impid orbs of the typical
Marquesan, like sepia, long-lashed; her nose straight and perfect,
her mouth sensuous and demanding. Ghost Girl, her name signified,
and she flitted about the islands like a sprite.

"She levies tribute on all whom she likes," said Grelet. "Her
devotions are rum and tobacco." On meeting me she squatted and spat
through her fingers to show her thirst, as do all Marquesans whose
manners have not been corrupted by strangers.

The other girl, younger, in a scarlet tunic with a wreath of
hibiscus flowers on her head, startled me by appearing with all her
body that I could see colored a brilliant yellow. She had decked
herself for the journey with a covering of _ena_-paste, perfumed
with saffron, a favorite cosmetic of island beauties.

The sun was white on Oomoa beach as we came down to it from the
grateful shade of Grelet's plantation. Against the blinding glimmer
of it the half-naked boatsmen, bearing bunches of bananas, dozens
of drinking nuts, bread, and wine, the gifts of my host, were dark
silhouettes outlined against the blue sea.

Behind them walked Tetuahunahuna. Calm, unburdened, and without a
tattoo mark on his straight brown body, he looked the commander of
men that he was, a man whose word none would think to question or to
doubt. Indifferent alike to the dizzying heat and to the admiring
glances of the women, he set at once to ordering the loading of the
boat that lay upon the sands beyond the reach of the breakers.

A dozen women lounged in the ancient public place beneath the banian
tree, a mighty platform of black stone on which the island women had
sat for centuries to watch their men come and go in canoes to the
fishing or to raids on neighboring bays, and where for decades they
have awaited the landing of their white sailor lovers.

"_Tai, menino!_ A pacific sea!" they called to us as we passed them,
and their eyes followed with envy the progress of Ghost Girl and
Sister of Anna.

The boat was already well loaded when I reached it. The fermented
breadfruit wrapped in banana-leaves, the pig dug from the pit that
morning and packed in sections of bamboo, the calabashes of river
water, the bananas and drinking nuts, were all in place. With
difficulty my luggage was added to the cargo, and we found cramped
places for ourselves and bade farewell to Grelet, while the oarsmen
held the boat steady at the edge of the lapping waves. Tetuahunahuna,
watching the breakers, gave a qui