{"id":"01KG8AKWQQT77CNDGV0YKD1M0P","cid":"bafkreidvuxlll4td2h3z2yh3jcizffessgehq2zkvxec6nblt7bng4krq4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10150,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":10084,"text":"meal, the nap, and the bath, we now came forth like a couple of\r\nbridegrooms.\r\n\r\nEvening drawing on, lamps were lighted. They were very simple; the half\r\nof a green melon, about one third full of cocoa-nut oil, and a wick of\r\ntwisted tappa floating on the surface. As a night lamp, this\r\ncontrivance cannot be excelled; a soft dreamy light being shed through\r\nthe transparent rind.\r\n\r\nAs the evening advanced, other members of the household, whom as yet we\r\nhad not seen, began to drop in. There was a slender young dandy in a\r\ngay striped shirt, and whole fathoms of bright figured calico tucked\r\nabout his waist, and falling to the ground. He wore a new straw hat\r\nalso with three distinct ribbons tied about the crown; one black, one\r\ngreen, and one pink. Shoes or stockings, however, he had none.\r\n\r\nThere were a couple of delicate, olive-cheeked little girls—twins—with\r\nmild eyes and beautiful hair, who ran about the house, half-naked, like\r\na couple of gazelles. They had a brother, somewhat younger—a fine dark\r\nboy, with an eye like a woman’s. All these were the children of Po-Po,\r\nbegotten in lawful wedlock.\r\n\r\nThen there were two or three queer-looking old ladies, who wore shabby\r\nmantles of soiled sheeting, which fitted so badly, and withal had such\r\na second-hand look that I at once put their wearers down as domestic\r\npaupers—poor relations, supported by the bounty of My Lady Arfretee.\r\nThey were sad, meek old bodies; said little and ate less; and either\r\nkept their eyes on the ground, or lifted them up deferentially. The\r\nsemi-civilization of the island must have had something to do with\r\nmaking them what they were.\r\n\r\nI had almost forgotten Monee, the grinning old man who prepared our\r\nmeal. His head was a shining, bald globe. He had a round little paunch,\r\nand legs like a cat. He was Po-Po’s factotum—cook, butler, and climber\r\nof the bread-fruit and cocoa-nut trees; and, added to all else, a\r\nmighty favourite with his mistress; with whom he would sit smoking and\r\ngossiping by the hour.\r\n\r\nOften you saw the indefatigable Monee working away at a great rate;\r\nthen dropping his employment all at once—never mind what—run off to a\r\nlittle distance, and after rolling himself away in a corner and taking\r\na nap, jump up again, and fall to with fresh vigour.\r\n\r\nFrom a certain something in the behaviour of Po-Po and his household, I\r\nwas led to believe that he was a pillar of the church; though, from\r\nwhat I had seen in Tahiti, I could hardly reconcile such a supposition\r\nwith his frank, cordial, unembarrassed air. But I was not wrong in my\r\nconjecture: Po-Po turned out to be a sort of elder, or deacon; he was\r\nalso accounted a man of wealth, and was nearly related to a high chief.\r\n\r\nBefore retiring, the entire household gathered upon the floor; and in\r\ntheir midst, he read aloud a chapter from a Tahitian Bible. Then\r\nkneeling with the rest of us, he offered up a prayer. Upon its\r\nconclusion, all separated without speaking. These devotions took place\r\nregularly, every night and morning. Grace too was invariably said, by\r\nthis family, both before and after eating.\r\n\r\nAfter becoming familiarized with the almost utter destitution of\r\nanything like practical piety upon these islands, what I observed in\r\nour host’s house astonished me much. But whatever others might have\r\nbeen, Po-Po was, in truth, a Christian: the only one, Arfretee\r\nexcepted, whom I personally knew to be such, among all the natives of\r\nPolynesia.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJNJBC2VNN4PS9QE2Q060","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKWQQ556E1D4CDA046RCN","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.191Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:32.453Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}