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Tahiti 73 



women, encircled by wreaths and coronets of bright 

 yellow made of the dried leaves of the bananas, long 

 strips of which many wore round their necks in the 

 ancient manner. And then the music of " the 

 hymenes," the perfect time, the perfect cadence, the 

 strange humming bass (like the sound you hear 

 when you " listen " to a shell, magnified a thousand 

 times), the wild, high, long-drawn falsetto notes, the 

 smiting together of hundreds of hands in perfect 

 unison, all ending in a deep sigh ! It was finer 

 than all the songs of Arabs, than all the savage 

 music that I've ever heard. 



* But I cannot tell you all the wonderful things 

 we've seen — besides, some of them were not quite 

 proper. The natives are happy, contented lotus- 

 eaters. " How do you Kanakers live ? " — " Oh, we 

 live in houses." " How do you get your living ? " — 

 " Oh, we play games." They are far higher, far 

 more beautiful, more graceful than the Maoris, and 

 are bubbling over with life and good-humour and 

 genuine kindliness. As you walk along, the great, 

 strapping brown fellows will greet you with a smile 

 and a cheerful " Ya rana " = " Good morning — God 

 bless you. How I loves to see your 'andsome face." 

 They wear a loose white shirt, and a sort of kilt 

 of blue or scarlet cotton wrapped round the loins, 

 which is printed with all sorts of fantastic devices of 

 their own imagining. They are as proud of their 

 hair as the women, and wear it in much the same 

 way. The women have long, loose muslin dresses 



