“Well, if you will stay,” said he, and the trader’s look came into his eye, “I’ve got just the thing you want.  You don’t want to lie on a mat where the thousand-legs can get you—­and if they get you, you die.  You want to live right.  Now listen to me; I got the best brass bed ever a king slept on.  Double thickness, heavy brass bed, looks like solid gold.  Springs that would hold the schooner, double-thick mattress, sheets and pillows all embroidered like it belonged to a duchess.  Fellow was going to be married that I brought it for, but now he’s lying up there in Calvary in a bed they dug for him.  I’ll let you have it cheap—­three hundred francs.  It’s worth double.  What do you say?”

A brass bed, a golden bed in the cannibal islands!

“It’s a go,” I said.

On the deck of the Morning Star I beheld the packing-cases brought up from the hold, and my new purchase with all its parts and appurtenances loaded in a ship’s boat, with the iron box that held my gold.  So I arrived in Atuona for the second time, high astride the sewed-up mattress on top of the metal parts, and so deftly did the Tahitians handle the oars that, though we rode the surf right up to the creeping jungle flowers that met the tide on Atuona beach, I was not wet except by spray.

[Illustration:  Vai Etienne]

[Illustration:  The pool by the Queen’s house]

Our arrival was watched by a score of Marquesan chiefs who had been summoned by Bauda for the purpose, as he told me, of being urged to thrash the tax-tree more vigorously.  The meeting adjourned instantly, and they hastened down from the frame building that housed the government offices.  Their curiosity could not be restrained.  A score of eager hands stripped the coverings from the brass bed, and exposed the glittering head and foot pieces in the brilliant sunlight.  Exclamations of amazement and delight greeted the marvel.  This was another wonder from the white men’s isles, indicative of wealth and royal taste.

From all sides other natives came hastening.  My brass bed and I were the center of a gesticulating circle, dark eyes rolled with excitement and naked shoulder jostled shoulder.  Three chiefs, tattooed and haughty, personally erected the bed, and when I disclosed the purpose of the mattress, placed it in position.  Every woman present now pushed forward and begged the favor of being allowed to bounce upon it.  It became a diversion attended with high honor.  Controversies meantime raged about the bed.  Many voices estimated the number of mats that would be necessary to equal the thickness of the mattress, but none found a comparison worthy of its softness and elasticity.

In the midst of this melee one woman, whose eyes and facial contour betrayed Chinese blood, but who was very comely and neat, pushed forward and pointing to the glittering center of attraction repeated over and over.

“Kisskisskissa?  Kisskisskissa?”