330 MYSTIC ISLES 



tomobiles. Everywhere, in all countries, the long, 

 black coat and white or black cravat are the uniforms of 

 evangelism. In Tahiti I saw ministers of the gospel, 

 white and brown, appareled like circuit-riders in Mis- 

 souri; hot, dusty, and their collars wilted, but their 

 souls serene and sure in their mission. They as- 

 sociated God and black, as night and darkness. 



The sound of sermons echoed from chapels as we pro- 

 gressed, the voices raised in the same tone one heard in 

 a Methodist camp-meeting in Kansas, and the singing, 

 when in French, having much the same effect, a whining, 

 droning fashion, without spiritualitj^ or art. 



But why look for a moment at these unfortunates or 

 listen to their dull chants when marvels of nature un- 

 folded at every step! There was never such luxuriant 

 vegetation, never such a riot of color and richness of 

 growth as on every side. The wealth of the bougain- 

 villea's masses of lustrous magenta was matched by the 

 dazzling flamboyant, trees forty feet high, and their 

 foliage a hundred in circumference, a sheen of crimson. 

 Clumps of bamboo as big as a city lot and towering to 

 the sky, with the yellow allamanda framing the bunga- 

 lows, and a tangle of bananas, lantana, tafeie, cocoas, 

 and a hundred other fruits, flowers and creepers, made 

 the whole journey through a paradise. 



Around many cocoanut-palms were bands of tin or 

 zinc ten or twenty feet from the earth. These were to 

 foil the rats or crabs which climb the trees and steal ( can 

 a creature steal from nature?) the nuts. Every avail- 

 able piece of thin metal was used for this. The sheets 

 were often flattened kerosene- and gasoline-cans and 



