King Mehevi—Conduct of Marheyo and Mehevi in certain delicate
matters—Peculiar system of marriage—Number of
population—Uniformity—Embalming—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, therefore, Mehevi, king
over all the Typees! and long life and prosperity 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. To 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 behaviour, 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 wives and families,
they ought to have been ashamed of themselves; 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 as odious incumbrances; and their ideas of domestic
felicity were sufficiently shown in the fact, that they allowed no
meddlesome housekeepers to turn topsy-turvy those snug little
arrangements they had made in their comfortable dwelling. I strongly
suspected, however, that some of those jolly 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 although 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 Moonoony smiled—the young
fellow of fifteen, who permanently resided in the house with her, was
decidedly 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
determined that I should have some understanding on these matters—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 tattooed; 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 tattooing exhibited by
Fayaway, in common with other young girls of her age. The hand and foot
thus embellished, were, according to Kory-Kory, the distinguishing
badge of wedlock, so far 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 for some time
studiously respectful in the presence of all females thus
distinguished, and never ventured to indulge in the slightest approach
to flirtation with any of their number.
A further insight, however, into the peculiar domestic customs of 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 polygamy exists among the islanders,
but of a most extraordinary nature,—a plurality of husbands, instead of
wives; and this solitary fact speaks volumes for the gentle 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 presents himself, of graver years, and
carries both boy and girl 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 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 separations occasionally
happen. These, however, when they do take place, produce no
unhappiness, and are preceded by no bickerings: for 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 arithmetical
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 their
souls; and they were never seen going 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 circumstance
which I attributed, at the time, to my living in a particular part of
it, and being forbidden to extend my ramble to any considerable
distance towards the sea. I have since thought it probable, however,
that the Typees, either desirous of removing from their sight the
evidences of mortality, or prompted by a taste for rural beauty, may
have some charming cemetery situated in the shadowy recesses along the
base of the mountains. At Nukuheva, two or three large quadrangular
“pi-pis,” heavily flagged, enclosed with regular stone walls, and
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 suffered to remain there without being disinterred. Although
nothing could be more strange and gloomy than the aspect of these
places, where the lofty trees threw their dark shadows over rude blocks
of stone, a 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 inmates were so
accommodating as to die and be buried in order to gratify my curiosity
with regard to their 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 other tribes on the island, I will here relate a scene I chanced to
witness at Nukuheva.
A young man had died, about daybreak, in a house near the beach. I had
been sent ashore that morning, and saw a good deal of the preparations
they were making 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 together. This
was supported, about two feet from the ground, by large canes planted
uprightly in the earth. Two females, of a dejected appearance, watched
by its side, plaintively chanting, and beating the air with large grass
fans whitened with pipe-clay. In the dwelling-house 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, danced; 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 practice it with
such success, that the bodies of their great chiefs are frequently
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 exposed, 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 am
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 no number could have been better adapted to
the extent of the valley. The valley is some nine miles in length, and
may average 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 beautiful 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 footpaths, twisting and turning among the
thickets without end.