they could
against the attack of the surf. Signs of surrender showed in some,
caverns and arches cut by the constant hammer of swell and billow.

Sugar-cane, vanilla, pineapples, coffee, bananas, plantation after
plantation, with the country houses of Papeete's merchants, officials,
lawyers, and doctors, moved past our vehicle, and, as we increased
the distance from the capital, the beautiful native homes appeared.

Simple they were, with no windows or doors, mere shelters, but cool and
cheap, with no division of rooms, and no furniture but the sleeping
mats and a utensil or two. Natives were seen cooking their simple
meal of fish and breadfruit, or only the latter. The fire was in the
ground or under a grill of iron on stones. They would not go hungry,
for mango-trees lined the road, and bananas, feis, and pineapples
were to be had for the taking.

We drove through Aapahi and Faaripoo and saw a funeral. In the grounds
of the dead man sat two large groups of people, the men and the women
separate. They talked of his dying and his property, and his children,
while those who liked to do so made him ready for the grave. A hundred
yards away, in a school-yard, twoscore men, women, boys, and girls
played football. The males were in pareus, naked except about the
waist, and they kicked the heavy leather sphere with their bare feet.

Pare, Arue, and Mahina districts behind us, we were in Papenoo, a
straggling village of a few hundred people along the road, the houses,
all but the half-dozen stores of the Chinese, set back a hundred yards,
and the domestic animals and carts in the front.

With a flourish we drove into the inclosure of the largest, newest,
and most pretentious house, and were greeted by Teriieroo, the Tahitian
chief, all native, but speaking French easily and musically. Count
Polonsky shook hands with him, as did we all, but when a daughter
appeared, neither Polonsky nor we paid her any attention. Yet she was
Polonsky's "girl," as they say here, and he kept her in good style
in a house near her father's, sending his yellow automobile for her
when he wanted her at his villa near Papeete.

The chief's house had four bedrooms, each with an European bed,
three-quarter size, and with a mattress two feet high, stuffed with
kapok, the silky cotton which grows on trees all over Tahiti, These
mattresses were beveled, and one must lie in their middle not to slip
off. The coverlets were red and blue in stamped patte