Love-Life in a Lanai [pp. 174-180]

1873.] LOVE-LIFE IN A LANAI.`77
sically, and seemed to invite us to the of the manipulator are folded, every
shore. nerve in the body is seized with an in The great charm of a native - feast is tense little spasm of recognition, and
the entire absence of all formality. Ev- dies happy. A dreamless sleep suc ery man is privileged to seek whom his ceeds, and this is followed by an awak heart may most desire, and every wom- ening into new life, full of proud possi an may receive him or reject him as her bilities.
spirit prompts. We noticed that the We were lorni-lomied to the murmurs
Commodore was uneasy. He was as of the reef, and during the intervals of
plump as a seal, and the crowd oppress- consciousness saw an impromptu re ed him. We resolved to get the old hearsal of the "Naiad Queen," in oper gentleman out of his misery, and pro- atic form. The dancing girls, being
-posed an immediate adjournment to the somewhat heated, had plunged into the
beach. The inner court was soon de- sea, and were complaining to the moon
serted, and our little party-which now in a chorus of fine harmonies. History
embraced, figuratively, several magnifi- does not record how long their sea-song
cent chiefesses, as well as the primitive rang across the waters. I know that we
Hawaiian orchestra-moved in silence dozed, and woke to watch a silver sail
toward the sea. The long, curving wafted along the vague and shadowy
beach glistened and sparkled in the distance like a phantom. We slept
moonlight. The sea, within the reef, again, and woke to a sense of silence
was like a tideless river, from whose broken only by the unceasing monody
pellucid depths, where the coral spread of the reef; slept and woke yet again in
its wilderness of branches, an unearthly the waning light, for the moon had sunk
radiance was reflected. A fleet of slen- to the ragged rim of an old crater, and
der canoes floated to and fro upon the seemed to have a large piece bitten out
water, and beyond them the creaming of her glorious disk. Then we broke
reef flashed like a girdle of silver, belt- camp by the shore-for the air was a
ing us in from all the world. trifle chilly - and withdrew into the
The crowning luxury of savage life is seclusion of the Commodore's Lanai,
the multitudinous bondsman who antic- where we threw ourselves into ham ipates your every wish, and makes you mocks and swung until daybreak.
blush at your own poverty of invention In those days we fed on lotus-flowers.
by his suggestions of unimagined joys. Jack-ashore lives for the hour only, and
Mats-broad, sweet, and clean-lay un- the very air of such a latitude breathes
der foot, and served our purpose better enchantment. I believe we bathed be than Persian carpets. The sea itself fore'sunrise, and then went regularly to
fawned at our feet, and all the air was bed and slept till noon. Such were the
shining and soft as though the moon had Commodore's orders, and this is our
dissolved in an ecstasy, and nothing but apology. There was a breakfast about
-a snap of cold weather could congeal one P.M., at which we were permitted to
her again. Wherever we lay, pillows appear in undress. The Commodore
were mysteriously slipped under our set the example by inviting us to the ta heads, and the willingest hands in the ble in an extraordinary suit of cream world began an involuntary performance colored silk that was suggestive of pan of the lomi-lomi. Let me not think up- jamas, but might have been some ori on the torn 1- lorni, for there is none of it ental regalia especially adapted for morn -within reach; but I may say of it, that, ing wear. He looked- like a ship under
before the skillful and magnetic hands full sail, rocking good-naturedly in a dead