Tahitian TmmoraUtiJ. — The Upa-Upa. 219 



where does one witness more utter sliamelessness than at 

 what is known as the Pre Catalan, a lawn -like meadow, 

 which extends directly in front of the Governor's palace, and, 

 in fact, is one of its dependencies. Here, in presence of the 

 French gens d'armes and soldiers, under the very eyes of the 

 Protecftorate authorities, and in entire defiance of the native 

 laws,* dances of the most dissolute kind are executed by half- 

 drunk Tahitian girls. One must have seen the Upa-Upa 

 danced by these lascivious Tahitians, with all the impas- 

 sioned vehemence of a sensual nature, in order to compre- 

 hend the mingled shame and indignation with which it fills 

 any but a French by-stander. Singularly enough, the Upa- 

 Upa, or Hiva, has a marked resemblance to the well-known 

 Can-can, as it is, or used formerly to be, danced in the 

 Quartier Latin at the Chaumi^re, by the students and 

 grisettes, with the sole difference that in the Upa-Upa the 

 grace of the Parisian dances is entirely lost sight of, so that 

 there remains nothing but a series of obscene gestures, most 

 unblushingly presented. The musicians sitting on the 

 ground strike with the flat of the hand a little kettle-di'um 



* In the "Lois Revisees dans VAssemblee Legislative au mois de Mars de Vannee 1848, 

 pour la conduite de tons, soics le gouvernement du Protedorat dans les terres de la 80- 

 ciete," is the following stringent passage, " The dance, known as Upa-Upa, is inter- 

 dicted in the islands under the Protectorate. On fete days and public festivals 

 dancing is permitted, but no indecent gestures will be tolerated." The Upa-Upa 

 dates from the period when the secret society of the Arreois, whose chief tenets were 

 drinking feasts, polygamy, and infanticide, existed over the greater part of the 

 islands of the Pacific. Moerenhout, in his " Voyages aux Uesdu gratid Ocean" (Paris, 

 1837, vol. i. p. 484), gives a very complete account of this singular society, which 

 has since entkely disappeared before the zeal of Protestant missionaries. 



