OF THE SOUTH SEAS 481 



eels. In the lagoon we usually secured a plentiful 

 draft of fish, brilliant creatures of silver and crimson, 

 as they leaped from the sea into the nets, and were later 

 tumbled into canoes or on the beach. The orare, aturi, 

 and paaihere were like the gleaming mesh purses worn 

 by the women of our cities, but the ihi was as red as the 

 beard of the Greek god T'yonni. These fish we kept 

 in tubs of sea water, alive and even moderately happy 

 until cooked. 



Saturday's parties went far into the woods to gather 

 a choice kind of fei, and the oranges and limes of the 

 foot-hills. Raiere, Matatini, and another boy, Tahitua, 

 hunted the shrimp and eel. After our suppers, about 

 seven or eight o'clock, when it was quite dark, we 

 equipped ourselves for the chase, each with a torch and 

 two or three lances, all but Tahitua, who carried a bag. 



We followed the grand chernin, as Alfred called it, 

 along the lagoon and past the clump of trees in which 

 lived Uritaata, whom we saw sleeping peacefully a 

 dozen feet from the earth in the branches of a mango. 

 He lay on his back, with his arms above his little head, 

 and one foot grasping a leaf, and did not arouse to notice 

 our passing. The Tahitians gave him wide avoidance, 

 with a mutter of exorcism. We descended the bank, 

 and entered the stream at a point just below the last 

 hut of the village. 



Raiere cast a glow upon the water with his torch, and 

 we saw the shrimp resting upon the bottom or leaping 

 into the air in foot-wide bounds. He poised his small- 

 est lance and thrust it with a very quick, but exact, 

 motion, so that almost every time he impaled a shrimp 

 upon its prongs. The oura was instantly withdrawn. 



