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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph from Mrs. Rosamond Dodson Rhone 



THE ROAD OF HEART'S DESIRE 



A road bordered with coral makes the twelve-mile circuit of the island of Nauru, 

 following the beach for the entire distance. Only the tropics could afford the vision of 

 beauty of a bright moon shining from a cloudless sky through the feathery fronds of the 

 coco-palms. 



with coconut palms, interspersed with 

 pandanus and other trees and shrubs. 



Back of the coconut plain rises a pali- 

 sade of tall coral pinnacles whose summit 

 is the phosphate plateau, which is covered 

 by a forest of evergreen trees, the most 

 common one being the tamanu (Calophyl- 

 lum inophyllum), with handsome deep- 

 green leaves, resembling laurel, and 

 flowers like orange blossoms. 



In the center of one end of the island 

 is a small lagoon surrounded by a coco- 

 nut grove. The broad plateau is unin- 

 habited, as the natives live only under the 

 coconut trees. 



The tie between the South Sea islander 

 and the coconut tree has been dwelt upon 

 by travelers ; in fact, in the Nauruan 

 legends the coconut itself either owes its 

 eyes and mouth to human ancestry or man 

 owes his eyes and mouth to the coconut — 

 the legend is hazy in outline. Certain it 

 is that it is the most precious gift of the 

 gods to the dwellers on the coral isles, 

 and where it does not grow, there are no 

 inhabitants. 



The green nut furnishes drink and a 

 delicate meat like the white of a soft- 

 boiled egg. The ripe nut furnishes the 

 copra of commerce, food for man either 

 raw or grated and mixed with other 

 foods, as well as food for fowls and pigs 

 and fish bait. It provides oil for the hair 

 and skin, an essential part of the native's 

 toilet. The dried and polished shells 

 make water bottles and oil flasks. 



The fiber which surrounds the nut in 

 the husk is twisted into cord, sennit, used 

 for every purpose where cord or rope is 

 needed, from binding together the rafters 

 and posts of huts, the timbers of canoes 

 and palings of fences, to tying sharks' 

 teeth upon spear blades and making bird 

 cages and fish-nets. 



The sap dripping from the severed 

 flower stalk is sweet toddy, which fer- 

 mented becomes soma toddy, an intoxi- 

 cant. The unopened leaves in the crown 

 of the tree make a delicate white salad, 

 the "sailors' cabbage" of the old whaling 

 days. As this can only be obtained by 

 killing the tree, white people call it 



