University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXXI.

Sadly discursive as I have already been, I must still further
entreat the reader's patience, as I am about to string together,
without any attempt at order, a few odds and ends of things not
hitherto mentioned, but which are either curious in themselves
or peculiar to the Typees.

There was one singular custom, observed in old Marheyo's
domestic establishment, which often excited my surprise. Every
night, before retiring, the inmates of the house gathered together
on the mats, and squatting upon their haunches, after the universal
practice of these islanders, would commence a low, dismal,
and monotonous chant, accompanying the voice with the instrumental
melody produced by two small half-rotten sticks tapped
slowly together, a pair of which were held in the hands of each
person present. Thus would they employ themselves for an hour
or two, sometimes longer. Lying in the gloom which wrapped
the further end of the house, I could not avoid looking at them,
although the spectacle suggested nothing but unpleasant reflections.
The flickering rays of the "armor" nut just served to
reveal their savage lineaments, without dispelling the darkness
that hovered about them.

Sometimes when, after falling into a kind of doze, and awaking
suddenly in the midst of these doleful chantings, my eye would
fall upon the wild-looking group engaged in their strange occupation,
with their naked tattooed limbs, and shaven heads disposed
in a circle, I was almost tempted to believe that I gazed
upon a set of evil beings in the act of working a frightful
incantation.

What was the meaning or purpose of this custom, whether it
was practised merely as a diversion, or whether it was a religious
exercise, a sort of family prayers, I never could discover.

The sounds produced by the natives on these occasions were
of a most singular description; and had I not actually been present,
I never would have believed that such curious noises could
have been produced by human beings.

To savages generally is imputed a guttural articulation. This,
however, is not always the case, especially among the inhabitants
of the Polynesian Archipelago. The labial melody with which
the Typee girls carry on an ordinary conversation, giving a musical
prolongation to the final syllable of every sentence, and
chirping out some of the words with a liquid, bird-like accent,
was singularly pleasing.

The men, however, are not quite so harmonious in their utterance,
and when excited upon any subject, would work themselves
up into a sort of wordy paroxysm, during which all descriptions
of rough-sided sounds were projected from their mouths, with a
force and rapidity which was absolutely astonishing.

* * * * * *

Although these savages are remarkably fond of chanting,
still they appear to have no idea whatever of singing, at least as
that art is practised among other nations.

I never shall forget the first time I happened to roar out a
stave in the presence of the noble Mehevi. It was a stanza from
the "Bavarian broom-seller." His Typean majesty, with all his
court, gazed upon me in amazement, as if I had displayed some
preternatural faculty which Heaven had denied to them. The
king was delighted with the verse; but the chorus fairly transported
him. At his solicitation I sang it again and again, and
nothing could be more ludicrous than his vain attempts to catch
the air and the words. The royal savage seemed to think that
by screwing all the features of his face into the end of his nose
he might possibly succeed in the undertaking, but it failed to
answer the purpose; and in the end he gave it up, and consoled
himself by listening to my repetition of the sounds fifty times
over.

Previous to Mehevi's making the discovery, I had never been
aware that there was anything of the nightingale about me; but

I was now promoted to the place of court-minstrel, in which
capacity I was afterwards perpetually called upon to officiate.

* * * * * *

Besides the sticks and the drums, there are no other musical
instruments among the Typees, except one which might appropriately
be denominated a nasal flute. It is somewhat longer
than an ordinary fife; is made of a beautiful scarlet-coloured
reed; and has four or five stops, with a large hole near one end,
which latter is held just beneath the left nostril. The other
nostril being closed by a peculiar movement of the muscles about
the nose, the breath is forced into the tube, and produces a soft
dulcet sound, which is varied by the fingers running at random
over the stops. This is a favourite recreation with the females,
and one in which Fayaway greatly excelled. Awkward as such
an instrument may appear, it was, in Fayaway's delicate little
hands, one of the most graceful I have ever seen. A young
lady, in the act of tormenting a guitar strung about her neck by
a couple of yards of blue ribbon, is not half so engaging.

* * * * * *

Singing was not the only means I possessed of diverting the
royal Mehevi and his easy-going subjects. Nothing afforded
them more pleasure than to see me go through the attitude of
pugilistic encounter. As not one of the natives had soul enough
in him to stand up like a man, and allow me to hammer away at
him, for my own personal gratification and that of the king,
I was necessitated to fight with an imaginary enemy, whom
I invariably made to knock under to my superior prowess.
Sometimes when this sorely battered shadow retreated precipitately
towards a group of the savages, and, following him up,
I rushed among them, dealing my blows right and left, they
would disperse in all directions, much to the enjoyment of
Mehevi, the chiefs, and themselves.

The noble art of self-defence appeared to be regarded by them
as the peculiar gift of the white man; and I make little doubt
but that they supposed armies of Europeans were drawn up
provided with nothing else but bony fists and stout hearts, with
which they set to in column, and pummelled one another at the
word of command.

* * * * * *

One day, in company with Kory-Kory, I had repaired to the
stream for the purpose of bathing, when I observed a woman
sitting upon a rock in the midst of the current, and watching
with the liveliest interest the gambols of something, which at
first I took to be an uncommonly large species of frog that was
sporting in the water near her. Attracted by the novelty of the
sight, I waded towards the spot where she sat, and could hardly
credit the evidence of my senses when I beheld a little infant,
the period of whose birth could not have extended back many
days, paddling about as if it had just risen to the surface, after
being hatched into existence at the bottom. Occasionally the
delighted parent reached out her hands towards it, when the
little thing, uttering a faint cry, and striking out its tiny limbs,
would sidle for the rock, and the next moment be clasped to its
mother's bosom. This was repeated again and again, the baby
remaining in the stream about a minute at a time. Once or
twice it made wry faces at swallowing a mouthful of water, and
choked and spluttered as if on the point of strangling. At such
times, however, the mother snatched it up, and by a process
scarcely to be mentioned obliged it to eject the fluid. For
several weeks afterwards I observed this woman bringing her
child down to the stream regularly every day, in the cool of the
morning and evening, and treating it to a bath. No wonder
that the South Sea Islanders are so amphibious a race, when they
are thus launched into the water as soon as they see the light.
I am convinced that it is as natural for a human being to swim
as it is for a duck. And yet in civilized communities how many
able-bodied individuals die, like so many drowning kittens, from
the occurrence of the most trivial accidents!

* * * * * *

The long, luxuriant, and glossy tresses of the Typee damsels
often attracted my admiration. A fine head of hair is the pride
and joy of every woman's heart! Whether, against the express
will of Providence, it is twisted up on the crown of the head and
there coiled away like a rope on a ship's deck; whether it be
stuck behind the ears and hangs down like the swag of a small
window-curtain; or whether it be permitted to flow over the
shoulders in natural ringlets, it is always the pride of the owner,
and the glory of the toilette.

The Typee girls devote much of their time to the dressing of
their fair and redundant locks. After bathing, as they sometimes
do five or six times every day, the hair is carefully dried, and if
they have been in the sea, invariably washed in fresh water, and
anointed with a highly scented oil extracted from the meat of
the cocoa-nut. This oil is obtained in great abundance by the
following very simple process:

A large vessel of wood, with holes perforated in the bottom, is
filled with the pounded meat, and exposed to the rays of the sun.
As the oleaginous matter exudes, it falls in drops through the
apertures into a wide-mouthed calabash placed underneath.
After a sufficient quantity has been thus collected, the oil undergoes
a purifying process, and is then poured into the small
spherical shells of the nuts of the moo-tree, which are hollowed
out to receive it. These nuts are then hermetically sealed with
a resinous gum, and the vegetable fragrance of their green rind
soon imparts to the oil a delightful odour. After the lapse of a
few weeks the exterior shell of the nuts becomes quite dry and
hard, and assumes a beautiful carnation tint; and when opened
they are found to be about two-thirds full of an ointment of a
light yellow colour, and diffusing the sweetest perfume. This
elegant little odorous globe would not be out of place even upon
the toilette of a queen. Its merits as a preparation for the hair
are undeniable—it imparts to it a superb gloss and a silky fineness.