The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume 2 (of 3)

879

Captain David Porter, Journal of a Cruise made to the Pacific Ocean, Second Edition (New York, 1822), ii. 86 sqq.

880

H. Melville, Typee (London, Everyman's Library, no date). The first edition of this book was published in 1846. Melville's residence among the Taipiis (Typees) fell in the year 1841.

881

P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. p. 85.

882

M. Radiguet, Les Derniers Sauvages (Paris, 1882), pp. 304 sq.; P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. p. 57.

883

Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 94.

884

P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. p. 57. Compare M. Radiguet, Les Derniers Sauvages, pp. 304 sq.

885

H. Melville, Typee, p. 220.

886

A. Baessler, op. cit. pp. 222 sq.

887

M. Radiguet, op. cit. p. 304.

888

J. Cook, Voyages, iii. 284.

889

G. Forster, Voyage round the World, ii. 14 sq. Compare Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 152 sq.; U. Lisiansky, Voyage round the World (London, 1814), p. 85; G. H. von Langsdorff, Reise um die Welt (Frankfurt am Mayn, 1812), i. 92 sqq.; Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 96 sqq.; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 216 sqq.; Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. p. 39.

890

H. Melville, Typee, p. 194.

891

H. Melville, Typee, p. 195.

892

David Porter, op. cit. ii. 58 sq.

893

F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 304.

894

M. Radiguet, op. cit. p. 169.

895

Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. p. 39.

896

Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 39 sq.; H. Melville, Typee, p. 195.

897

C. S. Stewart, Visit to the South Seas, i. 231 sq., who speaks highly of the beauty of the women. But the general opinion appears to be that the Marquesan women are much less handsome than the men. See Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 94-96; Porter, op. cit. ii. 59.

898

F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 308 sq.

899

Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 42-44; Clavel, Les Marquisiens, pp. 3 sqq. Compare G. Forster, op. cit. ii. 27 sq.; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 106-108; Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 115 sq.; Porter, op. cit. ii. 50-55; F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 316 sq.; H. Melville, Typee, pp. 120-124, 179; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 277 sq.; Mathias G – , op. cit. pp. 138 sq., 144 sq.; A. Baessler, op. cit. pp. 208-211. As to the preparation and drinking of kava among the Marquesans, see also M. Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 64-66.

900

Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 164; Porter, op. cit. ii. 53; C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 213 sq.; F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 345 (who says that the only root the natives cultivate for food is the sweet potato); Mathias G – , op. cit. pp. 148, 149; Clavel, op. cit. p. 18.

901

Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 122 sq.; Porter, op. cit. ii. 116; Bennett, op. cit. i. 337 sq.; Melville, Typee, pp. 158-160, 210; Mathias G – , op. cit. pp. 137 sq.; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 53 sq.; Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. 55 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. 19.

902

Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 164.

903

Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 118 sq.; Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 162; Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 88; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 152 (bows and arrows unknown); Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 282 sq.

904

Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 121; Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 162.

905

H. Melville, Typee, pp. 118 sq.; Clavel, Les Marquisiens, pp. 11 sq. Compare G. Forster, op. cit. ii. 20; D. Porter, op. cit. ii. 116; Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 143.

906

J. Cook, Voyages, iii. 285 sq.; G. Forster, op. cit. pp. 21, 24; J. Wilson, op. cit. pp. 131, 134 sq.; Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 84; Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 159; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 109-111; Porter, op. cit. ii. 39 sq.; C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 209-211, 212, 267 sq.; Bennett, op. cit. i. 302 sq.; Melville, Typee, pp. 81-83; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 274-276; Mathias G – , op. cit. pp. 122-129; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 36-38; Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 44 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. pp. 15 sq.; Baessler, op. cit. pp. 200-208.

907

Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 109 sq.

908

Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 129.

909

Langsdorff, l. c.

910

Clavel, op. cit. p. 15.

911

F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 303 sq.; Baessler, op. cit. pp. 207 sq.

912

J. Cook, Voyages, iii. 287; Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 163 sq.; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 150; Porter, op. cit., ii. 12-14; Bennett, op. cit. i. 338; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 280-282.

913

Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 163.

914

C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 317.

915

Melville, Typee, pp. 203 sq.

916

Clavel, op. cit. p. 60.

917

Radiguet, op. cit. 173.

918

Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 111.

919

Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 83. As to polyandry in the Marquesas, see further E. Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, Fifth Edition (London, 1921), iii. 146 sqq.

920

Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 19 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. pp. 56, 61 sq.

921

Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 16 sq., 158 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. pp. 61 sq.

922

Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 119 sq., 124; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 146; Porter, op. cit. ii. 124-126; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 284; Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 96. As for the ability of the natives to swim in the sea for hours without fatigue, compare J. Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, p. 129.

923

C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 214 sq.

924

C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 233 sq. Compare Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 265 sq.

925

Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 138.

926

Radiguet, op. cit. p. 195.

927

C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 236 sq.; F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 318; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 264 sq.; Mathias G – , op. cit. pp. 69 sqq.; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 192 sq.

928

Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 138.

929

Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 231. Compare C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 237, who calls the performers Kaioi.

930

See above, pp. 259 sqq.

931

C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 234, 236, 237.

932

Porter, op. cit. ii. 38 sq.; F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 317 sq.; Mathias G – , op. cit. pp. 54-56; Melville, Typee pp. 93-95. Of these writers it is Porter who gives the dimensions of some of the blocks of stone composing the platforms and expresses his amazement at the labour involved in their construction. He concludes his description as follows (ii. 39): "When we count the immense numbers of such places, which are everywhere to be met with, our astonishment is raised to the highest, that a people in a state of nature, unassisted by any of those artificial means, which so much assist and facilitate the labour of the civilized man, could have conceived and executed a work, which, to every beholder, must appear stupendous. These piles are raised with views to magnificence alone; there does not appear to be the slightest utility attending them: the houses situated on them are unoccupied, except during the period of feasting, and they appear to belong to a public, without the whole efforts of which they could not have been raised, and with every exertion that could possibly have been made, years must have been requisite for the completion of them." Of one of these structures seen by him in the anterior of Nukahiva, Stewart observes, "The stones, bearing marks of antiquity that threw the air of an old family mansion around the whole, were regularly hewn and joined with the greatest nicety, many which I measured being from four to six feet in length, nearly as wide, and two or more deep" (Visit to the South Seas, i. 267 sq.).

933

Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 165; Langsdorff, i. 112 sq.; Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 132-134; Porter, op. cit. ii. 64; Melville, Typee, p. 199; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 225; Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 24 sq.

934

Mathias G – , op. cit. 101 sq.

935

Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 80.

936

Lisiansky, op. cit. pp. 79 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. p. 62.

937

Mathias G – , op. cit. pp. 47 sq.; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 259.

938

Radiguet, op. cit. p. 153.

939

Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 258 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. pp. 65 sq.

940

Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 35 sq. Compare Radiguet, op. cit. p. 155.

941

Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 118.

942

Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 172. In this quotation I have altered the spelling tahbu into taboo.

943

Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 116.

944

Radiguet, op. cit. p. 157; Melville, Typee, p. 230; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 264.

945

Clavel, op. cit. p. 68.

946

Clavel, op. cit. pp. 67 sq.

947

Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 258; Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 48; Radiguet, op. cit. p. 153; Clavel, op. cit. p. 65.

948

Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 171.

949

C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 243 sq. Compare Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 240; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 218 sq.

950

The principal harbour of Nukahiva.

951

C. S. Stewart, op cit. i. 244 sq. Compare Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 226, 240 sq. The missionary William Crook was landed in the Marquesas from the missionary ship Duff in 1797. See J. Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, pp. 131 sqq.

952

Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 45.

953

Porter, op. cit. ii. 114.

954

Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 223 sq. For the names of the Marquesan deities, among whom Tiki appears to have been the most famous, and for some myths concerning them, see Mathias G – , op. cit. pp. 40 sqq.; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 221 sqq.; Amable, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xix. (1847) pp. 23 sq.; Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 27 sqq.

955

C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 245 sq.; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 227 sq.

956

Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 136. The writer's language seems to imply that the spirit whom the priestly physician caught in his hands and interrogated was the patient's own soul.

957

Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 45; C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 247; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 228 sq.

958

Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 238 sq.

959

Radiguet, op. cit. p. 245; Clavel, op. cit. p. 44, note1. Compare Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 115.

960

Mathias G – , op. cit. pp. 114. sq.; Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. p. 58. Compare Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 260 sqq.

961

C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 263; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 249 sq.

962

Radiguet, op. cit. p. 284; Clavel, op. cit. p. 39.

963

Porter, op. cit. ii. 121.

964

Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 283 sq. Another writer mentions that at the moment of death it was customary for a number of matrons to strip themselves naked and execute obscene dances at the door of the house, crying out at the pitch of their voices, "Father! father!" See Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 116.

965

Melville, Typee, pp. 180, 201.

966

Clavel, op. cit. pp. 43 sq.

967

Clavel, op. cit. p. 46.

968

Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 284 sq.

969

C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 265; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 251.

970

Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 133.

971

Radiguet, op. cit. p. 285.

972

Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 173. Compare Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 133; C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 265; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 251.

973

Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 172 sq.; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 133; Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 81; C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 264.

974

Mathias G – , op. cit. pp. 116 sq. As to the decoration of the corpse, see Clavel, op. cit. pp. 43 sq. As to the temporary house or shed in which the body was kept for some time after death, compare C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 264, 266; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 250. As for the custom of keeping the body for months in the ordinary house, surrounded by the family, see Radiguet, op. cit. p. 286. As to the practice of hanging food beside the body, even after its removal to its last place of rest, see J. Dumont d'Urville, Voyage au Pole Sud et dans l'Océanie, Histoire du Voyage, iv. (Paris, 1842), p. 33; Clavel, op. cit. p. 46.

975

Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 173; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 133 sq.; Melville, Typee, p. 206; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 286 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. pp. 44 sq. In a house in Nukahiva the missionary Stewart saw a canoe-shaped coffin containing the remains of a man who had died many years before. It was raised on a bier of framework, at a height of two or three feet above the ground. Stewart adds, "The dead bodies of all persons of high distinction are preserved in their houses for a long period in this way." See C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 259.

976

Clavel, op. cit. pp. 45 sq.; Baessler, op. cit. pp. 233 sq.

977

Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 127, 173; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 115, 134. Other writers on the Marquesas in like manner speak of a morai simply as a place of burial. See Porter, op. cit. ii. 114 ("the gods at the burying-place, or morai, for so it is called by them"); Radiguet, op. cit. p. 52 ("un morai (sépulchre) en ruine"); Melville, Typee, p. 168 ("the 'morais' or burying-grounds"). So, too, the term was understood by the French navigator, J. Dumont d'Urville. See his Voyage au Pole Sud, Histoire du Voyage, iv. (Paris, 1842), pp. 27, 33.

978

Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 253.

979

Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 115. According to Krusenstern (op. cit. i. 127), the morais in general "lie a good way inland upon hills."

980

F. D. Bennett, Narrative of a Whaling Voyage, i. 329.

981

Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 115.

982

Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 253.

983

Radiguet, op. cit. p. 92. One of these stones was said to have been erected by the French navigator, Captain Marchand, and to have formerly borne an inscription recording his taking possession of the island. Hence it would be unsafe to draw any conclusion from the supposed antiquity of these two tall upright stones.

984

C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 260.

985

F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 329.

986

Compare J. Dumont d'Urville, Voyage au Pole Sud, Histoire du Voyage, iv. 33, "Sous un hangar se trouvent quelques supports formant, à 2 mètres au-dessus du sol, une estrade sur laquelle est déposé le toui-papao. C'est le nom que les naturels donnent au cadavre enveloppé d'herbes et de tapa (étoffes de papyrus faites dans le pays). On n'aperçoit du corps ainsi habillé que les extremités des doigts des pièds et des mains."

987

F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 331.

988

F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 322.

989

Melville, Typee, pp. 166 sq.

990

Melville, Typee, p. 167.

991

Quoted by J. Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, p. 144.

992

Melville, Typee, p. 205.

993

Porter, op. cit. ii. 123.

994

Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 173.

995

Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 134.

996

Melville, Typee, p. 206.

997

Clavel, op. cit. p. 47.

998

Mathias G – , op. cit. pp. 117 sq.

999

Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 173.

1000

Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 44.

1001

Radiguet, op. cit. p. 220; Melville, Typee, p. 185. Compare Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 40.

1002

Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 220 sq.

1003

Porter, op. cit. ii. 51 sq.; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 238 note, 239, 269, 270; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 238 sq.; Mathias G – , op. cit. pp. 234 sq.

1004

Porter, op. cit. ii. 113.

1005

Porter, op. cit. ii. 109-111. A similar, or the same, effigy of a dead chief seated in his canoe was seen by Melville in the same valley (Typee, pp. 183 sq.). He says that "the canoe was about seven feet in length; of a rich, dark-coloured wood, handsomely carved, and adorned in many places with variegated bindings of stained sinnate [cinnet], into which were ingeniously wrought a number of sparkling sea-shells, and a belt of the same shells ran all round it. The body of the figure – of whatever material it might have been made – was effectually concealed in a heavy robe of brown tappa [bark-cloth], revealing only the hands and head; the latter skilfully carved in wood, and surmounted by a superb arch of plumes."

1006

Radiguet, op. cit. p. 163.

1007

Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 228.

1008

Krusenstern, op. cit. i, 170.

1009

U. Lisiansky, Voyage round the World, pp. 81 sq.

1010

Mathias G – , op. cit. p. 116.

1011

Lettre du R. P. Amable, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xix. (1847) pp. 22 sq., 24.

1012

Lettre du R. P. Amable, op. cit. p. 24.

1013

Lettre du R. P. Amable, op. cit. pp. 23 sq.

1014

Lettre du R. P. Amable, op. cit. p. 24.

1015

Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 89.

1016

Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 161 sq.