CHERBANIANI 169 



secreted from seawater by sea-anemones, was piled 

 into a low crown of dry land by the waves, and then 

 this dry land was overspread by coconut palms, whose 

 seeds were very likely carried by ocean currents. 

 Again, from these coconut palms that probably owed 

 their birth to Oceanus, a cycle of life starts and 

 comes back by way of articulate-speaking man to 

 coconuts again ; for in such of the islands as are 

 inhabited, the people live upon the products of the 

 palm, and after death, being buried beneath the palms, 

 restore to these their borrowed elements. 



The first place that we visited was Cherbaniani, 

 which from afar showed up from the universal blue 

 as a disk of emerald, girdled by a ring of snow-white 

 foam. The emerald disk was the lagoon, and the 

 white ring that encircled it was the surf breaking 

 upon the submerged atoll. Even in the finest 

 weather, when the sea appears to be perfectly calm, 

 the surf is one of the most impressive features of 

 these atolls ; for the gentle vertical undulations of the 

 water, which pass unnoticed in the open ocean, break 

 into impetuous horizontally - moving waves whenever 

 they encounter the sudden obstruction of a reef. This 

 surf, which only the turtles seem to enjoy, makes 

 landing a matter of much inconvenience at all times. 



Cherbaniani is a simple ring of coral rock, which 

 only at two small and far-distant points rises a few 

 feet above high water, as two dazzling white eyots 



