126 MYSTIC ISLES 



had been uncouth mirth causd by the vile liquor sold by 

 the saloons licensed by the Government, and against the 

 Papeete regulations that no more intoxicants shall be 

 sold to a man already drunk. But when this British 

 citizen, scum of Sydney or Glasgow as he might be, 

 saw the deadly weapon, he felt aggrieved. This revol- 

 ver practice is all too common on the part of Monsieur 

 Lontane. Six such complaints I have had in as many 

 months. As to that part of your letter that the crew of 

 the Noa-Noa not be allowed to land here on its return 

 to Papeete, I agree with you, but it will be for you to 

 enforce this prohibition." 



It was agreed that on the day the Noa-Noa arrived 

 on her return trip, all gendarmes and available guard be 

 summoned from the country to preserve order, and that, 

 as asked in the letter, the consul demand that the cap- 

 tain of the steamship punish the rioters. 



And all this being done through an interpreter, and 

 the consul having unlimbered his falchion and removed 

 his helmet, he and the governor had an absinthe frappe 

 and made a date for a bridge game. 



^'Te tamai i te taporo i te arahu i te umaru," the natives 

 termed the skirmish. "The conflict of the limes, the 

 coal, and the potatoes." A new himene was improvised 

 about it, and I heard the girls of the Maison des Coco- 

 tiers chanting it as I went to Lovaina's to dinner. 



It was something like this in English : 



"Oh, the British men they drank all day 

 And threw the limes and iron. 

 The French in fear they ran away. 

 The brave Tahitians alone stood firm." 



And there were many more verses. 



