Thursday, October 24, 2013

Curtaining Clouds

More on R.D.F.'s book 'The book of Puka-Puka'. Every chapter starts with a song or chant in Pukapukan and English. The chant above is from chapter 'Little Sea'.

A couple of quotes: 

Foreword:
"I hunted long for this sanctuary. Now that I have found it, I have no intention, and certainly no desire, ever to leave it again."

On entering Puka-Puka for the first time:
"I was wondering all this while what the future might have in store for me at Puka-Puka. Would I find there the realization of my dreams of an island solitude? Already I had wandered far and wide over the Pacific, and the conviction grew upon me that the real glamour of the South Seas had been off for a hundred years. Men newly arrived among the islands often refuse to accept the fact that civilization, so called, has long since destroyed their charm."

In a letter to his brother:
"There is something about the tropics, brother, which you do not understand. There is a feeling of rest and comfort and contentment, which after all is one of the greatest things we can wish for, because after all what do we strive for in life if it is not a future chance for rest and comfort and contentment?"

On a trip with his wife and her niece:
"For two weeks we lived there, fishing, eating, swimming, sleeping, playing, loving, with torchlight expeditions at night for coconut crabs and sea birds; with long swims across the bay from one coral head to another where we could rest and eat raw 'paua' clams. Sometimes we did nothing at all, merely lying in the shade on the beach, sensuously enjoying the gifts of God."

Drawings from 'Mahlon Blaine', in this book, on how to catch a female turtle

... and on how to catch a male turtle

P.S. I'm looking for an one-picture-tells-it-all image of Puka-Puka. Sea, beach, coral, coconuts trees and beautiful clouds. I haven't found it yet.

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