"Oho!" said Lagisiva, the widow, tossing her hair back over her
shoulders, as she raised the heavy, fluted tappa mallet in her thick,
strong right hand, and dealt the rough cloth a series of quick
strokes--"Oho!" said the dark-faced Lagisiva, looking up at the White
Man, "because I be a woman dost think me a fool? I tell thee I know
some of the customs of the PAPALAGI (the white foreigners). Much wisdom
have ye in many things; but again I tell thee, O friend of my sons,
that in some other things the people of thy nation--ay, of all white
nations, they be as the beasts of the forest--the wild goat and
pig--without reason and without shame. TAH! Has not my eldest son, Tui
Fau, whom the white men call Bob, lived for seven years in Sini
(Sydney), when he returned from those places by New Guinea, where he
was diver? And he has filled my ears with the bad and shameless customs
of the PAPALAGI. ISA! I say again thy women have not the shame of ours.
The heat of desire devoureth chastity even in those of one blood!"

"In what do they offend, O my mother?"

"AUE! Life is short; and, behold, this piece of SIAPO [The tappa cloth of
the South Seas, made from the bark of the paper mulberry.] is for
a wedding present, and I must hurry; but yet put down thy gun and
bag, and we shall smoke awhile, and thou shalt feel shame while I tell
of one of the PAPALAGI customs--the marrying of brother and sister!"

"Nay, mother," said the White Man, "not brother and sister, but only
cousins."

"ISA! [an expression of contempt]" and the big widow spat scornfully on
the ground, "those are words--words. It is the same; the same is the
blood, the same is the bone. Even in our heathen days we pointed the