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- 3523
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z
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- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 3463
- text
- directly facing me, looking at me with a rigidity of aspect under which
I absolutely quailed. He never once opened his lips, but maintained his
severe expression of countenance, without turning his face aside for
a single moment. Never before had I been subjected to so strange and
steady a glance; it revealed nothing of the mind of the savage, but it
appeared to be reading my own.
After undergoing this scrutiny till I grew absolutely nervous, with a
view of diverting it if possible, and conciliating the good opinion of
the warrior, I took some tobacco from the bosom of my frock and
offered it to him. He quietly rejected the proffered gift, and, without
speaking, motioned me to return it to its place.
In my previous intercourse with the natives of Nukuheva and Tior, I had
found that the present of a small piece of tobacco would have rendered
any of them devoted to my service. Was this act of the chief a token of
his enmity? Typee or Happar? I asked within myself. I started, for at
the same moment this identical question was asked by the strange being
before me. I turned to Toby, the flickering light of a native taper
showed me his countenance pale with trepidation at this fatal question.
I paused for a second, and I know not by what impulse it was that I
answered ‘Typee’. The piece of dusky statuary nodded in approval, and
then murmured ‘Motarkee!’ ‘Motarkee,’ said I, without further hesitation
‘Typee motarkee.’
What a transition! The dark figures around us leaped to their feet,
clapped their hands in transport, and shouted again and again the
talismanic syllables, the utterance of which appeared to have settled
everything.
When this commotion had a little subsided, the principal chief squatted
once more before me, and throwing himself into a sudden rage, poured
forth a string of philippics, which I was at no loss to understand, from
the frequent recurrence of the word Happar, as being directed against
the natives of the adjoining valley. In all these denunciations my
companion and I acquiesced, while we extolled the character of the
warlike Typees. To be sure our panegyrics were somewhat laconic,
consisting in the repetition of that name, united with the potent
adjective ‘motarkee’. But this was sufficient, and served to conciliate
the good will of the natives, with whom our congeniality of sentiment on
this point did more towards inspiring a friendly feeling than anything
else that could have happened.
At last the wrath of the chief evaporated, and in a few moments he
was as placid as ever. Laying his hand upon his breast, he gave me to
understand that his name was ‘Mehevi’, and that, in return, he wished me
to communicate my appellation. I hesitated for an instant, thinking that
it might be difficult for him to pronounce my real name, and then with
the most praiseworthy intentions intimated that I was known as ‘Tom’.
But I could not have made a worse selection; the chief could not master
it. ‘Tommo,’ ‘Tomma’, ‘Tommee’, everything but plain ‘Tom’. As he
persisted in garnishing the word with an additional syllable, I
compromised the matter with him at the word ‘Tommo’; and by that name
I went during the entire period of my stay in the valley. The same
proceeding was gone through with Toby, whose mellifluous appellation was
more easily caught.
An exchange of names is equivalent to a ratification of good will and
amity among these simple people; and as we were aware of this fact, we
were delighted that it had taken place on the present occasion.
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