"Ahoa tarumea--Kapatooi Naani-Tui"--"I should like to make you acquainted with my husband, Face-of-the-Moon." Hundreds of times did I press my chin against soft ears and submit to the same gentle greeting. Hundreds of times did I raise the welcoming hoopa-shell with the usual salutation--"Lomi-lomi,"--"May you live for a thousand years and grow to enormous size." In a rest period Kippy and I swam to the reef where the younger set were sporting among the coral, diving for pearls which rolled on the purple floor. As I think now of the value of those milky globes, the size of gooseberries, I marvel that not a thought of covetousness crossed my mind. What were pearls to us? "Catch!" cried Kippy, and threw a fish-skin beauty in my direction. I admired its lustre for an instant and its perfect roundness acquiredfrom the incessant rolling of the tides--then carelessly tossed it back. It slipped between Kippy's fingers. "I'll get it," I cried, making ready to dive, but she shouted a warning. "Arani electi. Oki Kutiaa!"-"Look out! The snapping oysters!" Gazing down through the crystal depths into which our bauble had fallen I saw a great gaping _kutiaa_, the fiercest of crustacea, its shelly mouth slightly ajar, waiting for the careless hand or foot that might come within its grasp. We let the pearl go and amused ourselves by sucking the eggs of the _liho_, a bland-faced bird which makes its nest in the surface coral branches. [Footnote: The _liho_ is in many respects the most remarkable fowl in existence. It is of the _gallinaris_ or hen-family crossed with the male shad which causes the bird to produce eggs in unheard of quantity.] Here, too, we laughed over the ridiculous _ratatia_, that grotesque amphibian who is built like a ferry-boat, with a head at either end and swivel fins so that however he may move he is always going forward. From these diversions the sound of singing summoned us. The Judgment was about to take place. At top speed we swam ashore and joined the crowd. For once I was glad that literature had no place in the competition, so that Kippy and I were free to watch the proceedings. Years ago I saw the ceremonial by which the British Government conferred on the Bahia of Persia the title of "The Bab of Babs," but it was nothing compared to what I now gazed upon. As far as the eye could reach stretched the crowd. Under a gorgeous dais of _panjandrus_ leaves respondent with _alova_ blossoms sat Baahaabaa, on his right Captain Triplett, on his left Hanuhonu, the ranking visitor, and all about retinues of nobles, with their superb families, groups of dancers, slim and straight as golden birches, singers, orators and athletes. It was grand opera on a titanic scale, with the added distinction of really meaning something.