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In front of the grounds of the chefferie there hung on the trees a long line of nets drying in the breeze. Before a feast, if there were not conditions auspicious for a tuu i te upea toro, a dragging of the seine, the village was occupied during the day or the wind was unfavorable, we went out at night after the trades had died down, and in a dozen or twenty canoes we speared them by torchlight.
In every district there was a mailbox on the fence of the chefferie, the chief's office, and on the trees alongside the road at regular intervals, and the driver took mails from people who hailed him.
Man originated on the seashore, and many of the most primitive habits of humans, as well as their bodily differences from the apes, came from their early life there. Man pushed back from the salt water slowly. The official affairs of the çhefferie, beyond the repair of roads and bridges, were few.
It was noon when Brooke and I Tetuanui having gone to instruct his gang plunged into the sea in front of the chefferie, and laughed in the joy of the sweet hour. He had written lines of beauty that interpreted our humor: Tau here, Mamua, Crown the hair, and come away! Hear the calling of the moon, And the whispering scents that stray About the idle warm lagoon.
Other Europeans and Americans found those interesting, at least, a little. Brooke and I swam every day off the wharf of the çhefferie. The water was four or five fathoms deep, dazzling in the vibrance of the Southern sun, and Brooke, a brilliant blond, gleamed in the violet radiancy like a dream figure of ivory.
Arriving at a chefferie, the stage halted, the district mutoi, or native policeman-postman, appeared leisurely, opened the locked box on the diligence, looked at ease over the contents, took out what he liked, and put back the remainder, with the postings of the chefferie. A glance at the map of Tahiti shows it shaped like a Samoan fan, or, roughly, like a lady's hand mirror.
The sun was now climbing high, and we began the descent, moving at a fast pace, leaping, slipping and sliding, with the use of the rope, and arriving at the Chefferie a little after noon. The long draft of a cocoanut, a full quart of delicious, cooling refreshment, and we were ready for the oysters and the fish and taro.
Lovaina was full of the horror of it, but with a just appreciation of the crime as a happening worth telling. The chefferie was filled with aues. "Aue!" cried Haamoura, the chief's wife. "Aue!" said the chief, and Rupert Brooke, with whom I had been swimming.
In all the districts I had passed through from Papeete, while in each was the knot of chefferie, churches, stores, and perhaps a house or two, the other residences stretched along the entire length of the political divisions, from six to eight miles.
Crime among Tahitians being almost unknown, the chief's duties as magistrate were negligible, and the family uttered many aues when I related to them the conditions of our countries, with murders, assaults, burglaries and rapine as daily news. The French law required a civil ritual for marriage, and Tetuanui tied the legal knots in his district. I was at the çhefferie when a union was performed.
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