OF THE SOUTH SEAS 419 



talked seriously of the problems of the church, of future 

 himerws, and the waywardness of those who "knew not 

 the fear of letu-Kirito." Their indications of grief at 

 the hardness of the heathens' hearts grew more lively 

 as they sipped the wine, thinking perhaps of that day 

 when the Master and the disciples did the same at an- 

 other wedding feast. 



Soon their voices were drowned by the low notes of 

 an accordion and the chanting by the bachelors of an 

 ancient love-song of Tahiti. Miri and Caroline and 

 Maraa, being of Mataiea, had returned for this arearea, 

 and were seated with the young men. The Tahitians 

 are charitable in their regard of very open peccadilloes, 

 especially those animated by passion or a desire for 

 amusement, thinking probably that were stones to be 

 thrown only by the guiltless, there would be none to 

 lift one; certainly no white in Tahiti. The dithyramb 

 of a bacchanal sounded, and the outlaw dentist was re- 

 minded of his former intimate friend, King Pomare the 

 Fifth. 



"I was a bosom chum of the king," he said confiden- 

 tially as he poured me a shell of Burgundy. "He was 

 much maligned. He drank too much for his health, 

 but so do almost all kings, from what I 've read and 

 seen. Lord ! what a man he was ! He 'd sit around all 

 night while the hula boomed, applauding this or that 

 dancer, and seeing that the booze circulated. He was 

 a fish, that 's a fact. He never had enough, and he 

 could stow away a cask. Good-hearted 1 When he 

 would go to the districts he always sent word when he 

 had laid out his course, and after a few days in each 

 pla<;e he would go on with his crowd. He paid for 



