The New York herald., 1921-04-17
BOOK WS
Another South Sea Chronicle Follows
Frederick O'Brien's white Shadows

san Francisco O'Brien got this testimony
concerning them from the captain
..Passing from Fiji to Samoa, he said, 1
had to leave the mail at Niuafou, in the
Tongan Islands. II is tiny isle, three miles
long by as wide, old crater in which Is
a lagoon. hot springs and every sign of the
devastation of many eruptions. The mail
for Niuafou was often only single letter
and few newspapers. We sealed them IN
a tin can, and when we met the postmaster
at sea we threw 1t over He would be three
miles out, swimming, with small log under
arm for support. and often he might
be in company with thirty forty of his
tribe who with only the same slight aids
to keep afioat, would be fishing leisurely."
One does not plunge directly from civill-
zation into primitive life. Hawaii has It's
Honolulu. And Papeete is the connecting
link between the simpler island realm and
the world outside. Here is the picture as
the author paints 1t:
"Papeete the seat of government and
trade capital of all the French possessions
in these parts of the world is a sprawline
village stretching lazily from the river OF
Fautaua on the east to the cemetery on the
west and from the sea on the north to hall
a mile inland 1t is the gradual increment
Of garden and house upon an aboriginal VII
lage, the slow response of century to the
demand of official and trading white. Of re
sailor and tourist. Here flow all the chan
nels of business and finance, of plotting and
robbery, of pleasure and profit, of literature
and art and good living in the eastern Pa
cific. Papeete is the London and Paris of
this part of the peaceful ocean,"
But this is only the way station One
must go farther to find the full beauty OF
nature and humankind. No doubt there
would be disappointments in store for one
cd ayp a
sure way TO find paradise. OBrien talked
with one man who cursed it all and branded
any one a fool who stayed on the Islands
from choice Yet one might go all the way
around the world and be content with the
voyage If at last he came under the spell
of such enchantment this:
THE women are of middle size, with lines
Of harmony that give them unique seal
of beauty, with an undulating movement OF
their bodies coordination of every muscle
and nerve a richness of aspect in color and
FORM that is more sensuous, more attrac-
i've than any feminine graces | have ever
cazed upon They have the forwardness of
boys. the boldness of huntresses, yet the
softness and magnetism of the most virginia.
of their white sisters. One thinks of them
as Of old in soft draperies of beautiful cream
colored native cloth wound around their
bodies, passed under one arm and knotted
on the other shoulder, revealing the shapey
neck and arm and one breast. with garlands
upon their hair and fragrant flower passed
through ear, and in the other two or
three large pearls fastened with braided
human hair"
Even beside Eve in such Eden one
eats. And this is the native menu:
"The main food of the Tahtians is fets.
as is bread to US rice TO the Asiatic 1t
is not so in the Marquesas. 500 miles
north where breadfruit is the staff. nor
in Hawaii where fermented fdro tpoD is
the chief reliance of the kanaka. The fets.
gigantic bananas of coarse fibre. which must
be cooked, are about a foot in length and
three inches in diameter and grow in i'm
mense, heavy punches in the mountains. so
that obtaining them is great labor. They
are wild creatures of heights and love the
spots most difficult of access. Only bare
footed men can reach them. These feis are
a separate species. The market place is
filled with them and hardly Tahitian but
buys his quota for the day. The fei gath
erers are men of giant strength. naked save
for the pdreu about the loins and often their
feet from climbing and holding on to rocks
and roots curiously deformed, the toes
spread an inch apart, and sometimes the big
toe is opposed TO the others like thumb.
There are besides many kinds of bananas