TYPEE, OR LIFE IN THE MARQUESAS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8598, 27 September 1893, Page 2

TYPEE, OR LIFE IN THE MARQUESAS.

— & —— By Herman Melville. CHAPTER XX. History of a Day as usually spent in the Typee Valley—Dances of THE MABQtTESAN GIRLS. Nothing can be more uniform and undiversified than the life of the Typees ; one tranquil day of ease and happiness follows another in quiet succession ; and with these unsophisticated savages the history of a day is tk'e history of a life. 1 will, therefore, as briefly as I can, describe one of oar days in the valley. To begin with the morning. We were not very early risers—the sun would be shooting his golden spikes above the Happar mountain, ere I threw aside my tappa robe, and girding my long tunic about my waist, sallied out with Fayaway and KoryKory, and the rest of the household, and bent my steps towards the stream. Here we found congregated all those who dwelt in our section of the valley; and here we bathed.with them. The fresh morning air and the cool flowing waters put both body and soul in a glow, and after a halfhour employed in this recreation, we sauntered back to the.house —Tinor and Marheyo gathering dry sticks by the way for firewood ; some of the young men laythe cocoa-nut trees under contribution as they passed them ; while Kory-Kory played his outlandish pranks for my particular diversion, and Payaway and I, not arm in arm to be sure; but sometimes hand in iand, strolled along, with feelings of perfect charity for all the world, and especial good-will towards each other. Our morning meal was soon prepared. The islanders are somewhat" abstemious at this repast; reserving the more powerful efforts of their appetite to a later period of the day. For my own parfc, with the assistance of my valet, who, as I have before stated, always officiated as spoon on these occasions, I ate sparingly from one of Tinor's trenchers of poee-poee; which was devoted exclusively for my own use, being mixed with the milky meat of ripe cocoa-nut. A section of a roasted bread-fruit, a small cake of " Amar," or a mess of " Cokoo," two or three bananas, or a Mawmee apple ; an annuee, or some other agreeable and nutritious fruit served from day to day to diversify the meal, which was finished by tossing off the liquid contents of a young cocoa-nut or two.

While partaking, of this simple repast, the inmates of Marheyo's house, after the style of the indolent Ramans, reclined in sociable groups upon the divan of mats, and digestion, was promoted by cheerful conversation. After the morning meal was concluded, pipes were lighted; and among them my own especial pipe, a present from the noble Mehevi. The islanders, who only smoke a whiff or two at a time, and ac long: intervals, and who keep their pipes going from hand to hand continually, regarded my systematic smoking of four or five pipefuls of tobacco in succession, as something quite wonderful. When two or three pipes h?d circulated freely, the company gradually broke up. Marheyo went to the little hut he was forever building Tinor began to inspect her rolls of tappa, or employed her busy fingers in plaiting grass-mats. The girls anointed themselves with their fragrant oils, dressed their hair, or looked over their curious finery, and compared together their ivory trinkets, fashioned out of boar's tusks or whale's teeth. The young men and warriors produced their spears, paddles, canoe-gear, battle-clubs, and war-conches, and occupied themselves in carving all sorts of figures upon them with pointed bits of shell or flint, and adorning them, especially the war-conchs, with tassele of braided bark and tuf cs of human hair. Some, immediately after eating, threw themselves once more upon the inviting mats, and resumed the employment of the previous nighb, sleeping a3 soundly as if they had not closed their eyes for a week. Others sallied out into the groves' for the purpose of gathering fruit and fibres of bark and leaves: the last two being in constant requisition, and applied to a hundred uses. A few, perhaps, among the ctirls, would slip into the woods after flowers, or repair to the stream with small calabashes and cocoa-nut shells, in order to polish them by friction with a smooth stone in the water. In truth these innocent people seemed to be at no loss for something to occupy their time; and it would be no light task to enumerate all their employments, or rather pleasures. My own mornings I spent in a variety of ways. Sometimes I rambled about from 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 company with KoryKory and Fayaway, and a rabble rout of merry young idlers. Sometimes I was too indolent for exercise, and accepting one of the many invitations il was continually receiving, stretched myself out on the mats of some hospitable dwelling, and occupied myself pleasantly either in watching the proceedings of those around mc, or taking part in ithem fmyself. Whenever I chose to do the latter, the delight of the islanders was boundless; and there was always a throng of coinpet* itors for the honour of instructing mc in any particular craft. I soon became quite an accomplished hand at making tappa— could braid a grass sling as well as the best of them—and once, with my knife, carved the handle of a javelin so exquisitely, that I have no doubt, to this day, Karnoonoo, its owner, preserves it as a surprising specimen of my skill. As noon approached, al| those who had wandered forth from our habitation, began to return; and when mid-day was fairly come scarcely a sound was to be heard in the valley; a deep sleep fell upon all. The luxurious siesta was hardly ever omitted, except by old Marheyo, who was so eccentric a character, that he seemed to be governed by no fixed principles whatever; but acting just according to the humour of the moment, slept, ate, or tinkered away at his little hut, without regard to the proprieties of time or place. Frequently he might have been seen taring a nap in the sun at noon-day, or a bath in the stream 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 up to the waist in water, engaged in plucking out the stray hairs of his beard, usint> a piece of muscle-shell for tweezers. The noon-tide slumber lasted generally an hour and a-kalf, very often longer; and after the sleepers had arisen from their mats they again had recourse to their pipes, and then made preparations for the most important meal of the day. I, however, like those gentlemen of leisure who breakfast at home and dine at j their club, almost invariably, during my i intervals of health, enjoyed the afternoon j repast with the bachelor chief a of the Ti, who were always rejoiced to see mc, and lavishly spread before mc all the good things which their larder afforded. Mehevi generally produced among other dainties, a baked pig, an ardele which I have every reason , to suppose was provided for my aole

The Ti was a right jovial place. It did mv heart, as well as my body, good to visit it. Secure from female intrusion, there was no restraint upon the hilarity of the warriors, who, like tho gentlemen of Europe after the cloth is drawn and the ladies retire, freely iudulge in their mirth. After spanding a considerable portion of the afternoon at the Ti, I usually found myself, a* the cool of the eveuing came on either saiiing on the lake with Fayaway, or bathing in the wafcere of the stream, with a" number of the savages, who, at thi-3 hoar, always repaired thither. A3 tho shadows of night, approached, M&rheyo'ahousehold were once more assembled under b*3 roof: tapers were lit, loud and curious chants were raised, interminable Rtories were told (for which one present was little the wiser), and all sorts of social festivities served to while away the time.

The girls very often danced by moonlight in front of their dwellings. There are a great variety of these dances. In which, however, I never 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 the feet dance, but their arms, hands, fingers, ay, th.eir very eyes, seem to dance in their heads. In «ood sooth, they so sway their floating forms, arch their necks, toss aloft their naked arms, and glide, and swim, and whirl, that it was almost too much for a quiet, sober-minded, modest young man like myself. The damsels wear nothing but flowers and their compendious gala tunics; and when they plume themselves for the dance, they look like a band of olivecoloured Sylphides oh the point of taking wing. Unless some particular festivity was going forward, the inmates of Marheyo's house retired to their mats rather early in the evening; but not for the night, since after slumbering lightly for a while, they rose again, relit their tapers, partook of their third and last meal of the day, at which poee-poee alone was eaten, and then, after inhaling a narcotic whiff from a pipe of tobacco, disposed themselves for the great business of night, sleep. With the Marquesans it might also be styled tho great business of life, for they pass a largo portion of their time in the arms of Somnus. The native strength of their constitutions is no way shown more emphatically than in the quantity of sleep they can endure. To many of them, indeed, life is little else than an often interrupted and luxurious nap.