The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
SOUTH SEA FOAM
VI“On the open window-sill of the universal soul the ancientæolian harp awakes.”—Andrew Millar, Robes of Pan.
PREFACE
THOUGH the adventures recorded in this book mayset up the impression that I am a kind of DonQuixote of the South Seas, I do not claim to havesought to redress wrongs done to beauteous duskymaidens. It was the ardent, adventurous spirit of youththat brought me to the side of such original charactersas Fae Fae, Soogy, and Fanga, and gave me the charmingfriendship of those pagan chiefs who have inspiredme to write this book. It is possible that many stay-at-homeswill think I have romanced, will think it incrediblethat such characters as I have attempted to portray reallyexisted. Well, all I can say is, that my greatest literaryeffort in the following pages has been to keep to thetruth of the whole matter, even though such franknessshould leave me, at the end of this volume, with ablackened name.
As I have introduced several Polynesian legends andmyths in this book, I would like to make a few remarkswith reference thereto. In recording my memories ofIsland folk-lore I have to use, of course, my ownorder of intelligence—as compared with that of the wildpeople who told the stories—when I attempt to recreatethe legendary lore, the poetry, and the loveliness of thenatural world as it must have appeared to the imaginationof primitive minds believing in them. In doingthis I merely accept the inevitable transmutation whichall legends and myths of primitive peoples must undergow