CHAPTER XXV
King Mehevi--Conduct of Marheyo and Mehevi in certain delicate matters--Peculiar system of marriage--Number of population--Uniformity--Embalming--Places of sepulture--Funeral obsequies at Nukuheva--Number of inhabitants in Typee--Location of the dwellings--Happiness enjoyed in the valley.
King Mehevi!--A goodly sounding title!--and why should I not bestow it uponthe foremost man in the valley? All hail, therefore, Mehevi, king over allthe Typees! and long life and prosperity to his tropical majesty! But tobe sober again after this loyal burst.
Previously to seeing the Dancing Widows I had little idea that there wereany matrimonial relations subsisting in Typee, and I should as soon havethought of a Platonic affection being cultivated between the sexes, as ofthe solemn connexion of man and wife. To be sure, there were old Marheyoand Tinor, who seemed to live together quite sociably; but for all that, Ihad sometimes observed a comical-looking old gentleman, dressed in a suitof shabby tattooing, who appeared to be equally at home. This behaviour,until subsequent discoveries enlightened me, puzzled me more than anythingelse I witnessed in Typee.
As for Mehevi, I had supposed him a confirmed bachelor, as well as most ofthe principal chiefs. At any rate, if they had wives and families, theyought to have been ashamed of themselves; for sure I am, they nevertroubled themselves about any domestic affairs. In truth, Mehevi seemed tobe the president of a club of hearty fellows who kept "Bachelor's Hall" infine style at the Ti. I had no doubt but that they regarded children asodious incumbrances; and their ideas of domestic felicity weresufficiently shown in the fact, that they allowed no meddlesomehousekeepers to turn topsy-turvy those snug little arrangements they hadmade in their comfortable dwelling. I strongly suspected, however, thatsome of those jolly bachelors were carrying on love intrigues with themaidens of the tribe, although they did not appear publicly to acknowledgethem. I happened to pop upon Mehevi three or four times when he wasromping--in a most undignified manner for a warrior king--with one of theprettiest little witches in the valley. She lived with an old woman and ayoung man, in a house near Marheyo's; and although in appearance a merechild herself, had a noble boy about a year old, who bore a marvellousresemblance to Mehevi, whom I should certainly have believed to have beenthe father, were it not that the little fellow had no triangle on hisface. Mehevi, however, was not the only person upon whom the damselMoonoony smiled--the young fellow of fifteen, who permanently resided inthe house with her, was decidedly in her good graces. This too was amystery which, with others of the same kind, was afterwards satisfactorilyexplained.
During the second day of the Feast of Calabashes, Kory-Kory--beingdetermined that I should have some understanding on these matters--had, inthe course of his explanations, directed my attention to a peculiarity Ihad frequently marked among many of the females,--principally those of amature age and rather matronly appearance. This consisted in having theright hand and the left foot most elaborately tattooed; while the rest ofthe body was wholly free from the operation of the art, with the exceptionof the minutely dotted lips and slight marks on the shoulders, to which Ihave previously referred as comprising the sole tattooing exhibited byFayaway, in common with other young girls of her age. The hand and footthus embellished, were, according to Kory-Kory, the distinguishing badgeof wedlock, so far as that social and highly commendable institution isknown among these people. It answers, indeed, the same purpose as theplain gold ring worn by our fairer spouses.
After Kory-Kory's explanation of the subject, I was for some timestudiously respectful in the presence of all females thus distinguished,and never ventured to indulge in the slightest approach to flirtation withany of their number.
A further insight, however, into the peculiar domestic customs of theinmates of the valley did away in a measure with the severity of myscruples, and convinced me that I was deceived in some at least of myconclusions. A regular system of polygamy exists among the islanders, butof a most extraordinary nature,--a plurality of husbands, instead of wives;and this solitary fact speaks volumes for the gentle disposition of themale population.
I was not able to learn what particular ceremony was observed in formingthe marriage contract, but am inclined to think that it must have been ofa very simple nature. Perhaps the mere "popping the question," as it istermed with us, might have been followed by an immediate nuptial alliance.At any rate, tedious courtships are unknown in the valley of Typee.
The males considerably outnumber the females. This holds true of many ofthe islands of Polynesia, although the reverse of what is the case in mostcivilized countries. The girls are first wooed and won, at a very tenderage, by some stripling in the household in which they reside. This,however, is a mere frolic of the affections, and no formal engagement iscontracted. By the time this first love has a little subsided, a secondsuitor presents himself, of graver years, and carries both boy and girlaway to his own habitation. This disinterested and generous-hearted fellownow weds the young couple--marrying damsel and lover at the same time--andall three thenceforth live together as harmoniously as so many turtles. Ihave heard of some men who in civilized countries rashly marry largefamilies with their wives, but had no idea that there was any place wherepeople married supplementary husbands with them. Infidelity on either sideis very rare. No man has more than one wife, and no wife of mature yearshas less than two husbands,--sometimes she has three, but such instancesare not frequent. The marriage tie, whatever it may be, does not appear tobe indissoluble; for separations occasionally happen. These, however, whenthey do take place, produce no unhappiness, and are preceded by nobickerings: for the simple reason, that an ill-used wife or a hen-peckedhusband is not obliged to file a bill in chancery to obtain a divorce. Asnothing stands in the way of a separation, the matrimonial yoke sitseasily and lightly, and a Typee wife lives on very pleasant and sociableterms with her husbands. On the whole, wedlock, as known among theseTypees, seems to be of a more distinct and enduring nature than is usuallythe case with barbarous people.
But, notwithstanding its existence among them, the scriptural injunctionto increase and multiply seems to be but indifferently attended to. Inever saw any of those large families, in arithmetical or step-ladderprogression, which one often meets with at home. I never knew of more thantwo youngsters living together in the same home, and but seldom even thatnumber. As for the women, it was very plain that the anxieties of thenursery but seldom disturbed the serenity of their souls; and they werenever seen going about the valley with half a score of little ones taggingat their apron-strings, or rather at the bread-fruit leaf they usuallywore in the rear.
I have before had occasion to remark that I never saw any of the ordinarysigns of a place of sepulture in the valley, a circumstance which Iattributed, at the time, to my living in a particular part of it, andbeing forbidden to extend my ramble to any considerable distance towardsthe sea. I have since thought it probable, however, that the Typees,either desirous of removing from their sight the evidences of mortality,or prompted by a taste for rural beauty, may have some charming cemeterysituated in the shadowy recesses along the base of the mountains. AtNukuheva, two or three large quadrangular "pi-pis," heavily flagged,enclosed with regular stone walls, and shaded over and almost hidden fromview by the interlacing branches of enormous trees, were pointed out to meas burial-places. The bodies, I understood, were deposited in rude vaultsbeneath the flagging, and were suffered to remain there without beingdisinterred. Although nothing could be more strange and gloomy than theaspect of these places, where the lofty trees threw their dark shadowsover rude blocks of stone, a stranger looking at them would have discernednone of the ordinary evidences of a place of sepulture.
During my stay in the valley, as none of its inmates were so accommodatingas to die and be buried in order to gratify my curiosity with regard totheir funeral rites, I was reluctantly obliged to remain in ignorance ofthem. As I have reason to believe, however, that the obs
ervances of theTypees in these matters are the same with those of all other tribes on theisland, I will here relate a scene I chanced to witness at Nukuheva.
A young man had died, about daybreak, in a house near the beach. I hadbeen sent ashore that morning, and saw a good deal of the preparationsthey were making for his obsequies. The body, neatly wrapped in new whitetappa, was laid out in an open shed of cocoa-nut boughs, upon a bierconstructed of elastic bamboos ingeniously twisted together. This wassupported, about two feet from the ground, by large canes planteduprightly in the earth. Two females, of a dejected appearance, watched byits side, plaintively chanting, and beating the air with large grass fanswhitened with pipe-clay. In the dwelling-house adjoining a numerouscompany were assembled, and various articles of food were being preparedfor consumption. Two or three individuals, distinguished by head-dressesof beautiful tappa, and wearing a great number of ornaments, appeared toofficiate as masters of the ceremonies. By noon the entertainment hadfairly begun, and we were told that it would last during the whole of thetwo following days. With the exception of those who mourned by the corpse,every one seemed disposed to drown the sense of the late bereavement inconvivial indulgence. The girls, decked out in their savage finery,danced; the old men chanted; the warriors smoked and chatted; and theyoung and lusty, of both sexes, feasted plentifully, and seemed to enjoythemselves as pleasantly as they could have done had it been a wedding.
The islanders understand the art of embalming, and practice it with suchsuccess, that the bodies of their great chiefs are frequently preservedfor many years in the very houses where they died. I saw three of these inmy visit to the bay of Tior. One was enveloped in immense folds of tappa,with only the face exposed, and hung erect against the side of thedwelling. The others were stretched out upon biers of bamboo, in open,elevated temples, which seemed consecrated to their memory. The heads ofenemies killed in battle are invariably preserved, and hung up as trophiesin the house of the conqueror. I am not acquainted with the process whichis in use, but believe that fumigation is the principal agency employed.All the remains which I saw presented the appearance of a ham after beingsuspended for some time in a smoky chimney.
But to return from the dead to the living. The late festival had drawntogether, as I had every reason to believe, the whole population of thevale, and consequently I was enabled to make some estimate with regard toits numbers. I should imagine that there were about two thousandinhabitants in Typee; and no number could have been better adapted to theextent of the valley. The valley is some nine miles in length, and mayaverage one in breadth, the houses being distributed at wide intervalsthroughout its whole extent, principally, however, towards the head of thevale. There are no villages. The houses stand here and there in the shadowof the groves, or are scattered along the banks of the winding stream;their golden-hued bamboo sides and gleaming white thatch, forming abeautiful contrast to the perpetual verdure in which they are embowered.There are no roads of any kind in the valley. Nothing but a labyrinth offootpaths, twisting and turning among the thickets without end.