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Typee

by Herman Melville · English · Gutenberg #28656 · 596,099 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: Typee

Author: Herman Melville


        
Release date: May 1, 2009 [eBook #28656]
                Most recently updated: December 19, 2022

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28656


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TYPEE ***




[Illustration: FAYAWAY AND I HAD A DELIGHTFUL LITTLE PARTY ON THE LAKE]




[Illustration]

TYPEE

by HERMAN MELVILLE


ILLUSTRATIONS BY
MEAD SCHAEFFER

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK




CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. A LAND-SICK SHIP
The sea—Longings for shore—A land-sick ship—Destination of the voyagers


CHAPTER II. TO THE MARQUESAS
Passage from the cruising ground to the Marquesas—Sleepy times aboard
ship—South Sea scenery—Land ho!—The French squadron discovered 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.


CHAPTER III. AFFAIRS ABOARD
State of affairs aboard the ship—Contents of her larder—Length of South
Seamen’s voyages—Account of a flying whale-man—Determination to leave
the vessel—The bay of Nukuheva—The Typees.


CHAPTER IV. LAST NIGHT ABOARD
Thoughts previous to attempting an escape—Toby, a fellow-sailor, agrees
to share the adventure—Last night aboard the ship.


CHAPTER V. THE ESCAPE
A specimen of nautical oratory—Criticisms of the sailors—The starboard
watch are given a holiday—The escape to the mountains.


CHAPTER VI. DISAPPOINTMENT
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 landscape.


CHAPTER VII. A WILD-GOOSE CHASE
The important question, Typee or Happar?—A wild-goose chase—My
sufferings—Disheartening situation—A night in the ravine—Morning
meal—Happy idea of Toby—Journey towards the valley.


CHAPTER VIII. INTO THE VALLEY
Perilous passage of the ravine—Descent into the valley.


CHAPTER IX. CAUTIOUS ADVANCE
The head of the valley—Cautious advance—A path—Fruit—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.


CHAPTER X. MORNING VISITORS
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.


CHAPTER XI. ADVENTURE IN THE DARK
Officiousness of Kory-Kory—His devotion—A bath in the stream—Want of
refinement of the Typee damsels—Stroll with Mehevi—A Typee highway—The
Taboo groves—The hoolah hoolah ground—The Ti—Timeworn
savages—Hospitality of Mehevi—Midnight musings—Adventure in the
dark—Distinguished honours paid to the visitors—Strange procession, and
return to the house of Marheyo.


CHAPTER XII. ADVENTURE OF TOBY
Attempt to procure relief from Nukuheva—Perilous adventure of Toby in
the Happar Mountains—Eloquence of Kory-Kory.


CHAPTER XIII. A GREAT EVENT
A great event happens in the valley—The island telegraph—Something
befalls Toby—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 _à la_ Typee.


CHAPTER XIV. KINDNESS OF THE ISLANDERS
Kindness of Marheyo and the rest of the islanders—A full description of
the bread-fruit tree—Different modes of preparing the fruit.


CHAPTER XV. MELANCHOLY CONDITION
Melancholy condition—Occurrence at the Ti—Anecdote of Marheyo—Shaving
the head of a warrior.


CHAPTER XVI. IMPROVEMENT
Improvement in health and spirits—Felicity of the Typees—A skirmish in
the mountain with the warriors of Happar.


CHAPTER XVII. A STRANGER ARRIVES
Swimming in company with the girls of the valley—A canoe—Effects of the
taboo—A pleasure excursion on the pond—Beautiful freak of
Fayaway—Mantua-making—A stranger arrives in the valley—His mysterious
conduct—Native oratory—The interview—Its results—Departure of the
stranger.


CHAPTER XVIII. BATTLE OF THE POP-GUNS
Reflection after Marnoo’s departure—Battle of the pop-guns—Strange
conceit of Marheyo—Process of making tappa.


CHAPTER XIX. DANCES
History of a day as usually spent in the Typee valley—Dances of the
Marquesan girls.


CHAPTER XX. MONUMENTS
The spring of Arva Wai—Remarkable monumental remains—Some ideas with
regard to the history of the pi-pis found in the valley.


CHAPTER XXI. A FESTIVAL
Preparations for a grand festival in the valley—Strange doings in the
Taboo Groves—Monument of Calabashes—Gala costume of the Typee
damsels—Departure for the festival.


CHAPTER XXII. THE FEAST OF CALABASHES
The Feast of Calabashes.


CHAPTER XXIII. RELIGION OF THE TYPEES
Ideas suggested by the Feast of Calabashes—Effigy of a dead warrior—A
singular superstition—The priest Kolory and the god Moa Artua—Amazing
religious observance—A dilapidated shrine—Kory-Kory and the idol—An
inference.


CHAPTER XXIV. BEAUTY OF THE TYPEES
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—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.


CHAPTER XXV. MARRIAGE CUSTOMS
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.


CHAPTER XXVI. SOCIAL CONDITIONS
The social condition and general character of the Typees.


CHAPTER XXVII. FISHING PARTIES
Fishing parties—Mode of distributing the fish—Midnight
banquet—Timekeeping tapers—Unceremonious style of eating the fish.


CHAPTER XXVIII. NATURAL HISTORY
Natural history of the valley—Golden lizards—Tameness of the
birds—Mosquitoes—Flies—Dogs—A solitary cat—The climate—The cocoa-nut
tree—Singular modes of climbing it—An agile young chief—Fearlessness of
the children—Too-too and the cocoa-nut tree—The birds of the valley.


CHAPTER XXIX. TATTOOING
A professor of the fine arts—His persecutions—Something about tattooing
and tabooing—Two anecdotes in illustration of the latter—A few thoughts
on the Typee dialect.


CHAPTER XXX. MUSIC
Strange custom of the islanders—Their chanting, and the peculiarity of
their voice—Rapture of the king at first hearing a song—A new dignity
conferred on the author—Musical instruments in the valley—Admiration of
the savages at beholding a pugilistic performance—Swimming
infant—Beautiful tresses of the girls—Ointment for the hair.


CHAPTER XXXI. CANNIBALISM
Apprehensions of evil—Frightful discovery—Some remarks on
cannibalism—Second battle with the Happars—Savage spectacle—Mysterious
feast—Subsequent disclosures.


CHAPTER XXXII. ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE
The stranger again arrives in the valley—Singular interview with
him—Attempt to escape—Failure—Melancholy situation—Sympathy of Marheyo.


CHAPTER XXXIII. THE ESCAPE
The escape


SEQUEL
NOTE.—The Author of “Typee” was more than two years in the South Seas,
after escaping from the valley, as recounted in the last chapter. Some
time after returning home the foregoing narrative was published, though
it was little thought at the time that this would be the means of
revealing the existence of Toby, who had long been given up for lost.
But so it proved. The story of his escape supplies a natural sequel to
the adventure, and as such it is now added to the volume. It was
related to the Author by Toby himself.


APPENDIX




ILLUSTRATIONS

 Fayaway and I had a delightful little party on the lake
 I found him ripe for the enterprise, and a very few words sufficed for a mutual understanding between us
 At last we gained the top of the second elevation
 We were soon completely encircled by a dense throng
 The body was carried into the house and laid on a mat
 Thus arrayed, I would have matched the charming Fayaway against any beauty in the world
 Mehevi
 About midnight I arose and drew the slide




TYPEE




CHAPTER I


The sea—Longings for shore—A land-sick ship—Destination of the
voyagers.


Six months at sea! Yes, reader, as I live, six months out of sight of
land; cruising after the sperm whale beneath the scorching sun of the
Line, 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 glorious 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 us but
salt-horse and sea-biscuit.

Oh! for a refreshing glimpse of one blade of grass—for a snuff at the
fragrance of a handful of the loamy earth! Is there nothing 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 verdure could flourish this weary
way from land. Even the bark that once clung to the wood we use for
fuel has been gnawed off and devoured by the captain’s pig; and so long
ago, too, that the pig himself has in turn been devoured.

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 his 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 miserable 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; and 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, as 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 helm down so gently and try
like to coax her to the work, she won’t take it kindly, but will fall
round off again; and it’s all because she knows the land is under the
lee, sir, and she won’t go any more to windward.” Ay, 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 deplorable she
appears! The paint on her sides, burnt up by the scorching sun, is
puffed 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 rolling and
pitching about, never for one moment at rest. But courage, 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.


“Hurrah, 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—tattooed chiefs—and bamboo
temples; sunny valleys planted with bread-fruit trees—carved canoes
dancing on the flashing blue waters—savage woodlands guarded by
horrible idols—_heathenish rites and human sacrifices_.

Such were the strangely jumbled anticipations that haunted me during
our passage from the cruising ground. I felt an irresistible 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 had abandoned them to their idols of
wood and stone. How interesting 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 for a moment the Spaniard believed his bright dream was realized.
In honour 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 known 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, if
we except the slight mention made of them in the sketches of South Sea
voyages. Cook, in his repeated circumnavigations 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 engaged in the
extensive whale fisheries of the Pacific have occasionally, when short
of provisions, put into the commodious harbour 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 discovered, of which so little has hitherto
been known as the Marquesas, and it is a pleasing reflection that this
narrative of mine will do something towards withdrawing the veil from
regions so romantic and beautiful.




CHAPTER II


Passage from the cruising ground to the Marquesas—Sleepy times aboard
ship—South Sea scenery—Land ho!—The French squadron discovered 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 the light
trade-winds were silently sweeping us towards the islands. In pursuit
of the sperm whale, we had been cruising on the line 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 superfluous 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 old
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 circumstance 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 narcotic. Even the officers aft, whose
duty required them never to be seated while keeping a deck watch,
vainly endeavoured to keep on their pins; and were obliged invariably
to compromise the matter by leaning up against the bulwarks, and gazing
abstractedly over the side. Reading was out of the question; take a
book in your hand, and you were asleep in an instant.

Although I could not avoid yielding in a great measure to the general
languor, still at times I contrived to shake off the spell, and to
appreciate the beauty of 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 colour. 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 after 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 villanous footpad of the seas,
would come skulking along, and, at a wary distance, regard us with an
evil eye. At times, some shapeless monster of the deep, floating on the
surface, would, as we approach, sink slowly into the blue waters, and
fade away from the sight. But the most impressive feature of the scene
was the almost unbroken silence that reigned over sky and water.
Scarcely a sound could be heard but the occasional breathing of the
grampus, and the rippling at the cut-water.

As we drew nearer the land, I hailed with delight the appearance of
innumerable sea-fowl. Screaming and whirling in spiral tracks, they
would accompany the vessel, and at times alight on our yards and stays.
That piratical-looking fellow, appropriately named the
man-of-war’s-hawk, with his blood-red bill and raven plumage, would
come sweeping round us in gradually diminishing circles, till you could
distinctly mark the strange flashings of his eye; and then, as if
satisfied with his observation, 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
it being in sight was heard from aloft,—given with that peculiar
prolongation of 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! Ay, there it was. A hardly perceptible
blue irregular outline, indicating the bold contour of the lofty
heights of Nukuheva.

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 parallels 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 immediate vicinity of the other islands, that is to say, less than
a degree to the north-west of them; that their inhabitants speak the
Marquesan dialect, and that their laws, religion, and general customs
are identical. The only reason why they were ever thus arbitrarily
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. Notwithstanding this, I shall follow the
example of most voyagers, and treat of them as forming 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 surrounding seas. This island is about twenty miles
in length, and nearly as many in breadth. It has three good harbours 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 about 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
foreigners, 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 sunset; 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 view some
new and startling scene of beauty.

Those who for the first time visit the South Seas, generally are
surprised at the appearance of the islands when beheld from the 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 different; 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 harbour, 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-coloured flag of
France, trailing over the stern of six vessels, whose black hulls, and
bristling broadsides, proclaimed 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
presence 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 invincible French
nation.

This item of information was imparted to us by a most extraordinary
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 intoxication when a man is
amiable and helpless. Although 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 recognise 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 impossible
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 appointed pilot of the harbour 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 beneath 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 numbers of
cocoa-nuts floating closely together in circular groups, and bobbing up
and down with every wave. By some inexplicable means these cocoa-nuts
were all steadily approaching towards the ship. As I leaned curiously
over the side, endeavouring 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 had 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 proprietor, inserting his head into the midst
of them, impelled his necklace 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 a 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
trailing 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, and 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 chainplates 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 the 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, laughing 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; 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
arrayed 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
bow-sprit, while others seated themselves upon the taffrail, or
reclined at full length upon the boats.

Their appearance perfectly amazed me; their extreme youth, the light
clear brown of their complexions, their delicate features, and
inexpressibly graceful figures, their softly 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 ourselves
prisoners, and for the whole period that she remained in the bay, the
_Dolly_, as well as her crew, were completely in the hands of the
mermaids.

In the evening after we had come to an anchor, the deck was illuminated
with lanterns, and this picturesque 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 Marquesan girls are beautiful in the
extreme, but there is an abandoned 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 most shameful inebriety
prevailed, with occasional and but short-lived interruptions, through
the whole period of her stay. Alas for the poor 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.




CHAPTER III


State of affairs aboard the ship—Contents of her larder—Length of South
Seamen’s voyages—Account of a flying whale-man—Determination to leave
the vessel—The bay of Nukuheva—The Typees.


It was in the summer of 1842, that we arrived at the islands. Our ship
had not been many days in the harbour of Nukuheva, before I came to the
determination of leaving her. That my reasons for resolving to take
this step were numerous and weighty, may be inferred from the fact that
I chose rather to risk my fortunes among the savages of the island than
to endure another 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 behoves me,
for the sake of my own character, to offer some explanation of my
conduct.

When I entered on board 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, I 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 absolved from his liability?
Who is there who will not answer in the affirmative?

Having settled the principle, then, let me apply it to the particular
case in question. In numberless instances had not only the implied but
the specified conditions of the articles been violated on the part of
the ship in which I served. The usage on board of her was tyrannical;
the sick had been inhumanly neglected; the provisions had been doled
out in scanty allowance; and her cruises were unreasonably protracted.
The captain was the author of these abuses; it was in vain to think
that he would either 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 dastardly 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 terms 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 hold is filled
with provisions for her own consumption. The owners, who officiate as
caterers for the voyage, supply 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 different 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, previously 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 board 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 cruise after them until she has barely sufficient
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 prosecution 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
will fill his vessel with good sperm oil, or failing to do so, never
again 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 wanderings are carefully 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, cruising 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 encrusted 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 remembrance of it
always haunted me; what eventually became of her I never learned; at
any rate she never reached home, and I suppose 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 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 make an unfortunate
voyage, and our experience so far had justified the expectation.

I may here state, and on my faith as an honest man, that some time
after arriving home from my adventures, I 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 expanse 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 hillsides 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 the shore is heightened 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 assuming the form
of a slender cascade, then stealing invisibly along until it bursts
upon the sight again in larger and more noisy waterfalls, and at last
demurely wanders along to the sea.

The houses of the natives, constructed of the yellow bamboo, tastefully
twisted together in a kind of wickerwork, and thatched with the long
tapering leaves of the palmetto, are scattered irregularly 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 harbour, 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 intervening mountains, generally 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 expedition of war or plunder. Immediately adjacent to Nukuheva,
and only separated from it by the mountains seen from the harbour, 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 Typees, 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, perhaps, 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 had received in desperate encounters 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 repugnance 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 _Katherine_, who only a few months
previous, imprudently venturing into this bay in an armed boat for the
purpose of barter, was seized by the natives, carried back a little
distance into 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 cruise, sought to enter the bay of Nukuheva, and arriving 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 localities 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
murdered every soul on board.




CHAPTER IV


Thoughts previous to attempting an escape—Toby, a fellow-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
repulsive 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 solicitude 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; 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 appreciated 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
magnificent 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 of the shore, unless
bound 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 such fruits as came in my way until
the sailing of the ship, an event of which I could not fail to be
immediately apprized, as from my lofty position I should command a view
of the entire harbour.

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 detested old vessel from
the height of some thousand feet, and contrast the verdant scenery
about me with the recollection of her narrow decks and gloomy
forecastle! Why, it was really refreshing even to think of it; and so I
straightway fell to picturing myself seated beneath a cocoa-nut tree on
the brow of the mountain, with a cluster of plantains within easy
reach, criticizing her nautical evolutions as she was working her way
out of the harbour.

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 appetites, edged perhaps by the
air of so elevated a region, might prompt them to devour one. This, I
must confess, was the most disagreeable view of the matter.

Just to think of a party of these unnatural gourmands taking it into
their heads to make a convivial meal of a poor devil, who would have no
means of escape or defence: however, there was no help for it. I was
willing to encounter some risks in order to accomplish my object, and
counted much upon my ability to elude these prowling cannibals amongst
the many coverts which the mountains afforded. Besides, the chances
were ten to one in my favour that they would none of them quit their
own fastnesses.

I had determined not to communicate my design of withdrawing from the
vessel to any of my shipmates, and least of all to solicit any one to
accompany me in my flight. But it so happened one night, that being
upon deck, revolving over in my mind various plans of escape, I
perceived one of the ship’s company leaning over the bulwarks,
apparently plunged in a profound reverie. He was a young fellow about
my own age, for whom I had all along entertained a great regard; and
Toby, such was the name by which he went among us, for his real name he
would never tell us, was every way worthy of it. He was active, ready,
and obliging, of dauntless courage, and singularly open and fearless in
the expression of his feelings. I had on more than one occasion got him
out of scrapes into which this had led him; and I know not whether it
was from this cause, or a certain congeniality of sentiment between us,
that he had always shown a partiality for my society. We had battled
out many a long watch together, beguiling the weary hours with chat,
song, and story, mingled with a good many imprecations upon the hard
destiny it seemed our common fortune to encounter.


[Illustration: I FOUND HIM RIPE FOR THE ENTERPRISE, AND A VERY FEW
WORDS SUFFICED FOR A MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN US]


Toby, like myself, had evidently moved in a different sphere of life,
and his conversation at times betrayed this, although he was anxious to
conceal it. He was one of that class of rovers you sometimes meet at
sea, who never reveal their origin, never allude to home, and go
rambling over the world as if pursued by some mysterious fate they
cannot possibly elude.

There was much even in the appearance of Toby calculated to draw me
towards him, for while the greater part of the crew were as coarse in
person as in mind, Toby was endowed with a remarkably prepossessing
exterior. Arrayed in his blue frock and duck trousers, he was as smart
a looking sailor as ever stepped upon a deck; he was singularly small
and slightly made, with great flexibility of limb. His naturally dark
complexion had been deepened by exposure to the tropical sun, and a
mass of jetty locks clustered about his temples, and threw a darker
shade into his large black eyes. He was a strange wayward being, moody,
fitful, and melancholy—at times almost morose. He had a quick and fiery
temper too, which, when thoroughly roused, transported him into a state
bordering on delirium.

It is strange the power that a mind of deep passion has over feebler
natures. I have seen a brawny fellow, with no lack of ordinary courage,
fairly quail before this slender stripling, when in one of his furious
fits. But these paroxysms seldom occurred, and in them my big-hearted
shipmate vented the bile which more calm-tempered individuals get rid
of by a continual pettishness at trivial annoyances.

No one ever saw Toby laugh—I mean in the hearty abandonment of
broad-mouthed mirth. He did smile sometimes, it is true; and there was
a good deal of dry, sarcastic humour about him, which told the more
from the imperturbable gravity of his tone and manner.

Latterly I had observed that Toby’s melancholy had greatly increased,
and I had frequently seen him since our arrival at the island gazing
wistfully upon the shore, when the remainder of the crew would be
rioting below. I was aware that he entertained a cordial detestation of
the ship, and believed that should a fair chance of escape present
itself, he would embrace it willingly. But the attempt was so perilous
in the place where we then lay, that I supposed myself the only
individual on board the ship who was sufficiently reckless to think of
it. In this, however, I was mistaken.

When I perceived Toby leaning, as I have mentioned, against the
bulwarks and buried in thought, it struck me at once that the subject
of his meditations might be the same as my own. And if it be so,
thought I, is he not the very one of all my shipmates whom I would
choose for the partner of my adventure? and why should I not have some
comrade with me to divide its dangers and alleviate its hardships?
Perhaps I might be obliged to lie concealed among the mountains for
weeks. In such an event what a solace would a companion be?

These thoughts passed rapidly through my mind, and I wondered why I had
not before considered the matter in this light. But it was not too
late. A tap upon the shoulder served to rouse Toby from his reverie; I
found him ripe for the enterprise, and a very few words sufficed for a
mutual understanding between us. In an hour’s time we had arranged all
the preliminaries, and decided upon our plan of action. We then
ratified our engagement with an affectionate wedding of palms, and to
elude suspicion repaired each to his hammock, to spend the last night
on board the _Dolly_.

The next day the starboard watch, to which we both belonged, was to be
sent ashore on liberty; and, availing ourselves of this opportunity we
determined, as soon after landing as possible, to separate ourselves
from the rest of the men without exciting their suspicions, and strike
back at once for the mountains. Seen from the ship, the summits
appeared inaccessible, but here and there sloping spurs extended from
them almost into the sea, buttressing the lofty elevations with which
they were connected, and forming those radiating valleys I have before
described. One of these ridges, which appeared more practicable than
the rest, we determined to climb, convinced that it would conduct us to
the heights beyond. Accordingly, we carefully observed its bearings and
locality from the ship, so that when ashore we should run no chance of
missing it.

In all this the leading object we had in view was to seclude ourselves
from sight until the departure of the vessel; then to take our chance
as to the reception the Nukuheva natives might give us; and after
remaining upon the island as long as we found our stay agreeable, to
leave it the first favourable opportunity that offered.




CHAPTER V


A specimen of nautical oratory—Criticisms of the sailors—The starboard
watch are given a holiday—The escape to the mountains.


Early the next morning the starboard watch were mustered upon the
quarter-deck, and our worthy captain, standing in the cabin gangway,
harangued us as follows:—

“Now, men, as we are just off a six month’s cruise, and have got
through most all our work in port here, I suppose you want to go
ashore. Well, I mean to give your watch liberty to-day, so you may get
ready as soon as you please, and go; but understand this, I am going to
give you liberty because I suppose you would growl like so many old
quarter gunners if I didn’t; at the same time, if you’ll take my
advice, every mother’s son of you will stay aboard, and keep out of the
way of the bloody cannibals altogether. Ten to one, men, if you go
ashore, you will get into some infernal row, and that will be the end
of you; for if these tattooed scoundrels get you a little ways back
into their valleys, they’ll nab you—that you may be certain of. Plenty
of white men have gone ashore here and never been seen any more. There
was the old _Dido_, she put in here about two years ago, and sent one
watch off on liberty; they never were heard of again for a week—the
natives swore they didn’t know where they were—and only three of them
ever got back to the ship again, and one with his face damaged for
life, for the cursed heathens tattooed a broad patch clean across his
figure head. But it will be no use talking to you, for go you will,
that I see plainly; so all I have to say is, that you need not blame me
if the islanders make a meal of you. You may stand some chance of
escaping them though, if you keep close about the French encampment,
and are back to the ship again before sunset. Keep that much in your
mind, if you forget all the rest I’ve been saying to you. There, go
forward: bear a hand and rig yourselves, and stand by for a call. At
two bells the boat will be manned to take you off, and the Lord have
mercy on you!”

Various were the emotions depicted upon the countenances of the
starboard watch whilst listening to this address; but on its conclusion
there was a general move towards the forecastle, and we soon were all
busily engaged in getting ready for the holiday so auspiciously
announced by the skipper. During these preparations, his harangue was
commented upon in no very measured terms; and one of the party, after
denouncing him as a lying old son of a sea-cook who begrudged a fellow
a few hours’ liberty, exclaimed with an oath, “But you don’t bounce me
out of my liberty, old chap, for all your yarns; for I would go ashore
if every pebble on the beach was a live coal, and every stick a
gridiron, and the cannibals stood ready to broil me on landing.”

The spirit of this sentiment was responded to by all hands, and we
resolved that in spite of the captain’s croakings we would make a
glorious day of it.

But Toby and I had our own game to play, and we availed ourselves of
the confusion which always reigns among a ship’s company preparatory to
going ashore, to confer together and complete our arrangements. As our
object was to effect as rapid a flight as possible to the mountains, we
determined not to encumber ourselves with any superfluous apparel; and
accordingly, while the rest were rigging themselves out with some idea
of making a display, we were content to put on new stout duck trousers,
serviceable pumps, and heavy Havre frocks, which, with a Payta hat,
completed our equipment.

When our shipmates wondered at this, Toby exclaimed, in his odd grave
way, that the rest might do as they liked, but that he for one
preserved his go-ashore traps for the Spanish main, where the tie of a
sailor’s neckerchief might make some difference; but as for a parcel of
unbreeched heathen, he wouldn’t go to the bottom of his chest for any
of them, and was half disposed to appear among them in buff himself.
The men laughed at what they thought was one of his strange conceits,
and so we escaped suspicion.

It may appear singular that we should have been thus on our guard with
our own shipmates; but there were some among us who, had they possessed
the least inkling of our project, would, for a paltry hope of reward,
have immediately communicated it to the captain.

As soon as two bells struck, the word was passed for the liberty-men to
get into the boat. I lingered behind in the forecastle a moment, to
take a parting glance at its familiar features, and just as I was about
to ascend to the deck, my eye happened to light on the bread-barge and
beef-kid, which contained the remnants of our last hasty meal. Although
I had never before thought of providing anything in the way of food for
our expedition, as I fully relied upon the fruits of the island to
sustain us wherever we might wander, yet I could not resist the
inclination I felt to provide a luncheon from the relics before me.
Accordingly I took a double handful of those small, broken, flinty bits
of biscuit which generally go by the name of “midshipmen’s nuts,” and
thrust them into the bosom of my frock; in which same ample receptacle
I had previously stowed away several pounds of tobacco and a few yards
of cotton cloth,—articles with which I intended to purchase the
good-will of the natives, as soon as we should appear among them after
the departure of our vessel.

This last addition to my stock caused a considerable protuberance in
front, which I abated in a measure by shaking the bits of bread around
my waist, and distributing the plugs of tobacco among the folds of the
garment.

Hardly had I completed these arrangements when my name was sung out by
a dozen voices, and I sprung upon the deck, where I found all the party
in the boat, and impatient to shove off. I dropped over the side, and
seated myself, with the rest of the watch, in the stern sheets, while
the poor larboarders shipped their oars, and commenced pulling us
ashore.

This happened to be the rainy season at the islands, and the heavens
had nearly the whole morning betokened one of those heavy showers
which, during this period, so frequently occur. The large drops fell
bubbling into the water shortly after our leaving the ship, and by the
time we had effected a landing, it poured down in torrents. We fled for
shelter under cover of an immense canoe-house, which stood hard by the
beach, and waited for the first fury of the storm to pass.

It continued, however, without cessation; and the monotonous beating of
the rain overhead began to exert a drowsy influence upon the men, who,
throwing themselves here and there upon the large war-canoes, after
chatting awhile, all fell asleep.

This was the opportunity we desired, and Toby and I availed ourselves
of it at once, by stealing out of the canoe-house, and plunging into
the depths of an extensive grove that was in its rear. After ten
minutes’ rapid progress, we gained an open space, from which we could
just descry the ridge we intended to mount looming dimly through the
mists of the tropical shower, and distant from us, as we estimated,
something more than a mile. Our direct course towards it lay through a
rather populous part of the bay; but desirous as we were of evading the
natives and securing an unmolested retreat to the mountains, we
determined, by taking a circuit through some extensive thickets, to
avoid their vicinity altogether.

The heavy rain that still continued to fall without intermission,
favoured our enterprise, as it drove the islanders into their houses,
and prevented any casual meeting with them. Our heavy frocks soon
became completely saturated with water, and by their weight, and that
of the articles we had concealed beneath them, not a little impeded our
progress. But it was no time to pause, when at any moment we might be
surprised by a body of the savages, and forced at the very outset to
relinquish our undertaking.

Since leaving the canoe-house we had scarcely exchanged a single
syllable with one another, but when we entered a second narrow opening
in the wood, and again caught sight of the ridge before us, I took Toby
by the arm, and pointing along its sloping outline to the lofty heights
at its extremity, said, in a low tone, “Now, Toby, not a word, nor a
glance backward, till we stand on the summit of yonder mountain; so no
more lingering, but let us shove ahead while we can, and in a few
hours’ time we may laugh aloud. You are the lightest and the nimblest,
so lead on, and I will follow.”

“All right, brother,” said Toby, “quick’s our play, only let’s keep
close together, that’s all”; and so saying, with a bound like a young
roe, he cleared a brook which ran across our path, and rushed forward
with a quick step.

When we arrived within a short distance of the ridge, we were stopped
by a mass of tall yellow reeds, growing together as thickly as they
could stand, and as tough and stubborn as so many rods of steel; and we
perceived, to our chagrin, that they extended midway up the elevation
we proposed to ascend.

For a moment we gazed about us in quest of a more practicable route; it
was, however, at once apparent that there was no resource but to pierce
this thicket of canes at all hazards. We now reversed our order of
march, I, being the heaviest, taking the lead, with a view of breaking
a path through the obstruction, while Toby fell into the rear.

Two or three times I endeavoured to insinuate myself between the canes,
and, by dint of coaxing and bending them, to make some progress; but a
bull-frog might as well have tried to work a passage through the teeth
of a comb, and I gave up the attempt in despair.

Half wild with meeting an obstacle we had so little anticipated, I
threw myself desperately against it, crushing to the ground the canes
with which I came in contact, and rising to my feet again, repeated the
action with like effect. Twenty minutes of this violent exercise almost
exhausted me, but it carried us some way into the thicket; when Toby,
who had been reaping the benefit of my labours by following close at my
heels, proposed to become pioneer in turn, and accordingly passed ahead
with a view of affording me a respite from my exertions. As, however,
with his slight frame he made but bad work of it, I was soon obliged to
resume my old place again.

On we toiled, the perspiration starting from our bodies in floods, our
limbs torn and lacerated with the splintered fragments of the broken
canes, until we had proceeded perhaps as far as the middle of the
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 objects, 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 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, lopping the
canes right and left, 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, communicating 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 summit. 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 the grass through which we glided, much in the
fashion of a couple of serpents. After an hour employed in this
unpleasant kind of locomotion, 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 sharp angle from the valleys at its base, and presented, with
the exception of a few steep acclivities, the appearance of a vast
inclined plane, sweeping down towards the sea from the heights in the
distance. We had ascended it near the 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 enterprise, and
invigorated by the refreshing atmosphere we now inhaled, 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 whom
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 influence of some
sudden alarm, and appearing to the eye scarcely bigger than so many
pigmies, while their white thatched dwellings, dwarfed by the distance,
looked like baby-houses. As we looked down upon the islanders from our
lofty elevation, we experienced a sense of security; feeling confident
that, should they undertake a pursuit, it would, from the start we now
had, proved entirely fruitless, unless they followed us into the
mountains, where we knew they cared not to venture.

However, we thought it was well to make the most of our time; and
accordingly, where the ground would admit of it, we ran swiftly along
the summit 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 surmounted it, and continued our flight
with unabated celerity.

We had left the beach early in the morning, and after an uninterrupted,
though at times difficult 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 overhanging cliff 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 verdant sides, perforated with
deep glens, 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.




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 landscape.


My curiosity had been not a little raised with regard to the
description of country we should meet on the other side of the
mountains; and I had supposed, with Toby, that immediately on gaining
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 elevation, 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 descending 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 we had no doubt our skipper
would hold out to them as an inducement 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 desirous to ascertain what part of it had
weathered the rather rough usage it had experienced in ascending the
mountain. I accordingly proposed to Toby that we should enter into a
joint examination of the various articles we had brought from the ship.
With this intent we seated ourselves upon the grass; and a little
curious 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 operations by spreading out its contents.

Thrusting his hand, then, into the bosom of his capacious receptacle,
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
situation, as soon as I perceived the indications 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 discoloured, that for a few moments he
was as much puzzled as myself to tell by what possible instrumentality
such a villanous compound had become engendered in his bosom. I can
only describe it as a hash of soaked bread and bits of tobacco, brought
to a doughy consistency by the united agency of perspiration and rain.
But repulsive as it might otherwise have been, I now regarded it as an
invaluable treasure, 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 from 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-head,
which were fished up from the bottom of the now empty receptacle. These
various matters being inspected, I produced a few things which I had
myself brought.

As might have been anticipated from the state of my companion’s edible
supplies, I found my own in a deplorable condition, 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 alternately. But
the sorry remains of the biscuit were not to be disposed of so
summarily: the precarious circumstances in which we were placed made us
regard them as something on which very probably depended the fate of
our adventure. After a brief discussion, 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, each 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 proceeding 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 all together into a small package, I
committed them, with solemn injunctions of fidelity, to the custody of
Toby. For the remainder of that day we resolved to fast, as we 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 tempestuous
one.

There was no place near us which would in any way answer our purpose;
so turning our backs upon Nukuheva, we commenced 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 solitude, the interior of
the island having apparently been untenanted since the morning of the
creation; 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
murmurings 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, who 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 footprint 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-holes, do you expect to find
at the bottom of that gulf but a broken neck—why, it looks blacker than
our ship’s hold, and the roar of those waterfalls down there would
batter one’s brains to pieces.”

“Oh, no, Toby,” I exclaimed, laughing; “but there’s something to be
seen here, 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, quickly, “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; “and I am
thinking that this ravine will exactly answer our purpose, for it is
roomy, secluded, well watered, and may shelter us from the weather.”

“Ay, and from sleep too, and by the same token will give us sore
throats, and rheumatism into the bargain,” cried Toby, with 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 morning”; and advancing to the
edge of the cliff upon which we had been standing, I proceeded to lower
myself down by the tangled roots which clustered about all the crevices
of the rock. As I had anticipated, Toby, in spite of his previous
remonstrances, followed 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 I had accomplished
two-thirds of the descent.

The sight that now greeted us was one that will ever be vividly
impressed upon my mind. Five foaming streams, rushing through 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
channel 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 conclusion 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 immediately began gathering together the limbs of trees which
lay scattered about, with the view of constructing a temporary 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 rock, with their lowered ends
within a foot of the stream. Into the space thus covered over we
managed to crawl, and dispose our wearied bodies as best we could.

Shall I ever forget that horrid night! As for poor Toby, I 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
death-like coldness of the place, the appalling darkness and the dismal
sense of our forlorn condition, almost unmanned me.

It will not be doubted that the next morning we were early risers, and
as soon as I could catch 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 toplights 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 misconstrued his
silence, it had become somewhat more light, and we crawled out of our
lair. The rain had ceased, but everything around us was dripping with
moisture. We stripped off our saturated garments, and wrung them as dry
as we could. We contrived to make the blood circulate in our benumbed
limbs by rubbing 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 fast, it being now
twenty-four hours since we had tasted food.

Accordingly, our day’s ration was brought out, and seating ourselves on
a detached fragment of rock, we proceeded to discuss it. First we
divided it into 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 last crumb. What a true saying it is that
“appetite furnishes the best sauce”! There was a flavour 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 farther 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 regularly frequented, and, as we
afterwards conjectured from particular indications, for the purpose of
obtaining a certain root, from which the natives obtained a kind of
ointment.

These discoveries immediately determined us to abandon a place which
had presented no inducement for us to remain, except the promise of
security; and as we looked about us for the means of ascending again
into the upper regions, we at last found a practicable 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, and be as prudent and
circumspect as possible. To all this my companion 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 adapted to our purpose.
Low and heavy clouds betokened an approaching 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 into 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; and now that it 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 bushes, I began
to feel symptoms which I at once attributed to the exposure 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 congenial 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 question 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 chanced 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 impression. 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 tranfixed 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 inhabitants, 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.

On either side it appeared hemmed in by steep and green acclivities,
which, uniting near the spot where I lay, formed an abrupt and
semi-circular termination of grassy cliffs and precipices hundreds of
feet in height, over which flowed numberless small cascades. But the
crowning beauty of the prospect was its universal verdure; and in this
indeed consists, I believe, the peculiar charm of every Polynesian
landscape. Everywhere below 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 cliffs, were lost amidst the rich herbage
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.




CHAPTER VII


The important question, Typee or Happar?—A wild-goose chase—My
sufferings—Disheartening situation—A night in the ravine—Morning
meal—Happy idea of Toby—Journey towards the valley.


Recovering from my astonishment at the beautiful scene before me, I
quickly awakened Toby, and informed him of the discovery I 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 unexpectedly upon this
valley, since the large vales of Happar and Typee, lying upon this side
of Nukuheva, and extending a considerable distance from the sea towards
the interior, must necessarily 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 ferocious 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 proceed upon.

The point was one of vital importance, as the natives of Happar 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.

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 inconsiderate view of the 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
dealt upon the horrible fate we should encounter were we rashly to
descend into the valley, and discover too late the error we had
committed, he replied by detailing all the evils of our present
condition, and the sufferings we must undergo 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, descended 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 that there were several such upon the island,
and proposed that we should endeavour 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, therefore, began
surveying the country lying before us, with a view of determining upon
the best route for us to pursue; but it presented little choice, the
whole interval being broken into steep ridges, divided by dark ravines,
extending in parallel lines at right angles to our direct course. All
these we would be obliged to cross before we could hope to arrive at
our destination.

A weary journey! But we decided to undertake it, though, for my own
part, I felt little prepared 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 experienced, and suffering not a
little from the lameness which afflicted me. Added to this was the
faintness consequent on our meagre diet—a calamity in which Toby
participated to the same extent as myself.

These circumstances, however, only augmented my anxiety to reach a
place which promised us plenty and repose, before I should be reduced
to a state which would render me altogether unable to perform the
journey. Accordingly we now commenced it by descending the almost
perpendicular side of a steep and narrow 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 our path. The velocity with which we thus slid down the side
of the ravine soon brought us to a point where we could 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 undertaking than the last.
Every foot of our late descent had to be regained in ascending the
opposite side of the gorge—an operation rendered the less agreeable
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 with exemplary patience, and after a snail-like
progress of an 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 required
all the entreaties of Toby to prevent me from losing all the fruits of
my late exertion, by precipitating myself madly down the cliffs we had
just 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
impulses, 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 flow on the other side of the ridge.

“Do not,” he exclaimed, “turn back, now that we have proceeded 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, ineffectually endeavouring 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 in parallel 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, separated by sharp crested and perpendicular
ridges as far as the eye could reach. Could we have stepped from summit
to summit of these steep but narrow elevations we could easily have
accomplished the distance; but we must penetrate to the bottom of every
yawning gulf, and 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 I was to
reach the waters of the torrent which flowed beneath us. With an
insensibility to danger which I cannot call to mind without 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 moment 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
falling from the heights above, or whether the fearful rapidity with
which I descended was an act of my own volition.


[Illustration: AT LAST WE GAINED THE TOP OF THE SECOND ELEVATION]


In a few minutes we reached the foot of the gorge, and kneeling 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 crevice, and
the dark stream shooting along its dismal channel, sent fresh chills
through my shivering frame, and I felt as uncontrollable a desire to
climb up towards the genial sunlight as I before 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 adventure, such a course
appears indescribably repulsive, so long as there remains the least
hope to be derived from braving untried difficulties.

It was this feeling 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.

Without exchanging a syllable upon the subject, Toby and myself
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 food 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 without once proposing to violate
the sanctity of our engagement with respect to the remainder, we 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 hand. We disposed them
thickly all around, reserving 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 degree that one
would hardly anticipate in such a climate; and being unprovided with
anything but our woollen frocks and thin duck trousers 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 them in a heap over our little hut, into which we now
crept, raking after us a reserved supply to form our couch.

That night nothing but the pain I suffered prevented me from sleeping
most refreshingly. As it was, I caught two or three naps, while Toby
slept away at my side as soundly as though he had been sandwiched
between two Holland sheets. Luckily it did not rain, and we were
preserved from the misery which a heavy shower would have occasioned
us.

In the morning I was awakened by the sonorous voice of my companion
ringing in my ears and bidding me rise. I crawled out from our heap of
leaves, and was astonished at the change which a good night’s rest had
wrought in his appearance. He was as blithe and joyous 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 like to me, as an admirable antidote against the gnawings of
hunger.

For my own part, though feeling materially better than I had done the
preceding evening, I could not look at the limb that had pained me so
violently at intervals during the last twenty-four hours, without
experiencing a sense of alarm 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 otherwise have given vent, and
calling upon him good-humouredly to speed our banquet, I prepared
myself for it by washing in the stream. This operation concluded, we
swallowed, or rather absorbed, by a peculiar kind of slow sucking
process, our respective morsels of nourishment, and then entered into a
discussion 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,
with a rapidity and loudness of utterance that almost led me to suspect
he had been slyly devouring the broadside 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
for 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-of-battle ship, and
about a hundred times as high.” My companion sank his head upon his
breast, and remained for awhile 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 stupid
ideas about the Typees, and hurrah for the lovely valley of the
Happars!”

“You will 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 them. 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 awhile, he permitted me to overtake him.




CHAPTER VIII


Perilous passage of the ravine—Descent into the valley


The 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 our way along these gloomy
solitudes. Our progress, at first comparatively easy, became more and
more difficult. The bed of the watercourse was covered with fragments
of broken rocks, which had fallen from above, offering 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, affording 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 injured part, would fall sprawling
amongst flinty fragments, cutting and bruising ourselves, whilst the
unpitying waters flowed over our prostrate bodies. Belzoni, worming
himself through the subterranean passages of the Egyptian catacombs,
could not have met with greater impediments than those we here
encountered. But we struggled against them manfully, well knowing our
only hope lay in advancing.

Towards sunset we halted at a spot where we made preparations for
passing the night. Here we constructed a hut, in much the same way as
before, and crawling into it, endeavoured to forget our sufferings. My
companion, I believe, slept pretty soundly; but at daybreak, when we
rolled out of our dwelling, I felt nearly disqualified for any further
efforts. Toby prescribed as a remedy for my illness the contents of one
of our little silk packages, to be taken at once in a single dose. To
this species of medical treatment, however, 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 the fourth day since we left
Nukuheva, and the gnawings of hunger became painfully acute. We were
fain to pacify them by chewing the tender bark of roots and twigs,
which, if they did not afford us nourishment, 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 somewhere near this
part of the day that the noise of falling waters, which we had faintly
caught in the early morning, became more distinct; and it was not long
before we were arrested by a rocky precipice of nearly a hundred feet
in depth, that extended all across the channel, and over which the wild
stream poured in an unbroken leap. On either hand the walls of the
ravine presented their overhanging sides both above and below the fall,
affording no means whatever of avoiding the cataract by taking a
circuit round it.

“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 accomplishing 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 observation is very quickly imparted. It is at present uncertain
which of our two necks will have the honour to be broken first; but
about a hundred to one would be a fair bet in favour 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 afterwards. 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 the 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 covered nearly the entire surface of one side
of the gorge, the 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 ourselves 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 himself nimbly upon it, and 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 farther; 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 in less than a minute’s time I was
swinging directly over his head. As soon as his upturned 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 way”; and then swinging himself more on
one side, he continued his descent. In the meantime, I 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 vertical
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 yawning chasm swang to and fro in the air, and I
expected them every moment to snap in twain. Appalled at the dreadful
fate that menaced 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 violently by striking my foot against the side of the
rock, and at the instant that I approached the large root caught
desperately at it, and transferred myself to it. It vibrated violently
under the sudden weight, but fortunately did not give way.

My brain 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.”

“Ay, ay, Toby, all in good time: two or three more such famous roots as
this, and I shall be with you.”

The residue of my downward progress was comparatively easy; the roots
were in greater abundance, and in one or two places jutting out points
of rock assisted me greatly. In a few moments I was standing by the
side of my companion.

Substituting a stout 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.”

Nothing indeed appeared to depress or intimidate this intrepid fellow.
Typee 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 another fall,
still loftier than the preceding, and flanked both above and below with
the same steep masses of rock, presenting, however, 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 as pioneer, now proceeded to reconnoitre. On
his 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 these sloping ledges
until it carried us to within a few feet of another that inclined
downward at a still sharper angle, and upon 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 difficult 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 farther on it abruptly terminated at a place we could not possibly
hope to pass.

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 voluntarily held my breath,
expecting to see the form of my companion, after 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 himself, and disentangling his limbs from the fractured
branches, he peered out from his leafy 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 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, manipulating
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 difficult 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 vicinity.

That evening we stood on the brink of a precipice, over 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, two 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 head of the vale. A thick canopy of
trees hung over the very verge of the fall, leaving an arched aperture
for 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 watercourse we had
thus far pursued, all our labours 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 into 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 the 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, 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 this
multiplication of hardships, and abandoned myself to frightful
anticipations of evil; and my companion, 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 miserable 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 hairbreadth 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 almost
beneath the shadow of those very cliffs from whose summits we had gazed
upon the prospect.




CHAPTER IX


The head of the valley—Cautious advance—A path—Fruit—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 which 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 question which would so soon be
answered.

The part of the valley in which we found ourselves appeared to be
altogether uninhabited. An almost impenetrable thicket extended from
side to side, without presenting a single plant affording 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 I had yielded in descending into
the valley—now that the step was taken, began to manifest a degree of
caution I had little expected from him. He proposed 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 occupants, whoever they might be—until
sufficiently recruited to resume 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.

I objected strongly to this proposition, plausible as it was, as the
difficulties of the route would almost be insurmountable, unacquainted
as we were with the general bearings of the country, and I reminded my
companion of the hardships which 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 alternative 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, I felt the necessity of rest and shelter, and that
until I had obtained them, I should be wholly unable to encounter such
sufferings 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 valley,
we would still meet with the same impervious thickets; 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-looking shades!
With what apprehensions we proceeded, ignorant at what moment we might
be greeted by the javelin of some ambushed 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 comparatively clear space, at the farther 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 wretch, and
Toby leaping forward like a greyhound. He quickly cleared one of the
trees on which there were two or three of the fruit, but to our chagrin
they proved to be much decayed; the rinds partly opened by the birds,
and their hearts half 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 to 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 undeniable evidence of the vicinity
of the savages.

The plot was now thickening.—A short distance farther 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 to carry the tidings of our approach to his
countrymen?—Typee or Happar?—But it was too late to recede, so we moved
on 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 off with one hand, while
with the other he held aside some intervening leaves, and gazed
intently at some object.

Disregarding his injunction, I quickly approached him and caught a
glimpse of two figures partly hidden by the dense foliage; they were
standing close together, and were perfectly motionless. They must have
previously perceived us, and withdrawn into the depths of the wood to
elude our observation.

My mind was at once made up. Dropping my staff, and tearing open the
package of things we had brought from the ship, I unrolled the 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 completely 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 together, their heads inclined
forward, catching the faint noise we made in our progress, and with one
foot in advance, as if half inclined to fly from our presence.

As we drew near, their alarm evidently increased. Apprehensive 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 appeared
to give them a 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
shoulders, giving them to understand that it was theirs, and by a
variety of gestures endeavouring to make them understand that we
entertained the highest possible regard for them.

The frightened pair now stood still, whilst we endeavoured to make them
comprehend the nature of our wants. In doing this Toby went through
with a complete series of pantomimic illustrations—opening his mouth
from ear to ear, and thrusting his fingers down his throat, gnashing
his teeth and rolling his eyes 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
inclination to relieve 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 valley,
endeavoured 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 understand them; for a couple of
wilier young things than we afterwards 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 equivalent 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 their answer with great energy, as though
desirous of impressing us with the idea that being among the Happars,
we ought to consider ourselves perfectly secure.

Although I had some lingering doubts, I feigned great delight with Toby
at this announcement, while my companion broke out into a pantomimic
abhorrence of Typee, and immeasurable love for the particular valley in
which we were; our guides all the while gazing uneasily at one another,
as if at a loss to account for our conduct.

They hurried on, and we followed them; until suddenly they set up a
strange halloo, which was answered from beyond the grove through which
we were passing, and the next moment we entered upon some open ground,
at the extremity of which we descried a long, low hut, and in front of
it were several young girls. As soon as they perceived us they fled
with wild screams into the adjoining thickets, like so many startled
fawns. A few moments after the whole valley resounded with savage
outcries, and the natives came running towards us from every direction.

Had an army of invaders made an irruption into their territory, they
could not have evinced greater excitement. We were soon completely
encircled by a dense throng, and in their eager desire to behold us,
they almost arrested our progress; an equal number surrounding our
youthful guides, who, with amazing volubility, appeared to be detailing
the circumstances which had attended their meeting with us. Every item
of intelligence appeared to redouble the astonishment of the islanders,
and they gazed at us with inquiring looks.

At last we reached a large and handsome building of bamboos, and were
by signs told to enter it, the natives opening a lane for us through
which to pass; on entering, without ceremony we threw our exhausted
frames upon the mats that covered the floor. In a moment the slight
tenement was completely full of people, whilst those who were unable to
gain admittance gazed at us through its open cane-work.

It was now evening, and by the dim light we could just discern the
savage countenances around us, gleaming with wild 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 questions which every one put to them. Nothing can exceed
the fierce gesticulation of these people when animated in conversation,
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 subsequently 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 expression 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.


[Illustration: WE WERE SOON COMPLETELY ENCIRCLED BY A DENSE THRONG]


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, I took some tobacco from the bosom of my frock, and
offered it to him. He quietly rejected the proffered gift, 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 identical question was asked by the strange being
before me. I 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 hands in transport, and shouted again and again the
talismanic syllables, the utterance of which appeared to have settled
everything.

When this commotion had a little subsided, the principal chief squatted
once more before me, and throwing himself into a sudden 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 acquiesced, 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 was sufficient, and served to
conciliate the good-will of the natives, with whom our congeniality of
sentiment 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 difficult 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 additional syllable, I
compromised the matter with him at the word “Tommo”; 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 is equivalent to a ratification of good-will and
amity among these simple people; and as we were aware of this fact, we
were delighted that it had taken place on the present occasion.

Reclining upon our mats, we now held a kind of levee, giving audience
to successive troops of the natives, who introduced themselves to us by
pronouncing their respective names, and retired in high good humour on
receiving ours in return. During the ceremony the greatest merriment
prevailed, nearly every announcement on the part of the islanders being
followed by a fresh sally of gaiety, which 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 the
honour 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 need 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 those natural goblets to
our lips, and drained it in a moment of the refreshing draught it
contained. The poee-poee was then placed before us, and even famished
as I was, I paused to consider in what manner to convey it to my mouth.

This staple article of food among the Marquese islanders is
manufactured from the produce of the bread-fruit tree. It somewhat
resembles in its plastic nature our bookbinders’ paste, is of a yellow
colour, and somewhat tart to the taste.

Such was the dish, the merits of which I was now eager to discuss. I
eyed it wistfully for 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 smoothly
with the preparation. With a second peculiar 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 was drawn forth perfectly free
of any adhesive matter. This performance was evidently intended for our
instruction; so I again essayed the feat on the principles inculcated,
but with very ill success.

A starving 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 singular
flavour, and grew remarkably fond of it.

So much for the first course; several other dishes followed it, some of
which were positively delicious. We concluded our banquet by tossing
off the contents of two more young cocoa-nuts, after which we regaled
ourselves with the soothing fumes of tobacco, inhaled from a quaintly
carved pipe which passed round the circle.

During the repast, the natives eyed us with intense curiosity,
observing our minutest motions, and appearing to discover abundant
matter for comment in the most trifling occurrence. Their surprise
mounted the highest, when we began to remove our uncomfortable
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 hue 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 piece of
satin; and some of them went so far in their investigation as to apply
the olfactory organ.

Their singular behaviour almost led me to imagine that they never
before had beheld a white man; but a few moments’ reflection convinced
me that this could not have been the case; and a more satisfactory
reason for their conduct has since suggested itself to my mind.

Deterred by the frightful stories related of its inhabitants, ships
never enter this bay, while their hostile relations 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 accompanied by an interpreter. The
natives who live near the sea descry the strangers long before they
reach their 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 is invariably a “tabooed Kannaka,”[1] 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 off from the shore, in readiness at the first untoward event to
escape to the open sea. As soon as the traffic is concluded, one of the
boats pulls in under cover of the muskets of the others, the fruit is
quickly thrown into her, and the transient visitors precipitately
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 under such singular
circumstances. I have no doubt that 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 appeared a complete mystery to them, and
from our ignorance of the language it was impossible for us to
enlighten them. In answer 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 were
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 recent
movements of the French, against whom they seemed to cherish the most
fierce hatred. So eager were they to obtain 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 meaning, when we would endeavour
by every method in our power to communicate the desired intelligence.
At such times their gratification was boundless, and they would
redouble their efforts to make us comprehend them more perfectly. But
all in vain; and in the end they looked at us despairingly, as if we
were the receptacles of invaluable information, but how to come at it
they knew not.

After awhile the group around us gradually dispersed, and we were left
about midnight (as we conjectured) with those who appeared to be
permanent residents of the house. These individuals now provided us
with fresh mats to lie upon, covered us with several folds of tappa,
and then extinguishing the tapers that had been burning, threw
themselves down beside us, and after a little desultory conversation
were soon sound asleep.




CHAPTER X


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.




CHAPTER XI


Officiousness of Kory-Kory—His devotion—A bath in the stream—Want of
refinement of the Typee damsels—Stroll with Mehevi—A Typee highway—The
Taboo groves—The hoolah hoolah ground—The Ti—Timeworn
savages—Hospitality of Mehevi—Midnight musings—Adventure in the
dark—Distinguished honours paid to the visitors—Strange procession, and
return to the house of Marheyo.


When Mehevi had departed from the house, as related in the preceding
chapter, Kory-Kory commenced the functions of the post assigned him. He
brought us various kinds of food; and, as if I were an infant, insisted
upon feeding me with his own hands. To this procedure 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 acquiesce; and the operation of feeding being thus
facilitated, the meal was quickly despatched. As for Toby, he was
allowed to help himself after his own fashion.

The repast over, my attendant arranged the mats for repose, and,
bidding me lie down, covered me with a large robe of tappa, at the 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 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 immediately 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 stone, which
rose a few inches above the surface. The amphibious 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 morning ablutions. I felt somewhat
embarrassed by the presence of the female portion of the company, but,
nevertheless, removed my frock, and washed myself down to my waist in
the stream. As soon as Kory-Kory comprehended from my motions that this
was to be the extent of my performance, he appeared perfectly aghast
with astonishment, and rushing toward me, poured out a torrent of words
in eager deprecation of so limited an operation, enjoining me by
unmistakable signs to immerse my whole body. To this I was forced to
consent; and the honest fellow regarding me as a froward, inexperienced
child, whom 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 Sinbad—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 beaten one in the
valley, several others 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 familiar with its impediments, it
seemed as difficult to travel as the recesses of a wilderness. Part of
it swept around an abrupt rise of ground, the surface of which was
broken by frequent inequalities, and thickly strewn with projecting
masses of rocks, whose summits were often hidden from view by the
drooping foliage of 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 steep glen, and crossing
the flinty channel of a brook. Here it pursued the depths of a glade,
occasionally obliging you to stoop beneath vast horizontal branches;
and now you stepped over huge trunks and boughs that lay rotting across
the track.

Such was the grand thoroughfare of Typee. After proceeding a little
distance along it—Kory-Kory panting and blowing with the weight of his
burden—I dismounted from his back, and grasping the long spear of
Mehevi in my hand, assisted my steps over the numerous obstacles of the
road; preferring this mode of advance to one which, from the
difficulties of the way, was equally painful to myself and my wearied
servitor.

Our journey was soon at an end; for, scaling a sudden height, we came
abruptly upon the place of our destination. I wish that it were
possible to sketch in words this spot as vividly as I recollect 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
consecrated bread-fruit trees there reigned a solemn twilight—a
cathedral-like 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, in the depths of these awful shades, half
screened from sight by masses of overhanging foliage, rose the
idolatrous altars of the savages, built of enormous blocks of black and
polished stone, placed one upon another, without cement, to the height
of twelve or fifteen feet, and surmounted by a rustic open temple,
enclosed with a low picket of canes, within which might be seen, in
various stages 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 thus formed. Vast trees,
standing in the middle of this space, and throwing over it an
umbrageous shade, had their massive trunks built round with slight
stages, elevated 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 entrance on one
side, facing a number of towering cocoa-nut trees, planted at intervals
along a level area of a hundred yards. At the farther 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 in 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 appearance 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 afforded.

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 likewise to this edifice, and were enforced by the same
dreadful penalty that secured the hoolah hoolah ground from the
imaginary 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 armoury
of the tribe.

As we advanced farther 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 the 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 colour—the hue which the
tattooing gradually assumes as the individual advances in age. Their
skin had a frightful scaly appearance, which, united with its singular
colour, made their limbs not a little resemble dusty specimens of
verde-antique. Their flesh, in parts, hung upon them in huge folds,
like the overlapping plaits on the flank of a rhinoceros. Their heads
were completely bald, whilst their faces were puckered into a thousand
wrinkles, and they 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 neighbourhood, 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 h

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