TAHITI 



879 





A TAHITIAN CANOE. 



THE CANOES HAVE GRACEFUL LINES AND THOSE BUILT FOR RACING ARE INCREDIBLY FAST. THEY ALSO HAVE SAILING 

 CANOES WHICH CARRY AN IMMENSE SPREAD OF CANVAS, AND ARE TRIMMED BY THE GYMNASTICS OF THE CREW 

 WHO BALANCE THEMSELVES ON LATERAL SPARS EXTENDING FROM THE SIDES. 



Japanese but warmer and less yellow- 

 ish. Their features are pleasing and con- 

 tain nothing Negroid or Mongolian. 



The typical native dress is the pareu, 

 a bright-colored patterned cotton cloth 

 much like the Burmese sarong, twisted 

 by the men around the waist and by 

 the women around the breast. The lat- 

 ter, however, rarely wear it away from 

 home, except when bathing or fishing, 

 without a loose overdress. The men 

 also are more and more coming to regard 

 the pareu as informal, comfortable for 

 home and work wear, but to be replaced 

 by coat and pants on dress occasions. 

 These customs vary much with the dis- 

 tance from town. Flowers constitute 

 the chief adornment, worn in wreaths 

 and singly over the ear. Carriers come 

 in from the mountain valleys with loads 

 of plantain, naked except for a loin 

 cloth but with garlands of ferns and 

 flowers. 



The chief Tahitian characteristics 

 are social. Feasting, dancing and sing- 

 ing are always in progress, usually on a 

 wholesale scale. The entire village 

 participates on the slightest excuse. 

 Anything that can be done alone is 

 unpopular. Even in fishing, the single 

 venturer is regarded as a pot-hunter and 

 no sportsman, the gentlemanly way 

 being to set a net in the lagoon and 

 invite the neighborhood to a drive 

 affording much noise and frolic, or to 

 organize a deep sea expedition for 

 albicore. In several stays on the island 

 the writer was never allowed to fish 

 with hook and line from a single canoe 

 because, while all right for a commoner 

 who needs fish, it is not the thing for 

 "quality" to do. The visitor is struck 

 with the invariable good nature of the 

 people. They rarely quarrel, drunk or 

 sober. Violence is practically unknown 

 Murders are so infrequent as to be little 



