Typee: A Romance of the South Seas

by Herman Melville

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  KINDNESS OF MARHEYO AND THE REST OF THE ISLANDERS--A FULL DESCRIPTION OFTHE BREAD-FRUIT TREE--DIFFERENT MODES OF PREPARING THE FRUIT

  ALL the inhabitants of the valley treated me with great kindness; but asto the household of Marheyo, with whom I was now permanently domiciled,nothing could surpass their efforts to minister to my comfort. To thegratification of my palate they paid the most unwearied attention.They continually invited me to partake of food, and when after eatingheartily I declined the viands they continued to offer me, they seemedto think that my appetite stood in need of some piquant stimulant toexcite its activity.

  In pursuance of this idea, old Marheyo himself would hie him away tothe sea-shore by the break of day, for the purpose of collectingvarious species of rare sea-weed; some of which among these people areconsidered a great luxury. After a whole day spent in this employment,he would return about nightfall with several cocoanut shells filled withdifferent descriptions of kelp. In preparing these for use he manifestedall the ostentation of a professed cook, although the chief mystery ofthe affair appeared to consist in pouring water in judicious quantitiesupon the slimy contents of his cocoanut shells.

  The first time he submitted one of these saline salads to my criticalattention I naturally thought that anything collected at such pains mustpossess peculiar merits; but one mouthful was a complete dose; and greatwas the consternation of the old warrior at the rapidity with which Iejected his Epicurean treat.

  How true it is, that the rarity of any particular article enhancesits value amazingly. In some part of the valley--I know not where, butprobably in the neighbourhood of the sea--the girls were sometimes inthe habit of procuring small quantities of salt, a thimble-full orso being the result of the united labours of a party of five or sixemployed for the greater part of the day. This precious commodity theybrought to the house, enveloped in multitudinous folds of leaves; andas a special mark of the esteem in which they held me, would spreadan immense leaf on the ground, and dropping one by one a few minuteparticles of the salt upon it, invite me to taste them.

  From the extravagant value placed upon the article, I verily believe,that with a bushel of common Liverpool salt all the real estate in Typeemight have been purchased. With a small pinch of it in one hand, and aquarter section of a bread-fruit in the other, the greatest chief in thevalley would have laughed at all luxuries of a Parisian table.

  The celebrity of the bread-fruit tree, and the conspicuous place itoccupies in a Typee bill of fare, induces me to give at some lengtha general description of the tree, and the various modes in which thefruit is prepared.

  The bread-fruit tree, in its glorious prime, is a grand and toweringobject, forming the same feature in a Marquesan landscape that thepatriarchal elm does in New England scenery. The latter tree it not alittle resembles in height, in the wide spread of its stalwart branches,and in its venerable and imposing aspect.

  The leaves of the bread-fruit are of great size, and their edges are cutand scolloped as fantastically as those of a lady's lace collar. As theyannually tend towards decay, they almost rival in brilliant varietyof their gradually changing hues the fleeting shades of the expiringdolphin. The autumnal tints of our American forests, glorious as theyare, sink into nothing in comparison with this tree.

  The leaf, in one particular stage, when nearly all the prismatic coloursare blended on its surface, is often converted by the natives intoa superb and striking head-dress. The principal fibre traversing itslength being split open a convenient distance, and the elastic sides ofthe aperture pressed apart, the head is inserted between them, the leafdrooping on one side, with its forward half turned jauntily up on thebrows, and the remaining part spreading laterally behind the ears.

  The fruit somewhat resembles in magnitude and general appearance one ofour citron melons of ordinary size; but, unlike the citron, it has nosectional lines drawn along the outside. Its surface is dotted all overwith little conical prominences, looking not unlike the knobs, on anantiquated church door. The rind is perhaps an eighth of an inch inthickness; and denuded of this at the time when it is in the greatestperfection, the fruit presents a beautiful globe of white pulp, thewhole of which may be eaten, with the exception of a slender core, whichis easily removed.

  The bread-fruit, however, is never used, and is indeed altogether unfitto be eaten, until submitted in one form or other to the action of fire.

  The most simple manner in which this operation is performed, and Ithink, the best, consists in placing any number of the freshly pluckedfruit, when in a particular state of greenness, among the embers of afire, in the same way that you would roast a potato. After the lapseof ten or fifteen minutes, the green rind embrowns and cracks, showingthrough the fissures in its sides the milk-white interior. As soon as itcools the rind drops off, and you then have the soft round pulp in itspurest and most delicious state. Thus eaten, it has a mild and pleasingflavour.

  Sometimes after having been roasted in the fire, the natives snatch itbriskly from the embers, and permitting it to slip out of the yieldingrind into a vessel of cold water, stir up the mixture, which theycall 'bo-a-sho'. I never could endure this compound, and indeed thepreparation is not greatly in vogue among the more polite Typees.

  There is one form, however, in which the fruit is occasionally served,that renders it a dish fit for a king. As soon as it is taken from thefire the exterior is removed, the core extracted, and the remaining partis placed in a sort of shallow stone mortar, and briskly worked witha pestle of the same substance. While one person is performing thisoperation, another takes a ripe cocoanut, and breaking it in halves,which they also do very cleverly, proceeds to grate the juicy meat intofine particles. This is done by means of a piece of mother-of-pearlshell, lashed firmly to the extreme end of a heavy stick, with itsstraight side accurately notched like a saw. The stick is sometimes agrotesquely-formed limb of a tree, with three or four branches twistingfrom its body like so many shapeless legs, and sustaining it two orthree feet from the ground.

  The native, first placing a calabash beneath the nose, as it were, ofhis curious-looking log-steed, for the purpose of receiving thegrated fragments as they fall, mounts astride of it as if it were ahobby-horse, and twirling the inside of his hemispheres of cocoanutaround the sharp teeth of the mother-of-pearl shell, the pure white meatfalls in snowy showers into the receptacle provided. Having obtained aquantity sufficient for his purpose, he places it in a bag made ofthe net-like fibrous substance attached to all cocoanut trees, andcompressing it over the bread-fruit, which being now sufficientlypounded, is put into a wooden bowl--extracts a thick creamy milk. Thedelicious liquid soon bubbles round the fruit, and leaves it at lastjust peeping above its surface.

  This preparation is called 'kokoo', and a most luscious preparation itis. The hobby-horse and the pestle and mortar were in great requisitionduring the time I remained in the house of Marheyo, and Kory-Kory hadfrequent occasion to show his skill in their use.

  But the great staple articles of food into which the bread-fruit isconverted by these natives are known respectively by the names of Amarand Poee-Poee.

  At a certain season of the year, when the fruit of the hundred grovesof the valley has reached its maturity, and hangs in golden spheres fromevery branch, the islanders assemble in harvest groups, and garner inthe abundance which surrounds them.

  The trees are stripped of their nodding burdens, which, easily freedfrom the rind and core, are gathered together in capacious woodenvessels, where the pulpy fruit is soon worked by a stone pestle,vigorously applied, into a blended mass of a doughy consistency, calledby the natives 'Tutao'. This is then divided into separate parcels,which, after being made up into stout packages, enveloped in successivefolds of leaves, and bound round with thongs of bark, are stored away inlarge receptacles hollowed in the earth, from whence they are drawn asoccasion may require. In this condition the Tutao sometimes remains foryears, and even is thought to improve by age. Before it is fit to b
eeaten, however, it has to undergo an additional process. A primitiveoven is scooped in the ground, and its bottom being loosely coveredwith stones, a large fire is kindled within it. As soon as the requisitedegree of heat is attained, the embers are removed, and the surface ofthe stones being covered with thick layers of leaves, one of the largepackages of Tutao is deposited upon them and overspread with anotherlayer of leaves. The whole is then quickly heaped up with earth, andforms a sloping mound.

  The Tutao thus baked is called 'Amar'; the action of the oven havingconverted it into an amber-coloured caky substance, a little tart, butnot at all disagreeable to the taste.

  By another and final process the 'Amar' is changed into 'Poee-Poee'.This transition is rapidly effected. The Amar is placed in a vessel, andmixed with water until it gains a proper pudding-like consistency, when,without further preparation, it is in readiness for use. This is theform in which the 'Tutao' is generally consumed. The singular mode ofeating it I have already described.

  Were it not that the bread-fruit is thus capable of being preserved fora length of time, the natives might be reduced to a state of starvation;for owing to some unknown cause the trees sometimes fail to bear fruit;and on such occasions the islanders chiefly depend upon the suppliesthey have been enabled to store away.

  This stately tree, which is rarely met with upon the Sandwich Islands,and then only of a very inferior quality, and at Tahiti does not aboundto a degree that renders its fruit the principal article of food,attains its greatest excellence in the genial climate of the Marquesangroup, where it grows to an enormous magnitude, and flourishes in theutmost abundance.