University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXVI.

King Mehevi!—A goodly sounding title!—and why should
I not bestow it upon the foremost man in the valley of
Typee? The republican missionaries of Oahu cause to be
gazetted in the Court Journal, published at Honolula, the most
trivial movements of "his gracious majesty" King Kammehammaha
III., and "their highnesses the princes of the blood
royal."[6] —And who is his "gracious majesty," and what the
quality of this "blood royal?"—His "gracious majesty" is a
fat, lazy, negro-looking blockhead, with as little character as
power. He has lost the noble traits of the barbarian, without
acquiring the redeeming graces of a civilized being; and, although

a member of the Hawiian Temperance Society, is a most
inveterate dram-drinker.

The "blood royal" is an extremely thick, depraved fluid;
formed principally of raw fish, bad brandy, and European sweetmeats,
and is charged with a variety of eruptive humours, which
are developed in sundry blotches and pimples upon the august
face of "majesty itself," and the angelic countenances of the
"princes and princesses of the blood-royal!"

Now, if the farcical puppet of a chief magistrate in the Sandwich
Islands be allowed the title of King, why should it be withheld
from the noble savage Mehevi, who is a thousand times
more worthy of the appellation? All hail, therefore, Mehevi,
King of the Cannibal Valley, and long life and prosperity to his
Typeean majesty! May Heaven for many a year preserve him,
the uncompromising foe of Nukuheva and the French, if a hostile
attitude will secure his lovely domain from the remorseless inflictions
of South Sea civilization.

Previously to seeing the Dancing Widows I had little idea
that there were any matrimonial relations subsisting in Typee,
and I should as soon have thought of a Platonic affection being
cultivated between the sexes, as of the solemn connexion of man
and wife. To be sure, there were old Marheyo and Tinor, who
seemed to have a sort of nuptial understanding with one another;
but for all that, I had sometimes observed a comical-looking old
gentleman dressed in a suit of shabby tattooing, who had the
audacity to take various liberties with the lady, and that too
in the very presence of the old warrior her husband, who looked
on, as good-naturedly as if nothing was happening. This behaviour,
until subsequent discoveries enlightened me, puzzled me
more than anything else I witnessed in Typee.

As for Mehevi, I had supposed him a confirmed bachelor, as
well as most of the principal chiefs. At any rate, if they had
wives and families, they ought to have been ashamed of themselves;
for sure I am, they never troubled themselves about any
domestic affairs. In truth, Mehevi seemed to be the president
of a club of hearty fellows, who kept "Bachelor's Hall" in fine
style at the Ti. I had no doubt but that they regarded children
as odious incumbrances; and their ideas of domestic felicity were
sufficiently shown in the fact, that they allowed no meddlesome

housekeepers to turn topsy-turvy those snug little arrangements
they had made in their comfortable dwelling. I strongly suspected,
however, that some of these jolly bachelors were carrying
on love intrigues with the maidens of the tribe; although they
did not appear publicly to acknowledge them. I happened to
pop upon Mehevi three or four times when he was romping—in
a most undignified manner for a warrior king—with one of the
prettiest little witches in the valley. She lived with an old
woman and a young man, in a house near Marheyo's; and although
in appearance a mere child herself, had a noble boy about
a year old, who bore a marvellous resemblance to Mehevi, whom
I should certainly have believed to have been the father, were it
not that the little fellow had no triangle on his face—but on
second thoughts, tattooing is not hereditary. Mehevi, however,
was not the only person upon whom the damsel Moonoony
smiled—the young fellow of fifteen, who permanently resided in
the house with her, was decidedly in her good graces. I sometimes
beheld both him and the chief making love at the same
time. Is it possible, thought I, that the valiant warrior can
consent to give up a corner in the thing he loves? This too was
a mystery which, with others of the same kind, was afterwards
satisfactorily explained.

During the second day of the Feast of Calabashes, Kory-Kory
—being determined that I should have some understanding on
these matters—had, in the course of his explanations, directed
my attention to a peculiarity I had frequently remarked among
many of the females;—principally those of a mature age and
rather matronly appearance. This consisted in having the right
hand and the left foot most elaborately tattooed; while the rest
of the body was wholly free from the operation of the art, with
the exception of the minutely dotted lips and slight marks on
the shoulders, to which I have previously referred as comprising
the sole tattooing exhibited by Fayaway, in common with other
young girls of her age. The hand and foot thus embellished
were, according to Kory-Kory, the distinguishing badge of wedlock,
so far as that social and highly commendable institution is
known among these people. It answers, indeed, the same purpose
as the plain gold ring worn by our fairer spouses.

After Kory-Kory's explanation of the subject, I was for some

time studiously respectful in the presence of all females thus distinguished,
and never ventured to indulge in the slightest approach
to flirtation with any of their number. Married women,
to be sure!—I knew better than to offend them.

A further insight however into the peculiar domestic customs
of the inmates of the valley did away in a measure with the
severity of my scruples, and convinced me that I was deceived
in some at least of my conclusions. A regular system of polygamy
exists among the islanders; but of a most extraordinary
nature,—a plurality of husbands, instead of wives; and this solitary
fact speaks volumes for the gentle disposition of the male
population. Where else, indeed, could such a practice exist, even
for a single day?—Imagine a revolution brought about in a
Turkish seraglio, and the harem rendered the abode of bearded
men; or conceive some beautiful woman in our own country running
distracted at the sight of her numerous lovers murdering one
another before her eyes, out of jealousy for the unequal distribution
of her favours!—Heaven defend us from such a state of
things!—We are scarcely amiable and forbearing enough to
submit to it.

I was not able to learn what particular ceremony was observed
in forming the marriage contract, but am inclined to think that
it must have been of a very simple nature. Perhaps the mere
"popping the question," as it is termed with us, might have
been followed by an immediate nuptial alliance. At any rate,
I have more than one reason to believe that tedious courtships
are unknown in the valley of Typee.

The males considerably outnumber the females. This holds
true of many of the islands of Polynesia, although the reverse of
what is the case in most civilized countries. The girls are first
wooed and won, at a very tender age, by some stripling in the
household in which they reside. This, however, is a mere frolic
of the affections, and no formal engagement is contracted. By
the time this first love has a little subsided, a second suitor presents
himself, of graver years, and carries both boy and girl away
to his own habitation. This disinterested and generous-hearted
fellow now weds the young couple—marrying damsel and lover
at the same time—and all three thenceforth live together as
harmoniously as so many turtles. I have heard of some men

who in civilized countries rashly marry large families with their
wives, but had no idea that there was any place where people married
supplementary husbands with them. Infidelity on either
side is very rare. No man has more than one wife, and no wife
of mature years has less than two husbands,—sometimes she has
three, but such instances are not frequent. The marriage tie,
whatever it may be, does not appear to be indissoluble; for separations
occasionally happen. These, however, when they do
take place, produce no unhappiness, and are preceded by no
bickerings; for the simple reason, that an ill-used wife or a henpecked
husband is not obliged to file a bill in Chancery to obtain
a divorce. As nothing stands in the way of a separation, the
matrimonial yoke sits easily and lightly, and a Typee wife lives
on very pleasant and sociable terms with her husbands. On the
whole wedlock, as known among these Typees, seems to be of
a more distinct and enduring nature than is usually the case with
barbarous people. A baneful promiscuous intercourse of the sexes
is hereby avoided, and virtue, without being clamorously invoked,
is, as it were, unconsciously practised.

The contrast exhibited between the Marquesas and other
islanders of the Pacific in this respect, is worthy of being
noticed. At Tahiti the marriage tie was altogether unknown;
and the relation of husband and wife, father and son, could
hardly be said to exist. The Arreory Society—one of the most
singular institutions that ever existed in any part of the world—
spread universal licentiousness over the island. It was the voluptuous
character of these people which rendered the disease
introduced among them by De Bougainville's ships, in 1768,
doubly destructive. It visited them like a plague, sweeping
them off by hundreds.

Notwithstanding the existence of wedlock among the Typees,
the Scriptural injunction to increase and multiply seems to be
but indifferently attended to. I never saw any of those large
families in arithmetical or step-ladder progression which one
often meets with at home. I never knew of more than two
youngsters living together in the same home, and but seldom
even that number. As for the women, it was very plain that
the anxieties of the nursery but seldom disturbed the serenity of
their souls; and they were never to be seen going about the

valley with half a score of little ones tagging at their apronstrings,
or rather at the bread-fruit-leaf they usually wore in
the rear.

The ratio of increase among all the Polynesian nations is
very small; and in some places as yet uncorrupted by intercourse
with Europeans, the births would appear but very little
to outnumber the deaths; the population in such instances remaining
nearly the same for several successive generations, even
upon those islands seldom or never desolated by wars, and among
people with whom the crime of infanticide is altogether unknown.
This would seem expressly ordained by Providence to
prevent the overstocking of the islands with a race too indolent
to cultivate the ground, and who, for that reason alone, would,
by any considerable increase in their numbers, be exposed to the
most deplorable misery. During the entire period of my stay
in the valley of Typee, I never saw more than ten or twelve
children under the age of six months, and only became aware
of two births.

It is to the absence of the marriage tie that the late rapid
decrease of the population of the Sandwich Islands and of
Tahiti is in part to be ascribed. The vices and diseases introduced
among these unhappy people annually swell the ordinary
mortality of the islands, while, from the same cause, the originally
small number of births is proportionally decreased. Thus
the progress of the Hawiians and Tahitians to utter extinction is
accelerated in a sort of compound ratio.

I have before had occasion to remark that I never saw any of
the ordinary signs of a place of sepulchre in the valley, a circumstance
which I attributed, at the time, to my living in a
particular part of it, and being forbidden to extend my rambles
to any considerable distance towards the sea. I have since
thought it probable, however, that the Typees, either desirous
of removing from their sight the evidences of mortality, or
prompted by a taste for rural beauty, may have some charming
cemetery situated in the shadowy recesses along the base of the
mountains. At Nukuheva, two or three large quadrangular
"pi-pis," heavily flagged, enclosed with regular stone walls, and
shaded over and almost hidden from view by the interlacing
branches of enormous trees, were pointed out to me as burial-places.

The bodies, I understood, were deposited in rude vaults
beneath the flagging, and were suffered to remain there without
being disinterred. Although nothing could be more strange
and gloomy than the aspect of these places, where the lofty
trees threw their dark shadows over rude blocks of stone, a
stranger in looking at them would have discerned none of the
ordinary evidences of a place of sepulture.

During my stay in the valley, as none of its inmates were so
accommodating as to die and be buried in order to gratify my
curiosity with regard to their funeral rites, I was reluctantly
obliged to remain in ignorance of them. As I have reason to
believe, however, that the observances of the Typees in these
matters are the same with those of all the other tribes on the
island, I will here relate a scene I chanced to witness at
Nukuheva.

A young man had died, about daybreak, in a house near the
beach. I had been sent ashore that morning, and saw a good
deal of the preparations they were making for his obsequies.
The body, neatly wrapped in new white tappa, was laid out in
an open shed of cocoa-nut boughs, upon a bier constructed of
elastic bamboos ingeniously twisted together. This was supported,
about two feet from the ground, by large canes planted
upright in the earth. Two females, of a dejected appearance,
watched by its side, plaintively chanting and beating the air
with large grass fans whitened with pipe-clay. In the dwelling-house
adjoining a numerous company were assembled, and various
articles of food were being prepared for consumption. Two
or three individuals, distinguished by head-dresses of beautiful
tappa, and wearing a great number of ornaments, appeared to
officiate as masters of the ceremonies. By noon the entertainment
had fairly begun, and we were told that it would last
during the whole of the two following days. With the exception
of those who mourned by the corpse, every one seemed disposed
to drown the sense of the late bereavement in convivial
indulgence. The girls, decked out in their savage finery,
danced; the old men chanted; the warriors smoked and chatted;
and the young and lusty, of both sexes, feasted plentifully, and
seemed to enjoy themselves as pleasantly as they could have done
had it been a wedding.

The islanders understand the art of embalming, and practise
it with such success, that the bodies of their great chiefs are
frequently preserved for many years in the very houses where
they died. I saw three of these in my visit to the Bay of Tior.
One was enveloped in immense folds of tappa, with only the face
exposed, and hung erect against the side of the dwelling. The
others were stretched out upon biers of bamboo, in open, elevated
temples, which seemed consecrated to their memory.
The heads of enemies killed in battle are invariably preserved
and hung up as trophies in the house of the conqueror. I
am not acquainted with the process which is in use, but believe
that fumigation is the principal agency employed. All the remains
which I saw presented the appearance of a ham after
being suspended for some time in a smoky chimney.

But to return from the dead to the living. The late festival
had drawn together, as I had every reason to believe, the whole
population of the vale, and consequently I was enabled to make
some estimate with regard to its numbers. I should imagine
that there were about two thousand inhabitants in Typee; and
no number could have been better adapted to the extent of the
valley. The valley is some nine miles in length, and may
average one in breadth; the houses being distributed at wide
intervals throughout its whole extent, principally, however, towards
the head of the vale. There are no villages: the houses
stand here and there in the shadow of the groves, or are scattered
along the banks of the winding stream; their golden-hued
bamboo sides and gleaming white thatch forming a beautiful
contrast to the perpetual verdure in which they are
embowered. There are no roads of any kind in the valley—
nothing but a labyrinth of foot-paths twisting and turning
among the thickets without end.

The penalty of the Fall presses very lightly upon the valley
of Typee; for, with the one solitary exception of striking a
light, I scarcely saw any piece of work performed there which
caused the sweat to stand upon a single brow. As for digging
and delving for a livelihood, the thing is altogether unknown.
Nature had planted the bread-fruit and the banana, and in
her own good time she brings them to maturity, when the idle
savage stretches forth his hand, and satisfies his appetite.

Ill-fated people! I shudder when I think of the change a few
years will produce in their paradisaical abode; and probably when
the most destructive vices, and the worst attendances on civilization,
shall have driven all peace and happiness from the valley,
the magnanimous French will proclaim to the world that the
Marquesas Islands have been converted to Christianity! and this
the Catholic world will doubtless consider as a glorious event.
Heaven help the "Isles of the Sea!"—The sympathy which
Christendom feels for them has, alas! in too many instances
proved their bane.

How little do some of these poor islanders comprehend when
they look around them, that no inconsiderable part of their disasters
originate in certain tea-party excitements, under the influence
of which benevolent-looking gentlemen in white cravats
solicit alms, and old ladies in spectacles, and young ladies in
sober russet low gowns, contribute sixpences towards the creation
of a fund, the object of which is to ameliorate the spiritual condition
of the Polynesians, but whose end has almost invariably
been to accomplish their temporal destruction!

Let the savages be civilized, but civilize them with benefits,
and not with evils; and let heathenism be destroyed, but not by
destroying the heathen. The Anglo-Saxon hive have extirpated
Paganism from the greater part of the North American continent;
but with it they have likewise extirpated the greater portion
of the Red race. Civilization is gradually sweeping from
the earth the lingering vestiges of Paganism, and at the same
time the shrinking forms of its unhappy worshippers.

Among the islands of Polynesia, no sooner are the images
overturned, the temples demolished, and the idolaters converted
into nominal Christians, than disease, vice, and premature death
make their appearance. The depopulated land is then recruited
from the rapacious hordes of enlightened individuals who settle
themselves within its borders, and clamorously announce the
progress of the Truth. Neat villas, trim gardens, shaven lawns,
spires, and cupolas arise, while the poor savage soon finds himself
an interloper in the country of his fathers, and that too on the
very site of the hut where he was born. The spontaneous fruits
of the earth, which God in his wisdom had ordained for the support
of the indolent natives, remorselessly seized upon and appropriated

by the stranger, are devoured before the eyes of the
starving inhabitants, or sent on board the numerous vessels which
now touch at their shores.

When the famished wretches are cut off in this manner from
their natural supplies, they are told by their benefactors to work
and earn their support by the sweat of their brows! But to no
fine gentleman born to hereditary opulence does manual labour
come more unkindly than to the luxurious Indian when thus
robbed of the bounty of Heaven. Habituated to a life of indolence,
he cannot and will not exert himself; and want, disease, and vice,
all evils of foreign growth, soon terminate his miserable existence.

But what matters all this? Behold the glorious result!—The
abominations of Paganism have given way to the pure rites of
the Christian worship,—the ignorant savage has been supplanted
by the refined European! Look at Honolulu, the metropolis of
the Sandwich Islands!—A community of disinterested merchants,
and devoted self-exiled heralds of the Cross, located on the very
spot that twenty years ago was defiled by the presence of idolatry.
What a subject for an eloquent Bible-meeting orator! Nor has
such an opportunity for a display of missionary rhetoric been
allowed to pass by unimproved!—But when these philanthropists
send us such glowing accounts of one half of their labours, why
does their modesty restrain them from publishing the other half
of the good they have wrought?—Not until I visited Honolulu
was I aware of the fact that the small remnant of the natives had
been civilized into draught horses, and evangelized into beasts of
burden. But so it is. They have been literally broken into the
traces, and are harnessed to the vehicles of their spiritual instructors
like so many dumb brutes!

Among a multitude of similar exhibitions that I saw, I shall
never forget a robust, red-faced, and very lady-like personage, a
missionary's spouse, who day after day for months together took
her regular airings in a little go-cart drawn by two of the
islanders, one an old grey-headed man, and the other a rogueish
stripling, both being, with the exception of the fig-leaf, as naked
as when they were born. Over a level piece of ground this pair
of draught bipeds would go with a shambling, unsightly trot,
the youngster hanging back all the time like a knowing horse,
while the old hack plodded on and did all the work.

Rattling along through the streets of the town in this stylish
equipage, the lady looks about her as magnificently as any queen
driven in state to her coronation. A sudden elevation, and a
sandy road, however, soon disturb her serenity. The small
wheels become imbedded in the loose soil,—the old stager stands
tugging and sweating, while the young one frisks about and does
nothing; not an inch does the chariot budge. Will the tenderhearted
lady, who has left friends and home for the good of the
souls of the poor heathen, will she think a little about their
bodies and get out, and ease the wretched old man until the
ascent is mounted? Not she; she could not dream of it. To
be sure, she used to think nothing of driving the cows to pasture
on the old farm in New England; but times have changed since
then. So she retains her seat and bawls out, "Hookee! hookee!"
(pull, pull.) The old gentleman, frightened at the sound, labours
away harder than ever; and the younger one makes a great show
of straining himself, but takes care to keep one eye on his mistress,
in order to know when to dodge out of harm's way. At
last the good lady loses all patience; "Hookee! hookee!" and
rap goes the heavy handle of her huge fan over the naked skull
of the old savage; while the young one shies to one side and
keeps beyond its range. "Hookee! hookee!" again she cries—
"Hookee tata kannaka!" (pull strong, men,)—but all in vain,
and she is obliged in the end to dismount and, sad necessity!
actually to walk to the top of the hill.

At the town where this paragon of humility resides, is a
spacious and elegant American chapel, where divine service is
regularly performed. Twice every Sabbath towards the close of
the exercises may be seen a score or two of little waggons ranged
along the railing in front of the edifice, with two squalid native
footmen in the livery of nakedness standing by each, and waiting
for the dismission of the congregation to draw their superiors
home.

Lest the slightest misconception should arise from anything
thrown out in this chapter, or indeed in any other part of the
volume, let me here observe, that against the cause of missions
in the abstract no Christian can possibly be opposed: it is in
truth a just and holy cause. But if the great end proposed by
it be spiritual, the agency employed to accomplish that end is

purely earthly; and, although the object in view be the achievement
of much good, that agency may nevertheless be productive
of evil. In short, missionary undertaking, however it may be
blessed of Heaven, is in itself but human; and subject, like everything
else, to errors and abuses. And have not errors and abuses
crept into the most sacred places, and may there not be unworthy
or incapable missionaries abroad, as well as ecclesiastics of a
similar character at home? May not the unworthiness or incapacity
of those who assume apostolic functions upon the remote
islands of the sea more easily escape detection by the world at
large than if it were displayed in the heart of a city? An unwarranted
confidence in the sanctity of its apostles—a proneness
to regard them as incapable of guile—and an impatience of the
least suspicion as to their rectitude as men or Christians, have
ever been prevailing faults in the Church. Nor is this to be
wondered at: for subject as Christianity is to the assaults of unprincipled
foes, we are naturally disposed to regard everything
like an exposure of ecclesiastical misconduct as the offspring of
malevolence or irreligious feeling. Not even this last consideration,
however, shall deter me from the honest expression of my
sentiments.

There is something decidedly wrong in the practical operations
of the Sandwich Island Missions. Those who from pure religious
motives contribute to the support of this enterprise,
should take care to ascertain that their donations, flowing through
many devious channels, at last effect their legitimate object,
the conversion of the Hawiians. I urge this not because I doubt
the moral probity of those who disburse these funds, but because
I know that they are not rightly applied. To read pathetic
accounts of missionary hardships, and glowing descriptions of
conversions, and baptisms taking place beneath palm-trees, is one
thing; and to go to the Sandwich Islands and see the missionaries
dwelling in picturesque and prettily-furnished coral-rock villas,
whilst the miserable natives are committing all sorts of immoralities
around them, is quite another.

In justice to the missionaries, however, I will willingly admit,
that whatever evils may have resulted from their collective mismanagement
of the business of the mission, and from the want of
vital piety evinced by some of their number, still the present

deplorable condition of the Sandwich Islands is by no means
wholly chargeable against them. The demoralising influence of
a dissolute foreign population, and the frequent visits of all descriptions
of vessels, have tended not a little to increase the evils
alluded to. In a word, here, as in every case where Civilization
has in any way been introduced among those whom we call savages,
she has scattered her vices, and withheld her blessings.

As wise a man as Shakspeare has said, that the bearer of evil
tidings hath but a losing office; and so I suppose will it prove with
me, in communicating to the trusting friends of the Hawiian
Mission what has been disclosed in various portions of this narrative.
I am persuaded, however, that as these disclosures will
by their very nature attract attention, so they will lead to something
which will not be without ultimate benefit to the cause of
Christianity in the Sandwich Islands.

I have but one thing more to add in connection with this subject—those
things which I have stated as facts will remain facts,
in spite of whatever the bigoted or incredulous may say or write
against them. My reflections, however, on those facts may not
be free from error. If such be the case, I claim no further indulgence
than should be conceded to every man whose object is
to do good.