- end_line
- 4542
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 4477
- text
- cold sweat stood upon my brow, and spell-bound with terror I awaited my
fate!
Suddenly the silence was broken by the well-remembered tones of Mehevi,
and at the kindly accents of his voice my fears were immediately
dissipated. ‘Tommo, Toby, ki ki!’ (eat). He had waited to address us,
until he had assured himself that we were both awake, at which he seemed
somewhat surprised.
‘Ki ki! is it?’ said Toby in his gruff tones; ‘Well, cook us first, will
you--but what’s this?’ he added, as another savage appeared, bearing
before him a large trencher of wood containing some kind of steaming
meat, as appeared from the odours it diffused, and which he deposited at
the feet of Mehevi. ‘A baked baby, I dare say I but I will have none
of it, never mind what it is.--A pretty fool I should make of myself,
indeed, waked up here in the middle of the night, stuffing and guzzling,
and all to make a fat meal for a parcel of booby-minded cannibals one
of these mornings!--No, I see what they are at very plainly, so I am
resolved to starve myself into a bunch of bones and gristle, and then,
if they serve me up, they are welcome! But I say, Tommo, you are not
going to eat any of that mess there, in the dark, are you? Why, how can
you tell what it is?’
‘By tasting it, to be sure,’ said I, masticating a morsel that Kory-Kory
had just put in my mouth, ‘and excellently good it is, too, very much
like veal.’
‘A baked baby, by the soul of Captain Cook!’ burst forth Toby, with
amazing vehemence; ‘Veal? why there never was a calf on the island
till you landed. I tell you you are bolting down mouthfuls from a dead
Happar’s carcass, as sure as you live, and no mistake!’
Emetics and lukewarm water! What a sensation in the abdominal region!
Sure enough, where could the fiends incarnate have obtained meat? But I
resolved to satisfy myself at all hazards; and turning to Mehevi, I soon
made the ready chief understand that I wished a light to be brought.
When the taper came, I gazed eagerly into the vessel, and recognized the
mutilated remains of a juvenile porker! ‘Puarkee!’ exclaimed Kory-Kory,
looking complacently at the dish; and from that day to this I have never
forgotten that such is the designation of a pig in the Typee lingo.
The next morning, after being again abundantly feasted by the hospitable
Mehevi, Toby and myself arose to depart. But the chief requested us to
postpone our intention. ‘Abo, abo’ (Wait, wait), he said and accordingly
we resumed our seats, while, assisted by the zealous Kory-Kory, he
appeared to be engaged in giving directions to a number of the natives
outside, who were busily employed in making arrangements, the nature
of which we could not comprehend. But we were not left long in our
ignorance, for a few moments only had elapsed, when the chief beckoned
us to approach, and we perceived that he had been marshalling a kind of
guard of honour to escort us on our return to the house of Marheyo.
The procession was led off by two venerable-looking savages, each
provided with a spear, from the end of which streamed a pennon of
milk-white tappa. After them went several youths, bearing aloft
calabashes of poee-poee, and followed in their turn by four stalwart
fellows, sustaining long bamboos, from the tops of which hung
suspended, at least twenty feet from the ground, large baskets of
green bread-fruits. Then came a troop of boys, carrying bunches of ripe
bananas, and baskets made of the woven leaflets of cocoanut boughs,
filled with the young fruit of the tree, the naked shells stripped of
their husks peeping forth from the verdant wicker-work that surrounded
them. Last of all came a burly islander, holding over his head a wooden
trencher, in which lay disposed the remnants of our midnight feast,
hidden from view, however, by a covering of bread-fruit leaves.
- title
- Chunk 6