OF THE SOUTH SEAS 221 



branches I saw Maiauo, the lofty needles of rock which 

 rise black-green from the mountain plateau and form a 

 tiara, Le Diademe, of the French. A quarter of an 

 hour's stroll brought us to a natural basin into which the 

 stream fell. It was of it Louis Marie Julien Viaud, 

 shortly after he had been christened Loti, wrote : 



The pool had numerous visitors every day ; beautiful young 

 women of Papeete spent the warm tropical days here, chatting, 

 singing and sleeping, or even diving and swimming like agile gold 

 fish. They went here clad in their muslin tunics, and wore 

 them moist upon their bodies while they slept, looking like the 

 naiads of the past. 



We were already warm from walking, and I, in my 

 pareu and light coat of pongee silk, looked longingly at 

 the water sparkhng in the sun, but the princess took me 

 by the hand and led me on. 



"It were better to go directly up the valley and out of 

 the heat," she advised. "We shall have many pools to 

 bathe in." 



It was at the next that I took from my pocket 

 "Rarahu, ou le mariage de Loti," a thin, poorly printed 

 book in pink paper covers that I had possessed since 

 boyhood, and which I had read again on the ship com- 

 ing to Tahiti. The princess, like all reading Tahiti, 

 knew it better than I, for it was the first novel in French 

 with its scenes in that island, and for more than forty 

 years had been talked about there. 



"Here at this pool," she said, with her finger on the 

 page, "Loti surprised Rarahu one afternoon when for 

 a red ribbon she let an old and hideous Chinese kiss 

 her naked shoulder. Mo7i dieu! That French naval 



