United States or Syria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But for centuries Tautira was known as a focus of the wise, of priests, sorcerers, and doctors, and, said the knowing Brault, especially of the dancers, and those who, he explained, under the banner of Venus. Ont vu maintes batailles Et reçu nombre d'entailles Depuis les pieds jusqu'au front.
Near the school-house, a dozen yards from the salt water, was a native house with a straw roof, a mere old shell, untenanted. M. Edmond Brault, the government employee and musical composer, a passenger on the diligence, had with him his violin, intending to spend the day in company with it in a grove.
Moving over a small levee we came to the pointe de Maraa, where was the Grotto of Maraa, a gigantic recess worn in the solid wall of rock, a dark mysterious interior, which gave me a momentary surge of my childhood dread and love of caves and secret entrances to pirates' lairs. The diligence halted at the request of M. Brault, and he and I jumped out and ran to the grotto.
We toasted Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, and then we sang for an hour. M. Brault was the leading composer of Tahiti. He was the creator of Tahitian melodies, as Kappelmeister Berger was of Hawaiian. For our delectation Brault sang ten of his songs between toasts. I liked best "Le Bon Roi Pomare," the words of one of the many stanzas being: Il était un excellent roi Dont on ne dit rien dans l'histoire, Qui ne connaissait qu'une Loi: Celle de chanter, rire, et boire. Fervent disciple de Bacchus Il glorifiait sa puissance, Puis, sacrifiait
I bade au revoir to my delightful companion, Edmond Brault, having determined to walk the remaining kilometers, and to send on my inconsiderable bag of clothing. Lovaina had given me a note to the chief of Papara, Tati, whose father was Salmon, an English Jew, and whose sister was Marao, the relict of the late king, and known as the queen.
The princess refused a third glass of wine at the table, but smoked incessantly, and listened absent-mindedly to the music and the songs. Her thoughts may have been of those mad nights of orgy which Davey, the dentist, and Brault, the composer, had described. Her cigarettes were of native tobacco wrapped in pandanus leaf, as the South American wraps his in corn husk.
I had a fleeting thought of a row before he bowed low and said in English: "If you please, we make good time, we sing your songs, and must be happy to drink with you." He announced himself as M. Edmond Brault, chief clerk of the office of the secretary-general, fresh-faced, glowing and with a soul for music and for joy.
Another play on the same subject, written by a M. Brault, had also been accepted by the committee, and its author was suffering from an illness from which it was impossible that he should recover.
We found a little canoe fastened to a stone, and adventured on the quiet surface of the pond until at about eighty yards of penetration we came to a blind curtain of stone. "This grot," said M. Brault, "was for centuries the retreat of those conquered in war, sacred to gods, and a sanctuary never violated, like those cities of refuge among the Hebrews and Greeks.
REFRAIN: Toujours joyeux, d'humeur gauloise, Et parfois même un peu grivoise Le généreux Roi Pomarè Par son peuple est fort regretté. S'il avait eu de l'eloquence Il aurait gouverné la France! Mais nos regrets sont superflus; Puisqu'il est mort, n'en parlons plus! "Ah, he was a chic type, that last King of Tahiti," said M. Brault, who had written so many praiseful, merry verses about him.
Word Of The Day