color of Maria Peato,
mother of Christ."

The others were listening curiously. Ghost Girl crossed herself and
muttered, "_Kaoha_, Maria Peato!"

"When she had fourteen years, then, Anna was different from all
other girls on these beaches. All men sighed for her, but she was
one who would not follow the custom of our girls since always. She
was made different by her mother, by the prayers of Pere Simeon, and
by something strange in her _kuhane_--what do you say? Soul. She
cared nothing for drink or _pipi_, the trinkets girls adore. She
spoke of herself always as the daughter of a Menike captain, a
father who would come for her and take her away. Her mother had kept
this always in her mind, and Anna never joined the dances.

"Her mother, who lived on the beach and waited for the sailors, saw
her seldom, for Pere Simeon had taken Anna away, and kept her in the
nuns' house, and they guarded her. He had put a _tapu_ upon her."

I sat up suddenly, struck by a memory. "It was she who rode the
white horse, and bore the armor of Joan in the great parade?"

"It was she. The nuns would have had her live in the nun's house
forever, and become one of them. But Anna told me on the beach when
she came hiding to see her mother, that she would live in the nuns'
house only until her Menike father came to take her away. She kept
the _tiki_ of Bernadette in its silver box upon her neck, and it was
her god to whom she said her prayers."

"_Epo!_" I said, sitting up, dumfounded. "Go on, Tetuahunahuna. Tell
me more."

"There came the great day of the blessed Joan," said Tetuahunahuna,
after tasting a fresh cigarette. "There were drums and chants, and
rum for all. Pere Simeon took away the rum, alas! and only the
Menike sailors on the ships could have enough. Anna wore a garment
that shone like the sun on the waves, and sat upon a white horse,
riding from the mission to the House of Lepers on the beach. Pere
Simeon walked before her carrying the tiki of the Sacrament, and
there were banners white as the new web of the cocoanut. Anna did
not look to right or to left as she sat upon the horse, but when she
stood on the sand by the House of Lepers, she looked long at a new
ship in the bay.

"Anna said that this ship might be that of her white father, but the
name was different, and this ship was not from Newbeddifordimass.
She said she would swim to this ship to see her father, but her
mother said no. Her mother told her that the water