Typee

by Herman Melville

  CHAPTER X

  Midnight reflections--Morning visitors--A warrior in costume--A savage AEsculapius--Practice of the healing art--Body-servant--A dwelling-house of the valley described--Portraits of its inmates.

  Various and conflicting were the thoughts which oppressed me during thesilent hours that followed the events related in the preceding chapter.Toby, wearied with the fatigues of the day, slumbered heavily by my side;but the pain under which I was suffering effectually prevented mysleeping, and I remained distressingly alive to all the fearfulcircumstances of our present situation. Was it possible that, after allour vicissitudes, we were really in the terrible valley of Typee, and atthe mercy of its inmates, a fierce and unrelenting tribe of savages?

  Typee or Happar? I shuddered when I reflected that there was no longer anyroom for doubt; and that, beyond all hope of escape, we were now placed inthose very circumstances from the bare thought of which I had recoiledwith such abhorrence but a few days before. What might not be our fearfuldestiny? To be sure, as yet, we had been treated with no violence; nay,had been even kindly and hospitably entertained. But what dependence couldbe placed upon the fickle passions which sway the bosom of a savage? Hisinconstancy and treachery are proverbial. Might if not be that, beneaththese fair appearances, the islanders covered some perfidious design, andthat their friendly reception of us might only precede some horriblecatastrophe? How strongly did these forebodings spring up in my mind, as Ilay restlessly upon a couch of mats, surrounded by the dimly-revealedforms of those whom I so greatly dreaded.

  From the excitement of these fearful thoughts, I sank, towards morning,into an uneasy slumber; and on awaking, with a start, in the midst of anappalling dream, looked up into the eager countenances of a number of thenatives, who were bending over me.

  It was broad day; and the house was nearly filled with young females,fancifully decorated with flowers, who gazed upon me as I rose with facesin which childish delight and curiosity were vividly portrayed. Afterwaking Toby, they seated themselves round us on the mats, and gave fullplay to that prying inquisitiveness which, time out of mind, has beenattributed to the adorable sex.

  As these unsophisticated young creatures were attended by no jealousduennas, their proceedings were altogether informal, and void ofartificial restraint. Long and minute was the investigation with whichthey honoured us, and so uproarious their mirth, that I felt infinitelysheepish; and Toby was immeasurably outraged at their familiarity.

  These lively young ladies were at the same time wonderfully polite andhumane; fanning aside the insects that occasionally lighted on our brows;presenting us with food; and compassionately regarding me in the midst ofmy afflictions. But in spite of all their blandishments, my feelings ofpropriety were exceedingly shocked, for I could not but consider them ashaving overstepped the due limits of female decorum.

  Having diverted themselves to their hearts' content, our young visitantsnow withdrew, and gave place to successive troops of the other sex, whocontinued flocking towards the house until near noon; by which time I haveno doubt that the greater part of the inhabitants of the valley had bathedthemselves in the light of our benignant countenances.

  As last, when their numbers began to diminish, a superb-looking warriorstooped the towering plumes of his head-dress beneath the low portal, andentered the house. I saw at once that he was some distinguished personage,the natives regarding him with the utmost deference, and making room forhim as he approached. His aspect was imposing. The splendid long droopingtail-feathers of the tropical bird, thickly interspersed with the gaudyplumage of the cock, were disposed in an immense upright semicircle uponhis head, their lower extremities being fixed in a crescent ofguinea-beads which spanned the forehead. Around his neck were severalenormous necklaces of boar's tusks, polished like ivory, and disposed insuch a manner as that the longest and largest were upon his capaciouschest. Thrust forward through the large apertures in his ears were twosmall and finely shaped sperm-whale teeth, presenting their cavities infront, stuffed with freshly-plucked leaves, and curiously wrought at theother end into strange little images and devices. These barbaric trinkets,garnished in this manner at their open extremities, and tapering andcurving round to a point behind the ear, resembled not a little a pair ofcornucopias.

  The loins of the warrior were girt about with heavy folds of adark-coloured tappa, hanging before and behind in clusters of braidedtassels, while anklets and bracelets of curling human hair completed hisunique costume. In his right hand he grasped a beautifully-carvedpaddle-spear, nearly fifteen feet in length, made of the bright koar-wood,one end sharply pointed, and the other flattened like an oar-blade.Hanging obliquely from his girdle by a loop of sinnate, was arichly-decorated pipe; the slender reed forming its stem was coloured witha red pigment, and round it, as well as the idol-bowl, fluttered littlestreamers of the thinnest tappa.

  But that which was most remarkable in the appearance of this splendidislander, was the elaborate tattooing displayed on every noble limb. Allimaginable lines and curves and figures were delineated over his wholebody, and in their grotesque variety and infinite profusion, I could onlycompare them to the crowded groupings of quaint patterns we sometimes seein costly pieces of lacework. The most simple and remarkable of all theseornaments was that which decorated the countenance of the chief. Two broadstripes of tattooing, diverging from the centre of his shaven crown,obliquely crossed both eyes--staining the lids--to a little below eitherear, where they united with another stripe, which swept in a straight linealong the lips, and formed the base of the triangle. The warrior, from theexcellence of his physical proportions, might certainly have been regardedas one of nature's noblemen, and the lines drawn upon his face maypossibly have denoted his exalted rank.

  This warlike personage, upon entering the house, seated himself at somedistance from the spot where Toby and myself reposed, while the rest ofthe savages looked alternately from us to him, as if in expectation ofsomething they were disappointed in not perceiving. Regarding the chiefattentively, I thought his lineaments appeared familiar to me. As soon ashis full face was turned upon me, and I again beheld its extraordinaryembellishment, and met the strange gaze to which I had been subjected thepreceding night, I immediately, in spite of the alteration in hisappearance, recognised the noble Mehevi. On addressing him, he advanced atonce in the most cordial manner, and greeting me warmly, seemed to enjoynot a little the effect his barbaric costume had produced upon me.

  I forthwith determined to secure, if possible, the goodwill of thisindividual, as I easily perceived he was a man of great authority in histribe, and one who might exert a powerful influence upon our subsequentfate. In the endeavour I was not repulsed; for nothing could surpass thefriendliness he manifested towards both my companion and myself. Heextended his sturdy limbs by our side, and endeavoured to make uscomprehend the full extent of the kindly feelings by which he wasactuated. The almost insuperable difficulty in communicating to oneanother our ideas, affected the chief with no little mortification. Heevinced a great desire to be enlightened with regard to the customs andpeculiarities of the far-off country we had left behind us, and to which,under the name of Maneeka, he frequently alluded.

  But that which more than any other subject engaged his attention, was thelate proceedings of the "Franee," as he called the French, in theneighbouring bay of Nukuheva. This seemed a never-ending theme with him,and one concerning which he was never weary of interrogating us. All theinformation we succeeded in imparting to him on this subject was littlemore than that we had seen six men-of-war lying in the hostile bay at thetime we had left it. When he received this intelligence, Mehevi, by theaid of his fingers, went through a long numerical calculation, as ifestimating the number of Frenchmen the squadron might contain.

  It was just after employing his faculties in this way that he happened tonotice the swelling in my limb. He immediately examined it with the utmostattention, and after doing so, despatched a boy,
who happened to bestanding by, with some message.

  After the lapse of a few moments the stripling re-entered the house withan aged islander, who might have been taken for old Hippocrates himself.His head was as bald as the polished surface of a cocoa-nut shell, whicharticle it precisely resembled in smoothness and colour, while a longsilvery beard swept almost to his girdle of bark. Encircling his templeswas a bandeau of the twisted leaves of the Omoo tree, pressed closely overthe brows to shield his feeble vision from the glare of the sun. Histottering steps were supported by a long slim staff, resembling the wandwith which a theatrical magician appears on the stage, and in one hand hecarried a freshly-plaited fan of the green leaflets of the cocoa-nut tree.A flowing robe of tappa, knotted over the shoulder, hung loosely round hisstooping form, and heightened the venerableness of his aspect.

  Mehevi, saluting this old gentleman, motioned him to a seat between us,and then uncovering my limb, desired him to examine it. The leech gazedintently from me to Toby, and then proceeded to business. After diligentlyobserving the ailing member, he commenced manipulating it; and on thesupposition probably that the complaint had deprived the leg of allsensation, began to pinch and hammer it in such a manner that I absolutelyroared with the pain. Thinking that I was as capable of making anapplication of thumps and pinches to the part as any one else, Iendeavoured to resist this species of medical treatment. But it was not soeasy a matter to get out of the clutches of the old wizard; he fastened onthe unfortunate limb as if it were something for which he had been longseeking, and muttering some kind of incantation continued his discipline,pounding it after a fashion that set me well-nigh crazy; while Mehevi,upon the same principle which prompts an affectionate mother to hold astruggling child in a dentist's chair, restrained me in his powerfulgrasp, and actually encouraged the wretch in this infliction of torture.

  Almost frantic with rage and pain, I yelled like a bedlamite; while Toby,throwing himself into all the attitudes of a posture-master, vainlyendeavoured to expostulate with the natives by signs and gestures. To havelooked at my companion, as, sympathizing with my sufferings, he strove toput an end to them, one would have thought that he was the deaf and dumbalphabet incarnated. Whether my tormentor yielded to Toby's entreaties, orpaused from sheer exhaustion, I do not know; but all at once he ceased hisoperations, and at the same time the chief relinquishing his hold upon me,I fell back, faint and breathless with the agony I had endured.

  My unfortunate limb was now left much in the same condition as arump-steak after undergoing the castigating process which precedescooking. My physician, having recovered from the fatigues of hisexertions, as if anxious to make amends for the pain to which he hadsubjected me, now took some herbs out of a little wallet that wassuspended from his waist, and moistening them in water, applied them tothe inflamed part, stooping over it at the same time, and eitherwhispering a spell, or having a little confidential chat with someimaginary demon located in the calf of my leg. My limb was now swathed inleafy bandages, and grateful to Providence for the cessation ofhostilities, I was suffered to rest.

  Mehevi shortly after rose to depart; but before he went he spokeauthoritatively to one of the natives, whom he addressed as Kory-Kory; andfrom the little I could understand of what took place, pointed him out tome as a man whose peculiar business henceforth would be to attend upon myperson. I am not certain that I comprehended as much as this at the time,but the subsequent conduct of my trusty body-servant fully assured me thatsuch must have been the case.

  I could not but be amused at the manner in which the chief addressed meupon this occasion, talking to me for at least fifteen or twenty minutesas calmly as if I could understand every word that he said. I remarkedthis peculiarity very often afterwards in many other of the islanders.

  Mehevi having now departed, and the family physician having likewise madehis exit, we were left about sunset with the ten or twelve natives, who bythis time I had ascertained composed the household of which Toby and Iwere members. As the dwelling to which we had been first introduced wasthe place of my permanent abode while I remained in the valley, and as Iwas necessarily placed upon the most intimate footing with its occupants,I may as well here enter into a little description of it and itsinhabitants. This description will apply also to nearly all the otherdwelling-places in the vale, and will furnish some idea of the generalityof the natives.

  Near one side of the valley, and about midway up the ascent of a ratherabrupt rise of ground waving with the richest verdure, a number of largestones were laid in successive courses, to the height of nearly eightfeet, and disposed in such a manner that their level surface correspondedin shape with the habitation which was perched upon it. A narrow space,however, was reserved in front of the dwelling, upon the summit of thispile of stones (called by the natives a "pi-pi"), which, being enclosed bya little picket of canes, gave it somewhat the appearance of a verandah.The frame of the house was constructed of large bamboos planted uprightly,and secured together at intervals by transverse stalks of the light woodof the Habiscus, lashed with thongs of bark. The rear of thetenement--built up with successive ranges of cocoa-nut boughs bound oneupon another, with their leaflets cunningly woven together--inclined alittle from the vertical, and extended from the extreme edge of the"pi-pi" to about twenty feet from its surface; whence the shelvingroof--thatched with the long tapering leaves of the palmetto--sloped steeplyoff to within about five feet of the floor; leaving the eaves droopingwith tassel-like appendages over the front of the habitation. This wasconstructed of light and elegant canes, in a kind of open screen-work,tastefully adorned with bindings of variegated sinnate, which served tohold together its various parts. The sides of the house were similarlybuilt; thus presenting three-quarters for the circulation of the air,while the whole was impervious to the rain.

  In length this picturesque building was perhaps twelve yards, while inbreadth it could not have exceeded as many feet. So much for the exterior;which, with its wire-like reed-twisted sides, not a little reminded me ofan immense aviary.

  Stooping a little, you passed through a narrow aperture in its front; andfacing you, on entering, lay two long, perfectly straight, andwell-polished trunks of the cocoa-nut tree, extending the full length ofthe dwelling; one of them placed closely against the rear, and the otherlying parallel with it some two yards distant, the interval between thembeing spread with a multitude of gaily-worked mats, nearly all of adifferent pattern. This space formed the common couch and lounging-placeof the natives, answering the purpose of a divan in Oriental countries.Here would they slumber through the hours of the night, and reclineluxuriously during the greater part of the day. The remainder of the floorpresented only the cool shining surfaces of the large stones of which the"pi-pi" was composed.

  From the ridge-pole of the house hung suspended a number of large packagesenveloped in coarse tappa; some of which contained festival dresses, andvarious other matters of the wardrobe, held in high estimation. These wereeasily accessible by means of a line, which, passing over the ridge-pole,had one end attached to a bundle, while with the other, which led to theside of the dwelling and was there secured, the package could be loweredor elevated at pleasure.

  Against the farther wall of the house were arranged in tasteful figures avariety of spears and javelins, and other implements of savage warfare.Outside of the habitation, and built upon the piazza-like area in itsfront, was a little shed used as a sort of larder or pantry, and in whichwere stored various articles of domestic use and convenience. A few yardsfrom the pi-pi was a large shed built of cocoa-nut boughs, where theprocess of preparing the "poee-poee" was carried on, and all culinaryoperations attended to.

  Thus much for the house, and its appurtenances; and it will be readilyacknowledged that a more commodious and appropriate dwelling for theclimate and the people could not possibly be devised. It was cool, free toadmit the air, scrupulously clean, and elevated above the dampness andimpurities of the ground.

  But now to sketch the inmates; and her
e I claim for my tried servitor andfaithful valet Kory-Kory the precedence of a first description. As hischaracter will be gradually unfolded in the course of my narrative, Ishall for the present content myself with delineating his personalappearance. Kory-Kory, though the most devoted and best-naturedserving-man in the world, was, alas! a hideous object to look upon. He wassome twenty-five years of age, and about six feet in height, robust andwell made, and of the most extraordinary aspect. His head was carefullyshaven with the exception of two circular spots, about the size of adollar, near the top of the cranium, where the hair, permitted to grow ofan amazing length, was twisted up in two prominent knots, that gave himthe appearance of being decorated with a pair of horns. His beard, pluckedout by the root from every other part of his face, was suffered to droopin hairy pendants, two of which garnished his upper lip, and an equalnumber hung from the extremity of his chin.

  Kory-Kory, with the view of improving the handiwork of nature, and perhapsprompted by a desire to add to the engaging expression of his countenance,had seen fit to embellish his face with three broad longitudinal stripesof tattooing, which, like those country roads that go straight forward indefiance of all obstacles, crossed his nasal organ, descended into thehollow of his eyes, and even skirted the borders of his mouth. Eachcompletely spanned his physiognomy; one extending in a line with his eyes,another crossing the face in the vicinity of the nose, and the thirdsweeping along his lips from ear to ear. His countenance thus triplyhooped, as it were, with tattooing, always reminded me of those unhappywretches whom I have sometimes observed gazing out sentimentally frombehind the grated bars of a prison window; whilst the entire body of mysavage valet, covered all over with representations of birds and fishes,and a variety of most unaccountable-looking creatures, suggested to me theidea of a pictorial museum of natural history, or an illustrated copy ofGoldsmith's _Animated Nature_.

  But it seems really heartless in me to write thus of the poor islander,when I owe perhaps to his unremitting attentions the very existence I nowenjoy. Kory-Kory, I mean thee no harm in what I say in regard to thyoutward adornings; but they were a little curious to my unaccustomedsight, and therefore I dilate upon them. But to underrate or forget thyfaithful services is something I could never be guilty of, even in thegiddiest moment of my life.

  The father of my attached follower was a native of gigantic frame, and hadonce possessed prodigious physical powers; but the lofty form was nowyielding to the inroads of time, though the hand of disease seemed neverto have been laid upon the aged warrior. Marheyo--for such was hisname--appeared to have retired from all active participation in the affairsof the valley, seldom or never accompanying the natives in their variousexpeditions; and employing the greater part of his time in throwing up alittle shed just outside the house, upon which he was engaged to mycertain knowledge for four months, without appearing to make any sensibleadvance. I suppose the old gentleman was in his dotage, for he manifestedin various ways the characteristics which mark this particular stage oflife.

  I remember in particular his having a choice pair of ear-ornaments,fabricated from the teeth of some sea-monster. These he would alternatelywear and take off at least fifty times in the course of the day, going andcoming from his little hut on each occasion with all the tranquillityimaginable. Sometimes slipping them through the slits in his ears, hewould seize his spear--which in length and slightness resembled afishing-pole--and go stalking beneath the shadows of the neighbouringgroves, as if about to give a hostile meeting to some cannibal knight. Buthe would soon return again, and hiding his weapon under the protectingeaves of the house, and rolling his clumsy trinkets carefully in a pieceof tappa, would resume his more pacific operations as quietly as if he hadnever interrupted them.

  But despite his eccentricities, Marheyo was a most paternal andwarm-hearted old fellow, and in this particular not a little resembled hisson Kory-Kory. The mother of the latter was the mistress of the family,and a notable housewife, and a most industrious old lady she was. If shedid not understand the art of making jellies, jams, custards, tea-cakes,and such like trashy affairs, she was profoundly skilled in the mysteriesof preparing "amar," "poee-poee," and "kokoo," with other substantialmatters. She was a genuine busy-body; bustling about the house like acountry landlady at an unexpected arrival; for ever giving the young girlstasks to perform, which the little hussies as often neglected; poking intoevery corner, and rummaging over bundles of old tappa, or making aprodigious clatter among the calabashes. Sometimes she might have beenseen squatting upon her haunches in front of a huge wooden basin, andkneading poee-poee with terrific vehemence, dashing the stone pestle aboutas if she would shiver the vessel into fragments: on other occasions,galloping about the valley in search of a particular kind of leaf, used insome of her recondite operations, and returning home, toiling andsweating, with a bundle, under which most women would have sunk.

  To tell the truth, Kory-Kory's mother was the only industrious person inall the valley of Typee; and she could not have employed herself moreactively had she been left an exceedingly muscular and destitute widow,with an inordinate supply of young children, in the bleakest part of thecivilized world. There was not the slightest necessity for the greaterportion of the labour performed by the old lady: but she deemed to workfrom some irresistible impulse; her limbs continually swaying to and fro,as if there were some indefatigable engine concealed within her body whichkept her in perpetual motion.

  Never suppose that she was a termagant or a shrew for all this: she hadthe kindliest heart in the world, and acted towards me in particular in atruly maternal manner, occasionally putting some little morsel of choicefood into my hand, some outlandish kind of savage sweetmeat or pastry,like a doting mother petting a sickly urchin with tarts and sugar-plums.Warm indeed are my remembrances of the dear, good, affectionate old Tinor!

  Besides the individuals I have mentioned, there belong to the householdthree young men, dissipated, good-for-nothing, roystering blades ofsavages, who were either employed in prosecuting love affairs with themaidens of the tribe, or grew boozy on "arva" and tobacco in the companyof congenial spirits, the scapegraces of the valley.

  Among the permanent inmates of the house were likewise several lovelydamsels, who instead of thrumming pianos and reading novels, like moreenlightened young ladies, substituted for these employments themanufacture of a fine species of tappa; but for the greater portion of thetime were skipping from house to house, gadding and gossiping with theiracquaintances.

  From the rest of these, however, I must except the beauteous nymphFayaway, who was my peculiar favourite. Her free pliant figure was thevery perfection of female grace and beauty. Her complexion was a rich andmantling olive, and when watching the glow upon her cheeks I could almostswear that beneath the transparent medium there lurked the blushes of afaint vermilion. The face of this girl was a rounded oval, and eachfeature as perfectly formed as the heart or imagination of man coulddesire. Her full lips, when parted with a smile, disclosed teeth of adazzling whiteness; and when her rosy mouth opened with a burst ofmerriment, they looked like the milk-white seeds of the "arta," a fruit ofthe valley, which, when cleft in twain, shows them reposing in rows oneither side, embedded in the red and juicy pulp. Her hair of the deepestbrown, parted irregularly in the middle, flowed in natural ringlets overher shoulders, and whenever she chanced to stoop, fell over and hid fromview her lovely bosom. Gazing into the depths of her strange blue eyes,when she was in a contemplative mood, they seemed most placid yetunfathomable; but when illuminated by some lively emotion, they beamedupon the beholder like stars. The hands of Fayaway were as soft anddelicate as those of any countess; for an entire exemption from rudelabour marks the girlhood and even prime of a Typee woman's life. Herfeet, though wholly exposed, were as diminutive and fairly shaped as thosewhich peep from beneath the skirts of a Lima lady's dress. The skin ofthis young creature, from continual ablutions and the use of mollifyingointments, was inconceivably smooth and soft.

  I may succeed,
perhaps, in particularizing some of the individual featuresof Fayaway's beauty, but that general loveliness of appearance which theyall contributed to produce I will not attempt to describe. The easyunstudied graces of a child of nature like this, breathing from infancy anatmosphere of perpetual summer, and nurtured by the simple fruits of theearth; enjoying a perfect freedom from care and anxiety, and removedeffectually from all injurious tendencies, strike the eye in a mannerwhich cannot be portrayed. This picture is no fancy sketch; it is drawnfrom the most vivid recollections of the person delineated.

  Were I asked if the beauteous form of Fayaway was altogether free from thehideous blemish of tattooing, I should be constrained to answer that itwas not. But the practitioners of this barbarous art, so remorseless intheir inflictions upon the brawny limbs of the warriors of the tribe, seemto be conscious that it needs not the resources of their profession toaugment the charms of the maidens of the vale.

  The females are very little embellished in this way, and Fayaway, and allthe other young girls of her age, were even less so than those of theirsex more advanced in years. The reason of this peculiarity will be alludedto hereafter. All the tattooing that the nymph in question exhibited uponher person may be easily described. Three minute dots, no bigger thanpinheads, decorated either lip, and at a little distance were not at alldiscernible. Just upon the fall of the shoulder were drawn two parallellines half an inch apart, and perhaps three inches in length, the intervalbeing filled with delicately executed figures. These narrow bands oftattooing, thus placed, always reminded me of those stripes of gold laceworn by officers in undress, and which are in lieu of epaulettes to denotetheir rank.

  Thus much was Fayaway tattooed. The audacious hand which had gone so farin its desecrating work stopping short, apparently wanting the heart toproceed.

  But I have neglected to describe the dress worn by this nymph of thevalley.

  Fayaway--I must avow the fact--for the most part clung to the primitive andsummer garb of Eden. But how becoming the costume! It showed her finefigure to the best possible advantage; and nothing could have been betteradapted to her peculiar style of beauty. On ordinary occasions she washabited precisely as I have described the two youthful savages whom we hadmet on first entering the valley. At other times, when rambling among thegroves, or visiting at the houses of her acquaintances, she wore a tunicof white tappa, reaching from her waist to a little below the knees; andwhen exposed for any length of time to the sun, she invariably protectedherself from its rays by a floating mantle of the same material, looselygathered about the person. Her gala dress will be described hereafter.

  As the beauties of our own land delight in bedecking themselves withfanciful articles of jewelry, suspending them from their ears, hangingthem about their necks, and clasping them around their wrists; so Fayawayand her companions were in the habit of ornamenting themselves withsimilar appendages.

  Flora was their jeweller. Sometimes they wore necklaces of small carnationflowers, strung like rubies upon a fibre of tappa, or displayed in theirears a single white bud, the stem thrust backward through the aperture,and showing in front the delicate petals folded together in a beautifulsphere, and looking like a drop of the purest pearl. Chaplets, too,resembling in their arrangement the strawberry coronal worn by an Englishpeeress, and composed of intertwined leaves and blossoms, often crownedtheir temples; and bracelets and anklets of the same tasteful pattern werefrequently to be seen. Indeed, the maidens of the island were passionatelyfond of flowers, and never wearied of decorating their persons with them;a lovely trait of character, and one that ere long will be more fullyalluded to.

  Though in my eyes, at least, Fayaway was indisputably the loveliest femaleI saw in Typee, yet the description I have given of her will in somemeasure apply to nearly all the youthful portion of her sex in the valley.Judge ye then, reader, what beautiful creatures they must have been.