It Seems That, Acting Upon The "Love In A Cottage"
Principle, They Had Gone Right Into The Interior; And Throwing Up A
Hut In An Uninhabited Valley, Had Lived There, Until In An Unlucky
Stroll They Were Observed And Captured.
They were subsequently condemned to make one hundred fathoms of Broom
Road - a six months' work, if not more.
Often, when seated in a house, conversing quietly with its inmates, I
have known them betray the greatest confusion at the sudden
announcement of a kannakipper's being in sight. To be reported by one
of these officials as a "Tootai Owree" (in general, signifying a bad
person or disbeliever in Christianity), is as much dreaded as the
forefinger of Titus Gates was, levelled at an alleged papist.
But the islanders take a sly revenge upon them. Upon entering a
dwelling, the kannakippers oftentimes volunteer a pharisaical
prayer-meeting: hence, they go in secret by the name of
"Boora-Artuas," literally, "Pray-to-Gods."
CHAPTER XLVII.
HOW THEY DRESS IN TAHITI
EXCEPT where the employment of making "tappa" is inflicted as a
punishment, the echoes of the cloth-mallet have long since died away
in the listless valleys of Tahiti. Formerly, the girls spent their
mornings like ladies at their tambour frames; now, they are lounged
away in almost utter indolence. True, most of them make their own
garments; but this comprises but a stitch or two; the ladies of the
mission, by the bye, being entitled to the credit of teaching them to
sew.
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