{"id":"01KG8AKGC7V6NVTBWDA4XP4JV6","cid":"bafkreibxtwij6jn4kn7dzofazc4ixop7fce3hpwhjdwfyji7xlazlvv43e","type":"subsection","properties":{"description":"# AN ISLAND JILT\n\n## Overview\n\"An Island Jilt\" is a subsection of a larger work, extracted from the file \"omoo.txt\" on January 30, 2026. This section, spanning lines 10393 to 10458, is part of Chapter LXXVI, titled \"AN ISLAND JILT—WE VISIT THE SHIP.\"\n\n## Context\nThis subsection is contained within Chapter LXXVI of a larger work, which is part of the \"Melville Complete Works\" collection. The narrative appears to be a travelogue or fictional account, detailing experiences and observations in an island setting. The preceding section is titled \"Introduction,\" and the following section is titled \"WE VISIT THE SHIP.\"\n\n## Contents\nThis section recounts an encounter with a runaway ship's carpenter named William, who has established a profitable business in Imeeo. Despite his success and good health, William is unhappy because he is unable to marry his beloved, Lullee, due to a law prohibiting marriage between a native and a foreigner unless the foreigner has resided on the island for three years and intends to stay permanently. William is distressed by Lullee's growing inattention and her association with strangers from Tahar. He had proposed an arrangement to her friends, but they refused, and the couple would face punishment if discovered living together. The narrator and his companion leave William contemplating his predicament. The text then shifts to a description of the scenic beauty of the harbor of Taloo, noting its resemblance to a deep green river flowing through mountain passes.","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:14.574Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"AN ISLAND JILT","end_line":10458,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:06.132Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"AN ISLAND JILT","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":10393,"text":"Passing on our route a long, low shed, a voice hailed us—“White men\r\nahoy!” Turning round, who should we see but a rosy-cheeked Englishman\r\n(you could tell his country at a glance), up to his knees in shavings,\r\nand planing away at a bench. He turned out to be a runaway ship’s\r\ncarpenter, recently from Tahiti, and now doing a profitable business in\r\nImeeo, by fitting up the dwellings of opulent chiefs with cupboards and\r\nother conveniences, and once in a while trying his hand at a lady’s\r\nwork-box. He had been in the settlement but a few months, and already\r\npossessed houses and lands.\r\n\r\nBut though blessed with prosperity and high health, there was one thing\r\nwanting—a wife. And when he came to speak of the matter, his\r\ncountenance fell, and he leaned dejectedly upon his plane.\r\n\r\n“It’s too bad!” he sighed, “to wait three long years; and all the\r\nwhile, dear little Lullee living in the same house with that infernal\r\nchief from Tahar!”\r\n\r\nOur curiosity was piqued; the poor carpenter, then, had been falling in\r\nlove with some island coquette, who was going to jilt him.\r\n\r\nBut such was not the case. There was a law prohibiting, under a heavy\r\npenalty, the marriage of a native with a foreigner, unless the latter,\r\nafter being three years a resident on the island, was willing to affirm\r\nhis settled intention of remaining for life.\r\n\r\nWilliam was therefore in a sad way. He told us that he might have\r\nmarried the girl half-a-dozen times, had it not been for this odious\r\nlaw: but, latterly, she had become less loving and more giddy,\r\nparticularly with the strangers from Tahar. Desperately smitten, and\r\ndesirous of securing her at all hazards, he had proposed to the\r\ndamsel’s friends a nice little arrangement, introductory to marriage;\r\nbut they would not hear of it; besides, if the pair were discovered\r\nliving together upon such a footing, they would be liable to a\r\ndegrading punishment:—sent to work making stone walls and opening roads\r\nfor the queen.\r\n\r\nDoctor Long Ghost was all sympathy. “Bill, my good fellow,” said he,\r\ntremulously, “let me go and talk to her.” But Bill, declining the\r\noffer, would not even inform us where his charmer lived.\r\n\r\nLeaving the disconsolate Willie planing a plank of New Zealand pine (an\r\nimportation from the Bay of Islands), and thinking the while of Lullee,\r\nwe went on our way. How his suit prospered in the end we never learned.\r\n\r\nGoing from Po-Po’s house toward the anchorage of the harbour of Taloo,\r\nyou catch no glimpse of the water until, coming out from deep groves,\r\nyou all at once find yourself upon the beach. A bay, considered by many\r\nvoyagers the most beautiful in the South Seas, then lies before you.\r\nYou stand upon one side of what seems a deep green river, flowing\r\nthrough mountain passes to the sea. Right opposite a majestic\r\npromontory divides the inlet from another, called after its discoverer,\r\nCaptain Cook. The face of this promontory toward Taloo is one verdant\r\nwall; and at its base the waters lie still and fathomless. On the left\r\nhand, you just catch a peep of the widening mouth of the bay, the break\r\nin the reef by which ships enter, and, beyond, the sea. To the right,\r\nthe inlet, sweeping boldly round the promontory, runs far away into the\r\nland; where, save in one direction, the hills close in on every side,\r\nknee-deep in verdure and shooting aloft in grotesque peaks. The open\r\nspace lies at the head of the bay; in the distance it extends into a\r\nbroad hazy plain lying at the foot of an amphitheatre of hills. Here is\r\nthe large sugar plantation previously alluded to. Beyond the first\r\nrange of hills, you descry the sharp pinnacles of the interior; and\r\namong these, the same silent Marling-spike which we so often admired\r\nfrom the other side of the island.\r\n\r","title":"AN ISLAND JILT"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJNJB18W83V81B5VSVY7H","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKGC2C38HHHNDNQ0266VY","peer_type":"intro","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKGC2GZCR9BZ6F72176WA","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:06.535Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:15.610Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}