176 
FROM YOKOHAMA TO VALPARAISO. 
by long pauses, as if the speaker stopped to reflect on what he should say next. I 
noticed the same peculiarity in a sermon delivered by a native preacher at Papeete. One 
of the principal orators, dressed in a loose gown reaching to his knee, his head encircled 
with a wreath of leaves, appeared the living image of an “antique Roman. His face, 
too, of the true Roman type, had an intelligent, sober expression, modified by an occasional 
humorous twinkle in his eye. He 
always ended his speeches with 
some witty remark, received with 
great laughter and applause by 
his countrymen seated around. 
The perfect order and decorum 
which prevailed at this meetipg 
might serve—so it struck me at 
RESIDENCE OF CHIEF TERE AT PAPEURIRI. ^ 
the time—as an example to more illustrious assemblies. The whole scene was intensely 
interesting, although, ignorant as I was of the Tahitian tongue, the details of the debate 
were unintelligible. Here, under the auspices of the French Republic, the dark-skinned men 
of Tahiti—whose existence was little more than a century ago unknown to us—had met 
together in the open air for the discussion of public affairs, after the manner of the citizens 
of ancient Rome. A book containing an abstract of the speeches made at such gatherings 
is sent in periodically to the French authorities at Papeete, who are thus made acquainted 
with the wishes and opinions of the native population. 
Towards evening we sat down with our host and hostess to dinner served in 
European style—that is to say, with knives and forks, china ware, glass, and a bouquet of 
flowers in the centre of the table. During dinner a party of men and women, boys and 
girls, assembled on the lawn and treated us to a choral song, which they call “ hymnene.” 
Their singing, by no means inharmonious, is frequently accompanied by clapping of hands, 
and the time, at first slow, becomes very quick towards the end. Occasionally a few bars 
are sung by the treble voices, after which the men join in with their deeper notes. Having 
been accustomed for many months to the falsetto voices and nasal tones of the Malays, the 
Chinese, and the Japanese, I was quite taken by surprise when, at Honolulu, I heard a native 
humming to himself a tune in accordance with home notions of harmony. This difference 
as regards musical utterance seems to draw a decided line of demarcation between the 
Polynesian and Asiatic races. After dinner we sat in the verandah smoking, listening to the 
singing', and enjoying the cool night air, so delicious after the heat of a tropical day, while 
the stars twinkled through the dark foliage of the bread-fruit trees. When this pleasant 
evening party broke up, we were shown into exquisitely neat bedrooms opening out upon 
the verandah, and provided with regular four-posters—one of the unattainable luxuries the 
sailor dreams of when, at sea, he sleeps in his narrow cot or hammock. 
Next morning I strolled down to the beach to look at Little Tahiti, also known 
under the name of the Peninsula of Taiarapu, which rises from the sea opposite to Papeuriri. 
