The ironic wisdom of the Tahitians Touiavii and Outourou E. Scheurmann, Der Papalagi and Giraudoux, Supplément au voyage de Cook

Le Papalagui. Les étonnants propos de Touiavii, chef de tribu, sur les hommes blancs (1920) purports to reproduce the words of a Samoan chief whose travel notes fell into the hands of German novelist Erich Scheurmann. It recounts the shrewd islander’s observations and criticisms. To what extent was Giraudoux aware of this work? In Supplément au voyage de Cook, an apparent follow-up to Diderot’s Supplément au voyage de Bougainville, Mr. Banks is bombastic with easily disprovable assertions, and is rattled by life on the island. It is the islanders who have the last word.