FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40  
41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   >>   >|  
the ship, so that we saw his face no more. Taipi, on the other hand, remained standing and facing us with gracious valedictory gestures; and when Captain Otis dipped the ensign, the whole party saluted with their hats. This was the farewell; the episode of our visit to Anaho was held concluded; and though the _Casco_ remained nearly forty hours at her moorings, not one returned on board, and I am inclined to think they avoided appearing on the beach. This reserve and dignity is the finest trait of the Marquesan. FOOTNOTE: [1] Where that word is used as a salutation I give that form. CHAPTER III THE MAROON Of the beauties of Anaho books might be written. I remember waking about three, to find the air temperate and scented. The long swell brimmed into the bay, and seemed to fill it full and then subside. Gently, deeply, and silently the _Casco_ rolled; only at times a block piped like a bird. Oceanward, the heaven was bright with stars and the sea with their reflections. If I looked to that side, I might have sung with the Hawaiian poet: _Ua maomao ka lani, ua kahaea luna_, _Ua pipi ka maka o ka hoku_. (The heavens were fair, they stretched above, Many were the eyes of the stars.) And then I turned shoreward, and high squalls were overhead; the mountains loomed up black; and I could have fancied I had slipped ten thousand miles away and was anchored in a Highland loch; that when the day came, it would show pine, and heather, and green fern, and roofs of turf sending up the smoke of peats; and the alien speech that should next greet my ears must be Gaelic, not Kanaka. And day, when it came, brought other sights and thoughts. I have watched the morning break in many quarters of the world--it has been certainly one of the chief joys of my existence; and the dawn that I saw with most emotion shone upon the bay of Anaho. The mountains abruptly overhang the port with every variety of surface and of inclination, lawn, and cliff, and forest. Not one of these but wore its proper tint of saffron, of sulphur, of the clove, and of the rose. The lustre was like that of satin; on the lighter hues there seemed to float an efflorescence; a solemn bloom appeared on the more dark. The light itself was the ordinary light of morning, colourless and clean; and on this ground of jewels, pencilled out the least detail of drawing. Meanwhile, around the hamlet, under the palms, where the blue shadow linger
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40  
41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

remained

 
morning
 

mountains

 
Kanaka
 

watched

 

quarters

 
thoughts
 

sights

 

Gaelic

 

speech


brought

 
slipped
 

thousand

 

fancied

 

overhead

 

squalls

 

loomed

 
anchored
 

Highland

 

sending


heather

 

ordinary

 

colourless

 

appeared

 

solemn

 
efflorescence
 
ground
 

jewels

 
linger
 

shadow


hamlet
 

pencilled

 

detail

 

Meanwhile

 
drawing
 

lighter

 

overhang

 

abruptly

 
surface
 

variety


existence

 
emotion
 

inclination

 

saffron

 

sulphur

 
lustre
 

proper

 
forest
 

maomao

 

inclined