210 MYSTIC ISLES 



Women were not allowed in barrooms in Papeete. 

 The result was that they went to the Chinese restaurants 

 and coffee-houses to drink beer and wine at tables, as 

 legalized. A concomitant of this was that men went to 

 these places to meet women, and further that women 

 were retained or persuaded by the Chinese to frequent 

 their places so as to stimulate the sale of intoxicants. 

 The Chinese restaurants naturally became assignation 

 houses. 



Walking back, late in the afternoon, from the joss- 

 house, we met Lovaina in her automobile, with the 

 American negro chauffeur, William, and Temanu, 

 Atupu, and Iromea. She invited me to accompany 

 them to swim in the Papenoo River, a few miles towards 

 Point Venus. Other guests of the Tiare Hotel came in 

 hired cars, and twenty or thirty joined in the bath. The 

 river was a small flood, rains having swelled it so that 

 a current of five or six knots swept one off one's feet and 

 down a hundred and fifty feet before one could seize the 

 limb of an overhanging tree. We undressed in the 

 bushes, and the men wore only parens, while the girls 

 had an extra gown. They were expert swimmers, 

 climbing into the tops of the trees, and hurling them- 

 selves with screams into the water. They struck it in a 

 sitting posture making great splashes and reverbera- 

 tions. Their muslin slips outlined their strong bodies, 

 so that they were Hke veiled goddesses, their brown- 

 black hair floating free, as they leaped or fought and 

 tumbled with the tide. We stayed an hour at this sport, 

 joined when school was dismissed by all the youth of 

 Papenoo. Under twelve they bathed naked, but those 

 older wore parens. 



