OF THE SOUTH SEAS 233 



Eve in San Francisco. An Italian and a Scandinavian 

 prince had wooed her. 



I spoke of Loti again, and of other writers' comments 

 upon the attitude of women in Tahiti toward man. 



The princess sat up and adjusted her hei of ferns. 

 She studied a minute, and then she said : 



'T have long wanted to talk with an intelligent 

 American on that subject; with some one who knew 

 Europe and his own country and these islands. There 

 is a vast hypocrisy in the writing and the talking about 

 it. Now, JNIaru (I already had been given my native 

 name), the woman of Tahiti exercises the same sexual 

 freedom as the average white man does in your country 

 and in England or France. She pursues the man she 

 wants, as he does the woman. Your women pursue, too, 

 but they do it by cunning, by httle lies, by coquetry, by 

 displaying their persons, by flattery, and by feeding 

 you. 



"The Tahitian woman makes the first advances in 

 friendship openly, if she chooses. She arranges time 

 and place for amours as your women do. She does not 

 take from the Tahitian man or from the foreigner his 

 right to choose, but she chooses herself, too. I feel sure 

 that often an American woman would give hours of 

 pain to know well a certain man, but makes no honest 

 effort to draw him toward her. They have told me so!" 



I got up, and standing beside her, I quoted : 



"Ships that pass in the night and speak each other in passing; 

 Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness ; 

 So on the ocean of Hfe we pass and speak one another, 

 Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and silence." 



