432 MYSTIC ISLES 



*'Auer she replied. "It was not always oaoa for him, 

 because it might be an old woman, or some one he did 

 not like, but who loved him. The Arii, the aristocratic 

 ladies, no matter how old, threw nono at the youngest 

 and handsomest youth, and they had to pursue them, 

 because of good manners. You know, Maru, that an 

 illegitimate child is called to-day taoranono, and taora 

 means to throw." 



"When I was in Hawaii," I told her, "the old natives 

 used to talk of a game there which, under King Kal- 

 akaua, their next to last sovereign, was played at night 

 in lolani palace or in the garden, but a ball of twine took 

 the place of the nono, and all stood about, men and 

 women, in a circle, to speed and receive the token of 

 passion. The missionaries severely condemned the 

 game." 



At the Mcdson des varos I breakfasted alone, for 

 Tatini was too shy to break the taboo that separated the 

 sexes at meals. Butscher waited on me, bringing one 

 plate of ambrosia after another — oysters, shrimp, varos, 

 and fish. I warmed his frigid blood with a cup or two 

 of Pol Roger, lOO^, a bottle of which he dragged from 

 a cave. 



"I am born in Papenoo," he volunteered, "fifty-three 

 years ago. My father came from Alsace seventy-five 

 years ago, when Tahiti had not many w^hite people. I 

 am a tinsmith, but I gave up that business many years 

 ago to keep this maison. I was a catechist in the Cath- 

 olic church here nine years, teaching the ignorant. I 

 gave it up ; it did n't pay. I got nothing out of it. I 

 worked about the church, read the prayers, and led the 

 service when the priest was not there, and I never made 



