OF THE SOUTH SEAS 349 



of labor more than the Tahitians, because they refused 

 to do any more than was requisite for health, cleanli- 

 ness, comfort, and pleasure, and saw no more dignity or 

 greater indignity in helping me on with my boots or 

 bringing me my dinner or massaging my body than in 

 listening to a sermon or catching fish. 



They thought absurd and artificial the ideas foisted 

 by politicians, merchants, and lawyers that it was digni- 

 fied to sit in an office, to sell goods, or to draw up agree- 

 ments, or undignified to disembowel a pig, make a net, 

 or dig an oven. They saw governors and bankers 

 spend all day chasing a boar or angling for a fish which 

 they did not eat when they possessed it. They thought 

 them queer, and that their own regimen of work and 

 play was more sensible. 



"What land is this?" asked Cook, and understanding 

 him, the Tahitians answered, "Otaiti oia/' or, "This is 

 Tahiti." 



Cook put it' down as Otaheite, pronounced by him 

 Otahytee. It was Cook's carpenter who was building 

 a house for a chief, a friend of Cook's, and lost all his 

 tools during the visit of the high priest of the god Hiro 

 and his acolytes. Hiro was the first king in their myths, 

 and, until Christianity came, the god of business. 

 When Cook sailed away, the tools were taken to the 

 marae, or temple of Hiro, where the priest said he would 

 cause the prized tools to reproduce their kind, like fruit. 

 He planted them in a field near by and watched for re- 

 sults. The lack of any result except rust was an able 

 argument for the Christian missionaries, when they 

 came, to destroy his cult by laughing at the foolishness 

 of his ideas and the weakness of his god. 



