
polluted it. Wearied at last, he sought to enter a house that he might rest for
a while on the mats; its inmates gathered tumultuously about the door and denied
him admittance. He coaxed and blustered by turns, but in vain; the natives were
neither to be intimidated nor appeased, and as a final resort he was obliged to
call together his boat's crew, and pull away from what he termed the most
infernal place he ever stepped upon.
    Lucky was it for him and for us that we were not honoured on our departure
by a salute of stones from the hands of the exasperated Tiors. In this way, on
the neighbouring island of Ropo, were killed, but a few weeks previously, and
for a nearly similar offence, the master and three of the crew of the K--.
    I cannot determine, with anything approaching to certainty, what power it is
that imposes the taboo. When I consider the slight disparity of condition among
the islanders - the very limited and inconsiderable prerogatives of the king and
chiefs - and the loose and indefinite functions of the priesthood, most of whom
were hardly to be distinguished from the rest of their countrymen, I am wholly
at a loss where to look for the authority which regulates this potent
institution. It is imposed upon something to-day, and withdrawn tomorrow; while
its operations in other cases are perpetual. Sometimes its restrictions only
affect a single individual - sometimes a particular family - sometimes a whole
tribe; and, in a few instances, they extend not merely over the various clans on
a single island, but over all the inhabitants of an entire group. In
illustration of this latter peculiarity, I may cite the law which forbids a
female to enter a canoe - a prohibition which prevails upon all the northern
Marquesas Islands.
    The word itself (taboo) is used in more than one signification. It is
sometimes used by a parent to his child, when in the exercise of parental
authority he forbids it to perform a particular action. Anything opposed to the
ordinary customs of the islanders, although not expressly prohibited, is said to
be taboo.
    The Typee language is one very difficult to be acquired; it bears a close
resemblance to the other Polynesian dialects, all of which show a common origin.
The duplication of words, as lumee lumee, poee poee, muee muee, is one of their
peculiar features. But another, and a more annoying one, is the different senses
in which one and the same word is employed; its various meanings all have a
certain connection, which only makes the matter more
