{"id":"01KG8AM7VCCX2Q29AF9P6Q49BJ","cid":"bafkreigohuon5zm2jvkrj3sqzai7lvrk55w2xa75ic3jmkaa4v65ncnyvq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9651,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 6","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":9598,"text":"shooting down a noble cock that was crowing what proved to be his own\r\nfuneral dirge, on the limb of an adjoining tree. ‘Taboo’, shrieked the\r\naffrighted savages. ‘Oh, hang your taboo,’ says the nautical sportsman;\r\n‘talk taboo to the marines’; and bang went the piece again, and down\r\ncame another victim. At this the natives ran scampering through the\r\ngroves, horror-struck at the enormity of the act.\r\n\r\nAll that afternoon the rocky sides of the valley rang with successive\r\nreports, and the superb plumage of many a beautiful fowl was ruffled by\r\nthe fatal bullet. Had it not been that the French admiral, with a large\r\nparty, was then in the glen, I have no doubt that the natives, although\r\ntheir tribe was small and dispirited, would have inflicted summary\r\nvengeance upon the man who thus outraged their most sacred institutions;\r\nas it was, they contrived to annoy him not a little.\r\n\r\nThirsting with his exertions, the skipper directed his steps to\r\na stream; but the savages, who had followed at a little distance,\r\nperceiving his object, rushed towards him and forced him away from its\r\nbank--his lips would have polluted it. Wearied at last, he sought to\r\nenter a house that he might rest for a while on the mats; its inmates\r\ngathered tumultuously about the door and denied him admittance. He\r\ncoaxed and blustered by turns, but in vain; the natives were neither\r\nto be intimidated nor appeased, and as a final resort he was obliged\r\nto call together his boat’s crew, and pull away from what he termed the\r\nmost infernal place he ever stepped upon.\r\n\r\nLucky was it for him and for us that we were not honoured on our\r\ndeparture by a salute of stones from the hands of the exasperated Tiors.\r\nIn this way, on the neighbouring island of Ropo, were killed, but a few\r\nweeks previously, and for a nearly similar offence, the master and three\r\nof the crew of the K---.\r\n\r\nI cannot determine with anything approaching to certainty, what power\r\nit is that imposes the taboo. When I consider the slight disparity\r\nof condition among the islanders--the very limited and inconsiderable\r\nprerogatives of the king and chiefs--and the loose and indefinite\r\nfunctions of the priesthood, most of whom were hardly to be\r\ndistinguished from the rest of their countrymen, I am wholly at a loss\r\nwhere to look for the authority which regulates this potent institution.\r\nIt is imposed upon something today, and withdrawn tomorrow; while its\r\noperations in other cases are perpetual. Sometimes its restrictions only\r\naffect a single individual--sometimes a particular family--sometimes\r\na whole tribe; and in a few instances they extend not merely over the\r\nvarious clans on a single island, but over all the inhabitants of an\r\nentire group. In illustration of this latter peculiarity, I may cite\r\nthe law which forbids a female to enter a canoe--a prohibition which\r\nprevails upon all the northern Marquesas Islands.\r\n\r\nThe word itself (taboo) is used in more than one signification. It\r\nis sometimes used by a parent to his child, when in the exercise\r\nof parental authority he forbids it to perform a particular action.\r\nAnything opposed to the ordinary customs of the islanders, although not\r\nexpressly prohibited, is said to be ‘taboo’.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 6"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRVDMZY05FRQ5JENW1SE","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM7VH6KKKP29WEZ0GGPHD","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM7VHY3WYD8HQMEQ6N01T","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:30.572Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:43.115Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}