{"id":"01KG8AM40M63B4RF7VNFD841SF","cid":"bafkreihlcm746nnwqo3z3km23we3zy3ereqtfrqvtsyckcp4f4fwzwud5u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6857,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":6787,"text":"was hardly ever omitted, except by old Marheyo, who was so eccentric\r\na character, that he seemed to be governed by no fixed principles\r\nwhatever; but acting just according to the humour of the moment,\r\nslept, ate, or tinkered away at his little hut, without regard to the\r\nproprieties of time or place. Frequently he might have been seen taking\r\na nap in the sun at noon-day, or a bath in the stream of mid-night.\r\nOnce I beheld him perched eighty feet from the ground, in the tuft of a\r\ncocoanut tree, smoking; and often I saw him standing up to the waist\r\nin water, engaged in plucking out the stray hairs of his beard, using a\r\npiece of muscle-shell for tweezers.\r\n\r\nThe noon-tide slumber lasted generally an hour and a half: very often\r\nlonger; and after the sleepers had arisen from their mats they again\r\nhad recourse to their pipes, and then made preparations for the most\r\nimportant meal of the day.\r\n\r\nI, however, like those gentlemen of leisure who breakfast at home and\r\ndine at their club, almost invariably, during my intervals of health,\r\nenjoyed the afternoon repast with the bachelor chiefs of the Ti, who\r\nwere always rejoiced to see me, and lavishly spread before me all the\r\ngood things which their larder afforded. Mehevi generally introduced\r\namong other dainties a baked pig, an article which I have every reason\r\nto suppose was provided for my sole gratification.\r\n\r\nThe Ti was a right jovial place. It did my heart, as well as my body,\r\ngood to visit it. Secure from female intrusion, there was no restraint\r\nupon the hilarity of the warriors, who, like the gentlemen of Europe\r\nafter the cloth is drawn and the ladies retire, freely indulged their\r\nmirth.\r\n\r\nAfter spending a considerable portion of the afternoon at the Ti, I\r\nusually found myself, as the cool of the evening came on, either sailing\r\non the little lake with Fayaway, or bathing in the waters of the\r\nstream with a number of the savages, who, at this hour, always repaired\r\nthither. As the shadows of night approached Marheyo’s household were\r\nonce more assembled under his roof: tapers were lit, long curious chants\r\nwere raised, interminable stories were told (for which one present was\r\nlittle the wiser), and all sorts of social festivities served to while\r\naway the time.\r\n\r\nThe young girls very often danced by moonlight in front of their\r\ndwellings. There are a great variety of these dances, in which, however,\r\nI never saw the men take part. They all consist of active, romping,\r\nmischievous evolutions, in which every limb is brought into requisition.\r\nIndeed, the Marquesan girls dance all over, as it were; not only do\r\ntheir feet dance, but their arms, hands, fingers, ay, their very eyes,\r\nseem to dance in their heads.\r\n\r\nThe damsels wear nothing but flowers and their compendious gala tunics;\r\nand when they plume themselves for the dance, they look like a band of\r\nolive-coloured Sylphides on the point of taking wing. In good sooth,\r\nthey so sway their floating forms, arch their necks, toss aloft their\r\nnaked arms, and glide, and swim, and whirl, that it was almost too much\r\nfor a quiet, sober-minded, modest young man like myself.\r\n\r\nUnless some particular festivity was going forward, the inmates of\r\nMarheyo’s house retired to their mats rather early in the evening; but\r\nnot for the night, since, after slumbering lightly for a while, they\r\nrose again, relit their tapers, partook of the third and last meal of\r\nthe day, at which poee-poee alone was eaten, and then, after inhaling a\r\nnarcotic whiff from a pipe of tobacco, disposed themselves for the great\r\nbusiness of night, sleep. With the Marquesans it might almost most be\r\nstyled the great business of life, for they pass a large portion\r\nof their time in the arms of Somnus. The native strength of their\r\nconstitution is no way shown more emphatically than in the quantity of\r\nsleep they can endure. To many of them, indeed, life is little else than\r\nan often interrupted and luxurious nap.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJR1KKRF4W20PAGWA82S1","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM40FNH837P8NQKW3FZD1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM40M9PAP07FDMXE9WV9Z","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.644Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:39.270Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}