306 MYSTIC ISLES 



brought here. Did you hear that Tissot left for Raiatea 

 when he heard of the census ? He 's a leper and a white 

 man. They seized young Briand yesterday." 



I was astonished, because the latter had lived opposite 

 the Tiare Hotel, and I had met him often at the bar- 

 ber's. I had been "next" to him at Marechal's shop a 

 week before. 



"He did not know he was a leper until they examined 

 him," Llewellyn went on. "He does not know how he 

 contracted the disease. I don't mind it. I am not 

 afraid. You get used to it. I tell you, the only leper 

 I ever knew that made me cry was a kid. I used to see 

 on the porch of a house on the road to Papara from 

 Papeete a big doll. A little leper girl owned it, and she 

 was ashamed to be seen outside her home, so she put 

 on the veranda the doll she loved best to greet her 

 friends. She made out that the doll was really herself, 

 and she loved to listen when those who might have been 

 playmates talked to the doll and fondled it. She lived 

 for and in the doll, and those who cherished the little 

 girl saw that each Christmas the doll was exchanged se- 

 cretly for a bigger one, keeping pace with the growth 

 of the child. I have caressed it and sung to it, and 

 guessed that the child was peeping and listening inside. 

 She herself never touched it, for it would be like picking 

 up one's own self. Each Christmas she saw herself 

 born again, for the old dolls were burned without her 

 knowledge. And all the time her own little body was 

 falling to pieces. Last Christmas she was carried to the 

 door to see the new doll. I bought it for her, and I had 

 in it a speaking-box, to say 'Bon jour!' I sent to Paris 



