these trifles; but it was touching and pretty to see Orens, his

aged eyes shining in his head, display his sacred treasures.

August 26.--The vale behind the village, narrowing swiftly to a

mere ravine, was choked with profitable trees. A river gushed in

the midst. Overhead, the tall coco-palms made a primary covering;

above that, from one wall of the mountain to another, the ravine

was roofed with cloud; so that we moved below, amid teeming

vegetation, in a covered house of heat. On either hand, at every

hundred yards, instead of the houseless, disembowelling paepaes of

Nuka-hiva, populous houses turned out their inhabitants to cry

'Kaoha!' to the passers-by. The road, too, was busy: strings of

girls, fair and foul, as in less favoured countries; men bearing

breadfruit; the sisters, with a little guard of pupils; a fellow

bestriding a horse--passed and greeted us continually; and now it

was a Chinaman who came to the gate of his flower-yard, and gave us

'Good-day' in excellent English; and a little farther on it would

be some natives who set us down by the wayside, made us a feast of

mummy-apple, and entertained us as we ate with drumming on a tin

case. With all this fine plenty of men and fruit, death is at work

here also. The population, according to the highest estimate, does

not exceed six hundred in the whole vale of Atuona; and yet, when I

once chanced to put the question, Brother Michel counted up ten

whom he knew to be sick beyond recovery. It was here, too, that I

could at last gratify my curiosity with the sight of a native house

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