OF THE SOUTH SEAS 17 



strange religion and ethics which had caused the whites 

 to steal so much of China, to force opium upon it at 

 the cannon's mouth, to kill tens of thousands of yellow 

 men, and to raise to dignities the soldiers and financiers 

 whom he despised, as had Confucius and Buddha. 

 And if that white of the sandals had kept his shirt on in 

 Tahiti, he might be lying under his favorite palm and 

 eating breadfruit and bananas. 



People have come to be afraid to say or even to think 

 they are happy for a bare hour. We fear that the very 

 saying of it will rob us of happiness. We have incan- 

 tations to ward off listening devils — knocking on wood, 

 throwing salt over our left shoulders, and saying "God 

 willing." 



What was I to find in Tahiti? Certainly not what 

 Loti had with Rarahu, for that was forty years ago, 

 when the world was young at heart, and romance was a 

 god who might be worshiped with uncensored tongue. 

 But was not romance a spiritual emanation, a state of 

 mind, and not people or scenes? I knew it was, for all 

 over the earth I had pursued it, and found it in the wild 

 flowers of the Sausalito hills in California more than 

 among the gayeties of Paris, the gorges of the Yang- 

 tse-Kiang, or in the skull dance of the wild Dyak of 

 Borneo. 



