CHAPTER XVII 



My life in the house of Tetuanui— Whence came the Polynesians — A migra- 

 tion from Malaysia — Their legends of the past — Condition of Tahiti 

 when the white came — The great navigator. Cook — Tetuanui tells of old 

 Tahiti. 



HAPPINESS in civilization consists in seeing 

 life other than it really is. At Mataiea the 

 simple truth of existence was joy. In the 

 house of the chief, Tetuanui, I knew a peace of mind and 

 body as novel to me as my surroundings. For the first 

 time since unconcerned childhood I felt my heart leap 

 in my bosom when the dawn awoke me, and was glad 

 merely that I could see the sun rise or the rain fall. All 

 of us have had that feeling on certain mornings ; but was 

 it not interwoven with the affairs of the day — a picnic, 

 a rendezvous, our wedding, a first morning of the vaca- 

 tion encampment ? In Mataiea it was spontaneous, the 

 harking back to a beneficent mood of nature; the very 

 sense of being stirring the blood in dehght, and girding 

 up the loins instantly to pleasurable movement. 



I slept without clothing, and in a bound was at the 

 door, with my pareu about me. Already the family 

 had begun the leisurely tasks of the day. The fowls 

 were on the sward under the breadfi*uit and papaya- 

 trees, and the mina-birds were swooping down on the 

 grass near them to profit by their uncovering of food. 

 Those discriminating birds are like the Japanese, seldom 

 pioneering in wild places, but settling on developed 



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