CHAPTER XIX
History of a day as usually spent in the Typee valley--Dances of the Marquesan girls.
Nothing can be more uniform and undiversified than the life of the Typees;one tranquil day of ease and happiness follows another in quietsuccession; and with these unsophisticated savages the history of a day isthe history of a life. I will therefore, as briefly as I can, describe oneof our days in the valley.
To begin with the morning. We were not very early risers--the sun would beshooting his golden spikes above the Happar mountain, ere I threw aside mytappa robe, and girding my long tunic about my waist, sallied out withFayaway and Kory-Kory, and the rest of the household, and bent my stepstowards the stream. Here we found congregated all those who dwelt in oursection of the valley; and here we bathed with them. The fresh morning airand the cool flowing waters put both soul and body in a glow, and after ahalf-hour employed in this recreation, we sauntered back to thehouse--Tinor and Marheyo gathering dry sticks by the way for firewood; someof the young men laying the cocoa-nut trees under contribution as theypassed beneath them; while Kory-Kory played his outlandish pranks for myparticular diversion, and Fayaway and I, not arm in arm to be sure, butsometimes hand in hand, strolled along, with feelings of perfect charityfor all the world, and especial good-will towards each other.
Our morning meal was soon prepared. The islanders are somewhat abstemiousat this repast; reserving the more powerful efforts of their appetite to alater period of the day. For my own part, with the assistance of my valet,who, as I have before stated, always officiated as spoon on theseoccasions, I ate sparingly from one of Tinor's trenchers of poee-poee;which was devoted exclusively for my own use, being mixed with the milkymeat of ripe cocoa-nut. A section of a roasted bread-fruit, a small cakeof "Amar," or a mess of "Kokoo," two or three bananas, or a Mawmee apple;an annuee, or some other agreeable and nutritious fruit, served from dayto day to diversify the meal, which was finished by tossing off the liquidcontents of a young cocoa-nut or two.
While partaking of this simple repast, the inmates of Marheyo's house,after the style of the ancient Romans, reclined in sociable groups uponthe divan of mats, and digestion was promoted by cheerful conversation.
After the morning meal was concluded, pipes were lighted; and among themmy own special pipe, a present from the noble Mehevi. The islanders, whoonly smoke a whiff or two at a time, and at long intervals, and who keeptheir pipes going from hand to hand continually, regarded my systematicsmoking of four or five pipefuls of tobacco in succession as somethingquite wonderful. When two or three pipes had circulated freely, thecompany gradually broke up. Marheyo went to the little hut he was for everbuilding. Tinor began to inspect her rolls of tappa, or employed her busyfingers in plaiting grass-mats. The girls anointed themselves with theirfragrant oils, dressed their hair, or looked over their curious finery,and compared together their ivory trinkets, fashioned out of boar's tusksor whale's teeth. The young men and warriors produced their spears,paddles, canoe-gear, battle-clubs, and war-conchs, and occupied themselvesin carving all sorts of figures upon them with pointed bits of shell orflint, and adorning them, especially the war-conchs, with tassels ofbraided bark and tufts of human hair. Some, immediately after eating,threw themselves once more upon the inviting mats, and resumed theemployment of the previous night, sleeping as soundly as if they had notclosed their eyes for a week. Others sallied out into the groves, for thepurpose of gathering fruit or fibres of bark and leaves; the last twobeing in constant requisition, and applied to a hundred uses. A few,perhaps, among the girls, would slip into the woods after flowers, orrepair to the stream with small calabashes and cocoa-nut shells, in orderto polish them by friction with a smooth stone in the water. In truththese innocent people seemed to be at no loss for something to occupytheir time; and it would be no light task to enumerate all theiremployments, or rather pleasures.
My own mornings I spent in a variety of ways. Sometimes I rambled aboutfrom house to house, sure of receiving a cordial welcome wherever I went;or, from grove to grove, and from one shady place to another, in companywith Kory-Kory and Fayaway, and a rabble rout of merry young idlers.Sometimes I was too indolent for exercise, and, accepting one of the manyinvitations I was continually receiving, stretched myself out on the matsof some hospitable dwelling, and occupied myself pleasantly either inwatching the proceedings of those around me, or taking part in themmyself. Whenever I chose to do the latter, the delight of the islanderswas boundless; and there was always a throng of competitors for the honorof instructing me in any particular craft. I soon became quite anaccomplished hand at making tappa--could braid a grass sling as well as thebest of them--and once, with my knife, carved the handle of a javelin soexquisitely that I have no doubt, to this day, Karnoonoo, its owner,preserves it as a surprising specimen of my skill. As noon approached, allthose who had wandered forth from our habitation began to return; and whenmid-day was fairly come, scarcely a sound was to be heard in the valley--adeep sleep fell upon all. The luxurious siesta was hardly ever omitted,except by old Marheyo, who was so eccentric a character, that he seemed tobe governed by no fixed principles whatever; but acting just according tothe humour of the moment, slept, eat, or tinkered away at his little hut,without regard to the proprieties of time or place. Frequently he mighthave been seen taking a nap in the sun at noon-day, or a bath in thestream at midnight. Once I beheld him perched eighty feet from the ground,in the tuft of a cocoa-nut tree, smoking; and often I saw him standing upto the waist in water, engaged in plucking out the stray hairs of hisbeard, using a piece of muscle-shell for tweezers.
The noontide slumber lasted generally an hour and a half, very oftenlonger; and after the sleepers had arisen from their mats they again hadrecourse to their pipes, and then made preparations for the most importantmeal of the day.
I, however, like those gentlemen of leisure who breakfast at home and dineat their club, almost invariably, during my intervals of health, enjoyedthe afternoon repast with the bachelor chiefs of the Ti, who were alwaysrejoiced to see me, and lavishly spread before me all the good thingswhich their larder afforded. Mehevi generally produced, among otherdainties, a baked pig, an article which, I have every reason to suppose,was provided for my sole gratification.
The Ti was a right jovial place. It did my heart, as well as my body, goodto visit it. Secure from female intrusion, there was no restraint upon thehilarity of the warriors, who, like the gentlemen of Europe after thecloth is drawn, and the ladies retire, freely indulged their mirth.
After spending a considerable portion of the afternoon at the Ti, Iusually found myself, as the cool of the evening came on, either sailingon the little lake with Fayaway, or bathing in the waters of the streamwith a number of the savages, who, at this hour, always repaired thither.As the shadows of night approached, Marheyo's household were once moreassembled under his roof; tapers were lit, long and curious chants wereraised, interminable stories were told (for which one present was littlethe wiser), and all sorts of social festivities served to while away thetime.
The young girls very often danced by moonlight in front of theirdwellings. There are a great variety of these dances, in which, however, Inever saw the men take part. They all consist of active, romping,mischievous evolutions, in which every limb is brought into requisition.Indeed, the Marquesan girls dance all over, as it were; not only do theirfeet dance, but their arms, hands, fingers, ay, their very eyes seem todance in their heads.
The damsels wear nothing but flowers and their compendious gala tunics;and when they plume themselves for the dance, one would almost think thatthey were about to take wing.
Unless some particular festivity was going forward, the inmates ofMarheyo's house retired to their mats rather early in the evening; but notfor the night, since after slumbering lightly for awhile, they rose again,relit their tapers, partook of the third and last meal of the day, atwhich poee-poee alone was eaten, and then, after inhal
ing a narcotic whifffrom a pipe of tobacco, disposed themselves for the great business of thenight--sleep. With the Marquesans it might almost be styled the greatbusiness of life, for they pass a large portion of their time in the armsof Somnus. The native strength of their constitution is no way shown moreemphatically than in the quantity of sleep they can endure. To many ofthem, indeed, life is little else than an often interrupted and luxuriousnap.
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