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Chief Tetuanui's word was his bond because he had learned that square-dealing brought him peace of mind, but other natives had found out that to cheat the white man first was the only possible way of keeping even with him. The maxim of the king of Apamama, quoted by Ivan Stroganoff, was pertinent. Hospitality was as sacred to the Tahitians as to the old Irish.
Rupert Brooke and I discuss Tahiti We go to a wedding feast How the cloth was spread What we ate and drank A Gargantuan feeder Songs and dances of passion The royal feast at Tetuanui's I leave for Vairao Butscher and the Lermontoffs. At Mataiea weeks passed without incident other than those of the peaceful, pleasant round of walking, swimming, fishing, thinking, and refreshing slumber.
We went through Tetuanui's breadfruit-grove, and there, as wherever were choice growths, I stopped to examine and admire. No other tree except the cocoa equals the maori in usefulness and beauty. The cocoa will grow almost in the sea and in any soil, but the breadfruit demands humus and a slight attention.
They never tortured as the English and French tortured Joan of Arc, and as the police of America torture thousands of Americans every day. I looked long at this ruined pagan tabernacle, this arc of the covenant for Oberea and Oamo, and for Tetuanui's fathers. The chief said that his grandfather had seen it in its palmy period.
The sun at six barely lit the beach and revealed the lagoon, into which a stream from the mountains poured within Tetuanui's confines. I threw off my garment and plunged into a pool under a clump of pandanus-trees.
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