University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXVIII.

There was no instance in which the social and kindly dispositions
of the Typees were more forcibly evinced than in the manner
they conducted their great fishing parties. Four times during
my stay in the valley the young men assembled near the full of
the moon, and went together on these excursions. As they were
generally absent about forty-eight hours, I was led to believe that
they went out towards the open sea, some distance from the bay.
The Polynesians seldom use a hook and line, almost always employing
large well-made nets, most ingeniously fabricated from
the twisted fibres of a certain bark. I examined several of them
which had been spread to dry upon the beach at Nukuheva.
They resemble very much our own seines, and I should think
were very nearly as durable.

All the South Sea Islanders are passionately fond of fish; but
none of them can be more so than the inhabitants of Typee. I
could not comprehend, therefore, why they so seldom sought it
in their waters, for it was only at stated times that the fishing
parties were formed, and these occasions were always looked
forward to with no small degree of interest.

During their absence the whole population of the place were
in a ferment, and nothing was talked of but "pehee, pehee"
(fish, fish). Towards the time when they were expected to return
the vocal telegraph was put into operation—the inhabitants,
who were scattered throughout the length of the valley, leaped
upon rocks and into trees, shouting with delight at the thoughts of
the anticipated treat. As soon as the approach of the party was
announced, there was a general rush of the men towards the
beach; some of them remaining, however, about the Ti, in order
to get matters in readiness for the reception of the fish, which

were brought to the Taboo groves in immense packages of
leaves, each one of them being suspended from a pole carried on
the shoulders of two men.

I was present at the Ti on one of these occasions, and the sight
was most interesting. After all the packages had arrived, they
were laid in a row under the verandah of the building and
opened. The fish were all quite small, generally about the size
of a herring, and of every variety of colour. About one-eighth
of the whole being reserved for the use of the Ti itself, the remainder
was divided into numerous smaller packages, which were
immediately dispatched in every direction to the remotest parts
of the valley. Arrived at their destination, these were in turn
portioned out, and equally distributed among the various houses
of each particular district. The fish were under a strict Taboo,
until the distribution was completed, which seemed to be effected
in the most impartial manner. By the operation of this system
every man, woman, and child in the vale were at one and the
same time partaking of this favourite article of food.

Once I remember the party arrived at midnight; but the unseasonableness
of the hour did not repress the impatience of the
islanders. The carriers dispatched from the Ti were to be seen
hurrying in all directions through the deep groves; each individual
preceded by a boy bearing a flaming torch of dried cocoanut
boughs, which from time to time was replenished from the
materials scattered along the path. The wild glare of these
enormous flambeaux, lighting up with a startling brilliancy the
innermost recesses of the vale, and seen moving rapidly along
beneath the canopy of leaves, the savage shout of the excited messengers
sounding the news of their approach, which was answered
on all sides, and the strange appearance of their naked bodies,
seen against the gloomy background, produced altogether an
effect upon my mind that I shall long remember.

It was on this same occasion that Kory-Kory awakened me at the
dead hour of night, and in a sort of transport communicated the
intelligence contained in the words "pehee perni" (fish come).
As I happened to have been in a remarkably sound and refreshing
slumber, I could not imagine why the information had not been
deferred until morning; indeed, I felt very much inclined to fly
into a passion and box my valet's ears; but on second thoughts

I got quietly up, and on going outside the house was not a little
interested by the moving illumination which I beheld.

When old Marheyo received his share of the spoils, immediate
preparations were made for a midnight banquet; calabashes of
poee-poee were filled to the brim; green bread-fruit were roasted;
and a huge cake of "amar" was cut up with a sliver of bamboo
and laid out on an immense banana-leaf.

At this supper we were lighted by several of the native tapers,
held in the hands of young girls. These tapers are most ingeniously
made. There is a nut abounding in the valley, called
by the Typees "armor," closely resembling our common horse-chestnut.
The shell is broken, and the contents extracted whole.
Any number of these are strung at pleasure upon the long elastic
fibre that traverses the branches of the cocoa-nut tree. Some of
these tapers are eight and ten feet in length; but being perfectly
flexible, one end is held in a coil, while the other is lighted. The
nut burns with a fitful bluish flame, and the oil that it contains is
exhausted in about ten minutes. As one burns down, the next
becomes ignited, and the ashes of the former are knocked into a
cocoa-nut shell kept for the purpose. This primitive candle requires
continual attention, and must be constantly held in the
hand. The person so employed marks the lapse of time by the
number of nuts consumed, which is easily learned by counting
the bits of tappa distributed at regular intervals along the
string.

I grieve to state so distressing a fact, but the inhabitants of
Typee were in the habit of devouring fish much in the same way
that a civilized being would eat a radish, and without any more
previous preparation. They eat it raw; scales, bones, gills, and
all the inside. The fish is held by the tail, and the head being
introduced into the mouth, the animal disappears with a rapidity
that would at first nearly lead one to imagine it had been launched
bodily down the throat.

Raw fish! Shall I ever forget my sensations when I first saw
my island beauty devour one? Oh, heavens! Fayaway, how
could you ever have contracted so vile a habit? However, after
the first shock had subsided, the custom grew less odious in my
eyes, and I soon accustomed myself to the sight. Let no one
imagine, however, that the lovely Fayaway was in the habit of

swallowing great vulgar-looking fishes: oh, no; with her beautiful
small hand she would clasp a delicate, little, golden-hued
love of a fish, and eat it as elegantly and as innocently as though
it were a Naples biscuit. But, alas! it was after all a raw fish;
and all I can say is, that Fayaway ate it in a more ladylike manner
than any other girl of the valley.

When at Rome do as the Romans do, I held to be so good a
proverb, that being in Typee I made a point of doing as the
Typees did. Thus I ate poee-poee as they did; I walked about
in a garb striking for its simplicity; and I reposed on a community
of couches; besides doing many other things in conformity
with their peculiar habits; but the farthest I ever went in the way
of conformity, was on several occasions to regale myself with
raw fish. These being remarkably tender, and quite small, the
undertaking was not so disagreeable in the main, and after a few
trials I positively began to relish them: however, I subjected
them to a slight operation with my knife previously to making
my repast.