Marharvai allotted seats to his guests; and the meal began. Thinkingthat his hospitality needed some acknowledgment, I rose, and pledgedhim in the vegetable wine of the cocoa-nut; merely repeating theordinary salutation, "Yar onor boyoee." Sensible that somecompliment, after the fashion of white men, was paid him, with asmile, and a courteous flourish of the hand, he bade me be seated. Nopeople, however refined, are more easy and graceful in their mannersthan the Imeeose.
The doctor, sitting next our host, now came under his specialprotection. Laying before his guest one of the packages of fish,Marharvai opened it; and commended its contents to his particularregards. But my comrade was one of those who, on convivial occasions,can always take care of themselves. He ate an indefinite number of"Pee-hee Lee Lees" (small fish), his own and next neighbour'sbread-fruit; and helped himself, to right and left, with all the easeof an accomplished diner-out.
"Paul," said he, at last, "you don't seem to be getting along; whydon't you try the pepper sauce?" and, by way of example, he steeped amorsel of food into his nutful of sea-water. On following suit, Ifound it quite piquant, though rather bitter; but, on the whole, acapital substitute for salt. The Imeeose invariably use sea-water inthis way, deeming it quite a treat; and considering that theircountry is surrounded by an ocean of catsup, the luxury cannot bedeemed an expensive one.
The fish were delicious; the manner of cooking them in the groundpreserving all the juices, and rendering them exceedingly sweet andtender. The plantain pudding was almost cloying; the cakes of Indianturnip, quite palatable; and the roasted bread-fruit, crisp as toast.
During the meal, a native lad walked round and round the party,carrying a long staff of bamboo. This he occasionally tapped upon thecloth, before each guest; when a white clotted substance droppedforth, with a savour not unlike that of a curd. This proved to be"Lownee," an excellent relish, prepared from the grated meat of ripecocoa-nuts, moistened with cocoa-nut milk and salt water, and keptperfectly tight until a little past the saccharine stage offermentation.
Throughout the repast there was much lively chatting among theislanders, in which their conversational powers quite exceeded ours.The young ladies, too, showed themselves very expert in the use oftheir tongues, and contributed much to the gaiety which prevailed.
Nor did these lively nymphs suffer the meal to languish; for upon thedoctor's throwing himself back, with an air of much satisfaction,they sprang to their feet, and pelted him with oranges and guavas.This, at last, put an end to the entertainment.
By a hundred whimsical oddities, my long friend became a greatfavourite with these people; and they bestowed upon him a long,comical title, expressive of his lank figure and Koora combined. Thelatter, by the bye, never failed to excite the remark of everybody weencountered.
The giving of nicknames is quite a passion with the people of Tahitiand Imeeo. No one with any peculiarity, whether of person or temper,is exempt; not even strangers.
A pompous captain of a man-of-war, visiting Tahiti for the secondtime, discovered that, among the natives, he went by the dignifiedtitle of "Atee Poee"--literally, Poee Head, or Pudding Head. Nor isthe highest rank among themselves any protection. The first husbandof the present queen was commonly known in the court circles as "PotBelly." He carried the greater part of his person before him, to besure; and so did the gentlemanly George IV.--but what a title for aking consort!
Even "Pomaree" itself, the royal patronymic, was, originally, a merenickname; and literally signifies, one talking through his nose. Thefirst monarch of that name, being on a war party, and sleepingovernight among the mountains, awoke one morning with a cold in hishead; and some wag of a courtier had no more manners than tovulgarize him thus.
How different from the volatile Polynesian in this, as in all otherrespects, is our grave and decorous North American Indian. While theformer bestows a name in accordance with some humorous or ignobletrait, the latter seizes upon what is deemed the most exalted orwarlike: and hence, among the red tribes, we have the truly patricianappellations of "White Eagles," "Young Oaks," "Fiery Eyes," and"Bended Bows."
CHAPTER LXIX.
THE COCOA-PALM
WHILE the doctor and the natives were taking a digestive nap afterdinner, I strolled forth to have a peep at the country which couldproduce so generous a meal.
To my surprise, a fine strip of land in the vicinity of the hamlet,and protected seaward by a grove of cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees,was under high cultivation. Sweet potatoes, Indian turnips, and yamswere growing; also melons, a few pine-apples, and other fruits. Stillmore pleasing was the sight of young bread-fruit and cocoa-nut treesset out with great care, as if, for once, the improvident Polynesianhad thought of his posterity. But this was the only instance of nativethrift which ever came under my observation. For, in all my ramblesover Tahiti and Imeeo, nothing so much struck me as the comparativescarcity of these trees in many places where they ought to abound.Entire valleys, like Martair, of inexhaustible fertility areabandoned to all the rankness of untamed vegetation. Alluvial flatsbordering the sea, and watered by streams from the mountains, areover-grown with a wild, scrub guava-bush, introduced by foreigners,and which spreads with such fatal rapidity that the natives, standingstill while it grows, anticipate its covering the entire island. Eventracts of clear land, which, with so little pains, might be made towave with orchards, lie wholly neglected.
When I considered their unequalled soil and climate, thusunaccountably slighted, I often turned in amazement upon the nativesabout Papeetee; some of whom all but starve in their gardens run towaste. Upon other islands which I have visited, of similar fertility,and wholly unreclaimed from their first-discovered condition, nospectacle of this sort was presented.
The high estimation in which many of their fruit-trees are held by theTahitians and Imeeose--their beauty in the landscape--their manifolduses, and the facility with which they are propagated, areconsiderations which render the remissness alluded to still moreunaccountable. The cocoa-palm is as an example; a tree by far themost important production of Nature in the Tropics. To thePolynesians it is emphatically the Tree of Life; transcending eventhe bread-fruit in the multifarious uses to which it is applied.
Its very aspect is imposing. Asserting its supremacy by an erect andlofty bearing, it may be said to compare with other trees as man withinferior creatures.
The blessings it confers are incalculable. Tear after year, theislander reposes beneath its shade, both eating and drinking of itsfruit; he thatches his hut with its boughs, and weaves them intobaskets to carry his food; he cools himself with a fan platted fromthe young leaflets, and shields his head from the sun by a bonnet ofthe leaves; sometimes he clothes himself with the cloth-likesubstance which wraps round the base of the stalks, whose elasticrods, strung with filberts, are used as a taper; the larger nuts,thinned and polished, furnish him with a beautiful goblet: thesmaller ones, with bowls for his pipes; the dry husks kindle hisfires; their fibres are twisted into fishing-lines and cords for hiscanoes; he heals his wounds with a balsam compounded from the juiceof the nut; and with the oil extracted from its meat embalms thebodies of the dead.
The noble trunk itself is far from being valueless. Sawn into posts,it upholds the islander's dwelling; converted into charcoal, it cookshis food; and supported on blocks of stone, rails in his lands. Heimpels his canoe through the water with a paddle of the wood, andgoes to battle with clubs and spears of the same hard material.
In pagan Tahiti a cocoa-nut branch was the symbol of regal authority.Laid upon the sacrifice in the temple, it made the offering sacred;and with it the priests chastised and put to flight the evil spiritswhich assailed them. The supreme majesty of Oro, the great god oftheir mythology, was declared in the cocoa-nut log from which hisimage was rudely carved. Upon one of the Tonga Islands, there standsa living tree revered itself as a deity. Even upon the SandwichIslands, the cocoa-palm retains all its ancient reputation; thepeople there having thought of adopting it as the national emblem.
The cocoa-nut is planted as follows: Selecting a suitable place, youdrop into the ground a fully ripe nut, and leave it. In a few days, athin, lance-like shoot forces itself through a minute hole in theshell, pierces the husk, and soon unfolds three pale-green leaves inthe air; while originating, in the same soft white sponge which nowcompletely fills the nut, a pair of fibrous roots, pushing away thestoppers which close two holes in an opposite direction, penetratethe shell, and strike vertically into the ground. A day or two more,and the shell and husk, which, in the last and germinating stage ofthe nut, are so hard that a knife will scarcely make any impression,spontaneously burst by some force within; and, henceforth, the hardyyoung plant thrives apace; and needing no culture, pruning, orattention of any sort, rapidly advances to maturity. In four or fiveyears it bears; in twice as many more, it begins to lift its headamong the groves, where, waxing strong, it flourishes for near acentury.
Thus, as some voyager has said, the man who but drops one of thesenuts into the ground may be said to confer a greater and more certainbenefit upon himself and posterity than many a life's toil in lessgenial climes.
The fruitfulness of the tree is remarkable. As long as it lives itbears, and without intermission. Two hundred nuts, besidesinnumerable white blossoms of others, may be seen upon it at onetime; and though a whole year is required to bring any one of them tothe germinating point, no two, perhaps, are at one time in preciselythe same stage of growth.
The tree delights in a maritime situation. In its greatest perfection,it is perhaps found right on the seashore, where its roots areactually washed. But such instances are only met with upon islandswhere the swell of the sea is prevented from breaking on the beach byan encircling reef. No saline flavour is perceptible in the nutproduced in such a place. Although it bears in any soil, whetherupland or bottom, it does not flourish vigorously inland; and I havefrequently observed that, when met with far up the valley, its tallstem inclines seaward, as if pining after a more genial region.
It is a curious fact that if you deprive the cocoa-nut tree of theverdant tuft at its head, it dies at once; and if allowed to standthus, the trunk, which, when alive, is encased in so hard a bark asto be almost impervious to a bullet, moulders away, and, in anincredibly short period, becomes dust. This is, perhaps, partly owingto the peculiar constitution of the trunk, a mere cylinder of minutehollow reeds, closely packed, and very hard; but, when exposed attop, peculiarly fitted to convey moisture and decay through theentire stem.
The finest orchard of cocoa-palms I know, and the only plantation ofthem I ever saw at the islands, is one that stands right upon thesouthern shore of Papeetee Bay. They were set out by the firstPomaree, almost half a century ago; and the soil being especiallyadapted to their growth, the noble trees now form a magnificentgrove, nearly a mile in extent. No other plant, scarcely a bush, isto be seen within its precincts. The Broom Road passes through itsentire length.
At noonday, this grove is one of the most beautiful, serene, witchingplaces that ever was seen. High overhead are ranges of green rustlingarches; through which the sun's rays come down to you in sparkles.You seem to be wandering through illimitable halls of pillars;everywhere you catch glimpses of stately aisles, intersecting eachother at all points. A strange silence, too, reigns far and near; theair flushed with the mellow stillness of a sunset.
But after the long morning calms, the sea-breeze comes in; andcreeping over the tops of these thousand trees, they nod theirplumes. Soon the breeze freshens; and you hear the branches brushingagainst each other; and the flexible trunks begin to sway. Towardevening the whole grove is rocking to and fro; and the traveller onthe Broom Road is startled by the frequent falling of the nuts,snapped from their brittle stems. They come flying through the air,ringing like jugglers' balls; and often bound along the ground formany rods.
CHAPTER LXX.
LIFE AT LOOHOOLOO
FINDING the society at Loohooloo very pleasant, the young ladies, inparticular, being extremely sociable; and, moreover, in love with thefamous good cheer of old Marharvai, we acquiesced in an invitation ofhis to tarry a few days longer. We might then, he said, join a smallcanoe party which was going to a place a league or two distant. Soaverse to all exertion are these people that they really thought theprospect of thus getting rid of a few miles' walking would prevailwith us, even if there were no other inducement.
The people of the hamlet, as we soon discovered, formed a snug littlecommunity of cousins; of which our host seemed the head. Marharvai,in truth, was a petty chief who owned the neighbouring lands. And asthe wealthy, in most cases, rejoice in a numerous kindred, the familyfooting upon which everybody visited him was, perhaps, ascribable tothe fact of his being the lord of the manor. Like Captain Bob, he was,in some things, a gentleman of the old school--a stickler for thecustoms of a past and pagan age.
Nowhere else, except in Tamai, did we find the manners of the nativesless vitiated by recent changes. The old-fashioned Tahitian dinnerthey gave us on the day of our arrival was a fair sample of theirgeneral mode of living.
Our time passed delightfully. The doctor went his way, and I mine.With a pleasant companion, he was forever strolling inland,ostensibly to collect botanical specimens; while I, for the mostpart, kept near the sea; sometimes taking the girls on an aquaticexcursion in a canoe.
Often we went fishing; not dozing over stupid hooks and lines, butleaping right into the water, and chasing our prey over the coralrocks, spear in hand.
Spearing fish is glorious sport. The Imeeose, all round the island,catch them in no other way. The smooth shallows between the reef andthe shore, and, at low water, the reef itself, being admirablyadapted to this mode of capturing them. At almost any time of theday--save ever the sacred hour of noon--you may see the fish-hunterspursuing their sport; with loud halloos, brandishing their spears, andsplashing through the water in all directions. Sometimes a solitarynative is seen, far out upon a lonely shallow, wading slowly along,with eye intent and poised spear.
But the best sport of all is going out upon the great reef itself bytorch-light. The natives follow this recreation with as much spiritas a gentleman of England does the chase; and take full as muchdelight in it.
The torch is nothing more than a bunch of dry reeds, bound firmlytogether: the spear, a long, light pole, with an iron head, on oneside barbed.
I shall never forget the night that old Marharvai and the rest of us,paddling off to the reef, leaped at midnight upon the coral ledgeswith waving torches and spears. We were more than a mile from theland; the sullen ocean, thundering upon the outside of the rocks,dashed the spray in our faces, almost extinguishing the flambeaux;and, far as the eye could reach, the darkness of sky and water wasstreaked with a long, misty line of foam, marking the course of thecoral barrier. The wild fishermen, flourishing their weapons, andyelling like so many demons to scare their prey, sprang from ledge toledge, and sometimes darted their spears in the very midst of thebreakers.
But fish-spearing was not the only sport we had at Loohooloo. Right onthe beach was a mighty old cocoa-nut tree, the roots of which hadbeen underwashed by the waves so that the trunk inclined far over itsbase. From the tuft of the tree a stout cord of bark depended, theend of which swept the water several yards from the shore. This was aTahitian swing. A native lad seizes hold of the cord, and, afterswinging to and fro quite leisurely, all at once sends himself fiftyor sixty feet from the water, rushing through the air like a rocket.I doubt whether any of our rope-dancers would attempt the feat. Formy own part, I had neither head nor heart for it; so, after sending alad aloft with an additional cord, by way of security, I constructed alarge basket of green boughs, in which I and some particular friendsof mine used to swing over sea and land by the hour.
CHAPTER LXXI.
WE START FOR TALOO
BRIGHT was the morning, and brighter still the smiles of the youngladies who accompanied us, when we sprang into a sort of familycanoe--wide and roomy--and bade adieu to the hospitable Marharv
ai andhis tenantry. As we paddled away, they stood upon the beach, waving theirhands, and crying out, "aroha! aroha!" (farewell! farewell!) as longas we were within hearing.
Very sad at parting with them, we endeavoured, nevertheless, toconsole ourselves in the society of our fellow-passengers. Amongthese were two old ladies; but as they said nothing to us, we willsay nothing about them; nor anything about the old men who managedthe canoe. But of the three mischievous, dark-eyed young witches wholounged in the stern of that comfortable old island gondola, I have agreat deal to say.
In the first place, one of them was Marhar-Rarrar, the Bright-Eyed;and, in the second place, neither she nor the romps, her companions,ever dreamed of taking the voyage until the doctor and myselfannounced our intention; their going along was nothing more than amadcap frolic; in short, they were a parcel of wicked hoydens, benton mischief, who laughed in your face when you looked sentimental, andonly tolerated your company when making merry at your expense.
Something or other about us was perpetually awaking their mirth.Attributing this to his own remarkable figure, the doctor increasedtheir enjoyment by assuming the part of a Merry Andrew. Yet his capand bells never jingled but to some tune; and while playing theTom-fool, I more than suspected that he was trying to play the rake.At home, it is deemed auspicious to go a-wooing in epaulets; butamong the Polynesians, your best dress in courting is motley.
A fresh breeze springing up, we set our sail of matting, and glidedalong as tranquilly as if floating upon an inland stream; the whitereef on one hand, and the green shore on the other.
Soon, as we turned a headland, we encountered another canoe, paddlingwith might and main in an opposite direction; the strangers shoutingto each other, and a tall fellow in the bow dancing up and down likea crazy man. They shot by us like an arrow, though our fellow-voyagersshouted again and again for them to cease paddling.
Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas Page 26