274 MYSTIC ISLES 



ber in the glacerie, and keep your steaks and roasts until 

 tender. 



Fish is the chief item to the Tahitian. Give him only 

 fish, and he may murmur at his fate ; but deny him fish, 

 and he will hie him to the reef and snare it for himself. 

 All night the torches of the fishermen gleam on the 

 foaming reef, and often I paddle out near the breakers 

 and hear the chants and cries of the men as they thrust 

 their harpoons or draw their nets. So it is the women 

 who sell the fish, while the weary husbands and fathers 

 lie wrapped in dreams of a miraculous draught. 



There are three great aquariums in the world, at 

 Honolulu, Naples, and New York. There is no other 

 such fish-market as this of Papeete, for Hawaii's has 

 become Asiaticized, and the kanaka is ahnost nil in the 

 angling art there. But those same fish that I gazed at 

 in amazement in the tanks of the museums are spread 

 out here on tables for my buying. 



Impossible fish they are, pale blue; brilliant yellow; 

 black as charcoal; sloe, with orange stripes; scarlet, 

 spotted, and barred in rainbow tints. The parrot-fish 

 are especially splendid in spangling radiancy, their tails 

 and a spine in their mouths giving them their name. 



The impression made upon one's first visit to the 

 Papeete market is overwhelming, the plenitude of 

 nature rejoicing one's heart, and the care of the Great 

 Consciousness for beauty and color, and even for the 

 ludicrous, the merely funny, causing curious groping 

 sensations of wonder at the varied plan of creation. 



Sexual selection and suitability to survive are respon- 

 sible. Those vivid colors, those symmetrical markings, 

 and laughable forms are all part of the going on of the 



