- end_line
- 5170
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 5121
- text
- of which these people are extraordinarily fond. Sometimes a chattering
group would be seated upon the edge of a low rock in the midst of the
brook, busily engaged in thinning and polishing the shells of cocoanuts,
by rubbing them briskly with a small stone in the water, an operation
which soon converts them into a light and elegant drinking vessel,
somewhat resembling goblets made of tortoise shell.
But the tranquillizing influence of beautiful scenery, and the
exhibition of human life under so novel and charming an aspect were not
my only sources of consolation.
Every evening the girls of the house gathered about me on the mats, and
after chasing away Kory-Kory from my side--who nevertheless, retired
only to a little distance and watched their proceedings with the most
jealous attention--would anoint my whole body with a fragrant oil,
squeezed from a yellow root, previously pounded between a couple of
stones, and which in their language is denominated ‘aka’. And most
refreshing and agreeable are the juices of the ‘aka’, when applied to
ones, limbs by the soft palms of sweet nymphs, whose bright eyes are
beaming upon you with kindness; and I used to hail with delight the
daily recurrence of this luxurious operation, in which I forgot all my
troubles, and buried for the time every feeling of sorrow.
Sometimes in the cool of the evening my devoted servitor would lead me
out upon the pi-pi in front of the house, and seating me near its edge,
protect my body from the annoyance of the insects which occasionally
hovered in the air, by wrapping me round with a large roll of tappa.
He then bustled about, and employed himself at least twenty minutes in
adjusting everything to secure my personal comfort.
Having perfected his arrangements, he would get my pipe, and, lighting
it, would hand it to me. Often he was obliged to strike a light for the
occasion, and as the mode he adopted was entirely different from what I
had ever seen or heard of before I will describe it.
A straight, dry, and partly decayed stick of the Hibiscus, about six
feet in length, and half as many inches in diameter, with a small, bit
of wood not more than a foot long, and scarcely an inch wide, is as
invariably to be met with in every house in Typee as a box of lucifer
matches in the corner of a kitchen cupboard at home.
The islander, placing the larger stick obliquely against some object,
with one end elevated at an angle of forty-five degrees, mounts astride
of it like an urchin about to gallop off upon a cane, and then grasping
the smaller one firmly in both hands, he rubs its pointed end slowly
up and down the extent of a few inches on the principal stick, until at
last he makes a narrow groove in the wood, with an abrupt termination
at the point furthest from him, where all the dusty particles which the
friction creates are accumulated in a little heap.
- title
- Chunk 6