. Reminiscences of the South seas . arms, holding their clubs and the virgin danced forward and passed, and then up theslope toward us, followed by the other girls, and all saluted us;when the whole assembly in the field came up suddenly andthrew down before us leaf baskets containing taro and yams,and cooked things wrapped up in leaves, and fish, and anumber of little sucking pigs, with hind legs tied, that strug-gled up and down in the heaps of leaves. As each personthrew his load down he stalked away gravely and took a seatsomewhere in the distance. All became silent. I could se
. Reminiscences of the South seas . arms, holding their clubs and the virgin danced forward and passed, and then up theslope toward us, followed by the other girls, and all saluted us;when the whole assembly in the field came up suddenly andthrew down before us leaf baskets containing taro and yams,and cooked things wrapped up in leaves, and fish, and anumber of little sucking pigs, with hind legs tied, that strug-gled up and down in the heaps of leaves. As each personthrew his load down he stalked away gravely and took a seatsomewhere in the distance. All became silent. I could seethe taupos moving off with that peculiar walk of the dancerwho is resting. A warrior with high white turban of barkcloth sat down against a tree near us, without looking to theright or left, his gun against his shoulder, and smoked gravely,while a girl, his daughter perhaps, leaned affectionately againsthim. Meanwhile the sucking pigs had been escaping withhind-legs tied, and every now and then Charlie pulled themback into REMINISCENCES OF THE SOUTH SEAS 187 Then rose the orator, the tulafale, from the centre of thethree rows of men now seated opposite to us, across the greenspace, and from two hundred feet away, addressed us slowlyas he leaned upon his stick, and seemed not to raise hisvoice beyond what was absolute necessity. But the cadencealways rose in the last words, so that the eflfect to the ear wasof a distinct, emphatic assertion. Then he added, This isall, and sat down, apparently inattentive and turn came next. Anai, the chief, translated to us theusual speech of great gratitude to America for having savedthem from slavery and from the Germans, and complimentsto us all, with prayers to God to have us in his holy a few things were suggested between us, and our politicalman said what was necessary, and alas, even more: for howcan the United States promise anything — that may dependon sugar — or an election, or at any rate is m
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidreminiscence, bookyear1912
