CHAPTER XVI
Improvement in health and spirits--Felicity of the Typees--A skirmish in the mountain with the warriors of Happar.
Day after day wore on, and still there was no perceptible change in theconduct of the islanders towards me. Gradually I lost all knowledge of theregular recurrence of the days of the week, and sunk insensibly into thatkind of apathy which ensues after some violent outbreak of despair. Mylimb suddenly healed, the swelling went down, the pain subsided, and I hadevery reason to suppose I should soon completely recover from theaffliction that had so long tormented me.
As soon as I was enabled to ramble about the valley in company with thenatives, troops of whom followed me whenever I sallied out of the house, Ibegan to experience an elasticity of mind which placed me beyond the reachof those dismal forebodings to which I had so lately been a prey. Receivedwherever I went with the most deferential kindness; regaled perpetuallywith the most delightful fruits; ministered to by dark-eyed nymphs; andenjoying besides all the services of the devoted Kory-Kory, I thoughtthat, for a sojourn among cannibals, no man could have well made a moreagreeable one.
To be sure, there were limits set to my wanderings. Toward the sea, myprogress was barred by an express prohibition of the savages; and afterhaving made two or three ineffectual attempts to reach it, as much togratify my curiosity as anything else, I gave up the idea. It was in vainto think of reaching it by stealth, since the natives escorted me innumbers wherever I went, and not for one single moment that I can recallto mind was I ever permitted to be alone.
The green and precipitous elevations that stood ranged around the head ofthe vale where Marheyo's habitation was situated, effectually precludedall hope of escape in that quarter, even if I could have stolen away fromthe thousand eyes of the savages.
But these reflections now seldom obtruded upon me; I gave myself up to thepassing hour, and if ever disagreeable thoughts arose in my mind, I drovethem away. When I looked around the verdant recess in which I was buried,and gazed up to the summits of the lofty eminence that hemmed me in, I waswell disposed to think that I was in the "Happy Valley," and that beyondthose heights there was nought but a world of care and anxiety.
In this frame of mind, every object that presented itself to my noticestruck me in a new light, and the opportunities I now enjoyed of observingthe manners of the natives, tended to strengthen my favourableimpressions. One peculiarity that fixed my admiration was the perpetualhilarity reigning through the whole extent of the vale. There seemed to beno cares, griefs, troubles, or vexations in all Typee. The hours trippedalong as gaily as the laughing couples down a country dance.
There were none of those thousand sources of irritation that the ingenuityof civilized man has created to mar his own felicity. There were noforeclosures of mortgages, no protested notes, no bills payable, no debtsof honour, in Typee; no unreasonable tailors and shoemakers, perverselybent on being paid; no duns of any description; no assault and batteryattorneys, to foment discord, backing their clients up to a quarrel, andthen knocking their heads together; no poor relations everlastinglyoccupying the spare bed-chamber, and diminishing the elbow-room at thefamily table; no destitute widows with their children starving on the coldcharities of the world; no beggars; no debtor's prisons; no proud andhard-hearted nabobs in Typee; or, to sum up all in one word--no Money! That"root of all evil" was not to be found in the valley.
In this secluded abode of happiness there were no cross old women, nocruel step-dames, no withered spinsters, no love-sick maidens, no sour oldbachelors, no inattentive husbands, no melancholy young men, no blubberingyoungsters, and no squalling brats. All was mirth, fun, and high goodhumour. Blue devils, hypochondria, and doleful dumps went and hidthemselves among the nooks and crannies of the rocks.
Here you would see a parcel of children frolicking together the live-longday, and no quarrelling, no contention among them. The same number in ourown land could not have played together for the space of an hour withoutbiting or scratching one another. There you might have seen a throng ofyoung females, not filled with envyings of each other's charms, nordisplaying the ridiculous affectations of gentility, nor yet moving inwhalebone corsets, like so many automatons, but free, inartificially happyand unconstrained.
There were some spots in that sunny vale where they would frequentlyresort to decorate themselves with garlands of flowers. To have seen themreclining beneath the shadows of one of the beautiful groves, the groundabout them strewn with freshly gathered buds and blossoms, employed inweaving chaplets and necklaces, one would have thought that all the trainof Flora had gathered together to keep a festival in honour of theirmistress.
With the young men there seemed almost always some matter of diversion orbusiness on hand, that afforded a constant variety of enjoyment. Butwhether fishing, or carving canoes, or polishing their ornaments, neverwas there exhibited the least sign of strife or contention among them.
As for the warriors, they maintained a tranquil dignity of demeanour,journeying occasionally from house to house, where they were always sureto be received with the attention bestowed upon distinguished guests. Theold men, of whom there were many in the vale, seldom stirred from theirmats, where they would recline for hours and hours, smoking and talking toone another with all the garrulity of age.
But the continual happiness which, so far as I was able to judge, appearedto prevail in the valley, sprung principally from that all-pervadingsensation which Rousseau has told us he at one time experienced, the merebuoyant sense of a healthful physical existence. And, indeed, in thisparticular the Typees had ample reason to felicitate themselves, forsickness was almost unknown. During the whole period of my stay, I saw butone invalid among them; and on their smooth clear skins you observed noblemish or mark of disease.
The general repose, however, upon which I have just been descanting, wasbroken in upon about this time by an event, which proved that theislanders were not entirely exempt from those occurrences which disturbthe quiet of more civilized communities.
Having now been a considerable time in the valley, I began to feelsurprised that the violent hostility subsisting between its inhabitantsand those of the adjoining bay of Happar, should never have manifesteditself in any warlike encounter. Although the valiant Typees would often,by gesticulations, declare their undying hatred against their enemies, andthe disgust they felt at their cannibal propensities; although theydilated upon the manifold injuries they had received at their hands, yet,with a forbearance truly commendable, they appeared patiently to sit downunder their grievances, and to refrain from making any reprisals. TheHappars, entrenched behind their mountains, and never even showingthemselves on their summits, did not appear to me to furnish adequatecause for that excess of animosity evinced towards them by the heroictenants of our vale, and I was inclined to believe that the deeds of bloodattributed to them had been greatly exaggerated.
On the other hand, as the clamours of war had not up to this perioddisturbed the serenity of the tribe, I began to distrust the truth ofthose reports which ascribed so fierce and belligerent a character to theTypee nation. Surely, thought I, all these terrible stories I have heardabout the inveteracy with which they carried on the feud, their deadlyintensity of hatred, and the diabolical malice with which they gluttedtheir revenge upon the inanimate forms of the slain, are nothing more thanfables, and I must confess that I experienced something like a sense ofregret at having my hideous anticipations thus disappointed. I felt insome sort like a 'prentice boy who, going to the play in the expectationof being delighted with a cut-and-thrust tragedy, is almost moved to tearsof disappointment at the exhibition of a genteel comedy.
I could not avoid thinking that I had fallen in with a greatly traducedpeople, and I moralized not a little upon the disadvantage of having a badname, which in this instance had given a tribe of savages, who were aspacific as so many lambkins, the reputation of a confederacy ofgiant-killers.
But sub
sequent events proved that I had been a little too premature incoming to this conclusion. One day, about noon, happening to be at the Ti,I had lain down on the mats with several of the chiefs, and had graduallysunk into a most luxurious siesta, when I was awakened by a tremendousoutcry, and starting up, beheld the natives, seizing their spears andhurrying out, while the most puissant of the chiefs, grasping the sixmuskets which were ranged against the bamboos, followed after, and soondisappeared in the groves. These movements were accompanied by wildshouts, in which "Happar, Happar," greatly predominated. The islanderswere now to be seen running past the Ti, and striking across the valley tothe Happar side. Presently I heard the sharp report of a musket from theadjoining hills, and then a burst of voices in the same direction. At thisthe women, who had congregated in the groves, set up the most violentclamours, as they invariably do here as elsewhere on every occasion ofexcitement and alarm, with a view of tranquillizing their own minds anddisturbing other people. On this particular occasion they made such anoutrageous noise, and continued it with such perseverance, that forawhile, had entire volleys of musketry been fired off in the neighbouringmountains, I should not have been able to have heard them.
When this female commotion had a little subsided I listened eagerly forfurther information. At last bang went another shot, and then a secondvolley of yells from the hills. Again all was quiet, and continued so forsuch a length of time that I began to think the contending armies hadagreed upon a suspension of hostilities; when pop went a third gun,followed as before with a yell. After this, for nearly two hours nothingoccurred worthy of comment, save some straggling shouts from the hillside,sounding like the halloos of a parcel of truant boys who had lostthemselves in the woods.
During this interval I had remained standing on the piazza of the "Ti,"which directly fronted the Happar mountain, and with no one near me butKory-Kory and the old superannuated savages I have before described. Theselatter never stirred from their mats, and seemed altogether unconsciousthat anything unusual was going on.
As for Kory-Kory, he appeared to think that we were in the midst of greatevents, and sought most zealously to impress me with a due sense of theirimportance. Every sound that reached us conveyed some momentous item ofintelligence to him. At such times, as if he were gifted with secondsight, he would go through a variety of pantomimic illustrations, showingme the precise manner in which the redoubtable Typees were at that verymoment chastising the insolence of the enemy. "Mehevi hanna pippee nueeHappar," he exclaimed every five minutes, giving me to understand thatunder that distinguished captain the warriors of his nation wereperforming prodigies of valour.
Having heard only four reports from the muskets, I was led to believe thatthey were worked by the islanders in the same manner as the SultanSolyman's ponderous artillery at the siege of Byzantium, one of themtaking an hour or two to load and train. At last, no sound whateverproceeding from the mountains, I concluded that the contest had beendetermined one way or the other. Such appeared, indeed, to be the case,for in a little while a courier arrived at the "Ti," almost breathlesswith his exertions, and communicated the news of a great victory havingbeen achieved by his countrymen: "Happar poo arva!--Happar poo arva!" (thecowards had fled). Kory-Kory was in ecstasies, and commenced a vehementharangue, which, so far as I understood it, implied that the resultexactly agreed with his expectations, and which, moreover, was intended toconvince me that it would be a perfectly useless undertaking, even for anarmy of fire-eaters, to offer battle to the irresistible heroes of ourvalley. In all this I of course acquiesced, and looked forward with nolittle interest to the return of the conquerors, whose victory I fearedmight not have been purchased without cost to themselves.
But here I was again mistaken; for Mehevi, in conducting his warlikeoperations, rather inclined to the Fabian than to the Buonaparteantactics, husbanding his resources and exposing his troops to nounnecessary hazards. The total loss of the victors in this obstinatelycontested affair was,--in killed, wounded, and missing--one forefinger andpart of a thumb-nail (which the late proprietor brought along with him inhis hand), a severely contused arm, and a considerable effusion of bloodflowing from the thigh of a chief who had received an ugly thrust from aHappar spear. What the enemy had suffered I could not discover, but Ipresume they had succeeded in taking off with them the bodies of theirslain.
Such was the issue of the battle, as far as its results came under myobservation; and as it appeared to be considered an event of prodigiousimportance, I reasonably concluded that the wars of the natives weremarked by no very sanguinary traits. I afterwards learned how the skirmishhad originated. A number of the Happars had been discovered prowling forno good purpose on the Typee side of the mountain; the alarm sounded, andthe invaders, after a protracted resistance, had been chased over thefrontier. But why had not the intrepid Mehevi carried the war into Happar?Why had not he made a descent into the hostile vale, and brought away sometrophy of his victory--some materials for the cannibal entertainment whichI had heard usually terminated every engagement? After all, I was muchinclined to believe that these shocking festivals must occur very rarelyamong the islanders, if, indeed, they ever take place.
For two or three days the late event was the theme of general comment;after which the excitement gradually wore away, and the valley resumed itsaccustomed tranquillity.
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