But dear or near as the sea might be to such a man as I, a mere traveler upon it to reach a goal, to the Tahitian it was life and road and romance, too.  Legends of it filled the memories of those old ones who, though in tattered form, preserved yet awhile the deeds of daring of their fathers and the terrors of storm and sea monster, of long journeys in frail canoes, of discoveries and conquerings, of brides taken from other peoples, and of the gods and devils who were in turn masters of the deep.

Once a Tahitian stopped the sun as it sank beyond Moorea not to wage war, as Joshua, but to please his old mother.  The sea and the heavens are brothers to the Tahitian.  The sky had two great tales for him—­guidance for his craft and prophecies for his soul; but he did not inhabit it with his gods or his dead, as do Christians and other religionists, for the mountains, the valleys, and the caves were the abiding-places of spirits, and the Tahitian had named only those stars which blazed forth most vividly or served him as compass on the sea.  He did, however, mark the various phases of the sky, and in his musical tongue named them with particularity.

The firmament is te ao, te rai, and the atmosphere te reva, and when peaceful, raiatea.  This is the name of one of the most beautiful islands of this Society group, “Raiatea la Sacree,” it is called, “Raiatea the Blessed,” and its own serenity is betokened in its name.

    E hau maru, e maru to oe rai
    E topara, te Mahana
    I Ra’ i-atea nei!

So ran the rhyme of Raiatea: 

    Full of a sweet peace, serene thy sky;
    Bright are all thy days
    At Raiatea here.

Rai poia or poiri, they say for the gloomy heavens, and rai maemae when threatening, parutu when cloudy, moere if clear; if the clouds presage wind, tutai vi.  The sunset is tooa o te ra, and the twilight marumarupo.

The night is te po or te rui, and the moment before the sun rises marumaru ao.  A hundred other words and phrases differentiate the conditions of sky and air.  I learned them from Afa and Evoa and others.

The moon is te marama, and the full moon vaevae.  Mars is fetia ura, the red star; the Pleiades are Matarii, the little eyes; and the Southern Cross, Tauha, Fetia ave are the comets, the “stars with a tail,” and the meteors pao, opurei, patau, and pitau.

The moon was gone, but the stars needed no help, for they shone as if the trump of doom were due at dawn, and they should be no more.  Blue and gold, a cathedral ceiling with sanctuary lamps hung high, the dome of earth sparkled and glittered, and on the schooners by the Cercle Bougainville himenes of joy rang out on the soft air.

I passed them close, so close that a girl of Huahine who was dancing on the deck of the Mihimana seized me by the arm and embraced me.

“Come back, stranger!” she cried in Tahitian.  “There is pleasure here, and the night is but just begun.”