CHAPTER XXVII
Fishing parties--Mode of distributing the fish--Midnight banquet--Timekeeping tapers--Unceremonious style of eating the fish.
There was no instance in which the social and kindly dispositions of theTypees were more forcibly evinced than in the manner they conducted theirgreat fishing parties. Four times during my stay in the valley the youngmen assembled near the full of the moon, and went together on theseexcursions. As they were generally absent about forty-eight hours, I wasled to believe that they went out towards the open sea, some distance fromthe bay. The Polynesians seldom use a hook and line, almost alwaysemploying large, well-made nets, most ingeniously fabricated from thetwisted fibres of a certain bark. I examined several of them which hadbeen spread to dry upon the beach at Nukuheva. They resembled very muchour own seines, and I should think they were very nearly as durable.
All the South Sea islanders are passionately fond of fish; but none ofthem can be more so than the inhabitants of Typee. I could not comprehend,therefore, why they so seldom sought it in their waters; for it was onlyat stated times that the fishing parties were formed, and these occasionswere always looked forward to with no small degree of interest.
During their absence, the whole population of the place were in a ferment,and nothing was talked of but "pehee, pehee" (fish, fish). Towards thetime when they were expected to return, the vocal telegraph was put intooperation--the inhabitants, who were scattered throughout the length of thevalley, leaped upon rocks and into trees, shouting with delight at thethoughts of the anticipated treat. As soon as the approach of the partywas announced, there was a general rush of the men towards the beach; someof them remaining, however, about the Ti, in order to get matters inreadiness for the reception of the fish, which were brought to the TabooGroves in immense packages of leaves, each one of them being suspendedfrom a pole carried on the shoulders of two men.
I was present at the Ti on one of these occasions, and the sight was mostinteresting. After all the packages had arrived, they were laid in a rowunder the verandah of the building, and opened. The fish were all quitesmall, generally about the size of a herring, and of every variety ofcolour. About one-eighth of the whole being reserved for the use of the Tiitself, the remainder was divided into numerous smaller packages, whichwere immediately despatched in every direction to the remotest part of thevalley. Arrived at their destination, these were in turn portioned out,and equally distributed among the various houses of each particulardistrict. The fish were under a strict Taboo, until the distribution wascompleted, which seemed to be effected in the most impartial manner. Bythe operation of this system every man, woman, and child in the vale, wereat one and the same time partaking of this favourite article of food.
Once, I remember, the party arrived at midnight; but the unseasonablenessof the hour did not repress the impatience of the islanders. The carriersdespatched from the Ti were to be seen hurrying in all directions throughthe deep groves; each individual preceded by a boy bearing a flaming torchof dried cocoa-nut boughs, which from time to time was replenished fromthe materials scattered along the path. The wild glare of these enormousflambeaux, lighting up with a startling brilliancy the innermost recessesof the vale, and seen moving rapidly along beneath the canopy of leaves,the savage shout of the excited messengers sounding the news of theirapproach, which was answered on all sides, and the strange appearance oftheir naked bodies, seen against the gloomy background, producedaltogether an effect upon my mind that I shall long remember.
It was on this same occasion that Kory-Kory awakened me at the dead hourof night, and in a sort of transport communicated the intelligencecontained in the words "pehee perni" (fish come). As I happened to havebeen in a remarkably sound and refreshing slumber, I could not imagine whythe information had not been deferred until morning; indeed, I felt verymuch inclined to fly into a passion and box my valet's ears; but on secondthoughts I got quietly up, and on going outside the house was not a littleinterested by the moving illumination which I beheld.
When old Marheyo received his share of the spoils, immediate preparationswere made for a midnight banquet; calabashes of poee-poee were filled tothe brim; green bread-fruit were roasted; and a huge cake of "amar" wascut 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 inthe hands of young girls. These tapers are most ingeniously made. There isa nut abounding in the valley, called by the Typees "armor," closelyresembling our common horse-chestnut. The shell is broken, and thecontents extracted whole. Any number of these are strung at pleasure uponthe long elastic fibre that traverses the branches of the cocoa-nut tree.Some of these tapers are eight or ten feet in length; but being perfectlyflexible, one end is held in a coil, while the other is lighted. The nutburns with a fitful bluish flame, and the oil that it contains isexhausted in about ten minutes. As one burns down, the next becomesignited, and the ashes of the former are knocked into a cocoa-nut shellkept for the purpose. This primitive candle requires continual attention,and must be constantly held in the hand. The person so employed marks thelapse of time by the number of nuts consumed, which is easily learned bycounting the bits of tappa distributed at regular intervals along thestring.
I grieve to state so distressing a fact, but the inhabitants of Typee werein the habit of devouring fish much in the same way that a civilized beingwould eat a radish, and without any more previous preparation. They eat itraw; scales, bones, gills, and all the inside. The fish is held by thetail, and the head being introduced into the mouth, the animal disappearswith a rapidity that would at first nearly lead one to imagine it had beenlaunched bodily down the throat.
Raw fish! Shall I ever forget my sensation when I first saw my islandbeauty devour one? Oh, heavens! Fayaway, how could you ever havecontracted so vile a habit? However, after the first shock had subsided,the custom grew less odious in my eyes, and I soon accustomed myself tothe sight. Let no one imagine, however, that the lovely Fayaway was in thehabit of swallowing great vulgar-looking fishes: oh, no; with herbeautiful small hand she would clasp a delicate, little, golden-hued loveof a fish, and eat it as elegantly and as innocently as though it were aNaples biscuit. But, alas! it was after all a raw fish; and all I can sayis, that Fayaway ate it in a more ladylike manner than any other girl ofthe valley.
When at Rome do as the Romans do, I held to be so good a proverb, thatbeing in Typee, I made a point of doing as the Typees did. Thus I atepoee-poee as they did; I walked about in a garb striking for itssimplicity; and I reposed on a community of couches; besides doing manyother things in conformity with their peculiar habits; but the farthest Iever went in the way of conformity, was on several occasions to regalemyself with raw fish. These being remarkably tender, and quite small, theundertaking was not so disagreeable in the main, and after a few trials Ipositively began to relish them: however, I subjected them to a slightoperation with my knife previously to making my repast.