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National Geographic : 1925 Oct
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE TWO MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION DISCOVER A BOOBY'S NEST ON FAKARAVA ISLAND were left 100 yards astern. But when the cabin boy, a native of Rapa, called out to them to catch up and be towed, they bent their oars and showed what they could do. The schooner was progressing at a rate of about six miles an hour, but the boat was going at twice that speed when it neared and overtook her. On another occasion a Rapa crew rowed five miles to an islet on which cer tain sea birds were nesting. Two of the members of the crew were only about 13 years of age, but when a heavy storm arose these lads stood the test of pulling for hours against a head wind and a ris ing sea, even though the poorly balanced, homemade oars weighed close to 50 pounds. GIRLS OF RAPA ARE EXPERT IN HANDLING OUTRIGGER CANOES The girls of Rapa are scarcely less skillful in using their unstable-looking outrigger canoes. At evening they would frequently pass the schooner on their way home from taro fields on the far side of the bay, with heavy loads of the roots weighing down their narrow dugouts al most to the swamping point (see illustra tion, page 381). From babyhood these people become familiar with the sea. At all hours the children can be seen playing in the water or paddling tiny canoes alongshore. The whole population of Rapa, exclu sive of a few lepers confined in another valley, was living in or near the village on Ahurei Bay at the time of the Whitney Expedition visits. Five or six valleys that formerly sup ported villages (and which may have warred with one another in their oceanic microcosm from immemorial time) are now deserted. Only the lofty, stone forts, last refuge of the inhabitants of these communities (see page 420), still stand as monuments on the hilltops, and can be discerned from far at sea. 426
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