Typee

slumber, I could not imagine why the information had not been
deferred until morning, indeed, I felt very much inclined to fly
into a passion and box my valet's ears; but on second thoughts I
got quietly up, and on going outside the house was not a little
interested by the moving illumination which I beheld.

When old Marheyo received his share of the spoils, immediate
preparations were made for a midnight banquet; calabashes of
poee-poee were filled to the brim; green bread-fruit were
roasted; and a huge cake of 'amar' was cut up with a sliver of
bamboo and laid out on an immense banana-leaf.

At this supper we were lighted by several of the native tapers,
held in the hands of young girls.  These tapers are most
ingeniously made.  There is a nut abounding in the valley, called
by the Typees 'armor', closely resembling our common
horse-chestnut.  The shell is broken, and the contents extracted
whole.  Any number of these are strung at pleasure upon the long
elastic fibre that traverses the branches of the cocoanut tree.  
Some of these tapers are eight or ten feet in length; but being
perfectly flexible, one end is held in a coil, while the other is
lighted.  The nut burns with a fitful bluish flame, and the oil
that it contains is exhausted in about ten minutes.  As one burns
down, the next becomes ignited, and the ashes of the former are
knocked into a cocoanut shell kept for the purpose.  This
primitive candle requires continual attention, and must be
constantly held in the hand.  The person so employed marks the
lapse of time by the number of nuts consumed, which is easily
learned by counting the bits of tappa distributed at regular
intervals along the string.

I grieve to state so distressing a fact, but the inhabitants of
Typee were in the habit of devouring fish much in the same way
that a civilized being would eat a radish, and without any more
previous preparation.  They eat it raw; scales, bones, gills, and
all the inside.  The fish is held by the tail, and the head being
introduced into the mouth, the animal disappears with a rapidity
that would at first nearly lead one to imagine it had been
launched bodily down the throat.

Raw fish!  Shall I ever forget my sensations when I first saw my
island beauty devour one.  Oh, heavens!  Fayaway, how could you
ever have contracted so vile a habit?  However, after the first
shock had subsided, the custom grew less odious in my eyes, and I
soon accustomed myself to the sight.  Let no one imagine,
however, that the lovely Fayaway was in the habit of swallowing
great vulgar-looking fishes: oh, no; with her beautiful small
hand she would clasp a delicate, little, golden-hued love of a
fish and eat it as elegantly and as innocently as though it were
a Naples biscuit.  But alas!  it was after all a raw fish; and
all I can say is, that Fayaway ate it in a more ladylike manner
than any other girl of the valley.

When at Rome do as the Romans do, I held to be so good a proverb,
that being in Typee I made a point of doing as the Typees did.  
Thus I ate poee-poee as they did; I walked about in a garb
striking for its simplicity; and I reposed on a community of
couches; besides doing many other things in conformity with their
peculiar habits; but the farthest I ever went in the way of
conformity, was on several occasions to regale myself with raw
fish.  These being remarkably tender, and quite small, the
undertaking was not so disagreeable in the main, and after a few
trials I positively began to relish them; however, I subjected
them to a slight operation with a knife previously to making my
repast.



CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE VALLEY--GOLDEN LIZARDS--TAMENESS OF THE
BIRDS--MOSQUITOES--FLIES--DOGS--A SOLITARY CAT--THE CLIMATE--THE
COCOANUT TREE--SINGULAR MODES OF CLIMBING IT--AN AGILE YOUNG
CHIEF--FEARLESSNESS OF THE CHILDREN--TOO-TOO AND THE COCOANUT
TREE--THE BIRDS OF THE VALLEY

I THINK I must enlighten the reader a little about the natural
history of the valley.

Whence, in the name of Count Buffon and Baron Cuvier, came those
dogs that I saw in Typee?  Dogs!--Big hairless rats rather; all
with smooth, shining speckled hides--fat sides, and very
disagreeable faces.  Whence could they have come?  That they were
not the indigenous production of the region, I am firmly
convinced.  Indeed they seemed aware of their being interlopers,
looking fairly ashamed, and always trying to hide themselves in
some dark corner.  It was plain enough they did not feel at home
in the vale--that they wished themselves well out of it, and back
to the ugly country from which they must have come.

Scurvy curs!  they were my abhorrence; I should have liked
nothing better than to have been the death of every one of them. 
In fact, on one occasion, I intimated the propriety of a canine
crusade to Mehevi; but the benevolent king would not consent to
it.  He heard me very patiently; but when I had finished, shook
his head, and told me in confidence that they were 'taboo'.

As for the animal that made the fortune of the ex-lord-mayor
Whittington, I shall never forget the day that I was lying in the
house about noon, everybody else being fast asleep; and happening