and will not thrive removed from its beloved sea.

To me there is an inexpressible sentiment in the presence of these
cocoa-palms. They are the symbol of the simplicity and singleness
of the eternal summer of the tropics; the staff and gonfalons of the
dominion of the sun. My heart leaps at their sight when long away. They
are the dearest result of seed and earth. I drink their wine and esteem
dwelling in their sight a rare communion with the best of nature.

They joked Count Polonsky about his girl, and he began to explain.

"I was here a year before I found one that suited me," he said as
he rode beside the wagon. "I don't love her, nor she me, but I pay
her well, and ask only physical fidelity for my physical safety. Her
father is practical and influential, and will help me with my plans
for development of the Papenoo valley, which I have bought."

Three tall and robust natives in pareus of red and yellow, and carrying
long spears, went by, accompanied by a dozen dogs. We stopped them,
and they said they were from the Papara district on their way to hunt
pig in the Papenoo Mountains for Count Polonsky. The latter remembered
he had ordered such a hunt, and explained through Llewellyn that he
was their employer.

They faced him, and seldom was greater contrast. Magnificent
semi-savages, clothed in only a rag, their powerful muscles responsive
to every demand of their minds, and health glowing in their laughing
countenances: Polonsky, slight, bent, baldish, arrayed in Paris
fashions, a figure from the Bois de Boulogne, his glass screwed in
his weak eye, the other myopic, teeth missing, and face pale. But
at his command they hunted, for he had that which they craved, the
money of civilization, to buy its toys and poisons. Polonsky had a
reputation for generous dealing.

A bent native man repairing the road near Faaripoo had his face swathed
in bandages. He greeted us with the courteous, "Ia ora na!" but did
not lift his head.

"He is a leper," said Llewellyn. "I have seen him for years on this
road. He may not be here many more days, because they are segregating
the lepers. The Government has built a lazaretto for them up that
road."

We saw a group of little houses a short distance removed from the
road. They were fenced in and had an institutional look.

"There's hundreds of lepers in Tahiti," remarked McHenry.

"Mac, you're a damned liar," replied Llewellyn. He was an overlord
in manner when with natives,