Midnight reflections—Morning visitors—A warrior in costume—A savage
Æsculapius—Practice of the healing art—Body-servant—A dwelling-house of
the valley described—Portraits of its inmates.
Various and 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, slumbered heavily by my
side; but the pain under which I was suffering effectually prevented my
sleeping, and I remained distressingly alive to all the fearful
circumstances of our present situation. Was it possible that, after all
our vicissitudes, we were really in the terrible valley of Typee, and
at the mercy of its inmates, a fierce and unrelenting tribe of savages?
Typee or Happar? I shuddered when I reflected that there was no longer
any room 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 of a savage? His inconstancy and treachery are proverbial. Might
if 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.
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 the natives, 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 inquisitiveness which, time out of mind,
has been attributed to the adorable sex.
As these unsophisticated young creatures were attended by no jealous
duennas, their proceedings were altogether informal, and void of
artificial restraint. Long and minute was the investigation with which
they honoured us, and so uproarious their mirth, that I felt infinitely
sheepish; and Toby was immeasurably outraged 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; presenting us with food; and compassionately regarding me in the
midst of my afflictions. But in spite of all their blandishments, my
feelings of propriety were exceedingly shocked, for I could not but
consider them as having overstepped 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.
As last, when their numbers began to diminish, a superb-looking warrior
stooped the towering plumes of his head-dress 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
immense upright semicircle upon his head, their lower extremities being
fixed in a crescent of guinea-beads which spanned the forehead. 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 cavities in front, stuffed 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-coloured tappa, hanging before and behind in clusters of braided
tassels, 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 slender reed forming its stem was coloured
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 imaginable lines and curves and figures were delineated over his
whole body, and in their grotesque variety and infinite profusion, I
could only compare them to the crowded groupings of quaint patterns we
sometimes see in costly pieces of lacework. The most simple and
remarkable of all these ornaments was that which decorated the
countenance of the chief. Two broad stripes of tattooing, diverging
from the centre of his shaven crown, obliquely crossed both
eyes—staining the lids—to a little below either ear, where they united
with another stripe, which swept in a straight line along the lips, and
formed the base of the triangle. The warrior, from the excellence of
his physical proportions, might certainly have been regarded as one of
nature’s noblemen, and the lines drawn upon his face may possibly have
denoted his exalted rank.
This warlike personage, upon entering the house, seated himself at some
distance from the spot where Toby and myself reposed, while the rest of
the savages looked alternately from us to him, as if in expectation of
something they were disappointed in not perceiving. Regarding the chief
attentively, I thought his lineaments appeared familiar to me. As soon
as his full face was turned upon me, and I again beheld its
extraordinary embellishment, and met the strange gaze to which I had
been subjected the preceding night, I immediately, in spite of the
alteration in his appearance, recognised the noble Mehevi. On
addressing him, he advanced at once in the most cordial manner, and
greeting me warmly, seemed to enjoy not a little the effect his
barbaric costume had produced upon me.
I forthwith determined to secure, if possible, the goodwill of this
individual, as I easily perceived he was a man of great authority in
his tribe, and one who might exert a powerful influence upon our
subsequent fate. In the endeavour I was not repulsed; for nothing could
surpass the friendliness he manifested towards both my companion and
myself. He extended his sturdy limbs by our side, and endeavoured to
make us comprehend the full extent of the kindly feelings by which he
was actuated. The almost insuperable difficulty in communicating to one
another our ideas, affected the chief with no little mortification. He
evinced a great desire to be enlightened with regard to the customs and
peculiarities of the far-off country we had left behind us, and to
which, under the name of Maneeka, he frequently alluded.
But that which more than any other subject engaged his attention, was
the late proceedings of the “Franee,” as he called the French, in the
neighbouring bay of Nukuheva. This seemed a never-ending theme with
him, and one concerning which he was never weary of interrogating us.
All the information we succeeded in imparting to him on this subject
was little more than that we had seen six men-of-war lying in the
hostile bay at the time we had left it. When he received this
intelligence, Mehevi, by the aid of his fingers, went through a long
numerical calculation, as if estimating the number of Frenchmen the
squadron might contain.
It was just after employing his faculties in this way that he happened
to notice the swelling in my limb. He immediately examined it with the
utmost attention, and after doing so, despatched a boy, who happened to
be standing by, with some message.
After the lapse of a few moments the stripling re-entered the house
with an aged islander, who might have been taken for old Hippocrates
himself. His head was as bald as the polished surface of a cocoa-nut
shell, which article it precisely resembled in smoothness and colour,
while a long silvery beard swept almost to his girdle of bark.
Encircling his temples was a bandeau of the twisted leaves of the Omoo
tree, pressed closely over the brows to shield his feeble vision from
the glare of the sun. His tottering steps were supported by a long slim
staff, resembling the wand with which a theatrical magician appears on
the stage, and in one hand he carried a freshly-plaited fan of the
green leaflets of the cocoa-nut tree. A flowing robe of tappa, knotted
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,
and then uncovering my limb, desired him to examine it. The leech gazed
intently from me to Toby, and then proceeded 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 endeavoured 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 something 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 endeavoured to expostulate with the natives by signs and
gestures. To have looked at my companion, as, sympathizing 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 relinquishing 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 as a
rump-steak after undergoing the castigating 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-Kory;
and from the little I could understand of what took place, pointed him
out to me as a man whose peculiar business henceforth would be to
attend upon my person. I am not certain that I comprehended as much as
this at the time, but the subsequent conduct of my trusty body-servant
fully assured me that such must have been the case.
I could not 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 permanent abode while I remained
in the valley, and as I was necessarily 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 nearly all the other dwelling-places in the vale, and will furnish
some idea of the generality of the natives.
Near one side of the valley, and about midway up the ascent of a rather
abrupt rise of ground waving with the richest verdure, a number of
large stones were laid in successive courses, to the height of nearly
eight feet, and disposed in such a manner that their level surface
corresponded in shape with the habitation which was perched upon it. A
narrow space, however, was reserved in front of the dwelling, upon the
summit of this pile of stones (called by the natives 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 constructed of
large bamboos planted uprightly, and secured together at intervals by
transverse stalks of the light wood of the Habiscus, lashed with thongs
of bark. The rear of the tenement—built up with successive ranges of
cocoa-nut boughs bound one upon another, with their leaflets cunningly
woven together—inclined a little from the vertical, and extended from
the extreme edge of the “pi-pi” 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 the habitation. This was constructed of light and elegant canes, in
a kind of open screen-work, tastefully adorned with bindings of
variegated sinnate, which served to hold together its various parts.
The sides of the house were similarly built; thus presenting
three-quarters for the circulation of the air, while the whole was
impervious to the rain.
In length this picturesque building was perhaps twelve yards, while in
breadth it could not have exceeded as many feet. So much for the
exterior; which, with its wire-like reed-twisted sides, not a little
reminded me of an immense aviary.
Stooping a little, you passed through a narrow aperture in its front;
and facing you, on entering, lay two 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, and the
other lying parallel with it some two yards distant, the interval
between them being spread with a multitude of gaily-worked mats, nearly
all of a different pattern. This space formed the common couch and
lounging-place of the natives, answering the purpose of a divan in
Oriental countries. Here would they slumber through the hours of the
night, and recline luxuriously during the greater part of the day. The
remainder of the floor presented only the cool shining surfaces of the
large stones of which the “pi-pi” was composed.
From the ridge-pole of the house hung suspended a number of large
packages enveloped in coarse tappa; some of which contained festival
dresses, and various other matters of the wardrobe, held in high
estimation. These were easily accessible by means of a line, which,
passing over the ridge-pole, had one end attached to a bundle, while
with the other, which led to the side of the dwelling and was there
secured, the package could be lowered or elevated at pleasure.
Against the farther wall of the house were arranged in tasteful figures
a variety of spears and javelins, and other implements of savage
warfare. Outside of the habitation, and built upon the piazza-like area
in its front, was a little shed used as a sort of larder or pantry, and
in which were stored various articles of domestic use and convenience.
A few yards from the pi-pi was a large shed built of cocoa-nut boughs,
where the process of preparing the “poee-poee” was carried on, and all
culinary operations attended to.
Thus much for the house, and its appurtenances; and it will be readily
acknowledged that a more commodious and appropriate dwelling for the
climate and the people could not possibly be devised. It was cool, free
to admit the air, scrupulously clean, and elevated above the dampness
and impurities of the ground.
But now to sketch the inmates; and here I claim for 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, about the
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 the view of improving the handiwork of nature, and
perhaps prompted by a desire to add to the engaging expression of his
countenance, had seen fit to embellish his face with three broad
longitudinal stripes of tattooing, which, 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 representations of birds and fishes, and a variety of most
unaccountable-looking creatures, suggested to me the idea of a
pictorial museum of natural history, or an illustrated copy of
Goldsmith’s _Animated Nature_.
But it seems really heartless in me to write thus of the poor islander,
when I owe perhaps to his unremitting attentions the very existence I
now enjoy. Kory-Kory, I mean thee no harm in what I 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 the 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 active participation in the
affairs of the valley, seldom or never accompanying the natives in
their various expeditions; 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 various ways the characteristics which
mark this particular stage of life.
I remember in particular his having a choice pair of ear-ornaments,
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 the slits 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
neighbouring groves, as if about to give a hostile meeting to some
cannibal knight. But he would soon return again, and hiding his weapon
under the protecting eaves of the house, and rolling his clumsy
trinkets carefully in a piece of tappa, would resume his more pacific
operations as quietly as if he had never interrupted 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 industrious old 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 matters. 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; poking into every corner, and rummaging over
bundles of old tappa, or making a prodigious clatter among the
calabashes. Sometimes she might have been seen squatting upon her
haunches in front 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 occasions, 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 employed herself
more actively had she been left an exceedingly muscular and destitute
widow, with an inordinate supply of young children, in the bleakest
part of the civilized world. There was not the slightest necessity for
the greater portion of the labour performed by the old lady: but she
deemed to work from some irresistible impulse; her limbs continually
swaying to and fro, as if there were some indefatigable engine
concealed within her 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
sugar-plums. Warm indeed are my remembrances of the dear, good,
affectionate old Tinor!
Besides the individuals I have mentioned, there belong to the household
three young men, dissipated, good-for-nothing, roystering blades of
savages, who were either employed in prosecuting love affairs with the
maidens of the tribe, or grew boozy on “arva” and tobacco in the
company of congenial 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; 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 favourite. 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 of 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 dazzling 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 them reposing in rows
on either side, embedded 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 Fayaway
were as soft and delicate as those of any countess; for an entire
exemption from rude labour marks the girlhood and even prime of a Typee
woman’s life. Her feet, though wholly exposed, 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 mollifying ointments, was inconceivably smooth and soft.
I may succeed, perhaps, in particularizing some of the individual
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 perpetual 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 manner 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 females are very little embellished in this way, and Fayaway, and
all the other young girls of her age, 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 pinheads, decorated either lip, and at a little distance
were not at all discernible. Just upon the fall of the shoulder were
drawn two parallel lines half an inch apart, and perhaps three inches
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 officers 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, apparently wanting the
heart to proceed.
But I have neglected 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 advantage; and nothing could have been
better adapted to her 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
rambling among the groves, or visiting at the houses of her
acquaintances, she wore a tunic of white tappa, reaching from her 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.
As the beauties of our own land delight in bedecking themselves with
fanciful articles of jewelry, suspending them from their ears, hanging
them about their necks, and clasping them around their wrists; so
Fayaway and her companions were in the habit of ornamenting themselves
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 arrangement the strawberry
coronal worn by an English peeress, and composed of intertwined leaves
and blossoms, often crowned their temples; and bracelets and anklets of
the 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 of
character, and one that ere long will be more fully alluded to.
Though in my eyes, at least, Fayaway was indisputably the loveliest
female I saw in Typee, yet the description I have given of her will in
some measure apply to nearly all the youthful portion of her sex in the
valley. Judge ye then, reader, what beautiful creatures they must have
been.