The bag turned out to be well filled with sweet potatoes boiled, cubes
of salt beef and pork, and a famous sailors' pudding, what they call
"duff," made of flour and water, and of about the consistence of an
underdone brick.
With these delicacies, and keen appetites, we went
out into the moonlight, and had a nocturnal picnic.
CHAPTER XLII.
MOTOO-OTOO A TAHITIAN CASUIST
THE Pill Box was sometimes employed for other purposes than that
described in the last chapter. We sometimes went a-pleasuring in it.
Right in the middle of Papeetee harbour is a bright, green island, one
circular grove of waving palms, and scarcely a hundred yards across.
It is of coral formation; and all round, for many rods out, the bay
is so shallow that you might wade anywhere. Down in these waters, as
transparent as air, you see coral plants of every hue and shape
imaginable : - antlers, tufts of azure, waving reeds like stalks of
grain, and pale green buds and mosses. In some places, you look
through prickly branches down to a snow-white floor of sand,
sprouting with flinty bulbs; and crawling among these are strange
shapes: - some bristling with spikes, others clad in shining coats of
mail, and here and there, round forms all spangled with eyes.
The island is called Hotoo-Otoo; and around Hotoo-Otoo have I often
paddled of a white moonlight night, pausing now and then to admire
the marine gardens beneath.
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