42. CHAPTER XLII.
MOTOO-OTOO.—A TAHITIAN CASUIST.
The Pill-Box was sometimes employed for other purposes
than that described in the last chapter. We sometimes went
a-pleasuring in it.
Right in the middle of Papeetee harbor is a bright, green
island, one circular grove of waving palms, and scarcely a hundred
yards across. It is of coral formation; and all round, for
many rods out, the bay is so shallow, that you might wade anywhere.
Down in these waters, as transparent as air, you see
coral plants of every hue and shape imaginable:—antlers, tufts
of azure, waving reeds like stalks of grain, and pale green buds
and mosses. In some places, you look through prickly branches
down to a snow-white floor of sand, sprouting with flinty bulbs;
and crawling among these are strange shapes:—some bristling
with spikes, others clad in shining coats-of-mail, and here and
there, round forms all spangled with eyes.
The island is called Motoo-Otoo; and around Motoo-Otoo
have I often paddled of a white moonlight night, pausing now
and then to admire the marine gardens beneath.
The place is the private property of the queen, who has a residence
there—a melancholy-looking range of bamboo houses—
neglected and falling to decay among the trees.
Commanding the harbor as it does, her majesty has done all
she could to make a fortress of the island. The margin has
been raised and leveled, and built up with a low parapet of
hewn blocks of coral. Behind the parapet, are ranged at wide
intervals, a number of rusty old cannon, of all fashions and
calibres. They are mounted upon lame, decrepit-looking carriages,
ready to sink under the useless burden of bearing them
up. Indeed, two or three have given up the ghost altogether,
and the pieces they sustained lie half-buried among their
bleaching bones. Several of the cannon are spiked; probably
with a view of making them more formidable; as they certainly
must be to any one undertaking to fire them off.
Presented to Pomaree at various times by captains of British
armed ships, these poor old “dogs of war,” thus toothless and
turned out to die, formerly bayed in full pack, as the battle
hounds of Old England.
There was something about Motoo-Otoo that struck my fancy;
and I registered a vow to plant my foot upon its soil, notwithstanding
an old bareheaded sentry menaced me in the moonlight
with an unsightly musket. As my canoe drew scarcely
three inches of water, I could paddle close up to the parapet
without grounding; but every time I came near, the old man
ran toward me, pushing his piece forward, but never clapping
it to his shoulder. Thinking he only meant to frighten me, I
at last dashed the canoe right up to the wall, purposing a leap.
It was the rashest act of my life; for never did cocoa-nut come
nearer getting demolished, than mine did then. With the stock
of his gun, the old warder fetched a tremendous blow, which I
managed to dodge; and then falling back, succeeded in paddling
out of harm's reach.
He must have been dumb; for never a word did he utter;
but grinning from ear to ear, and with his white cotton robe
streaming in the moonlight, he looked more like the spook of
the island than any thing mortal.
I tried to effect my object by attacking him in the rear—but
he was all front; running about the place as I paddled, and
presenting his confounded musket wherever I went. At last
I was obliged to retreat; and to this day my vow remains
unfulfilled.
It was a few days after my repulse from before the walls of
Motoo Otoo, that I heard a curious case of casuistry argued between
one of the most clever and intelligent natives I ever saw
in Tahiti, a man by the name of Arheetoo, and our learned
Theban of a doctor.
It was this:—whether it was right and lawful for any one,
being a native, to keep the European Sabbath, in preference to
the day set apart as such by the missionaries, and so considered
by the islanders in general.
It must be known, that the missionaries of the good ship
Duff, who more than half-a-century ago established the Tahitian
reckoning, came hither by the way of the Cape of Good
Hope; and by thus sailing to the eastward, lost one precious
day of their lives all round, getting about that much in advance
of Greenwich time. For this reason, vessels coming round
Cape Horn—as they most all do nowadays—find it Sunday
in Tahiti, when, according to their own view of the matter, it
ought to be Saturday. But as it won't do to alter the log, the
sailors keep their Sabbath, and the islanders theirs.
This confusion perplexes the poor natives mightily; and it is
to no purpose that you endeavor to explain so incomprehensible
a phenomenon. I once saw a worthy old missionary essay
to shed some light on the subject; and though I understood but
few of the words employed, I could easily get at the meaning
of his illustrations. They were something like the following:
“Here,” says he, “you see this circle” (describing a large
one on the ground with a stick): “very good; now you see
this spot here” (marking a point in the perimeter): “well;
this is Beretanee (England), and I'm going to sail round to Tahiti.
Here I go, then; (following the circle round), and there
goes the sun (snatching up another stick, and commissioning a
bandy-legged native to travel round with it in a contrary direction).
Now then, we are both off, and both going away from
each other; and here you see I have arrived at Tahiti (making
a sudden stop); and look now, where Bandy Legs is!”
But the crowd strenuously maintained, that Bandy Legs
ought to be somewhere above them in the atmosphere; for it
was a traditionary fact, that the people from the Duff came
ashore when the sun was high overhead. And here the old
gentleman, being a very good sort of man, doubtless, but no
astronomer, was obliged to give up.
Arheetoo, the casuist alluded to, though a member of the
church, and extremely conscientious about what Sabbath he
kept, was more liberal in other matters. Learning that I was
something of a “mickonaree” (in this sense, a man able to
read, and cunning in the use of the pen), he desired the slight
favor of my forging for him a set of papers; for which, he said,
he would be much obliged, and give me a good dinner of roast
pig and Indian turnip in the bargain.
Now, Arheetoo was one of those who board the shipping
for their washing; and the competition being very great (the
proudest chiefs not disdaining to solicit custom in person,
though the work is done by their dependents), he had decided
upon a course suggested by a knowing sailor, a friend of his.
He wished to have manufactured a set of certificates, purporting
to come from certain man-of-war and merchant captains,
known to have visited the island; recommending him as one
of the best getters up of fine linen in all Polynesia.
At this time, Arheetoo had known me but two hours; and,
as he made the proposition very coolly, I thought it rather presumptuous,
and told him so. But as it was quite impossible to
convey a hint, that there was a slight impropriety in the thing,
I did not resent the insult, but simply declined.
