OF THE SOUTH SEAS 55 



the hunters of their tribes, took the musk, the civet, and 

 the castor from the prey laid at their feet, and made 

 maddening their smoke- and wind-tanned bodies to the 

 cave-dwellers. When they became more housed and 

 more clothed, they captured the juices of the flowers in 

 nutshells, and later in stone bottles, until now science 

 disdains animals and flowers, but takes chemicals and 

 waste products to make a hundred essences and un- 

 guents and sachets for toilet and boudoir. These odors 

 of the hinano and tiare were philters worthy of the 

 beautiful Tahitian girls, with their sinuous, golden 

 bodies so sensualized, so passionate, and so free. 



The ordinary life of the Tiare Hotel was all upon 

 the broad verandas which surrounded it, their high 

 lattices covered with the climbing bougainvillea and 

 stephanotis vines, which formed a maze for the filter- 

 ing of the sunlight and the dimming of the activities 

 of the streets. On these verandas were the tables for 

 eating, and in the main bungalow a few bedrooms, with 

 others in detached cottages within the inclosure. 



There was a parlor, and it was like the parlors of 

 all ambitious Europeans or Americans in all islands — 

 a piano with an injured tone, chairs blue and scarlet 

 with plush covers that perspiring sitters of years had 

 made dark brown, a phonograph, and signed photo- 

 graphs of friends and visitors who had said farewell to 

 Tahiti. There were paintings of flowers by Lovaina, 

 showing not a little talent and much feeling. All 

 these were the pride of her birthright — "Murricaine" 

 fashion, as the hostess said pensively. 



I have said that the life of the hotel was upon the ve- 

 randa, and so it was at meantime and for the casual 



