OF THE SOUTH SEAS 47 



and whites were about their daily tasks. Smoke rose 

 from the iron pipes above the houses, coffee scented the 

 air, men and women were returning from the market- 

 place with bunches of cocoanuts, bananas, and bread- 

 fruit, strings of fish and cuts of meat in papers. Many 

 of them had their heads wreathed in flowers or wore a 

 tiare blossom over an ear. 



The way in which one wears a flower supposedly sig- 

 nifies many things. If one wore it over the left ear, one 

 sought a sweetheart; if over the right, it signified con- 

 tentment, and though it was as common as the wearing 

 of hats, there were always jokes passing about these 

 flowers, exclamations of surprise or wishes of joy. 



"What, you have left Terii?" 



''Aita. No." 



''Aue! I must change it at once." 



Now, really there was no such idea in the native mind. 

 It was invention for tourists. The Tahitian wears 

 flowers anywhere, always, if he can have them, and they 

 do express his mood. If he is sad, he will not put them 

 on ; but if going to a dance, to a picnic, or to promenade, 

 if he has money in his pocket, or gaiety in his heart, he 

 must bloom. Over one ear, or both, in the hair, on the 

 head, around the neck, both sexes were passionately 

 fond of this age-old sign of kinship with nature. The 

 lei in Hawaii around the hat or the neck spells the same 

 meaning, but the flood of outsiders has lost Hawaii all 

 but the merest remnant of its ancient ways, while here 

 still persisted customs which a century of European dif- 

 ference and indifference has not crushed out. Here, as 

 there, more lasting wreaths for the hat were woven of 

 shells or beads in various colors. 



