n old, upturned canoe that is
used for a sitting-place for children who play on the beach at night.
And I am called a fool and a bad man, because I sometimes speak of the
days that are dead. Temana, is Malepa thy wife virtuous?"

"_Se kau iloa_" ("I do not know"), replied Temana, with a solemn face.

"Ah, you cannot tell! Who can tell nowadays? But you will know when some
day she is fined five dollars. In my time if a man doubted his wife, the
club fell swiftly, or the spear was sped, and she was dead. And, because
of this custom, wives in those days were careful. Now, they care not,
and are fined five dollars many times. And the husband hath to pay the
fine!" He laughed in his noiseless way, and then puffed at his pipe.
"And if he cannot pay, then he and his wife, and the man who hath
wronged him, work together on the roads, and eat and drink together
as friends, and are not ashamed. And at night-time they sing hymns
together!"

"People must be punished when wrong is done, Pakia," I said lamely.

"Bah! what is five dollars to a woman? Is it a high fence set with
spears over which she cannot climb? If a man hath fifty dollars, does
not his wife know it, and tell her lover (if she hath one) that he may
meet her ten times! Give me more water in this grog, good white man with
the brown skin like mine own!"

The old fellow smoked his pipe in silence for a few minutes; then again
he pointed to the moon, nodded and smiled.

"_Tah!_ What a moon! Would that I were young again! See, in the days of
my youth, on such a night as this, all the young men and women would be
standing on the outer reef fishing for _malau_, which do but take a bait
in the moonlight. _Now_, because to-morrow is the Sabbath day, no man
must launch a canoe nor take a rod in his hand, lest he stay out beyond
the hour of midnight, and his soul go to hell to burn in red fire for
ever and ever. Bah!"

"Never mind these things, Pakia. Tell me instead how came ye to serve
in the wars of Chile and Peru, or of thy voyages in the _folau manu_
(whaleship)."

His eyes sparkled. "Ah, those were the days! Twice in one whaleship did
I sail among the ice mountains of the far south, where the wind cuts
like a knife and the sea is black to look at _Tapa!_ the cold, the
cold, the cold which burneth the skin like iron at white heat! But I
was strong; and we killed many whales. I, Pakfa, in one voyage struck
thirteen! I was in the mate's boat.... Look at this now!" He