CHAPTER XVIII
Reflection after Marnoo's departure--Battle of the pop-guns--Strange conceit of Marheyo--Process of making tappa.
The knowledge I had now obtained as to the intention of the savages deeplyaffected me.
Marnoo, I perceived, was a man who, by reason of his superioracquirements, and the knowledge he possessed of the events which weretaking place in the different bays of the island, was held in no littleestimation by the inhabitants of the valley. He had been received with themost cordial welcome and respect. The natives had hung upon the accents ofhis voice, and had manifested the highest gratification at beingindividually noticed by him. And yet, despite all this, a few words urgedin my behalf, with the intent of obtaining my release from captivity, hadsufficed not only to banish all harmony and good-will, but, if I couldbelieve what he told me, had gone nigh to endanger his own personalsafety.
How strongly rooted, then, must be the determination of the Typees withregard to me, and how suddenly could they display the strangest passions!The mere suggestion of my departure had estranged from me, for the time atleast, Mehevi, who was the most influential of all the chiefs, and who hadpreviously exhibited so many instances of his friendly sentiments. Therest of the natives had likewise evinced their strong repugnance to mywishes, and even Kory-Kory himself seemed to share in the generaldisapprobation bestowed upon me.
In vain I racked my invention to find out some motive for the strangedesire these people manifested to retain me among them; but I coulddiscover none.
But however this might be, the scene which had just occurred admonished meof the danger of trifling with the wayward and passionate spirits againstwhom it was vain to struggle, and might even be fatal to do so. My onlyhope was to induce the natives to believe that I was reconciled to mydetention in the valley, and by assuming a tranquil and cheerfuldemeanour, to allay the suspicions which I had so unfortunately aroused.Their confidence revived, they might in a short time remit in some degreetheir watchfulness over my movements, and I should then be the betterenabled to avail myself of any opportunity which presented itself forescape. I determined, therefore, to make the best of a bad bargain, and tobear up manfully against whatever might betide. In this endeavour Isucceeded beyond my own expectations. At the period of Marnoo's visit, Ihad been in the valley, as nearly as I could conjecture, some two months.Although not completely recovered from my strange illness, which stilllingered about me, I was free from pain and able to take exercise. Inshort, I had every reason to anticipate a perfect recovery. Freed fromapprehensions on this point, and resolved to regard the future withoutflinching, I flung myself anew into all the social pleasures of thevalley, and sought to bury all regrets, and all remembrances of myprevious existence, in the wild enjoyments it afforded.
In my various wanderings through the vale, and as I became betteracquainted with the character of its inhabitants, I was more and morestruck with the light-hearted joyousness that everywhere prevailed. Theminds of these simple savages, unoccupied by matters of graver moment,were capable of deriving the utmost delight from circumstances which wouldhave passed unnoticed in more intelligent communities. All theirenjoyment, indeed, seemed to be made up of the little trifling incidentsof the passing hour; but these diminutive items swelled altogether to anamount of happiness seldom experienced by more enlightened individuals,whose pleasures are drawn from more elevated but rarer sources.
What community, for instance, of refined and intellectual mortals wouldderive the least satisfaction from shooting pop-guns? The mere suppositionof such a thing being possible would excite their indignation, and yet thewhole population of Typee did little else for ten days but occupythemselves with that childish amusement, fairly screaming, too, with thedelight it afforded them.
One day I was frolicking with a little spirited urchin, some six yearsold, who chased me with a piece of bamboo about three feet long, withwhich he occasionally belaboured me. Seizing the stick from him, the ideahappened to suggest itself, that I might make for the youngster, out ofthe slender tube, one of those nursery muskets with which I had sometimesseen children playing. Accordingly, with my knife, I made two parallelslits in the cane several inches in length, and cutting loose at one endthe elastic strip between them, bent it back and slipped the point into alittle notch made for the purpose. Any small substance placed against thiswould be projected with considerable force through the tube by merelyspringing the bent strip out of the notch.
Had I possessed the remotest idea of the sensation this piece of ordnancewas destined to produce, I should certainly have taken out a patent forthe invention. The boy scampered away with it, half delirious withecstasy, and twenty minutes afterwards I might have been seen surroundedby a noisy crowd--venerable old greybeards--responsible fathers offamilies--valiant warriors--matrons--young men--girls and children, allholding in their hands bits of bamboo, and each clamouring to be servedfirst.
For three or four hours I was engaged in manufacturing pop-guns, but atlast made over my good-will and interests in the concern to a lad ofremarkably quick parts, whom I soon initiated into the art and mystery.
Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop, now resounded all over the valley. Duels, skirmishes,pitched battles, and general engagements were to be seen on every side.Here, as you walked along a path which led through a thicket, you fellinto a cunningly-laid ambush, and became a target for a body ofmusketeers, whose tattooed limbs you could just see peeping into viewthrough the foliage. There, you were assailed by the intrepid garrison ofa house, who levelled their bamboo rifles at you from between the uprightcanes which composed its sides. Farther on, you were fired upon by adetachment of sharpshooters, mounted upon the top of a pi-pi.
Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop! green guavas, seeds, and berries were flying about inevery direction, and during this dangerous state of affairs, I was halfafraid that, like the man and his brazen bull, I should fall a victim tomy own ingenuity. Like everything else, however, the excitement graduallywore away, though ever after occasionally pop-guns might be heard at allhours of the day.
It was towards the close of the pop-gun war, that I was infinitelydiverted with a strange freak of Marheyo's.
I had worn, when I quitted the ship, a pair of thick pumps, which, fromthe rough usage they had received in scaling precipices and sliding downgorges, were so dilapidated as to be altogether unfit for use--so, atleast, would have thought the generality of people, and so they mostcertainly were, when considered in the light of shoes. But thingsunserviceable in one way, may with advantage be applied in another--thatis, if one has genius enough for the purpose. This genius Marheyopossessed in a superlative degree, as he abundantly evinced by the use towhich he put these sorely bruised and battered old shoes.
Every article, however trivial, which belonged to me, the natives appearedto regard as sacred; and I observed that for several days after becomingan inmate of the house, my pumps were suffered to remain, untouched, whereI had first happened to throw them. I remembered, however, that afterawhile I had missed them from their accustomed place; but the matter gaveme no concern, supposing that Tinor--like any other tidy housewife, havingcome across them in some of her domestic occupations--had pitched theuseless things out of the house. But I was soon undeceived.
One day I observed old Marheyo bustling about me with unusual activity,and to such a degree as almost to supersede Kory-Kory in the functions ofhis office. One moment he volunteered to trot off with me on his back tothe stream; and when I refused, noways daunted by the repulse, hecontinued to frisk about me like a superannuated house-dog. I could notfor the life of me conjecture what possessed the old gentleman, until allat once, availing himself of the temporary absence of the household, hewent through a variety of uncouth gestures, pointing eagerly down to myfeet, and then up to a little bundle which swung from the ridge-poleoverhead. At last I caught a faint idea of his meaning, and motioned himto lower the package. He executed the order in the twinkling of an eye,and unrolling a
piece of tappa, displayed to my astonished gaze theidentical pumps which I thought had been destroyed long before.
I immediately comprehended his desire, and very generously gave him theshoes, which had become quite mouldy, wondering for what earthly purposehe could want them.
The same afternoon I descried the venerable warrior approaching the house,with a slow, stately gait, earrings in ears, and spear in hand, with thishighly ornamental pair of shoes suspended from his neck by a strip ofbark, and swinging backwards and forwards on his capacious chest. In thegala costume of the tasteful Marheyo, these calf-skin pendants ever afterformed the most striking feature.
But to turn to something a little more important. Although the wholeexistence of the inhabitants of the valley seemed to pass away exempt fromtoil, yet there were some light employments which, although amusing ratherthan labourious as occupations, contributed to their comfort and luxury.Among these, the most important was the manufacture of the nativecloth--"tappa"--so well known, under various modifications, throughout thewhole Polynesian Archipelago. As is generally understood, this useful andsometimes elegant article is fabricated from the bark of different trees.But, as I believe that no description of its manufacture has ever beengiven, I shall state what I know regarding it.
In the manufacture of the beautiful white tappa generally worn on theMarquesan Islands, the preliminary operation consists in gathering acertain quantity of the young branches of the cloth-tree. The exteriorgreen bark being pulled off as worthless, there remains a slender fibroussubstance, which is carefully stripped from the stick, to which it closelyadheres. When a sufficient quantity of it has been collected, the variousstrips are enveloped in a covering of large leaves, which the natives useprecisely as we do wrapping-paper, and which are secured by a few turns ofa line passed round them. The package is then laid in the bed of somerunning stream, with a heavy stone placed over it, to prevent its beingswept away. After it has remained for two or three days in this state, itis drawn out, and exposed for a short time to the action of the air, everydistinct piece being attentively inspected, with a view of ascertainingwhether it has yet been sufficiently affected by the operation. This isrepeated again and again, until the desired result is obtained.
When the substance is in a proper state for the next process, it betraysevidences of incipient decomposition; the fibres are relaxed and softened,and rendered perfectly malleable. The different strips are now extended,one by one, in successive layers, upon some smooth surface--generally theprostrate trunk of a cocoa-nut tree--and the heap thus formed is subjected,at every new increase, to a moderate beating, with a sort of woodenmallet, leisurely applied. The mallet is made of a hard heavy woodresembling ebony, is about twelve inches in length, and perhaps two inbreadth, with a rounded handle at one end, and in shape is the exactcounterpart of one of our four-sided razor-strops. The flat surfaces ofthe implement are marked with shallow parallel indentations, varying indepth on the different sides, so as to be adapted to the several stages ofthe operation. These marks produce the corduroy sort of stripesdescernible in the tappa in its finished state. After being beaten in themanner I have described, the material soon becomes blended in one mass,which, moistened occasionally with water, is at intervals hammered out, bya kind of gold-beating process, to any degree of thinness required. Inthis way the cloth is easily made to vary in strength and thickness, so asto suit the numerous purposes to which it is applied.
When the operation last described has been concluded, the new-made tappais spread out on the grass to bleach and dry, and soon becomes of adazzling whiteness. Sometimes, in the first stages of the manufacture, thesubstance is impregnated with a vegetable juice, which gives it apermanent colour. A rich brown and a bright yellow are occasionally seen,but the simple taste of the Typee people inclines them to prefer thenatural tint.
The notable wife of Kammahammaha, the renowned conqueror and king of theSandwich Islands, used to pride herself in the skill she displayed indyeing her tappa with contrasting colours disposed in regular figures;and, in the midst of the innovations of the times, was regarded, towardsthe decline of her life, as a lady of the old school, clinging as she didto the national cloth, in preference to the frippery of the Europeancalicoes. But the art of printing the tappa is unknown upon the MarquesanIslands.
In passing along the valley, I was often attracted by the noise of themallet, which, when employed in the manufacture of the cloth, produces atevery stroke of its hard, heavy wood, a clear, ringing, and musical sound,capable of being heard at a great distance. When several of theseimplements happen to be in operation at the same time, and near oneanother, the effect upon the ear of a person, at a little distance, isreally charming.