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- 10924
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.206Z
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- structure-extraction-lambda
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- 10859
- text
- In fact he was the royal favourite, and had a good deal to say in his
master’s councils. He wore a Manilla hat and a sort of tappa morning
gown, sufficiently loose and negligent to show the verse of a song
tattooed upon his chest, and a variety of spirited cuts by native
artists in other parts of his body. He sported a fishing rod in his
hand, and carried a sooty old pipe slung about his neck.
This old rover having retired from active life, had resided in Nukuheva
some time--could speak the language, and for that reason was frequently
employed by the French as an interpreter. He was an arrant old gossip
too; for ever coming off in his canoe to the ships in the bay, and
regaling their crews with choice little morsels of court scandal--such,
for instance, as a shameful intrigue of his majesty with a Happar
damsel, a public dancer at the feasts--and otherwise relating some
incredible tales about the Marquesas generally. I remember in particular
his telling the Dolly’s crew what proved to be literally a cock-and-bull
story, about two natural prodigies which he said were then on the
island. One was an old monster of a hermit, having a marvellous
reputation for sanctity, and reputed a famous sorcerer, who lived away
off in a den among the mountains, where he hid from the world a
great pair of horns that grew out of his temples. Notwithstanding his
reputation for piety, this horrid old fellow was the terror of all the
island round, being reported to come out from his retreat, and go a
man-hunting every dark night. Some anonymous Paul Pry, too, coming down
the mountain, once got a peep at his den, and found it full of bones. In
short, he was a most unheard-of monster.
The other prodigy Jimmy told us about was the younger son of a chief,
who, although but just turned of ten, had entered upon holy orders,
because his superstitious countrymen thought him especially intended
for the priesthood from the fact of his having a comb on his head like
a rooster. But this was not all; for still more wonderful to relate, the
boy prided himself upon his strange crest, being actually endowed with a
cock’s voice, and frequently crowing over his peculiarity.
But to return to Toby. The moment he saw the old rover on the beach, he
ran up to him, the natives following after, and forming a circle round
them.
After welcoming him to the shore, Jimmy went on to tell him how that he
knew all about our having run away from the ship, and being among the
Typees. Indeed, he had been urged by Mowanna to come over to the valley,
and after visiting his friends there, to bring us back with him, his
royal master being exceedingly anxious to share with him the reward
which had been held out for our capture. He, however, assured Toby that
he had indignantly spurned the offer.
All this astonished my comrade not a little, as neither of us had
entertained the least idea that any white man ever visited the Typees
sociably. But Jimmy told him that such was the case nevertheless,
although he seldom came into the bay, and scarcely ever went back
from the beach. One of the priests of the valley, in some way or other
connected with an old tattooed divine in Nukuheva, was a friend of his,
and through him he was ‘taboo’.
He said, moreover, that he was sometimes employed to come round to the
bay, and engage fruit for ships lying in Nukuheva. In fact, he was now
on that very errand, according to his own account, having just come
across the mountains by the way of Happar. By noon of the next day the
fruit would be heaped up in stacks on the beach, in readiness for the
boats which he then intended to bring into the bay.
Jimmy now asked Toby whether he wished to leave the island--if he did,
there was a ship in want of men lying in the other harbour, and he would
be glad to take him over, and see him on board that very day.
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