{"product_id":"2940013773790","title":"The Island of Desire","description":"In a past inconceivably remote it must have been the peak of a volcano,\u003cbr\u003ejutting from the midst of a sea whose solitude was broken only by flocks of\u003cbr\u003emigrating birds, a pod of sperm whales lumbering down from the Austral ice\u003cbr\u003efields, or the intangible things of the mythic world; the spirits of Storm,\u003cbr\u003eFair Weather, Night, Day, and Dawn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCoral polyps attached themselves to the steep walls of the volcano to build\u003cbr\u003etheir submarine gardens a mile or more to sea, surrounding the island with a\u003cbr\u003ereef and shallow lagoon; then erosion, the battering of the Pacific combers,\u003cbr\u003eand subsidence, until finally the volcano had disappeared, leaving a blue\u003cbr\u003elagoon shimmering in the sunlight, a barrier reef threaded with islets and\u003cbr\u003esand cays; Danger Island, or Puka-Puka--Land of Little Hills.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo it was called by the first Polynesians who came here, centuries ago. It\u003cbr\u003eappears now much as it did then: a tiny place compared with the vastness of\u003cbr\u003ethe sea surrounding it. The low hills, scarcely twenty feet high, are shaded\u003cbr\u003eby cordia and hernandia trees, groves of coconut palms, thickets of magnolia\u003cbr\u003ebushes; and between the hills lie patches of level land where taro is grown\u003cbr\u003ein diked swamps and where the thatched houses are half obscured by clumps of\u003cbr\u003ebananas, gardenia bushes, and the gawky-limbed pandanus.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are three islets on the roughly triangular reef: Ko to the southeast;\u003cbr\u003eFrigate Bird to the southwest; and the main islet of Wale to the north. Ko\u003cbr\u003eand Frigate Bird are uninhabited eight months of the year, while on the\u003cbr\u003ecrescent-shaped bay of Wale, facing southward toward the lagoon, are the\u003cbr\u003ethree villages: Ngake, Roto, and Yato--or Windward, Central, and Leeward.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe trading station is in Central Village. I, Ropati, live in its upstairs\u003cbr\u003erooms, while the two downstairs rooms have been vacant since the station was\u003cbr\u003eclosed. The building is glaringly white, shaped like a packing case, has an\u003cbr\u003easbestos-cement roof, balconies in front and back, and, leading from the\u003cbr\u003ebalconies to the living quarters, doorways just high enough so I can crack\u003cbr\u003emy head against the lintels.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcross the village road from the station stands the schoolhouse, another\u003cbr\u003eboxlike coral building, but with a thatch roof, pleasing to the eye. The\u003cbr\u003egreat glaringly ugly church, with its red iron roof, stands to one side of\u003cbr\u003ethe schoolhouse, while elsewhere, to east and west, lagoonward and inland,\u003cbr\u003eare the Central Village houses, all save Araipu's native store, attractively\u003cbr\u003ebuilt of wattle and thatch.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe rumbling sound that rises and falls fitfully is not caused so much by\u003cbr\u003ethe surf on the outer reef as it is by the snores of my six hundred and\u003cbr\u003efifty neighbors. All are asleep, for it is midday and they must be refreshed\u003cbr\u003efor the night's toil ahead. There is old Mr. Scratch, Deacon Bribery, and\u003cbr\u003eBones piping off the watches under a coconut tree. There is William the\u003cbr\u003eHeathen folded on my woodbox, his head between his bony knees. There is\u003cbr\u003epretty Miss Strange-Eyes, daughter of Bones, without any clothes at all,\u003cbr\u003efast asleep in a canoe, while a rooster on one of the crossbeams stares at\u003cbr\u003eher perplexed. And there is Constable Benny, growling like Cerberus as he\u003cbr\u003eguards the village in his dreams.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI walk on tiptoe to the lagoon beach lest I waken the toil-exhausted\u003cbr\u003eneighbors; but even here there are scores of toddlers, aged one to ten, fast\u003cbr\u003easleep in the shady places.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe beach of the big crescent-shaped bay is not very attractive. The sand is\u003cbr\u003escarcely white, and there is plenty of rubbish strewn about; but the bay\u003cbr\u003eitself and the lagoon beyond are clean, blue, sparkling, enticing. Almost\u003cbr\u003edaily I explore its submarine mountain ranges and chase the grotesquely\u003cbr\u003ebeautiful fish among its crevices and caverns.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083177705712,"sku":"2940013773790","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013773790_p0.jpg?v=1763590099","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013773790","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}