Chap. III Description of the New Island; Manners and Character of Its
inhabitants.
Lucis habitamus opacis,
Riparumque toros & prata recentia rivis
Incolimus.
Virg. Æneid. Lib. VI.
The isle which at first was called New Cythera, is known by the name of Taiti amongst its inhabitants. |Geographical position of Taiti.| Its latitude has been determined in our camp, from several meridian altitudes of the sun, observed on shore with a quadrant. Its longitude has been ascertained by eleven observations of the moon, according to the method of the horary angles. M. Verron had made many others on shore, during four days and four nights, to determine the same longitude; but the paper on which he wrote them having been stolen, he has only kept the last observations, made the day before our departure. He believes their result exact enough, though their extremes differ among themselves 7° or 8°. The loss of our anchors, and all the accidents I have mentioned before, obliged us to leave this place much sooner than we intended, and have made it impossible for us to survey its coasts. The southern part of it is entirely unknown to us; that which we have observed from the S. E. to the N. W. point, seems to be fifteen or twenty leagues in extent, and the position of its principal points, is between N. W. and W. N. W.
Better anchorage than that where we were.
Between the S. E. point and another great cape advancing to the northward, about seven or eight leagues from the former, you see a bay open to the N. E. which has three or four leagues depth. Its shores gradually descend towards the bottom of the bay, where they have but little height, and seem to form the finest and best peopled district of the whole island. It seems it would be easy to find several good anchoring-places in this bay. We were very ill served by fortune in meeting with our anchorage. In entering into it by the passage where the Etoile came out at, M. de la Giraudais assured me, that between the two most northerly isles, there was a very safe anchorage for at least thirty ships; that there was from twenty-three to between twelve and ten fathom of water, grey sand and ooze; that there was a birth of a league in extent, and never any sea. The rest of the shore is high, and seems in general to be quite surrounded by a reef, unequally covered by the sea, and forming little isles in some parts, on which the islanders keep up fires at night on account of their fishery, and for the safety of their navigation; some gaps from space to space form entrances to the part within the reefs, but the bottom must not be too much relied upon. The lead never brings up any thing but a grey sand; this sand covers great masses of hard and sharp coral, which can cut through a cable in one night, as fatal experience taught us.
Beyond the north point of this bay, the coast forms no creek, nor no remarkable cape. The most westerly point is terminated by a low ground, from which to the N. W. and at about a league’s distance, you see a low isle, extending two or three leagues to the N. W.
Aspect of the country.
The height of the mountains in the interior parts of Taiti, is surprising in respect to the extent of the island. Far from making its aspect gloomy and wild, they serve only to embellish it, offering to the eye many prospects and beautiful landscapes, covered with the richest productions of nature, in that beautiful disorder which it was never in the power of art to imitate. From thence spring a vast number of little rivulets, which greatly contribute to the fertility of the country, and serve no less to supply the wants of the inhabitants than to adorn and heighten the charms of the plains. All the flat country, from the sea-shore to the foot of the mountains, is destined for the fruit-trees, under which, as I have already observed before, the houses of the people of Taiti are built, without order, and without forming any villages. One would think himself in the Elysian fields: Public paths, very judiciously laid out, and carefully kept in a good condition form the most easy communication with every part of the country.
Its productions.
The chief productions of the isle are 99cocoa-nuts, plantains or bananas, the bread-fruit, yams, curassol, okras, and several other roots and fruits peculiar to the country: plenty of sugar-canes which are not cultivated, a species of wild indigo, a very fine red and a yellow substance for dying, of which I cannot say from whence they get them. In general, M. de Commerçon has found the same kinds of vegetables there as are common in India. Aotourou, whilst he was amongst us, knew and named several of our fruits and legumes, and a considerable number of plants, cultivated by the curious, in hot-houses. The wood which is fit for carpenters work grew on the mountains, and the islanders make little use of it; they only employ it for their great periaguas, which they make of cedar wood. We have likewise seen pikes of a black, hard and heavy wood among them, very like iron-wood. For building their common periaguas, they make use of the tree which bears the bread-fruit. This is a wood which will not split, but is so soft and full of gum, that it is only as it were bruised when worked with a tool.
It does not appear that there are any mines.
This isle, though abounding with very high mountains, does not seem to contain any minerals, since the hills are every where covered with trees and other plants100. At least it is certain that the islanders do not know any metals. They give the same name of aouri, by which they asked us for iron, to all the kinds of metals we could shew them. But in what manner they became acquainted with iron, is not easily understood; however, I shall soon mention what I think on this subject. |There are fine pearls.| I know of only a single rich article of commerce, viz. very fine pearls. The wives and children of the chief people wear them at their ears; but they hid them during our stay amongst them. They make a kind of castanets of the shells of the pearl-oyster, and this is one of the instruments employed by their dancers.
Animals of the country.
We have seen no other quadrupeds than hogs, a small but pretty sort of dogs, and rats in abundance. The inhabitants have domestic cocks and hens, exactly like ours. We have likewise seen beautiful green turtle doves, large pigeons of a deep blue plumage and excellent taste, and a very small sort of perrokeets, very singular on account of the various mixture of blue and red in their feathers. The people feed their hogs and their fowls with nothing but plantains. Taking together what has been consumed by us on shore, and what we have embarked in both ships, we have in all got by our exchanges, upwards of eight hundred fowls, and near one hundred and fifty hogs; and if it had not been for the troublesome work on the last days, we should have got much more, for the inhabitants brought every day a greater quantity of them.
Meteorological observations.
We have not observed great heat in this island. During our stay, Reaumur’s thermometer never rose above 22°, and was sometimes at 18°, but it may be observed that the sun was already eight or nine degrees on the other side of the equator. However, this isle has another inestimable advantage, which is that of not being infested by those myriads of troublesome insects that are the plague of other tropical countries: neither have we observed any venomous animals in it. |Goodness of the climate: vigour of the inhabitants.| The climate upon the whole is so healthy, that notwithstanding the hard work we have done in this island, though our men were continually in the water, and exposed to the meridian sun, though they slept upon the bare soil and in the open air, none of them fell sick there. Those of our men who were sent on shore because they were afflicted with the scurvy, have not passed one night there quietly, yet they regained their strength, and were so far recovered in the short space of time they staid on shore, that some of them were afterwards perfectly cured on board. In short, what better proofs can we desire of the salubrity of the air, and the good regimen which the inhabitants observe, than the health and strength of these same islanders, who inhabit huts exposed to all the winds, and hardly cover the earth which serves them as a bed with a few leaves; the happy old age to which they attain without feeling any of its inconveniences; the acuteness of all their senses; and lastly, the singular beauty of their teeth, which they keep even in the most advanced age?
Their nourishment.
Vegetables and fish are their principal food; they seldom eat flesh, their children and young girls never eat any; and this doubtless serves to keep them free from almost all our diseases. I must say the same of their drink; they know of no other beverage than water. The very smell of wine or brandy disgusted them; they likewise shewed their aversion to tobacco, spices, and in general to every thing strong.
There are two races of men in the isle.
The inhabitants of Taiti consist of two races of men, very different from each other, but speaking the same language, having the same customs, and seemingly mixing without distinction. The first, which is the most numerous one, produces men of the greatest size; it is very common to see them measure six (Paris) feet and upwards in height. I never saw men better made, and whose limbs were more proportionate: in order to paint a Hercules or a Mars, one could no where find such beautiful models. Nothing distinguishes their features from those of the Europeans: and if they were cloathed; if they lived less in the open air, and were less exposed to the sun at noon, they would be as white as ourselves: their hair in general is black. The second race are of a middle size, have frizzled hair as hard as bristles, and both in colour and features they differ but little from mulattoes. The Taiti man who embarked with us, is of this second race, though his father is chief of a district: but he possesses in understanding what he wants in beauty.
Account of some of their customs.
Both races let the lower part of the beard grow, but they all have their whiskers, and the upper part of the cheeks shaved. They likewise let all their nails grow, except that on the middle finger of the right hand. Some of them cut their hair very short, others let it grow, and wear it fastened on the top of the head. They have all got the custom of anointing or oiling it and their beard with cocoa-nut oil. I have met with only a single cripple amongst them; and he seemed to have been maimed by a fall. Our surgeon assured me, that he had on several of them observed marks of the small-pox; and I took all possible measures to prevent our people’s communicating the other sort to them; as I could not suppose that they were already infected with it.
Their dress.
The inhabitants of Taiti are often seen quite naked, having no other clothes than a sash, which covers their natural parts. However, the chief people among them generally wrap themselves in a great piece of cloth, which hangs down to their knees. This is likewise the only dress of the women; and they know how to place it so artfully, as to make this simple dress susceptible of coquetry. As the women of Taiti never go out into the sun, without being covered; and always have a little hat, made of canes, and adorned with flowers, to defend their faces against its rays; their complexions are, of course, much fairer than those of the men. Their features are very delicate; but what distinguishes them, is the beauty of their bodies, of which the contour has not been disfigured by a torture of fifteen years duration.
Custom of puncturing the skin.
Whilst the women in Europe paint their cheeks red, those of Taiti dye their loins and buttocks of a deep blue. This is an ornament, and at the same time a mark of distinction. The men are subject to the same fashion. I cannot say how they do to impress these indelible marks, unless it is by puncturing the skin, and pouring the juice of certain herbs upon it, as I have seen it practised by the natives of Canada. It is remarkable, that this custom of painting has always been found to be received among nations who bordered upon a state of nature. When Cæsar made his first descent upon England, he found this fashion established there; omnes vero Britanni se vitro insiciunt, quod cæruleum efficit Colorem. The learned and ingenious author of the Recherches philosophiques sur les Americains101, thinks this general custom owes its rise to the necessity of defending the body from the puncture of insects, multiplying beyond conception in uncultivated countries. This cause, however, does not exist at Taiti, since, as we have already said above, the people there are not troubled with such insupportable insects. The custom of painting is accordingly a mere fashion, the same as at Paris. Another custom at Taiti, common to men and women, is, to pierce their ears, and to wear in them pearls or flowers of all sorts. The greatest degree of cleanliness further adorns this amiable nation; they constantly bathe, and never eat nor drink without washing before and after it.
Interior policy.
The character of the nation has appeared mild and beneficent to us. Though the isle is divided into many little districts, each of which has its own master, yet there does not seem to be any civil war, or any private hatred in the isle. It is probable, that the people of Taiti deal amongst each other with unquestioned sincerity. Whether they be at home or no, by day or by night, their houses are always open. Every one gathers fruits from the first tree he meets with, or takes some in any house into which he enters. It should seem as if, in regard to things absolutely necessary for the maintainance of life, there was no personal property amongst them, and that they all had an equal right to those articles. In regard to us, they were expert thieves; but so fearful, as to run away at the least menace. It likewise appeared, that the chiefs disapproved of their thefts, and that they desired us to kill those who committed them. Ereti, however, did not himself employ that severity which he recommended to us. When we pointed out a thief to him, he himself pursued him as fast as possible; the man fled; and if he was overtaken, which was commonly the case, for Ereti was indefatigable in the pursuit, some lashes, and a forced restitution of the stolen goods, was all the punishment inflicted on the guilty. I at first believed they knew of no greater punishment; for when they saw that some of our people were put in irons, they expressed great concern for them; but I have since learnt, that they have undoubtedly the custom of hanging thieves upon trees, as it is practised in our armies.
They are at war with the neighbouring islands.
They are almost constantly at war with the inhabitants of the neighbouring isles. We have seen the great periaguas, which they make use of to make descents, and even in sea-fights. Their arms are the bow, the sling, and a kind of pike of a very hard wood. They make war in a very cruel manner. According to Aotourou’s information, they kill all the men and male children taken in battle; they strip the skins, with the beards from the chins, and carry them off as trophies of their victory, only preferring the wives and daughters of their enemies, whom the conquerors do not disdain to admit to their bed. Aotourou himself is the son of a chief of Taiti, and of a captive woman from the isle of Oopoa, which is near Taiti, and often at war with its inhabitants. To this mixture I attribute the difference of the races we have observed among them. I am not acquainted with their method of healing wounds: our surgeons admired the scars which they saw.
Important custom.
I shall, towards the end of this chapter, give an account of what I have been able to discover, concerning their form of government, the extent of the power of their petty sovereigns, the kind of distinction existing between the men of note and the common people; and, lastly, the ties which unite together, under the same authority, this multitude of robust men, whose wants are so few. I shall only observe here, that in matters of consequence, the lord of the district does not give his decision without the advice of a council. I have mentioned above, that a deliberation of the people of note in the nation was required on the subject of our establishing a camp on shore. I must add too, that the chief seems to be implicitly obeyed by every body; and that the men of note have likewise people to serve them, and over whom they have an authority.
Customs on the subject of their dead.
It is very difficult to give an account of their religion. We have seen wooden statues among them, which we took for idols; but how did they worship them? The only religious ceremony, which we have been witnesses to, concerns the dead. They preserve their corpses a long while, extended on a kind of scaffold, covered by a shed. The infection which they spread does not prevent the women from going to weep around the corpse, during part of the day, and from anointing the cold relicks of their affection with cocoa-nut oil. Those women, with whom we were acquainted, would sometimes allow us to come near these places, which are consecrated to the manes of the deceased; they told us emoé, he sleeps. When nothing but the skeletons remain, they carry them into their houses, and I do not know how long they keep them there. I only know, because I have seen it, that then a man of consideration among the people comes to exercise his sacred rites there; and that in these awful ceremonies, he wears ornaments which are much in request.
Superstition of the islanders.
We have asked Aotourou many questions concerning his religion; and believe, we understood that, in general his countrymen are very superstitious; that the priests have the highest authority amongst them; that besides a superior being, named Eri-t-Era, king of the sun or of light, and whom they do not represent by any material image, they have several divinities; some beneficent, others mischievous; that the name of these divinities or genii is Eatoua; that they suppose, that at each important action of human life, there presides a good and an evil genius; and that they decide its good or bad success. What we understand with certainty is, that when the moon has a certain aspect, which they call Malama Tamai, or moon in state of war102, (an aspect in which we have not been able to distinguish any characteristic mark, by which it could be defined) they sacrifice human victims. Of all their customs, one which most surprised me, is that of saluting those who sneeze by saying, Evaroua-t-eatoua, that the good eatoua may awaken thee, or that the evil eatoua may not lull thee asleep. These are marks which prove, that they have the same origin with the people of the old continent. Upon the whole, scepticism is reasonable, especially when we treat of the religion of different nations; as there is no subject in which it is more easy to be deceived by appearances.
Polygamy.
Polygamy seems established amongst them; at least it is so amongst the chief people. As love is their only passion, the great number of women is the only luxury of the opulent. Their children are taken care of, both by their fathers and their mothers. It is not the custom at Taiti, that the men occupied only with their fishery and their wars, leave to the weaker sex the toilsome works of husbandry and agriculture. Here a gentle indolence falls to the share of the women; and the endeavours to please, are their most serious occupation. I cannot say whether their marriage is a civil contract, or whether it is consecrated by religion; whether it is indissoluble, or subject to the laws of divorce. Be this as it will, the wives owe their husbands a blind submission; they would wash with their blood any infidelity committed without their husbands’ consent. That, it is true, is easily obtained; and jealousy is so unknown a passion here, that the husband is commonly the first who persuades his wife to yield to another. An unmarried woman suffers no constraint on that account; every thing invites her to follow the inclination of her heart, or the instinct of her sensuality; and public applause honours her defeat: nor does it appear, that how great soever the number of her previous lovers may have been, it should prove an obstacle to her meeting with a husband afterwards. Then wherefore should she resist the influence of the climate, or the seduction of examples? The very air which the people breathe, their songs, their dances, almost constantly attended with indecent postures, all conspire to call to mind the sweets of love, all engage to give themselves up to them. They dance to the sound of a kind of drum, and when they sing, they accompany their voices with a very soft kind of flute, with three or four holes, which, as I have observed above, they blow with their nose. They likewise practise a kind of wrestling; which, at the same time, is both exercise and play to them.
Character of the islanders.
Thus accustomed to live continually immersed in pleasure, the people of Taiti have acquired a witty and humorous temper, which is the offspring of ease and of joy. They likewise contracted from the same source a character of fickleness, which constantly amazed us. Every thing strikes them, yet nothing fixes their attention: amidst all the new objects, which we presented to them, we could never succeed in making them attend for two minutes together to any one. It seems as if the least reflection is a toilsome labour for them, and that they are still more averse to the exercises of the mind, than to those of the body.
Account of some of their works.
I shall not, however, accuse them of want of understanding. Their skill and ingenuity in the few necessary instances of industry, which notwithstanding the abundance of the country, and the temperature of the climate they cannot dispense with, would be sufficient to destroy such assertion. It is amazing with how much art their fishing tackle is contrived; their hooks are made of mother-of-pearl, as neatly wrought as if they were made by the help of our tools; their nets are exactly like ours; and knit with threads, taken from the great American Aloes. We admired the construction of their extensive houses, and the disposition of the leaves of the Thatch-palm, with which they are covered.
Construction of their boats.
They have two sorts of periaguas; some are little, and without much ornament; being made of a single stem of a tree hollowed out; the others are much larger, and wrought with much art. A hollow tree forms the bottom of the periagua; from the head, to two-thirds of the intended length, another tree forms the back part, which is bent, and greatly elevated; in so much, that the extremity of the stern rises five or fix feet above the water. These two pieces are joined together, as an arch of a circle; and as they have no nails to fasten them together with, they pierce the extremity of both pieces in several places, and by the means of strings, (made of the filaments which surround cocoa-nuts) they tie them together. The sides of the periagua are raised by two boards, about one foot broad, sewed to the bottom, and to each other, with the preceding sort of strings. They fill the seams with the fibrous substance round cocoa-nuts; but do not cover or pay them with any coating. A plank, which covers the head of the periagua, and projects about five or six feet beyond it, prevents its plunging entirely into the water, when there is a great sea. To make these light boats less subject to overset, they fix an out-rigger to one of its sides. This is nothing more than a pretty long piece of wood, supported by two cross pieces, of about four or five feet in length; the other end of which is fastened to the periagua. When she is sailing, a plank projects along the side, opposite to the out-rigger; a rope is fastened to it, which supports the mast, and it likewise makes the periagua stiffer, by placing a man or a weight at the end of the plank.
Their ingenuity appears still more to advantage in the means they employ to render these vessels proper to transport them to the neighbouring isles, with which they have a communication, having no other guides than the stars on such navigations. They fasten two great periaguas together alongside of each other, (leaving about four feet distance between them) by means, of some cross pieces of wood tied very fast to the starboard of one and larboard of the other boat. Over the stern of these two vessels thus joined, they place a hut, of a very light construction, covered by a roof of reeds. This apartment shelters them from the sun and rain, and at the same time affords them a proper place for keeping their provisions dry. These double periaguas can contain a great number of persons, and are never in danger of oversetting. We have always seen the chiefs make use of them; they are navigated both by a sail and by oars, as the single periaguas: the sails are composed of mats, extended on a square frame, formed by canes, of which one of the angles is rounded.
The Taiti people have no other tool for all these works than a chissel, the blade of which is made of a very hard black stone103. It is exactly of the same form as that of our carpenters, and they use it with great expertness: they use very sharp pieces of shells to bore holes into the wood.
Their cloths.
The manufacturing of that singular cloth, of which their dress is made up, is likewise one of their greatest arts. It is prepared from the rind of a shrub, which all the inhabitants cultivate around their houses. A square piece of hard wood, fluted on its four sides by furrows of different sizes, is made use of in beating the bark on a smooth board: they sprinkle some water on it during this operation, and thus they at last form a very equal fine cloth, of the nature of paper, but much more pliable, and less apt to be torn, to which they give a great breadth. They have several sorts of it, of a greater or less thickness, but all manufactured from the same substance: I am not acquainted with their methods of dying them.
Account of the Taiti-man, whom I brought to France.
I shall conclude this chapter in exculpating myself, for people oblige me to use this word, for having profited of the good will of Aotourou, and taken him on a voyage, which he certainly did not expect to be of such a length; and likewise, in giving an account of the information he has given me concerning his country, during the time that he has been with me.
Reasons for which I took him.
The zeal of this islander to follow us was unfeigned. The very first day of our arrival at Taiti, he manifested it to us in the most expressive manner, and the nation seemed to applaud his project. As we were forced to sail through an unknown ocean, and sure to owe all the assistance and refreshments on which our life depended, to the humanity of the people we should meet with, it was of great consequence to us to take a man on board from one of the most considerable islands in this ocean. It was to be supposed that he spoke the same language as his neighbours, that his manners were the same, and that his credit with them would be decisive in our favour, when he should inform them of our proceedings towards his countrymen, and our behaviour to him. Besides, supposing our country would profit of an union with a powerful people, living in the middle of the finest countries in the world, we could have no better pledge to cement such an alliance, than the eternal obligation which we were going to confer on this nation, by sending back their fellow-countryman well treated by us, and enriched by the useful knowledge which he would bring them. Would to God that the necessity and the zeal which inspired us, may not prove fatal to the bold Aotourou!
His stay at Paris.
I have spared neither money nor trouble to make his stay at Paris agreeable and useful to him. He has been there eleven months, during which he has not given any mark at all of being tired of his stay. The desire of seeing him has been very violent; idle curiosity, which has served only to give false ideas to men whose constant practice it is to traduce others, who never went beyond the capital, never examine any thing; and who being influenced by errors of all sorts, never cast an impartial eye upon any object; and yet pretend to decide with magisterial severity, and without appeal! How, said some of them to me, in this man’s country the people speak neither French, nor English, nor Spanish? What could I answer them? I was struck dumb; however, it was not on account of the surprize at hearing such a question asked. I was used to them, because I knew that at my arrival, many of those who even pass for people of abilities, maintained that I had not made the voyage round the world, because I had not been in China. Some other sharp critics conceived and propagated a very mean idea of the poor islander, because, after a stay of two years amongst Frenchmen, he could hardly speak a few words of the language. Do not we see every day, said they, that the Italians, English, and Germans learn the French in so short a time as one year at Paris? I could have answered them perhaps with some reason, that, besides the physical obstacle in the organs of speech of this islander, (which shall be mentioned in the sequel) which prevented his becoming conversant in our language, he was at least thirty years old; that his memory had never been exercised by any kind of study, nor had his mind ever been at work; that indeed an Italian, an Englishman, a German could in a year’s time speak a French jargon tolerably well, but that was not strange at all, as these strangers had a grammar like ours, as their moral, physical, political, and social ideas were the same with ours, and all expressed by certain words in their language as they are in French; that they had accordingly no more than a translation to fix in their memory, which had been exerted from their very infancy. The Taiti-man, on the contrary, only having a small number of ideas, relative on the one hand to a most simple and most limited society, and on the other, to wants which are reduced to the smallest number possible; he would have been obliged, first of all, as I may say, to create a world of previous ideas, in a mind which is as indolent as his body, before he could come so far as to adapt to them the words in our language, by which they are expressed. All this I might perhaps have answered: but this detail required some minutes of time, and I have always observed, that, loaded with questions as I was, whenever I was going to answer, the persons that had honoured me with them were already far from me. But it is common in a capital to meet with people who ask questions, not from an impulse of curiosity, or from a desire of acquiring knowledge, but as judges who are preparing to pronounce their judgment; and whether they hear the answer or no, it does not prevent them from giving their decision104.
However, though Aotourou could hardly blabber out some words of our language, yet he went out by himself every day, and passed through the whole town without once missing or losing his way. He often made some purchases, and hardly ever paid for things beyond their real value. The only shew which pleased him, was the opera, for he was excessively fond of dancing. He knew perfectly well upon what days this kind of entertainment was played; he went thither by himself, paid at the door the same as every body else, and his favourite place was in the galleries behind the boxes105. Among the great number of persons who have been desirous of seeing him, he always distinguished those who were obliging towards him, and his grateful heart never forgot them. He was particularly attached to the duchess of Choiseul, who has loaded him with favours, and especially shewed marks of concern and friendship for him, to which he was infinitely more sensible than to presents. Therefore, he would, of his own accord, go to visit this generous benefactress as often as he heard that she was come to town.
His departure from France.
He left Paris in March, 1770, and embarked at Rochelle, on board the Brisson, which was to carry him to the Isle de France. |Steps taken to send him home.| During this voyage he has been trusted to the care of a merchant, who went a passenger in the same ship, which he had equipped in part. The ministry have sent orders to the governor and the intendant of the Isle of France, to send Aotourou home to his isle from thence. I have given a very minute account of the course that must be taken in order to go thither, and thirty-six thousand francs, (about fifteen hundred pounds sterling) which is the third part of my whole fortune, towards the equipment of the ship intended for this navigation. The duchess of Choiseul has been so humane as to consecrate a sum of money for bringing to Taiti a great number of the most necessary tools, a quantity of seeds, and a number of cattle; and the king of Spain has been pleased to permit that this ship might, if necessary, touch at the Philippines. O may Aotounou soon see his countrymen again!—I shall now give an account of what I have learnt in my conversations with him, concerning the customs of his country.
Farther accounts of the customs of Taiti.
I have already observed that the Taiti people acknowledge a supreme Being, who cannot be represented by any factitious image, and inferior divinities of two classes, represented by wooden figures. They pray at sun-rise and at sun-set; but they have besides a great number of superstitious practices, in order to conciliate the influence of the evil genii. The comet, visible at Paris in 1769, and which Aotourou has very well taken notice of, has given me an opportunity of learning that the people of Taiti know this kind of stars, which do not appear again, as Aotourou said, till after a great number of moons. They call comets evetou-eave, and do not combine any sinister ideas with their apparition. Those meteors, however, which are here called shooting stars, are known to the people of Taiti by the name of epao, and are by them thought to be evil genii eatoua toa.
The better instructed people of this nation (without being astronomers, as our gazettes have pretended) have, however, a name for every remarkable constellation; they know their diurnal motion, and direct their course at sea by them, from isle to isle. In these navigations, which sometimes extend three hundred leagues, they lose all sight of land. Their compass is the sun’s course in day-time, and the position of the stars during the nights, which are almost always fair between the tropics.
Neighbouring isles.
Aotourou has mentioned several isles to me; some of which are allies of, and others at war with Taiti. The friendly isles are Aimeo, Maoroua, Aca, Oumaitia, and Tapouamassou. The enemies isles are Papara, Aiatea, Otaa, Toumaraa, Oopoa. These isles are as big as Taiti.
The isle of Pare, which is very abundant in pearls, is sometimes in alliance, and sometimes at war with Taiti. Enoua-motou, and Toupai, are two little uninhabited isles, abounding with fruits, hogs, fowls, fish, and turtle; but the people believe, that they are the habitation of the genii; they are their domains; and unhappy are the boats which chance or curiosity has conducted to these sacred isles. Almost all those, who endeavour to land there, must lose their lives in the attempt. These isles ly at different distances from Taiti. The greatest distance, which Aotourou mentioned to me, was fifteen days sail. It was, doubtless, about the same distance that he supposed our country was at, when he resolved to go with us.
Inequality of ranks.
I have mentioned above, that the inhabitants of Taiti seemed to live in an enviable happiness. We took them to be almost equal in rank amongst themselves; or at least enjoying a liberty, which was only subject to the laws established for their common happiness. I was mistaken; the distinction of ranks is very great at Taiti, and the disproportion very tyrannical. The kings and grandees have power of life and death over their servants and slaves, and I am inclined to believe, they have the same barbarous prerogative with regard to the common people, whom they call Tata-einou, vile men; so much is certain, that the victims for human sacrifices are taken from this class of people. Flesh and fish are reserved for the tables of the great; the commonalty live upon mere fruits and pulse. Even the very manner of being lighted at night, shews the difference in the ranks; for the kind of wood, which is burnt for people of distinction, is not the same with that which the common people are allowed to make use of. Their kings, alone, are allowed to plant before their houses, the tree which we call the Weeping-willow, or Babylonian-willow106. It is known, that by bending the branches of this tree, and planting them in the ground, you can extend its shadow as far as you will, and in what direction you please; at Taiti, their shade affords the dining-hall of their kings.
The grandees have liveries for their servants. In proportion as the master’s rank is more or less elevated, their servants wear their sashes more or less high. This sash is fastened close under the arms, in the servants of the chiefs, and only covers the loins in those belonging to the lowest class of nobility. The ordinary hours of repast, are when the sun passes the meridian, and when he is set. The men do not eat with the women; the latter serving up the dishes, which the servants have prepared.
Custom of going into mourning.
At Taiti they wear mourning regularly, and call it ceva. The whole nation wear mourning for their kings. The mourning for the fathers is very long. The women mourn for their husbands; but the latter do not do the same for them. The marks of mourning, are a head-dress of feathers; the colour of which is consecrated to death, and a veil over the face. When the people in mourning go out of their houses, they are preceded by several slaves, who beat the castanets in a certain cadence; their doleful sound gives everybody notice to clear the way, whether out of respect for the grief of the persons in mourning, or because meeting them is feared as an unlucky and ominous accident. However at Taiti, as in every other part of the world, the most respectable customs are abused; Aotourou told me, that this practice of mourning was favourable to the private meetings; doubtless, as I believe, of lovers with wives, whose husbands are not very complaisant. The instrument, whose sound disperses every body, and the veil which covers the face, secure to the lovers both secrecy and impunity.
Reciprocal assistance in their diseases.
In all diseases, which are any way dangerous, all the near relations assemble in the sick person’s house. They eat and sleep there as long as the danger lasts; every one nurses him, and watches by him in his turn. They have likewise the custom of letting blood; but this operation is never performed at the foot or arm. A Taoua, i. e. a doctor, or inferior priest, strikes with a sharp piece of wood on the cranium of the patient; by this means he opens the sagittal vein; and when a sufficient quantity of blood is run out, he surrounds the head with a bandage, which shuts up the opening; the next day he washes the wound with water.
This is all that I have learnt concerning the customs of this interesting country, both upon the spot, and from my conversations with Aotourou. At the end of this work I shall add a Vocabulary of as many Taiti words as I could collect. When we arrived at this island, we observed that some of the words pronounced by the islanders stood in the vocabulary at the end of Le Maire’s Voyage, under the name of Vocabulary of Cocos island. Indeed those islands, according to Le Maire and Schouten’s reckoning, cannot be far from Taiti, and perhaps may be some of those which Aotourou named to me. The language of Taiti is soft, harmonious, and easy to be pronounced; its words are composed of almost mere vowels, without aspirates107. You meet with no nasal, nor no mute and half sounded syllables, nor that quantity of consonants, and of articulations which render some languages so difficult. Therefore our Taiti-man could never learn to pronounce the French. The same reasons for which our language is accused of not being very musical, rendered it inaccessible to his organs. It would have been easier to make him pronounce Spanish or Italian.
M. Pereire, celebrated for his art of teaching people, who are born deaf and dumb, to speak and articulate words, has examined Aotourou several times, and has found that he could not naturally pronounce most of our consonants, nor any of our nasal vowels. M. Pereire has been so obliging as to communicate to me a memoir on this subject. Upon the whole, the language of this island is abundant enough; I think so, because Aotourou, during the course of the voyage, pronounced every thing that struck him in rhythmic stanzas. It was a kind of blank verse, which he spoke extempore. These were his annals; and it seems as if his language furnished him with expressions sufficient to describe a number of objects unknown to him. We further heard him pronounce every day such words as we were not yet acquainted with; and he likewise spoke a long prayer, which he calls the prayer of the kings, and of all the words that compose it, I do not understand ten.
I learnt from Aotourou, that about eight months before our arrival at his island, an English ship had touched there. It is the same which was commanded by Mr. Wallace. The same chance by which we have discovered this isle, has likewise conducted the English thither, whilst we lay in Rio de la Plata. They stayed there a month; and, excepting one attack of the islanders, who had conceived hopes of taking the ship, every thing has passed very friendly between them. From hence, doubtless, proceeds the knowledge of iron, which we found among the natives of Taiti, and the name of aouri, by which they call it, and which sounds pretty like the English word iron. I am yet ignorant, whether the people of Taiti, as they owe the first knowledge of iron to the English, may not likewise be indebted to them for the venereal disease, which we found had been naturalized amongst them, as will appear in the sequel.