. It is
the same the world over. There was peace between Atuona and Taaoa
before this trouble. When I was a boy we were good friends. We
visited across the hills. Many children were adopted, and Taaoa men
took women from Atuona, and Atuona men from here. Some of these
women had two or three or five men. One husband was the father of
her children in title and pride, though he might be no father at all.
The others shared the mat with her at her will, but had no
possession or happiness in the offspring.

[Illustration: Tepu, a Marquesan girl of the hills, and her sister
Her ancestry is tattooed on her arms]

[Illustration: A tattooed Marquesan with carved canoe paddle]

"Now Pepehi (Beaten to Death) was of Taaoa, but lived in Atuona with
a woman. He had followed her over the hills and lived in her house.
He was father to her children. There was a man of Atuona, Kaheutahi,
who was husband to her, but of lower rank. He was not father to her
children. Therefore one night he swung his war-club upon the head of
Beaten to Death, and later invited a number of friends to the feast."

Kahuiti smiled gently upon me. Take off his tattooing, make him white,
and clothe him! With his masterful carriage, his soft, cultivated
voice, and his attitude of absolutism, he might have been Leopold,
King of the Belgians, a great ambassador, a man of power in finance.
Nevertheless, I thought of the death by the Stinking Springs. How
could one explain his benign, open-souled deportment and his cheery
laugh, with such damnable appetites and actions? Yet generals send
ten thousand men to certain and agonized death to gain a point
toward a goal; that is the custom of generals, by which they gain
honor among their people.

"Killed by the war-club of Kaheutahi and eaten by his friends,
Beaten to Death was but a ghost, and Kaheutahi took his place and
became father of the children of the house. He said they were his in
fact, but men were ever boastful."

The other old man, who said nothing, but was all attention, lit a
pipe and passed it to Kahuiti, who puffed it a moment and passed it
to Strong in Battle. The tale lapsed for a smoking spell.

"Beaten to Death perished by the club? He was well named," said I.
"His father was a prophet."

Kahuiti began to chant in a weird monotone.

"_Va! Va! A tahi a ta! Va! A tahi va! A ua va! A tou va!_" was his
chant. "Thus said the war-club as it crashed on the skull of Beaten
to Death. That is the speech