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_ OUR place of confinement being open all round, and so near the Broom
Road, of course we were in plain sight of everybody passing; and,
therefore, we had no lack of visitors among such an idle, inquisitive
set as the Tahitians. For a few days, they were coming and going
continually; while, thus ignobly fast by the foot, we were fain to
give passive audience.
During this period, we were the lions of the neighbourhood; and, no
doubt, strangers from the distant villages were taken to see the
"Karhowrees" (white men), in the same way that countrymen, in a city,
are gallanted to the Zoological Gardens.
All this gave us a fine opportunity of making observations. I was
painfully struck by the considerable number of sickly or deformed
persons; undoubtedly made so by a virulent complaint, which, under
native treatment, almost invariably affects, in the end, the muscles
and bones of the body. In particular, there is a distortion of the
back, most unsightly to behold, originating in a horrible form of the
malady.
Although this, and other bodily afflictions, were unknown before the
discovery of the islands by the whites, there are several cases found
of the Pa-Fa, or Elephantiasis--a native disease, which seems to have
prevailed among them from the earliest antiquity. Affecting the legs
and feet alone, it swells them, in some instances, to the girth of a
man's body, covering the skin with scales. It might be supposed that
one, thus afflicted, would be incapable of walking; but, to all
appearance, they seem to be nearly as active as anybody; apparently
suffering no pain, and bearing the calamity with a degree of
cheerfulness truly marvellous.
The Fa-Fa is very gradual in its approaches, and years elapse before
the limb is fully swollen. Its origin is ascribed by the natives to
various causes; but the general impression seems to be that it
arises, in most cases, from the eating of unripe bread-fruit and
Indian turnip. So far as I could find out, it is not hereditary. In no
stage do they attempt a cure; the complaint being held incurable.
Speaking of the Fa-Fa reminds me of a poor fellow, a sailor, whom I
afterward saw at Roorootoo, a lone island, some two days' sail from
Tahiti.
The island is very small, and its inhabitants nearly extinct. We sent
a boat off to see whether any yams were to be had, as, formerly, the
yams of Roorootoo were as famous among the islands round about, as
Sicily oranges in the Mediterranean. Going ashore, to my surprise, I
was accosted, near a little shanty of a church, by a white man, who
limped forth from a wretched hut. His hair and beard were unshorn,
his face deadly pale and haggard, and one limb swelled with the Fa-Fa
to an incredible bigness. This was the first instance of a foreigner
suffering from it that I had ever seen, or heard of; and the
spectacle shocked me accordingly.
He had been there for years. From the first symptoms, he could not
believe his complaint to be what it really was, and trusted it would
soon disappear. But when it became plain that his only chance for
recovery was a speedy change of climate, no ship would receive him as
a sailor: to think of being taken as a passenger was idle. This
speaks little for the humanity of sea captains; but the truth is that
those in the Pacific have little enough of the virtue; and, nowadays,
when so many charitable appeals are made to them, they have become
callous.
I pitied the poor fellow from the bottom of my heart; but nothing
could I do, as our captain was inexorable. "Why," said he, "here we
are--started on a six months' cruise--I can't put back; and he is
better off on the island than at sea. So on Roorootoo he must die."
And probably he did.
I afterwards heard of this melancholy object, from two seamen. His
attempts to leave were still unavailing, and his hard fate was fast
closing in.
Notwithstanding the physical degeneracy of the Tahitians as a people,
among the chiefs, individuals of personable figures are still
frequently met with; and, occasionally, majestic-looking men, and
diminutive women as lovely as the nymphs who, nearly a century ago,
swam round the ships of Wallis. In these instances, Tahitian beauty
is quite as seducing as it proved to the crew of the Bounty; the
young girls being just such creatures as a poet would picture in the
tropics--soft, plump, and dreamy-eyed.
The natural complexion of both sexes is quite light; but the males
appear much darker, from their exposure to the sun. A dark
complexion, however, in a man, is highly esteemed, as indicating
strength of both body and soul. Hence there is a saying, of great
antiquity among them,
"If dark the cheek of the mother, The son will sound the war-conch; If
strong her frame, he will give laws."
With this idea of manliness, no wonder the Tahitians regarded all pale
and tepid-looking Europeans as weak and feminine; whereas, a sailor,
with a cheek like the breast of a roast turkey, is held a lad of
brawn: to use their own phrase, a "taata tona," or man of bones.
Speaking of bones recalls an ugly custom of theirs, now obsolete--that
of making fish-hooks and gimlets out of those of their enemies. This
beats the Scandinavians turning people's skulls into cups and
saucers.
But to return to the Calabooza Beretanee. Immense was the interest we
excited among the throngs that called there; they would stand talking
about us by the hour, growing most unnecessarily excited too, and
dancing up and down with all the vivacity of their race. They
invariably sided with us; flying out against the consul, and
denouncing him as "Ita maitai nuee," or very bad exceedingly. They
must have borne him some grudge or other.
Nor were the women, sweet souls, at all backward in visiting. Indeed,
they manifested even more interest than the men; gazing at us with
eyes full of a thousand meanings, and conversing with marvellous
rapidity. But, alas! inquisitive though they were, and, doubtless,
taking some passing compassion on us, there was little real feeling
in them after all, and still less sentimental sympathy. Many of them
laughed outright at us, noting only what was ridiculous in our
plight.
I think it was the second day of our confinement that a wild,
beautiful girl burst into the Calabooza, and, throwing herself into
an arch attitude, stood afar off, and gazed at us. She was a
heartless one:--tickled to death with Black Dan's nursing his chafed
ankle, and indulging in certain moral reflections on the consul and
Captain Guy. After laughing her fill at him, she condescended to
notice the rest; glancing from one to another in the most methodical
and provoking manner imaginable. Whenever anything struck her
comically, you saw it like a flash--her finger levelled
instantaneously, and, flinging herself back, she gave loose to
strange, hollow little notes of laughter, that sounded like the bass
of a music-box, playing a lively air with the lid down.
Now, I knew not that there was anything in my own appearance
calculated to disarm ridicule; and indeed, to have looked at all
heroic, under the circumstances, would have been rather difficult.
Still, I could not but feel exceedingly annoyed at the prospect of
being screamed at, in turn, by this mischievous young witch, even
though she were but an islander. And, to tell a secret, her beauty
had something to do with this sort of feeling; and, pinioned as I was
to a log, and clad most unbecomingly, I began to grow sentimental.
Ere her glance fell upon me, I had, unconsciously, thrown myself into
the most graceful attitude I could assume, leaned my head upon my
hand, and summoned up as abstracted an expression as possible. Though
my face was averted, I soon felt it flush, and knew that the glance
was on me; deeper and deeper grew the flush, and not a sound of
laughter.
Delicious thought! she was moved at the sight of me. I could stand it
no longer, but started up. Lo! there she was; her great hazel eyes
rounding and rounding in her head, like two stars, her whole frame in
a merry quiver, and an expression about the mouth that was sudden and
violent death to anything like sentiment.
The next moment she spun round, and, bursting from peal to peal of
laughter, went racing out of the Calabooza; and, in mercy to me,
never returned. _
Read next: PART I: CHAPTER XXXIV. LIFE AT THE CALABOOZA
Read previous: PART I: CHAPTER XXXII. PROCEEDINGS OF THE FRENCH AT TAHITI
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