"Area Ra!"

A UNIVERSAL and, at times, exasperating custom among Tahitians is the amiable habit of saying what they believe their listener wishes to hear. Even when a Tahitian is a messenger bearing evil tidings, he considers it necessary to modify the afflicting intelligence with a thick sugar coating of cheerful news.

The native manager of a distant plantation coming to report to its owner that a bevy of pigs have uprooted his taro patch, or a band of plunderers carried away by night a thoviand coconuts, or a drove of horses eaten off the bark of the young breadfruit trees, will invariably preface his tale with a bulletin of propitious information—the abounding health of the cattle, the adequacy of the rain-

fall, the high quality of the copra in the warehouse.

The experienced proprietor will listen patiently, but with inward apprehension, for the sound of the word “Tirara” or “Area ra”. If the happy report ends without the pronunciation of one or the other of these words, all is well. Their usage, in this connection, is idiomatic and cannot be literally translated. But, ap pearing at the end of good tidings, they are harbingers of evil and serve as her alds of the wrath to come.

Old residents always expect the worst, so are not inconvenienced by this kindly habit. It is, however, rather devastating to newcomers; for it often raises hopes which suffer a more grievous laceration

by the longer fall.-

A.C.R.