 Jezebel - a humpbacked wretch was pointed out to me, who, some
twenty-five years previously, had had the vertebræ of his backbone very
seriously discomposed by his gentle mistress.
    The particular grades of rank existing among the chiefs of Typee, I could
not in all cases determine. Previous to the Feast of Calabashes, I had been
puzzled what particular station to assign to Mehevi. But the important part he
took upon that occasion convinced me that he had no superior among the
inhabitants of the valley. I had invariably noticed a certain degree of
deference paid to him by all with whom I had ever seen him brought in contact;
but when I remembered that my wanderings had been confined to a limited portion
of the valley, and that toward the sea a number of distinguished chiefs resided,
some of whom had separately visited me at Marheyo's house, and whom, until the
festival, I had never seen in the company of Mehevi, I felt disposed to believe
that his rank, after all, might not be particularly elevated.
    The revels, however, had brought together all the warriors whom I had seen
individually and in groups at different times and places. Among them Mehevi
moved with an easy air of superiority which was not to be mistaken; and he whom
I had only looked at as the hospitable host of the Ti, and one of the military
leaders of the tribe, now assumed in my eyes the dignity of royal station. His
striking costume, no less than his naturally commanding figure, seemed indeed to
give him pre-eminence over the rest. The towering helmet of feathers that he
wore raised him in height above all who surrounded him; and though some others
were similarly adorned, the length and luxuriance of their plumes were far
inferior to his.
    Mehevi was in fact the greatest of the chiefs - the head of his clan - the
sovereign of the valley; and the simplicity of the social institutions of the
people could not have been more completely proved than by the fact, that after
having been several weeks in the valley, and almost in daily intercourse with
Mehevi, I should have remained until the time of the festival ignorant of his
regal character. But a new light had now broken in upon me. The Ti was the
palace - and Mehevi the king. Both the one and the other of a most simple and
patriarchal nature, it must be allowed, and wholly unattended by the ceremonious
pomp which usually surrounds the purple.
    After having made this discovery I could not avoid congratulating myself
that Mehevi had from the first taken me as it were under his royal protection
