University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXX.

In one of my strolls with Kory-Kory, in passing along the border
of a thick growth of bushes, my attention was arrested by a singular
noise. On entering the thicket I witnessed for the first
time the operation of tattooing as performed by these islanders.

I beheld a man extended flat upon his back on the ground,
and, despite the forced composure of his countenance, it was
evident that he was suffering agony. His tormentor bent over
him, working away for all the world like a stone-cutter with
mallet and chisel. In one hand he held a short slender stick,
pointed with a shark's tooth, on the upright end of which he
tapped with a small hammer-like piece of wood, thus puncturing
the skin, and charging it with the colouring matter in which the
instrument was dipped. A cocoa-nut shell containing this fluid
was placed upon the ground. It is prepared by mixing with a
vegetable juice the ashes of the "armor," or candle-nut, always
preserved for the purpose. Beside the savage, and spread out
upon a piece of soiled tappa, were a great number of curious
black-looking little implements of bone and wood, used in the
various divisions of his art. A few terminated in a single fine
point, and, like very delicate pencils, were employed in giving
the finishing touches, or in operating upon the more sensitive
portions of the body, as was the case in the present instance.
Others presented several points distributed in a line, somewhat
resembling the teeth of a saw. These were employed in the
coarser parts of the work, and particularly in pricking in
straight marks. Some presented their points disposed in small
figures, and being placed upon the body, were, by a single blow
of the hammer, made to leave their indelible impression. I

observed a few the handles of which were mysteriously curved,
as if intended to be introduced into the orifice of the ear, with a
view perhaps of beating the tattoo upon the tympanum. Altogether,
the sight of these strange instruments recalled to mind
that display of cruel-looking mother-of-pearl-handled things
which one sees in their velvet-lined cases at the elbow of a
dentist.

The artist was not at this time engaged on an original sketch,
his subject being a venerable savage, whose tattooing had become
somewhat faded with age and needed a few repairs, and accordingly
he was merely employed in touching up the works of
some of the old masters of the Typee school, as delineated upon
the human canvas before him. The parts operated upon were
the eyelids, where a longitudinal streak, like the one which
adorned Kory-Kory, crossed the countenance of the victim.

In spite of all the efforts of the poor old man, sundry twitchings
and screwings of the muscles of the face denoted the exquisite
sensibility of these shutters to the windows of his soul, which
he was now having repainted. But the artist, with a heart as
callous as that of an army surgeon, continued his performance,
enlivening his labours with a wild chant, tapping away the
while as merrily as a woodpecker.

So deeply engaged was he in his work, that he had not observed
our approach, until, after having enjoyed an unmolested view of
the operation, I chose to attract his attention. As soon as he
perceived me, supposing that I sought him in his professional
capacity, he seized hold of me in a paroxysm of delight, and was
all eagerness to begin the work. When, however, I gave him
to understand that he had altogether mistaken my views, nothing
could exceed his grief and disappointment. But recovering
from this, he seemed determined not to credit my assertion, and
grasping his implements, he flourished them about in fearful
vicinity to my face, going through an imaginary performance of
his art, and every moment bursting into some admiring exclamation
at the beauty of his designs.

Horrified at the bare thought of being rendered hideous for
life if the wretch were to execute his purpose upon me, I struggled
to get away from him, while Kory-Kory, turning traitor,
stood by, and besought me to comply with the outrageous request.

On my reiterated refusals the excited artist got half
beside himself, and was overwhelmed with sorrow at losing so
noble an opportunity of distinguishing himself in his profession.

The idea of engrafting his tattooing upon my white skin filled
him with all a painter's enthusiasm: again and again he gazed
into my countenance, and every fresh glimpse seemed to add to
the vehemence of his ambition. Not knowing to what extremities
he might proceed, and shuddering at the ruin he might
inflict upon my figure-head, I now endeavoured to draw off his
attention from it, and holding out my arm in a fit of desperation,
signed to him to commence operations. But he rejected the
compromise indignantly, and still continued his attack on my
face, as though nothing short of that would satisfy him. When
his fore-finger swept across my features, in laying out the borders
of those parallel bands which were to encircle my countenance,
the flesh fairly crawled upon my bones. At last, half wild with
terror and indignation, I succeeded in breaking away from the
three savages, and fled towards old Marheyo's house, pursued by
the indomitable artist, who ran after me, implements in hand.
Kory-Kory, however, at last interfered, and drew him off from
the chace.

This incident opened my eyes to a new danger; and I now
felt convinced that in some luckless hour I should be disfigured
in such a manner as never more to have the face to return to my
countrymen, even should an opportunity offer.

These apprehensions were greatly increased by the desire
which King Mehevi and several of the inferior chiefs now manifested
that I should be tattooed. The pleasure of the king was
first signified to me some three days after my casual encounter
with Karky the artist. Heavens! what imprecations I showered
upon that Karky! Doubtless he had plotted a conspiracy against
me and my countenance, and would never rest until his diabolical
purpose was accomplished. Several times I met him in various
parts of the valley, and, invariably, whenever he descried me, he
came running after me with his mallet and chisel, flourishing
them about my face as if he longed to begin. What an object
he would have made of me!

When the king first expressed his wish to me, I made known
to him my utter abhorrence of the measure, and worked myself

into such a state of excitement, that he absolutely stared at me
in amazement. It evidently surpassed his majesty's comprehension
how any sober-minded and sensible individual could entertain
the least possible objection to so beautifying an operation.

Soon afterwards he repeated his suggestion, and meeting with
a like repulse, showed some symptoms of displeasure at my obduracy.
On his a third time renewing his request, I plainly
perceived that something must be done, or my visage was ruined
for ever; I therefore screwed up my courage to the sticking
point, and declared my willingness to have both arms tattooed
from just above the wrist to the shoulder. His majesty was
greatly pleased at the proposition, and I was congratulating
myself with having thus compromised the matter, when he intimated
that as a thing of course my face was first to undergo the
operation. I was fairly driven to despair; nothing but the utter
ruin of my "face divine," as the poets call it, would, I perceived,
satisfy the inexorable Mehevi and his chiefs, or rather, that infernal
Karky, for he was at the bottom of it all.

The only consolation afforded me was a choice of patterns: I
was at perfect liberty to have my face spanned by three horizontal
bars, after the fashion of my serving-man's; or to have
as many oblique stripes slanting across it; or if, like a true
courtier, I chose to model my style on that of royalty, I might
wear a sort of freemason badge upon my countenance in the
shape of a mystic triangle. However, I would have none of
these, though the king most earnestly impressed upon my mind
that my choice was wholly unrestricted. At last, seeing my
unconquerable repugnance, he ceased to importune me.

But not so some other of the savages. Hardly a day passed
but I was subjected to their annoying requests, until at last my
existence became a burden to me; the pleasures I had previously
enjoyed no longer afforded me delight, and all my former desire
to escape from the valley now revived with additional force.

A fact which I soon afterwards learned augmented my apprehension.
The whole system of tattooing was, I found, connected
with their religion; and it was evident, therefore, that they were
resolved to make a convert of me.

In the decoration of the chiefs it seems to be necessary to
exercise the most elaborate pencilling; while some of the inferior

natives looked as if they had been daubed over indiscriminately
with a house-painter's brush. I remember one fellow who prided
himself hugely upon a great oblong patch, placed high upon his
back, and who always reminded me of a man with a blister of
Spanish flies stuck between his shoulders. Another whom I
frequently met had the hollow of his eyes tattooed in two regular
squares, and his visual organs being remarkably brilliant, they
gleamed forth from out this setting like a couple of diamonds
inserted in ebony.

Although convinced that tattooing was a religious observance,
still the nature of the connection between it and the superstitious
idolatry of the people was a point upon which I could never
obtain any information. Like the still more important system
of the "Taboo," it always appeared inexplicable to me.

There is a marked similarity, almost an identity, between the
religious institutions of most of the Polynesian islands, and in all
exists the mysterious "Taboo," restricted in its uses to a greater
or less extent. So strange and complex in its arrangements is
this remarkable system, that I have in several cases met with
individuals who, after residing for years among the islands in the
Pacific, and acquiring a considerable knowledge of the language,
have nevertheless been altogether unable to give any satisfactory
account of its operations. Situated as I was in the Typee valley,
I perceived every hour the effects of this all-controlling power,
without in the least comprehending it. Those effects were,
indeed, wide-spread and universal, pervading the most important
as well as the minutest transactions of life. The savage, in
short, lives in the continual observance of its dictates, which
guide and control every action of his being.

For several days after entering the valley I had been saluted
at least fifty times in the twenty-four hours with the talismanic
word "Taboo" shrieked in my ears, at some gross violation of
its provisions, of which I had unconsciously been guilty. The
day after our arrival I happened to hand some tobacco to Toby
over the head of a native who sat between us. He started up,
as if stung by an adder; while the whole company, manifesting
an equal degree of horror, simultaneously screamed out "taboo!"
I never again perpetrated a similar piece of ill-manners, which,
indeed, was forbidden by the canons of good breeding, as well

as by the mandates of the taboo. But it was not always so easy
to perceive wherein you had contravened the spirit of this institution.
I was many times called to order, if I may use the
phrase, when I could not for the life of me conjecture what particular
offence I had committed.

One day I was strolling through a secluded portion of the
valley, and hearing the musical sound of the cloth-mallet at a
little distance, I turned down a path that conducted me in a few
moments to a house where there were some half-dozen girls employed
in making tappa. This was an operation I had frequently
witnessed, and had handled the bark in all the various stages of
its preparation. On the present occasion the females were intent
upon their occupation, and after looking up and talking gaily to
me for a few moments, they resumed their employment. I
regarded them for awhile in silence, and then carelessly picking
up a handful of the material that lay around, proceeded unconsciously
to pick it apart. While thus engaged, I was suddenly
startled by a scream, like that of a whole boarding-school of
young ladies just on the point of going into hysterics. Leaping
up with the idea of seeing a score of Happar warriors about to
perform anew the Sabine atrocity, I found myself confronted
by the company of girls, who, having dropped their work, stood
before me with starting eyes, swelling bosoms, and fingers pointed
in horror towards me.

Thinking that some venomous reptile must be concealed in the
bark which I held in my hand, I began cautiously to separate
and examine it. Whilst I did so the horrified girls redoubled
their shrieks. Their wild cries and frightened motions actually
alarmed me, and throwing down the tappa, I was about to rush
from the house, when in the same instant their clamours ceased,
and one of them seizing me by the arm, pointed to the broken
fibres that had just fallen from my grasp, and screamed in my
ears the fatal word Taboo!

I subsequently found out that the fabric they were engaged in
making was of a peculiar kind, destined to be worn on the heads
of the females, and through every stage of its manufacture was
guarded by a vigorous taboo, which interdicted the whole masculine
gender from even so much as touching it.

Frequently in walking through the groves I observed breadfruit

and cocoa-nut trees, with a wreath of leaves twined in a
peculiar fashion about their trunks. This was the mark of the
taboo. The trees themselves, their fruit, and even the shadows
they cast upon the ground, were consecrated by its presence. In
the same way a pipe, which the king had bestowed upon me, was
rendered sacred in the eyes of the natives, none of whom could I
ever prevail upon to smoke from it. The bowl was encircled by
a woven band of grass, somewhat resembling those Turks' heads
occasionally worked in the handles of our whip-stalks.

A similar badge was once braided about my wrist by the royal
hand of Mehevi himself, who, as soon as he had concluded the
operation, pronounced me "Taboo." This occurred shortly after
Toby's disappearance; and were it not that from the first moment
I had entered the valley the natives had treated me with
uniform kindness, I should have supposed that their conduct
afterwards was to be ascribed to the fact that I had received this
sacred investiture.

The capricious operations of the taboo is not its least remarkable
feature: to enumerate them all would be impossible. Black
hogs—infants to a certain age—women in an interesting situation—young
men while the operation of tattooing their faces is
going on—and certain parts of the valley during the continuance
of a shower—are alike fenced about by the operation of the taboo.

I witnessed a striking instance of its effects in the bay of Tior,
my visit to which place has been alluded to in a former part of
this narrative. On that occasion our worthy captain formed one
of the party. He was a most insatiable sportsman. Outward
bound, and off the pitch of Cape Horn, he used to sit on the
taffrail, and keep the steward loading three or four old fowling-pieces,
with which he would bring down albatrosses, Cape pigeons,
jays, petrels, and divers other marine fowl, who followed chattering
in our wake. The sailors were struck aghast at his impiety,
and one and all attributed our forty days' beating about that
horrid headland to his sacrilegious slaughter of these inoffensive
birds.

At Tior he evinced the same disregard for the religious prejudices
of the islanders, as he had previously shown for the superstitions
of the sailors. Having heard that there were a considerable
number of fowls in the valley—the progeny of some

cocks and hens accidentally left there by an English vessel, and
which, being strictly tabooed, flew about almost in a wild state—
he determined to break through all restraints, and be the death
of them. Accordingly, he provided himself with a most formidable
looking gun, and announced his landing on the beach
by shooting down a noble cock that was crowing what proved to
be his own funeral dirge, on the limb of an adjoining tree.
"Taboo," shrieked the affrighted savages. "Oh, hang your
taboo," says the nautical sportsman; "talk taboo to the marines;"
and bang went the piece again, and down came another victim.
At this the natives ran scampering through the groves, horror-struck
at the enormity of the act.

All that afternoon the rocky sides of the valley rang with successive
reports, and the superb plumage of many a beautiful fowl
was ruffled by the fatal bullet. Had it not been that the French
admiral, with a large party, were then in the glen, I have no
doubt that the natives, although their tribe was small and dispirited,
would have inflicted summary vengeance upon the man
who thus outraged their most sacred institutions; as it was, they
contrived to annoy him not a little.

Thirsting with his exertions, the skipper directed his steps to
a stream; but the savages, who had followed at a little distance,
perceiving his object, rushed towards him and forced him away
from its bank—his lips would have polluted it. Wearied at last,
he sought to enter a house, that he might rest for a while on the
mats; its inmates gathered tumultuously about the door and
denied him admittance. He coaxed and blustered by turns, but
in vain; the natives were neither to be intimidated nor appeased,
and as a final resort he was obliged to call together his boat's
crew, and pull away from what he termed the most infernal place
he ever stepped upon.

Lucky was it for him and for us that we were not honoured
on our departure by a salute of stones from the hands of the exasperated
Tiors. In this way, on the neighbouring island of
Ropo, were killed, but a few weeks previously, and for a nearly
similar offence, the master and three of the crew of the K—.

I cannot determine with anything approaching to certainty,
what power it is that imposes the taboo. When I consider the
slight disparity of condition among the islanders—the very

limited and inconsiderable prerogatives of the king and chiefs—
and the loose and indefinite functions of the priesthood, most of
whom were hardly to be distinguished from the rest of their
countrymen, I am wholly at a loss where to look for the authority
which regulates this potent institution. It is imposed upon
something to-day, and withdrawn to-morrow; while its operations
in other cases are perpetual. Sometimes its restrictions
only affect a single individual—sometimes a particular family—
sometimes a whole tribe; and in a few instances they extend not
merely over the various clans on a single island, but over all
the inhabitants of an entire group. In illustration of this latter
peculiarity, I may cite the law which forbids a female to enter a
canoe—a prohibition which prevails upon all the northern Marquesas
Islands.

The word itself (taboo) is used in more than one signification.
It is sometimes used by a parent to his child, when in the exercise
of parental authority he forbids it to perform a particular
action. Anything opposed to the ordinary customs of the islanders,
although not expressly prohibited, is said to be "taboo."

The Typee language is one very difficult to be acquired; it
bears a close resemblance to the other Polynesian dialects, all of
which show a common origin. The duplication of words, as
"lumee lumee," "poee poee," "muee muee," is one of their
peculiar features. But another, and a more annoying one, is the
different senses in which one and the same word is employed; its
various meanings all have a certain connection, which only makes
the matter more puzzling. So one brisk, lively little word is
obliged, like a servant in a poor family, to perform all sorts of
duties; for instance, one particular combination of syllables expresses
the ideas of sleep, rest, reclining, sitting, leaning, and all
other things anywise analogous thereto, the particular meaning
being shown chiefly by a variety of gestures and the eloquent
expression of the countenance.

The intricacy of these dialects is another peculiarity. In the
Missionary College at Lahainaluna, or Mawee, one of the Sandwich
Islands, I saw a tabular exhibition of a Hawiian verb, conjugated
through all its moods and tenses. It covered the side of
a considerable apartment, and I doubt whether Sir William Jones
himself would not have despaired of mastering it.