CHAPTER XX.
History of a Day as usually spent in the Typee Valley—Dances of the
Marquesan Girls.
Nothing can be more uniform and undiversified than the life
of the Typees; one tranquil day of ease and happiness follows
another in quiet succession; and with these unsophisticated
savages the history of a day is the history of a life. I will,
therefore, as briefly as I can, describe one of our days in the
valley.
To begin with the morning. We were not very early risers
—the sun would be shooting his golden spikes above the Happar
mountain, ere I threw aside my tappa robe, and girding my long
tunic about my waist, sallied out with Fayaway and Kory-Kory,
and the rest of the household, and bent my steps towards the
stream. Here we found congregated all those who dwelt in our
section of the valley; and here we bathed with them. The
fresh morning air and the cool flowing waters put both soul and
body in a glow, and after a half-hour employed in this recreation,
we sauntered back to the house—Tinor and Marheyo gathering
dry sticks by the way for fire-wood; some of the young men
laying the cocoa-nut trees under contribution as they passed
beneath them; while Kory-Kory played his outlandish pranks
for my particular diversion, and Fayaway and I, not arm in arm
to be sure, but sometimes hand in hand, strolled along, with
feelings of perfect charity for all the world, and especial goodwill
towards each other.
Our morning meal was soon prepared. The islanders are
somewhat abstemious at this repast; reserving the more powerful
efforts of their appetite to a later period of the day. For my
own part, with the assistance of my valet, who, as I have before
stated, always officiated as spoon on these occasions, I ate
sparingly from one of Tinor's trenchers of poee-poee; which
was devoted exclusively for my own use, being mixed with the
milky meat of ripe cocoa-nut. A section of a roasted bread-fruit,
a small cake of "Amar," or a mess of "Cokoo," two or three
bananas, or a Mawmee apple; an annuee, or some other agreeable
and nutricious fruit served from day to day to diversify the
meal, which was finished by tossing off the liquid contents of a
young cocoa-nut or two.
While partaking of this simple repast, the inmates of Marheyo's
house, after the style of the indolent Romans, reclined in sociable
groups upon the divan of mats, and digestion was promoted by
cheerful conversation.
After the morning meal was concluded, pipes were lighted;
and among them my own especial pipe, a present from the noble
Mehevi. The islanders, who only smoke a whiff or two at a
time, and at long intervals, and who keep their pipes going from
hand to hand continually, regarded my systematic smoking
of four or five pipefuls of tobacco in succession, as something
quite wonderful. When two or three pipes had circulated freely,
the company gradually broke up. Marheyo went to the little
hut he was for ever building. Tinor began to inspect her rolls of
tappa, or employed her busy fingers in plaiting grass-mats. The
girls anointed themselves with their fragrant oils, dressed their
hair, or looked over their curious finery, and compared together
their ivory trinkets, fashioned out of boar's tusks or whale's
teeth. The young men and warriors produced their spears,
paddles, canoe-gear, battle-clubs, and war-conchs, and occupied
themselves in carving all sorts of figures upon them with
pointed bits of shell or flint, and adorning them, especially the
war-conchs, with tassels of braided bark and tufts of human
hair. Some, immediately after eating, threw themselves once
more upon the inviting mats, and resumed the employment of
the previous night, sleeping as soundly as if they had not closed
their eyes for a week. Others sallied out into the groves, for
the purpose of gathering fruit or fibres of bark and leaves; the
last two being in constant requisition, and applied to a hundred
uses. A few, perhaps, among the girls, would slip into the
woods after flowers, or repair to the stream with small calabashes
and cocoa-nut shells, in order to polish them by friction
with a smooth stone in the water. In truth these innocent
people seemed to be at no loss for something to occupy their
time; and it would be no light task to enumerate all their
employments, or rather pleasures.
My own mornings I spent in a variety of ways. Sometimes
I rambled about from house to house, sure of receiving a cordial
welcome wherever I went; or from grove to grove, and from
one shady place to another, in company with Kory-Kory and
Fayaway, and a rabble rout of merry young idlers. Sometimes
I was too indolent for exercise, and accepting one of the many
invitations I was continually receiving, stretched myself out on
the mats of some hospitable dwelling, and occupied myself pleasantly
either in watching the proceedings of those around me or
taking part in them myself. Whenever I chose to do the latter,
the delight of the islanders was boundless; and there was always
a throng of competitors for the honour of instructing me in any
particular craft. I soon became quite an accomplished hand at
making tappa—could braid a grass sling as well as the best of
them—and once, with my knife, carved the handle of a javelin
so exquisitely, that I have no doubt, to this day, Karnoonoo, its
owner, preserves it as a surprising specimen of my skill. As
noon approached, all those who had wandered forth from our
habitation, began to return; and when mid-day was fairly come
scarcely a sound was to be heard in the valley: a deep sleep fell
upon all. The luxurious siesta was hardly ever omitted, except
by old Marheyo, who was so eccentric a character, that he
seemed to be governed by no fixed principles whatever; but acting
just according to the humour of the moment, slept, ate, or
tinkered away at his little hut, without regard to the proprieties
of time or place. Frequently he might have been seen taking
a nap in the sun at noon-day, or a bath in the stream at midnight.
Once I beheld him perched eighty feet from the ground,
in the tuft of a cocoa-nut tree, smoking; and often I saw him
standing up to the waist in water, engaged in plucking out the
stray hairs of his beard, using a piece of muscle-shell for
tweezers.
The noon-tide slumber lasted generally an hour and a half;
very often longer; and after the sleepers had arisen from their
mats they again had recourse to their pipes, and then made preparations
for the most important meal of the day.
I, however, like those gentlemen of leisure who breakfast at
home and dine at their club, almost invariably, during my intervals
of health, enjoyed the afternoon repast with the bachelor
chiefs of the Ti, who were always rejoiced to see me, and lavishly
spread before me all the good things which their larder afforded.
Mehevi generally produced among other dainties a baked pig,
an article which I have every reason to suppose was provided for
my sole gratification.
The Ti was a right jovial place. It did my heart, as well as
my body, good to visit it. Secure from female intrusion, there
was no restraint upon the hilarity of the warriors, who, like the
gentlemen of Europe after the cloth is drawn and the ladies
retire, freely indulged their mirth.
After spending a considerable portion of the afternoon at the Ti,
I usually found myself, as the cool of the evening came on, either
sailing on the little lake with Fayaway, or bathing in the waters
of the stream with a number of the savages, who, at this hour,
always repaired thither. As the shadows of night approached
Marheyo's household were once more assembled under his roof:
tapers were lit, long and curious chants were raised, interminable
stories were told (for which one present was little the
wiser), and all sorts of social festivities served to while away the
time.
The young girls very often danced by moonlight in front of
their dwellings. There are a great variety of these dances, in
which, however, I never saw the men take part. They all consist
of active, romping, mischievous evolutions, in which every
limb is brought into requisition. Indeed, the Marquesan girls
dance all over, as it were; not only do their feet dance, but
their arms, hands, fingers, ay, their very eyes, seem to dance in
their heads. In good sooth, they so sway their floating forms,
arch their necks, toss aloft their naked arms, and glide, and swim,
and whirl, that it was almost too much for a quiet, sober-minded,
modest young man like myself.
The damsels wear nothing but flowers and their compendious
gala tunics; and when they plume themselves for the dance,
they look like a band of olive-coloured Sylphides on the point of
taking wing.
Unless some particular festivity was going forward, the inmates
of Marheyo's house retired to their mats rather early in the
evening; but not for the night, since, after slumbering lightly
for a while, they rose again, relit their tapers, partook of the
third and last meal of the day, at which poee-poee alone was eaten,
and then, after inhaling a narcotic whiff from a pipe of tobacco,
disposed themselves for the great business of night, sleep.
With the Marquesans it might almost be styled the great business
of life, for they pass a large portion of their time in the
arms of Somnus. The native strength of their constitutions is
no way shown more emphatically than in the quantity of sleep
they can endure. To many of them, indeed, life is little else
than an often interrupted and luxurious nap.
