Cornell University Library The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022146694 Cornell University Library PS 2384.T9 1857 3 1924 022 146 694 TYPES: A PEEP AT POLYNESIAN LIFE, DURING A FOUR MONTHS' RESIDENCE A VALLEY OP fM MARQUESAS; THE REVISED EDITION, WITH A SEQUEL. BY HERMAN MELVILLE. NEW Y O R K : HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 329 <& 331 PEABI. SIBEET, FSANELIH SQUABE. 1857. ExTEKis according to Act of Congress, in tho year 1849, by HERMAN MELVILLE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. TO LEMUEL SHAW, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHnSETTS, THIS LITTLE WOEK 39 gratjefttlla JfttBtribjeb BY THE AUTHOR. 140o 1390 a Coral I. ' Fetou houhou, or Chsnsl I. 1380(ti Masse, or Hiaoul- 3,000 it. Nukuheva, or Murcliandl. 3843 ft; Happar o Clark^aBank PACIFIC OCEAN. MARQUESAS ISLANDS. JkNeva E. '^ C. Martin. Danger Ft. irt y* Houa-hoiuU| or WoiUngtan !■ Roft Fona, or Adsms 1 ^HItohmi, dr Domiiilcat 4,I!I> ft. TaeoaU, or Sta. ClixistiDa, 3,a9i)n. ttoodLor Q FfeUt-bonni 1,180 IT CapeBal giarie. 8" gt" :0° 140° i^m^. Wut of OreemcicA. 13B» PREFACE REVISED EDITION. The reception given to Typee has induced the author to believe it worthy of revision. And as the interest of the 'book chiefly consists in its being the history of a remarka- ble adventure, in revising it, several passages, whoUy un connected with that adventure, have been rejected as irrele- vant. Such, for example, as those referring to Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands, which, critically speaking, have nothing to do with the narrative. Here and there some slight modifications of style have also been made. Thus revised, the book is simply a record of the adven- ture, ipterspersed with accounts of the islanders, and occa- sional reflections naturally connected with the subject. The Appendix, having no relation to the story, has been left out, but its place is supplied by the Sequel of Toby. PREFACE. More than three years have elapsed since the occurrence of the events recorded in this volume. The interval, with the exception of the last few months, has been chiefly spent by the author tossing about on the wide ocean. Sailors are the only class of men who now-a-days see anything like stirring adventure ; and many things which to fire-side people appear strange and romantic, to them seem as com- mon-place as a jacket out at elbows. Yet, notwithstanding the familiarity of sailors with all sorts of curious adventure, the incidents recorded in the following pages have often served, when " spun as a yarn," not only to relieve the weariness of many a night-watch at sea, but to excite the warmest sympathies of the iauthor's shipmates. He has been therefore led to think that his story could scarcely fail to interest those who are less familiar than the sailor with a life of a,dventure. In his account of the singular and interesting people among whom he was thrown, it will be observed that he chiefly treats of their more obvious peculiarities ; and, in describing their customs, refrains in most cases from enter- ing into explanations concerning their origin and purposes. As writers of travels among barbarous communities are generally very diffuse on these subjects, he deems it right to advert to what may be considered a culpable omission. PREFACE No one can be more sensible than the author of his defi- ciencies in this and many other respects ; but when the very peculiar circumstances in which he was placed are under- stood, he feels assured that all these' omissions will be ex- cused. In very many published narratives no little degree of attention is bestowed upon dates ; but as the author lost all knowledge of the days of the week, during the occur- rence of the scenes herein related, he hopes that the reader will charitably pass over his shortcomings in this particular. In the Polynesian words used in this volume — except in those cases where the spelling has been previously deter- mined by others—that form of orthography has been em- ployed, which might be supposed most easily to convey their sound to a stranger. In several works descriptive of the islands in the Pacific, many of the most beautiful com- binations of vocal sounds have been altogether lost to the ear of the reader by an over-attention to the ordinary rules of spelling. There are some things related in the narrative which will be sure to appear strange, or perhaps entirely incom- prehensible, to the reader ; but they cannot appear more so to him tha.n they did to the author at the time. He has stated such matters just as they occurred, and leaves every one to form his own opinion concerning them ; trusting that his anxious desire to speak the unvarnished truth will gain for him the confidence of his readers. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The Sea— Longings for Shore — A Land-sick Ship^Destination of the Voyagers '.....- I CHAPTER II. Passage from the Cruising Ground to the Marquesas — Sleej^ times aboaid Sliip — South Sea Scenery — Land ho! — ^The French Squadron discov- ered at anchor in the Bay of NukuheTa — Strange Pilot— Escort of Ca- noes — ^A Flotilla of Cocoa-nuts — Swimming Visitors — The Dolly board- ed by them — State of affairs that ensue 5 CHAPTER III. State of affairs aboard the Ship — Contents of her Larder — ^Length of South Seamen's Voyages — Account of a Flying Whale-man — Determi- nation to leave the Vessel — The Bay of Nukuheva— The Typees 14 CHAPTER IV. Thoughts previous to attempting an Escape — Toby, a Fellovf Sailor, agrees to share the Adventure — ^Last Night aboard the Ship. 33 CHAPTER V. A Specimen of Nautical Oratory — Criticisms of the Sailors — ^The Starboard Watch are given a Holiday — ^The Escape to the Mountains 27 0HAPTER VI. The other side of the Mountain — Disappointment — Inventory, of Articles brought from the SMp — Division of the Stock of Bread — Appearance of the Interior of the Island — ^A Discovery — A Ravine and Waterfalls — A sleepless Night — Further Discoveries-^My Illness — ^A Marquesan Land- scape •• 36 CHAPTER VIL rhe Important duestion, Typee orHappar^ — ^A Wild Gtoose Chase— My Sufferings — Disheartening Situation— A Night in a Ravine — Morning Meal — Happy Idea of Toby— Journey towards the Valley 48 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. Perilous Passage of the Ravine — Descent into the YaJley. 58 CHAPTER IX. The Head of the Valley — Catltious Advance — ^A Path — Fruit — Discovray of two of the Natives — Their Singular Conduct — Approach towards the Inhabited Parts of the Vale — Sensation produced by our Appearance — Reception at the House of one of the Natives 68 CHAPTER X. Midnight Reflections — ^Morning Visitors — A Warrior in Costume — A Sav- age ^sculapius— Practice of the Healing Art — ^Body Servant — A Dwell- ing-house of the Valley described — Portraits of its Inmates. 81 CHAPTER XI. Officiousness of Kory-Kory — His Devotion — A Bath in the Stream — ^Want of Refinement of the Typee Damsels — Stroll mth Mehevi — A Typee Highway— The Taboo Groves — The Hoolah Hoolah Ground— The Ti — Time-worn Savages — Hospitality of Mehevi — Midnight Misgivings — ^Ad- venture in the Dark — Distinguished Honors paid to the Visitors — Strange Procession, and Return to the House of Marheyo 97 CHAPTER XII. Attempt to pKBure relief from Nukuheva — ^Perilous Adventure of Toby in the Happar Mountains — ^Eloquence of Kory-Kory. 109 CHAPTER Xin. A great Event happens in the Valley — ^The Island Telegraph — Something befalls Toby — Fayaway displays a tender Heart — ^Melancholy Reflections r— Mysterious conduct of the Islanders — Devotion of Kory-Kory— A If ural couch — A Luxury — Kory-Kory strikes a Light a la Typee. 118 CHAPTER XlV. Kindness of Marheyo and the rest of the Islanders — A full Description of the Bread-fruit Tree — Different Modes of preparing the Fruit 129 CHAPTER XV. Melancholy condition — Occurrence at the Ti — Anecdote of Marheyo— Shaving the Head of a Warrior .' 135 CHAPTER XVI. Improvement in Health and Spirits-— Felicity of the Typees — Skirmish in the Mcuntain with the Warriors of Happar ; J42 CONTENTS. CHAPTER, XVn. Swimming in company with the Girls of the Valley — A Canoe — Effects of the Taboo — ^A pleasure Excursion on the ^'ond — Beautiful freak of Pay- away — Mantua-making — A Stranger arrives in the Valley — His myste- rious conduct— Native Oratory— The Interview — Its Results— Depait- uro of the Stranger 151 CHAPTER XVIII. ileflections after Hamoo's Departure — Battle of the Pop-guns — Strange conceit of Marheyo — ^Process of making Tappa 167 CHAPTER XIX. History of a day as usually spent in the Typee Valley — Dances of the Mar- quesan Giirls '. 175 CHAPTER XX. .The Spring of Arva Wai; — Remarkable Monumental Remains — Some ideas vrith regard to the History of the Pi-Pis found in the Valley. 180 CHAPTER XXI. Preparation for a Grand Festival in the Valley — Strange doings in the Ta- boo Groves — Monument of Calabashes — Gala Costume of the T^ee - damsels — ^Departure for the Festival 185 CHAPTER XXII. The Feast of Calabashes 193 CHAPTER XXIII. Ideas suggested by the Feast of Calabashes — Effigy of a Dead Warrior — A singular Superstition — ^The Priost Kolory and the God Moa Artua — Amazing Religious Observance — A dilapidated Shrine — Kory-Kory and the Idol — An Inference 200 CHAPTER XXIV. leneral Information gathered at the Festival — ^Personal Beauty of the Ty- pees — Their Superiority over the Inhabitants of the other Islands^^Di- veifiity of Complexion — A Vegetable Cosmetic and Ointment — Testimony of Voyagers to the uncommon Beauty of the Marquesans — Few Evidences of Intercourse with Civilized Beings— Dilapidated Musket — Primitive Simplicity of Government — Regal Dignity of Mehevi 212 CHAPTER XXV. King ifthevi— Conduct of Marheyo and Mehevi in certain delicate matters —Peculiar system of Marriage — ^Nvttnber of Population — Uniformity— CONTENTS. Embalming — ^Places of Sepulture — ^Funeral obsequies at Nukuheva — Number of Inhabitants in Typee — Location of the Dwellings — Happiness enjoyed in the Valley 220 CHAPTER XXVI. The Social Condition and General Character of the Typees 237 CHAPTER XXVII. Fishing 'Parties — ^Mode of Distributing the Pish — Midnight Banq;uet — Time-keeping Papers— ^Jnceremonious style of eating the Fish 233 CHAPTER XXVIII. Natural History of the Valley — Golden Lizards — ^Tameness of the Birds — JMosquitos — Plies — ^Dogs — ^A Solitary Cat — The Climate — The Cocoa-nut Tree — Singular mode of climbing it — An a^e young Chief— Fearless- ness of the Children — ^Too-Too and the Cocoa-nut Tree — The Birds of the Valley. 238 CHAPTER XXIX. A Professor of the Pine Arts — ^Hi3 Persecutions — Something about Tat- tooing and Tabooing — ^Two Anecdotes in illustration of the latter — ^A few thoughts on the Typee Dialect 246 CHAPTER XXX. Strange custom of the Islanders — Their Chanting, and the peculiarity of their voipe — ^Rapture of the King at first hearing a Song — A new Dig- nity conferred on the Author — ^Musical Instruments in the Valley — ^Ad- miration of the Savages at beholding a Pugilistic Performance — Swim- ming Infant — ^Beautiful Tresses of the Girls — Ointment for the Hair.. . . 257 CHAPTER XXXI. Apprehensions of Evil — Frightful Discovery — Some Remarks on Cannibal- ism — ^Second battle with the Happars — Savage Spectacle — ^Mysterious Feast — Subsequent Disclosures » 203 CHAPTER XXXIL The Stranger again arrives in the Valley — Singular Interview with him Attempt to Escape — Failure — Melancholy Situation — Sympathy of Mar- heyo 273 CHAPTER XXXIIL The Escape ' 279 I SBftDEI, .„..293 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS CHAPTER I, The Sea — Longings for Shore — A Land-sick Ship — Destination of the Six months at sea ! Yes, reader, as I live, six months out of sight of land ; cruising after the sperm-whale beneath the scorch- ing sun of the Lin^ and tossed on the billows of the wide-rolling Pacific — the sky above, the sea around, and nothing else ! Weeks and weeks ago our fresh provisions were all exhausted. There is not a sweet potato left ; not a single yam. Those glo- rious bunches of bananas which once decorated our stern and quarter-deck, have, alas, disappeared ! and the delicious oranges which hung suspended from our tops and stays — ^they, too, are gone ! Yes, they are all departed, and there is nothing left ua~ but salt-horse and sea-biscuit. Oh ! for a refreshing glimpse of one blade of grass — for a snulF at the fragrance of a handful of the loamy earth ! Is there no- thing fresh around us ? Is there no green thing to be seen ? Yes, the inside of our bulwarks is painted green ; but what a vile and sickly hue it is, as if nothing bearing even the semblance of ver- dure could flourish this weary way from land. Even the bark that once clung to the wood we use for fuel has been gnawed oft* and devoured by the captain's pig ; and so long ago, too; that the pig himself has in turn been devoured. 2 RESIDENCE IN THE MARftUESAS. There is but one solitary tenant in the chicken-coop, once a gay and dapper young cock, bearing him so bravely among the coy hens. But look at him now ; there he stands, moping all the day long on that everlasting one leg of his. He turns with disgust from the mouldy corn before him, and the brackish water in his little trough. He mourns no doubt ^is lost companions, literally snatched from him one by one, and never seen again. But his days of mourning will be few ; for Mungo, our black cook, told me yesterday that the word had at last gone forth, and poor Pedro's fate was sealed. His attenuated body will be laid out upon the captain's table next Sunday, and long before night will be buried with all the usual ceremonies beneath that worthy individual's vest. Who would believe that there could be any one so cruel as to long for the decapitation of the luckless Pedro ; yet the sailors pray every minute, selfish fellows, that the miser, able fowl may be brought to his end. They say the captain will never point the ship for the land so long as he has in anticipation a mess of fresh meat. This unhappy bird can alone furnish it ; and when he is once devoured, the captain will come to his senses. I wish thee no harm, Peter ; but as thou art doomed, sooner or later, to meet the fate of all thy race ; sand if putting a period to thy existence is to be the signal for our deliverance, why — truth to speak — I wish thy throat cut this very moment ; for, oh ! how I wish to see the living earth again ! The old ship herself longs to look out upon the land from her hawseholes once more, and Jack Lewis said right the other day when the captain found fault with his steering. " Why, d'ye see. Captain Vangs," says bold Jack, " I'm as good a helmsman as ever put hand to spoke ; but none of us can steer the old lady now. We can't keep her full and bye sir : watch her ever so close, she will fall off; and then, sir, when I put the helnr down so gently, and try like to coax lier to the work, she won't take ^ Vindly, but will fall round off again ; and it's all because she A LAND-SICK SHIP. knows the land is under the lee, sir, and she won't go any more to windward." Aye, and why should she. Jack ? didn't every one of her stout timbers grow on shore, and hasn't she sensibilities as well as we ? Poor old ship ! Her very looks denote her desires : how deplora- bly she appears ! The paint on her sides, burnt up by the scorch- ing sun, is puiTed out and cracked. See the weeds she trails along with her, and what an unsightly bunch of these horrid barnacles has formed about her stern-piece ; and every time she rises on a sea, she shows her copper torn away or hanging in jagged strips. Poor old ship ' I say again : for six months she has been roll- ing and pitching about, never for one moment at rest. But cou- rage, old lass, I hope to see thee soon within a biscuit's toss of the merry land, riding snugly at anchor in some green cove, and sheltered from the boisterous winds. :f: 4i 4: 4: 4> ^ 4t " Hurra, my lads ! It's a settled thing ; next week we shape our course to the Marquesas ! The Marquesas ! What strange visions of outlandish things does the very name spirit up ! Lovely houris — cannibal banquets — groves of cocoa-nuts^coral reefs— tatooed chiefs — and bamboo temples ; sunny valleys planted with bread-fruit-trees— carved canoes dancing on the flashing blue wa. ters — savage woodlands guarded by horrible idoh— heathenish rites and human sacrifices. Such were the strangely jumbled anticipations that haunted me during our passage from the cruising ground. I felt an irresisti- ble curiosity to see those islands which the olden voyagers had so glowingly described. The group for which we were now steering (although among the earliest of European discoveries in the South Seas, having been first visited in the year 1595) still continues to be tenanted by beings as strange and barbarous as ever. The missionaries, sent on a heavenly errand, had sailed by their lovely shores, and RESIDENCE IN THE MARaUESAS. had abandoned them to their idols of wood and stone. How inter- esting the circumstances under which they were discovered ! In the watery path of Mendanna, cruising in quest of some region of gold, these isles had sprung up like a scene of enchantment, and lor a moment the Spaniard believed his bright dream was realized. In honor of the Marquess, de Mendoza, then viceroy of Peru — under whose auspices the navigator sailed — he bestowed upon them the name which denoted the rank of his patron, and gave to the world on his return a vague and magnificent account of their beauty. But these islands, undisturbed for years, relapsed into their previous obscurity ; and it is only recently that anything has been knowff concerning them. Once in the course of a half century, to be sure, some adventurous rover would break in upon their peaceful repose, and, astonished at the unusual scene, would be almost tempted to claim the merit of a new discovery. Of this interesting group, but little account has ever been given, \f we except the slight mention made oT them in the sketches of South-Sea voyages. Cook, in his repeated circumnavigatioins of the globe, barely touched at their shores ; and all that we know about them is from a few general narratives. Within the last few years American and English vessels en- gaged in the extensive whale fisheries of the Pacific have coca- sionally, when short of provisions, put into the commodious harbor which there is in one of the islands ; but a fear of the natives, founded on the recollection of the dreadful fate which many white men have received at their hands, has deterred their crews from intermixing with the population sufficiently to gain any insight into their peculiar customs and manners. Indeed, there is no cluster of islands in the Pacific that has been any length of time discov-. ered, of which so little has hitherto been known as the Marque- sas, and it is a pleasing reflection that this narrative of mine will do something towards withdrawing the veil from regions so roman- tic and beautiful. THE PASSAGE. CHAPTER II. Passage fiom the Cruising Ground to the Marquesas — Sleepy times aVjard Ship — South Sea Scenery — Land ho ! — The French Squadron discoTered at Anchor in the Bay of Nukuheva — Strange Pilot — Escort of Canoes— A Flotilla of Cocoa-nuts — Swimming Visitors — The Dolly boarded by them — State of affairs that ensue. I CAN never forget the eighteen or twenty days during which thf. light trade-winds were silently sweeping us towards the islands In pursuit of the sperm whale, we had been cruising on the linf' some twenty degrees to the Westward of the Gallipagos ; and all that we had to do, when our course was determined on, was to square in the yards and keep the vessel before the breeze, and then the good ship and the steady gale did the rest between them. The man at the wheel never vexed the old lady with any super, fluous steering, but comfortably adjusting his limbs at the tiller, would doze away by the hour. True to her work, the Dolly headed to her course, and like one of those characters who always do best when let alone, she jogged on her way like a veteran ol(J sea-pacer as she was. What a delightful, lazy, languid time we had whilst we were thus gliding along ! There was nothing to be done ; a circum- stance that happily suited our disinclination to do anything. We abandoned the fore-peak altogether, and spreading an awning over the forecastle, slept, ate, and lounged under it the live-long day. Every one seemed to be under the influence of some nar- cotic. Even the officers aft, whose duty required them never to be seated while keeping a deck watch, vainly endeavored to keep RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. on their pins ; and were obliged invariably to compromise the matter by leaning up against the bulwarks, and gazing abstract- OL'ly over the side. Reading was out of the question ; take a book iu your hand, and you were asleep in an instant. Although I could not avoid yielding in a great measure to the ,j;tneral languor, still at times I contrived to shake off the spell, . and to appreciate the beauty pf the scene around me. The sky presented a clear expanse of the most delicate blue, except along' the skirts of the horizon, where you might see a thin drapery of pale clouds which never varied their form or color. 'The long, measured, dirge-like swell of the Pacific came rolling along, with its surface broken by little tiny waves, sparkling in the sunshine. Every now and then a shoal of flying fish, scared from the water under the bows, would leap into the air, and fall the next moment like a shower of silver into the sea. Then you would see the superb albicore, with his glittering sides, sailing aloft, and often describing an arc in his descent, .disappear on the surface of the water. Far off, the lofty jet of the whale might be seen, . and nearer at hand the prowling shark, that villainous footpad of *the seas, would come skulking along, and, at a wary .distance, regard us with an evil eye. At times, some shapeless mon- ster of the deep, floating oh the surface, would, as we approached, sink slowly into the blue waters, and fade away from the sight. But the most impressive feature of the scene was the almost un- broken silence that reigned over sky and water. Scarcely a 3ound could be heard but the occasional breathing of the gram- pus, and the rippling at the cut-water. As we drew nearer the land, I hailed with delight the appear- ance of innumerable sea-fowl. Screaming and whirling in spi- ral tracks, they would accompany the vesseTf iqjp|?iSff?IBtmes alight in our yards and stays. That piratical-lf^pu^/^low, 'appropri- itely named the man-of-war's-hawk, with his'blopd-red bill and raven plumage, would come sweeping round us in gfeiflually di. ISLAND OF NUKUHEVA. minishing circles, till you could distinctly mark the strange flashings of his eye ; and then, as if satisfied with his ohservation, would sail up into the air and disappear from the view. Soon, other evidences of our vicinity to the land were apparent, and it was not long before the glad announcement of its being in, sight was heard from aloft, — given with that peculiar prolongation (i sound that a sailor loves — " Land ho !'* The captain, darting on deck from the cabin, bawled lustily for his spy-glass ; the mate in still louder accents hailed the mast- head with a tremendous " where-away ?" The black cook thrust his woolly head from .the galley, and Boatswain, the dog^ leaped up between the knight-heads, and barked most furiously. Land ho ! Aye, there it was. A hardly perceptible blue irregular outline, indicating the bold contour of the lofty heights of Nuku heva. This island, although generally called one of the Marquesas, is by some navigators considered as forming one of a distinct cluster, comprising the islands of Roohka, Ropo, and Nukuheva ; upon which three the appellation of the Washington Group has been bestowed. They form a triangle, and lie within the paral- lels of 8° 38" and 9° 32" South latitude,- and 139° 20' and 140° 10' West longitude from Greenwich. With how little propriety they are to be regarded as forming a separate group will be at once apparent, when it is considered that they lie in the immedi. ate vicinity of the other islands, that is to say, less than a degree to the north-west of them ; that their inhabitants speak the Mar. quesan dialect, and that their laws, religion, and general customs are identical. The only reason why they were ever thus arbi- trarily distinguished, may be attributed to the singular fact, that their existence was altogether unknown to the world until the year 1791, when they were discovered by Captain Ingraham, of Boston, Massachusetts, nearly two centuries after the discovery of the adjacent islands by the agent of the Spanish Viceroy. RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. Notwithstanding this, I shall follow the example of most voyagers, and .treat of them as fonning part and parcel of the Marquesas. Nukuheva is the most important of these islands, being the only one at which ships are much in the habit of touching, and is celebrated as being the place where the adventurous Captain Porter refitted his ships during the late war between England and the United States, and whence he sallied out upon the 'large whaling fleet then sailing under the enemy's flag in the sur- rounding seas. This island is about twenty miles in length and nearly as many in breadth. It has three good harbors on its coast ; the largest and best of which is called by the people living in its vicinity, " Tyohee," and by Captain Porter was denominated Massachusetts Bay. Among the adverse tribes dwelling aboul the shores of the other bays, and by all voyagers, it is generally known by the name bestowed upon the island itself — Nukuheva. Its inhabitants have become somewhat corrupted, owing to their recent commerce with Europeans ; but so far as regards their peculiar customs, and general mode of life, they retain their original primitive character, remaining very nearly in the same state of nature in which they were first beheld by white men. The hostile clans, residing in the more remote sections of the island, and very seldom holding any communication with foreign- ers, are in every respect unchanged from their earliest known condition. In the bay of Nukuheva was the anchorage we desired to reach. We had perceived the loom of the mountains about sun- set ; so that after running all night with a very light breeze. We found ourselves close in with the island the next morning ; but as the bay we sought lay on its farther side, we were obliged to sail some distance along the shore, catching, as we proceeded, short glimpses of blooming valleys, deep glens, waterfalls, and waving groves, hidden here and there by projecting and rocky headlands, every moment opening to the yiew some new and startling scene of beauty. BAV OF NUKUHEVA. Those who for the first time visit the South Seas, generally are surprised at the appearance of the islands when beheld from th^ sea. From the vague accounts we sometimes have of their beauty, many people are apt to picture to themselves .enamelled and softly swelling plains, shaded over with delicious groves, and watered by purling brooks, and the entire country but little elevated above the surrounding ocean. The reality is very dif- ferent ; bold rock-bound coasts, with the surf beating high against the lofty cliffs, and broken here and there into deep inlets, which open to the view thickly-wooded valleys, separated by the spurs of mountains clothed with tufted grass, and sweeping down towards the sea from an elevated and furrowed interior, form the principal features of these islands. Towards noon we drew abreast the entrance to the harbor, and at last we slowly swept by the intervening promontory, and entered the bay of Nukuheva. No description can do justice to its beauty ; but that beauty was lost to me then, and I saw nothing but the tri-colored flag of France trailing over the stern of six vessels, whose black hulls and bristling broadsides pro- claimed their warlike character. There they were, floating in that lovely bay, the green eminences of the shore looking down so tranquilly upon them, as if rebuking the sternness of their aspect. To my eye nothing could be more out of keeping than the pre- sence of these vessels ; but we soon learnt what brought them there. The whole group of islands had just been taken possession of by Rear- Admiral Du Petit Thouars, in the name of the invin. cible French nation. This item of information was imparted to us by a most extraor- dinary individual, a genuine South-Sea vagabond, who came alongside of us in a whale-boat as soon as we entered the bay, and, by the aid of some benevolent persons at the gangway, was assisted on board, for our visitor was in that interesting stage of intoxica,iion when a man is amiable and helpless. Although 2* 10 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. he was utterly unable to stand erect or to navigate his body across the deck, he still magnanimously proffered his services to pilot the ship to a good and secure anchorage. Our captain, however, rather distrusted his ability in this respect, and refused to recog- nize his claim to the character he assumed ; but our gentleman was determined to play his part, for, by dint of much scrambling, he succeeded in getting into the weather-quarter boat, where he steadied himself by holding on to a shroud, and then commenced issuing his commands with amazing volubility and very peculiar gestures. Of course no one obeyed his orders ; but as it was im- possible to quiet him, we swept by the ships of the squadron with this strange fellow performing his antics in full view of all the French officers. We afterwards learned that our eccentric friend had been a lieutenant in the English navy ; but having disgraced his flag by some criminal conduct in one of the principal ports on the main, he had deserted his ship, and spent many years wandering among the islands of the Pacific, until accidentally being at Nukuheva when the French took possession of the place, he had been ap- pointed pilot of the harbor by the newly constituted authorities. As we slowly advanced up the bay, numerous canoes pushed off from the surrounding shores, and we were soon in the midst of quite a flotilla of them, their savage occupants struggling to get aboard of us, and jostling one another in their ineffectual attempts. Occasionally the projecting out-riggers of their slight shallops running foul of one another, would become entangled be- neath the water, threatening to capsize the canoes, when a scene of confusion would ensue that baffles description. Such strange outcries and passionate gesticulations I never certainly heard or saw before. You would have thought the islanders were on the point of flying at one another's throats, whereas they were only amicably engaged in disentangling their boats. Scattered here and there among the canoes might be seen num. NATIVES AND COCOA NUT FLOTILLA. 11 hers of cocoa-nuts floating closely together in circular groups, and bobbing up and down with every wave. By some inexplicable means thesecocoa-nuts were all steadily approaching towards the ship. As I leaned curiously over the side, endeavoring to solve their mysterious movements, one mass far in advance of the rest attracted my attention. In its centre was something I could take for nothing else than a cocoa-nut, but which I certainly considered one of the most extraordinary specimens of the fruit I ha4 ever seen. It kept twirling and dancing about among the rest in the most singular manner, and as it drew nearer I thought it bore a remarkable resemblance to the brown shaven skull of one of the savages. Presently it betrayed a pair of eyes, and soon I became aware that what I had supposed to have been one of the fruit was nothing else than the head of an islander, who had adopted this singular method of bringing his produce to market. The cocoa, nuts were all attached to one another by strips of the husk, partly torn from the shell and rudely fastened together. Their propri- etor inserting his head into the midst of them, impelled his neck- lace of cocoa-nuts through the water by striking out beneath the surface with his feet. I was somewhat astonished to perceive that among the number of natives that surrounded us, not a single female was to be seen. At that time I was ignorant of the fact that by the operation of the " taboo," the use of canoes in all parts of the island is rigorously prohibited to the entire sex, for whom it is death even to be seen entering one when hauled on shore ; consequently, whenever a Marquesan lady voyages by water, she puts in requisition the paddles of her own fair body. We had approached 'within a mile and a half perhaps of the foot of the bay, when some of the islanders, who by this time had managed to scramble aboard of us at the risk of swamping their canoes, directed our attention to a singular commotion in the water ahead of the vessel . At first I imagined it to be produced by t 13 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS shoal ,of fish sporting on the surface, but our savage friends assured us that it was caused by a shoal of " whinhenies" (young girls), who in this manner were coming off from the shore to welcome us. As they drew nearer, and I watched the rising and sinking of their forms, and beheld the uplifted right arm bearing above the water the'girdle of tappa, and their long dark hair trail- ing beside them as they swam, I almost fancied they could be nothing else than so many mermaids : — and very like mermaids they behaved too. We were still some distance from the beach, asid under slow headway, when we sailed right into the midst of these swimming nymphs, and they boarded us at every quarter ; many seizing hold of the chain-plates and springing into the chains ; others, at the. peril of being run over by the vessel in her course, catching at the bob-stays, and wreathing their slender forms about tha ropes, hung suspended in the air. All of them at 'length succeeded in getting up the ship's side, where they clung dripping with the brine and glowing from the bath, their jet-black tresses streaming over their shoulders, and half enveloping their otherwise naked forms. There they hung, sparkling with savage vivacity, laugh- ing gaily at one another, and chattering away with infinite glee. Nor were they idle the while, for each one performed the simple offices of the toilet for the other. Their luxuriant locks, 'wound up and twisted into the smallest possible compass, were freed from the briny element j the whole person carefully dried, and from a little round shell that passed from hand to hand, anointed with a fragrant oil : their adornments were completed by passing a few loose folds of white tappa, in a modest cincture, around the waist. Thus arj-ayed they no longer hesitated, but flung themselves lightly over the bulwarks, and were quickly frolicking about the decks. Many of them went forward, perching upon the head, rails or running out upon the bowsprit; while others seated them, •elves upon the taffrail, or reclined at full length upon the boats. NATIVE DANCE— ITS SEQUENCE. 13 Their appearance perfectly amazed me ; their extreme youth the light clear brown of their complexions, theirdelicate features, and inexpressibly graceful figures, their soflly moulded limbs, and free -unstudied action, seemed as strange as beautiful. The " Dolly " was fairly captured ; and never I will say was vessel carried before by such a dashing and irresistible party of boarders ? The ship taken, we could not do otherwise than yield •urselves prisoners, and for the whole period that she remained in the bay, the " Dolly^' as well as her crew, were completely tn the liands of the mermaids. In the evening after- we had come to an anchor the deck was illuminated with lanterns, and this pioturesqtie band of sylphs, tricked out with flowers, and dressed in robes of variegated tappa, got up a ball in great style. These females are passionately fond of dancing, and in the wild grace and spirit of their style excel everything that I have ever seen. The varied dances of the Mar- quesan girls are beautiful in the extreme, but there is an aban- doned voluptuousness in their character which I dare not attempt to describe. Our ship was now wholly given up to every species of riot and debauchery. The grossest licentiousness and the itiost shameful inebriety prevailed, with occasional and but short-lived interrup tions, through the whole period of her stay. Alas for the pool savages when exposed to the influence of these polluting examples ! Unsophisticated and' confiding, they are easily led into every vice, and humanity weeps over the ruin thus remorselessly inflicted upon them by their European civilizers. Thrice happy are they who, inhabiting some yet undiscovered island in the midst of the ocean, have never been brought into contaminating contact with the white man. 14 RESIDENCE IN THE MARdUESAS. CHAPTER III. •*aiie of AtiauJ aboard the Ship— Contents of her Larder — Length of South Seamen's Voyages — Account of a Plying Whale-man^— Determination to Leave the Vessel — The Bay of Nukuheva — The Typees. [t was in the summer of 1843 that we arrived at the islands. Our ship had not been many days in the harbor of Nukuheva before I came to the determination of leaving her. That my rea- sons for resolving to take this step were numerous and weighty, may be inferred from the fact that I chose rather to risk my for- tunes among the savages of the island than to endure tuiother voyage on board the Dolly. To use the concise, point-blank phrase of the sailors, I had made up my mind to " run away." Now as a meaning is generally attached to these two words no way flattering to the individual to whom they are applied, it be- hoves me, for the sake of my own character,_t9 offer some expla- nation of my conduct. When I entered on hoard the Dolly, I signed as a matter of course, the ship's articles, thereby voluntarily engaging and legally binding myself to serve in a certain capacity.for the period of the voyage ; and, special considerations apart, ^ was of course bound to fulfil the agreement. But in all contracts, if one party fail to perform his share of the compact, is not the other virtually ab- solved from his liability ? Who is there who will not answer in the aflBrmative ? Having settled the principle, then, let me apply it to the par- ticular case in question. In numberless instances had not only the implied but the specified conditions of the articles been vie AFFAIRS ABOARD THE SHIP. 15 lated on the part of the ship in which I served. The usage on board of her was tyrannical ; the sick had been inhumanly neg. lected ; the provisions had been doled out in scanty allowance ; and her cruizes were unreasonably protracted. The captain was the author of these abuses ; it was in vain to think that he would fiither remedy them, or alter his conduct, which was arbitrary and violent in the extreme. His prompt reply to all complaints and remonstrances was — ^the butt-end of a hand-spike, so convincingly administered as effectually to silence the aggrieved party. To whom could we apply for redress ? We had left both law and equity on the other side of the Cape ; and unfortunately, with a very few exceptions, our crew was composed of a parcel of das- tardly and mean-spirited wretches, divided among themselves, and only united in enduring without resistance the unmitigated tyranny of the captain. It would have been mere madness for any two or three of the number, unassisted by the rest, to attempt making a stand against his ill usage. They would only have called down upon themselves the particular vengeance of this " Lord of the Plank," and subjected their shipmates to additional hardships. But, after all, these things could have been endured awhile, had we entertained the hope of being speedily delivered from them by the due completion of the term of our servitude. But what a dismal prospect awaited us in this quarter ! The longevity of Cape Horn whaling voyages is proverbial, frequently extending over a period of four or five years. Some long-haired, bare-necked youths, who, forced by the united influences of a roving spirit and hard times, embark at Nantucket for a pleasure excursion to the Pacific, and whose anxious mothers provide them with bottled milk for the occasion, oftentimes return very respectable middle-aged gentlemen. The very preparations made for one of these expeditions are enough to frighten one. As the vessel carries out no cargo, her 18 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. hold is filled with provisions for her own consumption. The owners, who officiate as caterers for the voyage, sijpply the larder with an abundance of dainties. Delicate morsels of beef and pork, cut on scientific principles from every part of the animal, and of all conceivable shapes and sizes, are carefully packed in salt, and stored away in barrels ; affording a never-ending variety in their difierent degrees of toughness, and in the peculiarities of their saline properties. Choice old water too, decanted into stout six-barrel-casks, and two pints of which is allowed every day to each soul on board ; together with ample store of sea-bread, pre- viously reduced to a state of petrifaction, with a view to preserve it either from decay or consumption in the ordinary mode, are likewise provided for the nourishment and gastronomic enjoyment of the crew. But not to speak of the quality of these articles of sailors' fare, the abundance in which they are put on hoard a whaling vessel is almost incredible. Oftentimes, when we had occasion to break out in the hold, and I beheld the successive tiers of casks and barrels, whose contents were all destined to be consumed in due course by the ship's company, my heart has sunk within me. Although, as a general case, a ship unlucky in falling in with whales continues to cruize after them until she has barely suffi- cient provisions remaining to take her home, turning round then quietly and making the best of her way to her friends, yet there are instances when even this natural obstacle to the further pro- secution of the voyage is overcome by headstrong captains, who, bartering the fruits of their hard-earned toils for a new supply of provisions in some of the ports of Chili or Peru, begin the voyage afresh with unabated zeal and perseverance. It is in vain that the owners write urgent letters to him to sail for home, and for their sake to bring back the ship, since it appears he can put nothing in her. Not he. He has registered a vow : he vill fill THE FLYING WHALBMAI?. 17 his vessel with good sperm oil, or failing to do so, never pgain strike Yankee soundings. I heard of one whaler, which after many years' absence was given up for lost. The last that had been heard of her was a shadowy report of her having touched at some of those unstable islands in the far Pacific, whose eccentric wanderisgs are care- fully noted in each new edition of the South-Sea charts. After a long interval, however, " The Perseverance" — for that was her name — was spoken somewhere in the vicinity of the ends of the earth, cruizing along as leisurely as ever, her sails all bepatched and bequilted with rope-yarns, her spars fished with old pipe staves, and her rigging knotted and spliced in every 'possible direction. Her crew was composed of some twenty venerable Greenwich-pensioner-looking old salts, who just managed to hobble about deck. The ends of all the running ropes, with the exception of the signal halyards and poop-down-haul, were rove through snatch-blocks, and led to the capstan or windlass, so that not a yard was braced or a sail set without the assistance of machinery. Her hull was incrusted with barnacles, which completely encased her. Three pet sharks followed in her wake, and every day came alongside to regale themselves from the contents of the cook's bucket, which were pitched over to them. A vast shoal of bonetas and albicores always kept her company. Such was the account I heard of this vessel, and the remem- brance of it always haunted me ; what eventually became of her I never learned ; at any rate she never reached home, and I sup. pose she is still regularly tacking twice in the twenty-four hours somewhere off Buggerry Island, or the Devil's-Tail Peak. Having said thus much touching the usual length of these voyages, when I inform the reader that ours had as it were just commenced, we being only fifteen months out, and even at that time hailed as a late arrival, and boarded for news, he will readily 18 RESIDENCE IN THE MARftUESAS. perceive that there was little to encourage one in looking forward to the future, especially as I had always had a presentiment that we should tnake an unfortunate voyage, and our experience so far had justified the expectation. I Hiay here state, and on my faith as an honest man, that some time after arriving home from my adventures, 1 learned that this vessel was still in the Pacific, and that she had met with very poor success in the fishery. Very many of her crew also, left her ; and her voyage lasted about five years. But to return to my narrative. Placed in these circumstances then, with no prospect of matters' mending if I remained aboard the Dolly, I at once made up my mind to leave her : to be sure it was rather an inglorious thing to steal away privately from those at whose hands I had received wrongs and outrages that I could not resent ; but how was such a course to be avoided when it was the only alternative left me ? Having made up my mind, I proceeded to acquire all the information I could obtain relating to the island and its inhabitants, with a view of shaping my plans of escape accordingly. The result of these inquiries I will now state, in order that the ensuing narrative may be the better understood. The bay of Nukuheva in which we were then lying is an ex- pause of water not unlike in figure the space included within the limits of a horse-shoe. It is, perhaps, nine miles in circumference. You approach it from the sea by a narrow entrance, flanked on either side by two small twin islets which soar conically to the height of some five hundred feet. From these the shore recedes on both hands, and describes a deep semicircle. From the verge of the water the land rises uniformly on all sides, with green and sloping acclivities, until from gently rolling hill-sides and moderate elevations it insensibly swells into lofty and majestic heights, whose blue outlines, ranged all around, close in the view. The beautiful aspect of t}ie shore is heightened BAY OP NUKUHEVA. 19 by deep and romantic glens, which come down to it at almost equal distances, all apparently radiating from a common centre, and the upper extremities of which are lost to the eye beneath the shadow of the mountains. Down each of these little valleys flows a clear stream, here and there assummg the form of a slen- der cascade, then stealing invisibly along until it bursts upon the sight again in larger and more noisy waterfalls, and at last demurely wa;nders along to the sea. The houses of the natives, constructed of the yellow batpboo, tastefully twisted together in a kind of wicker-work, and thatched with the long tapering leaves of the palmetto, are scattered irre- gularly along these valleys beneath the shady branches of the cocoa-nut trees. Nothing can exceed the imposing scenery of this bay. Viewed from our ship as she lay at anchor in the middle of the harbor, it -presented the appearance of a vast natural amphitheatre in decay, and overgrown with vines, the deep glens that furrowed its sides appearing like enormous fissures caused by the ravages of time. Very often when lost in admiration at its beauty, I have experienced a pang of regret that a scene so enchanting should be hidden from the world in these remote seas, and seldom meet the eyes of devoted lovers of nature. Besides this bay the shores of the island are indented by several other extensive inlets, into which descend broad and verdant valleys. These are inhabited by as many distinct tribes of savages, who, although speaking kindred dialects of a common language, and having the same religion and laws, have from time immemorial waged hereditary warfare against each other. The i&tervening mountains, g3nera!ly two or three thousand feet above the level of the sea, geographically define the territories of each of these hostile tribes, who never cross them, save on some ex- pedition of war or plunder. Immediately adjacent to Nukuheva, and only separated from it by the moimtains seen from the harbor, 20 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. lies the lovely valley of Happar, whose inmates cherish the most friendly relations with the inhabitants of Nukuheva. On the other side of Happar, and closely adjoining it, is the magnificent valley of the dreaded Typeesj-the unappeasable enemies of both these tribes. These celebrated warriors appear to inspire the other islanders with unspeakable terrors. Their very name is a frightful one ; for the word "Typee" in the Marquesan dialect signifies a lover of human flesh. It is rather singular that the title should have been bestowed upon them exclusively, inasmuch as the natives of all this group are irreclaimable cannibals. The name may, per. haps, have been given to denote the peculiar ferocity of this clan, and to convey a special stigma along with it. These same Typees enjoy a prodigious notoriety all over the islands. The natives of Nukuheva would frequently recount in pantomime to our ship's company their terrible feats., and would show the marks of wounds they hud received in desperate encoun- ters with them. When ashore they would try to frighten us by pointing to one of their own number, and calling him a Typee, manifesting no little surprise that we did not take to our heels at so terrible an announcement. It was quite amusing, too, to see with what earnestness 'they disclaimed all cannibal propensities on 'their own part, while they denounced their enemies — ^the Typees — as inveterate gormandizers of human flesh ; but this is a peculiarity to which I shall hereafter have occasion to allude. Although I was convinced that the inhabitants of our bay were as arrant cannibals as any of the other tribes on the island, still I could not but feel a particular and most unqualified re- pugnance to the aforesaid Typees. Even before visiting the Marquesas, I had heard from men who had touched at the group on former voyages some revolting stories in connection with these savages; and fresh in my remembrance was the adventure of the master of the Eatherine, who only a few months previous, impru. THE "TYPEES." 21 dently venturing into this bay in an armed boat for the purpose of barter, was seized by the natives, carried back a little distance hto their valley, and was only saved from a cruel death by the intervention of a young girl, who facilitated his escape by night along the beach to Nukuheva. I had heard too of an English vessel that many years ago, after a weary cruize, sought to enter the bay of Nukuheva, and arriv- ing within two or three miles of the land, was met by a large canoe filled with natives, who offered to lead the way to the place of their destination. The captain, unacquainted with the locali- ties of the island, joyfully acceded to the proposition — ^the canoe paddled on and the ship followed. She was -soon conducted to a beautiful inlet, and dropped her anchor in its waters beneath the shadows of the lofty shore. That same night the perfidious Typees, who had thus inveigled her into their fatal bay, flocked aboard the doomed vessel by hundreds, and at a given signal raurdered every soul on board. 33 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. CHAPTER IV. Thoughts previous to attempting an Escape — Toby, a fell si w sailor, agrees to share the Adventure — Last Night aboard the Ship. Having fully resolved to leave the vessel clandestinely, and having acquired all the knowledge concerning the bay that I could, obtain under the circumstances in which I was placed, I now deliberately turned over in my mind' every plan of escape that suggested itself, being determined to act with all possible prudence in an attempt where failure would be attended with so many disagreeable consequences. The idea of being taken and .brought back ignominiously to the ship was so inexpressibly re- pulsive to me, that I was determined by no hasty and imprudent " measures to render such an event probable. I knew that our worthy captain, who felt such a paternal soli- citude for the welfare of his crew, would not willingly consent that one of his best hands should encounter the perils of a sojourn among the natives of a barbarous island j and I was certain that in the event of my disappearance, his fatherly anxiety would prompt him to offer, by way of a reward, yard upon yard of gaily printed calico for my apprehension. He might even have appre- ciated my services at the value of a musket, in which case I felt perfectly certain that the whole population of the bay would be immediately upon my track, incited by the prospect of so magni- ficent a bounty. Having ascertained the fact before alluded to, that the islanders, from motives of precaution, dwelt together in the depths of the Valleys, and avoided wandering about the more elevated portions PROJECT OF ESCAPE. 23 of the shore, unleash l)ound on some expedition of war or plunder, I concluded that if I could effect unperceived a passage to the mountains, I might easily remain among them, supporting myself by suc]|\ fruits as came in my way until the sailing of the ship, an event of which' I could not fail to be immediately apprised, as from my lofty position I should command a view of the entire harbor. The idea pleased me greatly. It seemed to combine a great deal of practicability with no inconsiderable enjoyment in a quiet way ; for how delightful it would be to look down upon the de- tested old vessel from the height of some thousand feet, and con- trast the verdant scenery about me with the recollection of her narrow decks and gloomy forecastle ! Why, it was really refresh- ing even to think of it ; and so I straightway fell to picturing myself seated beneath a cocoa-nut tree on the brow of the moun- tain, with a cluster of plantains within easy reach, criticising her nautical evolutions as she was working her way out of the harbor. To be sure there was one rather unpleasant drawback to these agreeable anticipations — ^the possibility of falling in with a foraging party of these same bloody-minded Typees, whose appe- tites, edged perhaps by the air of so elevated a region, might prompt them to devour one. This, I must confess, was a most disagreeable view of the matter. Just to think of a party of these unnatural gourmands tafcing it into their- heads to make a convivial meal of a poor devil, who would have no means of escape or far as the middle of thp brake, when suddenly it ceased raining, and the atmosphere around us became close and sultry beyond expression. The elasticity of the reeds quickly recovering from the temporary pressure of our bodies, caused them to spring back to their original position ; so that they closed in upon us as we advanced, and prevented the .circulation of the little air which might otherwise have reached us. Besides this, their great height completely shut us out from the view of surrounding ob- jects, and we were not certain but that we might have been going all the time in a wrong direction. Fatigued with my long-continued efforts, and panting for breath, I felt myself completely incapacitated for any further exertion. I rolled up the sleeve of my frock, and squeezed the moisture it contained into my parched mouth. But the few THEIR EXTRICATION. ■ 33 drops I managed to obtain gave me little relief, and I sank down for a moment with a sort of dogged apathy, from which I was aroused by Toby, who had devised a plan to free us from the net in which we had become entangled. He was laying about him lustily with his sheath-knife, lopjHng the canes right and leil, like a reaper, and soon made quite a clearing around us. This sight reanimated me ; and seizing my own knife, I. hacked and hewed away without mercy. But alas ! the farther we advanced the thicker and taller, and apparently the more interminable, the reeds became. I began to think we were fairly snared, and had almost made up my mind that without a pair of wings we should never be able to escape from the toils ; when all at once I discerned a peep of daylight through the canes on my right, and, communi- cating the joyful tidings to Toby, we both fell to with fresh spirit, and speedily opening a passage towards it, we found ourselves clear of perplexities, and in the near vicinity of the ridge. After resting for a few moments we began the ascent, and after a little vigorous climbing found ourselves close to its sum- mit. Instead -however of walking along its ridge, where we should have been in full view of the natives in the vales beneath, and at a point where they could easily intercept us were they so inclined, we cautiously advanced on one side, crawling on our hands and knees, and screened from observation by fhe grass through which we glided, much in the fashion of a couple of ser- pents. After an hour employed in this unpleasant kind of loco- motion, we started to our feet again and pursued our way boldly along the crest of the ridge. This- salient spur of the lofty elevations that encompassed the bay rose with a sharp angle from the valleys at its base, and pre- sented, with the exception of a few steep acclivities, the appear, ance of a vast inclined plane, sweeping down towards the sea from the heights in the distance. We had ascended it near the 3» ^ RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. place of its termination and at its lowest point, and now saw our route to the mountains distinctly defined along its narrow crest, which was covered with a soft carpet of verdure, and was in many parts only a few feet wide. Elated with the success which had so far attended our enter prise, and invigorated by the refreshing atmosphere we now in haled, Toby and I in high spirits were making our way rapidly along the ridge, when suddenly from the valleys below which lay on either side of us we heard the distant shouts of the natives, who had just descried us, and to whotn our figures, brought in bold relief against the sky, were plainly revealed. Glancing our eyes into these valleys, we perceived their savage inhabitants hurrying to and fro, seemingly under the in- fluence of some sudden alarm, and appearing to the eye scarcely bigger than so many pigmies ; while their white thatched dwel- lings, dwarfed by the distance, looked like baby-houses. As we looked down upon the islanders from our lofty elevation, we expe- rienced a sense of security ; feeling confident that, should they undertake a pursuit, it would, from the start we now had, prove entirely fruitless, unless they followed us into the mountains, where we knew they cared not to venture. However, we thought it as well to make the most of our time ; and ■ accordingly, where the ground would admit of'it, we ran swiftly along the sumtnit of the ridge, until we were brought to a stand by a steep cliff, which at first seemed to interpose 'an effectual barrier to our farther advance. By dint of much hard scrambling however, and at some risk to our necks, 'we at last sur- mounted it, and continued our flight with unabated celerity. We had left the beach early in the morning, and after an un- interrupted, though at times difiicnlt and dangerous ascent, during which we had never once turned our faces to the sea, we found ourselves, about three hours before sunset, standing on the top of what seemed to be the highest land on the island, an immense SCENERY AROUND NUKUHEVA. 35 overhanging clifT composed of basaltic rocks, hung round with parasitical plants. We must have been more than three thousand feet above the level of the sea, and the scenery viewed from this height was magnificent. The lonely bay of Nukuheva, dotted here and there with the black hulls of the vessels composing the French squadron, lay reposing at the base of a circular range of elevations, whose ver- dant sides, perforated with deep gl^ns or diversified with smiling valleys, formed altogether the loveliest view I ever beheld, and were I to live a hundred years, I shall never forget the feeling of admiration which I then experienced. 36 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. CHAPTER VI. The other side of the Mountain — Disappointment — Inventory of Articles brought from the Ship — Division of the Stock of Bread*— Appearance of the Interior of the Island — A Discovery — A Ravine and Waterfalls — A Sleepless Night — Further Discoveries — My Illness — ^A Marquesan Land- scape. My curiosity had been not a little raised with regard to the de- scription of country we should meet op the other side of the moun- tains ; and I had supposed, with Toby, that immediately on gain- ing the heights we should be enabled to view the large bays of Happar and Typee reposing at our feet on one side, in the same way that Nukuheva lay spread out below on the other. But here we were disappointed. Instead of finding the mountain we had ascended sweeping down in the opposite direction into broad and capacious valleys, the land appeared to retain its general eleva- tion, only broken into a series of ridges and inter- vales, Which as far as the eye could reach stretched away from us, with their precipitous sides covered with the brightest verdure, and waving here and there with the foliage of clumps of woodland ; among which, however, we perceived none of those trees upon whose fruit we had relied with such certainty. This was a most unlooked-for discovery, and one that promised to defeat our plans altogether, for we could not think of descend- ing the mountain on the Nukuheva side in quest of food. Should we for this purpose be induced to retrace our steps, we should run no small chance of encountering the natives, who in that case, if they did nothing worse to us, would be certain to convey us back to the ship for the sake of the reward in calico and trinkets, which TOBY'S STORE PRODUCER 37 we had no doubt our skipper would hold out to them as an induce- ment to our capture. What was to be done ? The Dolly would not sail perhaps for ten days, and how were we to sustain life during this period ? I bitterly repented our improvidence in not providing ourselves, as we easily might have done, with a supply of biscuit. With a rueful visage I now bethought me of the scanty handful of bread I had stuffed into the bosom of my frock, and felt somewhat de- sirous to ascertain what part of it had weathered the rather rough usage it had experienced in ascending the mountain. I accord- ingly proposed to Toby that we should enter into a joint exami- nation of the various articles we had brought from the ship. With .this intent we seated ourselves upon ihe grass ; and a little curi- ous to see with what kind of judgment my companion had filled his frock — which I remarked seemed about as well lined as my own — I requested him to commence eipefations by spreading out its contents. Thrusting his hand, then, into the bosom of this capacious re- ceptacle, he first brought to light about a pound of tobacco, whose component parts still adhered together, the whole outside being covered with soft particles of sea-bread. Wet and dripping, it had the appearance of having been just recovered from the bottom of the sea. But I paid slight attention to a substance of so little value- to us in our present situatiop, as soon as I perceived the mdications it gave of Toby's foresight in laying in a supply of food for the expedition. I eagerly inquired what quantity he had brought with him, when,: rummaging once more beneath his garment, he produced a small handful of something so soft, pulpy, and discolored, tliat for a few moments he was as much puzzled as myself to tell by what possible instrumentality such a villainous com) ound had become engendered in hfs bosom. I can only descri je it as a h»ab of soaked bread and bite of tobacco, brought to a dougfhy 38 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS consistency by the united agency of perspiration and rain. But repulsive as it might otherwise have been, I now regarded it as an invaluable treaisure, and proceeded with great care to transfer this paste-like mass to a large leaf which I had plucked from a bush beside me. Toby informed me that in the morning he had placed two whole biscuits in his bosom, with a view of munching them, should he feel so inclined, during our flight. These were now reduced to the equivocal substance which I had just placed on the leaf. Another dive into the frock brought to view some four or five yards of calico print, whose tasteful pattern was rather disfigured by the yellow stains of the tobacco with which it had been brought in contact. In drawing this calico slowly irom his bosom inch by inch, Toby reminded me of a juggler performing the feat of the endless ribbon. The next cast was a small one, being a sailor's little " ditty bag," containing needles, thread, and other sewing utensils ; then came a razor-case, followed by two or three separate plugs of negro-hea;d, which were fished up from the bottom of the now empty receptacle. These various matters being inspected, I produced the few things which I had myself •brought. As might have been anticipated fi-om the state of my com- panion's edible supplies, I found my own in a deplorable condi- tion, and diminished to a quantity that would not have formed half a dozen mouthfuls for a hungry man who was partial enough to tobacco not to mind swallowing it. A few morsels of bread, with a fathom or two of white cotton cloth, and several pounds of choice pigtail, composed the extent of my. possessions. Our joint stock of miscellaneous articles were now made up into a compact bundle, which it was agreed we should carry alternate f. But the sorry remains of the biscuit were not to be ' disposed i f so summarily : the precariotls circumstances in which we were placed made us regard them as something on whieh very TOBY'S FASTIDIOUSNESS. ' 39 irobably depended the fate of our adventure. After a brief dis- cussion, in which we both of us expressed our resolution of not descending into the bay until the ship's departure, I suggested to my companion that little of it as there was, we should divide the bread into six equal portions, eacK of which should be a day's allowance for both of us. This proposition he assented to ; so I took the silk kerchief from my neck, and cutting it with my knife into half a dozen equal pieces, proceeded to make an exact division. At first",. Toby, with a degree of fastidiousness that seemed to me ill-timed, was for picking out the minute particles of tobacco with which the spongy mass was mixed ; but against this pro- ceeding I protested, as by such an operation we must have greatly diminished its quantity. When the division was accomplished, we found that a day's allowance for the two was not a great deal more than what a table-spoon might hold. Each separate portion we immediately rolled up in the bit of silk prepared for it, and joining them ill together into a small package, I committed them, with solemn injunctions of fidelity, to the custody of Toby. For the remain- der of that day we resolved to fast, as -fre had been fortified by a- breakfast in the morning,; and now starting again to our feet, we looked about us for a shelter during the night, which, from the appearance of the heavens, promised to be a dark and tempestu- ous one. There was no place near us which would in any way answer oiir purpose ; so turning our backs upon Nukuheva, we com- menced exploring the unknown regions which lay upon the other side of the mountain. In this direction, as far as our vision extended, not a sign of life, nor anything that denoted even the transient residence of man, could be seen. The whole landscape seemed one unbroken wlitude, the interior of the island having apparently been un- 40 RESIDENCE IN THK MARQUESAS. tenanted since the moniktg of the creation J and as we advanced through this wilderness, our voices sounded strangely in our ears, as though human accents had never before disturbed the fearful silence of the place, interrupted only. by the low muripurings of distant waterfalls. Our disappointment, however, in not finding the various fruits with which we had intended to regale ourselves during our stay in these wilds, was a good deal lessened by the consideration that from this very circumstance we should be much less exposed to a casual meeting with the savage tribes about us, ■n^'ho we knew always dwelt beneath the shadows of those trees which supplied them with food. We wandered along, casting eager glances into every bush we passed, until just as we had succeeded in mounting one of the many ridges that intersected the ground, I saw in the grass before me something like an indistinctly traced footpath, which appeared to lead along the top of the ridge, and to descend with it into a deep ravine about half a mile in advance of us. Robinson Crusoe could not have been more startled at the foot- print in the sand than we were at this unwelcome discovery. My first impulse was to make as rapid a retreat as possible, and bend our steps in some other direction; but our curiosity to see whither this path might lead, prompted us to pursue it. So on we went, the track' becoming more and more visible the farther we proceeded, until it conducted us to the verge of the ravine, where it abruptly terminated. " And so," said Toby, peering down into the chasm, " every one that travels this path takes a jump here, eh ?■" " Not so," said I, " for I think they might manage to descend without it; what say you, — shall we attempt the feat?" " And what, in the name of caves and coal-holeg, do you ex- pect to find at the bottom of that gulf but a broken neak — ^why it A COLLOQUY. 41 looks blacker than our ship's hold, and the roar of those we^erfalls down there would batter one's braijcis to pieces." " Oh, no, Toby," I exclaimed, laughing ; " but there's some- thing to be seen herc^ that's plain, or there would have been no path, and I am resolved to find out what it is." " I will tell you what, my pleasant fellow," rejoined Toby quii3kly, " if you are going to pry into everything you meet with here that excites your curiosity, you will marvellously soon get knocked on the head ; to a dead certainty you will come bang upon a party of these savages in the midst of your discovery- makings, and I doubt whether such an event would particularly delight you. Just take my advice for once, and let us 'bout ship and steer in some other direction ; besides, it 's getting late, and we ought to be mooring ourselves for the night." " That is just the thing I have been driving at," replied I j " and I am thinking that this ravine will exactly answer oiir pur- pose, for it is roomy, secluded, well watered, and may shelter us from the weather." " Aye, and from sleep' too, and by the same token will give us sore throats, and rheumatisms into the bargain," cried Toby, >Kith evident dislike at the idea. " Oh, very well then, my lad," said I, " since you will not accompany me, here I go alone. You will see me in the morn- ing;" and ^vancing to the edge of the oliffupon which we had been standing, I proceeded to lower myself down by the tangled roots which clustered ^bout all the crevices of the -rock. As I had anticipated, Toby, in spite of his previous remonstrances, fol- lowed my example, and dropping himself with the activity of a squirrel from point to point, he quickly outstripped me, and effected a landing at the bottom before .1 had accomplished two-thirds of the descent. The sight that jiow greeted us was one that will ever be vividly impressed upon my mind. Five foaming streams, rushing through 43 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. as many gorges, and swelled and turbid by the recent rains, united together in one mad plunge of nearly eighty feet, and fell with wild uproar into a deep black pool scooped out of the gloomy looking rocks that lay piled around, and thence in one collected body dashed down a narrow sloping chaimel which seemed to penetrate into the very bowels of the earth. Overhead, vast roots of trees hung down from the sides of the ravine dripping with moisture, and trembling with the concussions produced by the fall. It was now sunset, and the feeble uncertain light that found its way into these caverns and woody depths heightened their strange appearance, and reminded us that in a short time we should find ourselves in utter darkness. As soon as I had satisfied my curiosity by gazing at this scene, I fell to wondering how it was that what we had taken for a path should have conducted us to so singular a place, and began to suspect that after all I might have been deceived in supposing it to have been a track formed by the islanders. This was rather an agreeable reflection than otherwise, for it diminished our dread of accidentally meeting with any of them, and I came to the con- clusion that perhaps we could not have selected a more secure hiding-place than this very spot we had so accidentally hit upon. Toby agreed with me in this view of the matter, and we immedi- ately began gathering together the limbs of trees which lay scat- tered about, with the view of constructing a temp*ary hut for the night. This we were obliged to build close to the foot of the cataract, for the current of water extended very nearly to the sides of the gorge. The few moments of light that remained we employed in covering our hut with a species of broad-bladed grass that grew in every fissure of the ravine. Our hut, if it deserved to be called one, consisted of six or eight of the straightest branches we" could find laid obliquely against the steep wall of rook, with their lower ends within a foot of the stream. Into the space thua TOBY'S KAGE. 43 covered over we managed to crawl, and dispose our wearied bo- dies as best we could. Shall I ever forget that horrid night ! As for poor Toby, 1 could scarcely get a word out of him. It would have been some consolation to have heard his voice,! but he lay shivering the live- long night like a man afflicted with the palsy, with his knees drawn up to his head, while his back was supported against the dripping side of the rock. During this wretched night there seemed nothing Wanting to complete the perfect misery of our condition. The rain descended in such torrents that our poor shelter proved a mere mockery. In vain did I try to elude the incessant streams that poured upon me ; by protecting one part I only exposed another, and the water was continually finding some new. opening through which to drench us. I have had many a ducking in the course of my life, and in general cared little about it ; but the accumulated horrors of that night, the deathlike coldness of the place, the appalling dark- ness and the dismal sense of our forlorn condition, almost un. manned me. It will not be doubted that the next morning we were early risers, and as soon as I could eatch the faintest glimpSe of anything like daylight I shook my companion by the arm, and told him it was sunrise. Poor Toby lifted up his head, and after a moment's pause said, in a husky voice, " Then, shipmate, my toplighls have gone out, for it appears darker now with my eyes open than it did when they were shut." " Nonsense !" exclaimed I ; " you are not awake yet." " Awake !" roared Toby in . a rage, " awake ! You mean to insinuate I 've been asleep, do you ? It is an insult to a man to suppose he could sleep in such a place as this." By the time I had apologized to my friend for having miscon- Btrued his silence, it had become somewhat more light, and we crawled out of our lair. The rain had ceased, but everything 44 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. around us was dripping wilJi moisture. .We stripped ofTour satu- rated garments, and wrung them as dry as we could.- We con- trived to make the blood circulate in our benumbed limbs by rub- bing them vigorously with our hands ; and after performing our ablutions in the stream, and putting on our still wet clothes, we began to think it advisable to break our long fasl^ it being now twenty.four hours since we had tasted food. Accordingly our day's ration was brought out, and seating our- selves on a detached fragment of rock, we proceeded to discuss it. First we divided it into two equal portions, and carefully rolling one of them up for our evening's repast, divided the remainder again as equally as possible, and then drew lots for the first choice. I could have placed the morsel that fell to my share upon the tip of my finger; but notwithstanding this I took care that it should be full ten minutes before I had swallowed the lastcrumb. What e true saying it is that ". appetite furnishes the best sauce !" There was a flavor and a relish to this small particle of food that under other circumstances it would have been impossible for the most delicate viands to have imparted. A copious draught of the pure water which flowed at our feet served to complete the meal, and after it we rose sensibly refreshed, and prepared for whatever might befall us. , ^ We now carefully examined the chasm in which we had passed the night. ■ We crossed the stream, and gaining the further side of the pool I have mentioned, discovered proofs that the spot must have been visited by some one but a short time previous to our arrival. Further observation convinced us that it had been regu- larly frequented, and, as we afterwards conjectured from particu- lar indications, for the purpose of obtainijig a certain root, from which the natives obtained a kind of ointment. These discoveries immediately determined us to abandon a j)lace which had presented no inducement for us to remain, except &e promise of security; and as we looked about us for the means SEARCH FOR A BETTEB HIDING-PLACE. 46 of ascending again into the upper regions, we at last found a prac< ticable part of the rock, and half an hour's toil carried us to the summit of the same cliff from which the preceding evening we had descended. I now proposed to Toby that instead of rambling about the island, exposing ourselves to discovery at every turn, we should select some place as our fixed abode for as long a period as our food should hold out, build ourselves a comfortable hut, emd be as prudent and circumspect as possible. To all this my com- panion assented, and we at once set about carrying the plan into execution. With this view, after exploring without success a little glen near us, we crossed several of the ridges of which I have before spoken ; and about noon found ourselves ascending a long and gradually rising slope, but still without having discovered any place ada|>ted to our purpose. Low and heavy clouds betokened an approach, ing storm, and we hurried on to gain a covert in a clump of thick bushes, which appeared to terminate the long ascent. We threw ourselves under the lee of these bushes, and pulling up the long grass that grew around, covered ourselves completely with it, and awaited the shower. But it did not come as soon as we had expected, and before 'many minutes my companion was fast asleep, and I was rapidly falling mto the same state of happy forgetfulness. Just at this juncture, however, down came the rain with a violence that put all thoughts of slumber to flight. Although in some measure sheltered, our clothes soon became as wet as ever ; this, after all the trouble we had taken to dry them, was provoking enough : but there was no help for it ; and I recommend all adventurous youths who abandon vessels in romantic islands during the rainy season to provide themselves with umbrellas.- After an hour or so the shower passed away. My companion slept through it all, or at least appeared so to do j and now that it 46 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. was over I had not the heart to awaken him. As I lay on my back completely shrouded with verdure, the leafy branches drooping over me, and my limbs buried in grass, I could not avoid comparing our situation with that of the interesting babes in the wood. Poor little sufferers ! — ^no wonder their constitutions broke down under the hardships to which they were exposed. During the hour or two spent under the shelter of these byshes, I began to feel symptoms which I at once attributed to the expo- sure of the preceding night. Cold shiverings and a burning fever succeeded one another , at intervals, while one of my legs was swelled to such a degree, and pained me so acutely, that I half suspected I had been bitten by some venomous reptile, the con- genial inhabitant of the chasm from which we had lately emerged. I may here remark by the way — ^what I subsequently learned — that all the islands of Polynesia enjoy the reputation, in common with the Hibernian isle, of , being free from the presence of any vipers ; though whether Saint Patrick ever visited them, is a ques- tion I shall not attempt to decide. As the feverish sensation increased upon me I tossed about, still unwilling to disturb my slumbering companion, from whose side I removed two or three yards. I chtoced to push aside a branch, and by so doing suddenly disclosed to my view a scene which even now I can recall with all the vividness of the first impres- sion. Had a glimpse of the gardens of Paradise been revealed to me, I could scarcely have been more ravished with the sight. From the spot where I lay transfixed with surprise and delight, I looked straight down into the bosom of a valley, which swept away in long wavy undulations to the blue waters in the distance. Midway towards the sea, and peering here and there amidst the foliage, might be seen the palmetto-thatched houses of its inhabit- ants glistening in the sun that had bleached them to a dazzling whiteness. The vale was more than three leagues in length, and about a mile across at its greatest width. VARIED SCENERY. 47 On either side it appeared hemmed in by steep and green ac- clivities, which, uniting near the spot where I lay, formed an abrupt and semicircular termination of grassy clifTs and precipices hundreds of feet in height, over which flowed numberless small cascades. But the crowning beauty of the prospect was its uni- versal verdure ; and in this indeed cqjisists, I believe, the peculiar charm of every Polynesian landscape. Everywhere bfslow me, from the base of the precipice upon whose very verge I had been unconsciously reposing, the surface of the vale presented a mass of foliage, spread with such rich profusion that it was impossible to determine of what description of trees it consisted. But perhaps there was nothing about the scenery I beheld more impressive than those silent cascades, whose slender threads of water, after leaping down the steep clifis, were lost amidst the rich herbs^e of the valley* Over all the landscape there reigned the most hushed repose, which I almost feared to break, lest, like the enchanted gardens in the fairy tale, a single syllable might dissolve the spell. For a long time, forgetful alike of my own situation, and the vicinity of my still slumbering companion, I remained gazing around me, hardly able to comprehend by what means I had thus suddenly been made a spectator of such a scene. 48 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. CHAPTER VII. The Importiuit Qiuestion, Typee or Kappar ? — A Wild Goose Chaser— My Sufferings — Disheartening^ Situation'^A Night in a Ravine — ^Merning Meal — Happy Idea of Toby — Journey towards the Valley Recoveking from my astonishment at the beautiful scene before me, I quickly awakened Toby, aiid informed him of the 'discovery 1 had made. Together we now repaired to the border of the precipice, and my companion's admiration was equal to my own. A little reflection, however, abated our surprise at coming so un- expectedly upon this valley, since the large_^ vales of Happar and Typee, lying upon this side of Nukuheva, and extending a; con- siderable distance from the sea; towards the interior, must neces- sarily terminate somewhere about this point. The question now was as to which of those two places we were looking down Upon. Toby insisted that it was the abode of the Happars,.and I that^it was tenanted by their enemies, the fero- cious Typees. To be sure I was not entirely convinced by my own arguments, but Toby's proposition to descend at once into the valley, and partake of the hospitality of its inmates, seemed to me to be risking so much upon the strength of a mere supposition, that I resolved to oppose it until we had more evidence to pro- ceed upon. The point was one of vital importance, as the natives of Hap- par were not only at peace with Nukuheva, but cultivated with its inhabitants the most friendly relations, and enjoyed beside a reputation for gentleness and humanity which led us to expect from them, if not a cordial reception, at least a shelter during the short period we should remain in their territory. IN SEARCH OF FOOD. 49 On the other hand, the very name of Typee struck a panic into my heart, which I did not attempt to disguise. The thought of voluntarily throwing ourselves into the hands of these cruel savages, seemed to me an act of mere madness; and almost equally so the idea of venturing into the valley, uncertain by which of these two tribes it was inhabited. That the vale at our feet was tenanted by one of them, was a point that appeared to us past all doubt, since we knew that they resided in this quarter, although our information did not enlighten us further. My companion, however, incapable of resisting the tempting prospect which the place held out of an abundant supply of food and other means of enjoyment, still clung to his own inconsi- derate view of th& subject, nor could all my reasoning shake it When I reminded him that it was impossible for either of us to know anything with certainty, and when I dwelt upon the hor- rible fate we should encounter were we rashly to descend into the valley, and discover too late the error we had committed, he re- plied by detailing all the evils of our present condition, and the sufferings we must undergp should we continue to remain where we then were. Anxious to draw him away from the subject, if possible — for I saw that it would be in vain to attempt changing his mind — I directed his, attention to a long bright unwooded tract of land which, sweeping down from the elevations in the interior, de- scended into the valley before us. I then suggested to him that beyond this ridge might lie a capacious and untenanted valley, abounding with all manner of delicious fruits ; for I had heard ihat there were several such upon the island, and proposed that we should endeavor to reach it, and if we found our expectations realized we should at once take refuge in it and remain there as long as we pleased. He acquiesced in the suggestion ; and we immediately, there- fore, began surveying the couiitry lying before us, with a view 4 9d RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS.. of determining upon the best route for us to pursue ; but it pre- sented little choice, the whole interval being broken iiito steep ridges, divided by dark raviUfes, extending in parallel lines at fight angles to our direct course. All these we Would be obliged to cross before we could hope to arrive at our destination. A weary jouriley ! But We decided to undertake it, though, for my own part, I felt little prepated to encounter its fatigues, shivering and burning by turns With the ague and feVer ; for I know not how else to describe the alternate sensations I experi- enced, and suffering not a little from the lameness which afflicted me. Added to this was the faintness consequent on our meagre diet^a calattiiiy in which Toby participated to the same extent as myself. These circumstances, hoWever, only augHiented my ankiety to reach a place which prbtaiised us plenty and repose, before I should be reduced to a state which would render me altogether uhable to perform the joUrhey. Accordingly We now commenced it by descending the almost perpendicular side of a steep and nar- row gorge, bristling with a thick growth of reeds. Here there was but one mode for us to adopt. We seated ourselves upon the ground, and guided our descent by catching at the canes in bur path. The velocity With which we thus slid down the side of the ravine soon brought us to a point ■vi^here we coiild use Our feet, and in a short time We arrived at the edge of the torrent, which rolled impetuously along the bed of the chasm. After taking a refreshing draught from the water of the stream, we addressed ourselves to a much more difficult under- taking than the last. Every foot of our late descent had to be regained in ascending the opposite side Of the gorge— ^&n Opera- tion rendered the less agiteeabl'e from the consideration that in these perpendicular episodes we did not progress a hundred yards on our journey. But, ungrateful as the task waS, we set about it %ith exemplary patience, and after a snail-like progress DISHEARTENING PROSPECT. bl of ah hour or more, had scaled perhaps one half of the distance, when the fever Which had left me for awhile returned with such violence, and accompanied by so raging a thirst, that it reqaired all the entreaties of Toby to prevent me from losing all the fruits of my late exettion, by precipitating myself madly down the cliffs we had jusf climbed, in quest of the water which flowed so temptingly at their base. At' the moment all my hopes and fears appeared to be merged in this one desire, careless of the consequences that might result from its gratification. I am aWare of no feeling, either of pleasure or of pain, that so completely deprives one of all power to resist its jmpulses, as this same raging, thirst. Toby earnestly conjured me to continue the ascent, assuring me that a little more exertion would bring us to the summit, and that then in less than five minutes we should find ourselves at the brink of the stream, which must necessarily fiow on the other side of the ridge. " Do not," he exclaimed, " turn back, now that we have pro* ceeded thus far ; for I tell you that neither of us will have the courage to repeat the attempt, if once more we find ourselves looking up to where we now are from the bottom of these rocks !" I was not yet so perfectly beside myself as to be heedless of these representations, and therefore toiled on, inefiectually en- deavoring to appease the thirst which consumed me, by thinking that in a short time I should be able to gratify it to my heart's content. At last we gained the top of the second elevation, the loftiest of those I have described as extending inparallel lines between us and the valley we desired to reach. It commanded a view of the whole intervening distance ; and, discouraged as I was by other circumstances, this prospect plunged me into the very depths of despair. Nothing but dark and fearful chasms, sepa>. rated by sharp crested and perpendicular ridges as far as the eye 52 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. could reach. Could we have stepped from summit to summit of these steep but narrow elevations we could easily have accom- plished the distance ; but we must penetrate to the bottom of every yawning gulf, euid' scale in succession every one of the eminences before us. Even Toby, although not suffering as I did, was not proof against the disheartening influences of the sight. But we did not long stand to contemplate it, impatient as 1 was to reach the waters of the torrent which flowed beneath us. With an insensibility to danger which I cannot call to mind with- out shuddering, we threw ourselves down the depths of the ravine, startling its savage solitudes with the echoes produced by the falling fragments of rock we every momeht dislodged from their places, careless of the insecurity of our footing, and reckless whether the slight roots and twigs we clutched at sustained us for the while, or treacherously yielded to our grasp. For my own part, I scarcely knew whether I was helplessly fallibg from the heights above, or whether the fearful rapidity with which 1 descended was an act of my own volition. In a few minutes we reached the foot of the gorge, and kneel- ing upon a small ledge of dripping rocks, I bent over to the stream. What a delicious sensation was I now to experience ! I paused for a second to concentrate all my capabilities of enjoyment, and then immerged my lips in the clear;element before me. Had the apples of Sodom turned to ashes in my mouth, I could not have felt a more startling revulsion. A single drop of the cold fluid seemed to freeze every drop of blood in my body ; the fever that had been burning in my veins gave place on the instant to death- like chills, which shook me one after another like so many shocks of electricity, while the perspiration produced by my late violent exertions congealed in icy beads upon my forehead. My thirst was gone, and I fairly loathed the water. Starting to my feet, the sight of those dank rocks, oozing forth moisture at every MORE DIFFICULTIES. 53 crevice, and the dark stream shooting along its dismal channel, sent fresh chills through my shivering frame, and I felt as uncon- trollable a desire to climb up towards the genial sunlight as I be- fore had to descend the ravine. After two hours' perilous exertions we stood upon the summit of another ridge, and it was with difficulty I could bring myself to believe that we had ever penetrated the black and yawning chasm which then gaped at our feet. Again we gazed upon the prospect which the height commanded, but it was just as depressing as the one which had before met our eyes. I now felt that.in our present situation it was in vain for us to think of ever overcoming the obstacles in our way, and I gave up all thoughts of reaching the vale which lay beyond this series of impediments ; while at the same time I could not devise any scheme to extricate ourselves from the difficulties in which we were involved. The remotest idea of returning to Nukuheva, unless assured of our vessel's departure, neVer once entered my mind, and indeed it was questionable whether we could have succeeded in reaching it, divided as we were from the bay by a distance we could not compute, and perplexed too in our remembrance of localities by our recent wanderings. Besides, it was unendurable the thought of retracing our steps and rendering all our painful exertions of no avail. There is scarcely anything when a man is in difficulties that he is more disposed to look upon with abhorrence than a right- about retrograde movement — a systematic going over of the already trodden ground : and especially if he has a love of adven- ture, such a course appears' indescribably repulsive, so long as there remains the least hope to be derived from braving untried difficulties. It was this f£«Iing that prompted us to descend the opposite side of the elevation we had just scaled, although with what definite object in view it would have been impossible for either of us to tell. 54 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. Without exchanging a syllable upon the subject, Toby and Qvyself simultaneously renounced the design which had lured us thus far — ^perceiving in each other's countenances that desponding expression which speaks more eloquently than words. Together we stood towards the close of this weary day in the cavity of the third gorge we had entered, wholly incapacitated for any further exertion, until restored to some degree of strength by ibod and repose. We seated ourselves upon the least uncomfortable spot we could select, and Toby produced from the bosom of his frock the sacred package. In silence we partook of the small morsel of refreshment that had been left from the morning's repast, and with- out once proposing to violate the sanctity of our engagement with respect to the remainder, w^ rose to our feet, and proceeded to construct some sort of shelter under which we might obtain the sleep we so greatly needed. Fortunately the spot was better adapted to our purpose than the one in which we had passed the last wretched night. We cleared away the tall reeds from a small but almost level bit of ground, and twisted them into a low basket-like hut, which we covered with a profusion of long thick leaves, gathered from a tree near at hcmd. We disposed them thickly all around, reserv- ing only a slight opening that barely permitted us to crawl under the shelter we had thus obtained. These deep recesses, though protected from the winds that assail the summits of their lofty sides, are damp and chill to a degreq that one would hardly anticipate in such a climate j and being unprovided with anything but our woollen frocks and thin duck trowsers to resist the cold of the place, we were the more solicitous to render our habitation for the night as comfortable as we could. Accordingly, in addition to what we had already done, we plucked down all the leaves within our reach and threw SECOND MORNING 65 them in a heap over our little hut, into which we now cr^pt, raking after us a reserved supply to form our couch. That night nothing but the pain I suffered prevented me from sleeping most ref^'eshingly. As it was, I caught two or three naps, while Tqby slept away at riiy side as soundly as though he had been sandwiched fcetween two Holland sheets. Luckily it did not rain, and we were preserved from .the inisery whiph a heavy shower would have pccasioned us. In the morning I was awakened by the sonorous yoicp of my companion ringing in my ears and bidding me fisp. I crawled out from our heap of leaves, and was astonighpd at the change which a good night's rest had wrpiight in his appearance. He was as blithe and joyquis as a young bird, and was staying the keenness of his morning's appetite by chewing the soft bark of a delicate branch he held in his hand, and he recommended the l|ke to me as an adipirable antidote against the gnav^ings of hunger. For my own part, though feeling inaterially better than I had done the preceding evening, I could not look at the limb that h^d pained me so violently a,t intervals during the last twenty-fpi^r hqurs, without experiencing a sense of ^larm that I strove in vain to shake off. Unwilling to disturb the flow of my comrade's spirits, I managed to stifle the complaints to which I might other- wise have given vent, and calling upon hini good-humoredly to speed our banquet, I prepared myself for it by washing in the stream. This operation concluded, we swallowed, or rather ab- sorbed, by a peculiar kind of slow sucking process, our respective morsels of nourishment, and then enjtered into a disciission as to the steps it was necessary for us to pursue. " What's to be done now ?" inquired I, rather dolefully. " Descend into that same valley we descried yesterday," rejoined Toby, yjth a rapidity and loudness of utterance that almost led me to suspect he had been slyly devouring the byoad- 56 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. side of an ox in some of the adjoining thickets. " What else," he continued, " remains for us to do but that, to be sure ? Why, we shall both starve to a certainty if we remain here ; and as to your fears of those Typees — depend upon it, it is all nonsense. It is impossible that the inhabitants of such a lovely place as we saw can be anything else but good fellows ; and if you choose rather to perish with hunger in one of these soppy caverns, I foi one prefer to chance a bold descent into the valley, and risk the consequences." " And who is to pilot us thither," I asked, " even if we should decide upon the measure you propose ? Are we to go again up and down those precipices that we crossed yesterday, until we reach the place we started from, and then take a flying leap from the cliffs to the valley ?" " -Faith, I didn't think of that," said Toby ; " sure enough, both sides of the valley appeared to be hemmed in by precipices, didn't they ?" " Yes," answered I, " as steep as the sides of a line-o&battle ship, and about a hundred times as high." My companion sank his head upon his breast, and remained for a while in deep thought. Suddenly he sprang to his feet, while his eyes lighted up with that gleam of intelligence that marks the presence of some bright idea. " Yes, yes," he exclaimed ; " the streams all run in the same direction, and must necessarily flow into the valley before they reach the sea ; all we have to do is just to follow this stream, and sooner or later it will lead us into the vale." " You are right, Toby," I exclaimed, " you are right ; it must conduct us thither, and quickly too ; for, see with what a steep inclination the water descends." " It does, indeed," burst forth my companion, overjoyed at my verification of his theory, " it does indeed ; why, it is as plain as a pike-staff. Let us proceed at once ; come, throw away all those THEIR DESCENT TO THE VALLEY. 57 stupid ideas about the Typees, and hurrah for the lovely valley of the Happars !" " You virill have it to be Happar, I see, my dear fellow ; pray Heaven you may not find yourself deceived," observed I, with a shake of my head. " Amen to all that, and much more," shouted Toby, rushing forward ; " but Happar it is, for nothing else than Happar can it be. So glorious a valley — such forests of .bread-fruit trees — such groves of cocoa-nut — such wildernesses of guava-bushes ! Ah ! shipmate ! don't linger behind : in the name of all delightful fruits, I am dying to be at (hem. Come on, come on ; shove ahead, there's a lively lad ; never mind the rocks ; kick them out of the way, as I do ; and to-morrow, old fellow, take my word for it, we shall be in clover. Come on ;" and so saying, he dashed along the ravine like a madman, forgetting my inability to keep up with him. In a few minutes, however, the exuberance of his spirits abated, and, pausing for a while, he permitted me to overtake him. 58 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. CHA.PTER VIII. Perilous Passage of the Rayine — Descent into the Valley. Thb fearless confidence of Toby was contagious, and I began to adopt the Happar side of the question. I could not, however, overcome a certain feeling of trepidation as we made pur way along these gloomy solitudes. Our progress, at first compara- tively easy, became more and more difficult. The bed of the watercourse was covered with fragments of broken rocks, which had fallen from above, ofiering so many obstructions to the course of the rapid stream, which vexed and fretted about them, — forming at intervals small waterfalls, pouring over into deep basins, or splashing wildly upon heaps of stones. From the narrowness of the gorge, and the steepness of its sides, there was no mode of advancing but by wading through the water ; stumbling every moment over the impediments which lay hidden under its surface, or tripping against the huge roots of trees. But the most annoying hindrance we encountered was from a multitude of crooked boughs, which, shooting out almost horizontally from the sides of the chasm, twisted themselves together in fantastic masses almost to the surface of the stream, afibrding us no passage except under the low arches which they formed. Under these we were obliged to crawl on our hands and feet, sliding along the oozy surface of the rocks, or slipping into the deep pools, and with scarce light enough to guide us. Occasionally we would strike our heads against some projecting limb of a tree ; and while imprudently engaged in rubbing the A WATER.FALL. 59 injured part, would fall sprawling a.n)ongst flinty fragments, ciittipg and brui^ng ourgelves, whilst the unpitying waters flowed over our prostrate bodies. Belzoni, worming himself through the s|[i,bj:erranean passages of tlie Egyptian catacombs, could not have met with greater impediments than those we here encoun- tered. But we struggled against |J^ip m^iifiiUy, well knowing our oijly hope lay in advancing. Towards suflset we halted at a spot where we made prepara- tions for passing the night. Here we constructed a hut, in much the same way as before, aiid cri^wling into it, endeavoured to forget our sufferings. My companion, I believe, slept pretty soundly ; but at daybreajlp, when we rolled put of pur dwelling, I felt nearly disqualified for any further efforts, Toby pre- scribed as a remedy for, my illness the contents of one of our little sillc packages, tp be takeii at once in a single dose. To this species of medical treatment, ho^yever, I would by no means accede, much as he insisted upon it ; and so we partook of our usual morsel, and silently resumed our journey. It was now the fourth day since we left Nukuheva, and the gnawings of hunger became painfully acute. We were fain to pacify them by chew- ing the tender bark of roots and twigs, which, if they did not afford us npurishment, were at least sweet and pleasant to the taste. Our progress along the steep watercourse was necessarily slow, and by noon we had not advanced more than a mile. It was sonaewhere near this part of the day that the noise of falling waters, which we had faintly caught in the early morning, be- came more distinct ; and it was not long be&re we were arrested by a rocky precipice of nearly a hundred feet in depth, that ej^tended all across the channel, an4 over which the wild stream -poured in an unbroken .leap. On eiUier hand the walls of the ravine presented their overhanging fides both above and below the fall, aiS&rding no means whatever of arcnding the cataract of taking a circuit round it. 60 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. " What 's to be done now, Toby ?" said I. " Why," rejoined he, " as we cannot retreat, I suppose we must keep shoving along." " Very true, my dear Toby ; but how_do you purpose accom- plishing that desirable object ?" " By jumping from the top of the fall, if there be no other way," unhesitatingly replied my companion : " it will be much the quickest way of descent ; but as you are not quite as active as I am, we will try some other way." And, so saying, he crept cautiously along and peered over into the abyss, while I remained wondering by what possible means we could overcome this apparently insuperable obstruction. As soon as my companion had completed his survey, I eagerly inquired the result. " The result of my observations you wish to know, do you ?" began Toby, deliberately, with one of his odd looks : " well, my lad, the result of my observations is very quickly imparted. It is at present uncertain which of our two necks will have the honor to be broken first ; but about a hundred to one would be a fair bet in favor of the man who takes the first jump." " Then it is an impossible thing, is it ?" inquired I gloomily. " No, shipmate ; on the contrary, it is the easiest thing in life : the only awkward point is the sort of usage which our unhappy limbs may receive when we arrive at the bottom, and what sort of travelling trim we shall be in afl:erwards. But follow me now, and I will show you the only chance we have." With this he conducted me to the verge of the cataract, and pointed along the side of the ravine to a number of curious looking roots, some three or four inches in thickness, and several feet long, which, after twisting among tlie fissures of the rock, shot perpendicularly from it and ran tapering to a point in the air, hanging over the gulf like so many dark icicles. . -They oovered nearly the entire sur&ce of one side of the gorge, the DANGEROUS RAVINE. 61 lowest of them reaching even to the water. Many were moss- grown and decayed, with their extremities snapped short off, and those in the immediate vicinity of the fall were slippery with moisture. Toby's scheme, and it was a desperate one, was to entrust our- selves to these treacherous-looking roots, and by slipping down from one to another to gain the bottom. " Are you ready to venture it ?" asked Toby, looking at me earnestly, but without saying a word as to the practicability of the plan. " I am," was my reply ; for I saw it was our only resource if we wished to advance, and as for retreating, all thoughts of that sort had been long abandoned. After I had signified my assent, Toby, without uttering a single word, crawled along the dripping ledge until he gained a point from whence he could just reach one of the largest of the pendant roots ; he shook it — it quivered in his grasp, and when he let it go, it twanged in the air like a strong wire sharply struck. Satisfied by his scrutiny, my light-limbed companion swung him- self nimbly upon it, £ind twisting his legs round it in sailor fashion, slipped down eight or ten feet, where his weight gave it a motion not unlike that of a pendulum. He could not venture to descend any further ; so holding on with one hand, he with the other shook one by one all the slender roots around him, and at last, finding one which he thought trustworthy, shifted himself to it and continued his downward progress. So far so well ; but I could not avoid comparing my heavier frame and disabled condition with his light figure and remarkable activity ; but there was no help for it, and m less than a minute's time I was swinging directly over his head. As soon as his up- turned eyes caught a glimpse of me, he exclaimed in his usual dry tone, for the danger did not seem to daunt him in the least, " Mate, do me the kindness not to fall until I get out' of your 62 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. way ;" and tligfi swinging himself more on one side, he continued Jiis desceiit. In the mean time L cautiously transferred myself from the limb down which I had been slipping to a couple of others that were near it, deeming two strings to my bow better than one, and taking care to test their strength before I trusted my weight to them. On arriving towards the end of the second stage in this vertipai journey, and shaking the long roots which were round me, to my consternation they snapped off one after another like so many pipe stems, and fell in fragments against the side of the gulf, splashing at last into the waters beneath. As one after another the treacherous roots yielded to my grasp,, and fell into the torrent, my heart sunk within me. The branches on which I was suspended over the ya-yvning chasm swang tp and fro in the air, and I expected them every moment to snap in twain. Appalled at the djreadfHl fate that menap.ed me, I clutched frantically at the only large root which remained near me; but in vain ; I could not reach it, though my fingers were within a few inches of it. Again and again I tried to reach it, until at length, maddened with the thought .of my situation, I swayed - myself violendy by striking my foot against the aide of the rook, and at the instant that I approached the large root caught desperately at it, and transferred myself to it. It vibrajed violeMy under the sudden weight, but fortunately did not give way. My braiii grew dizzy with the idea of the frightful risk I had just run, and I involuntarily closed my eyes to shut out the view of the depth beneath me. For the instant I was safe, and I uttered a devout ejaculation of thanksgiving for my escape. " Pretty well done," shouted Toby underneath me ; " you are nimbler than I thought you to be — hopping about up there from root to root like any young squirrel. As soon as you have diverted yourself sufficiently, I would advise you to proceed." ANOTHER DESCENT. §3 " Aye, aye, Toby, all in good . time : two or three more such fiitnous roots as this, aqd I shall be with you." The Fesidueof njy downward progress was comparatively easy ; the roots were in greater abundance, and i^ one or two places jutting out points of rock' assisted me greatly. In a few mopients I was stauding by the side of my companion. Substituting a ^ut stick for the one I had thrown aside at the top of the precipice, we now continued our course along the bed of the ravine. Soon we were saluted by a sound in advance, that grew by degrees louder and louder, as the noise of the cataract we were leaving behind gradually died on Our ears. " Another precipice for us, Toby." " Very good ; We can descend them, you know^— come on." JS^othing indeed appeared to depress or intimidate tMs intrepid fellow. Typees or Niagaras, he was as ready to engage one as the other, and I could not avoid a thousand times congratulating myself upon having such a companion in an enterprise like the present. After an hour's painful progress, we reached the verge of an- other fall, still loftier than the preceding, and flanked both above and below with the same steep masses of rook, presenting, how- ever, here and there narrow irregular ledges, supporting a shallow soil, on which grew a variety of bushes and trees, whose bright verdure contrasted beautifully with the foamy waters that flowed between them. Toby, who invariably acted ^ pioneer, now proceeded jto re- (Connoitre. On Ms, return, he reported that the shelves of rock on our right would enable us to gain with little risk the bottom of the cataract. Accordingly, leaving the bed of the stream at the very point where it thundered down, we began crawling along one of iJiese sipping ledges until it carried us to within a few &et of another that inclined downward at a still ^mrper angle, and upon 64 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. which, by assisting each other, we managed to alight in safety. We warily crept along this, steadying ourselves by the naked roots of the shrubs that clung to every fissure. As we proceeded, the! narrow path became still more contracted, rendering it diffi- cult for us to maintain our footing, until suddenly, as we reached an angle of the wall of rock where we had expected it to widen, we perceived to our consternation that a yard or two further on it abruptly terminated at a place we could not possibly hope to Toby as usual led the van, and in silence I waited to learn from him how he proposed to extricate us from this new difficulty. " Well, my boy," I exclaimed, after the expiration of several minutes, during which time my companion had not uttered a word : " What 's to be done now ?" He replied in a tranquil tone that probably the best thing we could do in the present strait was to get out of it as soon as possible. " Yes, my dear Toby, but tell me how we are to get out of it." " Something in this sort of style," he replied ; and at the same moment to my horror he slipped sideways off the rock, and, as I then thought, by good fortune merely, alighted among the spreading branches of a species of palm tree, that shooting its hardy roots along a ledge below, curved its trunk upwards into the air, and presented a thick mass of foliage about twenty feet below the spot where we had thus suddenly been brought to a stand-still. I in- voluntarily held my breath, expecting to see the form of my companion, afler being sustained for a moment by the branches of the tree, sink through their frail support, and fall headlong to the bottom. To my surprise ;and joy, however, he recovered him- self, and disentangling his limbs from the fractured branches, he peered out from his leaiy bed, and shouted lustily, " Come on, my hearty, there is no other alternative !" and with this he ducked beneath the foliage, and slipping down the trunk, stood in a moment UARING LEAP. 65 at least fifty feet beneath me, upon the broad shelf of rock from which sprung the tree he had descended. What would I not have given at that moment to have been by his side ? The feat he had just accomplished seemed little less than miraculous, and I could hardly credit the evidence of my senses when I saw the wide distance that a single daring act had so suddenly placed between us. Toby's animating " come on !" again sounded in my ears, and dreading to lose all confidence in myself if I remained meditating upon the step, I once more gazed down to assure myself of the relative bearing of the tree and my own position, and then closing my eyes and uttering one comprehensive ejaculation of prayer, I inclined myself over towards the abyss, and after one breathless instant fell with a crash into the tree, the branches snapping and crackling with my weight, as I sunk lower and lower among them, until I was stopped by coming in contact with a sturdy limb. In a few moments I was standing at the foot of the tree, mani> pulating myself all over with a view of ascertaining the extent of the injuries I had received. To my surprise the only effects of my feat were a few slight contusions too trifling to care about. The rest of our descent was easily accomplished, and in half an hour after regaining the ravine we had partaken of our evening morsel, built our hut as usual, and crawled under its shelter. The next morning, in spite of our debility and the agony of hunger under which we were now suffering, though neither of us confessed to the fact, we struggled along our dismal and still diifi. cult and dangerous path, cheered .by the hope of soon catching a glimpse of the valley before us, and towards evening the voice of a cataract which had for some time sounded like a low deep bass to the music of the smaller waterfalls, broke upon our ears in still louder tones, and assured us that we were approaching its Ticinity. 66 RESIDENCK IN T«I^MARQUESAS. That ^veniitg we stood on the brink of a precipice, aver which the dark stream bounded in one final leap of full 300 feet. The sheer descent terminated in the region we so long had sought. On either- side of the fall, twp lofty and perpendicular bluffs buttressed the sides of the enormous cliff, and projected into the sea of verdure with which the valley waved, and' a range of similar projecting eminences stood disposed in a half circle about the he^d of the vale. A thick canopy of trees hung over the very verge of the fall, leaving an arched aperture fpr the passage of the waters, which imparted a strange picturesqueness to the scene. The valley was now before us ; but instead of being conducted into its smiling bosom by the gradual descent of the deep water- course we had thus far pursued, all our labors now appeared to have been rendered futile by its abrupt termination. But, bitterly disappointed, we did not entirely despair. ' As it was now near sunset we determined to pass the night where we were, and on the morrow, refreshed by sleep, and by eating at one meal all our stock of food, to accomplish a descent>finto the valley, or perish in the attempt. We laid ourselves down that night on a spot, the recollection of which still makes me shudder. A Small table of rock which projected over the precipice on one side of the stream, and was drenched by the spray of the fall, sustained a huge trunk of a tree which must have been deposited there by some heavy freshet. It lay obliquely, with one end resting on the rock and the other supported by the side of the ravine. Against it we placed in a sloping direction a number of the half-decayed boughs that were strewn about, and covering the whole with twigs and leaves, awaited thp morning's light beneath such shelter as it afforded. During the whole of this night the continual roaring of the cataract-"the dismal moaning of the gale through the trees — ^the pattering of the rain, and the profound darkness, affected my spirits to a degree which nothing had ever before produced. Wet, THEY REACH THE VAtE. 67 half-famished, and chilled to the heart with the dampness of the place, and nearly wild with the pain I endured, I fairly cowered down to the earth under '■his multiplication of hardships, and abandoned myself to frightful anticipations of evil; and my com- panion, whose spirit at last was a good deal broken, scarcely uttered a word during the whole night. At length the day dawned upon us, and rising from our mi- serable pallet, we stretched our stiffened joints, and after eating all that remained of our bread, prepared for, the last stage of our journey. I will not recount every hair-breadth escape, and every fearful difficulty that occurred before we succeeded in reaching the bosom of the valley. As I have already described similar scenes, it will be sufficient to say that at length, after great toil and great dangers, we both stood with no limbs broken at the head of that magnificent vale which five days before had so suddenly burst upon my sight, and almpst beneath the shadow of thp?% very cliffs from whose summits we had gazed upon the prospect. 68 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. CHAPTER IX. The Head of the Valley — Cautious Advance — A Path — ^Fjuit — Discovery of two of the Natives — Their Singular Conduct — ^Approach towards the Inhabited Parts of the Vale — Sensation Produced by our Appearance — Reception at the House of one of the Natives. How to obtain the fruit vrhich we felt convinced must grow near at hand was our first thought. Typee or Happar? A frightful' death at the hands of the • fiercest of cannibals, or a kindly reception from a gentler race of savages ? Which ? But it was too late now to discuss a ques> tion which would so soon be ans^vered. The part of the valley in which we found ourselves appeared to be altogether uninhabited. An almost impenetrable thicket ex- tended from side to side, without presenting a single plant afibrd- ing the nourishment we had confidently calculated upon ; and with this object, we followed the course of the stream, casting quick glances as we proceeded into the thick jungles on either hand. ■ My companion — ^to whose solicitations Ihad yielded in descend- ing into the valley — ^now that the step wks taken, began to mani- fest a degree of caution I had little expected from him.'" He pro- posed that in the event of our finding an adequate supply of fruit, we should remain in this unfrequented portion of the valley — where we should run little chance of being surprised by its occu- pants, whoever they might be — until sufficiently recruited to re- sume our journey ; when laying in a store of food equal to our wants, we might easily regain the bay of Nukuheva, after the lapse of a sufficient interval to ensure the departure of our vessel. FINDING FRUIT. I objected strongly to this proposition, plausible as it was, as the difficulties of the route would be almost insurmountable, unac- quainted as we were with the general bearings of the country, and I reminded my companion 6f the hardships wliich we had already encountered in our uncertain wanderings ; in a word, I said that since we had deemed it advisable to enter the valley, we ought manfully to face the consequences, whatever they might be ; the more especially as I was convinced there was no alter- native left us but to fall in with the natives, at once, and boldly risk the reception they might give us : and that as to myself, 1 felt the necessity of rest and shelter, and that until I had obtained them, I should be wholly unable to encounter such sufierings as we had lately passed through. To the justice of these observations Toby somewhat reluctantly assented. We were surprised that, after moving as far as we had along the VE^Uey, we should still meet with the same impervious thick- ets ; and thinking that although the borders of the stream might be lined for' some distance with them, yet beyond there might be more open ground, I requested Toby to keep a bright look-out upon one side, while I did the same on the other, in order to discover some opening in the. bushes, and especially to watch for the slightest appearance of a path or anything else that might indicate the vicinity of the islanders. What furtive and anxious glances we cast into those dim-look- ing shades ! With what apprehensions we proceeded, ignorant at what moment we might be greeted by the javelin of some am- bushed savage ! At last my companion paused, and directed my attention to a narrow opening- in the foliage. We struck into it, and it soon brought us by an indistinctly traced path to a compa- ratively clear space, at the further end of which we descried a number of the trees, the native name of which is " annuee," and which bear a most delicious fruit. What a race ! I hobbling over the ground like some decrepid ^yo RESIDENCE IN tHE MARQUESAS. wiieteh, and Toby leaping forward like a greyhound. He quitekly cleared onte of tfie trees on which there were two or three of the fruit, biit tb our chagrin they proved to be much decayed ; the rinds partly opened by the birds, and their hearts ha,lf devoured. However, we quickly despatched them, and no ambrosia could have been more delicious. We looked about us uncertain whither to direct our steps, since the path we had so far followed appeared to be lost in the open space around us. At last we resolved tb enter' a grove near at hand, and had advanced a few rods, when, just upon its skirts, I picked Up a slender bread-fruit shoot perfectly green, and with the tender bark freshly stript from it. It was slippery with moisture, and appeared as if it had been but that moment thrown aside. I said nothing, but merely held it up to Toby, who started at this uridehiafale evidence of the Vicinity of the savages. The plot was now thickening .^A short distance further lay a little faggot of the same shoots bound together with a strip of bark. Could it have been thrown down by some solitary native, who, alarmed at seeing us, had hurried forward -lo carry the tiding^ of our approach to his countrymen ? — Typee or Happar ?^But it was too late to recede, so we moved oh slowly, my companion in advance casting eager glances under the trees on either side, until all at once I saw him recoil as if stung by an adder. Sinking on his knee, he waved me oiT with one hand, while with the other he held aside some intervening leaves, and gazed intently at some object. Disregarding his injunction, I; qiiickly approached him and caught a glimpse of two figtlres partly hidden by the dense foliage ; they were standing close together, and were perfectly motionless. They must have previously perceived iis, and withdrawn into the depths of the wood to elude our Observation. My mind was at once made up. Dropping my staff, and tear- ing open the package of things we had brought froni liie ship, I THEIR MEETING WITH NATIVES. 71 unrolled thfe cotton cloth, and holding it in one hand plucked with the other a twig from the bushes beside me, and telling Toby to follow my example, I broke through the covert and advanced^ waving the branch in token of peace towards the shrinking forms before me. They were a boy and a girl, slender and graceful, and com- pletely naked, with the exception of a slight girdle of bark, from which depended at opposite points two of the russet leaves of the bread-fruit tree. An arm of the boy, half screened from sight by her wild tresses, was thrown about the neck of the girl, while with the other he held one of her hands in his ; and thus they stood togethfer; their heads iiiclined forward, catching the faint noise we made in our progress, and with one foot in advance, as if half inclined to fly from bur presence. As we drew near, their alarm evidently increased. Apprehen- sive that they might fly from us altogether, I stopped short and motioned them to advance and receive the gift I extended towards them, but they would not; I then uttered a few words of their language with which I was acquainted, scarcely expecting that they would understand me, but to show that we had not dropped from the clouds upon them. This appeai^ed to give them & little confidence, so I approached nearer, presenting the cloth with one hand, and holding the bough with the other, while they slowly retreated. At last they suffered us to approach so near to them that we were enabled to throw the cotton cloth across their shoul- dets, giving them to understand that it was theirs, and by a variety of gestures endeavoring to make them understand that we enter- tained the highest possible regard for them. The frightened pair now stood still, whilst we endeavored to make them comprehend the nature of our wants. In doing this Toby went through with a complete series of pantomimic illus- trations — dipening his mouth from ear to ear, and thrusting liis fingers down his throat, gnashing his teeth and rolling his eyes 72 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. about, till I verily believe the poor creatures took us for a couple of white cannibals who were about to make a meal of them. When, however, they understood us, they showed no inchnation to reheve our wants. ' At this juncture it began to rain violently, and we motioned them to lead us to some place of shelter. With this request they appeared willing to comply, but nothing could evince more strongly the apprehension with which they regarded us, than the way in which, whilst walking before, us, they kept their eyes constantly turned back to watch every movement we made, and even our very looks. " Typee or Happar, Toby ?" asked I as we walked after them. " Of course, Happar," he replied, with a show of confidence which was intended to disguise his doubts. " We shall soon know," I exclaimed; and at the same moment I. stepped forward towards our guides, and pronouncing the two names interrogatively and pointing to the lowest part of the val- ley, endeavored to come to the point at once. They repeated the words after me again and again, but without giving any peculiar emphasis to either, so that I was completely at a loss to under- stand them ; for a couple of vriUer young things than we after- wards found them to have been on this particular occasion never probably fell in any traveller's way. More and more curious to ascertain our fate, I now threw together in the form of a question the words " Happar," and "Mortarkee," the latter being eqidvalent to the word "good." The two natives interchanged glances of peculiar meaning with one another at this, and manifested no little surprise ; but on the repetition of the question, after some consultation together, to the great joy of Toby, they answered in the affirmative. Toby was now in ecstasies, especially as the young savages continued to reiterate thfeir answer with great energy, as though desirous of impressing us with the idea that being among the Happars, wo ought to consider ourselves perfectly secure. JNTEfiipa op ^FHE CHIEF'S flUT. 73 Although I had some lingering doubts, I feigned gfeat delight vith Toby ^ this annouppement, while my companioo broke out ijito a pantomimio abhorrence gf Typee, aftd imineasurablp loye fo]e the p9,rticular valley in which we were ; our guides all the while gazing uneasily at one another as if at a loss to account |g^ Qur ,cqndu(ct. fhey hurried on, apd we followed them j irntil suddenly they set up a strange halloo, whi,ch was ans.w;ered from beyond tlie grove through ^hj,ch we were passing, and the next moment we entered upon some open ground, at the extremity of jyhich we descried a long, low hut, and in front of it were several young girla. As soon as they perceived us they fled with wild screams into the adjoining thickets, like .^o .many startled fawns. A few momeCitf a,fter the wfeole valley rebounded with savage outcries, ^apd th,e natiyes ca,me running towards us from every direction. ., tji^A an ^rmy of invjaders made an irruption into their ,tej?ritory .they could not have evinced greater excitement. We were soon .completely encircled by a dense throng, and in their eager desire to behold .us ithey .almost arretted our progress ; an equal num- ber surrounding our yquthful guides, who with amazing volubi- lity appeared to be detailjing the circumstances which had attend- ed their meeting with us. Every item of intelligence appeared to redouble the astonishment of .the ii^laiiders, and they gazed at lis with inquiring looks. At last we reaoh^^ ^ large and hajadsonje building of bIpiboQS, and- wej'e by signs told to enter it, the natives opening a l^ne ^ US tJirough widcji jto pass ; .qn entering without ceremony, we threw our e^haiisted fiames upon the mats that covered the floor. In a moment the slight tenei^ent was completely fuU of people, whilst those who were unable to obtain adnuttance gazed at us through its open cane- work, It was now evening, ,fn4 bythedipi light we , could just dis- eem tine ravage countenances alound us, gl^pung^wi^ wild 5 74 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. curiosity and wonder; the naked forms and tattooed limbs of brawny warriors, with here and there the slighter figures of young girls, all engaged in a perfect storm of conversation, of which we were of course the one only theme ; whilst our recent guides were fully occupied in answering the innumerable ques- tions which every one put to them. Nothing can exceed the fierce gesticulation of these people when animated in conversa tion, and on this occasion they gave loose to all their natural vivacity, shouting and dancing about in a manner that well-nigh intimidated us. Close to where we lay, squatting upon their haunches,' were some eight or ten noble-looking chiefs — for such they subse- quently proved to be — who, more reserved than the rest, regarded us with a fixed and stern attention, which not a little discomposed our equanimity. One of them in particular, who appeared to be the highest in rank, placed himself directly facing me ; looking at me with a rigidity of aspect under which I absolutely quailed. He never once opened his lips, but maintained his severe expres- sion of countenance, without turning his face aside for a single moment. Never before had I been subjected to so strange and steady a glance ; it revealed nothing of the mind of the savage, but it appeared to be reading" my own. After undergoing this scrutiny till I grew absolutely nervous, with a view of diverting it if possible, and conciliating the good opinion of the warrior, J took some tobacco from the bosom of my frock and offered it to him. He quietly rejected the profiered gifl, and, without speaking, motioned me to return it to its place. In my previous intercourse with the natives of Nukuheva and Tior, I had found that the present of a small piece of tobacco 'would have rendered any of them devoted to my service. Was this act of the chief a token of his enmity ? Typee or Happar ? I asked within myself. I started, for at the same moment this ■dentical question was asked by the strange being before me. I CHIEF MAKES A SPEECH. 75 turned to Toby ; the flickering light of a native taper showed me his countenance pale with trepidation at this fatal question., I paused for a second, and I know not by what impulse it was that I answered " Typee." The piece of dusky statuary nodded in approval, and then murmured " Mortarkee ?" " Mortarkee," said I, without further hesitation^" Typee mortarkee." What a transition ! The dark figures around us leaped to their feet, clapped their Jiands in transport, and shouted again and again the talismanic syllables, the utterance of which ap- peared to have settled everything. When this commotion had a little subsided, the principal chief squatted once more before me,, and throw;ing himself into a sud. den rage, poured forth a string of philippics, which I was at no loss to understand, from the frequent recurrence of the word Happar, as being directed against the natives of- the adjoining valley. In all these denunciations my companion and I acqui- esced, while we extolled the character of the warlike Typees. To be sure our panegyrics were somewhat laconic, consisting in the repetition of that name, united with the potent adjective " mortarkee." But this wa? sufficient, and served to conciliate the good will of the natives, with whom our congeniality of sen- timent on this point did more towards inspiring a friendly feeling than anything else that could have happened. At last the wrath of the chief evaporated, and in a few moments he was as placid as ever. Laying his hand upon his breast, he gave me to understand that his name was "Mehevi," and that, in return, he wished me to communicate my appellation. I hesitated for an instant, thinking that it might be difiicult for him to pronounce my real name, and then with the most praiseworthy intentions intimated that I was known as " Tom." But I could not have made a worse selection ; the chief could not master it : - " Tommo," " Tomma," " Tommee," everything but plain " Tom." As he persisted in garnishing the word with an addi- 76 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. tiontd syllable, I compromised the matter witb him at the word " Tomraio ;" and by that name I Went during the entire period of my stay in the valley. The same proceeding was gone through with Toby, whose mellifluous appellation was more easily caught. An exchange of names ia»equivalent to a ratification of good- will and amity among these simple people ; and. as we were aware of iMs fact, we were delighted that it had tdkea place on the present occasion. Reclining upon oar mats, we now held a kind of levee, giving audience to successive troops of the natives, who introduci d them- selves to us by pronouncing their respective names, and retired in high good humor on receiving ours in return. During this ceremony the greatest merriment prevailed, nearly every an- nouncement on the part of the islanders being followed by a fresh sally of gaiety, whic^h induced me to believe that some of them at least were innocently diverting the company at our expense, by bestowing upon themselves a string of absurd titles, of theliB- mor of which we were of course entirely ignorant. All this- occupied about an hour, when the throng having a little diminished, I turned to Mehevi and gave him to understand that we were in heed of food and sleep. Immediately the attentive chief addressed a few words to one of the crowd, who disappeared, and returned in a few moments with a calabash of " poee-poee," and two or three young cocoa-nuts stripped of their husks, and with their shells partly broken. We both of us forthwith placed one of these natural goblets to our lips, and drained it in a mo- went of the refreshing draught it contained. The poee-poee was then plaioe'd before us, and even famished as I was, I paused to con- sider in what manner to .convey it to my mouth. This staple article of food among the Marquese islanders is manufkctured from the produce of the bread-fruit tree. It some- what resembles in its plastic nature our bookbinders' paste, is of a yellow color, and somewhat tart to the taste. FRIENDLY BEHAVIOR OF THE NATIVES. 77 Such was the dish, the merits of which I was now eager to discuss. I eyed it wistfully £>r a moment, and then, unable any longer to stand on ceremony,- plunged my hand into the yielding mass^ and to the boisterous mirth of the natives drew.it forth laden with the poee-poee, which adhered in lengthening strings to every finger. So stubborn was its consistency, that in conveying my heavily-freighted hand to my mouth, the connecting links almost raised the calabash from the mats on which it had been placed. This display of awkwardness — in which, by the bye, Toby kept me company— convulsed the bystanders with uncontrollable laughter. As soon as their merriment had somewhat subsided, Mehevi, motioning us to be attentive, dipped the fore-finger of his right hand in the dish, and giving it a rapid and scientific twirl, drew it out coated shioothly with the preparation. With a second pe- culiar flourish he prevented the poee-poee from' dropping to the ground as he raised it to his mouth, into which the finger was inserted, and drawn forth perfectly free from any adhesive matter. This performance was evidently intended for our instruction ; so I again esf ayed the feat on the principles inculcated, but with very ill sut iess. • A starviiig man, however, little heeds conventional proprieties, especially on a South-Sea Island, and accordingly Toby and I partook of the dish after our own clumsy fashion, beplastering our faces all over with the glutinous compound, and daubing our hands nearly to the wrist. This kind of food is by no means disagreeable to the palate of a European, though at first the mode of eating it may be. For my own part, after the lapse of a few days I became accustomed to its singiUar flavor, and grew remark, ably fond of it. So much for the first course ; several other di^es followed it, some of which were positively delicious. We concluded our ban- qaet by tossmg off the contents of two more young cocoa-nats, 78 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. after which we regaled ourselves with the soothing fumes of to- bacco^ inhaled from a quaintly carved pipe which passed round the circle. During the repast, the natives eyed us with intense curiosity, ohserving our minutest motions, and appearing to discover abun- dant matter fbr comment in the most trifling occurrence. Their surprise mounted the highest, when we began to remove our un- comfortable garments, which were saturated with rain. They scanned the whiteness of our limbs, and seemed utterly unable to account for the contrast they presented to the swarthy huie of our faces, embrowned from a six months' exposure to the scorching sun of the Line. They felt our skin, much in the same way that a silk mercer would handle a remarkably fine {)iece of satin j and some of them went so far in their investigation as to apply the olfactory organ. Their singular behavior almost led me to imagine that they never before had beheld a white man ; but a few moments' re- flection convinced me that this could not -have been the case ; and a more satisfactory reason for their conduct has since sug- gested itself to my mind. Deterred by the frightful stories related of i i inhabitants, ships never enter this bay, while their hostile relaJons with the tribes in the adjoining valleys prevent the Typees from visiting that section of the island where vessels occasionally lie. At long intervals, however, some intrepid captain will touch on the skirts of the bay, with two or three armed boats' crews, and accompa- nied by an interpreter. The natives who live near the sea des- cry the strangers long before they reach theii- waters, and aware of the purpose for which they come, proclaim loudly the news of their approach. By a species of vocal telegraph the intelligence reaches the inmost recesses of the vale in an inconceivably short space of time, drawing nearly its whole population down to the beach laden with every variety of fruit. The interpreter, who SLIGHT INTERCOURSE WITH EUROPEANS. 79 is invariably a "tabooed Kannaka,"*- leaps ashore with the goods intended for barter, while the boats, with their oars shipped, and every man on his thwart, lie just outside the surf, heading. ofT from the shore, in readiness at the first untoward event to es- cape to the open sea. As soon as the traffic is concluded, one of the boat-s pulls in under cover of the ^muskets of the others, the fruit is quickly thrown into her, and the transient visitors preci- pitately retire from what they justly consider so dangerous a vicinity. The intercourse occurring with Europeans being so restricted, no wonder that the inhabitants of the valley manifested so much curiosity with regard to us, appearing as we did among them un- der such singular circumstances. I have no doubt ihat we were the first white men who ever penetrated thus far back into their territories, or at least the first who had ever descended from the head of the vale. What had brought us thither must have ap- peared a complete mystery to them, and from our ignorance of the language it was impossible, for us to enlighten them. In an- swer to inquiries which the eloquence of their gestures enabled us to comprehend, all that we could reply was, that we had come from Nukuheva, a place, be it remembered, with which they werd at open war. This intelligence appeared to affect them with the most lively emotions. " Nukuheva mortarkee ?" they asked. Of course we replied most energetically in the negative. They then plied- us with a thousand questions, of which we could understand nothing more than that they had reference to * The word " Kannaka" is at the present day universally used in the South Seas by EuropeSHS to designate the Isl^ders. In the various dia- lects of the principal groups it is simply a sexual designation applied to the males ; but it is now used by the natives in their intercourse with fo- reigners in the same sense in which the .atter employ it. A " Tabooed Kannaka" is an islander whose person has been made to a certain extent sacred by the operation of a singular custom hereafter to be explained. 80 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. the recent movements of the French, against whom they seemecl to cherish the most fierce hatred. So eager were they to ohtain information on this point, that they still continued to propound their queries long after we had shown that we were utterly unable to answer them. Occasionally we caught some indistinct idea of their mieaiiing, when we would endeavor by every method in our power to communicate the "desired intellTgence. At such times their gratification was bbiindless, and they would redouble their efforts to make us comprehend them more perfectly. But.dl in Vain ; and in the end they looked at Us despairingly, as if we were the receptacles of invaluable inforifiation, but how to come at it they knew not. Afl^r a while the group around iis gradually dispersed, arid we were left about itiidhight (as we conjectured) with those who ap- peared to bfe permatient residents of thb house. These individu- als now provided us with fresh mats to lie lipon, covered us with several folds of tappa, and then extinguishing the tapers that had been burning, threw themselves dowh beside M, arid after a little desultory conversation werte sodri sound asleep: MIDNIGHT REFLECTIONS. 81 CHAPTER X. Midnight Reflections — Moraiag Visitors — A Warrior in CoHume— A Sa- vage ^sculapius — Practice of the Healing Art — ^Body -Servant — ^A SweUiitg-house of the Valley described — Portraits of its Inmates. Various ancl conflicting were the thoughts which oppressed me during the silent hours that followed the events related in the preceding chapter. Toby, wearied with the fatigues of the day, slumhered heavily by my side ; but the pain under which I was SuffeTing effectually prevented my sleeping, and I remained dis- tressingly alive to all the fearful circumstances of our present situation. Was it possible that after all out vicissitudes we were really in the terrible valley of Typee, and at the meroy of its inmates, a fierce and unrelenting tribe of savages ? Typee or Hiajipar ? I shuddered when I reflected that there was no longer any Toom for doubt ; and that, beyond all hope of escape, we were now placed in those very circumstances from the bare thought of which I had recoiled with such abhorrence but a few days before. What might not be our fearful destiny ? To be sure, as yet we had been treated with no violence ; nay, had been even kindly and hospitably entertained. But what dependence could be placed upon the fickle passions which sway the bosom 6f a savage ? His inconstancy ^and treachery are pro- verbial. Might it not be that beneath these fair appearances the islanders covered some perfidious design, and that their friendly reception of us might only precede some horrible catastrophe ? How strongly did these forebodings spring up in my mind as I lay restlessly upon a couch of mats, surrounded by the dimly revealed forms of those whom I so greatly dreaded. 5* RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. From the excitement of these fearful thoughts I sank towards morning into an uneasy slumber ; and on awaking, with a start, in the midst of an appalling dream, looked up into the eager countenances of a number of thenatives, who were bending over me. It was broad day ; and the house was nearly filled with young females, fancifully decorated with, flowers, who gazed upon me as I rose with faces in which childish delight and curiosity were vividly portrayed. After waking Toby, they seated themselves round us on the mats, and gave full play to that prying inquisi- tiyeness which time out of mind has been s^ttributed to the adora- ble sex. As these unsophisticated young creatufes were attended by no jealous duennas, their proceedings were altogether informal, and void of artificial restraint. Long and minute was the investiga- tion with which they honored us, and so uproarious their mirth, that I felt infinitely sheepish ; and Toby was immeasurably out- raged at their familiarity. These lively young ladies were at the same time wonderfully polite and humane ; fanning aside the insects that occasionally lighted on our brows j presenting us with food ; and compassion- ately regarding me in the midst of my afiiictions. But in spite of all their blandishments, my feelings of propriety were exceed- ingly shocked, for I could not but consider them as having over- stepped the due limits of female decorum. Having diverted themselves to their hearts' content, our young visitants now withdrew, and gave place to successive troops of the other sex, who continued flocking towards the house until near noon ; by which time I have no doubt that the greater part of the inhabitants of the valley had bathed themselves in the light of our benignant countenances. At last, when their numbers began to diminish, a superb- looking warrior stooped the towering plumes of his head-dress WARRIOR IN HIS COSTUME. 83 beneath the low portal, and entered the house. I saw at once that he was some distinguished personage, the natives regarding him with the utmost deference, and making room for him as he approached. His aspect was imposing. The splendid long drooping tail-feathers of the tropical bird, thickly interspersed with the gaudy plumage of the cock, were disposed in an im- mense upright semicircle upon his head, their lower extremities being fixed in a crescent of guinea-beads which spanned the fore- head. Around his neck were several enormous necklaces of boar's tusks, polished like ivory, and disposed in such a manner as that the longest and largest were upon his capacious chest. Thrust forward through the large apertures in his ears were two small and finely-shaped sperm whale teeth, presenting their cavi- ties in front, stufied with freshly-plucked leaves, and curiously wrought at the other end into strange little images and devices. These barbaric trinkets, garnished in this manner at their open extremities, and tapering and, curving round to a point behind the ear, resembled not a little a pair of cornucopias. The loins of the warrior were girt about with heavy, folds of a dark-colored tappa, hanging before and behind in clusters of braided tasaels, while anklets and bracelets of curling human hair completed his unique costume. In his right hand he grasped a beautifully carved paddle-spear, nearly fifteen feet in length, made of the bright koar-wood, one end sharply pointed, and the other flattened like an oar-blade. Hanging obliquely from his girdle by a loop of sinnate, was a richly decorated pipe ; the slen- der reed forming its stem was colored with a red. pigment, and round it, as well as the idol-bowl, fluttered little streamers of the thinnest tappa. But that which was most remarkable in the appearance of this splendid islander was the elaborate tattooing displayed on every noble limb. All imagmable lines and curves and figures were delineated over his whole body, and in their grotesque variety 84 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. and infinite profusion I could only cbrnpare them to th6 crowded groupings of qtlaint patterns we sometinies-see in costly piecfes of lacework. The most simple and i-emarkable of all these orna- meiits was that which decorated the countenailbe of the chief; Two btoad stripes of tattooing, diverging from the centre bf his shaven crown, obliquely crossed both eyes — staining the lids— ^to a little below either ear, where they united with atiother istripe which swept in a straight line along the lips and -fbrmed the base of the triangle. The warrior, frqm the excellehbfe of his |)hysieal proportions, might certainly have been regarded as one bf Na- ture's noblemen, and the lines drawn tipoh his face may possibly have denoted his exalted rank; This warlike personage, upon entbring the hoUse, seated hint; self at Some distance from the spot where Toby dnd myself reposed, while the rest of the savagfes looked alternately from us to him, as if in expectation of something they were disappoiilted in not perceiving. Regardihg the chief attentively, I thought his lineaments appeared familiar to me. As soon as hiS full face was turiied upon me, and I again beheld its exti'aordinary embel- lishment, and met the strange gaze to which I hdd been subjected the preceding night, I immediately, in spite of the alteration in his appearance, recognized the noble Mehevi. Oh addireaSing him, he advanced at once in the most cordial manner, and greeting me warmly, seemed to enjoy not a little the effect his barbarib costume had produced upon me. I forthwith determined to secure, if possible, the good will of this individual, as I easily perceived he was a man 6f great authority in his tribe, and one who might exert a pbwerfUl in- fluence upon our subsequent fate. In the endeavor I Was not repulsed ; for nothing could surpass the friendliness he manifested towards both my cornpanion and myself. He extended his sturdy limbs by our side, and endeavored to make us coinprehehd the full extent of the kindly feeliiigs by which hb was actuated. The A NATIVE iESCULAPIUS. 85 hliHost insuperable difficulty in icorhmunicating to bne another our ideas affected the chief ^ivith no littlfe mortiiieiitioili He evinced a great desire to be enlightened with regard to ifeie customs and peculiarities of the far-off country we hid left behind us, and to \vhich undet the name of Maheeka he frequently alluded. But thaF which more thaii any ttther subject engaged his atten. tion Was the late proceedings of the " Franee," as he called the French, in the neighboring bay of Nukuheva,. This seemed a never-ending theme with him, and one conceniing which he was liever weary of interrogating us. All the informatioti vfe suc- ceeded in imparting to hiin on this subject was little more thau that we had seen six men-of-war lying in the hostile bay at the time we had left it. When he received this iiltelligence> Mehevi, by the aid of his fingers, weht through a long humerical calcula- tioft, as if estittiatitag the Wtamber of Frenchmen the squadron might contain-. tt was just after employing his feculties in this way that he happened to notice the swelling in my limb. He immediately examined it with the utmost attention, aftd after doing so, de- spatclied a boy who happened to be standing by wrth some mes- sage. After the lapse of a few moments the stripling re-entered the house with an aged islandei, who might have been taken for old Hippocrates himself. His head was as bald as the polished sur- face of a cocoa-nut shell, which, article it precisely resembled in smoothness and doloi", while a long silvery beard sWepit almost to 'Ms girdle of bark. Encircling his temples was a bandeau df the t\visted leaves di the Omoo tree, presssed 'dbsely oveif the broWs to shield his feeble vision from the glare of the sun. His tottering Steps were Supported by a long slim staff, resembling jtjie Wand with which a theatrical magician appears on the stage, -and .in one hand he carried a freshly plaited fan of the green tpafl^^f the'cocoa-'nut tree. A flowing robe of tappa, knotted 86 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. over the shoulder, hung loosely round his stooping form, and heightened the venerableness of his aspect. Mehevi, saluting this old gentleman, motioned him to a seat between us, an^ then uncovering my limb, desired him to examine it. The leech gazed intently from me to Toby, and then pro-' ceeded to business. After diligently observing the ailing member, he commenced manipulating it ; and on the supposition probably that the complaint had deprived the leg of all sensation, began to pinch and hammer it in such a manner that I absolutely roared with the pain. Thinking that I was as capable of making an application of thumps and pinches to the part as any one else, I endeavored to resist this species of medical treatment. But it was not so easy a matter to' get out of the clutches of the old wizard ; he fastened on the unfortunate limb as if it were some- thing for which he had been long seeking, and muttering some kind of incantation continued his discipline, pounding it after, a fashion that set me well nigh crazy ; while Mehevi, upon the same principle which prompts an affectionate mother to hold a struggling child in a dentist's chair, restrained me in his powerful grasp, and actually encouraged the wretch in this infliction of torture. Almost frantic with rage and pain, I yelled like a bedlamite ; while Toby, throwing himself into all the attitudes of a posture- master, vainly endeavored to expostulate with the natives by signs and gestures. To have looked at my companion, as, sympa- thizing with my sufferings, he strove to put an. end to them, one would have thought that he was the deaf and dumb alphabet incarnated. Whether my tormentor yielded to Toby's entreaties, or paused from sheer exhaustion, I do not know ; but all at once he ceased his operations, and at the same time the chief relinquish, ing his hold upon me, I fell back, faint and breathless with the agony I had endured. My unfortunate limb was now left much in the same condition IS PROVIDED WITH A SERVANT. 87 as a rump-Steak after undergoing the castigatmg process which precedes cooking. My physician, having recovered from the fatigues of his exertions, as if anxious to make amends for the pain to which he had subjected me, now took some herbs out of a little wallet that was suspended from his waist, and moistening them in water, applied them to the inflamed part, stooping over it at the same time, and either whispering a spell, or having a little confidential chat with some imaginary demon located in the calf of my leg. My" limb- was now swathed in leafy bandages, and grateful to Providence for the cessation of hostilities, I was suffered to rest. Mehevi shortly after rose to depart ; but before he went he spoke authoritatively to one of the natives whom he addressed as Kory-5ory ; and from the little I could understand of what took places pointed him out to ine as a man whose peculiar business thenceforth would be to attend upon my person. I am not certain that I comprehended as much as this at the time, but the subse- quent conduct of my trusty body-servant fully assured me that such must have been the case. I could liot but be amused at the manner in which the chief addressed me upon this occasion, talking to me for at least fifteen or twenty minutes as calmly as if I could understand every word that he said. I remarked this peculiarity very often afterwards in many other of the islanders. Mehevi having now departed, and the family physician having likewise made his exit, we were left about sunset with the ten or twelve natives, who by this time I had ascertained composed the household of which Toby and I were members. As the dwelling to which we had been first introduced was the place of my perma, nent abode while 1 remained in the valley, and as I was necessa- rily placed upon the most intimate footing with its occupants, I may as well here enter into- a little description of it and its inhabitants. This description will apply also to nearlj- all the RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. *ther dwelling-places in the vale, and will furnish soBie idea of the generality of the natives. Near one side c£ the valley, and about midway up the asc^t of a rather abrupt rise ©f ground waving with the richest verdure, a number of large stones were laid in successive tsourses, to the height of nearly eight feetj and disposed- in suoih a manner that their level surface 'corresponded )h shape with the habitation which Was perched upon it. A narrow space, however, was reserved in front of the dwelling, uljon the summit of this pile of stones (called by the nsitives a "pi-pi"), which being enclosed by a little picket of canes, gave it somewhat the appearance of a verandah. The frame of the house was tjonstructed 'of large bamboos planted uprightly, and secured together at intervals by transverse stalks of the light wood of the habiscus, tehed with thongs of bark. The rear of the tenement— "built w^ with suc- cessive ranges of cocoa-nut boughs bound one upon another, wilih their leaflets cunningly. woven together— inclined » litde from the vertical, and extended from the extreme edge of the " pi-pli " to about twenty feet from its surface ; whence the shelving roof — thatched with the long tapering leaves of the palmetto— ^sloped steeply off to within about five feet of the floor; leaving the eaves drooping with tassel-like appendages over the front of thre habita- tion. This was constructed of light and elegant canes, in a kind of open screen- work, tastefully adorned with bindimgs of variegated sinnate, which served to hold together its various parts. The sides of thte house were similarly built ; thus presenting three quarters for the circulation oi the air, while the whale was imper- vioti^ to the rain. In length this .picturesque building was perhaps twelve yards, while in breadth it could not have exceeded as to'any feet. .So much £>r the exterior; wbidh, with its wire-like reed-twisted sides, nbt a little reminded me of an immense 'aviary. Stooping a little, jrou 'passed through a narrow aperture In Its A DWELLING-HOUSE DESCRIBED. 89 front ; and fitcing yoir, oil entering, lay i*o long, perfectly straight, and well-polished trunks of the cocoa-nut tree, extending the full length of the dwelling ; one of them placed closely against the rear, aiid the other Ijriilg parallel with it some two yards dis- tant, the interval between them being spHead \(rith a multitude of gaily- worked matSj nearly all of a difierent pattern, l^is spa.ce formed the cbttimon couch and -lotlnging place of the natives, answering the purpose of a divati in Oriental Countries. Here Would they slumber through the hours "of the flight, and redine lu:turiously during the greater part of the day. The remainder of the floor presented only the cool shiniiig SUtfases of the large stones bf which the "pi-pi " was Composed. From the Wdge pdle of thfe house hUiig suspiended a number of large packages enveloped in coarse t^ppa j some of which con- tained festival dresses, afad various othfer rtiatters of the Wardrobe, held in high estitnation. TheSe were easily accessible by means of a line, %hich, pkssing over the ridgfe-pole, hEH one eiid attached to a bundle, -Wrhile with the otherj which led to the side of the dwelling and was there secured, the package CdUld be lowered or elevated at pleasure. Against the farther Wall of the hbUse were arranged in tasteful figures ia variety of spears and javelitis, Elild Other implements of savage warfare. Outside of the habitatiouj and 'built Upon the piazza-like area in its front, was a little shed used as a Sort of larder or pantryj and in ivhich were stored various articles of domestib Use and convenience. A few yards froffl the pi-pi was a largfe shed built of cocoa-nut boughs, where the process of pre- paring thfe " poee-poee " was carried On; and all culinary opera- tibns attehdied to; Thus much for the HbU&fe, Siiid its appurtenances j and it Will be readilj*- acknowledged that a morfe cotnniodious and appro, priate duelling for the climate &nd the people could iiot possibly be deViised. It Wis ooolj free to admit the air. Scrupulously 90 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. clean, and elevated above the dampness and impurities of the ground. But now to sketch the inmates ; and here I claim fqr my tried servitor and faithful valet Kory-Kory the precedence of a first description. As his character will be gradually unfolded in the course of my narrative, I shall for the present content myself with delineating his personal appearance. Kory-Kory, though the most devoted and best natured serving-man in the world, was, alas ! a hideous object to look upon. He was some twenty -five years of age, and about six feet in height, robust and well made, and of the most extraordinary aspect. His head was carefully shaven, with the exception of two circular spots, aboutthe size of a dollar, near the top of the cranium, where the hair, permitted to grow- of an amazing length, was twisted up in two prominent knots, that gave him the appearance of being decorated with a pair of horns. His beard, plucked out by the root from every other part of his face, was suffered to droop in hairy pendants, two of which garnished his . upper lip, and an equal number hung from the extremity of his chin. Kory-Kory, with a view of improving the handiwork of nature, and perhaps prompted by a desire to add to the engaging expres- sion of his countenance, had seen fit to embellish his face with three broad longitudinal stripes of tattooing, whichj like those country roads that go straight forward in defiance of all obstacles, crossed his nasal organ, descended into the hollow of his eyes, and even skirted the borders of his mouth. Each completely spanned his physiognomy ; one extending in a line with his eyes,' another crossing, the face in the vicinity of the nose, and the third sweeping along his lips from ear to ear. His countenance thus triply hooped, as it were, with tattooing, always reminded me of those unhappy wretches whom I have sometimes observed gazing out sentimentally from behind the grated bars of a prison window; whilst the entire body of my savage valet, covered all over with THE FATHER OF KORY-KORY. 91 representations of birds and fishes, and a variety of most unac- countable-looking creatures, suggested to me the idea of a pic- tonal museum of natural history, or an illustrated copy of " Grold> smith's Animated- Nature." But it seems leally heartless in me to write thus of the poor islander, when I owe perhaps to his unremitting attentions the very existence I nq,w enjoy. Kory-Kory, I mean thee no harm in whati say in regard to thy outward adornings ; but they were a little curious to my unaccustomed sight, and therefore I dilate upon them. But to underrate or forget thy faithful services is something I could never be guilty of, even in the giddiest moment of my life. The father of my attached follower was a native of gigantic frame, and had once possessed prodigious physical powers ; but the lofty form was now yielding to the inroads of time, though iJie hand of disease seemed never to have been laid upon the aged warrior. Marheyo— for such was his name — appeared to have retired from all aqtive participation in the afiairs of the valley, seldom or never accompanying the natives in their various expe- ditions ; and employing the greater part of his time in throwing up a little shed just outside the house, upon which he was engaged to my certain knowledge for four months, without appearing to make' any sensible advance. I suppose the old gentleman was in his dotage, for he manifested in yarious ways the characteris- tics which mark this particular stage of life. I remember in particular his having a choice pair of ear-oma- ments, fabricated from the teeth of some sea-monster. These he would alternately wear and. take off at least fifty times in the course of the day, going and coming from his little hut on each occasion with all the tranquillity imaginable. Sometimes slipping them through th . sUts in his ears, he would seize his spear — which. in. length and slightness resembled a fishing-pole — and go stalking beneath the shadows of the neighboring groves, as if about to give a hostile meeting to some cannibal knight. But he 93 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. would soon return again, and hiding his weapon under the pro- jecting eaves of the house, and rolling his clumsy trinkets care- fully in a piece of tappa, would resume his more pacific opera- tions as quietly as if he had never inteirrupted them. But despite his eccentricities, Marheyo was a most paternal and warm-hearted old fellow, and in this particular not a little resembled his son Kory-Kory. The mother of the latter was the mistress of the family, and a notable housewife, and a most in- dustrious oli lady she Was. If she did not understand the art of making jellies, jams, custards, tea-cakes, and such like trashy affairs, she was profoundly skilled in the mysteries of preparing " amar," " poee-poee," and " kokoo," with other substantial mat- ters. She was a genuine busy-body ; bustling about the house like a country landlady at an unexpected arrival ; for ever giving the young girls tasks to perform, Which the little hussies as often Neglected 3 poking into every comer, and rummaging over bun' dies of bid tappa, or making a prodigious clatter among the cala- bashes. Sometimes she might have been seen squatting upon her haunchfes in ffont of a huge wooden basin, and kneading poee- poee with terrific vehemence, dashing the stone pestle about as if she Would shiver the Vessel into fragments ; on other occa- sions, galloping about the valley in search of a particular kind of leaf, used in some of her recondite operations, and returning home, toiling and sweating, with a bundle, under which most women would have sunk. To tell the truth, Kory-Kory's mother Was the only industrious person in all the valley of Typee ; and she could not have em- ployed herself more actively had she been left an exceedingly muscular and destitute widow, tvith an inordinate supply of young children, in the bleakest part of the civilized w^id. There was not the slighttetet necessity for the greater portion of the labor per- formed by the old lady : but she seemed to work from some Jrre- sistible impulse ; her limbs ecntinually swaying to and fro, as if NATIVteS DESCRIBED. 93 there were some indefatigaUe engine Qoocealed within hBi body which kept her in perpetual motion. Never suppose that she was a termagant or a shrew for all this ; she had the kindliest heart in the world,* and acted towards me in particular in a truly maternal manner, occasionally putting some little morsel of choice food into my hand, some outlandish kind of savage sweetmeat or pastry, like a doting mother petting a sickly urchin with tarts and sugajr plums. Warm indeed are my remembrances of the dear, good, affectionate old Tinor ! Eesides the individuals I have mentioned, there belonged to the household three young men, dissipated, good-for-n»thing, roystering blades of savages, who were either employed in prosecuting love affairs with the maidens of the tribe, or grew bpozy on " arva '' And tobacco in the company of congenjsj spirits, the scapegraces of the valley. Among the permanent inmates of -the house were likewise several lovely damsels, who instead of thrumming pianos and reading novels, like more enlightened young ladies, substituted for these employments the manufacture of a fine species of tappa j but for the greater portion of the time were skipping from house to house, gadding and gossiping with their acquaintances. From the rest of these, however, I must except the beauteous nymph Fayaway, who was my peculiar favorite. Her free pliant figure was the very perfection of female grace and beauty. Her complexion was a rich and mantling olive, and when watching the glow upon her cheeks I could almost swear that beneath the transparent medium there lurked the blushes qf a faint vermilion. The face of this girl was a rounded oval, and each feature as perfectly formed as the heart or imagination of man could desire. Her full lips, when parted with a smile, disclosed teeth of a daz- uling whiteness ; and when her rosy mouth opened with a burst of merriment, they looked like the milk-white seeds of the " arta," a fruit of the valley, which, when cleft in twain, shows 94 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. them reposing in rows on either side, imbedded in the red and juicy pulp. Her hair of the deepest brown, parted irregularly in the middle, flowed in natural ringlets over her shoulders, and whenever she chanced to stoop, fell over and hid from view her lovely bosom. Gazing into the depths of her strange blue eyes, when she was in a contemplative mood, they seemed most placid yet unfathomable ; but when illuminated by some lively emotion, they beamed upon the beholder like stars. The hands of Fay- away were as soft and delicate as those of any countess ; for an entire exemption from rude labor marks the girlhood and even prime of a Typee woman's life. Her feet, though wholly ex- posed, were as diminutive and fairly shaped as those which peep from beneath the skirts of a Lima lady's dress. The skin of this young creature, from continual ablutions and the use of mollify- ing ointments, was inconceivably smooth and soft. I may succeed, perhaps, in particularising some of the indi- vidual features of Fayaway's beauty, but that general loveliness of appearance which they all contributed to produce I will not attempt to describe. The easy unstudied graces of a child of nature like this, breathing from infancy an atmosphere of per- petual summer, and nurtured by the simple fruits of the earth ; enjoying a perfect freedom from care and anxiety, and removed effectually from all injurious tendencies, strike the eye in a man- ner which cannot be portrayed. This picture is no fancy sketch ; it is drawn from the most vivid recollections of the person delineated. Were I asked if the beauteous form of Fayaway was altogether free from the hideous blemish of tattooing, I should be constrained to answer that it was not. But the practitioners of this barbarous art, so remorseless in their inflictions upon the brawny limbs of the warriors of the tribe, seem to be conscious that it needs not the resources of their profession to augment the charms of the maidens of the vale. THE BEAUTIFUL FAY AWAY. 95 The females are very little embellished in this way, and Fay. away, and all the other young girls of her ^ge, were even less so than those of their sex more advanced in years. The reason of this peculiarity will be alluded to- hereafter. All the tattooing that the nymph in question exhibited upon her person may be easily described. Three minute dots, no bigger than pin-heads, decorated either lip, and at a little -distance were not at all dis- cernible. Just upon the fall of the shoulder were drawn two parallel lines half an inch apart, and perhaps three ihches in length, the interval being filled with delicately executed figures. These narrow bands of tattooing, thus placed, always reminded me of those stripes of gold lace worn by ofiicers in undress, and which are in lieu of epaulettes to denote their rank. Thus much was Fayaway tattooed. The audacious hand which had gone so far in its desecrating work stopping short, ap- parently wanting the heart to proceed. But I have omitted to describe the dress worn by this nymph of the valley. Fayaway — I must avow the fact — for the most part clung to the primitive and summer garb of Eden. But how becoming . the costume ! It showed her fine figure to the best possible ad- vantage ; and nothing could have been better adapted to hei peculiar style of beauty. On ordinary occasions she was habited precisely as I have described the two youthful savages whom we had met on first entering the valley. At other times, when ram- bling among the groves, or visiting at the houses of her ac- quaintances, 'she wore a tunic of white tappa, reaching from hei waist to a little below the knees ; and when exposed for any length of time to the sun, she invariably protected herself from its rays by a floating mantle of the same material, loosely gathered about the person. Her gala dress will be described hereafter. Aa the beauties of our own land delight in bedecking themselves 96 EESIDEN-GE IN THE MARaUESAS. with fanciful articles of jewelry, suspending them from their ears, hanging them ^hout their necks, and clasping them around theJiF wrists ; so Fayaway and her companions were in the haibit of ornamenting themsdves with similar appendages. Flora was their jeweller. Sometimes they wore, necklaces of small carnation flowers, strung like rubies upon a fibre of tappa, or displayed in their ears a single white bud, the stem thrust backward through the aperture, and showing in front the delicate petals folded together in a beautiful sphere, and looking like a drop of the purest pearl. Chaplets too, resembling in their ar- rangement the strawberry coronal worn by an English peeress, and composed of intertwined leaves and blossoms, often crowned their temples ; and bracelets and anklets of &e same tasteful pattern were frequently to be seen. Indeed, the maidens of the island were passionately fond of flowers, and never wearied of decorating their persons with them ; a lovely trait in their diaracter, and one that ere long will be more fully alluded.'^o. Though in my eyes, at least, Fayaway was indisputably tibe loveliest female I saw in Typee, yet the descr^tion I have given of her will in some measure apply to nearly all the youthful por- tion of her sex in the valley. Judge ye .then, reader, what beauti- ful creatures they must have been. OFFICIOUSNESS OF KORY^KORY. 97 CHAPTER XI. Officiquaness of, KoryrKpiy—rHis Devotion — ^A Bath in the Stream — Want of Refinement of the Typee Damsels — Stroll with Mehevi — ^A Typee Highway— The Taboo Groves— The Hoblah Hoolah Ground— The ti— Time-worn Savages — ^Hospitality of Mehevi — ^Midnight Musings — Ad- venture in the Dark — Distinguished Honors paid to the Visitors — ^Strange Procession and. Return to the House of Marheyo. When Mehevi had departed from the house, as related in the ,pre<3eding chapter, Kory-Kory commenced the functions of the post assigned him. He brought, us various kinds of food ; aqd, as if I were an infant, insisted upon feeding me with his own hands. To.this piocedure I, of course, most earnestly objected, but in vain ; and having laid a calabash of kokoo before me, he washed his fingers in a vessel of .water, and then putting his hand into the dish and rolling the food into little balls, put them one after another into my mouth. All my remonstrances against this measure only provoked so great a, clamor on his part, that I .was obliged to act^^uiesce ; and the operation of feeding being thtis fa^ ciUtated, the meal was quickly despatched. As for Toby, he. was ailwfid to Jhelp himself after his owa fashion. The repast over, my attendant .arranged the mats. for repose, and, bidding .me lie down, covered me with a large jobe of tappa, .atthe same time. looking approvingly upon me, and exclaiming* , ," Ki;Ki, muee muee, ah ! moee moee mortarkee " (eat plenty, ah ! sleep very good). The philosophy of this sentiment I did not pretend to question ; for deprived of sleep for several preceding 6 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. nights, and the pain in my limb having much abated, I now felt inclined to avail myself of the opportunity afforded me. The next morning, on waking, I found Kory-Kory stretched out on one side of me, while my companion lay upon the other. I felt sensibly refreshed after a night of sound repose, and imme- diately agreed to the proposition of my valet that I should repair to the water and wash, although dreading the suffering that the exertion might produce. From this apprehension, however, I was quickly relieved ; for Kory-Kory, leaping from the pi-pi, and then backing himself up against it, like a porter in readiness to shoulder a trunk, with loud vociferations and a superabundance of gestures, gave me to understand that I was to mount upon his back and be thus transported to the stream, which flowed perhaps " two hundred yards from the house. Our appearance upon the verandah in front of the habitation drew together quite a crowd, who stood looking on and conversing with one another in the most animated manner. They reminded one of a group of idlers gathered about the door of a village tavern when the equipage of some distinguished traveller is brought round previous to his departure. As soon as I clasped my arms about the neck of the devoted fellow, and he jogged off with me, the crowd — composed chiefly of young girls and boys — followed after, shouting and capering with infinite glee, and accompanied us to the banks of the stream. On gaining it, Kory-Kory, wading up to his hips in the water, carried me half way across, and deposited me on a smooth black Btone which rose a few inches above the surface. The amphibi- ous rabble at our heels plunged in after us, and, climbing to the summit of the grass-grown rocks with which the bed of the brook was here and there broken, waited curiously to witness our morn- ing ablutions. I felt somewhat embarrassed by the presence of the female portion of the company, but nevertheless removed my A BATH IN THE STREAM. 99 frock, and washed myself down to my waist in the stream. As soon as Kory-Kory comprehended from ray motions that this was to be the extent of my performance,- he appeared perfectly aghast with astonishment, and rushing towards me, poured out a torrent of words ih eager deprecation of so limited an operation, enjoin- ing me by unmistakeable signs to immerse my whole body. To this I was forced to consent; and the honest fellow regarding Hie as a froward,: inexperienced child,.'nvhom it was his duty to serve at the risk of offending, lifted me from the rock, and tenderly bathed my limbs. This over, and resuming my seat, I could not avoid bursting into admiration of the scene around me. From the verdant surfaces of the large stones that lay scattered about, the natives were now sliding off into the water, diving and ducking beneath the surface in all directions ; the young girls springing buoyantly into the air, with their long tresses dancing about their shoulders, their eyes sparkling like drops of dew in the sun, and their gay laughter pealing forth at every frolicsome incident. On the afternoon of the day that I took my first bath in the valley, we received another visit from Mehevi. The noble savage seemed to be in the same pleasant mood, and was quite as cordial in his manner as before. After remaining about an hour, he rose from the mats, and motioning to leave the house, invited Toby and myself to accompany him. I pointed to my leg ; but Mehevi in his- turn pointed to Kory-Kory, and removed that objection ; so, mounting upon the faithful fellow's shoulders again — ^like the old man of the sea astride of Sindbad — I followed after the chief. The nature of the route we now pursued struck me more forcibly than anything I had yet seen, as illustrating the indolent disposition of the islanders. The path was obviously the most 100 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. beaten one in the valley, several othei^s leading from either side into it, and^perhaps for successive generations it had formed the ! principal, avenue of the place. And yet, until I .grew more fami- liar with its impediments, it seemed as difficult to :travel. as the recesses of a wilderness. Part of . it j swept . around an abrupt rise of ground, the surface of which was broken by frequent inequa- lities, and thickly strewn :with: projecting masses of rocks, whose summits were oflenhidden from view by the drooping foliage xjf the luxurious vegetation, Sometimes directly over, sometimes evading these obstacles with a wide ..circuit, the path wound along; — one moment climbing over a sudden. eminence smooth with continued wear, then descending on the other side into a csteep.glen, and crossing the flinty ehanael of a brook. -Here it pursued.the:depths;of a. glade, occasiojtally obliging you to stoop beneath vast : horizontal branches; and now you stepped over ■ hugertrunks-andiboughs that lay rotting across the track- Such was the grand thQrouighfare'.of Typee. .-After prooeediijg ;a little distance along it — ^Kory^Koryi panting and. .blowing with the weight of his burden — I dismounted from his back, ftnd grasping the long spear of M^hevi in,my hand, assisted, my steps over the numeroHs obst-eteles of the road ; pre^ferring this naqdepf aidvaneeto Mie whiohjifrom the difficulties of 'the way, was equally painfulstomysdf and my wearied servitor. ' Qur journey was soon «t an epd ; . Sot, scaling a-.sudd@n height, we came abruptly upon the place of our destination. I wish that lit were possible! to, ^keteh: in words this spot as viyidlyas I recol- lect it. Here were, situated the Taboo groves of the valley — the .scene of many a prolonged feast, of many a horrid rite. 'Beneath the 'dark shadows of the eonsecrated bread-fruit trees there reigned a :solemntwilight-^a:cathed!fftl-Uke gloom. The frightful genius of pagan. worship seemed to brood in .silence over ; the place, breathing its spell upon every object around. Here and there, THE " HOOLAH HOOLA^h:" 10 inthe depths of these awful shadfes; half ' screened from sight by masses of overhanging foliage, rose the id'olktrous" altars of the savages, built of enormous blocks' of black and polished' stone, placed one upon another, without ctment, ta the height of twelve or fifteen ffeeti and surmounted by- a rustic open temple, enclosed with a loWpicket of caneSj.within which might be seen, in various sfages' of decay, offerings of bread fruit and- cocoa-nuts, and the putrefying relics of some recent sacrifice. In the midst of the wood was the hallowed " hoolah hoolah" groUnd — set apart for the celebration of the fantastical religious ritual of these people — comprising an extensive oblong pi-pi, terminating at either end in a lofty terraced altar, guarded by ranks of hideous wooden idols, and with the two remaining sides flanked by ranges of bamboo sheds, opening towards the interior of the quadrangle thusformed. Vasttrees, standing in the middle of this space, and throwing over it an unbrageous shade, had their massive trunks built round with slight stages, elisvateif a few feet above the ground, and railed in with canes, forming so many rustic pulpits,, from which the priests harangued their devotees. This holiest of spots was defended from profanation by the strictest edicts of the all-pervading "taboo," which condemned to instant death the sacrilegious female who should enter or touch its sacred precincts, or even so much as press with her feet the ground made holy by the shadows that it cast. Access was had to the enclosure through an embowered en- trance on one side, facing a number of towering cocoa-nut-trees, planted at intervals along a level area of a hundred yards. At the further extremity of this space was to be seen a building of considerable size, reserved for the habitation of the priests and religious attendants of the grove. in its vicinity was another remarkable edifice, built as usual upon the summit of a pi-pi, and at least two hundred feet ip 103 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. length, though not more than twenty in breadth. The whole front of this latter structure was completely open, and from one end to the other ran a narrow verandah, fenced in on the edge of the pi-pi with a picket of canes. Its interior presented the ap- pearance of an immense lounging place, the entire floor being strewn with successive layers of mats, lying between parallel trunks of cocoa-nut trees, selected for the purpose from the straightest and most symmetrical the vale aiTorded. To this building, denominated in the language of the natives the " Ti," Mehevi now conducted us. Thus far we had been accompanied by a troop of the natives of both sexes ; but as soon as we approached its vicinity, the females gradually separated themselves from the crowd, and standing aloof, permitted us to pass on. The merciless prohibitions of the taboo extended like- wise to this edifice, and were enforced by the same dreadful penalty that secured the Hoolah Hoolah ground from the imagi- nary pollution of a woman's presence. On entering the house, I was surprised to see six muskets ranged against the bamboo on one side, from the barrels of which depended as many small canvas pouches, partly filled with powder. Disposed about these muskets, like the cutlasses that decorate the bulkhead of a man-of-war's cabin, were a great variety of rude spears and paddles, javelins, and war-clubs. This then, said I to Toby, must be the armory of the tribe. As we advanced further along the building, we were struck with the aspect of four or five hideous old wretches, on whose decrepid forms time and tattooing seemed to have obliterated every trace of humanity. Owing to the continued operation of this latter process, which only terminates among the warriors of the island after all 4he figures stretched Upon their limbs in youth have been blended together— an effect, however, produced only in cases of extreme longevity— the bodies of these men were of a uniform dull green color — ^the hue which the tattooing TIME-WORN SAVAGES. 103 gradually assumes as the individual advances in age, Tlieir skin had a frightful scaly appearance, which, united with its singular color, made their limbs" not a little resemble dusty specimens of verde-antique. Their flesh, in parts, hung iipon fhem in huge folds, like the overlappuig plaits on the flank of a rhinoceros. Their heads were completely bald, whilst their faces were puckered into a thousand wrinkles, and th^ presented no vestige of a beard. But the most remarkable peculiarity about them was the appearance of their feet ; the toes, like the radiating lines of the mariner's compass, pointed to every quarter of the horizon. This was. doubtless attributable to the fact, that during nearly a hundred years of existence the said toes never had been subjected to any artificial confinement, and in their old age, being averse to close neighborhood, bid one another keep open order. These repulsive-looking creatures appeared to have lost the use of their lower limbs altogether ; sitting upon the floor cross- legged in a state of torpor. They never heeded us in the least, scarcely looking conscious of our presence, while Mehevi seated us upon the mats, and Kory-Kory gave utterance to some unin> telligible gibberish. In a few moments a boy entered with a wooden trencher of poee-poee ;" and in regaling myself with its contents I was obliged again to submit to the officious intervention of my indefatigable servitor. Various other dishes followed, the chief manifesting ' the most hospitable importunity in pressing us to partake, and to remove all bashfulness on our part, set us no despicable example in his own person. The repast concluded, a pipe was lighted, which passed from mouth to mouth, and yieldingto its soporific influence, the quiet of the place, and the deepening shadows of approaching night, my com- panion and I sank into a kind of drbwsy repose, while the chief and Kory-Kory seemed to be slumbering beside us. I awoke from an uneasy nap,, about midnight, as I supposed ; 104 _ RESIDENCE IN TliE MARQUESAS. and, raising myself partly from the mat, became sensible that we were enveloped in utter dafkness. Toby lay still aslfeep, but our late companions had disappeared. The only sound that inter- rupted the alenoe of the place was the asthmatic breathing of the old men I have mentioned, who reposed at a little distance from us. Besides them, as well as I could judge, there was no one else in thp house. Apprehensive df some evil, I roused my comrade, and we were engaged in a whispered conference conceminig the" unexpected withdrawal of the natives, when all at once, from the depths of the grove, in full view of us where we lay, shoots of iiame were Seen to rise, and in a few momepts illuminated the surrounding trees, casting, by contrast, into still deeper gloom the darkness around us. While we continued gazing at this sight, dark figures appeared moving to and fro before the flames ; while others, dancing and capering about, looked like so matty demons. Regarding this new phenomenon with no small degree of tre- pidation, I said to my companion, " What can all this mean, Toby?" " Oh, nothing," replied he ; " getting the fire ready, I suppose." " Fire !" exclaimed I, while my heart took to beating like a' trip-hammer, " what fire ?" " Why, the fire to cook us, to be sure ; what else would the cannibals be kicking up siich a row about if it Were not for that V " Oh, Toby ! have done with your jokes ; this is no tirtie fbr them ; something is about to happen, I feel confident." " Jokes, indeed !" exclaimed Toby ihdignatatly. " Did you ever hear me joke ? Why, for What do you suppose the devils have been feeding us up in this kind of style durmg the last three days, unless it were for something that yOu are too much fright- ened at to talk about ? Look at that Kory-Kory there ! — has he not beeh stuffing you Witli his confounded ihushes, just in the Way EXAGGERATED FEARS. lOS they treat swine before they kill them ? Depend upon it, we will be eaten this blessed night, and there is the fire we shall be roasted by." This view of the matter was not at all calculated to allay my apprehensions, and I shuddered when I reflected that we were indeed at the mercy of a tribe of cannibals, and that the dreadful contingency to which Toby had alluded was by no means removed beyond the boilnds of possibility. " There ! I told you so ! they are coming for us !" exclaimed my companion the next moment, as the forms of four of the islanders were seen in bold relief against the illuminated back- ground, mounting the pi-pi and approaching towards us. They came on noiselessly, nay stealthily, and glided along through the gloom that surrounded us as if about to spring upon some object they Were fearful of disturbing before they should make sure of it. — Gracious heaven f the horrible reflections which crowded upon me that monient. — A cold sweat stood upon my broW, and spell-bound with terror I awaited my fate ! Suddenly the silence was broken by the well-remembered tones of Mehevi, and at the kindly accents of his voice my fears were immediately dissipated. " Tommo, Toby, ki ki !" (eat). He had waited to address us, until . he had assured himself that we were both awake, at which he seemed somewhat surprised. "Ki ki! is it?" said Toby in his gruff tones; "well, cook us first, will you — but what 's this ?" he added, as another savage appeared, bearing before him a large trencher of wood, contain- ing some kind of steaming meat, as appeared from the odors it diffused, and which he deposited at the feet of Mehevi. "A baked baby, I dare say ! butlfedll have none of it, never mind what it is.— ^A pretty fool I sho^i* make of myself, indeed, waked up here in the middle of the night, stufling and guzzling, and all to make a fat meal for a parcel of bloody-minded cannibals one of these mornings ! — No, I see what they are at very plainly, so 1 6* 106 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. am resolved to starve myself iato a bunch of bones and gristle, and then, if they serve me up, they are welcome ! But I say, Tommo, you are not going to eat any of that mess there, in the dark, are you ? Why, how can you .tell what it is ?" " By tasting it, to be sure," said I, meisticating a morsel that Kory-Kory had just put in my mouth ; " and excellently good it is, too, very much like veal." " A baked baby, by the soul of Captain Cook !" burst forth Toby, with amazing vehemence ; " Veal ? why there never was a calf on the island till you landed. I tell you you are bolting down mouthfuls from a dead'Happar's. carcass, as sure as you live, and no mistake !" Emetics andlukewarm water ! What a sensation in the abdo- minal regions ! Sure enough, where could the fiends incarnate have obtained meat? But I resolved to satisfy myself at all hazards ; and turning to Mehevii I soon made the ready chief un- derstand that I wished a light to be brought. When the taper came, I gazed eagerly into the vessel, and recognized the muti- lated remains of a juvenile porker !^ " Puarkee !" exclaimed Kory-Kory, looking complacently at the dish ; and from that day to this I have never forgotten that such is the designation of a pig in the Typee lingo. The next morning, after being again abundantly feasted by the hospitable Mehevi, Toby and myself arose to depart. But the chief requested us to postpone our intention. " Abo, abo" (Wait, wait), he said, and accordingly we resumed 'our seats, while, assisted by the zealous Kory-Kory, he appeared to be engaged in giving directions to. a number of the natives outside, who were busily employed in making arrangeme^, the nature of which we could not comprehend. But we vr^gmoX left long in our igno- rance, for a few moments only h^T^lapsed, when- the chief beckoned us to approach, and we pe^deived that he had been mar- GUARD OF HONOR. 107 shalling a kind of guard of •honor to escort vfs on our return to the house of Marheyo. The procession was led off by two venerable-looking savages, each provided with a spear, from the end of which streamed a pennon of milk-white tappa. After them went several youths, bearing aloft calabashes of poee-poee ; and followed in their turn by four stalwart fellows, sustaining long bamboos, from the tops of which hung ' suspended, at least twenty feet from the ground, large baskets of green bread-fruit. Then came a troop of boys, carrying bunches of ripe bananas, and baskets made of the woven leaflets of cocoa-nut boughs, filled with the young fruit of the tree, the naked shells stripped of their husks peeping forth from the verdant w;icker-work that surrounded them. Last of all came a burly islander, holding over his head a wooden trencher, in which lay disposed the remnants of our midnight feast, hidden from view, however, by a covering of bread-fruit leaves. Astonished as I was at this exhibition, I could not avoid smiling at its grotesque appearance, and the associations it naturally called up. Mehevi, it seemed, was bent on replenishing oldMar- heyo's larder, fearful perhaps that without this precaution his guests might not fare as well as they could desire. As soon as I descended from the pi-pi, the procession formed anew, enclosing us in its centre ; where I remained part of the time, carried by Kory-Kory, and occasionally relieving him from his burden by limping along with a spear. When we moved off in this order, the natives struck up a musical recitative, which, with various alternations, they continued until we arrived at the place of our destination. As we proceeded on our way, bands of young girls, darting from the surrounding groves, hung upon our skirts, and accom- panied us with shouts of merriment and delight, which almost drowned the deep notes of the recitative. On approaching old Marheyo's domicile, its inmates rushed out to receive us; and 108 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. while the gifts' of Mehevi were being disposed of, the Superan- nuated warrior did the honors of his mansion with all the warmth of hospitality evinced by an English squire when he regales his friends at some fine old patrimonial mansion. SURGICAL RELIEF WANTED. 109 CHAPTER XII. Attempt to procure relief from Nukuheva — Perilous Adventure of Tobj in the Happar Mountains — ^Eloquence of Kory-Kory. Amidst these ndVel scenes a week passed away almost imperoep; tibly. The natives, actuated by Some mysterious impulse, day after day redoubled their attentions to us. Their manner towards us was unaccountable. Surely, thought I, they would not act thus if they meant us any harm. But why this excess of defe- rential kindness, or what equivalent can they imagine us capaible' of tendering theni fbr it ? We were fairly puzaled. But despite the apprehensions I could not dispel, the horrible character imputed to these Typees ap- peared to be wholly undeserved. " Why, they are cannibals I" said Toby on one occasion whea I eulogised the tribe. " Granted," I replied, " but a more hu- man^, gentlemanly, and amiable set of epicures do not probably exist in the Pacific." ■ But, nbftfithstaildiiig the kind treatment we received, I was tod faifiiliar with the JSidkle disposition of savages not to feel anxious to withdraw from the valley, and put myself beyond the reach of that fearful death ^hich, under all these smiling appearances, might yet menace us. But here there was an obstacle in the way of doing so. It was idle for me to think of moving from the place until I should have recovered from the severe lameness that afflicted me ; indeed my malady began seriously to alarm me ; for, despite the herbal remedies of this natives, it continued to grow worse and worse. Their mild applications, thoiigh they Boothed the pain, did not remove the disb^der, and I felt con- 110 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. vinced that without better aid I might anticipate long and acute suffering. But how was this aid to be procured ? From the surgeons ol the French fleet, which probably still lay in the bay of Nuku- heva, it might easily have been obtained, could I have made my case known to them. But how could that be effected ? At last, in the exigency to which I was reduced, I proposed to Toby that he should endeavor to go round to Nukuheva, and if he could not succeed in , returning to the valley by water, in one of the boats of the squadron, and taking me s>ff, he might at least procure me some proper medicines, and effect his return overland. My companion listened to me in silence, and at first did not appear to relish the idea. The truth was, he felt impatient to escape from the place, and wished to avail himself of our present high favor with the natives to make good our retreat, before we should experience some sudden alteration in. their behavior. As he could not think of leaving me in my helpless condition, he implored me to be of good cheer ; assured me that I should soon be better, and enabled in a few days to return with him to Nu- kuheva. . . Added to this, he could not bear the idea of again retumiag to this dangerous place ; and as for the expectation of persuading the Frenchmen to detach a boat's crew for the purpose of rescuing me. from the Typees, he looked upon it as idle ; and with argu- ments that I could not answer, urged ' the improbability of their provoking the hostilities of the clan by any such measure ; espe- cially, as for the purpose of quieting its apprehensions,, they had as yet refrained from making any visit to the bay. " And even should they consent," said Toby, " they would only produce a commotion in the valley, in which we might both be sacrificed by these ferocious islanders." This was unanswerable ; bXit still I dung to the belief that he might succeed in accomplishing the THE DEPARTURE OF TOBY. IH Other part of my plan ; and at last I overcame' his scruples, and he agreed to make the attempt. As soon as we succeeded in making the natives understand our intention, they broke out into the most vehement opposition to the measure, and for a while I almost despaired of obtaining their consent. At the bare thought of one of us leaving them, they manifested the most lively concern. The grief and consternation of Kory-Kory, in particular, was unbounded ; he threw himself into a perfect paroxysm of gestures, which were intended to con- vey to us not only his abhorrence of Nukuheva and its uncivil- ized inhabitants, but also his astonishment that after becoming acquainted with the enlightened Typees, we should evince the least desire to withdraw, even for a time, from their agreeable- society. However, I overbore his objections by appealing to my lame- ness ; from which I assured the natives I should speedily recover, if Toby were permitted to, obtain the supplies I needed. It; was agreed that on the following morning my companion should depart, accompanied by someone or two of the household, who should point out to him an easy route, by which the bay might be reached before sunset. Ait early dawn of the next day, our habitation was astir. One of the young men mounted into an adjoining cocoa-nut tree, and threw down a number of the young fruit, which old Marheyo quickly stripped of the green husks, and strung together upon a short pole. These were intended to refresh Toby on his route. The preparations being completed, with no little emotion I bade my companion adieu. He promised to return in three days at farthest | and, bidding me keep up my spirits in the interval, turned round the comer of the pi-pi, and, under the guidance of the venerable Marheyo, was soon out of sight. His departure oppressed me with melancholy, and, re-entering the dwelling, I threw myself almost in despair upon the matting of the floor. 113 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. In two hours' time the old warrior returned, and gave me tor understand that after accompanying my companion a little dis- Mice, and showing him the rbutej he had left him journeymg on his way. It was about noon of this same day, a season which these people are wont to pskss-iri sl6ep, that I lay in the house^ surrounded by its slumbering inmates, and painfiilly affected by the strange sikfaee which prevailed. All at once I thought I heard a faint shoUt, as if proceeding from some persons in the depth of the grove which extended in front of our habitation. The sounds grew louder and nearer, and gradually the whok valley rang with wild outcries; The sleepers aroutid me started to their feet in alarm, and hurried outside to discover the cause of the commotion. Kory-Kory, who had been the first to Spring up, soon returned almost breathless, and nearly fraaatic with the excitement under which he seemed to be laboring. All that I could understand from him was that some accident had happened to Toby. Apprehensive of some dreadful calamity, I rushed out of the house, and caught sight of a tumultuous crowd, who, with shrieks and lamentations, were just emerging from the grove bear- ing in their arms some object, the sight of which produced all this transport of sorrow. As they drew ilear, the men redoubled their cries, while the giris, tossing their bare arms in the air, exclaimed plaintively, " Awha ! awha ! Toby muckee moee ("--^Alas ! alas ! Toby is killed ! In a moment the crowd opeiied, and disclosed the apparently lifeless body of laf companion borne between two men, the head hanging heavily against the brfiast of the foremost. The whole face, neckj and bosom were covered with blood, which still trickled slowly from a wound behind the tetnple; In the midst of the greatest uproar and confusion the body was carried into the house and laid on a liiati Waving the natives off to give room and air, I bent eagerly over Tdby, andj laying taj hand upon the breaatt TOBY ATTACKED BY HAPPARS. U3 ascertained that the heart still beat. Overjoyed at this, I seized a calabash of watei*, arid dashed its contents updn his face, then wiping away the blood, amdously examined the WOiihd. It was about three inches long, and on removing the clotted hair from about it, showed the skull laid completely bare. Ihimddiately with my knife I cut away the heavy lo6ks, and bathed the part riepeatedly in water. In a few moments Toby revived, and opening his eyes for a second, closed them agiain Without speaking. Koi^-Kory, Who had been kneeling beside me, now chafed his limbs gently with the palms of his hiands, while a young girl at his head kept fanning him, and t still continued to moisten his lips aild brov^. Soon my poor comrade showed signs of animation, and 1 succeeded in liiaking him swallow from a cpboa-nut shell a few mduthfuls of water. Old Tinor noW appeared, holding in her hand some simples she had gathered, the juice of which' she by signs' besought me to stfiieeze into the Wound. Having doiie so, I thought it best to leave Toby undisturbed until he should have had time to rally his faculties. Scvefal tin;jes he opened his lips, but fearful for his safety I enjoined sileilce. In the course of two or three hours, however, he sat up, and Was sufficiently recovered to tell me what had occurred. " Afler leaving the house with Marheyo," said Toby, " we struck across the valley, and ascended the opposite heights. Just beyond them, my guide informed me, laiy the valley of Hap. par," while along their summits, and skirting the head of the vale, was my roilte to Nukuheva. After mounting a little way up the elevation my guide paused, and gave me to understand that he could not accOmpainy me a,ny farther, arid by various signs inti- mated that he was afraid to approach any nearer the territories of the enemies of his tribe. He however pointed out my patb, virhich. now lay clearly before me, and bidding me fare\?ell, hastily descended the mountain. 114 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. " Quite elated at being so near the Happars, I pushed up the acclivity, and soon gained its summit. • It tapered up to a sharp ridge, from whence I beheld both the hostile valleys. Here I sat down and rested for a moment, refreshing myself with my cocoa- nuts. .1 was soon again pursuing my way along the height, when suddenly I saw three of the islanders, who must have just come out of Happar valley, standing in the path ahead of me. They were each armed with a heavy spear, and one from his appear- ance I took to be a chief. They sung out something, I could not understand what, and beckoned me to come on. " Without the least hesitation I advanced towards ■ them, and had approached -within about a yard of the foremost, when, point- ing angrily into the Typee valley, and uttering some savage exclamation, he wheeled round his weapon like lightning, and struck me in a moment to the ground. The blow inflicted this wound, and took away my senses. As soon as I came to myself^ I perceived the three islanders standing si little distance off, and apparently engaged in some violent altercation respecting me. " My first impulse was to run for it ; but, in endeavoring to rise, I fell back, and rolled down a little grassy precipice. The shock seemed to rally my faculties ; so, starting to my feet, I fled down the path I had just ascended. I had no need to look behind me, for, from the yells I heard, I knew that my enemies were in'fuU pursuit. Urged on by their fearful outcries, and heedless of the injury I had received — ^though the blood flowing .from the wound trickled over into my eyes and almost blinded me — I rushed down the mountain side with the speed of the wind. In a short time I had descended nearly a third of the distance, and the savages had ceased their cries, when suddenly a terrific howl burst upon my ear, and at the same moment a heavy javelin darted past me as I fled, and stuck quivering in a tree close to me. Another yell followed, and a second spear and a third shot through the air within a few feet of my body, both of them piercing the ground TOBY'S ACCOUNT OP THE ATTACK. 115 obliquely in advance of me. The fellows gave a roar of rage and disappointment ; but they were afraid, I suppose, of coming down further into the Typee valley, and so abandoned the chase. I saw them recover their weapons and turn back ; and I continued my descent as fast as I could. " What could have caused this ferocious attack on the part of these Happars I could not imagine, imless it were that they had seen me ascending the mountain with Marheyo, and that the mere fact of coming from the Typee valley was sufficient to provoke them. - Y " As long as I was in danger I scarcely felt the wound I had received ; but when the chase was over I began to suffer from it. I had lost my hat in the flight, and the sun scorched my bare head. I felt faint and giddy ; but, fearful of falling to the ground beyond the reach of assistance, I staggered on as well as I could, and at last gained the level of the valley, and then down I sunk J and I knew nothing more until I found myself lying upon these mats, and you stooping over me with the calabash of Walter." Such was Toby's account of this sad affair. I afterwards learned that fortunately he had fallen fclose to a spot where the natives go for fuel. A party of them caught sight of hirh as he fell, and sounding the alarm, had lifted him up ; and after inef- fectually endeavoring to restore him at the brook, had hurried for- ward with him to the house.. This incident threw a dark cloud over our prospects. It re- minded us that we were hemmed in by hostile tribes, whose terri- tories we could not hope to pass, on our route to Nukuheva, with- out encountering the effects of their savage resentment. There ap- peared to be no avenue opened to our escape but the sea, which washed the lower extremity of the vale. , Our Typee friends availed themselves of the recent disaster of Toby to exhort us to a due appreciation of the blessings we enjoyed llfe^ BliSIDENCE IN THE MARQUESASi aaMag them ; contrasting their own' generous reception of m with the ahimositjr of their neighbor^. They likewise' d*elt upon the cannibal propensities of the Happars, a stlbjeot which they Were perfectly aware could not fail to' alarm us;' 'while at the same time they earnestly disclaimed" all participation' in so horrid a custom. Nor did they omit to call upon us to adhlire the natu- ral loveliness' of their own abode> and theleCvish abundance 'with' ■which it produced all manner of luxuriant frliits ; exalting' it in this particular above aHy of the surrounding vallJeysi Eory-Kory seemed to experience so heartfelt a desire toinfuselnto' our minds proper vifews on these subjebts,. that, assisted in his en- deavors by the little knowledge of the languagfe we had acquiredj he actually made us compifehend- a ctinsideraible part of what he' said. To facilitate our correct apprehensi'ola of his meaning, he at fii'st condensed his ideas into the smallest pbssiWe cGmpasS. " Happar keekeeno nuee," he exclaimed;- "iiuee,.nuee, ki kt kannaka !— ah ! owle motarkee !" wRich signifies, " Terrible fel- lows those Happars ! — devour an amazing quantity of men!^ — aJl, shocking bad !" Thus far he explained himself by a variety of gestures, during the performance of which he would'darl out of the house, and point abhorrently towEirds the Happar 'valley ; ruririing in to us again with a fapidity that showed he was fearful 'we would lose one part of his meaning before he could complete the other ; and continuiiig his illustrations by seizing' the fleshy part of my arm in his teeth, intimating by the operation that the peo- ple who lived over in that direction would like nothing better than to treat me in that manner. Having assured himself thai we were fully enlightened on this point, he proceeded to another branch of his subject. " Ah t Typee motarkee ! — ^nuee, nuee mioree — nuee, nuee wai — ^nuee, nuee poee-poee — ^nuee, nuee kokoo — ah I nuee, nuee kiki ah ! nuee, nuee, nuee !" Which, liberally interpreted as beforte, would i«"piy> " Ah, 'typee r isn't if a fine place though f— no dange* of KORY-KOKY!S ELQQtJENCE. 117 Starving here, I tell you !— plenty of bread-fruit — plenty of water ■ — ^plenty of pudding — ah! plenty of everything! ah! heaps, heaps, heaps !" All this was accompanied by a running com- mentary of signs and gestures which it was impossible not to comprehend. As he continued his li3,rangue, however, Kory-Kory, in emu- lation of pur more polished orators, began to launch out rather diffusely into other branches of his subject, enlarging probably upon the moral reflections it suggested ; and proceeded in such a strain of unintelligible and stunning gibberish^ that he actually .gav° me the headache' for the rest of the day. 118 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. CHAPTER Xm. A great Event happens in the Valley — The Island Telegraph — Some- thing befalls Toty — ^Fayaway displays a tender heart — Melancholy reflections — ^Mysterious conduct of the Islanders — Devotion of Kory- Kory — A rural couch — A luxury — Kory-Kory strikes a light & la Typee. In the course of a few days Toby had recovered from the. effects of his adventure with the Happar warriors ; the wound on his head rapidly healing under the vegetable treatment of the good Tinor. Less fortunate than my companion, however, I still continued to languish under a complaint the origin and nature of which were still a mystery. Cut off as I was from all inter- course with the civilized world, and feeling the inefEcacy of anything the natives could do to relieve me ; knowing, too, that so long as I remained in my present condition, it would beim- possible for me to leave the valley, whatever opportunity might present itself; and apprehensive that ere "long we iriight be ex- posed to some caprice on the part of the islanders, I now gave up all hopes of recovery, and became a prey to the most gloomy thoughts. A deep dejection fell upon me, which neither the friendly remonstrances of my companion, the devoted attentions of Kory-Kory, nor all the soothing influences of Fayaway could remove. One morning as I lay on the mats in the house, plunged in melancholy reverie, and regardless of everything around me, Toby, who had left me about an hour, returned in haste, and with great glee told me to cheer up and be of good heart ; for he be- lieved, from what was going on among the natives,'that there were boats approaching the bay. THE ISLAND TELEGRAPH. 119 These tidings operated upon me like magic. The hour of our deliverance was at hand, and starting up, I was soon convinced that something unusual was about to occur. The word " botee ! botee !" was vociferated in all directions : and shouts were heard in the distance, at first feebly and faintly ; but growing* louder and nearer at each successive repetition, until they were caught up by a fellow in a cocoa-nut tree a few yards off, who sounding them in turn, they were reiterated from a neighboring grove, and so died away gradually from point to point, as the intelligence penetrated into the farthest recesses of the valley. This was the vocal telegraph of the islanders ; by means of which condensed items of information could be carried in a very few minutes from the sea to their remotest habitation, a distance of at least eight or nine miles. On the present occasion it was in active operation ; one piece of information following another with inconceivable rapidity. The greatest commotion now appeared to prevail. At every "resh item of intelligence the natives betrayed the liveliest in- terest, and redoubled the energy with which they employed themselves in collecting fruit to sell to the expected visitors. Some were tearing- off the husks from cocoa-nuts ; some perched in the trees were throwing down bread-fruit to their companions, who gathered them into heaps as they fell ; while others- were plying their fingers rapidly in weaving leafen baskets in which to carry the fruit. There were other matters too going on at the same time. Here you would see a stout warrior polishing his spear with a bit of old tappa, or adjusting the folds of the girdle about his waist ; and there you might descry a young damsel decorating herself with flowers, as if having in her eye some maidenly conquest ; while, as in all cases of hurry and confusion in every part of the world, a number of individuals kept hurrying to and fro, with amazing Vigor and perseverance, doing nothing themselves, and hindering others. 120 EESIDBNCE IN THE MARQUESAS. Never before had we seepjtlie,isUndersiin.such,fi state pf.bustle andexQit^njgi^tj a^dthe scene fui^jsh^4:^^?^4f!^^ ^.^^^^^9^ °^ the fact-— that it was only at long ijiteryals any such eyejits Qccur. When I thought of tlje lengthof.time that might injb^rypue be- fore a similar chance of escape would be presented, I bitterly lamented that I had not the power of availing myself effectually of the present opportunity. ;Er At first I accused him of perfidiously desertmg. me ; but as I grew more composed, I upbraided myself for imputing so cowardly an action to him, and tranquillized myself with the belief that he had availed himself of the opportunity to go round to Nukuheva, in order to make some arrangement by which I could be removed from the valley. At any rate, thought I, he will return with the medicines I re- quire, and then, as soon as I recover, there will be no difficulty in the waff of our departure. Consoling myself with these reflections, I lay down that night .in a happier frame of mind than I had done for some time. The next day passed without any allusion to Toby on the part of the natives, who seemed desirous of avoiding all reference to the sub- ject. This raised some apprehensions in my breast ; but when night came, I congratulated myself that the second day had now gone by, and that on the morrow Toby would again be with me. But the morrow came and went, and my companion did not ap- pear. Ah! thought I, he reckons -three days from the morning of his departure, — ^to-morrow he will arrive. But that weary day also closed upon me, without his returnT Even yet I would not despair ; I thought that something detained him — ^that he was waiting for the sailing of a boat, at Nukuheva, and thftt in a day or two at farthest I should see him again. But day after day of renewed disappointment passed by ; at last hope deserted me, and I fell a victim to despair. Yes, thought I, gloomily, he has secured his own escape, and cares not what calamity may befall his unfortunate comrade. Fool that I was, to suppose that any one would willingly encoun- ter the perils of this valley, after having once got beyond its limits ! lie has gone, and has left me to combat alone all the CONDUCT OF THE ISLANDERS. 125 dangers by which I am surrounded. Thus would I sometimes seek to derive a desperate consolation from dwelling upon the per> fidypf Toby ! whilst at other times I sunk under Uie bitter remorse which I felt as having by my own imprudence brought upon my- self the fate which I was sure awaited me. At other times I thought that perhaps after all these treacherous savages had made away with him, and thence the confusion into which they were thrown by my questions^ and their contradictory answers ; or he might be a captive in some other part of the valley; or, more dreadful still, might have met with that fate at which my very soul shuddered. But all these speculations were vain ; no tidings of Toby ever reached me ; he had gone never to return. The conduct of the islanders appeared inexplicable. All re- ference to my lost comrade wascarefilUy evaded, and if at any. time they were forced to make some reply to my frequent inquiries on the subject, they would uniformly denounce him as an un- grateful runaway, who had deserted his friend, and taken him- self off to that vile and detestable place Nukuheva. , But whatever might have been his fate, now that he was gone, the natives multiplied their acts of kindness and attention towards myself, treating me with a degree of deference which could hardly have been surpassed had I been some celestial visitant. Kory- Kory never for one moment left my side, unless it were to exe- cute my wishes. The faithful fellow, twice every day, in the cool of the morning and in the evening, insisted upon carrying me to the stream, and bathing me in its refreshing water. Frequently in the afternoon he would carry me to a particular part of the stream, where the beauty of the scene produced a sooth- ing influence upon my mind. At this place the waters flowed between grassy banks, planted with enormous bread-fruit trees, whose vast branches interlacing overhead, formed a leafy canopy j near the stream were several smooth bkcfc rocks. One of these, projecting several feet above the surface of the water, had upon 126 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. its summit a shallow cavity, which, filled wit^* freshly-gathered leaves, formed a delightful couch. Here I often lay for hours, covered with a gauze-like veil of tappa, while Fayaway, seated beside me, ■and holding in her hand a fan woven from the leaflets of a young cocoa-nlit bough,'brushed ' aside the insects that occasionally lighted on my face, and Kory- Kory, with a view of chasing away my melancholy, performed a thousand antics in the water before Us. As my eye wandered along this romantic stream, it would fall upon the half-immersed figure of a beautiful girl, standing in the transparent water, and catching in a little net a Species of dimi- nutive shell-fish, of which these people are extravagantly fond. Sometimes a chattering group would be seated upon the edge of a low rock in the midst of the brook, busily engaged in thinning and polishing the shells of- cocoa-nuts, by rubbing them briskly with a small stone in the water, an operation which soon converts them into a light and elegant drinking vessel, somewhat resem- bling goblets made of tortoise-shell. ' But the tranquillizing influences of beautiful scenery, and the» exhibition of human life under -so novel and charming an aspect, were not my only sources of consolation. Every evening the girls of the house gathered about me on the mats, and after chasing away Kory-Kory from my side-r-who, nevertheless, retired only to a little distance and watched their proceedings with the most jealous attention — would anoint my body with a fragrant oil, squeezed from a yellow root, previously pounded between a couple of stones, and which in their lan- guage is denominated "aka." I used to hail with delight the daily recurrence of this luxurious operation, in which I forgot all my troubles, and buried for the time every feeling of PRODUCING LIGHT A LA TYPEE. 127 Sometunes in the cool of the evening my devoted servitor would lead me out upon the pi-pi m,front of the house, and seating me near its edge, protect my body from the annoyance of the insects which occasionally hovered in the air, by wrapping me round with a large roll of tappa. He then bustled about, and employed himself at least twenty minutes in adjusting everything to secure my personal comfort. Having perfected his arrangements, he-would get my pipe, and, lighting it, would hand it to me. Often he was obliged to strike a light for the occasion, and as the mode he adopted was entirely different from what I had ever seen or heard of before I will describe it. A straight, dry, and partly decayed stick of the Habiscus, about six feet in length, and half as many inches in diameter, with a smaller bit of wood not more than a foot long, and scarcely an inch wide, is as invariably to be met with in every house in Typee as a box of lucifer matches in the comer of a kitchen cup- board at home. The islander, placing the larger stick obliquely against some object, with' one end elevated at an angle of forty-five degrees, moti'nts astride of it like an urchin about to gallop off upon a cane, and then grasping the smaller one firmly in both handd, he rubs its pointed end slowly up and dbwn the extent of a few inches on the principal stick, until at last he makes a narrow groove in the wood, with an abrupt termination at the point furthest from him, where all the dusty particles which the friction creates are accumulated in a little heap. At first Kory-Kory goes to work quite leisurely, but gradually quickens his pace, and waxing warm in the employment, drives the stick furiously along the smoking channel, plying his hands to and fro with amazing rapidity, the perspiration starting from every pore. As he approaches the climax' of his eflrart, he pants and gasps fi>r breath, and his eyes almost start from their sockets 128 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. with the violence of his exertions. This is the critioE^l stage of the operation ; all his previous labors are vain if he cspnoj; sus- tain the rapidity of the movement until the reluctant sparjc is produced. Suddenly he stops, becomes perfectly motionless.. His hands still retain their hold of the smaller stick, ■yvhich is pressed convulsively against the further end of the channel among the fine powder there accumulated, as if he had just pierced through and through some little viper that was wriggling and struggling to escape from his clutches. The next moment a delicate wreath of srnoke curls spirally into the air, the heap of dusty particles glows with fire, and Kory-Kory, almost bjeathless, dismounts frpm his steed. This operation appeared to me to be the most laborious species of work performed in Typee ; and had I possessed a sufficient intimacy with the language to have conveyed my ideas upon the subject, I should certainly. hg.ve suggested to the most influential of the natives the expediency of establishing a college of vestals to be centrally located in the valley, for the purpose of keeping alive the indispensable article of fire ; so as to supersede the necessity of such a vast outlay of strength and good temper, as were usually squandered on these occasions. There might, how- ever, be special difficulties in carrying this plan into execution. What a striking evidence does this operation furnish of the wide difference between the extreme of savage and civilized life ! A gentleman of Typ^^ can bring up a numerous family of chil- dren and give them all a highly respectable cannibal education, with infinitely less toil, and anxiety than he expends in the simple process of striking a light ; whilst a poor European artisan, who through the it),strum'entality of a lucifer performs the same ope- ration in one second, is put to his wit's end to provide for his starving offspring that food which the children of a Polynesian father, without troubling their parents, pluck from the bianohea of every tree arotind them. KINDNESS OF THE ISLANDERS. 129 CHAPTER XIV. Kindness of Marheyo and the rest of the Islanders — A full Description of the Bread-fruit Tree — ^Different Modes of preparing the Fruit. All the inhabitants of the valley treated me with great kind. ness ; but as to the household of Marheyo, with whom I was now permanently domiciled, nothing could surpass their efforts to minister to my comfort. To the gratification of my palate they paid the most unwearied attention. They continually invited me to partake of food, and when after eating heartily I declined the viands they continued to ofier me, they seemed to think that my appetite stood in heed of some piquant stimulant to excite its activity. In pursuance of this idea, old Marheyo himself would hie him away to the sea-shore by the break of day, for the purpose of collecting various species of rare sea- weed; some of which among these people are considered a great luxury. After a whole day spent in this employment, he would return about nightfall with several cocoa-nut shells filled with different de- scriptions of kemp. In preparing these for use he xnanifested all the ostentation of a professed cook, although the chief mystery of the affair appeared to consist in pouring water in judicious quantities upon, the slimy contents of his cocoa-nut shells. The first time he submitted one of these saline salads to my critical attention I njiturally thought that- anything collected at such pains must possess peculiar merits ; but one mouthful was a complete dose ; and great was the consternation of the old war. rior at the rapidity with which 1 ejected hia epicurean treat. How true it is, that the rarity of any particular adrticile en- 7* t30 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. hances fts value amazingly. In some part of the valley-^ know not where, but probably in the ne%hborhood of the sea — ^the girls were sometimes in the habit of procuring small quantities of 5alt, a thimble-full or so being the result of the united labors sf a party of five or six employed for the greater pjirt of the lay. This precious commodity they brought to the house, en- veloped in multitudinous folds of leaves ; and as a special mark of the esteem in which they held me, would spread an immense leaf on the ground, and dropping one by one a few minute par- tides of the salt upon it, invite me to taste them. From the extravagant value placed upon the article, I verily believe, that with a bushel of common Liverpool salt all the real estate in Typee might have been purchased. With a small pinch of it in one hand, and u quarter section of a bread-fruit in the other,, the greatest chief in the valley would have laughed at all the luxuries of a Parisian table. The celebrity of the bread-fruit tree, and the conspicuous place it occupies in a Typee bill of fare, induces me to give at some length a general description of the tree, and the various modes in which the fruit is prepared. The bread-fruit tree, in its glorious prime, is a grand and towering object, forming the same feature in a Marquesan land- scape that the patriarchal elm does in New-England scenery. The latter tree it not a little resembles in height, in the wide spread of its stalwart branches, and in its venerable and imposing aspect. The leaves of the bread-fruit are of great size, and their edges are cut and scolloped as fantastically as those of a lady's lace collar. As they annually tend towards decay, they almost rival in the brilliant variety of their gradually changing hues the fleeting shades of the expiring dolphin. The autumnal tints of our American forests, glorious as jthey are, sink into nothing in com- parison with this tree. DESCRIPTION OF THE BREAD-FRUIT. 131 The leaf, in one particular stage, when nearly all th^ prismatio colors are blended on its surface, is often converted by, the natives into a superb and striking head-dress. The principal fibre traversing its length being split open a convenient distance, and the elastic sides . of the aperture pressed apart, the head is inserted between them, the leaf drooping on one side, with its forward half turned jauntily up on the brows, and the remaining part spreading laterally behind the ears. The fruit somewhat resembles in magnitude and general ap- pearance one of our citron melons of ordinary size ; but, unlike the citron, it has no sectional lines drawn along the outside. Its surface is dotted all over with little conical prominences, looking not unlike the knobs on an antiquated church door. The rind is perhaps an eighth of an inch in thickness ; and denuded of this, at the time when it is in the greatest perfection, the fruit pre- sents a beautiful globe of white pulp, the whole of which may be eaten, with the exception of a slender core, which is easily removed. The bread-fruit, however, is never used, and is indeed alto- gether unfit to be eaten, until submitted in one form or other to the action of fire. The most simple manner in which this operation is performed, and I think, the best, consists in placing any number of the freshly plucked fruit, when in a particular state of greenness, among the embers of a fire, in the same way that you would roast a potato. After the lapse of ten or fifteen minutes, the green rind embrowns and cracks, showing through the fissures in its sides the milk-white interior. As soon as it cools the rind drops off, and you then have the soft round pulp in its purest and most delicious state. Thus eaten, it has a mild and pleasing flavor. Sometimes after having been roasted in the fire, the natives match it briskly from the embers, and permitting it to slip out of 132 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. the yielding rind into a vessel of cold water, stir up the mixture, which they call " bo-a-sho." I never could endure this com- poiind, and indeed the preparation is not greatly in vogue among the more polite Xypees. There is one form, however, in which the fruit is occasionally served, that renders it a dish fit for a king. As soon as it is taken from the fire the exterior is removed, the core extracted, and the remaining part is placed in a sort of shallow stone mor. tar, and briskly worked with a pestle of the rsame substance. While one person is performing this operation, another takes a ripe pocoa-nut, and breaking it in half, which they also do very cleverly, proceeds to grate the juicy meat into fine particles. This is done by means of a piece of mother-of-pearl shell, lashed firmly to the extreme end of a heavy stick, with its straight side accurately notched like a saw. The stick is sometimes a gro- tesquely-formed limb of a tree, with three or four braijiches twist- ing from its body like so many shapeless legs, and sustaining it two or three feet from the ground. The native, first placing a calabash beneath the nose, as it were, of his curious-looking log-steed, for the purpose of receiv- ing the grated fragments as they fall, mounts astride of it as if it were a hobby-horse, and twirling the inside of one of his hemi. spheres of cocoa-nut around the sharp teeth of the mother-of-pearl shell, the pure white meat falls in snowy showers into the recep- tacle provided. Having obtained. a quantity sufficient for his purpose; he places it in a bag made of the net-like fibrous sub- stance attached to all cocoa-nut trees, and compressing it over the breayirfruit, which being now sufiiciently pounded> is put into a wooden bowl — extracts a thick creamy nulk. The delicious liquid soon bubbles round the fruit, and leaves it at last just peep> ing above its surface. This preparation is called " kokoo," and a most luscious pre- paration it is. The hobby-horse and the pesitle and mortar were MODES OF PREPARING BREAD-FRUIT. 133 in great requisition during the time I remained in the house of Marheyo, and Kbry-Kory had frequent occasion to show his skill in their use. But the great staple articles of food into which the bread-fruit is converted by these natives are known respectively by the names of Amar.and Poee-Poee. At a certain sfeason of the year, when the fruit of the himdred groves, of the valley has reached its maturity, and hangs in golden spheres from every branch, the islanders assemble in harvest groups, and garner in the abundance which surrounds them. The trees are stripped of their nodding burdens, which, easily freed ■from the rind and core, are gathered together in ca- pacious wooden vessels, where the pulpy fruit is soon worked by a stone pestle, vigorously applied, into a blended mass of a doughy consistency, called by the natives " Tutao." This is then divid- ed into separate parcels, which, after being made up into stout packages, enveloped in successive folds of leaves, and bound round with, thongs of bark, are stored ai^ay in large receptacles hollowed in the earth, from whence they are drawn as occasion may require. In this condition the Tutao sometimes remains for years, and even is thought to improve by age. Before it is fit to be eaten, however, it has to undergo an additional process. A primitive oven is scooped in the ground, and its bottom being loosely covered with stones, a large fire is kindled within it. As soon as the requisite degree of heat is attained, the embers are removed, and the surface of the stones being covered with thick layers of leaves, one of the large packages of Tutao is deposited upon them, and overspread with another layer of leaves. The whole is then quickly heaped up with earth, and forms a sloping mouiid. The Tutao thus baked is called ■" Amar ;" the action of the oven having converted it into an amber-colored caky substance, a little tart, but not at all disagreeable to the taste. 134 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. By another and final process the " Amar " is .changeA into "Poee-Poee." This transition is rapidly effected. The amar is placed in a vessel, ' and mixed with water until it gains a proper pudding-like consistency, when, without further prepara- tion, it is in readiness for use. This Is the form in which the " Tutao " is generally consumed. The singular mode of eating it I have already described. Were it not that the bread-fruit is thus capable of being pre- served for a length of time, the natives might be reduced to a state of starvation ; for owing to some unknown cause the trees sometimes fail to bear fruit ; and on such occasions the islanders chiefly depend upon the supplies they have been enabled to store away. This stately tree, which is rarely met with upon the Sand- wich Islands, and then only of a very inferior quality, and at Tahiti does not abound to a degree that renders its fruit the principal article of frood, attains its greatest excellence in the genial climate of the Marquesan group, where it grows to an enormous magnitude, and flourishes in the utmost abundance. MELANCHOLY CONDITION. 135 CHAPTER XV. Melancholy condition — Occurrence at the Ti — Anecdote of Marheyo— Shaving the head of a warrior In looking back to this period, and calling to remembrance the numberless proofs of kindness- and respect which I received from the natives of the valley, I cg,n scarcely understand how it was that, in the midst of so many consolatory circumstances, my mind should still have been consumed by the most dismal forebodings, and have remained a prey to^the profoundest melancholy. It is true that the suspicious circumstances which had attended the disappearance of Toby were enough of themselves to excite dis- trust with regard to the savages, in whose power I felt myself to be entirely placed, especially when it was combined with the knowledge that these very meli, kind and respectful as they were to me, were, after all, nothing better than a set of cannibals. But my chief source of anxiety, and that which poisoned every temporary enjoyment, was the mysterious disease in my leg, which still remained unabated. All the herbal applications of Tinor, united with the severer discipline of the old leech, and the affectionate nursing of Kory-Kory, had failed to relieve me. I was almost a cripple, and the pain I endured at intervals waa agonizing. The unaccountable malady showed no signs of amendment ; on the contrary, its violence increased day by day, and threatened the most fatal results, unless some powerful means were employed to counteract it. It seemed as if I were destined to sink under this grievous affliction, or at least that it would 136 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. hinder me from availing myself of any opportunity of escaping from the ■galley. An incident which occurred as nearly as I can estimate about three weeks after the disappearance of Toby,- convinced me that the natives, from some reason or other, would interpose every possible obstacle to my leaving them. One morning there was no little excitement evinced by the people near my abode, and which I soon discovered proceeded from a vague report that boats had been seeit at a great distance approaching the bay. Immediately all was bustle and anima- tion. It so happened that day that the pain I suffered having somewhat abated, and feeling in much better spirits than usual, I had complied with ICoryTKory's invitation to visit the chief Mehevi at the place called the " Ti," which I have before de- scribed as being situated within the precincts of the Taboo Groves. These sacred recesses were at no great distance from Marheyp's, habitation, and lay between it and the sea ; the path that conducted to the beach passing directly in front of the Ti, and thence skirting along the border of the groves. I was reposing upon the mats, within the sacred building, i,n company with Mehevi and several other clue&, when the an- nounceinent was first made. It sent a thrill of joy through my whole frame ; — perhaps Toby was about to return. I rose at once to my feet, ajid my instinctive impulse was to hurry down to the beach, equally regardless of the distance that separated me from it, aad of my disa.bled condition. As soon as Mehevi noticed the effect the intelligence had produced upon me, and the irop,a,tience I betrayed to reach the sea, his countenance assumed that inflexible rigidity of expressipn which had so awed me on the ^^e^aoon of our arrival at the house of Marheyq, As I was proceeding to lestve the Ti, he laid liis hand upon my shoulder, and said gravely, "abo, abo" (w*it, wait). Solely intent upon the one thougkt. ikat occupied my mind:, and heei. OCCURRENCE AT THE TI. 137 less of his request, I was brushing past him, when suddenly he assumed a tone of authority, and told me to "moee" (sit down). Though struck Ijy the alteration in his demeanor, the excitement under which I labored was too strong to permit me to obey the unexpected command, and I was still limping towards the edge of the pi-pi with Kory-Kory clinging tg one arm in his efforts to re- strain me, when the natives around started to their feet, ranged them- selves along the open front of the building, while Mehevi looked at me scowlingly, and reiterated his commands still more sternly. It was at this moment, when fifty savage countenances were glaring upon me, that I first truly experienced I was indeed a captive in the valley. The conviction rushed upon me with staggering force, and I was overwhelmed by this confirmation of my worst fears. I saw at once that it was useless for me to resist, and sick at heart, I reseated myself upon the ntats, and for the moment abandoned myself to despair. I now perceived the natives one after the other hurrying past the Ti and pursuing the route that conducted to the sea. These savages, thought I, will soon be holding communication with some of my own countrymen perhaps, who with ease could restore me to liberty did they know of the situation I was in. No language can describe the wretchedness which I felt ; and in the bitterness of my soul I imprecated a thousand curses on the perfi. dious Toby, who had thus abandoned me to destruction. It was in vain that Kory-Kory tempted me with food, or lighted my pipe, or sought to attract my attention by performing the uncouth antics that had sometimes diverted m^. I was fairly knocked down by this last misfortune, which, much as I had feared it, I had never before had the courage calrply to contemplate. Regardless of everything but my own sorrow, I remained in the Ti for several hours, until shouts proceeding at intervals from the groves beyond the house proclaimed the return of the natives iiom the beach. 138 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. Whether any boats visited the bay that morning or not, I never could ascertain. The savages assured me that there had not — but I was inclined to believe that by deceiving me in this parti- cular they sought to allay the violence of my grief.' However that might be, this incident showed plainly that the Typees intended to hold me a prisoner^ As they still treated me with the same sedulous attention as before, I was utterly at a loss how to account for their singular conduct. Had I been in, a situation to instruct them in any of the rudiments of the mechanic arts, or had I manifested a disposition to render myself in any way useful among them, their conduct might have been attributed to some adequate motive, but as it was, the' matter seemed to me inexplicable. During my whole stay on the island there occurred but two or three instances where the natives applied to me with the view of availing themselves of my superior information ; and these now appear so ludicrous that I cannot forbear relating them. The few things we had brought from Nukuheva had been done up into a small bundle which we had carried with us in our descent to the valley. This bundle, the first night of our arrival, I had used as a pillow, but on the succeeding morning, opening it for the inspection of the natives, they gazed upon the miscellane- ous contents as though I had just revealed to them a casket of diamonds, and they insisted that so precious a treasure should be properly secured. A line was accordingly attached to it, and the other end being passed over the ridge-pole of the house, it was hoisted up to the apex of the roof, where it hung suspended directly over the mats where I usually reclined. When I desired any- thing from it I merely raised my finger to a bamboo beside me, and taking hold of the string which was there fastened, lowered the package. This was exceedingly handy, and I took care to let the natives understand how much I applauded the invention. Of this package the chief contents were a razor with its case, a DRESSES IN NATIVE STYLE. supply of needles and thread, a pound or two of tobacco, and a few yards of a bright-colored calico. _I should have mentioned that shortly after Toby's disappear- ance, perceiving the uncertainty of the time I might beiobliged to remain in the valley — if, indeed, I ever should escape from it — and considering that my whole wardrobe consisted of a shirt and a pair of trousers, I resolved to doff these garments at once, in order to preserve them in a suitable condition for wear should I again appear among civilized beings. I was consequently obliged to assume the Typee costume, a little altered, however, to suit my own views of propriety, and in which T have no doubt I appeared to as much advantage as a senator of Rome enveloped in the folds'of his toga. A few folds of yellow tappa tucked about my waist, descended to my feet in the style of a lady's petticoat, only I did not have recourse to those voluminous paddings in the rear with which our gentle dames are in the habit of augmenting the sublime rotundity of their figures. This usually comprised my in-door dress : whenever I walked out, I superadded to it an staple robe of the same material, which completely enveloped my person, and screened it from the rays of the sun. One morning I rhade a rent in this mantle ; and to show the islanders with what facility it could be repaired, I lowered my bundle, and taking from it a needle and thread, proceeded to stitch up the opening. They regarded this wonderful application of science with intense admiration ; and whilst I was stitching away; old Marheyo, who was one of the lookers-on, suddenly clapped his hand to his forehead, and rushing to a corner of the house, drew forth a soiled and tattered strip of faded calico — which he must have procured some time or other in traffic on the beach — and besought me eagerly to exercise a little of my art upon it. I willingly complied, though certainly so stumpy a needle as mine never took such gigantic strides over calico before. The repairs completed, old Marheyo gave me a paternal hug ; and divesting 140 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. himself of his "maro" (girdle), swathed the calico about his loins, and slipping the beloved ornaments into his ears, grasped his spear and sallied out of the hoUse, like a valiant T'emplar arrayed in a new and costly sait of armor. I never used my razor duiing my stay in the island, hijt, although a very suborjiinate affair, it had been vastly ^4mired by the Typees ; and Narmonee, a great hero among them, who was exceedingly precise in the arrangements of his toilet and the general adjustment of his person, being the most accurately tattooed and laborbusly .horrified individual in all the valley, thought it would be a great advantage to have it applied to the already shaven crown of his head. The implement they usually employ is a shs^rk's tooth, which is about as well adapted to the purpose as a one-pronged fork for pitching hay. No wonder, then, that the acute Narmonee per- ceived the advantage my razor possessed over the usual imple- ment.. Accordingly, one day he requested as a personal favor that I would just run over his head with the razor. In reply, I gave him to understand that it was too dull, and could not be used to any purpose without being previously sharpened. To assist my meaning, I went through an imaginary hqning process on the palm of my hand. Narmonee took my meaning in an instant, and running out of the house, returned the next moment with a huge rough mass of rock as big as a millstone, and indicated to me that that was exactly the thing I wanted. Of course there was no- thing left for me but to proceed to business, and I began scraping away at a great rate. He writhed and wriggled under the infliction, but, fully convinced of my skill, endured the pain like ja martyr. Though I never saw Narmonee in battle, I will, from what I then observed, stake my life upon his courage and fortitude. Before commencing operations, his head had presented^ a surffuse of short brijstUng hairs, ^sA hy the time I had concluded my SHAVING A CHIEF'S HEAD. 141 unskilful operation it resembled not a little a stubble field ailer being gone over with a harrow. However, as the chief expressed the liveliest satisfaction at the result, J was too wise to -dissent from his opinion. KESIDENOE IN THE. MAKCIUESAS. CHAPTER XVI. ImpioTement in health and spiifits — Felicity of the Typeee — A skiimish in the mountain \rith the wariiors of Happar. Day after day wore on, and still there was no perceptible change in the conduct of the islanders towards me. Gradually I lost all knowledge of the regular recurrence of the days of the week, and sunk insensibly into that kind of apathy which ensues after some violent outbreak of despair. My limb suddenly healed, the swelling went down, the pain subsided, and I had every reason to suppose I should soon completely recover from the affliction that had so long tormented me. As soon as I was enabled to ramble about the valley in com- pany with the natives, troops of whom followed me whenever I sallied out of the house, I began to experience an elasticity of mind which placed me beyond the reach of those dismal forebod. ings to which I had so latfely been a prey. Received wherever I went with. the most deferential kindness;, regiled perpetually with the most delightful fruits; ministered to by dark-eyed nymphs ; and enjoying besides all the services of the devoted Kory-Kory, I thought that, for a sojourn among cannibals, no man could have well made a more agreeable one. To be sure there were limits set to my wanderings. Toward the sea my progress was barred by an express prohibition of the savages ; and after having made two or three ineftectual attempts to reach it, as much to gratify my curiosity as anything else, I gave up the idea. It was in vain to think of ^reaching it by etealth, since the natives escorted me in numbers wherever I CIVILIZED AND SAVAGE LIFE CONTRASTED. 143 went, and not for one single moment that I can recall to mind was I ever permitted to be alone. The green and precipitous elevations that stood ranged around the head of the vale where Marheyo's habitation was situated eiTectually precluded all hope of escape in that quarter, even if I could have stolen away from the thousand eyes of the savages. But these reflections now seldom obtruded upon me ; I gave myself up to the passing hour, and if ever disagreeable thoughts arose in my mind, I drove them away. When I looked around the verdant recess in which I was buried, and gazed up to the summits of the lofty eminence that hemmed me in, I was well disposed to think that I was in the " Happy Valley," and that beyond those heights there was naught but a world of care and anxiety. In this frame of mind every object that presented itself to my notice, struck me in a new light, and the opportunities I now en- joyed of observing the manners of the natives tended to strengthen my favorable impressions. One peculiarity that fixed my admi- ration was the perpetual hilarity reigning through the whole ex- tent of the vale. There seemed to be no cares, griefs, troubles, or vexations, in all Typee. The hours tripped along as gaily as the laughing couples down a country dance. There were none of those thousand sources of irritation that the ingenuity of civilized man has created to mar his own feli city. There were no foreclosures of mortgages, no protested notes, no bills payable, no debts of honor in Typee ; no unrea- sonable tailors and shoemakers, perversely bent on being, paid ; no duns of any description; no assault and battery attorneys, to foment discord, backing their clients up to a quarrel, and then knocking their heads together; no poor relations everlastingly occupying the spare bed-chamber, and diminishing the elbow •room at the family table ; no destitute widows with their children starving on the cold charities of th^ world ; no beggars ; no 144 RESIDENCE IN THE J/IAR9XM^M. debtoi *s prisons ; no proud and hard-hearted habobs in Tjpee ; or to sum up all in one word — no Money ! " That root of all evil " was not to be found in the valley. In this secluded abode of happiness there were no cross old women, no criiel step-dames, iio withered spinsters, no loVe-sick maidens, no sour old bachelors, no inattentive husbands, ho melan- choly young men, no blubbering youngsters, and no Squalling brats. All was mirth, fun, and high good li'umor. Bliib devils, hypochondria, and doleful dumps, went and bid themselvjes among the nooks and crannies of the rocks. Here you would see a parcel of children frolicking toj^etlier the live-long day, and no quarrelling, no contention, among' them The same number in our own land could not have played tc^ether for the space of an hour without biting or scratching one ahbther. There you might have seen a throng of young females, nO< filled with envyingS of each other's charms, nor displajring the ridicu- lous affectations of gentility, nor yet moving in vt'hatlebohe dofsiets, like so many automatons, but free, inartificially happy, and un- constrained. There were some spots in that sunny vale where they would frequently resort to decorate themselves with garlands of flowers. To have seen them reclining beneath the shadows of one of the beautiful groves ; the ground about them strewn >*ith freshly gathered buds and blossoms, employed in weaving dhaplets and necklaces, one would have thought that all the train of Flora had gathered together to keep a festival in honor of their mistress. With the young men there seemed almost always Some matter of diversion or business on hand that afforded a constant variety of enjoyment. But whether fishing, or carving canoes, or polish- ing their ornaments, never was there exhibited the least sign of strife or contention among them. As for the warriors, they maintained a tranquil dignity of de» • meanor, journeying occasionally from house to house, where they THEIR AMUSEMENTS. 14fi were always sure to be received with -the attention bestowed upon distinguished guests. The old men, of whom there were many in the vale, seldom stirred from their mats, where they would recline for hours and hours, smoking and talking to one another with all the garrulity of age. But the continual happiness, whiph so far as I was able to judge appeared to prevail in the valley, sprung principally from that all-pervading sensation which Rousseau has told us he at one time experienced, the mere buoyant sense of a healthful phy- sical existence. And indeed in this particular the Typees had ample reason to felicitate themselves, fox sickness was almost unknown. During the whole period of my stay I saw but one invalid among them ; and on their smooth clear skins you ob- served no blemish or mark of disease. The general repose, however, upon which I have just been descanting, was broken in upon about this time by an event which proved that the islanders were not entirely exempt from those occurrences which disturb the quiet of more civilized com- munities. Having now been a considerable time in the valley, I began to feel surprised that the violent hostility subsisting between its inhabitants and those of the adjoining bay of Happar, should never have manifested itself in any warlike encounter. Although the valiant Typees would often by gesticulations declare their undying hatred against their enemies, and the disgust they felt at their cannibal propensities ; although they dilated upon the mani- fold injuries they had received at their hands, yet with a forbear- anoe truly commendable, they appeared patiently to sit down under ■.heir grievances, and to refrain from mafeing any reprisals. The [lappa'rs, entrenched behind their mountains, and never even fibowing themselves on their summits, did not appear to rae to furnish adequate cause for that excess of animosity evinced to- wards them by the heroic tenants of our vsle, and I was inclined 8 146 RESIDENCE IN THE MARdUESAS. to believe that the deeds of blood attributed to them had been greatly exaggerated. On the other hand, as the clamors of war had not up to this period disturbed the serenity of the tribe, I began to distrust the ' truth of those reports which ascribed so fierce and belligerent a character to the Typee nation. Surely, thought I, all these ter- rible stories I have heard about the inveteracy with which they carried on the feud, their deadly intensity of hatred, and the dia- bolical malice with which they glutted their revenge upon the inanimate forms of the slain, are nothing more than fables, and 1 miist confess that I experienced something like a sense of regret at having my hideous anticipations thus disappointed. I felt in some sort, like a 'prentice boy who, going to the play in the ex- pectation of being delighted with a cut-and-thrust tragedy, is almost moved to tears of disappointment at the exhibition of a genteel comedy. I could not avoid thinking that. I had fallen in with a greatly traduced people, and I moralized not a little upon the disadvan- tage of having a bad name, which in this instance had given a tribe of savages, who were as pacific as so many lambkins, the reputa- tion of a confederacy of giant-killers. But subsequent events proved that I had been a little too prema- ture in coming to this conclusion. One day about noon, happen- ing to be at the Ti, I had lain down on the mats with several of the chiefe, and had gradually sunk into a most luxurious siesta, when I was awakened by a tremendous outcry, and starting up beheld the natives seizing their spears and hurrying out, while the most puissant of the chiefs, grasping the six muskets which were ranged against the l)amboos, followed after, and soon disap- peared in tiie groves. These movements were accompanied by wild shouts, in which " Happar, Happar," greatly predominated. The islanders were now to be- seen running past the Ti, and striking across the valley to the Happar side. Presently I heard A CONFLICT. 147 the sharp report of a musket from the adjoining hills, and then a burst of voices in the same direction. At this the women who had congregated in the groves, set up the most violent clamors, as they invariably do here as elsewhere on every occasion of ex- citement and alarm, with a view of tranquillizing their own minds and disturbing other people. On this particular occasion they made such an outrageous noise, and continued it with such perse- verance, that for a while, had entire volleys of musketry been fired off in the neighboring mountains, I should not have been able to have heard them. When this female commotion had a little subsided I listened eagerly for further information. At last bang went another shot, and then a second volley of yells from the hills. Again all was quiet, and continued' so for such a length of time that I began to think the contending armies had agreed upon a suspension of hos- tilities ; when pop went a third gun, followed as before with a yell. After this, for nearly two hours nothing occurred worthy of comment, save some straggling shouts from the hill-side, sound- ing like the halloos of a parcel of truant boys who had lost them- selves in the woods. During this interval I had remained standing on the piazza of the " Ti," which directly fronted the Happar mountain, and with no one near me but Kory-Kory and the old superannuated savages I have before described. These latter never stirred from their mats, and seemed altogether unconscious that anything unusual was going on. As for Kory.Kory, he appeared to think that we were in the midst of great events, and sought most zealously to impress me with a due sense of their importance. Every sound that reached us conveyed some momentous item of intelligence to him. At such times, as if he were gifted with second sight, he would go through a variety of pantomimic illustrations, showing me the precise manner in which the redoubtable Typees were at that J48 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. very moment chastising the insolence of the enemy. " Mehevi hanna pippee nuee Happar," he exclaimed every five minutes, giving me to understand that undeT that distinguished captain the warriors of Bis nation were performing prodigies of valor. Having heard only four reports from the muskets, I was led to believe that they were worked by the islanders in the same man- ner as the Sultan Solyman's ponderous artillery at the siege of Byzantium, one of them taking an hour or two to load and train. At last, no sound whatever proceeding from the mountains, I con- cluded that the contest had been determined one way or the other. Such appeared, indeed, to be the case, for in a little while a cou- rier arrived at the " Ti," almost breathless with his exertions, and communicated the news of a great victory having been achieved by his countrymen : " Happar poo arva ! — Happar poo arva !" (the cowards had fled). Kory-Kory was in ecstasies, and commenced a vehement harangue, which, so far as I understood it, implied that the result exactly agreed with his expectations, and which, moreover, was intended to convince me that it would be a perfectly useless undertaking, even for an army of fire-eaters, to offer battle to the irresistible heroes of our valley. In all this I of course acquiesced, and looked forward with no little interesl to the return of the conquerors, whose victory I feared might not ' have been purchased without cost to themselves. But here I was again mistaken j for Mehevi, in conducting his warlike operations, rather inclined to the Fabian than to the Bona- partean tactics, husbanding his resources and exposing his troops to no unnecessary hazards. The total loss of the victors in this obstinately contested aifair was, in killed, wounded, and missing — one forefinger and part of a thumb-nail (which the late proprietor brought along with him in his hand), a severely contused arm, and a considerable effusion of blood flowing from the thigh of a chief who had received an ugly thrust from a Happar spear. What the enemy had suffered I eould not discover, but I presume THE RESULT. 149 they Jiad succeeded in taking off with them the bodies of their slain. Such was the issue of the battle, as far as its results came under my observation : and as it appeared to be considered an event of prodigious importance, I reasonably concluded that the wars of the natives were marked by no very sanguinary traits. , I afterwards learned- how the skirmish had originated. , A num- ber of the Happars had been discoveied prowling for no good purpose on the Typee side of the mountain ; "the alarm sounded, and the invaders, ailer a protracted resistance, had been chased over the frontier. But why had not the intrepid Mehevi carried the war into Happar ? Why had not he made a descent into the hostile vale, and brought away Some trophy of his victory — some materials for the cannibal entertainment which I had heard usu- ally terminated every engagement ? After all, I was much in- clined to believe that these shocking festivals must occur very rarely among the islanders, if, indeed, they ever take place. For two or three days the late event was the theme of general comment ; after which the excitement gradually wore away, and the valley resumed its accustomed tranquillity. END OP PART L RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. PART II. CHAPTER XVII. Smmming in company with the Girla of the Valley — A Canoe — ^Effects of the Taboo — A pleasure Gzcuision on the Pond — Beautiful freak of Fay- away — ^Mantua-making-T-A Stranger arrives in the Valley — ^His mysteri- ous conduct— Native Oratory — ^The Interview — Its Results — ^Departure of the Stranger. Rettjenino health and peace of mind gave a new interest to every- thing around me. I sought to diversify my time by as many enjoyments as lay within my reach. Bathing in company with troops of girls formed one of my chief amusements. We some- times enjoyed the recreation in the waters of a miniature lake, into which the central stream of the valley expanded. This lovely sheet of water was almost circular in figure, and about three hundred yards across. Its beauty was indescribable. All around its - banks waved luxuriant masses of tropical foliagCj soaring high above which were seen, here and there, the sym- metrical shaft of the cocoa-nut tree, surmounted by its tufV of graceful branches, drooping in the air like so many waving ostrich plumes. The ease and grace with which the maidens of the valley pro- pelled themselves through the water, aud their familiarity with 9 153 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQXIESAS. the element, were truly astonishing. Sometimes they might be seen gliding along just under the surface, without apparently moving hand or foot ; then throwing themselves on their sides, they darted through the water, revealing glimpses of their forms, as, in the course of their rapid progi ?ss, they shot for an instant partly into the air ; at one moment they dived deep down into the water, and the next ia&y rose bounding to the surface. I remember upon one occasion plunging in among a parcel of these river-nymphs, and counting vainly on my superior strength, sought to drag some of them under the water ; but I quickly repented, my temerity. The amphibious young creatures swarm- ed about me like a shoal of dolphins, tod - seizing hold of my devoted limbs, tumbled me about and ducked me under the surface, until from the strange iloises which rang in my ears, and the Supernatural visions dancJihg before my eyes, I thought I was in the land of spirits. I stood indeed as little chalice among them as a cumbrous whale attacked on all sides by a Iqgion of sword- fish. When at length they relinquished their hold of me, they swam away in every direction, laughing at my clumsy endeavors to reach them. There was no boat on the lake j but at my solicitation arid for my special use, some of the young men attached to Marheyo's household, under the direction of the indefatigable I^ry-Kory,. brought up a light and tastfefully carved canoe from thte sea. It was lauoohed upon the sheet of waiter, and floated there as grace- folly as a swan. But, melancholy to relate, it produced an effect I had not anticipated. The sweet nymphs, who had sported with me before in the lake, now all fled its vicinity. The prohibited crafl, guaffded by the edicts of the " taboo," extended the prohibition to the waters ia which it lay. For a few days, Kory-Kory, with one or two other youths, ac- eompaided me in -my excursions to the lake, and "while I paddled kbout ia my light canoe, wouiM swim after me shoutiqg and gam- THE TABOO RELAXED. 153 boiling in pursuit. But this was &r from contenting me. In- deed, I soon began to weary of it, and longed more than ever for the pleasant society of the mermaids, in whpse absence the amusement was dull and Insipid. One morning I expressed to my faithful servitor my desire for tte return of the nymphs. The honest fellow looked at me bewildered for a moment, and then shook his head solemnly, and murmured " iahoo ! taboo !" giving me to understand that unless the canoe was removed, I could not expect to have the young ladies back again. But to this procedure I was averse ; I not only wanted the canoe to stay where it was, but I wanted the beauteous Fay a way to get into it, and paddle with me about the lake. This latter proposition com> pletely horrified Kory-Kory's notions of propriety. He inveighed against it, as something too monstrous to be thought of. It not only shocked their established notions of propriety, but was at variance with all their religious ordinances. However, although the " taboo " was a ticklish thing to meddle with, I determined to test its capabilities of resisting an attack. I consulted the chief Mehevi, who endeavored to persuade me from my object : but I was not to be repulsed ; and accordingly increased the warmth of my solioitatiDns. At last he entered into a long, and I have no doubt a very learned and eloquent exposi. tion of the history and nature of the "taboo" asafiecting this par- ticular case ; employing a variety of most extraordinary wordsi which, from their amazing length and sonorousness, I have eveiy reason to believe were of a theological nature. But all that he said failed to convince me : partly, perhaps, because I could not comprehend a word that he uttered ; but chiefly, that for the life of me I could not understand why a woman should not have as much right to enter a canoe as a man. At last he became a little more rational, and intimated that, out of the abundant love he bore me, he would consult with the priests and see what could be done. How it was that the priesthood of Typee satisfied the ftfikir IM RESIDENCE IN THE MARaiTESAS. with their consciences, I know not ; but so it was, and Fayaway's dispensation from this portion of the taboo was at length procured. Such an event I believ never before had occurred in the valley ; but it was high :time the islanders should be taught a little gal- lantry, and I trust that the example I set them may produce beneficial electa. Ridiculous, indeed, that the lovely creatures should be obliged to paddle about in the water, like so many ducks, while a parcel of great strapping fellows skimmed over its surface in their canoes. The first day after Fayaway's emancipation, I had a delight- ful little party on the lake — ^the damsel, Kory-Eory, and myself. My zealous body-servant brought from the house a calabash of poee-poee, half a dozen young cocoa-nuts — stripped of their husks — three pipes, as many yams, and me on his back a part of the way. Something of a load ; but Kory-Kory was a very strong man for his size, and by no means brittle in the spine. We had a very pleasant day ; my trusty valet plied the paddle and swept us gently along the margin of the water, beneath the shades of the overhanging thickets. Fayaway and I reclined in the stem of the canoe, the gentle nymph occasionally placing her pipe to her lip, and exhaling the mild fumes of the tobacco, to which her rosy breath added a fresh perfume. Strange as it may seem, there is nothing in which a young and beautiful female appears to more advantage than in the act of smoking. How captivating is a Peruvian lady, swinging in her gaily, woven hammock of grass, extended between two orange-trees, and inhaling the fra- grance of a choice cigarro ! But Fayaway, holding in her deli- cately-formed olive hand the long yellow reed of her pipe, with its quaintly carved bowl, and tevery few moments languishingly giving forth light wreaths of vapor from her mouth and nostrils, looked still more engaging. We floated about thus for several hours, when I looked up to (he warm, glowing, tropical sky, and then down into the transpa- BEAUTIFUL LAKE. 155 rent depths below ; and when my eye, wandering from the be- witching scenery around, fell upon the grotesquely-tattooed form of Kory-Kory, and finally encountered the pensive gaze of Faya- way, I thought I had been transported to some fairy region, so unreal did everything appear. This lovely piece of water was the coolest spot in all the val. ley, and I now made it a place of continual resort during the hot- test period of the day. One side of it lay near the termination of a long gradually expanding gorge, which mounted to the heights that environed the vale. The strong trade wind, met in its course by these elevations, circled and eddied about their sum- mits, and was sometimes driven down the steep ravine and swept across the valley, ruffling in its passage the otherw^e tranquil surface of the Jake. One day, after we had been paddling about for some time, I disembarked Kory-Kory, and paddled the canoe to the windward side of the lake. As I turned the canoe, Fayaway, who was with me, seemed all at once to be struck with some happy idea. With a wild exclamation of delight, she disengaged from her person the aniple robe of tappa which was knotted over her shoulder (for the purpose of shielding her from the sun), and spreading it out like a sail, stood erect with upraised arms in the head of the canoe. We American sailors - pride ourselves upon our . straight clean spars, but a prettier little mast than Fayaway made was never shipped aboard of any craft. In a moment the tappa was distended by the breeze — ^the long brown tresses of Fayaway streamed in the air — and the canoe glided rapidly through the water, and shot towards the shore. Seated in the stern, I directed its course with my paddle until it dashed up the soft sloping bank, and Fayaway, with a light spring, alighted on the ground ; whilst Kory-Kory, who had watched our manoeuvres with admiration, now clapped his hands in transport, 156 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. and shouted like a madman. Many a time afterwards was this feat repeated. If the reader have not observed ere this that I was the declared admirer of Miss Fayaway, all I can say is, that he is little con- versant with affairs of the heart, and I certainly shall not trouble myself to enlighten him any- farther. Out of the calico I had brought from the ship a dress was made for this lovely girl. In it she looked, I must confess,, something like an opera-dancer. The drapery of the latter damsel generally commences a little above the elbows, but my island beauty's began at the waist, and termi- nated sufficiently far above the ground to reveal the most be- witching ankle in the universe. The day that Fayaway first wore this robe was rendered me- morable by a new acquaintance being introduced to me. In the aflemoon I was lying in the house, when I heard a great uproar outside ; but being by this time pretty well accustomed to the wild halloos which were almost continually ringing through the valley, I paid little attention to it,, until old Marheyo, under the influence of some strange excitement, rushed into my presence and com- municated the astounding tidings, " Marnoo pemi !" which being interpreted, implied that an individual by the name of Marnoo was approaching. My worthy old friend evidently expected lliat this intelligence would produce a great effect upon me, and for a time he stood earnestly regarding me, as if curious to see how 1 should conduct myself, but as I remained perfectly unmoved, the old gentleman darted out of the house again, in as great a hurry as he had entered it. " Marnoo, Marnoo," cogitated I, " I have never heard that name before. Some distinguished character, I presume, from the prodigious riot the natives are making ;" the tumultuous noise drawing nearer and nearer every moment, while " Marnoo !— Maamoo !" was shouted by every tongue. ^ I made up my mind that some savage warrior of consequence. A NEW ACQUAINTANeE. 157 who had not yet enjoyed the honor of an audience, was desiroua of paying his respects on the present occasion. So ,vain had I become by the lavish attention to which I had been accustomed, tha;t I felt half inclined, as a punishment for such neglect, to give this Mamoo a cold reception, when the excited throng came ■within View, convoying one of the most striking specimens of humanity that I ever beheld. The stranger could not have been more than twenty-five years of age, and was a little above the ordinaiy height ; had he been a single hair's breadth taller, the matchless symmetry of his form would have been destroyed. His unclad limbs were beautifully formed ; whilst the elegant outline of his figure, tt^ther with his beardless cheeks, might have entitled him to the distinction of standing for the statue of the Polynesian Apollo ; and indeed the oval of his countenance and the regularity of every feature re- minded me of an antique bust. But the marble repose of art was supplied by a warmth and liveliness of expression only to be seen in the South Sea Islander under the most &vorable developments of nature. The hair of Mamoo was a rich curling brown, and twined about his temples and neck in little close curling ringlets, which danced up and down continually when he was animjGkteid io conversation; His cheek was of a feminine softness, and his face was free from the least blemish of tattooing, although the rest of his body was drawn all over with fanciful figures, which — ^unlike the unconnected sketching usual among these natives — appeared to have been executed in ccmfbrmity with some general d^ign. The tattooing on his back in particular attracted my attention. The artist employed must indeed have excelled in his profession. Tra«ied along the course of the spine was accurately delineated the slender, tapering, and diamond-checkered shaft of the beautiful " artu " tree. Branching from the stem on either side, and dis- posed alternately, were the graceful branches drooping with leaves all correctly drawn, and elaborately finished. Indeed, tfaia 158 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. piece of tattooing was the best specimen of the Fine Arts I had yet seen in Typee. A rear view of the stranger might have sug- gested the idea of a spreading vine tacked against a garden wall. Upon his breast, arms and legs, were exhibited an infinite variety of figures ; every one of which, however, appeared to have refer- ence to the general efiect sought to be produced. The tattooing I have described was of the brightest blue, and when contrasted with the light olive-color of the skin, produced an unique and even elegant efiect. A slight girdle of white tappa, scarcely two inches in width, but hanging before and behind in spreading tas. sels, composed the entire costume of the stranger. He advanced surrounded by the islanders, carrying under one arm a small roll of the native cloth, and grasping in his other hand a long and richly decorated spear. His memner was that of a traveller conscious that he is approaching a comfortable stage in his journey. Every moment he turned good-humoredly to the throng aroimd him, and gave some dashing sort of reply to their incessant queries, which appeared to convulse them with uncontrollable mirth. Struck by his demeanor, and the peculiarity of his appearance, so unlike that of the shaven-crowned and face-tattooed natives in general, I involuntarily rose as he entered the house, and prof- fered him a seat on the mats beside me. But without deigning to notice the civility, or even the more incontrovertible fact of my existence, the stranger passed on, utterly regardless of me, and flung himself upon the further end of the long couch that traversed the sole apartment of Marheyo's habitation. Had the belle of the season, in the pride of her beauty and power, been cut in a place of public resort by some supercilious exquisite, she could not liave felt greater indignation than I did at this unexpected slight. I was thrown into utter astonishment. The conduct of the savages had prepared me to anticipate from every new comer the MARNOO'S HARANGUE. 159 same extravagant expressions of curiosity and regard. The sin- gularity of his conduct, however, only roused my desire to discoveT who this remarkable personage might be, who now engrossed the attention of every one. Tinor placed before him a calabash of poee-poee, from which the stranger regaled himself, alternating every mouthful with some rapid exclamation, which was eagerly caught up and echoed by the crowd that completely filled the house. When I observed the striking devotion of the natives to him, and their temporary withdrawal of all attention from myself, I felt not a little piqued. The glory of Tommo is departed, thought I, and the sooner he removes from the valley the better. These were my feelings at the moment, and they were prompted by that glorious prin- ciple inherent in all heroic natures — the strong- rooted determination to have- the biggest share of the pudding or to go without any of it. Marnoo, this all-attractive perscaiage, having satisfied his hunger, and inhaled a few whiffs from a pipe which was handed to him, launched out into an harangue which completely en- chained the attention of his auditors. Little as I understood of the language, yet from his animated gestures and the varying expression of his features — reflected as from so many mirrors in the countenances around him, I could easily discover the nature of those passions which he sought to arouse. From the frequent recurrence of the words " Nuku- heva " and " Franee " (French), and some others with the meaning of which I was acquainted, he appeared to be rehearsing to his auditors events which had recently occurred in the neigh- boring bays. But how he had gained the knowledge of these matters I could not understand, unless it were that he had just come from Nukuheva — a supposition which' his travel-stained appearance not a little supported. But, if a native of that region, I could not account for his friendly reception at the hands of the lypees. 9* V60 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. Never, certainly, had I behelcl so powerful an exhibition of natural eloquence as Marnoo displayed during the course of his oration. The grace oi^ the attitudes into which he -threw his flexible figure, the striking gestures of his naked arms, and above all, the fire which shot from his brilliant eyes, iitiparted an effect to the continually changing accents of hia voice, of which the most accomplished orator might have been proud. At one mo- ment reclining sideways upon the piat, and leaning calmly upon his bended arm, he related circumstantially the aggressions of the French — their hoistile visits to the surrounding bays, enumerating each one in succession — Happar, Puerka, Nukuheva, Tior, — and then starting to his feet and precipitating himself forward with clenched hands and a countenance (Uatorted with passion, he poured out a tide of invectives. Falling bade into an attitude of lofty command, he exhorted the Typees to resist these encroach- ments ; reminding them, with a fierce glance of exultation, that as yet the terror of their name had preserved them from attack, and with a scornful sneer he sketched in ironical terms the won- drous intrepidity of the French, who, with five war-canoes and hundreds of men, had not dared to assail the naked warriors of their valley. The effect he produced upon his audience was electric ; one and all they stood regarding him with sparkling eyes and trem- bling limbs, as though they were listening to the inspired voice of a pophet. But it soon appeared that Mamoo's powers were as versatile as they were extraordinary. As soon as he had finished his vehe- ment harangue, l^e threw 'himself again upon the mats, and, singling out individuals in the crowd, addressed them by name, in a sort of bantering style, the humor of which, though nearly hidden from me, filled the whole assembly with uproarious delight. He had a word for everybody ; and, turning rapidly from one MORE PERPLEXTIES. 161 to another, gave utterance to some hasty witticism, which was sure to be followed by peals of laugJiter. To the females, as well as to the men, he addressed, his discourse. Heaven only knows what be said to them, but he caused smiles and blushes to mantle their ingenuous facas. I am, indeed, very much inclined to believe that Mamoo, with his handsome person and captivat- ing manners, was a sad deceiver among the simple maidens of the island. During all this time he had never, for one moment, deigned to regard me. He appeared, indeed, to be altogether unconscious of my presence. I was utterly at a loss how to account for this extraordinary conduct. I easily perceived that he was a man of no little consequence among the islanders ; that he possessed un- common talents ; and was gifted with a higher iegt^e of know, ledge than the inmates of the v»Hey. Fear these reasons, I therefore greatly feared lest havtitg, from some cause or other, unfriendly feelings towards me, he might exert his powerful in- fluence to do me mischief. It seemed evident that he was not a permanent resident of the vale, and yet, whence could he have come ? On all sides the Typees were girt in by hostile tribes, and how could he po8> aibly, if belonging to any of these, be received with so much cordiality f The personal appearance of the enigmatical stranger suggested additional perplexities. The face, free iirom tattooing, and the unshaven crown, were peculiarities I had never before remarked in any part of the island, and I had always heard that the con- trary were considered the indispensable distinctions of a Mar. quesan warrior. Altc^«ther the matter was parfoctly incompre- hensible to me, and I awaited its solution with no small degree oi anxiety. At length, from certain indications^ I suspected that he was making me the subject of hia remarks, although ha ap]i«UBd 162 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. cautiously to avoid either pronouncing my name, or looking in the direction where I lay. All at once he rose from the mats where he had been reclining, and, still conversing, moved towards me, his eye purposely evading mine, and seated himself within less than a yard of me. I had hardly recovered from my sur- prise, when he suddenly turned round, and, 'vith a most benig- nant countenance, extended his right hand gracefully towards me. Of course I accepted the courteous challenge, and, as soon as our palms met, he bent towards me, and murmured in musical ac- cents, — " How you do ?" " How long you been in this bay ?" "You like this bay?" '' Had I been pierced simultaneously by three Happar spears, I could not have started more than I did at hejiring these simple questions f For a moment I was overwhelmed with astonish- ment, and then answered something I know not what ; but as soon as I regained my self-possession, the thought darted through my mind that from this individual 1 might obtain that informa- tion regarding Toby which I suspected the natives had purposely withheld from me. Accordingly I -questioned him concerning the disappearance of my companion, but he denied all knowledge of the matter. I then inquired from whence he had come? He replied, from Nukuheva. When I expressed my surprise, he looked at me for a moment, as if enjoying my perplexity, and then, with his strange vivacity, exclaimed, — " Ah ! me taboo. — me go Nukuheva,—- me go Tior, — me go Typee,— me go every, where, — ^nobody harm me, — ^me taboo." This explanation would have been altogether unintelligible to me, had it not recalled to my mind something I had previously heard concerning a singular custom among these islanders. Though the country is possessed by various tribes, whose mutual hostilities almost wholly preclude any intercourse between them ; yet there are instances where a person having ratified friendly relations with some individual belonging to the valley, whose in- AN INTERVIEW 163 mates are at war with his own, may, under particular restrictions, venture with impunity into the country of his friend, where, under other circumstances, he would have been treated as an enemy. In this light are personal friendships regarded among them, and the individual so protected is said to be "taboo," and his person, to a certain extent, is held as sacred. Thus the stranger informed me he had access to all the valleys in the island. Curious to know how he had acquired his knowledge of Eng- lish, I questioned him on the subject. At' first, for some reason or other, he evaded the inquiry; but afterwards told me that, when a boy, he had beeh Carried to sea by the captain of a trading ves- sel, with whom he had stayed three years, living part of the time with him at Sidney, in Australia^ and that, at a subsequent visit to the island, the captain had, at his own request, permitted him to remain among his countrymen. The natural quickness of the savage had been wonder/uUy improved by his intercourse with the white men, and his partial knowledge of a foreign language gave him a great ascendency over his less accomplished coun- trymen. When I asked the now affable Marnoo why it was that he had not previovisly spoken to me, he eagerly inquired what I had been led to think of him from his conduct in that respect.. I replied, that I had supposed him to be some great chief or warrior, who had seen plenty of white men before, and did' not think it worth while to notice a poor sailor. At this declaration of the exalted opinion I had formed of him, he appeared vastly gratified, and gave me to understand that he had purposely behaved in that manner, in order to increase my astonishment, as soon as he shctuld see proper to address me. Marnoo now sought to learn my version of the story as to how I came to be an inmate of the Typee valley. When I related to him the circumstances under which Toby and I had entered it, he listened with evident interest ; but as soon as I alluded to the 164 RESIDKNCE IN THE MARQUESAS. absence, yet unaccounted for, of my comrade, he endeavored to change the subject, as if it were something he desired not to agi- tate. It seemed, indeed, as if everything connected with Toby was destined to beget distrust and anxiety in my bosom. Not- withstanding Marnoo's denial of any knowledge of his fate, 1 could not avoid suspecting that he was deceiving me ; and this suspicion revived those frightful apprehensions with regard to my own fate, which, for a short time past, had subsided in my breast. Influenced by these feelings, I now felt a strong desire to avail myself of the stranger's protection, and under his safeguard to return to Nukuheva. But as soon as I hinted at this, he unhesi- tatingly pronounced it to be entirely impracticable ; assuring me that the Typees would never consent to my leaving the valley. Although what he said merely confirmed the impression which I had before entertained, still it increased my anxiety to escape from a captivity, which, however endurable, nay, delightful it might be in some respects, involved in its issues a fate marked by the most frightful contingencies. I could not conceal from my miild that Toby had been treated in the same friendly manner as I had been, and yet all their kind- ness terminated with his mysterious disappearance. Might not the same fate await me l^a fate too dreadful to think of. Stimulated by these considerations, I urged anew my request to Marnoo ; but he only set forth in stronger colors the impossibility of my escape, and repeated his previous declaration that the Typees would never be brought to consent to my departure. When I endeavored to learn. from him the motives which prompted them to hold me a prisoner, Marnoo again assumed that mysterious tone which had tormented me with apprehensions when I had questioned him with regard to the fate of my com- panion. Thus repulsed, in a manner which only served, by arousing the CONDUCT OF THE NATIVES. 165 most dreadful forebodings, to excite me to renewed attempts, I con- jured him to intercede for me with the natives, and endeavor to procure their consent to my leaving them. To this he appeared strongly averse ; but, yielding at last to my importunities, he ad- dressed several of the chiefs, who with the rest had been eyeing us intently during the whole of our conversation. His petition, however, was at once met with the most violent disapprobation, manifesting itself in angry glances and gestures, and a perfect torrent of passionate words, directed to both him and myself. Mamoo,. evidently repenting the step he had taken, earnestly de- precated the resentment of the crowd, and in a few moments suc- ceeded in pacifying to some extent the clamors which had broken oiit as soon as his proposition had been understood. With the most intense interest had I watched the reception hia intercession might receive ; and a bitter -pang shot through my heart at the additimal evidence, now furnished, of the unchange- able determination of the islanders. Marnoo told me, with evi- dent alarm in his countenance, that although admitted into the bay on a, friendly footing with its inhabitants, he could not pre- sume to meddle with their concerns, as such a procedure, if per- sisted in, would at once absolve the Typees from the restraints of the " Taboo," although so long as he refrained from any such conduct, it screened him efiectually from the consequences of the enmity they bore his tribe. At this moment, Mehevi, who was present, angrily interrupted him ; and the words which he uttered, in a commanding tone, evidently meant that he must at once cease talking to me, and withdraw to the other part of the house. Marnoo immediately started up, hurriedly enjoining me not to address him again, and, as I valued my safety, to refraip from all further allusion to the subject of my departure ; and then, in compliance with the order of the determined chief, but not before it had again been angrily repeated, he withdrew to a &tance> 166 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. I now perceived, with no small degree of apprehension, the same savage expression in the countenances of the natives which had startled me during the scene at the Ti. They glanced their eyes suspiciously from Marnoo to me, as if distrusting the nature of an intercourse carried on, as it was, in a language they could not understand, and they seemed to harbor the belief that already we had concerted measures calculated to elude their vigilance. The lively countenances of these people are wonderfully indi- cative of the emotions of the soul^ and the imperfections of their oral language are more than compensated for by the nervous elo- quence of their look^ and gestures. I could plainly trace, in every varying expression of their feces, all those passions which had been thus unexpectedly aroused in their bosoms. It required no reflection to convince me, from what was going on, that the injunction of Marnoo was not to be rashly slighted ; and accordingly, great as was the effort to suppress my feelings, I accosted Mehevi in a good-humored tone, with a view of dissi- pating any ill impression he might have received. But the ire- ful, angry chief was not so- easily mollified. He rejected my advances with that peculiarly stern expression! have before de- scribed, and took care by the whole of his behaviortowards me to show the displeasure and resentment whicli he felt. Marnoo, at the other extremity of the house, apparently desi- rous of making a diversion in my favor, exerted himself to amuse with his pleasantries the crowd about, him ; but his lively attempts were not so successful as they had previously been, and, foiled in his efforts, he rose gravely to depart. No one expressed any re- gret at this movement, so seizing his roll of tappa, and grasping his spear, he advanced to the front -of the pi-pi, and waving his hand in adieu to the now silent throng, cast upon me a glance of mingled pity and reproach, and flung himself into the path which led from the house. I watched his receding figure until it was lost in the obscurity of the grove, and then gave myself up to the most desponding reflections. REFLECTIONS. 167 CHAPTER XVIII. Reflections after Marnoo's departure — Battle of the jrup-guuo — ijuoug* conceit of Marheyo — Process of making Tappa. The knowledge I had now obtained as to the intention of the savages deeply affected me. Marnoo, I perceived, was a man who, by reason of his superior acquirementSj and the knowledge he possessed of the events which were taking place in the different bays' of the island, was held in no little estimation by the inhabitants of the valley. He had been received with the most cordial welcome and respect. The natives had hung upon the accents of his voice, and had mani- fested the highest gratification at being individually noticed by him. And yet, despite all this, a few words urged in my behalf, with the intent of obtaining my release from captivity, had sufficed not only to banish all harmony and good- will ; but, if I could believe what he told me, hadvgone nigh to endanger his own personal safety. How strongly rooted, then, must be the determinatioa of the Typees with regard to me, and how suddenly could they display the strangest passions ! The mere suggestion of my departure had estranged from me, for the time at least, Mehevi, who was the most influential of all the chiefs, and who had previously exhibited so many instances of his friendly sentiments. The rest of the natives had likewise evinced their strong repugnance to my wishes, and even Kory-Kory himself seemed to share in the general disapprobation bestowed upon me. In vain I racked wiy invention to find out some motive for the 'S8 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. strange desire these people manifested -to retain me among them; but I could discover none. But however this might be, the scene which had just occurred admonished me of the danger of trifling with the wayward and passionate spirits against whom it was vain to struggle, and might even be fatal to do so. My only hope was to induce the natives to believe that I was reconciled to my detention in the valley, and by assuming a tranquil and cheerful demeanor, to allay the suspicions which I had so unfortunately aroused. Their confidence revived, they might in a short time remit in some degree their watchfulness over my movements, and I should then be the better enabled to avail myself of any opportunity which presented itself for escape. I determined, therefore, to. make the best of a bad bargain, and to bear up manfully aigainst whatever might betide. In this endeavor I succeeded beyond my own expectations. At the period of Mamoo's visit, I had been in the valley, as ne^fly as I could conjecture, some two. months. Although not completely recovered from my strange illness, which still lingered about me, I was free from paint and able to take ex> ereise. In short, I had every reason to anticipate a perfect re- covery. Freed from apprehensions on this point, and resolved to regard the future without flinching, I flung myself anew into all the social pleasures of the valley, and sought to bury all regrets, and all remembrances of my previous existence, in the wild enjoy, ments it aflbrded. In my various wanderiags through the vale, and as I became better acquainted with the character of its inhabitants, I was more and more struck with the light-hearted joyousness that everywhere prevailed. The minds of these simple savages, unoccupied by matters of graver moment, were capable of deriv- ing- the utmost delight from circumstances which would have passed unnoticed in more iHtelligent communities. All their enjoyment, indeed, seemed to be made up of the little trifling MANUFACTURE OF POP-GUNS. 169 ineidehts of the passing hour ; but these diminutive items swelled altogether to an amount of happiness seldom experienced by more enlightened individuals, whose pleasures are drawn from more elevated but rarer sources^ What community, for instance, of refined and intellectual mortals would derive the least satisfaction from shooting pop- guns 1 The mere supposition of such a thing being possible would excite their indignation, and yet the whole population of Typee did little else for ten days but occupy themselves with thait childish amusement, fairly screaming, too, with the delight it af- forded them. One day I was frolicking with a little spirited urchin, some six years old, who chased me with a piece of banoiboo about three feet long, with which he occasionally belabored me. Seizing the stick from him," the idea happened to suggest itself, that I might make for the youngster, out of the slender tube, one of those nursery muskets with which I had sometimes seen children play, ing. Accordingly, with my knife I made two parallel slits in the cane several inches in length, and cutting loose at one end the elastic Strip between them, bent it back and slipped the point into a little notch made for the purpose. Any small substance placed against this would be projected with considerable force through the tube, by merely springing the bent strip out of the notch. Had I possessed the remotest idea of the sensation this piece of ordnance was destined to produce, I should certainly have taken out a patent for the invention. The boy scampered away with it, half delirious with ecstasy, and in twenty minutes after- wards I might have been seen surrounded by a noisy crowd — ^ven- erable old greybeards-— responsible fathers of families — ^valiant warriors — ^matrons — ^young men — girls and children, all holding in their hands bits of bamboo, and each clamoring to be served first. For three or four hours 1 was engaged in manufacturing pop. 170 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. guns, but at last made over my good-will and interest in the con- cern to a lad of remarkably quick parts, whom I soon initiated into the art and mystery. Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop, now resounded all over the valley. Duels, skirmishes, pitched battles, and general engagements were to be seen on every side. Here, as you walked along a path which led through a thicket, you fell into- a cunningly-laid ambush, and became a target for a body of musketeers whose tattooed limbs you could just see peeping into view through the foliage. There, you were assailed by the intrepid garrison of a house, who levelled their bambpo rifles at you from between the upright canes which composed its sides. Farther on you were fired upon by a detachment of sharpshooters, mounted upon the top of a pi-pi. Ppp, Pop, Pop, Pop ! green guavas, seeds, and berries were flying about in every direction, and during this dangerous state of affairs I was half afraid that, like the man and his brazen bull, 1 should fall a victim to my own ingenuity. Like everything else, however, the excitement gradually wore away, though ever after occasionally pop-guns might be heard at all hours of the day. It was towards the close of the ppp-gun war, that 1 was infinitely diverted with a strange freak of Marheyo's. I had worn, when I quitted the ship, a pair of thick pumps, which, from the rough usage they had received in scaling preci- pices and sliding down gorges, were so dilapidated as to be alto- gether unfit for US& — so, at least, would have thought the gene- rality of people, and so they most certainly were, when considered in the light of shoes. But things unserviceable in one way, may with advantage be applied in another, that is, if one have genius enough for the purpose. This genius Marheyo possessed in a superlative degree, as he abundantly evinced by the use to which he put these sorely bruised and battered old shoes. Every article, however trivial, which belonged to me, the MARHEYO'S PENDANTS. 171 natives appeared to regard as sacred; and 1 observed that for several days after becoming an inmate of the house, my pumps were suffered to remain, untouched, where I had first happened to throw them. I remembered, however, that after awhile I had missed them from their accustomed place ; but the matter gave me no concern, supposing that Tinor — ^like any other tidy house- wife, having come across them in some of her domestic occupa- tions—had pitched the useless things out of the house. But I was soon undeceived. One day I observed old Marheyo bustling about me with un- usual activity, and to such a degree as almost to supersede Kory. Kory in the functions of his oiHce. One moment he volunteered to trot off with me on his back to the stream ; and when I refused, noways daunted by the repulse, he continued to frisk about me like a superannuated house-dog. I could not for the life of me conjecture what possessed the old gentleman, until all at once, availing himself of the temporary absence of the household, he Went through a variety of uncouth gestures, pointing eagerly down to my feet, and then up to a little bundle which swung from the ridge pole overhead. At last I caught a faint idea of his meaning, and motioned him to lower the package. He executed the order in the twinkling of an eye, and unrolling a piece of tappa, displayed to my astonished gaze the- identical pumps which I thought had been destroyed long before.' I immediately comprehended his desire, and very generously gave him the shoes, which had become quite mouldy, wondering for what earthly purpose he could want them. The same afternoon I descried the venerable warrior appioach- ing the house, with a slow, stately gait, earrrings in ears, and spear in hand, with this highly ornamental pElir of shoes suspended from his neck by a strip of bark, and swinging backwards and forwards on his capacious chest. In the gala costume of the 112 RESIDENCE IS THE MARQUESAS. tasteful Marheyo, these calf-skin pendants ever after formed the most striking feature. But to turn to something a little more important. Although the Whole existence of the inhaMtants of the valley seemed to pass, away exempt from toil, yet there were some light employ. ments which, although amusing rather than laborious as occupa- tions, contributed to their comfort and luxury. Among these, the most important was the manufacture of the native cloth, — " tap- pa," — so well known, under various modifications, throughout the whole Polynesian Archipelago. As is generally understood, this useful and sometimes elegant article is fabricated from the baik of different trees. But, as I believe that no description of its manufacture has ever been given, I shall state, what I know regarding it. In the manufacture of the beautiful white tappa generally worn on the Marquesan Islands, the preliminary operation consists in gathering a certain quantity of the young bi'anuhes of the clothrtree.. The exterior green bark being pulled off as worth- less, there remains a slender fibrous substancfe, which is, carefully stripped from the stick, to which it closely adheres. When a sufficient quantity of it has been collected, the various strips are enveloped in a covering of large leaves, which the natives use precisely as we da wrapping-paper, and which are secured by a few turns of a line passed round them. The package is then laid in the bed of some running stream, with a heavy stone placed over it, to prevent its being swept aWayt After it has remained for two or three days in this state, it is drawn out, and exposed, for a short time, to the action of the air, every distinct piece being attentively inspected, with a view o' ascertaining whether it has yet been sufficiently affected by the operation. This is repeated again and again, until the desired result is obtained. When the substance is in a proper state for the next process, it betrays evidences of incipient decomposition ; the fibres are " TAPPA "—NATIVE CLOTH. 173 relaxed and softened, and rendered perfectly malleable. The different strips are now extended, one by one, in successive layers^ upon some smooth surface— 'generally the prostrate trunk of a cocoa-nut tree — and the heap thus formed is subjected, at every new increase, to a moderate beating, with a sort of wooden mal- let, leisurely applied. The mallet is made of a hard heavy wood resembling ebony, is about twelve inches in length, and perhaps two in breadth, with a rounded handle at one end, and in shape is the exact counterpart of one of our four-sided razor-strops. The flat surfaces of the implement are marked with shallow parallel indentations, varying in depth on the different sides, so as to be adapted to the several stages of the operation. These marks produce the corduroy sort of stripes discernible in the tappa in its finished state. Aiter being beaten in the manner I have described, the material soon becomes blended in one mass, which, moistened occasionally with water, is at intervals hammered out, by a kind of gold-beating process, to any degree of thinness re- quired. , In- this way the cloth is easily made to vary in strength and thickness, so as to suit the numerous purposes to .which it is applied. "When the operation last described has been concluded, the new-made tappa is spread out on the grass to bleach and dry, and soon becomes of a dazzling whiteness. Sometimes, in the first stages of the manufacture, the substance is impregnated with" a vegetable juice, which gives it a permanent color. A rich brown and a bright yellow are occasionally seen, but the simple taste of the Typee people inclines them to prefer the natural tint. The notable "wife of Kammahammaha, the renowned conqueror and king of the Sandwich Islands, used to pride hel'self in the skill she displayed in dyeing her tappa with contrasting colors dis- posed in regular figures ; and, in the midst of the innovations of the times, m as r»:;rarded, towards the decline of her life, as & lady 174 RESIDENCE IN THE MAHftUESAS. of the old school, clinging as she did to the national cloth, in pre- ference to the frippery of the Europeaii calicoes. But the art of printing the tappa is unknown upon the Marquesan Islands. In passing along the valley, I was often attracted by the noise of the mallet, which, when employed in the manufacture of the cloth, produces at every stroke of its hard, heavy wood, a clear, ringing, and musical sound, capable of being heard at a great distance. When several of these implements happen to be in operation at the same time, and near one another, the effect upon the ear of a person, at a little distance, is really charming. HISTORY OF A DAY. 175 CHAPTER XIX. History of a day as usually spent in the Typee Valley — ^Dances of the Marquesan Girls. Nothing can be more uniform and undiversified than the life of the Typees ; one tranquil day of ease and happiness follows another in quiet succession; and with these unsophisticated savages the history of a day is the history of a life. I will, therefore, as briefly as I can, describe one of our days in the valley. To begin with the morning. We were not very early risers — the sun would be shooting his goldeii spikes above the Happar mountain, ere I threw aside my tappa robe, and girding my long tunic about my waist, sallied out with Fayaway and Kory-Kory, and the rest of the household, and bent my steps towards the stream. Here we foUnd congregated all those who dwelt in our section of the valley ; and here we bathed with them. The fresh morning air and the cool flowing waters put both soul and body in a glow, and after a half-hour employed in this recreation, we sauntered back to the house — Tinor and Marheyo gathering dry sticks by the way for fire- wood ; some of the young men laying the cocoa-nut trees under contribution as they passed be» neath them ; while Kory-Kory played his outlandish pranks for my particular diversion, and Fayaway and I, not arm in arm to be sure, but sometimes hand in hand, strolled along, with feeling's, of perfect charity for all the world, and especial goodwill towards each other. Our morning meal was. soon prepared. The islanders are somewhat abstemious at this repast ; reserving the more powerful 10 176 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. efforts of their appetite to a later period of the day. For my own part, with the assistance of my valet, who, as I have before stated, always officiated as spoon on these occasions, I ate sparingly from one of Tinor's trenchers of poee-poee ; which was devoted exclusively ,for my own use, being mixed with the milky meat of ripe cocoa-nut. A section of a roasted bread-fruit, a small cake of " Amar," or a mess of " Cokoo," two or three bananas, or a Mawmee apple ; an annuee, or some other agree- able and nutritious fruit served from day to day to diversify the meal, which was finished by tossing off the liquid contents of a young cocoa-nut or two. While partaking of this simple repast, the inmates of Marheyo's house, after the style of the ancient Romans, reclined in sociable groups upon the divan of mats, and digestion was promoted by cheerful conversation. After the morning meal was concluded, pipes were lighted ; and among them my own- 'especial pipe, a present from the noble Mehevi. The islanders, who only smoke a whiff, or two at a time, and at long intervals, and who keep their pipes going from hand to hand continually, regarded my systematic smoking of four or five pipefuls of tobacco in succession, as something quite wonderful. When two or three pipes had circulated freely, the company gradually broke up. Marheyo went to the little hut he was for ever building. Tinor began to inspect her rolls of tappa, or employed her busy fingers in plaiting grass-mats. The girls anointed tliemselves with their fragrant oils, dressed their hair, or looked over their curious finery, and compared together their ivory trinkets, fashioned out of boar's tusks or whale's teethe The young men and warriors produced their spears, paddles, canoe-gear, battle-clubs, and War-conchs, and occupied them- selves in carving all sorts of figures upon them with pointed bits of shell or flint, and adorning them, especially the war-conchs, with tassels of braided bark and tufts of human hair. Some, MORNING OCCUPATIOnS. ,177 immediately after eating, threw themselves once more upon the mviting mats, and resumed the employment of the previous night, sleeping as soundly as if they had not closed their eyes for a week. Others sallied out into the groves, for the purpose of gathering fruit or fibres of bark and leaves ; the last two being in constant requisition, and applied to a hundred uses. A few, perhaps, among the girls, would 'slip into the woods after flowers, or repair to the stream with small calabashes and cocoa-nut shells, in order to polish them by friction with a smooth stone in the water. In truth these innocent people seemed to be at no loss for something to occupy their time ; and it would be no light task to enumerate all their employments, or rather pleasures. My own mornings I spent in a variety _of ways. Sometimes I rambled about from house to house, sure of receiving a cgrdial welcome wherever I went ; or from grove to grove, and from one shady place to another, in company with Kory-Kory and Eaya- way, and a rabble rout of merry young idlers. Sometimes I was too indolent for exercise, and accepting one of the many in- vitations I was continually receiving, stretched myself out on the mats of some hospitable dwelling, and occupied myself pleasantly either in watching the proceedings of those around me or taking part in them myself. Whenever I chose to do the latter, the delight of the islanders was boundless ; and there was always a thrbng of competitors for the honor of instructing me in any particular craft. I soon became quite an accomplished hand at making tappa — could braid a grass sling ' as well as the best of them — and once, with my knife, carved the handle of a javelin so exquisitely, that I have no doubt, to this day, Kamoonoo, its owner, preserves it as a surprising specimen of my skill. As noon approached, all those who had wandered forth from our habitation, began to return ; and when mid-day was fairly come scarcely a sound was to be heard in the valley : a deep sleep fell 178 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. upon all. The luxurious siesta was hardly ever omitted, except by old Marheyo, who was so eccentric a character, that be seemed to be governed by no fixed principles whatever ; but act- ing just according to the humor of the moment, slept, eat, or tinkered away at his little hut, without regard to the proprieties of time or place. Frequently he might have been- seen taking a nap in the sun at noon-day, or a bath in the stream at mid- night. Once I beheld him perched eighty feet from the ground, in the tuft of a cocoa-nut tree, smoking ; and often I saw him standing up to the waist in water, engaged in plUckmg out the stray hairs of his beard, using a piece of muscle-shell foi tweezers. The noon-tide slumber lasted generally an hour and a half; very often longer ; sind after the sleepers had arisen from their mats they again had recourse to their pipes,. and then made pre parations for the most important meal of the day. I, however, like those gentlemen of leisure who breakfast at home and dine at their club, almost invariably", during my inter- vals of health, enjoyed the afternoon repast with the bachelor chiefs of thei-Ti, who were always rejoiced .to see me, and lavishly spread before me all the good things which their larder afforded. Mehevi generally produced among other dainties a baked pig, an article which I have every reason to suppose was provided for my sole gratification. The Ti was a right jovial place. It did my heart, as well as my body, good to visit it. Secure from female intrusion, there was no restraint upon the hilarity of the warriors, who, like the gentlemen of Europe after the cloth is drawn and the ladies retire, freely indulged their mirth. After spending a considerable portion of the afternoon at the Ti, I usually found myself, as the cool of the evening came on, either sailing on the little lake with Fayaway, or bathing in the waters of the stream with a number of the savages, who, at this EVENING FESTIVITIES. 179 j ' ' . — hour, always repaired thither. As the shadows of night ap- proached, Marheyo's household were once more assembled under bis roof: tapers were lit, long and curious chants were raised, interminable stories were told (for which one present was little the wiser), and all sorts of social festivities served to while away the time. The young girls very often danced by moonlight in front of their dwellings. There are a great varjety of these dances, in which, however, I never saw the men take part. They all con- sist of active, romping, mischievous evolutions, in which every limb is brought into requisition. Indeed, the Marquesan girls dance all over,' as it were ; not only do their feet dance, but their arms, hands, fingers, ay, their very eyes, seem to dance in their Iieads. The damsels wear nothing but flowers and their compendious gala tunics ; and when they plume themselves for the dance, one would almost think that they were about to take wing. Unless some particular festivity was going forward, the inmates of Marheyo's house retired to their mats rather early in the evening ; but not 'for the night, since, after slumbering lightly for a while, they rose again, relit their tapers, partook of the third and last meal of the day, at which poee-poee alone was eaten, and then, after inhaling a narcotic whiff from a pipe of tobacco, disposed themselves for the great business of night, sleep. With the Marquesans it might almost be styled the great business of life, for they pass a large portion of their time in the arms of Somnus. The native strength of their constitution is no way shown more emphatically than in the quantity of sleep they can endure. To many of them, indeed, life is little else than an often interrupted and luxurious nap. 180 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. CHAPTER XX. The Spring of Arra Wai — ^Remarkable Monumental Remains — Some ideas with regard to the History of the Pi-Pis found in the Valley. Almost every country has its medicinal springs famed for their healing virtues. The Cheltenham of Typee is embosomed in the deepest solitude, and but seldom receives a visitor. It is situated remote from any dwelling, a little way up the mountain, near the head of the valley ; and you approach it by a pathway shaded by the most beautiful foliage, and adorned with a thousand fragrant plants. The mineral waters of Arva Wai* ooze forth from the crevices of a rock, and gliding down its mossy side, fall at last,' in many clustering drops, into a natural basin of stone fringed round with grass and dewy-ldoking little violet-colored flowers, as fresh and beautiful as the perpetual moisture they enjoy can make them. The water is held in high estimation by the islanders, some of whom consider it an agreeable as well as a medicinal beverage ; they bring it from the mountain in their calabashes, and store it away beneath heaps of leaves in some shady nook near the house. Old Marheyo had a great love for the waters 'of the spring. Every now and then he lugged off to the mountain a great round demijohn of a calabash, and, panting with his exertions, brought it back filled with his darling fluid. • I presume this might he. translated into " Strong Waters. Arfa is the name bestowed upon a root the properties of which are both inebriating and medicinal. " Wai " is the Marquesan word for water. REMARKABLE MONUMENTAL REMAINS. 181 The water tasted like a solution of a dgzea disagreeable things, and was sufficiently nauseous to have made the fortune of the proprietor, had the spa been situated in the midst of any civilized community. ^s I am no chemist, I cannot give a scientific analysis of the water. All I know about the matter is, that one day Marheyo in my presence poured out the last drop from his huge calabash, and I observed at the bottom of the vessel a small quantity of gravel- ly sediment very much resembling our common sand. Whether this is always found in the water, and gives it its peculiar flavor and virtues, or whether its presence was merely incidental, I was not able to ascertain. One day in returning from this spring by a circuitous path, I came upon a scene which reminded me of Stonehenge and the architectural labors of the Druid. At the base of one of the mountains, and surrounded on all sides by dense groves, a series of vast terraces of stone rises, step by step, for a considerable distance up the hill side. These terraces cannot be less than one hundred yards in length and twenty in width. Their magnitude, however, is less striking than the immense size of the blocks composing them. Some of the stones, of an oblong shape, are from ten to flfleen feet in length, and five or six feet thick. Their sides are quite smooth, but though square, and of pretty regular formation, they bear no mark of the chiseL They are laid together with- out cement, and here and there show gaps between. The topmost terrace and the lower one are somewhat peculiar in their construction. They have both a quadrangular depression in the centre, leaving the rest of the terrace elevated several feet above it. In the intervals of the stones immense trees have taken root, and their broad boughs stretching far over, and interlacing together, support a canopy almost impenetrable to the sun. Overgrowing the greater part of them, and climbing 1^ RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. from one to another, is a wilderness of vines' in whose sinewy embrace many of the stones lie half-hidden, while in some places a thick growth of bushes entirely covers them. There is a wild pathway which obliquely crosses two of these terraces ; and so profound is the shade, so dense the vegetation, that a stranger to the place might pass along it withoiit being aware of their existence. These structures bear every indication of a very high £inti- quity, and Kory-Kory, who was my author*y in all matters of scientific research, gave me to understand that they were co- eval with the creation of the world ; that the great gods them- selves were the builders ; and that they would endure until , lime shall be no more. Kory-Kory 's prompt explanation, and his attributing the work to a divine origin, at once convinced me that neither he nor the rest of his countrymen knew anything about them. As I gazed upon this monument, doubtless the work of an extinct and forgotten race, thus buried in the green nook of an island at the end of the earth, the existence of which was yester- day unknown, a stronger feeling of awe came over me than if I had stood musing at the mighty base of the Pyramid of Cheops. There are no inscriptions, no sculpture, no clue, by which to conjecture its history : nothing but the dumb stones. How many generations of those majestic trees which overshadow them have grown and flourished and decayed since first they were erected ! These remains naturally suggest many interesting reflections. They establish the great age of the island, an opinion which the builders of theories concerning the creation of the various groups in the South Seas are not always inclined to admit. For my own part, I think it just as probable that human beings were living in the valleys of the Marquesas three thousand years ago as that they were inhabiting the land of Egypt. The origin of the island ANTIQUITIES. 183 of Nukuheva cannot be imputed to the coral insect : for inde- fatigable as that wonderful creature is, it would be hardly mus- cular enough to pile rocks one upon the other more than three thousand feet above the level of the sea. That the land may have been thrown up by a submarine volcano is as possible as anything else. No one can make an affidavit to the contrary, and therefore I will say nothing against- the supposition : indeed, were geologists to assert that the whole continent of America had in Uke manner been formed by the simultaneous explosion of a train of Etnas laid under the water all the way from the North Pole to the parallel of Gape Horn, I am the last man in the world to contradict them. I have already mentioned that the dwellings of the islanders were almost invariably built upon massive stone foundations, which they call pi-pis. The dimensions of these, however, as well as of the stones composing then!, are comparatively small : but there are other and larger erections of a similar description comprising the " morals," or burying'grounds, and festival-places, in nearly all the valleys of the island. Some of these piles are so extensive, and so great a degree of labor and skill must have been requisite in constructing them, that I can scarcely believe they were built by the ancestors of the present inhabitants. If indeed they were, the race has sadly deteriorated in their knowledge of the mechanic arts. To say nothing of their habitual indolence, by what con- trivance within the reach of so simple a people could such enor- mous masses have been moved or fixed in their places ? and how could they with their rude implements have chiselled and hammer- ed them into shape ? All of these larger pi-pis — ^like that of the Hoolah Hoolah Ground in the Typee valley — ^bore incontestible marks of great age ; and I am disposed to believe that their erection may be as- cribed to the same race of men who were the buildef s of the still more ancient renyiins I have just described. 10* 184 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. Aeoording to Kory-Kory's account, the pi-pi upon which stands the Hoolah Hoolah ground was built a great many moons ago, under the direction of Monoo, a great chief and warrior, and, as it would appear, master-mason among the Typees. It was erected for the express purpose to which it is at present devoted, in the incredibly short period of one sun ; and was dedicated to the immortal wooden idols by a grand ifestival, which lasted ten days and nights. Amoiig the smaller pi-pis, upon which stand the dwelling, houses of the natives, I never observed any which intimated a recent erection. There are in every part of the valley a great many of these massive stone foundations which have no houses upon them. This is vastly convenient, for whenever an enter, prising islander chooses to emigrate a few hundred yards from the place where he was bom, all he I^as to do in order to establish himself in some new locality, is to' select one of the many un. appropriated pi-pis, and without farther ceremony pitch his bamboo tent upon it. A FESTIVAL. 185 CHAPTER XXI. Preparatioiis for a Grand Festival in the Valley — S,traiig{B doings in the Taboo Groves — ^Monument of Calabashes — Gala costume of the Typee damsels — Departure for the Festival. Feom the time that my lameness had decreased I had made a daily practice of visiting Mehevi at the Ti> Vho iayariably gave me a most cordial reception. I was always accompanied in these excursions by Fayaway and the ever-present Kory-Kory. The former, as soon as we reached the vicinity of the Ti — ^which was rigorously tabooed to the whole female sex — withdrew to a neigh- boring hut, as if her feminine delicacy restrained her from approaching a habitation which might be regarded as a sort of Bachelor's Hall. And in good truth it might well have been so considered. AU though it was the permanent residence of several distinguished chiefs, and of the noble Mehevi in particular, it was still at certain seasons the &,vorite haunt of all the jolly, talkative, and elderly savages of the vale, who resorted lliither in the same way that similar characters frequent a tavern in civilized countries. There liiey would remain hour after hour, chatting, smoking, eating poee-poee, or busily engaged in sleeping fcr the good of theii con- stitutions. This building aj^eared to be the head-quarters of the valley, where all flying rumors concentrated ; and to have seen it filled with a crowd of the natives, all males, conversing in animated clusters, while multitudes were continually coming Mid going, one would have thought It a kind of savage Ejoshange, where &e rise and fall of Polynesian Stock was discussed. 1S6 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. Mehevi acted as supreme lord over the place, spending the greater portion of his time there : and often when, at particular hours of the day, it was deserted "by nearly every one else except the verd-antique looking centenarians, who were fixtures in the building, the chief himself was sure to be found enjoying his " otium cum dignitate " upon the luxurious mats which covered the floor. Whenever I made my appear&nce he invariably rose, and, like a gentleman doing the honors of his mansion, invited me to repose myself wherever I pleased, and calling out " tammaree !" (boy), a little fellow would appear, and then retiring for an instant, return with some savory mess, from which the chief would press me to regale myself. ' To tell the truth, Mehevi was indebted to the excellence of his viands for the honor of my repeated visits, — a matter which cannot appear singular, when it is borne in mind that bachelors, all the world over, are famous for serving up un- exceptionable repasts. One day, on drawing near to the Ti, I observed that extensive preparations -were going forward, plainly betokening some ap- preaching festival. Some of the symptoms reminded me of the stir produced among'the scullions of a large hotel, where a grand jubilee dinner is about to be given. The natives were hurrying about hither and thither, engaged in various duties ; some lugging off to the stream enormous hollow bamboos, for the purpose of filling them with water j others chasing furious-looking hogs through the bushes, in their endeavors to capture them ; and numbers employed in kneading great mountains of poee.poee heaped up in huge wooden vessels. After observing these lively indications for a while, I was attracted to a neighboring grove by a prodigious squeaking which I heard there. On reaching the spot I found it proceeded from a large hog which a number of natives were forcibly holding to the earth, while a muscular fellow, armed with a bludgeon, was ineffectually aiming murderous, blows at the skull of the unfor- NATIVE COOlffiRy. 187 tunate porker. Again and again he missed his writhing and struggling victim, hut though puffing and panting with his exer- tions, he still continued them ; and after striking a sufficient number of blows to have demolished an entire drove of oxen, with one crashing stroke he laid him dead at his feet. Without letting any blood, from the body, it was immediately carried to a _fire which had been kindled near at hand, and four savages taking hold of the carcass by its legs, passed it rapidly to and fro in the flames. In a moment the smell of burning bristles betrayed the object of this procedure. Having got thus far in the matter, the body was removed to a little distance,; and, being disembowelled, the entrails were laid aside as choice parts, and the whole carcass thoroughly washed with water. An ample thick green cloth, composed of the long thick leaves of a species of palm-tree, ingeniously tacked together with little pins of bam- boo, was now spread upon the ground, in which the body being carefully rolled, it was borne to an oven previously prepared to receive it. Here it was at once laid upon the heated stones at the bottom, and covered with thick layers of leaves, the whole being quickly hidden from sight by a moiind of earth raised over it. Such is the summary style in which the Typees convert per- verse-minded and rebellious hogs into .the most docile and amiable pork ; a morsel of which placed on the tongue melts like a soft smile from the lips of Beauty. I commend their peculiar mode of proceeding to the considera- tion of all butchers, coolts, and housewives. The hapless porker whose fate I have just rehearsed, was not the only one who suffered on that memorable day. Many a dismal grunt, many an implor- ing squeak, proclaimed what was going on throughout the whole extent of the valley; and I verily believe the first-born of every litter perished ?)efore the setting of that fatal sun. The scene around the Ti was now most animated. Hogs and 1S8 RESIDENCE fN THE MARQUESAS. poee-poee were baking in numerous ovens, which, heaped up with fresh earth into slight elevations, looked like so many ant-hills. Scores of the savages were vigorously plying their stone pestles in preparing masses of poee-poee, and numbers were gathering green bread-fruit Mid young cocoa-nuts in the surrounding groves ; while an exceeding great multitude, with a view of encouraging the rest in their labors, stood still, and kept shouting most lustily without intermission. It is a peculiarity among these people, that when engaged in any employment theyalways make a prodigious fuss about it. So seldom do they ever exert themselvesj that when they do work they seem determined that so meritorious an action shall not escape the observation of those around. If, for example, they have occasion to remove a stone to a little distance, whiph perhaps might be carried by two able-bodied taen, a whole swarm gather about it, and, after a vast deal of palavering, lift it up among them^ every one struggling to get hold of it, and bear it oflf yelling and panting as if accoinplishing some mighty achievement. Seeing them on these occasions, one is reminded of an infinity of black ants clustering about amd dragging away to some hole the leg of a deceased fly. Having for some time attentively observed these demonstrations of good cheer, I entered the Ti, where Mehevi sat complacently looking out upon the busy scene, and occasionally issuing his orders. The chief appeared to be in an extraordinary flow of spirits, and gave me to understand that on the morrow there would be grand doings in the Groves generally, and at the Ti in parti- cular ; and urged me by no means to absent myself. In com- memoration of what event, however, or in honor of what distin- guished personage, the feast was to be given, altogether passed . my comprehension. Mehevi sought to enlighten my ignorance, but he failed as signally as when he had endeavored to initiate me into the perplejung arcana of the taboo. FEAST OP CALABASHES 189 On leaving the Ti, Kory-Kory, who had as a matter of course accompanied me, ohserving that my curiosity remained unabated, resolved to make everything plain and satisfactory. With this intent, he escorted me through the Taboo Groves, pouiting out to my notice a variety of objects, and endeavored to explain them in such an indescribable jargon, of words, that it almost put me in bodily pain to listen to him. In particular, he led me to a remark, able pyramidical structure some three yards square at the base, and perhaps ten feet in height, winch had lately been thrown up, and occupied a very conspicuous position. It was composed principally of large empty calabashes, with a few polished cocoa- nut shells, and looked not unlike a cenotaph, of skulls. My cicerone percefved the astonishment with which I gazed at this monument of savage crockery, and immediately addressed him- self to. the task of enlightening me : but all in vain ; and to this hour the nature of the monument remains a complete mystery to me. As, however, it formed so prominent a feature in the ap- proaching revels, I bestowed upon the latter, in my own mind, the title of the « Feast of Calabashes." The following morning, awaking rather late, I perceived the whole of Marheyo's femily busily engaged in preparing for the festival. The old warrior himself was arranging in round balls the two grey locks of hair that were suffered to grow from the crown of his head ; his earrings and spear, both well polished, lay beside him, while the highly decorative pair of shoes hung suspended from a projecting cane against the ade of the house. The young men were similarly employed ; and the fair damsels, including Fayaway, were anointing themselves with " aka," arranging their long tresses, and perfonning other matters con- nected with the duties of the toilet. Having completed their preparations, the girls now exhibited themselves in gala costume ; the most conspicuous feature of which was a necklace of beautiful white flowers, wifii the sterna 190 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. removed, and strung closely together upon a single fibre of tappa. Corresponding ornaments were inserted in their ears, and woven garlands upon their heads. About their waist they wore a short tunic of spotless white tappa, and some of them superadded to this a mantle of the same material, tied in an elaborate bow upon the left shoulder,' and falling about the figure in picturesque folds. Thus arrayed, I would have matched the charming Fayaway against any beauty in the world. People may say what they will about the taste evinced by our fashionable ladies in dress. Their jewels, their feathers, their silks, and their furbelows, would have sunk into utter insignifi- cance beside the exquisite simplicity of attire adopted by the nymphs of the vale on this festive occasion. I should like to have seen a gallery of coronation beauties, at Westminster Abbey, con- fronted for a moment by this band of Island girls ; their stififaess, formality, and affectation, contrasted with the artless vivacity and unconcealed natural graces of these savage maidens. It would be the Venus de' Medici placed beside a milliner's doll. It was not long before Kory-Kory and myself were left alone in the house, the rest of its inmates having departed for the Taboo Groves. My valet was all impatience to follow them ; and was as fidgetty about my dilatory movements as a diner out waiting hat in hand at the bottom of the stairs for some lagging companion. At last, yielding to his importunities, I set out for the Ti. As we passed the houses peeping out from the groves through which pur route lay, I noticed that they were entirely deserted by their in- habitants. When we reached the rock that abruptly terminated the path, and concealed from us the festive scene, wild shouts and a con- fused blending of voices assured me that the occasion, whatever it might be, had drawn together a great multitude. Kory-Kofy, previous to mounting the elevation, paused for a moment, like a 4andy at a ball-room door, to put a hasty finish to his toilet. GALA COSTUME. 191 During this short interval, the thought struck me that I ought myself perhaps to be taking some little pains with my appearance. But as I had no holiday raiment, I was not a little puzzled to de- vise some means of decorating myself. However, as I felt de- sirous to create a sensation, I determined to do all that lay in my power ; and knowing that I could not delight the savages more than by conforming to their style of dress, I removed from my per- son the large robe of tappa which I was accustomed to wear over . my shoulders whenever I sallied into the open air, and remained merely girt about with a short tunic descending from my waist to my knees. My quick-witted attendant fully appreciated the compliment 1 was paying to the costume of his race, and began more sedulously to arrange the folds of the one only garment which remained to me. Whilst he was doing thiS) I caught sight of a knot of young gerls, who were sitting near us on the grass surrounded by heaps of flowers, which they were forming into garlands. I motioned to them to bring some of their handywork to me ; and in an in- stant a dozen wreaths were at my disposal. One of them I put round the apology for a hat which I had been forced to construct for myself out of palmetto-leaves, juid some of the others I con- verted into a splendid girdle. These operations finished, with the slow and dignified step of a full-dressed beau I ascended the look. 192 EESIDENCK IN THE MARQXIESAS. CHAPTER XXII. The Feast of Calabashes The whole population of the valley seemed, to be gathered within the precincts of the grove. In the distance could be' seen the long front of the Ti, its immense piazza swarming with men, arrayed in every variety of fantastic costume, and all vociferating with animated gestures ; while the whole interval between it and the place where I stood was enlivened by groups of females fancifully decorated, dancing, capering, and uttering wild exclamations. As soon as they descried me they set up a shout of welcome ; and a band of them came dancing towards me, chanting as they approached some wild recitative. The change in niy garb seemed to transport them with delight, and clustering about me on all sides, they accompanied me towards the Ti. When however we drew near it these joyous nymphs paused in their career, and parting on either side, perniitted me to pass on to the now densely thronged building. So soon as I mounted to the pi-pi I saw at a glance that the revels were fairly under way. What lavish plenty reigned around ! — ^Warwick feasting his retainers with Ueef and ale, was a niggard to the noble Mehevi ! — All along the piazza of the Ti were arranged elaborately carved canoe-shaped vessels, some twenty feet in length, filled with newly made poee-poee, and sheltered from the sun by the broad leaves of the banana. At intervals were heaps of green bread-fruit, raised in pyramidical stacks, resembling the regular piles of heavy shot to be seen in the yard of an arsenal. Inserted into the inter- PIAZZA OF THE TI. 193 stiees of the huge stones which formed the pi-pi were large boughs of trees ; hanging from the breiticheS, of which, and screened from -the sup, by their folia,ge, were innumerable little packages with leafy cpverings, containing the meat of the numerous hogs which had been slain, done up in this manner to make it more accessible to the crQwd. Leauitig against the, railing of the piazza were an immense number of long, heavy bamboos, plugged at the lower end, and with their projecting muzzles stuffed with a wad of leaves. These were filled with water from the stream, and each of them might hold from four to five gallons. The banquet being thus spread, naught remained but for every one to help himself at hia pleasure. Accordingly not a moment passed but the transplanted boughs I have mentioned were rifled by the throng of the fruit they certainly had never borne before. Calabashes of poee-poee were continually being replenished' froir the extensive receptacle in which that article was stored, and multitudes of little fires were kindled about the Ti for the purpose of roasting the bread-fruit. Within the building itself was presented a most extraordinary scene. The immense lounge of mats lying between the parallel rows of the trunks of cocoa-nut trees, and extending the entire length of the house, at least two hundred feet, was covered by the reclining forms of a host of chiefs and warriors, who were eating at a great rate, or soothing the cares of Polynesian life in the se- dative fumes of tobacco. The smoke was inhaled from large pipes, the bowls of which, made out of small cocoa-nut shells, were curiously carved in strange heathenish devices. These were passed from mouth to.moilth by the recumbent smokers, each of whom, taking two or three prodigious whifis, handed the pipe to his neighbor ; sometimes for that purpose stretching indo- lently across the body of some dozing individual whose exertions at the dinner-table had already induced sleep. The tobacco used among the Typees was of a very mild and 194 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. pleasing flavor, and as I always saw it in leaves, and the natives appeared pretty well supplied with it, J was led to believe that it must have been the growth of the valley. Indeed Kory-Kory gave me to understand that this was the case ; but J never saw a single plant growing on the island. At Nukuheva, and, I be- lieve, in all the other valleyp, the weed is very scarce, l3eing only obtained in'small quantities from foreigners, and smoking is consequently with the inhabitants of these places a very great luxury. How it was that the Typees were so well furnished with it I cannot divine. I should think them too indolent to devote any attention to its culture ; and, indeed, as far as my observation extended, not a single atom of the soil was under any other cultivation than that of shower and sunshine. The tobacco-plant, however, like the sugar-cane, may grow wild in some remote part of the vale. There were many in the Ti for whom the tobacco did not fur- nish a sufficient stimulus, and who accordingly had recourse to " arva," as a more powerful agent in producing the desired effect. " Arva" is a root very generally dispersed over the South Seas, and from it is extracted a juice, the effects of which upon the sys- tem are at first stimulating in a moderate degree ; but it soon relaxes the muscles, and exerting a narcotic influence produces a luxurious sleep. In the valley this beverage was universally pre- pared in the following way : — Some half-dozen young boys seated themselves in a circle around an empty wooden vessel, each one of them being supplied with a certain quantity of the roots of the " arva," broken into small bits and laid by his side. A cocoa-nut goblet of water was passed around the juvenile company, who rinsing their mouths with its contents, proceeded to the business before them. This merely consisted in thoroughly masticating the " arva," and throwing it mouthful after mouthful into the receptacle pro- vided. When a sufficient quantity had been thus obtained water was pourad upon the ma^s, and being stirred about with the fore- "ARVA." 195 finger of the right-hand, the preparation was soon in readiness for use. The " arva " has medicinal qualities. Upon the Sandwich Islands it has been employed with no small success in the treatment of scrofulous affections, and in combat- ing the ravages of a disease which for so many years has been gradually depopulating those fine aud interesting islands. Bui the tenants of the Typee valley, as yet exempt from these inflic- tions, generally employ the " arva" as a minister to social enjoy- ment, and a calabash of the liquid circulates among them as the bottle with us. Mehevi, who was greatly delighted with the change in my cos. tume, gave me a cordial welcome. He had reserved for me a most delectable mess of " cockoo," well knowing my partiality for that dish ; and had likewise selected three or four young cocoa- nuts, several roasted bread-fruit, and a magnificent bunch of ba- nanas, for my especial comfort and gratification. These various matters were at once placed before me ; but Kory-Kory deemed the banquet entirely insufficient for my wants until he had sup- plied me with one of the leafy packages of pork, which, notwith- standing the somewhat hasty maimer in which it had been pre- pared, possessed a most excellent flavor, and was surprisingly sweet and tender. Pork is not a staple article of food among the people of the Mar- quesas, consequently they pay little attention to the breeding of the swine. The hogs are permitted to roam at large in the groves; where they obtain no small portion of their nourishment from -the cocoa-nuts which continually fall from the trees. But it is only after infinite labor and difiiculty, that the hungry animal can pierce . the husk and shell so as to get at the meat. I have fre- quently been amused at seeing one of them, after crunching the obstinate nut with his teeth for a long time unsuccessfully, get into a violent passion with it. He would then root furiously under the cocoa-nut, and, with a fling of his snout, toss it before him on 196 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. the ground. FoUoTving it up, he would crunch at it again sav- agely for a moment,- and the next knock it on one side, pausing immediately after, as if wondering how it could so suddenly have disappeared. In this way the persecuted cocoa-nuts were often chased half across the valley. The second day of the Feast of Calabashes was ushered in by still more uproarious noises than the first. ' The skins of innumerable sheep seemed to be resounding to the blows of an army of drummers. Startled from my slumbers by the din, I leaped up, and found the whole household engaged in making preparations for immediate departure. Curious to discover of what strange events these novel sounds might be the precursors, and not a little desirous to catch a sight of the instruments which produced the terrific noise, I accompanied the natives as soon as they were in readiness to de- part for the Taboo Groves. The comparatively open space that extended from the Ti toward the rock, to which 1 have before alluded as foTming the ascent to the place, was, with the building itself, now altogether deserted by the men ; the whole distance being filled by bands of females, shouting and dancing under the influence of some strange excite- ment. I was amused at the appearance of four or five old women who, in a state of utter nudity, with their arms extended flatly down their sides, and holding themselves perfectly erect, were leaping stiffly into the air, like so many sticks bobbing to the surface, after being pressed perpendicularly into the water. They preserved the ut- most gravity of countenance, and continued their extraordinary movements without a single moment's cessation. They did not appear to attract the observation of the crowd around them, but I must candidly confess that, for my own part, I stared at them most pertinaciously. Desirous of being enlightened in regard to the meaning of this peculiar diversion, I turned inquiringly to Kory-Kory ; that learn. A FESTIVAL. 197 ed Typee immediately proceeded to explain the whole matter thoroughly. But all that I could comprehend from what he said was, that the leaping figures before me were bereaved widows, whose partners had been slain in battle many moons previously ; and who, at every festival, gave public evidence in this manner of their calamities. It was evident that Kory-Kory considered this an all-sufficient reason for so indecorous a custom ; but I must say that it did not satisfy me as to its propriety. Leaving these afflicted femeles, we passed on to the Hoolah Hoolah groutad. Within the spacious quadrangle, the whole popu- lation of the valley seemed to be assembled, and the sight pre- sented was truly remarkable. Beneath the sheds of bamboo which opened towards the interior of the square, reclined the principal chie& and warriors, while a miscellaneous throng lay at their ease under the enormous trees which spread a majestic canopy overhead. Upon the terraces of the gigantic altars, at either end, were deposited green bread-fruit in baskets of cocoa-nut leaves, large rolls of tappa, bunches of white bananas, clusters of mammee-apples, the golden-hued fruit of the artu-tree, and baked hogs, laid out in large wooden trenches, fancifully decorated with freshly plucked leaves, whilst a variety of rude implements of war were piled in confused heaps before the ranks of hideous idols. Fruits of various kinds were likewise suspended in leafen baskets, from the tops of poles planted uprightly^ and at regular intervals>%long the lower terraces of both altars. At their base were arranged two parallel rows of cumbersome drums, stand- ing at least fifteen feet in height, and formed from the hollow trunks of large trees. Their heads were covered with shark skins, and their barrels were elaborately carved with various quaint figures and devices. At regular intervals they were bound round by a species of sinuate of various colors, and strips of native cloth flattened upon them here and there. Behind these instruments were built slight platforms, upon which stood a num. 198 EKSIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. ber of young men who, beating violently with the palms of their hands upon the drum-heads, produced those outrageous sounds which had awakened me in the morning. Every few minutes these musical performers hopped down from their elevation into the crowd below, and their places were immediately supplied by fresh recruits. Thus an incessant din was kept up that might have startled Pandemonium. Precisely in the middle of the quadjrangle were placed perpen- dicularly in the ground, a hundred or more slender, fresh-cut poles, stripped of their bark, and decorated at the end with a floating pennon of white tappa; the whole being fenced about with a little picket of canes. Fop what purpose these singular ornaments were intended I in vain endeavored to discover. Another most striking feature of the performance was exhibited by a score of old men, who sat cross-legged in the little pulpits, which encircled the trunks of the immense trees growing in the middle of the enclosure. These venerable gentlemen, who I pre- sume were the priests, kept up an uninterrupted monotonous chant, which was nearly drowned in the roar of drums. In the right hand they held a finely woven grass fan, with a heavy black wooden handle curiously chased : these fans they kept in conti. nual motion. ■ But no attention whatever seemed to be paid to the drummers or to the old priests ; the individuals who composed the vast crowd present being entirely taken up in chatting and laughing with one another, smoking, drinking arva, and eating. For all the observation it attracted, or the good it achieved, the whole savage orchestra might, with great advantage to its own members and the company in general, have ceased the prodigious uproar they were making. In vain I questioned Kory-Kory and others of the natives, as to the meaning of the strange things that were going on ; all their explanations were conveyed in such a mass of outlandish gibber- CLOSE OF THE FESTIVITIES. 199 ish and gesticulation that I gave up the attempt in despair. All that day the drums resounded, the priests chanted, and the multi- tude feasted and roared till sunset, when the throng dispersed, and the Taboo Groves were again abandoned to quiet and repose. The next day the same scene was repeated until night, when this sin- gular festival terminated. 200 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. CHAPTER XXIV. Ideas suggested by the Feast of Calabashes — Effigy of a dead WamoT — A singalar Superstition — ^The Priest Eoloiy and the Gkid Moa Artua — Amazing Religious Observance — 'A dilapidated Shrine — Eory-Eory and the Idol — An Inference. Althoitgh I had been baiRed in my attempts to learn the origin of the feast of Calabashes, yet it seemed very plain to me that it was principally, if not wholly of a religious character. Yet, notwithstanding all I observed on this occasion, I am free to confess my almost entire inability to gratify any curiosity that may be felt with regard to the theology of the valley. I doubt whether the inhabitants themselveg could do so. They are either too laiy or too sensible to worry themselves about ab- stract points of religious belief. While I was among them, they never held any synods or councils to settle the principles of their faith by agitating them. An unbounded liberty of con- science seemed to prevail. Those who pleased to do so were allowed to rapose implicit faith in an ill-favored god with a large EFFIGY OF A WARRIOR. . 201 iK-ale-iiose and fat shapeless arms crossed upon his breast ; wl.ilst others worshippod an image which, having no likeness eithei' ir heaven or on earth, could hardly be called an idol. As the islanders always maintained a discreet reserve with regard to my own peculiar views on religion, I thought it would be excessively ill-bred in me to pry into theirs. But, although my knowledge of the religious faith of the Ty pees was unavoidably limited, one of their superstitious observances with which I became acquainted interested me greatly. In one of the most secluded portions of the valley within a stone's cast of Fayaway's lake— for so I christened the scene of our island yachting — arid hard by a growth of palms, which stood ranged in order along both banks of the stream, waving their green arms as if to do honor to its passage, was the mausoleum of a deceased warrior chief. Like all the other edifices of any note, it was raised upon a small pi-pi of stones, which, being of unusual height, was a conspicuous object from a distance. A light thatch- ing of bleached palmetto-leaves hung over it like a self-supported canopy ; for it was not until you came very near that you saw it was supported by four slender columns of bamboo rising at each corner to a little more than the height of a man. A clear area of a few yards surrounded the pi-pi, and v^s enclosed by four trunks of cocoa-nut trees resting at the angles on massive blocks of stone. The place was sacred. The sign of the inscrutable Taboo was seen in the shape of a mystic roll of white Tappa, suspended by a twisted cord of the same material from the top of a slight pole planted within the enclosure.* The sanctity of the spot appeared never to have been violated. The stillness of the grave was there, and the calm solitude around was beautiful £ind touching. The soft shadows of those lofty palm-trees !»— I can see them now — hanging over the little temple, as if to keep out the intru sive sun. * White appears to be the sacred color among the Marquesans. 302 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQJJESAS. On all sides as you approached^ this silent spot you caught sight of the dead chiefs effigy, seated in the stem of a canoe, which was raised on a light frame a few inches ahove the level of the pi-pi. The canoe was about seven feet in length ; of a rich, dark colored wood, handsomely carved and adorned in many places with variegated bindings of stained sinnate, into which were ingeniously wrought a number of sparkling sea- shells, and a belt of the same shells ran all round it. The body of the figure — of whatever material it might have been made — was effectually concealed in a heavy robe of brown tappa, re- vealing only the hands and head ; the latter skilfully carved in wood, and surmounted by a superb arch of plumes. These plumes, in the subdued and gentle gales which found access to this sequestered spot, were never for one moment at rest, but kept nodding and waving over the chief's brow. The long leaves of the palmetto dropped over the eaves, and through them you saw the warrior holding his paddle with both hands in the act of rowing, leaning forward and inclining his head, as if eager to hurry on his voyage. Glaring at him for ever, and face to face, was a polished human skull, which crowned the prow of the canoe. The spectral figurehead, reversed in its position, glancing backwards, seemed to mock the impatient attitude df the warrior. When I first visited this singular place with "Kory-Kory, he told me or at least I so understood him — ^that the chief was paddling his way to the realms of bliss, and bread-fruit—the Polynesian heaven — ^where every moment the bread-fruit trees dropped their ripened spheres to the ground, and where there was no end to the cocoa-nuts and bananas ; there they reposed through the livelong eternity upon mats much finer than those of Typee ; and every day bathed their glowing limbs in rivers of cocoa-nut oil. In that happy land there were plenty of plumes and feathers, and bbars'-tusks and sperm-whale teeth, far. prefer- able to all the shining trinkets and gay tappa of the wlpi^ men; RELIGION IN TYPEE. 203 and, best of all, women far lovelier than the daughters of earth were there in abundance. " A very pleasant place," Kory-Kory said it was ; " but after all, not much pjeasanter, he thought, than Typee." " Did he not then," I asked him, " wish to ac- company the warrior ?" " Oh no : he was very happy where he was ; but supposed that some time or other he would go in his own canoe." Thus far, I think, I clearly comprehended Kory-Kory. But there was a singular expression he made use of at the time, en- forced by as singular a gesture, the meaning of which I would have given much to penetrate. I am inclined to believe it must have been a proverb he uttered; for I afterwards heard him repeat the same words several times, arid in what appeared to me to be a somewhat similar sense. Indeed, Kory-Kory had a great variety of short, smart-sounding sentences, with which he fre- quently enlivened hjs discourse ; and he introduced them with an air which plainly intimated, that in his opinion, they settled the matter in question, whatever it might be. Could it have been then, that when I asked him whether he desired to go to this heaven of bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, and young ladies, which he had been describing, he answered by saying something equivalent to our old adage — " A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush 1" — ^if he did, Kory-Kory was a discreet and sensible fellow, and I cannot sufficiently admire his shrewd- ness. "Whenever, in the course of my rambles through the valley, I happened to be near the chief's mausoleum, I always turned aside to visit it. The place had a peculiar charm for me ; I hardly know why, but so it was. As I leaned over the railing and gazed upon the strange effigy and watched the play of the feathery head-dress, stirred by the same breeze which in low tones breathed amidst the lofty palm-trees, I loved to yield myself up to the fanciful superstition of the islanders, and could almost be- 304 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. lieve that the grim warrior was bound heavenward. In this mood when I turned to depart, I bade him " God speed, and a pleasant voyage." Ay, paddle away, brave chieftain, to the land of spirits ! To the material eye thou makest but little pro- gress j but with the eye of faith, I see thy canoe cleaving the bright waves, which die away on those dimly looming shores of Paradise. This strange superstition affords another evidence of the fact, that however ignorant man may be, he still feels within him his immortal spirit yearning after the unknown future. Although the religious theories of the islands were a complete mystery to me, their practical every-day operation could not be concealed. I frequently passed the little temples reposing in the shadows of the Taboo groves, and beheld the offerings — mouldy fruit spread out upon a rude altar, or hanging in half-decayed baskets around some uncouth jolly-looking images ; I was present during the continuance of the festival ; I daily beheld the grin- ning idols marshalled rank and file in the Hoolah Hoolah ground, and was often in the habit of meeting those whom I supposed to be the priests. But the temples seemed to be abandoned to soli- tude ; the festival had been nothing more than a jovial mingling of the tribe ; the idols were quite as harmless as any other logs of wood ; and the J)riests were the merriest dogs in the valley. In fact religious affairs in Typee were at a very low ebb : all such matters sat very lightly upon the thoughtless inhabitants; and, in the celebration of many of their strange rites, they ap- peared merely to seek a sort of childish amusement. A curious evidence of this was given in a remarkable ceremony in which I frequently saw Mehevi and several other chiefs and warriors of note take part ; but never a single female. Among thos^ whom I looked upon as forming the priesthood of the valley, there was one in particular who often attracted my notice, and whom I could not help regarding as the head of the LORD PRIMATE OF TYPEE. 205 order. He was a noble looking man, in the prime of his life, and of a most benignant aspect. The authority this man, whose name was Kolory, seemed to exereise over the rest, the episcopal part he took in the Feast of Calabashes, his sleek and complacent ap- pearance, the mystic characters which were tattooed upon his chest, and above all the mitre he frequently wore, in the shape of a towering head-dress, consisting of part of a cocoa-nut branch, the stalk planted uprightly on his brow, and the leaflets gathered together and passed round th'e temples and behind the ears, all these pointed him out as Lord Primate of Typee. Kolory was a sort of Knight Templar — a soldier-priest ; for he often wore the dress of -a, Marquesan warrior, and always carried a long spear, which, instead of terminating in a paddle at 'the lower end, after the general fashion of these weapons, was curved into a hea- thenish-looking little image. This instrument, however, might perhaps have been emblematic of his double functions. With one end in carnal combat he transfixed the. enemies of his tribe ; and with the other as a pastoral crook ,, he kept in order his spiritual flock. But this is not all I have to say about Kolory. His mar- tial grace very often carried about with him wKat seemed to me the half of a broken war-club. It was swathed round with rag. ged bits of white tappa, and the upp'er part, which was intended to represent a human head, was embellished with a strip of scar- let cloth of European manufacture. It required little observation to discover that this strange object jvas revered as a god. By the side of the big and lusty images standing sentinel over the altars of the Hoolah Hoolah ground, it seemed a mere pigmy in tatters. But appearances all the world over are deceptive. Little men are sometimes very potent, and rags sometimes cover very ex- tensive pretensions. In fact, this funny little image was the " crack " god of the island ; lording it over all .the wooden lub- bers who looked so grim and dreadful ; its name was Moa Artua.* * The word " Artua," although having some other significations, is in a06 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. And it was in. honor of Moa Artua, and for the entertainmf:nt of those who believe in him, that the curious ceremony I am about to describe was observed. Mehevi and the chieftains of the Ti have just risen fror.i their noontide slumbers. There are no affairs of state to dispose of; and having eaten two or three breakfasts in the course of the morning, the magnates of the vall^ feel no appetite as yet Toi dinner. How are their leisurie moments to be occupied ? They smoke, they chat, and at last one of their number makes a propo- sition to the rest, who joyfully acquiescing, he darts out of the house, leaps from the pi-pi, and disappears in the grove. Soon you see him returning with Kolory, who bears the god Moa Artua in his arms, and carries in one hand a small trough, hol- lowed out in the likeness of a canoe. The priest comes along dandling his charge as if it were a lachrymose infant he was en- deavoring to put into a good humor. Presently entering the Ti, he seats himself on the mats as composedly as a juggler about to perform his sleight-of-hand tricks ; and with the chiefs disposed in a circle around him, commences his ceremony. In the first place he gives Moa Artua an affectionate hug, then caressingly lays him to his breast, and, finally, whispers some- thing in his ear ; the rest of the company listening eagerly for a reply. But the baby-god is deaf or dumb, — perhaps both, for never a word does he utter. At last Kolory speaks a little louder, and soon growing angry, comes boldly out with what he has to say and bawls to him. He put me in mind of a choleric fellow, who, after trying in vain to communicate a secret to a deaf man, all at once flies into a passion and screams it but so that everyone may hear. Still Moa Artua remains as quiet as ever ; and Ko- lory, seemingly losing his temper, fetches him a box over the head, strips him of his tappa and red cloth, and laying him in a nearly all the Polynesian dialects used aa the general designation of the MOA AETUA. 207 State of nudity in a little, trough, covers him from sight. At this proceeding all present loudly applaud and signify their approval by uttering the adjective " motarkee" with violent emphasis. Kolory, however, is so desirous his conduct should meet with un- qualified approbation, that he inquires of each individual sepa- rately whether under existing circumstances he has not done per- fectly right in shutting up Moa Artua. The invariable response is " Aa, Aa" (yes, yes), repeated over again and again in a manner which ought to -quiet the scruples of the most conscien- tious. After a few moments Kolory brings, forth- his doU again, and while arraying it very care&Uy in the tappa and red cloth, alternately fondles and chides it. The toilet being completed, he once more speaks to it aloud. The whole company hereupon show the greatest interest ; while the priest holding Moa Artua to his ear interprets to them what he pretends the god is confiden- tially communicating to him. Some items of intelligence appear to tickle all present amazingly ; for one claps his hands in a rap- ture ; another shouts with merriment ; and a third leaps to his feet and capers about like a madman. What under the sun Moa Artua on these occasions had to say to Koloiy I never could find out ; but I could not help thinking that the former .showed a sad want of spirit in being disciplined into making those disclosures, which at first he seemed bent on withholding. Whether the priest honestly interpreted what he believed the divinity said to him, or whether he was not all the while guilty of a vile humbug, I shall not presume to decide. At any rate, whatever as coming from the god was imparted to those present seemed to be generally of a complimentary nature : a feet which illustrates the sagacity of Kolory, or else the time- serving disposition of this hardly used deity, Moa Artua having nothing more to say, his bearer goes to nursing him again, in which occupation, however, he is soon inter- • Tupted by a question put by one of the warriors to the god. Ko- 11* 208 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. lory hereupon snatches it up to his ear again, and after listening attentively, 6nce more officiates as the organ of communication. A multitude of questions and answers having passed between the parties, much to the satisfaction of those who propose them, the god is put tenderly to bed in ihe trough, and the whole company unite in a long chant, led off by Kolory. This ended, the ceremony is over ; the chiefs rise to their feet in high good humor, and my Lord Archbishop,, after chatting awhile, and regaling himself with a whiff or two frorh a pipe of tobacco, tucks the canoe Under his arm and marches off with it. The whole of these proceedings were lil^e those of a parcel of children playing with dolls and baby houses. For a youngster scarcely ten inches high, and with so few early advantages as he doubtless had had, Moa Artua was certainly a precocious little fellow if he really said all that was imputed to him ; but for what reason this poor devil of a deity, thus cuffed about, cajoled, and shut up in a box, was held in greater estima. tion than the full-grown and digtiified personages of the Taboo Groves, I cannot divine. And yet Mehevi, and other chiefs of unquestionable veracity — ^to say nothing of the Primate himself — assured me over and over again that Moa Artua was the tutelary deity of Typee, and was more to, be held' in honor than a whole battalion of the clumsy idols in the Hoolah Hoolah grounds. Kory-Kory — who seemed to have devoted considerable attention to the study of theology, as he knew the names of all the graven images in the valley, and often repeated them .over to me — ^like- wise entertained some rather enlarged ideas with regard to the character and pretensions of Moa Artua. He once gave me to understand, with a gesture there was no misconceiving, that if he (Moa Artua) were so minded he could cause a cocoa-nut tree to sprout out of his (Kory-Kory's) head ; and that it would be the easi- est thing in life for him (Moa Artua) totake the whole island of Nu« RELIGION OF POLYNESIA. 209 kuheva in his mouth and dive down to the- bottom of the aea with it. But in sober seriousness, I hardly knew what to make of the religion of the valley. There was nothing that so much per- plexed the illustrious Cook, in his intercourse with the South Sea islanders, as their sacred rites. Although this prince of naviga- tors was in many instances assisted by interpreters in the prose, cution of his researches, he still frankly acknowledges that he was at a loss to obtain anything like a clear insight into the puz- zling arcana of their faith. A similar admission has been made by other eminent voyagers : by Carteret, Byron, Kotzebue, and Vancouver. For my own part, although hardly a day passed while I re- mained upon the island that I did not witness some religious cere- mony or other, it was very much like seeing a parcel of " Free- masons" making secret signs to each other ; I saw everything, but could comprehend nothing. On the whole, I am inclined to believe that the islanders in the Pacific have no fixed and definite ideas whatever on the subject of religion. . I am persuaded! that Kolory himself would be effec- tually posed were he called upon to draw up the articles of his faith, and pronounce the creed by which he hoped to be saved. In truth, the Typees, so far as their actions evince, submitted to no laws human or divine — always excepting the thrice mysteri-- ous Taboo. The " independpnt electors" of the valley were not to be brow-beaten by chiefs, priests, idols, or devils. As for the luckless idols, they received more hard knocks than supplica- tions. I do not wonder that some of them looked so grim, and stood so bolt upright, as if fearful of looking to the right or the left lest they should give any one offence. The fact is, they had, to carry themselves "pretty straight," or suffer the consequences. Their worshippers were such a precious set of fickle-minded and irreverent heathens, that there was no telling when they might 310 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. topple one of them over, break it to pieces, and making a fire with it on the very altar itself, fall to roasting the offerings of bread-fruit, and eat them in spite of its teeth. In how little reverence these unfortunate deities were held by the natives was on one occasion most oomvincingly proved to me. Walking with Kory-Kory through the deepest recesses of the groves, I pefceiYed a curious looking image, about six feet in height, which originally had been placed upright against a low pi-pi, surmounted by a ruinous bamboo temple, but having be- come fatigued and weak in the knees, was now carelessly leaning against it. The idol was partly concealed by the foliage of a tree which stood near, and whose l«afy boughs drooped over the pile of stones, as if to protect the rude fane from the decay to which it was rapidly hastening. The image itself was nothing more than a grotesquely shaped log, carved in the likeness of a portly naked man with the arms clasped over the head, the jaWs thrown wide apart, and its thick shapeless legs bowed into aii arch. It was much decayed. The lower part was overgrown with a bright silky moss. Thin spears of grass sprouted from the distended mouth, and fringed the outline of the head and arms. His god- ship had literally attained a green old age. All its prominent points were bruised and battered, or entirely rotted away. ' The nose had taken its departure, and from the general appearance of the head it might have been supposed that the wooden divinity, in despair at the neglect of its worshippers, had been trying to beat its own brains out against die surrounding trees. I drew near to inspect more closely this strange object of ido- latry ; but halted reverently at the distance of two or three paces, out of regard to the religious prejudices of my valet. As soon, however, as Kory-Kory perceived that I was in one of my inquir- ing, scientific moods, to my astonishment, he sprang to the side of the idol, and pushing it away from the stones against which it rested, endeavored to make it stand upon its legs. But the divi- IDOLS AND PRIESTS. 211 nity had lost the use of them altogether j and while Kory-Kory was trying to prop it jip, by placing a stick between it and the pi-pi, the monster fell clumsily to the ground, and would Lnfalli- bly havfe broken its neck had not Kory-Kory providentially broken its fall by receiving its whole weight on his own half-crushed back. I never saw the honest fellow in such a rage before. He leaped furiously to his feet, and seizing the stick, began beating the poor image ; every moment or two pausing and talking to it in the most violent manner, as if upbraiding it for the accident. When his indignation had subsided a little he whirled the idol about most profanely, so as to give me an opportunity of examin- ing it on all sides. I am quite sure I never should have pre- sumed to have taken such liberties with the god myself, and I was not a little shocked at Kory-Kory's impiety. 213 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. CHAPTER XXIV. General Information gathered at the Festival— Personal Beauty of the Typees— Their Superiority over the Inhabitants of the other Islands Diversity of. Complexion — A Vegetable Cosmetic and Ointment— Testr- mony of Voyagers to the Uncommon Beauty of the Marquesans- Few Evidences of Intercourse with Civilized Beings— Dilapidated Musket — Primitive Simplicity of Government— Regal Dignity of Mehevi. , Although I had been unable during the late festival to obtain information on many interesting subjects which had much excited my curiosity, still that important event had not passed by without adding materially to my general knowledge of the islanders. I was especially struck by the physical strength and beauty which they displayed, by their great superiority in these respects over the inhabitants of the neighboring bay of Nukuheva, and by the singular contrasts they presented among themselves in their various shades of complexion. In beauty of form they surpassed anything I had ever seen. Not a single instance of natural deformity was Observable in all the throng attending the revels. Occasionally I noticed among the men the scars of wounds they had received in battle ; and sometimes, though very seldom, the loss of a finger, an eye, or an arm, attributable to the same cause. With these exceptions, every individual appeared free from those blemishes which some- times mar the effect of an otherwise perfect form. But their physical excellence did not merely consist in an exemption from these evils ; nearly every individual of their number might have been taken for a sculptor's model. When I remembered that these islanders derived no advantage PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES. 213 from dress, but appeared in all the naked simplicity of nature, I could not avoid comparing them with the fine gentlemen and dandies who promenade such, unexceptionable figures in our fre- quented thoroughfares. Stripped of the cunning artifices of the tailor, and standing forth in the garb of Eden, — what a sorry set of round-shouldered, spindle-shanked, crane-necked varlets would civilized men appear ! Stufied calves, padded breasts, and scien- tifically cut pantaloons would then avail them nothing, and the effect would be truly deplorable. Nothing in the appearance of the islanders struck me more forcibly than the whiteness of their teeth. The Jiovelist always compares the masticators of his heroine to ivory ; but I boldly pronounce the teeth of the Typees to be far more beautiful than ivory itself. The jaws of the oldest greybeards among them were much better garnished than those of most of the youths of civilized countries ; while the teeth of the young and middle- aged, in their purity and whiteness, were actually dazzling to the eye. This marvellous whiteness of the teeth is to be ascribed to the. pure vegetable diet of these people, and the tminterrupted lealthfulness of their n'atural mode of life. The men, in almost every instance, are of lofty stature, scarcely ever less than six feet in height, while the other sex are uncom- monly diminutive. The early period of life at which the human form arrives at maturity in this generous tropical climate, like- wise deserves to be mentioned. A little creature, not more than thirteen, years of age, and who in other particulars might be regarded as a mere child, is often seen nursing her own baby ; whilst lads who, under less ripening skies, would be still at school, are here responsible fathers of families. On first entering the Typee Valley, I had been struck with the marked contrast presented by its inhabitants with those of the bay I had previously left. In the latter place, I had not been favora- bly impressed with the personal appearance of the male portion 214 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. of ibs population ; although with the females, excepting in some truly melancholy instances, I had been wonderfully pleased. Apart, however, from these considerations, I am inclined to believe that there exists a radical difference between the two tribes, if indeed they are not distinct races of men. To those who have merely touched at Nukuheva Bay, without visiting other portions of the island, it would' hardly appear credible the diversities presented between the various small clans inhabiting so diminutive a spot. But the hereditary hostility which has existed between them for ages, fully accounts for this. Not so easy, however, is it to assign an adequate cause for the endless variety of complexions to be seen in the Typee Valley. During the festival, I had noticed several young females whose skins were almost as white as any Saxon damsels ; a slight dash of the mantling brown being all that marked the difference. This comparative fairness of complexion, though in a great de- gree perfectly natural, is partly the result of an artificial process, and of an entire exclusion from the sun. The juice of the "papa" root, found in great abundance at the head of the valley, is held in great esteem as a cosmetic, with which many of the females daily anoint their whole person. The habitual use of it whitens and beautiiies the skin. Those of the young girls who resort to this method of heightening their charms, never expose themselves to the rays of the sun ; an observance, how- ever, that produces little or no inconvenience, since there are but few of the inhabited portions of the vale which are not shaded over with a spreading canopy of boughs, so that one may journey from house to house, scarcely deviating from the direct course, and yet never once see his shadow cast upon the ground. The " papa," when used, is suffered to remain upon the skin for several hours ; being of a light green color, it consequently imparts for the time a similar hue to tlie complexion. Nothing COSMETICS. ;fl5 therefore, can be imagined more singular than the appearance of these nearly naked damsels immediately after the application of the cosmetic. To look at one of them you would almost sup- pose she was some vegetable in an unripe state; and that, instead of living in the shade forever, she ought to be placed out in the sun to ripen. All the islanders are more or less in the habit of anointing themselves ; the women preferring the " aker" or " papa," and the men using the oil of the cocoa-nut. Mehevi was remarkably fond of mollifying his entire cuticle with this ointment. Some- times he might be seen with his whole body fairly reeking with the perfumed oil of the nut, looking as if he had just emerged from a soap-boiler's vat, "or had undergone the process of dipping in a tallow-chandlery. To- this cause perhaps, united to their frequent bathing and extreme cleanliness, is ascribable, in a great measure, the marvellous purity and smoothness of skin exhibited by the natives in general. The prevailing tint among the women of the -valley was a light olive, and of this stylfe of complexion Fayaway afforded the most beautiful example- Others were still darker, while not a few were of a genuine golden color, and some of a swarthy hue. As agreeing with much previously mentioned in this narrative, I may here observe, that Mendanna, their discoverer, in his ac- count of the Marquesas, described the natives as wondrously beautiful to behold, and as nearly resembling the people of southern Europe. The first of these islands seen by Mendanna was La Madelena, which is not far distant from Nukuheva ; and its inhabitants in every respect resemble those dwelling on that and the other islands of the group. Figneroa, the chronicler of Mendanna's voyage, says, that on the morning the land was descried, when the Spaniards drew near the shore, there sallied forth, in rude procession, about seventy canoes, and at the same RESIDENCE IN THE MARCIUESAS. time many of the inhabitants (females I presume) made towards the ships by swimming. He adds, that "in complexion they were nearly white; of good stature, and finely formed ; and on their faces and bodies were delineated representations of fishes and other devices." The old Don then goes on to say, " There came, among others, two lads paddling their canoe, whose eyes were fixed o^ the ship ; they had beautiful faces and the most promising animation of countenance ; and were in all things so becoming, that the pilot-mayor Quiros affirmed, nothing in his life ever caused .him so much regret as the leaving such fine creatures to be lost in that country." Some of the natives present at the' Feast of Calibashes had displayed a few articles of European dress ; disposed, however, about their persons after their own peculiar fashion. Among these I perceived the~two pieces of cotton-cloth which poor Toby and myself had bestowed upon our youthful guides the afternoon we entered the valley. They were evidently reserved for gala days ; and during those of the festival they rendered the young islanders who wore them very distinguished characters. The small number who were similarly adorned, and the great value they appeared to place upon the most common and most trivial articles, furnished ample evidence of the very restricted inter- course they held with vessels touching at the island. A few cotton handkerchiefs, of a gay pattern, tied about the neck, and suiTered to fall over the shoulders ; strips of, fanciful calico, swathed about the loins, were nearly- all I saw. Indeed, throughout the valley, there were few things of any kind to be seen of, European origin. All I ever saw, besides the articles just alluded to, were the six muskets preserved in the Ti, and three or four' similar implements of warfare hung up in other houses ; some small canvas bags, partly filled with bullets and powder, and half a dozen old hatchet-heads, with the edges blunted and battered to such a degree as to render them utterly DILAPIDATED MUSKET. 217 worthless. These last seemed to be regarded as nearly worth- less by the natives ; and several times they held up one of them before me, and throwing it aside with a gesture of disgust, manifested their contempt for any thing that could so soon be- come unserviceable. But the muskets, the powder, and the bullets were held in most extravagant esteem. .The former, from their great age and the peculiarities they exhibited, were well worthy a place in any antiquarian's armory. I remember in particular one that hung in the Ti, and which Mehevi — supposing as a matter of course that I was able to repair it — had put into my hands for that purr pose. It was one of those clumsy, old-fashioned, English pieces known generally as Tower Hill muskets, and, for aught I know, might have been left on the island by Wallace, Carteret, Cook, or Vancouver. The stock was half rotten and worm-eaten ; the look was as rusty and about as well adapted to its ostensible purpose as an old door-hinge ; the threading of the screws about the • trigger was completely worn away ; while the barrel shook in the wood. Such was the weapon the chief desired me to re- store to its original condition. As I did not possess the accom- plishments of a gunsmith, and was likewise, destitute of the necessary tools, I was reluctantly obliged to signify my inability to perform the task. At this unexpected communication Mehevi regarded me, for a moment, as if he half suspected I was some inferior sort of white man, who alter all did not know much more than a Typee. However, after a most labored explanation of the matter, I succeeded in making him understand the extreme diflSculty of the task. Scarcely satisfied with my apologies, however, he marched off with the superannuated musket in some- thing of a huff, as if he would no longer expose it to the indignity of being manipulated by such unskilful fingers. During the festival I had not failed to remark the simplicity of manner, the freedom from all restraint, and, to a certain de- 218 RESIDEWOE IN THE MARdUESAS. gree, the equality of condition manifested by the natives in general. No one appeared to assume any arrogant pretensions. There was little more than a slight diiTerence in costume to dis- tinguish the chiefs from the other natives. All appeared to mix together freely, and without any reserve ; although I noticed that the wishes of a chief, even when delivered in the mildest tone, received the same immediate obedience which elsewhere would have been only accorded to a peremptory command. What may be the extent of the authority of the chiefs over the rest of the tribe, I will not venture to assert ; but from all I saw during my stay in the valley, I was induced to believe that in matters concerning the general welfare it was very limited. The required degree of deference towards them, however, was willingly and cheerfully yielded ; and as all authority is trans, mitted from father 1o son, I have no doubt that one of the effects here, as elsewhere, of high birth, is to induce respect and obedience. The particular grades of rank existing among the chiefs of Typee, I could not in all cases determine. Previous to the Feast of Calabashes I had been puzzled what particular station to assign to Mehevi. But the important part he took upon that occasion convinced me that he had no superior among the inhabitants of the valley. I had invariably noticed a certain degree of deference paid to him by all with whom I had ever seen him brought in contact ; but when I remembered that my wanderings had been confined to a limited portion of the valley, and that towards the sea a number of distinguished chiefs resided, some of whom had separately visitei me at Marheyo's house, and whom, until the festival, I had never seen in the company of Mehevi, I felt dis- posed to believe that his rank after all might not be particularly elevated. The revels, however, had brought together all the warriors whom I had seen individually and in groups at diiferent times GRADATIONS IN RANK. 319 and places. Among them Mehevi moved with an easy air of superiority which was not to be mistaken ; and he whom I had only looked at as the hospitable host of the Ti, an^ one of the military leaders of the tribe, now assumed in my eyas the dignity of royal station. His striking costume, no less than his naturally commanding figure, seemed indeed to give him pre-eminence over the rest. The towering helmet of feathers that he wore raised him in height above all who surrounded him ; aed though some others were similarly adorned, the length and luxuriance of their plumes were far inferior to his. Mehevi was in fact the greatest of the chiefs — the head of his clan — the sovereign of the valley ; and the simplicity of the sociai institutions of the people could not have been more completely proved than by the fact, that after having been several weeks in the valley, and almost in daily intercourse with Mehevi, I should have remained until the time of the festival ignorant of his regal character. But a new light had now broken in upon me. The Ti was the palace — and Mehevi the king. Both the one and the ether of a most simple and patriarchal nature it must be allowed, and wholly unattended by the ceremonious pomp which usually surrounds the purple. After having made this discovery I could not avoid congratu- lating myself that Mehevi had from the first taken me as it were under his rayal protection, and that he still continued to entertain for me the warmest regard, as far at least as I was enabled to judge irom appearances. For the future I determined to pay most assiduous court to him, hoping that eventually through hw kindness I might obtain my liberty. RESIDENCE IN THE MARftUESAS. CHAPTER XXy. King Mehevi— Conduct of Marheyo and Mefievi in certain delicate matteTs- Peculiar system of Marriage— Number of Population— Uniformity— Embalm- ing' — Places of Sepulture — Funeral obsequies at Nukuheva — ^Number of Inhabitants in Typee — Location of the Dwellings — Happiness enjoyed in the Valley. King Mehevi ! — ^A goodly sounding title ! — and why should I not bestow it upon the foremost man in the valley ? All hail, there- fore, Mehevi, king over all the Typees ! and long life and pros- perity to his tropical majesty ! But to be sober again after this loyal burst. Previously to seeing the Dancing Widows I had little idea that there were any matrimonial relations subsisting in Typee, and I should as soon have thought of a Platonic affection being cultivated between the sexes, as of the solemn connexion of man and wife. Td be sure, there were old Marheyo and Tinor,.who seemed to live together quite sociably ; but for all that, I had sometimes observed a. comical-looking old gentleman dressed in a suit of shabby tattooing, who appeared to be equally at home. This behavior, until subsequent discoveries enlightened me, puzzled me more than anything else I witnessed in Typee. As for Mehevi, I had supposed him a confirmed bachelor, as well as most of the principal chiefs. At any rate-, if they had wires and families, they ought to have been ashamed of them- selves ; for sure I am, they never troubled themselves about any domestic affairs. In truth, Mehevi seemed to be the president of a club of hearty fellows who kept " Bachelor's Hall " in fine style at the Ti. I had no doubt but that they regarded children STSTEH OF lAARRIAGE. S21 as odious incumbrances ; and their ideas of domestic felicity were suiGciently -showa in the fact, that they allowed no meddlesome housekeepers to turn topsy-turvy those snug little arrangements they had made in their cdmfortable dwelling. I strongly sus- pected, however, that some of those jally bachelors were carrying on love intrigues with the maidens of the tribe ; although they did not appear publicly to acknowledge them. I happened to pop upon Mehevi three or four times when he was romping — in a most undignified manner for a warrior king — ^with one of the prettiest little witches in the valley. She lived with an old woman and a young man, in a house near Marheyo's ; and al- though in appearance a mere child herself, had a noble boy about a year old, who bore a marvellous resemblance to Mehevi, whom I should certainly have believed to have been the father, were it not that the little fellow had no triangle on his face. Mehevi, however, was not the only person upon whom the damsel Moo- noony smiled — the young fellow of fifteen, who permanently re- sided in the house with her, was defiidedly in her good graces. This too was a mystery which, with others of the same kind, was afterwards satisfactorily explained. During the second day of the Feast of Calabashes, Kory-Kory — ^being determjped that I should have some understanding on these matter^-i^had, in the course of his explanations, directed my attention to a peculiarity I had frequently marked among many of the females ; — principally those of a mature age and rather matronly appearance. This consisted in having the right hand and the left foot most elaborately tatooed ; while the rest of the body was wholly free from the operation of the art, with the exception of the minutely dotted lips and slight marks on the shoulders, to which I have previously referred as comprising the sole tatooing exhibited by Fayaway, in common withother young girls of her age. The hand and foot thus embellished were, ac- cording to Kory-Kory, the distinguishing badge of wedlock, so far RESIDENCE IN THE MARftTTESAS. as that social and highly commendable institution is known among these people. It answers, indeed, the same purpose 'as the plain gold ring worn by our fairer spouses. After Kory-Kory's explanation of the subject, I was fer some time studiously respectful in the presence of all females thus dis- tinguished^^and never ventured to indulge in the slightest approach Id flirtation with any of their number. A further insight, however, into the peculiar domestic customs 3f the inmates of the valley did away in a measure with the severity of my scruples, and convinced me that I was deceived in some at least of my conclusions. A regular system of poly- gamy exists among the islanders ; but of a most extraordinary nature, — a plurality of husbands, instead of wives ; and this soli- tary fact speaks volumes for the gentte disposition of the male population. ^ I was not able to learn what particular ceremony was observed in forming the marriage contract, but am inclined to think that it must have been of a very simple nature. Perhaps the mere " popping the question," as it is termed with us, might have been followed by an immediate nuptial alliance. At any rate, tedious courtships are unknown in the valley of Typee. The males considerably outnumber the females. This holds true of many of the islands of Polynesia, although the reverse of what is the case in most civilized countries. The girls are first wooed and won, at a very tender age, by some stripling in the household in which they reside. This, however, is a mere frolic of the affections, and no formal engagement is contracted. By the time this first love has a little subsided, a second suitor pre- sents himself, of graver years, and carries both boy and giri away to his own habitation. This disinterested and generous-hearted fellow now weds the young couple— marrying damsel and lover at the same time—and all three thenceforth live together as harmoniously as so many turtles. I have heard of some men SYSTEM OF MARRIAGE. who in civilized countries rashly marry large families with their wives, but had no idea that there was any place where people married supplementary husbands with them. Infidelity on either side is very rare. No man has more than one wife, and no wife of mature years has less than two husbands, — sometimes she has three, but such instances are not frequent. The marriage tie, whatever it may be, does not appear to be indissoluble ; for sepa- rations occasionally happen. These, however, when they do take place, produce no unhappiness, and are preceded by no bickerings : fol' the simple reason, that an ill-used wife or a hen- pecked husband is not obliged to file a bill in chancery to obtain a divorce. As nothing stands in the way of a separation, the matrimonial yoke sits easily and lightly, and a Typee wife lives on very pleasant and sociable terms with her husbands. On the whole, wedlock, as known among these Typees, seems to be of a more distinct and enduring nature than is usually the case with barbarous people. But, notwithstanding its existence among them, the scriptural injunction to increase and multiply seems to be but indifferently attended to. I never saw any of those large families in arith- metical or step-ladder progression which one often meets with at home. I never knew of more than two youngsters living together in the same home, and but seldom even that number. As for the women, it was very plain that the anxieties of the nursery but seldom disturbed the serenity of theii: souls ; and they were never seen gging. about the valley with half a score of little ones tagging at their apron-strings, or rather at- the bread-fruit-leaf they usually wore in the rear. I have before had occasion to remark that I never saw any of the ordinary signs of a place of sepulture in the valley, a cir- cumstance which I attributed, at the time, to my living in a par- ticular part of it, and being forbidden to extend my ramble to any considerable distance towards the sea. I have since thought it 12 234 RESIDENCE IN THE SLARaUESAS. probable, however, that the Typees, either desirous of removijig from their sight the evidences of mortality, or'prompted by ^ taste for rural beauty, may have some charming cemetery situttted in the shadowy recesses along the base of the mountains. A Nukuheva, two or three large quadrangular " pi-pis," het^vily flagged, enclosed with regular stone 'vr^Us, c^nd shaded -over and almost hidden from view by the interlacing branches of enormous trees, were pointed out to me as burial-places. The bodies, I understood, were deposited in rude vaults beneath the flagging, and were sufiered to remain there without being disinterred. Although nothing could be more strange !ind gloomy than the aspect of these places, where the Ipfly trees threw their dark shadows over rude blocks of stpne, ^ stranger looking at them would have discerned none of the ordinary evidences of a place of sepulture. During my stay in the valley, as none of its inma,tes; were so accommodating as to die and be buried in order to gratify my curiosity with regard to thei? funeral rites, I was reluctantly obliged to remain in ignorance of them. As I have reason to believe, however, that the observances of the Typees in these matters are the same with those of all the other tribes o^ ^hp island, I will here relate a scene I champed to witness a; Nukuheva. A young man had died, about ^^jhreaM, in a house near the beach. I had been sent ashore that morning, and saw a good deal of the preparatlojis they were jnaking for his obsequies. The body, neatly wrapped in new white tappa, was laid out in an open shed, of cocoa-nut boughs, upon a bier constructed of elastic bamboos ingeniously twisted togetlier. This was sup- ported, about two feet from the ground, by large canes planted uprightly in the eftrth. Two females, of a dejected appearance, watched by its side, plaintively chanting and beating the air with large grass fans whitened with pipe-qlay. In the dwelling-house FUNERAL FEAST. 225 adjoining a numerous company were assembled, and various articles of food were being prepared for consumption. Two or three individuals, distinguished by head-dresses of beautiful tappa, and wearing a great number of ornaments, appeared to officiate as masters of the ceremonies. By noon the entertainment had fairly begun, and we were told that it would last during the whole of the two following days. With the exception of those who mourned- by the corpse, every one seemed disposed to drown the sense of the late bereavement in convivial indulgence. The girls, decked out in their savage finery, dan6ed ; the old men chanted ; the warriors smoked and chatted ; and the young and lusty, of both sexes, feasted plentifully, and seemed to enjoy themselves as pleasantly as they could have done had it been a wedding. The islanders understand the art of embalming, and practise it with such, success, that the bodies of their great chiefs are fre- quently preserved for many years in the very houses where they died. I saw three of these in my visit to the Bay of Tior. One was enveloped in immense folds of tappa, with only the face ex- posed, and hung erect against the side of the dwelling. The others were stretched out upon biers of bamboo, in open, elevated temples, which seemed consecrated to their memory. The heads of enemies killed in battle are invariably preserved and hung up as trophies in the house of the conqueror. I dm not acquainted with the process which is in use, but believe that fumigation is the principal agency employed. All the remains which I saw presented the appearance of a ham after being suspended for some time in a smoky chimney. But to return from the dead to the living. The late festival had drawn together, as I had every reason to' believe, the whole population of the vale, and consequently I was enabled to make some estimate with regard to its numbers. I should imagine that there were about two thousand inhabitants in Typee ; and HESIDENCK IN THE MARQUESAS. no number could have been better adapted to the extent of the V3,Iley. The valley is some nine miles in length, and may avferage one in breadth ; the houses being distributed at wide intervals throughout its whole extent, principally, however, towards the head of the vale. There are no villages : the houses stand here and there in the shadow of the groves, or are scattered along the banks of the winding stream; their golden-hued bamboo sides and gleaming white thatch forming a besiutiful contrast to the perpetual verdure in which they are embowered. There are no roads of any kind in the valley. Nothing but a labyrinth of foot-paths twisting and turning among the thickets without end. SOCIAL CONDITION. 837 CHAPTER XXVI. Hhe Social Condition and general Character of the Typees. These seemed to be no rogues of any kind in Typee. In the darkest nights the natives slept securely, with all their worldly wealth around them, in houses the doors of which were never fastened. The disquieting ideas of theft or assassination never disturbed them. Each islander reposed beneath his own pal- metto thatching, or sat under his own bread-fruit tree, with none to molest or alarm him. There was not a padlock in the valley, nor anything that answered the purpose of ^one : still there was no community of goods. This long spear, so elegantly carved and highly polished, belongs to Warmoonoo : it is far handsomer than the one which old Marheyo so greatly prizes ; it is the most valuable article l^elonging to its owner. And yet I have seen it leaning against a cocoa-nut tree in the grove, and there it was found when sought for. Here is a sperm-whale tooth, graven all over with cunning devices : it is the property of Karluna : it the most precious of the damsel's ornaments. In her estimation its price is far above rubies — and yet there hangs the dental jewel by its cord of braided bark, in the girl's house, which is far back in the valley ; the door is lefl open, and all the inmates have gone oflFto bathe in the stream.* * The strict honesty which the inhabitants of nearly all the PoljmeBian Islands mani^t towards each other, is in striking contrast with the thieving RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. So much for the respect in which such matters are held in Typee. As to the land of the valley, whether it was the joint property of its inhabitants, or whether it was parcelled out among a certain number of landed proprietors who allowed every body to roam over it as much as they pleased, I never could ascertain. A.t any rate, musty parchments and title-deeds there were none in the island ; and I am half inclined to believe that its inhabitants hold their broad valleys in fee simple from nature herself. Yesterday I saw Kory-Kory hie him away, armed with a long pole, with which, standing on the ground, he knocked down the fruit from the topmost boughs of the trees, and brought them home in his basket of cocoa-nut leaves. To-day I see an islander, whom I know to reside in a distant part of the valley, doing the self-same thing. On the sloping bank of the stream are a num- ber of banana-trees. I have often seen a score or two of young people making a merry foray on the great golden clusters, and bearing them olF, one after another, to difierent parts of the vale, shouting and tramping as they went. No churlish old curmud- geon could have been the owner of that grove of bread-fruit trees, or of these gloriously yellow bunches of bananas. From what I have said it will be perceived that there is a vast difference between "personal property" and "real estate "in the ■«alley of Type©. Some individuals, of course, are more wealthy than others. For example : the ridge-pole of Marheyo's house propensities some of them evince in their intercourse with foreigner?. It would almost seem that, according to their peculiar code of morals, the pilfering of a hatchet or a wrought nail from a European is looked upon as a praiseworthy action. Or rather, it may be presumed, that bearing in' mind the wholesale forays made upon them by their nautical visitors, they consider the property of the latter as a fair object of reprisal. This con- sideration, while it serves to reconcile an apparent contradiction in the moral character of the islanders, should in some measure alter that low opiniom of it which the reader of South-Sea voyages is too apt to form. SPIRIT OP UNANIMITT, bends under the weight of many a huge packet of tappa ; his long couch is laid with mats placed one upon the other seven deep. Outside, Tinor has ranged along in her bamboo cupboard — or whatever the place may be called — a goodly array of cala- bashes and wooden trenchers. Now, the house just beyond the grove, and next to Marheyo's, occupied by Ruaruga, is not quite so well furnished. There are only three moderate-sized pack- ages swinging overhead : the.re are only two layers of m&ts be- neath ; and the calabcishes and trenchers are not so numerous, nor so tastefully stained and carved. But then, Ruaruga has a house — not so pretty a one, to be sure — but just as commodious ■ as Marheyo's ; and, I suppose, if he wished to vie with his neigh- bor's establishment, he could do so with very little trouble. These, in shorty constitute the chief differences perceivable in the relative wealth of the people in Typee. They lived in great harmony with each other. I will give an instance of their fraternal feeling. One day, in returning with Kory-Kory from my accustomed visit to the Ti, we passed by a little opening in the grove ; on one side of which, my attendant informed me, was that afternoon to be built a dwelling of bamboo. At least a hundred of the natives were bringing materials to the ground, some carrying in their hands one or two of the canes which were to form the sides, others slender rods of the habiscus, strung with palmetto leaves, for the roof. Every one contributed something to the work j and by the united, but easy, and even indolent, labors of all, the entire work was completed before sunset. The islanders, while em- ployed in erecting this tenement, reminded me of a colony of beavers at work. To be sure, they were hardly as silent and demure as those wonderful creatures, nor were they by any means as diligent. To tell the truth, they were somewhat in- clined to be lazy, but a perfect tumult of bilarity prevailed ; and 230 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. they worked together -so unitedly, and seemed actuated by such an instinct of friendliness, that it was truly beautiful to behold. Not' a single female took part in this employment : and if the degree of consideration in which the ever-adorable sex is held by the men be — as the philosophers affirm — a just criterion of the degree of refinement among a people, then I inay truly pronounce the Typees to be as polished a community as ever the sun shone upon. The religious restrictions of the taboo alone excepted, the women of the valley were allowed every possible indulgence. Nowhere are the ladies more assiduously courted ; nowhere are they better appreciated as the contributors to our highest enjoy- ments J and nowhere are they more sensible of their power. Far different from their condition among many rude nations, where the women are made to perform all the work while their ungal- lant lords and masters lie buried in sloth, the gentle sex in the valley of Typee were exempt from toil,, if toil it might be called that, even in that tropical climate, never distilled one drop of per- spiration. Their light household occupations, together with the manufacture of tappa, the platting of mats, and the polishing of drinking-vessels, were the only employments pertaining to the women. And even these resembled those pleasant avocations which fill up the elegant morning leisure of our fashionable ladies at home. But in these occupations, slight and agreeable though they were, the giddy young girls very seldom engaged. Indeed these wilful, care-killing damsels were averse to all use- ful employment. Like so many spoiled beauties, they ranged through the groves — bathed in the stream — danced — flirted — played all manner of mischievous pranks, and passed their days in one merry round of thoughtless happiness. During my whole stay on the island I never witnessed a single quarrel, nor anything that m the slightest degree approached even to a dispute. The natives appeared to form one household, whose members were bound together by the tie's of strong qfiec- JEALOUSY OF EUROPEANS. 231 tion. The love of kindred I did not so much perceive, for it seemed blended ia the general love ; and where all were treated as brothers and sisters, it was hard to tell who were actually related to each other by blood. Let it not be supposed that I have overdrawn this picture. I have not done so. Nor let it be urged, that the hostility of this tribe to foreigners, and the hereditary feuds they carry on against their fellow-islanders beyond the mountains, are facts which con- tradict me. Not so ; these apparent discrepancies are easily reconciled. By many a legendary tale of violence and wrong, as well as by events which have passed before their eyes, these people have been taught to look upon white men with abhorrence. The cruel invasion of their country by Porter has alcme furnished them with ample provocation ; and I can sympathize in the spirit which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the passes to his valley with the point of his levelled spear, and, standing upon the beach, with his back turned upon his green home, to hold at bay the intruding European. As to the origin of the enmity of this particular clan towards the neighboring tribes, I cannot so confidently speak. I will not say that their foes are the aggressors, nor will I endeavor to pal- liate their conduct. But surely, if our evil passions must find vent, it is far better to expend them on strangers and aliens, than in the bosom of the community in which we dwell. In many polished countries civil contentions, as well as domestic enmities, are prevalent, at the same time that the most atrocious foreign wars are waged. How much less guilty, then, are our islanders, who of these three sins are only chargeable with one, and that the least criminal ! The reader will erelong have reason to suspect that the Typees are not free from the guilt of cannibalism ; and he will then, perhaps, charge me with admiring a people against whom so odi. ous a crime is chargeable. But this only enoimity in their cha- 12* , RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS racter is not half so horrible as it is usually described. Accord- ing to the popular fictions, the crews of vessels, shipwrecked on some barbarous coast, are eaten alive like so many dainty joints by the uncivil inhaiitants ; and unfortunate voyagers are lured into sjniling and treacherous bays ; knocked on the head with outlandish war-clubs ;. and served up without any preliminary dressing. In truth, so horrific and improbable are these accounts, that many sensible and well-informed people will not believe that any cannibals exist ; and place every book of voyages which purports to give any account of them, on the same shelf with Blue Beard and Jack the Giant-Killer. While others, implicitly crediting the most extravagant fictions, firmly believe that there are people ia the world with tastes so depraved that they would infinitely prefer a single mouthful of materia humanity to a good dinner of roast beef md plupa pudding. But here, Truth, who loves to be centrally located,, is again found between the two ex- tremes ; for cannibalism to, a certain moderate extent is practised among several of the primitive tribes in the Pacific, but it is upon the bodies of slain enemies alone-; and _hoTrible and fearful as the custom is, immeasurably as it is to be abhorred and con- demned,, still I assent that those who indulge in it are in other respects humane and virtuous. FISHING PARTIES. 233 CHAPTER XXVII. ]^isliing Parties — Mode of distributing the Fish — Midnight Banquet — Timekeeping Tapers — Unceremonious style of eating the Fish. These was no instance in which the social and kindly dispo- sitions of the Typees were more forcibly evinced than in the manner they conducted their great fishing parties. Four times during my stay in the valley the yotmg men assembled near the full of &e moon, and went together on these excursions. As they were generally absent about foriy-eight hours, I was led to believe that they Went out towards the open sea, some distance from the bay. The Polynesians sieldom use a: hook and line, almost always employing large well-made nets,- most ingeniously fabricated from the twisted fibres of a certain bark. I examined several of them Which had been spread to dry upon the beach at Nukuheva. They resemble very much our own seines, and I should think they were very nearly as durable. All the South Sea Islaliders are passittnately fond of fish ; but none of them can be more so than the inhabitants of Typee. I could- not comprehend, therefore, why they eo seldom sought it in their Waters, for it was only at stated times that the fishing parties were formed, and these occasions' were always looked forward to with no small degree 6f interest. During their absence the whole population of the place we#e in a ferment, and nothmg was talked 6f but' " pehee, pehee " (fish, fish). Towards the lame When they were exptebted to re» turn the vocal telegraph was put into dpeifatibll — ^tlie inhabitants, who weice soitttered throughout the length of the v^le/^ leaped 234 RESIDENCE IN^THE MARQUESAS. upon rocks and into trees, shouting with delight at the thoughts of the anticipated treat. As soon as the approach of the party was announced, there was a general rush of the men towards the beach ; some of them remaining, however, about the Ti, in order to get matters in readiness for the reception of the fish, which were brought to the Taboo groves in immense packages of leaves, each one of them being suspended from a pole carried on the shoulders of two men. I was present at the Ti on one of these occasions, and the sight was most interesting. After all the packages had arrived, they were laid in a row under the Verandah of the buildmg, and opened. The fish were all quite small, generally about the size of a herring, and of every variety of color. About one-eighth of the whole being reserved for the use of the Ti itself, the remainder was divided into numerous smaller pack- ages, which were immediately dispatched in every direction to the remotest part of the valley. Arrived at their destination, these were in turn portioned out, and equally distributed among the various houses of each particular district. The fish were under a strict Taboo", until the distribution was completed, which seemed to be efifected in the most impartial manner. By the opera,tion of this system every man. Woman, and child in the vale, were at one and the same time partaking of this favorite article of food. Once I remember the party arrived at midnight; but the unseasonableness of the hour did not repress the impatience of the islanders. The carriers dispatched from the Ti were to be seen hurrying in all directions through the deep groves ; each individual preceded by a boy bearing a flaming torch of dried cocoa-nut boughs, which from time to time was re- plenished from the materials scattered along the path. The wild glare of these enormous flambeaux, lighting up with a Startling brilliancy the innermost recesses of the vale, and seen MIDNIGHT BANQUET. 235 moving rapidly along beneath the canopy of leaves, the savage shout of the excited messengers sounding the news of their ap- proach, which was answered on all sides, and the strange ap- pearance of their naked bodies, seen against tha gloomy back- ground, produced altogether an effect upon my mind that I shall long remember. It was on this same occasion that Kory-Eory awakened me at the dead hour of night, and in a sort of transport com- municated the intelligence contained in the words " pehee perni " (fish come). As I happened' to have been in a remarkably sound and refreshing slumber, I could not imagine why the information had not been deferred until morning j indeed,- 1 felt very much inclined to fly into a passion and box my valet's ears ; but on second thoughts I got quietly up, and on going outside the house was not a little interested by the moving illumination which I beheld. When old Marheyo received his share of the spoils, immediate preparations were made for a midnight banquet ; calabashes of poee-poee were filled to the brim ; green bread-fruit were roasted ; and a huge cake of " amar " was cut up with a sliver of bamboo and laid out oh an immense banana^leaf. At this supper we were lighted by several of the native tapers, held in the hands of young girls. These tapers are most inge- niously made. There is a nut abounding in the valley, called by the Typees " armor," closely resembling our common horse- chestnut. The shell is broken, and the contents extracted whole. Any number of these, are strung at pleasure upon the long elastic -fibre that traverses the branches of the cocoa-nut tree. Some of these tapers are eight or ten feet in length ; but being perfectly flexible, one end is held in a coil, while the other is lighted. The nut burns with a fitful bluish flame, and the oil that it contains is exhausted in about ten minutes. As one bums down, the next becomes ignited, and the ashes of the former are 236 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. knocked into a cocoa-nut shell kept for the purpose. This primitive candle requires continual attention, and must be con- stMitly held in the hand. The person so employed marks the lapse of time by the number of nuts consumed, which is easily learned by counting the bits of tappa distributed at regular inter, vals along the string. I grieve to state so distressing; a factj but the inhabitants of Typee were in the habit of devouring fish much in the same way that a civilized being would eat a radish, and without any more previous preparation. They eat it raw ji scales, bones, gills, and all the inside. The fish is held by the tail, and the head being introduced into the mouth, the animal disappears with a rapidity that would at first nearly lead one to iixiet^xie it had been launched bodily down the throat. Raw fish ! Shall I ever forget my sensations when I first saw my island beauty devour one. Oh, heavens ! Fayaway, how could you ever have contracted so' vile a habit ? HoiWever, after the first shock had subsided, the custom grew less odious in my eyes, and I. Soon accustomed myself to the sight. Let no one imagine, however, that the lovely Fayaway was in the habit of swallowing great vulgar-looking fishes : oh, no-; with her beau- tiful small hand she Would clasp a delicate, little, golden-hiied love of a; fishj and eat it as elegantly and as innocently as though it were a Napl'es biscuit. But alte ! it was after all a raw fish j and all I can Say is, that Fayaway ate it in a more ladylike man- ner than any other girl of the valley. When at Rome do as the Romans do, I held to ber so good a proverb, that being in Typee I made a point of doiilg as the TypeeS'did. Thus I ate poeie-poee as they did ; I walked about in a garb striking for itis simplicity ; and I reposed on a commu- nity of couches ; besides doing many other things in conformity with their peculiar habits j but the farthest I ever went in the *ay of conformity, was on several occasions to regale rtiyself 'With EATS RAW FISH. 337 raw fish. These being remarkably tender, and quite small, the undertaking was not so disagreeable in the main, and after a few trials I positively began to relish them : however, I subjected them to a slight operation with my knife previously to making my repast. RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. CHAPTER XXVIII. Natural Histoiy of the Valley— Grolden Lizards — Tameness of the Sirda — Moaqultos— Flies — Dogs— A Solitary Cat— The Climate^The Cocoa-nut Tree — Singular modes of climbing it-^An agile young Chief— Pearlesa- ness of the Children — Too-Joo and the Cocoa-nut Tree^— The Birds of the VaUey. There were some curious booking dogs in the valley. Dogs ! — big, hairless rats rather ; all with smooth, shining, speckled hides — fat sides, and very disagreeable faces. Whence could they have come ? That they were not the indigenous production of the region, I am firmly convinced. Indeed, they seemed aware of their being interlopers, looking fairly ashamed, and always trying to hide themselves in some dark corner. It was plain enough they did not feel at home in the vale — that they wished themselves well out of it, and back to the ugly country from which they must have come. Scurvy curs ! they were my abhorrence ; I should have liked nothing better than to have been the death of every one of them. In fact, on one occasion, I intimated the propriety of a canine crusade to Mehevi ; but the benevolent king would not consent to it. He heard me very patiently j but when I had finished, shook his head, and told me in confidence, that they were "taboo." As for the animal that made the fortune of my lord mayor Whittington, I shall never forget the day that I was lying in tha GOLDEN LIZARDS. house about noon, everybody else being fast asleep ; and happen- ing to raise my eyes, met those of a big black spectral oat, which. sat erect in the doorway, looking at me with its frightful goggling green orbs, like one of those monstrous imps that tormented some of the olden saints ! I am one of those unfortunate persons, to whom the s^ht of these animals is at any time an insuiferable annoyance. Thus constitutionally averse to cats in general, the unexpected apparition of this one in particular utterly confounded me. When I had a little recovered from the fascination of its glance, I started up ; the cat fled, and emboldened by this, I rushed out of the house in pursuit ; but it had disappeared. It was the only time I ever saw one in the valley, and how it got there I cannot imagine." It is just possible that it might have escaped from one of the ships at Nukuheva. It was in vain to seek information on the subject from the natives, since none of them had seen the animal, the appearance of which remains a mystery to me to this day. Among the few animals which are to be met with in,Typee, there was none which I looked upon with more interest than a beautiful golden-hued species of lizard. It measured perhaps five inches from head to tail, and was most gracefully proportioned. Numbers of those creatures were to be seen basking in the sun- shine upon the thatching of the houses, and multitudes at all hours of the day showed their glittering sides as they ran frolicking between the spears of grass, or raced in troops up and down the tall shafts of the cocoa-nut trees. But the remarkable beauty of these little animals and their lively ways were not their only claims upon my admiration. They were perfectly tame and insensible to fear. Frequently, after seating myself upon the ground in some shady place during .the heat of the day, I would be completely overrun with them. If I brushed one off my arm, it would leap perhaps into my hair : when I tried to frighten it away by gently pinching its leg, it would turn for protection to the very hand that attacked it. '^O RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. The birds are also reitiarkably tame. If you happened to see one perched upon a branch ■within reach of your arm, an4 ad- vanced towards it, it did not fly away immediately, but waited quietly looking at you, until you could almost touch it, and then took wing slowly, less alarmed at your presence, it would seem, than desirous of removing itself from your path. Had salt been less scarce in the valley than it was, this was the very place to have gone birding with it. I remember that once, on an uninhabited island of the Galli- pagos, a bird alighted on my outstretched arm, while its mate chirped from an adjoining tree. Its tameness, far from shopking me, as a similar occurrence did Selkirk, imparted to me the most exquisite thrill of delight I -ever experienced ; and with some- what of the same pleasure did I afterwards behold the birds and lizards of the valley show their confidence in the kindliness of man. Among the numerous afflictions which the Europeans have entailed upon some of the natives of the South Seas, is the acci- dental introduction among them of that enemy of all repose and ruffler of even tempers — the Mosquito. At the Sandwich Islands and at two or three of the Society group, there are now thriving colonies of these insects, who promise ere long to supplant alto- gether the aboriginal sand- flies. They sting, buzz, and torment, from one end of the year to the other, and by incessantly exas- perating the natives materially obstruct the benevolent labors of the missionaries. From this grievous visitation, however, the Typees,are as y6t wholly exempt ; but its place is unfortunately in some degree supplied by the occasional presence of a minute species of fly, which, without stinging, is nevertheless productive of no little annoyance. The tameness of the birds and lizards is as nothing when compared to the fearless confidence of this insect. He will perch upon one of your eye-lashes, and go to roost there, if you CLIMATE. 241 do not disturb him, or force his way through your hair, or along the cavity of' the nostril, till you almost fancy he is resolved to explore , the very brain itself. On one occasion I was so incon- siderate as to yawn while a number of them were hovering around me. I never repeated the act. Some half-dozen darted into the open, apartment, and began walking about its ceiling ; the sensa- tioti- w&s dreadful. I involuntarily closed my mouth, and the poor creatures being enveloped in inner darkness, must in their consternation have stumbled over my palate, and been precipitated into the gulf beneath. At any rate, though I afterwards chari- tably held my mouth open for at least five minutes, with a vievf of affording egress to the stragglers, none of them ever availed themselves of the opportunity. There, are no wild animals of ajjy kind on the island, unless it be decided that the nMves themselvi^ are such. The mountains and the interior present to the ey& nothing but silent solitudes, unbroken by the roar of beasts of prey, and enlivened by few tokens even of minute animated existence. There are no venom- ous reptiles, and no snakes of any description to be found in any of the valleys. In a company of Marquesan natives the weather a^rds no topic of conversation. It can hardly be said to have any vicissi- tudes. The rainy season, it is true, brings frequent showers, but they are intermitting and refreshing. When an islander bound on some expedition rises from his, couch in the morning, he is never solicitous to peep out and see how the sky looks, or ascer- tain from what quarter the wind blows. He is always sure of a " fine ;lay," and the promise of a few genial showers he hails with pleasure. There is never any of that " remarkable weather" on the islands which from time iminemorial has been experienced in Am-jrica, and still continues to call forth the wondering conver- sational' exclamations of its elderly citizens. Nor do there even occnr any of those eccentric meteorological changes which eke- 243 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. where surprise us. In. the valley of Typee ice-creams would never he rendered less acceptable by sudden frosts, nor wouW pic-nic parties be deferred on account of inauspicious snow- storms : for there day follows day in one unvarying round of sum- mer and sunshine, and the whole year is one long tropical month of June just melting into July. It is this genial climate which causes the cocoa-nuts to flourish as they do. This invaluable fruit, brought to perfection by the rich soil of the Marquesas, and borne aloft on a stately Column more than a hundred feet from the ground, would seem at first almost inaccessible to the simple natives. Indeed the slender, smooth, and soaring shaft, without a single limb or protuberance of any kind to assist one in mounting it, presents an obstacle only to be -overcome by the .-surprising .agility and ingenuity of the . islanders. It might be supposed that their indolence would lead them patiently to await the .'period when the ripened nuts, slowly parting from their stems, fall one -by one to the ground. This certainly would be the case, were it not that the young fruit, encased in a soft green husk, with the incipient meat adhering in a jelly-like pellicle to its sides, and containing a. bumper of the most delicious nectar, is what they chiefly prize. They have at least twenty difierent terms to express as many progressive stages in the growth of the nut. Many of them reject the fruit alto- gether except at a particular period of its growth, which, incredi- ble as it may appear, they seemed to me to be able to ascertain within an hour or two; . Others are still more capricious in their tastes ; and after gathering together a heap of the nuts of all ages, and ingeniously tapping them, will first sip from one and then from another, as fastidiously as some delicate wine-bibber experi- menting glass in hand among his (Justy demijohns of difierent vintages. Some of the young men, with more flexible frames than their comrades, and perhaps with more courageous souls, had a way of CLIMBING A COCOA-NUT TREE; 243 walking up the trunk of the cocoa-nut trees which to me seemed little less than miraculous ; and when looking at them in the act, I experienced that curious perplexity a child feels when he beholds a fly moving feet uppermost along a ceiling. I will endeavor to describe the way in which Namee, a noble young chief, sometimes performed this feat for my particular gratification ; but his preliminary performances must also be recorded. Upon my signifying my desire that he should pluck me the young fruit of some particular tree, the handsome savage, throwing himself into a sudden attitude of surprise, feigns astonish- ment at the apparent absurdity of the request. Maintaining this position for a moment, the strange emotions depicted on his coim- tenance soften down into one of humorous resignation to my will, and then looking wistfully up to the tufted top of the tree, he stands on tip-toe, straining his heck and elevating his arm, as though endeavoring to reach the fruit irom the ground where he stands. As if defeated in this childish attempt, he now sinks to the earth despondingly, beating his breast in well-acted despair ; and then, starting to his feet all at once, and throwing back his head, raises both hands, like a school-boy about to catch a falling ball. After continuing this for a moment or two, as if in expecta- tion that the fruit was going to be tossed down to him by some good spirit in the tree-top, he turns wildly round in another fit of despair, and scampers off" to the distance of thirty or forty yards. Here he remains awhile, eyeing the tree, the very picture of miseiT' ; but the next moment, receiving, as it were, a flash of inspiration, he rushes again towards it, and clasping both arms about the trunk, with one elevated a little above the other, he presses the soles of his feet close together against the tree, extending his legs from it until they are nearly horizontal, and his body becomes doubled into an arch ; then, hand over hand and foot after foot, he rises from the earth with steady rapidity, and almost before you are aware of it, has gained the cradled and SJ44 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. embowered nest of nuts, and with boisterous glee flings the fruit to the ground. This mode of walking the tree is only -practicable where the trunk declines considerably from the perpendicular. This, how- ever, is almost always the case j some of the perfectly straight shafts of the trees leaning at an angle of thirty degrees. The less active among the men, and many of the children of the valley, have another method of climbing. They take a broad and stout piece of bark, and secure either end of it to theii ankles : so that when the feet thus confined are extended apart, a space of little more than twelve inches is left between them. This contrivance greatly facilitates the act of climbing. The hand pressed against the tree, and closely embracing it, yields a pretty firm support ; ' while with the arms clasped about the trunk, and at regular intervals- sustaining the body, the feet are drawn up nearly a yard at a time, and a corresponding elevation of the hands immediately succeeds. In this way I have seen little children, scarcely five years of age, fearlessly climbing the slender pole of a young cocoa-nut tree, and whilp hanging perhaps fifty feet from the ground, receiving the plaudits of their parents beneath, who clapped their hands, and encouraged them to mount still higher. What, thought I, on first witnessing ■ one of these exhibitions, would the nervous mothers of America and England say to a similar display of hardihood in any of their children ? The Lacedemonian nation might have approved of it, but most modem dames would have gone into hysterics at the sight. At the top of the cocoa-nut tree the numerous branches, radiating on all sides from a common centre, form a sort of green and waving basket, between the leaflets of which you just discern the nuts thickly clustering together, afld on the loftier trees looking no bigger from the ground than bunches of grapes, I remember one adventurous little fellow — ^Too-Too was the rascal's nam^— who BIRDS. 245 had built himself a sort of aerial baby-house in the picturesque tuft of a tree adjoining Marheyo's habitation. He used to spend hours there, — rustling among the branches, and shouting with delight every time the strong gusts of wind rushing down from the mountain side, swayed to and ivp the. tall and flexible column on which he was perched. Whenever I heard Too-Too's musical voice sounding strangely to the ear ftom so great a height, and beheld hiin peeping down upon me from out his leafy covert, he always recalled to my miiid Dibdin's lines — " There's s. sweet little cherub that sits up aloft. To loolf out for the life of poor Jack." Birds — ^bright and beautiful birds — ^fly over the valley of Typee. You see them perched aloft among the immovable boughs of the majestic bread-fruit trees, or gently swaying on the elastic branches of the Omoo ; skimming over the palmetto thatching of the bamboo huts ; passing like spirits oil the wing through the shadows of the grove, and sometimes descending into the bosom of the valley in gleaming flights from the mountains. Their plumage is purple and azure, crimson and white, black and gold ; with bills of every tint ; — bright bloody-red, jet black, and ivory white ; and their eyes are bright and sparkling ; they go sail, ing through the air in starry throngs ; but,' alas ! the spell of dumbness is upon them all — ^there is not a §ingle warbler in the valley ! I know not why it was, but the sight of these birds; generally the ministers of gladness, always oppressed me with melancholy. As in their dumb beauty they hovered by me whilst I was walk, ing, or looked down upon me with steady curious eyes from out the foliage, I was almost inclined to fancy that they knew they were gazing upon a stranger, and that they commiserated his fate. , S46 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. CHAPTER XXIX. A Professor of the Fine Arts — ^His Persecutions — Something about Tattoo- ing and Tabooing — Two Anecdotes in illustration of the lattier^A few thoughts on the Typee Dialect. In one of my strolls with Kory-Kory, in passing along the border of a thick growth of bushes, my attention was arrested by a singular noise. On entering the thicket I witnessed for the first time the operation of tattooing as performed by these islanders. I beheld a man extended flat upon his back on the ground, and, despite the forced composure of his countenance, it was evident that he was suffering agony. His tormentor bent over him, work- ing away for all the world like a stone-cutter with mallet and chisel. In one hand he held a short slender stick, pointed with a shark's tooth, on the upright end of which he tapped with a small hammer-like piece of wood, thus puncturing the skin, and charg- ing it with the coloring matter in which the instrument was dipped. A cocoa-nut shell containing this fluid was placed upon the ground. It is prepared by mixing with a vegetable juice the ashes of the " armor," or candle-nut, always preserved for the purpose. Beside the savage, and spread out upon a piece of soiled tappa, were a great number of curious black-looking little implements of bone and wood, used in the various divisions of his art. A few terminated in a single fine point, and, like very delicate pencils, were employed in giving the finishing touches, or in operating upon the more sensitive portions of the body, as was the case in the present instance. Others presented several points distributed in a line, somewhat resembling the teeth of a saw. These were employed in the coarser parts of the work, and PROFESSOR OF TATTOOING. 347 particularly in pricking in straight marks. Some presented their points disposed in small figures, and heing placed upon the body, were, by a single blow of the hammeit, made to leave their indeli- ble impression. I observed a few the handles of which were mysteriously curved, as if intended to be introduced into the orifice of the ear, with a view perhaps of beating the tattoo upon the tympanum. Altogether, the sight of these strange instruments recalled to mind that display of cruel-looking mother-of-pearl, handled things which one sees in their velvet-lined cases at the elbow of a dentist. The artist was not, at this time engaged on an original sketch, his subject being a venerable savage, whose tattooing had become somewhat faded with age and needed a few repairs, and accord- ingly he was merely employed in touching up the works of some of the old masters of the Typee school, as delineated upon the human canvas before him. The parts operated upon were the eyelids, where a longitudinal streak, like the one which adorned Kory-Kory, crossed the countenance of the victim. In spite of all the efforts of the poor old man, sundry twitchings and sorewings of the muscles of the face denoted the exquisite sensibility of these shutters to the windows of his soul, which he was now having repainted. But the artist, with a heart as callous as that of an army surgeon, continued his performance, enlivening his labors with a wild chant, tapping away the while as merrily as a woodpecker. So deeply engaged was he in his work, that he had not observed our approach, until, after having enjoyed an Unmolested view of the operation, I chose to attract his attention. As soon as he~ per- ceived me, supposing that I sought him in his professional capacity, he seized hold of me in a paroxysm of delight, and was all eager- ness to begin the work. When, however, I gave him to under- stand that he had altogether mistaken my views, nothing could exoeed his grief and disappointment. But recovering from this, 13 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. he seemed determined not to credit my assertion, and grasping his implements, he flourished them about in fearful vicinity to my face, going through an imaginary performance of his art, and every moment bursting into some admiring exclamation at the beauty of his designs. Horrified at the bare thought of being rendered hideous for life if the wretch were to execute his purpose upon me, I struggled to -get away from him, while Kory-Kory, turning traitor, stood "by, and besought me to comply with the outrs^eous request. On my reiterated refusals - the excited artist got half beside himself, and was overwhelmed with sorrow at losing so noble an -opportunity of distinguishing himself in his profession. The idea of engrafting his tattooing upon my white skin filled him with all a painter's enthusiasm : again and again he gazed into my countenance^ and every fresh glimpse seemed to add to the vehemence of his ambition. .Not knowing to what extremities he might proceed, and shuddering at the ruin he might inflict upon my figure-head, I now endeavored to draw off his attention from it, and holding out my arm in a fit of desperatitm, signed to him to commence operations. But he rejected the compromise indig* naiitly, and still continued his attack on my face, as though nothing short of. that would satisfy him. When his fore-finger swept across my features, in laying out the borders of those parallel bands which were to encircle my countenance, the flesh fairly crawled upon ray bones. At last, half wild with terror and indig- nation, I succeeded in breaking away from the three savages, and fled towards old Marheyo's house, pursued by the indomitable artist, who ran after me, implements in hand. Kory-Kory, how- ever, at last interfered, and drew him off from the chace. This incident opened my eyes to a new danger ; and I now felt convinced that in some luckless hour I should be disfigured in such a manner as never more to have the_/ace to return to my edUntrytnen) even should an opportunitj oSen NARROWLY ESCAPES TATTOOING. 249 These apprehensions were greatly increased by the desire wliich King Mehevi and several of the inferior chiefs now mani- fested that I should be tattooed. The pleasure of the king was first signified to me some three days after my casual enpounter with Karky the artist. Heavens ! what imprecations I showered upon that Karky. Doubtless he had plotted a conspiracy against me and my countenance, and would never rest until his diabolical purpose was accomplished. Several times I met him in various parts of the valley, and, invariably, whenever he descried me, he came running after me with his mallet and chisel, flourishing them about my face as if he longed to begin. What an object he would have made of me ! When the king firSt expressed his wish to me, I made knows to him my utter abhorrence of the measure, and worked myself into such a state of excitement, that he absolutely stared at me in amazement. It evidently surpassed his majesty's comprehension how any sober-minded and sensible individual could entertain the lejst possible objection to so beautifying an operation. Soon afterwards he repeated his suggestion, and meeting with a like repulse, showed some symptoms of displeasure at my ob- duracy. On his a third time renewing his request, I plainly per- ceived that something must be done, or my visage was ruined for ever ; I therefore screwed up my courage to the sticking point, and declared my willingness to have both arms tattooed frorp just above the wrist to the shoulder. His majesty was greatly pleased at the proposition, and I was congratulating myself with having thus compromised the matter, when he intima:ted that as a thing of course my face was first to undergo the operation. I was fairly driven to despair ; nothing but the utter ruin of my " face divine," as the poets call it, would,- 1 perceived, satisfy the inexorable Me- hevi and his chiefs, or rather, that infernal Karky, for he was at the bottom of it all. The only consolation afibrded me was a choice of patterns : I 250 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. was at perfect liberty to have my face spanned by three horizontal bars, after the fashion of my serving-man's ; or to have as many oblique stripes slanting across it ; or if, like a true courtier, 1 chose to model my style on that of royalty, I might vi^ear a sort of freemason badge upon my countenance in the shape of a mystic triangle. However, I would have none of these, though the king most earnestly impressed upon my mind that my choice was wholly unrestricted. At last, seeing my unconquerable -repug- nance, he ceased to importune me. But not so some other of the savages. Hardly a day passed but I was subjected to their annoying requests, until at last my existence became a burden to me ; the pleasures I had previously enjoyed no longer afforded me delight, and all my former desire to escape from the valley now revived with additional force. A fact which I soon afterwards learned augmented my appre- hension. The whole system of tattooing was, I found, connected with their religion ; and it was evident, therefore, that they were resolved to make a convert of me. In the decoration of the chiefs it seems to be necessary to exer- cise the most elaborate pencilling ; while some of the inferior natives looked as if they had been daubed over indiscriminately with a house-painter's brush- I remember one fellow who prided himself hugely upon a great oblong patch, placed high upon his back, and who always reminded -me of a man with a blister of Spanish flies stuck between his shoulders. Another whom I fre- quently met had the hollow of his eyes tattooed in two regular squares, and his visual organs being remarkably brilliant, they gleamed fofth from out this setting - like a couple of diamonds in- serted in ebony. Although convinced that tattooing was a religious observance, still the nature of the connection between it and the superstitious MoJatry of the people was a point upon which I could never obtain TABOO. 351 any information. Like the still more important system of the " Taboo," it always appeared inexplicable to me. There is a marked similarity, almost an identity, between the religious institutions of most of the Polynesisui islands, and in all exists the mysterious " Taboo," restricted in its uses to a greater or less extents So strange and complex in its arrangements is this remarkable system, that I have in several cases met with individuals who, ailer residing for years among the islands in the Pacific, and acquiring a considerable knowledge of the language, have nevertheless been altogether unable to give any satisfactory account of its operations. Situated as I was in the Typee valley, I perceived every hour the effects of this all-controlling power, without in the least comprehending it. Those effects were, in- deed, wide-spread and universal, pervading the most important as well as the minutest transactions of life. The savage, in short, lives in the continual observance of its dictates, which guide and control every action of his being. For several days after entering the valley I had been saluted at least fifty times in the tw«nty-four hours with the talismanic word " Taboo" shrieked in my ears, at some gross violation of its provisions, of which I had unconsciously been guilty. The day after our arrival I happened to hand some tobacco to Toby over the head of a native who sat between us. He started up, as if stung by an adder ; while the whole company, manifesting an equal degree of horror, simultaneously screamed out " taboo ! " I never again perpetrated a similar piece -of ill-manners, which, indeed, was forbidden by the canons of good breeding, as well as by the mandates of the taboo. But it was not always so easy ta perceive wherein you had contravened the spirit of this institution. I was many times called to order, if I may use the phrase, when I could not for the life of me conjecture what particular offence I had committed. One day I was strolling through a secluded portion of the val 252 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. ley, and hearing the musical sound of the cloth -mallet at a little distance, I turned down a path that conducted me in a few mo- ments to a house where there were some half-dozen girls em- ployed in making tappa. This was an operation I had frequently witnessed, and had handled the bark in all the various stages of its preparation. On the present occasion the females were intent upon their occupation, and after looking up and talking gaily to me for a few moments, they resumed their employment. I re- garded them for awhile in silence, and then carelessly picking up a handful of the material that lay around, proceeded unconsciously to pick it apart. While thtis engaged, I was suddenly startled by a scream, like that of a whole boarding-school of young ladies just on the point of going into hysterics.^ Leaping up with the idea of seeing a score of Happar warriors about to p'erform anew the Sabine atrocity,,! found myself confronted by the com- pany of girls, who, having dropped- their work, stood before me with starting eyes, swelling bosoms; and fingers pointed in horror towards me. Thinking that some venomous reptile must be concealed in the bark which I held in my hand, I began cautiously to separate and examine it. Whilst I did so the horrified girls redoubled their shrieks. Their wild cries and frightened motions actually alarmed me, and throwing down the tappa, I was about to rush from the house, when in the same instant their clamors ceased, and one of them, seizing me by the arm,' pointed to the broken fibres that had just feUen from my grasp, and screamed in my ears the fatal word Taboo ! I subsequently found out that the fabric they were engaged in making was of a peculiar kind, destmed to be worn on the heads of the females, and through every stage of its manufacture was guarded by a vigorous taboo, which interdicted the whole mascu- line gender from even so much as touching it. Frequently in walking through the groves I observed breod- TABOO. 353 fruit and cocoa-nut trees, with a wreath of leaves twined in a peculiar fashion about their trunks. This was the mark of the taboo. The trees themselves, their fruit, and even the shadows they cast upon the ground, were consearated by its presence. In the same way a pipe, which the king had bestowed upon me, was rendered sacred in the eyes of the natives, none of whom opuld I ever prevail upon to smoke from it. The bowl was encircled by a woven band of grass, somewhat resembling those Turks' heads occasionally worked in the handles, of our whip-stalks. A similar badge was once braided about my wrist by the royal hand of Mehevi himself, who, as soon as he had concluded the operation, pronounced me " Taboo." This occurred shortly after Toby's disappearance j and were it not that froip the first mo- ment I had entered the valley the natives had treated me with uniform kindness, I should have supposed 'that their conduct afterwards was to be ascribed to the fact that I had received this sacred investiture. The capricious operations of the taboo are not its least remark; able feature : to enumerate them all would be impossible. Black hogs — ^infants to a certain age-: — women in an interesting situa- tion — ^young men while the operation of tattooing their face^ is going on — and certain parts of the valley during the continu- ance of a shower— are alike fenced about by the operation of the taboo. I witnessed a striking instance of its effects in the bay of Tiori my visit to which place occurred a few days before leaving the ship. On that occasion ^ our worthy captain formed one of the party. He was a most insatiable sportsman. ^Outward bound, and off the pitch of Cape Horn, he used to sit on the taifrail, and keep the steward loading three or four old fowling-pieces, with which he would bring down albatrosses. Cape pigeons, jays, petrels, and divers other marine fowl, who followed chatterirjg in our wake. The sailors were struck aghast at his impiety* 254 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. and one and all attributed our forty days' beating about that horrid headland to his sacrilegious slaughter of these inoffensive birds. •At Tior he evinced the same disregard for the religious preju- dices of the islanders, as he had previously shown for the super- stitions of the sailors. Having heard that there were a considera- ble number of fowls in the valley — the progeny of some cocks and hens -accidentally left there by an English vessel, and which, being strictly tabooed, flew about almost in a wild state — he de- termined to break through all restraints, and^ be the death of them. Accordiiigly, he provided himself with a most formidable looking gun, and announced his landing on the beach by shooting down a noble cock that was crowing what proved to be his own funeral dirge, on the limb of an adjoining tree. ■ " Taboo," shrieked the affrighted savages. " Oh, hang your taboo," says the nautical sportsman ; " talk taboo to the marines ;" and b&ng went the piece again, and d6wn came another victim. At this the natives ran scampering through the groves, horror-struck at the enormity of the act. All that afternoon the rocky sides of the valley rang with suc- cessive reports, and the superb plumage of many a beautiful fowl was ruffled by the fatal bullet. Had it not been that the French admiral, with a large party, was then in the glen, I have no doubt that the natives, although their tribe was small and dispi^rit- ed, would have inflicted summary vengeance upon the man who thus outraged their most sacred institutions ; as it was, they con- trived to annoy him not a little. Thirsting with his exertions, the skipper directed his steps to a stream ; but the savages, who had followed at a little distance, perceiving liis object, rushed towards him and forced him away from its bank— ^his Ups would have polluted it. Wearied at last, he sought to enter a house that' he might rest for a while oji the mats ; its inmates gathered tumultuously about the door and de- TABOO. S255 nied him admittance. He coaxed and blustered by turns, but in vain ; the natives were neither to be intimidated nor appeased, and as a final resort he was ■ obliged to call together his boat's crew, and pull away from what he termed the most infernal place he ever stepped upon. Lucky was it for him and for us that we were not honored on out de[)arture by a salute of stones from the hands of the exas- perated Tiers. In this way, on the neighboring island of Ropo, were killed, but a few weeks previously, and for a nearly similar ofience, the master and three of the crew of the K . I cannot determine with anything approaching to certainty, what power it is that imposes the taboo. When I consider the slight disparity of condition among the islanders — ^the very limited and inconsiderable prerogatives of the king and chiefs-r-and the loose and indefinite functions of th? priesthood, most of whom were hardly to be distinguished from the rest of their countrymen, I am wholly at a loss where to look for the authority which regu- lates this potent institution. It is imposed upon something to- day, and withdrawn to-morrow ; while its operations in other cases are perpetual. Sometimes its restrictions only affect a single individual — sontietimes a particular family — sometimes a whole tribe ; and in a few instances they extend not merely over the various clans on a single island, but over all the inha- bitants of an entire group. In illustration of this latter peculiar- ity, I may cite the law which. forbids a female to ellter a canoe — a prohibition which prevails upon all the northern Marquesas Islands. The word itself (taboo) is used in more than one significa- tion. It is sometimes used by a parent to his child, when in the exercise of parental authority he forbids it to perform a parti- cular action. Anything opposed to the ordinary customs of the islanders, although not expressly prohibited^ is said to be « taboo." 13* RESIDENCt IN THE MARQUESAS. The Typee language is one very difficult to be acquired ; it bears a close resemblance to the other Polynesian dialects, all -of which show a common origin. The duplication of words, as ■* lumee lumee," " poee poee," " muee muee," is one of their peculiar features. But another, and a more annoying one, is the different senses in which one and the same word is employed ; its various meanings all have a certain connection, which only makes the matter more pus^zling. So one brisk, lively little word is obliged, like a servant in a poor family, to perform all sorts of duties ; for instance, one particular combination c>f syllables ex- presses the ideas of sleep, rest, reclining, sitting, leaning; and all other things anyways analogous thereto, the particular meaning being shown chiefly by a variety of gestures and the eloquent expression of the countenance. CHANTING. CHAPTER XXX. Strange custom of thelslanders^-Their Chanting, an^ the peeuliarity of their Voice — ^Raptare of the King at first hearing a Song — A new Dignity conferred on 1:he Author — ^Musical Instruments in the Valley — Admira- tion of the Savages at beholding a Pugilistic Performance — Swimming Infant — Beautiful Tresses of the Girls — Ointment for the ^air. Sadly discursive as I have already been, I must still further ea- treat the reader's patience, as I am about to string together, without any attempt at ordef , 9 few odds and ends of things not hitherto mentioned, but which are either curious in themselves or peculiar to'the Typees. There was one singular custom, observed in old Marheyo'e domestic establishment, which oftea excited my surprise. Every night, before retiring, the inmates of the house gathered together on the mats, and squatting upon their haunches, after the uni. versal practice of these islanders, would commence a low, dismal, and monotonous chant, accompanying the voice with the instru., mental melody produced by two small hal&rotten sticks tapped slowly together, a pair of Which were held in the hands of each person present. Thus would they employ themselves for an hour or two, sometimes longer. Lying in the gloom which wrapped the further end of the house, I could not avoid looking at them, although the spectacle suggested nothing but unpleaswt reflec- tions. The flickering rays of the " armor " nut just served to reveal their savage lineaments, without dispelling the darkness that hovered about them. Sometimes when, after falling into a kind of doze, and awaking 358 EESIUENCE IN THE MARQUESAS, suddenly in the midst of these doleful chantings, my eye would fall upon the wild-looking group engaged in their strange ocou pation, with their naked tattooed limbs, and shaven heads dis posed in a circle, I was almost tempted to believe that I gazed upon a set of evil beings in the act of working a frightful in cantation. What was the meaning or purpose of this custom, whether it was practised merely as a diversion, or whether it was a religious exercise, a sort of family prayers, I never could discover. The sounds produced by the natives on these occasions were of a most singular description ; and had I not actually been pre- sent, I never would have believed that such curious noises could have been produced by human beings. To savages generally is imputed a guttural articulation. vThis, however, is not always the. cdse, especially among the inhabitants of the Polynesian Archipelago. The labial melody with which the Typee girls carry on an ordinary conversation, giving a mu- sical prolongation to "the final syllable of every sentence, and chirping out some of the words with a liquid, bird-like accent, was singularly pleasing. The men, however, are not quite so harmonious in their utter- ance, and when excited upon any subject, would work themselves up into a sort of wordy paroxysm, during which all descriptions of rough-sided sounds were projected from their mouths, with a force and rapidity which was absolutely astbnishing. Although these savages are remarkably fond of chanting, still they appear to have no idea whatever of singing, at least as the art is practised among other nations. I never shall forget the first time I happened to roar out a stave in the presence of the noble Mehevi. It was a stanza from the " Bavarian broom-seller." His Typean majesty, *ith all his court, gazed upon me in amazement, as if I had displayed some NASAL FLUTE. 259 preternatural faculty which Heaven had denied to them. The king was delighted with the verse ; but the chorus fairly trans- ported him. At his solicitation I sang it again and again, and nothing could be more ludicrous than his vain attempts to catch the air and the words. The royal savage seemed to think that by screwing all the features of his face into the end of his nose he might possibly succeed in the undertaking, but it failed to answer the purpose ; and in the end he gave it up, and consoled himself by listening to my repetition of the sounds fifty times over. Previous to Mehevi's making the discovery, I had never been aware that there was anything of the nightingale about me ; but I was now promoted to the place of court-minstrel, in which ca- pacity I was afterwards perpetually called upon to ofiieiate. 4t Hi :fc 4c 4: ^i ~ Besides the sticks and the drums, there are no other musical instruments among the Typees, except one which might appro- priately be denominated a nasal flute. It is somewhat longer than an ordinary fife ; is made of a beautiful scarlet-colored reed ; and has four or five stops, with a large hole near one end, which latter is held just beneath the left nostril. The othev nostril being closed by a peculiar movement of the muscles about the nose, the breath is forced into the tube, and produces a soft dulcet sound, which is varied by the fingers running at random over the stops. This is a favorite recreation with the females, and one in which Fay away greatly excelled. Awkward as such an instrument may appear, it was, in Fayaway's delicate little hands, one of the most graceful I have ever seen. A young lady, in the act of tormenting a guitar strung about her neck by a couple of yards of blue ribbon, is not half so engaging. * 4: 4: 4: 4e * Singing was not the only means I possessed of diverting the royal Mehevi and his easy-going subjects. Nothing afibrded 260 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. them more pleasure than to see me go through the attitudes of a pugilistic encounter. As not one of the natives had soul enough in him to stand up like a man, and allow me to hammer away at him, for my own personal gratification and that of the king, I was necessitated to fight with an imaginary enemy, whom I invariably made to knock under to my superior prowess. Sometimes when this sorely battered shadow retreated precipitately towards a group of the savages, and, following him up, I rushed among them dealing my blows right and left, they would disperse in all directions, much to the enjoyment of Mehevi, the chie&, and themselves. The noble art of self-defence appeared to be regarded by them as the peculiar gift of the white man ; and I make little doubt but that they supposed armies of Europeans were drawn up pro. vided with nothing else but bony fists and stout hearts, with which they set to in column, and pummelled one another at the word of command. # * * * * * One day, in company with Kory-Kory, I had repaired to the stream fo* the purpose of bathing, when I observed a woman sitting upon a rock in the midst of the current, and watching with the liveliest interest the garribola of something, which at first I took to be an uncommonly large species of frc^ that was sporting in the water near her. Attracted by the novelty of the sight,*! waded towards the spot where she sat, and could hardly credit the evidence of my senses when I beheld a little infant, the period of whose birth could not have extended back many days, paddling about as if it had just risen to the surface, after being hatched into existence at the bottom. Occasionally the delighted parent reached out he* hands towards it, when the little thing, uttering a faint cry, and striking out its tiny limbs, would sidle for the rock, and the next momfent be clasped to its mother's bo- som. This was repeated again and again, the baby remaining LUXURIANT HAIR. 261 in the stream about a minute at a time. Once or twice it made wry faces at swallowing a mouthful of water, qnd choked and spluttered as if on' the point of strangling. At such times, how- ever, the mother snatched it up, and by a process scarcely to be mentioned obliged it to eject the fluid. For several weeks afl:er. wards I observed the woman bringing her child down to the stream regularly every day, in "the cool of the. morning and evening, and treating it to a bath. No wonder that the South Sea Islanders are so amphibious a race, when they are thus launched into the water as soon as they see the light. I am convinced that it is as natural for a human being to swim as it is for a duck. And , yet in civilized communities how many able-bodied indi- viduals die, like so many drowning kittens, from the occurrence of the most trivial accidents I * « « . « * * The long luxuriant and glossy tresses of the Typee damsels often attracted my admiration. A fine head of hair is the pride and joy' of every woman's heart ! Whether against the express will of Providence, it is twisted up on the crown of the head and there coiled away ; whether it be built up in a great tower, with combs and pins, or is plastered over the head in sleek, shiny folds ; or whether it be permitted to flow over the shoulders in natural ringlets, it is always the pride of the owner, and the glory of the toilette. The Typee girls devote much of their time to the dressing of their fair and redundant locks. After bathing, as they sometimes do five or six times every day, the hair is carefully dried, and if they have been in the sea, invariably washed in fresh water, and anointed with a highly scented oil extracted from the meat of the cocoa-nut. , This oil is obtained in great abundance by the fol- lowing very simple process : A large vessel of woodj with holes perforated in the bottom, is filled with the pounded meat, and exposed to the rays of the sun. RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. LS the oleaginous matter exudes, it falls in drops through the pertures into a wide-mouthed calabash '_^ placed underneath, ifter a sufficient quantity has thus been collected, the oil under- oes a purifying process, and is then poured into the small pherical shells of the nuts of the moo-tree, which are hoUowed ut to receive it. These nuts are then hermetically sealed with resinous gum, and the veg^ble fragrance of their green rind oon imparts to the oil .a delightful odor. After the lapse of a Bw weeks the exterior shell of the nuts becomes quite dry and [ard, and assumes a beautiful carnation tint ; and when opened bey are found to be about two-thirds full of an ointment of a ight yellow color, and diffusii^ the sweetest perfume. This legant little odorous globe would not be out of place even upon he toilette of a queen. Its merits as a preparation for the hail re undeniable — ^it imparts to it a superb gloss and a silky fine^ APPREHENSIONS OF EVIL. 263 CHAPTER XXXI, Apprehensions of Evil — ^Frightful Diseprery — Some remarks on Canui- balism — Second Battle with the Happars — Savage Spectacle — ^Mystericus Feast — Subsequent Disclosures. Feom the time 6f my casual encounter with Karky the artist, my life was one of absolute wretchedness. Not a day passed but I was persecuted by the solicitations of some of the natives to siibject myself to the odious operation of tattooing. Their im- portunities drove me half wild, for I felt how easily they might work their will upon me regarding this or anjrthing else which th.ey took into their heads. Still, however, the behavior of the islanders towards me was as kind as ever. Fayaway was quite as engaging -^ Kory-Kory as devoted : and Mehevi the king just as gracious and condescending as before. But I had now been three months in their valley, as nearly as I could estimate ; I had grown familiar With the narrow limits to which my wanderings had been confined ; and I began bitterly to feel the state of cap. tivity in which . I was held. There was no one with whom I could freely converse ; no one to whom I could communicate my thoughts ; no one who could sympathize with my sufferings. A thousand times I thnught how much more endurable would have been my lot had Toby still been with me. "But I was left alone, and the thought was terrible to me. Still, despite my griefs, I did all in my power to appear composed and cheerful, well knowing that by manifesting any uneasiness, or any desire to escape, I should only frustrate my object. It was during the period -I was irt this unhappy frame of mind that the painful malady under which. I had been labor- 264 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. ing— -after having almost completely subsided — ^began again to show itself, and with symptoms as violent as ever. This added calamity nearly unmanned me ; the recurrence of the complaint ■proved that without powerful remedial applications all hope of cure was futile ; and when I reflected that just beyond the eleva- tions which bound me in, was the medical relief I needed, and that, although so near, it was impossible for me to avail myself of it, the thought was misery. In this wretched situation, every circumstance which evinced the savage nature of the beings at whose mercy I was, augmented the fearful apprehensions that consumed me. An occurrence which happened about this time affected me most powerfully. I have already mentioned that from the ridge-pole of Mar- heyo's house were suspended a number of packages enveloped in tappa. Many of fJiese I had often seen in the hands of the natives, and their contents had been examined in my presence. But there were three packages hanging very nearly over the place where I lay, which from their remarkable appearance had often excited my curiosity. Several times I had asked Kory- Kory to show me their contents ; but my servitor, who in almost every other particular had acceded to my wishes, always refused to gratify me in this. . One day, returning unexpectedly from the " Ti," my arrival seemed to throw the inmates of the house into the greatest con- fusion. They were seated together on the mats, and by the lines which extended from the roof to the floor I immediately perceived that the mysterious packages were for some purpose or other under inspection. The evident alarm the savages betrayed filled me with forebodings of evil, and with an uncontrolUble desire to penetrate the secret so jealously guarded. Despite the efforts of Marheyo and Kory-Kory to restrain me, I forced my way into the midst of the circle, and just caught a glimpse of three human FRIGHTFUL DISCOVERY. 365 heads, which others of the party were hurriedly enveloping in the coverings from whidh they had been taken. One of the thrfee I distinctly saw. It was in a state of perfect preservation, and from the slight glimpse I had of it, seemed to have been subjected to some smoking operation which had re- duced it to the dry, hard^ and mummy-like appearance it pre- sented. The two long scalp-locks were twisted up into balls upon the crown of the head in the same way that the individual had worn them during life. The sunken cheeks were rendered yet more ghastly by the rows of glistening teeth which protruded from between the lips, while the sockets of the eyes — ^filled with oval bits of mother-of-pearl shell, with a black spot in the centre —heightened the hideousness of its aspect. Two of the three- were heads of the islanders ; but the third, to my horror, was that of p. white man. Although it had been quickly removed from my sight, still the glimpse I had of it was enough to convince me that I could not be mistaken. Gracious God ! what dreadful thoughts entered my mind. In solviDg this mystery perhaps I had solved ajiother, and the fate of my lost companion might be revealed in the shocking spectacle I had just witnessed. 1 longed to have torn off the folds of cloth, and satisfied the awfiil doubts under which I labored. But before I had recovered from the ' consternation into which I had been thrown, the fatal packages were hoisted aloft and once more swung over my head. The natives now gathered round me tumultuously, and labored to convince me that what I had just seen were the heads of three Happar warriors, who had been slain in battle. This glaring falsehood added to my alarm, and it was not until I reflected that I had observed the packages swinging from their elevation before Toby's disappearance, that I could at ajl recover my composure. But although this horrible apprehension had been dispelled, I had discovered enough to fill me, in my present state of mind, 366 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. with the most bitter reflections. It was plain that I had seen the last relic of some unfortunate wretch, who must have been mas- sacred on the beach by the savages, in one of those perilous trad- ing adventures which I have before described. It was not, however, alone the murder of the stranger that overcame me with gloom. I shuddered at the idea of the subse- quent fate his inanimate body might have met with. Was the same doom reserved for me ? Was I destined to perish like hiip — ^like him, perhaps, to be devoured, and my head to be preserved as a fearful memento of the. event ? My imagination ran riot in these horrid speculations, and I felt certain that the worst pos. sible evils would befall me. But whatever were my misgivings, I studiously concealed them from the islanders, as well as the full extent of the discovery I had made. Although the assurances which the Typees had often given me, that they never eat human ilesh, had not convinced me that such was the case, yet, having been so long a time in the valley without witnessing anything which indicated the existence of the practice, I began to hope that it was an event of very rare occur- rence, and that I should be spared the horror of witnessing it during my stay among them : but, alas ! these hopes were soon destroyed. It is a singular fact, that in all our accounts of cannibal tribes we have seldom received the testimony of an eye-witness to the revolting practice. Tha horrible conclusion has almost always been derived either from the second-hand evidence of Europeans, or else from the admissions of the savages themselves, after they have in some degree become civilized. The Polynesians are aware of the detestation in which Europeans hold this custom, and therefore invariably deny its existence, and, with the crafl peculiar to savages, endeavor to conceal every trace of it. But to my story. About a week after my discovery of the contents of the mya. BATTLE WITH THE HAPPAlRS. *67 terious packages, I happened to be at the Ti, when another war- alarm was sounded, and the natives rushing to their arms, sallied out to resist a second incursion of the Happar invaders. The same scene was again repeated, only that on this occasion I heard at least fifteen reports of muskets from the mountains during the, time that the skirmish lasted. An hour or two after its termina- tion, loud pseans chanted through the valley announced the ap- proach of the victors. I stood' with Kory-Kory leaning against the railing of the pi-pi awaiting their advance, when a tumultu- ous crowd of islanders emerged with wild clamors from the neigh- boring groves. In the midst of them marched four men, one preceding the other at regular intervals of eight or ten feet, with poles of a corresponding length, extending from shoulder to shoul- der, to which were lashed with thongs of bark three long narrow bundles, carefully wrapped in ample coverings of freshly plucked palm-leaves, tacked together with slivers of bamboo. Here and there upon these green winding-sheets might be seen the stains of blood, while the warriors, who carried the frightful burdens displayed upon their naked limbs similar sanguinary marks. The shaven head of the foremost had a deep gash upon it, and the clotted gore which had -flowed from the wound remained in dry patches around it. The savage seemed to be sinking under the weight he bore. The bright tattooing upon his body was covered with blood and dust ; his inflamed eyes rolled in their sockets, and his whole appearance denoted exttaordinary sufiering and exertion ; yet sustained by some powerfdl impulse, he con- tinued to advance, while the throng around him with wild cheers sought to encourage him. The tother three men were marked about the arms and breasts with several slight wounds, which they somewhat ostentatiously displayed. These four individuals, having -been the most active m the late encounter, claimed the honor of bearing the bodies, of their slain enemies to the Ti. Such was the conclusion T drew from my 368 RESIDENCE- IN THE MARQUESAS. own observations, and, as far as I could understand, from the ex- planation which Kory-Kory gave me. The royal Mehevi walked by the side of these heroes. He carried in one hand a musket, from the barrel of which was sus- pended a small canvas pouch of powder, and in the other he grasped a short javelin, which he held before, him and regarded with fierce exultation. This javelin he ha,d wrested from a cele- brated champion of the Happ^rs,- who had ignominiously fled, and was pursued by his foes beyond the summit of the mountain. When within a short distance of the Ti, the warrior- with the wounded head, who proved to be Narmonee, tottered forward two or three steps, and fell helplessly to the ground ; but not before another had caught the end of the pole from Ms shoulder, and placed it upon his own. The excited throng of islanders, who surrounded the person of the king and the dead bodies of the enemyj approached the spot where I stood, brandishing their rude implements of warfare, many of which were bruised and broken, and uttering continual shouts of triumph. When the crowd drew up opposite the Ti, I set myself to watch their proceedings most attentively ; but scarcely had they halted when my servitor, who had left my side for an instant, touched my arm, and proposed our returning to Marheyo's house. To this I objected ; but, to my surprise, Kory-Kory reiterated his request, and with an unusual vehemence of manner. Still, •however, I refused to comply, and was re- treating before him, as in his importunity he pressed upon me, when I felt a heavy hand laid upon my shoulder, and turning round, encountered the bulky form of Mow-mow, a one-eyed chief, who had just detached himself from the crowd below, and had mounted the rear of the pi-pi upon which we stood. His cheek had been pierced by the point of a spear, and the wound imparted a still more frightful expression to his liideously tattooed face, already deformed by the loss of an eye. The waniOT, MYSTERIOUS FEAST. without Uttering a syllable, pointed fiercely ia the direction of Marheyo's house, while Kory-Kory, at the same time presenting his back, desired me to mount. I declined this offer, but intimated my willingness to withdraw,- and moved slowly along the piazza, wondering what could be the cause of this unusual treatment. A fevr minutes' consideration convinced me that the savages were about to celebrate some hideous rite in connection with .their peculiar customs, and at which they were determined I should not be present. I de- scended from the pi-pi,- and attended by Kory-Kory, who on this occasion did not show his usual commiseration for my lameness, but seejned only anxious to hurry me on, walked away from the place. As I passed iJiroUgh the noisy throng, which by this time completely environed the Ti, I looked with fearful curiosity at the three packages, which now were deposited upon the ground ; but although I had no doubt as to their contents, still their thick coverings prevented my actually detecting the form of a human body. The next morning, shortly after sunrise, the same thundering sounds which had awakened me from sleep on the second day of the Feast of Calabashes, assured me that the savages were on the eve of celebrating another, and, as I fully believed, a horrible solemnity. All the inmates of the house, with the exception of Marheyo, his son, and Tinor, after assuming their gala dresses, departed in the direction of the Taboo Grwes. Although I did not anticipate a compliance with my request, stillj with a view of testing the truth of my suspicions, I proposed to Kory*Kory tiiat, according to our usual custom in the morning, we should take a stroll to the Ti : he positively refused ; and when I renewed the request, he evinced his determination to prevent my going there ; and, to divert my mind from the sub- ject, he offered to accompany me to the stream. We accordingly aro RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. went, and bathed. On our coming back to the house, I was sur- prised to find that all its inmates had returned, and were loung> ing upon the mats as usual, although the drums still sounded from the groves. The rest of the day I spent with Kory-Kory and Fayaway, wandering about a part of the valley situated in an opposite di- rection from the Ti, and whenever I so much as looked towards that building, although it was hidden ' from view by intervening trees, and at the distance of more than a mile, my attendant would exclaim, " taboo, taboo ! " At the various houses where we stopped, I found many of the inhabitants reclining at their ease, or pursuing some light occu- pation, as if nothing unusual were going forward ; but amongst them all I did not perceive a single chief or warrior. When I asked several of the people why they were not at the " Hoolah Hoolah" (the feast), they uniformly answered the question in a . manner which implied that it was not intended for them, but fo^^ Mehevi, Narmonee, Mow-Mow, Kolor, Womonoo, Kalow, running over, in their desire to make me comprehend their meaning, the names of all the principal chiefs. Everjlhing, in short, strengthened my suspicions with regard to the nature of the festival they were now celebrating; and which amounted almost to a certainty. While in Nukuheva I had fre- quently "been informed that the whole tribe were never present at these cannibal banquets, but the chiefs and priests only ; and every- thing I now observed agreed with the account. The sound of the drums continued without intermission the whole day, and falling continually upon my ear, caused me a sensation of horror which I am unable to describe. On the fol- lowing day, hearing none of those noisy indications of revelry, I concluded that the inhuman feast was terminated ; and feeling a kind of morbid curiosity to discover whether the Ti might fuftiish any evidence of what had taken place there, I proposed to Kor y- VISIT THE TI. 371 Kory to walk there. To this proposition he replied by pointing with his finger to the newly risen sun, and then up to the zenith, intimating that our visit must be deferred until noon. Shortly after that hour we accordingly proceeded- to the Taboo Groves, and as soon as we entered their precincts, I looked fearfully round in quest of some memorial of the scene which had so lately been acted there ; but everything appeared as usual. On reaching the Ti, we found Mehevi and a few chiefs reclining on the mats, who gave me as friendly a reception as ever. No allusions of any kind were made by them to the recent events j and I refrained, for obvious reasons, from referring to them myself. , After staying a short time I took my leave. In passing along the piazza, previously to descending from the pi-pi, I observed a curiously carved vessel of wood, of considerable size, with a cover placed over it,,of the same material, and which resembled in shape a small canoe. It was surrounded by a low railing of bamboos, the top of which was scarcely a foot from the ground. As th€f vessel had been placed in its present position since my last visit, I at once concluded that it must have some connection with the recent festival j and, propipted by a curiosity I could not repress, in passing it T raised one end of the cover; at the same moment the chiefs, perceiving my design, loudly ejaculated, "Taboo! taboo I" But the slight glimpse sufficed ; my eyes fell upon the disordered members of a human skeleton, the bones still fresh wiih moisture, and with particles of flesh clinging to them here and there ! • Kory-Kbry, who had been a little in advance of me, attracted by the exclamations of the chie&, turned round in time to wit- ness the expression of horror on my countenance. He now hurried towards me, pointing at the same time to the canoe, and exclaiming rapidly, " Puarkee ! piiarkee !" (Pig, pig). I pre- tended to yield to the deception, and repeated the words after him several times, jis though acquiescing in what he said. The other 14 ST2 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. savages, either deceived by my eonduct or unwilling to manifest their displeasure at what could not now be remedied, took no fUrther notice of the occurrence, and I immediately left the Ti. All that night Hay awake, revolting in my mind the feariiil situation in which I was placed. The last horrid revelation had now been made, and the full sense of my condition rushed upon my mibd with a force I had never before experienced. Where, thbught I, desponding, is thefe the slightest prospect of escape ? The only person who seemed to possess the ability to assist me was the stranger Marnoo ; but would he ever return to the valley ? and if he did, should I be permitted 'to hold any communication with Mm ? It seeijtied as if I were cut off from eve*y source of hope, and that nothing remained but passively to await whatever fate was in store for me. A thousand times I endeavored to account for the mysterious conduct of the natives. Fcf *h&t conceivable purpose did they thus retain me a captive ? What could be their object in treating me with such apparent kindness, and did it not cover some treacherous scheme ? Or, if th^y had no other design than to hold me a prisoner, how should I be able to pass away my days in this narrow valley, deprived of all intercourse with civilized beings, and for ever separated from friends and home f One ehly hope remained to me. The French could not long defer a visit to the bay, and if they should permanently locate any of their troops in the Valley, the savages could not for any length of time conceal my existence from them. But what rea- son had I to suppose that I should be spared until such an ev^nt oesutted, an event which might be postponed by a hundred different contii^ncies ? INTERVIEW WITH MARNOO. -iTi CHAPTER XXXII. The Stranger again arrives in the Valley— Singular Interview with him— Attempt to Escape— Failure— Melancholy Situation-7-Sympathy of Mar- heyo, "Maenoo, Mamoo pemi!" Such were the Welcome sounds which fell upon my ear some ten days after the events related in the preceding chapter. Oaoe more the approach of the stranger Was heralded, and the intelligence operated upon me like magic. Again I should be able to converse with him in my own language ; and I resolved at all hazards to concert with him some scheme, however desperate, to rescue me from a condition that had now become insupportable. As he drew near, I remembered with many mii^ivings the inauspicious termination of our former interview ; and when he entered the house, I watched with intense anxiety the reception he met with from its inmates. To my joy, his appearance was hailed with the liveliest pleasure j and accosting me kindly, he seated himself by my side, and entered into conversation with the natives around him. It soon appeared, ftowever, that on this occasion he had not any intelligence of importance to communi- cate. I inquired of him from whence he had last come ? He replied fronx Pueearka, his native valley, and that he intended to return to it the same day. At once it struck me that, could I but reach that valley tmder his protection, I might easily from thence reach Nukuheva by water ; and animated by the prospect which this plan held out I disclosed it in a few brief words to the strangef, and asked him how it could be best accomplished. My heart sunk within 274 RESIDENCE IN THE MARftUESAS. me when in his broken English he answered me that it could never be effected. " Kannaka no let you go nowhere," he said j " you taboo. Why you no like to stay ? Plenty moee-moee (sleep) — plenty ki-ki (eat)^-(plenty whihenee (young girls) — Oh, very good place Typeel Suppose you no like this bay, why you come ? You no hear about Typee ? AH white men afraid Typee, so no white men come." These words distressed me beyond belief; and when I again related to him the circumstances under ' which I had descended into the valley, and sought to enlist his sympathies in my behalf by appealing to the bodily misery I efidured, he listened to me with impatience, and cut me short by exclaiming passionately, '■' Me no hear you talk any more ; by 1>y Kannaka get mad, kill you and me too. No you see he no want you to speak to me at all?— -you see — ah! by by you no mind — ^you get well, he kill you, eat you, hang you head up there, like Happar Kan- naka.— Now you listen— but no talk any more. By by I go ;— you see way I go. — Ah ! then some night Kannaka all moee- moee (sleep)— you run away, you come Pueearka. I speak Pueearka Kannaka— he no harm you— ah ! then I take you my canoe Nukuheva— and you no run away ship no more." With these words, enforced by a vehemence of gesture I cannot de- oribe, Mamoo started from my side, and immediately engaged in conversation with some of the chiefs who had entered the house. It would have been idle for me to have attempted resuming the interview so peremptorily terminated by Mamoo, who was evi- dently little disposed to compromise his own safety by any rash endeavors to ensure mine. But the plan he had suggested struck me as one which might possibly be accomplished, and I resolved to act upon it as speedily as possible. Accordingly, when he arose to depart, I accompanied him with the natives outside of the house, with a view of carefully notmg the path he would take in leaving the valley. Just before leap- ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE. 975 iog from the pi-pi he clasped my hand, and looking significantly at me, exclaimed, "Now you see — you do what I tell you — ah! then you do good ; — you no do so — ah ! then you die." The next moment he waved his spear in adieu to the islanders, and follow, ing the route that conducted to a defile in the mountains lying opposite the Happar side, was soon out of sight. A mode of escape was now presented to me, but how was I to avail myself of it ? I was continually surrounded bythe savages; I could not stir from one house to another without being attended by some of them; and even during .the hours devoted to slumber, the slightest movement which I made seemed to attract the notice of those who shared the mats with me. In spite of these obstacles, however, I determined forthwith to make the attempt. To do so with any prospect of success, it was necessary that I should have at least two hours start before the islanders should- discover my absence ; for with such facility was any alarm spread through the valley, and so familiar,. of course, were the inhabitants with the intricacies of the groves, that I could not hope, lame and fee- ble as I was, and ignorant of the route, to secure my escape unless I had this advantage.. It was also by night alone that I could hope tp accomplish my object, and then only by adopting the ut- most precaution. The entrance to Marheyo's habitation was through a low nar- row opening in its wicker-work front. This passage, for no con- ceivable reason that I could ^devise, was always closed after the household had retired to' rest, by drawing a heavy slide across it, composed of a dozen or more bits of wood, ingeniously fastened together by seizings of sinnate. When any of the inmates chose to go outside, the noise occasioned by the removing of this rude door awakened everybody else ; and on more than one occasion I had remarked that the islanders were nearly as irritable as more civilized beings under similar circumstances. The difficulty thus placed in my way I determined to obviate S76 RESIDENCE IN THE MARQ,UESAS. in the following manner. I would get up boldly in the course of the night, and drawing the slide, issuie from the house, and pre. tend that my object was merely to procure a drink from the cala- bash, which always stood without the dwelling, on "the come/ of the pi-pi. On re-entering I would purposely omit closing the passage after me, and trusting that the indolence of the savages would prevent them from repairing my neglect, would return to my mat, and waiting patiently until all were again asleep, I would then steal forth, and at once take the route to Pueearka. The very night which followed Marnoo's departure, I pro- ceeded to put this project into execution. About midnight, as I imagined, I arose and drew the slide. The natives, just as I had expected, started up, while some of them asked, " Arware poo awa, Tommo ?" (where are you going, Tommo ?) " Wai " (water) I laconically answered, grasping the calabash. On hearing my reply they sank back again, and in a minute or two I returned to my mat, anxiously awaiting the result of the ex- periment. One after another the savages, turning restlessly, appeared to resume their slumbers, and rejoicing at the stillness which pre- vailed, I was about to rise again from my couch, when I heard a slight rustling — a dark form was intercepted between me and the doorway — ^the slide was drawn aaross it, and the individual, who- ever he was, returned to his matr This was a sad blow to me ; but as it miglit have aroused the suspicions of the islanders to have made another attempt that night, I was reluctantly obliged to defer it until the next. Several times after I repeated the same man So, when they came to the house where he" said they lived, — which was close by the base of the mountain- in a shady nook among the groves, — he went in, and was quite furious at finding it empty — ^the ladies had gone out. However, they soon made their appearance, and, to tell the . truth, welcomed Jimmy quite cordi- ally, as well as Toby, about whom they, were very inquisitive. Nevertheless, »s the report of their arrival spread, and the Hap- pars began to assemble, it became evident that the appearance of THE STORY OF TOBY 303 a wliite stranger among them was not by any means' deemed so wonderful an event as in the neighboring valley. The old sailor now bade bis wives prepare something to eat, as he must be in Nukuheva before dark, A meal of fish, bread- fruit, and bananas, was accordingly served up, the party regaling themselves on the mats, in the midst of a numerous company. The Happars put many questions to Jimmy about Toby ; and Toby himself looked shafply at them, anxious to recognize the fellow who gave him the wound from which he was still suffer-' ing. But this fiery gentleman, so handy with his spear, had the delicacy, it seemed, to keep out of view. Certainly the sight of him would not have been any added inducement to making a stay in the valley, — some of the afternoon loungers in Happar having politely urged Toby to spend a few days with them, — there was a feast coming on. He, however, declined. All this while the young Typee stuck to Jimmy like his sha- dow, and though as lively a dog as any of his tribe, he was now as meek as a lamb, never opening his mouth except to eat. Although some of the Happars looked queerly at him, others were more civil, and seemed desirous of taking him abroad and show, ing him the valley. But the Typee was not to be cajoled in that way. How many yards he would have to remove from Jimmy before the taboo would be powerless, it would be hard to tell, but probably he himself knew to a fraction. On the promise of a red cotton , handkerchief, and something else which he kept secret, this poor fellow had undertaken a rather ticklish journey, though, as far as Toby could ascertain, it was something that had never happened before. The island-punch — arva — was brought in at the conclusiot of the repast, and passed round in a shallow ca]||ibash. Now my comrade, while seated in the Happar house, began to leel more troubled than ever at leaving me : indeed, so sad did he feel that he talked about going back to the ralley, and wanted 304 SEQUEL TO " TYPEE." -Jimmy to escort him as far as the mountains. But the sailor would not listen to him, and, by way of diverting his thoughts, pressed him to drink of the arva. Knowing its narcotic nature, he refused ; but Jimmy said he would have something mixed with it, which would convert it into an innocent beverage that would inspirit them for the rest of their journey. So at last he was induced to drink of it, and its effects were just as the sailor had predicted ; his spirits rose at once, and all his gloomy thoughts left him. The old rover now began to reveal his true character, though •he was hardly suspected at the time. " If I get you off to a ship," said he, " yon will surely give a poor fellow something for saving you." In short, beibre they left the house, he made Toby pro- mise that he would give him five Spanish dollars if he succeeded m .getting any part of his wages advanced from the vessel, aboard of which they were going j Toby, moreover, engaging to reward him still further, as soon as ray deliverance was accomplished; A little while after this they started again, accompanied by many of the natives, and going up the valley, took a steep path near its head, whidi led to Nukuheva. Here the Happars paused, and watched them as they ascended the mountain, one group of bandit-looking fellows, shaking their spears and casting threaten- ing glances at the poor Typee, whose heart as well as heels seemed much the lighter when he came to look down upon them. On gaining the heights once more, their way led for a time along several ridges covered with enormous ferns. At last .they entered upon a wooded tract, and here they overtook a party of Nukuheva natives, well armed, and carrying bundles of long poles. Jimmy seemed to know them all very well, and stopped for a while, apd had a talk about the " Wee- Wees," as the people of Nukuheva call tl^ Monsieurs. The party with the poles were King Mowanna's men, and by his orders they had been gathering them in the ravines for hia allies the French. THE STORY OF TOBY. 305 Leaving these fellows to trudge on with their loads, Toby and his companions now pushed forward again, as the sun waa already low in the west. They came upon the valleys of Nuku- heva on one side of the bay, where the highlands slope off- into the sea. The men-of-war were still lying in the harbor, and as Toby looked down upon them, the strange events which had hap- pened so recently, seemed all a dream. They soon descended towards the beach, and found themselves in Jimmy's house before it was well dark. Here he received another welcome . from ■ his Nukuheva wives, and after some re- freshments in the shape of cocoa-nut milk and poee-poee, they entered a canoe (the Typee of course going along) and paddled oiT to a whale ship which was anchored near the shore. This was the vessel in want of men. Our own had sailed some time before. The captain professed great pleasure at seeing Toby, but thought from his exhausted appearance that he must be unfit for duty. However, he agreed to ship him, as well as his com- rade, as soon as he should arrive. Toby begged hard for an armed boat, in which to go round to Typee and rescue me, notwithstanding the promises of Jimiiiy But this the captain would riot hear of, and told him to have pa- tience, for the sailor would be faithful to his word. When, too, he demanded the five silver dollars for Jimmy, the captain was unwilling to give them. But Toby insisted upon it, as he now began to think that Jimmy might be a mere mercenary, who would be sure to prove faithless if not well paid. Accordingly he not only gave him the money, but took care to assure him, over and over again, 'that as soon as he brought me aboard he would receive a still larger sum. Bfifore sun-rise the next day, Jimmy and the Typee started in two of the ship's boats, which were manned by tabooed natives. Toby, of course, was all eagerness to go along, but the sailor told 306 SEQUEL TO " TYPEE." him that if he did, it would spoil all ; so, hard as it was, he- was obliged to remain. Towards evening he was on the watch, and descried the boats turning the headland and entering the bay. He strained hia eyes, and thought he saw me ; but I was not there. Desceiiding from the mast almost distracted, he grappled Jimmy as he struck the deck, shouting in a voice that startled him, " Where is Tom- mo V The old fellow faltered, but soon recovering, did all he could to soothe him, assuring him that it had proved to be impo& sible to get me down to the shore that morning ; assigning many plausible reasons, and adding that early on the morrow he was going to visit the bay again in a French boat, when, if he did not find me on the beach — as this time he certainly expected to — he would march right back into the valley, and carry me aTfr^ay at all hazards. He, however, again refused to allow Toby to ac- company him. Now, situated as Toby was, his sole dependence for the present was upon this Jimmy, and therefore he was fain to comfort him. self as well as he could with what the old sailor told him. The next morning, however, he had the satisfaction of seeing the French boat start with Jimmy in it. To-night, then, I will see him, thought Toby ; but many a long day passed before he ,.ever saw Tommo again. Hardly was the boat out of sight, when the captain came forward and ordered the anchor weighed ; he was going to sea. Vain were all Toby's ravings, — ^they were disregarded ; and when he came to himself, the sails were set, and the ship fast leaving the land. * * * Oh ! Said he to me at our meeting, what sleeplesi nights were mine. Often I started from my hammock, dreaming you were before me, and upbraiding me for leaving you on the island. m * * * * * THE STORY OF TOBY. SOn There is little more to be related. Toby left this vessel af New Zealand, and after some further adventures, arrived home in less than two years after leaving the Marquesas. He always thought of me as dead — and I had every reason to suppose that he too was no more ; but -a strange meeting was in store for us, one which made Toby's heart all the lighter. MR. MELVILLE'S NEW WORK. HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISH In two parts, 60 cents each ; or complete in muslin giU, $1.26. M : A NARRATIVE OF ADVEITURES IN THE SOUTH SEAS Bt Hebman Melviuce, Esq. anihoe of ttpee : ob, a besidence in the luabquesas. This workfonns the true sequel and counterpart of the author's popular productioii — '' Ttpee." The adventures in the present volume embrace both sea and land. The Nautical incidents of the book are extremely interesting, and the Rambles and Excursions on the Islands of Tahiti and Imeeo, most romantic and extraordinary. With respect to " Th/pee," " Onwo" is the reverse of the medal : as the former work presents the only account ever given of the state of nature in which the Polynesians are originally found, so the latter production will exhibit them as afficted by a prolonged intercourse with foreigners^ '"Nowhere, perhapg, are the proverbial characteristics of sdfiors shown under wilder aspects, than in the South Seas. For the most part, the vessels navigating those remote waters, are engaged in the Sperm Whale Fishery ; a business, which is not only pecuSarly fitted to attract the most reckless seamen of all nations, but in various ways, is calculated to foster in them a spirit of the utmost license. These voyages, also, are unusually long and perilous ; the only harbors acces- sible are among the barbarous or semi-civilized islands of Polynesia, or along the lawless western coast of South America. Hence, scenes the most novel, and not directly connected with the business of whaling, fre uently occur among the crews of ships in the Pacific. " ' Without pretending to give any account of the whale-fishery (for the scope of the narrative does not embrace the subject), it is, partly, the object of this work to convey some idea of the kind of life to which allusion is made, by means of a circumstantial history of adventures beMling the author.' " — Extract from the Preface. PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. " A stirring narrative of very pleasant reading. It possesses much of the charm that has made Robinson Crusoe Immortal — life-like descrip* tion. It commands attention, as if old interest was created br the narratives— r " Of Raleigh, Fr obisher, and Drake — Adventurous hearts, who bartered bold Their English steel for Spanish gold." The history is one of comparatively new lands and new people. IBs account of the natives corresponds with that of Kotzebue and others." — Douglas Jerrold. "This work is, destined to create as much excitement in the literary world as Typee did. It is full of incidents and adventures among the natives of the South Sea Islands, admirably connected, and written in an easy off'hand manner that charms the reader. We wiU be very much mistaken if this work do not reach half a dozen editions." — N. Y. Herald. " This is a peculiar and interesting work, written in an unusually free- and-easy manner, and possessing the power of carrying the reader along with it. The narrative necessarily begins where ' Typee' ended, but has no further connexion with the latter work." — Tribune. " We scarcely remember anything that has emanated from the press, in all respects so perfectiy fresh, racy, and charming, as ' Omoo.' Like so many gems in one setting, its most pleasant and amusing chapters sparkle upon us. Some of the scenes presented, indeed, stagger belief; they partake so much of the wild and wonderful. Doubtiess the author has visited Tahiti and Imeeo, but for all that, who will implicitly admit the reality of the fairy dance on the banks of the Lake Tamai ; or the matter-of-fact existence of that exquisite ideal of a ha}ighty young beauty, the scornful ' Little Loo ?' . And for the comic, there is Doctor Long- Ghost: — ^why, these -sketches are not unworthy of Gil Bias or Don Quixote." — N. Y. Express. "This is really a delightful book, in which one may find food for laughter and sterling information into the bargain. It is written in a pleasant ofi-hand style, such as will be enjoyed by everybody. There are portions of the work, infinitely superior to anything of the kind we ever before read." — NoaVs T}imes. " It is a book of a like character virith Dana's ' Two Years before the Mast,' and will amuse and interest the reader. The author gives in the second part some account of the Polynesians and their islands, as well as the present missionary operations among them. From the manner that this last subject is alluded to in the preface, we should think that what he says about it would attract attention, as developing new and unsuspected facts." — Springfield Republican. " It is exceedingly interesting, and there is not a dull page in it. The author details, in a most graphic manner, life on board an English whale ship, and a residence at Tahiti, where he and his shipmates were confined for refusing to go to sea again. Some of his stories seem rather to be Bpecimens of romance writing than statements of facts ; however, they may be true for all that." — Lowell Courier, PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT "The reputation which ' Typee' procured for its author will be ren- dered still more illustrious by Omoo, which takes up the thread of south sea narrative where Typee left it, and in a vein of romantic and all absorbing interest, leads the reader through a succession of scenes, and incidents, which under a common pen would seem tame, but which under the genius of Melville glow, step by step, with wonderful hfe and beauty, and engage every faculty of the mind'and heart. He is ike great painter of natural life, and relates sea stories with naturalness and great effect." — Albany Spectator. I' ' Omoo' contains many passages of great beauty; — some landscape- painting that will bear twice looking at — and a great deal of piquant gos- sip about men and things, that will help to wlule away a leisure hour very pleasantly, and not altogether unprofitably. Altogether, it is a most agreeable book." — Charter Oak. " Those who have had the pleasure of reading ' Typee' will seize with avidity on the present work, by the same author, in the, same racy style, and on the same general subject. The isles of the Pacific are the modern Fairy land, and works treating of them are fully as interesting as the children's tales of Persian or Arabian enchantment." — Highland Courier. " Mr. Herman Melville has unquestionably had the most surprising and delightful adventures of any traveller, who, in this matter-of-fact age, comes before the pubhc to tell his story, and few travellers of any age, have had more marvellous stories to tell than 'Typee' contained." — Churchman. " ' Omoo' may be considered as a continuation of ' Typee,' embracing the same kind of sketehes, and exhibiting certainly a very free and gra- phic pencil." — Presbyterian. " It is written in a charming style, and not only serves to furnish amusement, but makes the reader acquainted with many facts hitherto allowed to slumlier in obscurity." — SyiriL of the Times. " We give the place of honor to the most popular of the recent issues of the press. The author of Typee, Mr. Herman Melville, has shared, to a certain extent, the good fortune of Mr. Stephens and Lord Byron — ^that of going to bed at night an unknown personage and finding himself famous when he got up the next morning. Typee has been read, we suppose, by every man, woman, and child in the Union, who undertakes to keep pace at all with the march of the current literature ; and its fame has gone abroad also to lands beyond sea. The reliabiUty of its narra- tive and descriptions is still one of the disposable questions in ' literary circles ;' but, whether romance or reality, all voices are unanimous in laiidation of its interest and pleasantness." — Columbian Magazine. " Our readers are well aware of the peculiar characteristic power and brilliancy of the author's former work, Typee, and we need say nothing further on the subject to arrest attention. It is among the most delight- ful books we have ever read. Rarely, indeed, has a book attracted more attention, or been read with greater interest, on either side of the Atlan- tic. This work fuUy justifies the expectations which were raised by PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. ' Typee.' The talents and genius of the author throw a charm around everything that attracts his attention." — Albany Evening Jounml "In conclusion; to sum up our judgment of ' Typee' and 'Omoo,* We consider them, in a word, the best works on Polynesian life yel published, either in, this country or England ; and no work within the range of our nautical reading can compare with them in the spirit and vividness of their forecastle revelations. — There is a rollicking felicity, a hearty abandonment pervading throughout rather than in any particular instance, which is peculiarly characteristic of saijpr-life in tibe midst of its privations; and this is most happily developed in 'Omoo.' If you wish to read the details of forecastle life they are to be found in other works ; but if you desire a vivid and masterly picture of a whale-ship, inside and outside, fore and aft, with living, moving, wide-awake charac- ters, full of fun and desperately mutinous, read ' Omoo.' " — Literary Gazette. " This is a sequel to Typee, which everybody has read or mean^ to read, and it is characterized by the same qualities which distinguished that remarkable production. Striking narrative, graphic descriptions, a clear though dashing style, and a superabundance of rare advantages, will make Omoo quite as, much in demand as its popular predecessor." — North. American. " Written with a life-like power. We advise no one to take up ' Omoo' until he has the leisure to finish it ; for when he has once dipped into its fascinating and advetiturous pages, he will not be disposed to leave them until he has reached the very last." — Providence Journal. " The marvellous adventured, glowing pencilliil^B, and novel- interest of the book will, doubtless, make it eagerly sought by the devourers of new books." — New Bedford Mercury. " ' Omoo.' This is a most fascinating book. The novelty and wild beauty of the scenes described, and the freshness of the Writer's style, keep up an interest from the first page to the last equal to that which chains us to a captivating romance, a former work of Mr. Melville's, ' Typee,' supposed to be really a romance of the Robinson Crusoe school; but it seems that the author is actually a traveller, and speaks from what his eyes have seen. The present work is a continuation of Typee.' Whenever a passage of description occurs in the course of the narrative, there is such a keen appreciation and vivid picturing of natiiral beauty, as to flash before you the full glory of tropical scenery, and set the imagination even of sober, 'home4oving people like ourselves, all aglow with the thought of wandering in those paradisaical regions. It seems such exquisite physical enjoyment, that we do not wonder at the instances of civilized men renouncing for ever the comforts of cultivated life, to revel in the wild freedom, the unbought spontaneous luxuries afSirded by the delicious climate of these islands." — Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post. " It has all the liveliness of Mr. Melville's gther work, ' Typee,' which was 80 popular."— iVeJO York Evening Post. PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. " Another delightful work by the author of ' Typee.' And very appro priate is the title, and charming the thread of narrative drawn by our author among the lovely islands of the illimitable Pacific. ' Omoo' -ia written in the same graphic and transparemt style that distinguished ' Typee,' and in the same picturesque spirit. It would be easy to select page after page of great beauty, full of the finest sketching both of scenery and character ; whilst the wild romantic adventure'throughout leads on the attention, unflagging, to- the close." — Albany Atlas. " Mr. Melville has the descriptive power in greater abundance than any writer of- the age. His array of characters in ' Omoo' is as interest- ing as those of romance. Columns on columns of pleasing extracts might be given. The Long Doctor is an actual creation, while the Tahitian girls are spirits of fiin, softness, and beauty." — Boston Post. " A charming book, abounding in passages of wit, humor, romance, and poetry, and written with all the mellow elegance of style that charac- terize the author's ' Typee.' " — Boston Daily See. " ' Omoo' is a continuation of ' Typee,' By the same sparkling writer." — Boston Times. "'Omoo' is no less exciting than the wildest romance." — Boston Transcript. "An officer attached to the frigate Brandy wine in 1845, wlien she touched at Tahiti, declared within our hearing that in reading ' Omoo' he actually imagined himself on the spot — so graphic are the sketches of life and scenery interspersed throughout that work. " It is not altogether ^he truthfulness of these sketches, however, that constitutes their great charm — a daguerreotype could be merely accurate ; it is the warmth, vie tropical luxuriance, the genial flow of humor and good- nature — the happy enthusiasm, gushing like a stream of mellow sunshine from the author's heart-— all these and a thousand nameless beauties of tone and sentiment, are the captivating ingredients of ' Omoo.' Who can follow our young adventurer in his wanderings through those quiet valleys and leafy glens, and listen to his pleasant discourse, without feel- ing completely regenerated ? Ushered gradually into a world of primitive beautibs, enveloped in a spell of delicious enchantment, humanized and spiritualized at the same time — ^the reader unconsciously yields to the charm, and finds himself a dreamy inhabitant of the sunny South Sea Isles. Cold, indeed, must be his heart, if it does not inspire him to grasp the hand of his roving cicerone in the very intensity of right-down cordial good-fellowship. And as for Dr. Long Ghost — you see him, and hear him,-and feel him through every fibre of your mortal body. The book will become immensely popular." — Evening Mirror. " Omoo will be read in more than one language." — Albany Argus. " Omoo is certain of a very wide popularity." — New York Courier to its predecessor. * * * The true characteristic of the book is its nautical pictures. The crew of the Julia were a mixture of all nations, but with something of a character in each. Among them was a New Zealander who, rated harpooner, ranked as a gentleman in the South Sea whaling school. From Melville's account this man required nothing but the help of a novel- grinder to be turned into the hero of a romance. He had all the gloom and mystery of a Byronic hero ; but the unsentimental sailors rather attributed to him convivial propensities than secret griefs. * * * * The extracts we have given will indicate the character of the composition; which is clear, fresh, vivacious, and full of matter. Melville's descrip- tions not only convey distinctly what he wishes to present, but they abouiid in subordinate or incidental pictures respecting the whole of the life described, "^iondsra Spectator. " Impressive portraits, and piquant anecdotes. * * * The adventures are depicted with force and humor. * * * The native dance in the valley of Tamai — called by our author ' a genuine pagan fandango,' is hit off with great spirit ; as also fish-spearing in Loohooloo and courtship in Taloo. We shall, doubtless, hear more of these advefltures." — London ALhencBum. " Some of the scenes are like cabinet pictures." — L'Tndm Criiie, id notice. PUBLISHERS' iiDVERTISEMENT. " There seems to be springing up in the literary world a new and very interesting class of authors ; consisting of men, who, led on by a Toman< tic love of adventure, and an inquisitive spirit, plunge themselves into the roughest of life's paths, taking cheerfully their share in the hardest, and most unromantic work ; submitting to the most painful privations ; and harder still, to the most bitter personal humiUations; making danger their daily companion and helpmate ; and who, after experiencing them- selves what life is in the track they have followed, possess the skill to describe it in the freshest and most vivid colors to others. And such, indeed, should be the principle through all literature. Experience — whether the experience be of the outer or the inner world — whether it be what a man has seen, "or done, or thought, is the only thing worth listening to — ^the only valid plea for a man's asking the world of readers to listen to him. " Herman Melville, if that indeed be his true name, is an American, who, in 1842, visited the Marquesas Islands, as a sailor before the mast, in an American ship, brought thither by the attractions of the sperm whale fishery. He left his ship on reaching the island of Nukuheva, and wandered about until he came into the valley of Typee. Here, among a tribe of primitive savages, he was detained in a kind of pleasant captivity for about four months. He was relieved by the captain of a vessel that had anchored in the neighborhood ; and the present volume describes his reception in the ship, his comrades, their adventures, end- ing in a kind of mutiny, and in a party of the crew quitting the vessel fat first as prisoners) at Tahiti, which gave Herman Melville a fresh opportunity of wandering about from island to island, and making him- self acquainted with the people who have of late engaged so much atten- tion in England, on account of the intrigues of the French and English residents to obtain for their respective nations the greater amount of influence over the Queen Pomare, and through her, over her subjects and the country generally. " It woiUd be difiicalt to imagine a man better fitted to describe the impressions such a life and such scenes are calculated to call forth, than the author of Ooioo. Every variety of character, and scene, and incident, he studies and describes with equal gusto. Among his characters, per- liaps the medical man, ' Doctor Long-Ghost,' is the most truly charac- teristic both of the individual, and of a class common in all those remote parts of the world." — The London Peoples Journal. ,' j^.^, ^'1* ., r.fe^f *,' :*'■'.'-- i^i*