Chapter V: Part 5

The cocoa-palm is a proud but virtuous tree. Its dense cluster of delicate roots does not encroach upon the territory of other trees, but claims only a very modest circular patch of soil from which to abstract the nourishment for the unselfish, philanthropic tree. The base of the stem is wide and usually inclined, but a few feet from the ground becomes straight and cylindrical, with nearly the same diameter from base to crown. The curve of the stem is caused by the effects of the prevailing winds on the yielding, slender stem of the youthful tree, but with increasing growth and strength, it rises column-like into the air, balancing its fruit-laden massive crown in uncompromising opposition to the invisible aerial force. It is only in localities exposed to the full power of strong and persistent trade-winds that the full-grown trees lean in the same direction in obedience to the unrelenting common deforming cause. The full-grown tree is, on an average, two feet in diameter, and from sixty to one hundred feet high, with many rings marking the places of former leaves, and having, at its summit, a crown of from sixteen to twenty leaves, which generally droop, and are from twelve to twenty feet in length. These giant leaves furnish an excellent material for thatched roofs, and in case of need, a few leaves, properly placed, will make a comfortable, waterproof tent. The fruit grows in short racemes, which bear, in favorable situations, from five to fifteen nuts; and ten or twelve of these racemes, in different stages of fructification, may be seen at once on a tree, about eighty or one hundred nuts being its ordinary annual product. For the purpose of answering the requirements of primitive man, the Creator has ordained that this tree shall yield a continuous harvest from one end of the year to the other. Flowers and fruit in all stages of ripening grace the crown at all times of the year. The young cocoanut contains the delicious, cooling milk, and the soft pulp, a nourishing article of food. The mature nut is an excellent substitute for meat, as the kernel contains more than seventy per cent, of a fixed, bland, nutritious oil. The tree bears fruit in from seven to eight years from the time of planting, and its lifetime is from seventy to eighty years. Its greatest ambition during youth is to reach the clouds and equal its oldest neighbors in height. Young trees, with a stem less than four inches in diameter, rival their veteran neighbors in height, devoting their future growth to the increase in the dimension and strength of the stem, and their vital vigor to the bearing of its perennial, unfailing yield of fruit for the benefit of man and beast. The stem, when young, contains a central part which is sweet and edible, but when old, this is a mass of hard fibre. The terminal bud (palm cabbage) is esteemed a delicacy when boiled or stewed or raw in the form of a vegetable salad. The sweet sap (toddy) of the cocoa-palm, as of some other palms, is an esteemed beverage in tropic countries, either in its natural state, or after fermentation, which takes place in a few hours; and, from the fermented sap (palm wine), a strong alcoholic liquor (_arrack_), is obtained by distillation. The root of the cocoa-palm possesses narcotic properties. Every part of this wonderful tree is utilized by the untutored inhabitants of the tropics. The dried leaves are much used for the thatch, and for many other purposes, as the making of mats, screens, baskets, etc., by plaiting the leaflets. The strong midribs of the leaves supply the natives with oars. The wood of the lower part of the trunk is very hard, and takes a beautiful polish. The fibrous centre of old stems is made into salad. By far the most important fibrous part of the cocoa-palm is the coir, the fibre of the husk of the imperfectly ripened nut. The sun-dried husk of the ripe nut is used for fuel, and also, when cut across, for polishing furniture, scrubbing floors, etc. The shell of the nut is made into cups, goblets, ladles, etc., and these household articles are often finely polished and elaborately ornamented by carving. This, the most generous of all trees, from the time of its birth until it yields to the ravages of time, serves man in hundreds of different ways, furnishing him with food and drink, clothing, building-material, fuel, medicine, most exquisite delicacies, wine, spirits and many articles of comfort and even of luxury. What other tree but the cocoa-palm could have been in the mind of Milton when he wrote:

In heav'n the trees

Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines

Yield nectar.

The cocoa-palm is a peaceful, modest, virtuous tree. It prefers its own kin, but is charitable to its neighbors, irrespective of race. It towers far above the sea of less favored trees, which find in its shade protection against the burning rays of the tropic sun and the fury of the trade-winds. Proudly it stands guard at the shores of the coral-girt islands of the South Pacific, waving its lofty, fruit-laden crown, responding alike to the cool, refreshing land breezes and the humid trade-winds in the balmy air of the tropics. Peaceful and lovely is a forest of palms, where

Leaves live only to enjoy love, and throughout the forest every tree
is luxuriating in affectionate embrace; palm, as it nods to palm,
joins in mutual love; the poplar sighs for the poplar; plane whispers
to plane, and alder to alder.

CLAUDIANUS.

The sight of a forest of cocoa-palms from a distance is imposing, a walk through it full of enchantment. Nowhere does this noble tree appear to better advantage than in Tahiti. This, the most favored of all islands, is engirdled by an almost unbroken belt of palm-forest, stretching from the very verge of the ocean to the base of the foot-hills, with the towering, tree-clad mountains for a background; a forest planted by the invisible hand of Nature, a forest cared for by Nature, a forest which produces nearly all of the necessities of life for the natives from day to day, and year to year, with unfailing regularity. Enter this forest and the eye feasts on a scene which neither the pen of the most skilled naturalist nor the brush of the ablest landscape artist can reproduce with anything that would do justice to nature's inexhaustible resources and artistic designs. Such a scene must be gazed upon to be appreciated. Between the colonnade of symmetrical silvery stems and crowns of feathery fronds, inlaid with the ponderous golden fruit, the eye catches glimpses of the blue, placid ocean, the foam-crested breakers, of the still more beautifully blue dome of the sky, the deep green carpet of the unbroken tropic forest thrown over the mountainsides, or the naked, rugged, brown peaks basking in the sunlight, and on all sides flowers of various hues and most delicate tints. Surely,

Who can paint

Like Nature? Can imagination boast.

Amid its gay creation, hues like hers,

Or can it mix them with that matchless skill.

And lose them in each other, as appears

In every bud that blows?

THOMSON.

Add to the pleasures flashed upon the mind by the ravished eye, the perfumed, soothing air of the tropics, the sweet sounds of the aeolian harp as the gentle breeze strikes its well-timed chords in the fronded crowns of the palms overhead, the bubbling of the ripples of the near-by ocean as they kiss the sandy rim of the island shore, and the clashes of the breakers as they strike with unerring regularity the coral reef, the outer wall of the calm lagoon, and your soul will be in a mood to join the poet in singing the praises of nature:

O Nature!

Enrich me with knowledge of thy works:

Snatch me to heaven!

THOMSON.

Queen of the tropic isles, guardian of their sun-kissed strands, friend of their dusky, simple children of Nature! Continue in the future as you have done in the past, to dispense your work of generosity and unselfish charity, to sustain and protect the life of man and beast in a climate you love and revere, a climate adverse for man to earn his daily bread by the sweat of his brow! I have seen your charms in your favorite island-abode and studied with interest your innumerable deeds of generosity, your full storehouse for the urgent needs of man and your safe refuge for the inhabitants of the air. Had Whittier visited the island Paradise, your native home, he would have written in the positive in the first stanza, when he framed that beautiful verse:

I know not where His islands lift

Their fronded palms in air;

I only know I can not drift

Beyond His love and care!

There is no other country and no other island in the world that has such a variety of indigenous fruit trees as Tahiti. Add to these trees that have furnished the natives with an abundance of fruit for centuries, the fruit trees that have been introduced since the island was discovered, and many of which flourish now in a wild state in the forests, and it will give some idea concerning the wealth of fruit to be found in the forests of Tahiti. Most of the inland habitations away from the coast have been abandoned long ago, and in all these places, in the valleys and high up on the mountainsides, many kinds of exogenous fruit trees, planted by former generations, have gained a permanent foothold. Here they multiply, blossom, ripen their fruit, and all the islanders have to do is to gather the annual crop. Here delicious little thin-skinned oranges grow, and the finest lemons and limes can be had for the gathering. The poor find here

Fruits of all kinds in coat

Rough or smooth rind, or bearded husk or shell,

She gathers tribute large, and on the board

Heaps with unsparing hand.

MILTON.

Nothing reminds one more of Tahiti being the forbidden Garden of Eden, than the abundance of fruit that grows in the forests without the intervention of man. Some kind of fruit can be found during all seasons of the year, and

Small store will serve, where store

All seasons, ripe for use, hangs on the stalk.

MILTON.

It is here not as in most countries where

The poor inhabitant beholds in vain

The redd'ning orange and the swelling grain.

ADDISON.

as the poorest of the poor have access to Nature's orchard and can fill their palm-leaf baskets with the choicest fruits. The Tahitian

He feeds on fruits, which of their own accord

The willing ground and laden tree afford.

DRYDEN.

This mingling, in the most friendly manner, of the old forest trees with familiar fruit trees introduced from distant lands and laden with golden fruit, is a most beautiful sight. The fruit trees stand their ground even against the most aggressive shrubs, and it is often no easy matter to reach the ripe hiding fruit in the dense network of branches thrown around and between the branches of the imprisoned tree. What a blessing these acid fruits are to the natives, sweltering under the rays of the tropic sun! How easy it is for them to make a cooling, refreshing drink! Take a young cocoanut, open it at one end, and add to its milk the juice of a lime or a lemon, and the healthiest and most refreshing drink is made.

Bear me, Pomona! to thy citron groves,

To where the lemon and the piercing lime,

With the deep orange glowing through the green,

Their lighter glories lend.

THOMSON.

It is claimed that the large apple family is the descendant of the Siberian crab-apple, modified by climate, soil and grafting. This statement appears to me incorrect, as I have seen a tree in the Hawaiian forests which bears a real sweet apple which in shape and taste has a strong resemblance to the apples of our orchards. The tree is from twenty to thirty feet in height, slender and few branched. The same tree is found in the forests of Tahiti, and its fruit is much sought after by the natives. It would be difficult to connect the wild apple tree of the South Sea Islands with the Siberian crab-apple, to which it bears no resemblance, either in the appearance of the tree or its fruit. Let us now consider a few of the fruit trees which adorn and enrich the forests of Tahiti:

_Alligator Pear_, or _Avocado_.—This is the most delicate and luscious of all the fruit-products of the Tahitian forests, where it is found in its wild state in great abundance. It is the fruit of the _Persea gratissima_, a tree belonging to the natural order _Lauraceæ_, an evergreen tree of the tropic regions of America and the South Sea Islands. It attains a height of from thirty to seventy feet, with a slender stem and dome-like, leafy top. The branches, like the stem, are slender, and ascend on quite an acute angle from their base. The leaves resemble those of the laurel. The flowers are small, and are produced toward the extremities of the branches. The fruit is a drupe, but in size and shape resembles a large pear. The rind is green, thin, and somewhat rough on the outside. In the center of the pulp is a large, heart-shaped kernel, wrapped in a thin, paper-like membrane. The pulp is green or yellowish, not very sweet, but of a delicious taste and exiquisite flavor, and contains about eight per cent, of a greenish fixed oil. The way to eat this delicious fruit is to cut it in two lengthwise, remove the kernel, season with sweet oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and eat with a teaspoon. In the form of a salad it is one of the daintiest of all dishes. The softness of the pulp and the richness in oil have led the French to call this fruit "Vegetable butter." The seeds of the alligator pear have come into medical use at the instance of Dr. Froehlig, and particularly through the efforts of Park, Davis & Co., a manufacturing firm. The alligator pear is a very perishable fruit, which accounts for its scarcity and fabulous price in our markets.

_Pawpaw or Papaya_ is the fruit of the _Carica Papaya_, natural order _Papayaceæ_. It is an exceedingly graceful, branchless little tree, which grows to the height of from ten to twenty feet and is of short vitality. Its natural home is in South America and the islands of the Pacific. The cylindrical stem is grayish white, roughened in circles where the previous whorls of leaves had their attachment. The leaves are from twenty to thirty inches long and are arranged in the form of a whorl at the very top of the stem, where also the fruit grows, close to the stem. The fruit when ripe is light yellow, very similar to a small melon, and with a somewhat similar flavor. The skin is very thin and the pulp exceedingly soft, hence a very perishable fruit. The seeds are numerous, round and black, and when chewed have, in a high degree, the pungency of cresses. It requires time to acquire a taste for this healthy, very digestible tropical fruit, but when once developed, it is keenly relished. It is eaten either raw or boiled. It possesses digestive properties of considerable value, which have been utilized in the preparation of a vegetable pepsin. The acrid, milky sap of the tree or the juice of the fruit much diluted with water, renders any tough meat washed with it, tender for cooking purposes, by separating the muscular fibres (Dr. Holder). It is said even the exhalations from the tree have this property; and meats, fowls, etc., are hung among its leaves to prepare them for cooking. The tree is of very rapid growth, bears fruit all the year and is very prolific.

_Mango_ is the fruit of _Mangifera Indica_. It is a stately, broad-branching, very shady tree, from thirty to forty feet in height, belonging to the natural order _Anacardiaceæ_. The stem is short, from eight to ten feet, when it divides into long, graceful branches, with an impenetrable foliage, a fine protection against the rain and the scorching rays of the sun. The bark is almost black and somewhat rough. The leaves are in clusters, lanceolate, entire, alternate, petioled, smooth, shining, tough, and about seven inches long, with an agreeable resinous smell. The flowers are small, reddish white or yellowish, in large, erect, terminal panicles. The fruit is kidney-shaped, smooth, greenish yellow, with or without ruddy cheeks, varying greatly in size and quality, and containing a large, flattened stone, which is covered on the outside with fibrous filaments, largest and most abundant in the inferior varieties, some of which consist chiefly of fibre and juice, while the finer ones have a comparatively solid pulp. The size varies from that of a large plum to that of a man's fist. The largest and finest mangoes are found in Tahiti. The fruit is luscious and agreeably sweet, with an aromatic flavor and slightly acid taste. The kernels are nutritious, and have been cooked for food in times of scarcity. A mango tree laden with its golden fruit is a pleasing sight, and reminds one vividly of a Christmas tree.

_Lime_.—The fruit of _Citrus Planchoni, Citrus Australis Planchon_. The lime tree of Tahiti was undoubtedly introduced from Eastern Australia, where it is found as a noble tree, fully forty feet high, or, according to C. Hartmann, even sixty feet high. In Tahiti the tree is small, and in the dense jungles hardly exceeds the size of a shrub. The stem, as well as its numerous slender, wide-spreading, prickly branches, is very crooked. The fruit is similar to the lemon, but much smaller in size, being only about one and one-half inches in diameter, and almost globular in shape, with a smooth, green, thin rind and an extremely acid, pungent juice. For a thirst-quenching drink, the lime-juice is far preferable to the lemon.

_Pomegranate_.—The fruit of _Punica Granatum_, a shrub belonging to the natural order _Granataceæ_. This historic and useful shrub grows luxuriantly and with little or no care, in the fertile, sun-kissed soil of Tahiti. More than one-half of the interior of the oval purple fruit consists of large black seeds. The seedless variety has evidently never been introduced. The juice is subacid and very palatable. The flowers are ornamental, and sometimes are double. The rind of the fruit and the bark of the roots possess valuable medicinal properties. Consider for a moment what nature has done for the support, comfort and pleasure of the inhabitants of Tahiti, and we are ready to admit the truth of what the prince of poets said:

Here is everything advantageous to life.

SHAKESPEARE.

And we can answer with a positive yes the question proposed by another famous poet, in the beautiful stanza:

Know'st thou the land where the lemon trees bloom,

Where the gold orange glows in the deep thicket's gloom,

Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows,

And the groves are of laurel and myrtle and rose?

GOETHE.

THE FORESTS OF TAHITI

The primeval forests are the pride of Tahiti. Indirectly they are the wealth of the little island. They have been spared the ravages of the woodman's ax. The forests have been kind to the natives and the natives to the forests. The avaricious lumberman, the greatest enemy of public wealth and general prosperity, has fortunately so far not had a design on the magnificent forests of Tahiti, and may he never be permitted to carry on his work of destruction in this island paradise! The giant trees, growing the finest and most valuable timber, hold out much inducement to get-rich-quick men, but they have been destined for a better purpose; they, with the more menial companions, the humble, lowly shrubs, attract the clouds, determine rain, retain moisture and fill the river-beds, creeks and rivulets with the purest water. The forests extend from the shore to near the highest mountain-peaks, making up one great green sea of foliage, interrupted here and there by the summits of hills, ridges, and bare spots of brown, volcanic earth, where vegetation of any kind has been forbidden to take a foothold. Along and near the coast are the charming groves of cocoa-palms, where the ordinary trees, out of deference to the queen of the tropic forests, are few and modest in their ambition to compete with her in height. Here the guava shrub, groaning under the weight of its golden fruit, adds to the beauty of the grove. A walk through such a grove, with glimpses of the blue ocean and the verdant tree-clad hills and mountains, will bring the conviction that

The groves were God's first temples.

BRYANT.

Raising the eyes and looking up the steep incline of the mountains clothed in perennial verdure by a dense virgin forest, we are almost instinctively reminded of the beautiful lines of Dryden:

There stood a forest on the mountain's brow, which

overlook'd the shady plains below;

No sounding axe presumed these trees to bite, coeval

with the world; a venerable sight.

The forest in the tropics has no rest. From one end of the year to the other, it appears the same. There is no general disrobing at the bidding of an uncompromising, stern winter. There are no arctic chills to suffer and no burden of snow to brave. Most of the trees are evergreen, and the few that imitate the example of their kind in the North by an annual change of their leaves, perform this task almost imperceptibly. There are no bald crowns and bare arms. Spring, summer and autumn mingle throughout the year; blossoming and ripe fruits go hand in hand in the same tree or neighboring trees. A walk through a tropic forest is no easy thing, owing to the dense interlacing and often prickly undergrowth, but the visitor is amply rewarded for his efforts. Every step brings new revelations, new surprises. Nowhere are there any signs of deforestation, either by fire or the cruel, thoughtless hand of man. You are in a forest

Where the rude ax, with heaved stroke,

Was never heard the nymphs to daunt,

Or frown them from their hallow'd haunts.

MILTON.

The biggest trees are in the shaded, rich ravines and far up on the mountainside or hill-tops. They seem to be conscious of their superiority and power in the selection of their abode. Look at one of these monsters, with wide-spread, giant branches and impenetrable foliage, and

View well this tree, the queen of all the grove;

How vast her bole, how wide her arms are spread.

How high above the rest she shoots her head!

DRYDEN.

But in these forests, so full of life and perpetual activity, indications of death are seen here and there. The numerous climbing vines which, serpent-like, creep up and embrace in their deathly grasp some young, vigorous tree, have no good intentions for their patient, helpless host. The struggle may last for years, but the ultimate result is sure. The cruelty of the unwelcome intruder increases with his age and, strength. The fight for life becomes more and more intense. The plant-serpent throttles its victim more and more, penetrates its body with its additional roots, and sucks the very life-blood from its vitals. What promised to become the giant of the forest sickens and succumbs to a slow, lingering, ignominious death. The victory is complete and he now stands with

Pithless arms, like a wither'd vine,

That droops his sapless branches to the ground.

SHAKESPEARE.

The ruthless climber has accomplished its purpose and it has become so strong and has made such intricate interlacements with adjoining trees that it holds the corpse erect in its cold embrace for an indefinite period of time, until some strong wind lays low forever the victor with the vanquished.

Like everywhere else where the soil is fertile and other conditions for plant-growth favorable, so in the Tahitian forest, rank plant-life prospers. The lantana (Lantana Crocca) a shrubby plant two to four feet high, with beautiful little yellow and purple flowers arranged in umbels, has overrun the whole island. It is here, as in some of the other islands of the Pacific, the most aggressive and most troublesome of all weeds, and it is this plant which interferes with a more abundant growth of grass and consequently with a more productive pasturage in wild and cultivated grounds.

The sense of isolation and solitude is nowhere more profound than in a tropical forest, and more especially so in Tahiti, as here animal life is scarce. The only game found are domestic hogs and chickens, which have run wild, and these are scarce. There are no birds of plumage and few song-birds. Chameleons frequent sunny spots, and butterflies, of all sizes and colors, enliven the air. There are no snakes and few poisonous insects; no deer, bear, leopards or monkeys. Even the ordinary water-birds, with the exception of a small species of sea-gull and occasionally a crane, seem to avoid this island.

A day spent in the wonderful forests of Tahiti will bring no regrets; on the other hand, will be replete with pleasure and profit, and will leave charming pictures on memory's tablet which time can never efface. On the brightest day, darkness reigns underneath the almost impenetrable roof of branches, vines and foliage. Here and there the sun's rays penetrate through the gigantic bowery maze, and fall upon the ground with almost unnatural intensity, frequently appearing and disappearing as the wind plays with the leaves.

The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind,

And make a checker'd shadow on the ground.

SHAKESPEARE.

The solemn silence of the forest, the grandeur of vegetation, the effects of light and shadows, are impressive, and the visitor will carry away from Tahiti an inspiring and lasting mental picture of

Her forests huge,

Incult, robust, and tall, by Nature's hand

Planted of old.

THOMSON.

NOTED FOREST TREES OF TAHITI

The forests of Tahiti comprise many species of trees, the timber of which would command a high price in the market, but it is my intention here to enumerate and briefly describe only a few of the trees which interest the visitor the most, as he will see them wherever he goes as shade trees, and as component parts of the magnificent forests.

_Purau or Burao_ is the _Hibiscus tiliaceus_ (Linné), (syn.: _Paritium tiliaceum_), order _Malvaceæ_. The flowers are bell-shaped, of a beautiful canary color, but quickly fall and turn to red or reddish brown. They are made up of five imbricated petals, painted a dark brown at their base and inner surface. The glaucous leaf-like calix is five-parted. The five stamens form a sheath for the pistil, which is five-parted and brown at its apex. The large leaves are used by the native housewives in lieu of a table-cloth. It is said that the macerated leaves and flowers are used to heal burns, bruises, etc. (McDaniels). The trunks of the largest trees are made into canoes. The inner tough bark serves as a substitute for hemp in the making of twine and ropes. The roots of this tree have earned a reputation as a valuable medicine in the treatment of diseases of the gastro-intestinal canal. This is a common and beautiful shade tree in Papeete, and if the traveler visits the island in January or February he will find it in full bloom. The dark green leaves and the light yellow flowers form a very pleasing contrast. It attains a height of from forty to sixty and more feet. The short and often very crooked stem sends off numerous large branches, clothed, like the stem, in a rough black bark. The branches are often so crooked and tortuous that they form such an intricate entanglement that even the woodman's ax would meet with difficulties to isolate and liberate them. The branches appear to have an intrinsic tendency to reach the ground, and when they do so strike root and become daughter trees, growing skyward, and soon rival in height the parent tree. In the woods it is not uncommon to find the parent tree surrounded at variable distances by numerous daughter trees. Many such ambitious branches are formed into graceful arches before they attain the wished-for independence. This tree, with its numerous offspring and interlacing branches, contributes much in rendering the jungles in which it grows impenetrable in many places. The wood is white and soft. The leaves are as large as an ordinary small soup-plate, long-petioled, seven-ribbed, broadly cordate and acuminate, dark green and glossy on their upper, and strongly veined and paler, on their lower surface.

_Banyan Tree_.—The _Ficus Indica_, a native tree of India, remarkable for its vast rooting branches, outstripping in this respect by far the tree just described. It is a species of wild fig, has ovate, heart-shaped, entire leaves, about five or six inches long, and produces a fruit of a rich scarlet color, not larger than a cherry, growing in pairs front the axils of the leaves. The branches send shoots downwards, which, when they have rooted, become stems; the tree in this manner spreading over a great surface, and enduring for many years. The banyan tree found in the island of Tahiti docs not spread as much as the Indian tree, and the aerial roots which later become a part of the trunk after they strike the ground and develop an independent existence, become supplied with new roots. Most of the aerial roots of the Tahitian tree take their origin from the lower part of the trunk and remain in close contact with it after they strike the ground, and many of them remain dangling free in the air in vain attempts to secure an independent existence, the branch roots being comparatively few. The tree is found at short intervals along the ninety-mile drive, and the largest one I saw was in the front yard of the Cercle Bougainville, the French club in Papeete.

_Pandanus Tree, Screw Pine_.—The _Pandanus Freycinctia_ natural order of _Pandaneæ_. There are about fifty species of this tree, natives of South Africa to Polynesia. The pandanus tree of Tahiti is a palm-like tree which is found along the shore close to the water's edge, with a short white stem, much branched with long, simple imbricated leaves, usually spiny on the back and margin, their base embracing the stem, their spiral arrangement being well marked. The base of the stem does not touch the ground, but rests on a cluster of strong roots, which diverge somewhat before they strike the soil. The leaves are much used for thatch roofs and the thin, compact, superficial layer serves as wrappers for the native cigarettes. The fruit is edible and is eaten by the natives in times of scarcity of food.

_Flame Tree, Flamboyer_.—The _Brachychiton acerifolium_ is the Australian flame-tree introduced, as is asserted, into Tahiti by Bougainville. It is a magnificent and common shade tree in Papeete, but is also found scattered all along the coast of the island. It is an evergreen tree with showy trusses of crimson flowers. This is the most beautiful of all ornamental trees in the island. The mucilaginous sap, when exuded, indurates to a kind of bassarin—tragacanth.

VANILLA CULTIVATION IN TAHITI

The cultivation of the aromatic vanilla-bean is one of the principal industries of Tahiti. The bean grows luxuriantly in the shady forests in the lowlands along the coast, and requires but little care. The climate and soil of Tahiti are specially adapted to the cultivation of the vanilla-bean, as the very best quality is grown here. The _Vanilla aromatica_ is a genus of parasitic _Orchidaceæ_, a native of tropic parts of America and Asia, which springs at first from the ground and climbs with twining stems to the height of from twenty to thirty feet on trees, sending into them fibrous roots, produced from nodes, from which the leaves grow. These roots, drawing the sap from the trees, sustain the plant, even after the ground-root has been destroyed. Flower white; corolla tubular; stigma distant from anthers, rendering spontaneous fructification difficult; leaves oblong, light green, fleshy, with an exceedingly acrid juice; flowers in spikes, very large, fleshy and generally fragrant. The fruit is a pod-like, fleshy capsule, opening along the side. The ripe bean is cylindrical, about nine inches in length, and less than half an inch thick. It is gathered before it is entirely ripe, and dried in the shade. It contains within its tough pericarp a soft black pulp, in which many minute seeds are imbedded. The plant is cultivated by cuttings. In Mexico and South American countries, the insects effect impregnation; in Tahiti, this is done artificially. With a small, sharp stick the pollen is conveyed to the stigma of the pistil. Artificial impregnation of fifteen hundred flowers is considered a good day's work. Allusion has been made elsewhere to the fact that the shrewd Chinamen have depreciated the vanilla industry in Tahiti and ruined the reputation of the product. If the natives could be induced to stop their dealings with the scheming Chinese merchants and traders, and the government would release them from export duty, the cultivation of vanilla would soon regain its former importance and would yield a very profitable income. The Tahitians are not agriculturists; they are averse to hard manual labor; they are

Of proud-lived loiterers, that never sow,

Nor put a plant in earth, nor use a plough.

CHAPMAN.

and hence are anxious to obtain what little money they need with as little effort as possible. Vanilla, once planted, requires very little attention, and it grows most luxuriantly in the dark shadow of the dense forest, where the natives engaged in artificial impregnation of the flower and in gathering the bean are protected against the direct heat of the sun. The great advantage of vanilla-cultivation to the island consists in the fact that this valuable article of commerce can be grown without deforestation, so essential in the cultivation of much less valuable products of the soil of the tropics.

THE RURAL DISTRICTS

Papeete is not the place to study the natives, their habits and customs, as European influence and example have here largely effaced the simplicity and charms of native life. The rural districts are the places for the tourist to get glimpses of real native life. He will find there the best specimens of natives, and an opportunity to study their primitive methods of living. There is no other island of similar size where the traveler will find it so easy to visit all of the rural districts and villages. By following the ninety-mile drive, he can encircle the entire island in a comfortable carriage, and finish the trip in four days, if his time is limited, and in doing so he sees the inhabited part of the island and nearly all of the villages. He will see on this trip Paea Grotto and cave, also picnic-grounds, eighteen miles from Papeete, Papara, six miles further, is noted for native singing, chanting and dancing. The real Tahitian life is met at Pari and Tautira. On the other side of the island, the road skirts along the coast and ascends five hundred feet above the level of the sea. The drive is a charming one, as the traveler never loses the sight of mountains and hills, and only very seldom, and at long intervals, of the blue Pacific Ocean. In some places the road-bed is cut through solid rock, and for a few moments the panoramic view of the magnificent scenery is shut out from sight, but on the other side of the cut a picture more beautiful than ever is unrolled. The ocean claims the first attention as it smiles in the dazzling sunshine beneath where

The murmuring surge,

That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes.

Can not be heard so high.

SHAKESPEARE.

In the distance we can see the foam-crested waves dash over the coral reef in their attempts to reach the placid waters of the peaceful lagoon, where the wavelets play with the pebbles on the shore. Looking toward the left, we again are face to face with the mountains, that are our constant companions, on the entire route. There is a feeling of solemnity which takes possession of the soul when communing with Nature in her grandest mood, and we begin to feel that

I live not myself, but I become

Portion of that around me; and to me

High mountains are a feeling; but the hum

Of human cities, torture.

BYRON.

We see the naked mountain-peaks and the bare backs of the foot-hills.

Rock-ribbed, and ancient as the sun.

BRYANT.

We pass through magnificent groves of cocoa-palms, and now the road leads through a primeval forest with an impenetrable jungle on its floor, where

The winds within the quiv'ring branches play'd,

And dancing trees a mournful music made.

DRYDEN.

We pass through or near the quaint native villages peopled with naked children, scantily dressed women, and men whose only garment consists of a much-checkered, many-colored calico loin-cloth. We cross rivers, brooks and rivulets without number, and looking for their source we see glimpses, here and there, of cascades and cataracts, high up on the mountainside, in the form of streaks of silver in the clefts of the deep green ocean of trees. We see butterflies by the hundreds, of all colors, playing in the sunshine or eagerly devouring the nectar of the sweetest flowers. We admire the richness and variety of the floral kingdom, and inhale the perfume of the fragrant flowers, suspended in the pure air and wafted to us by the cool land breeze sent down from the top of the mountains. As the sun approaches the horizon, and the short, bewitching twilight sets in, with the gorgeous display of colors in the sky and the wonderful effects of light and shadow on sea and shore, we can realize that

Softly the evening came. The sun from the western horizon

Like a magician extended his golden wand o'er the landscape;

Twinkling vapors arose; and sky, and water, and forest.

Seemed all on fire at the touch, and melted and mingled together.

LONGFELLOW.

The vistas and views along this circular drive are infinite; the surprises at every turn without number. No matter how much the visitor may have traveled, even if he has seen the whole world outside of this blessed island, he will see here many things he has never seen before. Every step brings new revelations of the beauty and goodness of Nature and her tender care for man. What a paradise for lovers of nature, for poets and artists! Here is a place above all others in the world, where

No tears

Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.

LONGFELLOW.

The further the visitor wends his way from Papeete, the more he will find the natives in their natural state, and the less contaminated by European influence. On the opposite side of the island, at Pari, the people have preserved their native customs, and live now about in the same manner as when Wallis discovered the island. Religion and civilization have liberated them from ancient barbarities, but have had little influence in changing their customs, for

Custom has an ascendency over the understanding.

DR. I. WATTS.

All of the villages scattered at short intervals along the ninety-mile drive are small; the largest with not more than five hundred inhabitants. In Papeete, and between it and Papara, the natives live in small frame houses, built on piling several feet above the ground, covered with a roof of corrugated iron, and made more spacious and comfortable by a veranda facing the road. Few native houses are encountered on this part of the journey. Beyond Papara they are the rule, and these retain their primitive charm. They are built of upright sticks of bamboo, lashed side by side to a frame of stripped poles in the form of an oval. Upon this is a heavy roof of pandanus thatch covering a cool, well-ventilated, sanitary home. The air circulates freely through the open spaces between the poles, as well as between the two doorways on opposite sides of the house. Mats take the place of a floor.

Cooking is done outside without the use of a stove. The native oven is a very simple affair, as it consists of a layer of stones upon which a fire is built. When heated to the requisite degree—and this is a matter the experienced housewife must determine—the food is placed amid the embers, wrapped in pieces of banana leaves and covered over with piles of damp breadfruit leaves. Breadfruit, taro, green bananas and plantains, are the articles of food prepared in this way. The roasting of a pig, the favorite meat of the South Sea Islanders, is a more complicated process, and to do it well requires much experience. A hole is dug in the ground and paved with stones, upon which a fire is built. When the stones are thoroughly heated and the fire exhausted or extinguished, the whole animal, properly prepared and wrapped in leaves, is placed in the pit, covered with damp leaves and loose earth. On great festive occasions, fowl and fish are added to the contents of the pit. The pork, fowl and fish cooked in this manner are delicious, and the slightly smoky taste only adds to their savoriness. It is the pride of the cook to remove the roasted pig without mutilation, usually a very delicate task. Chicken, boiled in the milk of the cocoanut, is another masterpiece of native cookery. The cocoanut is prepared in many ways for the table and a sauce made of the compressed juice of the grated nut, mixed with lime juice and sea-water, makes a most palatable sauce for meats and fish.

House-building and housekeeping are free from care and never ruffle the family peace. If a young couple desire to establish a home of their own, they signify their intentions to their friends and neighbors. These gather, usually Sunday afternoon at two o'clock, at the place selected for the new home, bring bamboo sticks, poles and pandanus leaves, and at sundown the house is ready for occupation. The pandanus roof does efficient service for about seven years, when it has to be removed and replaced by a new one. The bamboo framework, properly protected, lasts for a much longer time. As the whole house consists of a single oval room, is floorless and not encumbered by furniture of any kind, the house-wife has an easy existence, more especially as the children can not outwear their clothing, and their husband's loin-cloths need no repairs.

While meat in Tahiti is scarce, every family has an easy access to a rich fish-supply. The fish which swarm in the lagoons and outside of the reefs furnish an easily secured food-supply. They are caught in different ways—by hook or netting—and not the least picturesque way is the torchlight fishing on the lagoon. Torches are improvised of long cocoa-palm leaves tied into rolls. With a boat-load of these, together with nets and spears, the fishermen in their canoes paddle out upon the water after dark. Flying fish, attracted by the light, shoot overhead and are dexterously caught in a hand-net. Other kinds of fish, by aid of the light, are speared over the side of the canoe. _Dolphin_ and bonita, the latter a favorite fish, are taken with the hook and line, in larger canoes sailing on the open sea, but this kind of fishing is left to a few hardy men. The women scoop up small river-fish in baskets, and drag-nets are used in capturing the many varieties of small fish of the lagoon. While the fish are being cooked in the underground oven, some member of the family goes into the adjacent forest and in a short time returns with breadfruit, and a variety of fruits, to make up a dainty and substantial repast.

The island is divided into seventeen districts and each district has its own chief, who is entrusted with the local government. The chiefs are elected by popular vote every few years, the office being no longer hereditary. The chief resides in the principal village of his district and here is to be invariably found a government school, a Protestant and a Catholic church with its respective parochial school, and a meeting-house which serves as a gathering-place for the annual native plays and on all occasions of public concern. A daily mail supplies the rural population with the news of the island and keeps them in touch with the outside world. Abject poverty in the city and country is unknown, and begging is looked upon as a disgrace. There is neither wealth nor poverty in Tahiti. The people have all they need and all they desire, and

Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.

SHAKESPEARE.

I am quite sure that the tourist who has tasted freely of modern life such as it now is in our large cities, with all its cares and temptations, all its unrealness and disappointments, when he has seen the happy, contented, free-from-care Tahitians, in their charming island and simple homes, will be willing to confess:

For my part, I should prefer to be always poor, in blessings such as
these.

HORATIUS.

and

Everything that exceeds the bounds of moderation has an unstable
foundation.

SENECA.

POINT VENUS

Every visitor to Tahiti should visit Point Venus, as it is a historic place near where the Europeans made their first landings in Matavai Bay, and where the first white settlers cast their lot with the natives. It is in this neighborhood where the English missionaries established their permanent home and from here spread the new tidings of the gospel over the entire island. They labored in vain for nearly twenty years, when all at once a religious wave swept over the island which resulted in the speedy Christianization of almost the entire population. I have already referred to Point Venus as the place where the government lighthouse is located and where Captain Cook had his headquarters when he and the scientists who accompanied him observed the transit of Venus by order of the English government in the year 1769. The place where the scientific observations were made is marked by a modest monument of stone surrounded by an iron railing, on which are inscribed the data commemorative of the work accomplished. Close by this monument, on the most prominent point, has been erected the lighthouse which guides the mariner in approaching the island during the night. The distance from Papeete to Point Venus is seven miles, over a macadamized road which we found in a somewhat neglected condition. Two native villages, Pirae and Arue, are passed on the way, and a third, Haapape, is close by. The road leads through groves of cocoa-palms, primeval forests and jungles, and a part of it skirts the foot-hills of the towering mountains. Most of the time the beautiful lagoon, dotted here and there with fishermen's canoes, is in sight. The calmness of the air, the solemnity of the surroundings and the sight of these canoes on the unruffled lagoon, reminded us of

Low stir of leaves and dip of oars

And lapsing waves on quiet shores.

WHITTIER.

Some of the more daring fishermen we saw outside of the reef, in the same frail crafts, battling with a rougher sea, but the skilled use of their very primitive paddles kept the canoes in good motion and steady, and it seemed

She walks the waters like a thing of life,

And seems to dare the elements to strife,

BYRON.

Matavai Bay, which the road follows for a considerable distance, is a beautiful sheet of water. It was in this bay that the ships of the early voyagers found a resting-place, and where on its shore the first white men touched the soil of Tahiti and came face to face with a people who had never heard of a world outside of the islands of the Pacific. The scenery all along this drive is truly tropical. The floral wealth is great and its variety endless. It was on this drive I found the passion-flower in full bloom and exquisite beauty.

Near Point Venus we met a gang of natives, in charge of the chief of the district, engaged in repairing the road. All except the chief were in loin-cloths as their only article of dress. They worked leisurely, and smoked and chatted in a way that showed that they were happy even when bearing the burden of the day and the scorching rays of the tropic sun, with nothing in view for their ten-o'clock breakfast but the cool mountain water instead of coffee, breadfruit or plantain (_fei_) for bread, and some fruit gathered in the woods on their way to work.

The round trip from Papeete to Point Venus can be made in three hours, and gives one a very excellent idea of the general topography of the island and is replete with both pleasure and profit.

FAUTAHUA VALLEY

The next interesting short drive from Papeete is to the Fautahua Valley, distance four miles. It is noted for delightful river scenery and tropic vegetation, and at the end of the valley is a beautiful waterfall. This charming valley, with its typical tropic scenery enclosed by towering mountains and resounding with the rippling, dashing music of a turbulent mountain stream and the babbling and murmuring of the many brooks and rivulets of pure crystal water which feed it, is well worth a visit. This valley was once densely populated, if we can judge from the abundance of imported fruit trees and the coffee shrub which now flourish in the forest unaided by the care of man, while, at the present time, the native huts are few and far apart. Wild arrowroot grows here in profusion, and a variety of exogenous shade trees have become an important component part of the primeval forest, rendered almost impenetrable by vines and a dense undergrowth. A carriage-road extends to Fashoda Bridge, well up in the mountains, beyond which it leads up the gorge, past a waterfall which leaps over a rocky rim, where the mountains join to the bed of the stream, six hundred feet below. In different places the romantic mountain road is spanned by graceful arches of branches of the pauru tree, ambitious to find on the opposite side of the road an independent existence from the parent tree. One of the large, quiet pools below the Fashoda Bridge, a favorite bathing-place for women and their daughters, has been made famous by the writings of Pierre Loti, a French author.

From Fashoda Bridge a bridle path leads up a very steep incline to the French military post in the very heart of the mountains, six thousand feet above the level of the sea. It was here that the natives made their last stand in their war with France. A little beyond the fort rise the crags which compose "the Diadem," a conspicuous landmark in the mountains of Tahiti.

The view from Fashoda Bridge in all directions is inspiring: at the end of the gorge the waterfall dashing over the volcanic rock, pulverized at many points in its descent into silvery spray; the tree-clad mountains on each side with their steeples of bare rock; beneath, the wild mountain stream, speeding to find rest in the quiet basin below; and all around, the rank vegetation which only the tropics under the most favorable conditions can grow, and above, the clear blue sky, brilliantly illuminated by the morning sun. As late as nine o'clock in the forenoon we found everything bathed in a heavy dew, which added much to the beauty and freshness of the incomparable scenery.

Near the bridge, leading a pack-mule, we met a soldier on his way to the city for supplies for the small garrison in charge of the fort. Military duty at this lone isolated station must certainly prove monotonous, as from the bridge the only way to reach the fort is either on foot or mule-back. The quietude of this peaceful valley, at the time of our visit, was disturbed by a large force of native laborers who were laying the pipes for the new city waterworks.

VILLAGE OF PAPARA

The village of Papara, the largest in the island, has been the acknowledged stronghold of the Tevas for centuries. Here the powerful chiefs of the clan have ruled their subjects with an inborn sense of justice until their jurisdiction and, power were curtailed by foreign intervention. For a long time the ruling house of the Tevas dominated the social and political life of the island. It was at Papara that the largest and most imposing marae was built, consisting of a huge pile of stones in the form of a truncated cone, the ruins of which still remain as a silent reminder of the political power of the Tevas lone before the white man cast his greedy eyes upon this island paradise.