Typee: A Romance of the South Seas

by Herman Melville

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  A PROFESSOR OF THE FINE ARTS--HIS PERSECUTIONS--SOMETHING ABOUTTATTOOING AND TABOOING--TWO ANECDOTES IN ILLUSTRATION OF THE LATTER--AFEW THOUGHTS ON THE TYPEE DIALECT

  IN one of my strolls with Kory-Kory, in passing along the border of athick growth of bushes, my attention was arrested by a singular noise.On entering the thicket I witnessed for the first time the operation oftattooing as performed by these islanders.

  I beheld a man extended flat upon his back on the ground, and, despitethe forced composure of his countenance, it was evident that he wassuffering agony. His tormentor bent over him, working away for all theworld like a stone-cutter with mallet and chisel. In one hand he held ashort slender stick, pointed with a shark's tooth, on the upright end ofwhich he tapped with a small hammer-like piece of wood, thus puncturingthe skin, and charging it with the colouring matter in which theinstrument was dipped. A cocoanut shell containing this fluid was placedupon the ground. It is prepared by mixing with a vegetable juice theashes of the 'armor', or candle-nut, always preserved for the purpose.Beside the savage, and spread out upon a piece of soiled tappa, werea great number of curious black-looking little implements of bone andwood, used in the various divisions of his art. A few terminated in asingle fine point, and, like very delicate pencils, were employed ingiving the finishing touches, or in operating upon the more sensitiveportions of the body, as was the case in the present instance. Otherspresented several points distributed in a line, somewhat resembling theteeth of a saw. These were employed in the coarser parts of the work,and particularly in pricking in straight marks. Some presented theirpoints disposed in small figures, and being placed upon the body,were, by a single blow of the hammer, made to leave their indelibleimpression. I observed a few the handles of which were mysteriouslycurved, as if intended to be introduced into the orifice of the ear,with a view perhaps of beating the tattoo upon the tympanum. Altogetherthe sight of these strange instruments recalled to mind that displayof cruel-looking mother-of-pearl-handled things which one sees in theirvelvet-lined cases at the elbow of a dentist.

  The artist was not at this time engaged on an original sketch, hissubject being a venerable savage, whose tattooing had become somewhatfaded with age and needed a few repairs, and accordingly he was merelyemployed in touching up the works of some of the old masters of theTypee school, as delineated upon the human canvas before him. The partsoperated upon were the eyelids, where a longitudinal streak, like theone which adorned Kory-Kory, crossed the countenance of the victim.

  In spite of all the efforts of the poor old man, sundry twitchings andscrewings of the muscles of the face denoted the exquisite sensibilityof these shutters to the windows of his soul, which he was now havingrepainted. But the artist, with a heart as callous as that of an armysurgeon, continued his performance, enlivening his labours with a wildchant, tapping away the while as merrily as a woodpecker.

  So deeply engaged was he in his work, that he had not observed ourapproach, until, after having, enjoyed an unmolested view of theoperation, I chose to attract his attention. As soon as he perceived me,supposing that I sought him in his professional capacity, he seized holdof me in a paroxysm of delight, and was an eagerness to begin the work.When, however, I gave him to understand that he had altogether mistakenmy views, nothing could exceed his grief and disappointment. Butrecovering from this, he seemed determined not to credit my assertion,and grasping his implements, he flourished them about in fearfulvicinity to my face, going through an imaginary performance of his art,and every moment bursting into some admiring exclamation at the beautyof his designs.

  Horrified at the bare thought of being rendered hideous for life if thewretch were to execute his purpose upon me, I struggled to get awayfrom him, while Kory-Kory, turning traitor, stood by, and besought meto comply with the outrageous request. On my reiterated refusals theexcited artist got half beside himself, and was overwhelmed with sorrowat losing so noble an opportunity of distinguishing himself in hisprofession.

  The idea of engrafting his tattooing upon my white skin filled himwith all a painter's enthusiasm; again and again he gazed into mycountenance, and every fresh glimpse seemed to add to the vehemenceof his ambition. Not knowing to what extremities he might proceed,and shuddering at the ruin he might inflict upon my figure-head, I nowendeavoured to draw off his attention from it, and holding out my armin a fit of desperation, signed to him to commence operations. But herejected the compromise indignantly, and still continued his attack onmy face, as though nothing short of that would satisfy him. When hisforefinger swept across my features, in laying out the borders of thoseparallel bands which were to encircle my countenance, the flesh fairlycrawled upon my bones. At last, half wild with terror and indignation, Isucceeded in breaking away from the three savages, and fled towards oldMarheyo's house, pursued by the indomitable artist, who ran after me,implements in hand. Kory-Kory, however, at last interfered and drew himoff from the chase.

  This incident opened my eyes to a new danger; and I now felt convincedthat in some luckless hour I should be disfigured in such a manner asnever more to have the FACE to return to my countrymen, even should anopportunity offer.

  These apprehensions were greatly increased by the desire which KingMehevi and several of the inferior chiefs now manifested that I shouldbe tattooed. The pleasure of the king was first signified to me somethree days after my casual encounter with Karky the artist. Heavens!what imprecations I showered upon that Karky. Doubtless he had plotted aconspiracy against me and my countenance, and would never rest until hisdiabolical purpose was accomplished. Several times I met him in variousparts of the valley, and, invariably, whenever he descried me, he camerunning after me with his mallet and chisel, flourishing them about myface as if he longed to begin. What an object he would have made of me!

  When the king first expressed his wish to me, I made known to him myutter abhorrence of the measure, and worked myself into such a state ofexcitement, that he absolutely stared at me in amazement. It evidentlysurpassed his majesty's comprehension how any sober-minded andsensible individual could entertain the least possible objection to sobeautifying an operation.

  Soon afterwards he repeated his suggestion, and meeting with a littlerepulse, showed some symptoms of displeasure at my obduracy. On his athird time renewing his request, I plainly perceived that something mustbe done, or my visage was ruined for ever; I therefore screwed up mycourage to the sticking point, and declared my willingness to have botharms tattooed from just above the wrist to the shoulder. His majesty wasgreatly pleased at the proposition, and I was congratulating myself withhaving thus compromised the matter, when he intimated that as a thing ofcourse my face was first to undergo the operation. I was fairly drivento despair; nothing but the utter ruin of my 'face divine', as thepoets call it, would, I perceived, satisfy the inexorable Mehevi and hischiefs, or rather, that infernal Karky, for he was at the bottom of itall.

  The only consolation afforded me was a choice of patterns: I was atperfect liberty to have my face spanned by three horizontal bars, afterthe fashion of my serving-man's; or to have as many oblique stripesslanting across it; or if, like a true courtier, I chose to model mystyle on that of royalty, I might wear a sort of freemason badge uponmy countenance in the shape of a mystic triangle. However, I would havenone of these, though the king most earnestly impressed upon my mindthat my choice was wholly unrestricted. At last, seeing my unconquerablerepugnance, he ceased to importune me.

  But not so some other of the savages. Hardly a day passed but I wassubjected to their annoying requests, until at last my existencebecame a burden to me; the pleasures I had previously enjoyed no longerafforded me delight, and all my former desire to escape from the valleynow revived with additional force.

  A fact which I soon afterwards learned augmented my apprehension. Thewhole system of tattooing was, I found, connected with their religion;and it was evident, therefore, that they were resolved to make a convertof me.

  In the
decoration of the chiefs it seems to be necessary to exercise themost elaborate pencilling; while some of the inferior natives lookedas if they had been daubed over indiscriminately with a house-painter'sbrush. I remember one fellow who prided himself hugely upon a greatoblong patch, placed high upon his back, and who always reminded me ofa man with a blister of Spanish flies, stuck between his shoulders.Another whom I frequently met had the hollow of his eyes tattooed in tworegular squares and his visual organs being remarkably brilliant, theygleamed forth from out this setting like a couple of diamonds insertedin ebony.

  Although convinced that tattooing was a religious observance, still thenature of the connection between it and the superstitious idolatry ofthe people was a point upon which I could never obtain any information.Like the still more important system of the 'Taboo', it always appearedinexplicable to me.

  There is a marked similarity, almost an identity, between the religiousinstitutions of most of the Polynesian islands, and in all exists themysterious 'Taboo', restricted in its uses to a greater or less extent.So strange and complex in its arrangements is this remarkable system,that I have in several cases met with individuals who, after residingfor years among the islands in the Pacific, and acquiring a considerableknowledge of the language, have nevertheless been altogether unable togive any satisfactory account of its operations. Situated as I wasin the Typee valley, I perceived every hour the effects of thisall-controlling power, without in the least comprehending it. Thoseeffects were, indeed, wide-spread and universal, pervading the mostimportant as well as the minutest transactions of life. The savage, inshort, lives in the continual observance of its dictates, which guideand control every action of his being.

  For several days after entering the valley I had been saluted at leastfifty times in the twenty-four hours with the talismanic word 'Taboo'shrieked in my ears, at some gross violation of its provisions, of whichI had unconsciously been guilty. The day after our arrival I happened tohand some tobacco to Toby over the head of a native who sat betweenus. He started up, as if stung by an adder; while the whole company,manifesting an equal degree of horror, simultaneously screamed out'Taboo!' I never again perpetrated a similar piece of ill-manners,which, indeed, was forbidden by the canons of good breeding, as well asby the mandates of the taboo. But it was not always so easy to perceivewherein you had contravened the spirit of this institution. I was manytimes called to order, if I may use the phrase, when I could not for thelife of me conjecture what particular offence I had committed.

  One day I was strolling through a secluded portion of the valley, andhearing the musical sound of the cloth-mallet at a little distance, Iturned down a path that conducted me in a few moments to a house wherethere were some half-dozen girls employed in making tappa. This was anoperation I had frequently witnessed, and had handled the bark in allthe various stages of its preparation. On the present occasion thefemales were intent upon their occupation, and after looking up andtalking gaily to me for a few moments, they resumed their employment. Iregarded them for a while in silence, and then carelessly picking up ahandful of the material that lay around, proceeded unconsciously to pickit apart. While thus engaged, I was suddenly startled by a scream, likethat of a whole boarding-school of young ladies just on the point ofgoing into hysterics. Leaping up with the idea of seeing a score ofHappar warriors about to perform anew the Sabine atrocity, I foundmyself confronted by the company of girls, who, having dropped theirwork, stood before me with starting eyes, swelling bosoms, and fingerspointed in horror towards me.

  Thinking that some venomous reptile must be concealed in the bark whichI held in my hand, I began cautiously to separate and examine it. WhilstI did so the horrified girls re-doubled their shrieks. Their wild criesand frightened motions actually alarmed me, and throwing down the tappa,I was about to rush from the house, when in the same instant theirclamours ceased, and one of them, seizing me by the arm, pointed to thebroken fibres that had just fallen from my grasp, and screamed in myears the fatal word Taboo!

  I subsequently found out that the fabric they were engaged in making wasof a peculiar kind, destined to be worn on the heads of the females, andthrough every stage of its manufacture was guarded by a rigorous taboo,which interdicted the whole masculine gender from even so much astouching it.

  Frequently in walking through the groves I observed bread-fruit andcocoanut trees, with a wreath of leaves twined in a peculiar fashionabout their trunks. This was the mark of the taboo. The treesthemselves, their fruit, and even the shadows they cast upon the ground,were consecrated by its presence. In the same way a pipe, which the kinghad bestowed upon me, was rendered sacred in the eyes of the natives,none of whom could I ever prevail upon to smoke from it. The bowl wasencircled by a woven band of grass, somewhat resembling those Turks'heads occasionally worked in the handles of our whip-stalks.

  A similar badge was once braided about my wrist by the royal handof Mehevi himself, who, as soon as he had concluded the operation,pronounced me 'Taboo'. This occurred shortly after Toby's disappearance;and, were it not that from the first moment I had entered the valleythe natives had treated me with uniform kindness, I should have supposedthat their conduct afterwards was to be ascribed to the fact that I hadreceived this sacred investiture.

  The capricious operations of the taboo are not its least remarkablefeature: to enumerate them all would be impossible. Black hogs--infantsto a certain age--women in an interesting situation--young men while theoperation of tattooing their faces is going on--and certain parts of thevalley during the continuance of a shower--are alike fenced about by theoperation of the taboo.

  I witnessed a striking instance of its effects in the bay of Tior,my visit to which place has been alluded to in a former part of thisnarrative. On that occasion our worthy captain formed one of the party.He was a most insatiable sportsman. Outward bound, and off the pitch ofCape Horn, he used to sit on the taffrail, and keep the steward loadingthree or four old fowling pieces, with which he would bring downalbatrosses, Cape pigeons, jays, petrels, and divers other marine fowl,who followed chattering in our wake. The sailors were struck aghast athis impiety, and one and all attributed our forty days' beating aboutthat horrid headland to his sacrilegious slaughter of these inoffensivebirds.

  At Tior he evinced the same disregard for the religious prejudices ofthe islanders, as he had previously shown for the superstitions of thesailors. Having heard that there were a considerable number of fowls inthe valley the progeny of some cocks and hens accidentally left there byan English vessel, and which, being strictly tabooed, flew about almostin a wild state--he determined to break through all restraints, andbe the death of them. Accordingly, he provided himself with a mostformidable looking gun, and announced his landing on the beach byshooting down a noble cock that was crowing what proved to be his ownfuneral dirge, on the limb of an adjoining tree. 'Taboo', shrieked theaffrighted savages. 'Oh, hang your taboo,' says the nautical sportsman;'talk taboo to the marines'; and bang went the piece again, and downcame another victim. At this the natives ran scampering through thegroves, horror-struck at the enormity of the act.

  All that afternoon the rocky sides of the valley rang with successivereports, and the superb plumage of many a beautiful fowl was ruffled bythe fatal bullet. Had it not been that the French admiral, with a largeparty, was then in the glen, I have no doubt that the natives, althoughtheir tribe was small and dispirited, would have inflicted summaryvengeance upon the man who thus outraged their most sacred institutions;as it was, they contrived to annoy him not a little.

  Thirsting with his exertions, the skipper directed his steps toa stream; but the savages, who had followed at a little distance,perceiving his object, rushed towards him and forced him away from itsbank--his lips would have polluted it. Wearied at last, he sought toenter a house that he might rest for a while on the mats; its inmatesgathered tumultuously about the door and denied him admittance. Hecoaxed and blustered by turns, but in vain; the natives were neitherto be intimidated nor appeas
ed, and as a final resort he was obligedto call together his boat's crew, and pull away from what he termed themost infernal place he ever stepped upon.

  Lucky was it for him and for us that we were not honoured on ourdeparture by a salute of stones from the hands of the exasperated Tiors.In this way, on the neighbouring island of Ropo, were killed, but a fewweeks previously, and for a nearly similar offence, the master and threeof the crew of the K---.

  I cannot determine with anything approaching to certainty, what powerit is that imposes the taboo. When I consider the slight disparityof condition among the islanders--the very limited and inconsiderableprerogatives of the king and chiefs--and the loose and indefinitefunctions of the priesthood, most of whom were hardly to bedistinguished from the rest of their countrymen, I am wholly at a losswhere to look for the authority which regulates this potent institution.It is imposed upon something today, and withdrawn tomorrow; while itsoperations in other cases are perpetual. Sometimes its restrictions onlyaffect a single individual--sometimes a particular family--sometimesa whole tribe; and in a few instances they extend not merely over thevarious clans on a single island, but over all the inhabitants of anentire group. In illustration of this latter peculiarity, I may citethe law which forbids a female to enter a canoe--a prohibition whichprevails upon all the northern Marquesas Islands.

  The word itself (taboo) is used in more than one signification. Itis sometimes used by a parent to his child, when in the exerciseof parental authority he forbids it to perform a particular action.Anything opposed to the ordinary customs of the islanders, although notexpressly prohibited, is said to be 'taboo'.

  The Typee language is one very difficult to be acquired; it bears aclose resemblance to the other Polynesian dialects, all of which show acommon origin. The duplication of words, as 'lumee lumee', 'poee poee','muee muee', is one of their peculiar features. But another, and a moreannoying one, is the different senses in which one and the same word isemployed; its various meanings all have a certain connection, whichonly makes the matter more puzzling. So one brisk, lively little wordis obliged, like a servant in a poor family, to perform all sorts ofduties; for instance, one particular combination of syllables expressesthe ideas of sleep, rest, reclining, sitting, leaning, and all otherthings anywise analogous thereto, the particular meaning being shownchiefly by a variety of gestures and the eloquent expression of thecountenance.

  The intricacy of these dialects is another peculiarity. In theMissionary College at Lahainaluna, on Mowee, one of the SandwichIslands, I saw a tabular exhibition of a Hawiian verb, conjugatedthrough all its moods and tenses. It covered the side of a considerableapartment, and I doubt whether Sir William Jones himself would not havedespaired of mastering it.