426 MYSTIC ISLES 



golf-ball, in lozenge-shaped patterns. The bark of the 

 young branches was used for making a tough tapa, na- 

 tive cloth, and resin furnishes a glue for calking water- 

 craft. The tree bears in the second or third year, is 

 hardy, but yields its life to a fungus, for which there is 

 no remedy except, according to the natives, a lovely lily 

 that grows in the forest. Transplanted, at the roots of 

 the maori, the lily heals its disease and drives away the 

 parasite. The missionaries cited this as a parable of 

 Christianity, which would save from damnation the con- 

 vert no matter how fungusy he was with sin. In tribal 

 wars the enemy laid a sea-slug at the heart of the maori, 

 and, its foe unseen, the tree perished from the corruption 

 of the hideous trepang. 



Papeari, the next district west of Mataiea, was well 

 watered, as its name signified, and we passed cows and 

 sheep and horses grazing under the trees or in pastures 

 of lush grass. Swamps had been ditched and drained, 

 and there was evidence of unusual energy in agriculture. 

 The country gained in tropical aspect as we approached 

 the narrow strip of land which is the nexus of Tahiti- 

 nui and Tahiti-iti, of the blade and the handle of the fan. 

 Tahitian mythology does not agree with geology, any 

 more than does the catechism; for though the scientists 

 aver that these separate isles were not united until ages 

 after their formation, a legend ran that at one time the 

 union was complete, but that a sea-god conceived a 

 hatred for the inhabitants of the Presqu'ile of Taiarapu, 

 the fearless clans of the Teva-i-tai and the Te-Ahupo. 



One very dark night when the moon was in the ocean 

 cavern of this evil Atua, he began his horrid labors to 

 sever the tie. He smote the rocks from the foundations, 



