A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 by Robert Kerr

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[Footnote 10: Turnbull speaks of intoxication being quite common and
excessive at the feasts of the Otaheitans. And the reader will often
hear of the intemperate use and had effects of the ava or yava. The love
of this liquor, or its effects rather, must indeed be strong, to
reconcile them to the disgusting manner in which it is prepared.
"Several women," says the missionary account, "have each a portion
given them to chew of the stem and root (of the yava shrub) together,
which, when masticated, they spit into a bowl into which some of the
leaves of the plant are finely broken; they add water, or cocoa-nut
liquor: The whole is then well stirred, and begins quickly to ferment;
when it is strained or wrung out in the moo gross, or cocoa-nut fibres,
and drank in cups of folded leaves. It is highly intoxicating, and seems
for a while to deprive them of the use of their limbs: They lie down and
sleep till the effects are passed, and during the time have their limbs
chafed with their women's hands. A gill of the yava is a sufficient dose
for a man. When they drink it, they always eat something afterwards; and
frequently fall asleep with the provisions in their mouths: When drank
after a hearty meal, it produces but little effect." The writer forgets
his authority, but he remembers to have read of a practice somewhat more
economical, though not more delicate, than what is adopted at Otaheite.
The people are all passionately fond of the intoxicating beverage
prepared from mushrooms; as the common sort cannot procure it at first
hand, owing to its price, they are in the habit of attending at the
houses of the grandees, where entertainments are going on, provided with
vessels for the purpose of collecting the urine of the favoured few who
have drunk of it, which they eagerly swallow. The peculiar smell and
flavour, it seems, are preserved notwithstanding this percolation, and
are considered amply remunerative of the pains and importunity used to
obtain it. Such things are strikingly expressive of that worse than
brutish perversity which actuates man, when once his lusts have acquired
the dominion. It is lamentable to think, that after that conquest over
his reason and interest, his degradation in sensuality is in proportion
to his ingenuity of invention; and that no dignity of situation, or
splendour of office, or brilliancy of talent, can possibly redeem him
from the contempt and detestation of those whose good opinion it ought
to be his ambition to covet.--E.]

Table they have none; but their apparatus for eating is set out with
great neatness, though the articles are too simple and too few to allow
any thing for show: And they commonly eat alone; but when a stranger
happens to visit them, he sometimes makes a second in their mess. Of the
meal of one of their principal people I shall give a particular
description.

He sits down under the shade of the next tree, or on the shady side of
his house, and a large quantity of leaves, either of the bread-fruit or
banana, is neatly spread before him upon the ground as a table-cloth; a
basket is then set by him that contains his provision, which, if fish or
flesh, is ready dressed, and wrapped up in leaves, and two cocoa-nut
shells, one full of salt water, and the other of fresh: His attendants,
which are not few, seat themselves round him, and when all is ready, he
begins by washing his hands and his mouth thoroughly with the fresh
water, and this he repeats almost continually throughout the whole meal;
he then takes part of his provision out of the basket, which generally
consists of a small fish or two, two or three breadfruits, fourteen or
fifteen ripe bananas, or six or seven apples: He first takes half a
bread-fruit, peels off the rind, and takes out the core with his nails;
of this he puts as much into his mouth as it can hold, and while he
chews it, takes the fish out of the leaves, and breaks one of them into
the salt water, placing the other, and what remains of the bread-fruit,
upon the leaves that have been spread before him. When this is done, he
takes up a small piece of the fish that has been broken into the salt
water, with all the fingers of one hand, and sucks it into his mouth, so
as to get with it as much of the salt water as possible: In the same
manner he takes the rest by different morsels, and between each, at
least very frequently, takes a small sup of the salt water, either out
of the cocoa-nut shell or the palm of his hand: In the mean time one of
his attendants has prepared a young cocoa-nut, by peeling off the outer
rind with his teeth, an operation which to an European appears very
surprising; but it depends so much upon sleight, that many or us were
able to do it before we left the island, and some that could scarcely
crack a filbert: The master, when he chuses to drink, takes the
cocoa-nut thus prepared, and boring a hole through the shell with his
finger, or breaking it with a stone, he sucks out the liquor. When he
has eaten his bread-fruit and fish, he begins with his plantains, one of
which makes but a mouthful, though it be as big as a black-pudding; if
instead of plantains he has apples, he never tastes them till they have
been pared; to do this a shell is picked up from the ground, where they
are always in plenty, and tossed to him by an attendant: He immediately
begins to cut or scrape off the rind, but so awkwardly that great part
of the fruit is wasted. If, instead of fish, he has flesh, he must have
some succedaneum for a knife to divide it; and for this purpose a piece
of bamboo is tossed to him, of which he makes the necessary implement by
splitting it transversely with his nail. While all this has been doing,
some of his attendants have been employed in beating bread-fruit with a
stone-pestle upon a block of wood; by being beaten in this manner, and
sprinkled from time to time with water, it is reduced to the consistence
of a soft paste, and is then put into a vessel somewhat like a butcher's
tray, and either made up alone, or mixed with banana or mahie, according
to the taste of the master, by pouring water upon it by degrees and
squeezing it often through the hand: Under this operation it acquires
the consistence of a thick custard, and a large cocoa-nut shell full of
it being set before him, he sips it as we should do a jelly if we had
no spoon to take it from the glass: The meal is then finished by again
washing his hands and his mouth. After which the cocoa-nut shells are
cleaned, and every thing that is left is replaced in the basket.

The quantity of food which these people eat at a meal is prodigious: I
have seen one man devour two or three fishes as big as a perch; three
bread-fruits, each bigger than two fists; fourteen or fifteen plantains
or bananas, each of them six or seven inches long, and four or five
round; and near a quart of the pounded bread-fruit, which is as
substantial as the thickest unbaked custard. This is so extraordinary
that I scarcely expect to be believed; and I would not have related it
upon my own single testimony, but Mr Banks, Dr Solander, and most of the
other gentlemen, have had ocular demonstration of its truth, and know
that I mention them upon the occasion.

It is very wonderful, that these people, who are remarkably fond of
society, and particularly that of their women, should exclude its
pleasures from the table, where among all other nations, whether civil
or savage, they have been principally enjoyed.[11] How a meal, which
every where else brings families and friends together, came to separate
them here, we often enquired, but could never learn. They eat alone,
they said, because it was right; but why it was right to eat alone, they
never attempted to tell us: Such, however, was the force of habit, that
they expressed the strongest dislike, and even disgust, at our eating in
society, especially with our women, and of the same victuals. At first,
we thought this strange singularity arose from some superstitious
opinion; but they constantly affirmed the contrary. We observed also
some caprices in the custom, for which we could as little account as for
the custom itself. We could never prevail with any of the women to
partake of the victuals at our table when we were dining, in company;
yet they would go, five or six together, into the servants' apartments,
and there eat very heartily of whatever they could find, of which I have
before given a particular instance; nor were they in the least
disconcerted if we came in while they were doing it. When any of us have
been alone with a woman, she has sometimes eaten in our company; but
then she has expressed the greatest unwillingness that it should be
known, and always extorted the strongest promises of secrecy.

[Footnote 11: This is not true, as the reader will find, if he knows it
not already, when he comes to the next note. Dr H. does not seem to have
read extensively on the customs of different nations. It is indeed
wonderful, that he did not advert to what had long been known of the
practices of the East. A single quotation from one author, may be
sufficient to prepare the reader for any additional information, on the
subject of the public separation of the sexes. "The regulations of the
haram," says Dr Russel, speaking of the Moosulmauns, "oppose a strong
barrier to curiosity; inveterate custom excludes females from mingling
in assemblies of the other sex, and even with their nearest
male-relations they appear to be under a restraint from which, perhaps,
they are never emancipated, except in familiar society among
themselves."--E.]

Among themselves, even two brothers and two sisters have each their
separate baskets, with provision and the apparatus of their meal. When
they first visited us at our tents, each brought his basket with him;
and when we sat down to table, they would go out, sit down upon the
ground, at two or three yards distance from each other, and turning
their faces different ways, take their repast without interchanging a
single word.

The women not only abstain from eating with the men, and of the same
victuals, but even have their victuals separately prepared by boys kept
for that purpose, who deposit it in a separate shed, and attend them
with it at their meals.

But though they would not eat with us or with each other, they have
often asked us to eat with them, when we have visited those with whom we
were particularly acquainted at their houses; and we have often upon
such occasions eaten out of the same basket, and drunk out of the same
cup. The elder women, however, always appeared to be offended at this
liberty; and if we happened to touch their victuals, or even the basket
that contained it, would throw it away.[12]

[Footnote 12: Nothing can be more difficult in the way of philosophical
investigation, than to ascertain the origin and reasons of the customs,
opinions, and prejudices established among different people. Their
variety is quite destructive of any theory which might be built on the
well-known general principles of human nature; and their insignificance
often derides every process of formal enquiry, which attempts by any
thing more recondite than the supposition of whim or caprice, to account
for them. The peculiarities of all nations are, perhaps, on a par in
this respect, and only escape scrutiny and wonder, because unnoticed by
those to whom they are not familiar. But certainly, to the inhabitants
of Otaheite, our eating parties, where the sexes at times vie with each
other in the management of knife and fork, and where it usually happens
that a woman presides, would seem as unaccountable and as indelicate, as
a certain social exhibition, already mentioned as occurring amongst
them, appeared to be to those who witnessed it. And perhaps it is less
easy, than at first sight may be imagined, to justify one more than the
other. Of actions equally natural, necessary, and proper, and at the
same time equally inoffensive to others, it is exceedingly perplexing to
discover good reasons for saying, that some are fitted for public notice
more than others. In the cases alluded to, a skilful controversialist
might be able to argue, why the Otaheitan practice ought to be esteemed
the more rational one. The writer has heard of a person, whose
refinement of taste and feeling was such, as made him quite disgusted
with any woman who eat in his presence; and perhaps the ladies in
general are somewhat apprehensive of their running the risk of being
depreciated by the appearance of a good appetite in public, and hence
their common practice of taking what is called a luncheon before going
to a feast, or social eating-party, and their being pleased with the
compliment given in the form of complaint, that they have very poor
stomachs! The Otaheitans, however, are by no means singular in dividing
the sexes during their repasts. On the contrary, there is ground to
think, that in Persia, and indeed throughout almost all the East, it is
usual for the women to eat apart from the men. See Harmer's Observations
on Scripture, 4th ed. vol. ii. p. 109. Capt. Carver, speaking of the
Naudowesses, a tribe of Americans, says, "The men and women feast apart;
and each sex invites by turns their companions to partake with them of
the food they happen to have." He tells us, however, that in their
domestic way of living, the sexes usually associate. Of the female
Charaibes, Mr Edwards, quoting Labat, says, that they were not allowed
the privilege of eating in presence of their husbands. And Rochon, in
his account of Madagascar, tells us something to the same purport of the
women of that island. It would be easy to multiply instances of the
custom which Hawkesworth thinks to be peculiar to the Otaheitans.--E.]

After meals, and in the heat of the day, the middle-aged people of the
better sort generally sleep; they are indeed extremely indolent, and
sleeping and eating is almost all that they do. Those that are older are
less drowsy, and the boys and girls are kept awake by the natural
activity and sprightliness of their age.

Their amusements have occasionally been mentioned in my account of the
incidents that happened during our residence in this island,
particularly music, dancing, wrestling, and shooting with the bow; they
also sometimes vie with each other in throwing a lance. As shooting is
not at a mark, but for distance; throwing the lance is not for distance,
but at a mark: The weapon is about nine feet long, the mark is the hole
of a plantain, and the distance about twenty yards.

Their only musical instruments are flutes and drums; the flutes are
made of a hollow bamboo about a foot long, and, as has been observed
before, have only two stops, and consequently but four notes, out of
which they seem hitherto to have formed but one tune; to these stops
they apply the fore-finger of the left hand and the middle-finger of the
right.

The drum is made of a hollow block of wood, of a Cylindrical form, solid
at one end, and covered at the other with shark's skin: These they beat
not with sticks, but their hands; and they know how to tune two drums of
different notes into concord. They have also an expedient to bring the
flutes that play together into unison, which is to roll up a leaf so as
to slip over the end of the shortest, like our sliding tubes for
telescopes, which they move up or down till the purpose is answered, of
which they seem to judge by their ear with great nicety.

To these instruments they sing; and, as I have observed before, their
songs are often extempore: They call every two verses or couplet a song,
_Pehay_; they are generally, though not always, in rhyme; and when
pronounced by the natives, we could discover that they were metre. Mr
Banks took great pains to write down some of them which were made upon
our arrival, as nearly as he could express their sounds by combinations
of our letters; but when we read them, not having their accent, we could
scarcely make them either metre or rhyme. The reader will easily
perceive that they are of very different structure.

Tede pahai de parow-a
Ha maru no mina.

E pahah Tayo malama tai ya
No Tabane tonatou whannomi ya.

E Turai eattu terara patee whannua toai
Ino o maio Pretane to whennuaia no Tute.

Of these verses our knowledge of the language is too imperfect to
attempt a translation. They frequently amuse themselves by singing such
couplets as these when they are alone, or with their families,
especially after it is dark; for though they need no fires, they are not
without the comfort of artificial light between sunset and bed-time.
Their candles are made of the kernels of a kind of oily nut, which they
stick one over another upon a skewer that is thrust through the middle
of them; the upper one being lighted, burns down to the second, at the
same time consuming that part of the skewer which goes through it; the
second taking fire burns in the same manner down to the third, and so of
the rest: Some of these candles will burn a considerable time, and they
give a very tolerable light. They do not often sit up above an hour
after it is dark; but when they have strangers who sleep in the house,
they generally keep a light burning all night, possibly as a check upon
such of the women as they wish not to honour them with their
favours.[13]

[Footnote 13: The reader, in perusing the above account of the Otaheitan
evening-recreation, will readily recollect what Mr Park has so
affectingly told of the song of the African woman, of which he was made
the subject. Harmony, that "sovereign of the willing mind," as Mr Gray
denominates it, was both known and worshipped at this island, and that
too, by the very same rites which are so generally practised throughout
the world--regularity of measures, and the frequent recurrence of
similar sounds--

She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat,
In loose numbers wildly sweet,
Their feather-cinctured chiefs and dusky loves.
Her track, where'er the Goddess roves,
Glory pursue, and generous shame,
The unconquerable mind, and freedom's holy flame.--E.]

Of their itinerary concerts I need add nothing to what has been said
already; especially as I shall have occasion, more particularly, to
mention them when I relate our adventures upon another island.

In other countries, the girls and unmarried women are supposed to be
wholly ignorant of what others upon some occasions may appear to know;
and their conduct and conversation are consequently restrained within
narrower bounds, and kept at a more remote distance from whatever
relates to a connection with the other sex: But here, it is just
contrary. Among other diversions, there is a dance, called _Timorodee_,
which is performed by young girls, whenever eight or ten of them can be
collected together, consisting of motions and gestures beyond
imagination wanton, in the practice of which they are brought up from
their earliest childhood, accompanied by words, which, if it were
possible, would more explicitly convey the same ideas. In these dances
they keep time with an exactness which is scarcely excelled by the best
performers upon the stages of Europe. But the practice which is allowed
to the virgin, is prohibited to the woman from the moment that she has
put these hopeful lessons in practice, and realized the symbols of the
dance.[14]

[Footnote 14: If it be considered that in Otaheite women are very early
marriageable, and that families are easily reared, one will not find
cause for censuring the impolicy, whatever is thought of the immodesty,
according to our notions, of the kind of dances here mentioned. It seems
reasonable enough, that the girls should be instructed in the only arts
requisite to obtain the affections of the other sex. Can it be said,
that the system of female education established in our own country, is
half so judicious, which prescribes a series of instructions in drawing
and music, velvet-painting, &c. to girls who, it is morally certain,
will never have the least occasion for them, and who, whatever
excellence they attain, totally abandon them on the day they happen to
change their names? Or shall we say, these things are like the gestures
of the Otaheitan damsels, merely symbols used as snares for the careless
beaux, who pretend to taste and fashion, and indicative of the indolence
and extravagance which are to succeed the marriage ceremony? The fact
is, and it is foolish to attempt concealing it, that women in general
have a nature so ductile as to be quite readily fashioned to any model
which is conceived agreeable to the other sex, and that they all have
sufficient sagacity to practise the arts in demand, till they have
accomplished the destiny of their constitution. On the supposition that
these arts are equally commensurate to their object, it may well be
asked, why some should be condemned and not others--or what authority
any people have to reproach the current allurements of another? In the
eyes of an impartial spectator, if we can suppose there really is one,
all of them must appear alike as to nature and origin, and to differ
only in respect of adaptation to the ends in view. He would consider
them all as signs, merely more or less expressive, and might be induced
to censure most strongly, if he censured at all, the people who, in
using them, affected the closest concealment of the purposes intended by
them. A philosopher ought never to lose sight of this maxim, that human
nature is essentially the same throughout the world, and that all the
desires and passions belonging to it have the same origin, and are
equally good or bad as to morality; from which it follows, that customs
and manners are to be judged of not so much by what is known or imagined
of the sources of them, as by what is evident or may be discovered of
their effects on society. On this principle, it is strictly
demonstrable, that in such a state of things as exists in our own
country at present, certain appearances and modes of dress adopted by
our women, are actually more injurious, and of course more criminal,
than the dancing gestures mentioned in the text. Any lady that can
expose her breasts to the gaze of _one_ and _all_ of our public
companies, has an undoubted right to be considered as possessing the
same feelings and propensities as the lewd girls of Otaheite; but then
she is not entitled to censure, however she may envy, their happier
exertions and success. She ought to know, that unless our taxes are
removed, and the bread-fruit is naturalized among us, it is impossible
for her to have so speedy a redemption from the estate of "solitary
blessedness;" and that as many of her elder sisters still feel the
necessity of practising patience in the same condition, it is very
incumbent on her to learn by times a little self-controul. Besides, she
ought, in charity to the other sex, to remember, that even the
"concealed magic" of her _manner_, as Mr Hume expresses it, and which he
says is easily explained, is abundantly efficacious without further
disclosure than common necessity requires.--E.]

It cannot be supposed that, among these people, chastity is held in much
estimation. It might be expected that sisters and daughters would be
offered to strangers, either as a courtesy, or for reward; and that
breaches of conjugal fidelity, even in the wife, should not be otherwise
punished than by a few hard words, or perhaps a slight beating, as
indeed is the case: But there is a scale in dissolute sensuality, which
these people have ascended, wholly unknown to every other nation whose
manners have been recorded from the beginning of the world to the
present hour, and which no imagination could possibly conceive.

A very considerable number of the principal people of Otaheite, of both
sexes, have formed themselves into a society, in which every woman is
common to every man; thus securing a perpetual variety as often as their
inclination prompts them to seek it, which is so frequent, that the same
man and woman seldom cohabit together more than two or three days.

These societies are distinguished by the name of _Arreoy_; and the
members have meetings, at which no other is present, where the men amuse
themselves by wrestling, and the women, notwithstanding their occasional
connection with different men, dance the Timorodee in all its latitude,
as an incitement to desires, which, it is said, are frequently gratified
upon the spot. This, however, is comparatively nothing. If any of the
women happen to be with child, which in this manner of life happens less
frequently than if they were to cohabit only with one man, the poor
infant is smothered the moment it is born, that it may be no incumbrance
to the father, nor interrupt the mother in the pleasures of her
diabolical prostitution. It sometimes indeed happens, that the passion
which prompts a woman to enter into this society, is surmounted when she
becomes a mother, by that instinctive affection which Nature has given
to all creatures for the preservation of their offspring; but even in
this case, she is not permitted to spare the life of her infant, except
she can find a man who will patronise it as his child: If this can be
done, the murder is prevented; but both the man and woman, being deemed
by this act to have appropriated each other, are ejected from the
community, and forfeit all claim to the privileges and pleasures of the
Arreoy for the future; the woman from that time being distinguished by
the term _Whannownow_, "bearer of children," which is here a term of
reproach; though none can be more honourable in the estimation of wisdom
and humanity, of right reason, and every passion that distinguishes the
man from the brute.