{"id":"01KG8AM6P7E2QZ543NF3F913MM","cid":"bafkreich64vgyg3lpape2ill376qv6waduokh7jfn3ksul4mw3hqpuopum","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3634,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":3574,"text":"the dish after our own clumsy fashion, beplastering our faces all over\r\nwith the glutinous compound, and daubing our hands nearly to the\r\nwrist. This kind of food is by no means disagreeable to the palate of a\r\nEuropean, though at first the mode of eating it may be. For my own\r\npart, after the lapse of a few days I became accustomed to its singular\r\nflavour, and grew remarkably fond of it.\r\n\r\nSo much for the first course; several other dishes followed it, some of\r\nwhich were positively delicious. We concluded our banquet by tossing\r\noff the contents of two more young cocoanuts, after which we regaled\r\nourselves with the soothing fumes of tobacco, inhaled from a quaintly\r\ncarved pipe which passed round the circle.\r\n\r\nDuring the repast, the natives eyed us with intense curiosity, observing\r\nour minutest motions, and appearing to discover abundant matter for\r\ncomment in the most trifling occurrence. Their surprise mounted the\r\nhighest, when we began to remove our uncomfortable garments, which were\r\nsaturated with rain. They scanned the whiteness of our limbs, and seemed\r\nutterly unable to account for the contrast they presented to the swarthy\r\nhue of our faces embrowned from a six months’ exposure to the scorching\r\nsun of the Line. They felt our skin, much in the same way that a silk\r\nmercer would handle a remarkably fine piece of satin; and some of them\r\nwent so far in their investigation as to apply the olfactory organ.\r\n\r\nTheir singular behaviour almost led me to imagine that they never before\r\nhad beheld a white man; but a few moments’ reflection convinced me that\r\nthis could not have been the case; and a more satisfactory reason for\r\ntheir conduct has since suggested itself to my mind.\r\n\r\nDeterred by the frightful stories related of its inhabitants, ships\r\nnever enter this bay, while their hostile relations with the tribes in\r\nthe adjoining valleys prevent the Typees from visiting that section of\r\nthe island where vessels occasionally lie. At long intervals, however,\r\nsome intrepid captain will touch on the skirts of the bay, with two or\r\nthree armed boats’ crews and accompanied by interpreters. The natives\r\nwho live near the sea descry the strangers long before they reach their\r\nwaters, and aware of the purpose for which they come, proclaim loudly\r\nthe news of their approach. By a species of vocal telegraph the\r\nintelligence reaches the inmost recesses of the vale in an inconceivably\r\nshort space of time, drawing nearly its whole population down to\r\nthe beach laden with every variety of fruit. The interpreter, who is\r\ninvariably a ‘tabooed Kanaka’ *, leaps ashore with the goods intended for\r\nbarter, while the boats, with their oars shipped, and every man on his\r\nthwart, lie just outside the surf, heading off the shore, in readiness\r\nat the first untoward event to escape to the open sea. As soon as the\r\ntraffic is concluded, one of the boats pulls in under cover of the\r\nmuskets of the others, the fruit is quickly thrown into her, and the\r\ntransient visitors precipitately retire from what they justly consider\r\nso dangerous a vicinity.\r\n\r\n* The word ‘Kanaka’ is at the present day universally used in the South\r\nSeas by Europeans to designate the Islanders. In the various dialects\r\nof the principal groups it is simply a sexual designation applied to\r\nthe males; but it is now used by the natives in their intercourse with\r\nforeigners in the same sense in which the latter employ it.\r\n\r\nA ‘Tabooed Kanaka’ is an islander whose person has been made to a\r\ncertain extent sacred by the operation of a singular custom hereafter to\r\nbe explained.\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ78VYYNFBKPK3F8V40N","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM6P7N377J1KZH51V4WWQ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM6P7ERDE1EAEGY0HH9K0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.383Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:35.907Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}