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Miri and Caroline and Maraa, being of Mataiea, had returned for this arearea, and were seated with the young men. The Tahitians are charitable in their regard of very open peccadilloes, especially those animated by passion or a desire for amusement, thinking probably that were stones to be thrown only by the guiltless, there would be none to lift one; certainly no white in Tahiti.
The Arioi, minstrels of the tropics Lovaina tells of the infanticide Theories of depopulation Methods of the Arioi Destroyed by missionaries. Lovaina came out to Mataiea with the news and gossip of the capital. A wretched tragedy had shocked the community. Pepe, the woman of Tuatini, had buried her new-born infant alive in the garden of the house opposite the Tiare Hotel.
It is really two islands, joined by the mile-wide isthmus of Taravao. Tahiti-nui is almost round; and Tahitiiti, oval. Both are volcanic, distinct in formation. They are united by a sedimentary piece of land long after they were raised from the ocean's bed. Mataiea is twenty-seven miles from Papeete, and well on toward the isthmus.
In that scene I myself was the buffoon of fate. A journey to Mataiea I abandon city life Interesting sights on the route The Grotto of Maraa Papara and the Chief Tati The plantation of Atimaono My host, the Chevalier Tetuanui. Life in the country made me laugh at myself for having so long stayed in the capital. The fever of Papeete had long since cooled in my veins.
It is half a mile long and a third wide, of curious shape, the banks making it appear in the dusk like a babe in swaddling-clothes with its arms outside the band. A great natural reservoir, fed by many subterranean springs, it gives birth to many others at the feet of the mountains, in Mataiea and Papeari.
In Mataiea I realized the wonder of the Polynesian people, and found my months with the whites of the city a fit background for study of and ardent delight in the brown islanders I was to know so well.
Papeari, the next district west of Mataiea, was well watered, as its name signified, and we passed cows and sheep and horses grazing under the trees or in pastures of lush grass. Swamps had been ditched and drained, and there was evidence of unusual energy in agriculture.
Schlyter, the tailor, an occasional companion, was busied cutting and sewing a hundred uniforms for a war-ship's crew. I bethought me of the letter Princess Noanoa Tiare had given me to the chief of Mataiea, and with a bag I departed for that village at daybreak, after taofe tau for four sous at Shin Bung Lung's Fare Tamaaraa.
Mataiea and the tribe of Tetuanui had won my affections, but at Tautira I had become a Tahitian. I had lived in every way as if bred in the island, and had fallen so in love with the people and the mode of life, the peace and simplicity of the place, that only the already formed resolution to visit all the seas about stirred me to depart.
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.
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