CHAPTER XX 



Rupert Brooke and I discuss Tahiti — We go to a wedding feast — How the 

 cloth was spread — What we ate and drank — A Gargantuan feeder — 

 Songs and dances of passion — The royal feast at Tetuanui's — I leave 

 for Vairao — Butscher and the Lermontoffs. 



AT Mataiea weeks passed without incident other 

 than those of the peaceful, pleasant round of 

 walking, swimming, fishing, thinking, and re- 

 freshing slumber. My mind dismissed the cares of the 

 mainland, and the interests thrust upon me there — 

 business, convention, the happenings throughout the 

 world. I achieved to a degree the state in which 

 body and spirit were pliant instruments for the sim- 

 ple needs and indulgences of my being, and my mind, 

 relieved of the cark of custom in advanced com- 

 munities, considered, and clarified as never before, 

 the values of life. It was as if one who had been 

 confined indoors for years at a task supervised by criti- 

 cal guardians was moved to a beautiful garden with only 

 laughing children for playmates and a kindly nature 

 alone for contemplation and guide. 



Brooke, who was busied an hour or two a day at poems 

 and letters, and was physically active most of the time, 

 spoke of this with me. There were few whites in 

 Tahiti outside Papeete except in the suburbs. The 

 French in the time of Louis le Debonnaire and of all 

 that period thought nature unbeautiful. The nation 

 has ever been afraid of it, but let natural thoughts be 



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