{"id":"01KG8AM411X4P9DQPMXXNHDTPY","cid":"bafkreihv6jcqcnjnghqk5qbxmwe3gvqh5obtf5hk57jzopdajyghvntieq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1143,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":1096,"text":"another, would become entangled beneath the water, threatening to\r\ncapsize the canoes, when a scene of confusion would ensue that baffles\r\ndescription. Such strange outcries and passionate gesticulations I never\r\ncertainly heard or saw before. You would have thought the islanders were\r\non the point of flying at each other’s throats, whereas they were only\r\namicably engaged in disentangling their boats.\r\n\r\nScattered here and there among the canoes might be seen numbers of\r\ncocoanuts floating closely together in circular groups, and bobbing up\r\nand down with every wave. By some inexplicable means these cocoanuts\r\nwere all steadily approaching towards the ship. As I leaned curiously\r\nover the side, endeavouring to solve their mysterious movements, one\r\nmass far in advance of the rest attracted my attention. In its centre\r\nwas something I could take for nothing else than a cocoanut, but which\r\nI certainly considered one of the most extraordinary specimens of the\r\nfruit I had ever seen. It kept twirling and dancing about among the rest\r\nin the most singular manner, and as it drew nearer I thought it bore a\r\nremarkable resemblance to the brown shaven skull of one of the savages.\r\nPresently it betrayed a pair of eyes, and soon I became aware that what\r\nI had supposed to have been one of the fruit was nothing else than the\r\nhead of an islander, who had adopted this singular method of bringing\r\nhis produce to market. The cocoanuts were all attached to one another\r\nby strips of the husk, partly torn from the shell and rudely fastened\r\ntogether. Their proprietor inserting his head into the midst of them,\r\nimpelled his necklace of cocoanuts through the water by striking out\r\nbeneath the surface with his feet.\r\n\r\nI was somewhat astonished to perceive that among the number of natives\r\nthat surrounded us, not a single female was to be seen. At that time I\r\nwas ignorant of the fact that by the operation of the ‘taboo’ the use of\r\ncanoes in all parts of the island is rigorously prohibited to the entire\r\nsex, for whom it is death even to be seen entering one when hauled on\r\nshore; consequently, whenever a Marquesan lady voyages by water, she\r\nputs in requisition the paddles of her own fair body.\r\n\r\nWe had approached within a mile and a half perhaps of this foot of\r\nthe bay, when some of the islanders, who by this time had managed to\r\nscramble aboard of us at the risk of swamping their canoes, directed our\r\nattention to a singular commotion in the water ahead of the vessel. At\r\nfirst I imagined it to be produced by a shoal of fish sporting on the\r\nsurface, but our savage friends assured us that it was caused by a shoal\r\nof ‘whinhenies’ (young girls), who in this manner were coming off from\r\nthe shore to welcome is. As they drew nearer, and I watched the rising\r\nand sinking of their forms, and beheld the uplifted right arm bearing\r\nabove the water the girdle of tappa, and their long dark hair trailing\r\nbeside them as they swam, I almost fancied they could be nothing else\r\nthan so many mermaids--and very like mermaids they behaved too.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJPECF4NC6VSF5HWWA2R5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM411ECDM29B8RGJ072XG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM41DFYWDFJGZQ2MH96YM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.657Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:33.377Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}