Inland Tahiti

Wild Cattle Now Roam Fertile Uninhabited Papenoo Valley

From Our Own Correspondent

Papeete, Nov. 5.

npIIE island of Tahiti was originally * a great volcano. What is now the valley of Papenoo—a vast amphitheatre in the centre of the island—was the main crater. Ages of erosion have worn away all the softer material, leaving only the hard rocks. So the Papenoo valley is surrounded by picturesque peaks which tower from 5,000 to 7,000 ft. into the sky. Through the centre flows the Papenoo River, which drains the area and reaches the sea through a deep, winding gorge.

In ancient times Papenoo valley was thickly populated. The place is full of old house-platforms and there many marae (temples) of a more primitive form than those found on the coast of

Tahiti, No one lives in the valley now, though occasionally a party of natives will go there to gather Fei (mountain plantain), or to hunt wild pigs.

Years ago someone took a herd of cattle into Papenoo and then left them to become wild. This herd of wild cattle has increased in numbers, and Papeete butchers have taken a conces sion to hunt in Papenoo for beef.

It is no light undertaking. The’ valley is difficult of access: It is necessary to ford the river many times and, if the water is . high, the gorge is impassable.

The hunting, which must be carried on with packs of dogs, is through verv rough country. Even after the quarrv has been taken it is no easy task to get the carcase down to the coast where trucks are waiting to transport it to cold storage at Papeete.

All about the Papenoo—and in the other valleys of Tahiti, as well—are beautiful waterfalls. The old native poets named the island Tahiti Vai Uri Rau (Tahiti of the Waters of Many Colours), because the morning sun shin ing into the valleys causes the waterfalls to shimmer with the colours of the rainbow.

There have been two or three at tempts to “develop” the Papenoo valley.

The last was shortly after the close of the Great War, An oily-tongued pro moter went to Czecho-slovakia and “made medicine” which conjured mirages of lotus-blooming gardens of flowery ease on the islands of Polynesia.

A number of families entrusted their lives and savings to his hands and he conducted them out to Tahiti and settled them in the wilderness of Papenoo.

There was nearly a tragedy; but the

Czechoslovaks are of sturdy fibre. They abandoned the wilderness, made places for themselves, and have become most valued settlers in the Colony.

The early native inhabitants of Papenoo valley were probably the descendants of the primitive Polynesians who were driven inland from the coast bj a later immigration of warriors of the same race. The valley is a natural fortress protracted as it is by moun tain barriers and lofty precipices with only two narrow paths of entrance: The gorge of the river and a steep ridge overlooking Lake Vahiria. The soil is fertile and these refugees were, doubt less, able to maintain themselves for many generations against the conquerors of the coastal lands.

Since the abandonment of the interior valleys and plateaux of the island, Nature has clothed these fertile regions with tropical jungles. The cost of clearing and of blasting roadways along cliffs above the level of the raging tor rents, which the steeply bedded moun tain streams become in heavy, rainy weather, is prohibitive.

In addition, the natives, good church men though they are, still are convinced that the mountains and lonely valleys are the resort of ghosts, man-destroying spectres, and malignant demons of the Night World—after the sun goes down.

Only those of hardiest spirit will ven ture inland after nightfall, and even they consider themselves fortunate to return unscathed.

Because of all these things, the rugged interior of Tahiti is likely to remain in the undisturbed possession ( f Nature, of ghosts, and of hobgoblins for many years to come.