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- 9546
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 9482
- text
- gleamed forth from out this setting like a couple of diamonds inserted
in ebony.
Although convinced that tattooing was a religious observance, still the
nature of the connection between it and the superstitious idolatry of
the people was a point upon which I could never obtain any information.
Like the still more important system of the ‘Taboo’, it always appeared
inexplicable to me.
There is a marked similarity, almost an identity, between the religious
institutions of most of the Polynesian islands, and in all exists the
mysterious ‘Taboo’, restricted in its uses to a greater or less extent.
So strange and complex in its arrangements is this remarkable system,
that I have in several cases met with individuals who, after residing
for years among the islands in the Pacific, and acquiring a considerable
knowledge of the language, have nevertheless been altogether unable to
give any satisfactory account of its operations. Situated as I was
in the Typee valley, I perceived every hour the effects of this
all-controlling power, without in the least comprehending it. Those
effects were, indeed, wide-spread and universal, pervading the most
important as well as the minutest transactions of life. The savage, in
short, lives in the continual observance of its dictates, which guide
and control every action of his being.
For several days after entering the valley I had been saluted at least
fifty times in the twenty-four hours with the talismanic word ‘Taboo’
shrieked in my ears, at some gross violation of its provisions, of which
I had unconsciously been guilty. The day after our arrival I happened to
hand some tobacco to Toby over the head of a native who sat between
us. He started up, as if stung by an adder; while the whole company,
manifesting an equal degree of horror, simultaneously screamed out
‘Taboo!’ I never again perpetrated a similar piece of ill-manners,
which, indeed, was forbidden by the canons of good breeding, as well as
by the mandates of the taboo. But it was not always so easy to perceive
wherein you had contravened the spirit of this institution. I was many
times called to order, if I may use the phrase, when I could not for the
life of me conjecture what particular offence I had committed.
One day I was strolling through a secluded portion of the valley, and
hearing the musical sound of the cloth-mallet at a little distance, I
turned down a path that conducted me in a few moments to a house where
there were some half-dozen girls employed in making tappa. This was an
operation I had frequently witnessed, and had handled the bark in all
the various stages of its preparation. On the present occasion the
females were intent upon their occupation, and after looking up and
talking gaily to me for a few moments, they resumed their employment. I
regarded them for a while in silence, and then carelessly picking up a
handful of the material that lay around, proceeded unconsciously to pick
it apart. While thus engaged, I was suddenly startled by a scream, like
that of a whole boarding-school of young ladies just on the point of
going into hysterics. Leaping up with the idea of seeing a score of
Happar warriors about to perform anew the Sabine atrocity, I found
myself confronted by the company of girls, who, having dropped their
work, stood before me with starting eyes, swelling bosoms, and fingers
pointed in horror towards me.
Thinking that some venomous reptile must be concealed in the bark which
I held in my hand, I began cautiously to separate and examine it. Whilst
I did so the horrified girls re-doubled their shrieks. Their wild cries
and frightened motions actually alarmed me, and throwing down the tappa,
I was about to rush from the house, when in the same instant their
clamours ceased, and one of them, seizing me by the arm, pointed to the
broken fibres that had just fallen from my grasp, and screamed in my
ears the fatal word Taboo!
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