94 MYSTIC ISLES 



him all the time. He loved the national dance. He 

 would sit or lie and drink all day and night. He loved 

 to see young people drink and enjoy themselves. Ah, 

 those were gay times! Dancing the nights away. 

 Every one crowned with flowers, and rum and cham- 

 pagne like the falls of Fautaua. The good king Pom- 

 are would keep up the upaupa, the hula dance, for a 

 week at a time, until they were nearly all dead from 

 drink and fatigue. Mon dieii! La vie est tnste main- 

 tenant/' 



Before we parted we sang the "Marseillaise" and the 

 "Star- Spangled Banner." Nobody knew the words, I 

 least of any; so we la-la-la'd through it, and when we 

 parted for luncheon, we went down the crooked stair- 

 way arm in arm, still giving forth snatches of "Le Bon 

 Roi Pomare" in honor of our host: 



Mais, s'il aimait tant les plaisirs, 

 Les chants joyeux, la vie en rose, 

 Le plus ardent de ses desirs, 

 Pour lui la plus hcureuse chose, 

 Fut tou jours que I'humanite 

 Regnat au sein de son Rojaume; 

 De mcme que I'Egalite 

 Sous son modeste toit de chaume. 



Hallman, with whom I journeyed on the Noa-Noa^ 

 dropped into the Cercle Bougainville occasionally^ but 

 he was ordinarily too much occupied with his schemes of 

 trade. Besides, he had only one absorbing vice other 

 than business, and with merely wine and song to be 

 found at the club, Hallman went there but seldom, and 

 only to talk about pearl-shell, copra, and the profits of 



