46 NATIVE AND FOREIGN VISITERS. 



capturing them is the hereditary right of a native 

 family residing at Mairipehe. A flight of wild- 

 ducks rose from the water on our approach ; 

 and the plaintive note of a bird, not unlike the 

 cooing of a dove, was the only sound that inter- 

 rupted the death-like tranquillity of this secluded 

 spot. 



A few rafts, made with the stalks of the 

 mountain-plantain, lying on the borders of the 

 lake, and some temporary huts, covered with 

 the leaves of the same tree, betrayed that other 

 visiters than ourselves had recently intruded 

 upon this scene. They might, probably, have 

 been a native party which, a few weeks before, 

 had escorted the queen, Aimata, on her first 

 visit to Vaihiria ; or the officers of H. B. M. S. 

 Challenger, 28, who had made an excursion to 

 this spot in the previous year. The Tahitians, 

 ever fond of the marvellous, assert that the 

 waters of the lake are unfathomable ; but a cir- 

 cumstance which occurred to the Challenger's 

 party, and which was related to me by Mr. 

 Henry, proves, how much easier it is to find the 

 bottom of the lake than to fathom the duplicity 

 of the Tahitian character. One of the officers, 

 when crossing the lake on a raft, for the purpose 

 of shooting wild-ducks, found his frail craft in 

 danger of upsetting, and^ in order to save him- 



