{"id":"01KG8AM3CS869H6BCXN160FKP3","cid":"bafkreigcv7yyb23gwlsbmnelmyerhbkcp3uzjil5eekr6dy3rkqgk2mrcm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6347,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 8","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":6291,"text":"himself within less than a yard of me. I had hardly recovered from my\r\nsurprise, when he suddenly turned round, and, with a most benignant\r\ncountenance extended his right hand gracefully towards me. Of course I\r\naccepted the courteous challenge, and, as soon as our palms met, he bent\r\ntowards me, and murmured in musical accents--‘How you do?’ ‘How long you\r\nbeen in this bay?’ ‘You like this bay?’\r\n\r\nHad I been pierced simultaneously by three Happar spears, I could not\r\nhave started more than I did at hearing these simple questions. For a\r\nmoment I was overwhelmed with astonishment, and then answered something\r\nI know not what; but as soon as I regained my self-possession, the\r\nthought darted through my mind that from this individual I might obtain\r\nthat information regarding Toby which I suspected the natives had\r\npurposely withheld from me. Accordingly I questioned him concerning\r\nthe disappearance of my companion, but he denied all knowledge of\r\nthe matter. I then inquired from whence he had come? He replied, from\r\nNukuheva. When I expressed my surprise, he looked at me for a moment,\r\nas if enjoying my perplexity, and then with his strange vivacity,\r\nexclaimed,--‘Ah! Me taboo,--me go Nukuheva,--me go Tior,--me go\r\nTypee,--me go everywhere,--nobody harm me,--me taboo.’\r\n\r\nThis explanation would have been altogether unintelligible to me, had\r\nit not recalled to my mind something I had previously heard concerning\r\na singular custom among these islanders. Though the country is possessed\r\nby various tribes, whose mutual hostilities almost wholly prelude any\r\nintercourse between them; yet there are instances where a person having\r\nratified friendly relations with some individual belonging longing to\r\nthe valley, whose inmates are at war with his own, may, under particular\r\nrestrictions, venture with impunity into the country of his friend,\r\nwhere, under other circumstances, he would have been treated as an\r\nenemy. In this light are personal friendships regarded among them, and\r\nthe individual so protected is said to be ‘taboo’, and his person, to a\r\ncertain extent, is held as sacred. Thus the stranger informed me he had\r\naccess to all the valleys in the island.\r\n\r\nCurious to know how he had acquired his knowledge of English, I\r\nquestioned him on the subject. At first, for some reason or other, he\r\nevaded the inquiry, but afterwards told me that, when a boy, he had\r\nbeen carried to sea by the captain of a trading vessel, with whom he\r\nhad stayed three years, living part of the time with him at Sidney in\r\nAustralia, and that at a subsequent visit to the island, the captain\r\nhad, at his own request, permitted him to remain among his countrymen.\r\nThe natural quickness of the savage had been wonderfully improved by his\r\nintercourse with the white men, and his partial knowledge of a foreign\r\nlanguage gave him a great ascendancy over his less accomplished\r\ncountrymen.\r\n\r\nWhen I asked the now affable Marnoo why it was that he had not\r\npreviously spoken to me, he eagerly inquired what I had been led to\r\nthink of him from his conduct in that respect. I replied, that I had\r\nsupposed him to be some great chief or warrior, who had seen plenty\r\nof white men before, and did not think it worth while to notice a poor\r\nsailor. At this declaration of the exalted opinion I had formed of him,\r\nhe appeared vastly gratified, and gave me to understand that he had\r\npurposely behaved in that manner, in order to increase my astonishment,\r\nas soon as he should see proper to address me.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 8"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJR251ZEN5NNWESSQRASD","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM3CSTT116GJR3BANSNE8","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM3CSQKM2C53H1C3F7MQW","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.009Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:38.666Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}