OF THE SOUTH SEAS 257 



she made up her mind to relieve the Englishman of her 

 care, and willed to die at once. Dr. Cassiou, with whom 

 I visited her, said: 



"She ought to have lasted several months. Mais, 

 c'est curieux. I have treated these Polynesians for 

 many years, and I never found one I could keep alive 

 when he wanted to die. She had already sent away her 

 spirit, the dme, or essence vitale, or whatever it is, and 

 then the body simply grows cold." 



Ormsby and I talked it all over in the pare. He was 

 deeply affected, and he uncovered his own soul, as men 

 seldom do. 



"I 'm dam' glad she 's dead," he said, with intense 

 feeling. "I might have failed, and she died before I did 

 fail. I 'm going back to Warwick now at first chance, 

 and whatever I do or don't do, I 've got that exception 

 to my credit. It 's one, too, to the credit of the whites 

 that have cursed these poor islanders." 



He had chalked it down on a record he thought quite 

 black, but which I believe was better than our average. 

 He and I went to the cemetery and had a wooden slab 

 put up : 



Tahia a Atuona 

 Tamau te maitai. 



Tahia of Atuona 

 She held fast. 



The Christchurch Kid and I were friendly, and he 

 allowed me once a day during his training periods to put 

 on the gloves with him for a mild four rounds. He was 

 an open-hearted fellow, with a cauliflower ear and a 

 nose a trifle awry from "a couple of years with the pork- 

 and-beaners in Cahfornia," as he explained, but with 



