214 MYSTIC ISLES 



Full of a sweet peace, serene thy sky; 

 Bright are all thy days 

 At Raiatea here. 



Rai poia or poirij they say for the gloomy heavens, 

 and rai maemae when threatening, parutu when cloudy, 

 moere if clear ; if the clouds presage wind, tutai vi. The 

 sunset is tooa o te ra, and the twilight marumarupo. 



The night is te po or te rui, and the moment before the 

 sun rises marumaru ao. A hundred other words and 

 phrases differentiate the conditions of sky and air. I 

 learned them from Afa and Evoa and others. 



The moon is te marama, and the full moon vaevae. 

 Mars is fetia ura, the red star ; the Pleiades are Matarii, 

 the little eyes; and the Southern Cross, Tauha. Fetia 

 ave are the comets, the "stars with a tail," and the me- 

 teors pao, opurei, patau, and pitau. 



The moon was gone, but the stars needed no help, for 

 they shone as if the trump of doom were due at dawn, 

 and they should be no more. Blue and gold, a cathe- 

 dral ceiling with sanctuary lamps hung high, the dome 

 of earth sparkled and glittered, and on the schooners 

 by the Cercle Bougainville himenes of joy rang out on 

 the soft air. 



I passed them close, so close that a girl of Huahine 

 who was dancing on the deck of the Mihimana seized me 

 by the arm and embraced me. 



"Come back, stranger!" she cried in Tahitian. 

 "There is pleasure here, and the night is but just be- 

 gun." 



A dozen island schooners swayed in the gentle breeze, 

 their stays humming softly, their broadsides sepa- 

 rated from the quays by just a dozen or twenty 



