414 MYSTIC ISLES 



wrapping and opening its box. A bridesmaid in a 

 rose-colored satin gown had taken off the bride's glove, 

 and the pastor put the ring upon her finger. A number 

 of young men acted as aids and witnesses, and all who 

 stood were pounced upon by the wasps. They betrayed 

 no evidence of nervousness, but at the installation of the 

 ring, the groom, with a desperate motion, tore off his 

 stiff collar and bared his robust neck. He did not re- 

 place it that day. The bride's mother wept upon my 

 shoulder throughout the quarter of an hour. Not a 

 trace was indicated of the old wedding customs of the 

 Tahitians, as Christianity had effaced them rigorously, 

 and though the Tahitians had had plenty of ceremonies 

 for all public acts, as had the Greeks and Romans, 

 many had been forgotten under the scourge of ortho- 

 doxy before any white wrote freely of the island. They 

 are lost to record with the old language. 



After the rite, all made a dash for their equipages, 

 and raced for the bride's home, where, as customary, 

 the fete champetre was given. Again on mama's lap, 

 and Brooke on papa's, both ample, we hurried, the hon 

 pere not averse to taking a wheel off the bridal party's 

 motor-car. With cries of delight we drove into a great 

 cocoanut-grove, and a thousand feet back from the 

 Broom Road emerged into a sunlit, but shady, clear- 

 ing. Huro! the banquet was already being spread. 

 From different parts of the plantation men came 

 bearing huge platters of roasted pig, chicken, taro, 

 breadfruit, and feis, with bamboo tubes of the taiaro 

 sauce like the reeds of a great pipe-organ. Caldrons 

 of shrimp, crabs, prawns, and lobsters bubbled, and mon- 

 strous heaps of tiny oysters were being opened. Fresh 



