Pierre Loti (1850 - 1923) was a French naval officer and novelist, known for his exotic novels. Loti served in the South Seas as part of his naval training, living in Papeete, Tahiti for two months in 1872, where he "went native." Several years later he published the Polynesian idyll originally titled Rarahu (1880), which was reprinted as Le Mariage de Loti, the first book to introduce him to the wider public. His narrator explains that the name Loti was bestowed on him by the natives, after his mispronunciation of "roti" (a red flower). The book inspired the 1883 opera Lakm' by L'o Delibes. Loti Bain, a shallow pool at the base of the Fautaua Falls, is named for Loti.
