188 TAHITI, 



cultivated one in the temperate zones. I felt the 

 force of the remark, that man, at least savage man, 

 with his reasoning powers only partly developed, is 

 the child of the tropics. 



As the evening drew to a close, I strolled beneath 

 the gloomy shade of the bananas up the course of 

 the stream. My walk was soon brought to a close, 

 by coming to a waterfall between two and three 

 hundred feet high ; and, again, above this there was 

 another. I mention all these waterfalls in this one 

 brook, to give a general idea of the inclination of 

 the land. In the little recess where the water fell, 

 it did not appear that a breath of wind had ever 

 blown. The thin edges of the great leaves of the 

 banana, damp with spray, were unbroken, instead 

 of being, as is so generally the case, split into a 

 thousand shreds. From our position, almost sus- 

 pended on the mountain-side, there were glimpses 

 into the depths of the neighbouring valleys ; and 

 the lofty points of the central mountains, toweling 

 up within sixty degrees of the zenith, hid half the 

 evening sky. Thus seated, it was a sublime spec- 

 tacle to watch the shades of night gradually ob- 

 scuring the last and highest pinnacles. 



Before we laid ourselves down to sleep, the elder 

 Tahitian fell on his knees, and with closed eyes re- 

 peated a long prayer in his native tongue. He 

 prayed as a Christian should do, with fitting rever- 

 ence, and without the fear of ridicule or any osten- 

 tation of piety. A tour meals, neither of the men 

 would taste food without saying beforehand a short 

 grace. Those travellers who think that a Tahitian 

 prays only when the eyes of the missionaiy are fix- 

 ed on him, should have slept with us that night on 

 the mountain-side. Before morning it rained very 

 heavily, but the good thatch of banana leaves kept 

 us dry. 



