Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1920 — ATTRACTED BY “GOLDER BED” [ARTICLE]

ATTRACTED BY “GOLDER BED”

Marquesas Islanders Fascinated by Sight of Article of Furniture New to Them. An amusing tale is told of the coming of the first brass bed to Atuona. Atuona Is one of the Marquesas Islands, a place of coconut palms, and people who are still ornamentally tattooed and who used to be cannibals before the missionaries arrived and taught them better. But no missionary had ever disembarked a brass bed on the beach of Atuona; it came with the lug-, gage of a curious traveler who had aeen the Island from the deck of a steamer, and felt an impulse to live there a while and see what it was like. He could hot depart, he says, “without penetrating into those abrupt and melancholy depths of forest, without endeavoring, though ever so feebly, to stir the cold brew of legend and tale, fast disappearing under stupor and forgetfulness.’* And so one day the boat brought him" ashore, and the populace welcomed him, marveling at the sight of the “golden bed” and nearly overcome with delight at the elasticity of the springs under the mattress. They took turns bouncing on It, while he drove an easy bargain with the possessor of a house for the use of that domicile In return for leaving the “golden bed” with the owner when he departed. Then, the bargain concluded, the wife of the chief who owned the house had the unique privilege of sitting on the bed, happily bouncing up and down, till it was lifted on the tattooed shoulders of four Marquesans and marched with honor to its destination. ——