imitive hearts thought it an incantation, such as their tahutahu,
the sorcerers of the island, spoke of old.

"Tellee haapao maitai! Kelly was a wise man!" they would lament.

Every one used a fine casting-net when fishing alone along the
shores. The net was weighted, and was thrown over schools of small
fish so dexterously that hundreds were snared in one fling. The tiniest
fish were the size of matches. When cooked with a paste, they were as
dainty as whitebait served at Greenwich to a London gourmet, and sung
by Shakespere. The nets were plaited of the fibers of the hibiscus,
banyan, or pandanus-bark, and when a mighty catch was expected, one
of small mesh was laid inside a net of stronger and coarser make,
to intercept any large fish that might break through the first line
of offense. The weights were stones wrapped in cocoanut-fiber, and
the floats were of the buoyant hibiscus-wood. 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. One was at the paddle, and the other at the prow,
with uplifted flambeau, searching the waters for the fleeing shadows
beneath, and launching the dart at the exact instant of proximity. The
congregation of lights, the lapping of the waves, and perhaps the
very gathering of humans excited the fish. They leaped and splashed,
and unaware of their betrayal of their presence to slayers, informed
our eyes and ears of their whereabouts. I could not compete with
the Tahitians with the spears, and held a paddle, and that slight
occupation gave me time and thought for the scene. The torches threw
a lurid glare upon the exaggerated, semi-nude figures of the giant
bronzes on the beaks of the pirogues, their arms raised in the poise
of the weapon, each outlined against the darkness of the night,
glorious avatars yet of their race that had been so mighty and was
so soon to pass from the wave.

"Maru," said the chief, when we sat on the mats at late supper
after a return from the lagoon, "it is a pity you were not here
when the Tahitians had their 'ar'ia and pahi, our large canoes for
navigating on the moana faa aro, the landless sea. The 'ar'ia was a
do