OF THE SOUTH SEAS 289 



sugar cane ; the reef was a faint gleam of white over the 

 lagoon and a subdued sound of distant waters. 



We jogged along, and as we approached Fa'a, I lit 

 a match and looked at my watch. It was nearly two 

 o'clock. The Dummy stopped the horse at Kelly's 

 dance-hall in a palm grove. The building was of bam- 

 boo and thatch, with a smooth floor of Oregon pine, and 

 was a former himene house. Kelly had rented it from 

 the church authorities. The dancing was over for the 

 night, but a few carts were in the grove, and the lights 

 were bright. We went inside, and found forty or fifty 

 Tahitians, men and women, squatting or sitting on the 

 floor, while on the platform -was Kelly himself, with his 

 accordion on the table. He saw me and shouted "la 

 ofa na!" And after a few minutes, while others came, 

 began- to speak. What he said was interpreted by a 

 Frenchman, who, to my astonishment, proved to be the 

 editor of one of those anti-government papers printed 

 in San Francisco, that Ivan Stroganoff had shown me. 



Kelly addressed the audience, "Fishermen and fel- 

 low stiffs." He said that the fish strike was a success, 

 and if they all remained true to one another, they would 

 win, and the scales would be kicked out. The few scabs 

 who sold fish in the market only made sore those unable 

 to buy. He said that he had found out that the law 

 applied only to the market-place, and that a plan would 

 be tried of hawking fish from house to house in Papeete. 

 They would circumvent the governor's proclamation in 

 that way. He praised their fortitude in the struggle, 

 and after the editor had interpreted stiffs by te tamaiti 

 aroha e, which means poor children, and scabs by iore, 

 which means rats, and had ended with a peroration that 



