NAURU, THE RICHEST ISLAND IN THE SOUTH SEAS 



581 



come light, graceful pillars, the 

 feather dusters become a roof of 

 green, rustling thatch, the deep 

 shade is a grateful shelter from 

 the tropic sun ; or, looked down 

 upon from a hilltop, the massed 

 crowns, moved by the trade wind, 

 flash in the sun like drawn 

 swords. From beneath and from 

 above, the grove is stately and 

 dignified and when the moon 

 gleams are flashed from the great 

 fans the heart swells with rap- 

 ture. 



It is a pleasure to penetrate the 

 slender-pillared aisles, to hear 

 the trade wind clashing the leaves 

 high overhead, to follow the nu- 

 merous narrow footpaths printed 

 by bare brown feet. 



The grove is not a solitude, 

 but is the dwelling-place of the 

 brown people of the island. 

 Their huts stand all through the 

 wood, but the gray thatch and 

 mat-hung walls so melt into the 

 boles of the palms that they are 

 unobtrusive, and the people walk 

 so lightly on their bare feet that 

 they make no sound. It is start- 

 ling to catch a slight movement 

 in the shadows and see a group 

 of men making a canoe ; or to 

 gaze into one of the brown pools 

 of brackish water and see look- 

 ing up the brown face of one of 

 the maidens who is taking a bath ; 

 or to see on the edge of the grove 

 a line of brown figures, with ridis 

 swinging from hips, and bunches 

 of drinking coconuts and a huge 

 fish swinging on poles between 

 them, silhouetted against the crimson sky. 



The huts are furnished with nothing 

 at all. Sometimes the floor or part of it 

 is a platform, raised three or four feet ; 

 usually it is the ground, strewn with 

 broken coral, covered with mats, on 

 which the dwellers sit by day and sleep 

 at night. There may be a Chinese cam- 

 phor-wood chest, a clock, a lantern, a 

 bicycle; there are always bottles of coco- 

 nut oil and coconut-shell water-bottles 

 hanging under the eaves. 



The yard is walled by a line of coral a 

 few inches high, like the play-houses we 

 built when we were children, and it is 



Photograph from Mrs. Rosamond Doclson Rhone 



DEBUTANTES OF NAURU 



The Nauruans are a handsome race, the women being 

 accounted the best-formed of the Pacific Islanders. 

 They are very friendly in their greetings to strangers. 

 Their abbreviated ridis are made of pandanus leaves. 



often surfaced with clean white coral 

 shingle from the beach. 



Close to the hut are the graves of the 

 household, sometimes inclosed by pal- 

 ings, but often merely outlined by coral 

 or inverted beer bottles. 



civilization 



AND CLOTHES BROUGHT 

 DISEASE 



The cooking is done on the ground, 

 outside the hut, and is very casual, for 

 much of the food is eaten raw; raw fish, 

 raw shellfish, and raw coconut are sta- 

 ples. When food is cooked it is generally 

 burned outside and half raw within. 



