OF THE SOUTH SEAS 465 



district, who handed on to his contiguous confrere those 

 for more distant confines. But for centuries Tautira 

 was known as a focus of the wise, of priests, sorcerers, 

 and doctors, and, said the knowing Brault, especially of 

 the dancers, and those who, he explained, under the 

 banner of Venus. 



Ont vu maintes batailles 

 Et re9u nombre d'entailles 

 Depuis les pieds jusqu'au front. 



The little boy and I chatted as the horse ambled at 

 will, occasionally urged to a trot by a shaking of the 

 reins. The country as we progressed became far more 

 beautiful than that behind. A new wildness, not fierce 

 and rugged as between Vaiere and Puforatoai, but 

 gentler and more inviting, preluded the exquisite set- 

 ting of the village. We- had to ford a stream three or 

 four feet deep, the Vaitapiha, and the struggle through 

 it was a rare pleasure, the child on the back of the ani- 

 mal, and I with the reins and a purau twig directing 

 and commanding in vain. We had to leap into the 

 water and remove a boulder or two that stymied the 

 wheels. When we had pulled through to the opposite 

 shore, I was reduced to a dry pareu, and in it alone, bare- 

 footed, I reached the rustic paradise, the loveliness of 

 which was to content me more than any spot except the 

 strangely fascinating valley of Atuona in the sad isle of 

 Hiva-Oa. 



In a delta formed by the Vaitapiha the settlement 

 lay among tents of verdure. For a mile it sprawled 

 around a small point of land which thrust out into the 

 sea, and which was guarded by the most wonderful of 



