White shadows in the South Seas

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 fortuneto-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

FOREWORD

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.

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 346

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 . . 358

Chapter XXXII

A journey over the roof of the world to Oomoa; an encounter with a wild woman of the hills .... 372

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 383

Last days in Atuona ; My Darling Hope's letter from her

son 436

CHAPTER XXXIX The chants of departure; night falls on the Land of the

War Fleet 443

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Village of Atuona, showing peak of Temetiu . . Frontispiece

J-ACIKQ PAOK

Beach at Viataphiha-Tahiti 4

Where the belles of Tahiti lived in the shade to whiten their

complexions 5

Lieutenant L'Hermier des Plantes, Governor of the Marquesas Islands 12

Entrance to a Marquesan Bay 13

The ironbound coast of the Marquesas 20

A road in Nuka-Hiva 21

Harbor of Tai-o-hae 28

Schooner Fetia Taiao in the Bay of Traitors .... 29

Andre Bauda, Commissaire 36

The public dance in the garden 37

Antoinette, a Marquesan dancing girl 40

Marquesans in Sunday clothes 41

Vai Etienne 44

The pool by the Queen's house 45

Idling away the sunny hours 72

Nothing to do but rest all day 73

Catholic Church at Atuona 88

A native spearing fish from a rock 89

A volunteer cocoanut grove, with trees of all ages . . .120

Climbing for cocoanuts 121

Splitting cocoanut husks in copra making process . . . 132 Cutting the meat from cocoanuts to make copra . . .133

A Marquesan home on a paepae 140

Isle of Barking Dogs 141

The haka, the Marquesan national dance 168

Hot Tears with Vai Etienne 169

The old cannibal of Taipi Valley 180

xiii xiv ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING

PACK

Enacting a human sacrifice of the Marquesans . . . .181 Interior of Island of Fatu-Hiva, where the author walked

over the mountains 188

The plateau of Ahoa 189

Kivi, the leava drinker with the hetairae of the valley . . 200

A pool in the jungle 201

The Pekia, or Place of Sacrifice, at Atuona .... 212

Marquesan cannibals, wearing dress of human hair . . . 213

Tepu, a Marquesan girl of the hills, and her sister . . . 220

A tattooed Marquesan with carved canoe paddle . . . 221

A chieftess in tapa garments with tapa parasol . . . 248

Launching the whale-boat 249

Pere Simeon Delma's church at Tai-o-hae 280

Gathering the feis in the mountains 281

Near the Mission at Hanavave 312

Starting from Hanavave for Oomoa 313

Feis, or mountain bananas .... 336

Where river and bay meet at Oomoa, Island of Fatu-Hiva 337

Sacred banyan tree at Oomoa 340

Elephantiasis of the legs 341

Removing the pig cooked in the umu, or native oven . . 348

The Koina Kai, or feast in Oomoa 349

Beach at Oomoa 352

Putting the canoe in the water 353

Pascual, the giant Paumotan pilot and his friends . . . 360

A pearl diver's sweetheart 361

Spearing fish in Marquesas Islands 368

Pearl shell divers at work 369

Catholic Church at Hanavave 376

A canoe in the surf at Oomoa 377

The gates of the Valley of Hanavave 392

A fisherman's house of bamboo and cocoanut leaves . . 393

Double canoes 404

Harbor sports 405

Tahaiupehe, Daughter of the Pigeon, of Taaoa . . . 412

Nataro Puelleray and wife 413

WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS

WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS