[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

90 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

the sails, and the ten or fifteen canoes glide swiftly
across the bright water, the spread sails looking like
great red butterflies. The spray splashes from the bows,
one woman steers, and the others bale out the water
with cocoa-nuts,——a labour worthy of the Danaides;
sometimes the outrigger lifts up and the canoe
threatens to capsize, but, quick as thought, the women
lean on the poles joining outrigger and canoe, and the
accident is averted. In a few minutes the canoes
enter the landings between the torn cliffs on the large
island, the passengers jump out and carry the boats
up the beach.

A few stragglers, men of importance who have
been detained by politics, and bachelors, who have
nothing and nobody to care for but themselves, follow
later on, and only a crowd of boys stays in Vao, to
enjoy themselves on the beach and get into all sorts
of mischief.

Obliging as people sometimes are when the fancy
strikes them, a youth took us over to the other
island in his canoe, and was even skilful enough to
keep us from capsizing. Narrow paths, bordered
with impenetrable bush, led us from the beach across
coral boulders up to the plantations on top of the
tableland. Under some cocoa-nut palms our guide
stopped, climbed nimbly up a slim trunk, as if mount-
ing a ladder, and three green nuts dropped to the
ground at our feet. Three clever strokes of the knife
opened them, and we enjoyed the refreshing drink
in its natural bowl. Sidepaths branched off to the
gardens, where every individual or family had its