having seen perhaps the frescos
of Pompeii, and familiar with the histories of old Egypt, India,
Greece, Persia, and Rome, knew that Sodom and Gomorrah had their
replicas in all times, and that often such conduct as that of the
Arioi was associated among ancient or primitive peoples with artistic
and interesting manifestations.

He searched the memories of the old men and women for other things
than abominations, and gave the Arioi a good name for possession of
many excellent qualities and for a rare development of histrionic
ability. But more than being mere mimes and dancers, the Arioi were
the warriors, the knights of that day and place, the men-at-arms,
the chosen companions of the king and chiefs, and in general the
bravest and most cultivated of the Tahitians. They were an extended
round-table for pleasure in peace and for counsel and deeds of
derring-do in war. The society was a nursery of chivalry, a company
which recruited, but did not reproduce themselves. They had a solid
basis, and lasted long because the society kept out of politics.

The members never forgot the duty due their chiefs. They accompanied
them in their enterprises, and they killed their fellow-members in the
enemy's camp, as Masons fought Masons in the American Civil War and
in the wars of Europe. In peace they were epicures. They consorted
together only for pleasure and comfort in their reunions. The Arioi
made their order no stepping-stone to power or office, but in it swam
in sensuous luxury, each giving his talents to please his fellows
and to add luster to his society.

To the English missionaries who converted the Tahitians to the
Christian faith the Arioi adherent was the chief barrier, the fiercest
opponent, and, when won over, the most enthusiastic neophyte. In
that is found the secret of the society's strength. It embraced
all the imaginative, active, ambitious Tahitians, to whom it gave
opportunities to display varied talents, to form close friendships,
to rise in rank, to meet on evener terms those more aristocratic in
degree, and, above all, to change the monotony of their existence by
eating, drinking, and being merry in company, and all at the expense
of the other fellow. But--and the more you study the Polynesian,
the subtler are his strange laws and taboos--the main provision in
the Arioi constitution was undoubtedly conceived in the desire to
prevent over-population.

Pepe, the woman of Tuatini, had returned to the ways