hear and hold high debate about the misdeeds of the French, the

Panama Canal, or the geographical position of San Francisco and New

Yo'ko. In a Highland hamlet, quite out of reach of any tourist, I

have met the same plain and dignified hospitality.

I have mentioned two facts--the distasteful behaviour of our

earliest visitors, and the case of the lady who rubbed herself upon

the cushions--which would give a very false opinion of Marquesan

manners. The great majority of Polynesians are excellently

mannered; but the Marquesan stands apart, annoying and attractive,

wild, shy, and refined. If you make him a present he affects to

forget it, and it must be offered him again at his going: a pretty

formality I have found nowhere else. A hint will get rid of any

one or any number; they are so fiercely proud and modest; while

many of the more lovable but blunter islanders crowd upon a

stranger, and can be no more driven off than flies. A slight or an

insult the Marquesan seems never to forget. I was one day talking

by the wayside with my friend Hoka, when I perceived his eyes

suddenly to flash and his stature to swell. A white horseman was

coming down the mountain, and as he passed, and while he paused to

exchange salutations with myself, Hoka was still staring and

ruffling like a gamecock. It was a Corsican who had years before

called him cochon sauvage--cocon chauvage, as Hoka mispronounced

it. With people so nice and so touchy, it was scarce to be

supposed that our company of greenhorns should not blunder into

offences. Hoka, on one of his visits, fell suddenly in a brooding

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