Part 11

The forest in the tropics has no rest. From one end of the year to the other, it appears the same. There is no general disrobing at the bidding of an uncompromising, stern winter. There are no arctic chills to suffer and no burden of snow to brave. Most of the trees are evergreen, and the few that imitate the example of their kind in the North by an annual change of their leaves, perform this task almost imperceptibly. There are no bald crowns and bare arms. Spring, summer and autumn mingle throughout the year; blossoming and ripe fruits go hand in hand in the same tree or neighboring trees. A walk through a tropic forest is no easy thing, owing to the dense interlacing and often prickly undergrowth, but the visitor is amply rewarded for his efforts. Every step brings new revelations, new surprises. Nowhere are there any signs of deforestation, either by fire or the cruel, thoughtless hand of man. You are in a forest

Where the rude ax, with heaved stroke,

Was never heard the nymphs to daunt,

Or frown them from their hallow'd haunts.

MILTON.

The biggest trees are in the shaded, rich ravines and far up on the mountainside or hill-tops. They seem to be conscious of their superiority and power in the selection of their abode. Look at one of these monsters, with wide-spread, giant branches and impenetrable foliage, and

View well this tree, the queen of all the grove;

How vast her bole, how wide her arms are spread.

How high above the rest she shoots her head!

DRYDEN.

But in these forests, so full of life and perpetual activity, indications of death are seen here and there. The numerous climbing vines which, serpent-like, creep up and embrace in their deathly grasp some young, vigorous tree, have no good intentions for their patient, helpless host. The struggle may last for years, but the ultimate result is sure. The cruelty of the unwelcome intruder increases with his age and, strength. The fight for life becomes more and more intense. The plant-serpent throttles its victim more and more, penetrates its body with its additional roots, and sucks the very life-blood from its vitals. What promised to become the giant of the forest sickens and succumbs to a slow, lingering, ignominious death. The victory is complete and he now stands with

Pithless arms, like a wither'd vine,

That droops his sapless branches to the ground.

SHAKESPEARE.

The ruthless climber has accomplished its purpose and it has become so strong and has made such intricate interlacements with adjoining trees that it holds the corpse erect in its cold embrace for an indefinite period of time, until some strong wind lays low forever the victor with the vanquished.

Like everywhere else where the soil is fertile and other conditions for plant-growth favorable, so in the Tahitian forest, rank plant-life prospers. The lantana (Lantana Crocca) a shrubby plant two to four feet high, with beautiful little yellow and purple flowers arranged in umbels, has overrun the whole island. It is here, as in some of the other islands of the Pacific, the most aggressive and most troublesome of all weeds, and it is this plant which interferes with a more abundant growth of grass and consequently with a more productive pasturage in wild and cultivated grounds.

The sense of isolation and solitude is nowhere more profound than in a tropical forest, and more especially so in Tahiti, as here animal life is scarce. The only game found are domestic hogs and chickens, which have run wild, and these are scarce. There are no birds of plumage and few song-birds. Chameleons frequent sunny spots, and butterflies, of all sizes and colors, enliven the air. There are no snakes and few poisonous insects; no deer, bear, leopards or monkeys. Even the ordinary water-birds, with the exception of a small species of sea-gull and occasionally a crane, seem to avoid this island.

A day spent in the wonderful forests of Tahiti will bring no regrets; on the other hand, will be replete with pleasure and profit, and will leave charming pictures on memory's tablet which time can never efface. On the brightest day, darkness reigns underneath the almost impenetrable roof of branches, vines and foliage. Here and there the sun's rays penetrate through the gigantic bowery maze, and fall upon the ground with almost unnatural intensity, frequently appearing and disappearing as the wind plays with the leaves.

The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind,

And make a checker'd shadow on the ground.

SHAKESPEARE.

The solemn silence of the forest, the grandeur of vegetation, the effects of light and shadows, are impressive, and the visitor will carry away from Tahiti an inspiring and lasting mental picture of

Her forests huge,

Incult, robust, and tall, by Nature's hand

Planted of old.

THOMSON.

NOTED FOREST TREES OF TAHITI

The forests of Tahiti comprise many species of trees, the timber of which would command a high price in the market, but it is my intention here to enumerate and briefly describe only a few of the trees which interest the visitor the most, as he will see them wherever he goes as shade trees, and as component parts of the magnificent forests.

_Purau or Burao_ is the _Hibiscus tiliaceus_ (Linné), (syn.: _Paritium tiliaceum_), order _Malvaceæ_. The flowers are bell-shaped, of a beautiful canary color, but quickly fall and turn to red or reddish brown. They are made up of five imbricated petals, painted a dark brown at their base and inner surface. The glaucous leaf-like calix is five-parted. The five stamens form a sheath for the pistil, which is five-parted and brown at its apex. The large leaves are used by the native housewives in lieu of a table-cloth. It is said that the macerated leaves and flowers are used to heal burns, bruises, etc. (McDaniels). The trunks of the largest trees are made into canoes. The inner tough bark serves as a substitute for hemp in the making of twine and ropes. The roots of this tree have earned a reputation as a valuable medicine in the treatment of diseases of the gastro-intestinal canal. This is a common and beautiful shade tree in Papeete, and if the traveler visits the island in January or February he will find it in full bloom. The dark green leaves and the light yellow flowers form a very pleasing contrast. It attains a height of from forty to sixty and more feet. The short and often very crooked stem sends off numerous large branches, clothed, like the stem, in a rough black bark. The branches are often so crooked and tortuous that they form such an intricate entanglement that even the woodman's ax would meet with difficulties to isolate and liberate them. The branches appear to have an intrinsic tendency to reach the ground, and when they do so strike root and become daughter trees, growing skyward, and soon rival in height the parent tree. In the woods it is not uncommon to find the parent tree surrounded at variable distances by numerous daughter trees. Many such ambitious branches are formed into graceful arches before they attain the wished-for independence. This tree, with its numerous offspring and interlacing branches, contributes much in rendering the jungles in which it grows impenetrable in many places. The wood is white and soft. The leaves are as large as an ordinary small soup-plate, long-petioled, seven-ribbed, broadly cordate and acuminate, dark green and glossy on their upper, and strongly veined and paler, on their lower surface.

_Banyan Tree_.—The _Ficus Indica_, a native tree of India, remarkable for its vast rooting branches, outstripping in this respect by far the tree just described. It is a species of wild fig, has ovate, heart-shaped, entire leaves, about five or six inches long, and produces a fruit of a rich scarlet color, not larger than a cherry, growing in pairs front the axils of the leaves. The branches send shoots downwards, which, when they have rooted, become stems; the tree in this manner spreading over a great surface, and enduring for many years. The banyan tree found in the island of Tahiti docs not spread as much as the Indian tree, and the aerial roots which later become a part of the trunk after they strike the ground and develop an independent existence, become supplied with new roots. Most of the aerial roots of the Tahitian tree take their origin from the lower part of the trunk and remain in close contact with it after they strike the ground, and many of them remain dangling free in the air in vain attempts to secure an independent existence, the branch roots being comparatively few. The tree is found at short intervals along the ninety-mile drive, and the largest one I saw was in the front yard of the Cercle Bougainville, the French club in Papeete.

_Pandanus Tree, Screw Pine_.—The _Pandanus Freycinctia_ natural order of _Pandaneæ_. There are about fifty species of this tree, natives of South Africa to Polynesia. The pandanus tree of Tahiti is a palm-like tree which is found along the shore close to the water's edge, with a short white stem, much branched with long, simple imbricated leaves, usually spiny on the back and margin, their base embracing the stem, their spiral arrangement being well marked. The base of the stem does not touch the ground, but rests on a cluster of strong roots, which diverge somewhat before they strike the soil. The leaves are much used for thatch roofs and the thin, compact, superficial layer serves as wrappers for the native cigarettes. The fruit is edible and is eaten by the natives in times of scarcity of food.

_Flame Tree, Flamboyer_.—The _Brachychiton acerifolium_ is the Australian flame-tree introduced, as is asserted, into Tahiti by Bougainville. It is a magnificent and common shade tree in Papeete, but is also found scattered all along the coast of the island. It is an evergreen tree with showy trusses of crimson flowers. This is the most beautiful of all ornamental trees in the island. The mucilaginous sap, when exuded, indurates to a kind of bassarin—tragacanth.

VANILLA CULTIVATION IN TAHITI

The cultivation of the aromatic vanilla-bean is one of the principal industries of Tahiti. The bean grows luxuriantly in the shady forests in the lowlands along the coast, and requires but little care. The climate and soil of Tahiti are specially adapted to the cultivation of the vanilla-bean, as the very best quality is grown here. The _Vanilla aromatica_ is a genus of parasitic _Orchidaceæ_, a native of tropic parts of America and Asia, which springs at first from the ground and climbs with twining stems to the height of from twenty to thirty feet on trees, sending into them fibrous roots, produced from nodes, from which the leaves grow. These roots, drawing the sap from the trees, sustain the plant, even after the ground-root has been destroyed. Flower white; corolla tubular; stigma distant from anthers, rendering spontaneous fructification difficult; leaves oblong, light green, fleshy, with an exceedingly acrid juice; flowers in spikes, very large, fleshy and generally fragrant. The fruit is a pod-like, fleshy capsule, opening along the side. The ripe bean is cylindrical, about nine inches in length, and less than half an inch thick. It is gathered before it is entirely ripe, and dried in the shade. It contains within its tough pericarp a soft black pulp, in which many minute seeds are imbedded. The plant is cultivated by cuttings. In Mexico and South American countries, the insects effect impregnation; in Tahiti, this is done artificially. With a small, sharp stick the pollen is conveyed to the stigma of the pistil. Artificial impregnation of fifteen hundred flowers is considered a good day's work. Allusion has been made elsewhere to the fact that the shrewd Chinamen have depreciated the vanilla industry in Tahiti and ruined the reputation of the product. If the natives could be induced to stop their dealings with the scheming Chinese merchants and traders, and the government would release them from export duty, the cultivation of vanilla would soon regain its former importance and would yield a very profitable income. The Tahitians are not agriculturists; they are averse to hard manual labor; they are

Of proud-lived loiterers, that never sow,

Nor put a plant in earth, nor use a plough.

CHAPMAN.

and hence are anxious to obtain what little money they need with as little effort as possible. Vanilla, once planted, requires very little attention, and it grows most luxuriantly in the dark shadow of the dense forest, where the natives engaged in artificial impregnation of the flower and in gathering the bean are protected against the direct heat of the sun. The great advantage of vanilla-cultivation to the island consists in the fact that this valuable article of commerce can be grown without deforestation, so essential in the cultivation of much less valuable products of the soil of the tropics.

THE RURAL DISTRICTS

Papeete is not the place to study the natives, their habits and customs, as European influence and example have here largely effaced the simplicity and charms of native life. The rural districts are the places for the tourist to get glimpses of real native life. He will find there the best specimens of natives, and an opportunity to study their primitive methods of living. There is no other island of similar size where the traveler will find it so easy to visit all of the rural districts and villages. By following the ninety-mile drive, he can encircle the entire island in a comfortable carriage, and finish the trip in four days, if his time is limited, and in doing so he sees the inhabited part of the island and nearly all of the villages. He will see on this trip Paea Grotto and cave, also picnic-grounds, eighteen miles from Papeete, Papara, six miles further, is noted for native singing, chanting and dancing. The real Tahitian life is met at Pari and Tautira. On the other side of the island, the road skirts along the coast and ascends five hundred feet above the level of the sea. The drive is a charming one, as the traveler never loses the sight of mountains and hills, and only very seldom, and at long intervals, of the blue Pacific Ocean. In some places the road-bed is cut through solid rock, and for a few moments the panoramic view of the magnificent scenery is shut out from sight, but on the other side of the cut a picture more beautiful than ever is unrolled. The ocean claims the first attention as it smiles in the dazzling sunshine beneath where

The murmuring surge,

That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes.

Can not be heard so high.

SHAKESPEARE.

In the distance we can see the foam-crested waves dash over the coral reef in their attempts to reach the placid waters of the peaceful lagoon, where the wavelets play with the pebbles on the shore. Looking toward the left, we again are face to face with the mountains, that are our constant companions, on the entire route. There is a feeling of solemnity which takes possession of the soul when communing with Nature in her grandest mood, and we begin to feel that

I live not myself, but I become

Portion of that around me; and to me

High mountains are a feeling; but the hum

Of human cities, torture.

BYRON.

We see the naked mountain-peaks and the bare backs of the foot-hills.

Rock-ribbed, and ancient as the sun.

BRYANT.

We pass through magnificent groves of cocoa-palms, and now the road leads through a primeval forest with an impenetrable jungle on its floor, where

The winds within the quiv'ring branches play'd,

And dancing trees a mournful music made.

DRYDEN.

We pass through or near the quaint native villages peopled with naked children, scantily dressed women, and men whose only garment consists of a much-checkered, many-colored calico loin-cloth. We cross rivers, brooks and rivulets without number, and looking for their source we see glimpses, here and there, of cascades and cataracts, high up on the mountainside, in the form of streaks of silver in the clefts of the deep green ocean of trees. We see butterflies by the hundreds, of all colors, playing in the sunshine or eagerly devouring the nectar of the sweetest flowers. We admire the richness and variety of the floral kingdom, and inhale the perfume of the fragrant flowers, suspended in the pure air and wafted to us by the cool land breeze sent down from the top of the mountains. As the sun approaches the horizon, and the short, bewitching twilight sets in, with the gorgeous display of colors in the sky and the wonderful effects of light and shadow on sea and shore, we can realize that

Softly the evening came. The sun from the western horizon

Like a magician extended his golden wand o'er the landscape;

Twinkling vapors arose; and sky, and water, and forest.

Seemed all on fire at the touch, and melted and mingled together.

LONGFELLOW.

The vistas and views along this circular drive are infinite; the surprises at every turn without number. No matter how much the visitor may have traveled, even if he has seen the whole world outside of this blessed island, he will see here many things he has never seen before. Every step brings new revelations of the beauty and goodness of Nature and her tender care for man. What a paradise for lovers of nature, for poets and artists! Here is a place above all others in the world, where

No tears

Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.

LONGFELLOW.

The further the visitor wends his way from Papeete, the more he will find the natives in their natural state, and the less contaminated by European influence. On the opposite side of the island, at Pari, the people have preserved their native customs, and live now about in the same manner as when Wallis discovered the island. Religion and civilization have liberated them from ancient barbarities, but have had little influence in changing their customs, for

Custom has an ascendency over the understanding.

DR. I. WATTS.

All of the villages scattered at short intervals along the ninety-mile drive are small; the largest with not more than five hundred inhabitants. In Papeete, and between it and Papara, the natives live in small frame houses, built on piling several feet above the ground, covered with a roof of corrugated iron, and made more spacious and comfortable by a veranda facing the road. Few native houses are encountered on this part of the journey. Beyond Papara they are the rule, and these retain their primitive charm. They are built of upright sticks of bamboo, lashed side by side to a frame of stripped poles in the form of an oval. Upon this is a heavy roof of pandanus thatch covering a cool, well-ventilated, sanitary home. The air circulates freely through the open spaces between the poles, as well as between the two doorways on opposite sides of the house. Mats take the place of a floor.

Cooking is done outside without the use of a stove. The native oven is a very simple affair, as it consists of a layer of stones upon which a fire is built. When heated to the requisite degree—and this is a matter the experienced housewife must determine—the food is placed amid the embers, wrapped in pieces of banana leaves and covered over with piles of damp breadfruit leaves. Breadfruit, taro, green bananas and plantains, are the articles of food prepared in this way. The roasting of a pig, the favorite meat of the South Sea Islanders, is a more complicated process, and to do it well requires much experience. A hole is dug in the ground and paved with stones, upon which a fire is built. When the stones are thoroughly heated and the fire exhausted or extinguished, the whole animal, properly prepared and wrapped in leaves, is placed in the pit, covered with damp leaves and loose earth. On great festive occasions, fowl and fish are added to the contents of the pit. The pork, fowl and fish cooked in this manner are delicious, and the slightly smoky taste only adds to their savoriness. It is the pride of the cook to remove the roasted pig without mutilation, usually a very delicate task. Chicken, boiled in the milk of the cocoanut, is another masterpiece of native cookery. The cocoanut is prepared in many ways for the table and a sauce made of the compressed juice of the grated nut, mixed with lime juice and sea-water, makes a most palatable sauce for meats and fish.

House-building and housekeeping are free from care and never ruffle the family peace. If a young couple desire to establish a home of their own, they signify their intentions to their friends and neighbors. These gather, usually Sunday afternoon at two o'clock, at the place selected for the new home, bring bamboo sticks, poles and pandanus leaves, and at sundown the house is ready for occupation. The pandanus roof does efficient service for about seven years, when it has to be removed and replaced by a new one. The bamboo framework, properly protected, lasts for a much longer time. As the whole house consists of a single oval room, is floorless and not encumbered by furniture of any kind, the house-wife has an easy existence, more especially as the children can not outwear their clothing, and their husband's loin-cloths need no repairs.

While meat in Tahiti is scarce, every family has an easy access to a rich fish-supply. The fish which swarm in the lagoons and outside of the reefs furnish an easily secured food-supply. They are caught in different ways—by hook or netting—and not the least picturesque way is the torchlight fishing on the lagoon. Torches are improvised of long cocoa-palm leaves tied into rolls. With a boat-load of these, together with nets and spears, the fishermen in their canoes paddle out upon the water after dark. Flying fish, attracted by the light, shoot overhead and are dexterously caught in a hand-net. Other kinds of fish, by aid of the light, are speared over the side of the canoe. _Dolphin_ and bonita, the latter a favorite fish, are taken with the hook and line, in larger canoes sailing on the open sea, but this kind of fishing is left to a few hardy men. The women scoop up small river-fish in baskets, and drag-nets are used in capturing the many varieties of small fish of the lagoon. While the fish are being cooked in the underground oven, some member of the family goes into the adjacent forest and in a short time returns with breadfruit, and a variety of fruits, to make up a dainty and substantial repast.

The island is divided into seventeen districts and each district has its own chief, who is entrusted with the local government. The chiefs are elected by popular vote every few years, the office being no longer hereditary. The chief resides in the principal village of his district and here is to be invariably found a government school, a Protestant and a Catholic church with its respective parochial school, and a meeting-house which serves as a gathering-place for the annual native plays and on all occasions of public concern. A daily mail supplies the rural population with the news of the island and keeps them in touch with the outside world. Abject poverty in the city and country is unknown, and begging is looked upon as a disgrace. There is neither wealth nor poverty in Tahiti. The people have all they need and all they desire, and

Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.

SHAKESPEARE.