CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
FISHING PARTIES--MODE OF DISTRIBUTING THE FISH--MIDNIGHTBANQUET--TIME-KEEPING TAPERS--UNCEREMONIOUS STYLE OF EATING THE FISH
THERE was no instance in which the social and kindly dispositions of theTypees were more forcibly evinced than in the manner the conducted theirgreat fishing parties. Four times during my stay in the valley the youngmen assembled near the full of the moon, and went together on theseexcursions. As they were generally absent about forty-eight hours, I wasled to believe that they went out towards the open sea, some distancefrom the bay. The Polynesians seldom use a hook and line, almost alwaysemploying large well-made nets, most ingeniously fabricated from thetwisted fibres of a certain bark. I examined several of them which hadbeen spread to dry upon the beach at Nukuheva. They resemble very muchour own seines, and I should think they were nearly as durable.
All the South Sea Islanders are passionately fond of fish; but noneof them can be more so than the inhabitants of Typee. I could notcomprehend, therefore, why they so seldom sought it in their waters, forit was only at stated times that the fishing parties were formed, andthese occasions were always looked forward to with no small degree ofinterest.
During their absence the whole population of the place were in aferment, and nothing was talked of but 'pehee, pehee' (fish, fish).Towards the time when they were expected to return the vocal telegraphwas put into operation--the inhabitants, who were scattered throughoutthe length of the valley, leaped upon rocks and into trees, shoutingwith delight at the thoughts of the anticipated treat. As soon as theapproach of the party was announced, there was a general rush of themen towards the beach; some of them remaining, however, about the Ti inorder to get matters in readiness for the reception of the fish, whichwere brought to the Taboo Groves in immense packages of leaves, each oneof them being suspended from a pole carried on the shoulders of two men.
I was present at the Ti on one of these occasions, and the sight wasmost interesting. After all the packages had arrived, they were laid ina row under the verandah of the building and opened.
The fish were all quite small, generally about the size of a herring,and of every variety. About one-eighth of the whole being reservedfor the use of the Ti itself, the remainder was divided into numeroussmaller packages, which were immediately dispatched in every directionto the remotest parts of the valley. Arrived at their destination, thesewere in turn portioned out, and equally distributed among the varioushouses of each particular district. The fish were under a strict Taboo,until the distribution was completed, which seemed to be effected in themost impartial manner. By the operation of this system every man, woman,and child in the vale, were at one and the same time partaking of thisfavourite article of food.
Once I remember the party arrived at midnight; but the unseasonablenessof the tour did not repress the impatience of the islanders. Thecarriers dispatched from the Ti were to be seen hurrying in alldirections through the deep groves; each individual preceded by a boybearing a flaming torch of dried cocoanut boughs, which from time totime was replenished from the materials scattered along the path. Thewild glare of these enormous flambeaux, lighting up with a startlingbrilliancy the innermost recesses of the vale, and seen moving rapidlyalong beneath the canopy of leaves, the savage shout of the excitedmessengers sounding the news of their approach, which was answeredon all sides, and the strange appearance of their naked bodies, seenagainst the gloomy background, produced altogether an effect upon mymind that I shall long remember.
It was on this same occasion that Kory-Kory awakened me at the deadhour of night, and in a sort of transport communicated the intelligencecontained in the words 'pehee perni' (fish come). As I happened to havebeen in a remarkably sound and refreshing slumber, I could not imaginewhy the information had not been deferred until morning, indeed, I feltvery much inclined to fly into a passion and box my valet's ears; but onsecond thoughts I got quietly up, and on going outside the house was nota little interested by the moving illumination which I beheld.
When old Marheyo received his share of the spoils, immediatepreparations were made for a midnight banquet; calabashes of poee-poeewere filled to the brim; green bread-fruit were roasted; and a huge cakeof 'amar' was cut up with a sliver of bamboo and laid out on an immensebanana-leaf.
At this supper we were lighted by several of the native tapers, held inthe hands of young girls. These tapers are most ingeniously made. Thereis a nut abounding in the valley, called by the Typees 'armor', closelyresembling our common horse-chestnut. The shell is broken, and thecontents extracted whole. Any number of these are strung at pleasureupon the long elastic fibre that traverses the branches of the cocoanuttree. Some of these tapers are eight or ten feet in length; but beingperfectly flexible, one end is held in a coil, while the other islighted. The nut burns with a fitful bluish flame, and the oil that itcontains is exhausted in about ten minutes. As one burns down, the nextbecomes ignited, and the ashes of the former are knocked into a cocoanutshell kept for the purpose. This primitive candle requires continualattention, and must be constantly held in the hand. The person soemployed marks the lapse of time by the number of nuts consumed, whichis easily learned by counting the bits of tappa distributed at regularintervals along the string.
I grieve to state so distressing a fact, but the inhabitants ofTypee were in the habit of devouring fish much in the same way thata civilized being would eat a radish, and without any more previouspreparation. They eat it raw; scales, bones, gills, and all the inside.The fish is held by the tail, and the head being introduced into themouth, the animal disappears with a rapidity that would at first nearlylead one to imagine it had been launched bodily down the throat.
Raw fish! Shall I ever forget my sensations when I first saw my islandbeauty devour one. Oh, heavens! Fayaway, how could you ever havecontracted so vile a habit? However, after the first shock had subsided,the custom grew less odious in my eyes, and I soon accustomed myself tothe sight. Let no one imagine, however, that the lovely Fayaway was inthe habit of swallowing great vulgar-looking fishes: oh, no; with herbeautiful small hand she would clasp a delicate, little, golden-huedlove of a fish and eat it as elegantly and as innocently as though itwere a Naples biscuit. But alas! it was after all a raw fish; and all Ican say is, that Fayaway ate it in a more ladylike manner than any othergirl of the valley.
When at Rome do as the Romans do, I held to be so good a proverb, thatbeing in Typee I made a point of doing as the Typees did. Thus Iate poee-poee as they did; I walked about in a garb striking for itssimplicity; and I reposed on a community of couches; besides doing manyother things in conformity with their peculiar habits; but the farthestI ever went in the way of conformity, was on several occasions to regalemyself with raw fish. These being remarkably tender, and quite small,the undertaking was not so disagreeable in the main, and after a fewtrials I positively began to relish them; however, I subjected them to aslight operation with a knife previously to making my repast.
Typee: A Romance of the South Seas Page 36
