ABSTRACT
In order to be able to talk to Rarahu in her own tongue, to understand all her thoughts, even the deepest or the strangest, I made up my mind to learn Maori. To this end I one day purchased at Papeete the dictionary compiled by the brothers Picpus, a little old book of which but one edition was ever printed, and of which a few rare copies are scarcely to be met with at all now. This book was what first opened to me strange views of Polynesia—an unexplored field for reverie and study.
