Typee: A Romance of the South Seas

by Herman Melville

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  IMPROVEMENT IN HEALTH AND SPIRITS--FELICITY OF THETYPEES--THEIR ENJOYMENTS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF MORE ENLIGHTENEDCOMMUNITIES--COMPARATIVE WICKEDNESS OF CIVILIZED AND UNENLIGHTENEDPEOPLE--A SKIRMISH IN THE MOUNTAIN WITH THE WARRIORS OF HAPPAR

  DAY after day wore on, and still there was no perceptible change in theconduct of the islanders towards me. Gradually I lost all knowledge ofthe regular recurrence of the days of the week, and sunk insensibly intothat kind of apathy which ensues after some violent outburst of despair.My limb suddenly healed, the swelling went down, the pain subsided, andI had every reason to suppose I should soon completely recover from theaffliction that had so long tormented me.

  As soon as I was enabled to ramble about the valley in company with thenatives, troops of whom followed me whenever I sallied out of the house,I began to experience an elasticity of mind which placed me beyond thereach of those dismal forebodings to which I had so lately been a prey.Received wherever I went with the most deferential kindness; regaledperpetually with the most delightful fruits; ministered to by dark-eyednymphs, and enjoying besides all the services of the devoted Kory-Kory,I thought that, for a sojourn among cannibals, no man could have wellmade a more agreeable one.

  To be sure there were limits set to my wanderings. Toward the sea myprogress was barred by an express prohibition of the savages; and afterhaving made two or three ineffectual attempts to reach it, as much togratify my curiosity as anything else, I gave up the idea. It was invain to think of reaching it by stealth, since the natives escorted mein numbers wherever I went, and not for one single moment that I canrecall to mind was I ever permitted to be alone.

  The green and precipitous elevations that stood ranged around thehead of the vale where Marheyo's habitation was situated effectuallyprecluded all hope of escape in that quarter, even if I could havestolen away from the thousand eyes of the savages.

  But these reflections now seldom obtruded upon me; I gave myself up tothe passing hour, and if ever disagreeable thoughts arose in my mind, Idrove them away. When I looked around the verdant recess in which I wasburied, and gazed up to the summits of the lofty eminence that hemmed mein, I was well disposed to think that I was in the 'Happy Valley',and that beyond those heights there was naught but a world of careand anxiety. As I extended my wanderings in the valley and grew morefamiliar with the habits of its inmates, I was fain to confess that,despite the disadvantages of his condition, the Polynesian savage,surrounded by all the luxurious provisions of nature, enjoyed aninfinitely happier, though certainly a less intellectual existence thanthe self-complacent European.

  The naked wretch who shivers beneath the bleak skies, and starves amongthe inhospitable wilds of Tierra-del-Fuego, might indeed be made happierby civilization, for it would alleviate his physical wants. But thevoluptuous Indian, with every desire supplied, whom Providence hasbountifully provided with all the sources of pure and natural enjoyment,and from whom are removed so many of the ills and pains of life--whathas he to desire at the hands of Civilization? She may 'cultivate hismind--may elevate his thoughts,'--these I believe are the establishedphrases--but will he be the happier? Let the once smiling and populousHawaiian islands, with their now diseased, starving, and dying natives,answer the question. The missionaries may seek to disguise the matteras they will, but the facts are incontrovertible; and the devoutestChristian who visits that group with an unbiased mind, must go awaymournfully asking--'Are these, alas! the fruits of twenty-five years ofenlightening?'

  In a primitive state of society, the enjoyments of life, though fewand simple, are spread over a great extent, and are unalloyed; butCivilization, for every advantage she imparts, holds a hundred evils inreserve;--the heart-burnings, the jealousies, the social rivalries,the family dissentions, and the thousand self-inflicted discomforts ofrefined life, which make up in units the swelling aggregate of humanmisery, are unknown among these unsophisticated people.

  But it will be urged that these shocking unprincipled wretches arecannibals. Very true; and a rather bad trait in their character it mustbe allowed. But they are such only when they seek to gratify the passionof revenge upon their enemies; and I ask whether the mere eating ofhuman flesh so very far exceeds in barbarity that custom which onlya few years since was practised in enlightened England:--a convictedtraitor, perhaps a man found guilty of honesty, patriotism, and suchlikeheinous crimes, had his head lopped off with a huge axe, his bowelsdragged out and thrown into a fire; while his body, carved into fourquarters, was with his head exposed upon pikes, and permitted to rot andfester among the public haunts of men!

  The fiend-like skill we display in the invention of all manner ofdeath-dealing engines, the vindictiveness with which we carry on ourwars, and the misery and desolation that follow in their train, areenough of themselves to distinguish the white civilized man as the mostferocious animal on the face of the earth.

  His remorseless cruelty is seen in many of the institutions of our ownfavoured land. There is one in particular lately adopted in one of theStates of the Union, which purports to have been dictated by the mostmerciful considerations. To destroy our malefactors piece-meal, dryingup in their veins, drop by drop, the blood we are too chicken-heartedto shed by a single blow which would at once put a period to theirsufferings, is deemed to be infinitely preferable to the old-fashionedpunishment of gibbeting--much less annoying to the victim, and more inaccordance with the refined spirit of the age; and yet how feeble is alllanguage to describe the horrors we inflict upon these wretches, whom wemason up in the cells of our prisons, and condemn to perpetual solitudein the very heart of our population.

  But it is needless to multiply the examples of civilized barbarity; theyfar exceed in the amount of misery they cause the crimes which we regardwith such abhorrence in our less enlightened fellow-creatures.

  The term 'Savage' is, I conceive, often misapplied, and indeed, when Iconsider the vices, cruelties, and enormities of every kind that springup in the tainted atmosphere of a feverish civilization, I am inclinedto think that so far as the relative wickedness of the parties isconcerned, four or five Marquesan Islanders sent to the United Statesas Missionaries might be quite as useful as an equal number of Americansdespatched to the Islands in a similar capacity.

  I once heard it given as an instance of the frightful depravity of acertain tribe in the Pacific that they had no word in their languageto express the idea of virtue. The assertion was unfounded; but wereit otherwise, it might be met by stating that their language is almostentirely destitute of terms to express the delightful ideas conveyed byour endless catalogue of civilized crimes.

  In the altered frame of mind to which I have referred, every object thatpresented itself to my notice in the valley struck me in a new light,and the opportunities I now enjoyed of observing the manners of itsinmates, tended to strengthen my favourable impressions. One peculiaritythat fixed my admiration was the perpetual hilarity reigning through thewhole extent of the vale.

  There seemed to be no cares, griefs, troubles, or vexations, in allTypee. The hours tripped along as gaily as the laughing couples down acountry dance.

  There were none of those thousand sources of irritation that theingenuity of civilized man has created to mar his own felicity. Therewere no foreclosures of mortgages, no protested notes, no bills payable,no debts of honour in Typee; no unreasonable tailors and shoemakersperversely bent on being paid; no duns of any description and batteryattorneys, to foment discord, backing their clients up to a quarrel,and then knocking their heads together; no poor relations, everlastinglyoccupying the spare bed-chamber, and diminishing the elbow room at thefamily table; no destitute widows with their children starving on thecold charities of the world; no beggars; no debtors' prisons; no proudand hard-hearted nabobs in Typee; or to sum up all in one word--noMoney! 'That root of all evil' was not to be found in the valley.

  In this secluded abode of happiness there were no cross old women, nocruel step-dames, no withered spinsters,
no lovesick maidens, no sourold bachelors, no inattentive husbands, no melancholy young men, noblubbering youngsters, and no squalling brats. All was mirth, fun andhigh good humour. Blue devils, hypochondria, and doleful dumps, went andhid themselves among the nooks and crannies of the rocks.

  Here you would see a parcel of children frolicking together thelive-long day, and no quarrelling, no contention, among them. The samenumber in our own land could not have played together for the space ofan hour without biting or scratching one another. There you might haveseen a throng of young females, not filled with envyings of each other'scharms, nor displaying the ridiculous affectations of gentility, noryet moving in whalebone corsets, like so many automatons, but free,inartificially happy, and unconstrained.

  There were some spots in that sunny vale where they would frequentlyresort to decorate themselves with garlands of flowers. To have seenthem reclining beneath the shadows of one of the beautiful groves;the ground about them strewn with freshly gathered buds and blossoms,employed in weaving chaplets and necklaces, one would have thoughtthat all the train of Flora had gathered together to keep a festival inhonour of their mistress.

  With the young men there seemed almost always some matter of diversionor business on hand that afforded a constant variety of enjoyment. Butwhether fishing, or carving canoes, or polishing their ornaments, neverwas there exhibited the least sign of strife or contention among them.As for the warriors, they maintained a tranquil dignity of demeanour,journeying occasionally from house to house, where they were always sureto be received with the attention bestowed upon distinguished guests.The old men, of whom there were many in the vale, seldom stirred fromtheir mats, where they would recline for hours and hours, smoking andtalking to one another with all the garrulity of age.

  But the continual happiness, which so far as I was able to judgeappeared to prevail in the valley, sprang principally from thatall-pervading sensation which Rousseau has told us be at one timeexperienced, the mere buoyant sense of a healthful physical existence.And indeed in this particular the Typees had ample reason to felicitatethemselves, for sickness was almost unknown. During the whole period ofmy stay I saw but one invalid among them; and on their smooth skins youobserved no blemish or mark of disease.

  The general repose, however, upon which I have just been descanting,was broken in upon about this time by an event which proved that theislanders were not entirely exempt from those occurrences which disturbthe quiet of more civilized communities.

  Having now been a considerable time in the valley, I began to feelsurprised that the violent hostility subsisting between its inhabitants,and those of the adjoining bay of Happar, should never have manifesteditself in any warlike encounter. Although the valiant Typees would oftenby gesticulations declare their undying hatred against their enemies,and the disgust they felt at their cannibal propensities; although theydilated upon the manifold injuries they had received at their hands, yetwith a forbearance truly commendable, they appeared to sit down undertheir grievances, and to refrain from making any reprisals. The Happars,entrenched behind their mountains, and never even showing themselves ontheir summits, did not appear to me to furnish adequate cause for thatexcess of animosity evinced towards them by the heroic tenants of ourvale, and I was inclined to believe that the deeds of blood attributedto them had been greatly exaggerated.

  On the other hand, as the clamours of war had not up to this perioddisturbed the serenity of the tribe, I began to distrust the truth ofthose reports which ascribed so fierce and belligerent a character tothe Typee nation. Surely, thought I, all these terrible stories I haveheard about the inveteracy with which they carried on the feud, theirdeadly intensity, of hatred and the diabolical malice with which theyglutted their revenge upon the inanimate forms of the slain, are nothingmore than fables, and I must confess that I experienced something like asense of regret at having my hideous anticipations thus disappointed.I felt in some sort like a 'prentice boy who, going to the play in theexpectation of being delighted with a cut-and-thrust tragedy, is almostmoved to tears of disappointment at the exhibition of a genteel comedy.

  I could not avoid thinking that I had fallen in with a greatly traducedpeople, and I moralized not a little upon the disadvantage of having abad name, which in this instance had given a tribe of savages, whowere as pacific as so many lambkins, the reputation of a confederacy ofgiant-killers.

  But subsequent events proved that I had been a little too premature incoming to this conclusion. One, day about noon, happening to be at theTi, I had lain down on the mats with several of the chiefs, and hadgradually sunk into a most luxurious siesta, when I was awakened bya tremendous outcry, and starting up beheld the natives seizing theirspears and hurrying out, while the most puissant of the chiefs, graspingthe six muskets which were ranged against the bamboos, followed after,and soon disappeared in the groves. These movements were accompaniedby wild shouts, in which 'Happar, Happar,' greatly predominated. Theislanders were now seen running past the Ti, and striking across thevalley to the Happar side. Presently I heard the sharp report of amusket from the adjoining hills, and then a burst of voices in the samedirection. At this the women who had congregated in the groves, set upthe most violent clamours, as they invariably do here as elsewhere onevery occasion of excitement and alarm, with a view of tranquillizingtheir own minds and disturbing other people. On this particularoccasion they made such an outrageous noise, and continued it with suchperseverance, that for awhile, had entire volleys of musketry been firedoff in the neighbouring mountains, I should not have been able to haveheard them.

  When this female commotion had a little subsided I listened eagerly forfurther information. At last bang went another shot, and then a secondvolley of yells from the hills. Again all was quiet, and continued sofor such a length of time that I began to think the contending armieshad agreed upon a suspension of hostilities; when pop went a third gun,followed as before with a yell. After this, for nearly two hoursnothing occurred worthy of comment, save some straggling shouts from thehillside, sounding like the halloos of a parcel of truant boys who hadlost themselves in the woods.

  During this interval I had remained standing on the piazza of the 'Ti,'which directly fronted the Happar mountain, and with no one near mebut Kory-Kory and the old superannuated savages I have described. Theselatter never stirred from their mats, and seemed altogether unconsciousthat anything unusual was going on.

  As for Kory-Kory, he appeared to think that we were in the midst ofgreat events, and sought most zealously to impress me with a due senseof their importance. Every sound that reached us conveyed some momentousitem of intelligence to him. At such times, as if he were gifted withsecond sight, he would go through a variety of pantomimic illustrations,showing me the precise manner in which the redoubtable Typees were atthat very moment chastising the insolence of the enemy. 'Mehevi hannapippee nuee Happar,' he exclaimed every five minutes, giving me tounderstand that under that distinguished captain the warriors of hisnation were performing prodigies of valour.

  Having heard only four reports from the muskets, I was led to believethat they were worked by the islanders in the same manner as the SultanSolyman's ponderous artillery at the siege of Byzantium, one of themtaking an hour or two to load and train. At last, no sound whateverproceeding from the mountains, I concluded that the contest had beendetermined one way or the other. Such appeared, indeed, to be the case,for in a little while a courier arrived at the 'Ti', almost breathlesswith his exertions, and communicated the news of a great victory havingbeen achieved by his countrymen: 'Happar poo arva!--Happar poo arva!'(the cowards had fled). Kory-Kory was in ecstasies, and commenced avehement harangue, which, so far as I understood it, implied that theresult exactly agreed with his expectations, and which, moreover,was intended to convince me that it would be a perfectly uselessundertaking, even for an army of fire-eaters, to offer battle to theirresistible heroes of our valley. In all this I of course acquiesced,and looked forward with no little interest to the return o
f theconquerors, whose victory I feared might not have been purchased withoutcost to themselves.

  But here I was again mistaken; for Mehevi, in conducting his warlikeoperations, rather inclined to the Fabian than to the Bonaparteantactics, husbanding his resources and exposing his troops to nounnecessary hazards. The total loss of the victors in this obstinatelycontested affair was, in killed, wounded, and missing--one forefingerand part of a thumb-nail (which the late proprietor brought along withhim in his hand), a severely contused arm, and a considerable effusionof blood flowing from the thigh of a chief, who had received an uglythrust from a Happar spear. What the enemy had suffered I could notdiscover, but I presume they had succeeded in taking off with them thebodies of their slain.

  Such was the issue of the battle, as far as its results came under myobservation: and as it appeared to be considered an event of prodigiousimportance, I reasonably concluded that the wars of the natives weremarked by no very sanguinary traits. I afterwards learned how theskirmish had originated. A number of the Happars had been discoveredprowling for no good purpose on the Typee side of the mountain; thealarm sounded, and the invaders, after a protracted resistance, had beenchased over the frontier. But why had not the intrepid Mehevi carriedthe war into Happar? Why had he not made a descent into the hostilevale, and brought away some trophy of his victory--some materials forthe cannibal entertainment which I had heard usually terminated everyengagement? After all, I was much inclined to believe that theseshocking festivals must occur very rarely among the islanders, if,indeed, they ever take place.

  For two or three days the late event was the theme of general comment;after which the excitement gradually wore away, and the valley resumedits accustomed tranquility.