e where it belonged--on Francois and his
wife--and found I had made things worse instead of better. She repeated
the names at first with incredulity, then with despair. A while she
seemed stunned, next fell to disembowelling the box, piling the goods on
the floor, and visibly computing the extent of Francois's ravages; and
presently after she was observed in high speech with Taniera, who seemed
to hang an ear like one reproved.

Here, then, by all known marks, should be my landlady at last; here was
every character of the proprietor fully developed. Should I not
approach her on the still depending question of my rent? I carried the
point to an adviser. "Nonsense!" he cried. "That's the old woman, the
mother. It doesn't belong to her. I believe that's the man the house
belongs to," and he pointed to one of the coloured photographs on the
wall. On this I gave up all desire of understanding; and when the time
came for me to leave, in the judgment-hall of the archipelago, and with
the awful countenance of the acting Governor, I duly paid my rent to
Taniera. He was satisfied, and so was I. But what had he to do with it?
Mr. Donat, acting magistrate and a man of kindred blood, could throw no
light upon the mystery; a plain private person, with a taste for
letters, cannot be expected to do more.

CHAPTER IV

TRAITS AND SECTS IN THE PAUMOTUS

The most careless reader must have remarked a change of air since the
Marquesas. The house, crowded with effects, the bustling housewife
counting her possessions, the serious, indoctrinated island pastor, the
long fight for life in a lagoon: here are traits of a new world. I read
in a pamphlet (I will not give the author's name) that the Marquesan
especially resembles the Paumotuan. I should take the two races, though
so near in neighbourhood, to be extremes of Polynesian diversity. The
Marquesan is certainly the most beautiful of human races, and one of the
tallest--the Paumotuan averaging a good inch shorter, and not even
handsome; the Marquesan open-handed, inert, insensible to religion,
childishly self-indulgent--the Paumotuan greedy, hardy, enterprising, a
religious disputant, and with a trace of the ascetic character.

Yet a few years ago, and the people of the archipelago were crafty
savages. Their isles might be called sirens' isles, not merely from the
attraction they exerted on the passing mariner, but from the perils that
awaited him on shore. Even to this day, in c