OF THE SOUTH SEAS 205 



of all sizes and shapes and tints, from a pear-shaped, 

 brilliant, Orient pearl of great value, to the golden pipi 

 of inconsiderable worth. Woronick spoke of a pearl 

 he had bought some years ago in Takaroa, the creation 

 of which, he said, had cost the lives of three men includ- 

 ing a gi'eat savant. 



"If you go to Takaroa," said Woronick, "be sure to 

 see old Tepeva a Tepeva. He used to be one of the 

 best divers in the Low Islands, but he 's got the bends. 

 He sold me the greatest pearl ever found in these fish- 

 eries in the last twenty years, and I made enough profit 

 on it to buy a house in Paris and Hve a year. Get him 

 to tell you his yarn. It beats Monte Cristo all hollow." 



Which I made a note to do. 



In the afternoon, with Charlie Eager, a guest at the 

 Annexe, I went to the worship-place of the Chinese, on 

 the Broom Road. Outwardly, it had not the flaunting 

 distinction of the joss-houses of the Far East or those 

 of New York or San Francisco. The Chinese usually 

 builds his temples even in foreign lands in the same 

 Oriental superfluity of color and curve and adornment 

 that makes them exclusively the Middle Kingdom's own ; 

 but here he had been content to have a simple, white- 

 washed church which might be a meeting-house or 

 school. It was set in the center of a great garden in 

 which mango and cocoa and breadfruit abounded. We 

 were struck by the superb breadth and immense height 

 of a breadfruit-tree the shadows of which fell over a 

 small brick pagoda. This tree was a hundred feet tall, 

 and the always glorious leaves, as large as aprons, in- 

 dented and a glossy, dark green, made it a temple in 

 itself worthier of the ministrations of priests than the 



