admiration. Hundreds of times my radiant Daughter of Pearl and Coral
repeated:

"Ahoa tarumea--Kapatooi Naani-Tui"--"I should like to make you
acquainted with my husband, Face-of-the-Moon."

Hundreds of times did I press my chin against soft ears and submit to
the same gentle greeting. Hundreds of times did I raise the welcoming
hoopa-shell with the usual salutation--"Lomi-lomi,"--"May you live
for a thousand years and grow to enormous size."

In a rest period Kippy and I swam to the reef where the younger set
were sporting among the coral, diving for pearls which rolled on the
purple floor. As I think now of the value of those milky globes, the
size of gooseberries, I marvel that not a thought of covetousness
crossed my mind. What were pearls to us?

"Catch!" cried Kippy, and threw a fish-skin beauty in my direction.
I admired its lustre for an instant and its perfect roundness
acquiredfrom the incessant rolling of the tides--then carelessly tossed
it
back. It slipped between Kippy's fingers.

"I'll get it," I cried, making ready to dive, but she shouted a warning.

"Arani electi. Oki Kutiaa!"-"Look out! The snapping oysters!"

Gazing down through the crystal depths into which our bauble had fallen
I saw a great gaping _kutiaa_, the fiercest of crustacea, its shelly
mouth slightly ajar, waiting for the careless hand or foot that might