Tahiti’S Charm.

Made Manifest on July 14.

From Our Own Correspondent.

Papeete, Aug. 10.

THE French National festivities of the 14th July and following days, were, as is usual in Tahiti, favoured with perfect weather, and brilliant nights just snappy and exhilarating enough to make it a pleasure for the large number of visitors to take an active part in the general merry making.

The greatest interest and the largest crowds naturally centred about the community-singing and dancing events, which attracted competitive troupes, all in special costumes of native work manship, from every district of Tahiti, and also from the neighbouring island of Moorea.

To the Tahitian-born, these perform ances provide a never-ending source of uproarious hilarity. The old-time Euro pean resident, too, who is more than half-native in his outlook upon life, will regretfully realise the changes brought by the years, but will never theless, be stirred to action by the throbbing of the drums, and revive again his experiences of earlier days before our civilisation took such a strangle-hold upon the Islands.

But the greatest thrill of all is for the visitor who, for the first time in his life, is privileged to witness these unique events, enacted upon the flower strewn grass before the Governor’s palace at Papeete. Being ignorant of the native language, customs, and traditions, he will, of course, fail to grasp the real meaning of the scene before him, for these primitive and dances go back to the very roots of native life.

But something deep down and fun damental within him will be stirred, as never before, by the unaccustomed rhythm of the drums, the wild and sonorous euphony of the chant, and the seductive tremors of the dance. Strange and but dimly comprehended longings take possession of him as he stands like one In a trance among the sea of brown faces. The enchantment of Ta hiti, to which Robert Louis Stevenson succumbed, but which neither he nor any of his literary successors could adequately put before their readers, is upon him.

This stage will pass if he stays long enough to acquire an interest in more practical affairs. But whether he elects the next steamer away, his first July period, or is reluctantly obliged to take to remain in Tahiti for an indefinite fete will remain as an unforgettable experience.