{"id":"01KG8AKXGBHG90QCH611SSPBMT","cid":"bafkreif4iixkj2lmalpwbouhlsf42yyz6a4iy3una54pmpqlkjutord7qq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4643,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":4576,"text":"the Pacific have little enough of the virtue; and, nowadays, when so\r\nmany charitable appeals are made to them, they have become callous.\r\n\r\nI pitied the poor fellow from the bottom of my heart; but nothing could\r\nI do, as our captain was inexorable. “Why,” said he, “here we\r\nare—started on a six months’ cruise—I can’t put back; and he is better\r\noff on the island than at sea. So on Roorootoo he must die.” And\r\nprobably he did.\r\n\r\nI afterwards heard of this melancholy object, from two seamen. His\r\nattempts to leave were still unavailing, and his hard fate was fast\r\nclosing in.\r\n\r\nNotwithstanding the physical degeneracy of the Tahitians as a people,\r\namong the chiefs, individuals of personable figures are still\r\nfrequently met with; and, occasionally, majestic-looking men, and\r\ndiminutive women as lovely as the nymphs who, nearly a century ago,\r\nswam round the ships of Wallis. In these instances, Tahitian beauty is\r\nquite as seducing as it proved to the crew of the Bounty; the young\r\ngirls being just such creatures as a poet would picture in the\r\ntropics—soft, plump, and dreamy-eyed.\r\n\r\nThe natural complexion of both sexes is quite light; but the males\r\nappear much darker, from their exposure to the sun. A dark complexion,\r\nhowever, in a man, is highly esteemed, as indicating strength of both\r\nbody and soul. Hence there is a saying, of great antiquity among them.\r\n\r\n“If dark the cheek of the mother, The son will sound the war-conch; If\r\nstrong her frame, he will give laws.”\r\n\r\nWith this idea of manliness, no wonder the Tahitians regarded all pale\r\nand tepid-looking Europeans as weak and feminine; whereas, a sailor,\r\nwith a cheek like the breast of a roast turkey, is held a lad of brawn:\r\nto use their own phrase, a “taata tona,” or man of bones.\r\n\r\nSpeaking of bones recalls an ugly custom of theirs, now obsolete—that\r\nof making fish-hooks and gimlets out of those of their enemies. This\r\nbeats the Scandinavians turning people’s skulls into cups and saucers.\r\n\r\nBut to return to the Calabooza Beretanee. Immense was the interest we\r\nexcited among the throngs that called there; they would stand talking\r\nabout us by the hour, growing most unnecessarily excited too, and\r\ndancing up and down with all the vivacity of their race. They\r\ninvariably sided with us; flying out against the consul, and denouncing\r\nhim as “Ita maitai nuee,” or very bad exceedingly. They must have borne\r\nhim some grudge or other.\r\n\r\nNor were the women, sweet souls, at all backward in visiting. Indeed,\r\nthey manifested even more interest than the men; gazing at us with eyes\r\nfull of a thousand meanings, and conversing with marvellous rapidity.\r\nBut, alas! inquisitive though they were, and, doubtless, taking some\r\npassing compassion on us, there was little real feeling in them after\r\nall, and still less sentimental sympathy. Many of them laughed outright\r\nat us, noting only what was ridiculous in our plight.\r\n\r\nI think it was the second day of our confinement that a wild, beautiful\r\ngirl burst into the Calabooza, and, throwing herself into an arch\r\nattitude, stood afar off, and gazed at us. She was a heartless\r\none:—tickled to death with Black Dan’s nursing his chafed ankle, and\r\nindulging in certain moral reflections on the consul and Captain Guy.\r\nAfter laughing her fill at him, she condescended to notice the rest;\r\nglancing from one to another in the most methodical and provoking\r\nmanner imaginable. Whenever anything struck her comically, you saw it\r\nlike a flash—her finger levelled instantaneously, and, flinging herself\r\nback, she gave loose to strange, hollow little notes of laughter, that\r\nsounded like the bass of a music-box, playing a lively air with the lid\r\ndown.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJFYN2ARDCNXWFGNX0J7","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKXGG3JSHD48P3BHKRDRM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKXGGQ8FEPNMGVC40XJ5F","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.979Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.206Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}