the coral traps. Past the ever-present danger, with the wind +now half a gale and the rain falling again in sheets--the +intermittent deluge of the season--the _Morning Star_, under reefed +foresail, mainsail and staysail, pointed her delicate nose toward the +Dangerous Islands and hit hard the open sea. + +She rode the endlessly-tossing waves like a sea-gull, carrying her +head with a care-free air and dipping to the waves in jaunty fashion. +Her lines were very fine, tapering and beautiful, even to the eye of +a land-lubber. + +A hundred and six feet from stem to stern, twenty-three feet of beam +and ten feet of depth, she was loaded to water's edge with cargo for +the islands to which we were bound. Lumber lay in the narrow lanes +between cabin-house and rails; even the lifeboats were piled with +cargo. Those who reckon dangers do not laugh much in these seas. +There was barely room to move about on the deck of the _Morning Star_; +merely a few steps were possible abaft the wheel amid the play of +main-sheet boom and traveler. Here, while my three fellow-passengers +went below, I stood gazing at the rain-whipped illimitable waters +ahead. + +Where is the boy who has not dreamed of the cannibal isles, those +strange, fantastic places over the rim of the world, where naked +brown men move like shadows through unimagined jungles, and horrid +feasts are celebrated to the "boom, boom, boom!" of the twelve-foot +drums? + +Years bring knowledge, paid for with the dreams of youth. The wide, +vague world becomes familiar, becomes even common-place. London, +Paris, Venice, many-colored Cairo, the desecrated crypts of the +pyramids, the crumbling villages of Palestine, no longer glimmer +before me in the iridescent glamor of fancy, for I have seen them. +But something of the boyish thrill that filled me when I pored over +the pages of Melville long ago returned while I stood on the deck of +the _Morning Star_, plunging through the surging Pacific in the +driving tropic rain. + +Many leagues before us lay Les Isles Dangereux, the Low Archipelago, +first stopping-point on our journey to the far cannibal islands yet +another thousand miles away across the empty seas. Before we saw the +green banners of Tahiti's cocoanut palms again we would travel not +only forward over leagues of tossing water but backward across +centuries of time. For in those islands isolated from the world for +eons there remains a living fragment of the childhood of our +Caucasian race. + +Darwin's theory is that these islands are the tops of a submerged +continent, or land bridge, which stretches its crippled body along +the floor of the Pacific for thousands of leagues. A lost land, +whose epic awaits the singer; a mystery perhaps forever to be +unsolved. There are great monuments, graven objects, hieroglyphics, +customs and languages, island peoples with suggestive legends--all, +perhaps, remnants of a migration from Asia or Africa a hundred +thousand years ago. + +Over this land bridge, mayhap, ventured the Caucasian people, the +dominant blood in Polynesia to-day, and when the continent fell from +the sight of sun and stars save in those spots now the mountainous +islands like Tahiti and the Marquesas, the survivors were isolated +for untold centuries. + +Here in these islands the brothers of our long-forgotten ancestors +have lived and bred since the Stone Age, cut off from the main +stream of mankind's development. Here they have kept the childhood +customs of our white race, savage and wild, amid their primitive and +savage life. Here, three centuries ago, they were discovered by the +peoples of the great world, and, rudely encountering a civilization +they did not build, they are dying here. With their passing vanishes +the last living link with our own pre-historic past. And I was to see +it, before it disappears forever. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The trade-room of the _Morning Star_; Lying Bill Pincher; +M. L'Hermier des Plantes, future governor of the Marquesas; +story of McHenry and the little native boy, His Dog. + + +"Come 'ave a drink!" Captain Pincher called from the cabin, and +leaving the spray-swept deck where the rain drummed on the canvas +awning I went down the four steps into the narrow cabin-house. + +The cabin, about twenty feet long, had a tiny semi-private room for +Captain Pincher, and four berths ranged about a table. Here, grouped +around a demijohn of rum, I found Captain Pincher with my three +fellow-passengers; McHenry and Gedge, the traders, and M. L'Hermier +des Plantes, a young officer of the French colonial army, bound to +the Marquesas to be their governor. + +The captain was telling the story of the wreck in which he had lost +his former ship. He had tied up to a reef for a game of cards with a +like-minded skipper, who berthed beside him. The wind changed while +they slept. Captain Pincher awoke to find his schooner breaking her +backs on the coral rocks. + +"Oo can say wot the blooming wind will do?" he said, thumping the +table with his glass. "There was Willy's schooner tied up next to me, +and 'e got a slant and slid away, while my boat busts 'er sides open +on the reef, The 'ole blooming atoll was 'eaped with the blooming +cargo. Willy 'ad luck; I 'ad 'ell. It's all an 'azard." + +He had not found his aitches since he left Liverpool, thirty years +earlier, nor dropped his silly expletives. A gray-haired, red-faced, +laughing man, stockily built, mild mannered, he proved, as the +afternoon wore on, to be a man from whom Muenchausen might have +gained a story or two. + +"They call me Lying Bill," he said to me. "You can't believe wot I +say." + +"He's straight as a mango tree, Bill Pincher is," McHenry asserted +loudly. "He's a terrible liar about stories, but he's the best +seaman that comes to T'yti, and square as a biscuit tin. You know how, +when that schooner was stole that he was mate on, and the rotten +thief run away with her and a woman, Bill he went after 'em, and +brought the schooner back from Chile. Bill, he's whatever he says he +is, all right--but he can sail a schooner, buy copra and shell cheap, +sell goods to the bloody natives, and bring back the money to the +owners. That's what I call an honest man." + +Lying Bill received these hearty words with something less than his +usual good-humor. There was no friendliness in his eye as he looked +at McHenry, whose empty glass remained empty until he himself +refilled it. Bullet-headed, beady-eyed, a chunk of rank flesh shaped +by a hundred sordid adventures, McHenry clutched at equality with +these men, and it eluded him. Lying Bill, making no reply to his +enthusiastic commendation, retired to his bunk with a paper-covered +novel, and to cover the rebuff McHenry turned to talk of trade with +Gedge, who spoke little. + +The traderoom of the _Morning Star_, opening from the cabin, was to +me the door to romance. When I was a boy there was more flavor in +traderooms than in war. To have seen one would have been as a +glimpse of the Holy Grail to a sworn knight. Those traderooms of my +youthful imagination smelt of rum and gun-powder, and beside them +were racks of rifles to repel the dusky figures coming over the +bulwarks. + +The traderoom of the _Morning Star_ was odorous, too. It had no +window, and when one opened the door all was obscure at first, while +smells of rank Tahiti tobacco, cheap cotton prints, a broken bottle +of perfume and scented soaps struggled for supremacy. Gradually the +eye discovered shelves and bins and goods heaped from floor to +ceiling; pins and anchors, harpoons and pens, crackers and jewelry, +cloth, shoes, medicine and tomahawks, socks and writing paper. + +Trade business, McHenry's monologue explained, is not what it was. +When these petty merchants dared not trust themselves ashore their +guns guarded against too eager customers. But now almost every +inhabited island has its little store, and the trader has to pursue +his buyers, who die so fast that he must move from island to island +in search of population. + +"Booze is boss," said McHenry. "I have two thousand pounds in bank +in Australia, all made by selling liquor to the natives. It's +against French law to sell or trade or give 'em a drop, but we all +do it. If you don't have it, you can't get cargo. In the diving +season it's the only damn thing that'll pass. The divers'll dig up +from five to fifteen dollars a bottle for it, depending on the +French being on the job or not. Ain't that so, Gedge?" + +"_C'est vrai_," Gedge assented. He spoke in French, ostensibly for +the benefit of M. L'Hermier des Plantes. That young governor of the +Marquesas was not given to saying much, his chief interest in life +appearing to be an ample black whisker, to which he devoted incessant +tender care. After a few words of broken English he had turned a +negligent attention to the pages of a Marquesan dictionary, in +preparation for his future labors among the natives. Gedge, however, +continued to talk in the language of courts. + +It was obvious that McHenry's twenty-five years in French +possessions had not taught him the white man's language. He demanded +brusquely, "What are you _oui-oui_-ing for?" and occasionally +interjected a few words of bastard French in an attempt to be jovial. +To this Gedge paid little attention. + +Gedge was chief of the commercial part of the expedition, and his +manner proclaimed it. Thin-lipped, cunning-eyed, but strong and +self-reliant, he was absorbed in the chances of trade. He had been +twenty years in the Marquesas islands. A shrewd man among kanakas, +unscrupulous by his own account, he had prospered. Now, after +selling his business, he was paying a last visit to his long-time +home to settle accounts. + +"'Is old woman is a barefoot girl among the cannibals," Lying Bill +said to me later. "'E 'as given a 'ole army of ostriches to fortune, +'e 'as." + +One of Captain Pincher's own sons was assistant to the engineer, +Ducat, and helped in the cargo work. The lad lived forward with the +crew, so that we saw nothing of him socially, and his father never +spoke to him save to give an order or a reprimand. Native mothers +mourn often the lack of fatherly affection in their white mates. +Illegitimate children are held cheap by the whites. + +[Illustration: Lieutenant L'Hermier des Plantes, Governor of the +Marquesas Islands] + +[Illustration: Entrance to a Marquesan bay] + +For two days at sea after leaving Papeite we did not see the sun. +This was the rainy and hot season, a time of calms and hurricanes, +of sudden squalls and maddening quietudes, when all signs fail and +the sailor must stand by for the whims of the wind if he would save +himself and his ship. For hours we raced along at seven or eight +knots, with a strong breeze on the quarter and the seas ruffling +about our prow. For still longer hours we pushed through a windless +calm by motor power. Showers fell incessantly. + +We lived in pajamas, barefooted, unshaven and unwashed. Fresh water +was limited, as it would be impossible to replenish our casks for +many weeks. McHenry said it was not difficult to accustom one's self +to lack of water, both externally and internally. + +There was a demijohn of strong Tahitian rum always on tap in the +cabin. Here we sat to eat and remained to drink and read and smoke. +There was Bordeaux wine at luncheon and dinner, Martinique and +Tahitian rum and absinthe between meals. The ship's bell was struck +by the steersman every half hour, and McHenry made it the knell of +an ounce. + +Captain Pincher took a jorum every hour or two and retired to his +berth and novels, leaving the navigation of the _Morning Star_ to +the under-officers. Ducat, the third officer, a Breton, joined us at +meals. He was a decent, clever fellow in his late twenties, +ambitious and clear-headed, but youthfully impressed by McHenry's +self-proclaimed wickedness. + +One night after dinner he and McHenry were bantering each other +after a few drinks of rum. McHenry said, "Say, how's your kanaka +woman?" + +Ducat's fingers tightened on his glass. Then, speaking English and +very precisely, he asked, "Do you mean my wife?" + +"I mean your old woman. What's this wife business?" + +"She is my wife, and we have two children." + +McHenry grinned. "I know all that. Didn't I know her before you? She +was mine first." + +Ducat got up. We all got up. The air became tense, and in the +silence there seemed no motion of ship or wave. I said to myself, +"This is murder." + +Ducat, very pale, an inscrutable look on his face, his black eyes +narrowed, said quietly, "Monsieur, do you mean that?" + +"Why, sure I do? Why shouldn't I mean it? It's true." + +None of us moved, but it was as if each of us stepped back, leaving +the two men facing each other. In this circle no one would interfere. +It was not our affair. Our detachment isolated the two--McHenry quite +drunk, in full command of his senses but with no controlling +intelligence; Ducat not at all drunk, studying the situation, +considering in his rage and humiliation what would best revenge him +on this man. + +Ducat spoke, "McHenry, come out of this cabin with me." + +"What for?" + +"Come with me." + +"Oh, all right, all right," McHenry said. + +We stepped back as they passed us. They went up the steps to the deck. +Ducat paused at the break of the poop and stood there, speaking to +McHenry. We could not hear his words. The schooner tossed idly, a +faint creaking of the rigging came down to us in the cabin. The same +question was in every eye. Then Ducat turned on his heel, and +McHenry was left alone. + +Our question was destined to remain unanswered. Whatever Ducat had +said, it was something that hushed McHenry forever. He never +mentioned the subject again, nor did any of us. But McHenry's +attitude had subtly changed. Ducat's words had destroyed that last +secret refuge of the soul in which every man keeps the vestiges of +self-justification and self-respect. + +McHenry sought me out that night while I sat on the cabin-house +gazing at the great stars of the Southern Cross, and began to talk. + +"Now take me," he said, "I'm not so bad. I'm as good as most people. +As a matter of fact, I ain't done anything more in my life than +anybody'd've done, if they had the chance. Look at me--I had a +singlet an' a pair of dungarees when I landed on the beach in T'yti, +an' look at me now! I ain't done so bad!" + +He must have felt the unconvincing ring of his tone, lacking the +full and complacent self-assurance usual to it, for as if groping +for something to make good the lack he sought backward through his +memories and unfolded bit by bit the tale of his experiences. Scotch +born of drunken parents, he had been reared in the slums of American +cities and the forecastles of American ships. A waif, newsboy, loafer, +gang-fighter and water-front pirate, he had come into the South Seas +twenty-five years earlier, shanghaied when drunk in San Francisco. +He looked back proudly on a quarter of a century of trading, thieving, +selling contraband rum and opium, pearl-buying and gambling. + +But this pride on which he had so long depended failed him now. +Successful fights that he had waged, profitable crimes committed, +grew pale upon his tongue. Listening in the darkness while the +engine drove us through a black sea and the canvas awning flapped +overhead, I felt the baffled groping behind his words. + +"So I don't take nothing from no man!" he boasted, and fell into +uneasy silence. "The folks in these islands know me, all right!" he +asserted, and again was dumb. + +"Now there was a kid, a little Penryn boy," he said suddenly. +"When I was a trader on Penryn he was there, and he used to come +around my store. That kid liked me. Why, that kid, he was crazy +about me! It's a fact, he was crazy about me, that kid was." + +His voice was fumbling back toward its old assurance, but there was +wonder in it, as though he was incredulous of this foothold he had +stumbled upon. He repeated, "That kid was crazy about me! + +"He used to hang around, and help me with the canned goods, and he'd +go fishing with me, and shooting. He was a regular--what do you call +'em? These dogs that go after things for you? He'd go under the +water and bring in the big fish for me. And he liked to do it. You +never saw anything like the way that kid was. + +"I used to let him come into the store and hang around, you know. +Not that I cared anything for the kid myself; I ain't that kind. But +I'd just give him some tinned biscuits now and then, the way you'd do. +He didn't have no father or mother. His father had been eaten by a +shark, and his mother was dead. The kid didn't have any name because +his mother had died so young he hadn't got any name, and his father +hadn't called him anything but boy. He give himself a name to me, +and that was 'Your Dog.' + +"He called himself my dog, you see. But his name for it was Your Dog, +and that was because he fetched and carried for me, like as if he +was one. He was that kind of kid. Not that I paid much attention to +him. + +"You know there's a leper settlement on Penryn, off across the lagoon. +I ain't afraid of leprosy y'understand, because I've dealt with 'em +for years, ate with 'em an' slept with 'em, an' all that, like +everybody down here. But all the same I don't want to have 'em right +around me all the time. So one day the doctor come to look over the +natives, and he come an' told me the little kid, My Dog, was a leper. + +"Now I wasn't attached to the kid. I ain't attached to nobody. I +ain't that kind of a man. But the kid was sort of used to me, and I +was used to havin' him around. He used to come in through the window. +He'd just come in, nights, and sit there an' never say a word. When +I was goin' to bed he'd say, 'McHenry, Your Dog is goin' now, but +can't Your Dog sleep here?' Well, I used to let him sleep on the +floor, no harm in that. But if he was a leper he'd got to go to the +settlement, so I told him so. + +"He made such a fuss, cryin' around--By God, I had to boot him out +of the place. I said: 'Get out. I don't want you snivelin' around me.' +So he went. + +"It's a rotten, God-forsaken place, I guess. I don't know. The +government takes care of 'em. It ain't my affair. I guess for a +leper colony it ain't so bad. + +"Anyway, I was goin' to sell out an' leave Penryn. The diving season +was over. One night I had the door locked an' was goin' over my +accounts to see if I couldn't collect some more dough from the +natives. I heard a noise, and By God! there comin' through the +window was My Dog. He come up to me, and I said: 'Stand away, there!' +I ain't afraid of leprosy, but there's no use takin' chances. You +never know. + +"Well sir, that kid threw himself down on the floor, and he said, +'McHenry, I knowed you was goin' away and I had to come to see you.' +That's what he said in his Kanaka lingo. + +"He was cryin', and he looked pretty bad. He said he couldn't stand +the settlement. He said, 'I don't never see you there. Can't I live +here an' be Your Dog again?' + +"I said, 'You got to go to the settlement.' I wasn't goin' to get +into trouble on account of no Kanaka kid. + +"Now, that kid had swum about five miles in the night, with sharks +all around him--the very place where his father had gone into a shark. +That kid thought a lot of me. Well, I made him go back. 'If you don't +go, the doctor will come, an' then you got to go,' I said. 'You +better get out. I'm goin' away, anyhow,' I said. I was figuring on +my accounts, an' I didn't want to be bothered with no fool kid. + +"Well, he hung around awhile, makin' a fuss, till I opened the door +an' told him to git. Then he went quiet enough. He went right down +the beach into the water an' swum away, back to the settlement. Now +look here, that kid liked me. He knowed me well, too--he was around +my store pretty near all the time I was in Penryn. He was a fool kid. +My Dog, that was the name he give himself. An' while I was in T'yti, +here, I get a letter from the trader that took over my store, and he +sent me a letter from that kid. It was wrote in Kanaka. He couldn't +write much, but a little. Here, I'll show you the letter. You'll see +what that kid thought of me." + +In the light from the open cabin window I read the letter, painfully +written on cheap, blue-lined paper. + +"Greetings to you, McHenry, in Tahiti, from Your Dog. It is hard to +live without you. It is long since I have seen you. It is hard. I go +to join my father. I give myself to the _mako_. To you, McHenry, from +Your Dog, greetings and farewell." + +Across the bottom of the letter was written in English: "The kid +disappeared from the leper settlement. They think he drowned himself." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Thirty-seven days at sea; life of the sea-birds; strange +phosphorescence; first sight of Fatu-hiva; history of the islands; +chant of the Raiateans. + + +Thirty-seven days at sea brought us to the eve of our landing in +Hiva-oa in the Marquesas. Thirty-seven monotonous days, varied only +by rain-squalls and sun, by calm or threatening seas, by the +changing sky. Rarely a passing schooner lifted its sail above the +far circle of the horizon. It was as though we journeyed through +space to another world. + +Yet all around us there was life--life in a thousand varying forms, +filling the sea and the air. On calm mornings the swelling waves +were splashed by myriads of leaping fish, the sky was the playground +of innumerable birds, soaring, diving, following their accustomed +ways through their own strange world oblivious of the human +creatures imprisoned on a bit of wood below them. Surrounded by a +universe filled with pulsing, sentient life clothed in such +multitudinous forms, man learns humility. He shrinks to a speck on +an illimitable ocean. + +I spent long afternoons lying on the cabin-house, watching the +frigates, the tropics, gulls, boobys, and other sea-birds that +sported through the sky in great numbers. The frigate-birds were +called by the sailors the man-of-war bird, and also the sea-hawk. +They are marvelous flyers, owing to the size of the pectoral muscles, +which compared with those of other birds are extraordinarily large. +They cannot rest on the water, but must sustain their flights from +land to land, yet here they were in mid-ocean. + +[Illustration: The ironbound coast of the Marquesas] + +[Illustration: A road in Nuka-Hiva] + +My eyes would follow one higher and higher till he became a mere dot +in the blue, though but a few minutes earlier he had risen from his +pursuit of fish in the water. He spread his wings fully and did not +move them as he climbed from air-level to air-level, but his long +forked tail expanded and closed continuously. + +Sighting a school of flying-fish, which had been driven to frantic +leaps from the sea by pursuing bonito, he begins to descend. First +his coming down is like that of an aeroplane, in spirals, but a +thousand feet from his prey he volplanes; he falls like a rocket, +and seizing a fish in the air, he wings his way again to the clouds. + +If he cannot find flying-fish, he stops gannets and terns in mid-air +and makes them disgorge their catch, which he seizes as it falls. +Refusal to give up the food is punished by blows on the head, but +the gannets and terns so fear the frigate that they seldom have the +courage to disobey. I think a better name for the frigate would be +pirate, for he is a veritable pirate of the air. Yet no law +restrains him. + +I observed that the male frigate has a red pouch under the throat +which he puffs up with air when he flies far. It must have some +other purpose, for the female lacks it, and she needs wind-power +more than the male. It is she who seeks the food when, having laid +her one egg on the sand, she goes abroad, leaving her husband to +keep the egg warm. + +The tropic-bird, often called the boatswain, or phaeton, also climbs +to great heights, and is seldom found out of these latitudes. He is +a beautiful bird, white, or rose-colored with long carmine +tail-feathers. In the sun these roseate birds are brilliant objects +as they fly jerkily against the bright blue sky, or skim over the sea, +rising and falling in their search for fish. I have seen them many +times with the frigates, with whom they are great friends. It would +appear that there is a bond between them; I have never seen the +frigate rob his beautiful companion. + +In such idle observations and the vague wonders that arose from them, +the days passed. An interminable game of cards progressed in the +cabin, in which I occasionally took a hand. Gedge and Lying Bill +exchanged reminiscences. McHenry drank steadily. The future governor +of the Marquesas added a _galon_ to his sleeves, marking his advance +to a first lieutenancy in the French colonial army. He was a very +soft, sleek man, a little worn already, his black hair a trifle thin, +but he was plump, his skin white as milk, and his jetty beard and +mustache elaborately cared for. He was much before the mirror, +combing and brushing and plucking. Compared to us unkempt wretches, +he was as a dandy to a tramp. + +The ice, which was packed in boxes of sawdust on deck, afforded one +cold drink in which to toast the gallant future governor, and that +was the last of it. At night the Tahitian sailors helped themselves, +and we bade farewell to ice until once more we saw Papeite. + +It was no refreshment to reflect that had we dredging apparatus long +enough we could procure from the sea-bottom buckets of ooze that +would have cooled our drinks almost to the freezing point. +Scientists have done this. Lying Bill was loth to believe the story +and the explanation, that an icy stream flows from the Antarctic +through a deep valley in the sea-depths. + +"It's contrar-iry to nature," he affirmed. "The depper you go the +'otter it is. In mines the 'eat is worse the farther down. And 'ow +about 'ell?" + +I slept on the deck. It was sickeningly hot below. The squalls had +passed, and as we neared Hiva-oa the sea became glassy smooth, but +the leagues-long, lazy roll of it rocked the schooner like a cradle. + +The night before the islands were to come into view the sea was lit +by phosphorescence so magnificently that even my shipmates, absorbed +in ecarte below, called to one another to view it. The engine took +us along at about six knots, and every gentle wave that broke was a +lamp of loveliness. The wake of the _Morning Star_ was a milky path +lit with trembling fragments of brilliancy, and below the surface, +beside the rudder, was a strip of green light from which a billion +sparks of fire shot to the air. Far behind, until the horizon closed +upon the ocean, our wake was curiously remindful of the boulevard of +a great city seen through a mist, the lights fading in the dim +distance, but sparkling still. + +I went forward and stood by the cathead. The blue water stirred +by the bow was wonderfully bright, a mass of coruscating +phosphorescence that lighted the prow like a lamp. It was as if +lightning played beneath the waves, so luminous, so scintillating +the water and its reflection upon the ship. + +The living organisms of the sea were _en fete_ that night, as though +to celebrate my coming to the islands of which I had so long dreamed. +I smiled at the fancy, well knowing that the minute _pyrocistis_, +having come to the surface during the calm that followed the storms, +were showing in that glorious fire the panic caused among them by +the cataclysm of our passing. But the individual is ever an egoist. +It seems to man that the universe is a circle about him and his +affairs. It may as well seem the same to the _pyrocistis_. + +Far about the ship the waves twinkled in green fire, disturbed even +by the ruffling breeze. I drew up a bucketful of the water. In the +darkness of the cabin it gave no light until I passed my hand +through it. That was like opening a door into a room flooded by +electricity; the table, the edges of the bunks, the uninterested +faces of my shipmates, leaped from the shadows. Marvels do not seem +marvelous to men to live among them. + +I lay long awake on deck, watching the eerily lighted sea and the +great stars that hung low in the sky, and to my fancy it seemed that +the air had changed, that some breath from the isles before us had +softened the salty tang of the sea-breeze. + +Land loomed at daybreak, dark, gloomy, and inhospitable. Rain fell +drearily as we passed Fatu-hiva, the first of the Marquesas Islands +sighted from the south. We had climbed from Tahiti, seventeen degrees +south of the equator, to between eleven and ten degrees south, and +we had made a westward of ten degrees. The Marquesas Islands lay +before us, dull spots of dark rock upon the gray water. + +They are not large, any of these islands; sixty or seventy miles is +the greatest circumference. Some of the eleven are quite small, and +have no people now. On the map of the world they are the tiniest +pin-pricks. Few dwellers in Europe or America know anything about +them. Most travelers have never heard of them. No liners touch them; +no wire or wireless connects them with the world. No tourists visit +them. Their people perish. Their trade languishes. In Tahiti, whence +they draw almost all their sustenance, where their laws are made, +and to which they look at the capital of the world, only a few men, +who traded here, could tell me anything about the Marquesas. These +men had only the vague, exaggerated ideas of the sailor, who goes +ashore once or twice a year and knows nothing of the native life. + +Seven hundred and fifty miles as the frigate flies separates these +islands from Tahiti, but no distance can measure the difference +between the happiness of Tahiti, the sparkling, brilliant loveliness +of that flower-decked island, and the stern, forbidding aspect of the +Marquesas lifting from the sea as we neared them. Gone were the +laughing vales, the pale-green hills, the luring, feminine guise of +nature, the soft-lapping waves upon a peaceful, shining shore. The +spirit that rides the thunder had claimed these bleak and desolate +islands for his own. + +While the schooner made her way cautiously past the grim and rocky +headlands of Fatu-hiva I was overwhelmed with a feeling of solemnity, +of sadness; such a feeling as I have known to sweep over an army the +night before a battle, when letters are written to loved ones and +comrades entrusted with messages. + +That gaunt, dark shore itself recalls that the history of the +Marquesas is written in blood, a black spot on the white race. It is +a history of evil wrought by civilization, of curses heaped on a +strange, simple people by men who sought to exploit them or to mold +them to another pattern, who destroyed their customs and their +happiness and left them to die, apathetic, wretched, hardly knowing +their own miserable plight. + +The French have had their flag over the Marquesas since 1842. In +1521 Magellan must have passed between the Marquesas and Paumotas, +but he does not mention them. Seventy-three years later a Spanish +flotilla sent from Callao by Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, viceroy +of Peru, found this island of Fatu-hiva, and its commander, Mendana, +named the group for the viceroy's lady, Las Islas Marquesas de +Mendoza. + +One hundred and eighty years passed, and Captain Cook again +discovered the islands, and a Frenchman, Etienne Marchand, +discovered the northern group. The fires of liberty were blazing +high in his home land, and Marchand named his group the Isles of the +Revolution, in celebration of the victories of the French people. A +year earlier an American, Ingraham, had sighted this same group and +given it the name of his own beloved hero, Washington. + +Had not Captain Porter failed to establish American rule in 1813 in +the island of Nuka-hiva, which he called Madison, the Marquesas +might have been American. Porter's name, like that of Mendana, is +linked with deeds of cruelty. The Spaniard was without pity; the +American may plead that his killings were reprisals or measures of +safety for himself. Murder of Polynesians was little thought of. +Schooners trained their guns on islands for pleasure or practice, +and destroyed villages with all their inhabitants. + +"To put the fear of God in the nigger's hearts," were the words of +many a sanguinary captain and crew. They did not, of course, mean +that literally. They meant the fear of themselves, and of all whites. +They used the name of God in vain, for after a century and more of +such intermittent effort the Polynesians have small fear or faith +for the God of Christians, despite continuous labors of missionaries. +God seems to have forgotten them. + +The French made the islands their political possessions with little +difficulty. The Marquesans had no king or single chief. There were +many tribes and clans, and it was easy to persuade or compel petty +chiefs to sign declarations and treaties. But it was not easy to +kill the independence of the people, and France virtually abandoned +and retook the islands several times, her rule fluctuating with +political conditions at home. + +There were wars, horrible, bloody scenes, when the clansmen slew the +whites and ate them, and the bones of many a gallant French officer +and sea-captain have moldered where they were heaped after the orgy +following victory. But, as always, the white slew his hundreds to +the natives' one, and in time he drove the devil of liberty and +defense of native land from the heart of the Marquesan. + +Before the French achieved this, however, the white had sowed a crop +of deadly evils among the Marquesans that cut them down faster than +war, and left them desolate, dying, passing to extinction. + +As I looked from the deck of the _Morning Star_ I was struck by the +fittingness of the scene. Fatu-hiva had been left behind and Hiva-oa, +our destination, was before us, bleak and threatening. To my eyes it +appeared as it had been in the eyes of the gentler Polynesians of +old time, the abode of demons and of a race of terrible warriors. +Hence descended the Marquesans, Vikings of the Pacific, in giant +canoes, and sprang upon the fighting men of the Tahitians, the +Raiateans and the Paumotans, slaughtering their hundreds and carrying +away scores to feast upon in the High Places. + + + "Mauri i te popoi a ee i te au marere i hiti tovau. + Ia tari a oe. Tari a rutu mai i hea? + A rutu mai i toerau i hitia! + O te au marere i hiti atu a Vaua a ratu i reira + A rutu i toerau roa! + Areare te hai o Nu'u-hiva roa. + I te are e huti te tai a Vavea." + + "The spirit of the morning rides the flying vapor that rises salt + from the sea. + Bear on! Bear on! And strike--where? + Strike to the northeast! + The vapor flies to the far rim of the Sea of Atolls. + Strike there! Strike far north! + The sea casts up distant Nuka-Hiva, Land of the War Fleet, + where the waves are towering billows." + + +This was the ancient chant of the Raiateans, sung in the old days +before the whites came, when they thought of the deeds that were +done by the more-than-human men who lived on these desolate islands. + +[Illustration: Harbor of Tai-o-hae] + +[Illustration: Schooner _Fetia Taiao_ in the Bay of Traitors + The little isle behind the schooner is Hanake] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Anchorage of Taha-Uka; Exploding Eggs, and his engagement as valet; +inauguration of the new governor; dance on the palace lawn. + + +As we approached Hiva-oa the giant height of Temetiu slowly lifted +four thousand feet above the sea, swathed in blackest clouds. Below, +purple-black valleys came one by one into view, murky caverns of +dank vegetation. Towering precipices, seamed and riven, rose above +the vast welter of the gray sea. + +Slowly we crept into the wide Bay of Traitors and felt our way into +the anchorage of Taha-Uka, a long and narrow passage between +frowning cliffs, spray-dashed walls of granite lashed fiercely by +the sea. All along the bluffs were cocoanut-palms, magnificent, +waving their green fronds in the breeze. Darker green, the mountains +towered above them, and far on the higher slopes we saw wild goats +leaping from crag to crag and wild horses running in the upper +valleys. + +A score or more of white ribbons depended from the lofty heights, +and through the binoculars I saw them to be waterfalls. They were +like silver cords swaying in the wind, and when brought nearer by +the glasses, I saw that some of them were heavy torrents while others, +gauzy as wisps of chiffon, hardly veiled the black walls behind them. + +The whole island dripped. The air was saturated, the decks were wet, +and along the shelves of basalt that jutted from the cliffs a +hundred blow-holes spouted and roared. In ages of endeavor the ocean +had made chambers in the rock and cut passages to the top, through +which, at every surge of the pounding waves, the water rushed and +rose high in the air. + +Iron-bound, the mariner calls this coast, and the word makes one see +the powerful, severe mold of it. Molten rock fused in subterranean +fires and cast above the sea cooled into these ominous ridges, and +stern unyielding walls. + +There upon the deck I determined not to leave until I had lived for +a time amid these wild scenes. My intention had been to voyage with +the _Morning Star_, returning with her to Tahiti, but a mysterious +voice called to me from the dusky valleys. I could not leave without +penetrating into those abrupt and melancholy depths of forest, +without endeavoring, though ever so feebly, to stir the cold brew of +legend and tale fast disappearing in stupor and forgetfulness. + +Lying Bill protested volubly; he liked company and would regret my +contribution to the expense account. Gedge joined him in serious +opposition to the plan, urging that I would not be able to find a +place to live, that there was no hotel, club, lodging, or food for a +stranger. But I was determined to stay, though I must sleep under a +breadfruit-tree. As I was a mere roamer, with no calendar or even a +watch, I had but to fetch my few belongings ashore and be a Marquesan. +These belongings I gathered together, and finding me obdurate, Lying +Bill reluctantly agreed to set them on the beach. + +On either side of Taha-Uka inlet are landing-places, one in front of +a store, the other leading only to the forest. These are stairways +cut in the basaltic wall of the cliffs, and against them the waves +pound continuously. The beach of Taha-Uka was a mile from where we +lay and not available for traffic, but around a shoulder of the +bluffs was hidden the tiny bay of Atuona, where goods could be landed. + +While we discussed this, around those jutting rocks shot a small +out-rigger canoe, frail and hardly large enough to hold the body of +a slender Marquesan boy who paddled it. About his middle he wore a +red and yellow _pareu_, and his naked body was like a small and +perfect statue as he handled his tiny craft. When he came over the +side I saw that he was about thirteen years old and very handsome, +tawny in complexion, with regular features and an engaging smile. + +His name, he said, was Nakohu, which means Exploding Eggs. This last +touch was all that was needed; without further ado I at once engaged +him as valet for the period of my stay in the Marquesas. His duties +would be to help in conveying my luggage ashore, to aid me in the +mysteries of cooking breadfruit and such other edibles as I might +discover, and to converse with me in Marquesan. In return, he was to +profit by the honor of being attached to my person, by an option on +such small articles as I might leave behind on my departure, and by +the munificent salary of about five cents a day. His gratitude and +delight knew no bounds. + +Hardly had the arrangement been made, when a whaleboat rowed by +Marquesans followed in the wake of the canoe, and a tall, rangy +Frenchman climbed aboard the _Morning Star_. He was Monsieur Andre +Bauda, agent special, _commissaire_, postmaster; a _beau sabreur_, +veteran of many campaigns in Africa, dressed in khaki, medals on his +chest, full of gay words and fierce words, drinking his rum neat, +and the pink of courtesy. He had come to examine the ship's papers, +and to receive the new governor. + +A look of blank amazement appeared upon the round face of M. L'Hermier +des Plantes when it was conveyed to him that this solitary +whaleboat had brought a solitary white to welcome him to his seat of +government. He had been assiduously preparing for his reception for +many hours and was immaculately dressed in white duck, his legs in +high, brightly-polished boots, his two stripes in velvet on his +sleeve, and his military cap shining. He knew no more about the +Marquesas than I, having come directly via Tahiti from France, and he +was plainly dumfounded and dismayed. Was all that tender care of his +whiskers to be wasted on scenery? + +However, after a drink or two he resignedly took his belongings, and +dropping into the wet and dirty boat with Bauda, he lifted an +umbrella over his gaudy cap and disappeared in the rain. + +"'E's got a bloomin' nice place to live in," remarked Lying Bill. +"Now, if 'e 'd a-been 'ere when I come 'e 'd a-seen something! I +come 'ere thirty-five years ago when I was a young kid. I come with +a skipper and I was the only crew. Me and him, and I was eighteen, +and the boat was the _Victor_. I lived 'ere and about for ten years. +Them was the days for a little excitement. There was a chief, Mohuho, +who'd a-killed me if I 'adn't been _tapu'd_ by Vaekehu, the queen, +wot took a liking to me, me being a kid, and white. I've seen Mohuho +shoot three natives from cocoanut-trees just to try a new gun. 'E +was a bad 'un, 'e was. There was something doing every day, them days. +God, wot it is to be young!" + +A little later Lying Bill, Ducat, and I, with my new valet's canoe +in the wake of our boat, rounded the cliffs that had shut off our +view of Atuona Valley. It lay before us, a long and narrow stretch +of sand behind a foaming and heavy surf; beyond, a few scattered +wooden buildings among palm and banian-trees, and above, the ribbed +gaunt mountains shutting in a deep and gloomy ravine. It was a lonely, +beautiful place, ominous, melancholy, yet majestic. + +"Bloody Hiva-oa," this island was called. Long after the French had +subdued by terror the other isles of the group, Hiva-oa remained +obdurate, separate, and untamed. It was the last stronghold of +brutishness, of cruel chiefs and fierce feuds, of primitive and +terrible customs. And of "the man-eating isle of Hiva-oa" Atuona +Valley was the capital. + +We landed on the beach dry-shod, through the skill of the +boat-steerer and the strength of the Tahitian sailors, who carried +us through the surf and set my luggage among the thick green vines +that met the tide. We were dressed to call upon the governor, whose +inauguration was to take place that afternoon, and leaving my +belongings in care of the faithful Exploding Eggs, we set off up the +valley. + +The rough road, seven or eight feet wide, was raised on rocks above +the jungle and was bordered by giant banana plants and cocoanuts. At +this season all was a swamp below us, the orchard palms standing many +feet deep in water and mud, but their long green fronds and the +darker tangle of wild growth on the steep mountain-sides were +beautiful. + +The government house was set half a mile farther on in the narrowing +ravine, and on the way we passed a desolate dwelling, squalid, set +in the marsh, its battered verandas and open doors disclosing a +wretched mingling of native bareness with poverty-stricken European +fittings. On the tottering veranda sat a ragged Frenchman, bearded +and shaggy-haired, and beside him three girls as blonde as German +_Maedchens_. Their white delicate faces and blue eyes, in such +surroundings, struck one like a blow. The eldest was a girl of +eighteen years, melancholy, though pretty, wearing like the others a +dirty gown and no shoes or stockings. The man was in soiled overalls, +and reeling drunk. + +"That is Baufre," said Ducat. "He is always drunk. He married the +daughter of an Irish trader, a former officer in the British Indian +Light Cavalry. Baufre was a _sous-officier_ in the French forces here. +There is no native blood in those girls. What will become of them, I +wonder?" + +A few hundred yards further on was the palace. It was a wooden house +of four or five rooms, with an ample veranda, surrounded by an acre +of ground fenced in. The sward was the brilliantly green, luxuriant +wild growth that in these islands covers every foot of earth surface. +Cocoanuts and mango-trees rose from this volunteer lawn, and under +them a dozen rosebushes, thick with excessively fragrant bloom. +Pineapples grew against the palings, and a bed of lettuce flourished +in the rear beside a tiny pharmacy, a kitchen, and a shelter for +servants. + +On the spontaneous verdure before the veranda three score Marquesans +stood or squatted, the men in shirts and overalls and the women in +tunics. Their skins, not brown nor red nor yellow, but tawny like +that of the white man deeply tanned by the sun, reminded me again +that these people may trace back their ancestry to the Caucasian +cradle. The hair of the women was adorned with gay flowers or the +leaves of the false coffee bush. Their single garments of gorgeous +colors clung to their straight, rounded bodies, their dark eyes were +soft and full of light as the eyes of deer, and their features, +clean-cut and severe, were of classic lines. + +The men, tall and massive, seemed awkwardly constricted in +ill-fitting, blue cotton overalls such as American laborers wear +over street-clothes. Their huge bodies seemed about to break through +the flimsy bindings, and the carriage of their striking heads made +the garments ridiculous. Most of them had fairly regular features on +a large scale, their mouths wide, and their lips full and sensual. +They wore no hats or ornaments, though it has ever been the custom +of all Polynesians to put flowers and wreaths upon their heads. + +Men and women were waiting with a kind of apathetic resignation; +melancholy and unresisting despair seemed the only spirit left to +them. + +On the veranda with the governor and Bauda were several whites, one +a French woman to whom we were presented. Madame Bapp, fat and +red-faced, in a tight silk gown over corsets, was twice the size of +her husband, a dapper, small man with huge mustaches, a paper collar +to his ears, and a fiery, red-velvet cravat. + +On a table were bottles of absinthe and champagne, and several +demijohns of red wine stood on the floor. All our company attacked +the table freight and drank the warm champagne. + +A seamy-visaged Frenchman, Pierre Guillitoue, the village butcher--a +philosopher and anarchist, he told me--rapped with a bottle on the +veranda railing. The governor, in every inch of gold lace possible, +made a gallant figure as he rose and faced the people. His whiskers +were aglow with dressing. The ceremony began with an address by a +native, Haabunai. + +Intrepreted by Guillitoue, Haabunai said that the Marquesans were +glad to have a new governor, a wise man who would cure their ills, a +just ruler, and a friend; then speaking directly to his own people, +he praised extravagantly the newcomer, so that Guillitoue choked in +his translation, and ceased, and mixed himself a glass of absinthe +and water. + +The governor replied briefly in French. He said that he had come in +their interest; that he would not cheat them or betray them; that he +would make them well if they were sick. The French flag was their +flag; the French people loved them. The Marquesans listened without +interest, as if he spoke of some one in Tibet who wanted to sell a +green elephant. + +In the South Seas a meeting out-of-doors means a dance. The +Polynesians have ever made this universal human expression of the +rhythmic principle of motion the chief evidence of emotion, and +particularly of elation. Civilization has all but stifled it in many +islands. Christianity has made it a sin. It dies hard, for it is the +basic outlet of strong natural feeling, and the great group +entertainment of these peoples. + +[Illustration: Andre Bauda, Commissaire] + +[Illustration: The public dance in the garden] + +The speeches done, the governor suggested that the national spirit +be interpreted to him in pantomine. + +"They must be enlivened with alcohol or they will not move," said +Guillitoue. + +"_Mon dieu!_" he replied. "It is the 'Folies Bergere' over again! +Give them wine!" + +Bauda ordered Flag, the native gendarme, and Song of the Nightingale, +a prisoner, to carry a demijohn of Bordeaux wine to the garden. With +two glasses they circulated the claret until each Marquesan had a +pint or so. Song of the Nightingale was a middle-aged savage, with a +wicked, leering face, and whiskers from his ears to the corners of +his mouth, surely a strange product of the Marquesan race, none of +whose men will permit any hair to grow on lip or cheek. While Song +circulated the wine M. Bauda enlightened me as to the crime that had +made him prisoner. He was serving eighteen months for selling +cocoanut brandy. + +When the cask was emptied the people began the dance. Three rows +were formed, one of women between two of men, in Indian file facing +the veranda. Haabunai and Song of the Nightingale brought forth the +drums. These were about four feet high, barbaric instruments of skin +stretched over hollow logs, and the "Boom-Boom" that came from them +when they were struck by the hands of the two strong men was +thrilling and strange. + +The dance was formal, slow, and melancholy. Haabunai gave the order +of it, shouting at the top of his voice. The women, with blue and +scarlet Chinese shawls of silk tied about their hips, moved stiffly, +without interest or spontaneous spirit, as though constrained and +indifferent. Though the dances were licentious, they conveyed no +meaning and expressed no emotion. The men gestured by rote, +appealing mutely to the spectators, so that one might fancy them +orators whose voices failed to reach one. There was no laughter, not +even a smile. + +"Give them another demijohn!" said the governor. + +The juice of the grape dissolved melancholy. When the last of it had +flowed the dance was resumed. The women began a spirited _danse du +ventre_. Their eyes now sparkled, their bodies were lithe and +graceful. McHenry rushed on to the lawn and taking his place among +them copied their motions in antics that set them roaring with the +hearty roars of the conquered at the asininity of the conquerors. +They tried to continue the dance, but could not for merriment. + +One of the dancers advanced toward the veranda and in a ceremonious +way kissed the governor upon the lips. That young executive was much +surprised, but returned the salute and squeezed her tiny waist. All +the company laughed at this, except Madame Bapp, who glared angrily +and exclaimed, "_Coquine!_" which means hussy. + +The Marquesans have no kisses in their native love-making, but smell +one or rub noses, as do the Eskimo. Whites, however, have taught +kisses in all their variety. + +The governor had the girl drink a glass of champagne. She was +perhaps sixteen years old, a charming girl, smiling, simple, and +lovely. Her skin, like that of all Marquesans, was olive, not brown +like the Hawaiians' or yellow like the Chinese, but like that of +whites grown dark in the sun. She had black, streaming hair, sloe +eyes, and an arch expression. Her manner was artlessly ingratiating, +and her sweetness of disposition was not marked by hauteur. When I +noticed that her arm was tattoed, she slipped off her dress and sat +naked to the waist to show all her adornment. + +There was an inscription of three lines stretching from her shoulder +to her wrist, the letters nearly an inch in length, crowded together +in careless inartistry. The legend was as follows: + + "TAHIAKEANA TEIKIMOEATIPANIE PAHAKA AVII + ANIPOENUIMATILAILI + TETUATONOEINUHAPALIILII" + +These were the names given her at birth, and tattooed in her +childhood. She was called, she said, Tahiakeana, Weaver of Mats. + +Seeing her success among us and noting the champagne, her companions +began to thrust forward on to the veranda to share her luck. This +angered the governor, who thought his dignity assailed. At Bauda's +order, the gendarme and Song of the Nightingale dismissed the +visitors, put McHenry to sleep under a tree, and escorted the new +executive and me to Bauda's home on the beach. + +There in his board shanty, six by ten feet, we ate our first dinner +in the islands, while the wind surged through swishing palm-leaves +outside, and nuts fell now and then upon the iron roof with the +resounding crash of bombs. It was a plain, but plentiful, meal of +canned foods, served by the tawny gendarme and the wicked Song, +whose term of punishment for distributing brandy seemed curiously +suited to his crime. + +At midnight I accompanied a happy governor to his palace, which had +one spare bedroom, sketchily furnished. During the night the slats +of my bed gave way with a dreadful din, and I woke to find the +governor in pajamas of rose-colored silk, with pistol in hand, +shedding electric rays upon me from a battery lamp. There was +anxiety in his manner as he said: + +"You never can tell. A chief's son tried to kill my predecessor. I +do not know these Marquesans. We are few whites here. And, _mon dieu!_ +the guardian of the palace is himself a native!" + +[Illustration: Antoinette, a Marquesan dancing girl] + +[Illustration: Marquesans in Sunday clothes +The daughter of Titihuti, chieftess of Hiva-Oa. On the left her husband, +Pierre Pradorat, on the right, his brother] + + + +CHAPTER V + +First night in Atuona valley; sensational arrival of the Golden Bed; +Titi-huti's tattooed legs. + + +It was necessary to find at once a residence for my contemplated +stay in Atuona, for the schooner sailed on the morrow, and my brief +glimpse of the Marquesans had whetted my desire to live among them. +I would not accept the courteous invitation of the governor to stay +at the palace, for officialdom never knows its surroundings, and +grandeur makes for no confidence from the lowly. + +Lam Kai Oo, an aged Chinaman whom I encountered at the trader's +store, came eagerly to my rescue with an offered lease of his +deserted store and bakeshop. From Canton he had been brought in +his youth by the labor bosses of western America to help build the +transcontinental railway, and later another agency had set him down +in Taha-Uka to grow cotton for John Hart. He saw the destruction of +that plantation, escaped the plague of opium, and with his scant +savings made himself a petty merchant in Atuona. Now he was old and +had retired up the valley to the home he had long established there +beside his copra furnace and his shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. + +He led me to the abandoned shack, a long room, tumbledown, moist, +festooned with cobwebs, the counters and benches black with +reminiscences of twenty thousand tradings and Chinese meals. The +windows were but half a dozen bars, and the heavy vapors of a cruel +past hung about the sombre walls. Though opium had long been +contraband, its acrid odor permeated the worn furnishings. Here with +some misgivings I prepared to spend my second night in Hiva-oa. + +I left the palace late, and found the shack by its location next the +river on the main road. Midnight had come, no creature stirred as I +opened the door. The few stars in the black velvet pall of the sky +seemed to ray out positive darkness, and the spirit of Po, the +Marquesan god of evil, breathed from the unseen, shuddering forest. +I tried to damn my mood, but found no profanity utterable. Rain +began to fall, and I pushed into the den. + +A glimpse of the dismal interior did not cheer me. I locked the door +with the great iron key, spread my mat, and blew out the lantern. +Soon from out the huge brick oven where for decades Lam Kai Oo had +baked his bread there stole scratching, whispering forms that slid +along the slippery floor and leaped about the seats where many long +since dead had sat. I lay quiet with a will to sleep, but the hair +stirred on my scalp. + +The darkness was incredible, burdensome, like a weight. The sound of +the wind and the rain in the breadfruit forest and the low roar of +the torrent became only part of the silence in which those invisible +presences crept and rustled. Try as I would I could recall no good +deed of mine to shine for me in that shrouded confine. The Celtic +vision of my forefathers, that strange mixture of the terrors of +Druid and soggarth, danced on the creaking floor, and witch-lights +gleamed on ceiling and timbers. I thought to dissolve it all with a +match, but whether all awake or partly asleep, I had no strength to +reach it. + +Then something clammily touched my face, and with a bound I had the +lantern going. No living thing moved in the circle of its rays. My +flesh crawled on my bones, and sitting upright on my mat I chanted +aloud from the Bible in French with Tahitian parallels. The glow of +a pipe and the solace of tobacco aided the rhythm of the prophets in +dispelling the ghosts of the gloom, but never shipwrecked mariner +greeted the dawn with greater joy than I. + +In its pale light I peered through the barred windows--the windows +of the Chinese the world over--and saw four men who had set down a +coffin to rest themselves and smoke a cigarette. They sat on the +rude box covered with a black cloth and passed the pandanus-wrapped +tobacco about. Naked, except for loin-cloths, their tawny skins +gleaming wet in the gray light, rings of tattooing about their eyes, +they made a strange picture against the jungle growth. + +They were without fire for they had got into a deep place crossing +the stream and had wet their matches. I handed a box through the bars, +and by reckless use of the few words of Marquesan I recalled, and +bits of French they knew, helped out by scraps of Spanish one had +gained from the Chilean murderer who milked the cows for the German +trader, I learned that the corpse was that of a woman of sixty years, +whose agonies had been soothed by the ritual of the Catholic church. +The bearers were taking her to Calvary cemetery on the hill. + +Their cigarettes smoked, they rose and took up the long poles on +which the coffin was swung. Moving with the tread of panthers, firm, +noiseless, and graceful, they disappeared into the forest and I was +left alone with the morning sun and the glistening leaves of the +rain-wet breadfruit-trees. + +On the beach an hour later I met Gedge, who asked me with a +quizzical eye how I had enjoyed my first night among the Kanakas. I +replied that I had seldom passed such a night, spoke glowingly of +the forest and the stream, and said that I was still determined to +remain behind when the schooner sailed. + +"Well, if you will stay," said he, and the trader's look came into +his eye, "I've got just the thing you want. You don't want to lie +on a mat where the thousand-legs can get you--and if they get you, +you die. You want to live right. Now listen to me; I got the best +brass bed ever a king slept on. Double thickness, heavy brass bed, +looks like solid gold. Springs that would hold the schooner, +double-thick mattress, sheets and pillows all embroidered like it +belonged to a duchess. Fellow was going to be married that I brought +it for, but now he's lying up there in Calvary in a bed they dug for +him. I'll let you have it cheap--three hundred francs. It's worth +double. What do you say?" + +A brass bed, a golden bed in the cannibal islands! + +"It's a go," I said. + +On the deck of the _Morning Star_ I beheld the packing-cases brought +up from the hold, and my new purchase with all its parts and +appurtenances loaded in a ship's boat, with the iron box that held +my gold. So I arrived in Atuona for the second time, high astride the +sewed-up mattress on top of the metal parts, and so deftly did the +Tahitians handle the oars that, though we rode the surf right up to +the creeping jungle flowers that met the tide on Atuona beach, I was +not wet except by spray. + +[Illustration: Vai Etienne] + +[Illustration: The pool by the Queen's house] + +Our arrival was watched by a score of Marquesan chiefs who had been +summoned by Bauda for the purpose, as he told me, of being urged to +thrash the tax-tree more vigorously. The meeting adjourned instantly, +and they hastened down from the frame building that housed the +government offices. Their curiosity could not be restrained. A score +of eager hands stripped the coverings from the brass bed, and +exposed the glittering head and foot pieces in the brilliant sunlight. +Exclamations of amazement and delight greeted the marvel. This was +another wonder from the white men's isles, indicative of wealth and +royal taste. + +From all sides other natives came hastening. My brass bed and I were +the center of a gesticulating circle, dark eyes rolled with +excitement and naked shoulder jostled shoulder. Three chiefs, +tattooed and haughty, personally erected the bed, and when I +disclosed the purpose of the mattress, placed it in position. Every +woman present now pushed forward and begged the favor of being +allowed to bounce upon it. It became a diversion attended with high +honor. Controversies meantime raged about the bed. Many voices +estimated the number of mats that would be necessary to equal the +thickness of the mattress, but none found a comparison worthy of its +softness and elasticity. + +In the midst of this melee one woman, whose eyes and facial contour +betrayed Chinese blood, but who was very comely and neat, pushed +forward and pointing to the glittering center of attraction repeated +over and over. + +"_Kisskisskissa? Kisskisskissa?_" + +For awhile I was disposed to credit her with a sudden affection for +me, but soon resolved her query into the French "Qu'est-ce que c'est +que ca? What is that?" + +She was Apporo, wife of Puhei, Great Fern, she said, and she owned a +house in which her father, a Chinaman, had recently died. This house +she earnestly desired to give me in exchange for the golden bed, and +we struck a bargain. I was to live in the house of Apporo and, on +departing, to leave her the bed. Great Fern, her husband, was called +to seal the compact. He was a giant in stature, dark skinned, with a +serene countenance and crisp hair. They agreed to clean the house +thoroughly and to give me possession at once. + +They were really mad to have the bed, in all its shiny golden beauty, +and once the arrangement was made they could hardly give over +examining it, crawling beneath it, smoothing the mattress and +fingering the springs. They shook it, poked it, patted it, and +finally Apporo, filled with feminine pride, arrogated to herself the +sole privilege of bouncing upon it. + +Lam Kai Oo wailed his loss of a tenant. + +"You savee thlat house belong lep'," he argued earnestly. "My sto'e +littee dirty, but I fixum. You go thlat lep' house, bimeby flinger +dlop, toe dlop, nose he go." He grimaced frightfully, and indicated +in pantomime the ravages of leprosy upon the human form. + +His appeal was in vain. The Golden Bed, upraised on the shoulders of +four stalwart chiefs, began its triumphal progress up the valley road. +Behind it officiously walked Exploding Eggs, puffed up with +importance, regarded on all sides with respect as _Tueni Oki Kiki_, +Keeper of the Golden Bed, but jostled for position by Apporo, envied +of women. Behind them up the rough road hastened the rest of the +village, eager to see the installation of the marvel in its new +quarters, and I followed the barbaric procession leisurely. + +My new residence was a mile from the beach, and off the main +thoroughfare, though this mattered little. The roads built decades +ago by the French are so ruined and neglected that not a thousand +feet of them remain in all the islands. No wheel supports a vehicle, +not even a wheelbarrow. Trails thread the valleys and climb the hills, +and traffic is by horse and human. + +My Golden Bed, lurching precariously in the narrow path, led me +through tangled jungle growth to the first sight of my new home, a +small house painted bright blue and roofed with corrugated iron. Set +in the midst of the forest, it was raised from the ground on a +_paepae_, a great platform made of basalt stones, black, smooth +and big, the very flesh of the Marquesas Islands. Every house built +by a native since their time began has been set on a _paepae_, and +mine had been erected in days beyond the memory of any living man. +It was fifty feet broad and as long, raised eight feet from the earth, +which was reached by worn steps. + +Above the small blue-walled house the rocky peak of Temetiu rose +steeply, four thousand feet into the air, its lower reaches clothed +in jungle-vines, and trees, its summit dark green under a clear sky, +but black when the sun was hidden. Most of the hours of the day it +was but a dim shadow above a belt of white clouds, but up to its +mysterious heights a broken ridge climbed sheer from the valley, and +upon it browsed the wild boar and the crag-loving goat. + +Beside the house the river brawled through a greenwood of +bread-fruit-, cocoanut-, vi-apple-, mango- and lime-trees. The +tropical heat distilled from their leaves a drowsy woodland odor +which filled the two small whitewashed rooms, and the shadows of the +trees, falling through the wide unglassed windows, made a sun-flecked +pattern on the black stone floor. This was the House of Lepers, now +rechristened the House of the Golden Bed, which was to be my home +through the unknown days before me. + +The next day I watched the _Morning Star_ lift her sails and move +slowly out of the Bay of Traitors into the open sea, with less +regret than I have ever felt in that moment of wistfulness which +attends the departure of a sailing-ship. Exploding Eggs, at my side, +read correctly my returning eyes. "Kaoha!" he said, with a wide +smile of welcome, and with him and Vai, my next-door neighbor, I +returned gladly to my _paepae_. + +Vai, or in English, Water, was a youth of twenty years, a dandy; on +ordinary occasions naked, except for the _pareu_ about his loins, +but on Sundays or when courting rejoicing in the gayest of +Europeanized clothes. He lived near me in a small house on the +river-bank with his mother and sister. All were of a long line of +chiefs, and all marvelously large and handsome. + +The mother, Titihuti, would have been beloved of the ancient artists +who might have drawn her for an Amazon. I have never seen another +woman of such superb carriage. Her hair was blood-red, her brow lofty, +and an indescribable air of majesty and pride spoke eloquently of +her descent from fathers and mothers of power. She had wonderful legs, +statuesque in mold, and tattooed from ankles to thigh in most +amazing patterns. To a Marquesan of her generation the tattooed legs +of a shapely woman were the highest reach of art. + +Titihuti was very proud of her legs. Though she was devout Catholic +and well aware of the contempt of the church for such vanities, +religion could not entirely efface her pride. During the first few +days she passed and repassed my cabin in her walks about her +household duties, lifting her tunic each day a little higher. Her +vanity would no doubt have continued this gradual course, but that +one day I came upon her in the river entirely nude. Her +gratification was unconcealed; naively she displayed the innumerable +whirls and arabesques of her adornment for my compliments, and +thereafter she wore only a _pareu_ when at home, entirely dropping +alien standards of modesty and her gown. + +She said that people came from far valleys to see her legs, and I +could readily believe it. It was so with the leg of the late Queen +Vaekehu, a leg so perfect in mold and so elaborately and +artistically inked that it distinguished her even more than her rank. +Casual whites, especially, considered it a curiosity, and offended +her majesty by laying democratic hands upon the masterpiece. I had +known a man or two who had seen the queen at home, and who testified +warmly to the harmonious blending of flesh color with the candle-nut +soot. Among my effects in the House of the Golden Bed I had a +photograph showing the multiplicity and fine execution of the +designs upon Vaekehu's leg, yet comparing it with the two realities +of Titihuti I could not yield the palm to the queen. + +The legs of Titihuti were tattooed from toes to ankles with a +net-like pattern, and from the ankles to the waistline, where the +design terminated in a handsome girdle, there were curves, circles +and filigree, all in accord, all part of a harmonious whole, and +most pleasing to the eye. The pattern upon her feet was much like +that of sandals or high mocassins, indicating a former use of +leg-coverings in a cold climate. Titihuti herself, after an anxious +inch-for-inch matching of picture and living form, said complacently +that her legs were _meitai ae_, which meant that she would not have +hesitated to enter her own decorations in beauty competition with +those of Vaekehu. + +Kake, her daughter, had been christened for her mother's greatest +charm, for her name means Tattooed to the Loins, though there was +not a tattoo mark upon her. She was a beautiful, stately girl of +nineteen or twenty, married to a devoted native, to whom, shortly +after my arrival, she presented his own living miniature. I was the +startled witness of the birth of this babe, the delight of his +father's heart. + +My neighbors and I had the same bathing hour, soon after daylight, +and usually chose the same pool in the clear river. Kake was lying +on a mat on their _paepae_ when I passed one morning, and when I +said "Kaoha" to her she did not reply. Her silence caused me to +mount the stairway, and at that moment the child was born. + +Half an hour later she joined me in the river, and laughing back at +me over her shoulder as she plunged through the water, called that +she would give the child my name. That afternoon she was sitting on +my _paepae_, a bewitching sight as she held the suckling to her +breast and crooned of his forefather's deeds before the white had +gripped them. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Visit of Chief Seventh Man Who is So Angry He Wallows in the Mire; +journey to Vait-hua on Tahuata island; fight with the devil-fish; +story of a cannibal feast and the two who escaped. + + +"The Iron Fingers That Make Words," the Marquesans called my +typewriter. Such a wonder had never before been beheld in the islands, +and its fame spread far. From other valleys and even from distant +islands the curious came in threes and fours. They watched the +strange thing write their names and carefully carried away the bits +of paper. + +"Aue!" they cried as I showed them my speed, which would be a shame +to a typist. + +Chiefs especially were my visitors, thinking it proper to their +estate and to mine that they should call upon me and invite me to +their seats of government. + +So it happened that one morning as I sat on my _paepae_ eating a +breakfast of roasted breadfruit prepared for me by Exploding Eggs, +my naked skin enjoying the warmth of the sun and my ears filled with +the bubbling laughter of the brook, I beheld two stately visitors +approaching. Exploding Eggs named them to me as they came up the +trail. + +Both were leading chiefs of the islands. Katu, Piece of Tattooing, +of Hekeani, led the way. His severe and dignified face was a dark +blue in color. His eyes alone were free from imbedded indigo ink. +They gleamed like white clouds in a blue sky, but their glance was +mild and kindly. Sixty years of age, he still walked with upright +grace, only the softened contours of his face betraying that he was +well in his manhood when his valley was still given over to tribal +warfares, orgies, and cannibalism. + +Behind him came Neo Afitu Atrien, of Vait-hua, a stocky brown man +with a lined face, stubby mustache, and brilliant, intelligent eyes. +He mounted the steps, shook hands heartily, and poured out +his informed soul in English. + +"Johnny, I spik Ingrish. You Iris'man. You got 'O,' before name. I +know you got tipwrite can make machine do pen. I know Panama Canal. +How is Teddy and Gotali?" + +I assured the chief that both Roosevelt and Goethals were well at +last account, and he veered to other topics. + +"Before time, come prenty whaleship my place," he said. "I know +geograffy, mappee, grammal. I know Egyptee, Indee, all country; I +know Bufflobillee. Before time, whaleship come America for take +water and wood. Stay two, t'ree week. Every night sailor come ashore +catchee girls take ship. Prenty rum, biskit, molassi, good American +tobbacee. Now all finish. Whaleship no more. That is not good." + +His name means The Seventh Man Who Is So Angry He Wallows In The Mire. +"Neo" means all but the number, and for so short a word to be +translated by so detailed a statement would indicate that there were +many Marquesans whose anger tripped them. Else such a word had +hardly been born. + +I showed the chiefs the marvels of my typewriter, displayed to their +respectful gaze the Golden Bed, and otherwise did the honors. As +they departed, Neo said earnestly, + +"You come see me you have my house. You like, you bring prenty rum, +keep warm if rain." + +"A wicked man," said Exploding Eggs in Marquesan when the trail lay +empty before us. "One time he drink much rum, French gendarme go to +arrest him, he bite--" With an eloquent gesture my valet indicated +that Neo's teeth had removed in its entirety the nose of the valiant +defender of morals. "No good go see him," he added with finality. + +However, the prospect intrigued my fancy, and finding a few days +later that Ika Vaikoki, whose discerning parents had named him Ugh! +Dried-up Stream! was voyaging toward Vait-hua in a whaleboat, I +offered him ten francs and two litres of rum to take me. Remembering +Neo's suggestion, I took also two other bottles of rum. + +While our whaleboat shot across the Bordelaise Channel pursued by a +brisk breeze, Ugh! a wisp of a man of fifty, held the helm. He was +for all the world like a Malay pirate; I have seen his double +steering a proa off the Borneo coast, slim, high-cheeked, with a +sashful of saw-like knives. Ugh! had no weapon, but his eye was a +small flaming coal that made me thankful cannibalism is a thing of +the past. He had been carried through the surf to his perch upon the +stern because one of his legs was useless for walking, but once he +grasped the tiller, he was a seaman of skill. + +The oarsmen wore turbans of pink, blue, and white muslin to protect +their heads from the straight rays of the white sun. Bright-colored +_pareus_ were about their loins, and several wore elastic +sleeve-holders as ornaments on tawny arms and legs, while one, the +son of Ugh! sported earrings, great hoops of gold that flashed in +the sunshine. With their dark skins, gleaming eyes, and white teeth, +they were a brilliant picture against the dazzling blue of the sea. +Straight across the channel we steered for Hana Hevane, a little bay +and valley guarded by sunken coral rocks over which the water foamed +in white warning. Two of the men leaped out into the waves and hunted +on these rocks for squids, while we beached the boat on a shore +uninhabited by any living creature but rats, lizards, and centipedes. +Several small octopi were soon brought in, and one of the men placed +them on some boulders where the tide had left pools of water, and +cleaned them of their poison. He rubbed them on the stone exactly as +a washerwoman handles a flannel garment, and out of them came a +lather as though he had soaped them. Suds, bubbles, and froth--one +would have said a laundress had been at work there. He dipped them +often in a pool of salt water, and not until they would yield no +more suds did he give each a final rinsing and throw it on the fire +made on the beach. Suddenly a shout broke my absorption in this task. +The son of Ugh! with the gold earrings, waving his arms from amidst +the surf on the reef, called to me to come and see a big _feke_. As +his companions were dancing about and yelling madly, I left the +laundrying of the small sea-devils and splashed two hundred yards +through the lagoon to the scene of excitement. Four of the crew had +attacked a giant devil-fish, which was hidden in a cave in the rocks. +From the gloom it darted out its long arms and tried to seize the +strange creatures that menaced it. The naked boatsmen, dancing just +out of reach of the writhing tentacles, struck at them with long +knives. As they cut off pieces of the curling, groping gristle, I +thought I heard a horrible groan from the cave, almost like the +voice of a human in agony. I stayed six feet away, for I had no +knife and no relish for the game. + +Four of the long arms had been severed at the ends when suddenly the +octopus came out of his den to fight for his life. He was a +reddish-purple globe of horrid flesh, horned all over, with a head +not unlike an elephant's, but with large, demoniacal eyes, bitter, +hating eyes that roved from one to another of us as if selecting his +prey. Eight arms, some shorn of their suckers, stretched out ten +feet toward us. + +The Marquesans retreated precipitately, and I led them, laughing +nervously, but not joyously. The son of Ugh! stopped first. + +"_Ta! Ta! Ta! Ta!_" he cried. "Are we afraid of that ugly beast? I +have killed many. _Pakeka!_ We will eat him, too!" + +He turned with the others and advanced toward the _feke_, shouting +scornful names at him, threatening him with death and being eaten, +warning him that the sooner he gave up, the quicker ended his agony. +But the devilfish was not afraid. His courage shamed mine. I was +behind the barrier of the boatsmen, but once in the throes of the +fight a slimy arm passed between two of them and wound itself around +my leg. I screamed out, for it was icy cold and sent a sickening +weakness all through me, so that I could not have swum a dozen feet +with it upon me. One of the natives cut it off, and still it clung to +my bloodless skin until I plucked it away. + +The son of Ugh! had two of the great arms about him at one time, but +his companions hacked at them until he was free. Then, regardless of +the struggles of the maimed devil, they closed in on him and stabbed +his head and body until he died. During these last moments I was +amazed and sickened to hear the octopus growling and moaning in its +fury and suffering. His voice had a curious timbre. I once heard a +man dying of hydrophobia make such sounds, half animal, half human. + +"That _feke_ would have killed and eaten any one of us," said the +son of Ugh! "Not many are so big as he, but here in Hana Hevane, +where seldom any one fished, they are the biggest in the world. They +lie in these holes in the rocks and catch fish and crabs as they swim +by. My cousin was taken by one while fishing, and was dragged down +into the hidden caverns. He was last seen standing on a ledge, and +the next day his bones were found picked clean. A shark is easier to +fight than such a devil who has so many arms." + +The boatsmen gathered up the remnants of the foe and brought them to +the beach, where the elder Ugh! was tending the fire. Crabs were +broiling upon it, and the pieces of the _feke_ were flung beside +them and the smaller octopi. + +When they were cooked, a trough of _popoi_ and one of _feikai_, or +roasted breadfruit mixed with a cocoanut-milk sauce, were placed on +the sand, and all squatted to dine. For a quarter of an hour the +only sounds were the plup of fingers withdrawn from mouths filled +with _popoi_, and the faint creaming of waves on the beach. +Marquesans feel that eating is serious business. The devil-fish and +crabs were the delicacies, and served as dessert. Blackened by the +fire, squid and crustacean were eaten without condiment, the +tentacles being devoured as one eats celery. I was soon satisfied, +and while they lingered over their food and smoked I strolled up the +valley a little way, still feeling the pressure of that severed arm. + +Hana Hevane had its people one time. They vanished as from a hundred +other valleys, before the march of progress. The kindly green of the +jungle had hidden the marks of human habitations, where once they had +lived and loved and died. + +Only the bones of _La Corse_, the schooner Jerome Capriata had +sailed many years, lay rotting under a grotesque and dark banian, +never more to feel the foot of man upon the deck or to toss upon the +sea. A consoling wave lapped the empty pintles and gave the decaying +craft a caress by the element whose mistress she so long had been. +Her mast was still stepped, but a hundred centipedes crawled over +the hull. + +When I returned to the fire, the boatmen were talking. Ugh! Dried-up +Stream! his stomach full and smoke in his mouth, bethought himself +of a tale, an incident of this very spot. In a sardonic manner he +began: + +"The men of this island, Tahuata, in the old days descended on +Fatu-hiva to hunt the man-meat. After the battle, they brought their +captives to Hana Hevane to rest, to build a fire and to eat one of +their catch. This they did, and departed again. But when they were in +their canoes, they found they had forgotten a girl whom they had +thrown on the sand, and they returned for her. The sea was rough, +and they had to stay here on the beach for the night. + +"As was the custom, they erected a gibbet, two posts and a +horizontal bar, and on the bar they hung the living prisoners, with +a cord of _parau_ bark passed through the scalp and tied around the +hair. Their arms were tied behind them, and they swung in the breeze. + +"In the night, when the Tahuata men slept from their gluttony, one +of them arose silently and unbound a prisoner who was his friend, +and told him to run to the mountains. He then lay down and slept, +and in the darkness this man who had been freed returned stealthily +in the darkness, and unloosed a girl, the same who had been +forgotten on the sand. In the morning the other captives were dead, +but those who escaped were months in the fastness of the heights, +living on roots and on birds they snared. In the end they went to +Motopu. They were well received, for the Tahuata warriors thought a +god had aided them, and they and their children lived long there." + +Ugh! smiled reminiscently as if his thoughts were returning from +pleasant things, and clapped his hands as a signal for reembarking. + +The bowls of food remaining were tied in baskets of leaves and hung +in the banian tree to await the boatsmen's return for the night, +the steersman was carried to his place, and the boat pushed through +the surf. + +A gaunt shark swam close to the reefs as we rowed out, a hungry, +ill-looking monster. One of the bottles of rum the oarsmen had drunk +on the way to Hana Hevane, the other was stored for their return, +and to gain a third the son of Ugh! offered to go overboard and tie +a rope to the shark's tail, which is the way natives often catch them. +A shark was not worth a liter of rum, I said, being in no mind to +risk the limbs of a man in such a sport. Besides, I had no more to +give away. I could imagine the rage of Seventh Man Who Wallows +should he learn of my wasting in such foolishness what would keep us +both warm if it rained. + +As we caught the wind a flock of _koio_ came close to us in their +search for fish. The black birds were like a cloud; there must have +been fifty thousand of them, and flying over us they completely cut +off the sunlight, like a dark storm. If they had taken a fancy to +settle on us they must have smothered us under a feathered avalanche. +Ugh! was startled and amazed that the birds should come so close, +and all raised an uproar of voices and waved arms and oars in the air, +to frighten them off. They passed, the sun shone upon us again, and +in a sparkling sea we made our way past Iva Iva Iti and Iva Iva Nui, +rounding a high green shore into the bay of Vait-hua. + +The mountains above the valley loomed like castellated summits of +Italy, so like huge stone fortresses that one might mistake them for +such from the sea. The tiny settlement reaching from the beach half +a mile up the glen was screened by its many trees. + +The whaleboat slid up to a rocky ledge, and my luggage and I were +put ashore. Exploding Eggs, who had insisted on accompanying me, +took it into his charge, and with it balanced on his shoulders we +sauntered along the road to the village where the French gendarme had +lost his nose to the mad _namu_-drinker. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Idyllic valley of Vait-hua; the beauty of Vanquished Often; bathing +on the beach; an unexpected proposal of marriage. + + +The beach followed the semi-circle of the small bay, and was hemmed +in on both sides by massive black rocks, above which rose steep +mountains covered with verdure. The narrow valley itself sloped +upward on either hand to a sheer wall of cliffs. In the couple of +miles from the water's edge to the jungle tangle of the high hills +were thousands upon thousands of cocoanut-palms, breadfruit-, mango-, +banana-, and lime-trees, all speaking of the throng of people that +formerly inhabited this lovely spot, now so deserted. The tiny +settlement remaining, with its scattered few habitations, was +beautiful beyond comparison. A score or so of houses, small, but +neat and comfortable, wreathed with morning-glory vines and shaded +by trees, clustered along the bank of a limpid stream crossed at +intervals by white stepping-stones. Naked children, whose heads were +wreathed with flowers, splashed in sheltered pools, or fled like +moving brown shadows into the sun-flecked depths of the glade as we +approached. + +We were met beneath a giant banian-tree by the chief, who greeted us +with simple dignity and led us at once to his house. The most +pretentious in the village, it consisted of two rooms, built of +redwood boards from California, white-washed, clean, and bare, +opening through wide doors upon the broad _paepae_. This house, the +chief insisted, was to be my home while I remained his guest in +Vait-hua. My polite protestations he waved away with a courtly +gesture and an obdurate smile. I was an American, and his guest. + +My visit was obviously a great event in the eyes of Mrs. Seventh Man +Who Is So Angry He Wallows In The Mire. A laughing Juno of thirty +years, large and rounded as a breadfruit-tree, more than six feet in +height, with a mass of blue-black hair and teeth that flashed white +as a fresh-opened cocoanut, she rose from her mat on the _paepae_ +and rubbed my nose ceremoniously with hers. Clothed in a necklace of +false pearls and a brilliantly scarlet loincloth, she was truly a +barbaric figure, yet in her eye I beheld that instant preoccupation +with household matters that greets the unexpected guest the world +over. + +While the chief and I reclined upon mats and Exploding Eggs sat +vigilant at my side, she vanished into the house, and shortly +returned to set before us a bowl of _popoi_ and several cocoanuts. +These we ate while Neo discoursed sadly upon the evil times that had +befallen his reign. + +"Me very busy when prenty ship come," he mourned. "Me fix for wood; +get seven dollar load. Me fix for girl for captain and mate. Me stay +ship, eat hard-tackee, salt horsee, chew tobacco, drink rum. Good +time he all dead." + +The repast ended, we set out to view the depleted village with its +few inhabitants, the remainder after Europe had subtracted native +habits and native health. + +The gorge that parted the valley was wide and deep for the silver +stream that sang its way to the bay. When the rain fell in cascades +the channel hardly contained the mad torrent that raced from the +heights, a torrent that had destroyed the road built years before +when whaler's ships by the dozens came each year. Now the natives +made their way as of old, up and down rocky trails and over the +stepping-stones. + +Near the beach we came upon a group of tumbledown shanties, remnants +of the seat of government. Only a thatched schoolhouse and a tiny +cabin for the teacher were habitable. Here the single artist of the +islands, Monsieur Charles Le Moine, had taught the three "R's" to +Vait-hua's adolescents for years. He was away now, Neo said, but we +found his cabin open and littered with canvases, sketches, +paint-tubes, and worn household articles. + +"He got litt'ee broomee, an' sweep paint out litt'ee pipe on thing +make ship's sails," Neo explained. Surely a description of a broad +modern style. + +On the wall or leaning against it on the floor were a dozen drawings +and oils of a young girl of startling beauty. Laughing, clear-eyed, +she seemed almost to speak from the canvas, filling the room with +charm. Here she leaned against a palm-trunk, her bare brown body +warm against its gray; there she stood on a white beach, a crimson +_pareu_ about her loins and hibiscus flowers in her hair. + +"That Hinatini," said Seventh Man Who Wallows, speaking always in +what he supposed to be English. "She some pumkin, eh? Le Moine like +more better make _tiki_ like this than say book. She my niece." + +The rich colors of the pictures sang like bugle-notes among the +shabby odds and ends of the studio. A cot, a broken chair or two, a +table smeared with paints, an old shoe, a pipe, and a sketch of the +Seine, gave me La Moine in his European birthright, but the absence +of any European comforts, the lack even of dishes and a lamp, told +me that Montmartre would not know him again. The eyes of the girl +who lived on the canvases said that Le Moine was claimed by the Land +of the War Fleet. + +Turning from the dingy interior of his cabin, I saw in the sunlight +beyond the door his model in the life. Le Moine had not the brush to +do her justice. Vanquished Often, as Hinatini means, was perhaps +thirteen years old, with a grace of carriage, a beauty and perfection +of features, a rich coloring no canvas could depict. Her skin was of +warm olive hue, with tinges of red in the cheeks and the lips +cherry-ripe. Her eyes were dark brown, large, melting, childishly +introspective. Her hands were shapely, and her little bare feet, +arched, rosy-nailed, were like flowers on the sand. She wore the +thinnest of sheer white cotton tunics, and there were flamboyant +flowers in the shining dark hair that tumbled to her waist. + +She greeted me with the eager artlessness of the child that she was. +She was on her way to the _vai puna_, the spring by the beach, she +said. Would I accompany her thither? And would I tell her of the +women of my people in the strange islands of the _Memke?_ They were +very far away, were they not, those islands? Farther even than Tahiti? +How deep beneath the sea could their women dive? + +I answered these, and other questions, while we walked down the beach, +and I marveled at the unconscious grace of her movements. The chief +wonder of all these Marquesans is the beauty and erectness of their +standing and walking postures. Their chests are broad and deep, +their bosoms, even in girls of Vanquished Often's age, rounded, +superb, and their limbs have an ease of motion, an animal-like +litheness unknown to our clothed and dress-bound women. + +Vanquished Often was the most perfect type of all these physical +perfections, a survival of those wondrous Marquesan women who addled +the wits of the whites a century ago. There was no blemish on her, +nor any feature one would alter. + +Half a dozen of her comrades were lounging upon the sand when we +reached the _via puna_. Here an iron pipe in the mountain-side +tapped subterranean waters, and a hollowed cocoanut-tree gave them +exit upon the sand where salt waves flowed up to meet them. Long +lean curving cocoanuts arched above, and beneath their ribbons of +shade lay an old canoe, upon which sat those who waited their turn +to bathe, to fill calabashes, or merely to gossip. + +For all time, they said, this had been the center of life in Vait-hua. +Old wives' tales had been told here for generations. The whalers +filled their casks at this spring, working every hour of the +twenty-four because the flow was small. Famous harpooners, steersmen +who winked no eye when the wounded whale drew their boat through a +smother of foam, shanghaied gentlemen, sweepings of harbors, +Nantucket deacons, pirates, and the whole breed of sailors and +fighting fellows, congregated here to bathe and to fill their +water-casks. Near this crystal rivulet they slashed each other in +their quarrels over Vait-hua's fairest, and exchanged their +slop-chest luxuries and grog for the favors of the island chiefs. + +It was Standard Oil, sending around the world its _tipoti_, or tin +cans, filled with illuminating fluid cheaper than that of the whale, +that ended the days of the ships in Vait-hua, and they sailed away +for the last time, leaving an island so depopulated that its few +remaining people could slip back into the life of the days before the +whites came. + +"_Alice Snow_ las' whaleship come Vait-hua six years before," said +the Seventh Man Who Wallows. "Before that, one ship, _California_ +name, Captain Andrew Hicks. Charlie, he sailmaker, run away from +Andrew Hicks. One Vait-hua girl look good to him. She hide him in +hills till captain make finish chase him. That him children." + +Indeed, most of the faces turned toward me from the group about the +spring were European, either by recent heredity or tribal nature. I +could see the Saxon, the Latin, and the Viking, and one girl was all +Japanese, a reference to which caused her to weep. "Iapona" was to +her pretty ears the meanest word in Vait-hua's vocabulary, and her +playmates held it in reserve for important disagreements. + +Vanquished Often, slipping from her white tunic, stepped beneath the +stream of crystal water and laughed at the cool delight of it on her +smooth skin. It was a picture of which artist's dream, the naked +girl laughing in the torrents of transparent water, the wet crimson +blossoms washing from her drowned hair, and beneath the striped +shade of the palm-trunks her simple, savage companions waiting their +turn, squatting on the sand or crowded on the canoe, their loins +wrapped in crimson and blue and yellow _pareus_. Behind them all the +mountains rose steeply, a mass of brilliant green jungle growth, and +before them, across the rim of shining white sand, spread the wide +blue sea. + +Courtesy suggested that I should be next to feel the refreshing +torrent. We let slip the garment of timorous covering very easily +when nudity is commonplace. Vait-hua was to teach me to be modest +without pother, to chat with those about me during my ablutions +without concern for the false vanities of screens or even the +shelter of rocks as in the river in Atuona. In such scenes one +perceives that immodesty is in the false shame that makes one cling +to clothes, rather than in the simple virtues that walk naked and +unashamed. + +Tacitus recites that chastity was a controlling virtue among the +Teutons, ranking among women as bravery among men, yet all Teutons +bathed in the streams together. In Japan both sexes bathe in public +in natural hot pools, and that without diffidence. The Japanese, +though a people of many clothes, regard nudity with indifference, +but use garments to conceal the contour of the human form, while we +are horrified by nakedness and yet use dress to enhance the form, +especially to emphasize the difference between sexes. Our women's +accentuated hips and waistlines shock the Japanese, whose loose +clothing is the same for men and women, the broader belt and double +fold upon the small of the back, the obi, being the only +differentiation. + +Mohammedan women surprised in bathing cover their faces first; the +Chinese, the feet. Good Erasmus, that Dutch theologian, said that +"angels abhor nakedness." Devout Europeans of his day never saw their +own bodies; if they bathed, they wore a garment covering them from +head to feet. Thus standards of clothing vary from age to age and +from country to country. + +Missionaries bewilder the savage mind by imposing their own +standards of the moment and calling them modesty. The African negro, +struggling to harmonize these two ideas, wore a tall silk hat and a +pair of slippers as his only garments when he obeyed Livingstone's +exhortations to clothe himself in the presence of white women. + +Vait-hua was all savage; whatever bewilderments the missionaries had +brought had faded when dwindling population left the isle to its own +people. In the minds of my happy companions at the _vai puna_, +modesty had no more to do with clothing than, among us, it had to do +with food. The standards of the individual are everywhere formed by +the mass-opinion of those about him; I came from my bath, replaced +my garments, and felt myself Marquesan. + +The sensation was false. Savage peoples can never understand our +philosophy, our complex springs of action. They may ape our manners, +wear our ornaments, and seek our company, but their souls remain +indifferent. They laugh when we are stolid. They weep when we are +unmoved. Their gods and devils are not ours. + +From our side, too, the abyss is impassable. Civilization with its +refinements and complexities has stripped us of the power of +complete surrender to simple impulses. The white who would become +like a natural savage succeeds only in becoming a beast. "_Plus +sauvage que les kanakas_," is a proverb in the islands. Its +implications I had occasion to heed ere the evening was ended. + +Wrapped only in a gorgeous red _pareu_, I sat on the _paepae_ of the +chief's house, now become mine. I was the especial care of Mrs. Seventh +Man Who Wallows, who all afternoon long had sat on her haunches over +a cocoanut husk fire stirring savory foods for me. Fish, chickens, +pigs, eggs, and native delicacies of all kinds she had cooked and +sauced so appetizingly that I conferred on her the title of "Chefess" +_de Cuisine_, and voiced my suspicions that some deserting cook +from a flagship had traded his lore for her kisses. Her laughter was +spiced with pride, and the chief himself smilingly nodded and gestured +to assure me that I had guessed right. + +Now in the quiet of the evening, empty bowls removed, pandanus-leaf +cigarettes lighted, and pipe passing from hand to hand, we sat +rejoicing in the sweet odors of the forest, the murmur of the stream, +and the ease of contentment. Many elders of the village had come to +meet the stranger, to discuss the world and its wonders, and to +marvel at the ways of the whites. The glow of the pipe lighted +shriveled yet still handsome countenances scrolled with tattooing, +and caught gleams from rolling eyes or sparkles from necklace and +earring. Above the mountains a full moon rose, flooding the valley +with light and fading the brilliant colors of leaf and flower to +pale pastel tints. + +Vanquished Often sat beside me, her dark hair falling over my knee, +and listened respectfully to the conversation of her elders, who +discussed the gods of the stranger. + +They wondered what curious motive had impelled the Jews, the +_Aati-Ietu_, to kill _Ieto Kirito_ the Savior of the world. +They discussed the strange madness that had possessed _Iuda +Iskalota_, that he had first bought land with his forty pieces of +silver and then hanged himself to a _purau_ tree. Was it cocoanut +land? they asked. Was it not good land? + +Often across the worn stones of the _paepae_ stole a _vei_, a +centipede, upon which a bare foot quickly stamped. The chief said +casually, "If he bite you, you no die; you have hell of a time." +They were not natives of the Marquesas originally, he said; they +came in the coal of ships. His patriotism outran his knowledge, for +the first discoverers bitterly berated these poisonous creatures, +though no more warmly than Neo, who drew heavily upon his stock of +English curses to tell his opinion of them. + +When the time came for saying _apae kaoha_ my kindly hosts sought to +confer upon me the last proof of their friendliness. They proposed +that I marry Vanquished Often. + +My refusal was incomprehensible to them, and Vanquished Often's +happy smile in the moonlight quickly faded to a look of pain and +humiliation. They had offered me their highest and most revered +expression of hospitality. To refuse it was as uncustomary and as +rude as to refuse the Alaskan miner who offers a drink at a public +bar. + +"_Menike_," pleaded the chief, "that Hinatini more better marry +white man, friend of Teddy, from number one island. She some punkins +for be good wife. Suppose may be you like Vait-hua you stay long time; +suppose you go soon, make never mind!" + +The fair chieftess shook her earrings and smiled archly. "Bonne +filly pooh voo, Menike," she urged in her Marquesan French. +"Good wife for you. It is my pleasure that you are happy. She is +beautiful and good. You will be the son of our people while you are +here." + +Vanquished Often, who had a vague notion of the greatness of her +uncle's Menike friends, Teddy and Gotali, and of the desirability of +an alliance with one of their tribe, approached me softly and rubbed +my back in a circle the while she crooned a broken song of the +whaling days, concerning the "rolling Mississippi" and the "Black +Ball line." Seventh Man Who Wallows in the Mire himself began to +make concentric circles on my breast with his heavy hand, so that I +was beset fore and aft by the most tender and friendly advances of +the Marquesan race. Never was hapless guest in more unfortunate +plight. + +She was but a child, I said; Americans did not mate with children. +They smiled as at a pleasantry, and again extolled her charms. +Desperately I harked back to the ten commandments in an endeavor to +support my refusal by other reasons than distaste or discourtesy, +but laughter met my text. "White man does not follow white man's +_tapus_," said my hostess, gently placing my hand in that of +Vanquished Often. The slender fingers clung timorously to mine. +Unhappy Hinatini feared that she was about to be disgraced before her +people by the white man's scorn of her beauty. + +I was fain to invent a romance upon the spot. I was madly enamoured +of an Atuona belle, I said. She waited for me upon my own _paepae_; +she was a mighty woman and swift to anger. She would wreak vengeance +upon me, and upon Vanquished Often. I would adopt Vanquished Often +as my sister. In token of this I pressed my lips upon her forehead +and kissed her hands. She smiled bewitchingly, pleased by the novel +honor. + +My hosts and their friends departed with her, half pleased, half +puzzled at this latest whimsy of the strange white, and I lay down +upon the mats of the chief's house, with Exploding Eggs lying across +the doorway at my feet. + +The night brought fitful dreams, and in the darkest hour I woke to +feel a frightening thing upon my leg. By the light of the dimly +burning lantern I saw a thousand-leg, reddish brown and ten inches +long, halting perhaps for breath midway between my knee and waist. +It seemed indeed to have a thousand legs, and each separate foot +made impresses of terror on my mind, while each toe and claw +clutched my bare flesh with threatening touch. + +The brave man of the tale who saves himself from cobra or rattler by +letting the serpent crawl its slow way over his perfectly controlled +body might have withheld even a quiver of the flesh, but I am no +Spartan. At my convulsive shudder each horrid claw gripped a +death-hold. In one swift motion I seized a corkscrew that lay nearby, +pried loose with a quick jerk every single pede and threw the odious +thing a dozen yards. A trail of red, inflamed spots rose where it +had stood and remained painful and swollen for days. + +[Illustration: Idling away the sunny hours] + +[Illustration: Nothing to do but rest all day] + +Whether it was because this experience became mixed with my first +dreams in beautiful Vait-hua, or whether my Celtic blood sees +portents where they do not exist, certain it is that as the stealthy +charm of that idyllic place grew upon me through the days something +within me resisted it. I was ever aware that its beauty concealed a +menace deadly to the white man who listened too long to the rustle +of its palms and the murmur of its stream. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Communal life; sport in the waves; fight of the sharks and the mother +whale; a day in the mountains; death of Le Capitaine Halley; return +to Atuona. + + +Life in Vait-hua was idyllic. The whites, having desolated and +depopulated this once thronged valley, had gone, leaving the remnant +of its people to return to their native virtue and quietude. Here, +perhaps more than in any other spot in all the isles, the Marquesan +lived as his forefathers had before the whites came. + +Doing nothing sweetly was an art in Vait-hua. Pleasure is nature's +sign of approval. When man is happy, he is in harmony with himself +and his environment. The people of this quiet valley did not crave +excitement. The bustle and nervous energy of the white wearied them +excessively. Time was never wasted, to their minds, for leisure was +the measure of its value. + +Domestic details, the preparation of food, the care of children, the +nursing of the sick, were the tasks of all the household. Husband +and wife, or the mates unmarried, labored together in delightful +unity. Often the woman accompanied her man into the forests, +assisting in the gathering of nuts and breadfruit, in the fishing +and the building. When these duties did not occupy them, or when +they were not together bathing in the river or at the _via puna_, +they sat side by side on their _paepaes_ in meditation. They might +discuss the events of the day, they might receive the visits of +others, or go abroad for conversation; but for hours they often were +wrapped in their thoughts, in a silence broken only by the rolling +of their pandanus cigarettes or the lighting of the mutual pipe. + +"Of what are you thinking?" I said often to my neighbors when +breaking in upon their meditation. + +"Of the world. Of those stars," they replied. + +They would sympathize with that Chinese traveler who, visiting +America and being hurried from carriage to train, smiled at our idea +of catching the fleeting moment. + +"We save ten minutes by catching this train," said his guide, +enthusiastically. + +"And what will you do with that ten minutes?" demanded the Chinese. + +To be busy about anything not necessary to living is, in Marquesan +wisdom, to be idle. + +Swimming in the surf, lolling at the _via puna_, angling from rock +or canoe or fishing with line and spear outside the bay, searching +for shell-fish, and riding or walking over the hills to other valleys, +filled their peaceful, pleasant days. A dream-like, care-free life, +lived by a people sweet to know, handsome and generous and loving. + +That he never saw or heard of the slightest quarrel between +individuals was the statement a century ago of Captain Porter, the +American. Then as now the most perfect harmony prevailed among them. +They lived like affectionate brothers of one family, he said, the +authority of the chiefs being only that of fathers among children. +They had no mode of punishment for there were no offenders. Theft +was unknown, and all property was left unguarded. So Porter, who, +with his ship's company, killed so many Marquesans, was fully aware +of their civic virtues, their kindness, gentleness and generosity. + +It is so to-day, in Vait-hua where the whites are not. I have had my +trousers lifted from my second-story room in a Manila hotel by the +eyed and fingered bamboo of the Tagalog _ladron_, while I washed my +face, and stood aghast at the mystery of their disappearance with +door locked, until looking from my lofty window I beheld them moving +rapidly down an _estero_ in a _banca_. I have given over my watch to +a gendarme in Cairo to forfend arrest for having beaten an Arab who +tripped me to pick my pocket, and I have surrendered to the rapacity +of a major-general-uniformed official in Italy, who would +incarcerate me for not having a tail-light lit. In San Francisco, +when robbed upon the public street, I have listened while the police +suggested that I offer a fee to the "king of the dips" and a reward +to certain saloonkeepers to intercede with the unknown-to-me +highwaymen for the return of an heirloom. + +Yet through the darkest nights in Vait-hua I slept serenely, +surrounded by all the possessions so desirable in the eyes of my +neighbors, in a house the doors of which were never fastened. There +was not a lock in all the village, or anything that answered the +purpose of one. The people of this isolated valley, forgetting their +brief encounter with the European idea of money and of the +accumulation of property, had reverted to the ways of their fathers. + +Before interference with their natural customs the Marquesans were +communists to a large degree. Their only private property consisted +of houses, weapons, ornaments, and clothing, for the personal use of +the owner himself. All large works, such as the erection of houses, +the building of large canoes, and, in ancient days, the raising of +_paepaes_ and temples, were done by mutual cooperation; though +each family provided its own food and made provision for the future +by storing breadfruit in the _popoi_ pits. Neo, like the long line +of chiefs before him, had gathered a little more of the good things +of life than had the majority, but he was in no sense a dictator, +except as personality won obedience. In the old days a chief was +often relegated to the ranks for failure in war, and always for an +overbearing attitude toward the commoners. Such arrogant fellows +were kicked out of the seat of power unceremoniously. + +"Our pure republican policy approaches so near their own," said the +American naval captain, Porter, a hundred years ago. + +Men were honored for their artistry, highest place being given to +the tattooers, the carvers, the designers, and builders of canoes, +the architects, doctors, and warriors. Men and women rose to +influence and chiefly rank only by deeds that won popular admiration. +These people were hero-worshippers, and in the bloodiest of the old +days those of fine soul who had a message of entertainment or +instruction were _tapu_ to all tribes, so that they could travel +anywhere in safety and were welcome guests in all homes. + +It is true that in Hawaii and Tonga conquerors made themselves kings, +but not there or in Samoa, Tahiti, or the Marquesas were kings +supreme rulers until the whites established them for their own trade +purposes and sold them firearms by which to maintain their power. + +That day of the whites had passed in Vait-hua. The chief now +maintained his authority by the fondness of his people alone. +Generous he was, and gentle, yet I minded that he had bitten off the +nose of Severin, the French gendarme, when the _namu_ had made him +mad. Now whether guided by pride in his discipline or by memory of +evil-doing repented, he was strict in his enforcement of the +prohibition of cocoanut toddy, and sobriety made the days and nights +peaceful. + +Early in the mornings I called "Kaoha!" from my _paepae_ to +Mrs. Seventh Man, who came each day from her bath in the _via +puna_ attired in her earrings only. + +Sauntering along the bank of the brook still dripping from the spring, +her wet black hair clinging to her shapely back and her tawny skin +glistening in flickering light and shade, she was for all the world +my conception of Mother Eve before even leaves were modesty. Her +nudity was a custom only at this time, for when she reappeared to +aid Exploding Eggs in preparing my breakfast she always wore a +scarlet _pareu_ and her hair was done like Bernhardt's. + +Vanquished Often appeared with her aunt, carefully dressed in +spotless, diaphanous tunic, fresh flowers in her hair, a treasured +pink silk garter clasping her rounded arm. "Big White Brother," she +called me with pride, though often I saw a sad wonder in her great +eyes as she squatted near, silently watching me. Her possessive ways +were pretty to see as she walked close by my side on the trail from +my cabin to the beach, while Exploding Eggs regarded her jealously, +insisting on his prerogative as _Tueni Oki Kiki_, Keeper of the +Golden Bed, the glittering magnificence of which he described +minutely to her. + +We arrived at a merry scene upon the beach. Women and children were +in the surf, or on rocks under the cliffs, fishing for _popo_, the +young of _uua_. With bamboo poles twenty feet long and lines of even +greater length, we stood up to our necks in the sea and threw out +the hook baited with a morsel of shrimp. The breakers tumbled us +about, the lines became tangled, amid gales of laughter and a medley +of joyous shouts. Tiring of fishing, Vanquished Often and I would +breast the creaming waves side by side, to turn far out and dash in +on the breakers, overturning all but the wary. Or a group of us, +climbing high on the cliffs, would fling ourselves again and again +into the sea, turning in mid-air, life and delight quickening every +muscle. + +Wearying of this sport, we embarked in canoes, fishing or sailing, +and many small adventures we had, for the younger and more daring +spirits delighted in scaring me into expostulation or the silence of +the condemned and then saving my life by a hair's-breadth. + +We had gone one morning about the southern cape, and were harpooning +swordfish and the gigantic sunfish when a commotion a thousand feet +away brought shouts of warning from my companions. We saw two whales, +one with a baby at her breast. The other we took to be the father +whale. Huge black beasts they were. Upon this mated pair a band of +sharks had flung themselves to seize the infant. + +There were at least twenty-five sharks in the mad mob, great white +monsters thirty feet in length, man-eaters by blood-taste, tigers in +disposition. Though they could not compare with their prey in size +or power, they had heads as large as barrels, and mouths that would +drag a man through their terrible gaps. That their hunger was past +all bounds was evident, for the whale is not often attacked by such +inferior-sized fish. Storms had raged on the sea for days, and maybe +had cheated the sharks of their usual food. + +They swam around and around the mountainous pair, darting in and out, +evidently with some plan of drawing off the male. Both the whales +struck out incessantly with their mammoth flukes; their great tails, +crashing upon the sea-surface, lashed it to mountains of foam. Our +boats tossed as in a gale. + +Carried away by the pity and terror of the scene, we shouted threats +and curses at the monsters, calling down on them in Marquesan the +wrath of the sea-gods. Frenziedly handling tiller and sails, we +circled the battle, impotent to aid the poor woman-beast and her baby. +The sharks harried them as hounds a fox. Desperately the parents +fought, more than one shark sank wounded to the depths and one, +turning its white belly to the sun, floated dead upon the waves. +Another was flung high in air by a blow of the mother's tail. But it +was an uneven contest. At last we saw the nursling drawn from her +breast, and the mother herself sank, still struggling. She may have +risen, of course, far away, but she seemed disabled. + +We did not wait about that bloody spot when the sharks had fallen +upon their prey, for our canoe was low in the water, and with such a +sight to warn us, we did not doubt that the loathly monsters would +attack us. + +From such a sight it was a relief to turn to the mountains. Along +the steep trails I roamed far with Vanquished Often and Exploding +Eggs. We played at being alone with nature, foregoing in living all +that the white man had brought. I left the house of the chief naked +save for a loin-cloth of native make, and I wore no shoes or hat. +Vanquished Often and my valet were attired as I, and thus we shouted +"Kaoha!" to the chieftess and started toward adventure. + +Seventh Man was dubious about my setting off without some prepared +food, _popoi_ or canned fish or biscuits, and without sleeping-mats. +"You ketchee hungery by an' soon," he protested. "No got Gold Bed in +mountains." + +Vanquished Often laughed merrily, and the chief looked like a father +whose child has thrown a stone at the bogie-man. I rubbed his nose +with mine in farewell, and we began our journey, barehanded as Crusoe, +yet more fortunate than he since we were in the best of company and +I had the comforting knowledge that Marquesan youth would not go +hungry or permit me to do so. + +Our way led up heights of marvelous beauty, along the edges of deep +defiles that opened below our feet like valleys of Paradise. The +candlenut, the _ama_, with its lilac bloom, the hibiscus and pandanus, +green and glossy, the _petavii_, a kind of banana the curving fronds +of which spread high in air, the snake-plant, _makomako_, a +yellow-flowered shrub, and many others none of us could name, +carpeted the farther mountain-sides with brilliant colors. +Everywhere were cocoanuts, guavas, and mangos. In the tree-tops over +our heads the bindweed shook its feathery seed-pods, the parasite +_kouna_ dripped its deeply serrated leaves and crimson umbels, and +thousands of orchids hung like butterflies. + +"It is beautiful in your islands, is it not?" Vanquished Often said +wistfully. "Tell us more of the marvels there! Are the girls of your +valleys very lovely, and do they all sleep in golden beds?" + +All daughters of chiefs slept in golden beds, I told her. Often they +wore golden slippers on their feet. When they wished to go over the +mountains they did not walk, or ride on donkeys, but went in seats +covered with velvet, a kind of cloth more soft than the silk ribbon +of her pink garter-armlet, and these seats were drawn at incredible +speed by a snorting thing made of iron, not living, but stronger +than a hundred donkeys. + +"How do they make that cloth?" said Vanquished Often, eagerly. They +did not make it, I explained. It was made for them by girls who were +not daughters of chiefs, and therefore had no golden beds. + +Her eyes clouded with bewilderment, but Exploding Eggs listened +breathlessly, and demanded more tales. I told them of wireless +telegraphy. This they believed as they believed the tales of magic +told by old sorcerers, but they scoffed at my description of an +elevator, perceiving that I was loosing the reins of my fancy and +soaring to impossibilities. + +"The girls in your island must always be happy," said Vanquished +Often, sighing. All daughters of chiefs were happy, I said. +"What is the manner of their fishing?" asked Exploding Eggs. + +In such conversation we proceeded, walking for miles through a +fairyland in which we were the only living creatures, save for the +small scurrying things that slipped across the trail, and the +bright-colored birds that fluttered through the tree-tops. + +At noon we paused for luncheon. Vanquished Often disappeared in the +forest, to return shortly with her gathered-up tunic filled with +mangos and guavas, four cocoanuts slung in a neatly plaited basket +of leaves on her bare shoulders. Exploding Eggs, cutting two sticks +of dry wood from the underbrush, whirled them upon each other with +such speed and dexterity that soon a small fire, fed by shreds of +cocoanut fiber, blazed on a rock, with plantains heaped about it to +roast. + +While we rested after the feast Vanquished Often, squatted by my side, +made for my comfort a wide-brimmed hat of thick leaves pinned +together with thorns, a shelter from the sun's rays that was grateful +to my tender scalp. Resuming our way, we met upon the trail a +handsome small wild donkey, fearful of our kind, yet longing for +company. + +"_Pureekee!_" said Exploding Eggs, meaning _bourrique_, the French +for donkey. And Vanquished Often related that once hundreds of these +beasts roamed through the jungle, descendants of a pair of asses +escaped from a ship decades before, but that most of them had +starved to death in dry periods, or been eaten by hungry natives. + +Farther on we passed acres of the sensitive plant, called by the +Marquesans _teita hakaina_, the Modest Herb. A wide glade in a curve +of the mountains was filled with a sea of it, and my companions +delighted in dashing through its curiously nervous leafage, that +shuddered and folded its feathery sprays together at their touch. If +shocked further it opened its leaflets as if to say, "What's the use? +I'm shy, but I can't stay under cover forever." + +In such artless amusements the day passed, a day that remains +forever an idyl of simple loveliness to me, such as any man is the +richer for having known. When darkness overtook us, we made for +ourselves the softest of ferny beds, and slept serenely, untroubled +by anything, under the light of the stars. + +As we returned next day to the village in the valley, we found upon +a hill far from the beach the tombs of the sailors who first raised +the standard of France in these islands. The eternal jungle had so +housed in their monuments that we had hot work to break through the +jealous lantana and pandanus to see the stones. Neither Vanquished +Often nor Exploding Eggs had ever cast eyes on them, and neither had +but a legendary memory of how these men of the conquering race had +met their death. + +A great slab of native basalt eroded by seventy years of sun and +rain bore the barely discernible epitaph: + + + "Ci Git + Edouard Michel Halley + Capitaine de Corvette + Officier de la Legion d'honneur + Fondateur de la colonie de Vait-hua + Mort au champ d'honneur + Le 17 ----bre, 1842" + + +I read it to my friends. They pressed their hands to their brows to +conjure up a vision of this dead man whom their grandfathers had +fought and slain, as I told them the story of his death in the +jungle at our feet. + +It was at Vait-hua that the French first took possession of the +Marquesas. Here already were missionaries and beach-combers of many +nationalities, ardent spirits all, fighting each other for the souls +of the natives; gin and the commandments at odds, ritual and +exploitation contending. Unable to subdue the forces that threatened +the peace of his people, Iotete, Vait-hua's chief, sent a message +asking the help of the French admiral. It came at once; a garrison +was established on the beach, and the tricolor rose. + +Whatever the cause, it had been upraised barely two months when +chief and people in a body deserted their homes and fled to the hills. +Commander Halley, having vainly exhorted and commanded them to return, +declared war on them in punishment for their disobedience, and +marshaling his forces in three columns set out to seek them. + +Ladebat led the van, armed with a fowling-piece. Halley himself +walked at the head of the middle column, a youthful, debonair +Frenchman, carrying only a cane, which he swung jauntily as he +followed the jungle trail. When the soldiers arrived at a few feet +from the main body of the natives, Iotete advanced and cried out, +"_Tapu!_" + +Ladebat instantly fired his shot-gun at the chief, and instantly two +balls from native guns pierced his brain. + +"Halley," runs the old chronicle, "advanced from the shelter of a +cocoanut-tree to give orders to his men, but fell on his knees as if +in prayer, embracing the tree, three paces from the corpse of Ladebat. +Five of his men dropped mortally wounded beside him. Third Officer +Laferriere had the retreat sounded." + +Here, but a few feet from the spot where the gay young Frenchman fell, +the jungle had covered his tomb. Fifty thousand Marquesans have died +to bring peace to the soul of that _corvette_ commander who so +jauntily flourished his cane in the faces of the wondering savages. +Iotete would better have endured the pranks of brutal sea-adventurers, +perhaps. This mausoleum was the seal of French occupancy. + +Farther down the hill we came upon the first church built in the +Marquesas. It was a small wooden edifice bearing a weatherbeaten +sign in French, "The Church of the Mother of God." Above the +shattered doors were two carven hearts, a red dagger through one and +a red flame issuing from the other. A black cross was fixed above +these symbols, which Vanquished Often and Exploding Eggs regarded +with respect. To the Marquesan these are all _tiki_, or charms, +which have superseded their own. + +Beside the decaying church stood a refectory far gone in ruin, that +once had housed a dozen friars. Breadfruit-, mango- and orange-trees +grew in the tangled tall grass, and the garden where the priests had +read their breviaries was a wilderness of tiger-lilies. Among them +we found empty bottles of a "Medical Discovery," a patent medicine +dispensed from Boston, favored in these islands where liquor is +tabooed by government. + +Seventh Man, coming up the trail to meet us, found us looking at them. +He lifted one and sniffed it regretfully. + +"Prenty strong," he said. "Make drunkee. Call him Kennedee. He cost +much. Drinkee two piece you sick three day." He smiled reminiscently, +and once more I thought of that day when the unfortunate gendarme +had surprised the orgiasts in the forest and lost his nose. The +chief accompanied us down the trail. + +"My brother of grandfather have first gun in Marquesas," he said +with meaning when I spoke of the days of Halley. "One chief Iotete +have prenty trouble _Menike_ whaleman. He send for French admiral +help him. Captiane Halley come with sailor. Frenchman he never go +'way." Again his teeth gleamed in a smile. "My brother of +grandfather have gun long time in hills," he added cryptically. + +Too soon the time came when I must return to my own _paepae_ in +Atuona. Vanquished Often wept at my decision, and Mrs. Seventh Man +rubbed my nose long with hers as she entreated me to remain in the +home she had given over to me. The chief, finding remonstrance +useless, volunteered to accompany me on my return, and one midnight +woke me to be ready when the wind was right. + +We went down the trail through wind and darkness, the chief blowing +a conch-shell for the crew. In the straw shanty where my hosts had +spread their mats that I might have the full occupancy of their +comfortable home, we found Mrs. Seventh Man making tea for me. +Vanquished Often sat apart in the shadow, her face averted, but when +my cocoanut-shell was filled with the streaming brew she sprang +forward passionately and would let no hand but hers present it to me. + +All day it had been raining, and the downpour rushed from the eaves +with a melancholy sound as we sat in the lantern-lighted dimness +drinking from the shells. The crew came in one by one, their naked +bodies running water, their eyes eager for a draught of the tea, into +which I put a little rum, the last of the two litres. Squall +followed squall, shaking the hut. At half-past two, in a little lull +which Neo guessed might last, we went out to the rain-soaked beach, +launched the canoe, and paddled away. + +My last sight of Vait-hua was the dim line of surf on the sand, and +beyond it the slender figure of Vanquished Often holding aloft a +lantern whose rays faintly illumined against the darkness her +windblown white tunic and blurred face. + +The storm had lured us by, a brief cessation. We had hardly left the +beach before the heavens opened and deluged us with rain. Water +sluiced our bare backs and ran in streams down the brawny arms +bending to the oars. We paddled an hour before the wind was favorable, +and a dreary hour it was. The canoe had an out-rigger, but was so +narrow that none could sit except on the sharp side. I fell asleep +even upon it, and woke in the sea, with the chief, who had flung +himself to my rescue, clutching my hair. + +Morning found our canoe close to the rocky coast of Hiva-oa. As is +their custom, instead of making a beeline for our destination or +sailing to it close-hauled as the winds permitted, the Marquesans +had steered for the nearest shore, following along it to port. This +method is attended with danger, for off the threatening cliffs a +heavy sea was running, great waves dashing on the rocks, and we were +perforce in the trough as we skirted the land. + +[Illustration: Catholic Church at Atuona +Described by Stevenson in _The South Seas_] + +[Illustration: A native spearing fish from a rock] + +We quit the sail for oars, and it took every ounce of strength and +skill on the part of the rowers and Seventh Man to avoid shipwreck. +Each breaker as it passed tossed the frail craft skyward, and we fell +into the abysses as a rock into a bottomless pit. Every instant it +seemed that we must capsize. While we fought thus, in a frenzied +effort to keep off the rocks, the sun rose, and every curl of water +turned to clearest emerald, while the hollows of the leaping waves +were purple as dark amethysts. + +Suddenly, as we slid breathlessly downward, a great wall of water +rose beside us, higher and higher until it seemed to touch the sky, +clear and solid-looking as a sheet of green glass, a sight so +stupendous that amazement took the place of fear. For an instant it +remained poised above us, then crashed down with the shock of an +earthquake. + +Stunned, I emerged from a smother of water to find our canoe +completely under the waves, kept afloat solely by grace of the +outrigger. All hands were overside, clinging to the edge of the +submerged craft, while Exploding Eggs and I bailed for our lives. +Strong swimmers, they held us off-shore until we had so lowered the +water that they could resume the oars. + +For two hours we tossed about, while the chief held the steering-oar +and his men paddled through a welter of jeweled color that +threatened momentarily to toss us on the rocks. If we smashed on +them we were dead men, for even had we been able to climb them the +high tide would have drowned us against the wall of the cliffs. No +man showed the slightest fear, though they pulled like giants and +obeyed instantly each order of the chief. + +Battling in this fashion, we rounded at last Point Teaehoa and won +the protection of the Bay of Traitors. I, at least, felt +immeasurable relief, that quickly turned to exhilaration as we +hoisted sail and drove at a glorious speed straight through the +breakers to the welcoming beach of Atuona. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The Marquesans at ten o'clock mass; a remarkable conversation about +religions and Joan of Arc in which Great Fern gives his idea of the +devil. + + +I was surprised to note that the few natives within view when we +landed were dressed in the stiff and awkward clothes of the European; +some fete must have been arranged during my absence, I thought. Then +with a shock I realized that the day was Sunday. In the lovely, +timeless valley of Vait-hua the calendar had dropped below the +horizon of memory as my native land had dropped below the rim of the +sea. Here in Atuona, whose life was colored by the presence of whites, +the days must take up their constricted regular march again. + +Already through the crystal air of a morning after rain the mission +bells were ringing clear, and Chief Neo, forgetting the night of +toil and danger past, was eager to accompany me to church. It would +be an honor befitting his chiefly rank to sit with the distinguished +white man in the house of worship, and I, remembering his perfect +hospitality, was glad to do him honor in my own valley. + +We hastened to my cabin, Exploding Eggs running before us up the +trail with my luggage balanced on his shoulders. Cocoanuts and +_popoi_, coffee and tinned biscuits, were waiting when we arrived. +We ate hastily and then donned proper garments, Exploding Eggs +rejoicing in a stiff collar and a worn sailor-hat once mine. They +sat oddly upon him, being several sizes too large, but he bore +himself with pride as we set out toward the church. + +In the avenue of bananas leading to the mission I lingered to +observe the beauty of the flakes upon the ground. They are the +outside layers of the pendulum of that graceful plant, the purple +flower-cone that hangs at the end of the fruit cluster with its +volute and royal-hued stem. The banana-plants, which we call trees, +lined the road and stood twenty feet high, their long slender leaves +blowing in the light wind like banners from a castle wall. + +The flakes that had dropped upon the ground were lovely. Large as a +lady's veil, ribbed satin, rose and purple, pink and scarlet, the +filmy edges curled delicately, they hinted the elegance and luxury +of a pretty woman's boudoir. And, like all such dainty trifles, the +charming flower that hangs like a colored lamp in the green chapel +of the banana-grove it is useless after it has served its brief +purpose. The fruit grows better when it is cut off. + +Opposite the spacious mission grounds the worshippers were gathering +beneath two gnarled banian-trees, giant-like in height and spread. +Behind them a long hedge of bananas bordered the cocoanut plantation +of the church, and across the narrow road rose the chapel, the +priests' residence and the nuns' house, with several school +buildings now empty because of the French anti-clerical law. + +Exploding Eggs in his new finery and the visiting chief from +Vait-hua found welcome among the waiting natives, while Titihuti of +the tattooed legs took her seat beside me. She had combed her Titian +tresses and anointed them with oil till they shone like the kelp beds +of Monterey. Her tunic was of scarlet calico, and she carried in her +hand a straw hat with a red ribbon, to put on when she entered the +church. "_Kaoha!_" I said to her, and she smiled, displaying her even, +white teeth. + +Suddenly, looking past her at the church, my eye caught a sight that +transfixed me. In the misty light I saw the Christ upon the cross as +on Calvary. The sublime figure was in the agony of expiration, and at +the foot of the cross stood the ever faithful mother and the loving +John in attitudes of amazement and grief. The reality was startling; +for the moment I forgot all about me. + +But Titihuti coughed, and I saw her tattooed legs and felt the rough +roots of the banian under me, and I was back in the courtyard. The +spectacle of the Crucifixion was raised on a basalt platform fully +twenty feet long. The figures were of golden bronze, and the cross +was painted white. Over it hung the branches of a lofty +breadfruit-tree, a congruous canopy for such a group. The Bread of +Life, in truth. + +A tablet on the cross bore the inscription: + + + "1900 + Le Christ Dieu Homme + Vit + Regne + Commande + Christo Redemptori + Jubile 1901 + Atuona." + + +"The _tiki_ of the true god," said Titihuti, observing my gaze, and +crossed herself with the fervor of the believer in a new charm. + +On the roof a score of doves were cooing as we filed into the church. +There were bas-reliefs of cherubim and seraphim over the doorway, fat, +distorted bodies with wings a-wry, yet with a celestial vision +showing through the crude workmanship. A loop-holed buttress on +either side of the facade spoke of the days when the forethought of +the builders planned for defence in case a reaction of paganism +caused the congregation to attack the Christian fathers. + +Inside the doorway a French nun in blue robes tugged at a rope +depending from the belfry, and above us the bells rang out from two +tiny towers. She looked curiously at me and my savage companion, her +pale peasant's face hard, homely, unhealthy; then she kicked at a +big dog who was trying to drink the holy water from the clam-shell +beside the door. "_Allez_, Satan!" she said. + +The _benetier_, large enough to immerse an infant, was fixed to a +board, a fascinating, blackened old bracket, carved with the +instruments of torture, the nails, the spear, the scourge, and thorns. +Ivory and pearl, stained by a century or more, were inlaid. As I +dipped my hand in the shell a huge lizard that made his nest in the +hollow of the bracket ran across my knuckles. + +Within, there were seats with kneeling-planks, hewed out of hard +wood and still bearing the marks of the adze. Upon them the +congregation soon assembled, the women on one side, the men on the +other. The women wore hats, native weaves in semi-sailor style, +decorated with Chinese silk shawls or bright-colored handkerchiefs. +All were barefooted except the pale and sickly daughters of Baufre, +who wore clumsy and painful shoes. Many Daughters, the little, +lovely leper, came with Flower, of the red-gold hair, the Weaver of +Mats, who had her names tattooed on her arm. They dipped in the font +and genuflected, then bowed in prayer. + +Many familiar faces I recognized. Ah Yu, the Chinaman who owned the +little store beyond the banian-tree and had murder upon his soul; +Lam Kai Oo, my erstwhile landlord; Flag, the gendarme; Water, in all +the glory of European trousers; Kake, with my small namesake on her +arm. The old women were tattooed on the ears and neck in scrolls, +and their lips were marked in faint stripes. The old men, their eyes +ringed with tattooing, wore earrings and necklaces of whale's teeth. + +The church was painted white inside, with frescoes and dados of +gaudy hues, and windows of brilliantly colored glass. The altar, as +also the statues of Joseph and Mary, had a reredos handsomely carved. +Outside the railing was a charming Child in the Manger, lying on +real straw, surrounded by the Virgin, Joseph, the Magi, the shepherds, +and the kings, all in bright-hued robes, and pleasant-looking cows +and asses with red eyes and green tails. + +The singing began before the priest came from the sacristy. The men +sang alone and the women followed, in an alternating chant that at +times rose into a wail and again had the nasal sound of a bag-pipe. +The Catholic chants sung thus in Marquesan took on a wild, barbaric +rhythm that thrilled the blood and made the hair tingle on the scalp. + +Bishop David le Cadre appeared in elegant vestments, his eyes grave +above a foot-long beard, and the mass began. The acolyte was very +agile in a short red cassock, below which his naked legs, and bare +feet showed. The people responded often through the mass, rising, +sitting down, and kneeling obediently. Baufre sat on a chair in the +vestibule and added accounts. + +Ah Kee Au was the sole communicant at the rail. No cloth was spread, +but the bell announced the mystery of transubstantiation, and all +bowed their heads while Ah Kee Au reverently offered his communion to +the welfare of Napoleon, his grandson who had accidentally shot +himself. + +The service over, the people poured from the church into the +brilliant sunshine of the road, and Ah Kee Au said to me, "You savee +thlat communio' blead b'long my place. My son makee for pliest." Lam +Kai Oo, pressing forward, offered the communicant a draught of fiery +rum he had obtained by the governor's permission. He had been told +that to give a glass of water to a communicant, who must of course +have fasted and abstained from any liquid since midnight according to +the law of the Church, was a holy act which brought the giver a +blessing, and so the subtle Chinese thought to make his blessing +greater by offering a drink better than water. + +Ah Kee Au drank with fervor. "My makee holee thliss morn'," he said +gladly. "Makee Napoleon more happy." Sincerity is not a matter of +broken English or a drink of rum; the poor old grandfather of the +Little Corporal's namesake believed earnestly that Napoleon would +improve by his sacramental offering. He, like most Marquesans, took +the white man's religion with little understanding. It is new magic +to them, a comfort, an occupation, and an entertainment. But who +knows the human heart, or understands the soul? + +That afternoon while Neo and I lay on my _paepae_ awaiting the +favoring wind which should carry him back to his own isle, my +neighbors gathered from far and near to lounge the sunny hours away +in conversation. Squatted on the mats, they engaged in serious +discussion of the puzzles of religion, appealing to me often to +settle vexing questions which they had long wearied of asking their +better-informed instructors in religious mysteries. + +Their native tongue has no word for religion. Bishop Dordillon had +been obliged to translate it, "_Te mea e hakatika me te mea e hana +mea koaha toitoi i te Etua_" which might be rendered, "Belief in the +works and love of a just God." Etua, often spelled Atua, was the +name of divinity among all Maori peoples, but religion was so +associated with natural things, the phenomena of nature, of living +things, and of the heavens and sea, that it was part of daily life +and needed no word to distinguish it. + +Never were people less able to comprehend the creeds and formulas in +which the religious beliefs of the white men are clothed. Marquesans +are not deep thinkers. In fact, they have a word, _tahoa_, which +means, "a headache from thinking." Ten years of ardent and nobly +self-sacrificing work by missionaries left the islands still without +a single soul converted. It was not until the chiefs began to set +the seal of their approval on the new outlandish faiths that the +people flocked to the standard of the cross. And when they did begin +to meditate the doctrines preached to them as necessary beliefs in +order to win salvation, their heads ached indeed. + +Even after years of faithful church-going many of my friends still +struggled with their doubts, and when these were propounded to me I +was fain to wrinkle my own brow and ponder deeply. + +The burning question as to the color of Adam and Eve had long been +settled. Adam and Eve were brown, like themselves. But if, as the +priests said was most probable, Adam and Eve had received pardon and +were in heaven, why had their guilt stained all mankind? + +Also, would Satan have been able to tempt Eve if God had not made +the tree of knowledge _tapu_? Was not knowledge a good thing? What +motive had led the Maker and Knower of all things to do this deed? + +What made the angels fall? Pride, said the priests. Then how did it +get into heaven? demanded the perplexed. + +The resurrection of the body at the last judgment horrified them. +This fact, said the husband of Kake, had led to the abandonment of +the old manner of burying corpses in a sitting posture, with the +face between the knees and the hands under the thighs, the whole +bound round with cords. Obviously, a man buried in such a position +would rise deformed. Their dead in the cemetery on the heights slept +now in long coffins of wood, their limbs at ease. But other and less +premeditated interments still befell the unwary islander. + +What would God do in cases where sharks had eaten a Marquesan? And +what, when the same shark had been killed and eaten by other +Marquesans? And in the case of the early Christian forefathers, who +were eaten by men of other tribes, and afterward the cannibals eaten +in retaliation, and then the last feaster eaten by sharks? _Aue!_ +There was a headache query! + +At this point in the discussion an aged stranger from the valley of +Taaoa, a withered man whose whole naked chest was covered with +intricate tattooing, laid down his pipe and artlessly revealed his +idea of the communion service. It was, he thought, a religious +cannibalism, no more. And he was puzzled that his people should be +told that it was wrong to feed on the flesh of a fellow human +creature when they were urged to "eat the body and drink the blood" +of _Ietu Kirito_ himself. + +It was long afterward, in that far-away America so incomprehensible +to my simple savage friends, that I read beneath the light of an +electric lamp a paragraph in "Folkways," by William Graham Summer, +of Yale: + + "Language used in communion about eating the body and + drinking the blood of Christ refers to nothing in our _mores_ and + appeals to nothing in our experience. It comes down from + very remote ages; very probably from cannibalism." + +The printed page vanished, and before my eyes rose a vision of my +_paepae_ among the breadfruit- and cocoanut-trees, the ring of +squatting dusky figures in flickering sunlit leaf-shade, Kake in her +red tunic with the babe at her breast, Exploding Eggs standing by +with a half-eaten cocoanut, and the many dark eyes in their circles +of ink fixed upon the shriveled face of the reformed cannibal whose +head ached with the mysteries of the white man's religion. + +None too soon for me, the talk turned about history, the tales of +which were confused in my guests' minds with those of the saints. +Great Fern insisted that if the English roasted Joan of Arc they ate +her, because no man would apply live coals, which pain exceedingly, +to any living person, and fire was never placed upon a human body +save to cook it for consumption. This theory seemed reasonable to +most of the listeners, for since such cruelty as the Marquesans +practiced in their native state was thoughtless and never intentional, +the idea of torture was incomprehensible to their simple minds. + +Malicious Gossip, a comely savage of twenty-five with false-coffee +leaves in her hair, declared, however, that the governor had told +her the English roasted Joan alive because she was a heretic. The +statement was received with startled protests by those present who +had themselves incurred that charge when they deserted Catholicism +for Protestantism some time earlier. + +"Exploding Eggs," said I hastily, "make tea for all." Every shade +vanished from shining eyes when I produced the bottle of rum and +added a spoonful of flavor to each brimming shellful. All perplexing +questions were forgotten, and simple social pleasure reigned again +on my _paepae_, while Great Fern explained to all his idea of the +Christian devil. + +The Marquesan deity of darkness was Po, a vague and elemental spirit. +But the _kuhane anera maaa_ of the new religion had definite and +fearful attributes explained by the priests. So Great Fern conceived +him as a kind of cross between a man and a boar, with a tail like +that of a shark, running through the forests with a bunch of lighted +candlenuts and setting fire to the houses of the wicked. + +And the wicked? Morals as we know them had nothing to do with their +sin in his mind. The wicked were the unkind, those who were cruel to +children, wives who made bad _popoi_, and whites with rum privileges +who forgot hospitality. + +Non-Christians may grin at the efforts of missionaries among heathens. +But the missionaries are the only influence for good in the islands, +the only white men seeking to mitigate the misery and ruin brought +by the white man's system of trade. The extension of civilized +commerce has crushed every natural impulse of brotherliness, kindness, +and generosity, destroyed every good and clean custom of these +children of nature. Traders and sailors, whalers and soldiers, have +been their enemies. + +Whatever the errors of the men of God, they have given their lives +day by day in unremitting, self-sacrificing toil, suffering much to +share with these despoiled people the light of their own faith in a +better world hereafter. In so far as they have failed, they have +failed because they have lacked what proselytizing religion has +always lacked--a joy in life that seeks to make this mundane +existence more endurable, a grace of humor, and a broad simplicity. + +Polynesians have always been respecters of authority. Under their +own rule, where priest and king equally rose to rank because of +admired deeds, the _tapus_ of the priests had the same force as +those of chiefs, and life was conducted by few and simple rules. Now, +when sect fights sect; when priests assure the people that France is +a Catholic nation and the Governor says the statement is false; +where the Protestant pastor teaches that Sunday is a day of +solemnity and prayer, and the Frenchmen make it a day of merriment +as in France; where salvation depends on many beliefs bewildering +and incompatible, the puzzled Marquesan scratches his head and +swings from creed to creed, while his secret heart clings to the old +gods. + +The Marquesan had a joyful religion, full of humor and abandon, +dances and chants, and exaltation of nature, of the greatness of +their tribe or race, a worship that was, despite its ghastly rites +of human sacrifice, a stimulus to life. + +The efforts of missionaries have killed the joy of living as they +have crushed out the old barbarities, uprooting together everything, +good and bad, that religion meant to the native. They have given him +instead rites that mystify him, dogmas he can only dimly understand, +and a little comfort in the miseries brought upon him by trade. + +I have seen a leper alone on his _paepae_, deep in the Scriptures, +and when I asked him if he got comfort from them I was answered, +"They are strong words for a weak man, and better than pig." But +only a St. Francis Xavier or a Livingstone, a great moral force, +could lift the people now from the slough of despond in which they +expire. + +Upon this people, sparkingly alive, spirited as wild horses, not +depressed as were their conquerors by a heritage of thousands of +years of metes and bounds, religion as forced upon them has been not +only a narcotic, but a death potion. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +The marriage of Malicious Gossip; matrimonial customs of the simple +natives; the domestic difficulties of Haabuani. + + +Mouth of God and his wife, Malicious Gossip, soon became intimates +of my _paepae_. Coming first to see the marvelous Golden Bed and to +listen to the click-click of the Iron Fingers That Make Words, they +remained to talk, and I found them both charming. + +Both were in their early twenties, ingenuous, generous, clever, and +devoted to each other and to their friends. Malicious Gossip was +beautiful, with soft dark eyes, clear-cut features, and a grace and +lovely line of figure that in New York would make all heads whirl. +She was all Marquesan, but her husband, Mouth of God, had white +blood in him. Whose it was, he did not know, for his mother's +consort had been an islander. His mother, a large, stern, and +Calvinistic cannibal, believed in predestination, and spent her days +in fear that she would be among the lost. Her Bible was ever near, +and often, passing their house, I saw her climb with it into a +breadfruit-tree and read a chapter in the high branches where she +could avoid distraction. + +They lived in a spacious house set in three acres of breadfruit and +cocoanuts, an ancient grove long in their family. Often I squatted +on their mats, dipping a gingerly finger in their _popoi_ bowl and +drinking the sweet wine of the half-ripe cocoanut, the while Mouth +of God's mother spoke long and earnestly on the abode of the damned +and the necessity for seeking salvation. In return, Malicious Gossip +spent hours on my _paepae_ telling me of the customs of her people +new and old. + +"When I was thirteen," she said, "the whalers still came to Vait-hua, +my valley. There came a young _Menike_ man, straight and bright-eyed, +a passenger on a whaling-ship seeking adventure. I sighed the first +time in my life when I looked on him. He was handsome, and not like +other men on your ships. + +"The kiss you white men give he taught me to like. He was generous +and gentle and good. Months we dwelt together in a house by the +stream in the valley. When he sailed away at last, as all white men +do who are worth wanting to stay, he tore out my heart. My milk +turned to poison and killed our little child. + +"I met long after with Mouth of God. He took me to his house in the +breadfruit-grove. He was good and gentle, but I was long in learning +to love him. It was the governor who made me know that I was his +woman. It came about in this manner: + +"That governor was one whom all hated for his coldness and cruelty. +Mouth of God worked for him in the house where medicines are made, +having learned to mix the medicines in a bowl and to wrap cloths +about the wounds of those who were sick. One day, according to the +custom of white men who rule, the governor said to Mouth of God that +he must send me to the palace that night. + +"When he came home to the house where we lived together, Mouth of +God gave me his word. He said: 'Go to the river and bathe. Put on +your crimson tunic and flowers in your hair and go to the palace. The +governor gives a feast to-night, and you are to dance and to sleep +in the governor's bed.'" + +Malicious Gossip shuddered, and rocked herself to and fro upon the +mats. "Then I would have killed him! I cried out to him and said: 'I +will not go to the governor! He is a devil. My heart hates him. I am +a Marquesan. What have I to do with a man I hate?'" + +"'Go!' said Mouth of God, and his eyes were hard as the black stones +of the High Place. 'The governor asks for you. He is the government. +Since when have Marquesan women said no to the command of the +_adminstrateur_?' + +"I wept, but I took my brightest _kahu ropa_ from the sandalwood +chest my _Menike_ man had given me, and I went down the path to the +stream. As I went I wept, but my heart was black, and I thought to +take a keen-edged knife beneath my tunic when I went to the palace. +But my feet were not yet wet in the edge of the water when Mouth of +God called to me. + +"'Do not go,' he said. + +"I answered: 'I will go. You told me to go. I am on my way.' My +tears were salt in my mouth. + +"'No!' said Mouth of God. He ran, and he came to me in the pool +where I had flung myself. There in the water he held me, and his +arms crushed the breath from my ribs. 'You will not go!' he said. 'I +spoke those words to know if you would go to the governor. If you +had gone quickly, if you had not wept, I would kill you. You are my +woman. No other shall have you.' + +"Then I knew that I was his woman, and I forgot my _Menike_ lover. + +"You see," she said to me after a pause, "I would have gone to the +palace. But I would never have come back to the house of Mouth of God. +That was the beginning of our love. He would yield me to nobody. He +told the governor that I would not come, and he waited to kill the +governor if he must. But the governor laughed, and said there were +many others. Mouth of God and I were married then by Monsieur Vernier, +in the church of his mother. + +"That was the manner of my marriage. The same as that of the girls +in your own island, is it not?" + +It was much the same, I said. It differed only in some slight +matters of custom. She listened fascinated while I described to her +our complicated conventions of courtship, our calling upon young +ladies for months and even years, our gifts, our entertainments, our +giving of rings, our setting of the marriage months far in the future, +our orange wreaths and veils and bridesmaids. She found these things +almost incredible. + +"Marriage here," she said, "may come to a young man when he does not +seek or even expect it. No Marquesan can marry without the consent +of his mother, and often she marries him to a girl without his even +thinking of such a thing. + +"A young man may bring home a girl he does not know, perhaps a girl +he has seen on the beach in the moonlight, to stay with him that +night in his mother's house. It may be that her beauty and charm +will so please his mother that she will call a family council after +the two have gone to bed. If the family thinks as the mother does, +they determine to marry the young man to that girl, and they do so +after this fashion: + +"Early in the morning, just at dawn, before the young couple awake, +all the women of the household arouse them with shrieks. They beat +their breasts, cut themselves with shells, crying loudly, _Aue! Aue!_ +Neighbors rush in to see who has died. The youth and the girl run +forth in terror. Then the mother, the grandmother and all other +women of the house chant the praises of the girl, singing her beauty, +and wailing that they cannot let her go. They demand with anger that +the son shall not let her go. All the neighbors cry with them, +_Aue! Aue!_ and beat their breasts, until the son, covered with +shame, asks the girl to stay. + +"Then her parents are sent the word, and if they do not object, the +girl remains in his house. That is often the manner of Marquesan +marriage." + +Yet often, of course, she explained, marriage was not the outcome of +a night's wooing. The young Marquesan frequently brought home a girl +who did not instantly win his mother's affection. In that case she +went her way next morning after breakfast, and that was all. Our +regard for chastity was incomprehensible to Malicious Gossip, +instructed though she was in all the codes of the church. It was to +her a creed preached to others by the whites, like wearing shoes or +making the Sabbath a day of gloom, and though she had been told that +violation of this code meant roasting forever as in a cannibal pit +whose fires were never extinguished, her mind could perceive no +reason for it. She could attach no blame to an act that seemed to +her an innocent, natural, and harmless amusement. + +The truth is that no value was, or is, attached to maidenhood in all +Polynesia, the young woman being left to her own whims without blame +or care. Only deep and sincere attachment holds her at last to the +man she has chosen, and she then follows his wishes in matters of +fidelity, though still to a large extent remaining mistress of +herself. + +The Marquesan woman, however, often denies her husband the freedom +she herself openly enjoys. This custom persists as a striking +survival of polyandry, in which fidelity under pain of dismissal +from the roof-tree was imposed by the wife on all who shared her +affections. + +This was exactly the status of a household not far from my cabin. +Haabuani, master of ceremonies at the dances, the best carver and +drum-beater of all Atuona, who was of pure Marquesan blood, but +spoke French fluently and earnestly defended the doctrine of the +Pope's infallibility,--even coming to actual blows with a defiant +Protestant upon my very _paepae_--explained his attitude. + +"If I have a friend and he temporarily desires my wife, Toho, I am +glad if she is willing. But my enemy shall not have that privilege +with my consent. I would be glad to have you look upon her with favor. +You are kind to me. You have treated me as a chief and you have +bought my _kava_ bowl. But, _ecoutez, Monsieur_, Toho does what she +pleases, yet if I toss but a pebble in another pool she is furious. +See, I have the bruises still of her beating." + +With a tearful whine he showed the black-and-blue imprints of Toho's +anger, and made it known to us that the three _piastres_ he had of +me for the _kava_ bowl had been traced by his wife to the till of Le +Brunnec's store, where Flower, the daughter of Lam Kai Oo, had spent +them for ribbons. Toho in her fury had beaten him so that for a day +and a night he lay groaning upon the mats. + +"That is as it should be," said Malicious Gossip, sternly, while her +curving lips set in straight lines. Sex morality means conformity to +sex _tapus_, the world over. + +Free polyandry still exists in many countries I have seen, and in +others its dying out leaves these fragmentary survivals. I have +visited the tribe of Subanos, in the west and north of the island of +Mindanao in the Philippine archipelago, where the rich men are +polygamists, and the poor still submit to polyandry. Economic +conditions there bring about the same relations, under a different +guise, as in Europe or America, where wealthy rakes keep up several +establishments, and many wage-earners support but one prostitute. + +Polyandry is found almost exclusively in poor countries, where there +is always a scarcity of females. Thus we have polyandry founded on a +surplus of males caused by poverty of sustenance. The female is, in +fact, supposed to be the result of a surplus of nutrition; more boys +than girls are born in the country districts because the city diet +is richer, especially in meat and sugar. It is notable that the +families of the pioneers of western America bore a surprising +majority of males. + +In the Marquesas, where living was always difficult and the diet poor, +there were always more men than women despite the frequent wars in +which men were victims. Another reason was that male children were +saved often when females were killed in the practice of infanticide, +also forced by famine. The overplus of men made them amenable to the +commands of the women, who often dominated in permanent alliances, +demanding lavishment of wealth and attention from their husbands. + +Yet--and this is a most significant fact--the father-right in the +child remained the basis of the social system. + +Throughout all Australia, Melanesia, and Papuasis on the east, and +America on the west, the mother-right prevailed among primitive +peoples. Children followed the mother, took their name from her, and +inherited property through her. I have known a Hawaiian nobleman who, +commenting on this fact, said that the system had merit in that no +child could be called a bastard, and that the woman, who suffered +most, was rewarded by pride of posterity. He himself, he said, was +the son of a chieftess, but his father, a king, was the son of a +negro cobbler. + +The father-right, so familiar to our minds that it seems to-day +almost the only natural or existing social system, was in fact +developed very lately among all races except the Caucasian and some +tribes of the Mongols. Yet in the Marquesas, these islands cut off +from all other peoples through ages of history, the father-right +prevailed in spite of all the difficulties that attended its +survival in polyandry. + +Each woman had many husbands, whom she ruled. The true paternity of +her children it was impossible to ascertain. Yet so tenaciously did +the Marquesans cling to the father-right in the child, that even +this fact could not break it down. One husband was legally the +father of all her children, ostensibly at least the owner of the +household and of such small personal property as belonged to it +under communism. The man remained, though in name only, the head of +the polyandrous family. + +I seemed to see in this curious fact another proof of the ancient +kinship between the first men of my own race and the prehistoric +grandfathers of Malicious Gossip and Haabunai. My savage friends, +with their clear features, their large straight eyes and olive skins, +showed still the traces of their Caucasian blood. Their forefathers +and mine may have hunted the great winged lizards together through +primeval wildernesses, until, driven by who knows what urge of +wanderlust or necessity, certain tribes set out in that drive +through Europe and Asia toward America that ended at last, when a +continent sunk beneath their feet, on these islands in the southern +seas. + +It was a far flight for fancy to take, from my _paepae_ in the +jungle at the foot of Temetiu, but looking at the beauty and grace +of Malicious Gossip as she sat on my mats in her crimson _pareu_, I +liked to think that it was so. + +"We are cousins," I said to her, handing her a freshly-opened +cocoanut which Exploding Eggs brought. + +"You are a great chief, but we love you as a blood-brother," she +answered gravely, and lifted the shell bowl to her lips. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +Filling the _popoi_ pits in the season of the breadfruit; legend of +the _mei_; the secret festival in a hidden valley. + + +On the road to the beach one morning I came upon Great Fern, my +landlord. Garbed in brilliant yellow _pareu_, he bore on his +shoulders an immense _kooka_, or basket of cocoanut fiber, filled +with quite two hundred pounds of breadfruit. The superb muscles +stood out on his perfect body, wet with perspiration as though he +had come from the river. + +"Kaoha, Great Fern!" I said. "Where do you go with the _mei_?" + +"It is _Meinui_, the season of the breadfruit," he replied. +"We fill the _popoi_ pit beside my house." + +There is a word on the Marquesan tongue vividly picturing the +terrors of famine. It means, "one who is burned to drive away a +drought." In these islands cut off from the world the very life of +the people depends on the grace of rain. Though the skies had been +kind for several years, not a day passing without a gentle downpour, +there had been in the past dry periods when even the hardiest +vegetation all but perished. So it came about that the Marquesan was +obliged to improvise a method of keeping breadfruit for a long time, +and becoming habituated to sour food he learned to like it, as many +Americans relish ill-smelling cheese and fish and meat, or drink +with pleasure absinthe, bitters, and other gagging beverages. + +In this season of plenteous breadfruit, therefore, Great Fern had +opened his _popoi_ pit, and was replenishing its supply. A +half-dozen who ate from it were helping him. Only the enthusiasm of +the traveler for a strange sight held me within radius of its odor. + +It was sunk in the earth, four feet deep and perhaps five in diameter, +and was only a dozen years old, which made it a comparatively small +and recently acquired household possession in the eyes of my savage +friends. Mouth of God and Malicious Gossip owned a _popoi_ pit dug +by his grandfather, who was eaten by the men of Taaoa, and near the +house of Vaikehu, a descendant of the only Marquesan queen, there +was a _uuama tehito_, or ancient hole, the origin of which was lost +in the dimness of centuries. It was fifty feet long and said to be +even deeper, though no living Marquesan had ever tasted its stores, +or never would unless dire famine compelled. It was _tapu_ to the +memory of the dead. + +All over the valley the filling of the pits for reserve against need +was in progress. Up and down the trails the men were hastening, +bearing the _kookas_ filled with the ripe fruit, large as Edam +cheeses and pitted on the surface like a golf-ball. A breadfruit +weighs from two to eight pounds, and giants like Great Fern or +Haabuani carried in the _kookas_ two or three hundred pounds for +miles on the steep and rocky trails. + +In the banana-groves or among thickets of _ti_ the women were +gathering leaves for lining and covering the pits, while around the +center of interest naked children ran about, hindering and thinking +they were helping, after the manner of children in all lands when +future feasts are in preparation. + +There was a time when each grove of breadfruit had its owners, who +guarded it for their own use, and even each tree had its allotted +proprietor, or perhaps several. Density of population everywhere +causes each mouthful of food to be counted. I have known in Ceylon an +English judge who was called upon to decide the legal ownership of +one 2520th part of ten cocoanut-trees. But my friends who were +filling the _popoi_ pits now might gather from any tree they pleased. +There was plenty of breadfruit now that there were few people. + +Great Fern was culling from a grove on the mountain-side above my +house. Taking his stand beneath one of the stately trees whose +freakish branches and large, glossy, dark-green leaves spread +perhaps ninety feet above his head, he reached the nearer boughs with +an _omei_, a very long stick with a forked end to which was attached +a small net of cocoanut fiber. Deftly twisting a fruit from its stem +by a dexterous jerk of the cleft tip, he caught it in the net, and +lowered it to the _kooka_ on the ground by his side. + +When the best of the fruit within reach was gathered, he climbed the +tree, carrying the _omei_. Each brown toe clasped the boughs like a +finger, nimble and independent of its fellows through long use in +grasping limbs and rocks. This is remarkable of the Marquesans; each +toe in the old and industrious is often separated a half inch from +the others, and I have seen the big toe opposed from the other four +like a thumb. My neighbors picked up small things easily with their +toes, and bent them back out of sight, like a fist, when squatting. + +Gripping a branch firmly with these hand-like feet, Great Fern +wielded the _omei_, bringing down other breadfruit one by one, +taking great care not to bruise them. The cocoanut one may throw +eighty feet, with a twisting motion that lands it upon one end so +that it does not break. But the _mei_ is delicate, and spoils if +roughly handled. + +Working in this fashion, Great Fern and his neighbors carried down +to the _popoi_ pit perhaps four hundred breadfruit daily, piling +them there to be prepared by the women. Apporo and her companions +busied themselves in piercing each fruit with a sharp stick and +spreading them on the ground to ferment over night. + +In the morning, squatted on their haunches and chanting as they +worked, the women scraped the rind from the fermented _mei_ with +cowry shells, and grated the fruit into the pit which they had lined +with banana leaves. From time to time they stood in the pit and +tramped down the mass of pulp, or thumped it with wooden clubs. + +For two weeks or more the work continued. In the ancient days much +ceremoniousness attended this provision against future famine, but +to-day in Atuona only one rule was observed, that forbidding sexual +intercourse by those engaged in filling the pits. + +"To break that _tapu_," said Great Fern, "would mean sickness and +disaster. Any one who ate such _popoi_ would vomit. The forbidden +food cannot be retained by the stomach." + +To vomit during the fortnight occupied in the task of conserving the +breadfruit brought grave suspicion that the unfortunate had broken +the _tapu_. When their own savage laws governed them, that unhappy +person often died from fear of discovery and the wrath of the gods. +To guard against such a fate those who were not strong and well took +no part in the task. + +This curious connection between sex and the preparation of food +applied in many other cases. A woman making oil from dried cocoanuts +was _tapu_ as to sexual relations for four or five days, and +believed that if did she sin, her labor would produce no oil. A man +cooking in an oven at night obeyed the same _tapu_. I do not know, +and was unable to discover, the origin of these prohibitions. Like +many of our own customs, it has been lost in the mist of ages. + +A Tahitian legend of the origin of the breadfruit recounts that in +ancient times the people subsisted on _araea_, red earth. A couple +had a sickly son, their only child, who day by day slowly grew +weaker on the diet of earth, until the father begged the gods to +accept him as an offering and let him become food for the boy. From +the darkness of the temple the gods at last spoke to him, granting +his prayer. He returned to his wife and prepared for death, +instructing her to bury his head, heart and stomach at different +spots in the forest. + +"When you shall hear in the night a sound like that of a leaf, then +of a flower, afterward of an unripe fruit, and then of a ripe, round +fruit falling on the ground, know that it is I who am become food +for our son," he said, and died. + +She obeyed him, and on the second night she heard the sounds. In the +morning she and her son found a huge and wonderful tree where the +stomach had been buried. The Tahitians believe that the cocoanut, +chestnut, and yam miraculously grew from other parts of a man's +corpse. + +Breadfruit, according to Percy Smith, was brought into these islands +from Java by the ancestors of the Polynesians, who left India +several centuries before Christ. They had come to Indonesia +rice-eaters, but there found the breadfruit, "which they took with +them in their great migration into these Pacific islands two +centuries and more after the beginning of this era." + +Smith finds in the Tahitian legend proof of this contention. In the +Polynesian language _araea_, the "red earth" of the tale, is the +same as _vari_, and in Indonesia there were the words _fare_ +or _pare_, in Malay _padi_ or _peri_, and in Malagasy _vari_, all +meaning rice. A Rarotongan legend relates that in Hawaiki two new +fruits were found, and the _vari_ discarded. These fruits were the +breadfruit and the horse-chestnut, neither of which is a native of +Polynesia. + +I related these stories of the _mei_ to Great Fern, who replied: +"_Aue!_ It may be. The old gods were great, and all the world is a +wonder. As for me, I am a Christian. The breadfruit ripens, and I +fill the _popoi_ pit." + +Great Fern was my friend, and, as he said, a Christian, yet I fear +that he did not tell me all he knew of the ancient customs. There +was an innocence too innocent in his manner when he spoke of them, +like that of a child who would like one to believe that the cat ate +the jam. And on the night when the _popoi_ pits were filled, pressed +down and running over, when they had been covered with banana leaves +and weighed with heavy stones, and the season's task was finished, +something occurred that filled my mind with many vague surmises. + +I had been awakened at midnight by the crashing fall of a cocoanut +on the iron roof above my head. Often during the rainy nights I was +startled by this sound of the incessantly falling nuts, that banged +and rattled like round shot over my head. But on this night, as I +composed myself to slumber again, my drowsy ears were uneasy with +another thing, less a sound than an almost noiseless, thrumming +vibration, faint, but disturbing. + +I sat up in my Golden Bed, and listened. Exploding Eggs was gone +from his mat. The little house was silent and empty. Straining my +ears I heard it unmistakably through the rustling noises of the +forest and the dripping of rain from the eaves. It was the far, dim, +almost inaudible beating of a drum. + +Old tales stirred my hair as I stood on my _paepae_ listening to it. +At times I thought it a fancy, again I heard it and knew that I +heard it. At last, wrapping a _pareu_ about me, I went down my trail +to the valley road. The sound was drowned here by the splashing +chuckle of the stream, but as I stood undecided in the pool of +darkness beneath a dripping banana I saw a dark figure slip silently +past me, going up toward the High Place. It was followed by another, +moving through the night like a denser shadow. I went back to my +cabin, scouted my urgent desire to shut and barricade the door, and +went to bed. After a long time I slept. + +When I awoke next morning Exploding Eggs was preparing my breakfast +as usual, the sunlight streamed over breadfruit and palm, and the +night seemed a dream. But there were rumors in the village of a +strange dance held by the inhabitants of Nuka-hiva, on another island, +in celebration of the harvest of the _mei_. Weird observances were +hinted, rites participated in only by men who danced stark naked, +praising the old gods. + +This was a custom of the old days, said Great Fern, with those +too-innocent eyes opened artlessly upon me. It has ever been the +ceremony of Thanks-giving to the ancient gods, for a bountiful +harvest, a propitiation, and a begging of their continued favor. As +for him, he was a Christian. Such rites were held no more in Atuona. + +I asked no more questions. Thanks-giving to an omnipotent ruler for +the fruits of the harvest season is almost universal. We have put in +a proclamation and in church services and the slaughter of turkeys +what these children do in dancing, as did Saul of old. + +The season's task completed, Great Fern and Apporo sat back well +content, having provided excellently for the future. Certain of +their neighbors, however, filled with ambition and spurred on by the +fact that there was plenty of _mei_ for all with no suspicion of +greediness incurred by excessive possessions, continued to work +until they had filled three pits. These men were regarded with +admiration and some envy, having gained great honor. "He has three +_popoi_ pits," they said, as we would speak of a man who owned a +superb jewel or a Velasquez. + +[Illustration: A volunteer cocoanut grove, with trees of all ages] + +[Illustration: Climbing for cocoanuts] + +The grated breadfruit in the holes was called _ma_, and bore the +same relation to _popoi_ as dough bears to bread. When the _ma_ was +sufficiently soured Apporo opened the pit each morning and took out +enough for the day's provision, replacing the stones on the banana +leaves afterward. The intrusion of insects and lizards was not +considered to injure the flavor. + +I often sat on her _paepae_ and watched her prepare the day's dinner. +Putting the rancid mass of _ma_ into a long wooden trough hollowed +out from a tree-trunk, she added water and mixed it into a paste of +the consistency of custard. This paste she wrapped in _purua_ leaves +and set to bake in a native oven of rocks that stood near the pit. + +Apporo smoked cigarettes while it baked, perhaps to measure the time. +Marquesans mark off the minutes by cigarettes, saying, "I will do +so-and-so in three cigarettes," or, "It is two cigarettes from my +house to his." + +When the cigarettes were consumed, or when her housewifely instinct +told Apporo that the dish was properly cooked, back it went into the +trough again, and was mashed with the _keatukipopoi_, the Phallic +pounder of stone known to all primitive peoples. A _pahake_, or +wooden bowl about eighteen inches in diameter, received it next, and +the last step of the process followed. + +Taking a fistful of the mass, Apporo placed it in another _pahake_, +and kneaded it for a long time with her fingers, using oil from +crushed cocoanuts as a lubricant. And at last, proudly smiling, she +set before me a dish of _popoi kaoi_, the very best _popoi_ that can +possibly be made. + +It is a dish to set before a sorcerer. I would as lief eat +bill-poster's paste a year old. It tastes like a sour, acid custard. +Yet white men learn to eat it, even to yearn for it. Captain Capriata, +of the schooner _Roberta_, which occasionally made port in Atuona Bay, +could digest little else. Give him a bowl of _popoi_ and a stewed or +roasted cat, and his Corsican heart warmed to the giver. + +As bread or meat are to us, so was _popoi_ to my tawny friends. They +ate it every day, sometimes three or four times a day, and consumed +enormous quantities at a squatting. As the peasant of certain +districts of Europe depends on black bread and cheese, the poor +Irish on potatoes or stirabout, the Scotch on oatmeal, so the +Marquesan satisfies himself with _popoi_, and likes it really better +than anything else. + +Many times, when unable to evade the hospitality of my neighbors, I +squatted with them about the brimming _pahake_ set on their _paepae_, +and dipped a finger with them, though they marveled at my lack of +appetite. In the silence considered proper to the serious business of +eating, each dipped index and second finger into the bowl, and +neatly conveyed a portion of the sticky mass to his mouth, returning +the fingers to the bowl cleansed of the last particle. Little +children, beginning to eat _popoi_ ere they were fairly weaned, put +their whole hands into the dish, and often the lean and mangy curs +that dragged out a wretched dog's existence about the _paepaes_ were +not deprived of their turn. + +If one accept the germ theory, one may find in the _popoi_ bowl a +cause for the rapid spread of epidemics since the whites brought +disease to the islands. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A walk in the jungle; the old woman in the breadfruit tree; a night +in a native hut on the mountain. + + +Atuona Valley was dozing, as was its wont in the afternoons, when +the governor, accompanied by the guardian of the palace, each +carrying a shot-gun, invited me to go up the mountain to shoot +_kukus_ for dinner. The _kuku_ is a small green turtle-dove, very +common in the islands, and called also _u'u_ and _kukupa_. Under any +of these names the green-feathered morsel is excellent eating when +broiled or fried. + +I did not take a gun, as, unless hunger demands it, I do not like to +kill. We started out together, climbing the trail in single file, +but the enthusiasm of the chase soon led my companions into the +deeper brush where the little doves lured them, and only the sharp +crack of an occasional shot wakening the echoes of the cliffs +disturbed my solitude. + +The dark stillness of the deep valley, where the shadows of the +mountains fell upon groves of cocoanuts and miles of tangled bush, +recalled to me a canon in New York City, in the center of the world +of finance, gloomy even at noon, the sky-touching buildings darkening +the street and the spirits of the dwellers like mountains. There, +when at an unsual moment I had come from the artificially-lighted +cage of a thousand slaves to money-getting, and found the street for +a second deserted, no figure of animal or human in its sombre sweep, +I had the same sensation of solitude and awe as in this jungle. +Suddenly a multitude of people had debouched from many points, and +shattered the impression. + +But here, in Atuona Valley, the hoot of the owl, the _kouku_, which +in Malay is the ghost-bird, the _burong-hantu_, seemed to deepen the +silence. Does not that word _hantu_, meaning in Malay an evil spirit, +have some obscure connection with our American negro "hant," a +goblin or ghost? Certainly the bird's long and dismal "Hoo-oo-oo" +wailing through the shuddering forest evoked dim and chilling +memories of tales told by candlelight when I was a child in Maryland. + +Here on the lower levels I was still among the cocoanut-groves. The +trail passed through acres of them, their tall gray columns rising +like cathedral arches eighty feet above a green mat of creeping vines. +Again it dipped into the woods, where one or two palms struggled +upward from a clutching jungle. Everywhere I saw the nuts tied by +their natural stems in clumps of forty or fifty and fastened to +limbs which had been cut and lashed between trees. These had been +gathered by climbers and left thus to be collected for drying into +copra. + +Constantly the ripe nuts not yet gathered fell about me. These heavy +missiles, many six or seven pounds in weight, fell from heights of +fifty to one hundred feet and struck the earth with a dull sound. +The roads and trails were littered with them. They fall every hour of +the day in the tropics, yet I have never seen any one hurt by them. +Narrow escapes I had myself, and I have heard of one or two who were +severely injured or even killed by them, but the accidents are +entirely out of proportion to the shots fired by the trees. One +becomes an expert at dodging, and an instinct draws one's eyes to +the branch about to shed a _mei_, or the palm intending to launch a +cocoanut. + +As I made my way up the trail, pausing now and then to look about me, +I came upon an old woman leaning feebly on a tall staff. Although it +was the hour of afternoon sleep, she was abroad for some reason, and +I stopped to say "_Kaoha_," to her. A figure of wretchedness she was, +bent almost double, her withered, decrepit limbs clad in a ragged +_pareu_ and her lean arms clutching the stick that bore her weight. +She was so aged that she appeared unable to hear my greeting, and +replied only mutteringly, while her bleary eyes gleamed up at me +between fallen lids. + +Such miserable age appealed to pity, but as she appeared to wish no +aid, I left her leaning on her staff, and moved farther along the +trail, stopping again to gaze at the shadowed valley below while I +mused on the centuries it had seen and the brief moment of a man's +life. Standing thus, I was like to lose my own, for suddenly I heard +a whirr like that of a shrapnel shell on its murderous errand, and +at my feet fell a projectile. + +I saw that it was a breadfruit and that I was under the greatest +tree of that variety I had ever seen, a hundred feet high and +spreading like a giant oak. In the topmost branches was the +tottering beldame I had saluted, and in both her hands the staff, a +dozen feet long. She was threshing the fruit from the tree with +astounding energy and agility, her scanty rags blown by the wind, +and her emaciated, naked figure in its arboreal surroundings like +that of an aged ape. + +How she held on was a mystery, for she seemed to lean out from a +limb at a right angle, yet she had but a toe-hold upon it. No part +of her body but her feet touched the branch, nor had she any other +support but that, yet she banged the staff about actively and sent +more six-pounders down, so that I fled without further reflection. + +The score of houses strung along the upper reaches of Atuona Valley +were silent at this hour, and everywhere native houses were decaying, +their falling walls and sunken roofs remembering the thousands who +once had their homes here. Occasionally in our own country we see +houses untenanted and falling to ruin, bearing unmistakable +evidences of death or desertion, and I have followed armies that +devastated a countryside and slew its people or hunted them to the +hills, but the first is a solitary case, and the second, though full +of horror, has at least the element of activity, of moving and +struggling life. The rotting homes of the Marquesan people speak +more eloquently of death than do sunken graves. + +In these vales, which each held a thousand or several thousand when +the blight of the white man came, the abandoned _paepaes_ are solemn +and shrouded witnesses of the death of a race. The jungle runs over +them, and only remnants remain of the houses that sat upon them. +Their owners have died, leaving no posterity to inhabit their homes; +neighbors have removed their few chattels, and the wilderness has +claimed its own. In every valley these dark monuments to the +benefits of civilization hide themselves in the thickets. + +None treads the stones that held the houses of the dead. They are +_tapu_; about them flit the _veinahae_, the _matiahae_, and the +_etuahae_, dread vampires and ghosts that have charge of the +corpse and wait to seize the living. Well have these ghoulish +phantoms feasted; whole islands are theirs, and soon they will sit +upon the _paepae_ of the last Marquesan. + +I reached the top of the gulch and paused to gaze at its extent. The +great hills rose sheer and rugged a mile away; the cocoanuts ceased +at a lower level, and where I stood the precipices were a mass of +wild trees, bushes, and creepers. From black to lightest green the +colors ran, from smoky crests and gloomy ravines to the stream +singing its way a hundred feet below the trail. + +A hundred varieties of flowers poured forth their perfume upon the +lonely scene. The frangipani, the red jasmine of delicious odor, and +tropical gardenias, weighted the warm air with their heavy scents. + +Beside the trail grew the _hutu_-tree with crimson-tasseled flowers +among broad leaves, and fruit prickly and pear-shaped. It is a fruit +not to be eaten by man, but immemorally used by lazy fishermen to +insure miraculous draughts. Streams are dammed up and the pears +thrown in. Soon the fish become stupified and float upon the surface +to the gaping nets of the poisoners. They are not hurt in flavor or +edibility. + +The _keoho_, a thorny shrub, caught at my clothes as I left the trail. +Its weapons of defence serve often as pins for the native, who in +the forest improvises for himself a hat or umbrella of leaves. +Beside me, too, was the _putara_, a broad-leaved bush and the lemon +hibiscus, with its big, yellow flower, black-centered, was twisted +through these shrubs and wound about the trunk of the giant _aea_, in +whose branches the _kuku_ murmured to its mate. Often the flowering +vine stopped my progress. I struggled to free myself from its clutch +as I fought through the mass of vegetation, and pausing perforce to +let my panting lungs gulp the air, I saw around me ever new and +stranger growths--orchids, giant creepers, the _noni enata_, a small +bush with crimson pears upon it, the _toa_, or ironwood, which gave +deadly clubs in war-time, but now spread its boughs peacefully +amidst the prodigal foliage of its neighbors. + +The umbrella fern, _mana-mana-hine_, was all about. The _ama_, the +candlenut-tree, shed its oily nuts on the earth. The _puu-epu_, the +paper mulberry, with yellow blossoms and cottony, round leaves, +jostled pandanus and hibiscus; the _ena-vao_, a wild ginger with +edible, but spicy, cones, and the lacebark-tree, the _faufee_, which +furnishes cordage from its bark, contested for footing in the rich +earth and fought for the sun that even on the brightest day never +reached their roots. + +I staggered through the bush, falling over rotten trees and +struggling in the mass of shrubs and tangled vines. + +Away up here, hidden in the depths of the forest, there were three +or four houses; not the blue-painted or whitewashed cabins of the +settlement, but half-open native cots, with smoke rising from the +fire made in a circle of stones on the _paepaes_. The hour of sleep +had passed, and squatted before the troughs men and women mashed the +_ma_ for the _popoi_, or idled on the platform in red and yellow +_pareus_, watching the roasting breadfruit. There must be +poverty-stricken folk indeed, for I saw that the houses showed no +sign whatever of the ugliness that the Marquesan has aped from the +whites. Yet neither were they the wretched huts of straw and thatch +which I had seen in the valley and supposed to be the only remnants +of the native architecture. + +As I drew nearer, I saw that I had stumbled upon such a house as the +Marquesan had known in the days of his strength, when pride of +artistry had created wonderful and beautiful structures of native +wood adorned in elegant and curious patterns. + +It was erected upon a _paepae_ about ten feet high, reached by a +broad and smooth stairway of similar massive black rocks. The house, +long and narrow, covered all of the _paepae_ but a veranda in front, +the edge of which was fenced with bamboo ingeniously formed into +patterns of squares. A friendly call of "_Kaoha!_" in response to +mine, summoned me to the family meeting-place, and I mounted the +steps with eagerness. + +I was met by a stalwart and handsome savage, in earrings and +necklace and scarlet _pareu_, who rubbed my nose with his and +smelled me ceremoniously, welcoming me as an honored guest. Several +women followed his example, while naked children ran forward +curiously to look at the stranger. + +Learning the interest and admiration I felt for his house, my host +displayed it with ill-concealed pride. Its frame was of the +largest-sized bamboos standing upright, and faced with hibiscus +strips, all lashed handsomely and strongly with _faufee_ cordage. +Upon this framework were set the walls, constructed of canes arranged +in a delicate pattern, the fastenings being of _purau_ or other +rattan-like creepers, all tied neatly and regularly. As the +residence was only about a dozen feet deep, through three times that +length, these walls were not only attractive but eminently +serviceable, the canes shading the interior, and the interstices +between them admitting ample light and air. + +We entered through a low opening and found the one long chamber +spacious, cool, and perfumed with the forest odors. There were no +furnishings save two large and brilliantly polished cocoanut-tree +trunks running the whole length of the interior, and between them +piles of mats of many designs and of every bright hue that roots and +herbs will yield. + +While I admired these, noting their rich colors and soft, yet firm, +texture, a murmurous rustle on the palm-thatched roof announced the +coming of the rain. It was unthinkable to my host that a stranger +should leave his house at nightfall, and in a downpour that might +become a deluge before morning. To have refused his invitation had +been to leave a pained and bewildered household. + +_Popoi_ bowls and wooden platters of the roasted breadfruit were +brought within shelter, and while the hissing rain put out the fires +on the _paepae_ the candlenuts were lighted and all squatted for the +evening meal. Breadfruit and yams, with a draught of cocoanut milk, +satisfied the hunger created by my arduous climb. Then the women +carried away the empty bowls while my host and I lay upon the mats +and smoked, watching the gray slant of the rain through the +darkening twilight. + +Few houses like his remained on Hiva-Oe, he said in reply to my +compliments. The people loved the ways of the whites and longed for +homes of redwood planks and roofs of iron. For himself, he loved the +ways of his fathers, and though yielding as he must to the payments +of taxes and the authority of new laws, he would not toil in the +copra-groves or work on traders' ships. His father had been a +warrior of renown. The _u'u_ was wielded no more, being replaced by +the guns of the whites. The old songs were forgotten. But he, who +had traveled far, who had seen the capital of the world, Tahiti, and +had learned much of the ways of the foreigner, would have none of +them. He would live as his fathers had lived, and die as they had +died. + +"It is not long. We vanish like the small fish before the hunger of +the _mako_. The High Places are broken, and the _pahue_ covers our +_paepaes_. It does not matter. _E tupu te fau; e toro to farero, e +mou te taata._ The hibiscus shall grow, the coral shall spread, and +man shall cease. There is sleep on your eyelids, and the mats are +ready." + +His hospitality would give me the place of honor, despite my protests, +and soon I found myself lying between my host and his wife, while +the other members of the household lay in serried rank beyond her on +the mats that filled the hollow between the palm-trunks. All slept +with the backs of their heads upon one timber, and the backs of +their knees over the other, but I found comfort on the soft pile +between them. My companions slumbered peacefully, as I have remarked +that men do in all countries where the people live near, and much in, +the sea. There was no snoring or groaning, no convulsive movement of +arms or legs, no grimaces or frowns such as mark the fitful sleep of +most city dwellers and of all of us who worry or burn the candle at +both ends. + +I lay listening for some time to their quiet breathing and the sound +of rain drumming on the thatch, but at last my eyes closed, and only +the dawn awoke me. + +[Illustration: Splitting cocoanut husks in copra making process] + +[Illustration: Cutting the meat from cocoanuts to make copra] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +The household of Lam Kai Oo; copra making; marvels of the +cocoanut-groves; the sagacity of pigs; and a crab that knows the +laws of gravitation. + + +Next morning, after bidding farewell to my hosts, I set out down the +mountain in the early freshness of a sunny, rain-washed morning. I +followed a trail new to me, a path steep as a stairway, walled in by +the water-jeweled jungle pressing so close upon me that at times I +saw the sky only through the interlacing fronds of the tree-ferns +above my head. + +I had gone perhaps a mile without seeing any sign of human habitation, +hearing only the conversation of the birds and the multitudinous +murmuring of leaves, when a heavy shower began to fall. Pressing on, +hampered by my clinging garments and slipping in the path that had +instantly become a miniature torrent, I came upon a little clearing +in which stood a dirty, dark shanty, like a hovel in the outskirts +of Canton, not raised on a _paepae_ but squat in an acre of mud and +the filth of years. + +Two children, three or four years old, played naked in the muck, and +Flower, of the red-gold hair, reputed the wickedest woman in the +Marquesas, ironed her gowns on the floor of the porch. Raising her +head, she called to me to come in. + +This was the house of Lam Kai Oo, the adopted father of Flower. +Seventy-one years old, Lam Kai Oo had made this his home since he +left the employ of Captain Hart, the unfortunate American cotton +planter, and here he had buried three native wives. His fourth, a +woman of twenty years, sat in the shelter of a copra shed nursing a +six-months' infant. Her breasts were dark blue, almost black, a +characteristic of nursing mothers here. + +Both the mother and Flower argued with me that I should make Many +Daughters my wife during my stay in Atuona, and if not the leper lass, +then another friend they had chosen for me. Flower herself had done +me the honor of proposing a temporary alliance, but I had persuaded +her that I was not worthy of her beauty and talents. Any plea that +it was not according to my code, of even that it was un-Christian, +provoked peals of laughter from all who heard it; sooth to say, the +whites laughed loudest. + +Beneath a thatch of palm-leaves Lam Kai Oo was drying cocoanuts. His +withered yellow body straddled a kind of bench, to which was fixed a +sharp-pointed stick of iron-wood. Seizing each nut in his claw-like +hands, he pushed it against this point, turning and twisting it as +he ripped off the thick and fibrous husk. Then he cracked each nut +in half with a well-directed blow of a heavy knife. For the best +copra-making, the half-nuts should be placed in the sun, concave +side up. As the meats begin to dry, they shrink away from the shell +and are readily removed, being then copra, the foundation of the +many toilet preparations, soaps and creams, that are made from +cocoa-oil. + +As it rains much in the Marquesas, the drying is often done in ovens, +though sun-dried copra commands a higher price. Lam Kai Oo was +operating such an oven, a simple affair of stones cemented with mud, +over which had been erected a shed of palm-trunks and thatch. The +halved cocoanuts were placed in cups made of mud and laid on wooden +racks above the oven. With the doors closed, a fire was built in the +stone furnace and fed from the outside with cocoa-husks and brush. +Such an oven does not dry the nuts uniformly. The smoke turns them +dark, and oil made from them contains undesirable creosote. +Hot-water pipes are the best source of heat, except the sun, +but Lam Kai Oo was paying again for his poverty, as the poor +man must do the world over. + +Forty-four years earlier he had left California, after having given +seven years of his life to building American railways. The smoke of +the Civil War had hardly cleared away when Captain Hart had +persuaded him, Ah Yu and other California Chinese to come to Hiva-oa, +and put their labor into his cotton plantations. Cannibalism was +common at that date. I asked the old man if he had witnessed it. + +"My see plenty fella eatee," he replied. "Kanaka no likee Chineeman. +Him speak bad meatee." + +He told me how on one occasion the Lord had saved him from drowning. +With a lay brother of the Catholic Mission, he had been en route to +Vait-hua in a canoe with many natives. There was to be a church feast, +and Lam Kai Oo was carrying six hundred Chile _piastres_ to back his +skill against the natives in gambling; Lam, of course, to operate +the wheel of supposed chance. + +The boat capsized in deep water. The lay brother could not swim, but +was lifted to the keel of the upturned boat, while the others clung +to its edges. He prayed for hours, while the others, lifting their +faces above the storming waves, cried hearty amens to his +supplications. Finally the waves washed them into shallow water. The +brother gave earnest thanks for deliverance, but Lam thought that +the same magic should give him back the six hundred pieces of silver +that had gone into the sea. + +"My savee plenty Lord helpee you," said he. "Allee samee, him hell +to live when poor. Him Lord catchee Chile money, my givee fitty +dolla churchee." + +He sighed despairingly, and fed more cocoa-husks to his make-shift +oven. The shower had passed, moving in a gray curtain down the valley, +and picking my way through the mire of the yard, I followed it in +the sunshine. + +My way led now through the cocoanut-groves that day and night make +the island murmurous with their rustling. They are good company, +these lofty, graceful palms, and I had grown to feel a real +affection for them, such as a man has for his dog. Like myself, they +can not live and flourish long unless they see the ocean. Their +habit has more tangible reason than mine; they are dependent on air +and water for life. The greater the column of water that flows daily +up their stems and evaporates from the leaves, the greater the +growth and productivity. + +Evaporation being in large measure dependent on free circulation of +air, the best sites for cocoanut plantations are on the seashore, +exposed to the winds. They love the sea and will grow with their +boles dipped at high tide in the salt water. + +These trunks, three feet in diameter at the base and tapering +smoothly and perfectly to perhaps twelve inches at the top, are in +reality no more than pipes for conveying the water to the thirsty +fronds. Cut them open, and one finds a vast number of hollow reeds, +held together by a resinous pitch and guarded by a bark both thick +and exceedingly hard. There is no branch or leaf except at the very +tip of the trunk, where a symmetrical and gigantic bouquet of leaves +appears, having plumes a dozen feet long or more, that nod with every +zephyr and in storms sway and lash the tree as if they were living +things. + +I used to wonder why these great leaves, the sport of the idlest +breeze as well as the fiercest gale, were not torn from the tree, +but when I learned to know the cocoanut palm as a dear friend I +found that nature had provided for its survival on the wind-swept +beaches with the same exquisite attention to individual need that is +shown in the electric batteries and lights of certain fishes, or in +the caprification of the fig. A very fine, but strong, matting, +attached to the bark beneath the stalk, fastened half way around the +tree and reaching three feet up the leaf, fixes it firmly to the +trunk but gives it ample freedom to move. It is a natural brace, +pliable and elastic. + +There is scarcely a need of the islander not supplied by these +amiable trees. Their wood makes the best spars, furnishes rafters +and pillars for native houses, the knee- and head-rests of their beds, +rollers for the big canoes or whale-boats, fences against wild pig, +and fuel. The leaves make screens and roofs of dwellings, baskets, +and coverings, and in the pagan temples of Tahiti were the rosaries +or prayer-counters, while on their stiff stalks the candlenuts are +strung to give light for feasts or for feasting. When the tree is +young the network that holds the leaves is a beautiful silver, as +fine as India paper and glossy; narrow strips of it are used as hair +ornaments and contrast charmingly with the black and shining locks +of the girls. When older, this matting has every appearance of +coarse cotton cloth, and is used to wrap food, or is made into bags +and even rough garments, specially for fishermen. + +The white flowers are small and grow along a branching stalk, +protected by a sheath, and just above the commencement of the leaf. +From them is made the cocoanut-brandy that enables the native to +forget his sorrows. Flowers and nuts in every stage of development +are on the same tree, a year elapsing between the first blossom and +the ripe nut. Long before it is ripe, but after full size has been +attained, the nut contains a pint or even a quart of delicious juice, +called milk, water, or wine, in different languages. It is clear as +spring water, of a delicate acidity, yet sweet, and no idea of its +taste can be formed from the half-rancid fluid in the ripe nuts sold +in Europe or America. It must be drunk soon after being taken from +the tree to know its full delights, and must have been gathered at +the stage of growth called _koie_, when there is no pulp within the +shell. + +Not long after this time the pulp, white as snow, of the consistency +and appearance of the white of a soft-boiled egg, forms in a thin +layer about the walls of the nut. This is a delicious food, and from +it are made many dishes, puddings, and cakes. It is no more like the +shredded cocoanut of commerce than the peach plucked from the tree +is like the tinned fruit. + +The pulp hardens and thickens as time goes on, and finally is an +inch in thickness. Occasionally the meat when hard and ripe is +broiled and eaten. I like it fairly well served in this fashion. + +If left on the tree, the nut will in time fall, and in due course +there begins in it a marvelous process of germination. A sweet, +whitish sponge forms in the interior, starting from the inner end of +the seed enclosed in the kernel, opposite one of the three eyes in +the smaller end of the nut. This sponge drinks up all the liquid, and, +filling the inside, melts the hard meat, absorbs it, and turns it +into a cellular substance, while a white bud, hard and powerful, +pushes its way through one of the eyes of the shell, bores through +several inches of husk, and reaches the air and light. + +This bud now unfolds green leaves, and at the same period two other +buds, beginning at the same point, find their way to the two other +eyes and pierce them, turning down instead of up, and forcing their +way through the former husk outside the shell, enter the ground. +Though no knife could cut the shell, the life within bursts it open, +and husk and shell decay and fertilize the soil beside the new roots, +which, within five or six years, have raised a tree eight or nine +feet high, itself bearing nuts to reproduce their kind again. + +All about me on the fertile soil, among decaying leaves and +luxuriant vines, I saw these nuts, carrying on their mysterious and +powerful life in the unheeded forest depths. Here and there a +half-domestic pig was harrying one with thrusting snout. These pigs, +which we think stupid, know well that the sun will the sooner cause +a sprouting nut to break open, and they roll the fallen nut into the +sunlight to hasten their stomachs' gratification, though with +sufficient labor they can get to the meat with their teeth. + +There is a crab here, too, that could teach even the wisest, +sun-employing pig some tricks in economics. He is the last word in +adaptation to environment, with an uncanny knowledge that makes the +uninformed look askance at the tale-teller. These crabs climb +cocoanut-trees to procure their favorite food. They dote on cocoanuts, +the ripe, full-meated sort. They are able to enjoy them by various +endeavors demanding strength, cleverness, an apparent understanding +of the effect of striking an object against a harder one, and of the +velocity caused by gravity. Nuts that resist their attempts to open +them, they carry to great heights, to drop them and thus break their +shells. + +These crabs are called by the scientists _Birgos latro_, by the +Marquesans _tupa_, by the Paumotans _kaveu_, and by the Tahitians, +_ua vahi haari_. It was a never-failing entertainment on my walks +in the Paumotas to observe these great creatures, light-brown or +reddish in color, more than two feet in length, stalking about with +their bodies a foot from the ground, supported by two pairs of +central legs. They can exist at least twenty-four hours without +visiting the water, of which they carry a supply in reservoirs on +both sides of the cephalothorax, keeping their gills moist. + + +[Illustration: A Marquesan home on a _paepae_] + +[Illustration: Isle of Barking Dogs] + +They live in large deep burrows in the cocoanut-groves, which they +fill with husks, so that the natives often rob them to procure a +quick supply of fuel. These dens are contrived for speedy entry when +pursued. Terrifying as they appear when surprised on land, they +scuttle for safety either to a hole or to the sea, with an agility +astounding in a creature so awkward in appearance. Though they may +be seen about at all hours of the day, they make forays upon the +cocoanuts only at night. + +Darwin first saw these creatures in the Indian Ocean, and said that +they seek the sea every night to moisten their branchiae. The young +are hatched and live for some time on the sea-coast, venturing far +from water only as they grow older. Darwin said that their feat in +entering the cocoanut "is as curious a case of instinct as was ever +heard of, and likewise of adaptation in structure between two +objects apparently so remote from each other in the scheme of nature, +as a crab and a cocoanut-tree." + +When darkness descends and all is quiet, the robber crab ascends the +tree by gripping the bark with his claws. The rays of my electric +flash-light have often caught him high over my head against the gray +palm. Height does not daunt him. He will go up till he reaches the +nuts, if it be a hundred feet. With his powerful nippers he severs +the stem, choosing always a nut that is big and ripe. Descending the +palm, he tears off the fibrous husk, which, at first thought, it +would seem impossible for him to do. He tears it fiber by fiber, and +always from that end under which the three eye-holes are situated. +With these exposed, he begins hammering on one of them until he has +enlarged the opening so that he can insert one of the sharp points +of his claw into it. By turning his claw backward and forward he +scoops out the meat and regales himself luxuriously. + +This is his simplest method, along the line of least resistance, but +let the nut be refractory, and he seizes it by the point of a claw +and beats it against a rock until he smashes it. This plan failing, +he will carry the stubborn nut to the top of the tree again and hurl +it to the earth to crack it. And if at first he does not succeed, he +will make other trips aloft with the husked nut, dropping it again +and again until at last it is shattered and lies open to his claws. + +It is said that if a drop of oil be placed on the long and delicate +antennae of these crabs they die almost instantly. We have a +somewhat similar rumor with respect to salt and a bird's tail. +Seldom does a robber crab linger to be oiled, and so other means of +destroying him, or, at least, of guarding against his depredations, +are sought. With the rat, who bites the flower and gnaws the young +nuts, this crab is the principal enemy of the planter. The tree +owner who can afford it, nails sheets of tin or zinc around the tree +a dozen feet from the earth. Neither rat nor crab can pass this +slippery band, which gives no claw-hold. Thousands of trees are thus +protected, but usually these are in possession of white men, for tin +is costly and the native is poor. + +The ingenious native, however, employs another means of saving the +fruit of his groves. He climbs the palm-trunk in the daytime, and +forty feet above the ground encircles it with dirt and leaves. On +his mat for the night's slumber, he smiles to think of the revenge +he shall have. For the crab ascends and passes the puny barrier to +select and fell his nuts, but when in his backward way he descends, +he forgets the curious bunker he went over and, striking it again, +thinks he has reached the ground. He lets go, and smashes on the +rocks his crafty foe has piled below. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Visit of Le Moine; the story of Paul Gauguin; his house, and a +search for his grave beneath the white cross of Calvary. + + +I rose one morning from my Golden Bed to find a stranger quietly +smoking a cigarette on my _paepae_. Against the jungle background he +was a strangely incongruous figure; a Frenchman, small, thin, +meticulously neat in garments of faded blue denim and shining high +boots. His blue eyes twinkled above a carefully trimmed beard, and +as he rose to meet me, I observed that the fingers on the cigarette +were long, slender, and nervous. + +This was Monsieur Charles le Moine, the painter from Vait-hua, whose +studio I had invaded in his absence from that delightful isle. We +sat long over breakfast coffee and cigarettes, I, charmed by his +conversation, he, eager to hear news of the world he had forsaken. +He had studied in Paris, been governor of the Gambier Islands, and +at last had made his final home among the palms and orchids of these +forgotten isles. His life had narrowed to his canvases, on which he +sought to interpret Marquesan atmosphere and character, its beauty +and savage lure. + +I said to him that it was a pity many great painters did not come +here to put on canvas the fading glamor and charm of the Marquesas. + +"Our craft is too poor," he replied with a sigh. "A society built on +money does not give its artists and singers the freedom they had in +the old days in these islands, my friend. We are bound to a wheel +that turns relentlessly. Who can come from France and live here +without money? Me, I must work as gendarme and school-teacher to be +able to paint even here. One great painter did live in this valley, +and died here--Paul Gauguin. He was a master, my friend!" + +"Paul Gauguin lived here?" I exclaimed. I had known, of course, that +the great modernist had died in the Marquesas, but I had never heard +in which valley, and no one in Atuona had spoken of him. In Florence +I had met an artist who possessed two glass doors taken from Madame +Charbonnier's house and said to have been painted by Gauguin in +payment for rent. I had been in Paris when all artistic France was +shuddering or going into ecstacies over Gauguin's blazing tropic work, +when his massive, crude figures done in violent tones, filled with +sinister power, had been the conversation of galleries and saloons. + +Strindberg wrote of Gauguin's first exhibition and expressed dislike +for the artist's prepossession with form, and for the savage models +he chose. Gauguin's reply was: + +"Your civilization is your disease; my barbarism is my restoration +to health. I am a savage. Every human work is a revelation of the +individual. All I have learned from others has been an impediment to +me. I know little, but what I do know is my own." + +Now I learned from the lips of Le Moine that this man had lived and +died in my own valley of Atuona, had perhaps sat on this _paepae_ +where we were breakfasting. Imagination kindled at the thought. +"I will take you to his house," said Le Moine. + +We walked down the road past the governor's palace until opposite +Baufre's depressing abode, where, several hundred yards back from a +stone wall, sunk in the mire of the swamp, had for ten years been +Gauguin's home and studio. Nothing remained of it but a few faint +traces rapidly disappearing beneath the jungle growth. + +While we stood in the shade of a cocoanut-palm, gazing at these, we +were joined by Baufre, the shaggy and drink-ruined Frenchman, in his +torn and dirty overalls. + +"This weather is devilish," said Baufre, with a curse. "It is not as +it used to be. The world goes to the devil. There were seven hundred +people in Atuona when I came here. They are all dead but two hundred, +and there is nobody to help me in my plantation. If I pay three +francs a day, they will not work. If I pay five francs, they will +not work. Suppose I give them rum? They will work hard for that, for +it means forgetting, but when they drink rum they cannot work at all." + +"But you are a philosopher, and absinthe or rum will cure you," said +Le Moine. + +"_Mon dieu!_ I am not a philosopher!" retorted Baufre. "Of what good +is that? Gauguin was a philosopher, and he is dead and buried on +Calvary. You know how he suffered? His feet and legs were very bad. +Every day he had to tie them up. He could not wear shoes, but he +painted, and drank absinthe, and injected the morphine into his belly, +and painted. + +"_Sapristi!_ He was a brave one! Am I not here over thirty years, +and have I met a man like Gauguin? He never worried. He painted. The +dealer in Paris sent him five hundred francs a month, and he gave +away everything. He cared only for paint. And now he is gone. +_Regardez_, here is where his house stood." + +We walked through the matted grass that sketched upon the fertile +soil the shape of that house where Gauguin had painted. + +It had been raised from the marsh six feet on trunks of trees, and +was about forty-five feet long and twenty wide. The floor was of +planks, and one climbed a stairway to reach the veranda. The frame +of the house was of wood, but the sides all of split bamboo, with a +row of windows of glass and a roof of cocoanut thatch. The light +entered from the north, and except for a small chamber for sleeping +and a closet for provisions, the entire house was a studio, a lofty, +breeze-swept hall, the windows high up admitting light, but not the +hot sunshine, and the expanse of bamboo filtering the winds in their +eternal drift from south to north and north to south. + +Below the floor, on the ground, was a room for work in sculpture, in +which medium Gauguin took much interest, using clay and wood, the +latter both for bas-relief and full relief, Gauguin being hampered, +Baufre said, by lack of plasticity in the native clay. Next to this +workroom was a shelter for the horse and cart, for Gauguin had the +only wheeled vehicle in the Marquesas. + +Baufre exhausted all his rhetoric and used four sheets of foolscap +in his endeavor to make me see these surroundings of the artist, +whom he evidently considered a great man. + +"Five hundred francs a month, _mon ami_, whether he painted or not! +But he was a worker. Drunk or sober, he would paint. _Oui_, I have +seen him with a bottle of absinthe in him, and still he would paint. +Early in the morning he was at work at his easel in the studio or +under the trees, and every day he painted till the light was gone. +His only use for the cart was to carry him and his easel and chair +to scenes he would paint. He would shoot that accursed morphine into +his belly when the pain was too bad, and he would drink wine and +talk and paint. + +"He had no wife or woman, but he took one in the way of the white +man here now and then. He lived alone, save for a half-Chinese boy +who cooked and cleaned for him. He never said he was sick. There was +no doctor on this island, for the government was then at Nuka-hiva, +and he had no time to go there. He suffered terribly, but he never +complained. 'Life is short,' he would say, 'and there is not long to +paint.' + +"He would not talk politics, but after the light was gone he would +sit at the organ in his studio and make one cry with his music. When +at home he wore only a _pareu_, but he would put on trousers when he +went out. He worked and drank and injected his morphine, and one +morning when the boy came he found him dead, and he was smiling. + +"The government hated him because he cursed it for not letting the +natives keep their customs. The church hated him because he +ridiculed it. Still, they buried him in the Catholic cemetery. I +went with the body, and four Marquesans carried it up the trail. + +"The government sold his house to Gedge, and Gedge sold it to a +native, who tore it down for the materials. It was of no use to any +one, for it was built for an artist. + +"_Vous savez; mon garcon_, I am not acquainted with pictures, and +have never seen any but his, but I felt that they were good. They +made one feel the sun. There was in them the soul of these islands. +And you know that Polonaise, with the one eye-glass, that lives in +Papeite, that Krajewsky? _Eh bien!_ he was here to buy these stone +images of gods, and he said that in Paris they were paying tens of +thousands of francs for those things of Gauguin's he would have +given me for the asking. Ah well! he had the head and he was a +philosopher, but he lies up there in Calvary." + +"Perhaps," said Le Moine. + +"_Mon ami_," said the shaggy man, "I go to church, and you and I and +Gauguin are the same kind of Catholic. We don't do what we pray for. +That man was smarter than you or me, and the good God will forgive +him whatever he did. He paid everybody, and Chassognal of Papeite +found seven hundred francs in a book where he had carelessly laid it. +If he drank, he shared it, and he paid his women." + +"He was an atheist," persisted Le Moine. + +"Atheist!" echoed Baufre. "He believed in making beautiful pictures, +and he was not afraid of God or of the mission. How do you know what +God likes? Mathieu Scallamera built the church here and the mission +houses, and he is dead, and all his family are lepers. Did God do +that? _Non! Non!_ You and I know nothing about that. You like to +drink. Your woman is tattooed, and we are both men and bad. Come and +have a drink?" + +We left him beside the road and walked slowly beneath the arch of +trees toward the mountain whose summit was crowned by the white +cross of Calvary graveyard. + +"He drank too much, he took morphine, he was mortally ill, and yet +he painted. Those chaps who have to have leisure and sandal-wood +censors might learn from that man," said Le Moine. "He was a pagan +and he saw nature with the eyes of a pagan god, and he painted it as +he saw it." + +I reminded him of James Huneker's words about Gauguin: "He is yet +for the majority, though he may be the Paint God of the Twentieth +century. Paint was his passion. With all his realism, he was a +symbolist, a master of decoration." + +Past the governor's mansion, we turned sharply up the hill. Apart +from all other dwellings, on a knoll, stood a Marquesan house. As we +followed the steep trail past it, I called, "_Kaoha!_" + +"_I hea?_" said a woman, "_Karavario?_ Where do you go? To Calvary?" + +There was a sad astonishment in her tone, that we should make the +arduous climb to the cemetery where no dead of ours lay interred. + +A fairly broad trail wound about the hill, the trail over which the +dead and the mourners go, and the way was through a vast +cocoanut-orchard, the trees planted with absolute regularity lifting +their waving fronds seventy or eighty feet above the earth. There +was no underbrush between the tall gray columns of the palms, only a +twisted vegetation covered the ground, and the red volcanic soil of +the trail, cutting through the green, was like a smear of blood. + +The road was long and hot. Halting near the summit, we looked upward, +and I was struck with emotion as when in the courtyard I saw the +group of the crucifixion. A cross forty feet high, with a Christ +nailed upon it, all snow-white, stood up against the deep blue sky. +It was like a note of organ music in the great gray cathedral of the +palms. + +Another forty minutes climbing brought us to the foot of the white +symbol. A half-acre within white-washed palings, like any country +graveyard, lay on the summit of the mountain. + +To find Gauguin's grave we began at the entrance and searched row by +row. The graves were those of natives, mounds marked by small stones +along the sides, with crosses of rusted iron filigree showing skulls +and other symbols of death, and a name painted in white, mildewing +away. Farther on were tombs of stone and cement, primitive and +massive, defying the elements. Upon one was graven, "_Ci Git Daniel +Vaimai, Kata-Kita_, 1867-1907. R.I.P." The grave of a catechist, a +native assistant to the priests. Beneath another lay "August Jorss," +he who had ordered the Golden Bed in which I slept. Most conspicuous +of all was a mausoleum surrounded by a high, black, iron railing +brought from France. On this I climbed to read while perched on the +points: + +"_Ici repose Mg. Illustrissime et Reverendissime_ Rog. Jh. Martin," +and much more in Latin and French. It was the imposing grave of the +Bishop of Uranopolis, vicar-apostolic to the Marquesas, predecessor +to Bishop le Cadre, who had no pride and whom all called plain +Father David. + +Suddenly rain poured down upon us, and looking about to find a +shelter we saw a straw penthouse over a new and empty grave lined +with stones. We huddled beneath it, our faces toward the sea, and +while the heavy rain splashed above our heads and water rushed down +the slope, we gazed in silence at the magnificent panorama below. + +We were directly above the Bay of Traitors, that arm of the sea +which curved into the little bays of Taka-Uka and Atuona. At one side, +a mere pinnacle through the vapor about his throat, rose the rugged +head of Temetiu, and ranged below him the black fastnesses of the +valleys he commands. In the foreground the cocoas, from the rocky +headlands to the gate of Calvary, stood like an army bearing palms +of victory. In rows and circles, plats and masses, the gray trunks +followed one another from sea to mountain, yielding themselves to +the storm, swaying gently, and by some trick of wind and rain +seeming to march toward the cross-crowned summit. + +The flimsy thatch under which we crouched, put up only to keep the +sun from the grave-digger, bent to north and south, and threatened +to wing away. But suddenly the shower ran away in a minute, as if it +had an engagement elsewhere, and the sun shone more brightly in the +rain-washed air. + +We continued our search, but uselessly. Hohine and Mupui had +advertisement of their last mortal residence, but not Gauguin. We +found an earring on one little tomb where a mother had laid her child, +and on several those _couronnes des perles_, stiff, ugly wreaths +brought from France, with "Sincere Regrets" in raised beads, +speaking pityfully of the longing of the simple islanders to do +honor to the memory of their loved ones. But the grave of Gauguin, +the great painter, was unmarked. If a board had been placed at its +head when he was buried, it had rotted away, and nothing was left to +indicate where he was lying. + +The hibiscus was blood-red on the sunken graves, and cocoanuts +sprouted in the tangled grass. Palms shut out from the half-acre had +dropped their nuts within it, and the soil, rich in the ashes of man, +was endeavoring to bring forth fairer fruit than headstones and iron +crosses. The _pahue_, a lovely, long, creeping vine that wanders on +the beaches to the edge of the tides, had crawled over many graves, +and its flowers, like morning-glories, hung their purple bells on +the humbler spots that no hand sought to clear. + +Perhaps under these is the dust of the painter who, more than any +other man, made the Marquesas known to the world of Europe. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +Death of Aumia; funeral chant and burial customs; causes for the +death of a race. + + +On the _paepae_ of a poor cabin near my own lived two women, Aumia +and Taipi, in the last stages of consumption. Aumia had been, only a +few months earlier, the beauty of the island. + +"She was one of the gayest," said Haabunai, "but the _pokoko_ has +taken her." + +She was pitifully thin when I first saw her, lying all day on a heap +of mats, with Taipi beside her, both coughing, coughing. An epidemic +of colds had seized Atuona, brought, most probably, by the schooner +_Papeite_, for no other had arrived since the _Morning Star_. +Aumia coughed at night, her neighbor took it up, and then, like +laughter in a school, it became impossible to resist, and down to +the beach and up to the heights the valley echoed with the +distressing sounds. So, a breadfruit season ago, had Aumia coughed +for the first time, and the way she was going would be followed by +many of my neighbors. + +I stopped every day to chat a moment with Aumia, and to bring her +the jam or marmalade she liked, and was too poor to buy from the +trader's store. She asked me this day if I had seen her grave. She +had heard I had visited the cemetery, and I must describe it to her. +It was the grave over which Le Moine and I had crouched from the +storm. + +Aumia's husband and Haabunai, with Great Fern, had dug it and paved +it a couple of days ago, and her husband had given the others a pig +for their work, slaughtering it on the tomb of the Bishop of +Uranopolis. No thought of profanation had entered their minds; it +was convenient to lay the pig over the imposing monument, with a man +on either side holding the beast and the butcher free-handed. The +carcass had been denuded of hair in a pail of hot water and buried +underground with fire below and above him. When the meat was well +done, I had a portion of it, and Sister Serapoline, who had come in +her black nun's habit to console Aumia with the promises of the +church, ate with us, and accepted a haunch for the nun's house. + +"Aumia is able to eat pig, and yet they have made her grave," I said. + +"Oh, _c'est ca!_" replied the nun, holding the haunch carefully. +"That is the custom. Always they used to dig them near the house, so +that the sick person might see the grave, and in its digging the +sick had much to say, and enjoyed it. Now, _grace a dieu!_ if +Catholics, they are buried in consecrated ground where the body may +rest serene until the trumpet sounds the final judgment. Death is +terrible, but these Marquesans make no more of it than of a journey +to another island, and much less than of a voyage to Tahiti. They +die as peacefully as a good Catholic who is sure of his crown in +Heaven. And as they are children, only children, the wisest or the +worst of them, the Good God will know how to count their sins. It is +those who scandalize them who shall pay dear, those wicked whites +who have forsaken God, or who worship him in false temples." + +The coffin of Aumia was then beside the house, turned over so that +rain might not make it unpresentable. She had asked for it weeks +before. To the Marquesan his coffin is as important as, to us, the +house the newly-married pair are to live in. These people know that +almost every foot of their land holds the bones or dust of a corpse, +and this remnant of a race, overwhelmed by tragedy, can look on +death only as a relief from the oppression of alien and +unsympathetic white men. They go to the land of the _tupapaus_ as +calmly as to sleep. + +"I have never seen a Marquesan afraid to die," said Sister Serapoline. +"I have been at the side of many in their last moments. It is a +terrible thing to die, but they have no fear at all." + +The husband of Aumia, a jolly fellow of thirty, was practising on a +drum for the entertainment of his wife. He said that the corpse of +his grandfather, a chief, had been oiled and kept about the house +until it became mummified. This, he said, had been quite the custom. +The body was washed very thoroughly, and rubbed with cocoanut-oil. +It was laid in the sun, and members of the family appointed to turn +it many times a day, so that all parts might be subjected to an even +heat. The anointing with oil was repeated several times daily. Weeks +or months of this process reduced the corpse to a mummified condition, +and if it were the body of a chief it was then put in his canoe and +kept for years in a ceremonial way. But no mark was ever placed to +show where the dead were buried, and there were no funeral ceremonies. +Better that none knew where the body was laid and that the chosen +friends who carried it to the sepulchre forgot the spot. + +In the very old days the Marquesans interred the dead secretly in +the night at the foot of great trees. Or they carried the bodies to +the mountains and in a rocky hole shaded by trees covered them over +and made the grave as much as possible like the surrounding soil. +The secret of the burial-place was kept inviolate. Aumia's husband +related an instance of a man who in the darkest night climbed a +supposedly inaccessible precipice carrying the body of his young +wife lashed to his back, to place it carefully on a lofty shelf and +descend safely. + +These precautions came probably from a fear of profanation of the +dead, perhaps of their being eaten by a victorious enemy. To +devastate the cemeteries and temples of the foe was an aim of every +invading tribe. It was considered that mutilating a corpse injured +the soul that had fled from it. + +Afraid of no living enemy nor of the sea, meeting the shark in his +own element and worsting him, fearlessly enduring the thrust of the +fatal spear when an accident of battle left him defenseless, the +Marquesan warrior, as much as the youngest child, had an unutterable +horror of their own dead and of burial-places, as of the demons who +hovered about them. + +Christianity has made no change in this, for it, too, is encumbered +with such fears. Who of us but dreads to pass a graveyard at night, +though even to ourselves we deny the fear? Banshees, werwolves and +devils, the blessed candles lit to keep away the Evil One, or even +to guard against wandering souls on certain feasts of the dead, were +all part of my childhood. So to the Marquesan are the goblins that +cause him to refuse to go into silent places alone at night, and +often make him cower in fear on his own mats, a _pareu_ over his head, +in terror of the unknown. + +But death when it comes to him now is nothing, or it is a going to +sleep at the end of a sad day. Aumia, eating her burial meats and +looking with pleasure at her coffin, carefully and beautifully built +by her husband's hands, smiled at me as serenely as a child. But the +melancholy sound of her coughing followed me up the trail to the +House of the Golden Bed. + +It was barely daylight next morning when I awoke, a soft, delicious +air stirring the breadfruit leaves. I plunged into the river, and +returning to my house was about to dress--that is, to put on my +_pareu_--when a shriek arose from the forest. It was sudden, sharp, +and agonizing. + +"_Aumia mate i havaii_" said Exploding Eggs, approaching to build +the fire. Literally he said, "Aumia is dead and gone below," for the +Marquesans locate the spirit world below the earth's surface, as +they do the soul below the belt. + +The wailing was accompanied shortly by a sound of hammering on boards. + +"The corpse goes into the coffin," said Exploding Eggs. The first +nail had been driven but a moment after Aumia's last breath. + +All day the neighborhood was melancholy with the cries from the house. +All the lamentations were in a certain tone, as if struck from the +same instrument by the hand of sorrow. Each visitor to the house +shrieked in the same manner, and all present accompanied her, so +that for ten minutes after each new mourner arrived a chorus of loud +wails and moans assailed my ears. I had never known such a +heart-rending exhibition of grief. + +But the sorrow of these friends of Aumia was not genuine. It could +not be; it was too dramatic. When they left the house the mourners +laughed and lit cigarettes and pipes. If no new visitor came they +fell to chatting and smoking, but the sight of a fresh and unharrowed +person started them off again in their mechanical, though +nerve-racking, cry. + +I had known Aumia well, and at noon, desiring to observe the +proprieties, I stepped upon the _paepae_ of her home. + +"She loved the _Menike!_" shouted the old women in chorus, and they +threw themselves upon me and smelt me and made as if I had been one +of the dead's husbands. The followed me up the trail to my cabin and +sat on my _paepae_ wailing and shrieking. It was some time before I +realized that their poignant sorrow should force consolation from me. +There was not a moan as the rum went round. + +I had puzzled at the exact repetition of their plaint. Harrowing as +it was, the sounds were almost like a recitation of the alphabet. A +woman who had adopted me as her nephew said they called it the +"_Ue haaneinei_" That, literally, is "to make a weeping on the side." +The etiquette of it was intricate and precise. Each vowel was +memorized with exactness. It ran, as my adopted aunt repeated it +over her shell of consolation, thus: + +"Ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke! + A a a a a a a a a a a a a a! + E e e e e e e e e e e e e e e! + I i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i! + O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o! + U u u u u u u u u u u u u u u!" + +To omit a vowel, to say too many, or to mix their order, would be +disrespect to the spirit of the dead, and a reflection on the mourner. +Nine times the "ke," fourteen "a's," fifteen "e's," eighteen +"i's" and fifteen "o's" and "u's." + +Aumia was carried to Calvary in the afternoon and put in the grave +for which the pig had been paid. So strongly did the old feeling +still prevail that only three or four of her friends could be +persuaded by the nuns to accompany the coffin up the trail. + +Exploding Egg's consignment of Aumia to Havaii, the underworld, +spoke strongly of the clinging of his people to their old beliefs in +the destiny of the spirit after death. They share with the Ainos of +Japan--a people to which they have many likenesses, being of the +same division of man--a faith in a subterranean future. + +Does not Socrates, in the dialogues of Plato, often speak of +"going to the world below," where he hopes to find real wisdom? + +Havaii or Havaiki is, of course, the fabled place whence came the +Polynesians, as it is also the name of that underworld to which +their spirits return after death. One might read into this fact a +dim groping of the Marquesan mind toward "From dust he came, to dust +returneth," or, more likely, a longing of the exiled people for the +old home they had abandoned. Ethnologists believe that the name +refers to Java, the tarrying-point of the great migration of +Caucasians from South Asia toward Polynesia and New Zealand, or to +Savaii, a Samoan island whence the emigrants later dispersed. + +Whatever the origin of the word, to-day it conveys to the Marquesan +mind only that vague region where the dead go. In it there is no +suffering, either for good or bad souls. It is simply the place +where the dead go. It is ruled by Po, the Darkness. + +There is, however, a paradise in an island in the clouds, where +beautiful girls and great bowls of _kava_, with pigs roasted to a +turn, await the good and brave. The old priests claimed to be able +to help one from Po to this happy abode, but the living relatives of +the departed spirit had to pay a heavy price for their services. The +Christianized Marquesan fancies that he finds these old beliefs +revived when Pere David tells him of purgatory, from which prayers +and certain good acts help one's friends, or may be laid up in +advance against the day when one must himself descend to that middle +state of souls. + +All Marquesans live in the shadow of that day. They see it without +fear, but with a melancholy so tragic and deep that the sorrow of it +is indescribable. + +"I have seen many go as Aumia has gone," said Father David to me. +"All these lovable races are dying. All Polynesia is passing. Some +day the whites here will be left alone amid the ruins of plantations +and houses, unless they bring in an alien race to take the places of +the dead." + +A hundred years ago there were a hundred and sixty thousand +Marquesans in these islands. Twenty years ago there were four +thousand. To-day I am convinced that there remain not twenty-one +hundred. + +A century ago an American naval captain reckoned nineteen thousand +fighting men on the island of Nuka-hiva alone. In a valley where +three thousand warriors opposed him, there are to-day four adults. I +visited Hanamate, an hour from Atuona, where fifty years ago +hundreds of natives lived. Not one survived to greet me. + +Consumption came first to Hanavave, on the island of Fatu-hiva. One +of the tribe of merciless American whaling captains having sent +ashore a sailor dying of tuberculosis, the tattooed cannibals +received him in a Christ-like manner, soothed his last hours, and +breathed the germs that have carried off more than four-fifths of +their race, and to-day are killing the remnant. + +The white man brought the Chinese, and with them leprosy. The +Chinese were imported to aid the white in stealing the native land +of the Marquesan, and to keep the Chinese contented, opium was +brought with him. Finding it eagerly craved by the ignorant native, +the foolish white fastened this vice also upon his other desired +slave. The French Government, for forty thousand francs, licensed an +opium farmer to sell the drug still faster, and not until alarmed by +the results and shamed by the outcry in Europe, did it forbid the +devastating narcotic. Too late! + +Smallpox came with a Peruvian slave-ship that stole thousands of the +islanders and carried them off to work out their lives for the white +in his own country. This ship left another more dread disease, which +raged in the islands as a virulent epidemic, instead of running the +slow chronic course it does nowadays when all the world has been +poisoned by it. + +The healthy Marquesans had no anti-toxins in their pure blood to +overcome the diseases which with us, hardened Europeans and +descendants of Europeans, are not deadly. Here they raged and +destroyed hundreds in a few days or weeks. + +The survivors of these pestilences, seeing their homes and villages +desolated, their friends dying, their people perishing, supposed +that these curses were inflicted upon them by the God of the +foreigners and by the missionaries, who said that they were his +servant. In their misery, they not only refused to listen to the +gospels, but accused the missionaries in prayer before their own god, +begging to be saved from them. Often when the missionaries appeared +to speak to the people, the deformed and dying were brought out and +laid in rows before them, as evidences of the evilness and cruelty of +their white god. + +But after one has advanced all tangible reasons and causes for the +depopulation of the Marquesas, there remains another, mysterious, +intangible, but it may be, more potent than the others. The coming +of the white has been deadly to all copper-colored races everywhere +in the world. The black, the yellow, the Malay, the Asiatic and the +negro flourish beside the white; the Polynesian and the red races of +America perished or are going fast. The numbers of those dead from +war and epidemics leave still lacking the full explanation of the +fearful facts. Seek as far as you will, pile up figures and causes +and prove them correct; there still remains to take into account the +shadow of the white on the red. + +Prescott says: + + The American Indian has something peculiarly sensitive in + his nature. He shrinks instinctively from the rude touch of a + foreign hand. Even when this foreign influence comes in the + form of civilization, he seems to sink and pine under it. It has + been so with the Mexicans. Under the Spanish domination + their numbers have silently melted away. Their energies are + broken. They live under a better system of laws, a more + assured tranquillity, a purer faith. But all does not avail. + Their civilization was of the hardy character that belongs to + the wilderness. Their hardy virtues were all their own. They + refused to submit to European culture--to be engrafted on a + foreign stock. + + Free! Understand that well, it is the deep commandment, + dimmer or clearer, of our whole being, to be free. Freedom is + the one purpose, wisely aimed at or unwisely, of all man's + struggles, toilings, and sufferings, in this earth. + +I am persuaded that the Polynesians, from Hawaii to Tahiti, are +dying because of the suppression of the play-instinct, an instinct +that had its expression in most of their customs and occupations. +Their dancing, their tattooing, their chanting, their religious rites, +and even their warfare, had very visible elements of humor and +joyousness. They were essentially a happy people, full of dramatic +feeling, emotional, and with a keen sense of the ridiculous. The +rule of the trader crushed all these native feelings. + +To this restraint was added the burden of the effort to live. With +the entire Marquesan economic and social system disrupted, food was +not so easily procurable, and they were driven to work by commands, +taxes, fines, and the novel and killing incentives of rum and opium. +The whites taught the men to sell their lives, and the women to sell +their charms. + +Happiness and health were destroyed because the white man came here +only to gratify his cupidity. The priests could bring no inspiration +sufficient to overcome the degradation caused by the traders. The +Marquesan saw that Jesus had small influence over their rulers. +Civilization lost its opportunity because it gave precept, but no +example. + +Even to-day, one white man in a valley sets the standard of sobriety, +of kindness, and honor. Jensen, the frank and handsome Dane who +works for the Germans at Taka-Uka who was in the breadline in New +York and swears he will never return to civilization, told me that +when he kept a store in Hanamenu, near Atuona, to serve the bare +handful of unexterminated tribesmen there, the people imitated him +in everything, his clothes, his gestures, his least-studied actions. + +"I was the only white. I planted a fern in a box. Every one came to +my store and, feigning other reasons, asked for boxes. Soon every +_paepae_ had its box of ferns. I asked a man to snare four or five +goats for me in the hills. They were the first goats tethered or +enclosed in the valley. Within a week the mountains were harried for +goats, and the village was noisy with their bleating. I ate my goats; +they ate theirs. Not one was left. When I forsook Hanamenu, the +whole population moved with me. Sure, I was decent to them, that was +all. + +"I never want to see the white man's country again. I have starved +in the big cities, and worked like a dog for the banana trust in the +West Indies. I have begged a cup of coffee in San Francisco, and +been fanned by a cop's club. Here I make almost nothing, I have many +friends and no superiors, and I am happy." + +Had these lovable savages had a few fine souls to lead them, to +shield them from the dregs of civilization heaped on them for a +century, they might have developed into a wonder race to set a pace +in beauty, courage, and natural power that would have surprised and +helped Europe. + +They needed no physical regeneration. They were better born into +health and purity--bloody as were some of their customs--than most +of us. Their bodies had not become a burden on the soul, but, light +and strong and unrestrained, were a part of it. They did not know +that they had bodies; they only leaped, danced, flung themselves in +and out of the sea, part of a large, happy, and harmonious universe. + +If to that superb, almost perfect, physical base that nature had +given these Marquesans, to that sweetness simplicity, generosity, +and trust acknowledged by all who know them, there could have been +added a knowledge of the things we have learned; if by example and +kindness they could have been given rounded and informed intelligence, +what living there would have been in these islands! + +All they needed was a brother who walked in the sunlight and showed +the way. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A savage dance, a drama of the sea, of danger and feasting; the rape +of the lettuce. + + +Drums were beating all the morning, thrilling the valley and +mountain-sides with their barbaric _boom-boom_. The savage beat of +them quickened the blood, stirring memories older than mankind, +waking wild and primitive instincts. Toho's eyes gleamed, and her +toes curled and uncurled like those of a cat, while she told me that +the afternoon would see an old dance, a drama of the sea, of war, +and feasting such as the islands had known before the whites came. + +The air thrummed with the resonance of the drums. All morning I sat +alone on my _paepae_, hearing them beat. The sound carried one back +to the days when men first tied the skins of animals about hollow +tree-trunks and thumped them to call the naked tribes together under +the oaks of England. Those great drums beaten by the hands of +Haabunai and Song of the Nightingale made one want to be a savage, +to throw a spear, to dance in the moonlight. + +Erase thirty years, and hear it in Atuona when the "long pig that +speaks" was being carried through the jungle to the dark High Place! +Then it was the thunder of the heavens, the voice of the old gods +hungry for the flesh of their enemies. + +We who have become refined and diverse in our musical expression, +using a dozen or scores of instruments to interpret our subtle +emotions, cannot know the primitive and savage exaltation that +surges through the veins when the war-drum beats. To the Marquesans +it has ever been a summons to action, an inspiration to daring and +bloody deeds, the call of the war-gods, the frenzy of the dance. +Born of the thunder, speaking with the voice of the storm and the +cataract, it rouses in man the beast with quivering nostrils and +lashing tail who was part of the forest and the night. + +Music is ever an expression of the moods and morals of its time. The +bugle and the fife share with the drum the rousing of martial spirit +in our armies to-day, but to our savage ancestors the drum was +supreme. Primitive man expressed his harmony with nature by imitating +its sounds. He struck his own body or a hollow log covered with skin. +Uncivilized peoples crack their fingers, snap their thighs, or +strike the ground with their feet to furnish music for impromptu +dancing. In Tonga they crack their fingers; in Tahiti they pound the +earth with the soles of their feet; here in Atuona they clap hands. +The Marquesans have, too, bamboo drums, long sections of the hollow +reed, slit, and beaten with sticks. For calling boats and for +signaling they use the conch-shell, the same that sounded when +"the Tritons blew their wreathed horn." They also have the jew's-harp, +an instrument common to all Polynesia; sometimes a strip of bark +held between the teeth, sometimes a bow of wood strung with gut. + +[Illustration: The _haka_, the Marquesan national dance] + +[Illustration: Hot Tears (on the left) with Vai Etienne] + +Civilization is a process of making life more complex and subtle. We +have the piano, the violin, the orchestra. Yet we also have rag-time, +which is a reaction from the nervous tension of American commercial +life, a swinging back to the old days when man, though a brute, was +free. There is release and exhilaration in the barbaric, syncopated +songs and in the animal-like motions of the jazz dances with their +wild and passionate attitudes, their unrestrained rhythms, and their +direct appeal to sex. These rag-time melodies, coming straight from +the jungles of Africa through the negro, call to impulses in man that +are stifled in big cities, in factory and slum and the nerve-wearing +struggle of business. + +So in the dance my Marquesan neighbors returned to the old ways and +expressed emotions dying under the rule of an alien people. With the +making light of their reverenced _tapus_, the proving that their +gods were powerless, and the ending of their tribal life, the dance +degraded. They did not care to dance now that their joy in life was +gone. But the new and jolly governor, craving amusement, sought to +revive it for his pleasure. So the drums were beating on the palace +lawn, and afternoon found the trails gay with _pareus_ and brilliant +shawls as the natives came down from their _paepaes_ to the seat of +government. + +Chief Kekela Avaua, adopted son of the old Kekela, and head man of +the Paamau district, called for me. He was a dignified and important +man of forty-five years, with handsome patterns in tattooing on his +legs, and Dundreary whiskers. He was quite modishly dressed in brown +linen, beneath which showed his bare, prehensile-toed feet. + +Kirio Patuhamane, a marvelous specimen of scrolled ink-marks from +head to foot, who sported Burnside whiskers, an English cricket cap, +and a scarlet loin-cloth, accompanied us down the road. + +A hundred natives were squatting in the garden of the palace, and +rum and wine were being handed out when we arrived. Haabunai and +Song of the Nightingale, the man under sentence for making palm +brandy, were once more the distributors, and took a glass often. The +people had thawed since the dance at the governor's inauguration. As +Kirio Patuhamane explained, they had waited to observe the +disposition of their new ruler, the last having been severe, +dispensing no rum save for his own selfish gain, and having a wife +who despised them. + +My tawny feminine friends resented keenly white women's airs of +superiority, and many were the cold glances cast by Malicious Gossip, +Apporo, and Flower at the stiffly gowned Madame Bapp, who sat on the +veranda drinking absinthe. They scorned her, because she beat her +husband if he but looked at one of them, though he owned a store and +desired their custom. Poor Madame Bapp! She thought her little man +very attractive, and she lived in misery because of the +openly-displayed charms of his customers. She loved him, and when +jealous she sought the absinthe bottle and soon was busy with whip +and broom on the miserable Bapp, who sought to flee. It was useless; +she had looked to doors and windows, and he must take a painful +punishment, the while the crockery smashed and all Atuona Valley +listened on its _paepaes_, laughing and well knowing that the little +man had given no cause for jealousy. + +She greeted me with cold politeness when I mounted to the veranda, +and the governor dispensed glasses of "Dr. Funk," a drink known to +all the South Seas. Its secret is merely the mixing of a stiff drink +of absinthe with lemonade or limeade. The learned man who added this +death-dealing potion to the pleasures of the thirsty was Stevenson's +friend, and attended him in his last illness. I do not know whether +Dr. Funk ever mixed his favorite drink for R.L.S., but his own fame +has spread, not as a healer, but as a dram-decocter, from Samoa to +Tahiti. "Dr. Funk!" one hears in every club and bar. Its particular +merits are claimed by experts to be a stiffening of the spine when +one is all in; an imparting of courage to live to men worn out by +doing nothing. + +The governor in gala attire was again the urban host, assisted by +Andre Bauda, now his close friend and confidant. Bauda himself had +been in the island only a few months, and knew no more Marquesan +speech than the governor. Both these officials were truly hospitable, +embarrassingly so, considering my inability to keep up with them in +their toasts. + +Soon the demijohn of rum had been emptied into the glasses passing +from hand to hand in the garden; Haabunai and Song of the +Nightingale again evoked the thrumming beat of the great drums, and +the dance began. This was a tragedy of the sea, a pantomine of +danger and conflict and celebration. For centuries past the +ancestors of these dancers had played it on the Forbidden Height. +Even the language in which they chanted was archaic to this +generation, its words and their meanings forgotten. + +The women sat upon the grass in a row, and first, in dumb show, they +lifted and carried from its house to the beach a long canoe. The +straining muscles of their arms, the sway of their bodies, imitated +the raising of the great boat, and the walking with its weight, the +launching, the waiting for the breakers and the undertow that would +enable them to pass the surf line, and then the paddling in rough +water. + +Meantime at a distance the men chanted in chorus, giving rhythmic +time to the motions of the dancers and telling in the long-disused +words the story of the drama. And the drums beat till their rolling +thunder resounded far up the valley. + +After the canoe was moving swiftly through the water the women rested. +It seemed to me that the low continued chant of the men expressed a +longing for freedom, for a return to nature, and a melancholy comment +on the days of power and liberty gone forever. Though no person +present understood the ancient language of the song, there was no +need of words to interpret the exact meaning of the dance. Though no +word had been uttered, the motions of the women would have clearly +told the tale. + +When they began again, the sea grew more agitated. Now the wail of +the men reproduced the sound of waves beating on the canoe, and the +whistling of the wind. The canoe was tossed high by the pounding sea; +it slid dizzily down into the troughs of waves and rocked as the +oarsmen fought to hold it steady. The squall had grown into a gale, +roaring upon them while they tried to hold it steady. The canoe +began to fill with water, it sank deeper and deeper, and in another +moment the boatsmen were flung into the ocean. There they struggled +with the great seas; they swam; they regained the canoe; they +righted it, climbed into it. The storm subsided, the seas went down. + +Again the women rested, their arms and bodies shining with +perspiration. All this time they had remained immobile from the +waist downward; their naked legs folded under them like those of +statues. The chant of the men was quieter now, expressing a memory +of the old gaiety now crushed by the inhibitions of the whites, by +ridicule of island legends, and by the stern denunciations of +priests and preachers. Yet it was full of suggestion of days gone by +and the people who had once sailed the seas among these islands. + +Again the dancers raised their arms, and the canoe sailed over sunny +waters. At length it touched at an isle, it was carried through the +breakers to a resting place on the sand. Its oarsmen rejoiced, they +danced a dance of thanksgiving to their gods, and wreathed the +_ti_ leaves in their hair. + +At this moment Haabunai, master of ceremonies, gave a cry of dismay +and ceased to beat his drum. With an anguished glance at the +assembled spectators, he dashed around the corner of the house, to +reappear in an instant with his hands full of green leaves. + +"_Mon dieu!_" cried the governor. "_Mon salade! Mon salade!_" + +Haabunai, busied with his duties, had forgotten to provide the real +and sacred _ti_. In despair at the last moment he had raided and +utterly destroyed the governor's prized lettuce bed, the sole +provision for salad-making in Atuona. He hastily divided the precious +leaves among the dancers, and with wilting lettuce enwreathed in +their tresses the oarsmen launched the canoe once more in the waves +and returned to their own isle, praising the gods. + +All relaxed now, to receive the praises of the governor and the +brimming glasses once more offered by the diligent Haabunai and Song, +aided by the gendarme. + +A gruesome cannibal chant followed, accompanied by the booming of +the drums, and then, warmed by the liquor that fired their brains, +the dancers began the _haka_, the sexual dance. Inflamed by the rum, +they flung themselves into it with such abandon as I have never seen, +and I saw a _kamaaina_ in Hawaii and have seen Caroline, Miri, and +Mamoe, most skilled dancers of the Hawaiian Islands. With the +continued passing of the cup, the _hurahura_ soon became general. The +men and women who had begun dancing in rows, in an organized way, +now broke ranks and danced freely all over the lawn. Men sought out +the women they liked, and women the men, challenging each other in +frenzied and startling exposition of the ancient ways. + +The ceaseless booming of the drums added incitement to the frenzy; +the grounds of the governor's palace were a chaos of twisting brown +bodies and agitated _pareus_, while from all sides rose cries, shouts, +hysterical laughter, and the sound of clapping hands and thumping +feet. Here and there dancers fell exhausted, until by elimination +the dance resolved itself into a duet, all yielding the turf to Many +Daughters, the little, lovely leper, and Kekela Avaua, chief of +Paumau. These left the lawn and advanced to the veranda, where so +contagious had become the enthusiasm that the governor was doing the +_hurahura_ opposite Bauda, and Ah Yu danced with Apporo, while Song, +the prisoner, and Flag, the gendarme, madly emulated the star +performers. + +Kekela, who led the rout, was a figure at which to marvel. A very +big man, perhaps six feet four inches in height, and all muscle, his +contortions and the frenzied movements of his muscles exceeded all +anatomical laws. Many Daughters, her big eyes shining, her red lips +parted, followed and matched his every motion. Her entire trunk +seemed to revolve on the pivot of her waist, her hips twisting in +almost a spiral, and her arms akimbo accentuating and balancing her +lascivious mobility. + +The governor and the commissionaire, Ah Yu and Apporo, Monsieur Bapp +with Song of the Nightingale and Flag, made the palace tremble while +the _thrum_ of the great drums maddened their blood. + +Exhausted at last, they lay panting on the boards. Song was telling +me that the liquor of the governor's giving surpassed all his +illicit make, and that when his sentence expired he would remain at +the palace as cook. Ah Yu, in broken English, sang a ditty he had +heard forty years earlier in California, "Shoo-fle-fly-doan-bodder-me." +Apporo, overcome by the rum and the dance, was lying among the +rose-bushes. Many others were flung on the sward, and more rose +again to the dance, singing and shouting and demanding more rum. The +girls came forward to be kissed, as was the custom, and Madame Bapp +drove them away with sharp words. + +Soon the hullabaloo became too great for the dignity of the governor. +He gave orders to clear the grounds, and Bauda issued commands from +the veranda while Song and Flag lugged away the drums and drove the +excited mob out of the garden and across the bridge. All in all, +this Sunday was typical of Atuona under the new regime. + +After a quiet bath in the pool below my cabin I got my own dinner, +unassisted by Exploding Eggs, and went early to bed to forestall +visitors. The crash of a falling cocoanut awakened me at midnight, +and I saw on my _paepae_ Apporo, Flower, Water, and Chief Kekela +Avaua, asleep. The chief had hung his trousers over the railing, and +was in his _pareu_, his pictured legs showing, while the others lay +naked on my mats. There was no need to disturb them, for it is the +good and honored custom of these hospitable islands to sleep wherever +slumber overtakes one. + +The night was fine, the stars looked down through the +breadfruit-trees, and Temetiu, the giant mountain, was dark and +handsome in the blue and gold sky. Two sheep were huddled together +by my trail window, the horses were lying down in the brush, and a +nightingale lilted a gay love song in the cocoanut-palms above the +House of the Golden Bed. + +Next morning all Atuona had a tight handkerchief bound over its +forehead. I met twenty men and women with this sign of repentance +upon their brows. Watercress, the chief of Atuona, who guards the +governor's house, was by the roadside. + +"You have drunk too much," I remarked, as I spied the rag about his +head. + +"Not too much, but a great deal," he rejoined. + +"_Faufau_," I said further, which means that it is a bad thing. + +"_Hana paopao_" he said sadly. "It is disagreeable to work. One +likes to forget many things." + +There was bitterness and sorrow in his tone. His father was a warrior, +under the protection of Toatahu, the god of the chiefs, and led many +a victorious foray when Watercress was a child. The son remembers the +old days and feels deeply the degradation and ruin brought by the +whites upon his people. A distinguished-looking man, dignified and +haughty, he was one of half a dozen who were working out taxes by +repairing the roads, and he was one of the few who worked steadily, +saying little and seldom smiling. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +A walk to the Forbidden Place; Hot Tears, the hunchback; the story of +Behold the Servant of the Priest, told by Malicious Gossip in the +cave of Enamoa. + + +It was a drowsy afternoon, and coming up the jungle trail to my +cabin I saw Le Brunnec, the trader, accompanied by Mouth of God and +Tahiapii, half-sister to Malicious Gossip. + +Le Brunnec, a Breton, intelligent, honest, and light-hearted, owned +the store below the governor's palace on the road to Atuona beach. +He lived above it, alone save for a boy who cooked for him, and all +the Marquesans were his friends. He had come this afternoon to take +me for a walk up Atuona valley, and on the main road below my house +Le Moine, Jimmy Kekela, Hot Tears, the hunchback, and Malicious +Gossip awaited us. + +We waded the river and found a trail that wandered along it crossed +it now and then and hung in places on the high banks above it. The +trail had been washed by freshets often and was rough and stony, +overhung with trees and vines. Along it, a hundred feet or so from +the river, were houses sparsely scattered in the almost continuous +forest of cocoanut and breadfruit. Oranges and bananas, mangoes and +limes, surrounded the cabins, most of which were built of rough +planks and roofed with iron. Here and there I saw a native house of +straw matting thatched with palm leaves, a sign of a poverty that +could not reach the hideous, but admired, standard of the whites. + +Many people sitting on their _paepaes_ called to us, and one woman +pointed to me and said that she wished to take my name and give me +her own. This is their custom with one to whom they are attracted, +but I affected not to understand. I did not want, so early in my +residence in Atuona, to lose a name that had served me well for many +years, and besides, if I took another I would have to abide by +whatever it might be and be known by it. It would be pleasant to be +called "Blue Sky" or "Killer of Sharks," but how about "Drowned in +the Sea" or "Noise Inside"? + +"Keep your name to yourself, _mon ami_," said Le Moine. "They expect +much from you if you give them yours. They will give you heaps of +useless presents, but you alone have the right to buy rum." + +Following a curve in the stream, we came upon Teata (Miss Theater), +the acknowledged beauty of Atuona, waist-deep in a pool, washing her +gowns. She was a vision of loveliness, large-eyed, tawny, her hair a +dark cascade about her fair face and bare shoulders, the crystal +water lapping her slender thighs and curling into ripples about her, +the heavy jungle growth on the banks making an emerald background to +her beauty. + +"They are like the ancient Greeks," said Le Moine, "with the grace +of accustomed nudity and the poise of the barefooted. You must not +judge them by the present standards of Europe, but by the statues of +Greece or Egypt. M'a'mselle Theater there in the brook would have +been renowned in the Golden Age of Pericles. I must paint her before +she is older. They are good models, for they have no nerves and will +sit all day in a pose, though they dislike standing, and must have +their pipe or cigarette. You have seen Vanquished Often, in my own +valley of Vait-hua, whom I have painted so much. Ah, there is beauty! +One will not find her like in all the world. Paris knows nothing +like her." + +Teata waved her hand at us from the brook, and flung her heavy hair +backward over her shoulder as she went on with her task. Looking +back at her before the trail wound again into the forest, I saw that +her features in repose were hard and semi-savage, the lines still +beautiful, but cast in a severe and forbidding mold. + +We climbed steadily, jumping from rock to rock and clinging to the +bushes. A mile up the valley we came suddenly upon a plateau, and +saw before us the remains of an ancient _Pekia_, or High Place, a +grim and grisly monument of the days of evil gods and man-eating. + +This, in the old days, was the _paepae tapu_, or Forbidden Height, +the abode of dark and terrible spirits. Upon it once stood the +temple and about it in the depths of night were enacted the rites of +mystery, when the priests and elders fed on the "long pig that speaks," +when the drums beat till dawn and wild dances maddened the blood. + +When it was built, no man can say. Centuries have looked upon these +black stones, grim as the ruins of Karnak, created by a mysterious +genius, consecrated to something now gone out of the world forever. +For ages hidden in the gloom of the forest, it was swept and +polished by hands long since dust; it was held in reverence and dread. +It was _tapu_, devoted to terrible deities, and none but the priests +or the chiefs might approach it except on nights of ghastly feasting. + +[Illustration: The old cannibal of Taipi Valley] + +[Illustration: Enacting a human sacrifice of the Marquesans] + +It stood in a grove of shadowy trees, which even at mid-afternoon +cast a gloom upon the ponderous black rocks of the platform and the +high seats where chiefs and wizards once sat devouring the corpses +of their foes. Above them writhed and twisted the distorted limbs of +a huge banian-tree, and below, among the gnarled roots, there was a +deep, dark pit. + +We paused in a clear space of green turf delicately shaded by +mango-trees walled in with ferns and grass and flowering bushes, and +gazed into the gloom. This was forbidden ground until the French came. +No road led to it then; only a narrow and dusky trail, guarded by +demons of Po and trod by humans only in the whispering darkness of +the jungle night, brought the warriors with the burdens of living +meat to the place of the gods. But the French, as if to mock the +sacred things of the conquered, made two roads converge in this very +spot, from which one wound its way over the mountains to Hanamenu +and the other followed the river to an _impasse_ in the hills. + +"My forefathers and mothers ate their fill of 'long pig' here and +danced away the night," said Hot Tears, the hunchback, as he lighted +a cigarette and sat upon the stone pulpit that once had been a +wizard's. His heavy face, crushed down upon his crooked chest, showed +not the slightest trace of fear; a pale imp danced in each of his +narrowed eyes as he looked up at me. + +"That banian-tree, my grandfather said, held the _toua_, the cord of +cocoanut fiber that held the living meat suspended above the baking +pit. There, you see, among the roots--that was the oven, above which +the prisoners hung. Here stood the great drums, and the servants of +the priests beat them, till the darkness was filled with sound and +all the valleys heard. + +"_Aue!_" The hunchback leaped to the edge of the pit. He raised his +thin arms in the air, and I seemed to see, amidst the contorted +limbs of the aged banian, fifty feet above, the quivering bodies +swaying. "The _toua_ breaks! They fall. Here on the rocks. They are +killed with blows of the _u'u_, thus! And thus the meat is cut, and +wrapped in the _meika aa_. Light the fire! Pile in the wood! It +roasts!" + +His ghoulish laughter rose in the dark stillness of the jungle, and +the hair stirred on my scalp. To my vision the high black seats were +filled with shadowy figures, the light of candlenut torches fell on +tattooed faces and gleaming eyes. When the hunchback moved from the +tree of death, feigning to carry a platter, first to the great seats +of the chiefs, then to the wide platform below, the flesh crawled on +my bones. + +"_Ai!_ They dance! _Ai! Ai! Ai!_ They danced, and they loved! All +night the drums beat. The drums! The drums! The drums!" He flung his +twisted body on the green and laughed madly, till the old banian +itself answered him. For a moment he writhed in a silence even more +ghastly than his laughter, then lay still. + +"_Au!_" he said, turning over on his back. "My grandfather believed +this Pekia to be the abode of demons." He paused. "As for me, I +believe in none of them, or in any other gods." And he blew out his +breath contemptuously. + +Le Moine surveyed the scene critically. + +"What a picture at night, with torches flickering, and the +seats filled with men in red _pareus_! _Mais, c'est terrible!_" + +He got off a hundred feet and squinted through a roll of paper. + +"I wish I could paint it," he said. "It must be a big canvas, and +all dark but the torches and a few faces. _Mon dieu!_ Magnificent!" + +Is cannibalism in the Marquesas a thing of the past? Do those grim +warriors who survive the new regime ever relapse? Who can say? It is +not probable, for the population of the valleys is so small and the +movements of the people so limited that absence is quickly detected. +Yet every once in awhile some one is missing. + +"_Haa mate_. He has leaped into the sea. He was _paopao_. Life was +too long." + +Or, if the disappearance was in crossing from one valley to another, +it is said that a rock or a fall of earth had swept the absent one +over a cliff. These are reasonable explanations, yet there persist +whispers of foul appetitites craving gratification and of old rites +revived by the _moke_, the hermits who hide in the mountains. + +Two such dissappearances had occurred during my brief stay in Atuona, +and I had made little of the whispers. But now, with the hideous +laughter of the hunchback still ringing in my ears, they slipped +darkly through my mind, and I never felt the sunshine sweeter or +tasted the mountain air with more delight than when we left that +unholy place and were out on the trail again. + +Our destination was a waterfall, with a pool in which we might bathe, +and after leaving the _Pekia_ we followed the stream, climbing +higher and higher from the sea. In the Marquesas all the rivers +begin in the high mountains, where from the precipices leap the +torrents in times of rain. As the valleys are mere ravines at their +heads, the waters collect in their depths and roll to the ocean, +rippling gently on sunny days, but after a downpour raging, rolling +huge boulders over and over and tearing away cliffs. + +These streams are the life of the people in the upper valleys. In +the old days of warfare many of these mountain dwellers never knew +the sea; they were prevented from reaching it by the beach clansmen +who claimed the fishing for their own and made it death for the hill +people to venture down to the shore. All the people of a single +valley, six or perhaps a dozen clans, united to war against other +valleys, its people risking their lives if they trespassed beyond +the hills. Yet under a wise and powerful chief a whole valley lived +in amity and knew no class or clan divisions. + +"We are going to _Vaihae_, The Waters of the Great Desire," said +Malicious Gossip. "It was a sacred place once upon a time." + +We climbed painfully, Le Moine and I suffering keenly from the sharp +edges of the stones that cut even through the thick soles of our +shoes. The others, who were barefooted, made nothing of them, +walking as easily and lithely as panthers on the jagged trail. +Soon we heard the crash of the _Vaihae_, and sliding down the +mountain-side a hundred feet we came into a depths of a gorge a yard +or two wide, a mere crack in the rocks, filled with the boom and +roar of rushing water. The rain-swollen stream, cramped in the +narrow passage, flung itself foaming high on the spray-wet cliffs, +and dashed in a mighty torrent into a deep howl riven out of the +solid granite twenty feet below. + +We put off our clothes and leaped into the pool, enjoying intensely +the coolness of the swirling water after the sweat of our climb. +Malicious Gossip and her sister would not go in at first, but when I +had climbed the face of a slippery rock twenty feet high to dive, +and remained there gazing at the melancholy grandeur of the scene, +Malicious Gossip put off her tunic and swam through the race, +bringing me my camera untouched by the water. She was a naiad of the +old mythologies as she slipped through the green current, her hair +streaming over her shoulders and her body moving effortlessly as a +fish. Once wetted, she remained in the water with us, and she told +me there was a cave behind the waterfall, hidden by the glassy sheet +of water. + +"It is called _Enamoa_ (Behold the Servant of the Priest) and it has +a terrible history," said Malicious Gossip. "Follow me and we will +enter it." + +She swam across the pool and turning lithely in the water curved out +of sight beneath the surface of the vortex. _Kekela_ followed her, +and I made several attempts, but each time was flung back, bruised +and breathless. It was not until Kekela, finding a long stick in the +cave, thrust it through the white foam, that by catching its end in +the whirling water I was able to fight through the roaring and +smashing deluge. + +The cave was obscure and damp, its only light filtering through the +moving curtain of green water. Black and crawling things squirmed at +our feet, and darkness filled the recesses of the cavern. Malicious +Gossip's body was a blur in the dimness, and her low soft voice was +like an overtone of the deep organ notes of the torrent. + +"The tale of the cave of _Enamoa_ is not a legend," she said, +"for it is more. It was a happening known to our grandfathers. There +were two warriors who coveted a woman, and she was _tapu_ to them. +She was a _taua vehine_, a priestess of the old gods. But they +coveted her, and they were friends, who shared their wives as they +divided their _popoi_." + +"_Panalua_," said Kekela. "That is 'dear friend custom.' We had it in +Hawaii. Brothers shared their wives, and sisters their husbands." + +"These two were name-brothers, and loved as though they were +brothers by blood," said Malicious Gossip. "And their hearts were +consumed with flame when they looked on this girl. It was evil of +them, for it was against the will of the gods. She was of their own +clan, and the priests had made her _tapu_ until she had reached a +certain age. Her brother was the servant of the priests, and she was +consecrated to the gods. She was guarded by most sacred custom. It +was forbidden to touch her or her food. + +"Yet these warriors, _toa_ they were, and renowned in battle, +coveted her with a desire that ate their sleep. And at last when +they had drunk the fiery _namu enata_ till their brains were filled +with flames, they lay in wait for her. + +"She came down to this pool to bathe. The pool itself was _tapu_ +save for those consecrated to the gods, yet this wretched pair crept +through the lantana there on the bank, and watched her. She stood on +the rock above the pool and put off her _pae_, her cap of gauze, her +long robe, and her _pareu_, all of finest tree-cloth, for in those +days before the whites came our people were properly clothed. All +naked then in the sunlight, she lifted her arms toward the sky and +laughed, and sat down on a rock to bathe her feet. + +"Suddenly the lustful warriors sprang upon her, and stopping her +cries with her own _pae_ they swam with her into this cave. Thought +and breath had left her; she lay as one dead, and before they had +attained their will they heard a sound of one approaching and singing +on the rocks. They had no time to kill her, as they had intended, +that she might not bring death to them. They left her and fled along +the cliffs, barely escaping before the other man came. + +"He had seen from the corner of his eye a sight of some one fleeing +from the cave. He was curious, and swam to it. It was late in the day, +for the priestess had come for the evening bath. The sun had hidden +himself behind Temetiu and the cave was dark. The man came, then, +stepping with care, and his feet found in the darkness a living body, +warm and soft and perfumed with flowers. + +"Then in the darkness, finding her very sweet, he yielded to the +demon. But when he brought her at last through the falling water to +the evening light, he cried aloud. He was the _moa_, the servant of +the high priest, and this was his sister whom he loved. + +"He screamed thrice, so that all the valley heard him, and then he +flung her into the pool to drown. The people saw him fleeing to the +heights. He never returned to them. He became a _moke_, a sorcerer, +who lived alone in the forest, dreaded by all. He was heard +shrieking in the night, and then the storms came. His eyes were seen +through the leaves on jungle trails, and he who saw died. + +"Then the people gave the cave a name, the name of _Enamoa_, Behold +the Servant of the Priest. It was much larger then than now, as +large as a grove. But one night the people heard the noise of the +falling of great rocks, and in the morning the cave was small as now. +The _moke_ was never seen again. He had brought down the walls of +the cave upon himself, because it had seen his sin." + +Malicious Gossip, having finished her tale, slipped again beneath +the green curtain of the waterfall. When I had fought through the +blinding, crashing waters and floated with aching lungs on the +surface of the pool, she was donning her tunic on the rocks above it, +and soon, with our clothes over our wet bodies, we strolled back to +Atuona, Tahiapii smoking Kekela's pipe. + +[Illustration: Interior of Island of Fatu-hiva, where the author +walked over the mountains] + +[Illustration: The plateau of Ahoa] + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A search for rubber-trees on the plateau of Ahoa; a fight with the +wild white dogs; story of an ancient migration, told by the wild +cattle hunters in the Cave of the Spine of the Chinaman. + + +I went one day with Le Brunnec, the French trader, in search of +rubber trees on the plateau of Ahao, above Hanamenu, on the other +side of Hiva-oa Island. + +Mounted on small, but sturdy, mountain ponies, we followed the trail +across the river and up the steep mountain-side clad with +impenetrable jungle, climbing ever higher and higher above deep +gorges and dizzying precipices, until at noon we crossed the +loftiest range and dipped downward to the wide plateau. + +A thousand feet above the valley, level as a prairie, and +indescribably wild and deserted, the plain stretched before us. At +some distance to our right a long and narrow mound rose five hundred +feet from the plateau, a hill that did not mar the vast level expanse, +but seemed instead a great earthwork piled upon it by man. Its green +terrace was a wild garden of flowers and fruit growing in luxuriant +confusion, watered by a stream that leaped sparkling among tall ferns. + +There was no breadfruit, for it will live only where man is there to +tend it, and in all the extent of the tableland there was no human +being or sign of habitation. Wild cattle and boars moved in droves +among the scattered trees, or stood in the shallow stream watching us +with curiosity as we passed. Thousands of guinea-pigs scampered +before our horses' feet, and the free descendants of house-trained +cats from the cities of Europe and America perched upon lofty +branches to gaze down at our cavalcade. + +I have seen the Garden of Allah, and the Garden of Eden,--if I can +believe the Arab sheik whose camel I bought for the journey,--I have +been in Nikko at its best, and known Johore and Kandy _en fete_, but +for the hours in which I looked upon it this plateau of Ahao was the +most exquisite spot upon the earth. The wilderness of its tropic +beauty, the green of its leafage, the rich profusion and splendor of +its flowers, the pale colors that shimmered along its far horizon, +and the desolate grandeur of Temetiu's distant summit wrapped in +thunderous clouds, gave it an aspect primitive, mysterious, and +sublime. + +Upon the trees hundreds of orchids hung like jewels, and vines were +swung in garlands. Flowers of every hue spread a brilliant carpet +beneath the horses' hoofs; the hart's-tongue, the _manamana-o-hina_, +the _papa-mako_ and the parasol-plant, with mosses of every +description and myriads of ferns, covered the sward. Some were the +giant tree-ferns, tall as trees, others uncurled snaky stems from +masses of rusty-colored matting, and everywhere was spread the +delicate lace of the _uu-fenua_, a maiden-hair beside which the +florist's offering is clumsy and insignificant. + +We made our own way through the tall grass and tangles of flowering +shrubs, for there were no trails save those made by the great herds +of wild cattle that wandered across the plain. Three thousand head +at least I saw grazing on the luxuriant herbage, or pausing with +lifted heads before they fled at our approach. + +"They are descendants of a few left by shipmasters decades ago," +said Le Brunnec. "Twenty years ago they roamed in immense herds all +over the islands. I have chased them out of the trail to Hanamenu +with a stick. Like the goats left by the American captain, Porter, +on Nuka-hiva, they thrived and multiplied, but like the goats they +are being massacred. + +"Both cattle and goats were past reckoning when, with peace fully +established and the population dwindling, the French permitted the +Marquesans to buy guns. The natives hunt in gangs. Fifteen or twenty +men, each with rifle or shot-gun, go on horseback to the grazing +grounds. The beasts at the sound of the explosions rush to the +highest point of the hills. Knowing their habits, the natives post +themselves along the ridges and kill all they can. They eat or take +away three or four, but they kill thirty or forty. They die in the +brush, and their bones strew the ground." + +I told him of the buffalo, antelope, and deer that formerly filled +our woods and covered our prairies; of Alexander Wilson, who in +Kentucky in 1811 estimated one flight of wild carrier pigeons as two +thousand millions, and of there being not one of those birds now left +in the world so far as is known. + +Le Brunnec sighed, for he was a true sportsman, and would not kill +even a pig if he could not consume most of its carcass. Often he +half-lifted the shot-gun that lay across the pommel, but let it drop +again, saying, "We will have a wild bird for supper." + +We pitched our tent as the moon hung her lantern over the brow of +the hill. Never was tent raised in a spot lonelier or lovelier. We +chose for our camp the shelter of a _moto_ tree, one of the most +lordly of all the growths of these islands. Not ten of them were +left in all the Marquesas, said Le Brunnec as I admired its towering +column and magnificent spread of foliage. "The whites who used the +axe in these isles would have made firewood of the ark of the +covenant." + +We made a fire before our tent and cooked a wild chicken he had shot, +which, with pilot-biscuit and Bordeaux wine, made an excellent dinner. +Darkness closed around us while we ate, the wide plateau stretched +about us, mysterious in the light of the moon, and the night was +cool and pleasant. We lay in lazy comfort, enjoying the fresh light +air of that altitude and smoking "John's" mixture from Los Angeles, +till sleepiness spilled the tobacco. Our numbed senses scarcely let +us drag our mats into the tent before unconsciousness claimed us. + +I was wakened by the blood-chilling howls of a wolf-pack in full cry, +and a shout from Le Brunnec, "The dogs!" + +He stood by the open flap of the tent, a black silhouette of man and +gun. When I had clutched my own rifle and reached his side I saw in +the moonlight a score of huge white beasts, some tangled in a +snarling heap over the remains of our supper, others crouching on +their haunches in a ring, facing us. One of them sprang as Le +Brunnec fired, and its hot breath fanned my face before my own +finger pressed the trigger. + +The two wounded brutes struggled on the ground until a second shot +finished them, and the rest made off to a little distance, where Le +Brunnec kept them with an occasional shot while I brought up the +terrified ponies, snorting and plunging. More wood thrown on the +coals spread a circle of firelight about us, and Le Brunnec and I +took turns in standing guard until morning, while the white dogs sat +like sheeted ghosts around us and made the night hideous with howls. +One or the other of us must have dozed, for during the night the +beasts dragged away the two dead and picked their bones. + +These, Le Brunnec said, were the sons and daughters of dogs once +friendly to humanity, and like the wild cats we had seen, they bore +mute testimony to the numbers of people who once lived on this +plateau. + +When dawn came the mountain rats were scurrying about the meadows, +but the dogs had gone afar, leaving only the two heaps of bones and +the wreckage of all outside the tent to tell of their foray. The sun +flooded the mesa, disclosing myriad fern-fronds and mosses and +colored petals waving in the light breeze as Le Brunnec and I went +down to the stream to bathe. + +Alas! I lolled there on the bank, thinking to gaze my fill at all +this loveliness, and sat upon the _puke_, a feathery plant exquisite +to the eye, but a veritable bunch of gadflies for pricking meanness. +It is a sensitive shrub, retreating at man's approach, its petioles +folding from sight, but with all its modesty it left me a stinging +reminder that I had failed to respect its privacy. + +At noon we came to the hill that rises from the plateau, and found +at its base a cistern, the sole token we had seen of the domain of +man, except the dogs and cats that had returned to the primitive. It +was a basin cut in the solid rock, and doubtless had been the water +supply of the tribes that dwelt here hemmed in by enemies. There was +about it the vague semblance of an altar, and in the brush near it +we saw the black remains of a mighty _paepae_ like that giant Marai +of Papara in Tahiti, which itself seemed kin to the great pyramid +temple of Borobodo in Java. Melancholy memorials these of man, who +is so like the gods, but who passes like a leaf in the wind. + +Lolling in the stream that overflowed the edge of the ancient cistern, +we discussed our plans. Le Brunnec was convinced that the _eva_, +which we had found in considerable numbers, was a rubber-tree. He +said that rubber was obtained from many trees, vines, roots, and +plants, and that the sap of the _eva_, when dried and treated, had +all the necessary bouncing qualities. We were to estimate the number +of _eva_ trees on the plateau and size up the value of the land for +a plantation. Thus we might turn into gold that poison tree whose +reddish-purple, alluring fruit has given so many Marquesans escape +from life's bitterness, whose juice wounded or mutilated warriors +drank to avoid pain or contempt. + +Idling thus in the limpid water, we heard a voice and started up +surprised. A group of natives looked down upon us from the hill above, +and their leader was asking who were the strange _haoe_ who had come +to their valley. + +Le Brunnec shouted his name--Proneka, in the native tongue--and +after council they shouted down an invitation to breakfast. We had +no guns, or, indeed, any other clothing than a towel, our horses +being tethered at some distance, but we climbed the hill. Half way up +the steep ascent we were confronted by a wild sow with eight piglets. +Le Brunnec said that one of them would be appreciated by our hosts, +but the mother, surmising his intention, put her litter behind her +and stood at bay. To attempt the rape of the pork, naked, afoot, and +unarmed, would have meant grievous wounds from those gnashing tusks, +so we abandoned the gift and approached our hosts empty-handed. + +We found them waiting for us in the Grotto of the Spine of the +Chinaman, a shallow cave in the side of the hill. There were seven +of them, naked as ourselves, thick-lipped, their eyes ringed with +the blue _ama_-ink and their bodies scrolled with it. They had +killed a bull the day before and had cooked the meat in bamboo tubes, +steaming it in the earth until it was tender and tasty. We gorged +upon it, and then rested in the cool cave while we smoked. They were +curious to know why we were there, and asked if we were after beef. +I disclaimed this intention, and said that I was wondering if Ahao +had not held many people once. + +"Ai! _E mea tiatohu hoi!_ Do you not know of the Piina of Fiti-nui? +Of the people that once were here? _Aoe?_ Then I will tell you." + +While the pipe went from mouth to mouth, Kitu, the leader of the +hunters, related the following: + +"The Piina of Fiti-nui had always lived here on the plateau of Ahao. +The wise men chronicled a hundred and twenty generations since the +clan began. That would be before Iholomoni built the temple in Iudea, +that the priests of the new white gods tell us of. The High Place of +the Piina of Fiti-nui was old before Iholomoni was born. + +"But, old as was the clan, there came a time when it grew small in +number. For longer than old remembered they had been at war with the +Piina of Hana-uaua, who lived in the next valley below this plateau. +These two peoples were kinsman, but the hate between them was bitter. +The enemy gave the Piina of Fiti-nui no rest. Their _popoi_ pits +were opened and emptied, their women were stolen, and their men +seized and eaten. Month after month and year after year the clan +lost its strength. + +"They had almost ceased to tattoo their bodies, for they asked what +it served them when they were so soon to bake in the ovens of the +Hana-uaua people. They could not defeat the Hana-uaua, for they were +small in number and the Hana-uaua were great. The best fighters were +dead. The gods only could save the last of the tribe from the +_veinahae_, the vampire who seizes the dead. + +"The _taua_ went into the High Place and besought the gods, but they +were deaf. They made no answer. Then in despair the chief, Atituahuei, +set a time when, if the gods gave no counsel, he would lead every +man of the tribe against the foe, and die while the war-clubs sang. + +"Atituahuei went with the _taua_ to the giant rock, Meae-Topaiho, +the sacred stone shaped like a spear that stood between the lands of +the warring peoples, and there he said this vow to the gods. And the +people waited. + +"They waited for the space of the waxing and waning of the moon, and +the gods said nothing. Then the warriors made ready their _u'u_ of +polished ironwood, and filled their baskets with stones, and made +ready the spears. On the darkest night of the moon the Piina of +Fiti-nui was to go forth to fight and be killed by the Hana-uaua. + +"But before the moon had gone, the _taua_ came down from the High +Place, and said that the gods had spoken. They commanded the people +to depart from Ahao, and to sail beyond the Isle of Barking Dogs +until they came to a new land. The gods would protect them from the +waves. The gods had shown the _taua_ a hidden valley, which ran to +the beach, in which to build the canoes. + +"For many months the Piina of Fiti-nui labored in secret in the +hidden valley. They built five canoes, giant, double canoes, with +high platforms and houses on them, the kind that are built no more. +In these canoes they placed the women and children and the aged, and +when all was ready, the men raided the village of the Piina of +Hana-uaua, and in the darkness brought all their food to the canoes. + +"At daybreak the Fiti-nui embarked in four of the canoes, but one +they must leave behind for the daughter of the chief, who expected +to be delivered of a child at any hour, and for the women of her +family, who would not leave her. The hidden valley was filled with +the sound of lamentation at the parting, but the gods had spoken, +and they must go. + +"When the four canoes were in the sea beyond the village of Hana-uaua, +all their people beat their war-drums and blew the trumpets of shell. +The people of Hana-uaua heard the noise, and said that strangers had +come, but whether for a fight or a feast they did not know. They +rushed to the shore, and there they saw on the sea the people of the +Fiti-nui, who called to them and said that they were going far away. + +"Then the Hana-uaua tribe wept. For they remembered that they were +brothers, and though they had fought long, the warriors of Fiti-nui +had been good fighters and brave. Also many Fiti-nui women had been +taken by the men of Hana-uaua, and captured youths had been adopted, +and the tribes were kin by many ties. + +"The two tribes talked together across the waves, and the tribe of +Hana-uaua begged their brothers not to go. They said that they would +fight no more, that the prisoners who had not been eaten should be +returned to their own valley, that the two clans would live forever +in friendship. + +"Then the people of Fiti-nui wept again, but they said that the gods +had ordered them to sail away, and they must go. + +"'But,' said the chief of the Fiti-nui, 'you will know that we have +reached a new land safely when the Meae-Topaiho falls, when the +great spear is broken by the gods, you will know that your brothers +are in a new home.' + +"Then they departed, the four canoes, but the daughter of the chief +did not go, for her child was long in being born. She lived with the +people of Hana-uaua in peace and comfort. And when the season of the +breadfruit had come and gone, one night when the rain and the wind +made the earth tremble and slip, the people of Hana-uaua heard a +roaring and a crashing. + +"'The gods are angry,' they said. But the daughter of the chief said, +'My people have found their home.' And in the morning they found +that the Meae-Topaiho had fallen, the blade of the spear was broken, +and the prophecy fulfilled. + +"That was four generations ago, and ever since that time the people +of Hana-uaua have looked for some sign from their brothers who went +away. Their names were kept in the memories of the tribe. Ten years +ago many men were brought here to work on the plantations, from +Puka-Puka and Na-Puka in the Paumotas, and they talked with the +people. + +"_Aue!_ They were the children's children of the Piina of Fiti-nui. +In those low islands to which their fathers and mothers went, they +kept the words and the names of old. They had kept the memory of the +journey. And one old man was brought by his son, and he remembered +all that his father had told him, and his father was the son of the +chief, Atituahuei. + +"These people did not look like our men. The many years had made +them different. But they knew of the spear rock, and of the prophecy, +and they were in truth the lost brothers of the Hana-uaua people. + +"But the Hana-uaua people, too, were dying now. None was left of the +blood of the chief's daughter. No man was left alive on the plateau +of Ahao. + +"Their _popoi_ pits are the wallows of the wild boar; on their +_paepaes_ sit the wild white dogs. The horned cattle wander where +they walked. _Hee i te fenua ke!_ They are gone, and the stranger +shall have their graves." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A feast to the men of Motopu; the making of _kava_, and its drinking; +the story of the Girl Who Lost Her Strength. + + +The Vagabond, Kivi, who lived near the High Place, came down to my +_paepae_ one evening to bid me come to a feast given in Atuona +Valley to the men of Motopu, who had been marvelously favored by the +god of the sea. + +Months of storms, said Kivi, had felled many a stately palm of +Taka-Uka and washed thousands of ripe cocoanuts into the bay, whence +the current that runs swift across the channel had swept the +fruitage of the winds straight to the inlet of Motopu, on the island +of Tahuata. The men of that village, with little effort to themselves, +had reaped richly. + +Now they were come, bringing back the copra dried and sacked. Seven +hundred francs they had received for a ton of it from Kriech, the +German merchant of Taka-Uka, from whose own groves it had been +stolen by the storms. + +On the morrow, their canoes laden with his goods, they would sail +homeward. One day they had tarried to raft redwood planks of +California from the schooner in the bay to the site of Kivi's new +house. So that night in gratitude he would make merry for them. There +would be much to eat, and there would be _kava_ in plenty. He prayed +that I would join them in this feast, which would bring back the +good days of the _kava_-drinking, which were now almost forgotten. + +[Illustration: Kivi, the _kava_ drinker with the _hetairae_ of +the valley] + +[Illustration: A pool in the jungle] + +I rose gladly from the palm-shaded mat on which I had lain vainly +hoping for a breath of coolness in the close heat of the day, and +girded the red _pareu_ more neatly about my loins. Often I had heard +of the _kava_-drinking days before the missionaries had insisted on +outlawing that drink beloved of the natives. The traders had added +their power to the virtuous protests of the priests, for _kava_ cost +the islanders nothing, while rum, absinthe, and opium could be sold +them for profit. So _kava_-drinking had been suppressed, and after +decades of knowing more powerful stimulants and narcotics, the +natives had lost their taste for the gentler beverage of their +forefathers. + +The French law prohibited selling, exchanging, or giving to any +Marquesan any alcoholic beverage. But the law was a dead letter, for +only with rum and wine could work be urged upon the Marquesans, and +I failed to reprove them even in my mind for their love of drink. +One who has not seen a dying race cannot conceive of the prostration +of spirit in which these people are perishing. That they are +courteous and hospitable--and that to the white who has ruined +them--shows faintly their former joy in life and their abounding +generosity. Now that no hope is left them and their only future is +death, one cannot blame them for seizing a few moment's forgetfulness. + +Some years earlier, in the first bitterness of hopeless subjugation, +whole populations were given over to drunkenness. In many valleys +the chiefs lead in the making of the illicit _namu enata_, or +cocoanut-brandy. In the Philippines, where millions of gallons of +cocoanut-brandy are made, it is called _tuba_, but usually its name +is arrack throughout tropical Asia. Fresh from the flower spathes of +the cocoanut-tree, _namu_ tastes like a very light, creamy beer or +mead. It is delicious and refreshing, and only slightly intoxicating. +Allowed to ferment and become sour, it is all gall. Its drinking +then is divided into two episodes--swallowing and intoxication. +There is no interval. "Forty-rod" whiskey is mild compared to it. + +I had seen the preparation of _namu_, which is very simple. The +native mounts the tree and makes incisions in the flowers, of which +each palm bears from three to six. He attaches a calabash under them +and lets the juice drip all day and night. The process is slow, as +the juice falls drop by drop. This operation may be repeated +indefinitely with no injury to the tree. In countries where the +liquor is gathered to sell in large quantities, the natives tie +bamboo poles from tree to tree, so that an agile man will run +through the forest tending the calabashes, emptying them into larger +receptacles, and lowering these to the ground, all without descending +from his lofty height. + +The _namu_ when stale causes the Marquesans to revert to wickedest +savagery, and has incited many murders. Under the eye of the +gendarme its making ceases, but a hundred valleys have no white +policemen, and the half score of people remaining amid their +hundreds of ruined _paepaes_ give themselves over to intoxication. I +have seen a valley immersed in it, men and women madly dancing the +ancient nude dances in indescribable orgies of abandonment and +bestiality. + +_Namu enata_ means literally "man booze." The Persian-Arabic word, +_nam_, or _narm-keffi_, means "the liquid from the palm flower." +From this one might think that Asia had taught the Marquesans the +art of making _namu_ during their prehistoric pilgrimage to the +islands, but the discoverers and early white residents in Polynesia +saw no drunkenness save that of the _kava_-drinking. It was the +European, or the Asiatic brought by the white, who introduced +comparatively recently the more vicious cocoanut-brandy, as well as +rum and opium, and it is these drinks that have been a potent factor +in killing the natives. + +It has ever been thus with men of other races subjugated by the +whites. Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography tells that when he +was a commissioner to the Indians at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he and +his fellow-commissioners agreed that they would allow the Indians no +rum until the treaty they earnestly sought was concluded, and that +then they should have plenty. + +He pictures an all-night debauch of the red men after they had +signed the treaty, and concludes: "And, indeed, if it be the design +of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to make room for +cultivators of the earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be +the appointed means. It has annihilated all the tribes who formerly +inhabited the sea-coast." + +It was not for me to speculate upon the designs of Providence with +respect to the Marquesans. _Kava_ had been the drink ordained by the +old gods before the white men came. Its making was now almost a lost +art; I knew no white man who had ever drunk from the _kava_-bowl. So +it was with some eagerness that I followed Kivi down the trail. + +Broken Plate, a sturdy savage in English cloth cap and whale's-teeth +earrings, stood waiting for us in the road below the House of +the Golden Bed, and together the three of us went in search of +the _kava_ bush. While we followed the narrow trail up the +mountain-side, peering through masses of tangled vines and shrubs +for the large, heart-shaped leaves and jointed stalks we sought, +Kivi spoke with passion of the degenerate days in which he lived. + +Let others secretly make incisions in the flower of the cocoanut and +hang calabashes to catch the juice, said he. Or let them crook the +hinges of the knee that rum might follow fawning on the whites. Not +he! The drink of his fathers, the drink of his youth, was good +enough for him! Agilely he caught aside a leafy branch overhanging +the trail, and in the flecks of sunshine and shade his naked, strong +brown limbs were like the smooth stems of an aged manzanita tree. + +He had not the scaly skin or the bloodshot eyes of the _kava_ +debauchee, whose excesses paint upon their victim their own vivid +signs. I remembered a figure caught by the rays of my flashlight one +might on a dark trail--a withered creature whose whole face and body +had turned a dull green, and at the memory of that grisly phantom I +shuddered. But Broken Plate, on the trail ahead, called back to us +that he had found a goodly bush, and without more words we clambered +to it. + +The _kava_, a variety of the pepper-plant, grows to more than six +feet in height, and the specimen we had found thrust above our heads +its many jointed branches rustling with large, flat leaves. The +decoction, Kivi explained, comes from the root, and we set to work to +dig it. + +It was huge, like a gigantic yam, and after we had torn it from the +stubborn soil it taxed the strength and agility of two of us to +carry it to the _paepae_ of Broken Plate, where the feast was to be. +A dozen older women, skilled in grating the breadfruit for _popoi_ +making, awaited us there, squatting in a ring on the low platform. +The root, well washed in the river, was laid on the stones, and the +women attacked it with cowry-shells, scraping it into particles like +slaw. It was of the hardness of ginger, and filled a large _tanoa_, +or wooden trough of ironwood. + +The scraping had hardly well begun, while Broken Plate and I rested +from our labors, smoking pandanus-leaf cigarettes in the shade, when +up the road came half a dozen of the most beautiful young girls of +the village, clothed in all their finery. + +Teata, with all the arrogance of the acclaimed beauty, walked first, +wearing a tight-fitting gown with insertions of fishnet, evidently +copied from some stray fashion-book. She wore it as her only garment, +and through the wide meshes of the novel lace appeared her skin, of +the tint of the fresh-cooked breadfruit. She passed us with a +coquettish toss of her shapely head and took her place among her +envious companions. + +They sat on mats around the iron-wood trough and chewed the grated +root, which, after thorough mastication, they spat out into +banana-leaf cups. This chewing of the Aram-root is the very being of +_kava_ as a beverage, for it is a ferment in the saliva that +separates alkaloid and sugar and liberates the narcotic principle. +Only the healthiest and loveliest of the girls are chosen to munch +the root, that delectable and honored privilege being refused to +those whose teeth are not perfect and upon whose cheeks the roses do +not bloom. + +Nevertheless, as I smoked at ease in my _pareu_ upon the _paepae_ of +my simple hosts I felt some misgivings rise in me. Yet why cavil at +the vehicle by which one arrives at Nirvana? Had I not tasted the +_chicha_ beer of the Andes, and found it good? And vague analogies +and surmises floated before me in the curls of smoke that rose in +the clear evening light. + +What hidden clue to the remotest beginnings of the human race lies +in the fact that two peoples, so far apart as the Marquesans and the +South American Indians, use the same method of making their native +beverage? In the Andes corn takes the place of the _kava_ root, and +young girls, descendants of the ancient Incas, chew the grains, +sitting in a circle and with a certain ceremoniousness, as among +these Marquesans. The Marquesas Islands are on the same parallel of +latitude as Peru. Were these two peoples once one race, living on +that long-sunken continent in which Darwin believed? + +Dusk fell slowly while I pondered on the mysteries in which our life +is rooted, and on the unknown beginnings and forgotten significances +of all human customs. The iron-wood trough was filled with the +masticated root, and in groups and in couples the girls slipped away +to bathe in the river. There they were met by arriving guests, and +the sound of laughter and splashing came up to us as darkness closed +upon the _paepae_ and the torches were lit. + +Lights were coming out like stars up the dark valley as each +household made its vesper fire to roast breadfruit or broil fish, +and lanterns were hung upon the bamboo palisades that marked the +limits of property or confined favorite pigs. A cool breeze rose and +rustled the fronds of cocoanut and bamboo, bringing from forest +depths a clean, earthy odor. + +The last bather came from the brook, refreshed by the cooling waters +and adorned with flowers. All were in a merry mood for food and fun. +Half a dozen flaring torches illuminated their happy, tattooed faces +and dusky bodies, and caught color from the vivid blossoms in their +hair. The ring of light made blacker the rustling cocoanut grove, +the lofty trees of which closed in upon us on every side. + +Under the gaze of many sparkling eyes Kivi pierced green cocoanuts +brought him fresh from the climbing, and poured the cool wine of +them over the masticated _kava_. He mixed it thoroughly and then +with his hands formed balls of the oozy mass, from which he squeezed +the juice into another _tanoa_ glazed a deep, rich blue by its +frequent saturation in _kava_. When this trough was quite full of a +muddy liquid, he deftly clarified it by sweeping through it a net of +cocoanut fiber. All the while he chanted in a deep resonant voice +the ancient song of the ceremony. + +"_U haanoho ia te kai, a tapapa ia te kai!_" he called with +solemnity when the last rite was performed. "Come to supper; all is +ready." + +"_Menike_," he said to me, "You know that to drink _kava_ you must +be of empty stomach. After eating, _kava_ will make you sick. If you +do not eat as soon as you have drunk it, you will not enjoy it. Take +it now, and then eat, quickly." + +He dipped a shell in the trough, tossed a few drops over his +shoulder to propitiate the god of the _kava_-drinking, and placed +the shell in my hands. + +Ugh! The liquor tasted like earth and water, sweetish for a moment +and then acrid and pungent. It was hard to get down, but all the men +took theirs at a gulp, and when Kivi gave me another shellful, I +followed their pattern. + +"_Kai! Kai._ Eat! Eat!" Kivi shouted then. The women hurried forward +with the food, and we fell to with a will. Pig and _popoi_, shark +sweetbreads, roasted breadfruit and sweet potatoes, fruits and +cocoanut-milk leaped from the broad leaf platters to wide-open mouths. +Hardly a word was spoken. The business of eating proceeded rapidly, +in silence, save for the night-rustling of the palms and the soft +sound of the women's hastening bare feet. + +Only, as he saw any slackening, Kivi repeated vigorously, "_Kai! Kai!_" + +I sat with my back against the wall of the house of Broken Plate, as +I ate quickly at the mandate of my host, and soon I felt the need of +this support. The feast finished, the guests reclined upon the mats. +Women and children were devouring the remnants left upon the leaf +platters. The torches had been extinguished, all but one. Its +flickering gleam fell upon the aged face of Kivi, and the whites of +his eyes caught and reflected the light. The tattooing that framed +them appeared like black holes from which the sparks glinted +uncannily, and the _kava_ mounting to his brain or to mine gave those +sparks a ghastliness that fascinated me in my keen, somnolent state. + +From the shadows where the women crouched the face of Teata rose +like an eerie flower. She had adorned the two long black plaits of +her hair with the brilliant phosphorescence of Ear of the Ghost Woman, +the strange fungus found on old trees, a favored evening adornment +of the island belles. The handsome flowers glowed about her bodiless +head like giant butterflies, congruous jewels for such a temptress +of such a frolic. The mysterious light added a gleam to her velvet +cheek and neck that made her seem like the ghost-woman of old legend, +created to lead the unwary to intoxicated death. + +The palaver came to me out of the darkness, like voices from a +phonograph-horn, thin and far away. One told the tale of Tahiapepae, +the Girl Who Lost Her Strength. + +Famine had come upon Atuona Valley. Children died of hunger on the +_paepaes_, and the breasts of mothers shrunk so that they gave +forth no milk. Therefore the warriors set forth in the great canoes +for Motopu. Meat was the cry, and there was no other meat than +_puaa oa_, the "long pig." + +Then in the darkness the hungry fighting men of Atuona silently +beached their canoes and crept upon the sleeping village of Motopu. +Seven were killed before they could fly to the hills, and one was +captured alive, a slender, beautiful girl of ten years, whom they +tied hands and feet and threw into the canoe with the slain ones. + +Back they came from their triumph, and landed on the shore here, +within spear's-throw from the _paepae_ of Broken Plate. Their people +met them with drum-beating and with chanting, bringing rose-wood +poles for carrying the meat. The living girl was slung over the +shoulder of the leader, still bound and weeping, and in single file +heroes and their people marched up the trail past the Catholic +mission. Tohoaa, Great Sea Slug, chief of Atuona and grandfather of +Flag, the gendarme, was foremost, and over his massive shoulder hung +the Girl Who Had Lost Her Strength. + +Then from the mission came Pere Orens, crucifix in hand. Tall he +stood in his garment of black, facing the Great Sea Slug, and +lifting on high his hand with the crucifix in it. Pere Orens had +been made _tapu_ by Great Sea Slug, to whom he had explained the +wonders of the world, and given many presents. To touch him was death, +for Great Sea Slug had given him a feast and put upon him the white +_tapa_, emblem of sacredness. + +Powerful was the god of Pere Orens, and could work magic. In his +pocket he carried always a small god, that day and night said +"_Mika! Mika!_" and moved tiny arms around and around a plate of +white metal. This man stood now before the Great Sea Slug, and the +chief paused, while his hungry people came closer that they might +hear what befell. + +"Where are you going?" said Pere Orens. + +"To Pekia, the High Place, to cook and eat," said Great Sea Slug. +Then for a space Pere Orens remained silent, holding high the +crucifix, and the chief heard from his pocket the voice of the small +god speaking. + +"Give to me that small piece of living meat," said Pere Orens then. + +"_Me mamai oe_. If it is your pleasure, take it," said Great Sea Slug. +"It is a trifle. We have enough, and there is more in Motopu." + +With these words he placed his burden upon the shoulder of the priest, +and heading his band again led them past the mission, over the river +and to the High Place, where all night long the drums beat at the +feasting. + +But The Girl Who Lost Her Strength remained in the house of Pere +Orens, who cut her bonds, fed her, and nursed her to strength again. +Baptized and instructed in the religion of her savior, she was +secretly returned to her surviving relatives. There she lived to a +good age, and died four years ago, grateful always to the God that +had preserved her from the oven. + +He who spoke was her son, and here at the _kava_ bowl together were +the men of Motopu and the men of Atuona, enemies no longer. + +The voice of the Motopu man died away. A ringing came in my ears as +when one puts a seashell to them and hears the drowsy murmur of the +tides. My cigarette fell from my fingers. A sirocco blew upon me, hot, +stifling. Kivi laughed, and dimly I heard his inquiry: + +"_Veavea?_ Is it hot?" + +"_E, mahanahana_. I am very warm," I struggled to reply. + +My voice sounded as that of another. I leaned harder against the +wall and closed my eyes. + +"He goes fast," said Broken Plate, gladly. + +A peace passing the understanding of the _kava_-ignorant was upon me. +Life was a slumbrous calm; not dull inertia, but a separated activity, +as if the spirit roamed in a garden of beauty, and the body, all +suffering, all feeling past, resigned itself to quietude. + +I heard faintly the chants of the men as they began improvising the +after-feasting entertainment. I was perfectly aware of being lifted +by several women to within the house, and of being laid upon mats +that were as soft to my body as the waters of a quiet sea. It was as +if angels bore me on a cloud. All toil, all effort was over; I +should never return to care and duty. Dimly I saw a peri waving a fan, +making a breeze scented with ineffable fragrance. + +I was then a giant, prone in an endless ease, who stretched from the +waterfall at the topmost point of the valley to the shore of the sea, +and about me ran in many futile excitements the natives of Atuona, +small creatures whose concerns were naught to me. + +That vision melted after eons, and I was in the Oti dance in the +Paumotas, where those old women who pose and move by the music of +the drums, in the light of the burning cocoanut husks, leap into the +air and remain so long that the white man thinks he sees the law of +gravitation overcome, remaining fixed in space three or four feet +from the ground while one's heart beats madly and one's brain throbs +in bewilderment. I was among these aged women; I surpassed them all, +and floated at will upon the ether in an eternal witches' dance of +more than human delight. + +The orchestra of nature began a symphony of celestial sounds. The +rustling of the palm-leaves, the purling of the brook, and the song +of the _komoko_, nightingale of the Marquesas, mingled in music +sweeter to my _kava_-ravished ears than ever the harp of Apollo upon +Mount Olympus. The chants of the natives were a choir of voices +melodious beyond human imaginings. Life was good to its innermost +core; there was no struggle, no pain, only an eternal harmony of joy. + + * * * * * + +I slept eight hours, and when I awoke I saw, in the bright oblong of +sunlight outside the open door, Kivi squeezing some of the root of +evil for a hair of the hound that had bitten him. + +[Illustration: The Pekia, or Place of Sacrifice, at Atuona] + +[Illustration: Marquesan cannibals, wearing dress of human hair] + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A journey to Taaoa; Kahuiti, the cannibal chief, and his story of an +old war caused by an unfaithful woman. + + +It was a chance remark from Mouth of God that led me to take a +journey over the hills to the valley of Taaoa, south of Atuona. +Malicious Gossip and her husband, squatting one evening on my mats in +the light of the stars, spoke of the Marquesan custom in naming +children. + +"When a babe is born," said Mouth of God, "all the intimates of his +parents, their relatives and friends, bestow a name upon the infant. +All these names refer to experiences of the child's ancestors, or of +the namers, or of their ancestors. My wife's names--a few of +them--are Tavahi Teikimoetetua Tehaupiimouna. These words are +separate, having no relation one to another, and they mean Malicious +Gossip, She Sleeps with God, The Golden Dews of the Mountain. + +"My first three names are Vahatetua Heeafia Timeteo. Vahatetua is +Mouth of God; Heeafia, One Who Looks About, and Timeteo is Marquesan +for Timothee, the Bible writer. + +"My uncle, the Catechist, is Tioakoekoe, Man Whose Entrails Were +Roasted on a Stick, and his brother is called Pootuhatuha, meaning +Sliced and Distributed. That is because their father, Tufetu, was +killed at the Stinking Springs in Taaoa, and was cooked and sent all +over that valley. You should see that man who killed him, Kahuiti! +He is a great man, and strong still, though old. He likes the 'long +pig' still, also. It is not long since he dug up the corpse of one +buried, and ate it in the forest." + +When I said that I should indeed like to see that man, Mouth of God +said that he would send a word of introduction that should insure +for me the friendliness of the chief who had devoured his grandfather. +Mouth of God bore the diner no ill-will. The eating was a thing +accomplished in the past; the teachings of that stern Calvinist, his +mother, forbade that he should eat Kahuiti in retaliation, therefore +their relations were amicable. + +The following morning, attended by the faithful Exploding Eggs, I +set out toward Taaoa Valley. The way was all up and down, five miles, +wading through marshy places and streams, parting the jungle, caught +by the thorns and dripping with sweat. Miles of it was through +cocoanut forests owned by the mission. + +The road followed the sea and climbed over a lofty little cape, +Otupoto, from which the coast of Hiva-oa, as it curves eastward, was +unrolled, the valleys mysterious caverns in the torn, convulsed +panorama, gloomy gullies suggestive of the old bloody days. Above +them the mountains caught the light and shone green or black under +the cloudless blue sky. Seven valleys we counted, the distant ones +mere faint shadows in the expanse of varied green, divided by the +rocky headlands. To the right, as we faced the sea, was the point of +Teaehoa jutting out into the great blue plain of the ocean, and +landward we looked down on the Valley of Taaoa. + +This was the middle place, the scene of Tufetu's violent end. A +great splotch of red gleamed as a blot of blood on the green floor +of the hollow. + +"_Vai piau!_" said Exploding Eggs. He made a sign of lifting water +in his hands, of tasting and spitting it out. The Stinking Springs +where Tufetu was slain! + +They were in a fantastic gorge, through which ran a road blasted +from solid rock, stained brown and blue by the minerals in the water +that bubbled there and had carved the stone in eccentric patterns. +Bicarbonate of soda and sulphur thickened the heavy air and encrusted +the edges of the spring with yellow scum. A fitting scene for a +deadly battle, amid smells of sulphur and brimstone! But it was no +place in which to linger on a tropic day. + +Taaoa Valley was narrow and deep, buried in perpetual gloom by the +shadows of the mountains. Perhaps thirty houses lined the banks of a +swift and rocky torrent. As we approached them we were met by a +sturdy Taaoan, bare save for the _pareu_ and handsomely tattooed. +His name, he said, was Strong in Battle, and I, a stranger, must see +first of all a tree of wonder that lay in the forest nearby. + +Through brush and swamp we searched for it, past scores of ruined +_paepaes_, homes of the long-dead thousands. We found it at length, +a mighty tree felled to the earth and lying half-buried in vine and +shrub. + +"This tree is older than our people," said Strong in Battle, +mournfully regarding its prostrate length. "No man ever remembered +its beginning. It was like a house upon a hill, so high and big. Our +forefathers worshipped their gods under it. The white men cut it to +make planks. That was fifty years ago, but the wood never dies. +There is no wood like it in the Marquesas. The wise men say that it +will endure till the last of our race is gone." + +I felt the end of the great trunk, where the marks of the axe and +saw still showed, and struck it with my fist. The wood did indeed +seem hard as iron, though it seemed not to be petrified. So far as I +could ascertain from the fallen trunk, it was of a species I had +never seen. + +"Twenty years ago I brought a man of Peretane (England) here to see +this tree, and he cut off a piece to take away. No white man has +looked on it since that time," said Strong in Battle. He brought an +axe from a man who was dubbing out a canoe from a breadfruit log, +and hacked away a chip for me. + +We returned to the village and entered an enclosure in which a group +of women were squatting around a _popoi_ bowl. + +"What does the _Menike_ seek?" they asked. + +"He wants to see the footprint of Hoouiti," said my guide. + +On one of the stones of the _paepae_ was a footprint, perfect from +heel to toe, and evidently not artificially made. + +"Hoouiti stood here when he hurled his spear across the island," +said Strong in Battle. "He was not a big man, as you see by his +foot's mark." + +"Fifteen kilometers! A long hurling of a spear," said I. + +"_Aue!_ he was very strong. He lived on this _paepae_. These whom +you see are his children's children. Would you like to meet my +wife's father-in-law, Kahuiti? He has eaten many people. He talks +well." + +_Eo!_ Would I! I vowed that I would be honored by the acquaintance +of any of the relatives of my host, and specially I desired to +converse with old, wise men of good taste. + +"That man, Kahauiti, has seen life," said Strong in Battle. +"I am married to the sister of Great Night Moth, who was a very +brave and active man, but now foolish. But Kahauiti! O! O! O! Ai! Ai! +Ai! There he is." + +I never solved the puzzle of my informant's relation to the man who +was his wife's father-in-law, for suddenly I saw the man himself, +and knew that I was meeting a personage. Kahauiti was on the veranda +of a small hut, sitting Turk fashion, and chatting with another old +man. Both of them were striking-looking, but, all in all, I thought +Kahauiti the most distinguished man in appearance that I had seen, +be it in New York or Cairo, London or Pekin. + +He had that indefinable, yet certain, air of superiority, of assured +position and knowledge, that stamps a few men in the world--a Yuan +Shih Kai, Rabindranath Tagore, Sitting Bull, and Porfirio Diaz. He +wore only a _pareu_, and was tattooed from toenails to hair-roots. A +solid mass of coloring extended from his neck to the hip on the left +side, as though he wore half of a blue shirt. The _tahuna_ who had +done the work seemed to have drawn outlines and then blocked in the +half of his torso. But remembering that every pin-point of color had +meant the thrust of a bone needle propelled by the blow of a mallet, +I realized that Kahauiti had endured much for his decorations. No +iron or Victoria Cross could cost more suffering. + +The bare half of his bosom, cooperish-red, contrasted with this +cobalt, and his face was striped alternately with this natural color +and with blue. Two inches of the _ama_ ink ran across the eyes from +ear to ear, covering every inch of lid and eyebrow, and from this +seeming bandage his eyes gleamed with quick and alert intelligence. +Other stripes crossed the face from temple to chin, the lowest +joining the field of blue that stretched to his waist. + +His beard, long, heavy, and snow-white, swept downward over the +indigo flesh and was gathered into a knot on his massive chest. It +was the beard of a prophet or a seer, and when Kahauiti rose to his +full height, six feet and a half, he was as majestic as a man in +diadem and royal robes. He had a giant form, like one of +Buonarroti's ancients, muscular and supple, graceful and erect. + +When I was presented as a _Menike_ who loved the Marquesans and who, +having heard of Kahauiti, would drink of his fountain of +recollections, the old man looked at me intently. His eyes twinkled +and he opened his mouth in a broad smile, showing all his teeth, +sound and white. His smile was kindly, disarming, of a real +sweetness that conquered me immediately, so that, foolishly perhaps, +I would have trusted him if he had suggested a stroll in the jungle. + +He took my extended hand, but did not shake it. So new is +handshaking and so foreign to their ideas of greeting, that they +merely touch fingers, with the pressure a rich man gives a poor +relation, or a king, a commoner. His affability was that of a +monarch to a courtier, but when he began to talk he soon became +simple and merry. + +Motioning me to a seat on the mat before him, he squatted again in a +dignified manner, and resumed his task of plaiting a rope of _faufee_ +bark, a rope an inch thick and perfectly made. + +"Mouth of God, of the family of Sliced and Distributed and Man Whose +Entrails Were Roasted On A Stick, has told me of the slaying of +Tufetu, their ancestor," I ventured, to steer our bark of +conversation into the channel I sought. + +At the names of the first three, Kahauiti smiled, but when Tufetu +was mentioned, he broke into a roar. I had evidently recalled proud +memories. On his haunches, he slid nearer to me. + +"_Afu! Afu! Afu!_" he said, the sound that in his tongue means the +groan of the dying. "You came by the _Fatueki?_". + +"I tasted the water and smelled the smell," I answered. + +"It was there that Tufetu died," he observed. "I struck the blow, +and I ate his arm, his right arm, for he was brave and strong. That +was a war!" + +"What caused that war?" I asked the merry cannibal. + +"A woman, _haa teketeka_, an unfaithful woman, as always," replied +Kahauiti. "Do you have trouble over women in your island? Yes. It is +the same the world over. There was peace between Atuona and Taaoa +before this trouble. When I was a boy we were good friends. We +visited across the hills. Many children were adopted, and Taaoa men +took women from Atuona, and Atuona men from here. Some of these +women had two or three or five men. One husband was the father of +her children in title and pride, though he might be no father at all. +The others shared the mat with her at her will, but had no +possession or happiness in the offspring. + +[Illustration: Tepu, a Marquesan girl of the hills, and her sister +Her ancestry is tattooed on her arms] + +[Illustration: A tattooed Marquesan with carved canoe paddle] + +"Now Pepehi (Beaten to Death) was of Taaoa, but lived in Atuona with +a woman. He had followed her over the hills and lived in her house. +He was father to her children. There was a man of Atuona, Kaheutahi, +who was husband to her, but of lower rank. He was not father to her +children. Therefore one night he swung his war-club upon the head of +Beaten to Death, and later invited a number of friends to the feast." + +Kahuiti smiled gently upon me. Take off his tattooing, make him white, +and clothe him! With his masterful carriage, his soft, cultivated +voice, and his attitude of absolutism, he might have been Leopold, +King of the Belgians, a great ambassador, a man of power in finance. +Nevertheless, I thought of the death by the Stinking Springs. How +could one explain his benign, open-souled deportment and his cheery +laugh, with such damnable appetites and actions? Yet generals send +ten thousand men to certain and agonized death to gain a point +toward a goal; that is the custom of generals, by which they gain +honor among their people. + +"Killed by the war-club of Kaheutahi and eaten by his friends, +Beaten to Death was but a ghost, and Kaheutahi took his place and +became father of the children of the house. He said they were his in +fact, but men were ever boastful." + +The other old man, who said nothing, but was all attention, lit a +pipe and passed it to Kahuiti, who puffed it a moment and passed it +to Strong in Battle. The tale lapsed for a smoking spell. + +"Beaten to Death perished by the club? He was well named," said I. +"His father was a prophet." + +Kahuiti began to chant in a weird monotone. + +"_Va! Va! A tahi a ta! Va! A tahi va! A ua va! A tou va!_" was his +chant. "Thus said the war-club as it crashed on the skull of Beaten +to Death. That is the speech of the war-club when it strikes. The +bones of Beaten to Death were fishhooks before we knew of his death. +All Taaoa was angry. The family of Beaten to Death demanded vengeance. +The priest went into the High Place, and when he came out he ran all +day up and down the valley, until he fell foaming. War was the cry +of the gods, war against Atuona. + +"But there was too much peace between us, too many men with Atuona +women, too many Atuona children adopted by Taaoa women. The peace +was happy, and there was no great warrior to urge." + +"You had brave men and strong men then," I said, with a sigh for the +things I had missed by coming late. + +"_Tuitui!_ You put weeds in my mouth!" exclaimed Kahuiti. "I cannot +talk with your words. _Ue te etau!_ By the great god of the dead! I +am born before the French beached a canoe in the Marquesas. Our gods +were gods then, but they turned to wood and stone when the tree-guns +of the _Farani_ roared and threw iron balls and fire into our valleys. +The Christian god was greater than our gods, and a bigger killer of +men." + +"But Beaten to Death--?" I urged. + +"Beaten to Death was in the stomachs of the men of Atuona, and they +laughed at us. Our High Priest said that the _Euututuki_, the most +private god of the priests, commanded us to avenge the eating of +Beaten to Death. But the season of preserving the _mei_ in pits was +upon us. Also the women of Atuona among us said that there should be +peace, and the women of Taaoa who had taken as their own many +children from Atuona. Therefore we begged the most high gods to +excuse us." + +"Women had much power then," I said. + +Kahuiti chuckled. + +"The French god and the priests of the _Farani_ have taken it from +them," he commented. "I have known the day when women ruled. She had +her husbands,--two, four, five. She commanded. She would send two to +the fishing, one to gathering cocoanuts or wood, one she would keep +to amuse her. They came and went as she said. That was _mea pe_! +Sickening! _Pee!_ There are not enough men to make a woman happy. +Many brave men have died to please their woman, but--" He blew out +his breath in contempt. + +Strong in Battle said aside, in French: + +"He was never second in the house. Kahauiti despised such men. He +was first always." + +"So the slaying of Beaten to Death was unavenged?" I asked. + +"_Epo!_ Do not drink the cocoanut till you have descended the tree! +I have said the warriors were withheld by the women, and there was +no great man to lead. Yet the drums beat at night, and the fighting +men came. You know how the drums speak?" + +His face clouded, and his eyes flashed against their foil of +tattooing. + +"'_Ohe te pepe! Ohe te pepe! Ohe te pepe!_' said the drum called +Peepee. '_Titiutiuti! Titiutiuti!_' said the drum called Umi. +_Aue!_ Then the warriors came! They stood in the High Place at the +head of the valley. Mehitete, the chief, spoke to them. He said that +they should go to Atuona, and bring back bodies for feasting. Many +nights the drums beat, and the chief talked much, but there was no +war. + +"The High Priest went to the _Pekia_ again, and when he came away he +ran without stopping for two days and a night, till he fell without +breath, as one dead, and foam was on his mouth. The gods were angry. +Still there was no war. + +"Then came Tomefitu from Vait-hua. He was chief of that valley, +having been adopted by a woman of Vait-hua, but his father and his +mother were of Taaoa. He had heard of the slaying of Beaten to Death, +his kinsman, and he was hot in the bowels. _Aue!_ The thunder of the +heavens was as the voice of Tomefitu when angered. The earth groaned +where he walked. He knew the _Farani_ and their tricks. He had guns +from the whalers, and he was afraid of nothing save the Ghost Woman +of the Night. Again the warriors came to the High Place, and now +there were many drums." + +Kahuiti sprang to his feet. He struck the corner post of the hut +with his fist. His eyes burned. + + "'Kaputuhe! Kaputuhe! Kaputuhe! + Teputuhe! Teputuhe! Teputuhe! + Tuti! Tuti! Tutuituiti!" + +"That was what the war drums said. The sound of them rolled from the +Pekia, and every man who could throw a spear or hold a war-club came +to their call." + +Kahuiti's soul was rapt in the story. His voice had the deep tone of +the violoncello, powerful, vibrant, and colorful. He had lived in +that strange past, and the things he recalled were precious memories. + +The sound of the drums, as he echoed them in the curious tone-words +of Marquesan, thrilled me through. I heard the booming of the +ten-foot war-drums, their profound and far-reaching call like the +roaring of lions in the jungle. I saw the warriors with their spears +of cocoanut-wood and their deadly clubs of ironwood carved and +shining with oil, their baskets of polished stones slung about their +waists, and their slings of fiber, dancing in the sacred grove of +the Pekia, its shadows lighted by the blaze of the flickering +candlenuts and the scented sandalwood. + +"'I am The Wind That Lays Low The Mighty Tree. I am The Wave That +Fills The Canoe and Delivers The People To The Sharks!' said Tomefitu. +'The flesh of my kinsman fills the bellies of the men of Atuona, and +the gods say war! + +"'There is war!' said Tomefitu. 'We must bring offerings to the gods. +Five men will go with me to Otoputo and bring back the gifts. I will +bring back to you the bodies of six of the Atuona pigs. Prepare! +When we have eaten, the chiefs of Atuona will come to Taaoa, and +then you will fight! + +"'Make ready with dancing. Polish spears and gather stones for the +slings. Koe, who is my man, will be obeyed while I am gone. I have +spoken,' said Tomefitu. That night Tomefitu and I, with four others, +went silently to Otoputo, the dividing rock that looks down on the +right into the valley of Taaoa and on the left into Atuona. There we +lay among rocks and bushes and spied upon the feet of the enemy. +That man who separated himself from others and came our way to seek +food, or to visit at the house of a friend, him we secretly fell upon, +and slew. + +"Thus we did to the six named by Tomefitu, and as we killed them, we +sent them back by others to the High Place. There the warriors +feasted upon them and gained strength for battle. + +"Then, missing so many of their clan, the head men of Atuona came to +Otoputo, and shouted to us to give word of the absent. We shouted +back, saying that those men had been roasted upon the fire and eaten, +and that thus we would do to all men of Atuona. And we laughed at +them." + +Kahuiti emitted a hearty guffaw at thought of the trick played upon +those devoured enemies. + +"But Tufetu, the grandfather of my friend Mouth of God?" I persisted. + +"_Epo!_ There was war. The men of Atuona gathered at Otupoto, and +rushed down upon us. We met them at the Stinking Springs, and there +I killed Tufetu, uncle of Sliced and Distributed and Man Whose +Entrails Were Roasted On A Stick. I pierced him through with my +spear at a cocoanut-tree's length away. I was the best spear-thrower +of Taaoa. We drove the Atuonans through the gorge of the Stinking +Springs and over the divide, and I ate the right arm of Tufetu that +had wielded the war-club. That gives a man the strength of his enemy." + +He turned again to plaiting the rope of _faufee_. + +"_O ia aneihe_, I have finished," he said. "Will you drink _kava_?" + +"No, I will not drink _kava_," I said sternly. "Kahuiti, is it not +good that the eating of men is stopped?" + +The majestic chief looked at me, his deep brown eyes looking +child-like in their band of blue ink. For ten seconds he stared at +me fixedly, and then smiled uncertainly, as may have Peter the +fisherman when he was chided for cutting off the ear of one of +Judas' soldiers. He was of the old order, and the new had left him +unchanged. He did not reply to my question, but sipped his bowl of +_kava_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +The crime of Huahine for love of Weaver of Mats; story of Tahia's +white man who was eaten; the disaster that befell Honi, the white +man who used his harpoon against his friends. + + +During my absence in Taaoa there had been crime and scandal in my +own valley. Andre Bauda met me on the beach road as I returned and +told me the tale. The giant Tahitian sailor of the schooner _Papeite_, +Huahine, was in the local jail, charged with desertion; a serious +offense, to which his plea was love of a woman, and that woman +Weaver of Mats, who had her four names tattooed on her right arm. + +Huahine, seeing her upon the beach, had felt a flame of love that +nerved him to risk hungry shark and battering surf. Carried from her +even in the moment of meeting, he had resisted temptation until the +schooner was sailing outside the Bay of Traitors, running before a +breeze to the port of Tai-o-hae, and then he had flung himself naked +into the sea and taken the straight course back to Atuona, reaching +his sweetheart after a seven-hour's struggle with current and breaker. +Flag, the gendarme, found him in her hut, and brought him to the +calaboose. + +The following morning I attended his trial. He came before his judge +elegantly dressed, for, besides a red _pareu_ about his middle, he +wore a pink silk shawl over his shoulders. Both were the gift of +Weaver of Mats, as he had come to her without scrip or scrap. He +needed little clothing, as his skin was very brown and his strong +body magnificent. + +He was an acceptable prisoner to Bauda, who had charge of the making +and repair of roads and bridges, so Huahine was quickly sentenced +and put to work with others who were paying their taxes by labor. +Weaver of Mats moved with him to the prison, where they lived +together happily, cooking their food in the garden and sleeping on +mats beneath the palms. + +On all the _paepaes_ it was said that Huahine would probably be sent +to Tahiti, as there are strict laws against deserting ships and +against vagabondage in the Marquesas. Meantime the prisoner was happy. +Many a Tahitian and white sailor gazes toward these islands as a +haven from trouble, and in Huahine's exploit I read the story of +many a poor white who in the early days cast away home and friends +and arduous toil to dwell here in a breadfruity harem. + +"There is a tale told long ago by a man of Hanamenu to a traveler +named Christian," I said to Haabunai, the carver, while we sat +rolling pandanus cigarettes in the cool of the evening. "It runs thus: + +"Some thirty years ago a sailor from a trading schooner that had put +into the bay for sandalwood was badly treated by his skipper, who +refused him shore-leave. So, his bowels hot with anger, this sailor +determined to desert his hard and unthanked toil, wed some island +heiress, and live happy ever after. Therefore one evening he swam +ashore, found a maid to his liking, and was hidden by her until the +ship departed. + +"Now Tahia was a good wife, and loved her beautiful white man; all +that a wife could do she did, cooking his food, bathing his feet, +rolling cigarettes for him all day long as he lay upon the mats. But +her father in time became troubled, and there was grumbling among the +people, for the white man would not work. + +"He would not climb the palm to bring down the nuts; he lay and +laughed on his _paepae_ in the Meinui, the season of breadfruit, +when all were busy; and when they brought him rusty old muskets to +care for, he turned his back upon them. Sometimes he fished, going +out in a canoe that Tahia paddled, and making her fix the bait on +the hook, but he caught few fish. + +"'_Aue te hanahana, aua ho'i te kaikai_,' said his father-in-law. 'He +who will not labor, neither shall he eat.' But the white man laughed +and ate and labored not. + +"A season passed and another, and there came a time of little rain. +The bananas were few, and the breadfruit were not plentiful. One +evening, therefore, the old men met in conference, and this was +their decision: 'Rats are becoming a nuisance, and we will abate them.' + +"Next morning the father sent Tahia on an errand to another valley. +Then men began to dig a large oven in the earth before Tahia's house, +where the white man lay on the mats at ease. Presently he looked and +wondered and looked again. And at length he rose and came down to +the oven, saying, 'What's up?' + +"'Plenty _kaikai_. Big pig come by and by,' they said. + +"So he stood waiting while they dug, and no pig came. Then he said, +'Where is the pig?' And at that moment the _u'u_ crashed upon his +skull, so that he fell without life and lay in the oven. Wood was +piled about him, and he was baked, and there was feasting in Hanamenu. + +"In the twilight Tahia came over the hills, weary and hungry, and +asked for her white man. 'He has gone to the beach,' they said. + +"He will return soon, therefore sit and eat, my daughter," said her +father, and gave her the meat wrapped in leaves. So she ate heartily, +and waited for her husband. And all the feasters laughed at her, so +that little by little she learned the truth. She said nothing, but +went away in the darkness. + +"And it is written, Haabunai, that searchers for the _mei_ came upon +her next day in the upper valley, and she was hanging from a tall +palm-tree with a rope of _purau_ about her neck." + +"That may be a true story," said Haabunai. "Though it is the custom +here to eat the _eva_ when one is made sick by life. And very few +white men were ever eaten in the islands, because they knew too much +and were claimed by some woman of power." He paused for a moment to +puff his cigarette. + +"Now there was a sailor whom my grandfather ate, and he was white. +But there was ample cause for that, for never was a man so provoking. + +"He was a harpooner on a whale-ship, a man who made much money, but +he liked rum, and when his ship left he stayed behind. They sent two +boats ashore and searched for him, but my grandfather sent my father +with him into the hills, and after three days the captain thought he +had been drowned, and sailed away without him. + +"My grandfather gave him my father's sister to wife, and like that +man of whom you told, he was much loved by her, though he would do +nothing but make _namu enata_ and drink it and dance and sleep. +Grandfather said that he could dance strange dances of the sailor +that made them all laugh until their ribs were sore. + +"This man, whose name was Honi--" + +"Honi?" said I. "I do not know that word." + +"Nor I. It is not Marquesan. It was his name, that he bore on the +ship." + +"Honi?" I repeated incredulously, and then light broke. "You mean +Jones?" + +"It may be. I do not know. Honi was his name, as my grandfather said +it. And this Honi had brought from the whale-ship a gun and a harpoon. +This harpoon had a head of iron and was fixed on a spear, with a +long rope tied to the head, so that when it was thrust into the +whale he was fastened to the boat that pursued him through the water. +There was no weapon like it on the island, and it was much admired. + +"Honi fought with us when our tribe, the Papuaei, went to war with +the Tiu of Taaoa. He used his gun, and with it he won many battles, +until he had killed so many of the enemy that they asked for peace. +Honi was praised by our tribe, and a fine house was built for him +near the river, in the place where eels and shrimp were best. + +"In this large house he drank more than in the other smaller one. He +used his gun to kill pigs and even birds. My grandfather reproved +him for wasting the powder, when pigs could easily be killed with +spears. But Honi would not listen, and he continued to kill until he +had no more powder. Then he quarreled with my grandfather, and one +day, being drunk, he tried to kill him, and then fled to the +Kau-i-te-oho, the tribe of redheaded people at Hanahupe. + +"Learning that Honi was no longer with us, the Tiu tribe of Taaoa +declared war again, and the red-headed tribe had an alliance with +them through their chief's families intermarrying, so that Honi +fought with them. His gun being without powder, he took his harpoon, +and he came with the Tui and the Kau-i-te-oho to the dividing-line +between the valleys where we used to fight. + +"Where the precipices reared their middle points between the valleys, +the tribes met and reviled one another. + +"'You people with hair like cooked shrimp! Are you ready for the +ovens of our valley?' cried my grandfather's warriors. + +"'You little men, who run so fast, we have now your white warrior +with us, and you shall die by the hundreds!' yelled our enemies." + +This picture of the scene at the line was characteristic of +Polynesian warfare. It is almost exactly like the meeting of armies +long ago in Palestine and Syria, and before the walls of Troy. +Goliath slanged David grossly, threatening to give his body to the +fowls of the air and the beasts of the field, and David retorted in +kind. So, when Ulysses launched his spear at Soccus, he cried: + + "Ah, wretch, no father shall they corpse compose, + Thy dying eye no tender mother close; + But hungry birds shall tear those balls away, + And hungry vultures scream around their prey." + +"For a quarter of an hour," said Haabunai, "my grandfather's people +and the warriors of the enemy called thus to each other upon the top +of the cliffs, and then Honi and the brother of my grandfather, head +men of either side, advanced to battle. + +"The first time Honi threw his harpoon, he hooked my great-uncle. He +hooked him through the middle, and before he could be saved, a half +dozen of the Tiu men pulled on the rope and dragged him over the line +to be killed and eaten. + +"Two more of our tribe Honi snared with this devilish spear, and it +was not so much death as being pulled over to them and roasted that +galled us. All day the battle raged, except when both sides stopped +by agreement to eat _popoi_ and rest, but late in the afternoon a +strange thing happened. + +"Honi had thrown his harpoon, and by bad aim it entered a tree. The +end of the line he had about his left arm, and as he tried to pull +out the spear-head from the wood, his legs became entangled in the +rope, and my grandfather, who was very strong, seized the rope near +the tree, dragged the white man over the line, and killed him with a +rock. + +"The enemy ran away then, and that night our people ate Honi. +Grandfather said his flesh was so tough they had to boil it. There +were no _tipoti_ (Standard-oil cans) in those days, but our people +took banana leaves and formed a big cup that would hold a couple of +quarts of water, and into these they put red-hot stones, and the +water boiled. Grandfather said they cut Honi into small pieces and +boiled him in many of these cups. Still he was tough, but +nevertheless they ate him. + +"Honi was tattooed. Not like Marquesans, but like some white sailors, +he had certain marks on him. Grandfather saved these marks, and wore +them as a _tiki_, or amulet, until he died, when he gave it to me. He +had preserved the skin so that it did not spoil." + +Haabunai yawned and said his mouth was parched from much talking, +but when a shell of rum was set before him and he had drunk, he +fetched from his house the _tiki_. It was as large as my hand, dark +and withered, but with a magnifying glass I could see a rude cross +and three letters, I H S in blue. + +"Grandfather became a Christian and was no longer an _enata Ttaikaia_, +an eater of men, but he kept the _tiki_ always about his neck, +because he thought it gave him strength," said my guest. + +I handed him back the gruesome relic, though he began advances to +make it my property. For the full demijohn he would have parted with +the _tiki_ that had been his grandfather's, but I had no fancy for it. +One can buy in Paris purses of human skin for not much more than one +of alligator hide. + +"Honi must have been very tough," I said. + +"He must have been," Haabunai said regretfully. "Grandfather had his +teeth to the last. He would never eat a child. Like all warriors he +preferred for vengeance's sake the meat of another fighter." + +He had not yet sprung the grim jest of almost all cannibalistic +narratives. I did not ask if Honi's wife had eaten of him, as had +Tahia of her white man. It is probable that she did, and that they +deceived her. It was the practical joke of those days. + +I had seen Apporo, my landlady, staggering homeward a few days +earlier in a pitiful state of intoxication. Some one had given her a +glass of mixed absinthe, vermuth, and rum, and with confidence in +the giver she had tossed it down. That is the kind of joke that in +other days would have been the deluding of some one into partaking +of the flesh of a lover or friend. + +Reasoning from our standpoint, it is easy to assume that cannibalism +is a form of depravity practised by few peoples, but this error is +dispelled by the researches of ethnologists, who inform us that it +was one of the most ancient customs of man and began when he was +close brother to the ape. Livingstone, when he came upon it on the +Dark continent, concluded that the negroes came to that horrible +desire from their liking for the meat of gorillas, which so nearly +approach man in appearance. Herodatus, writing twenty-five hundred +years ago, mentions the Massagetae who boiled the flesh of their +old folks with that of cattle, both killed for the occasion. +Cannibalism marked the life of all peoples in days of savagery. + +Plutarch says that Cataline's associates gave proof of their loyalty +to that agitator and to one another by sacrificing and eating a man. +Achilles expressed his wish that he might devour Hector. The Kafirs +ate their own children in the famine of 1857, and the Germans ate +one another when starvation maddened them, long after Maryland and +Massachusetts had become thriving settlements in the New World. +There is a historic instance of a party of American pioneers lost in +the mountains of California in the nineteenth century, who in their +last extremity of hunger ate several of the party. + +To devour dead relatives, to kill and eat the elders, to feast upon +slaves and captives, even for mothers to eat their children, were +religious and tribal rites for many tens of thousands of years. We +have records of these customs spread over the widest areas of the +world. + +Undoubtedly cannibalism began as a question of food supply. In early +times when man, emerging from the purely animal stage, was without +agricultural skill, and lived in caves or trees, his fellow was his +easiest prey. The great beasts were too fierce and powerful for his +feeble weapons except when luck favored him, and the clan or family, +or even the single brave hunter, sought the man-meat by stealth or +combat, or in tunes of stress ate those nearest and dearest. + +Specially among peoples whose principal diet is heavy, starchy food, +such as the breadfruit, the demand for meat is keen. I saw Marquesan +women eating insects, worms, and other repellant bits of flesh out of +sheer instinct and stomachic need. When salt is not to be had, the +desire for meat is most intense. In these valleys the upper tribes, +whose enemies shut them off from the sea with its salt and fish, +were the most persistent cannibals, and the same condition exists in +Africa to-day, where the interior tribes eat any corpse, while none +of the coast tribes are guilty. + +As the passion for cannibalistic feasts grew,--and it became a +passion akin to the opium habit in some,--the supply of other meat +had little to do with its continuance. In New Britain human bodies +were sold in the shops; in the Solomon Islands victims were fattened +like cattle, and on the upper Congo an organized traffic is carried +on in these empty tenements of the human soul. + +Although cannibalism originated in a bodily need, man soon gave it +an emotional and spiritual meaning, as he has given them to all +customs that have their root in his physical being. Two forms of +cannibalism seem to have existed among the first historic peoples. +One was concerned with the eating of relatives and intimates, for +friendship's sake or to gain some good quality they possessed. Thus +when babies died, the Chavante mothers, on the Uruguay, ate them to +regain their souls. Russians ate their fathers, and the Irish, if +Strabo is to be credited, thought it good to eat both deceased +parents. The Lhopa of Sikkim, in Tibet, eat the bride's mother at +the wedding feast. + +But Maori cannibalism, with its best exposition in the Marquesas, +was due to a desire for revenge, cooking and eating being the +greatest of insults. It was an expression of jingoism, a hatred for +all outside the tribe or valley, and it made the feud between +valleys almost incessant. + +It was in no way immoral, for morals are the best traditions and +ways of each race, and here the eating of enemies was authorized by +every teaching of priest and leader, by time-honored custom and the +strongest dictates of nature. + +White men and Chinese, in fact, all foreigners, were seldom eaten +here. There were exceptions when vengeance impelled, such at that of +Honi or Jones, whom Haabunai's grandfather ate, but as a rule they +were spared and indeed cherished, as strange visitors who might +teach the people useful things. Only their own depravity brought +them to the oven. + +At such times, the feast was even a disagreeable rite. It is a fact +that the Marquesan disliked the flesh of a white man. They said he +was too salty. Hundreds of years ago the Aztecs, according to Bernal +Diaz, who was there, complained that "the flesh of the Spaniards +failed to afford even nourishment, since it was intolerably bitter." +This, though the Indians were dying of starvation by hundreds of +thousands in the merciless siege of Mexico City. + +Standards of barbarity vary. Horrible and revolting as the very +mention of cannibalism is to us, it should be remembered that it +rested upon an attitude toward the foreigner and the slave that in +some degree still persists everywhere in the world. Outside the tribe, +the savage recognized no kindred humanity. Members of every clan +save his own were regarded as strange and contemptible beings, +outlandish and barbarous in manners and customs, not to be regarded +as sharers of a common birthright. This attitude toward the stranger +did not at all prevent the cannibal from being, within his own tribe, +a gentle, merry, and kindly individual. + +Even toward the stranger the Marquesan was never guilty of torture +of any kind. Though they slew and ate, they had none of the +refinements of cruelty of the Romans, not even scalping enemies as +did the Scythians, Visigoths, Franks, and Anglo-Saxons. In their most +bloody wars they often paused in battle to give the enemy time to +eat and to rest, and there is no record of their ever ringing a +valley about with armed warriors and starving to death the women and +children within. Victims for the gods were struck down without +warning, so that they might not suffer even the pangs of anticipation. +The thumb-screw and rack of Christendom struck with horror those of +my cannibal friends to whom I mentioned them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +The memorable game for the matches in the cocoanut-grove of Lam Kai +Oo. + + +Parables are commonly found in books. In a few words on a printed +page one sees a universal problem made small and clear, freed from +those large uncertainties and whimsies of chance that make life in +the whole so confusing to the vision. It was my fortune to see, in +the valley of Atuona on Hiva-oa, a series of incidents which were +at the time a whirl of unbelievable merriment, yet which slowly +clarified themselves into a parable, while I sat later considering +them on the leaf-shaded _paepae_ of the House of the Golden Bed. + +They began one afternoon when I dropped down to the palace to have a +smoke with M. L'Hermier des Plantes, the governor. As I mounted the +steps I beheld on the veranda the governor, stern, though perspiring, +in his white ducks, confronting a yellowish stranger on crutches who +pleaded in every tone of anguish for some boon denied him. + +"_Non!_ No! _Ned!_" said the governor, poly-linguistically emphatic. +"It cannot be done!" He dropped into a chair and poured himself an +inch of Pernod, as the defeated suitor turned to me in despair. + +He was short and of a jaundiced hue, his soft brown eyes set +slightly aslant. Although lame, he had an alertness and poise +unusual in the sea's spawn of these beaches. In Tahitian, Marquesan, +and French, with now and then an English word, he explained that he, +a Tahitian marooned on Hiva-oa from a schooner because of a broken +leg, wished to pass the tedium of his exile in an innocent game of +cards. + +"I desire a mere permission to buy two packs of cards at the +Chinaman's," he begged. "I would teach my neighbors here the _jeu de_ +pokaree. I have learned it on a voyage to San Francisco. It is +Americaine. It is like life, not altogether luck. One must think +well to play it. I doubt not that you know that game." + +Now gambling is forbidden in these isles. It is told that throughout +the southern oceans such a madness possessed the people to play the +white men's games of chance that in order to prevent constant +bloodshed in quarrels a strict interdiction was made by the +conquerors. Of course whites here are always excepted from such +sin-stopping rules, and merchants keep a small stock of cards for +their indulgence. + +"But why two packs?" I asked the agitated Tahitian. + +"_Mais, Monsieur_, that is the way I was taught. We played with ten +or fourteen in the circle, and as it is merely _pour passer le temps_, +more of my poor brother Kanakas can enjoy it with two packs." + +He was positively abased, for no Tahitian says "_Kanaka_" of himself. +It is a term of contempt. He might call his fellow so, but only as +an American negro says "nigger." + +I looked at him closely. Some gesture, the suggested slant of his +brows, the thin lips, reminded me of a certain "son of Ah Cum" who +guided me into disaster in Canton, saying, "Mis'r Rud Kippeling he +go one time befo'." + +"Your name?" I asked in hope of confirmation. + +"O Lalala," he replied, while the smile that started in his eyes was +killed by his tightening lips. "I am French, for my grandfather was +of Annam under the tri-color, and my mother of Tahiti-iti." + +Now fourteen-handed poker, with O Lalala as instructor to those +ignorant of the game, the code of which was written by a United +States diplomat, appealed to me as more than a passing of the time. +It would be an episode in the valley. My patriotism was stimulated. +I called the governor aside. + +"This poker," I said, "is not like ecarte or baccarat. It is a study +of character, a matching of minds, a thing we call bluff, we +Americans. These poor Marquesans must have some fun. Let him do it! +No harm can come of it. It is far to Paris, where the laws are made." + +The governor turned to O Lalala. + +"No stakes!" he said. + +"_Mais, non!_ Not a _sou_!" the lame man promised. "We will use only +matches for counters. _Merci, merci, Monsieur l'Administrateur!_ You +are very good. Please, will you give me now the note to Ah You?" + +As he limped away with it, the governor poured me an inch of absinthe. + +"_Sapristi!_" he exclaimed. "O Lalala! O, la, la, la!" He burst into +laughter. "He will play ze bloff?" + +I spent that evening with Kriech, the German trader of Taka-Uka. +Over our Hellaby beef and Munich beer we talked of copra and the +beautiful girls of Buda-Pesth, of the contemplated effort of the +French government to monopolize the island trade by subsidizing a +corporation, and of the incident of the afternoon. + +"The _Herr Doktor_ is new," said Kriech, with a wag of his head. +"That O Lalala! I have heard that that poker iss very dansherous. +That Prince Hanoi of Papeite lose his tam headt to a Chinaman. +Something comes of this foolishnesses!" + +At midnight I had again gained the House of the Golden Bed and had +lain down to sleep when on the breeze from up the valley there came +a strangely familiar sound to my upper ear. I sat up, listening. In +the dark silence, with no wind to rustle the breadfruit and +cocoanut-trees, and only the brook faintly murmuring below, I heard +a low babble of voices. No word was distinguishable, not even the +language, yet curiously the sound had a rhythm that I knew. + +I have heard from a distance preaching in many languages. Though +only the cadences, the pauses, and rhythm reached me, I had no +difficulty in knowing their origin and meaning. Thought casts the +mold of all speech. Now my drowsy mind harked back to American days, +to scenes in homes and clubs. + +I rose, and wrapping the loin-cloth about me, set out with a lantern +in search of that sound. It led me down the trail, across the brook, +and up the slope into the dense green growth of the mountain-side. +Beyond I saw lights in the cocoanut-grove of Lam Kai Oo. + +My bare feet made no noise, and through the undergrowth I peered +upon as odd a sight as ever pleased a lover of the bizarre. A blaze +of torches lighted a cleared space among the tall palm columns, and +in the flickering red glow a score of naked, tattooed figures +crouched about a shining mat of sugar-cane. About them great piles +of yellow-boxed Swedish matches caught the light, and on the cane +mat shone the red and white and black of the cards. + +O Lalala sat facing me, absorbed in the game. At his back the yellow +boxes were piled high, his crutch propped against them, and +continually he speeded the play by calling out, "Passy, calley or +makum bigger!" "Comely center!" or, "Ante uppy!" + +These were the sounds that had swept my memory back to civilization +and drawn me from my Golden Bed. O Lalala had all the slang of +poker--the poker of the waterfronts of San Francisco and of +Shanghai--and evidently he had already taught his eager pupils that +patois. + +They crouched about the mat, bent forward in their eagerness, and +the flickering light caught twisting mouths and eyes ringed with +tattooing. Over their heads the torches flared, held by breathless +onlookers. The candlenuts, threaded on long spines of cocoanut-leaves, +blazed only a few seconds, but each dying one lit the one beneath as +it sputtered out, and the scores of strings shed a continuous though +wavering light upon the shining mat and the cards. + +The midnight darkness of the enclosing grove and the vague columns +of the palms, upholding the rustling canopy that hid the sky, hinted +at some monstrous cathedral where heathen rites were celebrated. + +I pushed through the fringe of onlookers, none of whom heeded me, +and found Apporo and Exploding Eggs holding torches. The madness of +play was upon them. The sad placidity of every day was gone; as in +the throes of the dance they kept their gleaming eyes upon the +fluctuations of fortune before them. Twice I spoke sharply before +they heard me, and then in a frenzy of supplication Apporo threw +herself upon me. + +Would I not give her matches--the packets of matches that were under +the Golden Bed? She and her husband, Great Fern, had spent but an +hour in the magic circle ere they were denuded of their every match. +Couriers were even now scouring the valley for more matches. Quick, +hasten! Even now it might be that the packets under the Golden Bed +were gone! + +"Surely, then, come," I said, struck by an incredible possibility. +Could it be that the crafty O Lalala--absurd! But Apporo, hurrying +before me down the lantern-lighted trail, confirmed my suspicions. + +O Lalala had stated and put into effect the prohibition of any other +stakes other than the innocent matches--mere counters--which he had +mentioned to the governor. But swift messengers had heralded +throughout the valley that there would be gambling--authorized +_par gouvernement_--in Lam Kai Go's plantation, and already the +cards had been shuffled for seven or eight hours. Throughout all +Atuona matches had been given an extraordinary and superlative value. +To the farthest huts on the rim of the valley the cry was "Matches!" +And as fast as they arrived, O Lalala won them. + +We hastened into my cabin, and Apporo was beneath the Golden Bed ere +the rays of my lantern fell upon the floor. The packets had +disappeared. + +"Exploding Eggs!" cried Apporo, her dark eyes tolling in rage. + +"But--he is honest," I objected. + +In such a crisis, she muttered, all standards were naught. Exploding +Eggs had been one of the first squatters at the sugar-cane mat. +"The Bishop himself would trade the holy-water fonts for matches, +were he as thirsty to play as I am!" + +There were no more matches in the valleys of Atuona or Taka-Uka, she +said. Every dealer had sold out. Every house had been invaded. The +losers had begged, borrowed, or given articles of great value for +matches. The accursed Tahitian had them all but a few now being waged. +Defeated players were even now racing over the mountains in the +darkness, ransacking each hut for more. + +The reputation of Hiva-oa, of the island itself, was at stake. A +foreigner had dishonored their people, or would if they did not win +back what he had gained from them. She was half Chinese; her +father's soul was concerned. He had died in this very room. To save +his face in death she would give back even her interest in the +Golden Bed, she would pledge all that Great Fern possessed, if I +would give her only a few matches. + +Her pleas could only be hopeless. There was not a match in the cabin. + +Together we returned to the cocoanut-grove. O Lalala still sat +calmly winning the matches, the supply of which was from time to +time replenished by panting newcomers. He swept the mat clean at +every valuable pot. + +His only apparent advantage was that he made the rules whenever +questions arose. He was patient in all disputes, yielding in small +matters, but he was as the granite rocks of the mountain above him +when many matches were at stake. With solemnity he invoked the name +of Hoy-lee, the mysterious person who had fixed immutably the +_tapus_ of pokaree. He made an occult sign with his thumb against +his nose, and that settled it. If any one persisted in challenging +this _tiki_ he added his other thumb to the little finger of his +first symbol, and said, "Got-am-to-hellee!" As a last recourse, he +would raise his crutch and with public opinion supporting him would +threaten to invoke the law against gambling and stop the game if +disputation did not cease. + +Steadily the pile of Swedish _toendstikkers_ grew behind him. All +through the night the game raged beneath the light of the candlenuts, +in a silence broken only by the hoarse breathing of the crouching +brown men, the sandy-sounding rustle of the palm-fronds overhead, and +cries of "Ante uppy!" or "Comely center!" When dawn came grayly +through the aisles of the grove, they halted briefly to eat a bowl +of _popoi_ and to drink the milk of freshly gathered nuts. O Lalala, +relaxing against the heap of his winnings, lifted a shell to his lips +and over its rim gave me one enigmatic look. + +Whistling softly, I went down to the House of the Golden Bed, +breakfasted there without the aid of Exploding Eggs, and then sought +the governor. He had gone by the whale-boat of Special Agent Bauda +to an adjoining deserted island to shoot _kuku_. Hiva-oa was without +a government. + +All day the madness raged in the cocoanut-grove. In the afternoon +the vicar apostolic of the Roman Catholic Church, supported by the +faithful Deacon Fariuu, himself toiled up the slope to stop the game. +The bishop was received in sullen silence by regular communicants. A +catechist whom he had found squat before the mat paid no attention +to his objurgations, save to ask the bishop not to stand behind him, +as O Lalala had said that was bad luck. The churchmen retired in a +haughty silence that was unheeded by the absorbed players. + +Later the deacon returned, bringing with him the very matches that +had been kept in the church to light the lamps at night service. +These he stacked on the sugarcane mat. The vicar bishop followed him +to call down the anathema maranatha of high heaven upon this renegade +who had robbed the cathedral and the priests' house of every +_toendstikker_ they had held, and when he had again retired, the +deacon, dropping his last box on the woven table, elevated his hands +toward the skies and fervently asked the Giver of All Good Things to +aid his draw. But he received a third ace, only to see O Lalala put +down four of the damnable bits of paper with three spots on each one. + +At three o'clock next morning the game lapsed because the Tahitian +had all the counters. These he sent to his house, where they were +guarded by a friend. For a day he sat waiting by the sugar-cane mat, +and the Monte Carlo was not deserted. O Lalala would not budge to +the demands of a hundred losers that he sell back packages of +matches for cocoanuts or French francs or any other currency. Pigs, +fish, canned goods, and all the contents of the stores he spurned as +breaking faith with the kindly governor, who would recognize that +while matches were not gambling stakes, all other commodities were. + +On the fourth day the canoes that had paddled and sailed to every +other island of the archipelago began to return. Some brought fifty +packets, some less. Dealers had tossed their prices sky-ward when +asked to sell their entire stocks. + +[Illustration: A chieftess in _tapa_ garments with _tapa_ parasol] + +[Illustration: Launching the whale-boat] + +Now the game began again with the fierceness of the typhoon after +the center has passed. Men and women stood in line for the chance to +redeem their fortunes, to slake their rage, to gain applause. Once +they thought they had conquered the Tahitian. He began to lose, and +before his streak of trouble ended, he had sent more than thirty +packages from his hut to the grove. But this was the merest breath +of misfortune; his star rose again, and the contents of the canoes +were his. + +On the fifth day it became known that the Shan-Shan syndicate of +Cantonese had a remaining case of _toendstikkers_. They claimed +that until now they had overlooked this case. It held a hundred +packages, or twelve hundred boxes. It was priceless as the sole +possible barrier against the absolute ending of the game. + +The Shan-Shan people were without heart. They demanded for the case +five francs a packet. Many of the younger Marquesans counselled +giving the Cantonese a taste of the ancient _u'u_, the war-club of a +previous generation. Desperate as was the plight of the older +gamesters, they dared not consent. The governor would return, the +law would take its course, and they would go to Noumea to work out +their lives for crime. No, they would buy the case for francs, but +they would not risk dividing it among many, who would be devoured +piecemeal by the diabolical O Lalala. + +"Kivi, the Vagabond, the Drinker of _kava_, is the chief to lead our +cause," said Great Fern. "He has never gone to the Christian church. +He believes still in the old gods of the High Place, and he is +tattooed with the shark." + +Kivi was the one man who had not played. He cared nothing for the +pleasures of the _Farani_, the foolish whites. After palaver, his +neighbors waited on him in a body. They reasoned with him, they +begged him. He consented to their plan only after they had wept at +their humbling. Then they began to instruct him. + +They told him of the different kinds of combinations, of straights +and of flushes, and of a certain occasional period when the Tahitian +would introduce a mad novelty by which the cards with one fruit on +them would "runnee wil'ee." They warned him against times when +without reason the demon would put many matches on the mat, and +after frightening out every one would in the end show that he had no +cards of merit. + +Immediately after sunset, when the _popoi_ and fish had been eaten, +and all had bathed in the brook, when the women had perfumed their +bodies and put the scarlet hibiscus in their hair, and after Kivi +had drunk thrice of _kava_, the game began. The valley was deserted, +the _paepaes_ empty. No fires twinkled from the mountainsides. Only +in the cocoanut-grove the candlenuts were lit as the stars peeped +through the roof of the world. + +A throng surrounded the pair of combatants. The worn cards had been +oiled and dried, and though the ominous faces of the _tiki_ upon +them shone bravely, doubtless they were weary of strife. The pipe was +made to smoke; Kivi puffed it and so did all who had joined in the +purchase of the case from the thieves of Cantonese. Then the cards +were dealt by Kivi, who had won the cut. + +O Lalala and he eyed each other like Japanese wrestlers before the +grapple. Their eyes were slits as they put up the ante of five +packets each. O Lalala opened the pot for five packets and Kivi, +nudged by his backers, feverishly balanced them. He took three cards, +O Lalala but one. Standing behind the Tahitian, I saw that he had no +cards of value, but coolly he threw thirty packets upon the mat. The +others shuddered, for Kivi had drawn deuces to a pair of kings. They +made the pipe glow again. They puffed it; they spat; they put their +heads together, and he threw down his cards. + +Then calmly the Tahitian laid down his own, and they saw that they +could have beaten him. They shouted in dismay, and withdrew Kivi, +who after some palaver went away with them into the darkness. + +One or two candlenut torches dimly illumined the figures of the +squatting women who remained. Upon the sugar-cane mat O Lalala +stretched himself at ease, closing his eyes. A silence broken only +by the stealthy noises of the forest closed upon us. Teata, her dark +eyes wide, looked fearfully over her shoulder and crept close to me. +In a low voice she said that the absent players had thrown earth +over their shoulders, stamped, and called upon Po, the Marquesan +deity of darkness, yet it had not availed them. Now they went to make +magic to those at whose very mention she shuddered, not naming them. + +We waited, while the torches sputtered lower, and a dank breath of +the forest crept between the trees. O Lalala appeared to sleep, +though when Apporo attempted to withdraw a card he pinned it with +his crutch. + +It was half an hour before the players returned. Kivi crouched to +his place without a word, and the others arranged themselves behind +him in fixed array, as though they had a cabalistic number-formation +in mind. + +Fresh torches were made, and many disputed the privilege of holding +them, as they controlled one's view of the mat. O Lalala sat +imperturbable, waiting. At last all was ready. The light fell upon +the giant limbs and huge torsos of the men, picking out arabesques of +tattooing and catching ruddy gleams from red _pareus_. The women, in +crimson gowns caught up to the waist, their luxuriant hair adorned +with flowers and phosphorescent fungus, their necks hung with the +pink peppers of Chile, squatted in a close ring about the players. + +The lame man took up the pack, shuffled it, and handed it to Kivi to +cut. Then Kivi solemnly stacked before him the eighty-five packets +of matches, all that remained in the islands. Five packs went upon +the mat for ante, and Kivi very slowly picked up his cards. + +He surveyed them, and a grim smile of incredulity and delight spread +over his ink-decorated countenance. He opened for ten packets. O +Lalala quickly put down as many, and thirty more. + +Kivi chuckled as one who has his enemy in his hand, but stifles his +feelings to hide his triumph. He then carefully counted his +remaining wealth, and with a gesture of invitation slid the entire +seventy packets about his knees. They were a great bulk, quite 840 +boxes of matches, and they almost obscured the curving palms of blue +tattooed on his mighty thighs. + +Again he chuckled and this time put his knuckles over his mouth. +"Patty!" said Great Fern for him, and made a gesture disdaining more +cards. + +O Lalala scrutinized his face as the sailor the heavens in a storm, +and then studied the visages of all his backers. He closed his eyes +a moment. Then, "My cally!" he said, as he pushed a great heap of +_toendstikkers_ onto the cane mat. The _kava_-drinkers grew black +with excitement. + +Kivi hesitated, and then, amid the most frightful curses of his +company, laid down only a pair of kings, a six, a nine, and a jack. +O Lalala, without a smile, disclosed a pair of aces and three +meaningless companions. + +The game was over. The men of Hiva-oa had thrown their last spear. +Magic had been unavailing; the demon foreigner could read through +the cards. Kivi fell back helpless, grief and _kava_ prostrating him. +The torches died down as the winner picked up his spoils and +prepared to retire. + +At this moment a man dashed madly through the grove, displaying two +boxes and a handful of separate matches. O Lalala at first refused +to play for this trifling stake, but in a storm of menacing cries +consented to cut the pack for double or nothing, and in a twinkling +extinguished the last hope. + +The last comer had looted the governor's palace. The ultimate match +in the Marquesas had been lost to the Tahitian. He now had the +absolute monopoly of light and of cooking. + +Soberly the rest of the valley dwellers went home to unlighted huts. + +Next morning, after a cold breakfast, I was early afoot in the valley. +On the way to the trader's store I beheld the complacent winner in +his cabin. Through the open door I saw that every inch of the walls +was covered with stacked boxes of matches, yellow fronts exposed. On +his mat in the middle of this golden treasury O Lalala reclined, +smoking at his leisure, and smiling the happy smile of Midas. +Outside a cold wind swept down from Calvary Peak, and a gray sky hid +the sun. + +I paused in the reek of those innumerable matches, which tainted the +air a hundred feet away, and exchanged morning greetings with their +owner, inquiring about his plans. He said that he would make a three +days' vigil of thanks, and upon the fourth day he would sell matches +at a franc a small box. I bade him farewell, and passed on. + +The valley people were coming and going about their affairs, but +sadly and even morosely. There was no match to light the fire for +roasting breadfruit, or to kindle the solacing tobacco. O Lalala +would not give one away, or sell one at any price. Neither would he +let a light be taken from his own fire or pipe. + +The next schooner was not expected for two months, as the last was +but a fortnight gone. Le Brunnec had not a match, nor Kriech. The +governor had not returned. The only alternatives were to go +lightless and smokeless or to assault the heartless oppressor. Many +dark threats were muttered on the cheerless _paepaes_ and in the +dark huts, but in variety of councils there was no unity, and none +dared assault alone the yellow-walled hut in which O Lalala smiled +among his gains. + +On the second day there was a growing tension in the atmosphere of +the valley. I observed that there were no young men to be seen on +the beach or at the traders' stores. There were rumors, hints hardly +spoken, of a meeting in the hills. The traders looked to their guns, +whistling thoughtfully. There was not a spark of fire set in all +Atuona, save by O Lalala, and that for himself alone. + +So matters stood until the second night. Then old Kahuiti, that +handsomest of cannibals, who lived in the valley of Taaoa, strolled +into Atuona and made it known that he would hold a meeting in the +High Place where of old many of his tribe had been eaten by Atuona +men. + +Exploding Eggs, Malicious Gossip, and I climbed the mountain early. +The population of the valley, eager for counsel, was gathered on the +old stone benches where half a century earlier their sorcerers had +sat. In the twilight Kahuiti stood before us, his long white beard +tied in a Psyche knot on his broad, tattooed chest. His voice was +stern. + +We were fools, he said, to be denied food and smoke by the foreigner. +What of matches before the French came? Had he known matches in his +youth? _Aue!_ The peoples of the islands must return to the ways of +their fathers! + +He leaped from the top of the Pekia, and seizing his long knife, he +cut a five-foot piece of _parua_-wood and shaped it to four inches +in width. With our fascinated gaze upon him, he whittled sharp a +foot-long piece of the same wood, and straddled the longer stick. +Holding it firmly between his two bare knees he rubbed the shorter, +pointed piece swiftly up and down a space of six inches upon his +mount. Gradually a groove formed, in which the dust collected at one +end. + +Soon the wood was smoking hot, and then the old man's hands moved so +rapidly that for several moments I could not follow them with the eye. +The smoke became thicker, and suddenly a gleam of flame arose, +caught the dust, and was fed with twigs and cocoanut-husks by scores +of trembling brown hands. In a few minutes a roaring fire was +blazing on the sward. + +Pipes sprang from loin-cloths or from behind ears, and the +incense of tobacco lifted on the still air of the evening. +Brands were improvised and hurried home to light the fires +for breadfruit-roasting, while Kahuiti laughed scornfully. + +"A hundred of this tribe I have eaten, and no wonder!" he said as he +strode away toward Taaoa. + +The monopoly of O Lalala was no more. Atuona Valley had turned back +the clock of time a hundred years, to destroy the perfect world in +which he sat alone. He heard the news with amazement and +consternation. For a day he sat disconsolate, unable to credit the +disaster that had befallen his carefully made plans. Then he offered +the matches at usual traders' prices, and the people mocked him. All +over the island the fire-ploughs, oldest of fire-making tools in the +world, were being driven to heat the stones for the _mei_. Atuona +had no need of matches. + +The governor on his return heard the roars of derision, gathered the +story from a score of mirthful tongues, seized and sold the matches, +and appropriated the funds for a barrel of Bordeaux. And for many +weeks the unhappy O Lalala sat mournfully on the beach, gazing at +the empty sea and longing for a schooner to carry him away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +Mademoiselle N----. + + +The _Jeanne d'Arc_, a beautiful, long, curving craft manned by +twelve oarsmen, came like a white bird over the blue waters of the +Bay of Traitors one Saturday afternoon, bringing Pere Victorien to +Atuona. He was from Hatiheu, on the island of Nuka-hiva, seventy +miles to the north. A day and a night he had spent on the open sea, +making a slow voyage by wind and oar, but like all these priests he +made nothing of the hardships. They come to the islands to stay +until they die, and death means a crown the brighter for martyrdom. + +He looked a tortured man in his heavy and smothering vestments when +I met him before the mission walls next morning. His face and hands +were covered with pustules as if from smallpox. + +"The _nonos_ (sand-flies) are so furious the last month," he said +with a patient smile. "I have not slept but an hour at a time. I was +afraid I would go mad." + +News of his coming brought all the valley Catholics to eight o'clock +mass. The banana-shaded road and the roots of the old banian were +crowded with worshippers in all their finery, and when they poured +into the mission the few rude benches were well filled. I found a +chair in the rear, next to that of Baufre, the shaggy drunkard, and +as the chanting began, I observed an empty _prie-dieu_, specially +prepared and placed for some person of importance. + +"Mademoiselle N----" said Baufre, noticing the direction of my glance. +"She is the richest woman in all the Marquesas." + +At the Gospel she came in, walking slowly down the aisle and taking +her place as though unaware of the hundred covert glances that +followed her. Wealth is comparative, and Mademoiselle N----, with +perhaps a few hundred thousand dollars in cash and cocoanut-grove, +stood to the island people as Rockefeller to us. Money and lands +were not all her possessions, for though she had never traveled from +her birthplace, she was very different in carriage and costume from +the girls about her. + +She wore a black lace gown, clinging, and becoming her slender +figure and delicately charming face. Her features were exquisite, +her eyes lustrous black pools of passion, her mouth a scarlet line +of pride and disdain. A large leghorn hat of fine black straw, with +chiffon, was on her graceful head, and her tiny feet were in silk +stockings and patent leather. She held a gold and ivory prayer-book +in gloved hands, and a jeweled watch hung upon her breast. + +She might have passed for a Creole or for one of those beautiful +Filipino _mestizas_, daughters of Spanish fathers and Filipino +mothers. I suppose coquetry in woman was born with the fig-leaf. +This dainty, fetching heiress, born of a French father and a savage +mother, had all the airs and graces of a ballroom belle. Where had +she gained these fashions and desires of the women of cities, of +Europe? + +I had but to look over the church to feel her loneliness. Teata, +Many Daughters, Weaver of Mats, and Flower, savagely handsome, +gaudily dressed, were the only companions of her own age. Flower, of +the red-gold hair, was striking in a scarlet gown of sateen, a +wreath of pink peppers, and a necklace of brass. She had been +ornamented by the oarsmen of the _Jeanne d'Arc_, fortunately without +Pere Victorien's knowledge. Teata, in her tight gown with its +insertions of fishnet revealing her smooth, tawny skin, a red scarf +about her waist, straw hat trimmed with a bright blue Chinese shawl +perched on her high-piled hair, was still a picture of primitive and +savage grace. They were handsome, these girls, but they were wild +flowers. Mlle. N---- had the poise and delicacy of the hothouse +blossom. + +Her father had spent thirty years on Hiva-oa, laboring to wring a +fortune from the toil of the natives, and dying, he had left it all +to this daughter, who, with her laces and jewels, her elegant, slim +form and haughty manner, was in this wild abode of barefooted, +half-naked people like a pearl in a gutter. She was free now to do +what she liked with herself and her fortune. What would she do? + +It was the question on every tongue and in every eye when, after mass, +she passed down the lane respectfully widened for her in the throng +on the steps and with a black-garbed sister at her side, walked to +the nuns' house. + +"If only she had a religious vocation," sighed Sister Serapoline. +"That would solve all difficulties, and save her soul and happiness." + +Vainly the nuns and priests had tried during the dozen years of her +tutelage in their hands to direct her aspirations toward this goal, +but one had only to look into her burning eyes or see the supple +movement of her body, to know that she sought her joy on earth. + +Liha-Liha, the natives called her father, which means corporal, and +that they had hated and yet feared him when Hiva-oa was still given +over to cannibalism outlined his character. He had lived and died in +his house near the Stinking Springs on the road to Taaoa. The sole +white man in that valley, he had lorded it over the natives more +sternly than had their old chiefs. He had fought down the wilderness, +planted great cocoanut-plantations, forced the unwilling islanders +to work for him, and dollar by dollar, with an iron will, he had +wrung from their labor the fortune now left in the dainty hands of +his half-savage daughter. + +Song of the Nightingale, the convict cook of the governor, gave me +light on the man. + +"I loved his woman, Piiheana (Climber of Trees Who Was Killed and +Eaten), who was the mother of Mademoiselle N----," said Song of the +Nightingale. "One night he found me with her on his _paepae_. He shot +me; then he had me condemned as a robber, and I spent five years in +the prison at Tai-o-hae." + +"And Climber of Trees Who Was Killed and Eaten?" + +"He beat her till her bones were broken, and sent her from him. Then +he took Daughter of a Piece of Tattooing, to whom he left in his +will thirty-five thousand francs. It was she who brought up +Mademoiselle." + +Mademoiselle herself walked daintily down to the road, where her +horse was tied, and I was presented to her. She gave me her hand +with the air of a princess, her scarlet lips quivering into a faint +smile and her smouldering, unsatisfied eyes sweeping my face. With a, +conciliating, yet imperious, air, she suggested that I ride over the +hills with her. + +Picking up her lace skirt and frilled petticoat, she vaulted into +the man's saddle without more ado, and took the heavy reins in her +small gloved hands. Her horse was scrubby, but she rode well, as do +all Marquesans, her supple body following his least movement and her +slim, silk-stockinged legs clinging as though she were riding +bareback. When the swollen river threatened to wet her varnished +slippers, she perched herself on the saddle, feet and all, and made +a dry ford. + +Over the hills she led the way at a gallop, despite wretched trail +and tripping bushes. Down we went through the jungle, walled in by a +hundred kinds of trees and ferns and vines. Now and then we came +into a cleared space, a native plantation, a hut surrounded by +breadfruit-, mango- and cocoanut-, orange- and lime-trees. No one +called "_Kaoho!_" and Mademoiselle N---- did not slacken her pace. +We swept into the jungle again without a word, my horse following her +mount's flying feet, and I ducking and dodging branches and +noose-like vines. + +In a marshy place, where patches of _taro_ spread its magnificent +leaves over the earth, we slowed to a walk. The jungle tangle was +all about us; a thousand bright flowers, scarlet, yellow, purple, +crimson, splashed with color the masses of green; tall ferns +uncurled their fronds; giant creepers coiled like snakes through the +boughs, and the sluggish air was heavy with innumerable delicious +scents. I said to Mademoiselle N---- that the beauty of the islands +was like that of a fantastic dream, an Arabian Night's tale. + +"Yes?" she said, with a note of weariness and irony. The feet of the +horses made a sucking sound on the oozy ground. "I am half white," +she said after a moment, and as the horses' hoofs struck the rocky +trail again, she whipped up her mount and we galloped up the slope. + +After a time the trail widened into a road and I saw before us a +queer enclosure. At first sight I thought it a wild-animal park. +There were small houses like cages and a big, box-like structure in +the center, all enclosed in a wire fence, a couple of acres in all. +Drawing nearer, I saw that the houses were cabins painted in gaudy +colors, and that the white box was a marble tomb of great size. Each +slab of marble was rimmed with scarlet cement, and the top of the +tomb, under a corrugated iron roof, was covered with those abominable +bead-wreaths from Paris. + +Like the humbler Marquesans who have their coffins made and graves +dug before their passing, Mademoiselle N----'s father had seen to it +that this last resting-place was prepared while he lived, and he had +placed it here in the center of his plantation, before the house that +had been his home for thirty years. With something of his own crude +strength and barbaric taste, it stood there, the grim reminder of +her white father to the girl in whose veins his own blood mingled +with that of the savage. + +She looked at it without emotion, and after I had surveyed it, we +dismounted and she led me into her house. It was a neat and +showily-furnished cottage, whose Nottingham-lace curtains, varnished +golden-oak chairs and ingrain carpet spoke of attempts at mail-order +beautification. Sitting on a horse-hair sofa, hard and slippery, I +drank wine and ate mangoes, while opposite me Mademoiselle N----'s +mother sat in stiff misery on a chair. She was a withered Marquesan +woman, barefooted and ugly, dressed in a red cotton garment of the +hideous night-gown pattern introduced by the missionaries, and her +eyes were tragedies of bewilderment and suffering, while her +toothless mouth essayed a smile and she struggled with a few words +of bad French. + +Though Mademoiselle N---- was most hospitable, she was not at ease, +and I knew it was because of the appearance of her mother, this +woman whom her father had discarded years before, but to whom the +daughter had shown kindness since his death. The mother appeared +more at ease with her successor, a somewhat younger Marquesan woman, +who waited on us as a servant, and seemed contented enough. +Doubtless the two who had endured the moods of Liha-Liha had many +confidences now that he was gone. + +I had to describe America to Mademoiselle N----, and the inventions +and social customs of which she had read. She would not want to live +in such a big country, she said, but Tahiti seemed to combine +comfort with the atmosphere of her birthplace. Perhaps she might go +to Tahiti to live. + +As I took my hat to leave, she said: + +"I have been told that they are separating the lepers in Tahiti and +confining them outside Papeite in a kind of prison. Is that so?" + +"Not a prison," I replied. "The government has built cottages for +them in a little valley. Don't you think it wise to segregate them?" + +She did not reply, and I rode away. + +A week later I met her one evening at Otupoto, that dividing place +between the valleys of Taaoa and Atuona, where Kahuiti and his +fellow warriors had trapped the human meat. I had walked there to +sit on the edge of the precipice and watch the sun set in the sea. +She came on horseback from her home toward the village, to spend +Sunday with the nuns. She got off her horse when she saw me, and lit +a cigarette. + +"What do you do here all alone?" she asked in French. She never used +a word of Marquesan to me. I replied that I was trying to imagine +myself there fifty years earlier, when the meddlesome white sang +very low in the concert of the island powers. + +"The people were happier then, I suppose," she said meditatively, as +she handed me her burning cigarette in the courteous way of her +mother's people. "But it does not attract me. I would like to see +the world I read of." + +She sat beside me on the rock, her delicately-modeled chin on her +pink palm, and gazed at the colors fading from vivid gold and rose +to yellow and mauve on the sky and the sea. The quietness of the +scene, the gathering twilight, perhaps, too, something in the fact +that I was a white man and a stranger, broke down her reserve. + +"But with whom can I see that world?" she said with sudden passion. +"Money--I have it. I don't want it. I want to be loved. I want a man. +What shall I do? I cannot marry a native, for they do not think as I +do. I--I dread to marry a Frenchman. You know _le droit du mari_? A +French wife has no freedom." + +I cited Madame Bapp, who chastised her spouse. + +"He is no man, that _criquet!_" she said scornfully. + +"I would be better off not to marry, if I had a real man who loved me, +and who would take me across the sea! What am I saying? The nuns +would be shocked. I do not know--oh, I do not know what it is that +tears at me! But I want to see the world, and I want a man to love me." + +"Your islands here are more beautiful than any of the developed +countries," I said. "There are many thieves there, too, to take your +money." + +"I have read that," she answered, "and I am not afraid. I am afraid +of nothing. I want to know a different life than here. I will at +least go to Tahiti. I am tired of the convent. The nuns talk always +of religion, and I am young, and I am half French. We die young, +most of us, and I have had no pleasure." + +I saw her black eyes, as she puffed her cigarette, shining with her +vision. Some man would put tears in them soon, I thought, if she +chose that path. + +Would she be happy in Tahiti? If she could find one of her own kind, +a half-caste, a paragon of kindness and fidelity, she might be. With +the white she would know only torture. There is but one American that +I know who has made a native girl happy. Lovina, who keeps the Tiare +Hotel in Papeite and who knows the gossip of all the South Seas, +told me the story one day after he had come to the hotel to fetch +two dinners to his home. He had a handsome motor-car, and the man +himself was so clean-looking, so precise in every word and motion, +that I spoke of the contrast to the skippers, officials, and +tourists who lounged about Lovina's bar. + +"He is a strange one, that man," said Lovina. "Two years ago I have +nice girl here, wait on bar, look sweet, and I make her jus' so my +daughter. I go America for visit, and when I come back that girl +ruin'. That American take her 'way, and he come tell me straight he +couldn't help it. He jus' love her--mad. He build her fine house, +get automobile. She never work. Every day he come here get meals +take home." + +That tall, straight chap, his hair prematurely gray, his face sad, +had made the barmaid the jewel of a golden setting. He devoted +himself and his income solely to her. Stranger still, he had made +her his legal wife. + +But she is an exception rare as rain in Aden. These native girls of +mixed blood, living tragedies sprung from the uncaring selfishness +of the whites, struggle desperately to lift themselves above the +mire in which the native is sinking. They throw themselves away on +worthless adventurers, who waste their little patrimony, break their +hearts, and either desert them after the first flush of passion +passes, or themselves sink into a life of lazy slovenliness worse +than that of the native. + +All these things I pondered when Mlle. N---- spoke of her hope of +finding happiness in Tahiti. I was sure that, with her wealth, she +would have many suitors,--but what of a tender heart? + +"It is love I want," she said. "Love and freedom. We women are used +to having our own way. I know the nuns would be horrified, but I +shall bind myself to no man." + +The last colors of the sunset faded slowly on the sea, and the world +was a soft gray filled with the radiance of the rising moon. I rose +and when Mile. N---- had mounted I strolled ahead of her horse in +the moonlight. I was wearing a tuberose over my ear, and she remarked +it. + +"You know what that signifies? If a man seeks a woman, he wears a +white flower over his ear, and if his love grows ardent, he wears a +red rose or hibiscus. But if he tires, he puts some green thing in +their place. _Bon dieu!_ That is the depth of ignominy for the woman +scorned. I remember one girl who was made light of that way in church. +She stayed a day hidden in the hills weeping, and then she threw +herself from a cliff." + +There was in her manner a melancholy and a longing. + +"Tahitians wear flowers all the day," I said. "They are gay, and +life is pleasant upon their island. There are automobiles by the +score, cinemas, singing, and dancing every evening, and many +Europeans and Americans. With money you could have everything." + +"It is not singing and dancing I desire!" she exclaimed. "_Pas de +tout!_ I must know more people, and not people like priests and +these copra dealers. I have read in novels of men who are like gods, +who are bold and strong, but who make their women happy. Do you know +an officer of the _Zelee_, with hair like a ripe banana? He is tall +and plays the banjo. I saw him one time long ago when the warship +was here. He was on the governor's veranda. Oh, that was long ago, +but such a young man would be the man that I want." + +Her Marquesan blood was speaking in that cry of the heart, +unrestrained and passionate. They are not the cold, chaste women of +other climes, these women of the Marquesas; with blood at fever heat +and hearts beating like wild things against bars, they listen when +love or its counterfeit pours into their ears those soft words with +nothing in them that make a song. They have no barriers of reserve +or haughtiness; they make no bargains; they go where the heart goes, +careless of certified vows. + +"_Mon dieu!_" Mademoiselle N---- exclaimed and put her tiny hand to +her red lips. "What if the good sisters heard me? I am bad. I know. +_Eh bien!_ I am Marquesan after all." + +We were about to cross the stream by my cabin, and I mounted the +horse behind her to save a wetting. She turned impulsively and +looked at me, her lovely face close to mine, her dark eyes burning, +and her hot breath on my cheek. + +"Write to me when you are in Tahiti, and tell me if you think I +would be happy there?" she said imploringly. "I have no friends here, +except the nuns. I need so much to go away. I am dying here." + +Coming up my trail a few days later, I found on my _paepae_ a +shabbily dressed little bag-of-bones of a white man, with a dirty +gray beard and a harsh voice like that of Baufre. He had a note to +me from Le Brunnec, introducing M. Lemoal, born in Brest, a +naturalized American. The note was sealed, and I put it carefully +away before turning to my visitor. It read: + + "CHER CITOYEN: + + "I send you a specimen of the Marquesan beaches, so that you can + have a little fun. This fellow have a very tremendous life. He is an + old sailor, pirate, gold-miner, Chinese-hanger, thief, robber, + honest-man, baker, trader; in a word, an interesting type. With the + aid of several glasses of wine I have put him in the mood to talk + delightfully." + +A low-browed man was Lemoal, sapped and ruthless, but certainly he +had adventured. + +Was the Bella Union Theater still there in Frisco? Did they still +fight in Bottle Meyers, and was his friend Tasset on the police +force yet? His memories of San Francisco ante-dated mine. He had +been a hoodlum there, and had helped to hang Chinese. He had gone to +Tahiti in 1870 and made a hundred thousand francs keeping a bakery. +That fortune had lasted him during two years' tour of the world. + +"Now I'm bust," he said bitterly. "Now I got no woman, no children, +no friends, and I don't want none. I am by myself and damn everybody!" + +I soothed his misanthropy with two fingers of rum, and he mellowed +into advice. + +"I saw you with that daughter of Liha-Liha," he said, using the +native name of the dead millionaire. "You be careful. One time I +baked bread in Taaoa. My oven was near his plantation. I saw that +girl come into the woods and take off her dress. She had a mirror to +see her back, and I looked, and the sun shone bright. What she saw, +I saw--a patch of white. She is a leper, that rich girl." + +His eyes were full of hate. + +"You don't like her," I said. "Why?" + +"Why? Why?" he screamed. "Because her father was an accursed villian. +He was always kissing the dirty hands of the priests. He used to +give his workmen opium to make them work faster, and then he would +go to church. He made his money, yes. He was damn hypocrite. And now +his daughter, with all that rotten money, is a leper. I tell +everybody what I saw. Everybody here knows it but you. Everybody +will know it in Tahiti if she goes there." + +The man was like a snake to me. I threw away the glass he had drunk +from. And yet--was it idle curiosity, or was it fear of being shut +away in the valley outside Papeite by the quarantine officers, that +made her ask me that question about the segregation of lepers? + +Liha-Liha had spent thirty years making money. He had coined the +sweat and blood and lives of a thousand Marquesans into a golden +fortune, and he had left behind him that fortune, a marble tomb, and +Mlle. N----. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A journey to Nuka-hiva; story of the celebration of the fete of Joan +of Arc, and the miracles of the white horse and the girl. + + +Pere Victorien said that I must not leave the Marquesas before I +visited the island of Nuka-hiva seventy miles to the northward and +saw there in Tai-o-hae, the capital of the northern group of islands, +a real saint. + +"A wonderful servant of Christ," he said, "Pere Simeon Delmas. He is +very old, and has been there since the days of strife. He has not +been away from the islands for fifty years, but God preserves him for +His honor and service. Pere Simeon would be one of the first in our +order were he in Europe, but he is a martyr and wishes to earn his +crown in these islands and die among his charges. He is a saint, as +truly as the blessed ones of old. + +"It was he who planned the magnificent celebration of the feast of +Joan of Arc some years ago, and as to miracles, I truly believe that +the keeping safe of the white horse during the terrible storm and +perhaps even the preservation of a maiden worthy to appear in the +armor of the Maid, are miracles as veritable as the apparition at +Lourdes. _Pour moi_, I am convinced that Joan is one of the most +glorious saints in heaven, and that Pere Simeon himself is of the +band of blessed martyrs." + +"Ah, Pere Victorien, I would like nothing better than to meet that +good man," I said, "but I am at a loss to get to Tai-o-hae. The +_Roberta_, Capriata's steamer, will not be here for many weeks, +and there is no other in the archipelago just now." + +"You shall return with me in the _Jeanne d'Arc_," he replied quickly. +"It may be an arduous voyage for you, but you will be well repaid." + +A fortnight later his steersman came running to my cabin to tell me +to be ready at one o'clock in the morning. + +The night was a myriad of stars on a vast ebon canopy. One could see +only shadows in denser shadows, and the serene sure movements of the +men as they lifted the whale-boat from Bauda's shed and carried it +lightly to the water were mysterious to me. Their eyes saw where +mine were blind. Pere Victorien and I were seated in the boat, and +they shoved off, breast-deep in the turmoil of the breakers, running +alongside the bobbing craft until it was in the welter of foam and, +then with a chorus, in unison, lifting themselves over the sides and +seizing the oars before the boat could turn broadside to the shore. + +"He-ee Nuka-hiva!" they sang in a soft monotone, while they pulled +hard for the mouth of the bay. The priest and I were fairly +comfortable in the stern, the steersman perched behind us on the +very edge of the combing, balancing himself to the rise and fall of +the boat as an acrobat on a rope. I laid my head on my bag and fell +asleep before the sea had been reached. The last sound in my ears +was the voice of Pere Victorien reciting his rosary. + +I awoke to find a breeze careening our sail and the _Jeanne d'Arc_ +rushing through a pale blue world--pale blue water, pale blue sky, +and, it seemed, pale blue air. No single solid thing but the boat +was to be seen in the indefinite immensity. Sprawling on its bottom +in every attitude of limp relaxation, the oarsmen lay asleep; only Pere +Victorien was awake, his hands on the tiller and his eyes gazing +toward the east. + +"_Bonjour!_" said he. "You have slept well. Your angel guardian +thinks well of you. The dawn comes." + +I asked him if I might relieve him of tiller and sheet, and he, with +an injunction to keep the sail full and far, unpocketed his breviary, +and was instantly absorbed in its contents. + +Our tack was toward the eastern distance, and no glimpse of land or +cloud made us aught but solitary travelers in illimitable space. The +sun was beneath the deep, but in the hush of the pale light one felt +the awe of its coming. Slowly a faint glow began to gild a line that +circled the farthest east. Gold it was at first, like a segment of a +marriage ring, then a bolt of copper shot from the level waters to +the zenith and a thousand vivid colors were emptied upon the sky and +the sea. Roses were strewn on the glowing waste, rose and gold and +purple curtained the horizon, and suddenly, without warning, abrupt +as lightning, the sun beamed hot above the edge of the world. + +The Marquesans stirred, their bodies stretched and their lungs +expanded in the throes of returning consciousness. Then one sat up +and called loudly, "_A titahi a atu!_ Another day!" The others rose, +and immediately began to uncover the _popoi_ bowl. They had canned +fish and bread, too, and ate steadily, without a word, for ten +minutes. The steersman, who had joined them, returned to the helm, +and the priest and I enjoyed the bananas and canned beef with water +from the jug, and cigarettes. + +All day the _Jeanne d'Arc_ held steadily on the several tacks we +steered, and all day no living thing but bird or fish disturbed the +loneliness of the great empty sea. Pere Victorien read his breviary +or told his beads in abstracted contemplation, and I, lying on the +bottom of the boat with my hat shielding my eyes from the beating +rays of the sun, pondered on what I knew of Tai-o-hae, the port on +the island of Nuka-hiva, to which we were bound. + +For two hundred years after the discovery of the southern group--the +islands we had left behind us--the northern group was still unknown +to the world. Captain Ingraham, of Boston, found Nuka-hiva in 1791, +and called the seven small islets the Washington Islands. Twenty +years later, during the war of 1812, Porter refitted his ships there +to prey upon the British, and but for the perfidy,--or, from another +view, the patriotism,--of an Englishman in his command, Porter might +have succeeded in making the Marquesas American possessions. + +Tai-o-hae became the seat of power of the whites in the islands; it +waxed in importance, saw admirals, governors, and bishops sitting in +state on the broad verandas of government buildings, witnessed that +new thing, the making of a king and queen, knew the stolid march of +convicts, white and brown, images of saints carried in processions, +and schools opened to regenerate the race of idol-worshippers. + +Tai-o-hae saw all the plans of grandeur wane, saw saloons and opium, +vice and disease, fastened upon the natives, and saw the converted, +the old gods overthrown, the new God reigning, cut down like trees +when the fire runs wild in the forest. + +The dream of minting the strength and happiness of the giant men of +the islands into gold for the white labor-kings dissolved into a +nightmare as the giants perished. It was hard to make the free +peoples toil as slaves for foreign masters, so the foreign masters +brought opium. To get this "Cause of Wonder Sleep," of more delight +than _kava_, the Marquesan was taught to hoe and garner cotton, to +gather copra and even to become the servant of the white man. The +hopes of the invaders were rosy. They faded quickly. The Marquesans +faded faster. The saloons of Tai-o-hae were gutters of drunkenness. +The _paepaes_ were wailing-places for the dead. No government +arrested vice or stopped the traffic in death-dealing drugs until too +late. Then, with no people left to exploit, the colonial ministers +in Paris forgot the Marquesas. + +In the lifetime of a man, Tai-o-hae swelled from a simple native +village with thousands of healthy, happy people, to the capital of +an archipelago, with warships, troops, prisons, churches, schools, +and plantations, and reverted to a deserted, melancholy beach, with +decaying, uninhabited buildings testifying to catastrophe. Since +Kahuiti, my man-eating friend of Taaoa, was born, the cycle had been +completed. + +I was on my way now to see, in Tai-o-hae, a man who was giving his +life to bring the white man's religion to the few dying natives who +remained. + +At dusk the wind died, and we put out the oars. Hour after hour the +rowers pulled, chanting at times ancient lays of the war-canoes, of +the fierce fights of their fathers when hundreds fed the sharks +after the destruction of their vessels by the conquerors, and of the +old gods who had reigned before the white men came. Pere Victorien +listened musingly. + +"They should be singing of the Blessed Mother or of Joan," he said +with sorrow. "But when they pull so well I cannot deny them a thread +of that old pagan warp. Those devils whom they once worshipped wait +about incessantly for a word of praise. They hate the idea that we +are hurrying to the mission, and they would like well to delay us." + +Whatever the desires of those devils, they were balked, for the wind +came fair during the second night, and when the second dawning came +we were in the bay of Tai-o-hae. + +It was a basin of motionless green water, held in the curve of a +shore shaped like a horseshoe, with two huge headlands of rock for +the calks. The beach was a rim of white between the azure of the +water and the dark green of the hills that rose steeply from it. +Above them the clouds hung in varying shapes, here lit by the sun to +snowy fleece, there black and lowering. On the lower slopes a few +houses peeped from the embowering _parau_ trees, and on a small hill, +near the dismantled fort, the flag of France drooped above the +gendarme's cabin. + +By eight o'clock in the morning, when we reached the shore, the +beach was shimmering in the sunlight, the sand gleaming under the +intense rays as if reflecting the beams of gigantic mirrors. +Heat-waves quivered in the moist air. + +This was the beach that had witnessed the strange career of John +Howard, a Yankee sailor who had fled a Yankee ship fifty years +before and made his bed for good and all in the Marquesas. Lying +Bill Pincher had told me the story. Howard, known to the natives as +T'yonny, had been welcomed by them in their generous way, and the +_tahuna_ had decorated him from head to foot in the very highest +style of the period. In a few years, what with this tattooing and +with sunburn, one would have sworn him to be a Polynesian. He was +ambitious, and by alliances acquired an entire valley, which he left +to his son, T'yonny Junior. Mr. Howard, senior, garbed himself like +the natives and was like them in many ways, but he retained a deep +love for his country and its flag, and when he saw an American +man-of-war entering the harbor, he went aboard with his many tawny +relatives-in-law. + +The captain was amazed to hear him talking with the sailors. + +"'E was blooming well knocked off 'is pins," said Lying Bill. +"'Blow me!' 'e sez, 'if that blooming cannibal don't talk the King's +English as if 'e was born in New York!' 'E 'ad 'im down in the cabin +to 'ave a drink, thinking 'e was a big chief. 'Oward took a cigar and +smoked it and drank 'is whiskey with a gulp and a wry face like all +Americans. + +"'I must say,' sez the captain, 'you're the most intelligent 'eathen +I've seen in the 'ole blooming run.' + +"'Eathen?' sez 'Oward. 'Me a 'eathen! I was born in Iowa, and I'm a +blooming good American.'" + +"'What, you an American citizen?' sez the captain. 'Born in my own +state, and painted up like Sitting Bull on the warpath? Get off this +ship,' sez 'e, wild, 'get off this ship, or I'll put you in irons +and take you back to the blooming jail you escaped from!' + +"'Oward leaped over the side and swum ashore." + +An avenue ran the length of the beach, shaded by trees, and crossing +a gentle stream. Along this avenue was all the life and commerce of +Tai-o-hae. Two traders' shops, empty offices, a gendarme, a handful +of motley half-castes lounging under the trees--this was all that +was left of former greatness. Only nature had not changed. It flung +over the broken remnants of the glory and the dream its lovely cloak +of verdure and of flower. Man had almost ceased to be a figure in the +scene he had dominated for untold centuries. + +Crossing the stepping-stones of the brook we met a darkish, stout +man in overalls. + +"Good morn'," he said pleasantly. I looked at him and guessed his +name at once. + +"Good-morning," I answered. "You are the son of T'yonny." + +"My father, Mist' Howard, dead," he said. "You _Menike_ like him?" + +Before I could answer something entered my ear and something my nose. +These somethings buzzed and bit fearsomely. I coughed and sputtered. +An old woman on the bank was sitting in the smudge of a fire of +cocoanut husks. She was scratching her arms and legs, covered with +angry red blotches. + +"The _nonos_ never stop biting," she said in French. These _nonos_ +are the dread sand-flies that Pere Victorien had run from to get +some sleep in Atuona. They are a kind of gadfly, red-hot needles on +wings. + +We sauntered along the road, tormented by the buzzing pests at which +we constantly slapped and, crossing a tiny bridge over the brook, +approached the Mission of Tai-o-hae, that once pompous and powerful +center of the diffusion of the faith throughout the Marquesas. The +road was lined with guavas, mangos, cocoanuts, and tamarinds, all +planted with precision and care. The ambitious fathers who had begun +these plantings scores of years before had provided the choicest +fruits for their table. All over the world the members of the great +religious orders of Europe have carried the seeds of the best +varieties of fruits and flowers, of trees and shrubs and vegetables; +more than organized science they deserve the credit for introducing +non-native species into all climes. + +About the mission grounds was a stone wall, stout and fairly high, +which had assured protection when orgies of indulgence in rum had +made the natives brutal. The clergy must survive if souls are to be +saved. Within the wall stood the church, the school, and a rambling +rectory, all made beautiful by age and the artistry of tropical +nature. Mosses and lichens, mosaics of many shades of green, faint +touches of red and yellow mould, covered the old walls which were +fast decaying and falling to pieces. + +By the half-unhinged door stood an old man of venerable figure, his +long beard still dark, though his hair was quite white. He wore a +soiled soutane down to the ankles of his rusty shoes, a sweaty, +stained, smothering gown of black broadcloth, which rose and +fell with his hurried respiration. His eyes of deepest brown, +large and lustrous, were the eyes of an old child, shining with +simple enthusiasms and lit with a hundred memories of worthy +accomplishments or efforts. + +[Illustration: Pere Simeon Delmas' church at Tai-o-hae] + +[Illustration: Gathering the _feis_ in the mountains] + +Pere Victorien presented me, saying that I was a lover of the +Marquesas, and specially interested in Joan of Arc. Pere Simeon +seized me by the hand and, drawing me toward him, gave me the +accolade as if I were a reunited brother. Then he presented me to a +Marquesan man at his side, "_Le chef de l'isle de Huapu_," who was +waiting to escort him to that island that he might say mass and hear +confession. The chief was for leaving at once, and Pere Simeon +lamented that he had no time in which to talk to me. + +I said I had heard it bruited in my island of Hiva-oa that the +celebration of the fete of Joan of Arc had been marked by +extraordinary events indicating a special appreciation by the +heavenly hosts. + +Tears came into the eyes of the old priest. He dismissed the chief +at once, and after saying farewell to Pere Victorien, who was +embarking immediately for his own island of Haitheu, Pere Simeon and +I entered his study, a pitifully shabby room where rickety furniture, +quaking floor, tattered wall-coverings, and cracked plates and +goblets spelled the story of the passing of an institution once +possessing grandeur and force. Seated in the only two sound chairs, +with wine and cigarettes before us, we took up the subject so dear +to Pere Simeon's heart. + +"I am glad if you cannot be a Frenchman that at least you are not an +Englishman," he said fervently. "God has punished England for the +murder of Jeanne d'Arc. That day at Rouen when they burned my beloved +patroness ended England. Now the English are but merchants, and they +have a heretical church. + +"You should have seen the honors we paid the Maid here. _Mais, +Monsieur_, she has done much for these islands. The natives love her. +She is a saint. She should be canonized. But the opposition will not +down. There is reason to believe that the devil, Satan himself, or +at least important aides of his, are laboring against the doing of +justice to the Maid. She is powerful now, and doubtless has great +influence with the Holy Virgin in Heaven, but as a true saint she +would be invincible." The old priest's eyes shone with his faith. + +"You do not doubt her miraculous intercession?" I asked. + +Pere Simeon lit another cigarette, watered his wine, and lifted from +a shelf a sheaf of pamphlets. They were hectographed, not printed +from type, for he is the human printing-press of all this region, +and all were in his clear and exquisite writing. He held them and +referred to them as he went on. + +"She was born five hundred years ago on the day of the procession in +Tai-o-hae. That itself is a marvel. Such an anniversary occurs but +twice in a millennium. After all my humble services in these islands +that I should be permitted to be here on such a wonderful day proves +to me the everlasting mercy of God. Here is the account I have +written in Marquesan of her life, and here the record of the fete +upon the anniversary." + +As he showed me the brochures written beautifully in purple and red +inks, recording the history of the Maid of Orleans, with many +canticles in her praise, learned dissertations upon her career and +holiness, maps showing her march and starred at Oleane, Kopiegne, +and Rua to indicate that great things had occurred at Orleans, Compiegne, +and Rouen, Pere Simeon pointed out to me that it was of supreme +importance that the Marquesan people should be given a proper +understanding of the historical and geographical conditions of +England and France in Joan's time. + +He had spent months, even years, in preparing for the celebration of +her fete-day. + +"And _Monsieur_, by the blessed grace of Joan, only the whites got +drunk. Not a Marquesan was far gone in liquor throughout the three +days of the feast. There was temptation in plenty, for though I gave +only the chiefs and a few intimates any wine, several of the +Europeans in their enthusiasm for our dear patroness distributed +absinthe and rum to those who had the price. There was a moment when +it seemed touch and go between the devil and Joan. But, oh, how she +came to our rescue! I reproached the whites, locked up the rum, and +Joan did the rest. It was a three-days' feast of innocence." + +"But there are not many whites here?" I asked. + +"No," he replied. "There are one hundred and twenty people in +Tai-o-hae now, and but a few are whites. Alas, _mon ami_, they do +not set a good example. They mean well; they are brave men, but they +do not keep the commandments. Here is a chart I drew showing the +rise of the church since Peter. It is divided into twenty periods, +and I have allotted the fifteenth to Joan. She well merits a period." + +My mind continually harked back to the prompting of Pere Victorien +concerning the horse and the girl of the jubilee. + +"There were signs at the commemoration?" I interposed. + +Pere Simeon glanced at me eagerly. His naivete was not of ignorance +of men and their motives. He had confessed royalty, cannibals, +pirates, and nuns. The souls of men were naked under his scrutiny. +But his faith burned like a lambent flame, and to win to the +standard of the Maid of Orleans one who would listen was a duty owed +her, and a rare chance to aid a fellow mortal. + +He rose and brushed the cigarette ashes down the front of his frayed +cassock as an old native woman responded to his call and brought +another bottle of Bordeaux. The _nonos_ were incessantly active. I +slapped at them constantly and sucked at the wounds they made. But +he paid no attention to them at all except when they attacked him +under his soutane; then he struck convulsively at the spot. + +"God sends us such trials to brighten our crown," he said +comfortingly. "I have seen white men dead from the _nonos_. They +were not here in the old days, but since the jungle has overrun us +because of depopulation, they are frightful. During the mass, when +the priest cannot defend himself, they are worst, as if sent by the +devil who hates the holy sacrifice. But, _mon vieux_, you were +asking about those signs. _Alors_, I will give the facts to you, and +you can judge." + +He poured me a goblet of the wine; I removed my cotton coat, covered +my hands with it, against the gadflies, and prepared to listen. + +"Seven years before the great anniversary," said Pere Simeon, +sipping his wine, "I thought out my plan. There would be masses, +vespers, benedictions, litanies, and choirs. But my mind was set +upon a representation of the Maid as she rode into Rheims to crown +the king after her victories. She was, you will remember, clothed +all in white armor and rode a white horse, both the emblems of purity. +That was the note I would sound, for I believe too much had been +made of Joan the warrior, Joan the heroine, and not enough of Joan +the saint. Oh, _Monsieur_, there have been evil forces at work there!" + +He clasped his thigh with both hands and groaned, and I knew that +though a _nono_ had bitten him there, his anguish was more of soul +than body. I lighted his cigarette, as he proceeded: + +"Two things were needful above all; a handsome white horse and a +Marquesan girl of virtue. Three years before the jubilee I was +enabled, through a gift inspired by Joan, to buy a horse of that +kind in Hiva-oa. I had this mare pastured on that island until the +time came for bringing her here. + +"Now as to the girl, I found in the nun's school a child who was +beautiful, strong, and good. Her father was the captain of a foreign +vessel and had dwelt here for a time; he was of your country. Of the +mother I will not speak. The girl was everything to be desired. But +this was seven years before the day of the fete. That was a +difficulty. + +"I stressed to the good sisters the absolute necessity of bringing +up the child in the perfect path of sanctity. I had her dedicated to +Joan, and special prayers were said by me and by the nuns that the +evil one would not trap her into the sins of other Marquesan girls. +Also she was observed diligently. For seven years we watched and +prayed, and _Monsieur_, we succeeded. I will not say that it was a +miracle, but it was a very striking triumph for Joan. + +"That for the human; now for the beast. A month before the fete I +commissioned Captain Capriata to bring the mare to Tai-o-hae in his +schooner. The animal came safely to the harbor. She was still on deck +when a storm arose, and Capriata thought it best for him to lift his +anchor and go to the open sea. The wind was driving hard toward the +shore, and there was danger of shipwreck." + +The old priest stood up and, leading me to a window, pointed to the +extreme end of the horseshoe circle of the bay. + +"See that point," he said. "Right there, just as Capriata swung his +vessel to head for the sea, the mare broke loose from her halter, +and in a bound reached the rail of the schooner and leaped into the +waves. Capriata could do nothing. The schooner was in peril, and he, +with his hand upon the wheel and his men at the sails, could only +utter an oath. He confesses he did that, and you will find no man +more convinced of the miracle than he." + +The aged missionary paused, his eyes glowing. The _nonos_ that +settled in a swarm on his swollen, poisoned hands were nothing to +him in the rapture of that memory. + +"This happened at night. Throughout the darkness the schooner stayed +outside the bay, returning only at daylight. Immediately after +anchoring, the captain hastened to inform me of the misfortune, and +found me saying mass. It was one of the few times he had ever been +in the sacred edifice." + +Pere Simeon smiled, and held up one finger to emphasize my attention. +"As soon as mass was finished, Capriata told me of what had happened, +and his certainty that the mare was drowned. I fell on my knees and +said a despairing prayer to Joan. That instant we heard a neigh +outside, and rushing out of the church, we saw, cropping the grass +in the mission enclosure, the white mare that was destined to bear +the figure of Joan in the celebration of her fete." + +I could not restrain an exclamation of amazement. "_Vraiment?_" + +"_Absolument_," answered Pere Simeon. "Unbelievers might explain that +waves swept the mare ashore, and that through some instinct she +found her way along the beach or over the hills. But that she should +come to the mission grounds, to the very spot where her home was to +be, though she had never seen the islands before--no, my friend, not +even the materialist could explain that as less than supernatural. I +have sent the proofs to our order in Belgium. They will form part of +the evidence that will one day be offered to bring about the +canonization of Joan." + +"And the procession, was it successful?" I inquired. + +"_Mais oui!_ It was magnificent. When it started there was a grand +fanfare of trumpets, drums, fireworks, and guns. Never was there +such a noise here since the days of battle between the whites and +the natives. There were four choirs of fifty voices each, the +natives from all these nearby islands, each with a common chant in +French and particular _himines_ in Marquesan. I walked first with +the Blessed Sacrament; then came Captain Capriata with the banner of +the mission, and then, proceeded by a choir, came the virgin on the +white horse. + +"She was all in silver armor, as was the mare. Two years before I +had sent to France for the pasteboard and the silver paper, and had +made the armor. The helmet was the _piece de resistance_. The girl +wore it as the Maid herself, and sat the horse without faltering, +despite the _nonos_ and the heat. It was a wonderful day for Joan +and for the Marquesas." + +He sat for a moment lost in the vision. + +"So it was all as you had planned?" + +"_Mon ami_, it was not I, but Joan herself, to whom all honor belongs. +There was a moment--Captain Capriata had taken absinthe with his +morning _popoi_, and was unsteady. He stumbled. I called to him to +breathe a prayer to his patron saint--he is of Ajaccio in +Corsica--and to call upon Joan for aid. He straightened up at once, +after one fall, and bore the white banner of the Maid in good style +from the mission to the deserted inn by the leper-house. + +"We had three superb feasts, one on each day of the fete. We had +speeches and songs, three masses a day to accommodate all, four +first communicants, and two marriages. I will tell you, though it +may be denied by the commercial missionaries, that five protestants +attended and recanted." + +Pere Simeon's eyes flashed as he recalled those memorable days. He +fell into a reverie, scratching his legs after the _nonos_ and +letting his cigarette go out. + +I arose to depart. He must go to Huapu with the chief, who was again +at the door, + +"And did the fete help the parish?" I asked with that bromidic zeal +to please that so often discloses the fly just when the ointment's +smell is sweetest. + +"Alas!" he replied, with a sorrowful shake of his beard. "Even the +girl who had worn the white armor leaped from the mast of a ship to +escape infamy and was drowned. Yet there was grandeur of sacrifice in +that. But for the others, they die fast, too. Some day the priest +will be alone here without a flock." + +He picked up a garment or two, placed the Holy Sacrament with pious +care in his breast, and we walked together through the mournful and +decaying village, passing a few melancholy natives. + +I said to Pere Simeon as he stepped into the canoe, "You are like a +shepherd who pursues his sheep wherever they may wander, to gather +them into the fold at last." + +"_C'est vrai_," he smiled sadly. "The bishop himself had to go to +Hiva-oa from here, because there were really not enough people left +alive for the seat of his bishopric. At least, there will be some +here when I die, for I am old. Ah, thirty years ago, when I came here, +there were souls to be saved! Thousands of them. But I love the last +one. There are still a hundred left on Huapu. There is work yet, for +the devil grows more active yearly." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +America's claim to the Marquesas; adventures of Captain Porter in +1812; war between Haapa and Tai-o-hae, and the conquest of Typee +valley. + + +America might have been responsible for the death of the Marquesan +race had not the young nation been engaged in a deadly struggle with +Great Britain when an American naval captain, David Porter, seized +Nuka-hiva. A hundred years ago the Stars and Stripes floated over +the little hill above the bay, and American cannon upon it commanded +the village of Tai-o-hae. Beneath the verdure is still buried the +proclamation of Porter, with coins of the young republic, unless the +natives dug up the bottle after the destruction of the last of +Porter's forces. They witnessed the ceremony of its planting, which +must have appeared to them a ritual to please the powerful gods of +the whites. Unless respect for the _tapu_ placed on the bottle by +"Opotee" restrained them, they probably brought it to the light and +examined the magic under its cork. + +The adventures of Porter here were as strange and romantic as those +of any of the hundreds of the gypsies of the sea who sailed this +tropic and spilled the blood of a people unused to their ways and +ignorant of their inventions and weapons of power. + +Porter had left the United States in command of the frigate _Essex_, +to destroy British shipping, capture British ships, and British +sailors. Porter, son and nephew of American naval officers, destined +to be foster-father of Farragut, the first American admiral, and +father of the great Admiral Porter, was then in his early thirties +and loved a fight. He harried the British in the Atlantic, doubled +Cape Horn without orders, and did them evil on the high seas, and at +last, with many prisoners and with prize crews aboard his captures, +he made for the Marquesas to refresh his men, repair his ships, and +get water, food, and wood for the voyage home. + +In Tai-o-hae Bay he moored his fleet, and was met by flocks of +friendly canoes and great numbers of the beautiful island women, who +swam out to meet the strangers. Among them he found Wilson, an +Englishman who had long been here and who was tattooed from head to +foot. On first seeing this man Porter was strongly prejudiced +against him, but found him extremely useful as an interpreter, and +concluded that he was an inoffensive fellow whose only failing was a +strong attachment to rum. With Wilson's eagerly offered help, Porter +made friends with the people of Tai-o-hae, established a camp on +shore, and set about revictualing his fleet. + +The tribes of Tai-o-hae, or Tieuhoy, as Porter called it, were +annoyed by the combative Hapaa tribe, or collection of tribes, which +dwelt in a nearby valley, and these doughty warriors came within +half a mile of the American camp, cut down the breadfruit trees, and +made hideous gestures of derision at the white men. In response, +Porter landed a six-pound gun, tremendously heavy, and said that if +the Tai-o-hae tribe would carry it to the top of a high mountain +overlooking the Hapaa valley, he would drive the Hapaas from the +hills where they stood and threatened to descend. + +To Porter's amazement, the Tai-o-hae men, surmounting incredible +difficulties, laid the gun in position, and as the Hapaas scorned +the futile-looking contrivance and declared that they would not make +peace with the whites, Porter sent his first assistant with forty men, +armed with muskets and accompanied by natives carrying these weapons +and ammunition for the cannon. + +The battle began with a great roar of exploding gunpowder, and from +the ships the Americans saw their men driving from height to height +the Hapaas, who fought as they retreated, daring the enemy to follow +them. A friendly native bore the American flag and waved it in +triumph as he skipped from crag to crag, well in the rear of the +white men who pursued the fleeing enemy. + +In the afternoon the victorious forces descended, carrying five dead. +The Hapaas, fighting with stones flung from slings and with spears, +had taken refuge, to the number of four or five thousand, in a +fortress on the brow of a hill. Not one of them had been wounded, and +from their impassable heights they threw down jeers and showers of +stones upon the retiring Tai-o-haes and their white allies. + +This was intolerable. On the second day, with augmented forces, the +Americans stormed the height and took the fort, killing many Hapaas, +who, knowing nothing of the effect of musket bullets, fought till +dead. The wounded were dispatched with war-clubs by the Tai-o-haes, +who dipped their spears in the blood. Wilson said the Tai-o-haes +would eat the corpses. Porter, horrified, interrogated his allies, +who denied any such horrid appetite, so that Porter was not sure +what to believe. + +The Hapaas were now become lovers of the whites, and sent a +deputation to complain that the Taipis (Typees), in another valley, +harrassed them and, being their traditional enemies, were +contemplating raiding Hapaa Valley. The Typees were the most +terrible of all the Nuka-hivans, with four thousand fighting men, +with strongest fortifications and the most resolute hearts. + +The Typees were informed that they must be peaceful, also that they +must send many presents as proof of friendliness, or the white men +would drive them from their valley. The Typees replied that if +Porter were strong enough, he could come and take them. They said +the Americans were white lizards; they could not climb the mountains +without Marquesans to carry their guns, and yet they talked of +chastising the Typees, who had never fled before an enemy and whose +gods were unbeatable. They dared the white men to come among them. + +At this juncture Porter faced treachery in his own camp. He had many +English prisoners captured from British ships, and these made a plot +to escape by poisoning the rum of the Americans. Porter learned of +this, and finding an American sentry asleep he shot him with his own +hand, and ordered every Englishman put in irons. He was also +troubled by mutinies among his own men, who were loth to face any +more battles, being contented as they were with plenty of drink, the +best of food, and the passionate devotion of the native women, who +thronged the camp day and night. With no light hand Porter put down +revolt and mutiny, and prepared to begin war on the Typees. + +First he built a strong fort, assisted by the Tai-o-haes and Hapaas, +and there he took possession of the Marquesas in the name of the +United States. On November 19, 1813, the American flag was run up +over the fort, a salute of seventeen guns was fired from the +artillery mounted there and answered from the ships in the bay. Rum +was freely distributed, and standing in a great concourse of +wondering natives, with the Englishman, Wilson, at his side +interpreting his words, Porter read the following proclamation: + + It is hereby made known to the world that I, David Porter, + a captain in the navy of the United States of America, now in + command of the United States frigate _Essex_, have, on the part + of the United States, taken possession of the island called by + the natives Nooaheevah, generally known by the name of Sir + Henry Martin's Island, but now called Madison's Island. That + by the request and assistance of the friendly tribes residing in + the valley of Tieuhoy, as well as of the tribes residing on the + mountains, whom we have conquered and rendered tributary + to our flag, I have caused the village of Madison to be built, + consisting of six convenient houses, a rope-walk, bakery, and + other appurtenances, and for the protection of the same, as + well as for that of the friendly natives, I have constructed a + fort calculated for mounting sixteen guns, whereon I have + mounted four, and called the same Fort Madison. + + Our rights to this island being founded on Priority of discovery, + conquest, and possession, cannot be disputed. But the + natives, to secure to themselves that friendly protection which + their defenseless situation so much required, have requested to + be admitted into the great American family, whose pure republican + policy approaches so near their own. And in order + to encourage these views to their own interest and happiness, + as well as to render secure our claim to an island valuable on + many considerations, I have taken on myself to promise them + that they shall be so adopted; that our chief shall be their + chief; and they have given assurances that such of their brethren + as may hereafter visit them from the United States shall enjoy + a welcome and hospitable reception among them and be furnished + with whatever refreshments and supplies the island may + afford; that they will protect them against all their enemies + and as far as lies in their power prevent the subjects of Great + Britain from coming among them until peace shall take place + between the two nations. + +There followed a list of the tribes from whom Porter had received +presents, to the number of thirty-one tribes, and the document +continued: + + Influenced by considerations of humanity, which promise + speedy civilization to a race of men who enjoy every mental + and bodily endowment which nature can bestow, and which requires + only art to perfect, as well as by views of policy, which + secure to my country a fruitful and populous island possessing + every advantage of security and supplies for ships, and which + of all others is most happily situated as respects climate and + local position, I do declare that I have, in the most solemn + manner, under the American flag displayed in Fort Madison + and in the presence of numerous witnesses, taken possession of + the said island for the use of the United States. + +To the guileless natives, made happy with rum, listening to the +necessarily imperfect translation of these words, the ceremony may +well have been a strange magic to unknown gods, but it is not +difficult to imagine the feelings of Wilson, the tattooed Englishman, +as he translated this proclamation giving the rich and happy islands +to a country at war with his own. He listened and repeated, however, +with patriotic protests unuttered, and prepared to assist Porter in +his contemplated war against the Typees. + +A week later one of the warships, with five boats and ten war-canoes, +sailed for the Typee beach. Ten canoes of Hapaas joined them there. +The tops of all the neighboring mountains were thronged with friendly +warriors armed with clubs, spears, and slings, and altogether not +less than five thousand men were in the forces under Porter, among +them thirty-five Americans with guns, which he thought enough. + +The Typees pelted them with stones as they sat at breakfast, and +Porter sent a native ambassador, offering peace at the price of +submission. He came back, running madly and bruised by his reception. +Porter then ordered the advance. + +The company advanced into the bushes, and were received by a +veritable rain of stones and spears. Not an enemy was in sight. On +all sides they heard the snapping sound of the slings, the whistling +of the stones, the sibilant hiss of the spears that at every step +fell in increasing numbers, but they could not see whence they came, +and no whisper or rustle of underbrush revealed the lurking Typees. + +They pushed on, hoping to get through the thicket, which Wilson had +assured them was of no great extent. Lieutenant Down's leg was +shattered by a stone, and Porter had to send a party with him to the +rear. This left but twenty-four white men. The native allies did no +fighting, but merely looked on. They were not going to make bitterer +enemies of the Typees if the godlike whites could not whip them. The +situation was desperate. + +However, Porter chose to go on. They crossed a river, and in a +jungle had to crawl on their hands and knees to make progress. They +thought themselves happy to make their way through this, but +immediately found themselves confronted by a high wall of rock, +beyond which the enemy took their stand and showered down stones. +The cartridges were almost exhausted. Porter sent four men to the +ship for more, and, with three men knocked senseless by stones, was +reduced to sixteen men. + +There was nothing to do but run for safety, and pursued by the +sneering foe, they gained the beach. Thence he sent another +messenger to the Typees offering them another chance to surrender +and pay tribute. + +The Typees returned word that they "had driven the whites before them, +that their guns missed fire often, that bullets were not as painful +as stones or spears, that they had plenty of men to spare and the +whites had not. They had counted the boats, knew the number they +would carry, and laughed at the whites." + +The Hapaas and other allies came down from the hills and began to +discuss the victory of the Typees, with fear in their voices and a +certain disdain of the whites. Porter ordered his men into the boats +to return to the ship, but scarcely had they reached it when the +Typees rushed on the Hapaas and drove them into the water. Porter +returned to Tai-o-hae. + +There he saw no alternative but to whip the Typees soundly. This +time he determined to lack no force, and to go without allies. He +selected two hundred men from his ships and prizes, and, with guides, +upon a moonlight evening started to march overland to Typee Valley. + +At midnight they heard the drums beating in Typee Valley. They had +had a fearful march over mountain and dale and around yawning +precipices. Silently they had struggled on, so as to give no hint of +their intention to Typee sentinels or even to a Hapaa village. +Numbers of the Tai-o-hae had followed them, but quietly, and these +now told Porter that the songs floating up from the Typee +settlements were rejoicings at their victory over the Whites and +prayers to the gods to send rain to spoil the guns. + +Porter was for descending at once, but the Tai-o-haes warned him +that the path was so steep and dangerous that even in daylight it +would take all their skill to go down it. To attempt it at night +would be inviting death. + +The Americans lay down to rest on this height, which commanded Typee +Valley, and shortly rain began to fall in torrents. Cries of joy and +praise to their gods arose from the Typees. Porter and his men, +huddled in puddles, unable to find shelter, and fearful that every +blast of the storm might hurl them from their slippery height, tried +in vain to keep muskets and powder dry. + +At daybreak they found half the ammunition useless, and themselves +wearied, while the steepness of the track to the valley, and its +treacherous condition after the rain made it wise to seek the Hapaas +for rest and food. But, first, they fired a volley to let friendly +tribes know they still had serviceable weapons, and as threat and +warning to the Typees. They heard the echo in the blowing of +war-conches, shouts of defiance, and the squealings of the pigs +which the Typees began to catch for removal to the rear. + +The Hapaas were none too pleasant to the whites, and had to be +forced by threats to bringing and cooking hogs and breadfruit. All +day the Americans rested and prepared their arms, at night they slept, +and at the next daybreak they stood again to view the scene of their +approaching battle. + +The valley lay far below them, about nine miles in length and three +in width, surrounded on every side, except at the beach, by lofty +mountains. The upper part was bounded by a precipice many hundred +feet in height, from which a handsome waterfall dropped and formed a +meandering stream that found its outlet in the sea. Villages were +scattered here and there, in the shade of luxuriant cocoanut- and +breadfruit-groves; plantations were laid out in good order, enclosed +within stone walls and carefully cultivated; roads hedged with +bananas cut across the spread of green; everything spoke of industry, +abundance, and happiness. + +A large force of Typee warriors, gathered beside the river that +glided near the foot of the mountain, dared the invaders to descend. +In their rear was a fortified village, secured by strong stone walls. +Nevertheless, the whites started down, and in a shower of stones +captured the village, killed the chief Typee warrior, and chasing +his men from wall to wall, slew all who did not escape. Few fled, +however; they charged repeatedly, even to the very barrels of the +muskets and pistols. + +Porter realized that he would have to fight his way over every foot +of the valley. He cautioned conservation of cartridges, and leaving +two small parties behind to guard the wounded, he, with the main body, +marched onward, followed by hordes of Tai-o-hae and Hapaa men, who +dispatched the wounded Typees with stones and spears. They burned +and destroyed ten villages one by one as they were reached, until +the head of the valley was reached. + +At the foot of the waterfall they turned and began the nine-mile +tramp to the bay. Again they had to meet spear and stone as they +burned temples and homes, great canoes, and wooden gods. Finally +Porter attained the fort that had stopped him during the first fight, +and found it a magnificent piece of construction, of great basaltic +slabs, impregnable from the beach side. He saw that if he had tried +that entrance to the valley again, he would have failed as before. +Only heavy artillery could have conquered that mighty stronghold. + +From the beach the Americans climbed by an easier ascent into the +mountains, leaving a desolated valley behind them, and after +feasting with the Hapaas, they marched back to Tai-o-hae almost dead +with fatigue. + +The Typees sued for peace, and when asked for four hundred hogs sent +so many that Porter released five hundred after branding them. He +had made peace between all the tribes; war was at an end; and with +the island subdued, Porter sailed again to make war on British +shipping. + +He left behind him three captured ships in charge of three officers +and twenty men, with six prisoners of war, ordering them to remain +five months and then go to Chile if no word came from him. Within a +few days the natives began again to show the spirit of resistance +and were brought to courtesy by a show of force. Then another +difficulty arose. All but eight of the crew joined with the English +prisoners in seizing the officers, and put Lieutenant Gamble, the +commander, with four loyal seamen, adrift in a small boat, while the +mutineers went to sea in one of the English ships. + +The five men reached another of the ships in the bay, where they +learned that Wilson had instigated the mutiny. The worst had not come, +for very soon the natives, perhaps also urged on by the Englishman, +murdered all the others but Gamble, one seaman, one midshipman, and +five wounded men. Of the eight survivors, only one was acquainted +with the management of a ship, and all were sufferings from wounds +or disease. With these men Lieutenant Gamble put to sea. + +After incredible hardship, he succeeded in reaching Hawaii, only to +be captured by a British frigate which a few weeks earlier had +assisted in the capture of the _Essex_ and Captain Porter. The +United States never ratified Porter's occupation of Nuka-hiva, and +it was left for the French thirty years later to seize the group. At +about the same time Herman Melville, an American sailor, ventured +overland into Typee Valley, and was captured and treated as a royal +guest by the Typee people. He lived there many months, and heard no +whisper of the havoc wrought by his countrymen a little time before. +The Typees had forgiven and forgotten it; he found them a happy, +healthy, beautiful race, living peacefully and comfortably in their +communistic society, coveting nothing from each other as there was +plenty for all, eager to do honor to a strange guest who, they hoped, +would teach them many useful things. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A visit to Typee; story of the old man who returned too late. + + +I said, of course, that I must visit Typee, the scene of Porter's +bloody raid and Herman Melville's exploits, and while I was making +arrangements to get a horse in Tai-o-hae I met Haus Ramqe, +supercargo of the schooner _Moana_, who related a story concerning +the valley. + +"I was working in the store of the Soceite Comerciale de l'Ocean in +Tai-o-hae when the _Tropic Bird_, a San Francisco mail-schooner, +arrived. That was ten years ago. An old man, an American, came into +our place and asked the way to Typee. + +"'Ah,' I said, 'you have been reading that book by Melville.' He +made no reply, but asked me to escort him to the valley. We set out +on horseback, and though he had not said that he had ever been in +these islands before, I saw that he was strangely interested in the +scenes we passed. He was rather feeble with age, and he grew so +excited as we neared the valley that I asked him what he expected to +see there. + +"He stopped his horse, and hesitated in his reply. He was terribly +agitated. + +"'I lived in Typee once upon a time,' he said slowly. 'Could there +by chance be a woman living there named Manu? That was a long time +ago, and I was young. Still, I am here, and she may be, too.' + +"I looked at him and could not tell him the truth. It was evident he +had made no confidant of the captain or crew of the _Tropic Bird_, +for they could have told him of the desolation in Typee. I hated, +though, to have him plump right into the facts. + +"'How many people were there in your day?' I asked him. He replied +that there were many thousands. + +"'I lived there three years,' he said. 'I had a sweetheart named Manu, +and I married her in the Marquesan way. I was a runaway sailor, and +one night on the beach I was captured and taken away on a ship. I +have been captain of a great American liner for years, always +meaning to come back, and putting it off from year to year. All my +people are dead, and I thought I would come now and perhaps find her +here and end my days. I have plenty of money.' + +"He seemed childish to me--perhaps he really had lost mental poise +by age. I hadn't the courage to tell him the truth. We came on it +soon enough. You must see Typee to realize what people mean to a +place. + +"The _nonos_ were simply hell, but as I had lived a good many years +in Tai-o-hae I was hardened to them. The old man slapped at them +occasionally, but made no complaint. He hardly seemed to feel them, +or to realize what their numbers meant. It was when we pushed up the +trail through the valley, and he saw only deserted _paepaes_, that +he began to look frightened. + +"'Are they all gone?' he inquired weakly. + +"'No,' I said, 'there are fifteen or twenty here.' We came to a +clearing and there found the remnant of the Typees. I questioned them, +but none had ever heard of him. There had been many Manus,--the word +means bird,--but as they were the last of the tribe, she must have +been dead before they were born, and they no longer kept in their +memories the names of the dead, since there were so many, and all +would be dead soon. + +"The American still understood enough Marquesan to understand their +answers, and taking me by the arm he left the horses and led me up +the valley till he came to a spot where there were fragments of an +old _paepae_, buried in vines and torn apart by their roots. + +"'We lived here,' he said, and then he sat on the forsaken stones +and cried. He said that they had had two children, and he had been +sure that at least he would find them alive. His misery made me feel +bad, and the damned _nonos_, too, and I cried--I don't know how damn +sentimental it was, but that was the way it affected me. The old +chap seemed so alone in the world. + +"'It is three miles from here to the beach,' he said, 'and I have +seen men coming with their presents for the chief, walking a yard +apart, and yet the line stretched all the way to the beach.' + +"He could hardly ride back to Tai-o-hae, and he departed with the +_Tropic Bird_ without saying another word to any one." + +Typee, they told me, was half way to Atiheu and a good four miles by +horse. The road had been good when the people were many, and was +still the main road of the island, leading through the Valley of +Hapaa. My steed was borrowed of T'yonny Howard, who, though he owned +a valley, poured cement for day's wages. + +"What I do?" he asked, as if I held the answer. "Nobody to help me +work there. I cannot make copra alone. Even here they bring men from +other place do work. Marquesan die too fast." + +If T'yonny revered his father's countrymen, his horse did not. These +island horses are unhappy-looking skates, though good climbers and +sliders. + +"You don't need person go with you," said the son of the former +living picture. "That horsey know. You stay by him." + +The saddle must have been strange to the horsey, for uneasiness +communicated itself from him to me as we set out, an uneasiness +augmented to me by the incessant vicious pricks of the ever-present +_nonos_. + +The way led ever higher above the emerald bay of Tai-o-hae set in +the jade of the forest, and valley after valley opened below as the +trail edged upward on the face of sheer cliffs or crossed the little +plateaus of their summits. Hapaa lay bathed in a purple mist that +hid from me the mute tokens of depopulation; Hapaa that had given +Porter its thousands of naked warriors, and that now was devoid of +human beings. + +Dipping slightly downward again, the trail lay on the rim of a deep +declivity, a sunless gulf in which the tree-tops fell away in rank +below rank into dim depths of mistiness. There was no sign of human +passing on the vine-grown trail, a vague track through a melancholy +wilderness that seemed to breathe death and decay. A spirit of gloom +seemed to rise from the shadowed declivity, from the silence of the +mournful wood and the damp darkness of the leaf-hidden earth. + +I had given myself over to musing upon the past, but suddenly in the +narrowest part of the trail the beast I rode turned and took my +canvas-covered toes in his yellow teeth. A vague momentary flash of +horror came over me. Did I bestride a metempsychosized man-eater, a +revenant from the bloody days of Nuka-hiva? In those wicked eyes I +saw reflected the tales of transmigatory vengeance, from the wolf of +Little Red Riding Hood to the ass that one becomes who kills a +Brahman. I gave vent at the same second to a shriek of anguish and +struck the animal upon the nose, the tenderest part of his anatomy +within reach. He released my foot, whirled, cavorted, and, as I +seized a tree fern on the bank, went heels over head over the cliff. + +T'yonny had said to "stay by horsey," but he could not have foreseen +the road he would take. I was sorry for him as I heard the +reverberations of his crashing fall. No living thing could escape +death in such a drop, for though the cliff down which he had +disappeared was not absolutely perpendicular, it was nearly so. +Peering over it, I could not see his corpse, for fern and tree-top +hid all below. At least, I thought, he had surcease of all ills now. +And so I descended the steep trail on foot--mostly on one +foot--until I reached the vale of Typee. + +I found myself in a loneliness indescribable and terrible. No sound +but that of a waterfall at a distance parted the somber silence. The +trail was through a thicket of ferns, trees, and wild flowers. The +perfume of _Hinano_, of the _vaovao_, with its delicate blue flowers, +and the _vaipuhao_, whose leaves are scented like violets, filled +the heavy air, and I passed acres of _kokou_, which looks like +tobacco, but has a yellow fruit of delicious odor. It was such a +garden as the prince who woke the _Sleeping Beauty_ penetrated to +reach the palace where she lay entranced, and something of the same +sense of dread magic lay upon it. Humanity was not so much absent as +gone, and a feeling of doom and death was in the motionless air, +which lay like a weight upon leaf and flower. + +The thin, sharp buzzing of the _nonos_ was incessant. They had come +when man departed; there were none when Porter devastated the valley, +nor when Melville spent his happy months here thirty years later. One +must move briskly to escape them now, and I was pushing through the +bushes that strove to obliterate the trail when I came upon a native. + +He was so old that he must have been a youth in the valley when it +was visited by the American-liner captain as a boy. He was quite +nude save for a ragged cincture, and his body had shrunk and puckered, +and his skin had folded and discolored until he looked as if life +had ebbed away from him and left him high and dry between the past +and the hereafter. A ragged chin beard, ashen in hue, hung below his +gaping, empty mouth. But there was a spirit in his bosom still, for +upon his head he wore a circle of bright flowers to supplement the +sparse locks. + +His eyes were barely openable, and his face, indeed, his whole body, +was a coppery green, the soot of the candlenut, black itself, but +blue upon the flesh, having turned by age to a mottled and hideous +color. Only the striking patterns, where they branched from the +biceps to the chest, were plain. + +That he had been one of the great of Nuka-hiva was certain; the fact +was stamped indelibly upon his person, and though worn and faded to +the ghastly green of old copper, it remained to proclaim his lineage +and his rank. + +"_Kaoha te iki!_" said this ancient, as he stood in the path. + +"_Kaoha e!_" I saluted him. + +"_Puaka piki enata_" he said further, and pointed down the trail. + +What could he mean? _Puaka_ is pig, _piki_ is to mount or climb, +and _enata_ is man. A great white light beat about my brow. "The pig +men climb?" Could he mean Rozinante, the steed to whom T'yonny had +entrusted me, and who had so basely deserted his trust over a cliff? + +I hurried on incredulous, and, in a clearing where there were three +or four horses, beheld the suicide grazing upon the luscious grass. +He had lost much cuticle, and the saddle was in shreds, but the +_puaka piki enata_ was evidently in fairly good health. + +The old man had slowly followed me down the trail, and he stood +within the doorway of a rude hut, blinking in the sun as he watched +my movements. In the houses were altogether fewer than a dozen people. +They sat by cocoanut-husk fires, the acrid smoke of which daunted +the _nonos_. + +The reason any human beings endure such tortures to remain in this +gloomy, deserted spot can only be the affection the Marquesan has +for his home. Not until epidemics have carried off all but one or +two inhabitants in a valley can those remaining be persuaded to leave +it. + +This dozen of the Taipi clan are the remainder of the twenty Ramqe +saw with the heartbroken American. They have clung to their lonely +_paepaes_ despite their poverty of numbers and the ferocity of the +_nonos_. They had clearings with cocoanuts and breadfruit, but +they cared no longer to cultivate them, preferring rather to sit +sadly in the curling fumes and dream of the past. One old man read +aloud the "Gospel of St. John" in Marquesan, and the others +listlessly listened, seeming to drink in little comfort from the +verses, which he recited in the chanting monotone of their _uta_. + +Nine miles in length is Typee, from a glorious cataract that leaps +over the dark buttress wall where the mountain bounds the valley, to +the blazing beach. And in all this extent of marvelously rich land, +the one-time fondly cherished abode of the most valiant clan of the +Marquesas, of thousands of men and women whose bodies were as +beautiful as the models for the statues the Greeks made, whose +hearts were generous, and whose minds were eager to learn all good +things, there are now this wretched dozen too old or listless to +gather their own food. In the ruins of a broken and abandoned +_paepae_, in the shadow of an acre-covering banian, I smoked and +asked myself what a Christ would think of the havoc wrought by men +calling themselves Christians. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +Journey on the _Roberta_; the winged cockroaches; arrival at a Swiss +paradise in the valley of Oomoa. + + +I sailed from Tai-o-hae for an unknown port, carried by the schooner +_Roberta_, which had brought the white mare from Atuona and whose +skipper had bore so well the white banner of Joan in the procession +that did her honor. The _Roberta_ was the only vessel in those +waters and, sailing as she did at the whim of her captain and the +necessities of trade, none knew when she might return to Nuka-hiva, +so I could but accept the opportunity she offered of reaching the +southern group of islands again, and trust to fortune or favor to +return me to my own island of Hiva-oa. + +The _Roberta_ lay low in the water, not so heavily sparred as the +_Morning Star_, or with her under-cut stern, but old and battered, +built for the business of a thief-catcher, and with a history as +scarred as her hull and as slippery as her decks. Was she not once +the _Herman_, and before that something else, and yet earlier +something else, built for the Russians to capture the artful +poachers of the Smoky Sea? And later a poacher herself, and still +later stealing men, a black-birder, seizing the unoffending natives +of these South Seas and selling them into slavery of mine or +plantation, of guano-heap and sickening alien clime. Her decks have +run blood, and heard the wailing of the gentle savage torn from his +beloved home and lashed or clubbed into submission by the superior +white. Name and color and rig had changed time and again, owners and +masters had gone to Davy Jones's locker; the old brass cannon on her +deck had raked the villages of the Marquesans and witnessed a +thousand deeds of murder and rapine. + +I pulled myself aboard by a topping-lift, climbed upon the low +cabin-house, and jumped down to the tiny poop where Jerome Capriata +held the helm. + +This Corsican, with his more than sixty years, most of them in these +waters, was a Marquesan in his intuitive skill in handling his +schooner in all weather, for knowing these islands by a glimpse of +rock or tree, for landing and taking cargo in all seas. Old and worn, +like the _Roberta_, he was known to all who ranged the southern ocean. +What romances he had lived and seen were hidden in his grizzled bosom, +for he said little, and nothing of himself. + +The supercargo, Henry Lee, a Norwegian of twenty-five years, six of +which he had passed among the islands, set out the rum and wine and +a clay bottle of water. He introduced me to Pere Olivier, a priest +of the mission, whose charge was in the island of Fatu-hiva. From +him I learned that the _Roberta_ was bound for Oomoa, a port of that +Island. + +That I had not been given the vaguest idea what our first landfall +would be was indicative of the secrecy maintained by these traders +in the competition for copra. The supply being limited, often it is +the first vessel on the spot after a harvest that is able to buy it, +and captains of schooners guard their movements as an army its own +during a campaign. The traders trust one another as a cat with a +mouse trusts another cat. + +The priest was sitting on a ledge below the taffrail, and I spoke to +him in Spanish, as I had heard it was his tongue. His _buenos dias_ +in reply was hearty, and his voice soft and rich. A handsome man was +Padre Olivier, though in sad disorder. His black soutane, cut like +the woolen gown of our grandmothers, was soaking wet, and his low +rough shoes were muddy. A soiled bandana was about his head. His +finely chiseled features, benign and intelligent, were framed by a +snow-white beard, and his eyes, large and limpid, looked benevolence +itself. He was all affability, and eager to talk about everything in +the world. + +The rain, which all day had been falling at intervals, began again, +and as the _Roberta_ entered the open sea, she began to kick up her +heels. Our conversation languished. When the supercargo called us +below for dinner, pride and not appetite made me go. The priest +answered with a groan. Padre Olivier was prostrate on the deck, his +noble head on a pillow, his one piece of luggage, embroidered with +the monogram of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the needlework of the nuns +of Atuona. + +"I am seasick if I wade in the surf," said the priest, in mournful +jest. + +The _Roberta's_ cabin was a dark and noisome hole, filled with +demijohns and merchandise, with two or three untidy bunks in corners, +the air soaked with the smells of thirty years of bilge-water, +sealskins, copra, and the cargoes of island traffic. Capriata, Harry +Lee, and I sat on boxes at a rough table, which we clutched as the +_Roberta_ pitched and rolled. + +[Illustration: Near the Mission at Hanavave] + +[Illustration: Starting from Hanavave for Oomoa] + +When the ragged cook brought the first dish, unmistakably a cat +swimming in a liquid I could have sworn by my nose to be drippings +from an ammonia tank, I protested a lack of hunger for any food. My +ruse passed for the moment, but was exposed by a flock or swarm of +cockroaches, which, scenting a favorite food, suddenly sprang upon +the table and upon us, leaping and flying into the plates and +drawing Corsican curses from Capriata and Norwegian maledictions +from Lee. I did not wait to see them throwing the invaders from the +battlements of the table into the moat of salt water and spilt wine +below, but quickly, though feebly, climbed to the deck and laid +myself beside Pere Olivier, nor could cries that the enemy had been +defeated and that "only a few" were flying about, summon me below +again. + +Pere Olivier and I stayed prone all night in alternate pelting rain +and flooding moonlight, as a fair wind bowled us along at six knots +an hour. Padre Olivier, between naps, recited his rosary to take his +mind from his woes. I could tell when he finished a decade by his +involuntary start as he began a new one. I had no such comfort as +beads and prayers, and the flight of those schooner griffins had +struck me in the solar plexus of imagination. + +"Accept them as stations of the cross," said the priest. "This life +is but a step to heaven." + +I replied with some comments indicating my belief that cockroaches +belonged on a still lower rung, and going in an opposite direction. + +"I know those _blattes_, those _saligauds_," he said with sympathy. +"They are sent by Satan to provoke us to blasphemy. I never go below." + +Those pests of insects can hardly be estimated at their true +dreadfulness by persons unacquainted with the infamous habits of the +nocturnal beetle of the tropics. Sluggish creatures in the temperate +zone, in warm countries they develop the power of flying, and +obstacles successfully interposed to their progress in countries +where they merely crawl are ineffectual here. They had entire +possession of the _Roberta_. + +The supercargo, Lee, was not to be blamed, for he told me that once +he had taken time in port to capture by poisonous lures a number he +calculated at eight thousand, and that within a month those who had +escaped had repopulated the old schooner as before. Then he despaired, +and let them have sway. To sleep or eat among them was not possible +to me, and the voyage was a nightmare not relieved by an incident of +the second night. + +Capriata, whose feet were calloused from going bare for years, awoke +from a deep slumber that had been aided by rum, to find that the +cockroaches in his berth had eaten through the half inch or more of +hard skin and had begun to devour his flesh. With blasphemous and +blood-chilling yells he bounded on deck, where he sat treating the +wounds and cursing unrestrainedly for some time before joining Pere +Olivier and me in democratic slumber on the bare boards. Several +weeks later his feet had not recovered from their envenomed sores. + +When eight bells sounded the hour of four, I got upon my feet and in +the mellow dawn saw a panorama of peak and precipice, dark and +threatening, the coast of Fatu-hiva and the entrance to Oomoa Bay, +the southernmost island of the Marquesas, and the harbor in which +the first white men who saw the islands anchored over three hundred +years ago. + +Those Spaniards, on whose ships the cross was seen in cabin and +forecastle, on gun and halberd, murdered many Marquesans at Oomoa to +glut their taste for blood. The standard of death the white flew +then has never been lowered. Oomoa and Hanavave, the adjacent bay +and village, were resorts for whalers, who brought a plague of ills +that reduced the population of Fatu-hiva from many thousands to less +than three hundred. Consumption was first brought to the islands by +one of these whalers, and made such alarming inroads on the people +of Hanavave that most of the remainder forsook their homes and +crossed to the island of Tahuata, to escape the devil the white man +had let loose among them. + +We sailed on very slowly after the mountains had robbed us of the +breeze, and when daylight succeeded the false dawn, we dropped our +mud hooks a thousand feet from the beach. On it we could see a +little wooden church and two dwellings, dwarfed to miniature by the +grim pinnacles of rock, crude replicas of the towers of the Alhambra, +slender minarets beside the giant cliffs, which were clothed with +creeping plants in places and in places bare as the sides of a +living volcano. + +The fantastic and majestic assemblage of rock shapes on the shores +of Fatu-hiva appeared as if some Herculean sculptor with disordered +brain and mighty hand had labored to reproduce the fearful chimeras +of his dreams. + +The priest and I, with the supercargo, went ashore in a boat at six +o'clock, and reached a beach as smooth and inviting as that of Atuona. +A canoe was waiting for Pere Olivier; he climbed into it at once, +his black wet robe clinging to him, and called "_Adios!_" as his men +paddled rapidly for Hanavave, where he was to say mass and hear +confessions. + +Lee and I took a road lined with a wall of rocks, and passing many +sorts of trees and plants entered an enclosure through a gate. + +After a considerable walk through a thrifty plantation, we were in +front of a European house which gave signs of comfort and taste. At +the head of a flight of stairs on the broad veranda was a man in +gold-rimmed eye-glasses and a red breechclout. His well-shaped, bald +head and punctilious manner would have commanded attention in any +attire. + +I was introduced to Monsieur Francois Grelet, a Swiss, who had lived +here for more than twenty years, and who during that time had never +been farther away than a few miles. Not even Tahiti had drawn him to +it. Since he arrived, at the age of twenty-four years, he had dwelt +contentedly in Oomoa. + +After we had chatted for a few moments he invited me to be his guest. +I thought of the _Roberta_ and those two kinds of cockroaches, the +Blatta orientalis and the Blatta germanica, who raid by night and by +day respectively; I looked at Grelet's surroundings, and I accepted. +While the _Roberta_ gathered what copra she could and flitted, I +became a resident of Oomoa until such time as chance should give me +passage to my own island. + +Twenty years before my host had planted the trees that embowered his +home. With the Swiss farmer's love of order, he had neglected +nothing to make neat, as nature had made beautiful, his surroundings. + +"I learned agriculture and dairying on my father's farm in +Switzerland," said Grelet. "At school I learned more of their theory, +and when I had seen the gay cities of Europe, I went to the new +world to live. I was first at Pecos City, New Mexico, where I had +several hundred acres' of government land. I brought grape-vines +from Fresno, in California, but the water was insufficient for the +sterile soil, and I was forced to give up my land. From San +Francisco I sailed on the brig _Galilee_ for Tahiti. I have never +finished the journey, for when the brig arrived at Tai-o-hae I left +her and installed myself on the _Eunice_, a small trading-schooner, +and for a year I remained aboard her, visiting all the islands of +the Marquesas and becoming so attached to them that I bought land +and settled down here." + +Grelet looked about him and smiled. + +"It isn't bad, _hein_?" + +It was not. From the little cove where his boat-house stood a road +swept windingly to his house through a garden of luxuriant verdure. +Mango and limes, breadfruit and cocoanut, _pomme de Cythere_, orange +and papaws, banana and alligator-pear, candlenut and chestnut, +mulberry and sandalwood, _tou_, the bastard ebony, and rosewood, the +rose-apple with purple tasseled flowers and delicious fruit, the +pistachio and the _badamier_, scores of shrubs and bushes and +magnificent tree-ferns, all on a tangled sward of white spider-lilies, +great, sweet-smelling plants, an acre of them, and with them other +ferns of many kinds, and mosses, the nodding _taro_ leaves and the +_ti_, the leaves which the Fatu-hivans make into girdles and +wreaths; all grew luxuriantly, friendly neighbors to the Swiss, set +there by him or volunteering for service in the generous way of the +tropics. + +The lilies, oranges, and pandanus trees yielded food for the bees, +whose thatched homes stood thick on the hillside above the house. +Grelet was a skilled apiarist, and replenished his melliferous +flocks by wild swarms enticed from the forests. The honey he +strained and bottled, and it was sought of him by messengers from +all the islands. + +Orchard and garden beyond the house gave us Valencia and Mandarin +oranges, lemons, _feis_, Guinea cherries, pineapples, Barbadoes +cherries, sugar-cane, sweet-potatoes, watermelons, cantaloups, Chile +peppers, and pumpkins. Watercress came fresh from the river. + +Cows and goats browsed about the garden, but Grelet banned pigs to a +secluded valley to run wild. One of the cows was twenty-two years old, +but daily gave brimming buckets of milk for our refreshment. Beef +and fish, breadfruit and _taro_, good bread from American flour, rum, +and wine both red and white, with bowls of milk and green cocoanuts, +were always on the table, a box of cigars, packages of the veritable +Scaferlati Superieur tobacco, and the Job papers, and a dozen pipes. +No king could fare more royally than this Swiss, who during twenty +years had never left the forgotten little island of Fatu-hiva. + +His house, set in this bower of greenery, of flowers and perfumes, +was airy and neat, whitewashed both inside and out, with a broad +veranda painted black. Two bedrooms, a storeroom in which he sold +his merchandise, and a workroom, sufficed for all his needs. The +veranda was living-room and dining-room; raised ten feet from the +earth on breadfruit-tree pillars placed on stone, it provided a roof +for his forge, for his saddle-and-bridle room, and for the small +kitchen. + +The ceilings in the house were of wood, but on the veranda he had +cleverly hung a canvas a foot below the roof. The air circulated +above it, bellying it out like a sail and making the atmosphere cool. +Under this was his dining-table, near a very handsome buffet, both +made by Grelet of the false ebony, for he was a good carpenter as he +was a crack boatsman, farmer, cowboy, and hunter. Here we sat over +pipe and cigarette after dinner, wine at our elbows, the garden +before us, and discussed many things. + +Grelet had innumerable books in French and German, all the great +authors old and modern; he took the important reviews of Germany and +France, and several newspapers. He knew much more than I of history +past and present, of the happenings in the great world, art and +music and invention, finances and politics. He could name the +cabinets of Europe, the characters and records of their members, or +discuss the quality of Caruso's voice as compared with Jean de +Reszke's, though he had heard neither. Twenty-two years ago he had +left everything called civilization, he had never been out of the +Marquesas since that time; he lived in a lonely valley in which +there was no other man of his tastes and education, and he was +content. + +"I have everything I want; I grow it or I make it. My horses and +cattle roam the hills; if I want meat, beef or goat or pig, I go or +I send a man to kill an animal and bring it to me. Fish are in the +river and the bay; there is honey in the hives; fruit and vegetables +in the garden, wood for my furniture, bark for the tanning of hides. +I cure the leather for saddles or chair-seats with the bark of the +rose-wood. Do you know why it is called rose-wood? I will show you. +Its bark has the odor of roses when freshly cut. Yes, I have all +that I want. What do I need from the great cities?" + +He tamped down the tobacco in his pipe and puffed it meditatively. + +"A man lives only a little while, _hein_? He should ask himself what +he wants from life. He should look at the world as it is. These +traders want money, buying and selling and cheating to get it. What +is money compared to life? Their life goes in buying and selling and +cheating. Life is made to be lived pleasantly. Me, I do what I want +to do with mine, and I do it in a pleasant place." + +His pipe went out while he gazed at the garden murmurous in the +twilight. He knocked out the dottle, refilled the bowl and lighted +the tobacco. + +"You should have seen this island when I came. These natives die too +fast. Ah, if I could only get labor, I could make this valley +produce enough for ten thousand people. I could load the ships with +copra and cotton and coffee." + +He was twenty-two years and many thousands of miles from the great +cities of Europe, but he voiced the wail of the successful man the +world over. If he could get labor, he could turn it into building +his dreams to reality, into filling his ships with his goods for his +profit. But he had not the labor, for the fruits of a commercial +civilization had killed the islanders who had had their own dreams, +their own ships, and their own pleasures and profits in life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +Labor in the South Seas; some random thoughts on the "survival of the +fittest." + + +"I pictured myself cultivating many hundreds of acres when I first +came here," said Grelet. "I laid out several plantations, and once +shipped much coffee, as good, too, as any in the world. I gather +enough now for my own use, and sell none. I grew cotton and +cocoanuts on a large scale. I raise only a little now. + +"There were hundreds of able-bodied men here then. I used to buy +opium from the Chinese labor-contractors and from smugglers, and +give it to my working people. A pill once a day would make the +Marquesans hustle. But the government stopped it. They say that the +book written by the Englishman, Stevenson, did it. We must find +labor elsewhere soon, Chinese, perhaps. Those two Paumotans brought +by Begole are a godsend to me. I wish some one would bring me a +hundred." + +The two Paumotan youths, Tennonoku and Kedeko-lio, lay motionless on +the floor of the veranda twenty feet away. They had been sold to +Grelet for a small sum by Begole, captain of a trading-schooner. In +passing the Paumotan Islands, many hundred miles to the south, +Begole had forgotten to leave at Pukatuhu, a small atoll, a few bags +of flour he had promised to bring the chief on his next voyage, and +the chief, seeing the schooner a mile away, had ordered these boys to +swim to it and remind the skipper of his promise. Begole meanwhile +had caught a wind, and the first he knew of the message was when the +boys climbed aboard the schooner many miles to sea. He did not +trouble to land them, but brought them on to the Marquesas and sold +them to Grelet. + +They spoke no Marquesan, and Grelet had difficulty in making them +understand that they must labor for him, and in enforcing his orders, +which they could not comprehend. There was little copra being made +in the rainy weather, and they lay about the veranda or squatted +on the _paepae_ of the laborers' cookhouse, making a fire of +cocoanut-husks twice a day to roast their breadfruit. Their savage +hearts were ever in their own atoll, the home to which the native +clings so passionately, and their eyes were dark with hopeless +longing. No doubt they would die soon, as so many do when exiled, +but Grelet's copra crop would profit first. + +The dire lack of labor for copra-making, tree-planting, or any form +of profitable activity is lamented by all white men in these +depopulated islands. Average wages were sixty cents a day, but even +a dollar failed to bring adequate relief. The Marquesan detests labor, +which to him has ever been an unprofitable expenditure of life and +did not gain in his eyes even when his toil might enrich white +owners of plantations. Since every man had a piece of land that +yielded copra enough for his simple needs, and breadfruit and fish +were his for the taking, he could not be forced to work except for +the government in payment for taxes. + +The white men in the islands, like exploiters of weaker races +everywhere in the world, were unwilling to share their profits with +the native. They were reduced to pleading with or intoxicating the +Marquesan to procure a modicum of labor. They saw fortunes to be +made if they could but whip a multitude of backs to bending for them, +but they either could not or would not perceive the situation from +the native's point of view. + +In America I often heard men who were out of employment, +particularly in bad seasons, in big cities or in mining camps, argue +the right to work. They could not enforce this alleged natural right, +and in their misery talked of the duty of society or the state in +this direction. But they were obliged to content themselves with the +thin alleviation of soup-kitchens, charity wood-yards, and other +easers of hard times, and with threats of sabotage or other violence. + +Here in the islands, where work is offered to unwilling natives, the +employers curse their lack of power to drive them to the copra +forests, the kilns and boats. Thus, as in highly civilized countries +we maintain that a man has no inherent or legal right to work, in +these islands the employer has no weapon by which to enforce toil. +But had the whites the power to order all to do their bidding, they +would create a system of peonage as in Mexico. + +An acquaintance of mine in these seas took part in, and profited +largely by, the removal to a distant place of the entire population +of an island on which the people had led the usual life of the +Polynesian. He and his associates sold three hundred men to +plantation labor, which they hated and to which they were +unaccustomed. Within a year two hundred and fifty of them had died +as fast as disease could sap their grief-stricken bodies. Their +former home, which they died longing to see again, was made a +feeding-place for sheep. The merchants reaped a double toll. They +were paid well for delivering the owners of the land to the +plantations, and in addition they got the land. + +Now, my acquaintance is a man of university education, a quoter of +Haeckel and Darwin, with "survival of the fittest" as his guiding +motto since his Jena days. Says he, quoting a Scotchman: + +"Tone it down as you will, the fact remains that Darwinism regards +animals as going up-stairs, in a struggle for individual ends, often +on the corpses of their fellows, often by a blood-and-iron +competition, often by a strange mixture of blood and cunning, in +which each looks out for himself and extinction besets the hindmost." + +Further says my stern acquaintance, specially when in his cups: + +"The whole system of life-development is that of the lower providing +food for the higher in ever-expanding circles of organic existence, +from protozoea to steers, from the black African to the educated and +employing man. We build on the ribs of the steers, and on the backs +of the lower grade of human." + +Scientific books have taken the place of the Bible as a +quotation-treasury of proof for whatever their reader most desires +to prove. Now I am no scientist and take, indeed, only the casual +interest of the average man in the facts and theories of science. +But it appears to me that in his theory of the survival of the +fittest my acquaintance curiously overlooks the question of man's +own survival as a species. + +If we are to base our actions upon this cold-blooded and inhuman +view of the universe, let us consider that universe as in fact +inhuman, and having no concern for man except as a species of animal +very possibly doomed to extinction, as many other species of animal +have been doomed in the past, unless he proves his fitness to +survive not as an individual, but as a species. + +Now man is a gregarious animal; he lives in herds. The +characteristic of the herd is that within it the law of survival of +the fittest almost ceases to operate. The value of a herd is that +its members protect each other instead of preying upon each other. +Nor, in what we are pleased to call the animal kingdom, do herds of +the same species prey upon each other. They rather unite for the +protection of their weaker members. + +So far as I am informed, mankind is the only herd of which this is +not true. Cattle and horses unite in protecting the young and feeble; +sheep huddle together against cold and wolves; bees and ants work +only for the welfare of the swarm, which is the welfare of all. This, +we are told, is the reason these forms of life have survived. But +ship officers beat sailors because sailors have no firearms and fear +charges of mutiny. Policemen club prisoners who are poorly dressed. +Employees make profits from the toil of children. Strong nations +prey on weak peoples, and the white man kills the white man and the +black and brown and yellow man in mine, plantation, and forest the +world over. + +He defends this murder of his own kind by the pat phrase "survival +of the fittest." But man is not a solitary animal, he is a herd +animal, and within the herd nature's definition of fitness does not +apply. The herd is a refuge against the law of tooth and fang. +Importing within the herd his own interpretation of that law, man is +destroying the strength of his shelter. By so much as one man preys +upon or debases another man, he weakens the strength of the man-herd. +And for man it is the herd, not the individual, that must meet that +stern law of "the survival of the fittest" on the vast impersonal +arena of the universe. + +"Bully 'Ayes was the man to make the Kanakas work!" said Lying Bill +Pincher. "I used to be on Penryn Island and that was 'is old 'ang-out. +'Ayes was a pleasant man to meet. 'E was 'orspitable as a 'ungry +shark to a swimming missionary. Bald he was as a bloomin' crab, +stout and smiling. + +"'E 'ad two white wives a-setting in his cabin on the schooner, and +they called it the parlor. Smart wimmen they was, and saved 'is life +for 'im more 'n once. 'E 'd get a couple of chiefs on board by +deceiving 'em with rum, and hold 'em until 'is bloomin' schooner was +chock-a-block with copra. The 'ole island would be working itself to +death to free the chiefs. Then when 'e 'ad got the copra, 'e 'd +steal a 'undred or two Kanakas and sell 'em in South America. + +"'E was smart, and yet 'e got 'is'n. 'Is mate seen him coming over +the side with blood in his eye, and batted 'im on 'is conch as 'is +leg swung over the schooner's bul'ark. 'Ayes dropped with 'is knife +between 'is teeth and 'is pistols in both 'ands. + +"'E'd murdered 'undreds of white and brown and black men, and 'e was +smart, and 'e got away with it. But 'e made the mistake of not +having made a friend of 'is right 'and man." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +The white man who danced in Oomoa Valley; a wild-boar hunt in the +hills; the feast of the triumphant hunters and a dance in honor of +Grelet. + + +Grelet had gone in a whale-boat to Oia, a dozen miles away, to +collect copra, and I was left with an empty day to fill as I chose. +The house, the garden, and the unexplored recesses of Oomoa Valley +were mine, with whatever they might afford of entertainment or +adventure. Every new day, wherever spent, is an adventure, but when +to the enigmatic morning is added the zest of a strange place, it +must be a dull man who does not thrill to it. + +I began the day by bathing in the river with the year-old Tamaiti, +Grelet's child. Her mother was Hinatiaiani, a laughing, beautiful +girl of sixteen years, and the two were cared for by Pae, a woman of +forty, ugly and childless. Hinatiaiani was her adopted daughter, and +Pae had been sorely angered when Grelet, whose companion she had +been for eighteen years, took the girl. But with the birth of Tamaiti, +Pae became reconciled, and looked after the welfare of the infant +more than the volatile young mother. + +Tamaiti had never had a garment upon her sturdy small body, and +looked a plump cherub as she played about the veranda, crawling in +the puddles when the rain drove across the floor. + +"The infant has never been sick," Grelet had said. "One afternoon I +was starting for the river to bathe, when that girl was making +herself a bed of cocoanut-leaves under the house. She said she +expected the baby, as, when she climbed a cocoanut-tree a moment +earlier, she had felt a movement. She would not lie in a bed, but, +like her mother before her, must make her a nest of cocoanut-leaves. +When I returned from my bath, Tamaiti was born. She was chopping +wood next day--the mother, I mean." + +Though scarcely a twelve-month old, the baby swam like a frog in the +clear water of the river, gurgling at intervals scraps of what must +have been Marquesan baby-talk, unintelligible to me, but showing +plainly her enjoyment. Something of European caution, however, still +remained with me and, perhaps unnecessarily, I picked up the +dripping little body and carried her up the garden path to the house +when I returned for breakfast. Pae received her with no concern, and +gave her a piece of cocoanut to suck. I saw the infant, clutching it +in one hand, toddling and stumbling river-ward again when after +breakfast I set out for a walk up Oomoa Valley. + +Oomoa was far wilder than Atuona, more lonely, with hundreds of +vacant _paepaes_. Miles of land, once cultivated, had been taken +again by the jungle, as estates lapsed to nature after thousands of +years of man. Still, even far from the houses, delicate trees had +preserved themselves in some mysterious way, and oranges and limes +offered themselves to me in the thickets. + +The river that emptied into the bay below Grelet's plantation flowed +down the valley from the heights, and beside it ran the trail, a +road for half a mile, then a track growing fainter with every mile, +hardly distinguishable from the tangle of trees and bushes on either +side. Here and there I saw a native house built of bamboo and matting, +very simple shelters with an open space for a doorway, but wholesome, +clean, and, to me, beautiful. I met no one, and most of the huts +were on the other side of the river, but from one nearer the track a +voice called to me, "_Kaoha! Manihii, a tata mai!_ Greeting, stranger, +come to us!" + +The hut, which, by measurement, was ten feet by six, held six women +and girls, all lying at ease on piles of mats. It was a rendezvous +of gossips, a place for siestas and scandal. One had seen and hailed +me, and when I came to their _paepae_, they all filed out and +surrounded me, gently and politely, but curiously. Obviously they +had seen few whites. + +The six were from thirteen to twenty years of age, four of them +strikingly beautiful, with the grace of wild animals and the bright, +soft eyes of children. Smiling and eager to be better acquainted +with me, they examined my puttees of spiral wool, my pongee shirt, +and khaki riding-breeches, the heavy seams of which they felt and +discussed. They discovered a tiny rip, and the eldest insisted that +I take off the breeches while she sewed it. + +As this was my one chance to prevent the rip growing into a gulf +that would ultimately swallow the trousers, I permitted the stitch +in time, and having nothing in my pockets for reward, I danced a jig. +I cannot dance a step or sing a note correctly, but in this +archipelago I had won inter-island fame as a dancer of strange and +amusing measures, and a singer of the queer songs of the whites. + +Recalling the cake-walks, sand-sifting, pigeon-winging, and +Juba-patting of the south, the sailor's hornpipe, the sword-dance of +the Scotch, and the metropolitan version of the tango, I did my best, +while the thrilled air of Oomoa Valley echoed these words, yelled to +my fullest lung capacity: + + "There was an old soldier and he had a wooden leg, + And he had no tobacco, so tobacco did he beg. + Said the soldier to the sailor, 'Will you give me a chew?' + Said the sailor to the soldier, 'I'll be damned if I do! + Keep your mind on your number and your finger on your rocks, + And you'll always have tobacco in your old tobacco box.'" + +Dancing and singing thus on the flat stones of the _paepae_ of the +six Fatu-hiva ladies, I gave back a thousand-fold their aid to my +disordered trousers. They laughed till they fell back on the rocks, +they lifted the ends of their _pareus_ to wipe their eyes, and they +demanded an encore, which I obligingly gave them in a song I had +kept in mind since boyhood. It was about a young man who took his +girl to a fancy ball, and afterward to a restaurant, and though he +had but fifty cents and she said she was not hungry, she ate the menu +from raw oysters to pousse-cafe, and turned it over for more. + +It went with a Kerry jig that my grandfather used to do, and if +grandfather, with his rare ability, ever drew more uproarious +applause than I, it must have been a red-letter day for him, even in +Ireland. My hearers screamed in an agony of delight, and others +dwelling far away, or passing laden with breadfruit and bananas, +gathered while I chortled and leaped, and made the mountain-side +ring with Marquesan bravos. + +With difficulty I made my escape, but my success pursued me. +"_Menike haka!_" came the cry from each house I passed, for the news +had been called over the distance, and to the farthest reaches of +the valley it was known that an American, the American who had come +on the _Roberta_, with a box that wrote, was dancing along the route. + +As in the old days of war or other crisis, the cry had been raised, +and was echoed from all directions, and from hut to cocoanut-tree to +crag the call was heard, growing fainter and more feeble, dying +gradually from point to point, echoing farther and yet farther in the +distance. This was the ancient telegraph-system of the islanders, by +which an item of information sped in a moment to the most remote +edges of the valley. Unwittingly, in my gratitude, I had raised it, +and now I pursued my way in the glare of a pitiless publicity. + +I was met almost immediately by a score of men and women who had +left the gathering of fruit or the duties of the household to greet +me. Fafo, the leader, besought me earnestly to accompany them to a +neighboring _paepae_ and dance for them. + +He had the finest eyes I have ever seen in a man's head, dark brown, +almond-shaped, large and lustrous, wells of melancholy. There was +something exquisite about the young man, his lemon-colored skin, his +delicate hands and feet, his slender, though strong, body, and his +regular, brilliant teeth. Some Spanish don had bred him, or some +moody Italian with music in his soul, for he was a Latin in face and +figure. His eyes had that wistfulness as they sought mine which the +Tahitians have put well in one of their picture-words, _ano-ano'uri_, +"the yearning, sorrowful gaze of a dog watching his master at dinner." + +A belated shrinking from renown, however, made me reject his pleas, +and perceiving a pool near at hand, I softened refusal by a +suggestion that we bathe. The pool, I learned, was famous in the +valley, for one could swim forty feet in it, and on the other side +the hill rose straight, with banana-trees overhanging the water forty +feet above. We climbed this rocky face and dived into the water +again and again, rejoicing in its coolness and in that sheer pagan +delight of the dive, when in the air man becomes all animal, freed +from every restraint and denied every safeguard save the strength of +his own muscle and nerve. + +We saw at last, on the edge of the bank, one of Grelet's dogs, +whining for attention. He was badly wounded in two places, blood +dripped on the rocks from open cuts three inches long, and one paw +hung helpless, while with eager cries and beseeching looks he urged +us to avenge him in his private feud with a boar. Assured of our +interest, he stayed not to be comforted or cured, but hobbled +eagerly up the trail, begging us with whines to accompany him. + +Five men and several other dogs followed the wounded hound, and I +went with them. The Marquesans had war-clubs and long knives like +undersized machetes. Every Islander carries such a knife for cutting +underbrush or cocoanut-stems, and usually it is his only tool for +building native houses, so that he becomes very expert with it, as +the Filipino with his bolo or the Cuban with his machete. + +For several hours we climbed the slopes, until we came upon a narrow +trail cut in the side of a cliff, a path perhaps two feet wide, with +sheer wall of rock above and abrupt precipice below. On this the +chief hunter stationed himself and two men while the others scouted +below. This leader was a man of sixty, tattooed from toes to scalp +on one side only, so that he was queerly parti-colored, and capping +this odd figure, he wore a pair of steel-rimmed spectacles. He +motioned to me to take my place in a niche of the cliff, where I +could stand and sweep the trail with my eyes, secure from assault. +He had given directions to the others and intended to provide for me +a rare sight, and to gain for himself a trifle of the glory that had +been his as a young man in wars against neighboring valleys. + +For an hour we waited and smoked, hearing from time to time the +clamor of men and dogs in the thickets below. The common way of +hunting boars, said the chief, was to chase them through the woods +and kill them by throwing tomahawks at them. This method allows the +hunter to have a tree always within a short run, and about these +trees he dodges when pursued, or if too closely pressed, climbs one. +It is dangerous sport, as only a cool and experienced man can drive +a knife into a vital part of a boar in full career, and no wound in +non-vital parts will cause the desperate beast even to falter. + +Gradually the cries of the men and the barking of the dogs grew +nearer, and suddenly, bursting from the bushes some distance down +the trail, we saw ten bristling hogs. They had been driven upward +until they reached the artificial shelf, and behind them hounds and +hunters cut off all escape. + +"_Apau! Aia oe a!_" shouted the rear-guard as the boars took the +trail. "Lo! Prepare to strike!" + +The three slayers gripped their clubs and braced their feet. I was +above the chief, who was the last of the trio. Where he planted his +feet, the path was most narrow, so that two could not pass. His +knife was in his _pareu_, which, to leave his legs unhampered, he had +rolled and tucked in until it was no more than a G-string. His +muscles were like the cordage of the _faufee_--the vine that +strangles--and his chest like a great buckler, half blue and half +copper. + +"_Peo! Pepo! Huepe! Huope!_" yelled the scouts, in the "tally-ho!" +cry of Marquesan, and the boars struck the trail with hatred hot in +their eyes and with gnashing tusks. + +The three slayers were five hundred feet apart. The first struck at +all ten, as singly they rushed past him. Three he stopped. The +second man laid prostrate four. The three remaining were, naturally, +the fittest. They were huge, hideous, snarling beasts, bared teeth +gleaming in a slather of foam, eyes bloodshot and vicious. The old +chief saw them coming; he saw, too, that I had shrunk to a plaster +on the wall while he faced the danger like a warrior in the +spear-test of their old warfare. + +"_Aia! Aia!_" he said to encourage me. His club of ironwood, its +edge sharp and toothed, he grasped with both hands; he widened his +foothold and threw his body forward to withstand a shock. He +calculated to an inch the arrival of the first boar, and swung his +_u'u_ on its head with precision. The boar crumpled up and fell +down the hillside. The second he struck as unerringly, but the third +he chose to kill with his knife. + +[Illustration: _Feis_, or mountain bananas +Man in _pareu_, native loin cloth] + +[Illustration: Where river and bay meet at Oomoa, Island of Fatu-hiva] + +He laid down the _u'u_ and drew the knife with one motion, and as +the powerful brute rushed at him, stepped aside in the split second +between his gauge of its position and its leap. His knife was thrust +straight out. It met the boar with perfect and delicate accuracy. +The beast fell, quivered a moment, and lay still. + +It was a perfection of butchery, for one slash of those tusks, +ripping the chief's legs, and he would have been down, crashing over +the cliff, and dead. I was almost in chants of admiration for his +nerve and accuracy. + +"Ah, if this had been war, and these had been enemies!" + +The dead boars were slung on poles, but a half dozen had to be left +on branches of trees for the morrow, and it was late in the day when +we reached Grelet's house for the feast. + +Pae, the elder woman of the household, received us joyously. In the +master's absence she had become a different being from the sulky, +contrary one I had seen while he was at home. Usually she and +Hinatiaiani, the mother of the baby, ate their food squatting beside +the cook-house; they rarely came upon the veranda, never sat upon a +chair, and never were asked to our table. Now they were in +complete possession of the house and Pae was transformed into a +jolly soul, her kinsfolk about her on the veranda and the bottles +emptying fast. She celebrated our arrival with the boars by bringing +out two quarts of _creme de menthe_ and a bottle of absinthe, so +that the mice with the big cat away played an uncorking air right +merrily. + +All was now a bustle of preparation for the feast. While many +prepared the earth-oven for the pig, the head cook made fire in +their primitive way, using the fire-plough of _purau_-wood braced +against a pillar of the veranda. Meantime the oven was dug, sides and +bottom lined with stones, and sticks piled within it for the fire. A +top layer of stones was placed on the flames and when it had grown +red-hot, the pig was pulled and hauled over it until the bristles +were removed. The carcass was then carried to the river, the +intestines removed, and inside and outside thoroughly washed in a +place where the current was strong. + +The oven was made ready for its reception by removing the upper +layer of stones and the fire, and placing banana-leaves all about +the bottom and sides, in which the pig, his own interior filled with +hot stones wrapped in leaves, was placed, with native sweet-potatoes +and yams beside him. More leaves covered all, and another layer of +red hot stones. A surface of dirt sealed the oven. + +A young dog was also part of the fare, and was cooked in the same +manner as the pig. The Marquesans are fond of dogs. This particular +one had been brought to this valley from another and was not on +friendly terms with any of his butchers. In fact, his death was due +more to revenge than to hunger for his flesh. He had bitten the leg +of a man who lived in the upper part of Oomoa, and when this man came +limping to the banquet, he brought the biter as his contribution. + +Those who would turn up their noses at Towser must hear Captain Cook, +who was himself slain and dismembered in Hawaii: + +"The flesh of the South Sea Dog is a meat not to be despised. It is +next to our English Lamb." + +Personally I am willing to let it be next to lamb at every meal, and +I shall always take its neighbor, but it argues a narrow taste not +to concede that the dishes of our foreign friends may have a relish +all their own. Dog has been a Maori tidbit for thousands of years. +It was introduced into New Zealand from these islands. The +aborigines had a fierce, undomesticated dog, which they hunted for +its flesh. It was a sort of fox, but disappeared before the +Polynesians reached the islands. + +All Polynesians have liked dogs, liked them as pets, as they do +to-day, and liked them as grub. If one asks how one can pet Fido +Monday and eat him Tuesday, I will reply that we, the highest types +of civilization, pet calves and lambs, chickens and rabbits, and find +them not a whit the less toothsome. The Marquesan loves his pig as +we love our dog, cuddles him, calls him fond names, believes that he +goes to heaven,--and nevertheless roasts him for dinner. + +The yams, potatoes, breadfruit, and other accompaniments of the dog, +pig, and chicken were all ready at six o'clock, when cries of +delight summoned us idlers. The earth had been cleared from the oven, +the leaves removed, and the pig was lifted into the air, cooked to a +turn, succulent, steaming, delicious. The feast was spread in a +clearing, so that the sun, sinking slowly in the west, might filter +his rays through the lofty trees and leave us brightened by his +presence, but cool in the shadows. For me a Roman couch of mats was +spread, while the natives squatted in the comfort of men whose legs +are natural. + +The women waited upon us, passing all the food in leaves, in cleanly +fashion. Pae herself, though hostess, could not eat till all the men +were satisfied, for the _tapu_ still holds, though without authority. +Knives nor forks hindered our free onslaught upon the edibles, and +there were cocoanut-shells beside each of us for washing our hands +between courses, a usual custom. + +_Piahi_, the native chestnuts shelled and cooked in cocoanut-milk, +were an appetizer, followed by small fish, which we ate raw after +soaking them in lime juice. There is no dish that the white man so +soon learns to crave and so long remembers when departed. Some of +the guests did not like the sauce, but took their small fish by the +tail, dripping with salt water, and ate it as one might eat celery, +bones, and all. + +With the main course were served dried squid and porpoise, and fresh +flying-fish and bonito and shrimp. The feast was complete with +mangoes, oranges, and pineapples, also bananas ripened in the +expeditious way of the Marquesas. They bury them in a deep hole +lined with cracked candlenuts and grass and cover all with earth. In +several days--and they know the right time to an hour--the bananas +are dug up, yellow and sweet. + +[Illustration: Sacred banyan tree at Oomoa] + +[Illustration: Elephantiasis of the legs] + +Pae furnished a limited quantity of rum for the fete, and a +cocoanut-shell filled with _namu_ was passed about. Every one was +already enthusiastic, and after several drinks of the powerful +sugar-distillation pipes were lit and palaver began. I had to tell +stories of my strange country, of the things called cities, large +villages without a river through them, so big that they held _tini +tini tini tini mano mano mano mano_ people, with single houses in +which more people worked than there were in all the islands. Such a +house might be higher than three or four cocoanut trees stood one on +the other, and no one walked up-stairs, but rode in boxes lifted by +ropes. + +"How many men to a rope?" asked Pae. + +The old men told me about their battles, much as at a reunion of the +Grand Army of the Republic the veterans fight again the Civil war. +One man, whose tattooing striped his body like the blue bands of a +convict's suit, said that it was the custom on Fatu-hiva for the +leader or chief on each side to challenge the enemy champion. + +"Our army stood thirty or forty feet away from the other army," said +he, "and our chief stood still while the other threw his spear. If +it struck our chief, at once the warriors rushed into battle; if it +missed, our chief had the right to go close to the other and thrust +a spear through his heart. The other stood firm and proud. He smiled +with scorn. He looked on the spear when it was raised, and he did +not tremble. But sometimes he was saved by his courage, for our +chief after looking at him with terrible eyes, said, 'O man of heart, +go your way, and never dare again to fight such a great warrior as I!' + +"That ended the war. The other chief was ashamed, and led his men +down to their own valley. But if our chief had killed him, then +there was war; at once we struck with the _u'u_ and ran forward with +our spears. These battles gave many names to children, names +remembering the death or wounding of the glorious deeds of the +warriors. To await calmly the spear of the other chief, the head +raised, the eyes never winking, to look at the spear as at a welcome +gift--that was what our chiefs must do. Death was not so terrible, +but to leave one's body in the hands of the foe, to be eaten, to know +that one's skull would be hung in a tree, and one's bones made into +tattoo needles or fish-hooks--! _Toomanu!_ + +"We are not the men we were. We do not eat the 'Long Pig' any more, +but we have not the courage, the skill, or the strength. When the +spears were thrown, and each man had but one, then the fight was +with the _u'u_, hand to hand and eye to eye. That was a fight of men! +The gun is the weapon of cowards. It is the gun that fights, not the +man. + +"Our last fight we brought back four bodies. Meat spoils quickly. We +had our feast right here where we sit now." + +Excited barking of the dogs announced the arrival of Grelet with +several men. They had rowed all the way to Oia and had sailed back, +arriving by chance in time to share the abundance of our feast. +After the twelve-mile pull in the blazing sun and the toilsome +journey back by night this feast was their reward, and all their pay. + +Pae, reduced once more to sullen servitude, poured the rum, generous +portions of it in cocoanut-shells, which the newcomers emptied as +they ate, hastening soon to join the other guests on the broad +veranda, where late at night a chant began. + +Half a dozen men, tattooed from toes to waist and some to the roots +of their hair, sat on a mat on the floor, all naked except for their +_pareus_, the red and yellow of which shone in the light of the +oil-lamps in brightening contrast to brown skins and dark blue ink. +One was far gone with _fefe_, his legs almost as large as those of +an elephant. He was a grotesque in hideous green. The blue of the +candlenut-ink, in bizzare designs upon body and legs, had turned a +scaly greenish hue from age and _kava_ excesses. Revealed in the +yellow light, he was like a ghastly bronze monstrosity that had known +the weathering of a century. + +He was the leader of the chant and, like all the others, had drunk +plenty of Grelet's rum. The pipe was passing, and Grelet took his +pull at it in the circle. The chant was of the adventures of the day. +The hunters and specially Namu Ou Mio, the slayer of the three boars, +told of the deed of prowess on the cliff-side, while the others sang +of their journey and the sea. Squatting on the mat, they bent and +swayed in pantomime, telling the tales, lifting their voices in +praises of their own deeds and of the virtues of Grelet. + +That thrifty Swiss, in red breech-clout and spectacles, the +lamplight shining on his bald head, sat in the midst of them, +familiar by a score of years with their chants. Pae filled the pipe +and the bowls and joined in the chorus, while the Paumotan boys, in +a shadowy recess, sipped their rum and rolled their eyes in +astonished appreciation of the first joviality of their lives. When +the leader began the ancient cannibal chant, the song of war and of +feasting at the High Place, the tattooed men forgot even the rum. +The nights of riot after return from the battle, the fighting +qualities of their fathers, the cheer of the fires, the heat of the +ovens, and the baking of the "Long Pig," and the hours when the most +beautiful girls danced naked to win the acclaim of the multitude and +to honor their parents; all these they celebrated. The leader gave +the first line in a dramatic tone, and the others chanted the chorus. +Most of the verses they knew by rote, but there were improvisations +that brought applause from all. + +At midnight the man with the elephantiasis removed his _pareu_ to +free his enormous legs for dancing, and he and the others, their +hands joined, moved ponderously in a tripping circle before the +couch on which I lay. The chant was now a recital of my merits, the +chief of which was that I was a friend of Grelet, that mighty man +wiser than Iholomoni (Solomon), with more wives than that great king, +and stronger heart to chase the wild bull. He steers a whale-boat +with a finger, but no wave can tear the helm from his grasp. Long +has he been in Oomoa, just and brave and generous has he been, and +his rum is the best that is made in the far island of Tahiti. + +So passed the night and the rum, in a pandemonium of voices, +gyrating tattooed bodies, flashes of red and yellow and blue _pareus_, +rolling eyes, curls of smoke drifting under the gently moving canvas +ceiling, while from the garden came the scent of innumerable dewy +flowers; and at intervals in the chanting I heard from the darkness +of the bay the sound of a conch-shell blown on some wayfaring boat. + +I dozed, and wakened to see Grelet asleep. Pae was still filling the +emptied cocoanut-shells, and the swollen green man postured before +me like some horrid figment of a dream. I roused myself again. Pae +had locked up the song-maker, and all the tattooed men slumbered +where they sat, the Paumotan boys with sunbonnets tied about their +heads lay in their corner, dreaming, perhaps, of their loved home on +Pukaruha. I woke again to find the garden green and still in the +gray morning, and the veranda vacant. + +The Marquesans were all in the river, lying down among the boulders +to cool their aching heads. The _fefe_ sufferer stood like a +slime-covered rock in the stream. His swollen legs hurt him +dreadfully. Rum is not good for _fefe_. + +"Guddammee!" he said to me in his one attempt at our cultured +language, and put his body deep in a pool. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +A visit to Hanavave; Pere Olivier at home; the story of the last +battle between Hanahouua and Oi, told by the sole survivor; the +making of _tapa_ cloth, and the ancient garments of the Marquesans. + + +Grelet said that the conch I had heard at night sounding off Oomoa +must have been in a canoe or whale-boat bound for Hanavave, a valley +a dozen miles away over the mountains, but only an hour or so by sea. +It might have brought a message of interest, or perhaps would be a +conveyance to my own valley, so in mid-forenoon we launched Grelet's +whale-boat for a journey to Hanavave. + +Eight men carried the large boat from its shelter to the water, +slung on two short thick poles by loops of rope through holes in +prow and stern. It was as graceful as a swan, floating in the edge +of the breakers. Driving it through the surf was cautious, skilful +work, at which Grelet was a master. Haupupuu, who built the boat, a +young man with the features of Bonaparte and a _blase_ expression, +was at the bow, and three other Marquesans, with the two Paumotan +boys, handled the oars. There was no wind and they rowed all the way, +spurting often for love of excitement. + +We skirted a coast of almost vertical cliffs crowned by cocoas, the +faces of the rock black or covered above the waterline with vines +and plants, green and luxuriant. Long stretches of white curtains +and huge pictures in curious outlines were painted on the sable +cliffs by encrusted salt. The sea surged in leaping fountains +through a thousand blow-holes carved from the black basalt, and the +ceaseless wash of the waves had cut the base of the precipices into +_paniho_, or teeth, as the Marquesans say. + +There were half a dozen indentations in the bleak and rugged coast, +each a little valley guarded by cliffs on both sides, the natural +obstacle to neighborliness that made enemies of the clans. +Inhabitants of plains are usually friendly. Mountains make feuds. + +We passed the valley of Hana Ui, inhabited when Grelet came, and +full of rich cotton-fields, now a waste with never a soul in it. We +passed Eue, Utea, Tetio, Nanifapoto, Hana Puaea and Mata Utuoa, all +empty of the living; graveyards and deserted _paepaes_. Thousands +made merry in them when the missionaries first recorded their numbers. +Death hung like a cloud over the desolate wilderness of these valleys, +over the stern and gloomy cliffs, black and forbidding, carved into +monstrous shapes and rimmed with the fantastic patterns made by the +unresting sea. + +Near Matu Utuoa was a great natural bridge, under which the ocean +rushed in swirling currents, foam, and spray. Turning a shoulder of +the cliff, we entered the Bay of Virgins and were confronted with +the titanic architecture of Hanavave, Alps in ruins, once coral +reefs and now thrust up ten thousand feet above the sea. Fantastic +headlands, massive towers, obelisks, pyramids, and needles were an +extravaganza in rock, monstrous and portentous. Towering structures +hewn by water and wind from the basalt mass of the island rose like +colossi along the entrance to the bay; beyond, a glimpse of great +black battlements framed a huge crater. + +A dangerous bay in the lee wind with a bad holding-ground. We +manoeuvered for ten minutes to land, but the shelving beach of black +stone with no rim of sand proved a puzzle even to Grelet. We reached +the stones again and again, only to be torn away by the racing tide. +At last we all jumped into the surf and swam ashore, except one man +who anchored the whale-boat before following us. + +The canoe that had sounded the conch off Oomoa was lying on the shale, +and those who had come in it were on the stones cooking breadfruit. +The village, half a dozen rude straw shacks, stretched along a rocky +stream. Beyond it, in a few acres enclosed by a fence, were a tiny +church, two wretched wooden cabins, a tumbling kiosk, five or six +old men and women squatting on the ground amid a flock of dogs and +cats. This was the Catholic mission, tumbledown and decayed, +unpainted for years, overgrown by weeds, marshy and muddy, passing +to oblivion like the race to which it ministered. + +Grelet and I found Pere Olivier sweeping out the church, cheerful, +humming a cradle-song of the French peasants. He was glad to see us, +though my companion was avowedly a pagan. Dwelling alone here with +his dying charges, the good priest could not but feel a common bond +with any white man, whoever he might be. + +The kiosk, to which he took us, proved to be Pere Olivier's +eating-place, dingy, tottering, and poverty-stricken, furnished with +a few cracked and broken dishes and rusty knives and forks, the +equipment of a miner or sheep-herder. Pere Olivier apologized for the +meager fare, but we did well enough, with soup and a tin of boiled +beef, breadfruit, and _feis_. The soup was of a red vegetable, not +appetizing, and I could not make out the native name for it, _hue +arahi_, until Grelet cried, "Ah, _j'ai trouve le mot anglais!_ +Ponkeen, ponkeen!" It was a red pumpkin. + +[Illustration: Removing the pig cooked in the _umu_, or native oven] + +[Illustration: The _Koina Kai_ or feast in Oomoa] + +"_La soupe maigre de missionaire_," murmured the priest. + +I led the talk to the work of the mission. + +"We have been here thirty-five years," said Pere Olivier, "and I, +thirty. Our order first tried to establish a church at Oomoa, but +failed. You have seen there a stone foundation that supports the +wild vanilla vines? Frere Fesal built that, with a Raratonga +islander who was a good mason. The two cut the stones and shaped them. +The valley of Oomoa was drunk. Rum was everywhere, the palm _namu_ +was being made all the time, and few people were ever sober. There +was a Hawaiian Protestant missionary there, and he was not good +friends with Frere Fesal. There was no French authority at Oomoa, +and the strongest man was the law. The whalers were worse than the +natives, and hated the missionaries. One day when the valley was +crazed, a native killed the Raratonga man. You will find the murderer +living on Tahuata now. Frere Fesal buried his assistant, and fled +here. + +"That date was about the last Hanavave suffered from cannibalism and +extreme sorcery. The _taua_, the pagan priest, was still powerful, +however, and his gods demanded victims. The men here conspired with +the men of Hanahouua to descend on Oi, a little village by the sea +between here and Oomoa. They had guns of a sort, for the whalers had +brought old and rusty guns to trade with the Marquesans for wood, +fruit, and fish. Frere Fesal learned of the conspiracy, but the men +were drinking rum, and he was helpless. The warriors went stealthily +over the mountains and at night lowered themselves from the cliffs +with ropes made of the _fau_. There were only thirty people left in +Oi, and the enemy came upon them in the dark like the wolf. Only one +man escaped--There he is now, entering the mission. We will ask him +to tell the story." + +He stood in the rickety doorway and called, "Tutaiei, come here!" An +old and withered man approached, one-eyed, the wrinkles of his face +and body abscuring the blue patterns of tattooing, a shrunken, but +hideous, scar making a hairless patch on one side of his head. + +"I was on the beach pulling up my canoe and taking out the fish I +had speared," said this wreck of a man. "Half the night was spent, +and every one was asleep except me. We were a little company, for +they had killed and eaten most of us, and others had died of the +white man's curse. In the night I heard the cries of the Hanavave +and Hanahouua men who had lowered themselves down the precipice and +were using their war-clubs on the sleeping. + +"I was one man. I could do nothing but die, and I was full of life. +In the darkness I smashed with a rock all the canoes on the beach +save mine. In my ears were the groans of the dying, and the war-cries. +I saw the torches coming. I put the fish back in my canoe, and +pushed out. + +"They were but a moment late, for I have a hole in my head into +which they shot a nail, and I have this crack in my head upon which +they flung a stone. They could not follow me, for there were no +canoes left. I paddled to Oomoa after a day, during which I did what +I have no memory of." + +"They had guns?" I asked him. + +"They had a few guns, but they used in them nails or stones, having +no balls of metal. Their slings were worse. I could sling a stone as +big as a mango and kill a man, striking him fair on the head, at the +distance those guns would shoot. We made our slings of the bark of +the cocoanut-tree, and the stones, polished by rubbing against each +other, we carried in a net about the waist." + +"But if that stone broke your head, why did you not die?" + +"A _tatihi_ fixed my head. The nail in my leg he took out with a +loop of hair, and cured the wound." + +"Did you not lie in wait for those murderers?" + +Tutaiei hemmed and cast down his eye. + +"The French came then with soldiers and made it so that if I killed +any one, they killed me; the law, they call it. They did nothing to +those warriors because the deed was done before the French came. I +waited and thought. I bought a gun from a whaler. But the time never +came. + +"All my people had died at their hands. Six heads they carried back +to feast on the brains. They ate the brains of my wife. I kept the +names of those that I should kill. There was Kiihakia, who slew +Moariniu, the blind man; Nakahania, who killed Hakaie, husband of +Tepeiu; Niana, who cut off the head of Tahukea, who was their +daughter and my woman; Veatetau should die for Tahiahokaani, who was +young and beautiful, who was the sister of my woman. I waited too +long, for time took them all, and I alone survive of the people of Oi, +or of those who killed them." + +"The vendetta between valleys--called _umuhuke_, or the Vengeance of +the Oven,--thus wiped out the people of Oi," commented Pere Olivier. +"The skulls were kept in banian-trees, or in the houses. Frere Fesal +started the mission here and built that little church. There were +plenty of people to work among. But now, after thirty years I have +been here, they are nearly finished. They have no courage to go on, +that is all. _C'est un pays sans l'avenir._ The family of the dying +never weep. They gather to eat the feast of the dead, and the crying +is a rite, no more. These people are tired of life." + +It was Stevenson who though that "the ending of the most healthful, +if not the most humane, of field sports--hedge warfare--" had much +to do with depopulation. Either horn of the dilemma is dangerous to +touch. It is unthinkable, perhaps, that white conquerors should have +allowed the Marquesans to follow their own customs of warfare. But +changes in the customs of every race must come from within that race +or they will destroy it. The essence of life is freedom. + +Any one who has read their past and knows them now must admit that +the Marquesans have not been improved in morality by their contact +with the whites. Alien customs have been forced upon them. And they +are dying for lack of expression, nationally and individually. +Disease, of course, is the weapon that kills them, but it finds its +victims unguarded by hope or desire to live, willing to meet death +half way, the grave a haven. + +[Illustration: Beach at Oomoa] + +[Illustration: Putting the canoe in the water] + +In the old days this island of Fatu-hiva was the art center of the +Marquesas. The fame of its tattooers, carvers in wood and stone, +makers of canoes, paddles, and war-clubs, had resounded through the +archipelago for centuries. Now it is one of the few places where +even a feeble survival of those industries give the newcomers a +glimpse of their methods and ideals now sinking, like their +originators, in the mire of wretchedness. + +Outside the mission gates, in the edge of the jungle, Pere Olivier +and I came upon two old women making _tapa_ cloth. Shrunken with age, +toothless, decrepit, their only covering the ragged and faded +_pareus_ that spoke of poverty, they sat in the shade of a +banian-tree, beating the fibrous inner bark of the breadfruit-tree. +Over the hollow log that resounded with the blows of their wooden +mallets the cloth moved slowly, doubling on the ground into a heap +of silken texture, firm, thin, and soft. + +This paper-cloth was once made throughout all the South Sea Islands. +Breadfruit, banian, mulberry, and other barks furnished the fiber. +The outer rough bark was scraped off with a shell, and the inner +rind slightly beaten and allowed to ferment. It was then beaten over +a tree-trunk with mallets of iron-wood about eighteen inches long, +grooved coarsely on one side and more finely on the other. The +fibers were so closely interwoven by this beating that in the +finished cloth one could not guess the process of making. When +finished, the fabric was bleached in the sun to a dazzling white, +and from it the Marquesans of old wrought wondrous garments. + +For their caps they made remarkably fine textures, open-meshed, +filmy as gauze, which confined their abundant black hair, and to +which were added flowers, either natural or beautifully preserved in +wax. Their principal garment, the _cahu_, was a long and flowing +piece of the paper-cloth, of firmer texture, dyed in brilliant colors, +or of white adorned with tasteful patterns. This hung from the +shoulders, where it was knotted on one shoulder, leaving one arm and +part of the breast exposed. Much individual taste was expressed in +the wearing of this garment; sometimes the knot was on one shoulder, +sometimes on the other, or it might be brought low on the chest, +leaving the shoulders and arms bare, or thrown behind to expose the +charms of a well-formed back or a slender waist. Beneath it they +wore a _pareu_, which passed twice around the waist and hung to the +calves of the legs. + +Clean and neat as these garments always were, shining in the sun, +leaving the body free to know the joys of sun and air and swift, +easy motion, it would be difficult to imagine a more graceful, +beautiful, modest, and comfortable manner of dressing. + +For dyeing these garments in all the hues that fancy dictated, the +women used the juices of herb and tree. Candlenut-bark gave a rich +chocolate hue; scarlet was obtained from the _mati_-berries mixed +with the leaves of the _tou_. Yellow came from the inner bark of the +root of the _morinda citrifolia_. Hibiscus flowers or delicate ferns +were dipped in these colors and impressed on the _tapas_ in elegant +designs. + +The garments were virtually indestructible. Did a dress need +repairing, the edges of the rent were moistened and beaten together, +or a handful of fiber was beaten in as a patch. Often for fishermen +the _tapas_ were made water-proof by added thicknesses and the +employment of gums, and waterproof cloth for wrappings was made +thick and impervious to rain as the oilcloth it resembled. + +Hardly one of these garments survives in the Marquesas to-day. They +have been driven out by the gaudy prints of Germany and England +brought by the traders, and by the ideas of dress which the +missionaries imported together with the barrels of hideous +night-gown garments contributed by worthy ladies of American villages. + +The disappearance of these native garments brought two things, +idleness and the rapid spread of tuberculosis. The _tapa_ cloth +could not be worn in the water or the rain, as it disintegrated. +Marquesans therefore left their robes in the house when they went +abroad in stormy weather or bathed in the sea. But in their new +calicos and ginghams they walked in the rain, bathed in the rivers, +and returned to sleep huddled in the wet folds, ignorant of the +danger. + +As the _tapa_ disappeared, so did the beautiful carvings of canoes +and paddles and clubs, superseded by the cheaper, machine-made +articles of the whites. Little was left to occupy the hands or minds +of the islanders, who, their old merrymakings stopped, their wars +forbidden, their industry taken from them, could only sit on their +_paepaes_ yawning like children in jail and waiting for the death +that soon came. + +The Marquesans never made a pot. They had clay in their soil, as +Gauguin proved by using it for his modeling, but they had no need of +pottery, using exclusively the gourds from the vines, wooden vessels +hollowed out, and temporary cups of leaves. + +This absence of pottery is another proof of the lengthy isolation of +the islands. The Tongans had earthen ware which they learned to +make from the Fijians, but the Polynesians had left the mainland +before the beginning of this art. Thus they remained a people who +were, despite their startling advances in many lines, the least +encumbered by useful inventions of any race in the world. + +Until hardly more than a hundred years ago the natives were like our +forefathers who lived millenniums ago in Europe. But being in a +gentler climate, they were gentler, happier, merrier, and far cleaner. +One can hardly dwell in a spirit of filial devotion upon the relation +of our forefathers to soap and water, but these Marquesans bathed +several times daily in dulcet streams and found soap and emollients +to hand. + +It was curious to me to reflect, while Pere Olivier and I stood +watching the two aged crones beating out the _tapa_ cloth, upon what +slender chance hung the difference between us. Far in the remote +mists of time, when a tribe set out upon its wanderings from the +home land, one man, perhaps, hesitated, dimly felt the dangers and +uncertainties before it, weighed the advantages of remaining behind, +and did not go. Had he gone, I or any one of Caucasian blood in the +world to-day, might have been a Marquesan. + +It would be interesting, I thought, to consider what the hundred +thousand years that have passed since that day have given us of joy, +of wealth of mind and soul and body, of real value in customs and +manners and attitude toward life, compared to what would have been +our portion in the islands of the South Seas before his white cousin +fell upon the Marquesan. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +Fishing in Hanavave; a deep-sea battle with a shark; Red Chicken +shows how to tie ropes to shark's tails; night-fishing for dolphins, +and the monster sword-fish that overturned the canoe; the native +doctor dresses Red Chicken's wounds and discourses on medicine. + + +Grelet returned to Oomoa in the whale-boat, but I remained in +Hanavave for the fishing. My presence had stimulated the waning +interest of the few remaining Marquesans, and the handful of young +men and women went with me often to the sea outside the Bay of +Virgins, where we lay in the blazing sunshine having great sport +with spear or hook and line. + +We speared a dozen kinds of fish, specially the cuttlefish and +sunfish, the latter more for fun and practice than food. They are +huge masses, these pig-like, tailless clowns among the graceful +families of the ocean, with their small mouths and clumsy-looking +bodies, but they made a fine target at which to launch harpoon or +spear from the dancing bow of a canoe. Keeping one's balance is the +finest art of the Marquesan fisherman, and he will stand firm while +the boat rises and falls, rolls and pitches, his body swaying and +balancing with the nice adjustment that is second nature to him. It +is an art that should be learned in childhood. Many were the +splashes into the salt sea that fell to my lot as I practised it, +one moment standing alert with poised spear in the sunlight, the +next overwhelmed with the green water, and striking out on the +surface again amid the joyous, unridiculing laughter of my merry +companions. + +Wearying of the spear, we trolled for swordfish with hook and line, +or used the baitless hook to entice the sportful albicore, or dolphin, +whose curving black bodies splashed the sea about us. A piece of +mother-of-pearl about six inches long and three-quarters of an inch +wide was the lure for him. Carefully cut and polished to resemble +the body of a fish, there was attached to it on the concave side a +barb of shell or bone about an inch or an inch and a half in length, +fastened by _faufee_ fiber, with a few hog's bristles inserted. The +line was drove through the hole where the barb was fastened and, +being braided along the inner side of the pearl shank, was tied +again at the top, forming a chord to the arch. Thus when the +beguiled dolphin took the hook and strained the line, he secured +himself more firmly on the barb. + +This is the best fish-hook, as it is perhaps the oldest, ever +invented, and I have found it in many parts of the South Seas, but +never more artfully made than here on Hanavave. It needs no bait, +and is a fascinating sight for the big fish, who hardly ever +discover the fraud until too late. + +The line was attached to a bamboo cane about fifteen feet long, and +standing in the stern of the canoe, I handled this rod, allowing the +hook to touch the water, but not to sink. Behind me my companions, +in their red and yellow _pareus_, pushed the boat through the water +with gentle strokes of their oars. When I saw a fish approaching, +they became active, the canoe raced across the sparkling sea, and +the hook, as it skimmed along the surface, looked for all the world +like a flying fish, the bristles simulating the tail. Soon the +hastening dolphin fell upon it, and then became the tug-of-war, +bamboo pole straining and bending, the line now taut, now relaxing, +as the fish lunged, and the paddlers watching with cries of +excitement until he was hauled over the side, wet and flopping, a +feast for half a dozen. + +One never-to-be-forgotten afternoon we ran unexpectedly upon a whole +school of dolphins a few miles outside the bay, and before the sun +sank I had brought from the sea twenty-six large fish. Some of these +were magnificent food-fish, weighing 150 to 200 pounds. We had to +send for two canoes to help bring in this miraculous draught, and +all the population of the valley rejoiced in the supply of fresh and +appetizing food. + +The Marquesan methods of fishing are not so varied to-day as when +their valleys were filled with a happy people delighting in all +forms of exercise and prowess and needing the fish to supplement a +scanty diet. For many weeks before I came, they said, no man had gone +fishing. There were so few natives that the trees supplied them all +with enough to eat, and the melancholy Marquesan preferred to sit +and meditate upon his _paepae_ rather than to fish, except when +appetite demanded it. There is a Polynesian word that means +"hungry for fish," and to-day it is only when this word rises to +their tongues or thoughts that they go eagerly to the sea or to the +tooth-like base of the cliffs. + +Often we took large quantities of fish among these caves and rocks +by capturing them in bags, using a wooden fan as a weapon. The sport +called for a cool head, marvelous lungs, and skill. It was extremely +dangerous, as the sharks were numerous where fish were plentiful, +and the angler must needs be under the water, in the shark's own +domain. + +[Illustration: Pascual, the giant Paumotan pilot and his friends] + +[Illustration: A pearl diver's sweetheart] + +The best hand and head for this sport in all Hanavave was a girl, +Kikaaki, a name which means Miss Impossibility. She was not handsome, +save with the beauty of youth and abounding health, but her wide +mouth and bright eyes were intelligent and laughter-loving. + +Starting early in the morning, we would go to the edge of the bay, +where the coral rises from the ocean floor in fantastic shapes and +builds strange grottoes and cells at the feet of the basalt rocks. +While I held the canoe, Miss Impossibility would remove her shapeless +calico wrapper, and attired only in scarlet _pareu_, her hair piled +high on her head and tied with the white filet of the cocoanut-palm, +she would go overboard in one curving dive, a dozen feet or more +beneath the sea. + +When the water was quiet and shadowed by the cliffs, I could see her +through its green translucence, swimming to the coral lairs of the +fish that gleamed in the reflected, penetrating sunlight. Walking on +the sandy bottom, a hand net of straw in one hand, and a stick +shaped like a fan in the other, she would cover a crevice with the +net and with the fan urge the fish into it. + +Foolish as was their conduct, the fish appeared to be deceived by +the lure, or made helpless by fear, for they streamed into the +receptacle as Miss Impossibility beat the water or the coral. She +would have seemed to me well named had I never seen her at the sport. + +She would usually stay beneath the water a couple of minutes, rising +with her catch to rest for a moment or two with her hand on the edge +of the boat, breathing deeply, before she went down again. Losing +sight of her among the under-water caves one day, I waited for what +seemed an eternity. I cannot say how long she was gone, for as the +time lengthened seconds became minutes and hours, while I was torn +between diving after her and remaining ready for emergency in the +boat. When at last she came to the surface, she was nearly dead with +exhaustion, and I had to lift her into the canoe. She said her hair +had been caught in the branching coral, and that she had been barely +able to wrench it free before her strength was gone. + +I went down with her several times, but could not master the art of +entrapping the fish, and was overcome with fear when I had entered +one of the dark caves and heard a terrible splashing nearby, as if a +shark had struck the coral in attempting to enter my hazardous refuge. + +Even Miss Impossibility had not the courage to face a shark; yet +every time she dived she risked meeting one. Red Chicken had killed +one at this very spot a few weeks earlier. The danger even to a man +armed with a knife was that the shark would obstruct from a cave, or +come upon him suddenly from behind. + +Often we had with us in the fishing a Paumotan, Pascual, the pilot +of the ship _Zelee_, who was in Hanavave visiting a relative. He was +the very highest physical and mental type of the Paumotan, a +honey-comb of good-nature, a well of laughter, and a seaman beyond +compare. To be a pilot in the Isles of the Labyrinth demands many +strong qualities, but to be the pilot of the only warship in this +sea was the very summit of pilotry. He had an accurate knowledge of +forty harbors and anchorages, and spoke English fluently, French, +Paumotan, Tahitian, Marquesan, and other Polynesian tongues. From +boyhood until he took up pilotage he was a diver in the lagoons for +shell and in harbors for the repair of ships. + +"I have killed many sharks," he said, "and have all but fed them +more than once. I had gone one morning a hundred feet. The water is +always colder below the surface, and I shivered as I pulled at a +pair of big shells under a ledge. It was dark in the cavern, and I +was both busy and cold, so that as I stooped I did not see a shark +that came from behind, until he plumped into my spine. + +"I turned as he made his reverse to bite me, and passed under him, +out to better light. I knew I had but a second or two to fight. I +seized his tail quickly, and as he swept around to free himself I +had time to draw the knife from my _pareu_ and stab him. He passed +over me again, and this time his teeth entered my shoulder, here--" +He opened his shirt and showed me a long, livid scar, serrated, the +hall-mark of a fighter of _mako_. + +"But by fortune--you may be sure I called on God--I got my knife +home again, and sprang up for the air, feeling him in the water +behind me. Twice I drove the blade into him on the way, for he would +not let me go. My friend in the canoe, who saw the struggle, jumped +down to my aid, and being fresh from the air, he cut that devil to +pieces. I was not too strong when I reached the outrigger and hung +my weight upon it. We ate the liver of that _mako_, and damned him +as we ate. I had fought him from the ledge upward at least eighty +feet of the hundred." + +"_Aue!_" said Red Chicken, hearing me exclaim at the tale. "You have +never seen a man fight the _mako_? _Epo!_ To-morrow we shall show you." + +On the following day when the sun was shining brightly, several of +us went in a canoe to a place beneath the cliffs haunted by the +sharks, and there prepared to snare one. A rope of hibiscus was made +fast to a jagged crag, and a noose at the other end was held by Red +Chicken, who stood on the edge of a great boulder eagerly watching +while others strewed pig's entrails in the water to entice a victim +from the dark caves. + +At length a long gray shape slid from the shadows and wavered below +our feet. Instantly Red Chicken slipped from the rock, slid +noiselessly beneath the water, and slipped the noose over the +shark's tail before it knew that he was nearby. The others, whose +hands were on the rope, tightened it on the instant, and with a yell +of triumph hauled the lashing, fighting demon upon the rocks, where +he struggled gasping until he died. + +There was still another way of catching sharks, Red Chicken said, +and being now excited with the sport and eager to show his skill, he +insisted upon displaying it for my benefit, though I, who find small +pleasure in vicarious danger, would have dissuaded him. For this +exploit we must row to the coral caves, where the man-eating fish +stay often lying lazily in the grottoes, only their heads protruding +into the sun-lit water. + +Here we maneuvered until the long, evil-looking snout was seen; then +Red Chicken went quietly over the side of the canoe, descended +beside the shark and tapped him sharply on the head. The fish turned +swiftly to see what teased him, and in the same split-second of time, +over his fluke went the noose, and Red Chicken was up and away, +while his companions on a nearby cliff pulled in the rope and killed +the shark with spears in shallow water. Red Chicken said that he had +learned this art from a Samoan, whose people were cleverer killers of +sharks than the Marquesans. It could be done only when the shark was +full-fed, satisfied, and lazy. + +I had seen the impossible, but I was to hear a thing positively +incredible. While Red Chicken sat breathing deeply in the canoe, +filled with pride at my praises, and the others were contriving +means of carrying home the shark meat, I observed a number of fish +swimming around and through the coral caves, and jumped to the +conclusion that from their presence Red Chicken had deduced the +well-filled stomachs and thoroughly satisfied appetite of the shark. +Red Chicken replied, however, that they were a fish never eaten by +sharks, and offered an explanation to which I listened politely, but +with absolute unbelief. Imagine with what surprise I found Red +Chicken's tale repeated in a book that I read some time later when I +had returned to libraries. + + There is a fish, the Diodon antennatus, that gets the better of the + shark in a curious manner. He can blow himself up by taking in air + and water, until he becomes a bloated wretch instead of the fairly + decent thing he is in his normal moments. He can bite, he can make a + noise with his jaws, and can eject water from his mouth to some + distance. Besides all this, he erects papillae on his skin like + thorns, and secretes in the skin of his belly a carmine fluid that + makes a permanent stain. Despite all these defences, if the shark is + fool enough to heed no warning and to eat Diodon, the latter puffs + himself up and eats his way clean through the shark to liberty, + leaving the shark riddled and leaky, and, indeed, dead. + +Should this still be doubted, my new authority is Charles Darwin. + +After his display of skill and daring--and, as I thought, vivid +imagination--Red Chicken became my special friend and guide, and on +one occasion it was our being together, perhaps, saved his life, and +afforded me one of the most thrilling moments of my own. + +He and I had gone in a canoe after nightfall to spear fish outside +the Bay of Virgins. Night fishing has its attractions in these +tropics, if only for the freedom from severe heat, the glory of the +moonlight or starlight, and the waking dreams that come to one upon +the sea, when the canoe rests tranquil, the torch blazes, and the +fish swim to meet the harpoon. The night was moonless, but the sea +was covered with phosphorescence, sometimes a glittering expanse of +light, and again black as velvet except where our canoe moved gently +through a soft and glamorous surface of sparkling jewels. A night +for a lover, a lady, and a lute. + +Our torch of cocoanut-husks and reeds, seven feet high, was fixed at +the prow, so that it could be lifted up when needed to attract the +fish or better to light the canoe. Red Chicken, in a scarlet _pareu_ +fastened tightly about his loins, stood at the prow when we had +reached his favorite spot off a point of land, while I, with a paddle, +noiselessly kept the canoe as stationary as possible. + +Light is a lure for many creatures of land and sea and sky. The moth +and the bat whirl about a flame; the sea-bird dashes its body +against the bright glass of the lonely tower; wild deer come to see +what has disturbed the dark of the forest, and fish of different +kinds leap at a torch. Red Chicken put a match to ours when we were +all in readiness. The brilliant gleam cleft the darkness and sent +across the blackness of the water a beam that was a challenge to the +curiosity of the dozing fish. They hastened toward us, and Red +Chicken made meat of those who came within the radius of his harpoon, +so that within an hour or two our canoe was heaped with half a dozen +kinds. + +Far off in the path of the flambeau rays I saw the swordfish leaping +as they pursued small fish or gamboled for sheer joy in the luminous +air. They seemed to be in pairs. I watched them lazily, with +academic interest in their movements, until suddenly one rose a +hundred feet away, and in his idle caper in the air I saw a bulk so +immense and a sword of such amazing size that the thought of danger +struck me dumb. + +He was twenty-five feet in length, and had a dorsal fin that stood +up like the sail of a small boat. But even these dimensions cannot +convey the feeling of alarm his presence gave me. His next leap +brought him within forty feet of us. I recalled a score of accidents +I had seen, read, and heard of; fishermen stabbed, boats rent, +steel-clad ships pierced through and through. + +Red Chicken held the torch to observe him better, and shouted: + +"_Apau!_ Look out! Paddle fast away!" + +I needed no urging. I dug into the glowing water madly, and the +sound of my paddle on the side of the canoe might have been heard +half a mile away. It served no purpose. Suddenly half a dozen of the +swordfish began jumping about us, as if stirred to anger by our torch. +I called to Red Chicken to extinguish, it. + +He had seized it to obey when I heard a splash and the canoe +received a terrific shock. A tremendous bulk fell upon it. With a +sudden swing I was hurled into the air and fell twenty feet away. In +the water I heard a swish, and glimpsed the giant espadon as he +leaped again. + +I was unhurt, but feared for Red Chicken. He had cried out as the +canoe went under, but I found him by the outrigger, trying to right +the craft. Together we succeeded, and when I had ousted some of the +water, Red Chicken crawled in. + +"_Papaoufaa!_ I am wounded slightly," he said, as I assisted him. +"The Spear of the Sea has thrust me through." + +The torch was lost, but I felt a big hole in the calf of his right +leg. Blood was pouring from the wound. I made a tourniquet of a +strip of my _pareu_ and, with a small harpoon, twisted it until the +flow of blood was stopped. Then, guided by him, I paddled as fast as +I could to the beach, on which there was little trouble in landing +as the bay was smooth. + +Red Chicken did not utter a complaint from the moment of his first +outcry, and when I roused others and he was carried to his house, he +took the pipe handed him and smoked quietly. + +"The Aavehie was against him," said an old man. Aavehie is the god +of fishermen, who was always propitiated by intending anglers in the +polytheistic days, and who still had power. + +[Illustration: Spearing fish in Marquesas Islands] + +[Illustration: Pearl shell divers at work] + +There was no white doctor on the island, nor had there been one for +many years. There was nothing to do but call the _tatihi_, or native +doctor, an aged and shriveled man whose whole body was an intricate +pattern of tattooing and wrinkles. He came at once, and with his +claw-like hands cleverly drew together the edges of Red Chicken's +wound and gummed them in place with the juice of the _ape_, a +bulbous plant like the edible _taro_. Red Chicken must have suffered +keenly, for the _ape_ juice is exceedingly caustic, but he made no +protest, continuing to puff the pipe. Over the wound the _tatihi_ +applied a leaf, and bound the whole very carefully with a bandage of +_tapa_ cloth folded in surgical fashion. + +About the mat on which Red Chicken lay the elders of the village +congregated in the morning to discuss the accident and tell tales +while the pipe circulated. One had seen his friend pierced through +the chest by a sword-fish and instantly killed. Numerous incidents +of their canoes being sunk by these savage Spears of the Sea were +recited by the wise men who, with no books to bother them or written +records to dull their memories, preserved the most minute +recollections of important events of the past. + +For my part, on the subject of the demoniacal work of the swordfish, +I regaled them with accounts of damage wrought to big ships; of how +a bony sword had penetrated the hull of the _Fortune_, of Plymouth, +cutting through copper, an inch of under-sheathing, a three-inch +plank of hard wood, twelve inches of solid, white-oak timber, two +and a half inches of hard oak ceiling, and the head of an oil cask; +of the sloop _Morning Star_, which had to be convoyed to port with a +leak through a hole in eight and a half inches of white oak; of the +United States Fish Commission sloop, _Red Hot_, rammed and sunk; of +the British dreadnaught, which was pumped to Colombo where the leak +made by the fish was found, and 15,000 francs insurance paid. + +"Our fathers never went fishing until they had implored the favor of +the gods," said Red Chicken. "I am a Catholic, but it may be the sea +is so old, older than Christ, that the devils there obey the old +gods we used to worship. If that largest Spear of the Sea that we +saw had attacked me or our boat, he would have killed us and sunk +the canoe, for he was four fathoms long, and his weapon was as tall +as I am." + +The _tatihi_ nodded his head gravely. His soul was still in the +keeping of the gods of his fathers, and-he saw in Red Chicken's +wound the vengeance of the un-appeased Aavehie. + +I was amazed to find that Red Chicken had no fever, and was +recovering rapidly. Without modern medicine or knowledge of it, the +_tatihi_ had healed the sufferer, and I drew him on to talk of his +skill. + +His surgical knowledge was excellent; he knew the location of the +vital organs quite accurately from frequent cutting up of bodies for +eating. He had treated successfully broken bones, spear-wounds +through the body, holes knocked in skulls by the vicious, egg-sized +sling-stones. If the skull was merely cracked, with no smashing of +the bone, he drilled holes at the end of each crack to prevent +further cleavage and, replacing the skin he had folded back, bound +the head with cooling leaves and left nature to cure the break. If +there was pressure on the brain or a part of the skull was in bits, +his custom was to remove all these and, trimming the edges of the +hole in the brainpan, to fit over it a neat disk of cocoanut-shell, +return the scalp, and nurse the patient to health. + +He had known of cases when injured brain matter was replaced with +pig-brains, but admitted that the patient in such cases became first +violently angry and then died. Lancing boils and abscesses with +thorns had been his former habit, but he favored a nail for the +purpose nowadays. + +Fearing lest fever should attack Red Chicken, he had prepared a +decoction from the hollow joints of the bamboo, which he +administered in frequent doses from a cocoanut-shell. It was +milk-white, and became translucent in water, like that beautiful +variety of opal, the hydrophane. There was a legend, said the +_tatihi_, that the knowledge of this medicine had been gleaned from +a dark man who had come on a ship many years before, and with this +clue I recognized it as _tabasheer_, a febrifuge long known in India. + +A fire had been built outside the straw hovel in which Red Chicken +lay, and stones were heating in it, so that if milder medicine did +not avail the patient might be laid on a pile of blazing stones +covered with protecting leaves, and swathed in cloths until +perspiration conquered fever. The patient would then be rushed to the +sea or river and plunged into cold water. + +But this procedure was not necessary. Red Chicken got well rapidly, +and in a few days was walking about as usual, though with a +thoughtful look in his eye that promised a soul-struggle with Pere +Olivier, whose new gods had not protected the fisherman against the +gods of the sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +A journey over the roof of the world to Oomoa; an encounter with a +wild woman of the hills. + + +Pere Olivier tried to dissuade me from walking back to Oomoa, and +offered me his horse, but I determined to go afoot and let Orivie, a +native youth, be my mounted guide. Orivie is named for Pere Olivier; +there being no "l" in the Marquesan language, the good priest's name +is pronounced as if spelled in English Oreeveeay. + +The horse, the usual small, tough mountain-pony, was caught, and +upon him we strapped the saddle with cow-skin stirrups, hairy and big, +and a rope bridle. Orivie, handsomely dressed in wrinkled denim +trousers, a yellow _pareu_ and an aged straw hat, mounted the beast, +and bidding farewell to the friends I had made, we began to climb +the trail through the village. + +At each of the dozen houses we passed I had to stop and say _Kaoha_ +to the occupants. In these islands there is none of that coldness +toward the casual passer-by which is common in America, where one +may walk through the tiniest village and receive no salutation unless +the village constable sees a fee in arresting the wayfarer for not +having money or a job. All the elders were tattooed, and as every +island and even every valley differed in its style of skin decoration, +these people had new patterns and pictures of interest to me. I made +it a point to linger a little before each house, praising the +appearance of these tattooed old people, both because it pleased +them and because it is a pity that this national art expression +should die out at the whim of whites who substitute nothing for it. +By this deprivation, as by a dozen others, the Marquesans have been +robbed of racial pride and clan distinction, and their social life +destroyed. + +Despite this delay, Orivie and I were soon past the houses. As +population has decreased in all the valleys the people have moved +down from the upper heights to districts nearer the sea, for +neighborliness and convenience. Only a few in some places have +remained in the further glens, and these are the non-conformists, who +retain yet their native ways of thought and living and their ancient +customs. This I knew, but I pursued my way behind the climbing +little horse, enjoying the many sights and perfumes of the jungle, +in happy ignorance of an experience soon to befall me with one of +these residents of the heights. It fell upon me suddenly, the most +embarrassing of several experiences that have divided me between +fear and laughter. + +Perhaps a mile above the village, in a wilderness of shrubbery, trees, +and giant ferns, we came upon a cross-trail, a thin line of travel +hardly breaking the dense growth, and saw a woman appear from among +the leaves. She was large, perhaps five feet, ten inches, tall; a +Juno figure, handsome and lithe. Such a woman of her age, about +twenty-two years, does the work of a man, makes copra, fells trees, +lifts heavy stones, and is a match for the average man in strength. +She was dark, as are all Marquesans who live a hardy and vigorous +life unsheltered from sun and wind, and in the half shadow of the +forest she seemed like an animal, wild and savage. Her scarlet +_pareu_ and necklace of red peppers added color to a picture that +struck me at once as bizarre and memorable. + +The horse had passed her, and turning about in the saddle Orivie +replied to her greeting, while I added a courteous "_Kaoha!_" She +looked at me with extraordinary attention, which I ascribed to my +white ducks and traveling cap, while she asked who I was. Orivie +replied that I was a stranger on my way over the mountains. She +advanced into the main trail then, letting slip from her shoulders a +weight of packages, tea, and other groceries, and suddenly embraced +me, smelling my face and picking me up in a bear hug that, startled +as I was, nearly choked me. + +"Take care!" cried Orivie, in a tone between alarm and amusement. I +backed hastily away, and sought to take refuge beside a boulder, but +she vaulted after me, and seizing me again, resumed her passionate +attack. + +"She is a woman of the mountains! She will take you away to her +_paepae_!" my excited guide yelled warningly. + +That was her intention. There was no doubt about it. She seized me +by the arm and tried to drag me away from the boulder to which I +clung. For several moments I was engaged in a struggle more sincere +than chivalrous on my part and ardently demonstrative on hers. But +as I absolutely would not accede to her desire to give me a home in +the hills, she was forced to give up hope after a final embrace, +which I ended rudely, but scientifically. Rising to her feet again, +she picked up her burden, which must have weighed fully a hundred +pounds, and went her way. + +"She is a _hinenao pu_," said Orivie. That means literally a coquette +without reason. I did not seek for double meaning in the remark, but +expressed my opinion of all _hinenaos_ as I replaced my cap and +readjusted my garments. + +"These women of the heights are all like that," said my guide. +"They have no sense and no shame. If they see a stranger near their +home, they will seize him, as men do women. If they are in the mood, +they will not take no for an answer. It has always been their custom, +as that of the hill men capturing the valley women. It is shameful, +but it has never changed. She would give you food and treat you with +kindness as a man does his bride. You know, in the old days the +strong women had more than one husband; sometimes four or five, and +they chose them in this way. If you were nearer where Tepu lives, +she would make you a prisoner. They have often done that." + +"Do we go near her home?" said I. + +"No; we see no more _paepaes_," replied Orivie. + +"Then," I said, "let us hasten onward." + +We mounted at every foot, and soon were above the cocoanuts. The +trail was a stream interspersed with rocks, for in these steep +accents the path, worn lower than its borders, becomes in the rainy +season the natural bed of the trickle or torrent that runs to the +valley. The horse leaped from rock to rock, planting his back feet +and springing upward to a perch, upon which he hung until he got +balance for another leap. I followed the animal, knowing him wiser +in such matters than I. From time to time Orivie urged me to ride +and when I refused gave me the knowing look bestowed upon the witless, +the glance of the asylum-keeper upon the lunatic who thinks himself +a billiard ball. + +We were soon so high that I saw below only a big basin, in which was +a natural temple, the vast ruin of a gigantic minster, it seemed, +and across the basin a rugged, saw-like profile of the mountain-top. +Eons ago the upper valley was a volcano, when the island of +Fatu-hiva was under the sea. Once the fire burst through the crater +side toward the present beach, and after the explosion there was +left a massive gateway of rock, through which we had come from the +village. Towering so high that they were hardly perceptible when we +had been beside them, they showed from this height their whole +formation, like the wrecked walls of a stupendous basilica. + +Up and up we went. The way was steeper than any mountain I have ever +climbed, except the sheer sides of chasms where ropes are necessary, +or the chimneys of narrow defiles. I have climbed on foot Vesuvius, +Halaakela, Kilauea, Fuji, and Mayon, and the mountains of America, +Asia, and South America, though I know nothing by trial of the +terrors of the Alps. However, the horse could and did go up the steep, +though it taxed him to the utmost, and these horses are like +mountain-goats, for there is hardly any level land in the Marquesas. + +[Illustration: Catholic Church at Hanavave +Frere Fesal on left, Pere Olivier on right] + +[Illustration: A canoe in the surf at Oomoa] + +Unexpectedly, the sea came in view, with the Catholic church and its +white belfry, but in another turn it disappeared. I fell again and +again; the horse floundered among the stones in the trough and fell, +too, Orivie seizing trees or bushes that lined the banks to save +himself. Rocks as large as hundred-ton vessels were on the +mountainside above, held from falling only by small rocks interposed, +feeble obstacles to an avalanche. Beetling precipices overhung the +village. I thought they might fall at any moment, and the Marquesans +recount many such happenings. In Tai-o-hae three hundred natives +were entombed forever by a landslide, and Orivie pointed out the +tracks of such slides, and immense masses of rock in the far depths +below, beside strips of soft soil brought down by the rains. + +The wild guava and the thorny _keoho_, the taro, the pandanus and +the banian, all the familiar and useful trees and plants were left +behind. We toiled onward in a wilderness of stone. + +I climbed around the edge of a precipice, and stood above the sea. +The blue ocean, as I looked downward, was directly under my eyes, +and I could see the fishing canoes like chips on the water. It was a +thousand feet straight down; the standing-place was but three feet +wide, wet and slippery. The mighty trade-wind swept around the crags +and threatened to dislodge me. + +That demoniacal impulse to throw oneself from a height took +possession of me. Almost a physical urging of the body, as if some +hidden Mephistopheles not only poured into the soul his hellish +advice to end your life, but pushed you to the brink. As never +before the evil desire to fall from that terrible height attacked me, +and the world became a black dizziness. Struggling, I threw out my +hand; the unconscious grip upon a stunted fern, itself no barrier +against falling, gave me a mental grip upon myself, and the crisis +was passed. + +On hands and knees I crept around the ledge, for the wind was a gale, +and a slip of a foot might mean a drop of a fifth of a mile. + +The next valley, Tapaatea, came in view, and Hanavave a cleft in the +mountains, the stream a silver cord. A cascade gleamed on the +opposite side against the Namana hills. It is Vaieelui, the youth +Orivie informed me, as we went higher, still on the dangerous ledge +that binds the seaward precipice. All the valleys converged to a +point, and nothing below was distinct. + +Higher we went, and were level with the jagged ridge of the Faeone +mountains toward the north, and could look through the pierced +mountain, Laputa; through the hole, _tehavaiinenao_, that is like a +round window to the sky, framed in black, about which legends are +raised. Orivie smiled indulgently as I explained to him that that +hole was made by sea-currents when Laputa was under the ocean. He +knew that a certain warrior, half god and half man, threw his spear +through the mountain once upon a time. + +We came then to the veriest pitch of the journey, like the roof of +the world, and it was necessary to crawl about another ledge that +permitted a perpendicular view of 2500 feet, so desperate in its +attraction that had I known the name of that saint who is the patron +of alpenstock buyers I would have offered him an _ave_. This was the +apex. Once safely past it, the trail went downward to a plateau. + +I caught up with Orivie and the horse, and my muscles so rejoiced at +the change of motion in descent that almost involuntarily I took a +few steps of a jig and uttered the first verses of "I Only Had Fifty +Cents." Mosses and ferns by the billion covered every foot of the +small plateau. There were no trees. The trail was a foot deep in +water, like an irrigation ditch. One still might easily break one's +neck. And I reflected that Pere Olivier crosses many times a year +between Oomoa and Hanavave, in his black soutan and on his weary +horse, in all weathers, alone; it is a fact to treasure for +recalling when one hears all missionaries included in the accusation +of selfishness that springs so often to the lips of many men. + +We reached the plane of cocoanuts, and I asked Orivie to fetch down +a couple, after essaying to perform that feat myself and failing +dismally besides scratching my nose and hands. Bare feet are a +requisite--bare and tough as leather. The Marquesans cut notches in +the trees after they reach maturity, to make the climbing easier, a +custom they have in many parts of Asia, but not in Tahiti. These +footholds are made every three feet on opposite sides. They are cut +shallowly, inclining downward and outward, in order not to wound the +wood of the tree or to form pockets in which water would collect and +rot it. With these aids they climb with ease, using a rope of +_purau_ bark tied about the wrists, and by these they pull +themselves from notch. + +I have seen a child of six years reach the top of a sixty-foot tree +in a minute or so, and I have seen a man or woman stop on the way, +fifty feet from the earth, and light a cigarette. Slim, fat, chiefs +or commoners, all learn this knack in infancy. Men who puff along +the road because of their bulk will attain the branches of a palm +with the agility of monkeys. + +Orivie had no notches to assist him, but tied his ankles together +with a piece of tough vine, leaving about ten inches of play, and +with this band, pressed tightly against the tree, giving firm +support while his arms, clasping the trunk above, drew him upward a +yard at a time, he was at the crest of a fifty-foot tree in a minute, +and threw down two drinking nuts. They were as big as foot-balls and +weighed about five pounds each. We had no knife, but broke in the +tops with stones, and holding up the shining green nuts, let the +wine flow down our throats. Never was a better thirst-quencher or +heartener! The hottest noon on the hottest beach, when the coral +burns the feet, this nectar is cool. After the most arduous climb, +when lungs and muscles ache with weariness, it freshens strength and +lifts the spirit. + +By the cocoanut-grove ran a level stream shaded with pandanus, and +following it, we commenced again to mount on a pathway arched by +small trees, down which the stream coursed. The cocoanuts fell away +as we went up the ridge and emerged upon a tableland covered with +ferns, some green and some dead and dry, carpeting the flat expanse +as far as eye could see with a mat of lavender, the green and the +brown melting into that soft color. + +We were further on the broad roof on the mountains, in the middle +now and not on the edge, so we ran and galloped and shouted. Wild +horses fled from us, and we heard the grunt of boar in the fern +thickets. The fan-palms, dwarfs, but graceful, intermingled with +magnificent tree-ferns, while above them curved the _huetu_, the +immense mountain plantain, called _fei_ in Tahiti, where they are +the bread of the people; they have ribbed, emerald leaves, as big as +a man. Feeders of dark people in many lands for thousands of years, +theirs is the same golden fruit I had eaten at breakfast with Pere +Olivier, three thousand feet below. They grow only in the mountains, +and the men who bring them into the villages have feet shaped like a +hand spread out to its widest, with toes twisted curiously by +climbing rocks and grasping roots for support. + +The rain began to fall again, and the wind came stronger, but now we +were going down in earnest. The sea shone again, but it was on the +Oomoa side. We passed under trees hung with marvelous orchids, the +_puaauetaha_, Orivie said, parasitic vines related to the vanilla +as the lion is related to the kitten, cousins, but with little +family likeness. + +The trail became very dangerous at this point, a rocky slide, with +steps a foot or two apart like uneven stairs, and all a foot, or +sometimes two, under running water. I jumped and slid and slipped, +following the unhappy plunging horse. Darkness came on quickly with +the blinding rain, and the descent was often at an angle of +forty-five degrees, over rocks, eroded hills, along the edge of a +precipice. I fell here, and saved myself by catching a root in the +trail and pulling myself up again. I would have dropped upon the roof +of the gendarme's house a thousand feet below. + +We heard the sound of the surf, and letting the horse go, Orivie led +me, by that sense we surrender for the comforts of civilization, +down the bed of a cascade to the River of Oomoa, which we waded, and +then arrived at Grelet's house. We had come thirteen miles. I was +tired, but Orivie made nothing of the journey. + +Covered with mud as I was, I went to the river and bathed in the +rain and, returning to the house, looked after my health. A half +ounce of rum, a pint of cocoanut-milk from a very young nut, the +juice of half a lime just from the tree, two lumps of sugar, and I +had an invigorating draught, long enough for a golf player after +thirty-six holes, and delicate enough for a debutante after her +first cotillion. The Paumotan boys and Pae looked on in horror, +saying that I was spoiling good rum. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +Return in a canoe to Atuona; Tetuahunahuna relates the story of the +girl who rode the white horse in the celebration of the fete of Joan +of Arc in Tai-o-hae; Proof that sharks hate women; steering by the +stars to Atuona beach. + + +The canoe we had followed to Hanavave stopped in Oomoa on its way to +Hiva-oa, my home, for I had bargained with Tetuahunahuna, its owner, +for my conveyance to Atuona. Grelet would eventually have +transported me, but so great was his aversion to leaving Fatu-hiva +that I felt it would be asking too much of him. He reminded me that +Kant, the great metaphysician, had lived eighty years in his +birthplace and never stirred more than seven miles from it. + +The canoe had come to Hanavave to bring back two young women. One +was dark, a voluptuous figure in a pink satin gown over a lace +petticoat. A leghorn hat, trimmed with shells and dried nuts, sat +coquettishly upon her masses of raven hair. Upon her neck, rounded +as a young cocoanut-tree, was a necklace of pearls that an empress +might have envied her, had they been real and not the synthetic gift +of some trader. Small and shapely feet, bare, peeped from under her +filmy frills. Her eyes were the large, limpid orbs of the typical +Marquesan, like sepia, long-lashed; her nose straight and perfect, +her mouth sensuous and demanding. Ghost Girl, her name signified, +and she flitted about the islands like a sprite. + +"She levies tribute on all whom she likes," said Grelet. "Her +devotions are rum and tobacco." On meeting me she squatted and spat +through her fingers to show her thirst, as do all Marquesans whose +manners have not been corrupted by strangers. + +The other girl, younger, in a scarlet tunic with a wreath of +hibiscus flowers on her head, startled me by appearing with all her +body that I could see colored a brilliant yellow. She had decked +herself for the journey with a covering of _ena_-paste, perfumed +with saffron, a favorite cosmetic of island beauties. + +The sun was white on Oomoa beach as we came down to it from the +grateful shade of Grelet's plantation. Against the blinding glimmer +of it the half-naked boatsmen, bearing bunches of bananas, dozens +of drinking nuts, bread, and wine, the gifts of my host, were dark +silhouettes outlined against the blue sea. + +Behind them walked Tetuahunahuna. Calm, unburdened, and without a +tattoo mark on his straight brown body, he looked the commander of +men that he was, a man whose word none would think to question or to +doubt. Indifferent alike to the dizzying heat and to the admiring +glances of the women, he set at once to ordering the loading of the +boat that lay upon the sands beyond the reach of the breakers. + +A dozen women lounged in the ancient public place beneath the banian +tree, a mighty platform of black stone on which the island women had +sat for centuries to watch their men come and go in canoes to the +fishing or to raids on neighboring bays, and where for decades they +have awaited the landing of their white sailor lovers. + +"_Tai, menino!_ A pacific sea!" they called to us as we passed them, +and their eyes followed with envy the progress of Ghost Girl and +Sister of Anna. + +The boat was already well loaded when I reached it. The fermented +breadfruit wrapped in banana-leaves, the pig dug from the pit that +morning and packed in sections of bamboo, the calabashes of river +water, the bananas and drinking nuts, were all in place. With +difficulty my luggage was added to the cargo, and we found cramped +places for ourselves and bade farewell to Grelet, while the oarsmen +held the boat steady at the edge of the lapping waves. Tetuahunahuna, +watching the breakers, gave a quick word of command, and we plunged +through the foam. + +The boat leaped and pitched in the flying spray. The oarsmen, +leaping to their places, struck out with the oars. A sharp "_Haie!_" +of alarm rose behind me, and I saw that an oar had snapped. But +Tetuahunahuna, waist-deep in the water at our stern, gave a mighty +push, and we were safely afloat as he clambered over the edge and +stood dripping on the steersman's tiny perch, while the men, holding +the boat head-on to the rolling waves, drove us safely through to +open water. + +Outside the bay they put by their oars and we waited for a breeze to +give the signal for hoisting mast and sail. The beach lay behind us, +a narrow line of white beyond the whiter curve of surf. The blue sky +burned above us, and to the far shimmering horizon stretched the +blue calm of a windless sea. + +We rolled idly, the sun scorching us. In an hour I was so hot that I +began to wonder if I could endure the torment. The buckle on my +trousers burned my flesh, and I could not touch my clothes without +pain. The Marquesans lay comfortably on the seats and bundles, +enjoying their pandanus-leaf cigarettes. Every few moments the +bow-oar skillfully rolled one, took a few puffs and handed it to the +next man, who, after taking his turn, passed it down the waiting line. + +From time to time Tetuahunahuna, squatting in the stern, made a sign, +and a fresh cigarette passed untouched through eight hands to his. +He smoked serenely, gazing at the smooth swells of water and waiting +with inexhaustible patience for the wind. At his feet the +fifteen-year-old girl, Sister of Anne, disposed her saffron-colored +body upon oars laid across the thwarts and slept. Ghost Girl, beside +me, laid her glossy head in my lap to doze more comfortably. + +Jammed against the unyielding thwarts, I passed miserable hours, +unable to move more than a few inches in the narrow space. At noon, +with the vertical eye of the evil sun staring down upon us, my +clothes were so hot that I had to hold them off my body. I meditated +leaping into the ocean and swimming awhile. Ghost Girl saw my +intention when I stirred, and pulled me back beside her. + +"_Mako!_" she cried. "_Puaa hae!_" She pointed to starboard. A gray +fin moved slowly through the water twenty feet away. "A shark, and a +wicked beast he is!" She reached to pick up an opened cocoanut and +tossed some of the milk over her shoulder to appease the demon. +"_Mako!_" she repeated. "_Puaa hae!_" + +"_Requin!_" echoed Tetuahunahuna in French. "The devil of the +Marquesas!" + +"But you are not afraid of them. You swim where they are," said I. + +"Few of us are bitten by sharks," said Tetuahunahuna, sizing up a +puff of wind that brought a faint hope. It died, and he continued. +"We are often in the sea, and do not fear the _mako_ enough to make +us weak against him. I have killed many with a knife. I have tied +ropes about their bellies and made them feel silly as we pulled them +in. I have tickled their bellies with the point of the knife that +slit them later. They are awkward, they must turn over to bite, and +they are afraid of a man swimming. But they are devils, and hate +women. They do not like men, but women they will go far to kill." + +He took the cigarette Ghost Girl handed him and, squatting on the +rudder deck, looked at me to see if I were interested. Wretched as I +felt, I returned his glance, and said "_Tiatohoa?_" which means, +"Is that so?" and showed that I was attentive. + +"It is so," he replied. "There are reasons for this. In times before +the memory of man a shark-god was deceived by a woman. In his anger +he overturned an island, but this did not appease his hate. Since +that time all sharks have preyed on women." + +Sister of Anne moved restlessly in her sleep and put her +_ena_-covered feet across my knees, feet as hot as an iron +pump-handle on a July noon. + +"_Hakaia!_" exclaimed Ghost Girl, and hung the feet over the side. + +"Sharks will let men live to kill women," Tetuahunahuna resumed. +"There are many proofs of this, but most convincing is a happening +that every one in Tai-o-hae and Nuka-hiva knows, because it happened +only a few years ago. I saw that happening." + +I looked at him with attention, and after a few puffs of smoke he +continued. + +"You may think, you who use the Iron Fingers That Make Words, that +the shark does not know the difference between men and women. I have +seen it, and I will tell you honestly. I have thought often of it, +for all who live in Tai-o-hae know that woman, and her foster-sister +sits there with the _ena_ upon her. She does not lie in the cemetery, +this girl of whom I speak, nor is her body beside that of her +fathers in the _ua tupapau_. Her name was Anna, a name for your +country, _fenua Menike_, for her father was captain of a vessel with +three masts that came from Newbeddifordimass, a place where all the +Menike ships that hunt the whale came from. Her mother was O Take Oho, +of the valley of Hapaa, whose father was eaten by the men of +Tai-o-hae in the war with that white captain, Otopotee. + +"_Ue!_ Those big ships that hunt the whale come no more. The _paaoa_ +spouts with none to strike him. Standireili makes the lanterns burn +in Menike land, and they send it here in tipoti, the big cans. The +old days are gone. + +"The father of Anna saw her first when she was one year old and +could barely swim. He came in his ship from Newbeddifordimass, and +he said that it was for the last time, for the whaling was done. He +was a young man, strong and a user of strong words, but he looked +with pride on the little Anna, and kept her with her with her mother +on his ship for many weeks, while the men of the ship danced with +the girls. He would bathe on the beach in the bay of Tai-o-hae, and +the little Anna would swim to him through the deep water. He gave +her a small silver box with a silver chain, for the _tiki_ of +Bernadette, on the day that he sailed away. + +"He did not come again to Tai-o-hae, nor Atuona, nor Hanavave. We +heard that he traded with Tahiti, and had given up the chase of the +_paaoa_. I have never been in Tahiti. They say that it is +beautiful and that the people are joyous. They have all the _namu_ +they can drink. The government is good to them." Tetuahunahuna sighed, +and looked at my bag, in which was the bottle of rum Grelet had +given me. + +I poured a drink into the cocoanut-shell Ghost Girl had emptied, and +gave it to him. "_Kaoha!_" he said and, having swallowed the rum, +went on. + +"When Anna had fourteen years she was _mot kanahua_, as beautiful as +a great pearl. She was tall for her age as are the daughters of the +great. Her hair was of red and of gold, like that of Titihuti of +Autuona. Her eyes were the color of the _mio_, the rosewood when +freshly cut, and her breasts like the milk-cocoanut husked for +drinking. + +"Many young men, Marquesan men and all the white men, and George +Washington, the black American, tried to capture Anna, but Pere +Simeon, the priest, had given her to the blessed Maria Peato, and +the Sisters guarded her carefully. From the time she played naked on +the beach she wore the tiki of Bernadette in the silver box given +her by her father, and she said the prayers Pere Simeon taught her +from the book. She wore a blue _pareu_, and that was strange, for +only old people, and few of them, wear any but the red or yellow +loin-cloth. But blue, said little Anna, is the color of Maria Peato, +mother of Christ." + +The others were listening curiously. Ghost Girl crossed herself and +muttered, "_Kaoha_, Maria Peato!" + +"When she had fourteen years, then, Anna was different from all +other girls on these beaches. All men sighed for her, but she was +one who would not follow the custom of our girls since always. She +was made different by her mother, by the prayers of Pere Simeon, and +by something strange in her _kuhane_--what do you say? Soul. She +cared nothing for drink or _pipi_, the trinkets girls adore. She +spoke of herself always as the daughter of a Menike captain, a +father who would come for her and take her away. Her mother had kept +this always in her mind, and Anna never joined the dances. + +"Her mother, who lived on the beach and waited for the sailors, saw +her seldom, for Pere Simeon had taken Anna away, and kept her in the +nuns' house, and they guarded her. He had put a _tapu_ upon her." + +I sat up suddenly, struck by a memory. "It was she who rode the +white horse, and bore the armor of Joan in the great parade?" + +"It was she. The nuns would have had her live in the nun's house +forever, and become one of them. But Anna told me on the beach when +she came hiding to see her mother, that she would live in the nuns' +house only until her Menike father came to take her away. She kept +the _tiki_ of Bernadette in its silver box upon her neck, and it was +her god to whom she said her prayers." + +"_Epo!_" I said, sitting up, dumfounded. "Go on, Tetuahunahuna. Tell +me more." + +"There came the great day of the blessed Joan," said Tetuahunahuna, +after tasting a fresh cigarette. "There were drums and chants, and +rum for all. Pere Simeon took away the rum, alas! and only the +Menike sailors on the ships could have enough. Anna wore a garment +that shone like the sun on the waves, and sat upon a white horse, +riding from the mission to the House of Lepers on the beach. Pere +Simeon walked before her carrying the tiki of the Sacrament, and +there were banners white as the new web of the cocoanut. Anna did +not look to right or to left as she sat upon the horse, but when she +stood on the sand by the House of Lepers, she looked long at a new +ship in the bay. + +"Anna said that this ship might be that of her white father, but the +name was different, and this ship was not from Newbeddifordimass. +She said she would swim to this ship to see her father, but her +mother said no. Her mother told her that the waters were full of +sharks, and that not even a _tiki_ of Bernadette would save her. +Then came the nuns, and took Anna away. Anna wept as she went with +them, for she desired to stay and look at the ship. + +"That night the boats of the ship could not land on the beach of +Tai-o-hae, for the sea was too great, so that they came and went +from Peikua, the staircase in the rocks. The sailors had leave to do +what they wished and they had plenty of rum given them by the captain +who was born that day forty years before. I went then to the ship to +drink the captain's rum and to buy tobacco. I am of Hiva-oa, and the +ship was large, and new to me." + +Tetuahunahuna's gesture brought quickly to him a fresh cigarette, +and he savored its rank smoke with satisfaction. The slender canoe +swung like a hammock in the long, sluggish rollers. The sun blazed +pitilessly upon us, and no slightest ruffle of white broke the +surface of the calm, unrelenting sea that held us prisoner. + +"At night there was nobody on the ship not drunk. Some of the men +had seized several women on the road that leads to Tai-o-hae, and +had forced them to the boat and carried them aboard. Among these +women was Anna, who had fled from the nuns to seek word of her father. +She fought like a wild woman of the hills when they held her in jest +to make her swallow the rum, but the strong ship men conquered her, +and the sound of their laughter and her cries was so great that the +captain himself came forward. When he saw her he claimed her as the +youngest, as is the custom. + +"She went with him weeping. When they came to his cabin, we heard +her crying aloud to Maria Peato. We heard the shouts of the captain, +enraged, subduing her with blows. There was much rum, and the women +were dancing. There was much noise, but I had drunk little, having +just come to the ship, and I heard the crying and weeping of Anna." + +"After a time came Anna, running across the deck. It was a large +vessel, and it was a dark night. The captain pursued her. She +climbed the rigging, and the captain ordered two men to go aloft and +bring her to him. + +[Illustration: The gates of the Valley of Hanavave] + +[Illustration: A fisherman's house of bamboo and cocoanut leaves] + +"Every one came to look, with yells and with songs. The sailors +climbed after her, and she went higher and higher, until near the +top of that tall mast, taller than the greatest cocoanut-tree in +Atuona. There she held to the wood, calling upon Maria Peato. The +captain was like a man mad with _namu_. He called to the sailors to +climb higher. But when one reached to take her by the foot, she +threw herself into the air and fell a great distance into the water. + +"The captain cried that he would give four litres of rum to the man +that brought her back. Some ran to get the boat, others dived after +her. I was one of these. + +"I have said that it was a black night. When in the water we could +get no sight of her. Then on the ship one turned a bright lantern on +the sea, and all of us saw her arm as it was raised to swim. She was +a hundred feet before us, and swimming with great swiftness. The +sailors meantime had set out in the boat, but they had drunk much rum, +and rowed around and around. We three men swimming in the beams of +the lantern came closer to her at every stroke. + +"Almost my hand was upon her, when the largest shark I have ever +seen rose beside her. You know it is at night that these devils look +for their prey. Anna saw the _mako_ at the same moment, and made a +great splashing. I heard her call out the name of Bernadette the +Blessed. + +"The men with me turned about, but I kept on. I cried to the boat to +hurry to us. I could see the _mako_ turn in the water, as he must do +to take anything into his mouth. I kicked him and I struck him, and +I cursed him by the name of _Manu-Aiata_, the shark god. If I had +had a knife I could have killed him easily. + +"But, Menike, I could do nothing. He did not want me. The boat came, +but not in time. I saw the devil take her in his jaws as the wild +boar takes a bird that is helpless, and I felt him descend into the +depths of the sea. I could do nothing." + +A cat's-paw stole across the sea from the southeast, the boat rolled +hard, and Tetuahunahuna sprang erect. + +"_A toi te ka!_ Make sail!" he said. + +They raised the slender mast, a rose-wood tree, roughly shaped in +the forest, and fastened it to either thwart with three ropes. +Through a ring at its head was passed the lift, and the sail of mats, +old and worn, was set, men and women all fastening the strings to +the boom. Two sheets were used, one cleated about five feet from the +rudder, the other at the disposition of the steersman, who let out +the boom according to the wind. + +The breeze sprang up and died, and sprang up again. At last the +deathly calm, the sickening heat, were over, and we sped across the +freshening waves. + +Mast and sail out of the way, we stretched ourselves in the boat +with more comfort, enjoying the cooling current of air. Tetuahunahuna, +the sheet in his hand, squatted again on his narrow perch. + +"You returned to that ship when the boat picked you up?" I asked. + +"_Aue!_" he replied. "The captain was crazed with anger. He cursed me, +and said that the girl has swum ashore." + +"'No, the shark has taken Anna,' I said. 'She will look for her +white father no more.' + +"The captain had a glass of rum at his mouth, but he put it down. He +would have me tell him again her name. When I did so, he shook as if +with cold, and he swallowed the rum quickly. + +"'Where was she born?' he said next. + +"'At Hapaa. Her mother is O Take Oho, whose father was eaten by the +men of Tai-o-hae,' I said, and looking at his face I saw that his +eyes were the color of the _mio_, the rosewood when freshly cut. + +"The captain went to his cabin, and soon he leaped up the stairs, +falling over the thing they look at to steer the ship, and there, +lying on the deck, he cried again and again that I had done wrong +not to tell him earlier. + +"He held in his hand the _tiki_, the silver box that Anna had always +worn about her neck, that her father had given her. + +"He was like a wild bull in the hills, that ship's captain, when he +arose, roaring and cursing me. I feared that he would shoot me, for +he had a revolver in his hand and said that he would kill himself. +But he did not. + +"A Marquesan who was as hateful to himself would have eaten the +_eva_, but this man had not the courage, with all his cries. I +swam ashore when he became maddened as a _kava_ drinker who does not +eat. The mother of Atuona, whom I told in Tai-o-hae, went to see him, +but he did not know her, and she took the _tiki_ from his cabin when +she found him praying to it. He was _paea_, his stomach empty of +thought. When the ship left, he was tied with the irons they have +for sailors, and the second chief sailed the vessel." + +The Ghost Girl shook the _ena_-covered maiden. + +"_Oi vii!_" she said petulantly. "Take in your feet. Do you want the +_mako_ to eat them? Do you not remember your sister?" + +The shark still moved a few fathoms away. + +We were now in the open sea, with forty miles to go to the Bay of +Traitors. The boat lay over at an angle, the boom hissed through the +water when close-hauled, and when full-winged, its heel bounced and +splashed on the surface, as we made our six knots. There was twice +too much weight in the canoe, but these islanders think nothing of +loads, and for hours the company sat to windward or on the thwart +while we took advantage of every puff of wind that blew. The six +oarsmen took turns in bailing, using a heavy carved wooden scoop, +but in the frequent flurries the waves poured over the side. + +The island of Fatu-hiva faded behind us, and raised Moho-Tani, the +Isle of Barking Dogs, a small, but beautifully regular, islet, like +a long emerald. No soul dwells there. The Moi-Atiu clan peopled it +before a sorcerer dried up the water sources. A curse is upon it, +and while the cocoanuts flourish and all is fair to the eye, it +remains a shunned and haunted spot. + +Tahuata, that lovely isle of the valley of Vait-hua, rose on our left, +with the cape _Te hope e te keko_, a purple coast miles away, which +as the dusk descended grew darker and was lost. The shadowy +silhouettes of the mountains of Hiva-oa projected themselves on the +horizon. + +Night fell like a wall, and nothing was to be seen but the glow of +the pipe that passed as if by spirit hands around our huddled group. +The head of Ghost Girl was on my knees, and among the sons and +daughters of cannibals peace enveloped me as at twilight in a grove. +More in tune with the moods of nature, the rhythm of sea and sky, +the breath of the salt breeze, than we who have sold our birthright +for arts, these savages sat silent for a little while as if the +spirit of the hour possessed their souls. + +Then the stars began to take their places in heaven to do their duty +toward the poor of earth, and I saw the bright and inspiring faces +of many I knew. The wind shifted and freshened, the sail was drawn +nearer, and our speed became perilous. The waves grew, but +Tetuahunahuna, seeing nothing, but feeling with sheet and helm the +temper of changing air and water, kept the canoe's prow steady, and +the men, in emergencies, threw themselves half over the starboard +gunwale. I was on the edge of the steersman's perch, enjoying the +mist of the flying spray and watching the stars appear one by one. + +Tetuahunahuna pointed toward the northern sky. + +"_Miope!_ I steer by the star the color of the rosewood tree," he +said. There was our own Mars, redder than the sunsets over Mariveles. +Northwest he was, this god of war and fertility, and our bow beacon. +Turning and gazing toward Fatu-hiva I saw the Southern Cross, low in +the sky, brilliant, and splendid. + +"_Mataike fetu!_" Ghost Girl named the constellation. "The Small Eyes." + +"Miope has rivers like Taka-Uku and Atuona," I said, relying on the +alleged canals of Mars to save my soul. "I have seen through a +_karahi mea tiohi i te fetu_, the Mirror Thing Through Which One +Looks At The Stars, long as a tree and big around as a pig. Miope +has people upon it." + +"Are they Marquesans?" + +"They must be Marquesans for there are islands," I replied. + +"And _popoi_ and pigs?" demanded the _ena_-perfumed one. + +"_Namu?_ Have they rum?" whispered the Ghost Girl, and nestled closer, +remembering that soon we would be at my own house. + +I had confidence in Tetuahunahuna's stars. The Polynesians have +always had an excellent working knowledge of the heavens and were +deeply interested in astronomy. They knew the relative positions of +the stars, their changes and phases. They predicted weather changes +accurately, and kept in their memories periodicity charts so that +they are able to form estimates of what will be, by considering what +has been. They had a wonderful art of navigation, considering that +they had no compass, sextant, or other instrument, and that their +vessels were always comparatively small. The handling of canoes, +like swimming, is instinctive with them, and no white ever compares +with them in skill. + +Our boat doubled Point Teachoa, and we were in the Bay of Traitors. +The wind suddenly fell flat, and we rowed several miles to the beach. +A score of lights moved about on the dark waters of the bay, and +fishermen shouted to us to come to them. We found Great Fern, my +landlord, with Apporo, Broken Plate with the Vagabond, and they had +several canoes full of fish. They were delighted at my return, and +rubbed noses with me over the gunwales. + +Getting ashore at the stone steps of Taka-Uka was a task worthy of +such boatsmen, in the darkness, the sea beating madly against the +cliffs. Tetuahunahuna listened to the smashing waves and peered for +the blacker outlines of the stairway and the faint gleam of the foam. +The boat approached; the sea leaped to break it against the rocks. +The steersman held it a second, and in that second you had to leap. +It is touch and go, and heaven help you! If you miss, you fall into +the sea, or the boat crushes you against the rocks. The swell sweeps +the place you land on, and you must ascend quickly to safety or find +hold against the suck of the retiring water. + +Tetuahunahuna ran to the nearest house for a lantern and poles, and +while two remained in the boat to hold it off the rocks, the others +carried my luggage to Atuona. I took the lead in a drizzling rain, +carrying the light, mighty glad to stretch my legs after more than a +dozen hours of cramp. Passing the house of the chief-of-police, I +heard laughter and the clink of glasses. Bauda halted me with a +leveled revolver, thinking we were a rum-smuggling gang. That brave +African soldier was ever dramatic, and _D'Artagnan_ could not have +struck a finer attitude as he thrust the gun in my face and called +out, "_Halte la_!" + +"_Ah, c'est le Yahnk' Doodl'. Mais tonnerre de dieu_, you have been +away a long time!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +Sea sports; curious sea-foods found at low tide; the peculiarities +of sea-centipedes and how to cook and eat them. + + +With what delight I returned to lazy days in Atuona Valley, lounging +on the black _paepae_ of my own small blue cabin in the shadow of +Temiteu, idling on the sun-warm sands of the familiar beach, walking +the remembered road between banana hedges heavy with yellowing fruit! +The heart of man puts down roots wherever it rests; it is perhaps +this sense of home that gives the zest to wandering, for new +experiences gain their value from contrast with the old, and one +must have felt the bondage, however light, of emotion and habit +before he can know the joy of freedom from it. Still a man leaves +part of himself in every home he makes, and the wanderer, free of +the one strong cord that would hold him to one place, feels always +the urge of a thousand slender ties pulling him back to the thousand +temporary homes he has made everywhere on the world. + +So the old routine closed around me pleasantly; mornings in the +shade of my palms and breadfruit, eating the breakfasts prepared for +me by Exploding Eggs over the fire of cocoanut husks, baths in the +clear pool of the river with my neighbors, afternoons spent in the +cocoanut-groves or with merry companions on the beach. Exploding +Eggs directed the surf board with a sure hand, lying flat, kneeling +or even standing on the long plank as he came in on the crest of the +breakers. I had now and again succeeded in being carried along while +flat on my stomach on the board, but failed many times oftener than +I succeeded. Now I set myself in earnest to learn the art of +mastering the surf. + +Three or four o'clock in the afternoon was the time I usually chose +for the sport, and once I had made it a practice, all the boys and +girls of the village accompanied me, or waited for me at the shore, +sure of hilarious hours. I must make children my companions, here, +for my older friends were so oppressed by the gloom of race +extinction that save for Malicious Gossip and one or two others, +there was no capacity for joyousness left in them. Exploding Eggs was +my chum, paid as forager and firemaker, but giving from friendliness +his services as a wise and admirable teacher of the unknown to one +unmade by civilization. + +The bay of Atuona, narrow between high cliffs covered with +cocoanut-trees, was the scene of my lessons. The tide came booming +into this cove from the Bay of Traitors, often with bewildering force, +and a day or two a month as gently as the waves at Waikiki. The +river spread a broad mouth to drink the brine, and the white sand +was over-run by the flowered vines that crept seaward to taste the +salt. No house was in sight, no man-made structure to mar the +primitive, as our merry crew of boys and girls sported naked in the +surf, fished from the rocks, or lay upon the shining beach. + +For my first essay I used the lid of a box that had enclosed an +ornate coffin ordered from Tahiti by a chief who anticipated dying. +It was large, and weighty to drag or push through the surf to the +proper distance. Laboring valiantly with it, I reached some distance +from the shore, and prepared a triumphal return. The waves were big, +curving above me in sheets of clearest emerald crested with spray, +breaking into foam and rising again, endlessly reshaping, repeating +themselves. + +Awaiting my opportunity, I chose one as it rose behind me, and flung +myself upon it. Up and up and still higher I went, carried by +resistless momentum, and suddenly like a chip in a hurricane I was +flung forward at a fearsome speed, through rushing chaos of wind and +water, seeing the beach dashing toward me, shouting with exultation. + +At the next instant my trusty board turned traitor. Its prow sank, +the end beneath me rose, and like a stone discharged from a sling I +was thrown under the waves, head over heels, banging my head and +body on the sand, leaped upon by following waves that piled me into +shallow water, rolling me over and over, striking me a blow with the +coffin-lid at every roll. + +I lay high and dry, panting and aching, while from all the beach +rose shouts of laughter. Exploding Eggs rolled on the sand in his +delight, holding his gasping sides, scarcely able to remind me of +the necessity, which in my excitement I had forgotten, of keeping +the prow of the board pointed upward as I rode. + +Often as I repeated this instruction in my mind, firmly as I +determined to remember it while I toiled sea-ward again with the +coffin-lid, the result was always the same. A moment of rest in the +unresting waves, a quick, agile spring, a moment of mad, +intoxicating joy, and then--disaster. I became a mass of bruises, the +skin scraped inch by inch from my chest by contact with the rough +wood. I would not give up until I had to, and then for a week I was +convalescing. + +One stiff ache from head to foot, I lay ignominiously on the sand, +and watched Exploding Eggs, with a piece of box not bigger than a +fat man's shirt-front, take wave after wave, standing on the board, +dashing far across the breakers to the shore, with never a failure, +while Gedge's little half-breed daughter, a beautiful fairy-like +creature, darted upon the sea as a butterfly upon a zephyr. + +After several weeks of effort and mishap, one day the secret came to +me like a flash, and the trick was learned. I had been using the +great board and was weary. I exchanged with Exploding Eggs for a +plank three feet long and fourteen inches wide. Almost exhausted, I +waited as usual with the butt of the board against my stomach for +the incoming breaker to be just behind and above me, and then leaped +forward to kick out vigorously, the board pressed against me and my +hands extended along its sides, to get in time with the wave. + +But the wave was upon me before I had thought to execute these +instructions, I straightened myself out rigidly, and lo! I shot in +like a torpedo on the very top of the billow, holding the point of +the board up, yelling like a Comanche Indian. So fast, so straight +did I go, that it was all I could do to swerve in the shallow water +and not be hurled with force on the sand. + +"_Metai! Me metai!_" cried my friends in excited congratulation, +while like all men who succeed by accident, I stood proudly, taking +the plaudits as my due. + +From that afternoon I had most exhilarating sport, and indeed, this +is the very king of amusements for fun and exercise. Skeeing, +tobogganing, skating, all land sports fade before the thrills of this; +nor will anything give such abounding health and joy in living as +surf-riding in sunny seas. + +A hundred afternoons on Atuona Bay I spent in this exhilarating +pastime. To it we added embellishments, multiplying excitements. A +score of us would start at the same moment from the same line and +race to shore; we would carry two on a board; we would stand and +kneel and direct our course so that we could touch a marked spot on +the beach or curve about and swerve and jostle each other. Exploding +Eggs was the king of us all, and Teata was queen. She advanced as +effortlessly as a mermaid, her superb figure shining on the shining +water, tossing her long black hair, and shrieking with delight. + +Occasionally we varied these sports by a much more dangerous and +arduous game. We would push our boards far out in the bay, half a +mile or more, diving under each wave we faced, until after +tremendous effort we reached the farthest sea-ward line of breakers. +Often while I swam, clinging to the board and struggling with the +waves for its possession, I saw in the emerald water curling above +me the shadowy shapes of large fish, carried on the crests of the +combers, transfigured clearly against the sky, fins and heads and +tails outlined with light. + +Once in smoother water we waited for the proper moment, counting the +foam-crests as they passed. Waves go in multiples of three, the +third being longer and going farther than the two before it, and the +ninth, or third third, being strongest of all. This ninth wave we +waited for. Choosing any other meant being spilled in tumbling water +when it broke far from land, and falling prey to the succeeding ones, +which bruised unmercifully. + +[Illustration: Double canoes] + +[Illustration: Harbor sports] + +But taking the ninth monster at its start, we rode marvelously, +staying at its summit as it mounted higher and higher, shouting +above the lesser rollers, until it dashed upon the smooth sand half +a mile away. Exultation kept the heart in the throat, the pulses +beating wildly, as the breaker tore its way over the foaming rollers, +I on the roof of the swell, lying almost over its front wall, +holding like death to my plank while the wind sang in my ears and +sky and sea mingled in rushing blueness. + +To take such a ride twice in an afternoon taxed my strength, but the +Marquesan boys and girls were never wearied, and laughed at my +violent breathing. + +The Romans ranked swimming with letters, saying of an uneducated man, +"_Nec literas didicit nec natare._" He had neither learned to read +nor to swim. The sea is the book of the South Sea Islanders. They +swim as they walk, beginning as babies to dive and to frolic in the +water. Their mothers place them on the river bank at a day old, and +in a few months they are swimming in shallow water. At two and three +years they play in the surf, swimming with the easy motion of a frog. +They have no fear of the water to overcome, for they are accustomed +to the element from birth, and it is to them as natural as land. + +It should be so with all, for human locomotion in water is no more +tiresome or difficult than on the earth. One element is as suitable +to man as the other for transportation of himself, when habitude +give natural movement, strength, and fearlessness. A Marquesan who +cannot swim is unknown, and they carry objects through the water as +easily as through a grove. I have seen a woman with an infant at her +breast leap from a canoe and swim through a quarter of a mile of +breakers to the shore, merely to save a somewhat longer walk. + +One's hours at the beach were not all spent in the water. Many were +the curious and delicious morsels we found on the rocks that were +uncovered at low tide, stranded fish, crabs, and small crawling +shell-fish. One of our favorites was the sea-urchin, called _hatuke_, +_fetuke_, or _matuke_. Round, as big as a Bartlett pear, with greenish +spines five or six inches long, they were as hideous to see as they +were pleasant to eat. In the last quarter of the moon they were +specially good, though what the moon has to do with their flavor +neither the Marquesans nor I know. It is so; the Marquesans have +always known it, and I have proved it. + +The spines of these sea-urchins make slate-pencils in some of the +islands, and are excellent for hastily writing on a nearby cliff a +message to a friend who is following tardily. The creatures are +poisonous when alive, however, and revenge a blow of careless hand +or foot by wounds that are long in healing. + +We found lobsters among the rocks, too, and on some beaches a +strange kind of lobsterish delicacy called in Tahiti _varo_, a kind +of mantis-shrimp that looks like a superlatively villainous centipede. +They grow from six to twelve inches long and a couple of inches wide, +with legs or feelers all along their sides, like the teeth of a +pocket-comb. Their shells are translucent yellow with black markings; +the female wears a red stripe down her back and carries red eggs +beneath her. Both she and her mate, with their thousand crawling legs, +their hideous heads and tails, have a most repulsive appearance. If +one did not know they are excellent food and most innocent in their +habits, one would flee precipitately at sight of them. + +Catching the _varo_ is a delicate and skilful art. They live in the +shallows near the beach, digging their holes in the sand under two +or three feet of water. When the wind ruffles the surface, it is +impossible to see the holes, but on calm days we waded knee-deep in +the clear water, stepping carefully and peering intently for the +homes of the sea-centipede. Finding one, we cautiously lowered into +the hole a spool fitted with a dozen hooks. + +A pair of the creatures inhabits the same den. If the male was at +home, he seized the grapnel and was quickly lifted and captured, the +hooks being lowered again for the female. But if the female emerged +first, it was a sure sign that her mate was absent. + +I pondered as to this habit of the _varo_, and would have liked to +persuade me that the male, being a courteous shrimp, combatted the +invading hooks first in an effort to protect his mate. But the +grapnel is baited with fish, and though masculine pride could wish +that chivalry urged the creature to defend his domestic shrine, it +appears regrettably certain that he is merely after the bait, to +which he clings with such selfish obstinacy that he sacrifices his +liberty and his life. However, the lady soon shows the same grasping +tendency, and their deserted tenement is filled by the shifting sands. + +Catching _varo_ calls for much patience and dexterity. I never +succeeded in landing one, but Teata would often skip back to the +sands of the beach with a string of them. Six would make a good meal, +with bread and wine, and they are most enjoyable hot, though also +most dangerous. + +"Begin their eating by sucking one cold," warned Exploding Eggs when +presiding over my first feast upon the twelve-inch centipedes. +"If he does not grip you inwardly, you may then eat them hot and in +great numbers." + +Many white men can not eat the _varo_. Some lose appetite at its +appearance, its likeness to a gigantic thousand-leg, and others find +that it rests uneasy within them, as though each claw, or tooth of +the comb, viciously stabbed their interiors. I found them excellent +when wrapped in leaves of the _hotu_-tree and fried in brown butter, +and they were very good when broiled over a fire on the beach. One +takes the beastie in his fingers and sucks out the meat. Beginners +should keep their eyes closed during this operation. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +Court day in Atuona; the case of Daughter of the Pigeon and the +sewing-machine; the story of the perfidy of Drink of Beer and the +death of Earth Worm who tried to kill the governor. + + +The Marquesan was guaranteed his day in court. There was one judge +in the archipelago and one doctor, and they were the same, being +united in the august person of M. L'Hermier des Plantes, who was +also the pharmacist. The jolly governor, in his twenties, with +medical experience in an African army post and in barracks in France, +was irked by his judicial and administrative duties, though little +troubled by his medical functions, since he had few drugs and knew +that unless these were swallowed by the patient in his presence they +would be tried upon the pigs or worn as an amulet around the neck. +Faithful to his orders, however, the judge sat upon the woolsack +Saturdays, unless it was raining or he wished to shoot _kuku_. + +One Saturday morning, being invited to breakfast at the palace, I +strolled down to observe the workings of justice. Court was called +to order in the archives room of the governor's house. The judge sat +at a large table, resplendent in army blue and gold, with cavalry +boots and spurs, his whiskers shining, his demeanor grave and stern. +Bauda, clerk of the court, sat at his right, and Peterano, a native +catechist, stood opposite him attired in blue overalls and a +necklace of small green nuts, ready to act as interpreter. + +Each defendant, plaintiff, prisoner, and witness was sworn +impressively, though no Bible was used; which reminded me that in +Hongkong I saw a defendant refuse to handle a Bible in court, and +when the irate English judge demanded his reasons, calmly replied +that the witness who had just laid down the book had the plague, and +it was so proved. + +The first case was that of a Chinese, member of the Shan-Shan +syndicate which owned a store in Atuona. He was charged with +shooting _kukus_ without a license. There were not many of these +small green doves left in the islands, and the governor, whose +favorite sport and delicacy they were, was righteously angered at the +Chinaman's infraction of the law. He fined the culprit twenty dollars, +and confiscated to the realm the murderous rifle which had aided the +crime. + +The Shan-Shan man was stunned, and expostulated so long that he was +led out by Flag, the gendarme, after being informed that he might +appeal to Tahiti. He was forcibly put off the veranda, struggling to +explain that he had not shot the gun, but had merely carried it as a +reserve weapon in case he should meet a Chinese with whom he had a +feud. + +A sailor of the schooner _Roberta_, who had stolen a case of +absinthe from Captain Capriata's storeroom aboard and destroyed the +peace of a valley to which he took it as a present to a feminine +friend, was fined five dollars and sentenced to four months' work on +the roads. + +The criminal docket done, civil cases were called. The barefooted +bailiff, Flag, stole out on the veranda occasionally to take a +cigarette from the inhabitants of the valley of Taaoa, who crowded +the lawn around the veranda steps. All save Kahuiti, they had come +over the mountains to attend in a body a trial in which two of them +figured--the case of Santos vs. Tahiaupehe (Daughter of the Pigeon). + +Santos was a small man, born in Guam, and had been ten years in Taaoa, +having deserted from a ship. He and I talked on the veranda in +Spanish, and he explained the desperate plight into which love had +dragged him. He adored Tahaiupehe, the belle of Taaoa. For months he +had poured at her feet all his earnings, and faithfully he had +labored at copra-making to gain money for her. He had lavished upon +her all his material wealth and the fierce passion of his Malay heart, +only to find her disdainful, untrue, and, at last, a runaway. While +he was in the forest, he said, climbing cocoanut-trees to provide +her with luxuries, she had fled his hut, carrying with her a certain +"Singaire" and a trunk. He was in court to regain this property. + +"_Ben Santos me Tahaiupehe mave! A mai i nei!_" cried Flag, pompously. +The pair entered the court, but all others were excluded except me. +As a distinguished visitor, waiting to breakfast with the judge and +the clerk, I had a seat. + +The Daughter of the Pigeon, comely and voluptuous, wore an +expression of brazen bitterness such as I have seen on the faces of +few women. A procuress in Whitechapel and a woman in America who +had poisoned half a dozen of her kin had that same look; sneering, +desperate, contemptuous, altogether evil. I wondered what +experiences had written those lines on the handsome face of Daughter +of the Pigeon. + +Ben Santos was sworn. Through the interpreter he told his sad tale +of devotion and desertion and asked for his property. The Singaire +had been bought of the German store. He had bought it that Daughter +of the Pigeon might mend his garments, since she had refused to do +so without it. He had not given it to her at all, but allowed her +the use of it in consideration of "love and affection" he swore. + +Daughter of the Pigeon glared at the unhappy little man with an +intensity of hatred that alarmed me for his life. She took the stand, +malevolently handsome in finery of pink tunic, gold ear-rings, and +necklace of red peppers, barefooted, bare-armed, barbaric. She spat +out her words. + +"This man made love to me and lived with me. He gave me the +sewing-machine and the trunk. He is a runt and a pig, and I am tired +of him. I left his hut and went to the house of my father. I took my +Singaire and my trunk." + +"Ben Santos," inquired the judge, with a critical glance at Daughter +of the Pigeon, "What return did you make to this woman for keeping +your house?" + +"I provided her food and her dresses," stammered the little man. + +"Food hangs from trees, and dresses are a few yards of stuff," said +the surgical Solomon. "The fair ones of the Marquesas do not give +themselves to men of your plainness for _popoi_ and muslin robes. +You are a foreigner. You expect too much. The preponderance of +probability, added to the weight of testimony, causes the court to +believe that this woman is the real owner of the sewing-machine and +the trunk. It is so adjudged." + +"_La mujer es una diabola, pero me gusto mucho_," said Santos to me, +and sighed deeply. "The woman is a devil, but I like her very much." + +[Illustration: Tahaiupehe, Daughter of the Pigeon, of Taaoa] + +[Illustration: Nataro Puelleray and wife +He is the most learned Marquesan and the only one who knows the language +and legends thoroughly] + +The unfortunate Malay got upon his horse and, his soul deep in the +swamp of jealousy, departed to resume his copra-making. + +Court adjourned. The judge, the clerk, and the interpreter, Daughter +of the Pigeon, and I toasted the blind goddess in rum, the sun being +very hot on the iron roof. Bauda and I stayed to breakfast at eleven +o'clock, and the governor permitted me to look through the _dossier_ +of Daughter of the Pigeon. This record is kept of all Marquesans or +others resident in the islands; each governor adds his facts and +prejudices and each newcoming official finds the history and +reputation of each of his charges set down for his perusal. In this +record of Daughter of the Pigeon I found the reason for the +malevolent character depicted by her face. + +The men of the hills have a terrible custom of capturing any woman +of another valley who goes alone in their district. Grelet's first +companion was caught one night by forty, who for punishment built +the ten kilometres of road between Haniapa and Atuona. Many Daughters, +the beautiful little leper, when thirteen years old was a victim of +seventeen men, some of whom were imprisoned. Daughter of the Pigeon +had had a fearful experience of this kind. It had seared her soul, +and Santos was paying for his sex. + +In feud times this custom was a form of retaliation, as the slaying +of men and eating them. It has survived as a sport. Lest horror +should spend itself upon these natives of the islands, I mention +that in every state in our union similar records blacken our history. +War's pages from the first glimmerings to the last foul moment reek +with this deviltry. British and French at Badajoz and Tarragona, in +Spain, left fearful memories. Occident and Orient alike are guilty. +This crime smutches the chronicle of every invasion. It is part of +the degradation of slums in all our cities, a sport of hoodlum gangs +everywhere. In the Marquesas it is a recognized, though forbidden, +game, and has its retaliatory side. Time was when troops of women +have revenged it in strange, savage ways. + +This unsubmissive and aggressive attitude of Marquesan women was +brought home to me this very afternoon after the trial, when +Daughter of the Pigeon came galloping up to my cabin. She reined in +her horse like a cowboy who had lassoed a steer and, throwing the +bridle over the branch of an orange-tree, tripped into my living-room, +where I was writing. + +Without a word she put her arms around me, and in a moment I was +enacting the part of Joseph when he fled from Potiphar's wife. With +some muscular exertion I got her out of the house at the cost of my +shirt. Puafaufe (Drink of Beer), a chief of Taaoa, appeared at this +moment, while I was still struggling with her upon my _paepae_. + +"_Makimaki okioki i te!_ An ungovernable creature!" he commented, +shaking his head, and looking on with interest as she again attacked +me vigorously, to the danger of my remaining shreds of garments. +Chivalry is not a primitive emotion, but it dies hard in the +civilized brain, and I was attempting the impossible. Fending her +off as best I could, I conjured the chief by the red stripe on the +sleeve of his white jacket, his badge of office, to rescue me, for +Madame Bapp was now on her _paepae_, craning her fat neck, and I had +no mind to be laughed at by my own tint. + +The chief, however, maintained the impartial attitude of the +bystander at a street fight. Smothered in the embraces of Daughter +of the Pigeon, covered with embarrassment, I struggled and cursed, +and had desperately decided to fling her bodily over the eight-foot +wall of the _paepae_ into the jungle, when another arrival dashed up +the trail. This was the brother of Daughter of the Pigeon. + +It was evident that my cabin had been appointed as a rendezvous, +though I had no acquaintance with any of my three visitors. A +suspicion was born in my dull brain. To make it surety, I grasped my +feminine wooer by wrists and throat and thrust her into the arms of +the chief with a stern injunction to hold her. Then, without hint of +my intention, I hastened into the house and brought forth the +demijohn and cocoanut-shells. + +The amorous fury of Daughter of the Pigeon melted into gratitude, +and after two drinks apiece the company galloped away, leaving me to +repair tattered garments and thank my stars for my supply of _namu_. + +But the end of court-day was not yet. I had barely fallen into my +first slumber that night when I was awakened by the disconsolate +Shan-Shan man, who came humbly to present me with a half-pound +doughnut of his own making, and to beg my intercession with the +governor for the return of his gun. He reiterated tearfully that he +had not meant to shoot _kukus_ with it, that he had not done so, +that he desired it only in order to be able to take a pot-shot at +the offending countryman in the village. He urged desperately that +the other Chinese still possessed a gun well oiled and loaded. He +asserted even with tears that he had all respect and admiration for +the white man's law. But he wanted his gun, and he wanted it quickly. + +I calmed him with the twice-convenient _namu_, and after promising +to explain the situation to the governor, I sat for some time on my +_paepae_ in the moonlight, talking with the unhappy convict. +Without prompting he divulged to me that my suspicions had been +correct; Drink of Beer had himself instigated the raid of the bold +Daughter of the Pigeon upon my rum. Drink of Beer, it appeared, was +known in the islands for many feats of successful duplicity. One had +nearly cost the life of Jean Richard, a young Frenchman who worked +for the German trader in Taka-Uka. + +"Earth Worm was a man of Taaoa," said my guest, sitting cross-legged +on my mats, his long-nailed, yellow fingers folded in his lap. +"He was nephew of Pohue-toa, eater of many men. Earth Worm was +arrested by Drink of Beer and brought before the former governor, +Lailheugue, known as Little Pig. + +"Drink of Beer said that Earth Worm had made _namu enata_, the juice +of the flower of the palm that makes men mad. Earth Worm swore that +he had done no wrong. He swore that Drink of Beer had allowed him, +for a price, to make the _namu enata_, and that Drink of Beer had +said this was according to the law. But when he failed to pay again, +Drink of Beer had arrested him. + +"Drink of Beer said this not true. He wore the red stripe on his +sleeve; therefore the governor Little Pig said that Earth Worm lied, +and sent him to prison for a year. + +"Now Earth Worm was an informed man, a son of many chiefs, and +himself resolved in his ways. He said that he would speak before the +courts of Tahiti, and he would not go in shame to the prison. At +this time that governor was finished with his work here and was +departing on a ship to Tahiti, and Earth Worm with hate in his heart, +embarked on that ship, saying nothing, but thinking much. + +"He lived forward with the crew, and said nothing, but thought. +Others spoke to him, saying that he would not profit by the journey +to Tahiti where the word of the governor was powerful, but he did +not reply. The men of the crew wished Earth Worm to kill the governor, +for every Marquesan hated him, and he had done a terrible thing for +which he deserved death. + +"There had been an aged gendarme who fell ill because of a curse +laid on him by a _tahuna_. He was dying. This governor took from his +box in the house of medicines a sharp small knife, and with it he +cut the veins of a Marquesan who had done some small wrong against +the law and lay in jail. He bound this man by the arm to the +gendarme who was dying, and through the cut the blood ran into the +gendarme's veins. His heart sucked the blood from the body of the +Marquesan like a vampire bat of the forest, and he lay bound, feeling +the blood go from him. The village knew that this was being done, +and could do nothing but hate and fear, for it was the governor who +had done it. + +"The gendarme died, and you may yet see on the beach sometimes that +man who was a strong and brave Marquesan. He trembles now like +_hotu_ leaves in the wind, for he never forgets the terrible magic +done upon him by that governor. He remembers the hours when he lay +bound to that man who was dying, and the dying man sucked his blood +from him. + +"Now this governor was on the ship going away, and he had not been +killed. This made all Marquesans sad, and those in the crew talked +to Earth Worm, who had also been wronged, and urged him to rise and +strike. But he said nothing. + +"The ship came to the Paumotas, and the governor sat all day long on +a stool on the deck, watching the islands as they passed. Earth Worm +sat in his place, watching the governor. One night at dark he rose, +and taking an iron rod laid beside him by one of the crew he crept +along the deck and stood behind the man on the stool. He raised the +iron rod and brought it down with fury upon the head of that man, +who fell covered with blood. Then he leaped into the sea. + +"But the governor had gone below, and it was Jean Richard who sat on +the stool in the darkness. He was found bleeding upon the deck, and +the bones of his head were cut and lifted and patched, so that +to-day he lives, as well as ever. Earth Worm was never found. A boat +with a lantern was lowered, but it found nothing but the fins of +sharks. + +"That was the work of Drink of Beer, who had hated Earth Worm +because he was a brave and strong man of Taaoa. When this was told +to Drink of Beer, he smiled and said, 'Earth Worm is safer where he +is.' + +"I have talked too much. Your rum is very good. I thank you for your +kindness. You will not forget to deign to speak to the governor +concerning the matter of the gun?" + +I promised that I would not forget, and after a prolonged +leavetaking the Shan-Shan man slipped silently down the trail and +vanished in the moon-lit forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +The madman Great Moth of the Night; story of the famine and the one +family that ate pig. + + +Le Brunnec, the trader, was opening a roll of Tahiti tobacco five +feet long, five inches in diameter at the center, and tapering +toward the ends. It was bound, as is all Tahiti tobacco, in a +_purau_ rope, which had to be unwound and which weighed two pounds. +The eleven pounds of tobacco were hard as wood, the leaves cemented +by moisture. Le Brunnec hacked it with an axe into suitable portions +to sell for three francs a pound, the profit on which is a franc. + +The immediate customer was Tavatini (Many Pieces of Tattooing), a +rich man of Taaoa, in his fifties. His face was grilled with _ama_ +ink. One streak of the natural skin alone remained. Beside him on +the counter sat a commanding-looking man, whose eyes, shining from a +blue background of tattooing, were signals to make one step aside +did one meet him on the trail. They had madness in them, but they +were a revelation of wickedness. + +Some men, without a word or gesture, make you think intently. There +is that in their appearance which starts a train of ideas, of wonder, +of guesses at their past, of horror at what is written upon their +faces. This man's visage was seamed and wrinkled in a network of +lines that said more plainly than words that he was a monster whose +villainies would chill imagination. The brain was a spoiled machine, +but it had been all for evil. + +"That man," said Le Brunnec, "is the worst devil in the Marquesas." +Between blows of the axe, the trader told me something of his history: + +The madman was Mohuho, whose name means Great Moth of the Night. He +is the chief whom Lying Bill saw shoot three men in Tahuata for +sheer wantonness. He was then chief of Tahuata, and the power in that +island, in Hiva-oa and Fatu-hiva. He slew every one who opposed him. +He was the scourge of the islands. He harried valley after valley +for lust of blood and the terrible pride of the destroyer. It was +his boast that he had killed sixty people by his own hand, otherwise +than in battle. + +He was a man of ceaseless energy, a builder of roads, of houses, and +canoes. At Hapatone he had constructed several miles of excellent +road with the enforced labor of every man in the valley for a year. +It is all lined with _temanu_ trees, is almost solid stone, and +endures. Its blocks are cemented with blood, for Great Moth of the +Night drove men to the work with bullets. + +His arsenal was stocked by the French, whose ally he was, and to +whom he was very useful in furnishing men for work and in upholding +French supremacy. In Hapatone he was virtually a king, and the fear +of him extended throughout the southern Marquesas. + +One day he came as a guest to a feast in Taaoa. There was a blind man, +a poor, harmless fellow, who was eating the pig and _popoi_ and +saying nothing. Great Night Moth had a new gun, which he laid beside +him while he drank plentifully of the _namu enata_, until he became +quite drunk. + +At last the blind man, scared by his threats, started to walk away +in the slow, halting way of the sightless, and attracted Great Night +Moth's attention. He picked up his new gun and while all were +petrified with fear of being the target, he shot the blind man so +that his body fell into the oven in which the pig had been baked. The +people could only laugh loudly, if not heartily, as if pleased by +the joke. + +In Hana-teio a man in a cocoanut-tree gathering nuts was ordered to +come down by Great Night Moth who was passing on a boar hunt. The +man became confused. His limbs did not cling to the tree as usual. +He was fearful and could make no motion. + +"_Poponohoo! Ve mai! A haa tata!_ Come down quickly!" yelled the +chief. + +The poor wretch could not obey. He saw the gun and knew the chief. +Great Night Moth brought him down a corpse. + +There was no punishment for him. The French held him accountable +only for deeds against their sovereignty. A superstition that he was +protected by the gods, combined with his strength and desperate +courage, made him immune from vengeance by the islanders. + +These were incidents Le Brunnec knew from witnesses, but it was Many +Pieces of Tattooing who told the ancestry of Great Night Moth. + +"Pohue-toa (Male Package) uncle of Earth Worm, was prince of Taaoa +and father of this man," said Many Pieces. "He was one of the +biggest men of these islands, and the strongest in Taaoa. He lived +for a while in Hana-menu. + +"There was no war then between the valley of Atuona and that of +Hana-menu; the people of both crossed the mountains and visited one +another. But it was discovered in Atuona that a number of the people +were missing. Some had gone to Hana-menu and never reached there, +others had disappeared on their way home. The chief of Atuona sent a +messenger who was _tapu_ in all valleys, to count the people of this +valley who were in Hana-menu and to warn them to return in a band, +armed with spears. Meanwhile the priest went to the High Place and +spoke to the gods, and after two days and nights he returned and +said that the danger was at the pass between the valleys; that a +demon had seized the people there. + +"The demon was Male Package. You know the precipice there is near +the sky, and at the very height is a _puta faiti_, a narrow place. +There Male Package lay in wait, armed with his spear and club, and +hidden in the grass. He was hungry for meat, for Long Pig, and when +he saw some one he fancied, he threw his spear or struck them down +with the _u'u_. He took the corpse on his back and carried it to his +hut in the upper valley of Hana-menu as I would carry a sack of copra. +There he ate what he would, alone. + +"Oh, there were those who knew, but they were afraid to tell. After +it became known to the people of Atuona, to the kin of those who had +been eaten, they did nothing. Male Package was like Great Night Moth +later--a man whom the gods fought for." + +Great Night Moth sat smoking, listening to what was said in the +listless way that lunatics listen, unable to focus his attention, +but gathering in his addled brain that he was being discussed. I +watched him as one does a caged tiger, guessing at the beast's +thoughts and thankful that it can prey no more. + +Many Pieces of Tattooing had no tone of horror or regret in his +voice while he recounted the bloody deeds of Mohuho and Pohue-toa, +but smiled, as if he would say that they had occurred under a +different dispensation and were not blameful. + +"Was Great Night Moth the real son of Male Package?" I asked. + +"Ah, that is to be told," said Many Pieces. "He was his son, yes. +Shall I tell you the tale of how he escaped death at the hands of +his father? _Ea!_ I remember the time well. Menike, you have seen +the rivers big and the cocoanut-trees felled by the flood, but you +have not seen the _ave one_, the time of no food, when the ground is +as dry as the center of a dead tree, and hunger is in the valleys +like the ghost-women that move as mist. There have been many such +periods for the island peoples. + +"That two years it did not rain. The breadfruit would not yield. The +grass and plants died. There were no nuts on the palms. The pigs had +no food, and fell in the forest. The banana-trees withered. The +people ate the _popoi_ from the deepest pits, and day and night they +fished. Soon the pits were empty and the people ate roots, bark, +anything. There were fish, but it is hard to live on fish alone. + +"Some lay in their canoes and ate the _eva_ and died. The stomachs +of some became empty of thought, and they threw themselves into the +sea. The father of Great Night Moth sent all his children to the +hills. There is always more rain there, and there was some food to be +found. His wife he kept at the fishing, day and night, till she +slept at the paddle, and he himself went to the high plateaus to +hunt for pig. + +"For many days he came down weak, having found none. But at last she +came to find baked meat ready for her, and she wept and ate and +thanked him. He had found a certain green spot, he said, where there +were more. + +"Many times he brought the meat to her, and she said that the +children should come back to share the food, but he said, 'No. Eat! +They have plenty.' + +"She came from the fishing one day with empty baskets. The sea had +been rough, and there were no fish. Her husband had become a surly +man, and cruel; he beat her. She said, 'Is there no pig?' + +"'Pig, you fool!' said her husband. 'You have eaten no pig. You have +eaten your children. They are all dead.' + +"Great Night Moth had escaped because he had been adopted by the +chief of Taaoa, while his father was hunting the children in the +forest." + +"That is horrible, horrible!" said Le Brunnec. "Maybe this Great +Night Moth could not but be bad with such a father. All these chiefs, +the hereditary ones, are rotten. Their children are often insane. +They have degenerated. After the whalers came and gave them whiskey, +and the traders absinthe and drugs, they learned the vices of the +white man, which are worse for them than for us." + +"Do you think the eating of men began by the _ave one_, the famine?" +I put the question to Many Pieces of Tattooing, who was about to +leave the store with Great Night Moth. + +"_Ae, tiatohu!_ It is so," he answered. "Our legends say that often +in the many centuries we have remembered there have been years when +food failed. It was in those times that they began to eat one another, +and when food was plenty, they continued for revenge. They learned +to like it. Human meat is good." + +"Ask the gentleman if he has himself enjoyed such feasts," I urged +Le Brunnec. + +"I will not!" said the Frenchman, hastily. "Tavatini is a good +customer. He has money on deposit with me. He eats biscuits and beef. +He might be offended and buy of the Germans." + +Many Pieces of Tattooing nudged Great Night Moth, and they advanced +to their horses, which were tied to the store building. The madman +mounted with the ease of a cowboy, and they rode off at speed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +A visit to the hermit of Taha-Uka valley; the vengeance that made the +Scallamera lepers; and the hatred of Mohuto. + + +Le Verogose, a Breton planter who lived in Taka-Uka Valley, was full +of _camaraderie_, esteeming friendship a genuine tie, and given to +many friendly impulses. He had a two-room cabin set high on the +slope of the river bank, unadorned, but clean, and though his busy, +hardworking days gave him little time for social intercourse, he +occasionally invited me there to dinner with him and his wife. + +One Sunday he dined me handsomely on eels stewed in white wine, tame +duck, and codfish balls, and after the dance, in which his wife, +Ghost Girl, Malicious Gossip, Water, and the host joined, we sat for +some time singing "Malbrouck se va t'en guerre," "La Carmagnole," +and other songs of France. Stirred by the memories of home, these +melodies awakened, Le Vergose remembered a countryman who lived +nearby. + +"There is a hermit who lives a thousand feet up the valley," said he. +"We might take him half a litre of rum. He is a Breton of Brest who +has been here many years. He eats nothing but bananas, for he lives +in a banana grove, and he is able only to totter to the river for +water. He never moves from his little hut except to pick a few +bananas. He lives alone. Hardly any one sees him from year to year. +I think he would be glad to have a visitor." + +A wet and slippery trail through the forest along the river bank led +toward the hermit's grove. Toiling up it, sliding and clutching the +boughs that overhung and almost obliterated it, we passed a small +native house of straw, almost hidden by the trees, and were hailed +by the voice of a woman. + +"_I hea?_ Where do you go?" The words were sharp, with a tone almost +of anxiety, of fear. + +"We go to see Hemeury Francois," replied Le Vergose. + +The woman who had spoken came half-way down the worn and dirty steps +of her _paepae_. She was old, but with an age more of bitter and +devastating emotion than of years. Her haggard face, drawn and +seamed with cruel lines, showed still the traces of a beauty that had +been hard and handsome rather than lovely. She said nothing more, +but stood watching our progress, her tall figure absolutely +motionless in its dark tunic, her eyes curiously intent upon us. I +felt relief when the thick curtains of leaves shut us from her view. + +"That is Mohuto," said Le Vergose. "She is a solitary, too. All her +people have died, and she has become hard and bitter. That is a +strange thing, for an islander. But she was beautiful once. Perhaps +she broods upon that." + +We entered the banana-grove, an acre or two of huge plants, thirty +feet high, so close together that the sun could not touch the soil. +The earth was dank and dark, almost a swamp, and the trees were like +yellowish-green ghosts in the gloom. Their great soft leaves shut out +the sky, and from their limp edges there was a ceaseless drip of +moisture. A horde of mosquitos, black and small, emerged from the +shadows, thousands upon thousands, and smote us upon every exposed +part. In a few minutes our faces were smeared with blood from their +killing. Curses in Breton, in Marquesan, and American rent the +stillness. + +In this dismal, noisome spot was a wretched hut built of _purau_ +saplings, as crude a dwelling as the shelter a trapper builds for a +few days' habitation. It was ten feet long and four wide, shaky and +rotten. Inside it was like the lair of a wild beast, a bed of moldy +leaves. A line stretched just below the thatched roof held a few +discolored newspapers. + +On the heap of leaves sat the remnant of a man, a crooked skeleton +in dirty rags, his face a parchment of wrinkles framed by a mass of +whitening hair. He looked ages old, his eyes small holes, red rimmed, +his hands, in which he held a shaking piece of paper, foul claws. +His flesh, through his rags, was the deadly white of the morgue. He +looked a Thing no soul should animate. + +"Ah! Hemeury Francois," said Le Vergose in the Breton dialect that +recalled their childhood home, "I have brought an American to see you. +You can talk your English to him." + +"By damn, yes," croaked the hermit, in the voice of a raven loosed +from a deserted house. But he made no movement until Le Vergose held +before his bone-like nose a pint of strong Tahiti rum. Far back in +his eyes, away beyond the visible organs, there came a gleam of +greater consciousness, a realization of life around him. His mouth, +like a rent in an old, battered purse, gaped, and though no teeth +were there, the vacuity seemed to smile feebly. + +He felt about the litter of paper and leaves and found a dirty +cocoanut-shell and a calabash of water. Shaking and gasping, he +poured the bottle of rum into the shell, mixed water with it and +lifted the precious elixir tremblingly to his lips. He made two +choking swallows, and dropped the shell--empty. + +His eyes, that had been lost in their raw sockets, scanned me. Then +in mixed French and English he began to talk of himself. From his +rags he produced a rude diary blocked off on scraps of paper, a +minute record of the river and the weather, covering many years. + +"Torrent, torrent, torrent." That word was repeated many tunes. +_Hause_ appeared often, signifying that the brook had risen. Every +day he had noted its state. The river had become his god. Alone among +those shadowing, dripping banana-plants, with no human companionship, +he had made his study of the moods of the stream a worship. Pages +and pages were inscribed with lines upon its state. + +"Bacchus," I saw repeated on the dates July 13, 14, 15. + +"Another god on the altar then?" I asked. "_Mais, oui_," he answered +in his rusty voice. "The Fall of the Bastile. Le Vergose sent me a +bottle of rum to honor the Republic." + +What he had just drunk was seething in him. Little by little he +commanded that long disused throat, he recalled from the depths of +his uncertain mind words and phrases. In short, jerky sentences, +mostly French, he spun his tale. + +"Brest is my home, in Finnistere. I have been many years in these +seas. I forget how many. How many years--? _Sacre!_ I was on the +_Mongol_. She was two thousand tons, clipper, and with skysails. +The captain was Freeman. We brought coals from Boston to San +Francisco. That was long ago. I was young. I was young and handsome. +And strong. Yes, I was strong and young. + +"That was it--the _Mongol_. A clipper-ship from Boston, two thousand +tons, and with skysails. Around the Horn it almost blew the sticks +out of that _Mongol_. We froze; we worked day and night. It was +terrible. The seas almost drowned us. Ah, how we cursed! _Tonnerre +de dieu!_ Had we known it we were in Paradise. The inferno--we were +coming to the inferno." + +It took him long to tell it. He wanted to talk, but weakness +overcame him often, and the words were almost hushed by his breath +that came short and wheezing. + +"One day we opened the hatches to get coal for the galley. The smell +of gas arose. The coal was making gas. No fire. Just gas. If there +was fire we never knew it. We felt no heat. We could find no fire. +But every day the gas got worse. + +"It filled the ship. The watch below could not sleep because of it. +If we went aloft, still we smelled it. The food tasted of gas. Our +lungs were pressed down by it. Day after day we sailed, and the gas +sailed with us. + +"The bo'sn fell in a fit. A man on the t'gallant yard fell to the +deck and was killed. Three did not awake one morning. We threw their +bodies over the side. The mate spat blood and called on God as he +leaped into the sea. The smell of the gas never left us. + +"The captain called us by the poop-rail, and said we must abandon +the ship any time. + +"We were twenty men all told. We had four whale-boats and a yawl. +Plenty for all of us. We provisioned and watered the boats. But we +stayed by the _Mongol_. We were far from any port and we dared not +go adrift in open boats. + +"Then came a calm. The gas could not lift. It settled down on us. It +lay on us like a weight. It never left us for a moment. Men lay in +the scuppers and vomited. Food went untouched. No man could walk +without staggering. At last we took to the boats. Two thousand miles +from the Marquesas. We lit a fuse, and pushed off. Half a mile away +the _Mongol_ blew up. + +"We suffered. _Mon dieu_, how we suffered in those boats! But the +gas was gone. We struck Vait-hua on the island of Tahuata. It was +heaven. Rivers and trees and women. Women! _Sacre!_ How I loved them! + +"I came to Taha-Uka with Mathieu Scallamera. We worked for Captain +Hart in the cotton, driving the Chinese and natives. Bill Pincher +was a boy, and he worked there, too. In the moonlight on the beach +there were dances. The women danced naked on the beaches in the +moonlight. And there was rum. Mohuto danced. Ah, she was beautiful, +beautiful! She was a devil. + +"Scallamera and I built a house, and put on the door a lock of wood. +It was a big lock, but it had no key. The natives stole everything. +We could keep nothing. Scallamera was angry. One day he hid in the +house while I went to work. When a hand was thrust through the +opening to undo the lock, Scallamera took his brush knife and cut it +off. He threw it through the hole and said, 'That will steal no more.'" + +The hermit laughed, a laugh like the snarl of a toothless old tiger. + +"That was a joke. Scallamera laughed. By gar! But that without a +hand lived long. He gave back all that he had taken. He smiled at +Scallamera, and laughed, too. He worked without pay for Scallamera. +He became a friend to the man who had cut off his hand. A year went +by and two years and three and that man gave Scallamera a piece of +land by Vai-ae. He helped Scallamera to build a house upon it. + +"Land from hell it was, land cursed seven times. Did not Scallamera +become a leper and die of it horribly? And all his twelve children +by that Henriette? It was the ground. It had been leprous since the +Chinese came. Oh, it was a fine return for the cut-off hand!" + +Gasping and choking, the ghastly creature paused for breath, and in +the shuddering silence the banana-leaves ceaselessly dripped, and +the hum of innumerable mosquito-wings was sharp and thin. + +"I did not become a leper. I was young and strong. I was never sick. +I worked all day, and at night I was with the women. Ah, the +beautiful, beautiful women! With souls of fiends from hell. Mohuto +is not dead yet. She lives too long. She lives and sits on the path +below, and watches. She should be killed, but I have no strength. + +"I was young and strong, and loved too many women. How could I know +the devil behind her eyes when she came wooing me again? I had left +her. She was with child, and ugly. I loved beautiful women. But she +was beautiful again when the child was dead. I was with another. +What was her name? I have forgotten her name. Is there no more rum? +I remember when I have rum. + +"So I went again to Mohuto. The devil from hell! There was poison in +her embraces. Why does she not die? She knew too much. She was too +wise. It was I who died. No, I did not die. I became old before my +time, but I am living yet. The Catholic mission gave me this land. I +planted bananas. I have never been away. How long ago? _Je ne sais +pas._ Twenty years? Forty? I do not see any one. But I know that +Mohuto sits on the path below and waits. I will live long yet." + +He was like a two-days' old corpse. He rose to his feet, staggered, +and lay down on the heap of soggy leaves. The mosquitos circled in +swarms above him. They were devouring us, but the hermit they never +lighted on. Le Vergose and I fled from the hut and the grove. + +"He is an example like those in Balzac or the religious books," said +the Breton, crossing himself. "I have been here many years, and +never before did I come here, and again. _Jamais de la vie!_ I must +begin to go to church again." + +We said nothing more as we slid and slipped downward on the wet trail, +but when we came again to the straw hut hidden in the trees Mohuto +was still on the _paepae_, watching us, and I paused to speak to her. + +"You knew Hemeury Francois when he was young?" + +She put her hand over her eyes, and spat. + +"He was my first lover. I had a child by him. He was handsome once." +Her eyes, full of malevolence, turned to the dark grove. "He dies +very slowly." + +The memory of her face was with me when at midnight I went alone to +my valley. On my pillows I heard again the cracked voice of the +hermit, and saw the blue-white skin upon his shaking bones. He could +not believe in Po, the Marquesan god of Darkness, or in the _Veinehae_, +the Ghost-Woman who watches the dying; nor did I believe in them or +in Satan, but about me in my Golden Bed until midnight was long past +the spirits that hate the light moaned and creaked the hut. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +Last days in Atuona; My Darling Hope's letter from her son. + + +Exploding Eggs was building my fire of cocoanut-husks as usual in +the morning to cook my coffee and eggs, when a whistle split the +sultry air. Far from the bay it came, shrill and demanding; my call +to civilization. + +Long expected, the first liner was in the Isles of the Cannibals. +France had begun to make good her promise to expand her trade in +Oceania, and the isolation of the dying Marquesans and empty valleys +was ended. The steamship _Saint Francois_, from Bordeaux by way of +Tahiti, had come to visit this group and pick up cargo for Papeite +and French ports. + +Strange was the sight of her in Taha-Uka Bay where never her like +had been, but stranger still, two aboard her, the only two not French, +were known to me. Here thousands of miles from where I had seen them, +unconnected in any way with each other, were a pair of human beings +I had known, one in China, and the other in the United States, both +American citizens, and sent by fate to replace me as objects of +interest to the natives. + +They came up from the beach together, one a small black man, the +other tall and golden brown, led by Malicious Gossip to see the +American who lived in these far-away islands. The black lingered to +talk at a distance, but the golden-brown one advanced. + +His figure was the bulky one of the trained athlete, stocky and +tremendously powerful, his hide that of an extreme blond burned by +months of a tropic sun upon salt water. His hair was an aureole, +yellow as a sunflower, a bush of it on a bullet-head. And, incredible +almost--as if made of putty by a joker--his nose stuck out like the +first joint of a thumb, the oddest nose ever on a man. His little +eyes were blue and bright. Barefooted, bare-headed, in the +sleeveless shirt and short trousers of a life-guard, with an +embroidered V on the front of the upper garment, he was radiantly +healthy and happy, a civilized being returned to nature's ways. + +Though he did not recognize me, I knew him instantly for a trainer +and beach-patrol of Southern California, a diver for planted shells +at Catalina Island, whom I had first seen plunging from the rafters +of a swimming-tank, and I remembered that he had flattened his nose +by striking the bottom, and that a skilful surgeon had saved him its +remnant. + +He had with him a bundle in a towel, and setting it down on my +_paepae_, introduced himself nonchalantly as Broken Bronck, +"Late manager of the stable of native fighters of the Count de +M---- of the island of Tahaa, near Tahiti." + +"I'm here to stay," he said carelessly. "I have a few francs, and I +hear they're pretty hospitable in the Markeesies. I came on the deck +of the _Saint Francois_, and I've brung my things ashore." + +He undid the towel, and there rolled out another bathing-suit and a +set of boxing gloves. These were his sole possessions, he said. + +"I hear they're nutty on prizefighting like in Tahiti, and I'll +teach 'em boxing," he explained. + +The Marquesan ladies who speedily assembled could not take their +eyes from him. They asked me a score of questions about him, and +were not surprised that I knew him, or even that I called the negro +by name when he sauntered up. We must all be from the same valley, +or at least from the same island, they thought, for were we not all +Americans? + +I kept Broken Bronck to luncheon, and gave him what few household +furnishings I had not promised to Exploding Eggs or to Apporo, who +with the promise of the Golden Bed about to be realized--for I +announced my going--camped upon it, hardly believing that at last +she was to own the coveted marvel. Some keepsakes I gave to +Malicious Gossip, Mouth of God, Many Daughters, Water, Titihuti, and +others, and drank a last shell of _namu_ with these friends. + +News of my packing reached far and wide. I had not estimated so +optimistically the esteem in which they held me, these companions of +many months, but they trooped from the farthest hills to say farewell. +Good-byes even to the sons and daughters of cannibals are sorrowful. +I had come to think much of these simple, savage neighbors. Some of +them I shall never forget. + +Mauitetai, a middle-aged woman with a kindly face, was long on my +_paepae_. Her name would be in English My Darling Hope, and it +well fitted her mood, for she was all aglow with wonder and joy at +receiving a letter from her son, who three years before had gone +upon a ship and disappeared from her ken. The letter had come upon +the _Saint Francois_, and it brought My Darling Hope into intimate +relations with me, for I uncovered to her that her wandering boy had +become a resident of my own country, and revealed some of the +mysteries of our polity. + +The letter was in Marquesan, which I translate into English, seeking +to keep the flavor of the original, though poorly succeeding: + + "I write to you, me, Pahorai Calizte, and put on this paper + greetings to you, my mother, Mauitetai, who are in Atuona. + + "_Kaoha nui tuu kui_, Mauitetai, mother of me. Great love to you. + + "I have found in Philadelphia work for me; good work. + + "I have found a woman for me. She is Jeanette, an artist, a maker of + tattooings on cloth. I am very happy. I have found a house to live in. + I am happy I have this woman. She is rich. I am poor. It is for that + I write to you, to make it known to you that she is rich, and I am + poor. By this paper you will know that I have pledged my word to + this woman. I found her and I won her by my work and by my strength + and my endeavor. + + "She is _moi kanahau_; as beautiful as the flowers of the _hutu_ in + my own beloved valley of Atuona. She is not of America. She is of + Chile. She has paid many piasters for the coming here. She has paid + forty piasters. She has been at home in Las Palmas, in the islands + of small golden birds. + + "I will write you more in this paper. I seek your permission to + marry Jeanette. She asks it, as I do. Send me your word by the + government that carries words on paper. + + "It is three years since I have known of you. That is long. + + "Give me that word I ask for this woman. I cannot go to marry in + Atuona. That is what my heart wants, but it is far and the money is + great. The woman would pay and would come with me. I say no. I am + proud. I have shame. I am a Marquesan. + + "I live with that woman now. I am not married. It is forbidden. The + American _mutoi_ (policeman) may take hold of me. Five months I am + with this woman of mine. The _mutoi_ has a war-club that is hard as + stone. + + "Give me quickly the paper to marry her. I await your word. + + "My word is done. I am at Philadelphia, New York Hotel. A.P.A. Dieu. + Coot pae, mama." + +Mauitetai had read the letter many times. It was wonderful to hear +from her son after three years and pleasant to know he had found a +woman. She must be a _haoe_, a white woman. Were the women of that +island, Chile, white? + +I said that they ran the color scale, from blond to brown, from +European to Indian, but that this Jeanette who was a tattooer, a +maker of pictures on canvas, no doubt an artist of merit, must be +pale as a moonbeam. Those red peppers that were hot on the tongue +came from Chile, I said, and there were heaps of gold there in the +mountains. + +My Darling Hope would know what kind of a valley was Philadelphia. + +It was the Valley of Brotherly Love. It was a very big valley, with +two streams, and a bay. No, it was not near Tahiti. It was a +breadfruit season away from Atuona, at the very least. + +What could a hotel be? The New York hotel in which her poor son lived? + +I did not know that hotel, I told her, but a hotel was a house in +which many persons paid to live, and some hotels had more rooms than +there were houses in all the Marquesas. + +What! In one house, under one roof? By my tribe, it was true. + +Did I know this woman? I was from that island and I had been in that +valley. I must have seen her. + +I replied that I knew a Jeanette who answered the description +beautiful, but that she was not from Chile. + +Now, My Darling Hope knit her brow. Why would the _mutoi_ take hold +of her son, as he feared? + +I soothed her anxiety. The _mutoi_ walked up and down in front of +the hotel, but he would not bother her son as long as her son could +get a few piasters now and then to hand to him. The woman was rich, +and would not miss a trifling sum, five or ten piasters a month for +the _mutoi_. + +But why was it forbidden for her son to live with Jeanette, being +not married to her? + +That was our law, but it was seldom enforced. The _mutois_ were fat +men who carried war-clubs and struck the poor with them, but her son +was _tapu_ because of Jeanette's money. + +She was at ease now, she said. Her son could not marry without her +permission. No Marquesan had ever done so. She would send the word +by the next schooner, or I might take it with me to my own island +and hand it to her son. He could then marry. + +I had done her a great kindness, but one thing more. Neither she nor +Titihuti nor Water could make out what Pahorai Calizte meant by +"Coot Pae, Mama." "A.P.A. Dieu." was his commendation of her to God, +but _Coot Pae_ was not Marquesan, neither was it French. She +pronounced the words in the Marquesan way, and I knew at once. +_Coot pae_ is pronounced Coot Pye, and Coot Pye was Pahorai +Calizte's way of imitating the American for _Apae Kaoha_. "Good-by, +mama," was his quite Philadelphia closing of his letter to his mother. + +I addressed an envelop to her son with The Iron Fingers That Make +Words, and gave it to My Darling Hope. A tear came in her eye. She +rubbed my bare back affectionately and caressed my nose with hers as +she smelled me solemnly. Then she went up the valley to enlighten +the hill people. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +The chants of departure; night falls on the Land of the War Fleet. + + +On the eve of my going all the youth and beauty of Atuona crowded my +_paepae_. Water brought his _ukulele_, a Hawaiian _taro_-patch +guitar, and sang his repertoire of ballads of Hawaii--"Aloha Oe," +"Hawaii Ponoi," and "One, Two, Three, Four." Urged by all, I gave +them for the last time my vocal masterpiece, "All Night Long He +Calls Her Snooky-Ukums!" and was rewarded by a clamor of applauding +cries. Marquesans think our singing strange--and no wonder! Theirs +is a prolonged chant, a monotone without tune, with no high notes +and little variance. But loving distraction, they listened with deep +amusement to my rendering of American airs, as we might listen to +Chinese falsettos. + +They repaid me by reciting legends of their clans, and Titihuti +chanted her genealogy, a record kept by memory in all families. Water, +her son, who had learned to write, set it down on paper for me. It +named the ancestors in pairs, father and mother, and Titihuti +remembered thirty-eight generations, which covered perhaps a +thousand years. + +We sat in a respectful circle about her while she chanted it. An +Amazon in height and weight, nearly six feet tall, body and head +cast in heroic mold, she stood erect, her scarlet tunic gathered to +display her symmetrical legs, tattooed in thought-kindling patterns, +the feet and ankles as if encased in elegant Oriental sandals. Her +red-gold hair, a flame in the flickering light of the torches, was +wreathed with bright-green, glossy leaves, necklaces of peppers and +small colored nuts rose and fell with her deep breathing. + +Her voice was melodious, pitched low, and vibrating with the +peculiar tone of the chant, a tone impossible of imitation to one +who has not learned it as a child. Her eyes were kindled with pride +of ancestry as she called the roll of experiences and achievements +of the line that had bred her, and her clear-cut Greek features +mirrored every emotion she felt, emotions of glory and pride, of +sorrow and abasement at the fall of her race, of stoic fortitude in +the dull present and hopeless future of her people. With one shapely +arm upraised, she uttered the names, trumpet-calls to memory and +imagination: + + Enata (Men) Vehine (Women) + Na tupa efitu Metui te vehine + Tupa oa ia fai Puha Momoo + O tupa haaituani O haiko + O nuku Oui aei + O hutu Moeakau + O oko Oinu vaa + O moota O niniauo + O tiu Moafitu otemau + Fekei O mauniua + O tuoa Hotaei + O meae Oa tua hae + O tehu eo Kei pana + O ahunia Tui haa + O taa tini Kei pana + Nohea Tou mata + Tua kina Papa ohe + Tepiu Punoa + Tui feaa Tuhina + Naani Eiva Eio Hoki + Teani nui nei O tapu ohi + Ani hetiti Opu tini + O kou aehitini O take oho + O taupo O te heva + Tui pahu Otiu hoku + O hupe Oahu tupua + O papuaei O honu feti + Pepene tona Honu tona + Haheinutu O taoho + Kotio nui Taihaupu + Motu haa Mu eiamau + Hope taupo Tuhi pahu + Taupo tini Anitia fitu + Ana tete Pa efitu + Kihiputona Tahio paha oho + Taua kahiepo Honu tona + Mahea tete Titihuti + Aino tete tika Tua vahiane + Kui motua Titihuti + +Loud sang the names themselves, proclaiming the merits of their +bearers or their fathers in heraldic words, in titles like banners +on castle walls, flying the standard of ideals and attainments of +men and women long since dust. + +Masters of Sea and Land, Commander of the Stars, Orderers of the +Waxing and Waning of the Moon, Ten Thousand Ocean Tides, Man of Fair +Countenance, Caller to Myriads, Climber to the Ninth Heaven, Man of +Understanding, Player of the Game of Life, Doer of Deeds of Daring, +Ten Thousand Cocoanut Leaves, The Enclosure of the Whale's Tooth, +Man of the Forbidden Place, The Whole Blue Sky, Player of the War +Drum, The Long Stayer; these were the names that called down the +centuries, bringing back to Titihuti and to us who sat at her feet +in the glow of the torches the fame and glory of her people through +ages past. + +How compare such names with John Smith or Henry Wilson? Yet we +ourselves, did we remember it, have come from ancestors bearing +names as resonant. Nero was Ahenobarbus, the Red-Bearded, to his +contemporaries of Rome, at the time when Titihuti's forefathers were +brave and great beneath the cocoanut-palms of Atuona. Our lists of +early European kings carry names as full of meaning as theirs; +Charles the Hammer, Edward the Confessor, Charles the Bold, Richard +the Lion-Hearted, Hereward the Wake. + +Titihuti, having gravely finished her chant, stood for a moment in +silence. Then, "_Aue!_" she said with a sigh. "No one will remember +when I am gone. Water, my son, nor Keke, my daughter, have learned +these names of their forefathers and mothers who were noble and +renowned. What does it matter? We will all be gone soon, and the +cocoanut-groves of our islands will know us no more. We come, we do +not know whence, and we go, we do not know where. Only the sea +endures, and it does not remember." + +She sat on the mat beside me, and pressed my hand. I had been +adopted as her son, and she was sorry to see me departing to the +unknown island from which I had come, and from which, she knew, I +would never return. She was mournful; she said that her heart was +heavy. But I praised lavishly her beautifully tattooed legs, and +complimented the decoration of her hair until she smiled again, and +when from the shadowy edges of the ring of torch-light voices began +an old chant of feasting, she took it up with the others. + +There were Marquesans who could recite one hundred and forty-five +generations of their families, covering more than thirty-six hundred +years. Enough to make family trees that go back to the Norman +conquest appear insignificant. I had known an old Maori priest who +traced his ancestry to Rangi and Papa, through one hundred and +eighty-two generations, 4,550 years. The Easter Islanders spoke of +fifty-seven generations, and in Raratonga ninety pairs of ancestors +are recited. The pride of the white man melts before such records. + +Such incidents as the sack of Jerusalem, the Crusades, or Cassar's +assassination, are recent events compared to the beginnings of some +of these families, whose last descendants have died or are dying +to-day. + +I took Titihuti's words with me as I went down the trail from my +little blue cabin at the foot of Temetiu for the last time: +"We come, we do not know whence, and we go, we do not know where. +Only the sea endures, and it does not remember." + +Great Fern, Haabuani, Exploding Eggs, and Water carried my bags and +boxes to the shore, while I said _adieux_ to the governor, Bauda, +and Le Brunnec. When I reached the beach all the people of the valley +were gathered there. They sat upon the sand, men and women and +children, and intoned my farewell ode--my _pae me io te_: + + "Apae! + Kaoha! te Menike! + Mau oti oe anao nei + i te apua Kahito" + o a'Tahiti. + Ei e tihe to metao iau e hoa iriti oei an ote vei mata to taua. + E avei atu." + + "O, farewell to you, American! + You go to far-distant Tahiti! + There you will stay, but you will weep for me. + Ever I shall be here, and the tears fall like the river flows. + O friend and lover, the time has come. Farewell!" + +The sky was ominous and the boats of the _Saint Francois_ were +running a heavy surf. I waded waist-deep through the breakers to +climb into one. Malicious Gossip, Ghost Girl and the little leper +lass, Many Daughters, were sobbing, their dresses lifted to their +eyes. + +"_Hee poihoo!_" cried the steersman. The men in the breakers shoved +hard, and leaped in, and we were gone. + +My last hour in the Marquesas had come. I should never return. The +beauty, the depressingness of these islands is overwhelming. Why +could not this idyllic, fierce, laughter-loving people have stayed +savage and strong, wicked and clean? The artists alone have known +the flower destroyed here, the possible growth into greatness and +purity that was choked in the smoke of white lust and greed. + +At eight o'clock at night we were ready to depart. + +The bell in the engine-room rang, the captain shouted orders from +the bridge, the anchors were hoisted aboard. The propeller began to +turn. The searchlight of the _Saint Francois_ played upon the rocky +stairway of Taha-Uka, penciled for a moment the dark line of the +cliffs, swept the half circle into Atuona Inlet, and lingered on the +white cross of Calvary where Gauguin lies. + +The gentle rain in the shaft of light looked like quicksilver. The +smoke from the funnel mixed in the heavy air with the mist and the +light, and formed a fantastic beam of vapor from the ship to the +shore. Up this stream of quivering, scintillating irradiation, as +brilliant as flashing water in the sun, flew from the land thousands +of gauze-winged insects, the great moths of the night, wondrous, +shimmering bits of life, seeming all fire in the strange atmosphere. +Drawn from their homes in the dark groves by this marvelous +illumination, they climbed higher and higher in the dazzling +splendor until they reached its source, where they crumpled and died. +They seemed the souls of the island folk. + +They pass mute, falling like the breadfruit in their dark groves. +Soon none will be left to tell their departed glories. Their skulls +perhaps shall speak to the stranger who comes a few decades hence, +of a manly people, once magnificently perfect in body, masters of +their seas, unexcelled in the record of humanity in beauty, vigor, +and valor. + +To-day, insignificant in numbers, unsung in history, they go to the +abode of their dark spirits, calmly and without protest. A race goes +out in wretchedness, a race worth saving, a race superb in manhood +when the whites came. Nothing will remain of them but their ruined +monuments, the relics of their temples and High Places, remnants of +the mysterious past of one of the strangest people of time. + +The _Saint Francois_ surged past the _Roberta_, the old sea-wolf, +worn and patched, but sturdy in the gleam of the searchlight. +Capriata, the old Corsican, stood on his deck watching us go. + +I walked aft and took my last view of the Marquesas. The tops of the +mountains were jagged shadows against the sky, dark and mournful. +The arc-light swung to shine upon the mouth of the bay, and the Land +of the War Fleet was blotted out in the black night. + +Some day when deeper poverty falls on Asia or the fortunes of war +give all the South Seas to the Samurai, these islands will again be +peopled. But never again will they know such beautiful children of +nature, passionate and brave, as have been destroyed here. They +shall have passed as did the old Greeks, but they will have left no +written record save the feeble and misunderstanding observations of +a few alien visitors. + +_Apai! Kaoha e!_ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS*** + + +******* This file should be named 14384.txt or 14384.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/8/14384 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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