Typee: A Romance of the South Seas

by Herman Melville

  Mehevi and the chieftains of the Ti have just risen from their noontideslumbers. There are no affairs of state to dispose of; and having eatentwo or three breakfasts in the course of the morning, the magnates ofthe valley feel no appetite as yet for dinner. How are their leisuremoments to be occupied? They smoke, they chat, and at last one of theirnumber makes a proposition to the rest, who joyfully acquiescing, hedarts out of the house, leaps from the pi-pi, and disappears in thegrove. Soon you see him returning with Kolory, who bears the god MoaArtua in his arms, and carries in one hand a small trough, hollowed outin the likeness of a canoe. The priest comes along dandling his chargeas if it were a lachrymose infant he was endeavouring to put into agood humour. Presently entering the Ti, he seats himself on the mats ascomposedly as a juggler about to perform his sleight-of-hand tricks; andwith the chiefs disposed in a circle around him, commences his ceremony.In the first place he gives Moa Artua an affectionate hug, thencaressingly lays him to his breast, and, finally, whispers something inhis ear; the rest of the company listening eagerly for a reply. Butthe baby-god is deaf or dumb,--perhaps both, for never a word does, heutter. At last Kolory speaks a little louder, and soon growing angry,comes boldly out with what he has to say and bawls to him. He put me inmind of a choleric fellow, who, after trying in vain to communicated asecret to a deaf man, all at once flies into a passion and screams itout so that every one may hear. Still Moa Artua remains as quiet asever; and Kolory, seemingly losing his temper, fetches him a box overthe head, strips him of his tappa and red cloth, and laying him ina state of nudity in a little trough, covers him from sight. At thisproceeding all present loudly applaud and signify their approval byuttering the adjective 'motarkee' with violent emphasis. Kolory however,is so desirous his conduct should meet with unqualified approbation,that he inquires of each individual separately whether under existingcircumstances he has not done perfectly right in shutting up Moa Artua.The invariable response is 'Aa, Aa' (yes, yes), repeated over againand again in a manner which ought to quiet the scruples of the mostconscientious. After a few moments Kolory brings forth his doll again,and while arraying it very carefully in the tappa and red cloth,alternately fondles and chides it. The toilet being completed, he oncemore speaks to it aloud. The whole company hereupon show the greatestinterest; while the priest holding Moa Artua to his ear interprets tothem what he pretends the god is confidentially communicating to him.Some items intelligence appear to tickle all present amazingly; for oneclaps his hands in a rapture; another shouts with merriment; and a thirdleaps to his feet and capers about like a madman.

  What under the sun Moa Artua on these occasions had to say to KoloryI never could find out; but I could not help thinking that the formershowed a sad want of spirit in being disciplined into making thosedisclosures, which at first he seemed bent on withholding. Whether thepriest honestly interpreted what he believed the divinity said to him,or whether he was not all the while guilty of a vile humbug, I shallnot presume to decide. At any rate, whatever as coming from the godwas imparted to those present seemed to be generally of a complimentarynature: a fact which illustrates the sagacity of Kolory, or else thetimeserving disposition of this hardly used deity.

  Moa Artua having nothing more to say, his bearer goes to nursinghim again, in which occupation, however, he is soon interrupted by aquestion put by one of the warriors to the god. Kolory hereupon snatchesit up to his ear again, and after listening attentively, once moreofficiates as the organ of communication. A multitude of questions andanswers having passed between the parties, much to the satisfaction ofthose who propose them, the god is put tenderly to bed in the trough,and the whole company unite in a long chant, led off by Kolory. Thisended, the ceremony is over; the chiefs rise to their feet in high goodhumour, and my Lord Archbishop, after chatting awhile, and regalinghimself with a whiff or two from a pipe of tobacco, tucks the canoeunder his arm and marches off with it.

  The whole of these proceedings were like those of a parcel of childrenplaying with dolls and baby houses.

  For a youngster scarcely ten inches high, and with so few earlyadvantages as he doubtless had had, Moa Artua was certainly a precociouslittle fellow if he really said all that was imputed to him; but forwhat reason this poor devil of a deity, thus cuffed about, cajoled, andshut up in a box, was held in greater estimation than the full-grownand dignified personages of the Taboo Groves, I cannot divine. And yetMehevi, and other chiefs of unquestionable veracity--to say nothing ofthe Primate himself--assured me over and over again that Moa Artua wasthe tutelary deity of Typee, and was more to be held in honour than awhole battalion of the clumsy idols in the Hoolah Hoolah grounds.

  Kory-Kory--who seemed to have devoted considerable attention to thestudy of theology, as he knew the names of all the graven images in thevalley, and often repeated them over to me--likewise entertained somerather enlarged ideas with regard to the character and pretensions ofMoa Artua. He once gave me to understand, with a gesture there was nomisconceiving, that if he (Moa Artua) were so minded he could cause acocoanut tree to sprout out of his (Kory-Kory's) head; and that itwould be the easiest thing in life for him (Moa Artua) to take the wholeisland of Nukuheva in his mouth and dive down to the bottom of the seawith it.

  But in sober seriousness, I hardly knew what to make of the religionof the valley. There was nothing that so much perplexed the illustriousCook, in his intercourse with the South Sea islanders, as their sacredrites. Although this prince of navigators was in many instances assistedby interpreters in the prosecution of his researches, he still franklyacknowledges that he was at a loss to obtain anything like a clearinsight into the puzzling arcana of their faith. A similar admission hasbeen made by other eminent voyagers: by Carteret, Byron, Kotzebue, andVancouver.

  For my own part, although hardly a day passed while I remained upon theisland that I did not witness some religious ceremony or other, it wasvery much like seeing a parcel of 'Freemasons' making secret signs toeach other; I saw everything, but could comprehend nothing.

  On the whole, I am inclined to believe, that the islanders in thePacific have no fixed and definite ideas whatever on the subject ofreligion. I am persuaded that Kolory himself would be effectually posedwere he called upon to draw up the articles of his faith and pronouncethe creed by which he hoped to be saved. In truth, the Typees, so faras their actions evince, submitted to no laws human or divine--alwaysexcepting the thrice mysterious Taboo. The 'independent electors' of thevalley were not to be brow-beaten by chiefs, priests, idol or devils.As for the luckless idols, they received more hard knocks thansupplications. I do not wonder that some of them looked so grim, andstood so bolt upright as if fearful of looking to the right or the leftlest they should give any one offence. The fact is, they had tocarry themselves 'PRETTY STRAIGHT,' or suffer the consequences. Theirworshippers were such a precious set of fickle-minded and irreverentheathens, that there was no telling when they might topple one of themover, break it to pieces, and making a fire with it on the very altaritself, fall to roasting the offerings of bread-fruit, and at them inspite of its teeth.

  In how little reverence these unfortunate deities were held by thenatives was on one occasion most convincingly proved to me.--Walkingwith Kory-Kory through the deepest recesses of the groves, I perceiveda curious looking image, about six feet in height which originally hadbeen placed upright against a low pi-pi, surmounted by a ruinous bambootemple, but having become fatigued and weak in the knees, was nowcarelessly leaning against it. The idol was partly concealed by thefoliage of a tree which stood near, and whose leafy boughs drooped overthe pile of stones, as if to protect the rude fane from the decay towhich it was rapidly hastening. The image itself was nothing more thana grotesquely shaped log, carved in the likeness of a portly naked manwith the arms clasped over the head, the jaws thrown wide apart, and itsthick shapeless legs bowed into an arch. It was much decayed. Thelower part was overgrown with a bright silky moss. Thin spears of grasssprouted from the distended mouth, and fringed the outline o
f the headand arms. His godship had literally attained a green old age. All itsprominent points were bruised and battered, or entirely rotted away.The nose had taken its departure, and from the general appearance of thehead it might have, been supposed that the wooden divinity, in despairat the neglect of its worshippers, had been trying to beat its ownbrains out against the surrounding trees.

  I drew near to inspect more closely this strange object of idolatry, buthalted reverently at the distance of two or three paces, out of regardto the religious prejudices of my valet. As soon, however, as Kory-Koryperceived that I was in one of my inquiring, scientific moods, to myastonishment, he sprang to the side of the idol, and pushing it awayfrom the stones against which it rested, endeavoured to make it standupon its legs. But the divinity had lost the use of them altogether; andwhile Kory-Kory was trying to prop it up, placing a stick between itand the pi-pi, the monster fell clumsily to the ground, and would haveinfallibly have broken its neck had not Kory-Kory providentially brokenits fall by receiving its whole weight on his own half-crushed back. Inever saw the honest fellow in such a rage before. He leaped furiouslyto his feet, and seizing the stick, began beating the poor image: everymoment, or two pausing and talking to it in the most violent manner, asif upbraiding it for the accident. When his indignation had subsideda little he whirled the idol about most profanely, so as to give me anopportunity of examining it on all sides. I am quite sure I never shouldhave presumed to have taken such liberties with the god myself, and Iwas not a little shocked at Kory-Kory's impiety.

  This anecdote speaks for itself. When one of the inferior order ofnatives could show such contempt for a venerable and decrepit God of theGroves, what the state of religion must be among the people in generalis easy to be imagined. In truth, I regard the Typees as a back-sliddengeneration. They are sunk in religious sloth, and require a spiritualrevival. A long prosperity of bread-fruit and cocoanuts has renderedthem remiss in the performance of their higher obligations. The wood-rotmalady is spreading among the idols--the fruit upon their altarsis becoming offensive--the temples themselves need rethatching--thetattooed clergy are altogether too light-hearted and lazy--and theirflocks are going astray.