88 MYSTIC ISLES 



then and there, but must wait many days to pay, until 

 circumlocution had its round, six weeks after the engine 

 had been at fault. I was assessed two sous duty on a 

 tooth-brush. I reached for the coins. 



"Mais, nonf said the 2^^^ pose de le douane, ''pas 

 maintenant. No hurry. We will inform you by post." 



These officials had pleasing manners, as do almost all 

 Frenchmen, and though they uttered many sacres 

 against the home Government and that of these islands, 

 they were fiercely chauvinistic toward foreigners, as are 

 all nationals abroad where jingoism partakes of self- 

 aggrandizement. The American consul, a new ap- 

 pointee, addressed the customs clerk in his only tongue, 

 lowan, and received no response. I spoke to him in 

 French, and the prSpose replied in mixed French and 

 English, out of compliment to me. The consul was 

 enraged, considering himself and the American eagle 

 affronted. I interposed, but the customs-man answered 

 coldly in English: 



"This is a French possession, and French is the lan- 

 guage, or Tahitian. I speak both. Why don't you? 

 You are supposedly an educated man." 



The Stars and Stripes were unfolded in a breeze of 

 hot words that betrayed the consul's belief in the p?'e- 

 pose's sinister ancestry and in eternal punishment. No 

 entente cordiale could ever be cemented after that lin- 

 gual blast. 



The consuls all had honorary memberships in the 

 Cercle INIilitaire, and none of them entered the Cercle 

 Bougainville, it not being de rigueiir. I had a carte 

 d'invite personelle to that club, and there I went with 

 roused curiosity to hear the other sides of questions al- 



