Chapter Thirty

CHAPTER THIRTY

A PROFESSOR OF THE FINE ARTS--HIS PERSECUTIONS--SOMETHING ABOUT
TATTOOING AND TABOOING--TWO ANECDOTES IN ILLUSTRATION OF THE
LATTER--A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE TYPEE DIALECT

IN one of my strolls with Kory-Kory, in passing along the border
of a thick growth of bushes, my attention was arrested by a
singular noise. On entering the thicket I witnessed for the
first time the operation of tattooing as performed by these
islanders.

I beheld a man extended flat upon his back on the ground, and,
despite the forced composure of his countenance, it was evident
that he was suffering agony. His tormentor bent over him,
working away for all the world like a stone-cutter with mallet
and chisel. In one hand he held a short slender stick, pointed
with a shark's tooth, on the upright end of which he tapped with
a small hammer-like piece of wood, thus puncturing the skin, and
charging it with the colouring matter in which the instrument was
dipped. A cocoanut shell containing this fluid was placed upon
the ground. It is prepared by mixing with a vegetable juice the
ashes of the 'armor', or candle-nut, always preserved for the
purpose. Beside the savage, and spread out upon a piece of
soiled tappa, were a great number of curious black-looking little
implements of bone and wood, used in the various divisions of his
art. A few terminated in a single fine point, and, like very
delicate pencils, were employed in giving the finishing touches,
or in operating upon the more sensitive portions of the body, as
was the case in the present instance. Others presented several
points distributed in a line, somewhat resembling the teeth of a
saw. These were employed in the coarser parts of the work, and
particularly in pricking in straight marks. Some presented their
points disposed in small figures, and being placed upon the body,
were, by a single blow of the hammer, made to leave their
indelible impression. I observed a few the handles of which were
mysteriously curved, as if intended to be introduced into the
orifice of the ear, with a view perhaps of beating the tattoo
upon the tympanum. Altogether the sight of these strange
instruments recalled to mind that display of cruel-looking
mother-of-pearl-handled things which one sees in their
velvet-lined cases at the elbow of a dentist.

The artist was not at this time engaged on an original sketch,
his subject being a venerable savage, whose tattooing had become
somewhat faded with age and needed a few repairs, and accordingly
he was merely employed in touching up the works of some of the
old masters of the Typee school, as delineated upon the human
canvas before him. The parts operated upon were the eyelids,
where a longitudinal