d,
And in the water's soft caress
Wash the mind of foolishness,
Mamua, until the day.
Spend the glittering moonlight there,
Pursuing down the soundless deep
Limbs that gleam and shadowy hair;
Or floating lazy, half-asleep.
Dive and double and follow after,
Snare in flowers, and kiss, and call,
With lips that fade, and human laughter
And faces individual!
Well this side of Paradise! ...
There 's little comfort in the wise.

Chapter XXII

I start for Tautira--A dangerous adventure in a canoe--I go by land
to Tautira--I meet Choti and the Greek God--I take up my home where
Stevenson lived.

Seeing the way the Lermontoffs lived, caused me to resolve that during
the remainder of my stay in Tahiti I would go even farther from Papeete
than Mataiea. They suggested Tautira, a village they had never visited,
but which was at the very end of the habitable part of the Presqu'ile
of Taiarapu. My easiest route to Tautira was by crossing the isthmus
of Taravao, to the other side of the peninsula, as nowhere in Tahiti
except at Lake Vaihiria were there even passable trails across the
lofty spine of the island. I was for sending back the cart and horse
to Taravao and taking a canoe to Tautira. A council of the elders of
Vaieri opposed me, but yielded to my persistence by advising me at
least to ride as far as possible in the cart along the western road,
and to find, nearer to Tautira, in Maora, or farther on, in Puforatoai,
a canoe and canoeists for the risky attempt.

Tatini, who had lagged behind at Butscher's, appeared as I harnessed
the horse. She had accompanied the Tinito storekeeper of Taravao to
Vaieri, and would not permit me to go on alone. She climbed into the
vehicle, and we wended a winding road, and forded several streams until
we came to Puforatoai, having gone through Hatiti and Maora. There
was a pass in the reef admitting to a questionable shelter, Port
Beaumanoir, used by the French when little gunboats threatened to
bombard villages to force the rule of Paris.

Puforatoai was a handful of houses, hardly a village. My advent was
of importance, and its few people gathered about us. They voiced
their amazement when Tatini announced our wish to find a navigator
and vessel to Tautira. They all said it was impossible, that the
coast to Pari, with the submerged reef of Faratara, was too rough
now for any but a large power boat, and the wind would be baffl