Epilogue

“What was I to find in Tahiti?  Certainly not what Loti had with Rarahu, for that was forty years ago, when the world was young at heart, and romance was a god who might be worshiped with uncensored tongue.  But was not romance a spiritual emanation, a state of mind, and not people or scenes?  I knew it was, for all over the earth I had pursued it, and found it in the wild flowers of the Sausalito hills in California more then the gayeties of Paris, the gorges of the Yangtse-Kiang, or in the skull dance of the wild Dyak of Borneo.”  Frederick O’Brien, “Mystic Isles of the South Seas”, 1918

I awoke from a beautiful dream.  I was sailing on a huge cargo ship.  We sailed to exotic South Sea islands, the likes no one has ever seen before.  Like coming out of a thick fog which hid them from the world, they were islands of gigantic volcanic spires, sticking thousands of feet into the sky.  They were islands of steep cliffs, diving straight into the ocean.  These islands were covered with coconut, breadfruit and guava trees and there was every shade of green you could possibly imagine.  There were islanders adorned in necklaces made of the teeth, tusks and horns of the animals they hunted.  They danced as warriors danced, with tattoos covering their entire bodies and facial expressions that would scare the bravest man.  But they were a gentle people; kind and generous, sharing their small piece of paradise with us visitors. They fed us their local fare of raw fish in coconut milk, roasted goat and pig, banana in coconut cream sauce and many more amazing dishes.  They were an artistic people, creating beautiful carvings in bone and wood.  They were great musicians playing melodic tunes on their musical instruments.  As we would leave their island and go to our ship in the whale boats, they helped us,  carrying us gently in their strong, tattooed arms.  When I awoke from this dream, I noticed something on my right leg.  It was a tattoo, with the designs from these very islands.  The designs of a cross, a man and a woman, a manta ray and the wind and waves of our ocean voyage to these magical islands.  Was it, after all, only a dream?  It now seems so.