SAVED BY A CURIOUS CUSTOM 171 
enemies upon the sea, or were they about to embark in their 
own war vessels upon an expedition of killing and cannibal 
feasting? Not so! Far as the eye could reach there was 
nothing upon the water save where, out beyond the coral 
reef, a small but rapidly approaching canoe, in which was 
seated but one man, came dancing over the sunlit waves, and 
still farther out a larger canoe to which this lone voyager 
had just waved a last farewell, lifted lazily to the long ocean 
swell. 
Undeterred alike by the fierce yells of the savages ashore or 
by the menacing spears that threatened his approach, this in- 
trepid man drove his canoe shoreward with the swift skim- 
ming motion of a gigantic bird; and almost before the ex- 
cited warriors were aware of his purpose, he had sprung 
upon the land and stood before them without fear. 
His name was Pao, a native of the island of Rarotonga. 
For years he had followed the life of a sailor, but at last he 
had been converted, and immediately he formed a strong 
desire to become a missionary to other brown-skinned races 
of the South Seas. Eventually he was sent to the island of 
Maré, one of the Loyalty group where the gospel had already 
been preached, and many of the savages had already been 
won to Christianity. 
But in a short time, Pao had formed the resolve to be the 
first missionary to the dreaded savages of Lifu, which was 
a near-by island in the same group. ‘He knew the character 
of the people, but his high courage held no place for fear. 
There was no mission vessel to take him, and there were no 
white missionaries at hand to introduce him, or to obtain 
more or less reliable promises of protection for him from 
the chiefs,’’ but he shrank not from the possibilities of a 
frightful death at their hands, and landed alone among them 
as they stood with spear and club to receive him. 
For a moment his fate trembled in the balance. Then he 
was saved by a curious circumstance. According to a strange 
custom which they called “enemu,’ by which a single special 
