146 MYSTIC ISLES 



Landers being very big physically, they admired him 

 greatly, and his company having been two generations in 

 Tahiti, they knew his history. They now and again 

 called him by his name among Tahitians, "Taporo- 

 Tane," ("The Lime-Man") , and sang: 



E aue Tau tiare ate e! 



Ua parari te afata e! 



I te Pahi no Taporo-Tane e! 



Alas ! my dear, some one let slip 



A box of limes on the lime-man's ship. 



And busted it so the juice did drip. 



The song was a quarter of a century old and recorded 

 an accident of loading a schooner. Landers's father's 

 partner was first named Taporo-Tane because he ex- 

 ported limes in large quantities from Tahiti to New 

 Zealand. The stevedores and roustabouts of the water- 

 front made ballads of happenings as their forefathers 

 had chants of the fierce adventures of their constant 

 warfare. They were like the negroes, who from their 

 first transplantation from Africa to America had put 

 their plaints and mystification in strange and affecting 

 threnodies and runes. 



All through the incessant himenes a crowd of natives 

 kept moving about a hundred feet away, dancing or 

 listening with delight. They would not obtrude on the 

 feast, but must hear the music intimately. 



The others of our party, having breakfasted until well 

 after two, sought a house where LleweUyn was known. 

 McHenry and I followed the road which circles the 

 island by the lagoon and sea-beach. In that twelve 

 leagues there are a succession of dales, ravines, falls, 



