Now in the quiet of the evening, empty bowls removed, pandanus-leaf cigarettes lighted, and pipe passing from hand to hand, we sat rejoicing in the sweet odors of the forest, the murmur of the stream, and the ease of contentment.  Many elders of the village had come to meet the stranger, to discuss the world and its wonders, and to marvel at the ways of the whites.  The glow of the pipe lighted shriveled yet still handsome countenances scrolled with tattooing, and caught gleams from rolling eyes or sparkles from necklace and earring.  Above the mountains a full moon rose, flooding the valley with light and fading the brilliant colors of leaf and flower to pale pastel tints.

Vanquished Often sat beside me, her dark hair falling over my knee, and listened respectfully to the conversation of her elders, who discussed the gods of the stranger.

They wondered what curious motive had impelled the Jews, the Aati-Ietu, to kill Ieto Kirito the Savior of the world.  They discussed the strange madness that had possessed Iuda Iskalota, that he had first bought land with his forty pieces of silver and then hanged himself to a purau tree.  Was it cocoanut land? they asked.  Was it not good land?

Often across the worn stones of the paepae stole a vei, a centipede, upon which a bare foot quickly stamped.  The chief said casually, “If he bite you, you no die; you have hell of a time.”  They were not natives of the Marquesas originally, he said; they came in the coal of ships.  His patriotism outran his knowledge, for the first discoverers bitterly berated these poisonous creatures, though no more warmly than Neo, who drew heavily upon his stock of English curses to tell his opinion of them.

When the time came for saying apae kaoha my kindly hosts sought to confer upon me the last proof of their friendliness.  They proposed that I marry Vanquished Often.

My refusal was incomprehensible to them, and Vanquished Often’s happy smile in the moonlight quickly faded to a look of pain and humiliation.  They had offered me their highest and most revered expression of hospitality.  To refuse it was as uncustomary and as rude as to refuse the Alaskan miner who offers a drink at a public bar.

“Menike,” pleaded the chief, “that Hinatini more better marry white man, friend of Teddy, from number one island.  She some punkins for be good wife.  Suppose may be you like Vait-hua you stay long time; suppose you go soon, make never mind!”

The fair chieftess shook her earrings and smiled archly.  “Bonne filly pooh voo, Menike,” she urged in her Marquesan French.  “Good wife for you.  It is my pleasure that you are happy.  She is beautiful and good.  You will be the son of our people while you are here.”