52 MYSTIC ISLES 



She was very large. She was huge in every sense, 

 weighing much more than three hundred pounds, and 

 yet there was a singular grace in her form and her move- 

 ments. Her limbs were of the girth of breadfruit-trees, 

 and her bosom was as broad and deep as that of the 

 great Juno of Rome, but her hands were beautiful, like 

 a plump baby's, with fascinating creases at the wrists, 

 and long, tapering fingers. Her large eyes were hazel, 

 and they were very brilliant when she was merry or ex- 

 cited. Her expansive face had no lines in it, and her 

 mouth was a perfection of curves, the teeth white and 

 even. Her hair was red-brown, curling in rich profu- 

 sion, scented with the hinano-flower, adorning her 

 charmingly poised head in careless grace. 



When she said, "I glad see you," there was a glow 

 of amiability, an alluring light in her countenance, that 

 drew one irresistibly to her, and her immense, shapely 

 hand enveloped one's own with a pressure and a warmth 

 that were overpowering in their convincement of her 

 good heart and illimitable generosity. 



Lovaina was onlj'' one fourth Tahitian, all the remain- 

 der of her racial inheritance being American; but she 

 was all Tahitian in her traits, her simplicity, her devo- 

 tion to her friends, her catching folly as it flew, and her 

 pride in a new possession. 



One morning I got up at five o'clock and went to the 

 bath beside the kitchen. It was a shower, and the water 

 from the far Fautaua valley the softest, most delicious 

 to the body, cool and balmy in the heat of the tropic. 

 Coming and going to baths here, whites throw off easily 

 the fear of being thought immodest, and women and 

 men alike go to and fro in loin-cloths, pajamas, or 



