ABSTRACT

A wonderful year for Papeete was 1872. Never had there been so many fêtes, dances and amuramas. 98Every evening it was a bewildering scene. At nightfall the Tahitian damsels decked themselves with gorgeous flowers; rapid beating on the tom-tom bid them all collect for the upa-upa. They all rushed at the call, their hair flying, their figures scarcely veiled by the thin muslin tunic, and the dancing, wildly suggestive, lasted sometimes till daybreak.