JUPITER TONANS--THE THUNDERS OF THE PILOT--WORSHIPPERS OF THE
FAR WEST--A LATE BREAKFAST--RONO THE GREAT--A POLYNESIAN
LEGEND--MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF OCEANIA--MR. AND MRS. TAMAIDI--REGAL
POMP--ELBOW ROOM--KATZENMUSIK--QUEEN TONICO AND THE SHAVING
GLASS--CONSEQUENCES OF A PINCH OF SNUFF--DISGRACE OF THE GREAT
RONO--MARIUS--CORIOLANUS--HANNIBAL--ALCIBIADES--CIMON--ARISTIDES--A
SOP FOR THE THIRSTY--AIR SOMETHING ELSE BESIDES OXYGEN AND
HYDROGEN--MARYLAND AND WHITECHAPEL--HALF-WAY UP THE CORDILLERAS--HUMAN
MACHINES--STAR OF THE SEA, PRAY FOR US!
Was he on his way to the Capitol or to the Gemoniae? The solution of
this question became, for the moment, of greater importance to Willis
than the "to be or not to be" of Hamlet to the State of Denmark. This
incertitude was all the more painful, that it was accompanied by
myriads of insects, created by the recent rains; these swarmed in the
air to such an extent, that it was utterly impossible to inhale the
one without swallowing the other. The sailor, notwithstanding his
elevated and somewhat perilous position, true to his instincts and
tormented by the flies, took out his pipe, filled it, and struck a
light. As soon as the first column of smoke issued from his mouth, the
cavalcade halted spontaneously, the natives fell on their faces, their
noses touching the ground, and in an attitude of the profoundest fear
and apprehension. Jupiter thundering never created such a sensation as
Willis smoking. The savages seemed glued to the earth with terror. If
the Pilot had thought it advisable to escape, he might have walked
over the prostrate bodies of his captors, not one of whom would have
been bold enough to follow what appeared to be a human volcano,
vomiting fire and smoke,--the fire of course being understood.
Willis, however, now saw that he possessed in his pipe a ready means
of awing them. Besides, it was clear that, through some fortunate
coincidence, the natives had mistaken him for a divinity. There was,
consequently, no immediate danger to be apprehended; he therefore
became himself again, and began to enjoy the novelty of his new
dignity.
It was certainly a curious contrast. Willis, seated on a sort of
throne, crowned with a waving plume of feathers, shrouded in a fiery
mantle, and surrounded by a crowd of prostrate figures, was quietly
puffing ribbons of smoke from the tips of his lips. There he sat, for
all the world like a crane in a duck-pond. From time to time the more
daring of the worshippers slightly raised their heads to see whether
Jupiter was still thundering; but when their eye caught a whiff of
smoke, they speedily resumed their former posture. Some of them even
thrust their heads into holes, or behind stones, as if more
effectually to shelter themselves from the fury of the fiery furnace.
At last the eruption ceased, Willis knocked the ashes out of his pipe,
replaced it in his pocket, and the convoy resumed its route. After
half an hour's march, the procession halted near a clump of plantains,
in front of a structure more ambitious than any of those in the
neighborhood. A female, laden with rude ornaments, was standing at the
door. This lady, who rivalled the celebrated Daniel Lambert in
dimensions, would have created quite a _furore_ at Bartholomew Fair;
according to Jack, she was so amazingly fat, that it would have taken
full five minutes to walk round her. She took the Pilot respectfully
by the hand, and led him into the interior of the building, which was
crowded with images of various forms, and was evidently a temple.
Willis, at a sign from his conductress, seated himself in a chair,
raised on a dais, and surmounted by a terrific figure similar to the
one already described, but draped in white feathers instead of red.
The fat lady, or rather the high priestess--for she was the reigning
potentate in this magazine of idols--took a sucking pig that was held
by one of the priests. After muttering a prayer or homily of some
sort, she strangled the poor animal, and returned it to the priest. By
and by, the pig was brought in again cooked, and presented with great
ceremony to Willis. There were likewise sundry dishes of fruit, nuts,
and several small cups containing some kind of liquid. One of the
priests cut up the pig, and lifted pieces of it to Willis's mouth;
these, however, he refused to eat. The fat priestess, observing this,
chewed one or two mouthfuls, which she afterwards handed to the Pilot.
This was putting the sailor's gallantry to rather a rude test. He was
equal to the emergency, and did not refuse the offering. But he must
have felt at the time, that being a divinity was not entirely without
its attendant inconveniences.
Nor was this the only infliction of the kind he was doomed to
withstand. One of the priests took up a piece of kava-root, put it
into his mouth, chewed it, and then dropped a bit into each of the
cups already noticed. One of these, containing this nectar, was
presented to Willis by the fat Hebe who presided at the feast, and he
had the fortitude to taste it. Another of the cups was handed to Jack.
"No, I thank you," said he, shaking his head; "I breakfasted rather
late this morning."
Meantime, another personage had entered upon the scene. After having
performed an obeisance to Willis like the rest, this individual backed
himself to where Jack was standing, by this means adroitly avoiding
both the kava and the nose-rubbings. He was distinguished from the
other natives by an ornament round his waist, which fell to his knees.
His skin seemed a trifle less dark, his features less marked; but his
body was tattooed and stained after the common fashion.
The new comer turned out to be a Portuguese deserter, who had
abandoned his ship twenty years before, and had married the daughter
of a chief of the island on which he now was. At the present moment,
he filled the part of prime minister to the king, an office be could
not have held in his own ungrateful country, since he could neither
read nor write. These accomplishments, it appeared, were not,
however, absolutely indispensable in Polynesia. It has been found that
when a savage is transferred to Europe, he readily acquires the habits
of civilized life. By a similar adaptation of things to circumstances,
this European had identified himself with the savages. He had adopted
their manners, their customs, and their costume. When he thought of
his own country, it was only to wonder why he ever submitted to the
constraint of a coat, or put himself to the trouble of handling a fork
and spoon. He had not, however, entirely forgotten his mother tongue,
and, moreover, still retained in his memory a few English words. He
was likewise very communicative, and told Jack that they were in the
Island of Hawai; that the name of the king was Toubowrai Tamaidi, who,
he added, intended visiting the pinnace with the queen next day, to
pay his respects in person to the great Rono. "His Majesty," said the
Portuguese, "would have been amongst the first to throw himself at his
feet, but unfortunately the royal residence is a good way off; and
though both the king and the queen are on the way, running as fast as
they can, it may take them some time yet to reach the shore."
"But who is the great Rono?" inquired Jack.
"Well," replied the prime minister, "you ought to know best, since you
arrived with him."
Jack felt that he was touching on delicate ground, and saw that it was
necessary to diplomatise a little.
"True," said he; "but I am not acquainted with the position that
illustrious person holds in relation to Hawai." The Portuguese then
made a very long, rambling, and not very lucid statement, from which
Jack gleaned the following details. About a hundred years before,
during the reign of one of the first kings, there lived a great
warrior, whose name was Rono. This chief was very popular, but he was
very jealous. In a moment of anger he killed his wife, of whom he was
passionately fond. The regret and grief that resulted from this act
drove him out of his senses; he wandered disconsolately about the
island, fought and quarrelled with every one that came near him. At
last, in a fit of despair, he embarked in a large canoe, and, after
promising to return at the expiration of twelve hundred moons, with a
white face and on a floating island, he put out to sea, and was never
heard of more.
This tradition, it appears, had been piously handed down from family
to family. The natives of Hawai--who are not more extravagant in the
matter of idols than some nations who boast a larger amount of
civilization, but who do not destroy them so often--enrolled Rono
amongst the list of their divinities. An image of him was set up,
sacrifices were instituted in his honor. Every year the day of his
departure was kept sacred, and devoted to religious ceremonies. The
twelfth hundred moon had just set, when a large boat appeared in the
bay, and a man came ashore. The high priest of the temple, Raou, and
his daughter, On La, priestess of Rono, solemnly declared that the man
in question was Rono himself, who had returned at the precise time
named, and in the manner he promised.
It was, therefore, clear from this statement that Willis was to be
henceforward Rono the Great.
Jack was rather pleased than otherwise to learn that he was the
companion of a real live divinity. It assured him, in the first place,
that the danger of his being converted into a stew or a fricassee was
not imminent. He did not forget, however, that the consequences might
be perilous if, by any chance, the illusion ceased; for he knew that
the greater the height from which a man falls, the less the mercy
shown to him when he is down. As soon, therefore, as the ceremonies
had a little relaxed, and Willis was left some freedom of action, Jack
went forward, and knelt before him in his turn.
"O sublime Rono," said he, "I know now why your nose has escaped all
the rubbings that mine has had to undergo."
"Do you?" said Willis; "glad to hear it, for I am as much in the dark
as ever."
Jack then related to him the fabulous legend he had just heard.
After a while, Willis shook off his _entourage_ as gently as possible,
and succeeded in getting out of the temple. Accompanied by Jack, he
proceeded towards the shore, receiving, as he went, the adoration of
the people. The route was strewn with fruit, cocoa-nuts, and pigs, and
the natives were highly delighted when any of their offerings were
accepted by the deified Rono.
The islanders appeared mild, docile, and intelligent, notwithstanding
the singular delusion that possessed them. Living from day to day,
they were, doubtless, ignorant of those continual cares and
calculations for the future that in the old world pursue us even into
the hours of sleep. Were they happier in consequence? Yes, if the
child is happier than the man, and if we admit that we often loose in
tranquillity and happiness what we gain in knowledge and perfection:
yes, if happiness is not exclusively attached to certain peoples and
certain climates; yes, if it is true that, with contentment, happiness
is everywhere to be found.
The houses of the Hawaians are singular structures, and scarcely can
be called dwellings. They consist of three rows of posts, two on each
side and one in the middle, the whole covered with a slanting roof,
but without any kind of wall whatever.
They do not bury their dead, but swing them up in a sort of hammock,
abundantly supplied with provisions. It is supposed that this is done
with a view to enable the souls of the departed to take their flight
more readily to heaven. The practice, consequently, seems to indicate
that the natives possess a confused idea of a future state. When a
child dies, flowers are placed in the hammock along with the
provisions--a touch of the nature common to us all. They express deep
grief by inflicting wounds upon their faces with a shark's tooth; and,
when they feel themselves in danger of dying, they cut off a joint of
the little finger to appease the anger of the Divinity. There was
scarcely one of the adult islanders who was not mutilated in this way.
Though the worshippers of the great Rono appeared gentle and peaceable
enough, there were to be seen here and there a human jaw-bone,
seemingly fresh, with the teeth entire, suspended over the entrances
to the huts. These ghastly objects sent a shudder quivering through
Jack's frame, and made Willis aware that it would not be advisable
rashly to throw off his sacred character.
As it was now late, and as they knew that Fritz would be uneasy about
them, they put off laying in their stock of water till next day. Jack
told the prime minister that the great Rono would be prepared to
receive their majesties whenever they chose to visit him. This done,
Willis and his companion seated themselves in the canoe, and rowed out
to the pinnace.
"God be thanked, you have returned in safety!" cried Fritz; "I never
was so uneasy in the whole course of my life."
"Well, brother, we have not been without our anxieties as well, and
had we not happened to have had a divinity amongst us, we might not
have come off scathless."
Jack then related their adventures, which gradually brought a smile to
the pale lips of Fritz.
"But the water?" inquired Fritz, after he had heard the story.
"Oh, water; they offered us something to drink on shore that will
prevent us being thirsty for a month to come, but we shall see to that
to-morrow."
Towards dark, some fireworks were discharged on board the pinnace, by
way of demonstrating that Willis's pipe was not the only fiery terror
the great Rono had at his command.
Early next morning a flotilla of canoes were observed rounding one of
the points that formed the bay. The one in advance was larger than the
others, and was evidently the trunk of a large tree hollowed out.
Jack's new friend, the Portuguese, hailed the pinnace, and announced
the King and Queen of Hawai, who thereupon scrambled into the pinnace.
His majesty King Toubowrai had probably felt it incumbent upon himself
to do honor to the illustrious Rono, for he wore an old uniform coat,
very likely the produce of a wreck, through the sleeves of which the
angular knobs of his copper-colored elbows projected. He did not seem
very much at his ease in this garment, which contrasted oddly with the
tight-fitting tattooed skin that served him for pantaloons.
His wife, Queen Tonico, princess-like was half stifled in a thick
blanket or mat of cocoa-nut fibre. Her ears were heavily laden with
teeth and ornaments of various kinds, made out of bone, mother of
pearl, and tortoise-shell. Her nails were two or three inches long;
and, to judge by the number of finger-joints that were wanting, she
was either troubled with delicate nerves, or was slightly
hypochondriac.
The royal pair were accompanied by a band of music: fortunately, this
remained in the regal barge. It consisted of a flute with four holes,
a nondescript instrument, seemingly made of stones; a drum made out of
the hollow trunk of a tree, covered at each end with skin, of what
kind it is needless to inquire. The sounds emitted by this orchestra
were of an ear-rending nature, and of a kind graphically termed by the
Germans Katzenmusik.
"Illustrious Rono," cried Jack, "for goodness sake, tell these
gentlemen you are not a lover of sweet sounds."
"Belay there!" roared Willis.
This command, however, had no effect; the artists continued thumping
and blowing away as before. Willis, thinking to make himself better
heard, placed his hands on his mouth, and roared the same order
through them. This action seemed to be received as a mark of
approbation, for the noise became absolutely terrific.
"No use," said Willis: "I can make nothing of them. You try what you
can do."
"Very good," said Jack, lighting what is technically termed an
_artichoke_, but better known as a zig-zag cracker; "if they do not
understand English, perhaps they may comprehend pyrotechnics."
The artichoke was thrown into the royal barge. At first there was only
a slight whiz, finally it gave an angry bound and leaped into the
midst of the musicians. Startled, they tried to get out of its way;
but they were no sooner at what they thought to be a safe distance,
than the thing was amongst them again. Their majesties, who were just
then engaged in kissing the Rono's feet, started up in alarm; but when
they saw the danger did not menace themselves, they burst into a
hearty laugh at the antics of their suite.
This episode over, and the orchestra silenced, the Sovereign of Hawai
proceeded to inspect the pinnace. He expressed his delight every now
and then by uttering the syllables "_ta-ta_." Fritz handed one of
those shaving glasses to the Queen that lengthen the objects they
reflect. This astonished her Majesty vastly, and caused her to _ta-ta_
at a great rate. She looked behind the mirror, turned it upside down,
and at last, when she felt assured that it was the royal person it
caricatured, she commenced measuring her cheeks to account for the
extraordinary disproportion.
They next all sat down to a repast that was spread on deck. Their
Majesties observing Rono use a fork, did so likewise; but though they
stuck a piece of meat on the end of it, and held it in one hand, they
continued carrying the viands to their mouths with the other. At the
conclusion of the feast, Willis took a pinch of snuff out of a
canister. Their Majesties insisted upon doing so likewise. Willis
handed them the canister, and they filled their noses with the
treacherous powder. Then followed a duet of sneezing, accompanied with
facial contortions. The royal personages thinking, probably, that they
were poisoned, leaped into the sea like a couple of frogs, and swam to
the royal barge.
"Holloa, sire," cried Jack, "where are you off to?"
This was answered by the barge paddling away rapidly towards land.
Hitherto, the whole affair had been a farce; but now the natives, who
had collected in great numbers along the shore, seeing their king and
queen leap into the water with a terrified air, supposed that an
attempt had been made to cut short their royal lives, and, under this
impression, discharged a cloud of arrows at the pinnace, and matters
began to assume a serious aspect.
"What!" exclaimed Jack, "shooting at the great Rono!"
"That," said Fritz, "only proves they are men like ourselves. He who
is covered with incense one day, is very often immolated the next."
"And that simply because Rono treated Mr. and Mrs. What's-their-names
to a pinch of snuff. Serve them right to discharge the contents of the
four-pounder amongst them."
"No, no," cried Willis; "the worthy people are, perhaps, fond of their
king and queen."
"Worthy people or not," said Fritz, drawing out an arrow that had sunk
into the capstan, "it is very likely that if this dart had hit one of
us, there would only have been two instead of three in the crew of the
pinnace."
"Well," said Willis, "Master Jack thought the voyage rather dull; now
something has turned up to relieve the monotony of his log."
"We are still without fresh water though, Willis; I wish you could say
that had turned up as well."
"It will be prudent to go in search of that somewhere else now," said
Willis, unfurling the sails. "Fortunately the wind is fresh, and we
can make considerable headway before night."
As they steered gently out of the bay a second cloud of arrows was
sent after them, but this time they fell short.
"The belief in Rono is about to be seriously compromised," remarked
Fritz; "I should advise the priestess to retire into private life."
"Impossible."
"Why?"
"Because she is too fat to live in an ordinary house, she could only
breathe in a temple. But, O human vicissitudes!" added Jack, rolling
himself up in a sail after the manner of the Roman senators; "behold
Rono the Great banished from his country, and compelled to go and
pillow his head on a foreign sail, like Marius at Minturnus--like
Coriolanus amongst the Volcians--like Hannibal at the house of
Antiochus--like Alcibiades at the castle of Grunium in Phrygia, given
to him out of charity by the benevolent Pharnabazus, and in which he
was burnt alive by his countrymen--like Cimon, voted into exile by
ballot and universal suffrage--like Aristides, whom the people got
tired of hearing called the Just, and many others."
"Who are all these personages?" inquired Willis.
"They were worthies of another age," replied Fritz; "very excellent
men in their way, and you are in no way dishonored by being numbered
amongst them."
"Yesterday," continued Jack, "an entire people were upon their knees
before you; they offered up sacrifices, and poured out incense on
their altars for you; fruit and pigs were scattered in heaps, like
flowers, upon your path; the crowd were prostrated by the fumes of
your pipe. To-day--alas, the change!--a cloud of arrows, and not a
single glass of cold water!"
"That gives you an opportunity of quenching your thirst with the
nectar offered to you yesterday," said Fritz; "as for myself, I have
no such resource."
"Yes, that was a posset to quench one's thirst withal; I only wish I
had a cupful to give you. I do not regret having had an opportunity of
becoming acquainted with the people though. They have enabled me to
rectify some erroneous notions I formerly entertained. If, for
example, I were to ask you what air consists of? you would, no doubt,
reply that is a compound body made of oxygen and hydrogen or azote, in
the proportion of twenty-one of the one to seventy-nine of the other."
"Yes, most undoubtedly."
"Well, such is not the case; there are other elements in the air
besides these."
"If you mean that the air accidentally, or even permanently, holds in
solution a certain quantity of water, or a portion of carbonic acid
gas, and possibly some particles of dust arising from terrestrial
bodies, then I grant your premises."
"No; what I mean is, that the air of Hawai is composed of three
distinct elements."
"Possibly; but if so, the air in question is not known to chemists."
"These three elements are oxygen, hydrogen, and insects."
"Ah, insects! I might have fancied you were driving at some hypothesis
of that sort."
"I intend to communicate this discovery to the first learned society
we fall in with."
"In the Pacific Ocean?"
"Yes: there or elsewhere."
"I always understood," observed Willis, "that air was a sort of cloud,
one and indivisible."
"A cloud if you like, Willis; but do you know the weight of it you
carry on your shoulders?"
"Well, it cannot be very great, otherwise I should feel it."
"What do you say to a ton or so, old fellow?"
"If you wish me to believe that, you will have to explain how, where,
when, why, and wherefore."
"Very good. Willis; you have bathed sometimes?"
"Yes, certainly."
"In the sea?"
"Yes."
"Do you know what water weighs?"
"No, but I know that it is heavy."
"Well, a square yard of air weighs two pounds and a half, but a square
yard of water weighs two thousand pounds. Now, can you calculate the
weight of the water that is on your back and pressing on your sides
when you swim?"
"No, I cannot."
"You are not sufficiently up in arithmetic to do that, Willis?"
"No."
"Nor am I either, Willis; but let me ask you how it is that the waves
do not carry you along with them?"
"Because one wave neutralises the effect of another."
"Very good; but how is it that these ponderous waves, coming down upon
you, do not crush you to atoms by their mere weight?"
"Well, I suppose that liquids do not operate in the same way as
solids: perhaps there is something in our bodies that counterbalances
the effect of the water."
"Very likely; and if such be the case as regards water, may it not be
so also as regards air?"
"But I do not feel air; whereas, if I go into water, I not only feel
it, but taste it sometimes, and I cannot force my way through it
without considerable exertion."
"That is because you are organized to live in air and not in water.
You ask the smallest sprat or sticklebake if it does not, in the same
way feel the air obstruct its progress."
"But would the stickleback answer me, Master Fritz?"
"Why not, if it is polite and well bred?"
"By the way, Willis," inquired Jack, "do you ever recollect having
lived without breathing?"
"Can't say I do."
"Very well, then; had you felt the weight of the air at any given
moment, it must have produced an impression you never felt before, but
you have not, because circumstances have never varied. A sensation
supposes a contrast, whilst, ever since you existed, you have always
been subject to atmospheric pressure."
"Ah, now I begin to get at the gist of your argument. You mean, for
example, that I would never have appreciated the delicate flavor of
Maryland or Havanna, had I not been accustomed to smoke the
cabbage-leaf manufactured in Whitechapel."
"Precisely so; and take for another example the farm of Antisana,
which is situated about midway up the Cordilleras, mountains of South
America. When travellers, arriving there from the summits which are
covered with perpetual snow, meet others arriving from the plain where
the heat is intense, those that descend are invariably bathed in
perspiration, whilst those that have come up are shivering with cold
and covered with furs. The reason of this is, that we cannot feel warm
till we have been cold, and _vice versâ_."
"Our bodies," resumed Fritz, "however much the thermometer descends,
never mark less than thirty-five degrees above zero. In winter the
skin shrinks, and becomes a bad conductor of heat from without; but,
at the same time, does not allow so much gas and vapor to escape from
within. In summer, on the contrary, the skin dilates and allows
perspiration to form, a process that consumes a considerable amount of
latent heat. Starting from this principle, it has been calculated that
a man, breathing twenty times in a minute, generates as much heat in
twenty-four hours as would boil a bucket of water taken at zero."
"If means could be found," remarked Jack, "to furnish him with a
boiler, by fixing a piston here and a pipe there man might be
converted into one of the machines we were talking about the other
day."
"Were I disposed to philosophize," added Fritz, "I might prove to you
that for a long time men have been little else than mere machines."
Before night they had run about thirty miles further to the
north-east, without seeing any thing beyond a formidable bluff,
guarded by a fringe of breakers, that would soon have swallowed up the
_Mary_ had she ventured to reach the land. It was necessary however to
obtain fresh water at any price before they resumed their voyage.
It was to be feared that all the islanders of the Pacific were not in
expectation of a great Rono, consequently Willis suggested that it
would be as well to search for an uninhabited spot. The only question
was, how long they might have to search before they succeeded; for
they knew that there were plenty of small islands in these latitudes
unencumbered by savages, and furnished with pools and springs of
water.
Night at length closed in upon them, and with it came a dense mist,
that enveloped the _Mary_ as if in a triple veil of muslin.
"Willis," inquired Jack, "what difference is there between a mist and
a cloud?"
"None that I know of," replied the Pilot, "except that a cloud which
we are in is mist, and mist that we are not in is a cloud. And now, my
lads," he added, "you may turn in, for I intend to take the first
watch."
Before turning in, however, all three joined in a short prayer. The
young men had not yet forgotten the pious precepts of their father.
Prayer is beautiful everywhere, but nowhere is it so beautiful as on
the open sea, with infinity above and an abyss beneath. Then, when all
is silent save the roar of the waves and the howling of the winds, it
is sublime to hear the humble voice of the sailor murmuring, "Star of
the night, pray for us!"
That night the star of the night did pray for the three voyagers, for
the rays of the moon burst through the darkness and the mist, and fell
upon a long line of reefs under the lee of the pinnace. Had they held
on their course a few minutes longer, our story would have been ended.