University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXVII.

I have already mentioned that the influence exerted over the
people of the valley by their chiefs was mild in the extreme:
and as to any general rule or standard of conduct by which the
commonalty were governed in their intercourse with each other,
so far as my observation extended, I should be almost tempted
to say that none existed on the island, except, indeed, the mysterious
"Taboo" be considered as such. During the time I
lived among the Typees, no one was ever put upon his trial for
any offence against the public. To all appearances there were
no courts of law or equity. There was no municipal police for
the purpose of apprehending vagrants and disorderly characters.
In short, there were no legal provisions whatever for the wellbeing
and conservation of society, the enlightened end of civilized
legislation. And yet everything went on in the valley
with a harmony and smoothness unparalleled, I will venture to
assert, in the most select, refined, and pious associations of
mortals in Christendom. How are we to explain this enigma?
These islanders were heathens! savages! ay, cannibals! and
how came they, without the aid of established law, to exhibit, in
so eminent a degree, that social order which is the greatest
blessing and highest pride of the social state?

It may reasonably be inquired, how were these people governed?
how were their passions controlled in their everyday
transactions? It must have been by an inherent principle of
honesty and charity towards each other. They seemed to be
governed by that sort of tacit common-sense law which, say
what they will of the inborn lawlessness of the human race,
has its precepts graven on every breast. The grand principles
of virtue and honour, however they may be distorted by arbitrary
codes, are the same all the world over: and where these

principles are concerned, the right or wrong of any action
appears the same to the uncultivated as to the enlightened
mind. It is to this indwelling, this universally diffused perception
of what is just and noble, that the integrity of the Marquesans
in their intercourse with each other is to be attributed.
In the darkest nights they slept securely, with all their worldly
wealth around them, in houses the doors of which were never
fastened. The disquieting ideas of theft or assassination never
disturbed them. Each islander reposed beneath his own palmetto
thatching, or sat under his own bread-fruit-tree, with none
to molest or alarm him. There was not a padlock in the valley,
nor anything that answered the purpose of one: still there was
no community of goods. This long spear, so elegantly carved
and highly polished, belongs to Wormoonoo: it is far handsomer
than the one which old Marheyo so greatly prizes; it
is the most valuable article belonging to its owner. And yet
I have seen it leaning against a cocoa-nut tree in the grove, and
there it was found when sought for. Here is a sperm-whale
tooth, graven all over with cunning devices: it is the property
of Karluna: it is the most precious of the damsel's ornaments.
In her estimation its price is far above rubies—and yet there
hangs the dental jewel by its cord of braided bark, in the girl's
house, which is far back in the valley; the door is left open,
and all the inmates have gone off to bathe in the stream.[7]

So much for the respect in which "personal property" is
held in Typee; how secure an investment of "real property"
may be, I cannot take upon me to say. Whether the land
of the valley was the joint property of its inhabitants, or
whether it was parcelled out among a certain number of landed
proprietors who allowed everybody to "squat" and "poach"

as much as he or she pleased, I never could ascertain. At any
rate, musty parchments and title deeds there were none on the
island; and I am half inclined to believe that its inhabitants
hold their broad valleys in fee simple from Nature herself; to
have and to hold, so long as grass grows and water runs; or
until their French visitors, by a summary mode of conveyancing,
shall appropriate them to their own benefit and behoof.

Yesterday I saw Kory-Kory hie him away, armed with a
long pole, with which, standing on the ground, he knocked
down the fruit from the topmost boughs of the trees, and
brought them home in his basket of cocoa-nut leaves. To-day
I see an islander, whom I know to reside in a distant part of
the valley, doing the self-same thing. On the sloping bank of
the stream are a number of banana-trees. I have often seen a
score or two of young people making a merry foray on the great
golden clusters, and bearing them off, one after another, to
different parts of the vale, shouting and tramping as they went.
No churlish old curmudgeon could have been the owner of that
grove of bread-fruit trees, or of these gloriously yellow bunches
of bananas.

From what I have said it will be perceived that there is a
vast difference between "personal property" and "real estate"
in the valley of Typee. Some individuals, of course, are more
wealthy than others. For example: the ridge-pole of Marheyo's
house bends under the weight of many a huge package
of tappa; his long couch is laid with mats placed one upon the
other seven deep. Outside, Tinor has ranged along in her
bamboo cupboard—or whatever the place may be called—a
goodly array of calabashes and wooden trenchers. Now, the house
just beyond the grove, and next to Marheyo's, occupied by Ruaruga,
is not quite so well furnished. There are only three
moderate-sized packages swinging overhead: there are only
two layers of mats beneath, and the calabashes and trenchers are
not so numerous, nor so tastefully stained and carved. But then,
Ruaruga has a house—not so pretty a one, to be sure—but just
as commodious as Marheyo's; and, I suppose, if he wished to vie
with his neighbour's establishment, he could do so with very
little trouble. These, in short, constituted the chief differences
perceivable in the relative wealth of the people in Typee.

Civilization does not engross all the virtues of humanity: she
has not even her full share of them. They flourish in greater
abundance and attain greater strength among many barbarous
people. The hospitality of the wild Arab, the courage of the
North American Indian, and the faithful friendships of some of the
Polynesian nations, far surpass any thing of a similar kind among
the polished communities of Europe. If truth and justice, and
the better principles of our nature, cannot exist unless enforced
by the statute-book, how are we to account for the social condition
of the Typees? So pure and upright were they in all the
relations of life, that entering their valley, as I did, under the
most erroneous impressions of their character, I was soon led to
exclaim in amazement: "Are these the ferocious savages, the
blood-thirsty cannibals of whom I have heard such frightful
tales! They deal more kindly with each other, and are more
humane, than many who study essays on virtue and benevolence,
and who repeat every night that beautiful prayer breathed first
by the lips of the divine and gentle Jesus." I will frankly declare,
that after passing a few weeks in this valley of the Marquesas,
I formed a higher estimate of human nature than I had
ever before entertained. But alas! since then I have been one
of the crew of a man-of war, and the pent-up wickedness of five
hundred men has nearly overturned all my previous theories.

There was one admirable trait in the general character of the
Typees which, more than any thing else, secured my admiration:
it was the unanimity of feeling they displayed on every occasion.
With them there hardly appeared to be any difference of opinion
upon any subject whatever. They all thought and acted alike.
I do not conceive that they could support a debating society for
a single night: there would be nothing to dispute about; and
were they to call a convention to take into consideration the state
of the tribe, its session would be a remarkably short one. They
showed this spirit of unanimity in every action of life: every
thing was done in concert and good fellowship. I will give an
instance of this fraternal feeling.

One day, in returning with Kory-Kory from my accustomed
visit to the Ti, we passed by a little opening in the grove; on
one side of which, my attendant informed me, was that afternoon
to be built a dwelling of bamboo. At least a hundred of the

natives were bringing materials to the ground, some carrying
in their hands one or two of the canes which were to form the
sides, others slender rods of the habiscus, strung with palmetto
leaves, for the roof. Every one contributed something to the
work; and by the united, but easy, and even indolent, labours of
all, the entire work was completed before sunset. The islanders,
while employed in erecting this tenement, reminded me of a
colony of beavers at work. To be sure, they were hardly as
silent and demure as those wonderful creatures, nor were they
by any means as diligent. To tell the truth, they were somewhat
inclined to be lazy, but a perfect tumult of hilarity prevailed;
and they worked together so unitedly, and seemed actuated
by such an instinct of friendliness, that it was truly beautiful
to behold.

Not a single female took part in this employment: and if the
degree of consideration in which the ever-adorable sex is held by
the men be—as the philosophers affirm—a just criterion of the
degree of refinement among a people, then I may truly pronounce
the Typees to be as polished a community as ever the sun shone
upon. The religious restrictions of the taboo alone excepted,
the women of the valley were allowed every possible indulgence.
Nowhere are the ladies more assiduously courted; nowhere are
they better appreciated as the contributors to our highest enjoyments;
and nowhere are they more sensible of their power. Far
different from their condition among many rude nations, where
the women are made to perform all the work while their ungallant
lords and masters lie buried in sloth, the gentle sex in the
valley of Typee were exempt from toil, if toil it might be called
that, even in that tropical climate, never distilled one drop of
perspiration. Their light household occupations, together with
the manufacture of tappa, the platting of mats, and the polishing
of drinking-vessels, were the only employments pertaining to
the women. And even these resembled those pleasant avocations
which fill up the elegant morning leisure of our fashionable
ladies at home. But in these occupations, slight and agreeable
though they were, the giddy young girls very seldom engaged.
Indeed these wilful, care-killing damsels were averse to all useful
employment. Like so many spoiled beauties, they ranged through
the groves—bathed in the stream—danced—flirted—played all

manner of mischievous pranks, and passed their days in one
merry round of thoughtless happiness.

During my whole stay on the island I never witnessed a single
quarrel, nor any thing that in the slightest degree approached
even to a dispute. The natives appeared to form one household,
whose members were bound together by the ties of strong affection.
The love of kindred I did not so much perceive, for it
seemed blended in the general love; and where all were treated
as brothers and sisters, it was hard to tell who were actually related
to each other by blood.

Let it not be supposed that I have overdrawn this picture. I
have not done so. Nor let it be urged, that the hostility of this tribe
to foreigners, and the hereditary feuds they carry on against
their fellow-islanders beyond the mountains, are facts which contradict
me. Not so: these apparent discrepancies are easily
reconciled. By many a legendary tale of violence and wrong,
as well as by events which have passed before their eyes, these
people have been taught to look upon white men with abhorrence.
The cruel invasion of their country by Porter has alone
furnished them with ample provocation; and I can sympathize
in the spirit which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the
passes to his valley with the point of his levelled spear, and,
standing upon the beach, with his back turned upon his green
home, to hold at bay the intruding European.

As to the origin of the enmity of this particular clan towards
the neighbouring tribes, I cannot so confidently speak. I will
not say that their foes are the aggressors, nor will I endeavour
to palliate their conduct. But surely, if our evil passions must
find vent, it is far better to expend them on strangers and aliens,
than in the bosom of the community in which we dwell. In
many polished countries civil contentions, as well as domestic
enmities, are prevalent, at the same time that the most atrocious
foreign wars are waged. How much less guilty, then, are our
islanders, who of these three sins are only chargeable with one,
and that the least criminal!

The reader will ere long have reason to suspect that the Typees
are not free from the guilt of cannibalism; and he will
then, perhaps, charge me with admiring a people against whom
so odious a crime is chargeable. But this only enormity in their

character is not half so horrible as it is usually described. According
to the popular fictions, the crews of vessels, shipwrecked
on some barbarous coast, are eaten alive like so many dainty joints
by the uncivil inhabitants; and unfortunate voyagers are lured
into smiling and treacherous bays; knocked in the head with
outlandish war-clubs; and served up without any preliminary
dressing. In truth, so horrific and improbable are these accounts,
that many sensible and well-informed people will not believe
that any cannibals exist; and place every book of voyages which
purports to give any account of them, on the same shelf with
Blue Beard and Jack the Giant-Killer; while others, implicitly
crediting the most extravagant fictions, firmly believe that there
are people in the world with tastes so depraved that they would
infinitely prefer a single mouthful of material humanity to a
good dinner of roast beef and plum pudding. But here, Truth,
who loves to be centrally located, is again found between the two
extremes; for cannibalism to a certain moderate extent is practised
among several of the primitive tribes in the Pacific, but it
is upon the bodies of slain enemies alone; and horrible and fearful
as the custom is, immeasurably as it is to be abhorred and
condemned, still I assert that those who indulge in it are in
other respects humane and virtuous.