- description
- # Initial discovery of human remains and reflections on captivity
## Overview
This section, titled "Initial discovery of human remains and reflections on captivity," is a textual segment extracted from the file `typee.txt`. It details a disturbing discovery and the narrator's subsequent emotional and intellectual turmoil. The section is part of Chapter Thirty-Two of a larger work.
## Context
This section is contained within [Chapter Thirty-Two](arke:01KG8AJRVDF15YJG4FE8SFQY08), which covers "Apprehensions of Evil--Frightful Discovery--Some Remarks on Cannibalism--Second Battle with the Happars--Savage Spectacle--Mysterious Feast--Subsequent Disclosures." The chapter and this section were extracted from the file `typee.txt`, which is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. This section follows the section titled "Subsequent Disclosures" and precedes another section that is not detailed here.
## Contents
The text describes the narrator's accidental discovery of human remains within a wooden vessel, resembling a canoe, in a place marked as "Ti." The discovery is met with immediate alarm and attempts to conceal it by the local chiefs, who exclaim "Taboo!" The narrator witnesses a human skeleton, noting the freshness of the bones and clinging flesh. The narrator's native companion, Kory-Kory, attempts to misdirect the narrator by calling the remains "Pig, pig." This horrifying revelation triggers deep introspection in the narrator, who spends the night contemplating the precariousness of his captivity, the lack of escape prospects, and the mysterious motives of the natives. He reflects on the possibility of rescue by the French but despairs at the uncertainty of his survival until then.
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- Initial discovery of human remains and reflections on captivity
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- text
- vessel of wood, of considerable size, with a cover placed over it, of
the same material, and which resembled in shape a small canoe. It was
surrounded by a low railing of bamboos, the top of which was scarcely
a foot from the ground. As the vessel had been placed in its present
position since my last visit, I at once concluded that it must have
some connection with the recent festival, and, prompted by a curiosity
I could not repress, in passing it I raised one end of the cover; at the
same moment the chiefs, perceiving my design, loudly ejaculated, ‘Taboo!
taboo!’
But the slight glimpse sufficed; my eyes fell upon the disordered
members of a human skeleton, the bones still fresh with moisture, and
with particles of flesh clinging to them here and there!
Kory-Kory, who had been a little in advance of me, attracted by
the exclamations of the chiefs, turned round in time to witness the
expression of horror on my countenance. He now hurried towards me,
pointing at the same time to the canoe, and exclaiming rapidly,
‘Puarkee! puarkee!’ (Pig, pig). I pretended to yield to the deception,
and repeated the words after him several times, as though acquiescing
in what he said. The other savages, either deceived by my conduct
or unwilling to manifest their displeasure at what could not now be
remedied, took no further notice of the occurrence, and I immediately
left the Ti.
All that night I lay awake, revolving in my mind the fearful situation
in which I was placed. The last horrid revelation had now been made, and
the full sense of my condition rushed upon my mind with a force I had
never before experienced.
Where, thought I, desponding, is there the slightest prospect of escape?
The only person who seemed to possess the ability to assist me was the
stranger Marnoo; but would he ever return to the valley? and if he did,
should I be permitted to hold any communication with him? It seemed as
if I were cut off from every source of hope, and that nothing remained
but passively to await whatever fate was in store for me. A thousand
times I endeavoured to account for the mysterious conduct of the
natives.
For what conceivable purpose did they thus retain me a captive? What
could be their object in treating me with such apparent kindness, and
did it not cover some treacherous scheme? Or, if they had no other
design than to hold me a prisoner, how should I be able to pass away my
days in this narrow valley, deprived of all intercourse with civilized
beings, and for ever separated from friends and home?
One only hope remained to me. The French could not long defer a visit
to the bay, and if they should permanently locate any of their troops
in the valley, the savages could not for any length of time conceal my
existence from them. But what reason had I to suppose that I should be
spared until such an event occurred, an event which might be postponed
by a hundred different contingencies?
- title
- Initial discovery of human remains and reflections on captivity