xiv EDITOR'S NOTE 



their primitive state is of intense interest. Engaging 

 folk, mostly, these South Sea Islanders ; at times gay, 

 flower-bedecked, treating the stranger with the artless 

 generosity of children ; at other times sullen, passionate, 

 wreaking the cruel, thoughtless revenges of vexed 

 children ; but always childish in temperament. They 

 never needed to grow up. In the palm groves of 

 their coral islands set in seas of sapphire, they lived 

 before the European came as in Eden. Nature 

 imposed no harsh conditions of labour. One lived 

 to eat, to drink, and to be merry without vexations. 

 The gorgeous butterflies flashing through the forests, 

 the Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds dancing stately 

 love-dances in their bowers, were typical of the 

 human life of the islands. A little war, a little 

 cannibalism, accentuated rather than broke the 

 routine of indolent peace. Now the South Seas 

 become like the rest of our world with the march 

 of civilisation, carrying its blessings of work and 

 wages, and disease and drabness of fettered life. It 

 were wise to treasure this and every other truthful 



impression of the old order. 



FRANK Fox. 



London, 1913. 



