Chapter Twenty

CHAPTER TWENTY

HISTORY OF A DAY AS USUALLY SPENT IN TYPEE VALLEY--DANCES OF THE
MARQUESAN 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 unsophisicated
savages the history of a day is the history of a life. I will,
therefore, as briefly as I can, describe one of our 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 Kory-Kory, 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 soul and body in a glow, and
after a half-hour employed in this recreation, we sauntered back
to the house--Tinor and Marheyo gathering dry sticks by the way
for fire-wood; some of the young men laying the cocoanut trees
under contribution as they passed beneath them; while Kory-Kory
played his outlandish pranks for my particular diversion, and
Fayaway and I, not arm in arm to be sure, but sometimes hand in
hand, 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 part,
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 cocoanut. A section of a roasted bread-fruit, a small cake
of 'Amar', or a mess of 'Cokoo,' two or three bananas, or a
mammee-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 cocoanut
or two.

While partaking of this simple repast, the inmates of Marheyo's
house, after the style of the ancient Romans, 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 at
long intervals, and who keep their pipes going from hand to hand
continually, regarded my