Typee: A Romance of the South Seas

by Herman Melville

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  THE SPRING OF ARVA WAI--REMARKABLE MONUMENTAL REMAINS--SOME IDEAS WITHREGARD TO THE HISTORY OF THE PI-PIS FOUND IN THE VALLEY

  ALMOST every country has its medicinal springs famed for their healingvirtues. The Cheltenham of Typee is embosomed in the deepest solitude,and but seldom receives a visitor. It is situated remote from anydwelling, a little way up the mountain, near the head of the valley; andyou approach it by a pathway shaded by the most beautiful foliage, andadorned with a thousand fragrant plants. The mineral waters of Arva Wai*ooze forth from the crevices of a rock, and gliding down its mossy side,fall at last, in many clustering drops, into a natural basin of stonefringed round with grass and dewy-looking little violet-colouredflowers, as fresh and beautiful as the perpetual moisture they enjoy canmake them.

  *I presume this might be translated into 'Strong Waters'. Arva is thename bestowed upon a root the properties of which are both inebriatingand medicinal. 'Wai' is the Marquesan word for water.