m the corner of the eye. And now--look at me now! I am like a
blind fish which is swept hither and thither by the current against the
rocks and sandbanks. Give me some more grog, dear friend; when I talk of
the days of my youth my belly yearns for it, and I am not ashamed to
beg.

"Presently, after I had dressed myself, I was taken by the Nanomea man
into the big room where Solepa, the white man's wife, was sitting with
the white men. She came to me and took my hand, and said to me in Samoan
_'Talofa, Pakia, e ma|lolo| ea oe?'_[5] and my heart was glad; for
it was long since I heard any one speak in a tongue which is akin to
mine own.... Was she beautiful? you ask. Ta|pa|! All women are
beautiful when they are young, and their eyes are full and clear and
their voices are soft and their bosoms are round and smooth! All I can
remember of her is that she was very young, with a white, fair skin, and
dressed like the _papalagi_[6] women I have seen in Peretania and
Ita|lia and in Chili and in Sydney.

"As I stood before her, hat in hand and with my eyes looking downward,
which is proper and correct for a modest man to do when a high lady
speaks to him before many people, a white man who had been sitting at
the far end of the room came over to me and said some words of greeting
to me. This was Franka[7]--he whom my captain said was a _manaia_. He
was better clothed than any other of the white men, and was proud and
overbearing in his manner. He had brought with him more than a score of
young Ponape men, all of whom carried rifles and had cutlasses strapped
to their waists. This was done to show the people of Jakoits that he was
as great a man as Preston, whom he hated, as you will see. But Preston
had naught for him but good words, and when he saw the armed men he bade
them welcome and set aside a house for them to sleep in, and his
servants brought them many baskets of cooked food--taro and yams, and
fish, turtle, and pork. All this I saw whilst I was in the big room.

"After I had spoken with the lady Solepa I returned to where the man
from Nanomaga and his wife were awaiting me. They pressed me to eat and
drink, and by and by sent for a young girl to make kava. Ta|pa|!
that kava of Ponape! It is not made there as it is in Samoa--where the
young men and women chew the dried root and mix it in a wooden _tanoa_
(bowl); there the green root is crushed up in a hollowed stone and but
little water is added, so that it is strong