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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



he was accustomed to society, for in one 

 room were three beds and in another was 

 a long dining-table, above which hung a 

 portrait of a former French President. 



HIS POSITION AS DISTRICT CHIEF A 

 LIABILITY 



After changing our clothing, we sat on 

 the back veranda and chatted with our 

 host. He was young and, as one might 

 reasonably expect of a son so honored, 

 ambitious. In him. however, an ardent 

 desire for power and fame did not burn. 

 In other times he may have been ani- 

 mated by a fire of that sort, but if so it 

 had dwindled to a mere flicker. We re- 

 ceived lamentable proof of this when he 

 confided to us that he had no wish to hold 

 the scepter over his 450 subjects. But he 

 had at least one good reason for his un- 

 willingness. His monthly salary was 

 only $15. 



Perhaps this would have been enough 

 for his own needs, but. as it was his cus- 

 tom to furnish good cheer to all his vis- 

 itors without charge, the purchasing 

 power of this sum was decidedly too lim- 

 ited. Instead of his office yielding a 

 profit, it was a constant source of expense 

 to him. 



At a settlement beyond Hitiaa, Tairua 

 met some of his relatives who invited us 

 to remain for dinner. We accepted and 

 thus brought death upon another pig. 

 The house where we ate was a wreck. 

 The roof was full of gaping holes and 

 the walls were equally well ventilated. 

 Around the roast nine persons squatted. 

 and with fingers in lieu of cutlery the 

 savory centerpiece was soon reduced to 

 a heap of bones. 



Here striking examples of the Tahitian 

 temperament were furnished me by two 

 boys. One. a pugnacious six-year-old. 

 became enraged when his mother took a 

 cigarette from his mouth and repri- 

 manded him. In his wrath he struck her. 

 but. fortunately for him. she was not in 

 an angry mood. 



The other lad. who was slightly 

 younger, worked himself into still greater 

 fury through sympathy for his mother, 

 whose face had been blackened in a spirit 

 of fun by the French husband of a native 

 girl. The child became so passionate over 

 this that he yelled with all his power. 



stamped repeatedly upon his own hat, 

 and finally started for the joker to wreak 

 vengeance. He was held back by his 

 parent, who gave him a beating, but he 

 continued to cry incessantly and to play 

 abstractedlv with his toes. 



J 



The final stage of my tour was in 

 Papenoo, Tairua's fatherland. This was 

 a rock-forged coast. Its shores were 

 deeply covered with cobblestones, and 

 dark, unyielding stone walls sullenly re- 

 ceived the impact of a mighty expanse of 

 ocean unchallenged by projecting reefs. 



The home to which we directed our 

 steps was a big bamboo building situated 

 beside a stream, like the majority of Ta- 

 hitian country homes. I was welcomed 

 at the threshold by Tairua's mother, a 

 tall, stern-featured native, who was 

 smoking a cigarette and wearing a band- 

 age to ease an aching tooth. Shortly 

 after our arrival we sat down to supper 

 on a floor overlaid with hibiscus leaves. 



THE MEN OF TAHITI AID IN TIIK 

 HOUSEWORK 



Following this meal we sat conversing 

 until 9 o'clock. At that hour Tairua's 

 uncle offered a prayer, a signal for bed 

 as well as an address to his Creator. 

 There were two beds and I was given the 

 better one. The other was occupied by 

 the married son and his wife, and the re- 

 maining sleepers lay on the mat-covered 

 floor. In the morning everybody was 

 up early. And behold ! the men helped 

 the women prepare breakfast. They 

 shredded coconuts, pounded coffee, and 

 carried wood and water. 



That morning I received an instruc- 

 tive illustration of how the rural Tahi- 

 tian works out his taxes. This was at 

 once a serious occupation and a comedy. 

 Naturally the workers took the first view 

 and I the latter. These fellows, who 

 were allowed sixty cents a day. calmly 

 sat in the road and placed cobblestones 

 with the deliberation of chess players. 



Trust the Tahitian to take life easy. 

 He will never become a nervous wreck 

 from overwork. If anybody in his neigh- 

 borhood is afflicted with neurotic com- 

 plaints, the victim is more likely to be 

 the man who tries to make him hurry at 

 his dailv toil. 



