Typee: A Romance of the South Seas

by Herman Melville

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  THE STRANGER AGAIN ARRIVES IN THE VALLEY--SINGULAR INTERVIEW WITHHIM--ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE--FAILURE--MELANCHOLY SITUATION--SYMPATHY OFMARHEYO

  'MARNOO, Marnoo pemi!' Such were the welcome sounds which fell upon myear some ten days after the events related in the preceding chapter.Once more the approach of the stranger was heralded, and theintelligence operated upon me like magic. Again I should be able toconverse with him in my own language; and I resolve at all hazards toconcert with him some scheme, however desperate, to rescue me from acondition that had now become insupportable.

  As he drew near, I remembered with many misgivings the inauspicioustermination of our former interview, and when he entered the house, Iwatched with intense anxiety the reception he met with from its inmates.To my joy, his appearance was hailed with the liveliest pleasure; andaccosting me kindly, he seated himself by my side, and entered intoconversation with the natives around him. It soon appeared however,that on this occasion he had not any intelligence of importance tocommunicate. I inquired of him from whence he had just come? He repliedfrom Pueearka, his native valley, and that he intended to return to itthe same day.

  At once it struck me that, could I but reach that valley under hisprotection, I might easily from thence reach Nukuheva by water; andanimated by the prospect which this plan held, out I disclosed it ina few brief words to the stranger, and asked him how it could be bestaccomplished. My heart sunk within me, when in his broken English heanswered me that it could never be effected. 'Kanaka no let you gonowhere,' he said; 'you taboo. Why you no like to stay? Plenty moee-moee(sleep)--plenty ki-ki (eat)--plenty wahenee (young girls)--Oh, very goodplace Typee! Suppose you no like this bay, why you come? You no hearabout Typee? All white men afraid Typee, so no white men come.'

  These words distressed me beyond belief; and when I had again related tohim the circumstances under which I had descended into the valley, andsought to enlist his sympathies in my behalf by appealing to the bodilymisery I had endure, he listened with impatience, and cut me short byexclaiming passionately, 'Me no hear you talk any more; by by Kanakaget mad, kill you and me too. No you see he no want you to speak atall?--you see--ah! by by you no mind--you get well, he kill you, eatyou, hang you head up there, like Happar Kanaka.--Now you listen--but notalk any more. By by I go;--you see way I go--Ah! then some night Kanakaall moee-moee (sleep)--you run away, you come Pueearka. I speak PueearkaKanaka--he no harm you--ah! then I take you my canoe Nukuheva--and yourun away ship no more.' With these words, enforced by a vehemence ofgesture I cannot describe, Marnoo started from my side, and immediatelyengaged in conversation with some of the chiefs who had entered thehouse.

  It would have been idle for me to have attempted resuming the interviewso peremptorily terminated by Marnoo, who was evidently little disposedto compromise his own safety by any rash endeavour to ensure mine.But the plan he had suggested struck me as one which might possibly beaccomplished, and I resolved to act upon it as speedily as possible.

  Accordingly, when he arose to depart, I accompanied him with the nativesoutside of the house, with a view of carefully noting the path hewould take in leaving the valley. Just before leaping from the pi-pi heclasped my hand, and looking significantly at me, exclaimed, 'Now yousee--you do what I tell you--ah! then you do good;--you no do so--ah!then you die.' The next moment he waved his spear to the islanders, andfollowing the route that conducted to a defile in the mountains lyingopposite the Happar side, was soon out of sight.

  A mode of escape was now presented to me, but how was I to avail myselfof it? I was continually surrounded by the savages; I could not stirfrom one house to another without being attended by some of them; andeven during the hours devoted to slumber, the slightest movement which Imade seemed to attract the notice of those who shared the mats with me.In spite of these obstacles, however, I determined forthwith to make theattempt. To do so with any prospect of success, it was necessary thatI should have at least two hours start before the islanders shoulddiscover my absence; for with such facility was any alarm spread throughthe valley, and so familiar, of course, were the inhabitants with theintricacies of the groves, that I could not hope, lame and feeble as Iwas, and ignorant of the route, to secure my escape unless I had thisadvantage. It was also by night alone that I could hope to accomplish myobject, and then only by adopting the utmost precaution.

  The entrance to Marheyo's habitation was through a low narrow openingin its wicker-work front. This passage, for no conceivable reason that Icould devise, was always closed after the household had retired to rest,by drawing a heavy slide across it, composed of a dozen or more bits ofwood, ingeniously fastened together by seizings of sinnate. When any ofthe inmates chose to go outside, the noise occasioned by the removing ofthis rude door awakened every body else; and on more than one occasionI had remarked that the islanders were nearly as irritable as morecivilized beings under similar circumstances.

  The difficulty thus placed in my way I, determined to obviate in thefollowing manner. I would get up boldly in the course of the night, anddrawing the slide, issue from the house, and pretend that my object wasmerely to procure a drink from the calabash, which always stoodwithout the dwelling on the corner of the pi-pi. On re-entering I wouldpurposely omit closing the passage after me, and trusting that theindolence of the savages would prevent them from repairing my neglect,would return to my mat, and waiting patiently until all were againasleep, I would then steal forth, and at once take the route toPueearka.

  The very night which followed Marnoo's departure, I proceeded to putthis project into execution. About midnight, as I imagined, I arose anddrew the slide. The natives, just as I had expected, started up, whilesome of them asked, 'Arware poo awa, Tommo?' (where are you going,Tommo?) 'Wai' (water) I laconically answered, grasping the calabash. Onhearing my reply they sank back again, and in a minute or two I returnedto my mat, anxiously awaiting the result of the experiment.

  One after another the savages, turning restlessly, appeared to resumetheir slumbers, and rejoicing at the stillness which prevailed, I wasabout to rise again from my couch, when I heard a slight rustling--adark form was intercepted between me and the doorway--the slide wasdrawn across it, and the individual, whoever he was, returned tohis mat. This was a sad blow to me; but as it might have aroused thesuspicions of the islanders to have made another attempt that night, Iwas reluctantly obliged to defer it until the next. Several times afterI repeated the same manoeuvre, but with as little success as before.As my pretence for withdrawing from the house was to allay my thirst,Kory-Kory either suspecting some design on my part, or else promptedby a desire to please me, regularly every evening placed a calabash ofwater by my side.

  Even, under these inauspicious circumstances I again and again renewedthe attempt, but when I did so, my valet always rose with me, as ifdetermined I should not remove myself from his observation. Forthe present, therefore, I was obliged to abandon the attempt; but Iendeavoured to console myself with the idea that by this mode I mightyet effect my escape.

  Shortly after Marnoo's visit I was reduced to such a state that it waswith extreme difficulty I could walk, even with the assistance of aspear, and Kory-Kory, as formerly, was obliged to carry me daily to thestream.

  For hours and hours during the warmest part of the day I lay upon mymat, and while those around me were nearly all dozing away in carelessease, I remained awake, gloomily pondering over the fate which itappeared now idle for me to resist, when I thought of the loved friendswho were thousands and thousands of miles from the savage island inwhich I was held a captive, when I reflected that my dreadful fate wouldfor ever be concealed from them, and that with hope deferred they mightcontinue to await my return long after my inanimate form had blendedwith the dust of the valley--I could not repress a shudder of anguish.

  How vividly is impressed upon my mind every minute feature of the scenewhich met my view during those long days of suffering and sorrow. At myrequest my mats were always spread direc
tly facing the door, oppositewhich, and at a little distance, was the hut of boughs that Marheyo wasbuilding.

  Whenever my gentle Fayaway and Kory-Kory, laying themselves down besideme, would leave me awhile to uninterrupted repose, I took a strangeinterest in the slightest movements of the eccentric old warrior. Allalone during the stillness of the tropical mid-day, he would pursue hisquiet work, sitting in the shade and weaving together the leaflets ofhis cocoanut branches, or rolling upon his knee the twisted fibres ofbark to form the cords with which he tied together the thatching ofhis tiny house. Frequently suspending his employment, and noticing mymelancholy eye fixed upon him, he would raise his hand with a gestureexpressive of deep commiseration, and then moving towards me slowly,would enter on tip-toes, fearful of disturbing the slumbering natives,and, taking the fan from my hand, would sit before me, swaying it gentlyto and fro, and gazing earnestly into my face.

  Just beyond the pi-pi, and disposed in a triangle before the entranceof the house, were three magnificent bread-fruit trees. At this moment Ican recap to my mind their slender shafts, and the graceful inequalitiesof their bark, on which my eye was accustomed to dwell day after day inthe midst of my solitary musings. It is strange how inanimate objectswill twine themselves into our affections, especially in the hour ofaffliction. Even now, amidst all the bustle and stir of the proud andbusy city in which I am dwelling, the image of those three trees seemsto come as vividly before my eyes as if they were actually present, andI still feel the soothing quiet pleasure which I then had in watchinghour after hour their topmost boughs waving gracefully in the breeze.