Evening Star Newspaper, June 8, 1924, Page 72

b 2 THE SUNDAY ST WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 8, 1924—PART 5. Schooner Flounders in Menacing Sweep of a Great Waterspout . Frederick O'Brien, one of the ' most successful of all the inter- preters of the South Seas, de- scribed last week how, in making a voyake through the Paumotu Archipelago. the small bout on which he and his companions were attemptiag a landing wag over- turned In the surf. Mr. O'Brien was plunged beneath u coral reef and penned under the water, un- able to find his way out. He was eventually rescued by a native, whom, in frantic alarm, however, he mistook for a shark This is the second of a serles of four extraordina articles de- scribing the experience of Mr. O'Brien in the South Seas. The vessel upon which he had salled from Tahiti the schooner Muarara, or Flylng Fish, command- ed by Capt. Jean Moet. Among the passengers who also figure {n this seri are Capt. Moet's wife Virginia, Lying Bill, McHenry, Kopeke and a brown pup, Chocolat. was By FREDERICK O'BRIEN. ROM Kaukura the Marara raced and lagged by turn. The glass fell, and T spoke to McHenry about it. pointing to the re- ometer. trouble comin’,” he said, “I know that. T don't need We South Sea men mereury in us to without any ba- cording “There testily. any barometer. have got enough 1ol the weather rometer.” « rain fell at intervals, hard enough for a bath on deck, the prized weather incident of these parts, With no fresh water in Niau, Anan or Kaukura, or not enough for bath- ing, and with only a dole on the Ma- rara for hands and faces, I, with re- membrance of Rupert Brooke's com- Plaint about the effect of sea water on coral wounds, was about half crazy for a torrential shower. But the rain passed and the sunset soothed my sorrow. Never had I known such skies. In the heaven's prism were hues not be- fore seen by me. Manila, T had thought, was of all the world apart for the beauty and brilliancy of its sunsets. Such bepainted clouds as hung over the hill of Mariveles when 1 rode down the Malecon in the days of the empire! But Manila was here surpassed in startling shape and blazing color.” A great bank of ocher held the western sky—a perfect curtain for a #tage upon which gods might enact the fall of the angels. It depended in folds and fringes over stripes of gold— « startling, magnificent design, which appeared too regular in form and color to be accident of clouds. One had to remember the bits of glass in the kaleidoscope. The gold grew red, the stripes be- came a sheet of scarlet and that ver- milion and maroon, swiftly changing us deeper dipped the sun into the sea, until the entire sky was broken into mammoth fleecy white tiles, the tesse- lated ceiling of Olympus. The can- opy grew gray, and night dropped abruptly. A wind came out of the darkness and caught the Marara under full canvas, It drove her through the rapidly building waves aut eleven knots. The hull groaned in tune with the shrieking cordage. The timbers that were long from the forest, and had fought a thousand gales, lament- ed their age in moans and whines, In grindings and ferce blows. The white water piled over the bows, deluged Wi but not | Column of Water, Furnace, and Sailors Specter Ship Told by the deck and foamed on the barrler of the cabin rise. I stripped and went forward to meet it. I could have danced in it for joy. Oh, the joy of salll Steam and motor made swift the path of the ship, but they had in them no conso- nance with nature. They were blind and deaf to the wind and wave, which were the very life of the schooner. They brought no sense of participa- tion In speed as did the white wings of the Marara, nor of kinship with the main. ~ They were alive, those elling and careening sheets of can- vas that swung to and fro with the mind of the breeze, and cried and laughed in stress of labor. The rain blanketed the ocean, the vessel heeled over to starboard until her rail was salty, the jibs pleaded for relief,” but man was Implacable. For hours we held our course, driving in the obscure night toward the home of the wondrous diver, the man with- out a nose, Mapuhi, king of the Dangerous Isles. But when the moon lit the road to Takaroa vhe lulled the wind. we drifted in and at a zephyr. midnight ok ok % LL next day, with halt a gale, we sailed past atolls and bare reefs, groves of palms and rudest rocks, primal strata and beaches of softest 2nd whitest saod. The schooner went close to thess {alands, so that it ap- peared I co'@@ throw my hat upon them; but d#tanunes here were decep- tive, and ¥ auppose we were never less than o housand feet away. Yet we were near enough to hear the smash of the surf and to see the | the uncrowned | Tin cleven knots fell to seven, and to five, | Moet made three jumps and wak at Terrifying in Aspect, Bent on Destruction of Vessel During Voyage in South Seas—Roar Seems Like That of a Blast and Passengers on Little Craft Prepare for Final Crash One of the Observers—Varied Experiences of Voyagers Furnish Entertaining Tale of Mystic Islands. was & boy on a pirate schooner, my hand on Long Tom, the brass gun, ready to fire if the cannibals pushed nearer in their canoes. Again I had trained my hand and eye so that 1 brought down the wild pigeon with my sling, and I outran the furious turtle on the beach. I dived under the reef into the cave where the free- booters had stored their ill-gotten treasure! and reveled in the bags of pleces of elght and the bars of virgin gold. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon the gale had almost dled away. The sun was struggling to break through the lowerlng sky. McHenry and Kopcke were engaged In their usual bombast of personal achlevement with women and drink, and I, to shut out their blague, was playing with Chocolat. Suddenly Kopcke broke oft in a sen- tence and shouted to Moet, who was in the trade room. “Capitaine! Capitaine!” he called loudly through the window of the cabin. “There is & flood in air. Pua- lohio On deck! On deck!" His voice vibrated with alarm, and | the wheel. He looked uheud, and I, too, saw, directly on the course we re steering, a convolute stem of water stretching from the sea to the sky. Well, T knew what it w 1 whirled McHenry around. i “Look!" I said, and pointed to the | oncoming spectacle. | “A bloody waterspout!” yelled Mc- Henr: “By cripes, here's where we pay up . I heard the native passengers and the sailors forward shouting con- fusedly, and saw them throwing themselves flat on deck, where they held on to the hatch lashings and e “CAME THE SUPREME MOMENT; THE WATERSPOUT ROSE ABOVE US ON THE PORT BOW LIKE A CLIFF, SOLID AS STONE." big fish leap in the lagoon, to drink the intoxicating draft of oneness with the lonely places and to feel the se- crets of their isolation. I was happy that before I died I had again seen the Thing I had worshipped since I began to read. I slipped off the coat of years and other stable objects. Moet, with a | fierce oath, ordered the sallors to the halyards. | Oft with every stitch!” he com- manded, as he threw the wheel hard over. “V ! Vave!" | “Trombe!" he warned his wife, who was In the cabin with another girl. | “Hold on, Virginie, hold o and be quick about 1t!" McHenry, Kopcke and I sprang to the main boom, and helped to take down the canvas and make it fast. Pray, the Marara turned on her heel like a hare pursued by a hound. Ring Lardner Believes Etiquette on Subject Should Provide for Substitute Brides and Bride- to Avoid Any Failure to Carry Out Regular Program. grooms ) the editor: No doubt every- body has heard of the book called iquette which who ever wrote same has been ad- vertising same in all the newspapers and periodicals so T won't be violat- ing no confidence when 1 mention rame. Well it seems that on acct. of this being June when the most of the weddings is suppose to come off, why the publishers of Etiquette is run- ning a special advertising campaign with a view to telling bMdes and grooms how to conduct their wed- ding without violating the rules of good usages. Well I ain’t read E uctte on acet. of how much it costs in the 1st. place and in the 2d. place we only got a 5 ft. book shelf and where would we put it and in the 3th. place T was broughten up in a 1st. ¢ s family where etiquet was their middle name 8o why should I spend money on trying to find out details which I knowed a long wile ago. But it seems to me like this month of weddings a good time to say a few words In regards to what T have observed in regards to weddings, o namely that the sameness about same has spoiled many a budding life of happiness was it not for the same- ness in regards to same. 8o without selling no book In regards to eti- quette, why I have thought out the following few idears as to how & wedding should ought to be conduct- ed and carried on so as to make it conclusive and at the same time a iittle different, because the trouble with most June weddings who I have {heard of to date {s because they |seem to lack originality, or as the | french has it Yoriginality, In the 1st, place it don't never geem to of occurred to the parents who was runfing the wedding to have a substitute bride or groom as the case may be. How many times do you read on the front page of newspapers where a bride or groom was disap- | pointed at the church door by the ! failure of the party of the 2d. part to arrive, most of which is charged to ither infidelity or bachelor dinners. If I was running the wedding I would hire a extra bride and groom so as if neither of the stars showed up or both, why I would have some- { HAS ALWAYS BEEN ETIQUETTE TO THROW RICE AND OLD SHOES AT THE DELIGHTED COUPLE.” _ body else on hand to get marred and people could go home and say they seen it. Suppose the original bride shows up and the original groom don’t show up, why If she goes ahead and marries the substitute or utility groom she is probably getting all the best of it because she has got & man that don't forget his engagements. Or vice verse. On 2d. thoughts it would be a great idear to not allow the original bride or groom to show up at all because marriage is suppose to be a great adventure and how can you have a greater adventure than have it with somebody you never seen and don’t want to see? Now in regards to the wedding ob- sequies. It has always been etiquette to throw rice and old shoes at the de- lighted couple and I might say in passing that this custom come down trom the old days of Euripides and Mother Hubbard and these 2 people was marred In a house that was just sub let for the summer and had pre- viously been lived in by a chinaman and his wife who wanted to get rid of remnants of their larder which consisted of rice and old shoes. So they throwed them at the bride and groom and the last named picked them up and took them along because they had the same tastes. But now days most people that gets marred is not chinaman and their wifes so It is my suggestion that If you have got to throw any- thing at & bride and groom Is to throw them a juniper berry and a pr. of new shoes and be sure the last ne#med is a fit. By the time a bride and groom picks up all the rice that is throwed at them, the latter has genally always spolled. Now how about the honeymoon? I suppose the etiquette guide tells the boys and gals to go to Nlagara Falls or abroad or 1000 and no hundreds islands. Well in the lst. place the U. 8. and Canadlan govt. has just got together and decide it that Niagara is getting spoiled and if steps ain't taken, why they won't be no falls left for honeymooners to glare at. They don't say it in so many plain words, but the more honeymoon couples that glares at Niagara Falls why the more libel they are to get spoiled. So in a spirit of patriotism I would suggest that for a couple of decades that wifes don’t take their husband to Nisgara Falls on their honeymoon and it seems to me in the 2d. place that when a couple is starting out on their nuptial seas they should ought to see the worse first so I would suggest a honeymoon trip on the Chicago river or the drainage canal or the N. Y. subway, It they have got to go on a train why 1 would insist that the groom goes up to the brakeman and says where is the smoker and when that is pointed out, he turns to his wite and “HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU READ WHERE A BRIDE OR GROOM WAS DISAPPOINTED AT THE CHURCH DOOR?" says 1 am going in the smoker and maybe I will see you later. And maybe when she sees him luter she will think it is some stranger trying to flirt with her and like him so much the better. Unique Horse Photos. FROA‘I a seat suspended fifty feet above the ground, an osteologist of the American Museum of Natural History took photographs of a trot- ting horse speeding below. In this way he obtained accurate records of the motion of the spine and muscles in actign. These records are being used in mounting the bones of Lee Axworthy, the champion trotting stallion of the world, so as to show him in the gait with which he made his record of 1.58%. Strange Phone Trouble. TKE telephone trouble man tells the tale of a country line that was mysteriously out of order for two hours every afternoon. It was gener- ally the same two hours, and da; after day the line was “out of order,” with indications that some one had a receiver off. An investigation by the repair men disclosed that an old lady was using the telephone receiver in those two hours for & darning esgs. | raded; The jibs were still standing, when | Moet, The waterspout was yet miles dis- tant, but rushing toward us, as we made slow starboard progress from our previous wake. The daylight the air seemed full of water. The sailors were again prone, and we, at the calm though sharp word of pulled over the companion cover. I shrank behind the house, and McHenry tucked his head into the bend of my body, while Kopcke, on his knees, held on to the traveler. “Sacramento!” said Moet, as if to himself. “Maybe she no can meet zat!” * x x % ITH pounding heart, but every sense alert, I watched the mad drive of the sable column. The Ma- rara was now In smooth water—the glassy circle of the Puahiohio—and %0 near was the terrifying, twisting mass of dark foam and spindrift that it seemed impossible we could avold it. Every inch the master, Moet alone stood up. Chocolat was huddled whimpering between his feet. 1 saw the captain pull up the straps that held the wheel when in light airs we drifted peacefully, and attach them so that the helm was fized. There was a dreadful roaring a short way off and nearing every sec- ond. The spout was bigger than any of the great trees I had seen in the California forests, and from its base a leaden tower of hurrying water seemed to wind in a spiral stream to the clouds. s “She’s going to drop,” said McHenry in my ear. “Now hold on, and we'll see who comes out of the bloody wash!" The roar was that of a blast fur- nace, and so close, o fearful, I ceased to breathe. Capt. Moet crouched by the steadfast wheel, his hand on the spokes. Forward, I saw two Tahi- tians with their palms upon their ears. Suddenly the Marara heeled over. The rail was in the water, and Kopcke, McHenry and I a tangled heap against the rail, as we strug- gled to keep our heads above the foam. Farther and farther the schooner listed. Tt was certain to me that we must meet death unden it in another instant. Moet's feet were deep in the water, and now the wheel held him up. We clutched madly at the stanchions of the rail as we choked with the salt flood. Came the supreme moment. The waterspout rose above us on the port bow like a cliff, solid as stone. A million trumpets blew to me the call of judgment day. Then the wall of water passed by a hundred feect to port. In another breath the Marara gained her polse and was on an even keel. The peril was over. “Mals, tonnere de Dieu!” cried Moet, excitedly, “zat was a cochon oV & Wi tairespouse! Zere air many in zese latitude. Some time I see seex, seven, playin’ round at wan time. I sink we make ze sail and take wan drink queeck. Eh, Virginie, ici! Donne-mot un baiser, little cabbage! Deed you pray 'ard?” Over his petit verre the captain sald to me, confidentially, “Mot, I was al- mos’ become a bon catholique again.” They are fearsome spectacles at their best, these phenomena of the sea, comparable only in awe-inspiring qualities to the dread composants of St. Elmo's fire, those apparitions of fidme which appear on mastheads and booms on tempestuous nights, as if the spirits of hell had come to wel- come the sailor to Davy Jones' locker. Waterspouts T had seen many times, they were common in these waters— |and ominous, | heads, more frequent, perhaps, than any- where else—and to the native they were the most alarming manifesta- tions of nature. Many a canoe had been sunk by them. There were leg- ends of destruction by them, and of how the gods and devils used them as weapons to destroy the war fleets of the enemies of the legend-telling tribes. When I went to sleep at 10 o'clock that night we were ranging up and down between Takepoto and Taka- Toa, Steering mo course but that of prudence, and walting for the dawn. I came on deck again at 4. The moon was two-thirds down the steep slope of the west, a golden sphere vaster than ever before. The sea was bright and quaking, and shoals of fish were waking and parting the shining surface of the water. * ok & % QUDDENLY from out of the gloom of the distance there loomed as strange a vision as ever startled a wayfarer. A huge ship, under bare poles, gol- emn and lonely of aspect and almost out of the water, lifted a black bulk as If bearing down upon us. Somber void of light or life, faney peopled It with a ghostly crew. 1 almost expected to read upon its quarter the name of Vanderdecken's specter ship, and to hear the mourn- ful volce of the Flying Dutchman's skipper report that he had at last reached a haven. The welrdness of this unexpected sight was incredibly surprising. It electrified me, dismayed me, as few phenomena have. Piri a Tuahine, at.the wheel, called down to the captain. “Paparal te pah! matal!” he an- nounced In the even tone of the Maori saflor. “The ship wrecked in the cyclone!” Moet came on deck in pajamas, sur- veyed the spectacle of desolation, said “Hon jour!" to me, gave an order to the sailor to “Keep her off,” and re- turned to snatch another nap. Kopcke stuck his head through the com- panionway to observe our bearings, squinted at the somber wraith through his heavy eyes—and replied to my query: “As you say, it is the County of Roxburgh. that English ship. She lost her reckoning, and in a big hur- ricane crashed upon the reef. Her crew put over a boat but it was smashed at once, and those whe reached the shore were badly bruised and broken by the coral. When the people of Takaroa rushed to succor them, they fought them off, because their books said the Paumotuans were savages and cannibals. It wasn't till they saw Takauha, the gendarme, and he showed them his red stripe on the sleeve of his jacket, that they realized they were not on a cannibal fsle. “Takauha brought Monsieur George Fordham, an Englishman, to interpret for them and they were taken care of. They had broken arms and legs, and too. Mapuhi bought the ship from Lloyd's for 1500 framcs. Think of that! He took everything off he could, but the hull, masts and yards stayed on. He made thousands of dollars out of the ship, and in his store you will find the doors and chests and the glass. She was built in Scotland.” 1 was below washing my hands, when the roar of the breakers came to my ears with the call of Moet that a boat was leaving. I rushed to the waist of the schooner and. catching hold of a belayed rope's end, dropped on the dancing thwart. Moet swore, but we were away. There was a high sea, and for a few seconds it was pitch and toss whether we could keep right side up. How- ever, we struck the gait of the rollers, and, with Piti a Tuahine at the long steering oar, moved toward the beach, urged on by rowers and breakers, but opposed by a strong outsetting cur- rent. The dexterity of the steersman saved us a dozen times from capsiz- ing. Often we climbed waves that, but for an expert guldance, would have crashed over us. Many and many a boat turns over in these “landings” and spills its life freight to death or hurt. Nearing the passage, a white and brawling 200 feet between murderous rocks, the boat had to be swung ob- liquely to enter, and we hung upon a comber's peak for a seeming uge, the rowers sweating furiously at the oars, until Piri a Tuahine gave a staccato signal. Oars 1inboard, we rushed down the shore side of the breaker, and were at peace in a lovely lagoon. o Of the many miles of circumference | the church treasury. —Surpassing Beauty of Marine Scenes Described — Tale of the }it about his wrists. of Takaroa, a tiny motu was inhabited by the 150 people, and on it they had built a stone quay for small boats, We made fast to it and sprang ashore. * % % % THE elders of the Mormon mission at Takaroa eventually took me to the house of Nohea, a small, neat cot- tage, at the end of.the avenue leading from’ the mole, an avenue all shining | white with coral sand. It reminded me of the shell roads of my native state, Maryland, in my childhood. It was lined with the shanties and huts of the inhabitants. Nohea greeted me quietly. He was a dark man, six feet four inches in height, big all over, his muscles well insulated by deep fat, and with the | placid giantism of a Yeddo wrestler. | He was taciturn, reserved and mel- ancholy. A friend and sometime partner of | Mapuhi (called the king of the Pau- motus, and who, of all his people in a hundred years had become dis- tinguished among whites), and as de- vout a Mormon, Nohea wax, next to Mapuhi, the foremost figure in the archipelago. He was not a trader, except that he sold hiz pearle, shell and copra for money and merchan- dise; but he had disnity, st angth and personality—not quite as had Mapuhi, but more than any other Takaroan. Among Paumotuans few men showed distinctive character. Nohea pos- sessed that, and also physical strength and skill for the diving, for | the handling of boats, and for the | making of copra. | When there was no white mission- ary at Takaroa, he was the hiero- | phant of the Mormen church. F conducted the sarvices and advised the faithful, collected the tithes, and | admonished the sinners. He did not fail in zeal for that task. Nohe painted a hell darker than a shark jaws, a pit of horror, lit by black flames which burned the non-Mor- mons, and a heaven on earth where baked pig was a free dish at all hours. Foods and rills of fresh water, many beautiful wives, song and feasting were promised the Paumotuan. Gold- en harps and streets of pearl would | hardly have brought their tithes to | The very day I joined him I began to see things through his eves. T was bathing at dusk in the clear waters of the lagoon near our home. The severe heat of the equatorial day had passed, and the still salt lake was | as refreshing to my sun-stricken and coral-scratched body as the spring of the oasis to the parched trave The night was riding fast after the sunken sun, and driving the last gleam of color from the sky. As I floated at ease upon the quiet surface of the pale-green lagoon, the sounds of the murmurous twilight— the rustling of the trees and the splash of the surf on the outer shore —were made discordant by a peculiar scrapihg nofse nearby. I turned lazily over on my face and ralsed my head from the water. On the coral in the deceptive half- light of the crepuscule was a hideous, shell-backed monster, which had emerged from an unseen lair, and moved slowly and lumberingly toward the cocoanut trees. Its motions and appearance, in the semi-obscurit took on the quality of & dream-beast, affrighting in its amazing novelty. It was like a great papier-mache animal in a pantomime. I was beset by apprehension that it might advance to the lagoon and ap- proach me in an element in which it would be my master. I swam swiftly to shore and called, “Nohea!" s Y companion came from near our hut, where on the red-hot coral stones, which had been made to glow by a fire of cocoanut husks, he cooked the fish he had caught that afternoon. He looked at me inquiringly, and T pointed to the alarming creature now disappearing in the palm grove. “‘Aue’s” he cried frascibly, and sprang after the nightmare. When I over- took him he was standing at the foot of a lofty cocoanut tree and shaking his fist at the object of his pursuit, which was climbing with unbelievable speed up the slippery gray trunk. “I tefenei! It is the kaveu, that devil of the night who robs us of our cocoanuts while we sleep. But wait! 1 made a vow to destroy the next one I found thieving!” Nohea went a hundred yards to where a banana plant was growing in earth brought from Tahiti. He gath- ered clay and leaves, and with pains taking effort fashioned a wreath of the mixture six inches wide and sev- eral feet in length. I stood in won- derment, guessing that he was mak- | silent, ing a charm ‘o bring about the death of the despoiler of the groves. Nohea took a length of coir, the rope the Paumotuans make of cocoa- nut fiber—from the tree which feeds them, clothes them and houses them— and, tying it into a girdle but 1ittie larger than the girth of the palm, put The cocoanut tree had at regular intervals upon its trunk projecting bands of its tough bark, and about the first of thess above his head Nohea slipped the rope. He pulled himselt up by it, and clasping the tree with his legs seized a higher holding place. Thus he proceeded with ease until he had reached a point half way of the lofty column. There he halted, and taking from his shoulders his matted band he plastered it firmly around the trunk, He then slipped to the ground. T was as puzzled as a boy who was told at sailing that the ship was weighing ita anchor and saw no scale That will do for him,” said Nohea, “as the reef shatters the canoe when the steersman fails to find the pass." He returned to the fire, and soon we were absorbed in the pleasant processes of supper. Nohea, his stom- ach full, sat contemplatively on his haunches. Now and then he cocked his ear toward the cocoanut grove, but he said nothing. The crown of the tree in which the glant crustacean ad vanished was lost in the gloom of the night. A slight breeze sprans up from the distance toward the land of the war fleet, and pandanus and miki-miki bushes forth little noises branches rubbed togethar. Over all was the atmosphere mystic aloofness which the white fecls 50 keenly in these far-away dots the utter difference of scene and inci- dent from the accustomed one of the homeland. I mused about my own future in these little known tropics— Nohea cautiously raised himself to his feet, and motioning me to be directed my attention to the tree up which had gone the ugly ma- rauder an hour before. We heard plainly a grating, incisive noise, and in a moment a huge cocoanut fell from among the swaying leaves to the earth. n ot A\ SMOTHERED exclamation of fury broke from the Paumotuan, but he made no step and continued point- ing at the palm. Then I heard a seratching, and peering through the darkness with the aid of my electric torch, I saw the colossal crab cominik down the trunk. He held on to the slippery bark by the sharp points his walking legs, and backwardly d» scended with extreme care. Nohea watched intent mal neared the the ani- girdle of clay and leaves. I noted his excitement, but still could not resolve his plan. It flashed upon me as its success was established in an instant of actlon. The robber crab, touching the clay, moved less carefully, and suddenly, to my astonishment, let go his hold, and with claws wildly beating the air, whirled downward from the height of forty feet, crashing on the rocks at the foot of the tree. In a second Nohea was upon him with a club of purau wood. But there was no need for further punishment. The drop had caused instant death., The immense shell was smashed and the monstcr lay inert upon the coral stones. The diver sprang in the air and clapped his hands rapidly, as might a winning bettor at a prize fight. “The fool!” he said. He has no koekoe—no howels of wisdom. He thought the clay was the bottom, and that he was already with the nut he had robbed me of, and which he could open and eat. Many I have killed like that, but it takes time. I have had such a thief steal my pareu for his house, and a bottle of kerosene for mere mischief. We will eat the flesh of this one's legs, and T will melt his fat against the rahul when I might have rheumatism.” This thievish crab seemed marked by his star—doubtless of the Cancer constellation—to play a deceptive part [in the crustacean world, for not oniy had he practically abandened the wa- ter as his element, learned to climb trees and to eat food utterly foreizn to his natural appetite, but ha had a habit of hiding his tall when the r of his body was in full view. He would stick it in evers convenient hole, under a log, or even in the co- | coanut shell he had emptied. He was overconscious and seemihgly ashamed of it, like an awkward man of his hands at a wedding. The remarkable strength of this mollusk was proved when one was placed in an ordinary tin cracker box, | which it could not take hold of, and a few hours later had twisted off the !1id. Nohea said that they were not casy to trap, and that more than once a Paumotuan, who had climbed a tre in the night to procure nuts, to his great horror had had his hair scized by a crab. peright, 1924.)