CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
THE SOCIAL CONDITION AND GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE TYPEES
I HAVE already mentioned that the influence exerted over the peopleof the valley by their chiefs was mild in the extreme; and as to anygeneral rule or standard of conduct by which the commonality weregoverned in their intercourse with each other, so far as my observationextended, I should be almost tempted to say, that none existed on theisland, except, indeed, the mysterious 'Taboo' be considered as such.During the time I lived among the Typees, no one was ever put upon histrial for any offence against the public. To all appearance therewere no courts of law or equity. There was no municipal police for thepurpose of apprehending vagrants and disorderly characters. Inshort, there were no legal provisions whatever for the well-being andconservation of society, the enlightened end of civilized legislation.And yet everything went on in the valley with a harmony and smoothnessunparalleled, I will venture to assert, in the most select, refined, andpious associations of mortals in Christendom. How are we to explain thisenigma? These islanders were heathens! savages! ay, cannibals! and howcame they without the aid of established law, to exhibit, in so eminenta degree, that social order which is the greatest blessing and highestpride of the social state?
It may reasonably be inquired, how were these people governed? how weretheir passions controlled in their everyday transactions? It must havebeen by an inherent principle of honesty and charity towards each other.They seemed to be governed by that sort of tacit common-sense law which,say what they will of the inborn lawlessness of the human race, hasits precepts graven on every breast. The grand principles of virtue andhonour, however they may be distorted by arbitrary codes, are the sameall the world over: and where these principles are concerned, the rightor wrong of any action appears the same to the uncultivated as to theenlightened mind. It is to this indwelling, this universally diffusedperception of what is just and noble, that the integrity of theMarquesans in their intercourse with each other, is to be attributed.In the darkest nights they slept securely, with all their worldly wealtharound them, in houses the doors of which were never fastened. Thedisquieting ideas of theft or assassination never disturbed them.
Each islander reposed beneath his own palmetto thatching, or sat underhis own bread-fruit trees, with none to molest or alarm him. There wasnot a padlock in the valley, nor anything that answered the purposeof one: still there was no community of goods. This long spear, soelegantly carved, and highly polished, belongs to Wormoonoo: it is farhandsomer than the one which old Marheyo so greatly prizes; it is themost valuable article belonging to its owner. And yet I have seen itleaning against a cocoanut tree in the grove, and there it was foundwhen sought for. Here is a sperm-whale tooth, graven all over withcunning devices: it is the property of Karluna; it is the most preciousof the damsel's ornaments. In her estimation its price is far aboverubies--and yet there hangs the dental jewel by its cord of braidedbark, in the girl's house, which is far back in the valley; the door isleft open, and all the inmates have gone off to bathe in the stream.*
*The strict honesty which the inhabitants of nearly all the PolynesianIslands manifest toward each other, is in striking contrast with thethieving propensities some of them evince in their intercourse withforeigners. It would almost seem that, according to their peculiar codeof morals, the pilfering of a hatchet or a wrought nail from a European,is looked upon as a praiseworthy action. Or rather, it may be presumed,that bearing in mind the wholesale forays made upon them by theirnautical visitors, they consider the property of the latter as a fairobject of reprisal. This consideration, while it serves to reconcile anapparent contradiction in the moral character of the islanders, shouldin some measure alter that low opinion of it which the reader of SouthSea voyages is too apt to form.
Typee: A Romance of the South Seas Page 34
