Mystic Isles of the South Seas. by Frederick O'Brien
page 216 of 521 (41%)
page 216 of 521 (41%)
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meant Fragrance of the Jasmine--was in the Parc de Bougainville,
by the bust of the first French circumnavigator. "Ia ora na!" she greeted me. "Are you ready for adventure?" She handed me a small, soft package, with a caution to keep it safe and dry. I put it in my inside pocket. The light of the sun hardly touched the lagoon, and Moorea was still shrouded in the shadows of the expiring night. As we walked down the beach, the day was opening with the "morning bank," the masses of white clouds that gather upon the horizon before the tradewind begins its diurnal sweep, to shift and mold them all the hours till sunset. Fragrance of the Jasmine was in a long and clinging tunic of pale blue, with low, white shoes disclosing stockings also of blue, and wore a hat of pandanus weave. She carried nothing, nor had I anything in my hands, and we were to be gone all day. I regretted that I had not lingered longer with Prince Hinoe over the rolls and coffee. We fared past the merchants' stores, the Cercle Bougainville, and the steamship wharf, and over the Pont de l'Est, or Eastern bridge, to Patutoa. The princess pointed out to me many wretched straw houses, crowded in a hopeless way. They were like a refugee camp after a disaster, impermanent, uncomfortable, barely holding on to the swampy earth. One knew the occupants to be far from their own Lares and Penates. "Those are the habitations of people of other islands," she said. "The people of the Paumotus, the Australs, and of Easter Island settled |
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