“As I stood before her, hat in hand and with my eyes looking downward, which is proper and correct for a modest man to do when a high lady speaks to him before many people, a white man who had been sitting at the far end of the room came over to me and said some words of greeting to me.  This was Franka[7]—­he whom my captain said was a manaia.  He was better clothed than any other of the white men, and was proud and overbearing in his manner.  He had brought with him more than a score of young Ponape men, all of whom carried rifles and had cutlasses strapped to their waists.  This was done to show the people of Jakoits that he was as great a man as Preston, whom he hated, as you will see.  But Preston had naught for him but good words, and when he saw the armed men he bade them welcome and set aside a house for them to sleep in, and his servants brought them many baskets of cooked food—­taro and yams, and fish, turtle, and pork.  All this I saw whilst I was in the big room.

“After I had spoken with the lady Solepa I returned to where the man from Nanomaga and his wife were awaiting me.  They pressed me to eat and drink, and by and by sent for a young girl to make kava.  Ta|pa|! that kava of Ponape!  It is not made there as it is in Samoa—­where the young men and women chew the dried root and mix it in a wooden tanoa (bowl); there the green root is crushed up in a hollowed stone and but little water is added, so that it is strong, very strong, and one is soon made drunk.

“The girl who made the kava for us was named Sipi.  She had eyes like the stars when they are shining upon a deep mountain pool, and round her smooth forehead was bound a circlet of yellow pandanus leaf worked with beads of many colours and fringed with red parrakeet feathers; about her waist were two fine mats, and her bosom and hands were stained with turmeric.  I sat and watched her beating the kava, and as her right arm rose and fell her short, black wavy hair danced about her cheeks and hid the red mouth and white teeth when she smiled at me.  And she smiled at me very often, and the man and woman beside me laughed when they saw me regard her so intently, and asked me was it in my mind to have her for my wife.

“I did not answer at once, for I knew that if I ran away from the ship for the sake of this girl I would be doing a foolish thing, for I had money coming to me when the ship was oti folau (paid off).  But, as I pondered, the girl bent forward and again her eyes smiled at me through her hair; and then it was I saw that on her head there was a narrow shaven strip from the crown backward.  Now, in Tokelau, this fashion is called tu tagita, and showeth that a girl is in her virginity.  When I saw this I was pleased, but to make sure I said to my friends, ’Her hair is tu tagita.  Is she a virgin?’

“The woman of Nanomaga laughed loudly at this and pinched my hand, then she translated my words to the girl who looked into my face and laughed too, shaking her head as she put one hand over her eyes—­