designs upon Vaekehu's leg, yet comparing it with the two realities
of Titihuti I could not yield the palm to the queen.

The legs of Titihuti were tattooed from toes to ankles with a
net-like pattern, and from the ankles to the waistline, where the
design terminated in a handsome girdle, there were curves, circles
and filigree, all in accord, all part of a harmonious whole, and
most pleasing to the eye. The pattern upon her feet was much like
that of sandals or high mocassins, indicating a former use of
leg-coverings in a cold climate. Titihuti herself, after an anxious
inch-for-inch matching of picture and living form, said complacently
that her legs were _meitai ae_, which meant that she would not have
hesitated to enter her own decorations in beauty competition with
those of Vaekehu.

Kake, her daughter, had been christened for her mother's greatest
charm, for her name means Tattooed to the Loins, though there was
not a tattoo mark upon her. She was a beautiful, stately girl of
nineteen or twenty, married to a devoted native, to whom, shortly
after my arrival, she presented his own living miniature. I was the
startled witness of the birth of this babe, the delight of his
father's heart.

My neighbors and I had the same bathing hour, soon after daylight,
and usually chose the same pool in the clear river. Kake was lying
on a mat on their _paepae_ when I passed one morning, and when I
said "Kaoha" to her she did not reply. Her silence caused me to
mount the stairway, and at that moment the child was born.

Half an hour later she joined me in the river, and laughing back at