m SOUT FOREWORD There is in the nature of every man, I firmly believe, a longing to see and know the strange places of the world. Life imprisons us all in its coil of circumstance, and the dreams of romance that color boyhood are forgotten, but they do not die. They stir at the sight of a white-sailed ship beating out to the wide sea the smell of tarred rope on a blackened wharf, or the touch of the cool little breeze that rises when the stars come out will waken them again. Somewhere over the rim of the world lies romance, and every heart yearns to go and find it. It is not given to every man to start on the quest p the rainbows end. Such fantastic pursuit is not for him who is bound by ties of home and duty and fortune to-mafce. He has other adventure at his own door, sterner fights to wage, and, perhaps, higher rewards to gain. Still, the ledgers close sometimes on a sigh, and by the cosiest fireside one will see in the coals pictures that have nothing to do with wedding rings or balances at the bank. It is for those who stay at home yet dream of f oreign places that I have written this book, a record of oi e happy year spent among the simple, friendly cannibals of Atuona valley, on the island of Hiva-oa in the Mar quesas In its pages there is little of profound re search, nothing, I feagc, to startle the anthropologist or FOREWORD to revise encyclopedias such expectation was far from my thoughts when I sailed from Papeite on the Morning Star. I went to see what I should see, and to learn whatever should be taught me by the days as they came. What I saw and what I learned the reader will see and learn, and no more. Days, like people, give more when they are ap proached in not toostern a spirit. So I traveled lightly, without the heavy baggage of the ponderous-minded scholar, and the reader who embarks with me on the long cruise need bring with him only an open mind and a love for the strange and picluresque. He will come back, I hope, as I did, with some glimpses into the primitive customs of the long-forgotten ancestors of the white race, a deeper wonder at the mysteries of the world, and a memory of sun-steeped days on white beaches, of palms and orchids and the childlike savage peoples who live in the bread-fruit groves of Bloody Hiva-oa. The author desires to express here his thanks to Rose Wilder Lane, to whose editorial assistance the publica tion of this book is very largely due. CONTENTS CHAPTER I Farewell to Papeite beach at sea in the Morning Star Darwins theory of the continent that sank beneath the waters of the South Seas ....... CHAPTER II The trade-room of the Morning Star Lying Bill Pincher M. LHermier des Plantes, future governor of the Marquesas story of McHenry and the little native boy, His Dog ......... . 9 CHAPTER III Thirty-seven days at sea life of the sea-birds strange phosphorescence first sight of Fatu-hiva history of the islands chant of the Raiateans ..... 20 CHAPTER IV Anchorage of Taha-Uka Exploding Eggs, and his en gagement as valet inauguration of the new governor danoe on the palace lawn ........ 39 CHAPTER V First night in Atuona valley sensational arrival of the Golden Bed Titihutis tattooed legs ..... 41 CHAPTER VI Visit of Chief Seventh Man Who is So Angry He Wallows in the Mire journey to Vait-hua on Tahuata island fight with the devil-fish story of a cannibal feast and the two who escaped ......... 5 vli viii CONTENTSCHAPTER VII PAGE Idyllic valley of Vait-hua the beauty of Vanquished Often bathing on the beach an unexpected proposal of mar riage 61 CHAPTER VIII Communal life sport in the waves fight of the sharks and the mother whale a day in the mountains death of Le Capitane Halley return to Atuona ., . . 74 CHAPTER IX The Marquesans at ten oclock mass a remarkable con versation about religions and Joan of Arc in which Great Fern gives his idea of the devil . . ., ...