Page:The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vailima Edition, Volume 8, 1922.djvu/105

PREFATORY NOTE

An itinerary of my husband's wanderings might almost be drawn from his collected poems. The Song of Rahéro was first inspired by the conversation of the Princess Moe in Tautira, a village lying on the Tiarapu peninsula of Tahiti. Here we lived for several months, the guests of the princess and the chief Ori, with whom my husband "made brothers" in the island fashion. Although Moe was then grandmother to several tall girls, she was still beautiful, with much of the grace and charm of youth. It happened, while we were in Tautira, there was some legal question to be settled concerning lands, belonging to the princess, that lay in the country of Tiarapu. In discussing the matter she touched on the tradition of Rahéro, jestingly calling herself Ahupu Vehine. My husband, deeply interested, drew from her all she could tell him of the story, afterwards corroborated and enriched by the high chief Tati, whom we visited at Papora.

My husband found the change from his usual 91