 I been pierced simultaneously by three Happar spears, I could not have
started more than I did at hearing these simple questions. For a moment I was
overwhelmed with astonishment, and then answered something I know not what; but
as soon as I regained my self-possession, the thought darted through my mind
that from this individual I might obtain that information regarding Toby which I
suspected the natives had purposely withheld from me. Accordingly, I questioned
him concerning the disappearance of my companion, but he denied all knowledge of
the matter. I then inquired from whence he had come? He replied, from Nukuheva.
When I expressed my surprise, he looked at me for a moment, as if enjoying my
perplexity, and then, with his strange vivacity, exclaimed - »Ah! me taboo - me
go Nukuheva - me go Tior - me go Typee - me go everywhere - nobody harm me - me
taboo.«
    This explanation would have been altogether unintelligible to me, had it not
recalled to my mind something I had previously heard concerning a singular
custom among these islanders. Though the country is possessed by various tribes,
whose mutual hostilities almost wholly preclude any intercourse between them,
yet there are instances where a person having ratified friendly relations with
some individual belonging to the valley, whose inmates are at war with his own,
may, under particular restrictions, venture with impunity into the country of
his friend, where, under other circumstances, he would have been treated as an
enemy. In this light are personal friendships regarded among them, and the
individual so protected is said to be taboo, and his person, to a certain
extent, is held as sacred. Thus the stranger informed me he had access to all
the valleys in the island.
    Curious to know how he had acquired his knowledge of English, I questioned
him on the subject. At first, for some reason or other, he evaded the inquiry,
but afterward told me that, when a boy, he had been carried to sea by the
captain of a trading vessel, with whom he had stayed three years, living part of
the time with him at Sydney, in Australia, and that, at a subsequent visit to
the island, the captain had, at his own request, permitted him to remain among
his countrymen. The natural quickness of the savage had been wonderfully
improved by his intercourse with the white men, and his partial knowledge of a
foreign language gave him a great ascendency over his less accomplished
countrymen.
    When I asked the now affable Marnoo why it was that he had not previously
spoken to me, he
