[Illustration: The Lagoon at Dawn (Swank's Version)]

[Illustration Note: THE LAGOON AT DAWN

(Swank's Version)

An interesting example of the way in which the mind of a painter works
will be found in this reproduction of the masterpiece created by Herman
Swank in competition with the photograph of the same title. Both
camera and painter were to reproduce the same subject, yet how
differently they reacted to it. In the beauty of nature about him it
is evident that the great artist felt only the dominant feature of
island life, the glorious, untrammeled womanhood of the South Seas.
The wild abandon, the primitive gesture of modesty, the eyes of
adoration--symbolically expressed as detached entities floating about
the loved one--all are present in this remarkable picture. Thus
expressed, too, we may find the ever-present ocean, the waving palms
and, if we seek carefully, the Kawa herself, scudding before
the trade wind. Truly may this be called, as the artist prefers, the
Venus of Polynesia.]

By four o'clock the beach was thronged with thousands of gleaming
bodies. Festivity and rejoicing were in every eye. Shouts of welcome,
bursts of laughter, and the resounding slap of friendly hand on visiting
hip or shoulder, the dignified welcome of the chiefs, cries of children,
dances and games, myriad details of social amity--all presented a
picture of unspoiled Polynesia such as is found in the Filberts alone.
When I forget it, may I be forgot.

Of course Swank, Whinney and I were objects of much curiosity--and