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- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z
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- 8684
- text
- CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
THE SOCIAL CONDITION AND GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE TYPEES
I have already mentioned that the influence exerted over the people
of the valley by their chiefs was mild in the extreme; and as to any
general rule or standard of conduct by which the commonality were
governed in their intercourse with each other, so far as my observation
extended, I should be almost tempted to say, that none existed on the
island, except, indeed, the mysterious ‘Taboo’ be considered as such.
During the time I lived among the Typees, no one was ever put upon his
trial for any offence against the public. To all appearance there
were no courts of law or equity. There was no municipal police for the
purpose of apprehending vagrants and disorderly characters. In
short, there were no legal provisions whatever for the well-being and
conservation of society, the enlightened end of civilized legislation.
And yet everything went on in the valley with a harmony and smoothness
unparalleled, I will venture to assert, in the most select, refined, and
pious associations of mortals in Christendom. How are we to explain this
enigma? These islanders were heathens! savages! ay, cannibals! and how
came they without the aid of established law, to exhibit, in so eminent
a degree, that social order which is the greatest blessing and highest
pride of the social state?
It may reasonably be inquired, how were these people governed? how were
their passions controlled in their everyday transactions? It must have
been by an inherent principle of honesty and charity towards each other.
They seemed to be governed by that sort of tacit common-sense law which,
say what they will of the inborn lawlessness of the human race, has
its precepts graven on every breast. The grand principles of virtue and
honour, however they may be distorted by arbitrary codes, are the same
all the world over: and where these principles are concerned, the right
or wrong of any action appears the same to the uncultivated as to the
enlightened mind. It is to this indwelling, this universally diffused
perception of what is just and noble, that the integrity of the
Marquesans in their intercourse with each other, is to be attributed.
In the darkest nights they slept securely, with all their worldly wealth
around them, in houses the doors of which were never fastened. The
disquieting ideas of theft or assassination never disturbed them.
Each islander reposed beneath his own palmetto thatching, or sat under
his own bread-fruit trees, with none to molest or alarm him. There was
not a padlock in the valley, nor anything that answered the purpose
of one: still there was no community of goods. This long spear, so
elegantly carved, and highly polished, belongs to Wormoonoo: it is far
handsomer than the one which old Marheyo so greatly prizes; it is the
most valuable article belonging to its owner. And yet I have seen it
leaning against a cocoanut tree in the grove, and there it was found
when sought for. Here is a sperm-whale tooth, graven all over with
cunning devices: it is the property of Karluna; it is the most precious
of the damsel’s ornaments. In her estimation its price is far above
rubies--and yet there hangs the dental jewel by its cord of braided
bark, in the girl’s house, which is far back in the valley; the door is
left open, and all the inmates have gone off to bathe in the stream.*
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