The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1922-06-01

prepared by the National Geographic
Society. Washington, ID. c.
What, in the New Pacific that the
Washington conference is believed to
have created, will be the future of
Frances island possessions nearest to
the United States-the Marquesas? In
a few years these fertile, lovely is
lands, now left practically alone, may
be treated as a geographical clean
slate, for the natives are rapidly dying
OF.
The Spanish navigator, Mendana,
first discovered the islands with their
towering black cliffs, and sailed
through a break into a wonderful bay,
once the crater Of a huge volcano.
What must have been his amazement
Is shared by the traveller today. With
In the bay, what a contrast! Where
once telluric fires burned, the luxuri-
ant verdure of the tropics now over
runs the immense ampitheater In riot
Gus profusion. 1t is as If nature in
repentant mood we're pouring out her
gifts with unstinted hand 10 cover the
scars and ~desolation wrought by vol
canic fury.
Tree and vine, flower and shrub,
cover the abrupt, almost vertical sides
Of the huge basin and Chamber high
Owe ridge after ridge of the knife
like hills; choke the deep ravines and
valleys with their prolific mass Of
hloon and foliaua and oraangno a,
rich abundance almost to the waters
edge, climb the black basalt cliffs tow
ering owe the bay, thus seeking to
soften their harsh, broken outlines be-
meath a rank growth of vines and
mOsses.
Great cascades, springing from the
living rock high on the mountain side,
leap over mighty precipices, cleaning
like strands of silver In the sunlight,
to be lost In the mysterious depths of
dark gorges far below. These waters
wind through dark, tortuous ravines
and form the racing stream that tum-
bles swiftly between the twisting hills
into the steep valley Of Hanavave,
where II rushes over Its rocky bed to
pass into the blue waters Of the quiet
bay.
Beyond the crescent Of white sand
that lies between the cliffs, banyan,
mango. and breadfruit trees mingle
their brilliant foliage and blossoms
with the slender brown trunks and
waving frond Of the ~pandanus and
COCO palm.
Less than a century ago this forest
was thickly dotted with the brown
matched huts Of the Hanavavans, each
upon Its paepae or platform of stone
constructed without mortar or cement.
Of these paepae, no longer
In use. cling to the vertical sides of val
leys and ravines In a state Of perfect
preservation. the platform usually 20
by 80 or 40 feet, level and unbroken,
walled up 10 OF Is feet on the
lower side.
Beautiful Women, Fierce Men.
To describe the dainty, graceful
MarQuesanne as she unquestionably
was before Cooks advent mey lay the
utSCiiUcI Opta ~ inc CudFSt Oh ex4&-
geration But from Meldana to Ste
with Melville for good meas
are, her remarkable beauty al q
Of surprise and admiration.
When women possess beautiful, lux
lrihnt hair. fine eyes. perfect teeth,
slender. graceful form. a skin Of vel
YET texture and unblemiShed surface,
md these physical attractions are
combined with a viv,icity Of spirit and
action, exaggeration becomes dificult ;
Ind unless all cbroniclers OF the Is
ards have for several centuries agreed
deceive the world. such was the
~ she Isl today when
'ickness has not diminished her charm.
The men were fierce, crrel cannIhAls.
whose ,hef occupation. aside from the
OF their amative procIivi-
les. was the killing Of both men and
women Of other tribes FOR gastronomic !
purposes.
The aIl-powerful tapu was the 'law
~ 1