466 MYSTIC ISLES 



walls, a reef of madrepore, as solid as granite and sixty- 

 feet wide. The road was arched by splendid trees of 

 many kinds, and facing it, every several hundred feet, 

 was a home. Many of these were cottages in modern 

 style, but a dozen or so were the true Tahitian fare, of 

 bamboo and thatch. All were covered with flowering 

 vines, and surrounded by many fruiting trees. 



"Tautira neir announced my coachman. "Tautira 

 is here!" 



He pulled up the horse. I had not given any thought 

 to my lodging, and I jumped out and looked around. 

 The brook curved about a mango grove, and under its 

 high trees was a new native house, a replica of the com- 

 modious dwellings of old days. I walked into the 

 grove, and was admiring the careful, but charming, 

 arrangements of ferns and orchids, which, though 

 brought from the forests, had been fitted into the scene 

 to simulate a natural environment. All of a sudden a 

 something I could not see hurled itself from a limb 

 upon my head, and two affrighting paws seized my 

 right ear and my hair, grown long at Mataiea, and 

 tried to tear them out by the roots, while at the same 

 time many fierce teeth closed, though without much 

 effect, on my tough and weathered shoulder. In hor- 

 ror at the attack, I covered yards in two bounds, and 

 my assailant was torn from its hold upon me. 



I then turned and saw that it was a monkej^ tied to 

 a rope fastened to the limb of the tree. He stood up- 

 right on the ground, his jaws agape, and a look of devil- 

 ish glee upon his uncannily manlike face. At the same 

 moment a white man ran from the house and called 

 in English: 



