ho,
of the valley of Hapaa, whose father was eaten by the men of
Tai-o-hae in the war with that white captain, Otopotee.

"_Ue!_ Those big ships that hunt the whale come no more. The _paaoa_
spouts with none to strike him. Standireili makes the lanterns burn
in Menike land, and they send it here in tipoti, the big cans. The
old days are gone.

"The father of Anna saw her first when she was one year old and
could barely swim. He came in his ship from Newbeddifordimass, and
he said that it was for the last time, for the whaling was done. He
was a young man, strong and a user of strong words, but he looked
with pride on the little Anna, and kept her with her with her mother
on his ship for many weeks, while the men of the ship danced with
the girls. He would bathe on the beach in the bay of Tai-o-hae, and
the little Anna would swim to him through the deep water. He gave
her a small silver box with a silver chain, for the _tiki_ of
Bernadette, on the day that he sailed away.

"He did not come again to Tai-o-hae, nor Atuona, nor Hanavave. We
heard that he traded with Tahiti, and had given up the chase of the
_paaoa_. I have never been in Tahiti. They say that it is
beautiful and that the people are joyous. They have all the _namu_
they can drink. The government is good to them." Tetuahunahuna sighed,
and looked at my bag, in which was the bottle of rum Grelet had
given me.

I poured a drink into the cocoanut-shell Ghost Girl had emptied, and
gave it to him. "_Kaoha!_" he said and, having swallowed the rum,
went on.

"When Anna had fourteen years she was _mot kanahua_, as beautiful as
a great pearl. She was tall for her age as are the daughters of the
great. Her hair was of red and of gold, like that of Titihuti of
Autuona. Her eyes were the color of the _mio_, the rosewood when
freshly cut, and her breasts like the milk-cocoanut husked for
drinking.

"Many young men, Marquesan men and all the white men, and George
Washington, the black American, tried to capture Anna, but Pere
Simeon, the priest, had given her to the blessed Maria Peato, and
the Sisters guarded her carefully. From the time she played naked on
the beach she wore the tiki of Bernadette in the silver box given
her by her father, and she said the prayers Pere Simeon taught her
from the book. She wore a blue _pareu_, and that was strange, for
only old people, and few of them, wear any but the red or yellow
loin-cloth. But blue, said little Anna, is the