OF THE SOUTH SEAS 415 



fruit was in rich hoards: bananas, oranges, custard- 

 apples, papayas, pomegranates, mangoes, and guavas. 



A magnificent bower a hundred feet long, broad and 

 high, had been erected of bamboo and gigantic leaves. 

 It was similar to a temple builded by the ardent wor- 

 shipers of Dionysus to celebrate the vine-god's feast. 

 The roof of green thatch was supported on a score of the 

 slender pillars of the ohe, the golden bamboo, and there 

 were neither sides nor doors. The pillars were wreathed 

 with ferns and orchids from the forest near by, and on 

 the sward between them were spread a series of yellow 

 mats woven in the Paumotu atolls. They carpeted the 

 green floor of the temple, and upon them, in the center, 

 the graceful leaves of the cocoanut stretched to mark 

 the division of the vis-a-vis. 



From these long leaves rose graduated alabaster 

 columns, the inner stalks of the banana-plants, and on 

 them were fastened flowers and ornaments, fanciful 

 creations of the hands of Tahitian women, fashioned of 

 brilliant leaves and of bamboo-fiber and the glossy white 

 arrowroot-fiber. From the top of each column floated 

 the silken film of the snowy reva-reva, the exquisite 

 component of the interior of young cocoa-palm-leaves, a 

 gossamer substance the extraction of which is as difficult 

 as the blowing of glass goblets. Varos, marvelously 

 spiced, prawns, and crayfish, garlanded the bases of 

 these sylvan shafts, all highly decorative, and within 

 reach of their admirers. 



The stiff hand of the white which had garbed the 

 wedding party in the ungraceful clothing of the Euro- 

 pean mode had failed to pose the natural attitude of the 

 Tahitian toward good cheer. 



