Tahiti The Marriage Of Loti by Loti

Author:Loti [Loti]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General, Ethnic Studies, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781317847281
Google: SPlQAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-04-08T05:56:18+00:00

XX

By the evening we had almost reached the central highland of Tahiti;—far below us through the transparent air we could see the outline of all the volcanic ruin, and the mountains in relief; enormous ribs of basalt, starting from the crater in the middle, and sinking gradually till they were lost in the waves. All round, the blue ocean, and the horizon so high that, by a common optical illusion, the expanse of water had a strange appearance of being concave. The ocean-line lay far above the highest peaks; Oroena alone, the giant of the Tahitian system, cut it with its dark majestic head. All round the island a belt of white spray lay on the blue expanse of the Pacific; the line of the barrier reef where eternal surf beats on the coral shoal.

Quite in the distance lay the little isle of Toubouaimanou, and the island of Moorea; puffs of cloud of unimaginable hues floated over their blue summits, hanging as it seemed in the limitless vault.

From that height we looked down on this grand panorama of Oceanian nature, as though we ourselves were no longer of this world. It was so sublimely beautiful that we sat in ecstasy side by side on a boulder, without speaking a word.

“ Loti,” said Rarahu, after a long silence, “ what are your thoughts ? ”

“ Of many things,” said I, “ which you cannot understand. I am thinking, my little pet, that on those distant seas are scattered many unknown islands; that they are inhabited by a mysterious race destined soon to perish; that you are a child of this primitive race; and that here, perched on the summit of one of these islands, far from all human creatures in this absolute solitude, I, a son of the old world, born on the other side of the globe, am sitting and loving you.

“ Long ago, Rarahu, very long ago, before the first men were born, the mighty hand of Atua raised these hills from out of the sea; the island of Tahiti, as hot as red-hot iron, came up like a storm, in the midst of flames and smoke. Then the first rain which fell to refresh the earth after these terrors, traced the way which the Fataoua brook follows to this day through the forest.

“ All the great features you see are everlasting; they will still be the same hundreds of ages hence, when the Maori race will long since have vanished to be no more than a dim memory preserved in the books of a bygone day.”

“ There is one thing that frightens me, O Loti, my beloved,” said she. “ How did the first Maoris get here, since nowadays they have no boats big enough to trade with the islands beyond their own group? How did they come from that far-away land where, as the Bible tells us, the first man was created? Our race is so different from yours that I am frightened lest, in spite of

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