Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated) (815 page)

A little ahead of us, a young gentleman, very well tattooed, and dressed in a pair of white trousers and a flannel shirt, had been marching unconcernedly.  Of a sudden, without apparent cause, he turned back, took us in possession, and led us undissuadably along a by-path to the river’s edge.  There, in a nook of the most attractive amenity, he bade us to sit down: the stream splashing at our elbow, a shock of nondescript greenery enshrining us from above; and thither, after a brief absence, he brought us a cocoa-nut, a lump of sandal-wood, and a stick he had begun to carve: the nut for present refreshment, the sandal-wood for a precious gift, and the stick - in the simplicity of his vanity - to harvest premature praise.  Only one section was yet carved, although the whole was pencil-marked in lengths; and when I proposed to buy it, Poni (for that was the artist’s name) recoiled in horror.  But I was not to be moved, and simply refused restitution, for I had long wondered why a people who displayed, in their tattooing, so great a gift of arabesque invention, should display it nowhere else.  Here, at last, I had found something of the same talent in another medium; and I held the incompleteness, in these days of world-wide brummagem, for a happy mark of authenticity.  Neither my reasons nor my purpose had I the means of making clear to Poni; I could only hold on to the stick, and bid the artist follow me to the gendarmerie, where I should find interpreters and money; but we gave him, in the meanwhile, a boat-call in return for his sandal-wood.  As he came behind us down the vale he sounded upon this continually.  And continually, from the wayside houses, there poured forth little groups of girls in crimson, or of men in white.  And to these must Poni pass the news of who the strangers were, of what they had been doing, of why it was that Poni had a boat-whistle; and of why he was now being haled to the vice-residency, uncertain whether to be punished or rewarded, uncertain whether he had lost a stick or made a bargain, but hopeful on the whole, and in the meanwhile highly consoled by the boat-whistle.  Whereupon he would tear himself away from this particular group of inquirers, and once more we would hear the shrill call in our wake.

August
27. - I made a more extended circuit in the vale with Brother Michel.  We were mounted on a pair of sober nags, suitable to these rude paths; the weather was exquisite, and the company in which I found myself no less agreeable than the scenes through which I passed.  We mounted at first by a steep grade along the summit of one of those twisted spurs that, from a distance, mark out provinces of sun and shade upon the mountain-side.  The ground fell away on either hand with an extreme declivity.  From either hand, out of profound ravines, mounted the song of falling water and the smoke of household fires.  Here and there the hills of foliage would divide, and our eye would plunge down upon one of these deep-nested habitations.  And still, high in front, arose the precipitous barrier of the mountain, greened over where it seemed that scarce a harebell could find root, barred with the zigzags of a human road where it seemed that not a goat could scramble.  And in truth, for all the labour that it cost, the road is regarded even by the Marquesans as impassable; they will not risk a horse on that ascent; and those who lie to the westward come and go in their canoes.  I never knew a hill to lose so little on a near approach: a consequence, I must suppose, of its surprising steepness.  When we turned about, I was amazed to behold so deep a view behind, and so high a shoulder of blue sea, crowned by the whale-like island of Motane.  And yet the wall of mountain had not visibly dwindled, and I could even have fancied, as I raised my eyes to measure it, that it loomed higher than before.

We struck now into covert paths, crossed and heard more near at hand the bickering of the streams, and tasted the coolness of those recesses where the houses stood.  The birds sang about us as we descended.  All along our path my guide was being hailed by voices: ‘Mikaël - Kaoha, Mikaël!’  From the doorstep, from the cotton-patch, or out of the deep grove of island-chestnuts, these friendly cries arose, and were cheerily answered as we passed.  In a sharp angle of a glen, on a rushing brook and under fathoms of cool foliage, we struck a house upon a well-built paepae, the fire brightly burning under the popoi-shed against the evening meal; and here the cries became a chorus, and the house folk, running out, obliged us to dismount and breathe.  It seemed a numerous family: we saw eight at least; and one of these honoured me with a particular attention.  This was the mother, a woman naked to the waist, of an aged countenance, but with hair still copious and black, and breasts still erect and youthful.  On our arrival I could see she remarked me, but instead of offering any greeting, disappeared at once into the bush.  Thence she returned with two crimson flowers.  ‘Good-bye!’ was her salutation, uttered not without coquetry; and as she said it she pressed the flowers into my hand - ‘Good-bye!  I speak Inglis.’  It was from a whaler-man, who (she informed me) was ‘a plenty good chap,’ that she had learned my language; and I could not but think how handsome she must have been in these times of her youth, and could not but guess that some memories of the dandy whaler-man prompted her attentions to myself.  Nor could I refrain from wondering what had befallen her lover; in the rain and mire of what sea-ports he had tramped since then; in what close and garish drinking-dens had found his pleasure; and in the ward of what infirmary dreamed his last of the Marquesas.  But she, the more fortunate, lived on in her green island.  The talk, in this lost house upon the mountains, ran chiefly upon Mapiao and his visits to the
Casco
: the news of which had probably gone abroad by then to all the island, so that there was no paepae in Hiva-oa where they did not make the subject of excited comment.

Not much beyond we came upon a high place in the foot of the ravine.  Two roads divided it, and met in the midst.  Save for this intersection the amphitheatre was strangely perfect, and had a certain ruder air of things Roman.  Depths of foliage and the bulk of the mountain kept it in a grateful shadow.  On the benches several young folk sat clustered or apart.  One of these, a girl perhaps fourteen years of age, buxom and comely, caught the eye of Brother Michel.  Why was she not at school? - she was done with school now.  What was she doing here? - she lived here now.  Why so? - no answer but a deepening blush.  There was no severity in Brother Michel’s manner; the girl’s own confusion told her story.  ‘
Elle a honte
,’ was the missionary’s comment, as we rode away.  Near by in the stream, a grown girl was bathing naked in a goyle between two stepping-stones; and it amused me to see with what alacrity and real alarm she bounded on her many-coloured under-clothes.  Even in these daughters of cannibals shame was eloquent.

It is in Hiva-oa, owing to the inveterate cannibalism of the natives, that local beliefs have been most rudely trodden underfoot.  It was here that three religious chiefs were set under a bridge, and the women of the valley made to defile over their heads upon the road-way: the poor, dishonoured fellows sitting there (all observers agree) with streaming tears.  Not only was one road driven across the high place, but two roads intersected in its midst.  There is no reason to suppose that the last was done of purpose, and perhaps it was impossible entirely to avoid the numerous sacred places of the islands.  But these things are not done without result.  I have spoken already of the regard of Marquesans for the dead, making (as it does) so strange a contrast with their unconcern for death.  Early on this day’s ride, for instance, we encountered a petty chief, who inquired (of course) where we were going, and suggested by way of amendment.  ‘Why do you not rather show him the cemetery?’  I saw it; it was but newly opened, the third within eight years.  They are great builders here in Hiva-oa; I saw in my ride paepaes that no European dry-stone mason could have equalled, the black volcanic stones were laid so justly, the corners were so precise, the levels so true; but the retaining-wall of the new graveyard stood apart, and seemed to be a work of love.  The sentiment of honour for the dead is therefore not extinct.  And yet observe the consequence of violently countering men’s opinions.  Of the four prisoners in Atuona gaol, three were of course thieves; the fourth was there for sacrilege.  He had levelled up a piece of the graveyard - to give a feast upon, as he informed the court - and declared he had no thought of doing wrong.  Why should he?  He had been forced at the point of the bayonet to destroy the sacred places of his own piety; when he had recoiled from the task, he had been jeered at for a superstitious fool.  And now it is supposed he will respect our European superstitions as by second nature.

CHAPTER XV - THE TWO CHIEFS OF ATUONA

It had chanced (as the
Casco
beat through the Bordelais Straits for Taahauku) she approached on one board very near the land in the opposite isle of Tauata, where houses were to be seen in a grove of tall coco-palms.  Brother Michel pointed out the spot.  ‘I am at home now,’ said he.  ‘I believe I have a large share in these cocoa-nuts; and in that house madame my mother lives with her two husbands!’  ‘With two husbands?’ somebody inquired.  ‘
C’est ma honte
,’ replied the brother drily.

A word in passing on the two husbands.  I conceive the brother to have expressed himself loosely.  It seems common enough to find a native lady with two consorts; but these are not two husbands.  The first is still the husband; the wife continues to be referred to by his name; and the position of the coadjutor, or
pikio
, although quite regular, appears undoubtedly subordinate.  We had opportunities to observe one household of the sort.  The
pikio
was recognised; appeared openly along with the husband when the lady was thought to be insulted, and the pair made common cause like brothers.  At home the inequality was more apparent.  The husband sat to receive and entertain visitors; the
pikio
was running the while to fetch cocoa-nuts like a hired servant, and I remarked he was sent on these errands in preference even to the son.  Plainly we have here no second husband; plainly we have the tolerated lover.  Only, in the Marquesas, instead of carrying his lady’s fan and mantle, he must turn his hand to do the husband’s housework.

The sight of Brother Michel’s family estate led the conversation for some while upon the method and consequence of artificial kinship.  Our curiosity became extremely whetted; the brother offered to have the whole of us adopted, and some two days later we became accordingly the children of Paaaeua, appointed chief of Atuona.  I was unable to be present at the ceremony, which was primitively simple.  The two Mrs. Stevensons and Mr. Osbourne, along with Paaaeua, his wife, and an adopted child of theirs, son of a shipwrecked Austrian, sat down to an excellent island meal, of which the principal and the only necessary dish was pig.  A concourse watched them through the apertures of the house; but none, not even Brother Michel, might partake; for the meal was sacramental, and either creative or declaratory of the new relationship.  In Tahiti things are not so strictly ordered; when Ori and I ‘made brothers,’ both our families sat with us at table, yet only he and I, who had eaten with intention were supposed to be affected by the ceremony.  For the adoption of an infant I believe no formality to be required; the child is handed over by the natural parents, and grows up to inherit the estates of the adoptive.  Presents are doubtless exchanged, as at all junctures of island life, social or international; but I never heard of any banquet - the child’s presence at the daily board perhaps sufficing.  We may find the rationale in the ancient Arabian idea that a common diet makes a common blood, with its derivative axiom that ‘he is the father who gives the child its morning draught.’  In the Marquesan practice, the sense would thus be evanescent; from the Tahitian, a mere survival, it will have entirely fled.  An interesting parallel will probably occur to many of my readers.

What is the nature of the obligation assumed at such a festival?  It will vary with the characters of those engaged, and with the circumstances of the case.  Thus it would be absurd to take too seriously our adoption at Atuona.  On the part of Paaaeua it was an affair of social ambition; when he agreed to receive us in his family the man had not so much as seen us, and knew only that we were inestimably rich and travelled in a floating palace.  We, upon our side, ate of his baked meats with no true
animus affiliandi
, but moved by the single sentiment of curiosity.  The affair was formal, and a matter of parade, as when in Europe sovereigns call each other cousin.  Yet, had we stayed at Atuona, Paaaeua would have held himself bound to establish us upon his land, and to set apart young men for our service, and trees for our support.  I have mentioned the Austrian.  He sailed in one of two sister ships, which left the Clyde in coal; both rounded the Horn, and both, at several hundred miles of distance, though close on the same point of time, took fire at sea on the Pacific.  One was destroyed; the derelict iron frame of the second, after long, aimless cruising, was at length recovered, refitted, and hails to-day from San Francisco.  A boat’s crew from one of these disasters reached, after great hardships, the isle of Hiva-oa.  Some of these men vowed they would never again confront the chances of the sea; but alone of them all the Austrian has been exactly true to his engagement, remains where he landed, and designs to die where he has lived.  Now, with such a man, falling and taking root among islanders, the processes described may be compared to a gardener’s graft.  He passes bodily into the native stock; ceases wholly to be alien; has entered the commune of the blood, shares the prosperity and consideration of his new family, and is expected to impart with the same generosity the fruits of his European skill and knowledge.  It is this implied engagement that so frequently offends the ingrafted white.  To snatch an immediate advantage - to get (let us say) a station for his store - he will play upon the native custom and become a son or a brother for the day, promising himself to cast down the ladder by which he shall have ascended, and repudiate the kinship so soon as it shall grow burdensome.  And he finds there are two parties to the bargain.  Perhaps his Polynesian relative is simple, and conceived the blood-bond literally; perhaps he is shrewd, and himself entered the covenant with a view to gain.  And either way the store is ravaged, the house littered with lazy natives; and the richer the man grows, the more numerous, the more idle, and the more affectionate he finds his native relatives.  Most men thus circumstanced contrive to buy or brutally manage to enforce their independence; but many vegetate without hope, strangled by parasites.