{"id":"01KG8AKFW22JXDK1G615HTS72C","cid":"bafkreidpfzhvpvatxl7d6jvdo4nhtgsipagnmak63uwi5ejck2npywqnly","type":"subsection","properties":{"description":"# . . . . . . . .\n## Overview\nThis is a subsection from Chapter 31 of Herman Melville's novel *Typee*, extracted from the file [typee.txt](arke:01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4). It is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. The subsection discusses the music and entertainment among the Typee people.\n\n## Context\nThis subsection is part of [CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE](arke:01KG8AJRVD0X303G878V5E3HHT) of *Typee*. It follows an introductory section [Introduction](arke:01KG8AKFWBRW3E27WFCCS9B8AD) and precedes another subsection [01KG8AKFW2PQRNHMTFP3CPW5R6]. The chapter and its subsections were extracted from the text file [typee.txt](arke:01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4).\n\n## Contents\nThe subsection describes the narrator's observations on the Typee people's musical practices and forms of entertainment. It notes their fondness for chanting, their apparent lack of singing as practiced in other nations, and the narrator's role as a \"court-minstrel\" after King Mehevi is delighted by a stanza from the \"Bavarian broom-seller.\" The text details the \"nasal flute\" and its use by the women, particularly Fayaway. It also recounts how the narrator's demonstration of pugilistic encounters amuses King Mehevi and his subjects, who regard self-defense as a unique gift of the white man.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:27.881Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":". . . . . . . .","end_line":9793,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:05.749Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":". . . . .  .  .  .","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":9733,"text":"      . . . . .  .  .  .\r\n\r\nAlthough these savages are remarkably fond of chanting, still they\r\nappear to have no idea whatever of singing, at least as the art is\r\npractised in other nations.\r\n\r\nI shall never forget the first time I happened to roar out a stave\r\nin the presence of noble Mehevi. It was a stanza from the ‘Bavarian\r\nbroom-seller’. His Typeean majesty, with all his court, gazed upon me in\r\namazement, as if I had displayed some preternatural faculty which Heaven\r\nhad denied to them. The King was delighted with the verse; but the\r\nchorus fairly transported him. At his solicitation I sang it again and\r\nagain, and nothing could be more ludicrous than his vain attempts to\r\ncatch the air and the words. The royal savage seemed to think that by\r\nscrewing all the features of his face into the end of his nose he\r\nmight possibly succeed in the undertaking, but it failed to answer the\r\npurpose; and in the end he gave it up, and consoled himself by listening\r\nto my repetition of the sounds fifty times over.\r\n\r\nPrevious to Mehevi’s making the discovery, I had never been aware that\r\nthere was anything of the nightingale about me; but I was now promoted\r\nto the place of court-minstrel, in which capacity I was afterwards\r\nperpetually called upon to officiate.\r\n\r\n      . . . . .  .  .  .\r\n\r\nBesides the sticks and the drums, there are no other musical instruments\r\namong the Typees, except one which might appropriately be denominated a\r\nnasal flute. It is somewhat longer than an ordinary fife; is made of\r\na beautiful scarlet-coloured reed; and has four or five stops, with\r\na large hole near one end, which latter is held just beneath the left\r\nnostril. The other nostril being closed by a peculiar movement of the\r\nmuscles about the nose, the breath is forced into the tube, and produces\r\na soft dulcet sound which is varied by the fingers running at random\r\nover the stops. This is a favourite recreation with the females and one\r\nin which Fayaway greatly excelled. Awkward as such an instrument may\r\nappear, it was, in Fayaway’s delicate little hands, one of the most\r\ngraceful I have ever seen. A young lady, in the act of tormenting a\r\nguitar strung about her neck by a couple of yards of blue ribbon, is not\r\nhalf so engaging.\r\n\r\n      . . . . .  .  .  .\r\n\r\nSinging was not the only means I possessed of diverting the royal Mehevi\r\nand his easy-going subject. Nothing afforded them more pleasure than to\r\nsee me go through the attitude of pugilistic encounter. As not one of\r\nthe natives had soul enough in him to stand up like a man, and allow me\r\nto hammer away at him, for my own personal gratification and that of\r\nthe king, I was necessitated to fight with an imaginary enemy, whom I\r\ninvariably made to knock under to my superior prowess. Sometimes when\r\nthis sorely battered shadow retreated precipitately towards a group of\r\nthe savages, and, following him up, I rushed among them dealing my\r\nblows right and left, they would disperse in all directions much to the\r\nenjoyment of Mehevi, the chiefs, and themselves.\r\n\r\nThe noble art of self-defence appeared to be regarded by them as the\r\npeculiar gift of the white man; and I make little doubt that they\r\nsupposed armies of Europeans were drawn up provided with nothing else\r\nbut bony fists and stout hearts, with which they set to in column, and\r\npummelled one another at the word of command.\r\n\r","title":". . . . .  .  .  ."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRVD0X303G878V5E3HHT","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKFWBRW3E27WFCCS9B8AD","peer_type":"intro","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKFW2PQRNHMTFP3CPW5R6","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:06.018Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:28.190Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}