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The knowledge I had now obtained as to the intention of the
savages deeply affected me.

Marnoo, I perceived, was a man who, by reason of his superior
acquirements, and the knowledge he possessed of the events which
were taking place in the different bays of the island, was held in
no little estimation by the inhabitants of the valley. He had
been received with the most cordial welcome and respect. The
natives had hung upon the accents of his voice, and had manifested
the highest gratification at being individually noticed by
him. And yet, despite all this, a few words urged in my behalf,
with the intent of obtaining my release from captivity, had
sufficed not only to banish all harmony and good-will; but, if I
could believe what he told me, had gone nigh to endanger his own
personal safety.

How strongly rooted, then, must be the determination of the
Typees with regard to me, and how suddenly could they display
the strangest passions! The mere suggestion of my departure
had estranged from me, for the time at least, Mehevi, who was
the most influential of all the chiefs, and who had previously
exhibited so many instances of his friendly sentiments. The rest
of the natives had likewise evinced their strong repugnance to
my wishes, and even Kory-Kory himself seemed to share in the
general disapprobation bestowed upon me.

In vain I racked my invention to find out some motive for the

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strange desire these people manifested to retain me among them;
but I could discover none.

But however this might be, the scene which had just occurred
admonished me of the danger of trifling with the wayward and
passionate spirits against whom it was vain to struggle, and
might even be fatal to do so. My only hope was to induce the
natives to believe that I was reconciled to my detention in the
valley, and by assuming a tranquil and cheerful demeanor, to
allay the suspicions which I had so unfortunately aroused. Their
confidence revived, they might in a short time remit in some
degree their watchfulness over my movements, and I should then
be the better enabled to avail myself of any opportunity which
presented itself for escape. I determined, therefore, to make the
best of a bad bargain, and to bear up manfully against whatever
might betide. In this endeavor I succeeded beyond my own
expectations. At the period of Marnoo's visit, I had been in
the valley, as nearly as I could conjecture, some two months.
Although not completely recovered from my strange illness, which
still lingered about me, I was free from pain and able to take exercise.
In short, I had every reason to anticipate a perfect recovery.
Freed from apprehensions on this point, and resolved to
regard the future without flinching, I flung myself anew into all
the social pleasures of the valley, and sought to bury all regrets,
and all remembrances of my previous existence, in the wild enjoyments
it afforded.

In my various wanderings through the vale, and as I became
better acquainted with the character of its inhabitants, I was
more and more struck with the light-hearted joyousness that
everywhere prevailed. The minds of these simple savages,
unoccupied by matters of graver moment, were capable of deriving
the utmost delight from circumstances which would have
passed unnoticed in more intelligent communities. All their
enjoyment, indeed, seemed to be made up of the little trifling

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incidents of the passing hour; but these diminutive items swelled
altogether to an amount 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 would derive the least satisfaction from shooting popguns?
The mere supposition of such a thing being possible
would excite their indignation, and yet the whole population of
Typee did little else for ten days but occupy themselves with that
childish amusement, fairly screaming, too, with the delight it afforded
them.

One day I was frolicking with a little spirited urchin, some six
years old, who chased me with a piece of bamboo about three feet
long, with which he occasionally belabored me. Seizing the
stick from him, the idea happened to suggest itself, that I might
make for the youngster, out of the slender tube, one of those
nursery muskets with which I had sometimes seen children playing.
Accordingly, with my knife I made two parallel slits in
the cane several inches in length, and cutting loose at one end
the elastic strip between them, bent it back and slipped the point
into a little notch made for the purpose. Any small substance
placed against this would be projected with considerable force
through the tube, by merely springing the bent strip out of the
notch.

Had I possessed the remotest idea of the sensation this piece
of ordnance was destined to produce, I should certainly have
taken out a patent for the invention. The boy scampered away
with it, half delirious with ecstasy, and in twenty minutes afterwards
I might have been seen surrounded by a noisy crowd—venerable
old greybeards—responsible fathers of families—valiant
warriors—matrons—young men—girls and children, all holding in
their hands bits of bamboo, and each clamoring to be served first.

For three or four hours I was engaged in manufacturing

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popguns, but at last made over my good-will and interest in the concern
to a lad of remarkably 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 fell into a cunningly-laid ambush,
and became a target for a body of musketeers whose tattooed
limbs you could just see peeping into view through the foliage.
There, you were assailed by the intrepid garrison of a house,
who levelled their bamboo rifles at you from between the upright
canes which composed its sides. Farther on you were fired
upon by a detachment of sharpshooters, mounted upon the top of
a pi-pi.

Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop! green guavas, seeds, and berries were
flying about in every direction, and during this dangerous state of
affairs I was half afraid that, like the man and his brazen bull, I
should fall a victim to my own ingenuity. Like everything else,
however, the excitement gradually wore away, though ever after
occasionally pop-guns might be heard at all hours of the day.

It was towards the close of the pop-gun war, that I was infinitely
diverted with a strange freak of Marheyo's.

I had worn, when I quitted the ship, a pair of thick pumps,
which, from the rough usage they had received in scaling precpices
and sliding down gorges, were so dilapidated as to be altogether
unfit for use—so, at least, would have thought the generality
of people, and so they most certainly were, when considered
in the light of shoes. But things unserviceable in one way, may
with advantage be applied in another, that is, if one have genius
enough for the purpose. This genius Marheyo possessed in a
superlative degree, as he abundantly evinced by the use to which
he put these sorely bruised and battered old shoes.

Every article, however trivial, which belonged to me, the

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natives appeared to regard as sacred; and I observed that for
several days after becoming an inmate of the house, my pumps
were suffered to remain, untouched, where I had first happened
to throw them. I remembered, however, that after awhile I had
missed them from their accustomed place; but the matter gave
me no concern, supposing that Tinor—like any other tidy housewife,
having come across them in some of her domestic occupations—
had pitched the useless 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 of his office. One moment he volunteered
to trot off with me on his back to the stream; and when I refused,
noways daunted by the repulse, he continued to frisk about me
like a superannuated house-dog. I could not for the life of me
conjecture what possessed the old gentleman, until all at once,
availing himself of the temporary absence of the household, he
went through a variety of uncouth gestures, pointing eagerly
down to my feet, and then up to a little bundle which swung from
the ridge pole overhead. At last I caught a faint idea of his
meaning, and motioned him to lower the package. He executed
the order in the twinkling of an eye, and unrolling a piece of
tappa, displayed to my astonished gaze the identical pumps which
I thought had been destroyed long before.

I immediately comprehended his desire, and very generously
gave him the shoes, which had become quite mouldy, wondering
for what earthly purpose he could want them.

The same afternoon I descried the venerable warrior approaching
the house, with a slow, stately gait, ear-rings in ears, and
spear in hand, with this highly ornamental pair of shoes suspended
from his neck by a strip of bark, and swinging backwards and
forwards on his capacious chest. In the gala costume of the

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tasteful Marheyo, these calf-skin pendants ever after formed the
most striking feature.

But to turn to something a little more important. Although
the whole existence of the inhabitants of the valley seemed to
pass away exempt from toil, yet there were some light employments
which, although amusing rather than laborious as occupations,
contributed to their comfort and luxury. Among these, the
most important was the manufacture of the native cloth,—“tappa,”—
so well known, under various modifications, throughout
the whole Polynesian Archipelago. As is generally understood,
this useful and sometimes elegant article is fabricated from the
bark of different trees. But, as I believe that no description of
its manufacture has ever been given, I shall state what I know
regarding it.

In the manufacture of the beautiful white tappa generally
worn on the Marquesan Islands, the preliminary operation consists
in gathering a certain quantity of the young branches of the
cloth-tree. The exterior green bark being pulled off as worthless,
there remains a slender fibrous substance, which is carefully
stripped from the stick, to which it closely adheres. When a
sufficient quantity of it has been collected, the various strips are
enveloped in a covering of large leaves, which the natives use
precisely as we do wrapping-paper, and which are secured by a
few turns of a line passed round them. The package is then
laid in the bed of some running stream, with a heavy stone placed
over it, to prevent its being swept away. After it has remained
for two or three days in this state, it is drawn out, and exposed,
for a short time, to the action of the air, every distinct piece
being attentively inspected, with a view of ascertaining whether
it has yet been sufficiently affected by the operation. This is
repeated again and again, until the desired result is obtained.

When the substance is in a proper state for the next process,
it betrays evidences of incipient decomposition; the fibres are

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relaxed and softened, and rendered perfectly malleable. The
different strips are now extended, one by one, in successive layers,
upon some smooth surface—generally the prostrate 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 wooden mallet,
leisurely applied. The mallet is made of a hard heavy wood
resembling ebony, is about twelve inches in length, and perhaps
two in breadth, with a rounded handle at one end, and in shape
is the exact counterpart of one of our four-sided razor-strops.
The flat surfaces of the implement are marked with shallow
parallel indentations, varying in depth on the different sides, so
as to be adapted to the several stages of the operation. These
marks produce the corduroy sort of stripes discernible in the tappa
in its finished state. After being beaten in the manner I have
described, the material soon becomes blended in one mass, which,
moistened occasionally with water, is at intervals hammered out,
by a kind of gold-beating process, to any degree of thinness required.
In this way the cloth is easily made to vary in strength
and thickness, so as to suit the numerous purposes to which it is
applied.

When the operation last described has been concluded, the
new-made tappa is spread out on the grass to bleach and dry,
and soon becomes of a dazzling whiteness. Sometimes, in the
first stages of the manufacture, the substance is impregnated with
a vegetable juice, which gives it a permanent color. A rich
brown and a bright yellow are occasionally seen, but the simple
taste of the Typee people inclines them to prefer the natural
tint.

The notable wife of Kammahammaha, the renowned conqueror
and king of the Sandwich Islands, used to pride herself in the
skill she displayed in dyeing her tappa with contrasting colors disposed
in regular figures; and, in the midst of the innovations of
the times, was regarded, towards the decline of her life, as a lady

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of the old school, clinging as she did to the national cloth, in preference
to the frippery of the European calicoes. But the art
of printing the tappa is unknown upon the Marquesan Islands.

In passing along the valley, I was often attracted by the noise
of the mallet, which, when employed in the manufacture of the
cloth, produces at every stroke of its hard, heavy wood, a clear,
ringing, and musical sound, capable of being heard at a great
distance. When several of these implements happen to be in
operation at the same time, and near one another, the effect upon
the ear of a person, at a little distance, is really charming.