{"id":"01KG8AM56F2KE3463PJ9NSAJ4R","cid":"bafkreihghf6exmbml3jtm4llrd5ey6zcbf34qddma5btdqgrkliwzirq6a","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7673,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":7615,"text":"saw the warrior holding his paddle with both hands in the act of rowing,\r\nleaning forward and inclining his head, as if eager to hurry on his\r\nvoyage. Glaring at him forever, and face to face, was a polished human\r\nskull, which crowned the prow of the canoe. The spectral figurehead,\r\nreversed in its position, glancing backwards, seemed to mock the\r\nimpatient attitude of the warrior.\r\n\r\nWhen I first visited this singular place with Kory-Kory, he told me--or\r\nat least I so understood him--that the chief was paddling his way to\r\nthe realms of bliss, and bread-fruit--the Polynesian heaven--where\r\nevery moment the bread-fruit trees dropped their ripened spheres to the\r\nground, and where there was no end to the cocoanuts and bananas: there\r\nthey reposed through the livelong eternity upon mats much finer than\r\nthose of Typee; and every day bathed their glowing limbs in rivers\r\nof cocoanut oil. In that happy land there were plenty of plumes and\r\nfeathers, and boars’-tusks and sperm-whale teeth, far preferable to all\r\nthe shining trinkets and gay tappa of the white men; and, best of all,\r\nwomen far lovelier than the daughters of earth were there in abundance.\r\n‘A very pleasant place,’ Kory-Kory said it was; ‘but after all, not much\r\npleasanter, he thought, than Typee.’ ‘Did he not then,’ I asked him,\r\n‘wish to accompany the warrior?’ ‘Oh no: he was very happy where he was;\r\nbut supposed that some time or other he would go in his own canoe.’\r\n\r\nThus far, I think, I clearly comprehended Kory-Kory. But there was a\r\nsingular expression he made use of at the time, enforced by as singular\r\na gesture, the meaning of which I would have given much to penetrate.\r\nI am inclined to believe it must have been a proverb he uttered; for I\r\nafterwards heard him repeat the same words several times, and in what\r\nappeared to me to be a somewhat: similar sense. Indeed, Kory-Kory had\r\na great variety of short, smart-sounding sentences, with which he\r\nfrequently enlivened his discourse; and he introduced them with an air\r\nwhich plainly intimated, that in his opinion, they settled the matter in\r\nquestion, whatever it might be.\r\n\r\nCould it have been then, that when I asked him whether he desired to go\r\nto this heaven of bread-fruit, cocoanuts, and young ladies, which he had\r\nbeen describing, he answered by saying something equivalent to our\r\nold adage--‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’?--if he did,\r\nKory-Kory was a discreet and sensible fellow, and I cannot sufficiently\r\nadmire his shrewdness.\r\n\r\nWhenever, in the course of my rambles through the valley I happened to\r\nbe near the chief’s mausoleum, I always turned aside to visit it. The\r\nplace had a peculiar charm for me; I hardly know why, but so it was. As\r\nI leaned over the railing and gazed upon the strange effigy and watched\r\nthe play of the feathery head-dress, stirred by the same breeze which in\r\nlow tones breathed amidst the lofty palm-trees, I loved to yield myself\r\nup to the fanciful superstition of the islanders, and could almost\r\nbelieve that the grim warrior was bound heavenward. In this mood when\r\nI turned to depart, I bade him ‘God speed, and a pleasant voyage.’ Aye,\r\npaddle away, brave chieftain, to the land of spirits! To the material\r\neye thou makest but little progress; but with the eye of faith, I see\r\nthy canoe cleaving the bright waves, which die away on those dimly\r\nlooming shores of Paradise.\r\n\r\nThis strange superstition affords another evidence of the fact, that\r\nhowever ignorant man may be, he still feels within him his immortal\r\nspirit yearning, after the unknown future.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJR250Y3B8PH384FGZ4CM","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM56K767CMZVQWNP8EJ0E","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM56FCDJ4R30BY94VPMAC","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.855Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.775Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}