434 



CHARLES DARWIN 



served us foir dessert, for it is as sweet as treacle, and with 

 a pleasant taste. There were, moreover, several other wild 

 fruits, and useful vegetables. The little stream, besides its 

 cool water, produced eels, and cray-fish. I did indeed admire 

 this scene, when I compared it with an uncultivated one in 

 the temperate zones. I felt the force of the remark, that 

 man, at least savage man, with his reasoning powers only 

 partly developed, is the child of the tropics. 



As the evening drew to a close, I strolled beneath the 

 gloomy shade of the bananas up the course of the stream. 

 My walk was soon brought to a close, by coming to a water- 

 fall between two and three hundred feet high; and again 

 above this there was another. I mention all these Waterfalls 

 in this one brook, to give a general idea of the inclination 

 of the land. In the little recess where the water fell, it did 

 not appear that a breath of wind had ever blown. The thin 

 edges of the great leaves of the banana, damp with spray, 

 were unbroken, instead Of being, as is so generally the case, 

 split into a thousand shreds. From our position, almost sus- 

 pended on the mountain side, there were glimpses into the 

 depths of the neighbouring valleys; and the lofty points jof 

 the central mountains, towering up within sixty degrees of 

 the zenith, hid half the evening sky. Thus seated, it was 

 a sublime spectacle to watch the shades of night gradually 

 obscuring the last and highest pinnacles. 



Before we laid ourselves down to sleep, the elder Tahitian 

 fell On his knees, and with closed eyes repeated a long 

 prayer in his native tongue. He prayed as a Christian should 

 do, with fitting reverence, and without the fear of ridicule 

 or any ostentation of piety. At our meals neither of the men 

 Would taste food, without saying beforehand a short grace. 

 Those travellers who think that a Tahitian prays ortly when 

 the eyes of the missionary are fixed on him, should have 

 slept with us that night on the mountain-side. Before morn- 

 ing it rained very heavily; but the good thatch of banana- 

 leaves kept us dry. 



November loth. — At daylight my friends, after their 

 morning prayer, prepared an excellent breakfast in the same 

 manner as in the evening. They themselves certainly par- 

 took of it largely; indeed I never saw any men eat near so 



